Enjoying God

Introduction

If we have not had the pleasure of meeting my name is John Colunga and I have the privilige of serving as lead pastor here at New Day Pasadena

I also have the privilige of bringing this weeks sermon

So if you have your Bibles, please turn to Psalm 37

If you forgot your Bible please use the one in front of you and if you dont have a Bible at all, please take home the one in front of you as a free gift to you

Opening

We are closing our sermin series called He Holds the Future

And it really is a continuation from our Easter Sermon that Jesus is our Living Hope

And becaue he is alive and reigning, we can trust in him and find rest in him

We can rest in knowing that God has a good plan

And we can rest in knowing that he provides

And we trust and believe that whatever happens in this life, God is with us

And so we can live with our sights set on him, we can live with heaven in view

Illustration

Trading for something Better

Bogey story and training

Positive reinfocement

trading what he isnt suppossed to have for cheese

For Bogey the cheese is what delights him most

The cheese keeps him from keeping what he isnt suppossed to have

At the risk of comparing God to cheese,

God is who we should delight most in

There are many things that will try to distract us and keep us from delighting in God

However, we are to commit ourselves to the Lord and enjoy him

If you are able to stand, I ask that you please do so for the reading of God’s word. I’ll read it as you follow along,

1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! 2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 37:1–6.

This is the Word of the Lord - You may now be seated

Background

A Psalm of David

This Psalm, if compared to Psalm 1, can seem like they are contradicting each other

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 1:1–4.

On the surface it can seem like in Psalm 1, it is implying that the righteous will prosper in all that he does here on earth

And on the suface in Psalm 37, the righteous are seeing the wicked prosper on earth and they are tempted to want it

And so it can seem like we would have to choose between the two which one we think is right

But when you get to the root of both passages - the message in both is that the righteous are not concerned with the the physical but are looking past it to the spiritual

Yes God will prosper his people and yes there are wicked people who will prosper more than them here on earth

But Psalm 1 is clear that the child of God is delighting in the law of the Lord - not in the things of the world

That God’s people are like a tree - and it is strong because it close to the water source which is God

And because it is God who gives life and sustains - we not need to worry about anything else

Do not be envious of wrongdoers

1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!

King David stars off by telling us here in Psalm 37 not to worry or be envious of the wicked

It doesn’t matter what they have, what successes they have, how happy they look

They ultimately are not connected to the water source which is God

And so we are not to be envious - if anything we should look upon them with great concern for their spiritual state

That because they are not connected to God, they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

We live in Texas, we should be able to connect and understand this analogy

When the sun is out in summer and its light is directly hitting our grass

Without rain, It kills our grass

We have to water it and tend to it but if just left alone it withers and becomes crunchy

And it should bring you concern

As they stand, the wicked, although they do have the posessions of the world they do not posess God

And because they do not posess God they are spiritually separated from God and will have to one day give a spiritual account

So do not envy thier position - do not envy their circumstance - do not envy thier happieness

Rather -

Trust in the Lord, do good, befriend faithfulness

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Throughout this whole sermon series you have been hearing this from our scriptures over and over to trust God

And last week we talked about how God is good, he created us with a good purpose, to do a good work

So I wont stay here for long but we cant ignore this “trust in the Lord”

Do you have faith - specifically for us, do you have faith in Jesus

Quick gospel presentation

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus - you must befriend faithfulness

You have to understand that in your faith journey, you will have temptations

In your faith journey, you will at times give into these temptations

But when you recognize the emptiness, the shame, the failings of this world

When the Holy Spirit convicts you and you feel guilty

All you need to do is repent, ask the Lord to forgive you, and then continue to walk in faithfulness of the Lord

This life of following Chirst is not like a board game where you have to go straight to jail

Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200

and either by chance of rolling dice or paying a fine you can get out

There is no spiritual jail and there is no penance to give

Rather by faith and repentence there is forgiveness for the believer to continue in faithfulness

But what helps to sustain faithfulness?

Romans 1:16–17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.””

