Well, if you're just joining us for the last, I think like two or three months, time kind of flies. We've been in a series called Elijah Shah. We're studying the lives of these two men who lived about 3,000 years ago, Elijah and Elisha. So we just sort of smushed their names together. And we're exploring this not just so that we can learn about things that God has done before, which is always important to do. It's important to know history, right? It's important to know what has happened before because what's happened before tends to inform what happens later. But but it's it's actually very personal for us because the amazing thing about God is that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Bible actually says that God is no respecter of persons, which you can take that a really negative way to be like, God doesn't respect people. That's not what it's saying. What it's saying is that God doesn't play favorites. So sometimes when we when we read the Bible and we read about people that experienced amazing things with God, it's very easy for us to automatically disqualify ourselves from ever having similar experiences. It's very easy for us to say, well, yeah, I mean, I'm not Elijah and I'm not Elisha. But but Elijah and Elisha weren't like incredible people that never made mistakes. God is the incredible one in the story. And God is willing to use people. He always has been. That's always been God's number one method of doing his work in this world, is using people. So we get to be the ones that have the ability to experience God working through us to do the things that he wants to do in this world. That's an amazing honor. And when we look at people like Elijah and Elisha, who did experience incredible things, like to use a kind of cliched Christian term, they walked with God. They lived life experiencing God. We should never look at these stories and go, man, that's never gonna be me. Because we have a God that doesn't play favorites and he will speak to us like he spoke to them, and he will use us like he used them. It may not be the exact same ways, but it will have the same effect, is that people will know that God is real and that he loves them. And so as we as we study these stories, as we study the lives of these people, we're really just looking at the life of God. We're looking at what he's done, we're looking at who he is, we're looking at all that he can do and will do in our lives and through our lives as well, because our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We spent a long time talking about Elijah, and last week we actually got to the point in the story where we met Elisha, or we didn't meet him, we met him two weeks ago, but he he received his moment last week. It was a handoff, it was the passing of the torch. So Elisha is now the guy. He's now God's prophet. This is ancient Israel 3,000 years ago. He's now the guy that God is using, primarily speaking to to tell the entire nation what God wants them to do. At this point in history, God is using this one specific nation, Israel, to reveal himself to the entire world through. Because the story of the Bible is really the story of God-loving people and people kind of running away from God, like we do, and then God doing all of these things to bring us back into relationship with him. And so where that really began is God decided I'm gonna bring the entire world to me, and I'm gonna use people to do it. And so He chose a man named Abraham, and Abraham's family became this nation called Israel, and God said, I'm gonna be with you in a special way, and I'm gonna reveal myself to the world through you. I'm gonna show the world who I am, what I can do, what I value, my character, my heart. And that ultimately culminated with Jesus coming from the nation of Israel. And now all people in all places can have access to God by believing in Jesus. But God used this group of people to do that, and that's where we are in the story: the nation of Israel and these prophets leading the nation and showing the nation what God wants them to do. And today we're gonna look at this specific miracle that happens in Elisha's story. And look, there's a lot of miracles in a story. If we went through every one, this series would stretch into like March or April. And maybe you want that to be the case. Maybe you're like, I'm digging Elijah's show, let's keep this thing going. Or maybe you're like, yeah, it's been it's been good, but you know, there's other things we can talk about. That's maybe where I'm at. Um, I've actually really enjoyed this series, but but I'm not gonna let it go till April. So we're gonna look at this, this one miracle. We don't have time to go into all of them, but we're gonna look at one today. And this miracle not only shows us who God really is, God's heart, God's character, what God can do, what God is willing to do, but it also reveals this dynamic that all of us as people deal with. It reveals to us this mentality that we can very easily live with that actually keeps us from experiencing everything we could experience with God. That has the capacity to keep us from experiencing all the blessings, not the love. God loves us, like that's unconditional, but the blessings that God might have for us. And so today's story, it's it's old, it's ancient, but it's incredibly practical to our lives today as we live as people trying to know God and follow God. So we're just gonna jump right in. It's in 2 Kings chapter 5, and it's a story of a man named Naaman. It says the king of Aram had a great