Church Nerds United

Welcome to the final sermon of our "Almost True" series, titled "Why Doesn't God Give Me What I Want?" Pastor Brandon from The Greater Guild Church tackles one of the most common struggles in faith—the idea that God exists to fulfill our every desire. In this message, we explore the "happiness gospel" and the true meaning of holiness over fleeting pleasure. Is God concerned with our happiness? Yes, but it’s not His highest purpose for us. This sermon dives deep into why holiness, rather than happiness, leads to a more fulfilling and meaningful life with God.

📌 Join the conversation as Pastor Brandon breaks down the lies of the "happiness gospel" and discusses how true, lasting joy is found not in the what, but in the who—God Himself.

Creators & Guests

Host
Pastor Brandon Holm

What is Church Nerds United?

Welcome to Church Nerds United, the ultimate podcast where the sacred and the geeky collide! Dive deep into the Holy Scriptures with us as we explore sermons sprinkled with your favorite gaming quests, cosplay characters, and anime adventures. Whether you're a Paladin of Prayer, a Cosplay Crusader, or an Otaku of the Old Testament, this is your sanctuary.

Join our fellowship as we level up our faith through the lens of epic battles, legendary heroes, and fantastical worlds. From the wisdom of the Proverbs to the valor of the Apostles, we'll draw parallels between biblical narratives and the beloved realms of gaming, cosplay, and anime.

Tune in for:

Sermon Side Quests: Discover the deeper meaning behind Scripture with analogies from your favorite games and anime.
Cosplay Character Spotlight: Unveil the biblical virtues embodied by iconic characters and how they inspire our spiritual journey.
Anime Apologetics: Engage in lively discussions that bridge the gap between faith and fandom, unraveling the spiritual themes in popular series.

So, grab your controller, don your cosplay armor, and get ready to embark on an epic quest of faith and fandom. Church Nerds United is here to guide you on a heroic journey, one episode at a time. May the faith be with you!

Greater Guild Announcer:

Hey there, fellow church nerds. Welcome to another episode of Church Nerds United, the podcast where faith meets fandom and sermons are the new superhero stories. That's right. Today, we've got a sermon that's more epic than the battle of Helm's Deep and more inspiring than Captain America's pep talks. But before we dive into this week's divine download, don't forget to hit that like button, subscribe, and ring the bell so you never miss an episode.

Greater Guild Announcer:

And, hey, if you love what we do and want to support the show, consider donating. Every little bit helps us keep the nerdy goodness coming your way. You can find the donation link in the show notes or head over to our website at greaterguild dotorg. Join the ranks of our Greater Guild Army and help us spread the geeky gospel far and wide. Now without further ado, let's jump into this week's sermon.

Greater Guild Announcer:

Grab your bibles, light up your lightsabers, and get ready to dive deep into the word of God.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Good afternoon, everybody. How are you? Pastor Brandon here, the Greater Drills, and we're doing the final message here for almost ruined. It's a very pointed question about this and why doesn't God give me what I want? Why doesn't God give me what I want?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

I mean, I pray to him. I do all that. That's great. But let me give you some, little true or false here. So answer true or false, in chat, you know, and ask yourself, you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

True. Right? Okay. We talked about it. Because God loves you, you're worthy of happiness.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

True or false? Many of us have talked about that too. I've talked about it on several occasions. But you hear from people out in the world going, your life is meant to be enjoyed. You deserve life.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You deserve a life you enjoy. Seriously, go out. It doesn't matter what you do. Just be happy. It's all good.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You know, don't settle for anything less than what makes you truly happy. We've heard these phrases. And with that being said, it great it it's great that it sounds true. Right? Well and it feels true.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Right? But, unfortunately, it's almost true. The reason I say it's almost true is because it's wholeheartedly not completely true. There's some sense in that God wants you happy, but not in the whole sense. You see there's a little caveat in this, and we'll get to that.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But the part of it that is not true and is causing many people to just walk away from the church, walk away from their faith, and just get out of the entire, oh, you know, God doesn't love me, God God doesn't care, is this this thing that I'm gonna call and many of pastors, that I know of have called the happiness gospel. And the underlying score of this whole thing is God wants me happy and I deserve to be happy. Sounds right. Right? So when we believe our happiness is thinking that God's highest purpose is for us I know it sound weird, but our happiness is not God's highest purpose for us.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Never has been. Because if you think that that in in that term, you know, it'll change your relationship with God. Instead, you know, we exist to serve God, not God serve us, you know. That's where we're at. It changes that dynamic to where God is to serve us and not us serving him, which is the truth.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

