From Duty to Delight

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

A man from the country found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman exited. The father hollered to his youngest son, "Billy, go get mom."

Today we’re going to talk about transformation - but it’s a different kind of transformation - the kind that changes us from the inside out rather than merely on the surface.

Today’s message is the fourth in our current sermon series where we’re seeing how Jesus is present in the Old Testament.

So far we looked at two examples of a Christophany - a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. We began with looking at the account of Jacob wrestling with God and then we saw how Jesus was present with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

Then we looked at two examples of a type - Adam and Jonah.

Today and next week, we’ll see how Jesus is present in Old Testament prophecies. We’re really going to just scratch the surface here since there are literally hundreds of passages we could have chosen.

Tension

Before we look at this morning’s passage I want you to take a moment to think about how you view obedience to God. Would you honestly say it’s merely a duty, something that you do reluctantly? Do you view it as a burden or something that limits your freedom and takes away your ability to enjoy life? Or would you say you genuinely delight in obeying God? Do you see obedience as something that brings freedom and real joy?

My guess is that for most of us, we’re somewhere between those two extremes. But I think that it’s also true that as we mature in our walk with Jesus, we desire more and more to get closer and closer to that pure delight side of the equation.

Truth

With that in mind, go ahead and turn to Psalm 40.

This Psalm was written by David, but unlike many of the other Psalms he authored, he does not indicate the specific occasion that inspired the Psalm. Many commentators believe it was likely written at the time of his coronation as king as he looked back on all the times that God had been faithful to save him. The Psalm has two distinct sections, which leads some to believe these were originally two separate Psalms that were later combined into one.

We’re going to focus this morning on verses 1-10 where David recounts God’s deliverance. Verses 11-17 are more of a lament Psalm

I’m going to try something a little different this morning as we read this Psalm together. I’m going to have the men read verses 1-5 with me and then have the women read verses 6-10. If you’re able, I’d ask you to stand as we read the passage together.

Psalm 40:1–10 ESV

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. 4 Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! 5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. 6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” 9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. 10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

This is what is known as a Messianic Psalm because it clearly points ahead to Jesus the Messiah. Sometimes it is hard to be sure than an Old Testament prophecy applies to Jesus, but in this case it’s not difficult at all because the author of Hebrews quotes from this Psalm in Hebrews chapter 10 and says that it tells us something about Jesus. We’ll look at that passage shortly.

But before we dig into both of those passages any deeper, I need to talk about a couple of important aspects of Old Testament prophecies:

First, many of those prophecies had a near term application at the time they were written as well as a later application. That is certainly true of Psalm 40, which David writes about himself and his relationship with God. But as we will see when we look at Hebrews, those same words also describe the attitude and work of Jesus at His first coming.

Second, at least some prophecies about Jesus apply to both His first and second comings and it is often difficult to distinguish between the two. A good example of that would be in Luke 4 where Jesus begins His public ministry by reading from Isaiah 61. He stops reading right in the middle of verse 2 because that part of the verse applied to His second coming.

As I mentioned earlier we know that Psalm 40 is a Messianic Psalm because it is quoted by the author of Hebrews and applied to Jesus. Go ahead and turn with me to Hebrews 10 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 5.

Hebrews 10:5–10 ESV

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ” 8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

You probably noted that the quotation from Psalm 40 does vary a bit from what we read earlier in that Psalm. That is primarily because the author of Hebrews is quoting from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. But none of those differences are significant nor do they change the underlying message, which we are going to summarize like this today:

When I fully surrender to Jesus, He transforms obedience from a duty to a delight

David seems to sense that there is a wide gulf between the magnitude of the great deliverance that God has granted to him and the prescribed animal sacrifices that were largely carried out in his culture out of a sense of duty. David is not saying here that those sacrifices had no value at all. After all they had been prescribed by God as the means to be forgiven for sins. But, as we see clearly in Hebrews, those sacrifices were always intended by God to be a temporary solution until Jesus paid the penalty for sin once for all.

As David pens this Psalm, he is much more focused on the heart behind the sacrifices than just the physical act itself. And he uses a very interesting idiom to help us see that difference.

