Evening I'm preaching from Revelation chapter number four and there's a couple of things that we're going to look at from Revelation chapter number four and the title of tonight's sermon is dealing with mundane Mondays. Dealing with mundane Mondays. You know Mondays have have definitely earned themselves a pretty bad reputation. in today's society. Nobody looks forward to them and typically everyone is glad when they are over. In fact, if people have had a bad day on a Monday, they usually just throw their hands up and blame it on the day of the week. They don't have to take any responsibility for what took place on Monday. It was the fact that it was Monday and it was Monday's fault. Consider these thoughts and quotes about Mondays. I haven't had this bad of a Monday since last Monday. The shortest horror story in history is that tomorrow is Monday. Monday should be optional. If each day is a gift, I would like to know where I can return Mondays. This is the Mondayest Monday that ever Mondayed. Okay. Tuesday is a sign that I have survived Monday. Let's look at the bright side. At least Mondays only happen once a week. Warning, going to sleep on Sunday will cause Monday. Please note that staying awake all night does not prevent Monday. There is no cure for Mondays. Oh man, Monday has got a bad reputation if I've ever heard of one. And it seems that life can certainly sometimes fall into a mundane routine full of purposeless repetition. Have you been there before? Have you been in that purposeless repetition, at least what it felt like? Even as we head back to our routine tomorrow after maybe having seen family this week, After having some time away from work, maybe just being out of the routine has been nice for a change. But if we're not careful, we'll fall right back into that routine, that vicious cycle that is called life. And I have certainly had those times in my own life. I've come out of those times in my life and I've lulled right back into those mundane times in my life. In fact, there's no doubt in my mind that you have been there as well. Because Solomon tells us that there's nothing new under the sun. Which means what I have experienced has probably been experienced by many of us in here. The mundane routine of life that seems to suck the very purpose out of our life. If I was to give an alternate title to dealing with mundane Mondays, that would be less time-specific, maybe it would be this, Finding Significance in the Insignificant. Finding Significance in the Insignificance. And that's probably gonna be a better title for online, Brother Steve, than the Mundane Mondays. This evening, I'd like to look at this topic of this mundane. In fact, I found out that there's a noun for mundane. It's called mundanity. So you may actually hear me say it. I've never used it before in a sermon. So if I say mundanity, I hope it's used in the correct context. But as a noun, we're going to deal with this topic tonight of mundanity. See, I told you I was going to get myself in trouble. Mundanity. Amen. By definition, the word mundane means lacking interest or excitement. Dull. What happens when our routine lacks the interest or excitement that maybe we've experienced before? What happens when it just feels like the day-to-day routine, day in and day out? What happens when it's work, come home, eat dinner, sleep, and do it all over again the next day? I remember several years ago, a personal friend of mine, we were just in a somewhat of a, I guess, a deep conversation, He mentioned that to me. He said, I feel like my life is just that. Work, sleep, and eat, repeat. And I committed that day. I said, I never want my life to be described by that. And I'll do anything and everything I can to fight that in my own life. If I could boil down life into three words that begin with the letter M. I would do it in these. I'd say that there are mundane times, there are miraculous times, and there are memorable times in life. Please let me explain these just a little bit to... to kind of gear us into where we're going tonight. The mundane is what we've kind of been speaking of. It's kind of that average repetition day to day. The miraculous is when God intervenes. And please understand me, I know that God is intervening each and every day in ways that we cannot see. But the very evident intervening of God, maybe somebody getting saved on visitation, that's a miraculous thing. A baby being born, that's a miraculous thing. And then there are memorable times. Maybe it's not necessarily God intervening necessarily, but there are exciting times, and we remember those times. Maybe a sporting event with somebody, or reuniting with family maybe, or maybe even a memorable event of us being successful at athletics. And all I know is that me being athletically successful is not just a memorable thing, it's actually a miraculous thing. Amen to that. Maybe you're right there with that as well. And you don't necessarily have to agree with all those definitions. I'm just trying to get to you to understand where I'm going with this. We can all attest that we deal with periods in our lives that seem to be mundane. We deal with times in our life where it seems that maybe those exciting things aren't taking place. And that, by the way, is not necessarily a bad thing, but we must have the right perspective during those times. And that's kind of where we're going. So Revelation chapter number four, Let's read verses 1-11, really just to set the context for verse 10, and really verses 8-11, but, After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal in the midst of the throne. And round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down notice their position there fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne sayings how are worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things for thy pleasure they are and were created let's pray Heavenly Father we love you and we thank you for this day Lord I this topic of that we're speaking about tonight Lord as I look at that and I think about that and no doubt have been there myself and maybe many folks in here have been there or will be there Lord I just I seek to be a blessing tonight just looking at your word with some reminders Lord I'm so thankful for the the person of Jesus Christ I'm so thankful for the the attributes of God that we can see so clearly evident here in the latter four verses of this chapter God I pray that you would through your Holy Spirit, refrain me from saying those things that don't need to be said, but Lord, that you would include those things that need to be said tonight. Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit through me, Lord, would speak to the hearts of those in here that are saved. Lord, I pray that those that maybe don't know you as their personal savior, that tonight would be the day or would be the night of their salvation. Lord, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would do a work that I cannot do tonight, Lord, as a person getting saved or heart being affected, Lord, that is, that is something that only the Holy Spirit can do so Lord I pray that your Holy Spirit would work tonight God I know that that we can count on your faithfulness to us you said when two or three are gathered there I am in the midst and Lord I know your presence is in here this evening Lord I pray these things in Jesus name amen and amen I wanna give you three thoughts tonight, very quickly, that's whatever preacher says, but three thoughts tonight about this idea of being in this rut, being in this routine, maybe feeling as if life is insignificant or what you do on a daily basis is insignificant in the grand scheme of eternity. I want you to consider three things. First of all, I want you, number one, to remember our purpose. Remember our purpose. I was reading there in verse number eight, the Bible describes God as holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty, which was and is and is to come. As the 24 elders bow down before God, they begin to do what I believe is our responsibility here on earth. and that is to worship Him forever and ever. I believe that our responsibility as a human being, yes, as is known, is to bring glory to God, to magnify God's name, to honor God, and all of those things are true, but I think we can put them under the big shell of worshiping God. I believe emphatically that our responsibility, day in and day out, the purpose of our very existence is to worship God Almighty. By the way, I believe that's also the purpose for those that are unsaved, they just don't know it yet, or they're rejecting it. The purpose for every human being is to worship the name of God. So if we're remembering that purpose of worship then I think going about our daily routines and this idea of maybe this rut or this insignificance that you may feel that you're participating in each day. I want you first of all to remember the purpose for which you're here and that is to worship God. I think you know God gives us some very poignant and very effective terms to describe himself in verse number eight. Why should we worship God? Look at this first of all. Holy, holy, holy. There's not one person on the face of this earth that could claim those titles apart from God. There's not one. God alone is holy, holy, holy. In fact, we have a song that says holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty and it was taken exactly out of this text. I understand this is happening in the future, but it doesn't mean we're not supposed to do it now. In fact, the Bible tells us here that this is simply a picture of what we'll be. God is very clear in the scripture that our responsibility is to come before the throne of God and to recognize the holiness of God. How many times have we just come to the throne of God flippantly? I've had to be careful about that with my children. It's sad, but there have been times where I'm speeding through our nightly prayers so quickly that I say, Dear Heavenly Father, please bless this food to our bodies. And it seems funny, and the girls sometimes snicker, but the fact is, it's become routine. You gotta be careful about that. As do I. God is a holy God, and my responsibility, day in and day out, no matter what occupation I may be in, is to worship Him. He's holy. God just doesn't describe His holiness, He describes His Lordship. You know you can be saved and God not be your Lord, did you know that? You can be a saved individual and yet money is your Lord. You can be a saved individual and yet occupation be your Lord. the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, all of these would be described as being your Lord. You can be saved and not have committed God to being your Lord of your life. Apparently when these 24 elders, and they came down, and these beasts that were in front of this throne, when they looked at this throne, they declared God to be holy, but they also declared God to be Lord, supreme ruler in their life, you know. There should be a point, not only that we've been saved, but that we say, all to Jesus I surrender. I hope there's been a place in your life, to be honest with you, there is gonna be insignificance if God's not my Lord. Because there's always gonna be that hole that God's not filling. If we were to go to Ecclesiastes, many of you know this, we won't go there, but in Ecclesiastes, how many times do we find the word vanity? Over and over and over and over you name it. It's probably in the book of Ecclesiastes You cannot find fulfillment apart from God No matter what you try to think of Jonah Jonah went the opposite direction to rebel against God thinking he'd find fulfillment away from God and he got swallowed by a well Maybe made you good for some of us to get swallowed by a well sometime. Maybe not that's kind of overboard maybe but We have this Lord of our life. Is God your Lord of your life? Not only holy and Lord, but he was called Almighty. He was