How To Enjoy Life More

True joy in the Christian life isn't found in chasing sensory-overload experiences, it is built on daily, intentional habits.

In this sermon on Acts 16:16–24, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon continues the expositional series through the Book of Acts by exploring how Paul and Silas went from prayer to prison. Pastor Neil outlines four foundational beliefs for enjoying life more, even amidst unexpected interruptions and suffering. Discover the fruit of spiritual habits, the subtle dangers of religious syncretism, how to balance the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of life, and the abiding comfort of knowing you are never alone.

In this episode, we cover:

• Habits as the Avenue of Involvement: Why spiritual habits—like prayer, corporate worship, and scripture reading—shape us more than temporary experiences.
• Life Is Also Spiritual: Recognizing spiritual realities and guarding against the threat of syncretism in modern culture.
• The 3 Dimensions of Life: Avoiding the bondage of "one-dimension living" by balancing the physical, psychological, and spiritual realms.
• Overcoming One-Dimension Bondage: Identifying the signs of being stuck in the physical realm, including shallow responses and an inability to acknowledge truth.
• Never Alone in Suffering: Standing firm in the truth that God is present with us regardless of our circumstances.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Amen. Yes, Lord. Let's pray together, Church. Lord, we believe today. We've gathered today to open your word and by your spirit, God, uh, increase what we believe and increase our enjoyment of the things we already believe. Teach us new things today, Holy Spirit. The Bible says that each morning your mercies are new, but also each morning you have fresh revelation for us. Um, not things that are not like uh out outside the realm of the Bible, but every time we open up your word, there's something for us to see there. And so give us eyes to see. We pray with the psalmist, open my eyes, Lord, so I can see wonderful things in your law. Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief today. Put to death unbelief in us. Uh fan into a flame our belief. Some of us, we're like a smoldering wick. We're just about to go out, we're barely holding on. We're more of a religious tradition than a right relationship with God. And so, Holy Spirit, speak a word to those people as well today. Well, we love you. Uh inform and influence what we believe today from your word and by your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name when everyone said, Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. Uh, if you got a Bible, go ahead and open up if you would to Acts chapter 16. Let me say good morning. If you're our guest today, uh thank you for having the courage to explore a new church. You're welcome here. Okay, we're going through the book of Acts uh expositorily, and we're up to Acts chapter 16, verse 16. Now, before I read the text, I just want to say this. I loved how, and I knew Ian couldn't help himself, the Homer with his giggle maggies. I love it. AM will come up with a thing, y'all be like, whoop! My favorite was the last one, Carnegie Mellon. Y'all like, huh? By the way, if you don't know what Carnegie Mellon is, it's probably one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States. It's located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the acceptance rate at Carnegie Mellon is about 11%. Yeah. So whoever that guy is that got into Carnegie Mellon, you want to sit next to him in algebra, okay? I'm just saying. I just thought it was like, hey, whoo, ha ha ha! Well, Carnegie. And the only reason I know that is I watched the documentary on uh Carnegie, uh, the guy that kind of endowed. He wrote a big check and got the thing going, okay? Uh and so I want to talk to you this morning about how to enjoy life. Now, by the way, let me just say this. I graduated high school undecided as well, students. There's a couple undecided up there. You're my heroes, okay? Because I graduated undecided, I had no clue. It's all, and there's a lot of people in your life that tell you since the fifth grade, you're supposed to know what you're gonna do the rest of your life. They're liars, and the truth is not in them, okay? So just relax. You're gonna be fine, all right? Uh anyway, uh, I want to talk to you this morning about how to enjoy life more. How to enjoy life more. And if you're visiting this morning, it's not what you think, okay? We're not that kind of a church. Uh but uh uh uh we're gonna read nine verses, and basically, nine verses, these men we're gonna read about Paul and Silas, they go from prayer to prison and they get beaten in between pretty severely. And so one thing you'll see in the Bible is that these people either they did not plan their days very well, or they lived in obedience, not assumption, when it came to their days, and they were often interrupted and they seemed okay with it. It's not like in this chapter here that God sends them uh a calendar invite and says, Hey, you got room in your schedule to get a beat down today at 2:30? No, it just happens. And here's the thing that blows my mind. They were just kind of like, okay, uh, this is happening, and they weren't thrown off by that. And so then the question becomes, what do you think these people believed that made this okay to them? Why did they not just spit the bit and go, this God and Jesus thing is not working for me anymore? One thing