The
"Psalm 37" Series #3
"DELIGHT & DESIRE!"
TEXT: Psalm
37:1-26; Matt. 6:33;
7:7
INTRO: Did you know that God
wants to grant you the desires of your heart? Did you know also that God wants
to shape the desires of your heart
first?
It is the first question that too
much popular preaching is about today, while many teachers largely ignore the
second question! However, God
wishes to both shape our desires and THEN fill them. Otherwise He would be a foolish father
simply satisfying the whims of children who don’t know what they should really
desire.
The results of the first question
alone: A perverted
Gospel promising believers enormous wealth and a life free of problems or
trials, some of this preaching which promises fame, fortune, popularity, good
times and all the rest of a life of ease seems appealing, especially in our
American culture, however this is not Biblical teaching.
This theology while popular and
apparently desirous is “man centered” and not “God centered” which is the final
test of all good theology! It
places receiving before giving, and it is dangerous to the church and the
Gospel! If the
ILLUS: He who
loves God with all his heart dreads neither death, torment, judgment, nor hell,
for perfect love opens a sure passage to God. -- Thomas a Kempis in The Imitation of Christ.
Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 3.
PROP.
SENT: The Bible teaches us that God does
grant the desires of our hearts ... when they have been shaped by a real
relationship with Jesus Christ!
A. Source
of Joy
Psalm 37:1-4
1. Our joy begins in a relationship to
the Lord!
2. Joy can result from two
sources:
a. An event: Example: a day off, a cash bonus, a new
bicycle, etc.
b. A relationship: Example: marriage, deep friendship,
belonging to Christ!
3. An event is short lived joy ...
while a relationship can bring long term
joy.
a. There are Christians that exist and
serve God based on the first type of joy, the event stuff. They keep looking for God to give them
something, do something, fix something, etc. for their continued
happiness.
b. But, their joy is not in their
relationship to Christ, but in what Christ does for them ... this invites an up
and down type of joyful Christian
living!
c. God wants our joy to be in
Him! It is not events alone but in
Him alone! He longs for our joy to
be based in our relationship to Him and not in just what He does in our lives as
events!
d. Until we move into this latter
plane our Christian walk will be rather
sporadic!
4. The Christian who bases their joy
on events will always be seeking some kind of experience to keep them on the
cress of joy
5. The Christian who bases their joy
on a relationship with Christ will be constant in their
joy!
ILLUS: Think
of the last thing you prayed about -- were you devoted to your desire or to God?
Determined to get some gift of the
Spirit or to get at God? "Your
Father knows what you need before you ask him." The point of asking is that you may get
to know God better. "Delight
yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Keep praying in order to get a perfect
understanding of God Himself. --
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no.
6.
6. Thus, it is Christ Himself who is
the source of our joy! This is
expressed in the first statement of verse 4:
“Delight
yourself in the Lord and He will give
you…”
B. Secret
of Joy Psalm
37:7-17
1. Joy is not just an
emotion!
a. It is a state of
well-being!
b. It is based on fact, not
fancy!
c. The facts of Christ's love and His
resurrection power in us and our Eternal life in Him!
d. Thus it is much greater than just
the emotional high that we normally associate with joy; it goes beyond a feeling
to a powerful peace!
2. The world doesn't know this secret
... it is hid from them, the only way that they might even become aware of it is
through Christians who show joy in whatever circumstance of life they find
themselves in and still live by faith!
Or, for them to find it themselves in a relationship to Jesus Christ and
then they join in on it!
3. The secret of delighting in the
Lord then is found in whom we are, not what we have ... some Christians still
need to learn this!
a. As God's people we can always be
joyful, not just the emotional type of joy but the sense of well being that
comes in knowing that “all things work together for good to those who love the
lord.”
b. Since our joy is founded in who we
are and not just what we have it BECOMES AN unshakeable joy! (Read Romans
8:28-39)
c. Since it is based on a real
relationship that cannot be destroyed it does not fluctuate up and down with
life circumstances.
