First Baptist Church in Amboy,IL Podcast
Our God Doesn't Desire Our Cart
I didn't feel comfortable what I was planning on preaching tonight, sharing with you, so I don't have a handout this evening, but going kind of along with what we've been talking about on Sunday night, I realized that come to the realization over my years of walking with God that our form of Christianity, what we call Christianity, what we're comfortable with, what we've known all our lives. I've been saved for 44 years, what I've known all my life, but I've practiced all my life. Compared to the scripture, it isn't always kind of like the awakening that Jessica talked about. I realized, wow, I didn't see this before. And I call it our form of Christianity sometimes works for those who are willing to assimilate to our culture that we've created, our little Christian culture that we're comfortable in, and somebody that doesn't fit with our little group, we think, well, they're just not right with God. And I've learned over the course of years, it took me a long time to realize this, or to really face it and ask honestly, and I have in a sense, but not as completely as I have in maybe the last 10 years or so, but we've preached so long and we witness, you know, get saved and get right. Well, how do you know you're right? Well, if you're doing what we're doing, you're right. If you're not doing what we're doing, you're not right. And how many of you got all the answers? Well, I sure like to talk to you. I sure like to know some answers. And we live in our own little happy world and rejoice with those that are in our club, but our ministry ought to go beyond that. Thank God for a fellowship. But thank God for like-minded people, and I'm not diminishing that, and I'm grateful for people this body of Christ that God's put together here, and I don't want to diminish that or take away from that, but we need to realize that there are others that may not see things exactly the way we see. Does that mean that they're wrong? Does that mean that we're right? They're wrong? Maybe we're wrong, and they're right. And questioning is a positive thing if it's done with the right spirit. Are you with me? And I say that to mention this to us, and this is just the direction that God was showing me in my prayer time this afternoon, and really seeking what, trying to put things together for tonight, and then God said, now just put that aside for a while. Those that, for one reason or another, they just are not comfortable in our church. Does that mean that they're terrible wicked people? And for those that are caught up in the cesspool of sin of our world, we live in a wicked world, don't we? You don't have to look very far to see that. People with multiple marriages, multiple partners, they talk about some of the new converts, my head spins when I start asking questions about families, and such a mess, but God is still in the business of saving and restoring people that are a mess. To be quite honest with you, most of the people that I talk to anymore, other than our little group that we're familiar with, and we're comfortable with, and there's nothing I'm all for that, and please don't take this the wrong way. But a lot of folks are such a mess, and I just throw my arms up and say, where do we start? How do we fix this problem? And a lot of it is things that we've done to ourselves because we've become so focused on extra biblical things that we've lost sight of some very basic biblical truths, and that's why God's been directing me back to the Book of Romans, and I've read through the Book of Romans a few times this week, and it's just amazing each time I go through it, and I could even tell you how many times I've read through the Book of Romans in the last number of years, but every time there's always something that just jumps out of it, wow, I've never seen that before. It's so clear and so concise, but I find that really people that I deal with on a regular basis, and some of them, even today, not necessarily people that were here in church this morning, and not necessarily people that you would even know, but I found that there's two classes I call and hook people that I deal with on a regular basis, and one of them is where most of us fit, where I feel that I fit, those that think we have it all together, but we really don't. If we're honest with ourselves as the testimonies tonight, well, we think we've got to figure it out, and we're really only deceiving ourselves. I find that true with lost people and with saved people. Well, I got all the answers. I've got it all figured out, and it's kind of like we're expecting to visit sometime late tonight, and for the next day or so, my brother-in-law, I mentioned him for a while back, the preacher, and he and his wife who got home in Florida, and a home in Ohio where they live, and she's got a side business, a lot of them devised home in Florida, and they were down there, and all of a sudden he had, if I remember, he had a headache or passed out, and went to the doctor and said that, "You got a brain cancer. You got a tumor that's got to be dealt with right now." And here it was in perfect health, had no idea anything was wrong. Two weeks later, he's got his head cut from, I can't remember where the scar is. I haven't seen him, talked to him on the phone a few times, and prayed with him, and praying for him. I've got a big star and crossed his head, and he's got some issues going through treatments and everything, but he had cancer and no idea. And I feel that's where most lost people are. Well, not most, a lot of lost people, a