you also realize about people, especially in the book of Acts, they weren't very efficient, they were very available. Big difference in those two. And so, how to enjoy life more? Again, this is not some self-help uh pop psychology uh uh uh uh uh pep talk, okay? This is the biblical narrative. Uh and some of you will like the responses to the to the question, how to enjoy life more. Some of you won't, okay? Acts chapter 16, I'll start reading verse 16. As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are servants of the most high God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out of her that very hour. But when the owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowds joined in attacking them. And the magistrates tore the garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner cell of the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. Now, how do you may be thinking, how are you gonna get how to enjoy life more from this? Stay with me. There's four things I think that they believed in the text that I'm gonna ask you and I to believe today. Not that you don't, some of you do, maybe not to the degree you should, and some of you don't believe at all. And so I just want to say, hey, you want to know how to enjoy life more? There's four things you got to believe. Number one, you got to believe that habits are the avenue of involvement. Habits are the avenue of involvement. Verse 16, as we were going to the place of prayer, uh, one of the things you'll notice in Acts is that they never go out of their way to have an experience. One of the things I noticed about American religious subculture is we are always going out of our way to have an experience. I mean, we got things called like the the passion experience tour comes to town and we buy tickets to it, uh, but they don't buy tickets to these worship events with these six-story video walls or anything like that. They simply have habits that govern their lives, and these habits consistently involve them in what God is doing to change the world. And one of the habits that you see in the book of Acts is simply they gather with other believers to pray. They said, We're going to the place of prayer, which in Acts chapter 16. If you remember a couple weeks ago, uh we talked about this. They they they went into this city in Philippi. They were looking for a synagogue. There was not enough Jews. There was a, if you had 10 Jewish men, you could start a synagogue. There was not that many Jewish men, so there's a bunch of women down by the river to pray. They sang about it in the movie, Oh brother, where art thou? Let's go down by the river to pray. No? Okay. Y'all are like, you're way too excited today. Calm down, okay? Uh and so this is what they're doing. They're just getting up and they're going, hey, this is what we do. This is one of the habits that govern our lives. Prayer. If you look back at Acts chapter three, don't turn there, but Acts chapter three starts off with them going to the place of prayer. So people in the book of Acts were ruled by their habits, not their experiences. All right. And then just file this away. Here, there's other habits that you see in the Bible as well. There's prayer, there's corporate worship. I mean, we call that going to church. The Bible says very clearly in Hebrews chapter 10, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as some are in the manner of doing. People go to church for a little bit, or if you go like five times a year, it's never gonna quite make sense to you. You just go to church enough to feel guilty for the fact that you don't come enough. That's not God's idea, okay? And so there's prayer, there's corporate worship, there's fasting, there's solitude, there's scripture reading, there's silence, just to name a few that you see in the book of Acts and all through the Bible. Here's the lie that your experiences tell you, okay? Now, I'm not against experience, uh, but I'm almost 60. I don't need a lot of experiences. I rely on my habits to shape and form my life. But here's the lie your experiences tell you. Your experiences tell you you are as big as the experiences that you've had. And you know deep in your core, you're really not. So you go to these incredibly sensory overload kind of things, and you come back, and two weeks later you're like, womp, womp, it's still the same old me. And here's here's what you need to realize: you are the byproduct of your habits, not your experiences. You can go have great experiences. I can go watch Indiana Jones in a movie theater, save the girl and the world. That doesn't mean I'm gonna go out and do it next day. So you've got to be careful. Again, your life is a byproduct of your habits. And so let me give you four fruits of habits, four uh incredible byproducts of just these unsexy things called habits, okay? For the people for Paul and Silas, they get up. Now you think the Apostle Paul, he's outgrown this, he hasn't. His life is a byproduct of the things that he habitually exposes himself to. The fruit of habits, first of all, habits move me beyond what I feel towards structures that I need. Habits move me beyond what I feel towards structures that I need. Secondly, habits facilitate exposure, and exposure initiates change. You may be thinking that's kind of heady. Let me say it again, I'll demonstrate. Habits facilitate exposure, and exposure initiates change. Men in this room, if you're married, say amen. Yes. And so you had a habit, or when you met this woman you're married to, uh, called dating her. You