4. Ask yourself these
questions:
a. Are you happy with God when tough
times hit?
b. Are you happy with God when He
answers your prayers in a different way than you had
asked?
c. Are you faithful to the Lord and
His church only when things are going smooth in your
life?
ILLUS: One
Saturday morning I awoke to the delightful smell of waffles and the sound of our
two small boys in the kitchen with my husband. Padding down to breakfast, I sat down on
my husband's lap and gave him a big hug for his
thoughtfulness.
Later that day, we were having a
heated "discussion" in our bedroom when our four-year-old, Jacob, stopped us in
mid-sentence. Standing in the
doorway, he said, "Mommy, try to remember how you felt when you were on Daddy's
lap."
-- Jane Schmidt,
5. Your answers can help you see
whether your joy is founded on events or on Christ! The secret to real joy is
found only in a relationship to
Christ!
C. Steps
to Joy Psalm.
37:1-3,18-26
1. "Fret
Not" Psalm
37:1-2,18-26
a. Fret not what? ... Events! Psalm37:1
b. Fret not what? ... Evil men! Psalm
37:1-2
2. "Trust in the
Lord and do good!" Psalm
37:3
a. Notice this has no conditions on
it!
b. It doesn't say “do good
IF…”
(1. IF you feel like
it!
(2. IF things are going your
way!
(3. IF you have
time!
(4. IF you are in church or it is
Sunday!
c. There are no conditions attached
because this comes out of the same thing we were talking about earlier, a
relationship to Christ … who is always
good!
d. We do good not because we have
received good things, but because we have received
God!
3. Trusting in God (Psalm 37:3) frees us to do good for we won't be
frantic about our own selves all the time ... we are trusting God for our
lives.
ILLUS: The
Arizona Republic (4/25/95) reported that when Steve Tran of Westminster,
California, closed the door on 25 activated bug bombs, he thought he had seen
the last of the cockroaches that shared his apartment. When the spray reached the pilot light of
the stove, it ignited, blasting his screen door across the street, breaking all
his windows, and setting his furniture
ablaze.
"I
really wanted to kill all of them," he said. "I thought if I used a lot more, it would
last longer." According to the
label, just two canisters of the fumigant would have solved Tran's roach
problem.
The
blast caused over $10,000 damage to his apartment building. And the cockroaches? Tran reported, "By Sunday, I saw them
walking around."
As Proverbs
29:11 says,
only "a fool gives full vent to his anger." -- Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 2.
4. These are necessary steps to
"delight" oneself in the Lord!
II. "DESIRES OF YOUR HEART" Psm.
37:4, Matt. 6:33; 7:7
A. Shaped
by Jesus Matt.
6:33
1. Not by
flesh!
a. The point here is to allow Jesus
and His kingdom values to shape our
desires!
b. This verse (Psalm 37:4) is not a passage to call up our genie in
the bottle called "Jesus" to grant us any desire of our heart as some are
teaching today!
c. This verse started with "delight in
the Lord" THEN "Desires of your heart"
d. If we begin with Jesus our desires
won't be fleshly in nature, because Jesus gives us a new nature and a new heart
for His desires, not ours!
ILLUS: I got a
letter from a sappy woman a while back--she knew I was sappy too, which is to
say a life-long Democrat. She was pregnant, and she wanted to know if I thought
it was a mistake to bring a little baby into a world as troubled as this one is.
And I replied, what made being alive almost worthwhile for me was the saints I
met. They could be almost anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved
decently and honorably in societies which were so often obscene. Our own society
is very frequently obscene. Perhaps many of us ... regardless of our ages or
power or wealth, can be saints for her child to meet. -- Kurt Vonnegut in
e. Your desires will take on a new set
of values in Christ; they will be good and
godly!
f. And the Lord will honor
them!
(1. Desire a beautiful
marriage.
(2. Desire a friend's
salvation.