And it brings the whole thing about God and Jesus and everything. And faith is that it becomes a, you know, vending machine. Let's say, Coke or Sprite, whatever your beverage of choice. But basically, you decide what you want. Say, I want a solid gold toilet in my bathroom.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Okay. I'm gonna pray for it. I'm gonna pray to God. You know, God, I want that solid gold toilet. I so want it.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

I need it. And through that prayer, all of a sudden, it's like pushing the button, putting the money in, and, boom, we get what our our desires are. Well, that's problem. That's a cultural lie that has been so dangerous and prolific not just in the in the world here, but in our spiritual world and through many churches and and pastorals that you don't get what you want after many years, many issues, and all of a sudden it's like, yeah, it's not happening. There's a good chance you're gonna walk away from God.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

That's just the reality. I've watched people do it. Tried the God thing, went to church, gave my offerings, prayed for my prayers, and I'm still broke. I'm still single. I'm still unhappy in my marriage.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

My job, I hate.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

We've heard that. Right? And yet, we're still not happy. So first of all,

Pastor Brandon Holm:

I'm gonna break this down, get you into the basics. Because first

Pastor Brandon Holm:

of all, God is real. Okay? Not just for my own

Pastor Brandon Holm:

personal and spiritual level, but I can tell you honestly, god is real, and he is good. God really does care about you, but god delights

Pastor Brandon Holm:

in your happiness. Okay? It's not god's gonna give you happiness so you can be happy. When you're happy, he's happy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

It's almost like watching kids at Christmas omen stuff and it's like you know what's in there as a parent. You're so happy that now they've they've got that present that you've been so hoping that they see.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But it begs the question on a spiritual level is what role does god play in mine and your happiness? Well,

Pastor Brandon Holm:

god really does not want you to experience happiness. Not in the thing in in the way that we believe in experiencing happiness. He wants you to have happiness, but never at the expense of being holy, h o l y. You know, not like, you know, you see with with a few of the, unnecessary commentaries by Steve Inman. And if you know who he is and look him up, really funny guy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But at the core of this whole thing is holiness. You have holiness, you will experience happiness, and there, god is happy. That's how it works. And Peter said it very clearly when he said, you know, don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then, but now you must be holy in everything you do just as God who chose you is holy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

For the scripture say, you must be holy because I am holy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

God didn't say be happy because I'm happy. Basically, he also didn't say, don't worry be happy. K. Where God is saying is be holy. Be holy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

It's a,

Pastor Brandon Holm:

you know, be different from this world. Don't go to the base nature of this world. Set yourself apart. Dedicate yourself to God and his purposes for you.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

That's being holy. Don't be

Pastor Brandon Holm:

like the others and be stuck up about it either. Okay? I know a lot of churchgoers, you know, the sister birth of better than you is what I call them. And basically, they think they're better than everything else, thinking they have the Holy Spirit a 100% of the time, and they go around flaunting it. Don't do that.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Being holy is also part of the humbleness aspect.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

So when we come back

Pastor Brandon Holm:

to what about the whole happiness gospel, it takes out the whole holiness of

Pastor Brandon Holm:

the whole thing. Because the happiness gospel has 2 dictates. The first one is whatever makes me happy must be right. Consequently, whatever makes me unhappy must be wrong.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But if you think about the happiness gospel and us as, you know, geeks, nerds, however you wanna call us, we're mainly introverts. And we're gonna stay for us to stay happy, we're gonna be comfortable. We're gonna have the convenience of just not having to do much. And it's a pleasure to be happy in that aspect. You know, playing games, not having to interact with the outside world, that's great.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

That's the happiness gospel telling you, you really are just gonna have to be comfortable, con content with all the convenience you have at your disposal within your area, and it's a pleasure to do it. And that being unhappy Oh, no. No. That's discomfort. That's that's very inconvenient and there's a lot of pain attached to it.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Well, unfortunately, that's life, guys. You know, being unhappy, you know, going out there, I can understand that. You know, I try to limit my, you know, exit from the house, you know,

Pastor Brandon Holm:

on many occasions. It's not just because I I have issues.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You know, I'm not agoraphobic. I can go out, you know, if my wife says, hey, we're gonna go outside. Fine. Not a problem. We're gonna go.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Not a big deal. I have family members who are agoraphobic and they have major panic attacks just going outside their front door. So don't think that I'm I'm dismissing our our insular ideas. It's not really that. But if our goal is happiness instead of holiness, you know, we're gonna just pursue that and we're not gonna experience the outside world.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

We're not gonna experience a lot of things that maybe actually will help us. We're gonna pursue all that pleasure and just so avoid the pain that is not worth it and have anxiety attacks and and be drugged out of our mind. Thanks to our lovely pharmaceutical companies out there. And I do say that was a sarcastic tone. But what brings us pleasure isn't always good.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Like I said, you know, if you really wanna go to the extreme moment on on this, look at Howard Hughes and his the end of his life. He was very insular. Hold up in a hotel room in Las Vegas. Didn't come out. Didn't do anything.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

If you look at the movie The Aviator, you watch it towards the end how he becomes this, you know, isolated person. Only talking through the telephone. Nobody sees him. Nobody knows what he where he is. And that really wasn't good for him, you know, because he the only friends he had were on the telephone.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

He never saw people. He never interacted. He never gone and do things that, you know, we do for fun. And what's difficult is it isn't always bad for us. Okay?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

We do need to go out, you know, health wise. You need your vitamin d, and you get that from the sun. Your body does that. You can also get it from pills but it's easier and more convenient to get it from the sun. And when we try to do do our happiness and not our holiness, what we're doing is we're rationalize rationalizing our sins.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Seriously. Yep. Rationalizing the sins basically when our mind makes an excuse for what our spirit knows is totally wrong. You know our conscious tells us you shouldn't really do that and yet you do it anyway. Now look at that.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Look at how we do that. Now do we make great comments for people when we're playing cod or or battlefield more online? Or do we make supportive comments? No. You know most of us are very toxic in those in those interactions.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

And it makes us happy but it's not a holy thing to do. That's sinful. That's a rage issue. That's anger. That's wrath.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

We couldn't do that. But if we're gonna be holy, we're going to prop up people. So what? They couldn't, you know, score a kill. So what?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

They were killing, you know, friendly fire. That happens. Some people, they're not used to these games. It doesn't matter if they're experienced or not. Always prop somebody and that's the holiness we're talking about because in that, when you

Pastor Brandon Holm:

make them happy and the

Pastor Brandon Holm:

squad gets happy, if you notice, the morale goes up. This is where we're talking about. And when God says he delights in your happiness, he doesn't want you to do at the holiness. So when you're happy and you're propping people up and all of a sudden, everybody gets better, everybody all the morale, you know, you're, you know, you're fighting your raw, you're getting in there, and you're getting in the game. That's when your holiness comes out.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

When your When you and your team helps others and each other. And then you're getting happier and happier. God loves that because he never had to intervene. Lazy guy that he is sometimes. But at the same time he's you're doing what god intends you to do.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

That's really what the holiness is all about. And the more you know god, suddenly you're gonna realize that holiness and happiness never are opposing values. They actually really do complement each other as I've said in my description here. And if you really wanna go to a biblical extreme, let's look at King David. And he had to learn holiness leading to lasting happiness the hard way.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

This guy had everything. He had the best, you know, if you're really let's put in modern's perspective here. King David, he was the man. He was the king of it all. He was very popular.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Women loved him. You know, what men wanted to be him. Had great Instagram. He had great Twitter followers. I mean, this man had it.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