went out once on the first date, then you went again, and you went out again, and you went out again, and this habit facilitated exposure to this woman, and your exposure to this woman initiated change in you. How many of men would say, I am not the same person I was when I went out on a first date with this woman? Say amen. This is what I mean. Habits initiate exposure, and exposure initiates change. Here's the third fruit of habits. Habits interpret, excuse me, habits interrupt the status quo. Habits interrupt the status quo. You don't you you don't change by just hating your life. Self-hatred is not the vehicle of transformation. You change because you expose yourself to things that have the capacity to interrupt you the normal way you do life and invite you into something bigger and better and beyond. Here's the last fruit of habits. Habits lessen our need for spiritual simulation. Habits lessen our need for spiritual stimulation. Unless you send me an email and go, oh, Pastor, you got it wrong. There was a typo on your last point. No, no, no. It's on purpose. Habits lessen. They teach us something about our need for spiritual stimulation. You see, when you get good, consistent, godly habits, you're not as critical about everything as you used to be. And here's why. Because you experience in private what you used to crave in public. No? Y'all are like, we have to think about this today. Yeah, I told my prayer partner, Jack, on the way in, hey, I need you to hunker down, Jack. We're gonna think a little bit. And he's like, good luck. I was up till two o'clock in the morning. But anyway, yeah. Hey, yeah, you got habits, you experience these things in private. My spiritual habits that I engage in solitude, like a couple weeks ago, I went to a friend of mine's cabin in the woods outside of Huntsville for four days. I didn't talk to anybody. I called my wife, and you and it's like, hey, 10 minutes is all I want to talk for the whole time. And so, but she texted me. I didn't call one night because I was a role. I was just reading and thinking. She texted me the next morning. Are you fasting from me as well? I texted back, no, but I'm available. No, I know me. I know y'all think, dude, you can't shut up. No, I love to shut up. I can go days without saying a word. I don't even, I didn't even pray out loud. I just thought all my prayers. It was it was incredibly enjoyable. That's very private. And so, because what I experience in private, I don't come to church and need a lie. I want I want to be taught the word. I want to I want I want to be reminded, reoriented my faith, but I don't need every Sunday to be a home run. This is this is what I mean. We're looking in our experiences for what can only be found in our habits. And so, how do we enjoy life more? Number one, you gotta you gotta believe that habits are the avenue of involvement. Number two, you have to understand that life is also spiritual. Life is also spiritual. Uh it's verse 16 to 19 there. This woman, uh, the Bible says this. They were met by they're going to the place of prayer. This is their habit, okay? And then they were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling. Translation, these men trafficked this woman who had an evil spirit by which she could predict the future. Okay, and so it's like a traveling carnival. They're just making money off of this lady. So when I say life is also spiritual, what do you mean? She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out of her that very hour. Unless you understand that life is also spiritual, uh, stuff like this doesn't make sense to you. You're just kind of like, huh? Um there are three basically three dimensions to life. Let me mention it here, and I'll explain a little bit more in the next point. There are three dimensions to life: there's physical, there's psychological, or what I call the emotional, and then there's spiritual. There's a physical dimension, there's a psychological dimension, and then there's spiritual. Now you may be wondering uh why did it bother Paul that this woman was saying something that was really true? Well, she was proclaiming the truth in a way that really undercut the truth. Let me say that again. You still with me, say amen. Y'all are like, dude, it's raining outside. We could be napping, we should have stayed home and had brunch, okay? Uh, but she is saying, I mean, this sounds great. These servants are that they basically, uh, here's the line. She followed them, crying out, these men are servants of the most high God. That sounds good, but it's really not helpful at all. You say, Well, what's the deal? Because remember, there's not that many Jewish people in this city, okay? And so they are going down by the river to pray, studying about the good old way. Uh, Paul and Silas and these other people that are gathered there, and this woman for days has followed them, going, These men are servants of the most high God. For Jewish people, they go, Ding, I know what you're talking about because they're monotheistic. But for non-Jews, which was the majority of the city, this was just an all scate. That's like, oh, great, the most high God. I know what my most high God said. Basically, it's it's a generic spiritual blank where they can put in that blank whatever they believe. And then she goes on even more generically and says, uh, uh, these men are servants of the most high God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation. The way of salvation, that's also very generic. Like I was in gallery furniture right