Delight In God 2

Delight In God

Delight In God Part 2

Connection PASTOR RICHARD TESTIMONY

Recently I was talking to Pastor Richard and he was telling me what God did for him. He and Pastor Joan were on vacation in Monterey and he had a desire to play at these two golf courses.

He told pastor Joan of this desire and kept it moving. Fast forward to two weeks he met with a guy here in FF who needed some counsel the meeting lasted several ours and they both were encouraged.

A few days later the guy reaches out to Pastor Richard and asked him if he would like to play a couple of rounds of golf at those two courses. Pastor thought wow I just said to the Lord a few weeks ago that I wanted to play those courses.

Like any good husband he said let me check with my wife. And then he thought wait a minute Lord this is you! And he accepted the invite. And that’s where he is today in Monterey enjoying. Isn’t God God!

As Pastor Richard is sharing this testimony with me God is speaking to me saying Richard delights in Me

And that brings to me to what I want to talk to you about today Delight In God.

CHURCH WIDE

We are in a Church Wide series entitled Follow Me by David Platt. I say Church Wide because our Liberty Suisun Campus, our Liberty Espanol Campus as well as Jr High and High School programs are also going through the study as well.

We are teaching on it on Sundays and on Wednesdays nights and Saturday morning we are breaking up into small groups and going deeper. Liberty Espanol are having there small group study on Thursday nights.

The last two weeks Pastor Richard taught on The Call and Be Transformed. The Call to Follow Jesus and Follow Jesus can and should Transform your life.

MAIN

So go with me to Psalm 37:4 it says

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

WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF PSALM 37:4?

People would argue that one of the most misused verses in the Bible is Psalm 37:4

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart”

It is very easy to misapply this scripture to say, if I follow God, He will give me what ever I want.

However when we dive deeper into the context of this passage it speaks much differently. There was evil happening in the time of King David and God was encouraging His people to trust Him, Delight in Him, and commit their ways to Him.

And I would say there’s a lot of evil going on in our world and culture today and we need to learn to trust God, Delight in God, and commit our ways to Him.

WE DELIGHT IN SO MANY THINGS?

Food

Sports

Family/Friends

Wealth

Our likes on our social Media

BUT WHAT DOES THE WORD DELIGHT MEAN?

The Hebrew verb translated delight literally means to be soft and pliable, to be delicate.

To pamper! To treat delicately! To be happy about! To make merry over! As in enjoying a person. (DID YOU KNOW WE GET TO ENJOY THE HOLY SPIRIT)

Delight, which is important here, meaning this is a strong command

It also reflective. Meaning the action comes back onto the subject.

IT LOOKS LIKE THIS. If we delight in the Lord, That delight falls back down on us as well! The old what goes around comes around motif.

DELIGHT LITERALLY- Is a command to celebrate the presence of God as we would ohh and ahh over our favorite meal, or our sports teams, or hanging with people we love being around.

And since He said I will never leave you nor forsake you we should Delight in His presence ALL day because He’s ALWAYS there!

That’s why David said in Psalm 27:4 NLT

The one thing I ask of the Lord

The thing I seek most

Is to live in the house of the Lord ALL the days of my life,

delighting in the Lord perfections and meditating in His Temple.

You see God becomes our one (Desire) thing. If we have Him we have everything.

And nothing on earth compares to Him.

Psalm 73:25 says NLT Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire You more than anything on earth.

When we Delight ourselves in the Lord we learn to love and long for the best thing of ALL God Himself.

The word Delight also means to have

A high degree of Gratification

Joy and Extreme Satisfaction

Something that gives Great Pleasure

You see Delighting in God means that our hearts truly finds peace and fulfillment in Him. If we truly find our Gratification, Joy and Extreme Satisfaction in the Lord, scripture says He will give us the longings of our hearts.

Does that mean if we go to church every Sunday, God will give us a new car? No! The idea behind this verse and others like it is that, when we truly Delight in the eternal things of God, our desires will begin to align with His and we will never go unfulfilled.

Some people delight in God’s blessings vs Delighting in God

Many of us delight in wealth, status, material possessions, and other temporary things of this world, but they are never satisfied. They never truly get what they want, hence the reason they are always wanting more.

Consider Solomon, the bible says he was the wisest man in the world.

He had all the riches, success, esteem and power in the world.

In short all that men seek after in this life we see that none of it fulfilled the longing for eternity.

This is the lesson king Solomon learned in his pursuit of earthly treasures;

Everything is meaningless! All is vanity!

Meaning that he sought after these things in vain because they did not satisfy.

In Philippians 3:8 The Apostle Paul Says – Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it ALL as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.

The Apostle Paul states that he is willing to give up everything so that he my know Jesus Christ!

And when we to answer The Call to Follow Jesus we to will be like the disciples, The Lagang Family, Kevin and Bonnie Swearingen, Nate and Patti Thompson, Liz and Audie Southerland giving up everything and leaving behind everything to know Jesus more and Follow Him and make Him known.

Dighting in the Lord is true treasure indeed:

First John 2:15-17 says TPT

15 Don’t set the affections of your heart on this world or in loving the things of the world. the love of the Father and the love of the world are incompatible.