had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But but though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. At this time the Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman's wife as a maid. And one day the girl said to her mistress, I wish my master would go see the prophet in Samaria, he would heal him of his leprosy. She's talking about Elisha. Now, real quick, before we continue on, a few things to note. Naaman is not an Israelite. He is not part of God's people at this point in history that God is using to show the world who he is. That's not who Naaman is. Naaman is actually the commander of an army that is fighting against Israel. And God had made special promises to the nation of Israel in those days, and he said, Hey, whoever is your enemy is my enemy. Whoever is your friend is my friend. And so Naaman is leading the army that is fighting against Israel, and yet this person tells him, You should go and talk to the prophet in Israel. You should go talk to Elisha. So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. And here's the king's response: Go and visit the prophet. I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel. So Naaman started out carrying his gifts, 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold. By the way, 150 pounds of gold in today's economy would be just shy of four million dollars, and 10 sets of clothing. And I'm just going to assume that those were some really nice duds. The letter to the king of Israel, it probably wasn't like the king being like, this one's got a stain on it. I don't really wear this anymore. I I it's it's not my size. You can have it. He's going with some really nice stuff. So the king is definitely behind this. And the letter of the king of Israel said, With this letter, I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy. Which is a crazy thing to say, because leprosy is an incurable disease. Hey, I present to you my servant. Go ahead and heal him of his incurable disease. It says, when the king of Israel read this letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, Am I God that I can give life and take it away? Why is this man asking me to heal someone with leprosy? I can see that he's just trying to pick a fight with me. Obviously, they're already at odds. And so the king of Israel thinks that this is just a power play from the king of Aram. But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him. Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel. So Naaman went with his horses and chariots, and he waited at the door of Elisha's house, but Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy. But Naaman became angry and he stalked away. I thought he would certainly come out to meet me, he said. I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call in the name of the Lord his God and heal me. Aren't the rivers of Damascus, the Abanah, and the one I'm not going to try to pronounce better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn't I wash in them and be healed? And so Naaman turned and went away in a rage. Okay, here's a very relatable situation. You have this person who has a need. And he wants God to meet his need. He knows that God is the only one who can meet his need. He has leprosy, and leprosy is no joke. Leprosy was an epidemic of the ancient world. There was no cure for leprosy, and to be a leper was to have your life completely and totally destroyed. Physically, socially, in Jesus' time, for example, if you were a leper, you were kept in a separate place outside the city. That meant if you were a father and you had leprosy, you had to leave your family, you had to leave your children, you were not allowed to have any contact with a human being. Otherwise the leprosy would spread. And that's why it's so powerful that when Jesus would heal lepers, he would often touch them. It was actually against the law in Jesus' day to do that, to touch a leper. But Jesus would see these people and his heart for them was so moved that not only did he want to meet their physical needs, but he recognized that they had not been embraced by a human being in years, perhaps decades. And so he wanted to love that part of them as well and heal that part of them. That's our Jesus. Leprosy was a completely and totally destructive force in the ancient world. There's no cure. And Naaman knows that the only hope he has is a miracle. And maybe you've been in a situation before where you believe that the only hope you have is a miracle. And so he he goes to the prophet and he's he's he's desiring something big to happen, and the prophet says, Yeah, God is willing to do this. And we have to pause there for a second and understand how how big of a moment this is. This is God saying, I am willing to heal the commander of the army who is attacking my people. I actually love this man. I love Naaman, and I'm actually so good, I'm so loving, I'm so filled with grace that I am willing to heal the man who is attacking my people. Naaman is a person who every Israelite would have thought he has leprosy because he attacked Israel. He has leprosy because he's our enemy, and God is saying, No, no, I love him and I am willing to heal him. It's always the tendency in religion to draw lines of who's in and who's out. But God's the only one that draws those lines. And oftentimes his lines surprise us. And God says, No, I actually love Naaman, I'm willing to do this. So Naaman is willing to be healed. Like he's he's desiring to be healed, and God is willing to heal him. But instead