In general, idioms can be really difficult to translate from one language to another. For instance if I someone says that they are going to quit smoking “cold turkey” and you translate that directly into almost any other language, this is what the other person sees in their mind:

David similarly uses a Hebrew idiom in verse 6 that is also hard to translate into English:

…but you have given me an open ear...

If you’re using the ESV translation, you have a footnote that indicates that the literal translation of the Hebrew is:

…ears you have dug for me...

Some commentators believe that David is referring here to the Old Testament practice of marking a bond servant who wanted to remain in his master’s service by letting his master pierce his ear with an awl. That’s actually an attractive option since it goes along with the idea of voluntarily and fully submitting our lives to Jesus.

But I think the picture here is actually much simpler. Have you ever had your ears clogged up with ear wax and have a hard time hearing? What do you do when that happens. Since my doctor is sitting right up here, I won’t tell you to remove it with a Q-tip, even though perhaps I’ve done that before. But you do have to do something to remove the wax and if it gets too bad you might actually have to go to the doctor and let them dig out your ear.

David is using that picture here to reveal that God has spoken to him and opened up his ears so that he can hear God and understand that revelation. That revelation is that God is a lot more interested in the heart behind the offering than the physical act itself. And then David responds to that revelation by saying that he has allowed God’s law to be written on his heart and that as a result he no longer views obedience to God as a duty, but rather as a delight.

It’s pretty easy to understand why the author of Hebrews applies this passage to Jesus. Throughout His earthly ministry we consistently see that Jesus’ desire is to carry out God’s will, no matter the cost.

In John 4, He tells the disciples that His food is to do His Father’s will.

John 4:34 ESV

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

In John 6, He tells them that He has come to earth, not to do His will, but the will of the Father.

John 6:38 ESV

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

In John 8 He tells that that He always does the things that please His Father.

John 8:29 ESV

29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

We’ve already seen in Hebrews 10 that Jesus came to the earth to do God’s will.

For both David and Jesus, it is clear that because they were fully surrendered to God, God transformed their obedience from duty to delight. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, even enduring the cross brought joy to Jesus:

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So both David and Jesus reveal that...

When I fully surrender to Jesus, He transforms obedience from a duty to a delight

Application

So let’s use our remaining time to see what we can learn from these passages that will help us fully surrender to Jesus so that He will do that same transforming work in our lives.

HOW TO FULLY SURRENDER MY LIFE TO JESUS

Make myself available

Throughout the Bible we see that God uses those who are available to Him, even when they might not be the most talented or the most qualified for the job. He chose a stuttering murderer to lead His people out of captivity in Egypt. He chose an unmarried teenage girl to be the mother of the Messiah. He staked the future of Christianity on uneducated fishermen and despised tax collectors.

David knew that well. God had called him to be king of the commonwealth of Israel while he was still a scrawny shepherd. But notice what he says in verse 7:

Then I said, “Behold I have come...” (v. 7)

What David is saying here to God is that he is available for God to use however He wants. Whatever time, talent, and treasure He possesses is at God’s disposal.

Obviously, Jesus did the very same thing. He willingly left the glory of heaven to come down here to earth to save sinners like us who didn’t even know they needed to be saved. As we saw earlier, He consistently was available to do whatever the Father asked of Him.

Have you made yourself available to God like that? have you said to God, “Whatever I have is at your service”? If not, what is holding you back from doing that right now?

Listen

Here is where the idiom that we looked at earlier in verse 6 comes in:

…but you have given me an open ear… (v. 6)

Obviously David doesn’t mean this in a physical sense, but rather in a spiritual sense. The idea here is that God has opened up David’s spiritual ears so that he can hear from God. That is something that only God can do. But what David had to so was to listen once God did that work.

The same is still true today. Today the two main ways that God speaks to us are through His Word and through the Holy Spirit. But until God opens up our spiritual eyes and ears, it’s just not possible for us to understand completely what God is saying to us. Paul writes about that in his first letter to the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The good news for us is that the moment we put our faith in Jesus, God sends a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to help us understand these spiritual truths. However, God won’t force us to listen to what He speaks to us through His Word and His Holy Spirit. We have to choose to listen.