over here in Land Parkway one time, walking around, and they used to have painting on the wall back there. Hopefully they took it down because I asked them to. I said, That's terrible. And the guy's like, uh, do you want to buy anything? No. But they had a big slogan on the wall that said, Work is salvation. This is what you believe when you're a workaholic. Don't gasp at that. Some of you believe that. You just don't paint on the wall of your house. I was like, Is Mac here? And they said, Yeah, he's back in the back somewhere. I said, Yeah, we got to talk about this. We may have to take our shirts off and do some mud wrestling or something. And the guy goes, What's the problem with that, man? We work hard. I work hard too, but work is not salvation because if you can save yourself through work, you don't need Jesus. You ever say anything in a conversation and you realize I just crossed the line, this person doesn't want to talk anymore? This dude, he's standing there with his little notebook thing, his little iPad, he goes, Uh, let me get somebody. And I followed him. I said, No, man, come back, come back. He goes, No, let me get somebody. No, that's what's happening here. This one that they proclaim to you the way of salvation. When there is no granularity, people will consume your generic references to your higher power or the big guy in the sky. They'll consume it upon whatever they prefer. And so she says, most high God. This allows them just to fill in the blank, the identity of the God that they view is the most high, whatever, okay? And now, a pagan, a non-believer, he would understand this term to refer to whatever deity they consider to be supreme. Now, why am I making a big deal out of this? When I say life is also spiritual, she's having a physical response. She's engaged in the physical. And Paul realizes, hey, this is coming out of the spiritual realm. So he deals with the spiritual. One of the reasons a lot of you do not make progress is for you, everything's physical and nothing's ever spiritual. You, if you want to have an interesting conversation, man, next time you and your wife have a problem in life or in marriage or with one of your kids, just ask them, hey, do you think this is physical, psychological, slash emotional? Is this physical, uh emotional, or is this spiritual? Because then you're getting down to putting the axe to the root of the trees. Because the greatest threat to Christianity is not fundamentalism. It's not. Don't let the media, oh, these right-wing conservatives, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, the greatest threat to Christianity is not fundamentalism. This is what what the media love to accuse Christians of. But when they do that, what they're seeking to do is advance the agenda of syncretism behind this accusation of fundamentalism. The greatest threat to Christianity is not fundamentalism, it's syncretism. You're like, okay, that's great. Now what is that? Uh I brought you a simple definition. Syncretism is the blending together or an attempt to blend together different religions, cultures, or schools of thought. And it happens every day in this multicultural world we live in. Every year I get an invitation to the Fort Bing County Multi-Faith Council breakfast. And every year I just politely decline. I'm not a jerk about it. I just said, Will you be able to attend? No. One year they called and said, Pastor, we know she never come. Can we ask you why? I said, Because we don't share the same faith. There's no multi to Christianity. It's mono, not multi. We don't all worship the same God. Now, when you say that in 2024, that is like a hate crime. And the lady's like, Sir, what is your problem? I don't have a problem. Hero Israel. The Lord is one. The Lord our God is one God. I'm a monotheist. I don't believe that there's a God of the Muslims and a God of the Hindus and a God of the unbeliever and a God of the agnostic, and the Christians have their God over there. He happens to be Jesus, but over here you got Vishna. I believe there's one God, he's right, and everybody else is wrong. In silence is loud. Well, uh, sir, uh, you you know, we don't get down into the particulars, and that's the problem. I don't want to come eat breakfast with a bunch of generic generalists. Oh, well, sir, uh, I said, ma'am, I'm not angry, uh, but I am right. And even that's like a hate crime. That is like, who do you think you are? Hey, look at me. No one's helped by your uncertainty, by your rounded language. Well, you know, you have your way, you have your beliefs, I have my belief. You need to get into the arena of public discourse. And as Mills Lane, the boxing referee, used to say, let's get it on. Not to be conflictual, but to be redemptive. Am I gonna sit around some multi-faith break accountable? What? No, now, am I gonna hate these people? No, not at all. But there's no multi, it's mono. And if you believe that all roads lead to God, you have violated the first and second commandment. Third thing that these people believe. They believe there's a bondage that comes with one dimension living. Now listen very carefully here because if I if I haven't lost you yet, here's where I'll lose you. There's a bondage that comes with with one dimension living. Remember, I said there's three dimensions of life the physical, the psychological, and then the spiritual. Uh here this part, verse 19. But when her owners, who, by the way, are a great example of people that are just stuck in the physical, everything is physical. It's the realm in which they think. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. More physical. When you're stuck in the physical, you rely on the physical to fix every problem. When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. Has anybody ever said that about you? Just checking. Verse 21. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore their garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into the prison, ordered the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them in the inner prison, and then he fastened their feet in the stocks. There is no way these guys are getting out of this. And here's the difference in them and us they got into situations where the miraculous would happen, and they didn't pray for relief, they prayed for opportunity. We pray for relief. But when I say there's a bondage that comes with one dimension living, by the way, we can all get stuck in one of these dimensions. So it's important that we are mindful of that and we are balanced people. You say, Well, I don't know. Remember, again, there's three dimensions there's physical, psychological, and then there's spiritual. Here's how you can tell which one you're most likely to get you live out of all the time. It's where you drive the conversation in order to feel comfortable and competent. Let me say it again. It's where you drive the conversation in order to feel comfortable and competent. Like you can download all that you know about whatever's being talked about, okay? Now, these men, like I said, who own the slave girl, they're a classic example of people that were stuck in the physical realm of life. Okay? Everything's physical, it's just everything's math. There is no music, it's just, hey, these people that cut off our passive revenue stream, we got to take you to court. We need to be made whole here. We're gonna sue you, okay? Or at least get you get get you beat up. Now, I have friends in the therapeutic community who are stuck in the psychological in the psychological realm. I call them ambulance drivers. They drive an ambulance to everything. You go to lunch with them. I go to lunch with them. They want to psychoanalyze my childhood and like talk about trauma or psychosis or mental health issues, and I'm like, Can we just eat a salad and talk about how the Astros are having a rough start to the year? But no, it's all well, well, how do you feel like your relationship with your father affected the way you treat people? You mean the fact that I want to take this fork and you right now? I'm sure that has something to do with it. Now, by the way, I believe the psychological realm is real. But I don't think just because you're all into trauma doesn't mean I gotta be all into trauma. And believe it or not, I dealt with my trauma a long time ago. And I live free from it. I'm aware of it, I'm free from it. It doesn't have power over me, and a lot of that's because of the gospel. I believe trauma is real. Look at me. I don't think everything's trauma. But when you drive an ambulance, I'm here to help somebody, and you get out and nobody needs help, you don't know what to do. So you get back in your ambulance and just drive off looking for more people that need you. Listen, you don't want to waste your life being needed by people, you need to spend your life being enjoyed by people. People that are stuck in the therapy, they need to be needed. And if they're not needed, they'll go find somebody who needs them. And then this is where I'm gonna get emails. Some people get stuck in the spiritual, everything requires a Bible verse. They over-spiritualize everything, and over time, nobody enjoys them. Preachers are the worst. Have you had lunch with a preacher lately? It's all they can talk about. They're just like, please, Jesus, come back before I have to listen to more of this. I walked in this morning. My wife and I with some friends that were uh that were they're away on an anniversary trip, and their kids were here with an older cousin or something. And I said, Hey, you guys want to get dinner? We'll take you to dinner. Marsh and I took the kids to dinner. I saw the dad this morning. He's like, Hey, take our kids to dinner. I saw we enjoyed it. And we sat down. I asked the guy, I said, Hey, have you ever had dinner with a preacher? And they're like, uh, no. Well, we're gonna have a Jesus pop quiz. Get your pins out. You need a pencil and a scantron. Here we go. This is gonna be on the final. No, you ought to be, look at me, a well-rounded person who believes. I believe in the physical, I got bills to pay, I got stuff I gotta do every day. Mowed the grass yesterday. I was like, ah, in a perfect world, this stuff would just stop growing. It's just starting, okay? I believe in the psychological, okay? I'm not down on that. I believe in the spiritual, absolutely, it is ultimate and primary. But I don't want to get stuck in any one of those realms. I have a friend, he's not a preacher, but he's stuck in the brother. What's Jesus? Hey, stop calling me brother, man. You ain't gotta do that. Well, brother, brother, what's Jesus teaching? Every time we get together and have luck, he asked me the question. What's Jesus teaching you, brother? Jesus is teaching me that you're way too religious for me to open up to you. I'm not kidding. I'm just like, dude, do you talk like this all the time? Because if you do, I feel sorry for your wife and kids. Because he's just stuck. And by the way, there's a bondage that comes to getting stuck in the spiritual, just like there's a bondage to these men who are stuck in the physical, okay? People who cannot acknowledge that there are other dimensions to life will live in bondage to something the rest of their life, okay? Here's how bondage manifests itself for these guys are stuck in the physical realm. And here's three things. Verse 19, the first one, an inability to acknowledge the obvious, an inability. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, by the way, when it's the same Greek word that says, when the spirit came out of her and their hope of gain was gone, when the spirit left her, so did their money stream, okay? The same Greek verb is used to describe both of those. They have this inability to acknowledge the obvious. It's funny, okay? Because they can't just say, okay, something really powerful just happened, and we need to understand that no, no, no. They are stuck in the physical, and it's just like, okay, we can't make money off this woman anymore. We don't care about this woman. She's just a means to an end. So we have to get retribution on the people who affected our ability to make money because they have this inability to acknowledge the obvious. Here's the second thing. Second way this bondage manifests itself. It's the same response to everything. Same response to everything. It's always the physical response. This is why they physically seize Paul and Silas and drag them before the rulers. Instead of bowing before a real authority, they take them to the police station. They think in the physical realm and they appeal to the physical realm. You gotta go see the principal. You guys are in trouble. Now, you may be thinking, you're losing me. Uh let me bring this down to where you live. We do this in how you do this in how you discipline your kids. You have this same response. You get stuck in the physical realm with your children. You have the same response every time they disobey. Uh, if your kids' behavior doesn't change, uh, ask yourself, is it because our response is the same every time? Like, for example, if you're always spanking your kids, or you're always scrounding your kids, or you're always taking away their cell phone, maybe you should stop one time and ask them this question Hey, 17-year-old, what part of the gospel are you not believing that causes you to make this choice? Because if you have the same response every time to your kids, guess what? Your kids figure it out. You have the same, you're stuck in the physical, they can't relate to the physical, and you realize this is not helping. What I'm doing to this kid isn't helping. What are you inviting them to? You should invite them into the spiritual realm. Your kids are, by the nature, are pretty stuck in the physical realm. You got to invite them over to the spiritual. Hey, hey, what part of the gospel? You keep being a knucklehead. We tell you not to do this. And you're late, you break curfew all the time. We continue to find inappropriate things on your computer or on your cell phone. What part of the gospel are you not believing or enjoying that makes this choice necessary for you? Your kids don't have a frame of reference for that, by the way. But over time they begin to think, I think maybe living over there in that realm is more satisfying than living over here. Does that make sense to anybody besides me? Say amen. Okay. I'm just checking. Here's the third one: an inability to tell the truth. Verse 20, these guys are just pathological liars. And it says that when they brought them to the magistrates, they said to them, These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city to advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. What'd they advocate? Nothing. It's like these college kids at Columbia that think, because, hey, I got a sign, you got to listen to me. I want you to divest from Israel. Who do you think you are? Shut up. No one cares. If somebody asks me, hey, what do you think about these college kids protesting? This is free. You know what that is? That's young men and women who are looking for daddy or mommy. There's no authority at home. When you abandon your kids when they're growing up, you're not there for them, they go out into the world looking for an authority figure to tell them what to think, feel, or believe, and they will or they'll be duped by anything. And so when I watch the TV, I just think somebody didn't have a mom or dad at home that was like, no, no, no, we're not going to be foolish and stupid. Because these parents that are kind of laid back, that abandon their kids, they're like, well, you overestimate your kids' uh emotional maturity, spiritual maturity. You're like, oh no, they're good. And this is what they are. They're activists. You can get a degree from Columbia in activism. This week's sign, the apocalypse is upon us, boys and girls. Yeah. It's just this inability to tell the truth. And so instead of telling the truth, they appeal to nationalism and the crowd joins in with them. Now, by the way, he says there, we don't have this nowadays, and I think it'd be better if we did. Can you imagine having this on college campuses nowadays? Because he says there, hey, the crowd, verse 22, joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods. Now, don't send me emails. Pastor, sometimes you're violent, and I don't think that's appropriate. I'm not violent. I just love law and order, okay? Back then, the magistrates ordered them to be beaten. Who beat them? I brought you a picture. They called, they were called liqueurs, L-I-C-O-R-E-S. It's the guy on the far right who's