of just snapping his fingers and healing Naaman, God gives him something to do. And this annoys Naaman very, very much. And Naaman says, Are you serious? Dip in a river seven times? I want to be healed of my leprosy. I thought God would just do it. I thought the prophet would just, you know, wave his hand and say, Be healed, and then I'd be fine. I have to dip in a river. I passed like 50 rivers on the way here, and they're all a lot nicer than that river. Like he's he's annoyed that he has to do something. This, by the way, is very common in Scripture, where people come to God and want God to do something for them, and God immediately gives them something to do. It's kind of annoying, but it happens a lot in Luke 17, verse 11. This is Jesus. This is a thousand years later. As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria, and as he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, crying out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And he looked at them and he said, Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. So just like Naaman, these lepers go to God, and God gives them something to do. And they do it and they're healed. But Naaman's mad that God is not doing it his way. Naaman wants the result. He wants to see God do a miracle, but he doesn't want to follow God's instructions. And that's that dynamic that we all struggle with from time to time. We want the result, but we don't like the method. We want God to do something. We want God to fix something. We want God to make something happen. But if God gives us instructions of what to do and how to do it, we go, I don't like doing it your way. I don't want a task to do. I definitely don't want to want to do that. Can't you just fix it? Can't you just, you know, do it my way? Now thankfully for Naaman, he has some really wise people with him. And in verse 13, we continue on. His officers tried to reason with him and said, Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, you know, like climb a mountain or something crazy like that, wouldn't you have done it? I mean, you have leprosy. That's what they're saying. Naaman, you have leprosy. Like, wouldn't you do anything to be rid of leprosy? No matter how difficult it is. And Naaman's like, yeah, you know, absolutely. So shouldn't you obey what he simply says when he says, go and wash and be cured? Like that's so easy. If you're willing to do anything to be cured, shouldn't you do that? It says, so Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, and as the man of God had instructed him. And as his and his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed. So Naaman actually follows the instructions he was given and he's healed. He gets the result that he wants, but he almost missed it. He almost missed it because he was so fixated on it being done a certain way. He was so annoyed at being given a task. He was so annoyed at being given instructions, even though they were very simple instructions, that he almost missed what God was willing to do for him, and the fact that God was willing to do it for him in the first place was a miracle. One of the things we say about scripture pretty often is that it's it's packed. Like the Bible is just packed with powerful, profound, and practical truth. It really is. It's always powerful, it's always profound, but it's also always so practical, so applicable to life. And when you think about Naaman, you think about yourself, it's amazing how often success in life boils down to our ability to follow simple instructions. Right? Now, simple instructions are not always easy, but there's a lot of simple instructions that if we would live by, life would go really well for us. Things like, you know, be on time. That's a that's a simple instruction, right? Like be here at this time, okay? Or don't speed, you know? Don't speed. Unless you're on 575 or 75, and then it's a suggestion, but otherwise, do not speed. Like, just don't. Like those are simple instructions. And the times of my life I've gotten pulled over for speeding. I mean, it's it's like, yeah, I saw the sign, and then I went faster. You know? It's not it's not hard to go the speed limit. It's simple, but it's it's it's hard for us because even those simple instructions and our ability to follow them help us succeed in life, we as people are not good. We are just not good at following instructions, no matter how simple they are. I see this every day in my life. I have children, and my children are not good at following instructions. Like in our basement, for example, we have we have a pretty big TV in our basement. It's kind of like my treasure. And uh, you know, when I got it years ago, before we we had kids, I thought, man, I'm gonna watch games on this, you know? I'm gonna watch games in high definition, and I'm gonna be able to like see these games, and it's gonna be amazing, and sports and action movies and explosions are gonna look amazing on it. Now I pretty much watch things like Peppa Pig and you know, like Little Einstein's, but in high def and it's awesome, right? That's how it goes. And so this is the room that our kids hang out in. This is the room our kids watch TV in, and it's a big room, so there's toys in there. This is kind of where we hang as a family. It's it's sort of like our home base. And and and our main rule with the TV is very simple. It's our main instruction to the children is do not stand directly in front of the television, like with your face on the screen. Don't let your nose touch the screen. That's it. And