Are you really listening to God? When you read the Bible are you listening for God to speak to you? I am convinced that He is always speaking every time we read the Bible if we really listen. Are you asking the Holy Spirit to speak to your spirit and to lead you into truth? If not, what is keeping you from doing that?

Obey what I already know

I think that almost every Christian I know would say they want to know God’s will for their lives. And in many cases, what they mean is that they want to know about the big things in life - who to marry, which school to go to, what job to take. But what you’ll find in the Bible is that God rarely revealed these kinds of things well in advance.

Think about Abram. God comes to him in Genesis 12 and says go to the land I will show you. God doesn’t give him any more details, but Abram just picks up his family and starts walking. He was just obedient to take the next step and then wait for God to reveal the next one. I think that if you asked Abram, he would have said the same thing that David wrote here in verse 8:

…I delight to do your will… (v. 8)

We see that throughout David’s life. He was told he was to be the next king while he was just a boy. And throughout the next years of his life, he had more than one opportunity to kill King Saul and try to speed up the process on his own. But he just kept being obedient to God one step at a time and waited on God’s timing.

Does your life look like that? Are you obeying those things that God has already revealed to you? If not, what is holding you back?

Trust God for the results

When we obey God, it doesn’t always mean our life is going to be easy or without problems. Even though David obeyed God, at least most of the time, he spent much of his adult life looking over his shoulder and running for his life as Saul tried to kill him. But even then, He trusted God for the results. I love what David writes in the first part of this Psalm:

…Blessed is the man who make the Lord his trust… (v. 4)

Trusting fully in the Lord won’t always be easy. But that is the only way to be truly blessed in our lives. I would go so far as to say that every time we get off track in our lives, it is because we have failed to trust fully in God. We have failed to believe that He loves us so much that He will always do what is best for us, even when that might involve difficulty, pain, or trials.

Are you trusting fully in God for the results in your life? Do you genuinely believe that He loves you and wants what is best for you? If not, why not?

Repeat

As we’ve talked about frequently, becoming a mature disciple of Jesus is a life long process. It is not like going to high school or college where we go to school for four years, complete a course of study, get a diploma or degree and then we’re finished.

Fully surrendering to Jesus means that I will need to complete the process we’ve talked about today over and over, often even multiple times a day. I make myself available to God, I listen to His voice in the Scriptures and as the Holy Spirit speaks to me, I obey what God reveals, I trust Him for the results and then I do all of that again, and again, and again.

Are you living out that process in your life? Or are you satisfied with the status quo or are you stuck? Will you do what is needed to get back in the game?

Action

We’ve seen this morning that...

When I fully surrender to Jesus, He transforms obedience from a duty to a delight

The first step in the process of fully surrendering to Jesus is to put your faith in Him alone. If you’ve never done that, I want to invite you to make that decision today. If you have questions about exactly how to do that, Ryan or I would love to talk to you more about that. But in very simple terms, it means that you quit trusting in what you can do to please God and start trusting in what Jesus did for you when He died on the cross and rose from the grave.

I know that most of you here today have already made that decision. For all of us who have done that I want to ask you once again do what I asked you to do at the beginning of this message. I want you to consider whether you view your obedience to God as more of a duty or a delight. Regardless of how you answer that question, I am pretty sure that all of us have some room for improvement.

If that’s the case in your life, then what are you going to do about that? Are you willing to offer your life to Jesus to use as He wants with no strings attached? Will you make a better effort to really listen to God as He speaks to you through His Word and His Holy Spirit? Will you obey the things that God has already revealed to you, even when they are hard? When you do that, will you trust the results to God? And then will you walk through that process over and over again for the rest of your life?

Inspiration

I can’t think of anything in my life that is better when it’s done out of a sense of duty rather than out of delight. So why would it be any different when it comes to my obedience to God. There is no better way to live life than to say with David and with Jesus, “I delight to do your will, O my God”.