16 For all that the world can offer us the gratification of our flesh, the allurement of the things of the world, and the obsession with status and importance none of these things come from the Father but from the world.

17 This world and its desires are in the process of passing away, but those who love to do the will of God live forever.

We will never find Gratification, Joy and Extreme Satisfaction and Great Pleasure with the things this world has to offer. But If we Delight in God, he will meet all our needs. He will even grant our wants, our hearts desires begins to match up with His Will. If the Father is truly priority chances are our hearts greatest desires will not be for stuff, but eternal treasure in Christ.

This world cannot satisfy our deepest longings, but if we choose to delight in Gods way, he will always provide above and beyond our expectations.

Jesus said in John 4:14 Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

SO HOW DO WE DELIGHT IN GOD?

Sarah Martin says “The concept of delighting in God is closely intertwined with intimacy with God. A desire for more of His presence. A depth of relationship where we want to know more, feel more, experience more, worship Him more, converse with Him more, and find more freedom from sin.

MY FAST MY HEALING ON MY SIDE

December of last year I purpose in my heart that 2022 I was going to fast more. I just felt The Holy Spirit leading me in that direction. January our church fast came and I jump right in.

January 23rd Philip Renner came and he had a new book entitled A Fasted Life (Living A Lifestyle of Intimacy And Power With God). So I purchased the book and immediately started reading it. I devoured that book. I never in my life read a book so fast it shock me. I know ALL the other books I have were like what’s wrong with us you only read half of us.

As I was reading the book the Holy Spirit is speaking to me it time to fast. So I purposed in my heart to go on a 3 day fast and The Holy Spirit immediately said no 7. I was like 7 and He was yeah 7.

So I asked God what type of fast He wanted me to go on He said water I said water He water and some juice. I asked can I watch television and His response was no sports. If you know me you know that I love basketball and sports.

What I discovered as I spent time in the presence of the Lord I didn’t think about T.V. sports, I didn’t think about the Warriors game or the football playoffs matter of fact ALL I wanted to do was spend more and more time with Him.

Time praying, studying, worshiping Him, conversing with Him. He would wake me up at 1, 2 or 3 in the morning and I would stay up and just be in He presence It was such a Delight. I was Delighting in God but guess what He was delighting in me as well. He began to show and tell me things that I always wanted to see and hear.

Because I was in His presence and He was satisfying me and it was such great pleasure and gratifying. When the fast was over I didn’t want it to end. I delighted myself in him and he supplied every need all my longings came from Him.

He even healed my body for two years I’ve been having this constant pain in my side the doctors didn’t know what was going on. I took test after test but God healed me.

God also restore a relationship that I was praying for during the fast. An old family friend. As I was talking with that person I just felt The Father’s Love towards them and immediately ALL the hurt was gone and I forgave that person from my heart.

But it isn’t over I still can quiet all the noise and distractions of this world and go and be with my father who loves me and I can just delight in him. And when I do that I can find so much rest and strength in him. And direction in guidance and all my needs are taken care of.

SO WHAT it about God we SHOUD WE DELIGHT IN?

We can Delight in who He Is.

Think about the characteristics of God that makes you smile. What is it about the Lord that gets you excited? How has He been a constant in good times and in the challenging ones.

We can Delight In worship

When we think about someone who was overjoyed in worship to God, we remember David. Psalm 35:9 say Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in His salvation.

Not only did David mouth rejoice; his soul did. He was happy in the salvation of God.

We can Delight in God during trials and difficult season

2nd Corinthians 12:10 says

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We can Delight in His word

Psalm 119:47 says NLT

How I delight in your commands! How I love Them!

Psalm 119:16 says

I will delight in your decrees and not forget Your word.

We can Delight in knowing Him

Jeremiah 9:24 say NIV But let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight.

Jesus said in John 17:3 CSB

This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the one you have sent Jesus Christ.

We can Delight in answered prayers

We can Delight in the works of God

When you delight in the Lord your heart desires now reflect His desire for the

Lost

Sick

Nations

Hungry

Homeless

Orphan

Widows

Loving people

PASTOR CHRISTIAN FEEDING THE HUNGRY?

MIKE HESTER CARING FOR THE HOMELESS?

SO WHAT PREVENT YOU FROM DELIGHTING IN GOD MORE?

David Platt ask a questions in his book follow Me he says

What do you love and long for in your everyday life that may be keeping you from experiencing a deeper love for God and a greater longing for Him?

Our deepest desires is not ultimately for something but for someone. God has created us to be satisfied in Him.

Our satisfaction is not found ultimately in the gifts but in the Giver.

Do you find enjoyment, Satisfaction and Pleasure in God?

If not ask Him. Let’s take a minute right here right now and ask the Holy Spirit what’s hindering you from Delighting more in God.

Whats preventing you from enjoying God more?

Ask God are there any idols in your heart thats prevent you from Him?

Maybe it’s T.V., sports, career, a relationship, pride, sin,

Do you want to continue in what in

God we want to yield this things to You

Hebrew 4:16 says

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

The we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us

when we need it most.

Let’s pray

God