our children have have no ability to follow these instructions. Like none. I'll come downstairs and I will see my children like right up on the TV, and there's no way they can even make anything out when they're that close. There's no, there's no way, because their face is smaller than the TV. So I don't know what they're even seeing, but they're drawn to it like a moth drawn to a flame. They're just like, they're there. And I'll say something to them, I'll be like, Lily. And she'll sort of look at me as if she's just been snapped out of a trance. Like she was sleepwalking, and she'll say, I'm sorry. And then I'll say, Go, go sit on the couch, or at least stand far away. And she'll do it. And then sometimes, two minutes later, I will walk back into the room, and she's right back there. And I'm like, Little girl, what's going on? And she'll just be like, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened, you know? It's like the second I leave the room, she's like, I've got to get closer, you know, draws her in. And I get frustrated sometimes at my kids' inability to follow simple instructions, but then I remember being a kid, and I'm like, Yeah, I rem I remember how hard it was to do things my parents asked me to do, even if they were simple. My mom loves furniture. You know, it's like a mom thing. She loves, she loves furniture, she still loves furniture, she has a lot of furniture. And as a kid, we went to furniture stores. My mom would go furniture shopping, and she would take us to a furniture store. And when you're a when you're a child and your mother says to you, like if you're nine years old and your mom says, Hey, we're gonna go to a furniture store, you think to yourself, Why do you hate me? What have I done to you? What what did I do today to deserve this torture? Because that's what furniture stores are to children. But my mom loved going to furniture stores and she took us along. You know, we do things as a family. So we would go to the furniture store, and every time we would go to a furniture store, my mom would have the same piece of simple instruction. And you probably know what it is it's don't touch anything, right? We're about to go into the store, don't touch anything. Put your hands in your pockets, do not touch anything. But that is that is impossible to do when you're a child in a furniture store. It's just impossible. Like, like I remember seeing couches, and normally I wouldn't even care. But because I was there and I was bored out of my mind, I'd be like, well, that's an interesting texture. What is that, corduroy? That looks soft. And I'd find myself, you know, like like reaching. Like my hand had a mind of its own, and I just I have to I have to know what that couch feels like. I gotta know. And it's amazing when you're a kid how you you you have this ability to know when your parents are watching you, even when they're even when you can't see them watching you. And it's amazing how as parents you have the ability to know when your kids are doing something they shouldn't be doing, and those moments coincide. And so it'd be like I'm reaching, and then all of a sudden I'm like, someone is watching, and there's my mom, and I'm like, I I don't know what happened. I'm so sorry, mom. It wasn't my fault. I just I saw it, it called me. I don't, I'm sorry. She's like, I told you not to touch anything. And and and globes, like furniture stores have globes. Have you noticed this? If you've gone into a furniture store, it's a requirement that furniture stores must have globes. I don't even know why we still have globes. I think they're pretty outdated. Like the earth is round, we get it, okay? We've all we've known this for a while. It's all good. There's gotta be an app that's more effective than a globe by this point, but there's a rule. If you own a furniture store, maybe you can show me the code that says you must put a globe somewhere in your store on a table. And as a child, it is impossible to walk by a globe without, you know, just giving it a spin. You can't do it. You cannot do it. Because you just, you know, you're a kid, you're like, is it is it a real globe? Maybe it's a fake. I gotta see, I gotta see. And then your mom turns and you can't, like, it's spinning. The globe is spinning. And you're like, you do that thing where you put your hands down, like, I didn't touch it. It's just, it's a miracle. It's a miracle of God. What is what is he trying to tell us, mom? Let's pray. You know? But you have to touch it. It's a simple instruction, don't touch anything. But as a child, I just I couldn't do it. Following simple instructions helps us in life, but we struggle to do it. We struggle when we're kids, we struggle when we're adults, but our ability to do that, just to follow simple instructions, it goes a long way in our success. And it's really no different with God. It really isn't because God has given us instructions. And they're simple instructions most of the time. They're not always easy because simple and easy aren't the same thing, but but he's given us simple instructions and our ability to follow his instructions. It does so much for us. I want to be clear, I'm not talking about following God's instructions so that he accepts us and he loves us. That is religion. And Jesus is not religion, that's why religious people kill Jesus. Sometimes it gets kind of confusing in church because a lot of people have tried to turn Jesus into a religion. But religion is about doing things to make God happy with you. Religion is about the idea, the assumption that God is not happy with you. God looks at you and he is not pleased. And so you need to do all of these things, and if you do all these things often enough, well enough, consistently enough, maybe then God will go, okay, I accept you for now. Because you've done the right things. That's religion, that is not Jesus. Jesus made it so clear to us that we are accepted, that we are loved, that he desires to know us, and so we don't have to do a thing to earn his love. Like, not a thing. That's why Ephesians says it so clearly. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God. God's love, it's a gift. All you can do is accept it. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we've done, so none of us can boast about it. Aren't you glad that your relationship with God is not dependent on the amount of good things you have done in your life? Like, come on. That's good, that's good news. Maybe you're all much better people than me, because I think it's really exciting news. Um, I would have clapped, but it's okay. So God, oh no, it doesn't count now. No, you missed it. Um, no, God, like, he loves us. We don't have to perform for his love, we don't have to perform to earn our place with him, but even though he loves us, and once we've been accepted into his family, he gives us instructions, and in obedience to those instructions, it matters to God. In the Old Testament, there's a king of Israel. This is actually before Elijah and Elisha's time, and his name's Saul, and he's a he's a pretty Good king at first. He's capable as a leader and shows some promise, but he's really bad at following God's instructions. And so at this one moment, for example, um, he's he's at war with another nation that's been oppressing Israel, and God says, Hey, when you defeat this king, do not take all the livestock as plunder. Don't do it. Leave the livestock, don't touch it, don't take it. And so Samuel, who's the prophet at that time, shows up after the battle and he sees a lot of livestock and he hears the livestock and he probably smells the livestock. Livestock's hard to hide. And so Samuel just goes, Uh, hey, Saul, what is going on with all the livestock? And Saul basically goes, Okay, I know how it looks. Um, I didn't leave all the livestock. I kept the best livestock, but I kept it so that I can make a sacrifice to God. You know, that's how Saul always is. I disobeyed God so that I could honor God. And this is what Samuel says. It's it's amazing. 1 Samuel 15, 22. What is more pleasing to the Lord? Your burnt offerings and sacrifice or your obedience to his voice. Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Samuel's saying, look, God isn't asking you to make these grand sacrifices. God's not asking you for these huge gestures. You know, Saul, God just wants you to do what he says. And God wants us as people to be able to follow his instructions. And when we do, when we do, it's powerful. When we do, it's powerful because things go well for us. I love the simplicity of Acts chapter 15, verse 29. This is a situation where the church is kind of figuring out in the early days of following Jesus what they need to do, like what's important to God. And so Paul and the other leaders of the church basically come up with a very short list of, like, hey, just focus on these things. And then it says this if you do this, you will do well. If you follow these instructions, you will do well. We have a God who wants us to do well. We have a God who wants us to succeed. I mean, think about that. We have a God who actually desires for us to do well in life. He wants you to do well in your career, he wants you to do well in your relationships, he wants you to do well health-wise. God wants you to succeed. He wants you to succeed in your studies if you're a student, he wants you to succeed in your marriage, if you're married, he wants you to succeed in the dating relationship you're in if you're in a dating relationship. He wants you to do well. God wants you to do well, and when he gives us instructions, it's not to make life miserable for us, it's the opposite. It's to help us do well. But we're still a lot like Naaman. We have this tendency, and I do as well, to look at the things God has instructed us to do and to say, I don't know. I don't like your instructions. That that's kind of inconvenient for me. You know? That's gonna be kind of that's gonna be hard for me to do. That's not that's not what I'd prefer to do. Can't can't I just do this? Can't I just do it my way and still get the same result? You know, God has given us instructions, God's given us standards, and he's asked us to live by these simple standards, and yet we have this tendency as people to be just like Naaman. I do as well, to say, I can't I just live by my standards and then you still do the things that you know I need you to do. It just doesn't work like that. You know, my son Liam, my oldest boy, um, I tell a lot of stories about my kids, but they give me, it's like every week's just softballs in terms of material. They're just like, hey, use this, hey, use this, and I have to, I gotta take what I get. So Liam has he has a he has a chore, one chore that he has to do. He's our oldest kid, he's the only one that gets an allowance, and he has a chore, and it's to clean our basement, to keep our basement picked up. I'm not talking about baseboards and vacuuming, I'm talking about picking up toys and putting them where they go. That's that's it. And Liam, Liam hates it. Like he he hates it. When we tell Liam to