lot of Christian people. We have no idea what our need is, but there's something that's eating us away that's going to destroy us, and God has pointed out a number of things in my life over the years, and a couple of you have mentioned some things in your testimonies tonight. That's those who think they have it all together, but they really don't. There's something that they're going to be blindsided by someday, and then the other category, and this seems like this is a growing crowd, those that have such a mess I don't even know where to start with. I mean, what problem do we attack first? And you want to say, "Boy, you messed up. I'm not even sure God can get you out of this situation." And I'm not sure there is any help is what my flesh wants to say. And that would be kind of, I guess, to help illustrate this would be a patient say that I'm a doctor, and I'm helping someone. I'm not a doctor. I'm not even a nurse. I'm not even not. I'm not even qualified to change bedpans, but I say that I'm a doctor, and I'm dealing with somebody that has battling cancer. And I get a call one day and said, "You need to come to the emergency room because one of your patients is here." And I thought, "Oh, no, he's had some kind of relapse with his cancer treatments." And I go out and find he's got an arrow stuck in his side. Found that he's got an arm hanging by a limb and a bone sticking out. And I thought, "You know, you really need to stick to your cancer treatments. What are you doing?" Where do you start? Which one do we look at first? I mean, there's so many problems here, which what's more important? We're going to focus on this one or that one, and that's kind of where I am a lot of times. It's like, where do I start with this mess? How do we handle it? How do you give somebody advice that has got so many things going on in their life? And I've learned this. I don't have an answer. And it's okay not to have an answer, but I do know a God who has an answer. I spent some time on a phone today with somebody and I thought, "I don't have an answer for you. I wish I could tell you something. I wish I could give you a magic pill. I wish I could give you this advice. I wish I could sit you down on a couch or let you watch a sitcom and a half hour, everything's solved and everything's okay, but life ain't like that." And he said, "I didn't really expect you to. I just want you to know so you can pray." And so I prayed with him and we left it at that. Like, how do we deal with all these things? And realizing that all our pet answers that we have, "Well, bless God. You've got to read your Bible. You've got to pray. Read your Bible. Pray every day. Pray every day. Pray every day. You don't have to take care of all your problems on it. Well, not when you're bleeding to death. Not when you're laying in the ditch with one of your limbs cut off. That's not going to help you. "Well, bless God. You should be praying harder." That's not the answer. Where do we find the answer? Some folks say, "Well, we need to..." I don't know where I'm going with this. There's some thoughts that were rushing through my head today, praying. Sometimes we get so stuck on what we think we understand when we don't have a clue. That's why I'm encouraged to hear your testimonies are digging in to live different places in the Psalm or the life of David. And even more so going back in history, I've kind of fallen in love the last month or so with an author. Mostly, I think I mentioned him last week, a man named John Owen. And most of you probably have never heard of him until fairly recently, about a year ago, I first heard of him. I've seen him quoted a number of times. I had no idea who he was. And I find it interesting to read some of the things that he has to say. One of the things that struck me, I guess it was last week, I was reading one of his books. Keep in mind, he lived in the 1600s. He was born about the time that our King James Version, the original King James Version of the Bible was written. That was not an acceptable Bible. Well, plus God, he didn't have the truth because he didn't have the King James Version of the Bible. He had more spirituality in his little toll than you and I will ever have in our lifetime. And he had a walk with God that is, I don't know of anyone that could compare. Just reading some of the things that he wrote, and I found it fascinating that so many times in his book going through it, he would make statements of things that we know as song, for example, face to face. I heard to say that a couple of times. Wait a minute. He lived hundreds of years before that song was written. I wanted to start singing face to face. And some of the truths that a lot of the song writers, and by the way, there's something, some of the early song writers, where they got some of the ideas for some of their great songs. Not in the scripture, but from great preachers. And I say this because he was pre-KJV. And not, of course, we'd have the source of truth. If you don't preach on the KJV, you're probably not even saved, right? And you don't have the truth. Well, we can't read him. He doesn't quote the KJV. And well, his ministry started before the KJV was an acceptable Bible. And I know that kind of throws some people because we talk about the old-time religion. Well, that's okay if you only go back a couple hundred years. If you go farther than that, it'll mess you all up. And he was not a Baptist. And some folks have a problem with that. And he was probably more of a Baptist than a lot of folks that call himself a Baptist today. And some folks, and I just reading