Craig Smith - God's Not Hard to Find (But You're Looking in the Wrong Place)
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I can tell you’re going to be my favorite service this weekend. Hey, good job getting here! I don’t know what you had to do to get here, but I’m glad you went through it and made it. Why don’t you tell somebody, «Good job getting here»? Nice! You picked a really good week. I mean, they’re all good weeks, but this is an especially good week because we’re launching a new series that I’m really excited аbout: this Unshakable series. God has just been teaching me a lot as I’ve been preparing for it, and I can’t wait to share some of that with you. I’m sure God’s going to use it in some really powerful ways in your life.
Basically, over the next 10 weeks, we are going to do a deep, deep dive into my favorite illustration that Jesus used in one of His most famous sermons. Jesus said, «Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice"-that’s important, by the way -» is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundations on the rock.» We’re going to do a deep dive into that. We’re going to talk about how to do that, and we’re going to discuss a really important truth that emerges from that story, which is that it’s not how well you build the house; it’s where you build the house. You hear me, church?
Sometimes I think we go, «It doesn’t really matter what my foundations are. It doesn’t really matter whether I’m following Jesus or whatever. You know, as long as I’m wise, as long as I make good decisions, as long as I don’t do stupid things, then I can build a solid life.» But here’s the thing: it’s not about how well you build; it’s about where you build.
I was watching a video the other day, and I was reminded of this. I should just tell you: I don’t think YouTube knows that I’m a pastor. It’s not its fault; it’s my fault. It’s because the videos I watch are not pastor videos. I’m sorry if that disappoints some of you. I like the algorithm that knows I’m going to watch woodworking videos. I enjoy my woodworking videos and fail videos. And I know that I’m probably broken, right? But you give me like 20 minutes of skaters trying to ride a rail between their legs, and when they bounce off it, I’m hooked. You see them hit it and bounce, and I’m in for 20 minutes of that, no problem, right?
So I was watching one of those videos, and I saw this amazing footage that I can’t quite get out of my head. There was a house-I think it was in Greenland-and there had been a lot of rain. Basically, a hillside gave way, and a house went down the hillside into the sea and sank. What really caught my attention, what blew my mind, was that the house stayed intact all the way down. It didn’t break apart; it didn’t cave in; nothing came off of it. It was completely intact as it sank beneath the waves.
I had a couple of thoughts. One thought was, I need to find the guy who built that house, right? I mean, if you’re going to build a house, that’s the guy to have build your house. I mean, he did an unbelievable job. That thing was so strong; it was so sturdy; it was so well built. My second thought was, it doesn’t matter how well you build the house. What matters is where you build the house.
I see this happen to people all the time. They have lived wisely; they have done good things; they’ve tried to be smart, and they’ve tried to build a life that’s unshakable. But at the end of the day, the whole thing sinks beneath the waters. Completely intact, it didn’t fall apart, but it didn’t take them where they wanted to be. It’s not how well you build the house; it is all about where you build the house. What did Jesus say? He said, «The rain came down, the streams rose up, the wind came in, but the house was fine because it was built on the right foundation.»
We’re going to talk about that over the next 10 weeks. It’s about how to build an unshakable life by building on a firm foundation. And we’re going to start today with this incredibly important idea that I don’t think we talk about nearly enough. And it’s the idea that what you think about God is the most important thing about you. Take that in for a second: what you think about God is the most important thing about you. And I know there are some people like, «No, no, no! That’s not true. What’s true is what’s most important; the truth about God is the most important thing.» And I understand that thinking, but I want to help us to move away from it a little bit because what you need to understand is that what you think about God determines your ability to trust what is true. You hear me, church? What you think about God determines whether or not you will trust what is true.
Now, think about it like this: How many of us know that it is true that God knows everything? Show of hands! If you’re watching online, put it in the chat. Okay, we know that. That’s truth, right? Here’s the thing about that truth: That truth is either terrifying or incredibly comforting, depending entirely on what you think about God. Like, if you think of God as a cop, right? As the sheriff who’s just looking for anybody to have fun, as soon as he sees it, he’s like, «That’s enough of that!» Then suddenly the idea that God knows everything-which means he knows my thoughts-like he’s looking down at the love of my thoughts, that’s a terrifying thought, right?
You know, it’s like, not only is he watching what I do, but he’s watching what I think. So, like, he’s paying attention to what I thought when that guy cut me off on the way to church today. I didn’t do anything; I didn’t even honk. I was thinking about giving him a holy honk, but I didn’t even give him a honk! I was so good; I didn’t do anything, but I thought some stuff. And I gotta pay attention to that, too, right? Like that girl that walked in front of me at the gym, and I gotta worry about what he thought when I saw her walk in front of me. I didn’t do anything, Jesus, but I thought some stuff.