called Almighty. I think about that word Almighty. I have to think of the word sovereign. I like the word sovereign. We teach that word sovereignty in American government. And there's certainly some elements on the human standpoint of sovereignty. But when I'm talking about God, and God's sovereignty, it's like over everybody else's sovereignty. You understand that, right? I mean, there's humans, and then there's God, okay? And God's sovereignty supersedes anybody else's sovereignty. But you know, sovereignty, while it does denote the authoritative ruling of God, it also deals with God's dealings with us. I was thinking and I couldn't help but think this as Pastor Adam was going and giving the testimony of his test there of his family this morning that you can look at the picture that he painted this morning and you can see the sovereign hand of God in every part of that. and a story I've not shared with him is kind of another area of evidence of the sovereign hand of God was that on Tuesday night when that happened Pastor Han and Mrs. Han wanted to get straight to the hospital to be with them they had all their kiddos they were coming from their photo shoot and they texted my wife and Mrs. Han called my wife and said hey we need to drop off the kids can we do that and of course there's no big deal with that but here's the sovereignty in the details we literally had no food in the house But we were unlocking our door as she got that text from having gone grocery shopping. Five minutes earlier we'd have been in the car down the road. An hour earlier we'd have been at the grocery store. Yet God knew exactly the time we'd be walking up our door with groceries to feed these kids that hadn't eaten yet. You tell me God's not sovereign in the details. God's not just sovereign over all where he's got this big picture. God knows every little detail and he's so evidenced that in our lives. So don't think tomorrow when you go to work and you're dealing with all the little details that God doesn't know about the details. Oh my friend, God knows about the details, amen. He is holy, he's our Lord, he's almighty, he's our creator, he's our redeemer. Woo, save, save, save. Wow. I was about to shout, I was gonna jump up and down, because I knew I was gonna use this point a little bit later. I got that on my playlist, I have a playlist, I mentioned this last time, about 80, okay, exactly 82 songs on that playlist, and they just go through and go through and go through, and one of them is West Coast Baptist College men's group singing that song. Saved, saved, saved, whoo. I'll tell you what, every single day, I can look back and I can say, God's not only holy, God's not only the creator, the master designer, God is my redeemer. And by the way, I love you, but I don't talk about Him being your redeemer when I'm going through something. I look at Him and I say, hey God, you're my redeemer. There's a personal relationship there with the Lord Jesus Christ. Why worship Him? He's holy, He's our Lord, He's almighty, the creator, redeemer, sustainer, the director. How do we worship him? I believe verse number 11, I'm sorry, verse number 11 there gives it to us. It says, thou art worthy. We've just seen some evidence of him being worthy, but can I tell you this statement here? Please understand that God is worthy of honor and worship and glory. He's worthy of this worship we're giving him, not because of what he's done, but because he's God. You understand that, right? Because if we're not careful, we'll make, Circumstances the reasons that we worship We don't worship because God's been good. We worship because God's God Now, please understand God's been good. I understand that and maybe sometimes I get a little amped up about it and my worst Amplified, okay, maybe that's true But we worship God because God is God and period Which means in the hard times in the good times because God is God I Went to it in Sunday school this morning. I'll have to go back to it again the one thing when pastor Han preached on the the makings of a thankful Christian. One thing that just kind of blew my mind, and you probably know it, I probably knew it, but you just get reminded, is that in order to be thankful, we've got to trust God. It's going to be really hard to be thankful if we're not trusting. How do we worship Him? Very quickly, we confer our glory to Him. We confer our honor to him. We confer our power to him. What does that mean? Conferring our glory to him. I appreciated, I believe it was Pastor Adam, when the comment was made about the sermon and Pastor Adam said, praise the Lord. You know, here in our independent fundamental circles, we have been trained to say praise the Lord when complimented about anything. And that's good, by the way, that's okay. And amen, we should do that. But the purpose of that is because we are taking the glory that is due God and giving it to God. You want significance in your life in the insignificant times in your life? Deflect the glory that you may get to God. By the way, it's a great opportunity to share your testimony in public as well. My wife and I get complimented or attacked, criticized, I don't know, for our large family all the time. We love it. It's awesome. But it is an opportunity to be a testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. Use that. We deflect it. We deflect it to God. Not only the glory, but also our honor. Hey, listen, I really could care less about titles, but I understand we have to have titles in the world we live in. There are some titles I'm very passionate about. I love my pastor. I call him Pastor Han. Sometimes I'll call him Preacher Han. Sometimes I'll just call him Pastor. I love my pastor. I love that title of my pastor. I have a master's degree. I don't want you going around calling me master. Really, I don't. And to be honest with you, The way, the means, the energy, all of everything of that master's degree that I possess, guess what? It's all God. Every bit