some things about him because I've been enjoying his book so much. And some folks, and I kind of chuckle at this. I say it kind of tongue and cheek. Some folks condemn him for being a Calvinist, but usually they're the ones that are convicted by some of the things he's saying. And much like you could condemn Spurgeon for being a Calvinist in the same light. But we can pick and choose if we want to. But what I'm saying is, you and I don't have all the answers. We don't have a corner on truth. Only Jesus does. I don't have all the, are you with me tonight? I sometimes feel like a lot of my life, I thought, well, bless God, it's just simple. Do this, that, there's your three points. And live by that, you'll be just fine. Take a pill, come back in the morning, and there's a lot of things out there that, to be quite honest with you, I'm beginning to understand in my Christian walk that, oh, I wish I would understood that 30 years ago. I wish I wouldn't understood that 40 years ago in my walk with God. I wish I wasn't so, to be quite honest with you, closed-minded about so many things. And that is one of the greatest tragedies in our world today, not only in Christianity, everybody's right. Whether they know what they're talking about or not, we're all right. Boy, if I was president, there's your first sin right there. Boy, if I was in charge, there's your first sin, your pride, thinking that you know those things that you don't know. But all of us are guilty of that. It's just a part of our culture. It's a part of our world today that we really have a hard time getting away from. And I just want to say, and by the way, Gary, I appreciate you pointing some things out in Sunday school. In fact, I want to preach on something that he mentioned today in Sunday school. And God has been working in my heart about it. And I've been hashing it through my mind and thinking about it. And that's why I encourage you Sunday, Wednesday night in our discussion time. Somebody said something. Oh, I wasn't going to say this, but I didn't want to say something that I thought, man, I wish you would have said that. That would have helped me so much if you would have said that. Don't hesitate to say that. God serves you to pray. Don't hesitate to pray. If God serves you to say something, not right now. Don't tell me I'm full of beans right now. But that wasn't God. That was a devil, I'm sure. No, I'm just kidding. But I appreciate hearing what God's telling you through the passage of Scripture. I want you to turn to 2nd Samuel, chapter number 6. I just want to look at one simple little thought. We're going to go back and look at something else and we'll be done. 2nd Samuel, chapter number 6. We're going to read something and ask you a question. In 2nd Samuel, chapter number 6. And then we're going to go back exactly one book. And in the same chapter. 2nd Samuel, chapter number 6. And it says again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went to all the people that were with him and the bale of Judah and bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubs. I'm going to tell you what a, and I'm sure you would agree with this, what a blessing it is to know and serve God. Amen? Isn't it great to know him, the God of all creation, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a joy, what a delight it is to know him and to know that everywhere we go, he's right there with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We have something that David didn't have. In verse number 3. And it says, "And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibbia, and Uza in a Heil, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart." I think Gary asked this question. Where did they get the idea for a new cart? Where did they get that idea? Oh, you're ahead of me. Then we just say this. If I had a title of my message, just going to ask me for a title of my message. So I wrote something down to give you just for you, Jeff. Our God doesn't desire our cart. Our God doesn't desire our cart. We're so impressed with our cart. Boy, look at this fancy cart that we have. Look at what I've got figured out. Go back to first Samuel chapter number 6. Again, one book back, the same chapter, same that chapter. No, never mind. First Samuel chapter number 6. And by the way, they could say like, I hear like, well, we're going back to the old paths. It worked once before. God blessed it last time. I think you'll bless it this time. And by the way, God did bless it last time. But where did the idea come from? In first Samuel chapter number 6. And the Ark of the Lord. And you remember how the Ark was taken captive with Eli. Hop 9th in his side, Ichabod, the glory, hath departed, and all that back when we were in first Samuel. And the Ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners saying, what shall we do? And of course they had this Ark brought all kinds of troubles to their gods. And I mean, the merman fell down and broke his hands and broke his head. And the little mermaid was all upset and all that. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners saying, what shall we do to the Ark of the Lord? Notice who the Philistines called, the priest and the diviners. Who were they? Israelite priests? Do they call gods people? Hey, preacher, we're not sure what to do with this. Ark, could you tell us what to do? They didn't call God's priests. They called the Philistine priests. They called their diviners, their astrologers, their wise men, the leaders of their religion saying, what shall we do? You say, well, why do they come up with strange ideas? Because they weren't talking to God's people. They were getting their own ideas. What shall we do with the Ark of the Lord? Tell us where we shall send it to this place. And they said, if you send away the Ark of God of Israel, send it not empty. But in any ways, return him a trespass offering. Boy, you better be good to this God. He seems to be an angry God. And then you shall be healed. And it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you. Then said they, what shall be the trespass offering returned to him? And they answered five golden M rods and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on you all and upon your lords. Of course, they're offering sacrifices that would be appeasing to their gods, not the gods of Israel. And therefore, you shall make images in your M rods and images of your mice and that mar the land. And you shall give glory to the God of Israel. We're going to use our God to praise the God of Israel. Doesn't that sound like Christianity today? Boy, that sounds really familiar today. And we're going to use our form of worship, our idea of entertainment, our idea of amusement. And we're going to use it for the glory of God. What a great idea per adventure to lighten his hand from off you, from off your gods, and from off your lamb. Wherefore, when he then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians, as Pharaoh hardened their heart, we know something about this God. We've heard the stories of what he did to Pharaoh in Egypt. And we don't want to be on the same side as Egypt. So we want to, you know, we want to appease this God, but we're going to do it our way. And when he had wrought wonderful among them, did they not let the people go and they departed? I mean, we better do right with this God before he destroys us all. Now therefore, make, what's it say, a new cart, and take two milks kind, on which they're not mediocre, they've been tied to the kind of the cart, and bring their calves home from them. Bring two kinds that are giving milk that they've got calves that are, or two cattle cows that are feeding their babies, milk, fresh milk, on the farm, better than on the farm. And you hook those cattle, and then I want you to take their calves that are going to be crying, "Mom, mom!" I don't think that's how calves cow. He's like, "Mom, mom!" Does that sound like a cow? And I want you to take them back, and boy, that's going to be uncomfortable for mama. And it's going to be hard for her to leave her calves, and you see what happens here. If they go back to your land, or if they go to the land of the Philistines, and you know the story, but the idea, and it's interesting how much of the philosophy that Israelite, even David, a man after God's own heart, a man that desired that knew that everything he had belonged to God. He was used of God, and God blessed him, and God brought him to the land of the city of Jerusalem, and he conquered Jerusalem, and established a kingdom there in Jerusalem, and desired to worship God in purity and holiness. And yet he got his ideas more from the Philistines than he did from God. I find that's interesting. God doesn't really, not really impressed with our cart. God's not in part impressed with our methods. One of the things that's really come to light, and I really just made it, you know, I'm an old, funny, duddy. I'm ready to kick over any time. Sometimes I think, but I'm going to keep going until that time comes, but sometimes I think I am just a dinosaur. There's some things that I've always wanted to say the least. They've somewhat bothered me in Christianity, and how much of our ministries, quote unquote, are built around the world's philosophies, the world's style of leadership, the world's mentality of, I mean, just little things. And, you know, we can see it when some groups have gone too extreme, but we don't realize we put the ark in the cart to begin with. But we've started going that direction a couple of generations ago, in the mega church movement. And a lot of things that I see in Christianity today, nice point out, you know, before we get all highbrow, and we're righteous, and everybody else is bad, we look down at other groups that have gone a crazy extreme, that, you know, we're the ones that started going that direction when we started borrowing philosophies of leadership, and ministries from the things of the world, from the business world, and soul winning plans from how to win friends and influence people, and that's one of the things that I've just been zeroing in on the book of Romans where God starts when he talks about the gospel. Where does God start? I talked to the kids about this the other day. And Romans chapter number one, he talks about the three places that read the three things that God uses to reveal God to man. How many soul winning plans do you here talk about that? But we start kind of in the middle because God has a wonderful plan for you. God loves you, and God cares for you. That's not where God starts, but that's where we start, and instead of starting where God starts. God starts with, you've got a conscience that tells you you're guilty, but where he starts with, God reveals himself to your guilty conscience. Thank God for your guilty conscience. But we've kind of learned to comb that conscience down, so we feel a little bit better. You know, you don't want to start with that because it gives people a negative idea from the beginning. We're going to start with a positive message. And then he starts out of creation, how that it declares the glory of God, and where sodomites came from, when they reject God's