TikTok not a problem. Verified that you got it. But then something happens. He's walking on the parapets. He's posting on it.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Instagram, like, hey. You look good. Well, I got you know, doing the whole thing, Twitter. You know? Hey.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Got hey. You know, hey, Twitter friends, all that. Boom boom boom, you know? Or excuse me, x. I gotta say that now, really.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Yeah. That can age you and age you. It's like, oh, yeah. Or TikTok. Hey.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You know, look what I'm doing here out at all the back of the line.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Doing all that and then he sees something. He sees a

Pastor Brandon Holm:

young lady in a bath and he's just like, oh, I gotta have her. The funny part about it is this is happening during, you know, a time of war in his kingdom and it's far away. And he sees this woman going, oh, I I need this woman. But he knows that this young lady is married to one of his captains. What does he do?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Well, he's gotta have this woman. He's gotta have this woman. He'll do anything to get this woman. Just for his own happiness. Personal happiness.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

So looking at this, he put his holiness away and said, I've gotta be happy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

And I think that this woman will make me happy. So what does he do? Rationalize it by saying, you know, I'm gonna have my captain send this guy all the way out in the middle of battle have him killed. So that the screaming widow I can say, hey I'm sorry for it. Hey why don't you marry me?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

He abused his power in such a way and we've seen this happen.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

So what does he do? David gets a little comeuppance.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

And God really puts a huge issue in his life. Something like is a major pain point so that he can go, okay. I think I screwed up, which he did. So here we go in Psalms and for those of you who are not understanding what Psalms and Psalms basically is, you know, many of the songs of David and when he was king and all that and before he was king. There's a lot in there, but a lot of these are are referencing to God in being either why are you forsaking me?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Why have you forgotten me? Or others which is, hey, you know, God, this is you are the greatest on the planet. But here, we've got David doing a little prayer of his own and he starts it off with, have mercy on me, oh god, according to your unfailing love. According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my inequity and cleanse me from my sin.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Create in me a pure heart, oh god, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore

Pastor Brandon Holm:

to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Yeah. He's crying out because he he screwed up and god punished him for it. You know, back in the day of the old testament, god was a

Pastor Brandon Holm:

little bit more hands on. And in this, if you notice,

Pastor Brandon Holm:

god really is the key factor but here's what it is. David figures it out. Lasting happiness is found in a who and not a what. Now, you're saying, oh well, he got he got the girl. That's a who.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

No. We're talking about who as in big capital letter who, as in he upstairs. That's the who we're talking about. So if we forward on to Psalm 16, you know, David goes on and figures out the who by saying, say to the Lord, you are my Lord. Apart from you, I have no good thing.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Lord, you and Mo are my portion of my cup.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Wow.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

That's scary. I missed a card. Oh, well. Sorry about that. Lord, you alone are my portion of my cup.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You are my lot secured, which is,

Pastor Brandon Holm:

verse 5. And then verse 11 is

Pastor Brandon Holm:

you will make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Press too many buttons, that's what you get. Anyway, so David starts with god. You're alone.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You know, you're my portion. God is the whole thing. He is the meat and potatoes. He is the he is the water of life. Okay.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Not dune level. Okay. And finds out that really in the end, when he goes back to God and puts holiness above his happiness, his his selfish happiness, what happens? Everything gets back together. You know, everything comes together.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Everything goes great. It's not like he's gonna have troubles later on. He always does. You know, he's a king. He's gonna have it.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But when he looks at it through the lens of God and makes God the priority, He understands that he takes joy in everything he'll be doing from here on out. Lasting happiness and truth joy is definitely found in the who and not a what. You know, I don't go out there and go, oh man, I would love to have a Aston Martin, which I would, but would it make me happy? I don't know. The payments, everything, there's more to it to than just that.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Face value, I would love an Aston Martin. Love the car, Especially a DB5, but, you know, those are little hard to find and I want the James Bond, you know, options myself, but, you know, I can't get that either. But will that fully make me happy? No. I take delight when god says to me, hey, there's a person that needs your help.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Or points me in a direction that says, you know, there are people out there that you need to talk to. I'm happy for that because then that means god is saying to me there's purpose in my life and I'm happier for it. And what many people and what a lot of scholars say and what a lot of philosophers say and definitely a lot of psychiatrists will say is, you know, self help is good but you need us. Well, yeah. But you also can't self self help your way to happiness.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