of it. If I was to tell you the story, I'm not gonna take the time, but if I was to tell you the story, that title belongs to God. Pretty much any title we have really belongs to God. Last one is we confer our power to him. God doesn't need our power, but we do need to deplete ours and take his. You get that? God has all power, I don't. I'll tell you what, sometimes, sometimes I try to work on my own, do you? Do it more often than I should probably. Number one, remember our purpose. I want you to think about this idea of worship and this, it will affect almost every, if not every area of my life. Paul Chapel defines worship as this. the state of the heart that gives respect and adoration to God. It's a state of the heart. You know, when we think worship, we think music. Okay, and that's usually the instantaneous thing, and music is a heavy part of worship, but you understand, I could not sing a note and still worship my Lord and Savior. It is a state of the heart that typically exemplifies itself in maybe song, or giving, or acts of service. We understand that. But if worship is a state of heart, then what I fill my heart with is going to affect my worship. Let's go ahead and settle this idea here now, and I'm going to bring it up because it doesn't make sense why it's in Christian homes, and it doesn't make sense why Christians are a part of it, but the Bible says, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And if God is a holy God, if God is an almighty God, He's our creator, redeemer, sustainer, director, we should have no part in it. We should not be saying it and we should not be allowing it in our ears or eyes or anything. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And listen, you say, I don't like you preaching that. Well, it's an exodus, it's not me. God's commandment. Church, get it out of the house. I'm not preaching on TVs. I'm preaching on taking God's name in vain. How do we expect our kids to value the name of God when it's used so flippantly? You can't. You can't. Listen, I could really care less about what my kids think of an actor or a famous baseball player, and frankly, the names of some of the politicians. We pray for them, don't get me wrong, but I understand that my main concern is what my children think of the name of the holy God. How dare we as parents let that filth through our house? And I'll preach like that till the day I die. Worshipping God if it's a state of the heart then what I put into my heart is going to affect my worship I'll tell you this worship affects every area of life It affects your work, your marriage, raising children, serving, giving, being a citizen in this great country that we live in. I read an article today. I need to stop reading articles, but I read an article today and there are two leading Democrats for the 2020 election and they have come together and they want to make this bill called, they want to call it the basic income. And this basic income is basically free money in the form of income rather than food stamps. Actually, it would be added to food stamps, I should say. But it is the form of just basic income. You don't have to work, and we're going to hand you a check for not working. That's what this basic income is for. Now, listen to me. That is completely opposite of what the Bible teaches, just to let you know. In addition, if you go back to the Protestant work ethic or the Puritan work ethic, if you'll remember that, That was basically three points. Number one, God created man. Number two, God commanded man to work. And number three, I glorify God by doing my best. I'll tell you this, when I do my best, whether people think so or not, I look to God and say, God, may glory be given to you because I've done my best. I've done everything that I could. You want to get out of that rut, that routine, make it a point to do your absolute best, not to bring glory to yourself or man, but to bring glory to God Almighty. Amen. Number one, remember your purpose. Number two, realize your position. Realize your position. I'll not stay here long, but I just want you to consider the fact that you're a child of God. John 1 12, but as many as received him to them, gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Your position as a child of God, there's. We're going to say we're in it for the benefits, but there are a lot of benefits to being a child of God. You're a child of the king. Maybe it's not what you're doing that's insignificant. Maybe you feel yourself to be insignificant. Remember, if you are a saved individual, you are a child of the Most High. Work hard to glorify Him. Don't just remember your position as a child of God. Remember your position in the will of God. I can't promise you anything outside of the will of God, but as you know, and you are best fit for understanding the will of God in your life, and you're sitting in that will of God, then I can tell you this today, that God's promised to take care of you, that God's promised to work things out for good to them that love God, and to them that are called according to His purpose. If all of that is the truth, then I can take great significance in what God has called me to do. No matter what it is, ministry or not, if you know you're in the will of God, then I can tell you that it is significant for the eternal plan of God. But I'll tell you this, if you're outside the will of God, you need to get inside the will of God. You need to get inside there. If you're actively rejecting the will of God for your life, stop it and accept it and get in it. Seems simple enough, but it's a leap of faith, I'm sure, understandably. Number one, remember our purpose. Number two, realize your position. Lastly, number three, recognize the possibilities. I want you to turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'll be done in just a minute or two, but that's whatever preacher says when he's concluding. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15, verse number 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I gotta be honest, knowing that I'm in the will of God, knowing that my family is in the will of God, knowing that our work is in the Lord, I'm so thankful for verse number 58. I'm so thankful that the amount of time and resource and energy that my family pours into what we do I'm so glad it's not in vain. I'm so glad. Consider some things. Consider the account of the feeding of the 5,000. What about a mom who took the mundane responsibility to pack five loaves and two fishes? And because of her faithfulness in packing his lunch, Look what she allowed her son to witness. Look at how many other people were filled because she completed the Monday. We could stand there and preach a long time, moms, and the impact and the significance you play in your child's life. Consider the account of the four men bringing the lame man to Jesus. Consider the hard work, sweat, and toil resources that they put into the transporting of that man. I think they were recognizing the possibilities of what their work in the Lord could produce. Consider the mundane and somewhat embarrassing task of the Old Testament widow asking her neighbors to borrow pots. Through faith, she recognized the possibilities of what God could do, and boy, did God reveal that decision was not in vain. Consider the task of Moses keeping sheep for 40 years before God did mighty works through him. Consider the task of Abraham's servant in searching out for a wife for Abraham's son. What a mundane travel that must have been. But he said, I being in the way. Sometimes the way of the mundane is the way to the miraculous. Consider the mundane task of walking around Jericho seven times each day. Look what miracle that led to. This one's a little bit more personal to my heart, but I think everybody's responsible for it. That's the investment into the next generation. I can look around here and I, dozens of folks who've invested in me so that I could be here today. My wife and I, 2013, there was a, I believe it was 2013, but we graduated from our school and was gonna go off to Pensacola Christian College. And so my wife and I, we were on a Christian school teacher salary, please understand. My wife was working in the home, please understand. And she, we had one child at the time, Haley, and I didn't really tell her this at the time I've told her since but I didn't tell her this because we didn't really have the money but we did it by I did it by faith and then told her later but we paid for the kind of the startup costs for this individual to go to Pensacola Christian College and I was just excited that this individual had chosen to go off to Bible College you never would have expected this individual to go at all and so I was very very pleased and very excited I was I was kind of excited I got to be part of it, and the Lord was able to use that in my life. Long story short, a couple weeks went by, and those non-refundable fees didn't come back to me, but he said, I'm not going. That stung. It really stung. He did go to a more secular Christian university, I found out, and so I thought, well, Yeah, I guess it's not as great as I was anticipating, but at least, well, and he eventually dropped out of that. And long story short, I saw him in a picture on Thanksgiving dinner, beer bottle right in front of him. And I gotta be honest, I was very thankful on Thanksgiving day, kind of until I saw that picture, and it hurt. It hurt. It's kind of like, Lord, What's the point? Here we invested time, energy, energy, energy, money, and this is how they turn out? My first lesson. All of you older folks that are like, oh yeah, we've been there. My first lesson. And honestly, I just kind of said, Lord, what's the point? I began to meditate on the 10 lepers. You remember them? One comes back. And it wasn't too many days later that Pastor Adam shot me a text about somebody. I just thought we kind of had lost in translation. I didn't think we had any reach for him. And basically texted Pastor Adam to say, thanks for your investment. Brother, I got a little teary eyed. Because I got to thinking just, again, I said it was a bit of a more personal note, but I got to thinking that what we're doing in the next generation, what you're doing with your kids for the next generation. If Christianity is going to persist, there has to be a next generation. And though the task may seem mundane sometimes, It is not valueless. In fact, it's probably one of the most valuable tasks that we have. Kind of end with this illustration. Charles Francis Adams, he was the son of President John Quincy Adams who, of course, John Quincy Adams is the son of John Adams. But this Charles kept a diary. He wrote in it, went fishing with my son today, a day wasted. His son, Brooke Adams, also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, Brooke Adams made this entry. Went fishing with my father, the most wonderful day of my life. The father thought he was wasting time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time. The only way to tell the difference between wasting and investing is to know one's ultimate purpose in life and to judge accordingly. All I can say church is this, sometimes it feels insignificant what we do on a daily basis, but as a child of God and the will of God, one thing I know for certain is this, it is not. So tomorrow, when you go to that job that last week before Thanksgiving, you were so thrilled to get away from for a couple of days, revamp and say, this is where the Lord has me, praise God, I'm gonna do my best. This is significant for eternity. It may be 10 years down the road that I win somebody to Christ at this exact job. And had I given up then, they never would have gotten saved. Stories like that could go on and on. But we must recognize the possibilities of our faithfulness in those areas that may seem just a little bit mundane. Let's be faithful to the Lord. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes