And you can take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 19. And I'd like to remind us about who we are. I wanna do the liturgy just before we read the words in the scripture. So let's put that back up there, Ty. There is a God. And we are His witnesses. That is so important for us to constantly remember. We are the witnesses of Jesus Christ and what He's doing in our life. Just a quickie. Pleasant Grove for next Sunday, I'll say this at the end of the service also, for next Sunday needs two or three people to help them with cooking. So if you're up on Easter morning early, feel free to come on over here. Love to have you be a part of that. Also, there are some things that I'll hand out at the very, very end of the service, but I want you to remember that today is the day that we celebrate We celebrate the one day when Jesus was treated as the King of kings and the Lord of lords on this earth. One day, one day. And that needs to be reminded in our hearts all week. This is the week we call Passion Week, and we'll talk through that. But I want you to remember that you are believers in Christ and this day as we celebrate, I want you to remember the things that happen to Him and the things that He has for us based upon the glory of who His name is. And there's coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess what? Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There's coming that day But we celebrate, because of what God has given to us, we celebrate this great joy of who He is in our life. So I want to read through as we begin Luke 19, 28-48. Luke 19, 28-48. So when He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount called Olivet, that he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village opposite you, where you will enter, and you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Loose it, and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, Why are you loosing it? Then you will say to him, Because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went their way and found it just as he had said to them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, why are you loosing the colt? And they said, the Lord is need of it or need of him. And then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt. And they set Jesus on him. And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then as he was now drawing near to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for the mighty works they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. That's from Psalm 118. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Amen. Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known, oh, get these verses, if you had known, even you, especially in this day, this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embarkment around you, surround you and close you on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. Before we read the last four verses, I just want you to know when Jesus came to Jerusalem, They welcomed him because they wanted him to free them from the Roman oversight. And that's not why he came. So as long as he was going to do that, we're fine. But what happens now, he weeps over, and this is the beginning of his passion, he weeps over what's going on. And in the next four verses, the whole train is turned aside. You wonder why, how can people welcome him and love him and care for him, and then almost in the same day turn away from him, why? It's because what he does now in these four verses. And then he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold. Wait a second. What? Why are you doing that? Why are you driving them out? Drive the Romans out. Saying it is written, my house, my house is a house of prayer. You know what he says by that? This place is mine. That's what he says. This place is mine. but you have made it a den of thieves. That was the crunch. And he was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. Father, I praise you for this day. I thank you that we live in a world where we can celebrate the day that we so, so would have wanted to be there, screaming our lungs out. Glory to our King. I thank you for this day. I thank you for this time. I ask that you would make us people. who are passionate about who you are in our lives. You would teach us this day from your scriptures as we go through different portions. Lord, we praise you and exalt you. And we long for the day when we will cry out holy, when we will cry out glory, and we will cry out worthy in your presence to your face. because you are our God. So teach us today. Help us to work through these passages of Scripture. Help us to learn from these things that we will look at today and make us people of your passion. And we will give you praise for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, today might go a little bit long. I already talked to Freda about it, but I want you to get what we're gonna be talking about because my question to you is what is your passion? Now you saw two guys standing up here that talk about some place that they went that we did not go with them, but both of them were passionate for what they did. Passion is a very interesting thing. It's something that I think we have to learn. We call this Passion Week. Why? Because this was the week when Christ displayed his passion to a group of people who were interested in who he was and who he is. But we have seen passionate people on television. They're passionate about good things and they're passionate