The idea-you understand what I’m saying-the idea that God knows everything down to your thoughts, like if you think God’s a cop, that’s terrifying. On the other hand, if you think he’s a loving father, the fact that he knows everything we’re going through before we go through it is incredibly comforting, isn’t it? Like, you don’t want a God that you go to when you’re going through something, and you’re like, «God, what do I do?» And he’s like, «I have no idea. Man, I did not see this coming! This is a tricky one.» Like, that’s-I don’t want that! Right?
Now, if I know that God’s a loving father, then his omniscience-that’s the technical term for God knows everything -that’s an incredibly comforting thing. But I think if he’s a cop, it’s a terrifying thing. And you understand what I’m saying. It’s not just what’s true. Obviously, we gotta build on what’s true, but it’s what you think about God that determines your ability to trust what’s true. And it’s our ability to trust what’s true that actually determines whether or not we’re going to live an unshakable life.
So we’re going to talk about that over the next several weeks, and we’re going to talk specifically today about how you think about God and how that’s going to make it possible for you to either trust in the other things we’re going to talk about or not. And to do this today, I want to take you to a story in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 17. If you want to follow along, Acts 17:13. While you’re making your way there, let me tell you I love this about God: I love that He knows everything and has plans in advance. And we get there, and then we’re like, «I see what you did there, Jesus.» He did that to me because I had already planned out this series, and I had this passage in mind because I felt like the Spirit had put it on my heart to preach today. I didn’t realize that we just finished a series on Thessalonians.
If you were with us, you remember we spent about 10 weeks on the book of Thessalonians. Thessalonians exists as a book because Paul had gone to the city of Thessalonica; he preached and started a church, and then some people came and kicked him out, so he had to run away to Berea. He started preaching in Berea, and then they came from Thessalonica and kicked him out of Berea, so he had to go off to Athens. He wrote the letter of Thessalonians while he was waiting to go back to Thessalonica. I didn’t know it at the time, but God had put this passage in my heart, and this passage is about that same time period. It’s about while he was waiting to go back to Thessalonica; it’s about what happened while he was waiting. I was like, «I see what you did there, Jesus. I like it.»
It says, «But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.» And here’s what I want to make sure we understand as we go into this: Paul’s facing a storm. Okay, so some rain has come into Paul’s life, right? The rain is coming down; this is not everything happening. I think this is important to recognize because sometimes we think if we follow Jesus closely enough, then we just won’t have any difficulties in life. If we follow Jesus closely enough, then there won’t be any storms. But I think you need to understand that following Jesus doesn’t mean freedom from the storms.
Okay, Paul’s going through some storms. He’s lost his church in Thessalonica. He’s lost his church in Berea. He’s alone, and he has no idea what’s going on. He probably feels like he’s wasted a lot of effort, and he has absolutely no idea. It’s a difficult time for him. He’s going through some storms because storms come. Okay, rain comes, and following Jesus doesn’t mean freedom from the storms. Now, it means freedom from some storms. Let’s be real about that. If you follow Jesus closely enough, there are some storms that other people will go through that you won’t have to go through. Okay?
If you follow Jesus closely enough, you’re probably not going to end up divorced because you had an affair. If you follow Jesus closely enough, you’re probably not going to lose your job because you lied on the expense reports. If you follow Jesus closely enough, you’re probably not going to spend the weekend in jail, sleeping off a bender and getting arrested for drunk driving.
Okay, those are storms that some people face because of bad sinful decisions that get made. If you follow Jesus closely enough, you’re probably not going to have to deal with those storms. But-and I just want to be real with you-there are some storms that will come into your life because you’re following Jesus closely. In fact, the closer you follow Jesus, the more likely you are to have some of those kinds of storms. That’s what Paul’s going through. He’s dealing with storms that came because he was following Jesus. If you follow Jesus closely, you might lose some friends because they think you got too spiritual. Anybody ever had that happen? A few of you, yeah.
If you’re following Jesus really closely, you might lose your job because you refuse to lie on the expense reports. I’ve seen that happen to people. If you follow Jesus real closely, there might be some storms that come into your life because you attract the attention of an enemy who’s really upset about the amount of light that is leaking out of your life and driving back the darkness that he’s been looking to build in the world. You’re messing up his plans, and he’s not going to be happy about that. And there are going to be storms that happen.