rocking the Lululemon man tights, okay? Yeah. And that bundle he's holding in his hand is a bundle of rods. He's like, what's that thing sticking out about halfway? That's an axe. True story. Google it today, okay? These cats, the guy in the middle is the politician. Imagine that. The guy on the left is like that's like the legal department. Oh, it says right here in the law. The guy on the right is who do I whack? Okay. And that's a bundle of rods, and they carried an axe wrapped up in the middle of that. Look at me, you learned something, okay? Uh y'all are like, uh, that's they could they look kind of different. Yes, yes, this was from back then. Uh they carried the axe in the middle of those, those, those wooden rods uh, because that they could enforce corporal punishment or capital punishment. Whatever the guy in the middle decided. And so these are the one of the guys, they stand there and they're like, oh, let's beat beat them. So you just undo the bundle and whackity whack, there we go. Now, what are you saying? I'm saying that when you get stuck in the physical, you have this inability to tell the truth because you can't acknowledge there's no truth outside of what you prefer. You have the same response to everything, and you have this inability to acknowledge the obvious, all right? Here's the last thing that these people believed. Regardless, if you want to enjoy your life more, you have to believe uh these four things. Here's the last one. Regardless of where I am or what happens to me, I am never alone. It's verse 23, uh, and I'll dip into next week, verse 25. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, by the way, many is 39. If they beat you 40 blows, it would kill you. That's where we get the phrase, I'll beat you with an inch of your life. You ever heard that? Maybe that was just me that heard that growing up a lot. Yeah, 40 blows was fatal. So they gave them 39. And when they had inflicted, because they were merciful, when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into the prison, ordering a jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. I don't know about you, but if I'm them cats, I'm taking off all my James Avery jewelry. I am divesting from the whole God and Jesus thing. I don't want to be known or associated with anything. But see, they believe this regardless of where I am or what happens to me, I am never alone. Here's the question we'll be done this morning. Can you experience this kind of injustice, this kind of hardship, this kind of persecution, and still sing to God, not about God? Because verse 25 says, About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. They weren't singing about God. They weren't like, oh, this is terrible. You know, God, I used to believe, but I don't believe anymore. I don't believe, I don't believe. No. They had the snot beat out of them. They got beat with an inch of their life. Now remember, they just got up that morning and were going to pray. And in nine verses, they went from prayer to prison, got beaten by a man in some magenta lululemon tights. And now they're locked up in the middle of the prison, like we're gonna take extra measures, make sure they never get away. And yet they just embrace this one simple thought. Regardless of where I am, what happens to me, I am never alone. Here's the last question I want to give you to think about today. Maybe this is probably a community group question, uh, uh, but it's not on the list. Have you ever had any experience that have altered the way you think about God? I ask that question in counseling a lot. You know why? I just lay out, you people say, what informs your counseling? I think, is this person stuck in the physical, the psychological, or the spiritual? And when I feel like somebody's stuck in the physical and they don't want the spiritual at all, uh, I ask a simple question. Have you ever had any experiences that have altered the way you think about God? And that's when it's on. It's like, it's kind of like bull riding. They slide up on the rope and they pull their hat down, they nod their head. We we're going now. A man told me recently, yeah, yeah, I can't stand God. My best friend was killed in a drunk driving accident. Oh, I would have said God let that happen. I said, I am so sorry. So your best friend was killed by a drunk driver? No, my best friend was driving drunk. And there I am at the fork in the road. I can just say, peace, peace. Sorry that happened. And I just said, Hey, can I can I pursue you on that? Well, yeah, I'm supposed to pursue you on that. So your friend drank to excess and got behind the wheel of a vehicle and killed himself? Yeah. And that's God's fault. You you can't deny the existence of God if the only reason God exists is to take responsibility for things that you won't. Well, that's just what I believe. Okay, that's not gonna sustain you very well in this world. You're kind of a jerk. You're supposed to be helpful. I'm being very helpful right now because you are holding contempt against the only God that can help you. I'm sorry you lost your friend, but let me love you enough to tell you that was not God's fault. Your friend made a poor choice, God didn't make that choice. And God does not prevent us from making bad choices. Now look at me. Here's all I'm trying to get you to understand, and we're done. Okay? There's a difference in the physical realm, the psychological realm, and the spiritual realm. And you never want to get stuck in just one. You want to be balanced, you want to be living out of all