about bad things. They're passionate. Passion is, listen carefully, passion is dangerous. Passion is dangerous. We all have it, but it's dangerous. Good or bad, it's dangerous. Passion from feeling or pleasure is powerful. It's very, very powerful. It is eclipsed by, I would say, passion from an idea. But even that is eclipsed or overseen by a soul's core belief of life and purpose. Passion, here's the definition, passion or passions are the focused attention from a designated value. So what I want you to ask this morning as we move into this is what are you passionate about? What are you passionate about? Ask yourself that question because that will determine your eternity. What are you passionate? Our problems as brothers and sisters is that we get passionate about the wrong thing. We start focusing on the wrong thing and we lose the joy and the wonder That God has, God has created you to be a person of passion. You say, man, I'm just not passionate. You get all excited. I'm not passionate. God has made all of you to be passionate. And there is coming a day when you will see God face to face, and I guarantee you, you'll be passionate. Amen. So what are you passionate about today? What are you passionate about today? John Piper. A friend of mine, not really, said this, the tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the original shout. The echo mistaken for the original shout when we back when our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God when our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God we cast a shadow upon earth and we fall in love with the shadow but it doesn't satisfy Any passion you have for anything besides God will never satisfy. Oh, you want to be a pastor, Will? You want to be a pastor? Is that really, really good? Yeah, I would love to be a pastor. But if a pastor doesn't have a passion for who God is, what's he doing? What makes pastoring so delicious for me is that I am called to delight in the Lord God of heaven. That's what I get to do every day. I love you, but you can't do that. You say, sure I can do that. Nah, you gotta work. And you're in the factories and you're in the all kinds of different jobs that you have. I sympathize with that, but even that can be turned into a passion for who God is, see? We have to remember that in all of our life, in all of our days, in all of the things that we do, husbandry and wifery and parenting and kids, our focus is to be upon who God is. for one little moment in time at the triumphal entry. Jesus was glorified as the Son of God and as the leader of Israel, the King of Israel, which he was. One time, one moment, a ride from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. I've walked that path. It would take about 45 minutes. The Son of God, our King, our Lord, our gracious Savior was heralded as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He was the Messiah at that time. People shouted, they gave up their cloaks, they placed beauty upon his feet, underneath his feet, and praised the King of Heaven. As Christ entered his city, the passion erupted with, Hosanna to the King! Christ was honored as King of the Jews. Unashamed loyalty. How in the world did that happen? Passion. People valued Christ at that time. They were expecting for Him to take over the whole nation. That's why it happened. And even this, God created humans with passion, which means Christ also has passion. His passions drove Him. Ours drive us. The time between the garden and the cross is called His passion. And so Friday we will observe Good Friday service. I'm really thankful for Barron leading on this one. I grew up not doing Friday's Good Friday. I've got something for you because I've been asked over and over again. I don't believe that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. OK. It's called Good Friday. He couldn't be crucified on Good Friday. I think he was crucified on Thursday. So I, many of you ask, you say, why do you think that? Why do you think that? I've got this for you. So you can, we're going to pass these out. And if you want it, if you're like, no, no, no, no, no, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. This is for the people who want to really study because this will give you a lot of information. Timeline. of what took place, okay? So I want you to get this and just look through it because that's really, really, really important for you to know and to understand. But what we celebrate, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and that becomes the focus of our attention. It does so for a good thing because it reminds us that during that whole time, Jesus was suffering for you and for me. So we will celebrate that at Good Friday, this service. I really encourage you to come. Now, I want to begin this. This is four principles that I want to give you in the sermon, but they're going to be four, what I would call foundational truths that I want you to get. And let's begin with number one. God is absolutely in control. And so He glorifies Himself for our good. I want you to read these are in your notes. I put them there so you get it. God is absolutely in control. Nothing changes that. Nothing will change that. Nothing could change that. Jesus Christ, God himself is absolutely in control. So get this. So he glorifies himself for our good. If God is the greatest good, then him glorifying himself is the greatest good. Does that make sense? And it's right and good for him to glorify himself. So that's a