clean the basement, he does this thing. We call it going boneless. This is what he does. If you've had children, maybe you've seen this. We'll say, Liam, clean the basement. He goes like, like, ah, and he just like flops like for a solid two minutes. He's like, I don't want to clean the basement. He has it's like he has no bones in his body, he's just noodles. And this goes on for two minutes, and then the bones like snap back into place, and then he cleans the basement. But there's a dynamic, after he he stops going boneless, there's a dynamic that is like a constant. And it's just the way it is right now. He will clean the basement and he'll tell me it's clean. And I will come downstairs and I will say, it is not clean. And he'll say, It is. I've cleaned it. And I learn in these moments that we have very different definitions of clean. And he has cleaned things to his standard of clean. It's just that his standard sucks. That's it. It's just not a it's just not a good standard, bad standard. So he's clean things to his standard of clean, but his standard isn't even clean. Like, my standard of clean is pretty simple. Put stuff where it goes. That's it. Liam's has just put stuff somewhere. And and you know, I'm not I'm not making him do things to my standard to torture him. It is fun to see him go boneless sometimes. It's like really comical. You're like, oh, look at that, he's doing it again. Watch this. But I do it because I want him to succeed. I want him to do well in life, I want him to learn these lessons. And in actually, practically speaking, him cleaning the basement to my standard, not his, goes well for him in a variety of ways. For example, a few weeks ago, he had a friend come over, and he and his friend wanted to play this very specific uh with his toy, and Liam couldn't find it. And he comes to me, because you know how when you have kids, your kids come to you when they've lost their stuff, and they're like, I can't find it, this is now your problem. And uh he's like, I can't find this thing. And I was like, Well, where'd you put it? I don't know. Well, there's a box, a bin labeled, clearly labeled, you know, Nerf guns. Is it in the nerf gun bin? It's not. I suggest putting your nerf guns in the Nerf gun bin next time, you know, and then he goes boneless. And so, because he doesn't like that answer, and there have been times where he's missed out on being able to do things because he can't find the thing he's looking for. And now he's got a little brother who has grown teeth, and this has become a big problem, and there are toys of Liam's that are just missing pieces. You know, bites have been taken out of them. And I hope Judah's okay. His digestion seems fine so far, but we didn't see it happen. And uh, and and it's all because Liam didn't put it where it goes. If Liam put it where it went, Judah cannot get to it, but he hasn't. And so he's got stuff that's been messed up. Judah, I believe, is going to be uh the artist in our family. We've been waiting for the artist to emerge because all of Megan's family, all of them, amazing artists. And then she married me, and so far my absolute inability to produce anything beautiful has translated to my children. But I think Judah's gonna break it. I think he's got that gene. And so Judah has just decided that everything is his canvas, like the whole world is his canvas right now. And he thinks that everything should be a different color than it is, and so Judah will go get markers, he will go and get paint, and he will like change the color of things in our house. It's amazing, it's wonderful right now. Um, so it's just abstract, is the word I would use. And so Liam actually has stuff that Judah has custom painted for him now. Um, for his birthday, he got this thing called a Nintendo Switch, and it's like a big deal for him to have this, and it's a it's a pretty expensive piece of electronics, and it's a little video game thing, and he loves it, and uh, and Judah got a hold of it, and Judah has has given a custom paint job to the Nintendo Switch, and I am not buying another one. So he's just gonna have to live with that. But again, if he had cleaned to my standard, that would not have happened. The thing is, Liam often wants me to just accept his standard, and I should just be okay with it. And if I didn't love him as much as I do, I would be okay with it. But I love him and I want him to do well, and I want his life to go well. And so I ask him to do things to my standard because my standard is better than his. God asks us to do things to his standard because his standard is better than ours. And that's not knocking us. That's not intended to make us feel guilty. It's it's like God is God and He knows what He's doing, and if we would do what He says to do, it would just go well for us. There's this idea and culture that, you know, God and religion or whatever you want to call it, you know, has all these things that it tries to impose on us to somehow, you know, like bind our ability to enjoy life. And that's foolish because God wants us to enjoy life to the fullest degree, and he knows that the only way to enjoy life to the fullest degree is to enjoy life within the boundaries that he's set, because within those boundaries it's safe and it's good. I'll give you a classic example is sex.

Yeah.