You know, going to, you know, a therapist like I do, they're helping me, like I said, with my mental so I can get my spiritual in order too. I go to the gym so that I

Pastor Brandon Holm:

can get my physical house in order. My spiritual house is above all that. And if I'm not spiritually there, you

Pastor Brandon Holm:

know, I cannot self help myself on that happiness, on that level of happiness. So couple of questions I wanna ask as I wrap it up here. Is where are you pursuing happiness over holiness? Are you looking at the latest game? I'm sure many of you would, like me, would like, you know, Blackmuth Wukong.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But at $60 it's a little expensive expensive but, hey, you know, do you get a price and then you can be happy? Oh and, yeah, I do pray to God to lower prices on a lot of games so, you know, I'm not I'm with you on this one. Okay? But, you know, are you pursuing happiness or overholiness? Are you looking for that?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Are you asking god what can I do better? Where can I go from here? What can I just take from this and go out there? That will make not only me happy but you happy. And that comes to my second question.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

What is God calling you to do about it? You know, people always say happiness You know, life is hard, but god's always good. This is true. But god never said you're gonna be happy in your trials and tribulations. He says to call on him, to find him, to seek

Pastor Brandon Holm:

him, to get you through that.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Because I always say this, and it works for me. It may work for you, may not. You'll have to figure it out for yourself. That's true. And I've had to figure it out for myself how what works for me.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

But, you know, my prayers and saying God, yeah, here's my worry. Here is what it is. I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna walk away from it. Now am I happy?

Pastor Brandon Holm:

No. Because I still have to deal with the stuff that's going on with it. But the worry and is just pulled out of it so much that I don't have to worry about a thing. I can actually focus better. And when I get to that point, it's like, oh, I'm so happy that I figured it out, I got through this challenge over, and I am so happy.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

And then God's like, yeah, I knew you could do it. I'm happy for you. So I've never stated, and if I have in the past, I do apologize, but for me personally, I've never stated that God is, you know, God is my ticket to happiness, because he's not. He is my house. Oh.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Like I said, this is not a vending machine thing. And the reason is is is really simple. God is always good. He does care about me. That's what makes him so real for me, that he can actually put into my life things that are gonna give me troubles so that I can call on him.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

He helps me through getting rid of the worry, the emotion out of it, so that he can feel the emotion. He can feel what I'm feeling. And then I can focus on everything that needs to get done. And when I'm done, I am so happy. And he goes, yeah.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Good. You called on me. That's great. And we got through this together. I am so happy for you that you came up to that challenge.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

So that's it for us here at The Greater Guild. Thank you for joining us. Again, come see us Friday nights, if you want the full geek experience with gaming. We are looking at adding gaming to our Sunday service. So if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or you think that's a great idea, hey, let us know.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

I know our website is down still. Believe me, there is a lot of issues going on, and it is being rectified as fast as possible. And I will tell you this, we are definitely working on it. It's not we're not just, you know, going and going, oh, it needs this note. We're doing a full audit of the whole thing so that it's more secure.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Like it wasn't, you know, it was secure before, but it's definitely getting secure from then, from the from in the past. We wanna make sure it works heading out of the gate. Now we had a few trial runs. It worked okay. We're gonna make sure it's a 100% ready to go.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Because that's what we owe to you. So again, this is your pastor Brandon here saying, I will see you guys next week or Friday. But please be sure to check us out. Plus every day during the week, we have little clips of this message going out to everybody else. So do check this out.

Pastor Brandon Holm:

Subscribe, like, follow. Hey, we love you all. We'll see you next time.

Greater Guild Announcer:

Wow. That was powerful. Pastor Brandon never fails to deliver a sermon that's both thought provoking and nerd tastic. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and donate if you want to keep the sermons and geeky discussions coming.

Greater Guild Announcer:

And remember, you can always connect with us on social media. Just search for the Greater Guild on all your favorite platforms. We'd love to hear your thoughts and geek out with you. Thanks for tuning in, Guild Nerds. Until next time, keep the faith and stay nerdy.