principle that I want you to hold on to. God is absolutely in control. And so he glorifies himself for our good. And then the second one I want you to just look at God created us for himself. God created us for himself. Now, are you guys different from each other? Yeah, we got a whole family sitting right here, but they're all different from each other. Same family, same genes, all that DNA stuff. All of them here in the same family, same stuff, but they're different before God. God created us for himself, so our greatest joy is to be found in him. Please hold on to that. If you hold to anything, if you hold to anything in your life and you put that, that's what I, that's the big thing. You lose joy in your life. This is why Christians walk around with frowns on their face and they're not joyful. Why? Because they got something else. Listen to me carefully. It doesn't matter what it is. It could be church. It could be the pastor. Doesn't matter. What matters is, is Jesus Christ the center of your life or not? Because if Jesus Christ is the center of your life, your great joy is found in him. And the reason why we struggle so many times is because we put other things in front of Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? Doesn't matter what it is, money, anything. God created us for himself and so our greatest joy is found in him. Number three. says worshiping God fulfills us the most and glorifies God the most. So when we worship And we're led in worship by a team that is given time and effort, and they lead us into the presence of the God. And we are singing to God Almighty, because He's up. And I guarantee you, He heard your worship this morning when that happens. That fulfills the soul. Why? Because you were made for that. That's what you are made for. You're made to worship God. And when you do that, you're fulfilled. Yes, this is right. The problem is we just do it on Sunday, and we don't do it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. Worshiping God fulfills us the most and glorifies God the most. So become an expert in worshiping God. Go down, when you're driving down the road and it's just you and you don't have your wife sitting on the other side of you frowning, crank that music up so you can barely even think straight. I mean, I drive down, the other day I was driving down the road, I was just singing, cranking it. There's just a new song that I got and it talks about that we're gonna sing words in heaven forever. And those words are glory and worthy and holy. And man, I was just, cause it gets up to, I was going, it's really kind of high. And so I was just, I was thinking of Bobby, cause he can, he can hit up there and it's like, I can do this. And so I was singing real, I was, And the person next to me is looking over at me and I'm going, okay, I know to drive away real fast. But this is worship for us. It needs to happen every single day. You get up in the morning, things come across your head. God be glorified today. God be glorified today. Worshipping God fulfills us the most and glorifies God the most. Last one is this. The soul's passion is the heart's altar. So whatever your passion is, that's your heart's altar. That's what you're going to worship. Okay? All worship their passion. The struggle is, for us as Christians, is when we allow for something besides Jesus Christ to be our passion. Does that make sense? I'm gonna ram this home. There's four things I want you to say, and I want you to get this and understand this. Augustine said it like this. You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you. Okay? So here's then my question of the sermon was, what is your passion? And now I want to turn it a little bit and say, when God is your passion, what does that mean? So you're in Luke 19, turn to the middle of the Bible to Psalms, the book of Psalms 37. If this is not underlined, highlighted in your Bible, shame on you. Love you very much. Underline it right now. Okay. Psalm 37, four. You know this one. Okay. Let's say it together. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. I need you to understand that because that's the foundation of where we're going with this. Delight yourself in the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord. When you do that, God promises you that he will give you the desires that your heart is being transformed into wanting. Make sense? People look at this and say, well, I get what I want. I get what I want. Yeah. If you delight in the Lord. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Problem is people want what they want without delighting in the Lord. Doesn't work. Doesn't work. Delight in the Lord. Delight in the Lord. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you those desires. Because if you're delighting in the Lord, guess what your desire is? God. And He'll give you all you want. Here's a tough one. I think you can write this down. God does not withhold when you desire him. God doesn't stand up in heaven and say, oh, you want me? No, no, no, no, no, no. He'll give you all you want. Here's another point with that. We have as much of God as we want. We have as much of God as we want. Why do some other people have so much of God just filling their lives because they want more of Him? So a problem is not God, that's an eternal resource that is unlimited. The problem is how much we want it. Does it make sense? Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. So there are four things that I want you to hold on to, and then we're done. So I just got four things to go through, and then we're done, all right? First one, worship becomes a man, when God is your passion, so let's say it this way, when God is your passion, number one, worship becomes a manner of life, not a matter, different words, not a matter just for Sunday, okay? When God is your passion, these four things are true in your life. Worship is a manner of your life. It's what you do. You wake up, you start talking to Jesus. You go through the day, you're talking to the Lord. You see somebody, and we'll talk about this later in number four, you want to talk to them about who Jesus is. Why do you do that? Why does Gordon live this way? I mean, we have all seen it. God's working in his life. He's moving. He comes here. And when we start to pray, he finds somebody that is over having coffee. And he wants to pray with him. And it's a high school kid. Christian, you're my Christian. Yeah. Right. Rights are not here today. Not here today. OK. He was off of worship, so I guess they got free and they're going to Disneyland or something like that. But anyway, I watched the other week and we're in time of prayer. Last week, Christian was over getting coffee. Gordon comes over and pulls him over and says, come on, let's pray. But you know what happens? I watch that teenager being warm to the person of who Jesus is. That's why we do that. Worship is a manner of your life. It's the manner of your life. It just flows out of you. It's not just something we do on Sunday. Do we do it on Sunday? Oh yeah, we do it on Sunday. And it's really, really nice on Sunday because we can sing our own songs and the worship team helps us out. But turn to Psalm 16.8. All right. You're in Psalm 37. A couple of chapters back. 16.8. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad. And my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. And then one of the most profound verses in the Bible, in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures evermore. Brothers and sisters, those verses right there, they form the basis for the Westminster Catechism. I have set the Lord always before me. Do we do that? Are you doing that? You'll know by your worship. In your presence is fullness of joy. You know what I want more for Maria and my kids than anything else? Is that they're in the presence of God. Not that they make me happy. Well, if they would just do life like I want them to do life, it'd be better. No. I want them to be in the presence of God. That's what the delight of our soul is. Worship matters to us here at the church. You know, it's one of our standards. It's one of our regulations. It's one of our things that we hold vertical worship. That's part of who we are. And when that happens, when that happens, your life is different because it starts to be joyful. You met Christians? Would you say you're pretty impressed with Christians being happy? Would you say that'd be true? Let's ask some high school kids, all right? Three girls sitting right in the front. Let me ask you a question. Would you say Christians are happy people? by and large generalized. Take these guys out. These guys don't count in this question. But would you say Christians by and large that you know are happy people? You'd say yes. Okay. Do you know Christians that are not happy? Okay. What's the difference? I love how girls just kind of You can answer this and I've answered two of them already so somebody else has got to answer them all right and then they both look at it. What makes the difference between a Christian who is happy Christian and a Christian who is not a happy Christian? What would you say? That's a hard one? Did you say shut up to your dad? See, not a happy Christian over here, all right? Just kidding. But I want you to understand that too many of us, too many of us are keyed up in this world. Who's the next president? Oh no, what's gonna happen with our government? What's gonna happen to America? You know what? You know what? That doesn't matter. As much as matters that you're walking with Jesus and you're loving him. Make sense? Worship is a manner of life, not a matter for Sunday. I have set the Lord always before you. Underline that one, too. These are golden verses that we're going through today. I have set the Lord always before me. In your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures evermore. That's true for you, all right? Pastor watches people in many different aspects of life. I've seen this. I watch people worship. You know who make the best worshippers? It's not between men and women. It doesn't matter whether it's north or south or east or west. You know who make the best worshippers? This will be an interesting statement to you. Sufferers. People who suffer. Now I was gonna use Ted, and Ted's not here. Have you noticed the difference in his spiritual walk since cancer? Yeah. You wanna talk about Marty? Same thing. People who are suffering, Miriam, her life is changing because of the suffering that she's going through. And what do we do to suffering? Get out of my life. I don't want you. I don't want you. And what's God doing? Come on, bring it in. Bring it in. Teach him how to worship. What's the best thing to do when you go into suffering? Best thing to do? You worship. I was listening to someone talk about the fact that they were suffering through some things, difficulties, and he didn't know what to do about it. They were being really oppressed by the evil one. What do I do, what do