So here’s the thing: the storms are inevitable. The rain Jesus talks about-he says the rain came down. Rain is inevitable. But-and this is so important-ruin is optional. Okay? Rain is inevitable; ruin is optional. The storms are going to come, but the ability to survive the storms -actually, that’s up to you. The ability to get through the storms and come out of them not only surviving but maybe even thriving, being a little bit more like Jesus, and a little bit more able to live on mission with him, and a little bit more the kind of person that God created you to be after the storm-because of the storm -that’s up to you. It’s what God can and will do with it, but it’s up to us whether or not we cooperate with it. Okay?
So rain is inevitable, but ruin is optional. That’s what we’re going to talk about over the next several weeks. So there’s Paul, and he’s in a storm. And it says, " The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.» Now those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens, and they left him there with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
Now, while they were waiting for them in Athens-while Paul was waiting for them in Athens-he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. I love that he was greatly distressed-not because of the storm, not because he had lost his church in Thessalonica, not because he’d lost his church in Berea, not because he was now alone and didn’t have his friends around. He wasn’t distressed by the storm; he was distressed because he saw that the city was full of idols. And I want to talk about that for a second. I want to ask the question: why do you think Paul was so distressed to see all those idols?
I think the natural way to think about it is because he was distressed that they weren’t worshiping his God. He was distressed because they weren’t following the commandments of his God. He was distressed because they weren’t engaged in the worship of his God. Because that’s kind of the history of religion in the world, right? I mean, you and I both know that the history of religion in the world is a-it’s a history of peace-not so much, right? Anybody ever seen that «coexist» bumper sticker? It’s made out of all the different religious symbols to spell out «coexist.»
You know why they say it? Because we’ve never done it. I mean, the history of religion in the world is: I think this is about-you know, this is what’s true about God; this is what I think about God, and this is what I think God wants. And if you don’t do it, I am really ticked off at you, and I’m either going to make you do it or I’m going to condemn you for not doing it. And there’s conflict, right? And so it’s really easy. He was greatly distressed to see the idols because they’re not worshiping; they’re not engaging in the worship of his God.
But here’s what I want to tell you: I think this is so important, and it’s so central to the way that we need to think about God, which is so important. Okay? Paul understood that God wanted something for them, not from them. See, Paul wasn’t distressed because they weren’t engaged in the worship of his God. He was distressed because they weren’t experiencing the blessings of his God. They weren’t experiencing the goodness that comes from a relationship with God.
See, Paul knew, and I think we forget this, but Paul knew that God wants more for us than from us. Let that sit for a second. Do you know that’s true? God actually wants more for you than from you. And I realize that might feel a little awkward because honestly, sometimes in the church, that’s not what we get. Sometimes the way that we do Christianity, and sometimes even the way that we teach the Bible, and what we focus on and what we don’t focus on communicates that no, actually, God wants a lot from us. I mean, it is a big book of rules, right? Has anybody ever seen that little acronym people use?
You know, the Bible: basic instructions before leaving earth. Have you seen that one? That’s so weird. Like, people accuse us of being weird, and I’m like yeah, I get it; that’s the kind of thing-basic instruction. But a lot of times we’re like, it’s not so much basic instruction before leaving earth; it’s actually the big instruction book of laws and expectations. That’s what it stands for: the big instruction book of laws and expectations. Because there’s rule after rule, commandment and decree, and there’s all this stuff, right? And so the idea that I would get up here and say God wants more for you than from you, we’re like, I don’t know that that rings — that’s not how I think about God. And I want to tell you that’s a problem. It’s a problem.
Your thinking about God is a little bit off. And because if that’s hard for you to get a hold of, then it’s going to be really hard to trust these other important things that are true about God. He was distressed not because they weren’t engaged in the worship of his God, but because he knew they weren’t experiencing the blessings of his God, and they were facing an eternity separated from that God-from a God who loves them and who has so much for them. And they might honestly be brilliant and they might be wise and they might have built great houses, and he’s looking at them going, but the house is going to go right into the sea, and it’s going to sink beneath the waves, and it’s never coming up again. That’s why he was distressed.
Literally, in Greek, it says his spirit was stirred within him; he was unsettled within him. It’s like we gotta do something about this. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace, day by day, with those who happened to be there. He said, I got to do something. And so even though he’d been kicked out of Thessalonica, kicked out of Berea, he got to Athens, and he’s like, I’m going back and doing it again. And there’s part of us probably that goes, man, you need to learn your lesson, Paul. Like, just chill. He’s like, no, I can’t, right?
