How to Win Within Part 4

Intro:

I think my dad had that normal feeling as dad when you realized you probably took things too far and he consoled my brother and told him we were playing a joke on him and the rest is history.

Now, usually the tool of punishment in the Foshee house was either a belt or a wooden spoon

But on this night it was my baseball bat

We had a lot of fun with that bat

And yet, what was meant for my joy and pleasure had turned into the instrument of punishment and pain

And this only happened because the bat was broken, otherwise it would have stayed outside

And because it could no longer be used for it’s intended purposes it was repurposed for an opposite effect.

Our hearts are wired similarly

Every want, is given to us for a good purpose, to move us toward glorifying God and enjoying Him forever

But our wants have been broken

Their true purpose snapped

And now, our hearts use these broken wants for our punishment and pain instead of our joy

Our wants are now the instruments of sin

But here is a crazy biblical truth that we will talk about today

God wants to give you the desires of your heart

And here’s how I know that’s true

Psalm 37:4 NIV

4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

So maybe it isn’t our wants at there core that is so bad, maybe there’s a different problem, and if there’s a different problem, then that means there’s a different solution

pray

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart!

Man! What a different message from, keeping working!

If you don’t feel like a christian then you haven’t worked hard enough for it

quit feeling, quit having fun, quit living, quit wanting

Again I want to repeat this truth for us this morning,

The gospel is not about behavior modification but heart transformation

If we think we can or that we need to fix and work and do and save then we have missed the gospel entirely

Jesus isn’t interested in your hands if he doesn’t have your heart

And Psalm 34 is going to reinforce the idea that God has placed desires and affections in the heart of every man woman and child

And His goal is not for you to kill them but to point them in the right direction and then ramp them up!

Ultimately, our desires are not the problem, what we delight in is

Right? So, in the same way that we can’t just dismiss our affections and desires

We also cant just read a verse like this and go, “ok God will give me the desires of my heart.”

I desire for a ferrarri and there it is

I desire a new golf game

I desire for my football team to win a game this year

Jesus isn’t a genie in a bottle who grants us our every wish, He’s the God of the universe who aligns hearts to be fulfilled

So the first part of this verse is just as important as the second part

We must learn how to first delight in the Lord

If we want to learn how to rewire our hearts

We must learn how to delight in the Lord

And I know you probably showed up today hoping I’d give you the 5 steps to rewire your heart so that you could go home this afternoon, implement them, and be good to go

But the truth is, rewiring your heart is a life-long process

with the end goal being, delight in the Lord

God wants you to understand that He is the goal!

Not possessions, not wealth, not fame, not religion

Him! And He has placed inside of you affections that will be fulfilled one way or another

But the problem with our society today is it’s full of people who are fulfilling their wants with the wrong things

So, it may benefit us to see some of these wants, there rightful purpose, how sin disorders them, so that we have a better chance of properly reordering our affections.

So, I just want to list 6 general wants that we all have

this isn’t exhaustive but will hopefully give us a glimpse into how all of them work

#1 Satisfaction

It’s holy purpose is to lead you to the source of fulfillment

But a sin like sexual immorality would cause unbelief in your hearts

That unbelief creates the thought that “God isn’t satisfying, the world is.”

#2 Acceptance

It’s holy purpose is to cause you to long for reconciliation

But a sin like gossip could create unbelief

That unbelief would have you believe that “I have been rejected by God; He doesn’t want me.

#3 Validation

Its holy purpose is to create a desire to be made right by Jesus

But a sin like cheating would create unbelief

That unbelief would have you believe that “I have to prove my worth and others give me adequacy.”

#4 Pleasure

It’s holy purpose is to initiate a hunger to find joy in the goodness of God

But a sin like Gluttony would create unbelief

That unbelief would have us believe that the best goods are here and that pleasure is its own end

#5 Purpose

It’s holy purpose is to reveal a greater reason for your life

But a sin like overworking would create unbelief in that

That unbelief would have you believe that I have no eternal meaning; I make what I want out of life on my own

#6 Dominion

Its holy purpose is to allow you to be humble by participating in God’s work and power

But a sin like abuse would create unbelief

That unbelief would have you believe that I will only ever have what I can control; I have to earn it if I want it.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg but we begin to get a picture of how our desires aren’t bad

In fact, your desires have holy purposes

They have been warped by sin which has created unbelief in the heart

We’ve been lied to and the crazy part is yes we are the victim but we are also the culprit

We’ve been lying to ourselves and our hearts have become so confused they don’t know what to feel anymore

But the good news is, there is a remedy

And if this is the process then the remedy should be easy to find!

The remedy is BELIEF!

Faith is the antidote to the poison of unbelief.

However, we will need a active, unique, robust form of faith to overcome the effects of unbelief.

Think about, for a second, how deeply some of these lies have their hooks in your heart

The only faith that will dispel the warping effect of unbelief from your heart is gospel-faith applied by the Holy Spirit!

How do we fight for holy satisfaction amid staunch unbelief that God isn’t satisfying?

You meditate on the promises of Jesus where he promises to be your satisfaction (Psalm 107:9, Matt 5:6, John 6:35.)

So our want for satisfaction will now be fueled by the affection of spiritual hunger

What about acceptance? Meditate on verse like Rom 8:1 and Gal 4:4-6 that tell me that Jesus paid for my acceptance

Our want for acceptance will be fueled by the affection of Peace with God

Validation - meditate on Col 1:12, 2 Thess 1:11-12, that tell me that Jesus and Jesus alone makes me worthy

Our want for validation will be fueled by the affection of confident hope

Pleasure - meditate on Psa 16:11, Rev 21:1-5, that tells me that Jesus’ presence is the greatest pleasure

Our want for pleasure will be satisfied by the affection of unexplainable joy

Purpose - meditate on Eph 1:3-23, Eph 2:9-10 that tells me that Jesus saved me for his good purposes

Our want for purpose will be satisfied by the affection of Righteous zeal

Dominion - meditate on 2 tim 2:11-13, and Rev 3:21 that tells me that Jesus has dominion over everything and shares it with me

Our want for Dominion will be satisfied by the affection of Trusting contentment

You want to turn your unbelief into holy affections then meditate on the word of God!

Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with the faith that only Jesus satisfies, His acceptance is all that you need, He makes you worthy, His presence brings you great joy, His purposes are good, and He rules over all and invites you to participate with Him

If you want holy affections faith is the answer!

If we do this, then here is what happens, our wants are repaired through gospel-faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, and the gospel of Jesus changes our hearts so that our actions turn away from sin by obtaining new affections

This is what sanctification looks like

the process of ridding sin by replacing our unbelief with faith which changes our affections to holy ones

And this is a process. This process should be full of repentance!

But don’t allow your moments of weakness to turn back into unbelief

Repent, and continue the process!

Because ultimately, the Christian life is a life of constant repentance because the real problem is much deeper than we think

The outward sins in your life are always a symptom of a much larger problem, your heart.

That is where the real mess lays

So you must constantly repent because sin constantly goes deeper

Sanctification conquers the heart, this process conquers the heart

Heart holiness is vital

We have to stop just trying to refocus our hands, we have to rewire our hearts

Developing a holy heart is imperative because without it we will never be able to see, nor will we want to see God

Last year I had the great idea that I would take my daughters dove hunting.

I thought it would be the best chance at them enjoying hunting

You don’t have to be extremely still, you can even talk a little, the dog is with us fetching the birds

I really thought I had a good chance

for some reason though, What I didn’t take into consideration is that they are their mother’s daughters

Well Naomi would have been 4 at the time and we get out there and aren’t there 2 minutes and she starts complaining about the grass itching her and then it’s hot and then the bugs and she can’t sit still

And all of sudden her little chair that she was sitting in popped and broke she fell on the ground and starts screaming to never recover

Now, dove hunting is some of my favorite. You place me in that same environment and there aren’t many other places in the world id rather be

Naomi on the other hand had no appreciation for it at all!

And her affections for dove hunting were not changed by experiencing it, in fact it worsened!

The same would happen in my heart if I saw a beautifully complex and elegant math equation.

I have no taste, knowledge or frame of reference with which to enjoy it

Such brilliance would be wasted on me

And just because the equation is perfectly beautiful doesn’t mean I will walk away from it loving math

The work of sanctification is the work of preparing us for heaven

So, here is a question you may want to ask yourself,

“Am I prepared to enjoy heaven?”

Yes, sure, you may want to go, but have you ever stopped to consider if you would even like it once you got there?

Heaven will be a holy place!

It will be a unique habitat for a unique people

And many people just assume that although they have no raised affections toward Christ or the glory of God now, that when (or should I say if) they get to heaven surely all that will change.

But that mindset expects of eternity what Christ expects of today

Imagine this for a second; God wants to give you glimpses and moments of the thing you long for most but you trade that for other things hoping that one day you might desire it differently

And so maybe a more pointed question to ask yourself is not do you want heaven but:

do you want what heaven wants?

Did you know that salvation is not the whole story of the gospel, because damnation was not the whole problem.

God saved a people to be holy, not just so they can live with him, but in order that they will want to live with him

God did not just save people from hell to bring them to heaven

God changes people who wanted hell into people who want heaven

and heaven is full of people who want God!

Do you realize that heaven is not about all your dreams coming true.

Heaven is about God!

John Piper has a great question on this matter:

If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, and all the physical pleasure you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there.

for so many christians, the honest answer to this question is yes.

And it’s because many people don’t want Jesus; they just want their version of paradise

The problem with that is, if the presence or nearness of Jesus is not your version of heaven, you do not have a biblical eternity in view

And you do not want what heaven wants

Heaven does not most want you, heaven most wants Christ

When the Bible gives us a picture of heaven we do not see a private mansion with a personal butler and a giant yard where the kitchen is full and the amenities never end

We see great multitudes standing around the enthroned and exalted Christ, worshiping him as worthy and holy

What that should tell us is, that rewiring our hearts isn’t just about preparing us to roam in a glorified state, it’s about preparing us to revel in a glorious savior!

And if that doesn’t start here and now it wont end there

The end goal of a rewired heart isn’t ultimately about enjoying heaven, it’s about enjoying Jesus.

We have to begin to meditate on the truths of God so that our hearts will believe and might be rewired by the Spirit so we can experience the Father the way we were intended to

Yes in heaven, but also here and now

So, again, I will finish how we started this morning

If you want God to grant you the desires of your heart, you must learn to delight in Jesus

If you want your desires granted you’ll learn to delight in the Lord

If and when we do this, it will change our lives forever!