I do, what do I do? The thought came to just praise Jesus, praise the Lord God. They started to do that. Guess what happened to the trial and the pain? First it made sense, then for this person it went away. Suffering is God saying, look at me, look at me, look at me. That's what God does with suffering. My mother was, I counted it back, my mother was here at our church 10 years ago. This day, today, 10 years ago. Palm Sunday, my mother was here. She had dementia, but she was here. She didn't remember who I was. She remembered a lot of stuff. I mean, I had to introduce myself to her, last about three years of her life. She was here. She didn't know the songs that we sang. You know what she didn't forget? Who God was. She didn't forget devotions. She didn't forget how to, it didn't matter where we were. Mrs. Lonus, could you pray? Boom, immediately know how to pray. Knew who God was. Suffering in those situations brings us to God. Okay, I need to move on. Second point, when God is your passion, there's point two, contentment is center stage and money is a stage hand. Contentment is center stage. When God is your passion, contentment is center stage. Question, are you content this morning? If you are content this morning, one of the reasons may be that God is your passion. If you're not content this morning, you need to check out, is God my passion? So let's go to these verses. Hebrews chapter 13, verses five and six, all the way to the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 13, five and six. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. What? Be content with such things as you have. Are you content this morning? Are you content? Be content. Your kids, are you content with your kids? I was praying this morning, Lord, why can't you bring my kids to live in Greer? All five of them, I had two of them here, now there's one and four of them. Are you content? I'd like for them to be here. Are you content with me? Okay, I am content with you, Lord, but I'd still like to have my kids here. Okay. My point here, be content with such things as you have. My whole world needs to be filled with contentment. Even if I don't have the things that other people have, I need to be content. Make sense? Whatever that is. How about your health? We all want good health, correct? Are you content with where you are? See, there's a difference. Yes, I can be content with it. Paul said, I am content with having lots or I'm content with having little, it doesn't matter. For he, and here's the reason why, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So here's my question. If God is with you, what is that? It's the basis of your contentment if your passion is in God. If your passion is not in God, you will not be content. And I make you a promise, you will be discontent with your kids, with your husband, with your wife, with your job, with it all, when God is not your contentment. Okay? Are you getting this? You with me? Okay. Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can do to me. That's Hebrews 5 and 6. Now let's go back a couple of books, 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. Simply says this, now godliness is contentment. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment. Godliness, what's that? How would you define, Brody, how would you define godliness? You can't say chat, okay? How would you say, what's godliness? They're not helping you. It's in your family and they're not helping you. What would you say godliness is? You know the word, right? So godliness is, let me help you with this, godlikeness. Make sense? I knew that. I could see that. And that's why I helped you. Yes, godlikeness. In other words, a person who is godly is a man who's like God. Makes sense? So godliness, being like God, with God, having God in the life, the only way that you can have godliness in you or have God in you is for you to make God your passion. With contentment is great gain. When you complain, are you content? So let me ask you just a real tough question. How does this involve generosity? You know, the basis for generosity is contentment. I give to others because I'm content with what God has given to me. We don't give to others when we don't think we have enough. Make sense? There's more that I could say about that, but let me just illustrate it. Years ago, Marie and I were praying about a financial need that we had We needed to purchase some things for the house some grass seed and fertilizer and other things and It just needed to be taken care of and it was about It was about $400. So we were just praying about God if you want these things to be fixed and somehow you're gonna have to Well, in the next day or so, a guy came up to me and said, hey, God just moved my heart to give you $400. So guess what I was thinking? Yeah, right? I prayed and God answered, yeah. On the way to the nursery, we find out about a friend of ours that can't pay the rent. Guess how much? $400. But God gave this to me. You know, I prayed God gave. They'll be okay. They'll be okay. We talk about it. We're on the way to the nursery. Okay, okay. So we call the individual up and say, Hey, God burdened our hearts. You got $400. They went nutso and everything like that. But we're on the way to the nursery. So we go to the nursery. And we're looking around and we don't got, we can't pay for anything. And so the owner comes out. Say, hey, how are you? I don't know you. He's talking, talking, jabber jabber. And I said, yeah, I'm looking for some