So he goes, and he starts preaching to Jews, which is interesting because like it was Jewish religious people who drove him out of Thessalonica. And they should have been the most open to it because, I mean, the entire Old Testament-that was the Bible they had -it’s all about Jesus’s coming. It’s all about the Messiah’s coming. And Christianity is not a new religion; it’s the Messiah has come. The Old Testament is Jesus is coming, and the New Testament is Jesus has come. He’s the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament was pointing us to and telling us about. It’s this God that has been communicated to us who’s come to earth and is present with us, and it’s this incredible thing.
So he’s like, yeah, I should talk to the Jews first; they’re the ones who are basically prepped, right? They’re primed to receive this thing that we call the gospel. But they didn’t. They drove him out, and he went to Berea, and then they drove him out of Berea, and now they’re in Athens. He goes and he starts with the Jews again. He’s like, yeah, they still matter, right? But can I just tell you something? As a pastor, I’ve seen this: sometimes religious people are the hardest to reach. They’re hard to reach because sometimes, especially if you grow up in the church, you get enough of the truth that it almost acts like a vaccine. You get enough through, like, I got it; I don’t really need to deal with it. I don’t need to do anything with it. And religious people can be kind of hard to reach sometimes.
And I wonder how many of us have been to church more than, let’s say, three times so far this year. Come on, come on, guess what? You’re religious people. And I think we just need to be aware of this reality. I know for sure I’m a religious person, and sometimes that means, look, growing up in the church is a great thing. It’s a huge blessing. I grew up in the church, and I’m so glad for that. But I also know that sometimes, sometimes I miss what’s right in front of me. It’s actually one of my favorite things about preaching that I get to go back to these passages that I grew up with, and sometimes the Spirit shows me things, and I’m like, «How did I miss that? It’s right there.»
And sometimes people come up to me after sermons and say, «I’ve read that passage a hundred times, and I’ve never seen that! How’d you see it?» I’m like, «Yeah, me too.» But it was only when I kind of started with this new lens of, " God, how do I communicate this?» that I thought, " Wow, how did I not see that?» See, religious people can be really hard to reach, but they’re the Jewish people. They’ve been God’s people for a long time, so of course, Paul starts there. But it’s interesting; he also says that he talked to God-fearing Greeks. And that’s a really interesting term: God-fearing Greeks. If you don’t know what that refers to, it refers to non-Jewish people — what we call Gentiles-who really wanted to follow the Jewish God. They really wanted to worship the Jewish God, which is so interesting because why would you want to worship the Jewish God? I mean, Judaism has more rules than any other religion.
Zeus didn’t have a book of rules; Athena and Apollo didn’t have books of rules. Why would you want to worship a god who has a book of rules? And let’s just be real, there are a lot of rules in here. You know that the Jews recognize 613 separate commands that apply to all people-613! Just tell somebody that’s a lot of commands. Ask them how they’re doing. Here’s what’s crazy about them: they run the gamut. They run from, «Well, of course,» to, «What the heck are you talking about?» Right? I mean, some of the commands are things like, «You shall not murder,» and I think most of us look at that and we’re like, «Yeah, that’s a good idea most days.» Right?
A couple afternoons on C470? Not so sure. But, like, yeah, I get it; I’m on board, of course. But then there’s the other end of the spectrum. Leviticus 19 says this: " Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard,» and you’re like, «What? What does that have to do with anything?» Right? And as somebody who didn’t grow up in it and is not expected to get on board with it, you don’t have a community pressuring you to do it. Why would you want to jump into that? Why would you want to become a worshiper of that God, the God of the Jews? And here’s why. Here’s why God -fearing Greeks existed, and there were actually significant numbers of them. Here’s why: because those Greeks knew that the God of the Jews was different.
See, the Jews worship a God who wants to bless them. I want you to take that on board. The Jews worship a God who wants to bless them-not one who’s willing to bless them if you work hard enough, but who wants to bless them. That’s the default setting. Zeus didn’t want to bless his people. Now, if you worked hard enough and you gave enough offerings and you did enough things to, you know, kind of get him on your side, if you worked hard enough, you might convince him to bless you and give you something good. But he didn’t want to. It wasn’t his default setting; it wasn’t the way he was wired.
And that’s not just the Greek gods. I mean, that’s Islam. Allah doesn’t want to bless His people. But if you work hard enough, maybe He’ll hold back the judgment. And maybe, maybe if you work really hard, there might be a blessing or two sprinkled in there. But He doesn’t really want to. You got to work for it. The gods of the Hindus don’t want to bless their people, but maybe if you work hard enough, you can convince them. And then the God of the Bible says, «No, no, I want to bless My people. I want to.» And I know that’s hard. Some of us are thinking, «I don’t know. This feels like this church is going liberal.» I get it. I grew up in church. If anyone had come into my church growing up and said, «God wants to bless you,» I would have thought, «That’s not what the Bible says.»
Then I started reading the Bible, and I realized something significant that I had never really understood. And maybe this is for you today. I mean, yeah, there are commands in here. There are rules. There are decrees that are to be obeyed. But here’s what I missed growing up: There was a desire to bless before there were any decrees to obey. God expressed His desire to bless us before there was any mention of any decrees that needed to be obeyed. Yes, there are a lot of rules. They start about here. There are 150 pages before there’s a single decree to be obeyed. But there’s not 150 pages before there is a desire to bless.
In fact, page one, when God created human beings, you know the very first thing God said to them? It was a blessing. It literally says in Genesis 1:28, «And God blessed them and said, 'Fill the earth. Take every seed-bearing plant for food.'» He blessed them, and we rejected the blessing because we rejected the relationship with the One who blesses, with the One who wants to bless. We said, «We’re going to do life on our own terms.» We ran. We rebelled. We ran out from underneath the blessing of God, the protective covering of God that comes in relationship with Him. And when we ran away from the One who blesses, we ran away from the blessing. And life began to fall apart. And things got bad; things got rough. And God said, «I got to fix this.»
And so He began the plan. He called a man named Abram and said, «You’re going to be the first of My people, the first of the Hebrew people.» And you know the very first thing that God said to the very first of His people? It was a blessing. God blessed him and said, «I will bless you, and you will be a blessing.» No rules, no decrees, no, «If you don’t do this and this, then there won’t be a blessing» or «But if you do this, this, this, this, and this, then maybe there will be.» No, no. «I’m going to bless because that’s His default setting.» He actually wants to bless us.
And some of you are here today, and that’s a hard thing to hear, and it feels weird and it feels liberal. And the reason is that your picture of God is wrong, because the picture is a little bit wrong. It’s just hard. It’s hard to trust God. It says a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him, and some of them asked, «What is this babbler trying to say?» I love that. Has anybody ever read any of Paul’s writings and been like, «I do not know what this guy’s talking about»? Anybody? Come on! By the way, you know it’s okay. I know it’s okay to feel that way because in the book of Peter, in one of Peter’s writings, Peter the Apostle says, «Hey, you know, our brother Paul says some things that are hard to understand, just like the rest of Scripture.»
I love that. He’s like, «I know it’s from God, but I got no idea what that guy’s going on about.» What’s this guy doing? What’s this babbler trying to say? And others remarked, «He seems to be advocating foreign gods.» And they said this-pay attention to this-They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. And here’s the thing: it’s really easy. You read that, and you’re like, «Oh yeah, Paul was preaching the gospel.» And they’re like, «Well, that sounds like a different God than Zeus.»
And no, no, no, no, no! The reason they thought he was babbling, the reason they couldn’t make any sense out of what he was saying, the reason that they felt you’re advocating foreign gods-not just foreign like new gods, but like, like the concept that you’re talking about, the God that you’re trying to describe, the very idea is foreign to us. You’re talking about a God who loves you so much, who wants to bless you so profoundly that He was willing to send His own Son to die to make it possible for you to return to a relationship in which you could be blessed. That’s not what the gods are like. There ain’t no gods like that. What do you? You’re babbling! This doesn’t make any sense. You understand what I’m saying? They said this doesn’t make any sense because he was preaching the gospel.
And here’s the thing-why? Why is the gospel good news? The gospel is good news because it means God hasn’t given up on blessing us. Take that in! That’s why the gospel is such good news. It starts with bad news that we’ve sinned. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and because of that, we have lost access to the God who gives us the blessing. If we don’t come back into that relationship, we’re going to spend eternity apart from Him-yes, in hell, but that’s our choice. It’s not His; it’s what we decided. It’s not what He decided. He decided that He was willing to go through something that we can’t even wrap our heads around-what it costs God to make it possible for us to be blessed again.