One person just did a double fist pump over here. Um it's always awesome talking about sex in church. It really is, it's fun. So it's fun for me. But uh, you know, it's that's like the classic example of something that our world acts like it invented, you know? And like God invented sex. He did. And you know, you didn't clap earlier when it was appropriate, but this would be another time. Like God invented sex. Don't act like don't, yeah. Everyone in here is like, oh no, we're Christians. We don't like, I'm about to have my fourth child. I am taking advantage of that invention. So, you know, within the boundaries that God has created for me. So, so like God invented sex. In fact, the first thing that God says to Adam and Eve when He creates them is go and multiply. Like, connect the dots, okay? God, He created that and He created it for us to enjoy, He created it for us to experience because God loves people. But God gave boundaries. And within those boundaries, sex is a gift and it's an incredible thing. Outside of those boundaries, sex is destructive. It's destructive. And so our world, our world is totally in this, like, it's 2017. I love it when people say that, right? Like, it's 2017. Like, oh, I didn't know that morality was like milk and had an expiration date. I didn't understand that. I thanks for informing me, okay? Um, but like it's 2017. Like, shouldn't we we've got we've got more modern standards, and usually what we mean by more modern standards is just we just don't have in them anymore. Um, and and we should be able to do it that way, and that should be fine with God. But listen to what God says in his word. This is New Testament. This is uh 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12. Paul's talking to this group of Christians, and by the way, it's very important for us to remember when we read scripture that this is written to Christians. So when Christians take the Bible and try to apply it to the world and say, hey, you're doing it wrong, that's silly because Paul is writing to people who have said, I am a Christian, I follow Jesus. And he's just basically saying, Okay, cool. Since you've decided to follow Jesus, let's talk about what that looks like. He says, You say I'm allowed to do anything, but not everything is good for you. The I'm allowed to do anything comment is about grace. We are forgiven of everything by God, past, present, and future. Jesus' blood, his sacrifice covered everything for us. So, you know, if you want to go live it up, you can, and it will not affect the way God feels about you, it will not affect his love for you. And Paul's addressing that. You can do anything, and it won't affect God's love for you. But then he says, not everything is beneficial, not everything is good for you. And even though I'm allowed to do anything, I must not become a slave to anything. And he goes on later, and in verse 18, he says, run from sexual sin. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God? You don't belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price, so you must honor God with your body. So the Bible says, just look, run away from flee sexual immorality. And we might say, yeah, but because we like to do this as people, what what really is sexual immorality, right? It's a pretty loose term. And the reality is you can search scripture and you'll find a lot of descriptions, but it really boils down to this. In the Bible, sexual morality is any sexual activity whatsoever that is outside the boundaries of a man married to a woman. That's it. It's really simple. Now, that's just what it is. And again, you may not be someone that there are people that don't agree with the Bible, and that's fine. But if you do agree with the Bible and what it says about life, that's that's the definition of sexual morality is sex within those boundaries, sexual activity within those boundaries. And our world looks at that and goes, that's so stupid, that is restrictive. I mean, you're gonna keep people from like being who they are, you're gonna keep people from experiencing what they're meant to experience, and it's it's amazing if you stop and think about it. Because that's a very simple instruction, right? It's not easy because of things like urges and desires, but it's simple. Just abstain from sexual morality. Don't do anything unless it's within these boundaries. But what would happen if the world actually lived within those boundaries? Let me think about it for a second. And this won't happen until like Jesus comes back and everything gets like it's supposed to be, but what would happen if the world all of a sudden developed the ability to live within those boundaries? How different would the world be? Right now we're seeing this absolute avalanche of public figures, mainly men who are in positions of power in Hollywood or in politics, and every single week there's a new high-profile person who turns out is a horrible human being and has used their position of power to sexually harass and sexually assault women. And it's disgusting. And if those men would just follow God's simple instructions, none of that would happen. None. Sexual harassment, what's that? Sexual assault, what's that? Rape? That's not a thing anymore. Sex trafficking doesn't exist. Pornography doesn't exist. All the damage that's done when someone has an affair, yeah, that doesn't happen now. Marriages and families torn apart by that, no longer a thing. Sexually transmitted diseases, what are those? Crisis pregnancy? I mean, technically, every pregnancy is a crisis. Uh anytime someone hands you a baby, you're like, ah, you know? And we're pregnant right now with our fourth, and I'm freaking out a little bit, but it's not a crisis pregnancy because we have a home and a family, and