of this feed and how much it costs and dah, dah, dah. Comes over and says, well, you know something? Those two bags that you need, I mean, they're like 50 bag pound bags of stuff. Hey, this one broke and we can't sell it. We'll give it to you. And all the stuff that I was gonna pay for, I got in the back of my, and we're driving home going, Lord's I've never gone. Oh, you think you're gonna out give me huh? Uh-huh. Yeah, I'll show you right and God took care of that blooded Generosity comes from being content with who God is in your life If you struggle with that Question yourself with that. Okay, number three. Number three. Relationships. When God is your passion, relationships are founded on self-edifying love. Now, this is gonna be a little bit, and you can turn there if you want, but you know Matthew 22, 37 to 40. Which one is that? What's that? Those are the two laws, right? And what are the laws? What's the first law? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, all right? and love your, this is second one, right? The second one, first one is that, second one is what? Love your neighbor, how? As yourself. Now we get this, all this garb, all this stuff today in society, you gotta learn how to love yourself. Hogwash, you already know how that goes. We all love ourselves. In fact, Paul tells us that four different places. Well, it's four different places in the New Testament, but Paul talks about it. He tells the men, what are you supposed to do? What are the men supposed to do for their wives? Love your wife how? As Jesus loves the church. How did Jesus love the church? What does it say in that passage? Gave himself for it. So men, we're supposed to love our wives as Christ loved the church, which means give yourself for your wife. Guess what? She comes before you. And the guy's going, I don't know about that. How'd you get there, right? God says, did Jesus put us before him? Did Jesus want to go to the cross? What does he pray in Gethsemane? Please take this away. But what, not my will, but your will. Same thing, same thing. He went to the cross because it was his father's will. In the same way, we serve our wives and our kids We serve our wives and our kids out of love for God. Relationships are founded on self-edifying love. And what you'll find out is when you love your wife and you love your kids in the way that you ought to, it edifies you. Self-edifying love. Our relationships become impacted. Why? I have this question for you. Let me ask it to you. Why does God want us to love him? Because you're just such a cool person, right? Now, why does God want us to love him? I got the answer right here. Just kidding. Why does God want you to love him? Have you ever asked that question? Because that's the number one, right? Number one. That's the number one command. So why does He want to do it? Are we told anywhere in the scriptures why God wants us to love Him? We love Him because He first loved us, right? He loved us, right? Exactly. What else? That's a good answer. Pardon? That's another thing that's true, when we love one another, right? The world knows that we're his disciples, okay. Those are two good reasons. Why does God want us to love him? Here's a blow you out. God wants you to love him because it will bring you great joy. And God wants you to be joyful. How do you be joyful? By loving God. Really? Yeah. In your presence is the fullness of joy. How does that work? I don't know, but God said it works that way. You're in his presence. You love him. Guess what? You're joyful. And that's why it's so strange for me in my own heart when I'm not happy and joyful. Guess what that tells me? I'm not loving God. Because if I'm in His presence, what? Can you be in God's presence and not be joyful? That's a good question. Can you be in God's presence and not be joyful? I'm looking at all of the men, all of the guys that are the theologians are going, okay, let me think through that one. All right. All right. Well, ladies, help us out here. Can you be in God's presence, enjoying God's presence and not be joyful? Well said. So when I come into God's presence, and he says there's fullness of joy, it may require first of all, what? Repentance, repentance. And then repentance moves into what happens after repentance. There's forgiveness that is reminded, hey, you've been forgiven of this, right? And then because I'm forgiven, what happens? Joy. See? Yes. And if I just wouldn't yell, the babies wouldn't cry. Okay. So let me ask you to do this. Write on your notes right now. Write on your notes. Lord, teach me to love. Don't put the how in there yet. Teach me to love. That's a decision. That's a will factor. That's a volitional thing. God, teach me to love. And when God does that, the next prayer comes, God, teach me how to love you. And then it affects your whole family. Because a person who loves God, loves his neighbor. Does that make sense? Or kids. All right, last point. Wait a second. Right in the middle here, I said, you may not be convinced. So let's turn to Paul's words of marriage counseling. So I have here Ephesians 5, 25, 33, we went through this. And I had this as an illustration. Maria saw it, and so she said, make sure that you say this, so I'm gonna say this. I love Maria. That's what it says right here. I love, what'd she say? What? I didn't hear what you said, what'd you say? Oh, you didn't. But there's a lot of things I say in the pulpit that you didn't do. But I love Maria. I love Maria. But I also love