The gospel is good news because it means God hasn’t given up on blessing us, no matter what it costs Him. And it sounded like Babel. It sounded like foreign gods. Like, I can’t even wrap my head around what you’re talking about because no gods are like that. And Paul says, «No, no, no! The God-the only God that exists- is absolutely like that.» So they took him, and then they brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, kind of like an ancient think tank, where they said to him, «May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. You’re bringing some strange ideas to our ears-a God who wants to bless His people-and we would like to know more about this. We would like to know what these ideas mean.»
And then there’s this great — I love this verse: «All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.» I love that! It’s going to be really important in a minute. It’s a setup, actually, for something that happens. But I think it’s important to recognize that, you know, it’s so easy to go, «Dumb Athenians!» You know how that saying goes: if you point at somebody, you’re pointing three fingers back at you. Can we just acknowledge that we do this all the time? We love our information. We love to get new things. People come up to me all the time and say, «I really love this sermon! I learned something new!»
That’s great! I’m glad you are! Here’s the thing: when I preach, there are three things I want to see happen. I do want to see you learn something. And especially if you’re a new follower of Jesus- we’ve had a couple hundred people say yes to Jesus this year. And a lot of what we’re going to talk about in this series is going to be new; that’s great! I want you to learn that! Maybe you’ve been walking with Jesus for a long time and you’re going to learn some things. That’s great!
Some of you need to learn it; some of you need to live it. You don’t need new information; you actually need to put it into practice. What did Jesus say? He says, «Here are my words,» and puts them into practice. They’re building their house on the right foundation. So some of you need to learn it, some of you need to live it, and some of you need to leverage it. You’re going to hear some things like, «Oh, I already knew that!» And maybe you’re putting it into practice, but maybe you’re going to learn some language that allows you to live on mission with Jesus. It gives you some ways of talking to people and engaging with people and ministering to people in your life.
So maybe you’re going to learn some things, and maybe you’re going to learn how to lit some things, and maybe you’re going to learn how to leverage some things. But what we’re not going to do is just file away a bunch of information because here’s the thing: information without application is called fascination. We love it. And listen, I know things, okay? I know a lot of things. I have a shirt that literally says, «I fix things and I know stuff.»
I have all the degrees, and I like to talk about the, you know, let’s talk about the Trinity, the ontological equality of the functional subordination of the three persons of the Godhead. Do you want to talk to me about, like, how the hypostatic union works? How do you get a fully divine and fully human person in one? One- like, how does that work? Like, I love talking about it, but can I just tell you something about me? I’ll be honest with you: I am educated far beyond my own capacity for obedience. I know a lot of things that are not being played out in my life. I almost know too many things. And that’s often true in American churches: «I need more information.» No, you don’t. Information without application is fascination, and Jesus didn’t say, «Come be fascinated by me.» Jesus said, «Come.» Can anybody say it louder? Jesus said, «Come.» Say it a little bit louder: Jesus said, «Come, follow me.»
Sometimes we spend so much time talking that we don’t actually get to the trusting. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus, and he said, «People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.» And they were like, «Kind of, this is true,» but it wasn’t a compliment. As I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: «To an unknown god.» That’s how religious they were-like, «We don’t even know — what’s this god’s name? We don’t know what he does.»
Zeus does a thing with the lightning and storms; I don’t know -he’s like the god of earthworms or something. I don’t know. But, like, I mean, I guess they would help. He might help with fields or something. I don’t know. But let’s give him some offerings. Let’s do some things. Let’s throw him some money in there. Let’s sacrifice an animal of some kind, right? Because we can’t afford to let some god get mad at us. We gotta try to keep all the gods happy so we can just get through life, let alone be blessed in life. It’s exhausting. He says, «You’re ignorant of the very thing you worship.»
And this is what I’m going to proclaim to you: the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need anything. This is why it’s so important to recognize he doesn’t need anything from you, but he does have a lot for you. You know God didn’t make us because he was lonely, right? You know God didn’t make us because he was like, «I really feel like I could — if I could just get out of the storms and into a temple and dry off, I wish somebody could exist who could build me one of those.»
Yeah, the God who crafted the universe and threw a couple of gazillion stars across it as an afterthought, he doesn’t need any temples that we build. He says, «Rather, he himself gives everyone.» You see that? He gives everyone life and breath and everything else. And from one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth. And he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. And God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any of us.
And I love the way Paul does this-he kind of gives what sounds like a compliment, but it’s not actually a compliment. He says, «You know that you would reach out,» but the word that he uses for " reach out"-because that’s what the Athenians are doing. They’re reaching out, like, «Maybe this God? Maybe this God? Let’s keep this God happening.» It’s exhausting, but we’re going to keep-we’re going to say. And actually, the word he uses for «reach out» is actually the word for «groping around in the dark.» He says, «You’re groping around in the dark.»