three. Does that make sense? Let's pray together. If you're our guest, just relax. We'd like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it. And today we've thought about the topic of uh it sounds crazy, how to enjoy life more. People in the Bible deeply enjoyed their life, regardless of how hard it got, not because of what they experienced, but because of what they believed, because the habits, the spiritual habits that formed their lives. And the same can be true of us. You're not, you're not rarely are we formed and shaped in moment. We're formed and shaped for the moment, before the moment ever gets here. Holy Spirit, we wanted to spend some time thinking over this, letting this kind of uh interrupt how we think and what we feel and believe. So, Lord, just kind of love on your people. Cause us to think to the glory of God today. Lord, clearly these men in prison that night saw it. And we want our friends and our neighbors and the other families on our kids, little league team. We want them to see it in us as well. They're not gonna see it if we're stuck in the physical, if we're over here stuck in the psychological, emotional mishmash of the culture. They're not gonna see it if we're just stuck in the spiritual, we're the Bible answer man all the time. They will see it if we're winsome, balanced people who can bring the kingdom to bear on any situation in ways that are accessible and thought-provoking. Holy Spirit, make of us those kinds of people. That's who we are by nature. Now that we've been regenerated. Lord, remind us. Remind us as a freedom that is ours when we refuse to get stuck. This is our prayer. We pray in Christ's name. And everyone said, Amen, amen. If you're our guest today, we say again, thanks for being here. You're always welcome. All right. If you have any questions of anything you saw or heard, myself and some of our pastors will be available down front at the conclusion of our service. Uh, all we ask of you, if you're our guest, just text welcome as you would, to that number on the screen behind me. Uh, we'd love to have a record of your visit. We'll follow up uh with you. Our friend Travis will not follow up with you because he's our connections pastor. Travis is on sabbatical. Okay, somebody stopped me this morning and said, Hey, where's Travis? Uh and I said he's on sabbatical for the next like nine weeks. And they said, Well, I have something for him. I said, I'll take it, I'll get it to him. Uh and so if you're like one of those people, so a couple of people gave me a little Pentecostal handshake this morning and said, Hey, could you get that to Travis? Absolutely. Uh, you know what the Pentecostal handshake is? Yes. Pentecostal, they put money in their hand, they shake your hand, they palm it off on you. That's called the Pentecostal handshake. They're known for more than big hair, all right? Anyway, and so you say, Do we have to do that? Not at all. When our staff, our our full-time pastors, every seven years they get a sabbatical, they get a break. We get that from in the Old Testament, they let the land, it was called the year of Jubilee, they wouldn't plant crops and let the soil kind of replenish itself. A sabbatical for a pastor is like that. It lets the soil of their soul kind of replenish itself because it gets leached out of its nutrients uh by constant exposure. And so Travis is off hiding somewhere to the glory of God. And so some of us are kicking them in a little golf money and say, here, enjoy yourself. If you want to do that, see myself and Wade Burgess, you can give us the old Pentecostal handshake. We'll get it to them, okay? Uh, but for everybody else, if you're visiting today, you're like, this is a strange church. Not really. It's it's not a performance or a production. We're just people, okay? And we we love God and we love each other. And so we we we want to bless our pastors as we have opportunity. Uh, but anyway, there's always something going on in the life of our church. We make you aware of that by way of our video announcements. So check out our screen for this week's announcements.

unknown 39:21

Psst!

SPEAKER_00 39:21

Have you heard the latest buzz? Our church social media is the place to be for all things awesome. From mission trip updates, event recaps to hilarious videos. We've got it all. Trust me. You want to stay connected so you don't miss out on the fun that's happening this summer. Hit that follow button and join the party. While we're on the topic of fun, our women's only summer book groups are coming back. They start the second week of June and are a great opportunity to digest a great book and connect with other women. They take place all around town. So pick the book and location that works for you. For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org. If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Yes, that man dancing on the pier was the same man that prayed earlier. Case you're wondering. We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing. So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out. You don't have to know everything because you worship a God who already does. So you're free to be children. You don't have to be a parent to him because you cannot parent him. You can be his child. You can be winsome and free and frolic wildly in the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual. This is what God created you for fullness of life that only comes from him. Depart now and give yourself to it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.