we're gonna, you know, we're gonna make it work. We love our family. I'm not, I'm just saying, like, maybe, maybe God gives us instructions not because he wants to frustrate us and put a burden on us. Maybe God actually wants it to go well. And when you look at the world and you say, okay, hey, the world has decided we're gonna create our own standard, and I'm just using this as an example, just this sexual immorality, it's just one example. We're gonna use our own standard, and we think that ought to be enough, and just ask the simple question: is that working? And it's not. And and would it be better if we lived by God's standard? And and you would have to be insane to be like, no, I can't see the benefit in that at all. I don't think it'd be better at all. It would. And I don't say any of this, by the way, to create guilt. I don't say any of this to stir up any issues because look, like I have said several times from stage, I I battled in addition to pornography for over 15 years. Like that counts, okay? I'm not I'm not guiltless in this. So I'm not trying to say anything to create guilt, but what I'm saying is this when we live committed to following God's instructions, it works. God's way works. And so, you know, worship team, if you guys want to make your way out, there's just this one simple question that I want us to ask ourselves. I want you to think about some area of your life that is not the way you'd like it to be. Maybe it's your finances, maybe it's your career, maybe it's maybe it's marriage, maybe it's a relationship, maybe you're single and you you want a relationship, whatever it could be. Maybe it's a relationship with your children, I don't know. But whatever part of your life, you're like, man, this part of life is just not going well. Ask yourself this question. Am I following God's instructions? I meet with people all the time who are frustrated at the way a part of their life is going, and we have a conversation, and really quickly I find out through the conversation that they're not even trying to do it God's way. And I never want to be harsh in those moments. I'm like, I'm just saying, hey, why don't, you know, what if you did this? And they're like, oh, I don't know if I can. Like, oh, I, you know, I try. And ask ask God to give you the strength to do that because you know, discipline, self-control, those are fruits of the spirit. As the result of just living connected with God, you'll grow in your ability to say yes to God. In the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament, God said, I will put a new heart and a new spirit in my people. He makes us new people. And he says, and then they will have the ability to obey me. So the more we say yes to God, the better we get it saying yes to God. And I'm just telling you, God wants your life to go well. If you're here today and maybe you're here in church because someone made you come and you're not a Christian, you're like, oh great, I come to church, and I'm talking about sexual immorality. I lost the lottery of church visiting. Like, I get it. Okay, I understand. But what I what I what I hope you hear today is this God wants your life to go well. He loves you, he's crazy about you. He wants your life to go well, he wants you to be safe, he wants you to be healthy, he wants you to experience all the amazing things he's created for you to experience. But in order to do that to the fullest, follow his instructions. You don't have to follow his instructions for him to love you. There's nothing my children can do. There's no amount of standing in front of a TV they can do that will make me not love them. You don't have to follow his instructions for him to accept you. But if you want to experience the blessings he has for you, then just get over that naam and mentality that we often struggle with and say, I'm okay if God gives me something to do that maybe I'd rather not do. Because obedience produces results, and God wants your life to be filled with God-type results because he loves you. We're gonna pray, we're gonna worship. I appreciate you guys. You're awesome people. You really are. I talked about sexual immorality, and there were only a few really awkward-looking faces, so I'm really grateful for that. That's a real joy for me today. Um Herb's laughing really hard. Look at Herb back here. Uh but we're gonna pray, we're gonna wrap up with one worship song, and we're just gonna celebrate the fact that we have a God who actually cares enough about us to tell us how things will work. You know, isn't that good? That's good. So let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for your love. Thank you so much for honestly, God, thank you for your instructions. You know, rarely in life am I am I grateful for instructions. It's only when I think about you and IKEA am I grateful for instructions. But I uh, but seriously, Lord, I I am grateful for the fact that you love us so much that you're not just some detached God who says, figure it out. You're not just some being out there who says, you know what, you figure it out, you do your best, you try to figure out a way to make it work. You actually love us enough that in in virtually every area of life, you have instructed us. You have told us what to do. And I pray, Lord, that you would fill us with the discipline and the desire, Lord, just the desire to obey you, to trust that your way is the right way, that your way works. So give us that, Lord. Give us the ability to do that, and we pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.