I don’t know about you, but I have never groped around in the dark and bumped into a blessing. Have you? I’ve never found that snack I got up to get in the dark. I found the edges of furniture; I got toenails that will never recover. He goes, «You’re groping around in the dark.» But here’s the thing: God wants to be found. He says He’s not far from each of us. When I was a dad and I played hide-and-seek with my kids, one of my favorite things to do was to hide. The best part of hide-and-seek isn’t hiding; it’s being found. When my kids found me, I could scoop them up and say, «You found me!»
It was the best. He says He’s not far from any of us; no matter how, listen, some of you are here today, and you think you’re so far from God that it’s going to take you forever to get back. But if you will turn around, you’re going to find that He is right there behind you, because He has been chasing you every step of your race away from Him. He is not far; He is not far from any one of us, and that means you. For in Him, we live and move and have our being, as some of your own poets have said, we are His offspring. And therefore, since He’s quoting their poets, by the way, He’s building common ground with them. He says, «Therefore, since we’re God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human design and skill.» He says, «You’re worshiping idols, but the idols can’t do it because the idols are created things, and you need the Creator.»
So why would anybody worship a statue that they made? It’s a crazy thing, right? I mean, they made the idols; they fashioned them, and then they bow down. Why would you do that?» And the answer is, we’re going to unpack this a little bit more next week, but let me give you a sneak peek. The reason is they didn’t have what was real. There’s something in them that says, «There is something, and I need something,» but they didn’t have access to it. And in the absence of the real, we will settle for the ridiculous. You hear me, church? You and I do it all the time. We’ll talk about that more next week; don’t miss it. He says, " In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, for He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.»
And honestly, you might look at that and go, «Okay, yeah, there’s the God that I thought I knew. He’s a God who’s ready to judge. He’s a God who’s ready to condemn. He’s a God who’s ready to bring justice. That’s more the God I can relate to than this God that, you know, He wants to bless. There’s the God of the rules.»
And listen to me, I’m not saying there’s no rules; I’m not saying there’s no commandments; I’m not saying there’s no decrees. The whole process of what we call discipleship- the way we define it in Mission Hills-is always taking the next step of obedience. There are absolutely guidelines, rules, decrees, and commands. But what we fail to understand sometimes is the rules aren’t about convincing God to bless us; they’re about staying close to the God who wants to bless us. And if you can get that thought to take on the color of truth, it’s going to change the way you think about God and your spiritual life, and it’s going to allow you to build a house that cannot be shaken. And when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, «We want to hear you again on this subject.»
And at that, Paul left the council, which is so interesting to me. Some people heard this; they heard this God he was describing, and they sneered. They said, «This is ridiculous.» And what’s interesting is when they did that, when they sneered, when they mocked him for it, Paul didn’t go anywhere. There was another group that said, «Let’s talk about this some more. Let’s have another conversation; let’s have another session; let’s hear another presentation; let’s get another message; let’s do another podcast; let’s talk about this some more.» And what does it say? At this, he left. You remember what they did? They spent all their days doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. And they said, «Let’s talk some more.»
And Paul said, «Nah, it’s not a more talk situation; it’s a more trust situation. So, less talk, more trust. I’ve given you what you need. I understand some of you are going to reject it, but the idea doesn’t really need to be unpacked anymore. The question is, are you willing to trust it? And if you’re not, there’s no more talk. Here’s what I want to ask you as we start this series: What do you need to stop talking about and start trusting? Because we can get in the same place. We go to church, and we hear the messages. We read the Bible. We go to the Bible studies. We consume the podcasts and read the books, and God speaks, and we’re like, „That’s an interesting idea. I just need to think about that some more. I need to talk about that some more.“
And maybe it’s just time to trust, to take the truth and actually start to build on it. You know, maybe for some of you that’s an obedience issue. Maybe there’s a sin in your life that needs to be called what it is, and repented of, turned away from, and you need to get some people around you to hold you accountable and to move out from that, because God has given you His Spirit that you might be free. But you’re still talking about it. For some of you, it might just be a faith issue, a trust issue.