Those that have faith in Jesus to save should have faith to follow

Those who have faith in Jesus should live a life that reflects Jesus

Those who have faith in Jesus are loyal, sustained, satisfied, longing, for more of Jesus

Enjoy the Lord

King David goes on to write

4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

In Psalm 1 we read that we should delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on him day and night

And here we are being directed to delight in the law giver

Delight in the person of God

To delight in God is to enjoy God

To delight in God is to be satisfied in God

When you trust in the Lord - it doesnt matter what happens here on earth

It doesnt matter what the wicked has

It doesnt matter what material things you do have

What does matter is that you are consuming spiritual food

What does matter is that we are growing in our relationship with God

What does matter is that as God sustains and keeps us, that we remain satisfied in him

One way we can check ourself is by asking the question - what is the desire of my heart?

I submit to you that if you are remaining satisfied in God, seeking first the kingdom of God, loving God

Then as you are growing closer to him then your desires in this world be more of His desires

You may want a Mercedes Benz but you desire for your children to know God

You may want a higher salary but you desire for your patience to grow

You may want a bigger house but you desire to serve others

Commit

In order to remain and in order to have faithfulness there is a level of commitment that has to be present

5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

We can commit because of the hope he brings

When your heart is changed and you are made new - you will find your commitment increase over time

Your loyalty grows

Your faith will increase over time

In verse five it read trust in him, and he will act.

God will grow you

Next Steps

Connect Card is a next step

He will always call you into a next step

Application

Trust in the Lord

“Trust is earned, not given”

If there is one who has earned trust more than anyone in this world it’s God

His plan, faithfulness, love, compassion, peace, redemption, all points to him being trustworthy

The only one who deserves to be #1 in our life and to be trusted for salvation

Prove to me that Hitler was a real person - you cant physically prove it to me

What you are going to do is show me evidence - historical accounts, pictures, objects, places, documents

There is overwhelming evidence that Hitler was a real person who did terrible things

I submit to you today that there is overwhelming evidence of God and that we should trust in God

God’s words in the Bible, historical accounts, objects, places, documents, creation, science, and the sustaining of life

Saving Faith and Living Faith

James 2 Faith without works is dead

How are you living out your faith?

What are the works that makes your faith evident?

Walk in Faith

Freedom - Not bound to sin or the world - We are bound in Jesus and his goodness for goodness

Rest - throw our burdens of the world onto Jesus

Newness

Romans 6:4 “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Baptisms last week were beautiful and point to safety and security of Jesus and walk as new people

We are identified with Christ and show that we are following his path which is new for us

Marianne likes to make fun of me - says im like a child in the sense of - I get into phases of new hobbies

records, boxing, stock market, idk maybe its just a man thing

In the same way kids stop playing with old toys and want new toys

But can I tell you that as a believer, because you have a relationship with God, you will never get old to Him

That he is faithful to you first and will always value you and will always bring new to your life

It’s crazy, We dont like change but God always has something new for us

Don’t envy the world, dont look at what they have, but look at what God has for you

Be looking for the new that comes from him!

A new work - to impact new people and to keep you serving

A new lesson - when you think you know it all

A new encouragement - at the right moment

God will bring new into your life

The new God brings into your life is for you to be continuously delighted in him

To:

Enjoy the Lord

What is the actual experience of being satisfied in God?

You are being satisfied in a person

In the person of God

God is enough for you

God is to you what cheese is to my Bogey

You want nothing more than him

And because you have him you are complete

That your desires are his desires

You delight in his word, you delight in his creation, you delight in his blessings, you delight in his correction, you delight in his wisdom, you delight in his goodness, you delight in his justice, you delight in his plan for you

You delight yourself in God

Church

As God works in us and through us individually

He is also using us together as a church

To continue to trust in Him,

to continue to walk in the new things he has prepared for us,

and for us not to be looking at and envying the things of this world

But to be faithful and fully satisfied in Him

May we be a church that is always delighting in the person of God