plan of creation. Oh boy, we want to start that with the opening of the gospel message, but that's where God starts. And Romans chapter number one, doesn't he? Read it again. And then he starts, God gave us thirdly his word to declare the message of salvation. And then God goes through to condemn all of us as wretched sinners worthy of death. That's where God starts. Hey, I'm in pretty bad shape, and that's where Paul started, and that's where God starts. But we kind of change it around because, you know, Norman Vincent Peale, a lot of you don't know who that is. You've got to go back a couple of generations. He's like, "Well, if you're going to win friends and influence people, you've got to start with a very positive message." And I'm all for trying to get people to listen to you and trying to get people to like you and everything else. You know, sometimes I meet people who just had somebody in our house yesterday. And when they left, my wife said, "Could you believe that person that's always so harsh and bitter and angry, was sitting in our house, pouring their heart out to us?" But that's a victory right there. That's a great step right there. And I hope they're not listening to this. I'm sure they're not. Our friends don't listen to it. I don't know if our enemies would. But I'm amazed sometimes at where we get off track and where we sometimes say, "Well, this is the way, you know, we're going to win people this way, and we're going to have this plan and have this method of God," says, "Just walk with God. Just walk with God. And if our walk with God is real, we're going to have a relationship with Him, and we'll be ready to answer every man that asks us the reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear." God convicted me years ago about, "I'm not comfortable talking to people. I'm not comfortable up here. I'm not comfortable speaking to one person, let alone a group of people. I never have been. I'm just fine with that. I just, what God called me to do, so I just need to pray a little bit more every time I do it. And by this determined, I need to be a better soul winner. I need to be more confrontational with people. I need to just go and tell them." And I thought, "But you get some results, but those results were not real. And it's better just to walk with God. And I've discovered this when you walk with God. God opens opportunities, and He will give you a burden and the words to say at the right time. And that's just the result of walking with God, not because you've learned somebody's methods. And I don't know how many different things I want you to learn this method and that method and how to do this and how to do that. That works fine for some people if you're a good salesperson. If I had to sell something for a living, I would starve to death. But just walk with God. God's not interested in our cart. God doesn't desire our cart. God just wants to walk with you. God said, "I want you to follow my plan. Humble yourself. Start to worship me. Offer the sacrifices that I command. Have the priests carry that arc the way I design and offer your sacrifices every six paces." But God, who's got time to do that? We've got a busy schedule to keep. God says, "Forget your schedule. Walk with me and see what God can do." I was talking to some young people that camp the other day. They're just about being out talking to God. But the tide asked me to talk something about creation. So I was doing that. I was just talking about how I love to just be outside. It was a very hot, crazy, hot day. And for the tides that we're going to do it outside. And he didn't realize it's going to be the sun. So they're all sitting in the sun. They've made movement, the grass is sitting with the shade out. We're going to sit in the sun. They're going to work good for what I would talk about. I'll tell you all the heat of the sun and the glory of God. But I just made a statement in there. How that at a hot summer day, you can go outside at night and you can hear the corn grow. Have you ever heard the corn grow before? A lot of folks, "What?" By the way, yes, I went by Sweet Cornfield. I could tell Sweet Corn because I could smell it a long ways away. And that was plenty good. I wanted to stop and pick some. It has a mind about done. But one of the kids came up to me afterwards and said, "How bored could you possibly be to sit out and listen to corn grow?" And I thought, you know, that's exactly what our problem is today. We have no time to sit and meditate on God. Sit and talk to him in quiet, which is what worshiped this. Sit in the stillness of the day, in the stillness of the night. And just spend the night talking and listening to God. You amaze what God begins to tell you when you learn to walk with him. But we don't have time for that. I mean, I've got my five-minute devotional today. I'm going to read my two chapters a day to keep the devil away. And then I've got to be about my merry business. What about walking with God? You see, the old timers understood that David certainly knew that. And he studied the life of David at the times that he was an all night just talking to the Lord. And you think of Psalm 23. And how God gave him that psalm was a shepherd boy and developed that throughout his life. And just walking with God. Well, but we've got new methods. We can do this more effectively if we do this. And we can get more accomplished if we have this pattern in this planet. What about walking with God? God's not interested in our cart. He wants us to walk with him the way he designed and he desires. I'm going to ask you to send your