loving Maria. Does that make sense? Loving Maria is really fun. It really is. And that's true for everybody in your life that you love. You love that person, but you love loving that person. Now, sometimes you can love that person, and it's really not fun loving that person, all right? But if you really, really love that person, it will come to where you have joy in doing that. I love my kids and I love loving my kids. It brings me great joy to love them. To try to love them from a stoic, disinterested demeanor is to vacate the whole soul of love. E.J. Carnell said this way. Now listen to this carefully. Suppose a husband asked his wife if he must kiss her goodnight. And her answer is, you must, but not that kind of must. And every woman in this building knows exactly what I'm saying. And the guys are just clueless, all right? What she means is this, unless a spontaneous affection for my person motivates you, your overtures are stripped of all moral value. Wow. Okay. Woman doesn't want you to do something for her simply because you have to. Why does she want you to do something for her? Because inside I want to please her. That makes sense. So I challenge you to love your wife without affection. Mark, try that. I challenge you to love your wife without affection. I could tell, and that's why I said that. And see how that works for you. No, in fact, there is no love without passion, without affection, without self-enjoyment. We find pleasure in loving others. This is God given. When God is our passion and our worship, we love who and what he loves. And this prods us to love one another because that is sheer joy to do that. God is connected love for a person with our love for God. And that brings us joy. Make sense? Okay, let's go to number four, witness. So when God is your passion, the last one is witness of Christ is bold and continuous. I've been in this room right over here where the fire is and we've turned it on on Fridays at 5.30 and we pray together and I've heard men say, God, please make me more bold. You know what the answer to that is? Passion for Jesus. If I have passion for Jesus, I'm going to tell everybody. Acts 4, 23 to 31, you can read that. We'll spare that for right now. But basically it says in there, you are God, you are God. God was the passion of this faint hearted, fearful church. And as they continued in their passion, they began to pray for boldness and bold witnesses as the result of that. Pray for boldness. Pray for boldness. And as it happens, it'll change you. Remember what they said about Peter and John when the Pharisees looked at him and said, what was their assessment of them? They knew that they had been with, yeah, they had been with Jesus. And so they were bold. They didn't care what you were gonna do, say, or think, or do, or want. I love Jesus, and that's just the way it is. They saw the boldness, and they realized that they had been with Christ. So let me just conclude with this. Many, many Christians are so weak in their witness because they are not living with Jesus. They are not loving Jesus. So I want to draw our attention as I close, I want to draw our attention to this. When God is your passion, here's my conclusion here, when God is your passion, delight yourself. I want you to look at these verses because we went through them. When God is your passion, delight yourself. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. The next one. I have desired of the Lord, and that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord." That right there, that is the one thing is the beauty of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord. Please get that. Don't miss that. Everybody says, well, it's going to the house of the Lord and it's dwelling in the house of the Lord and all the day. The key is the one thing is to behold the beauty. The reason you go to the house of the Lord is to behold the beauty of the Lord. Got that? And to meditate in His presence. In the last verse, one more slide. I have set the Lord always before me and your presence is fullness of joy. So when God is your passion, I just want you to remember this, delight yourself. If God is your passion, delight yourself. All the time, delight yourself, delight yourself in who God is. He changes your world. And this same Jesus who walked into Jerusalem as the King of King and the Lord of Lords and was praised for that, Half a day later was rejected because he didn't do what they wanted. Guess what that tells me about the people who are praising him. They weren't delighting in him, they were delighting in what they thought he could do for them. Make sense? So this is a powerful week. I really encourage you to spend a lot of time seeking after the Lord this week and like Mark reminded us, in your presence is fullness of joy after we've had time of repentance for the Lord. Repentance draws us in. Okay, let's close in a word of prayer. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed. I love you all and I'm thankful that you're here. But I ask you to seek after the Lord. Do you know this God who is so powerful? Does he own you? Have you given yourself to him? Are you content? Are you a worshiper? If you don't know the Lord today, it's very simple. Cry out to Him and ask Him. All you have to do is ask Him to meet with you and He will find you. For He has made that promise. that if you seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him. We all know we're sinners. Admit that before the Lord today and seek His face.