God’s calling you to do something. It’s not necessarily that you’re leaving behind a sin, but you’re not moving into what you know God is calling you to, right? You know, it’s like, „Well, I mean, I know my marriage isn’t bad, and nobody’s having affairs, and we’re not abusing each other, but I know it could be better. The next time Craig talks about the re-engage ministry, then I’ll talk to my wife, and then we’ll maybe talk to some of the leaders and we’ll talk about whether or not to just sign up.“
I talked to somebody this week who talked a lot about getting engaged with our regeneration ministry, and he said just recently he felt like, „I need to stop talking about it; I just need to do it.“ And he signed up, and he said, „I can’t even begin to tell you everything God’s doing in my life. It’s crazy! I don’t know why I waited so long.“ Maybe there’s a conversation God’s calling you to have, a step of faith God’s calling you to take. It’s time to stop talking, and it’s time to start trusting.
But here’s the thing: I know that the number one reason we struggle to do that is because of the way we think about God. It certainly was for the Athenians. Paul said, „I want to preach to you a God who wants to bless you.“ And they’re like, „I can’t imagine a God like that.“ Everything God calls us to do, to trust Him, the struggles that we have are ultimately because we’re not sure we can. So, I want to ask you this question, too-maybe a more fundamental, foundational question: How do you picture God? Is He a sheriff? Is He the cop just waiting to catch you messing up? Is He the drill sergeant just trying to whip you into shape? Is He Santa Claus?
If I just do the right things, He’ll give me what I want. And I know you’re like, „What? I thought you just said God wants to bless us.“ He does. But what we need to understand is that sometimes what we want God to bless us with isn’t the blessing we think it’s going to be. And God loves us too much to say yes to that. But we’re like, „No, I want this, and I want this.“ And God hasn’t done this. And in fact, He’s let me go through this, and I understand that. And honestly, if you’re struggling with that, it probably has to do with your picture of God.
God loves you too much to give you everything that you want. Like we, as parents, don’t give our kids everything they want because kids are foolish, and we’re not really much better when we do the comparison between, you know, us and God. Like, we’re not even infants, right? And listen, it’s not just this generation. I’ve heard people today saying, „This generation of parents is not like our generation.“ Like, your parents messed you up, and you messed your kids up, and this generation is going to mess their kids up. It’s been true in all generations.
But one of the biggest things that we do to mess up our kids is, I’ve known people in my generation. I knew kids who got everything that they wanted. They got absolutely everything they wanted. They were shielded from every difficult thing that could have happened. Their parents thought they were blessing them, and they weren’t blessing their kids; they were breaking them. Their kids are, I mean, they grew up and they can’t function in the world. It’s super insulting, but I got to do it. I got to do it. Do you want to be a husky? I have huskies, and they’re great. I love them. They shed a lot, but they’re great, and they’re, like, reasonably affectionate. Sometimes they’re a little bit like cats; they’re like, „Take me or leave me,“ whatever.
But here’s the thing: if my huskies got out into the wild, they would be fine. They would go feral so fast. I mean, like, they’re smart. I have a husky that can open doors. It’s like we have to lock our front door. It’s not security concerns; it’s a dog issue. She knows how to flip the handle down and get out. And if she got out and we didn’t catch her, she’d be fine. On the other hand, we had some people live at our house for a while, and they had pugs. I’m not even sure they' re dogs. And if you have pugs, I’m sorry. They probably love, they’re loving and they’re loyal, and they help with housework, I’m sure. But if they had to go into the wild, they would die.
I mean, they can’t even breathe; their face is all flat. And we did that to them. We did it to them. God’s raising you to be a warrior, to be strong, to face storms and come out the other side stronger than you went in. He’s not a cop. He’s not a drill sergeant. He’s not Santa Claus. He’s a father. He loves you so much. How do you picture God?
God, I’m going to ask that you do surgery in us in this series and in this moment. Do surgery. Speak to us about those areas where we’ve heard enough; we just haven’t taken that step of actually trusting, putting it into practice. Speak to each of us right now. Speak about that thing that we don’t need any more talk about; we just need to start to trust. But do even deeper surgery than that, Lord. Go down to those places where our picture of You is wrong and is keeping us from trusting what is true. I pray that you’d start that work now and continue it throughout these next ten weeks. Show us who you really are so we can build our house on that rock.
And some of you have heard something about God today that’s new. And maybe you’re here today and you’re not a follower of Jesus, but everything that I’ve said about who God is has struck a chord. It’s resonated in you. And maybe you’ve been coming to church for a while, but you just haven’t taken that step of putting your faith in Jesus because your picture of God was a little bit off. And maybe, maybe God’s using what we’re talking about today to correct that. And so I want to say, if you’re ready to decide to follow Jesus, maybe that’s your step of trust today. But Lord, speak to each of us about what that step is, and do the work in us necessary so we can take it. In Jesus' name, Amen.