(3. Desire a place of worship for God's
people.
(4. Desire our children's happiness and
salvation.
(5. Desiring good and godly
things!
2. The secret of this passage in Psalms is found in Matthew
6:33!
3. Maybe this is why the church has
seen so few miracles in these days, it has lost the art of desiring the right
things, God will answer the desires of our hearts when we know how to desire the
right things, and the church will see the results of miracles taking place
within.
a. Paul desired to get to the next
town to preach.
b. Paul desired to see his
friends.
c. Paul desired to know the surpassing
knowledge of Jesus Christ, to Know Christ's resurrection
power.
d. Paul desired to minister to others
... notice we don't find many of Paul's desires in the Bible recorded as "a new chariot with air conditioning, a sea
side house, a large bank account," not that these things are wrong to have
or that God won’t sometimes even give these, but we need to learn the art of
desiring the "BEST THINGS" first.
B. Selected by Jesus
Matt. 6:33;
7:7ff
1. The longer we walk with Jesus the
more our heart becomes like Jesus' heart ... so that after a while His desires
become our desires!
a. Notice in this passage (Matt. 7:7) where Jesus says to ask in His name and
we will be given it … the context is that we are asking for “good things.” Matt.
7:11
b. The context is not that we are
asking literally for “anything.”
2. This happens in healthy marriages
and other healthy relationships.
a. After more than 40 years of
marriage to my wife Bevie Jo both her desires and my desires are more the same
than ever!
b. This is the result of the two
becoming one in marriage.
c. This is true with our relationship
to Jesus too; Jesus prayed in John 17 that we
might become one, and that we might be one with Him
too!
ILLUS: Judy
Anderson, whose husband is the West Africa Director of the World Relief
Corporation, grew up as the daughter of missionaries in
After a full day of long speeches and music, an old man came before the
crowd and insisted that he be allowed to speak. He said he soon would die, and
that he alone had some important information. If he did not speak, that
information would go with him to his
grave.
He
explained that when Christian missionaries came a hundred years before, his
people thought the missionaries were strange and their message unusual. The
tribal leaders decided to test the missionaries by slowly poisoning them to
death. Over a period of months and years, missionary children died one by
one.
Then the old man said, "It was as
we watched how they died that we decided we wanted to live as Christians." That
story had gone untold for one hundred years. Those who died painful, strange
deaths never knew why they were dying or what the impact of their lives and
deaths would be. They stayed because they trusted Jesus Christ. -- Leith
3. While this process goes on, our
desires will become selected by Christ Himself, as He puts those desires in our
hearts that He would have us have!
a. When your heart is for Christ, it
will also be for Christ’s values and
desires.
b. This is the process of being made
more and more in the image of
Christ.
C. Sealed
by Jesus Matt.
7:7
1. Those desires that are godly we can
ask for confidently, we have them because they are His will! (READ 1 John
5:14-15)
2. Christ seals His desires within us
so we ask for what we should and not always what we
want!
3. Spiritual growth is evident by
knowing what to ask for, Jesus seals in our hearts His own heart and helps
us to know it the longer we walk with Him, we will feel His pulse beat and know
His mind as we walk along with
Jesus.
ILLUS: God has
created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. ...
Therefore
I will trust Him. Whatever,
wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may
serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my
sorrow may serve Him. My sickness,
or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is
quite beyond us. He does nothing in
vain.
-- John Henry Newman in Prayers, Verses and
Devotions. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 3.
CONCLUSION: "Delight yourself
in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart" YES! But,
the secret to receiving is found first in "delighting
ourselves in the Lord!" Too many Christians want to
start with the "desire of your hearts" part of this verse, and
skip over the first part! They want to reverse the verse, they
will delight themselves in the Lord IF the Lord gives them first the desires
of their hearts ... but the Holy Spirit didn't write it in this order! We must begin by delighting our self in
the Lord and His desires will become ours, and thus He will answer them -- and
they will be
wonderful!