What is it Like to Delight in God? Part 1

How to Have Fullness of Joy

John 15:11

 

DATE: 18 May, 2008 AM

PLACE: BBC Ballincollig

 

I.       Introduction (John 15:11)

 

A.    Theme this month - Bow the Knee in Delight, Praise – Learning to enjoy God!

B.     Bible words for delight are:

 

1.      Glory

2.      Rejoicing

3.      Joy

4.      Pleasure

5.      Enjoyment

 

C.     These are words associated these days only with drugs, and sex – but they describe a Christian’s powerful feeling about their Lord! At least they SHOULD!

 

II.    Illustration (Psalm 34:8)

 

A.    One of the delicacies loved by people everywhere, is chocolate. Lovers use it to express their affection, husbands use it to make up after a fight.

B.     Let me share with you a set of "Rules of Chocolate."

 

1.      If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

2.      Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices & strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

3.      The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car. The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

4.      Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

5.      A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

6.      If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

7.      If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.

8.      If I eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, isn’t that a balanced diet? Don't they actually counteract each other?

9.      Money talks. But Chocolate sings.

10.  Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

11.  Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

C.     Do you know what the truth is? Only those who have actually tasted chocolate have delighted in it.  You will never just automatically delight in chocolate – you have got to taste it!

D.    I want to understand how to delight in God. I don’t want to just say it either… I want to experience it! But you probably need to see it first in someone else

E.     So we are going to look at some people who really HAVE tasted the goodness of the Lord, and fallen in love with Him, and are addicted to Him!

 

III. What Does it Mean to Delight in God?

 

A.    One might describe "delight" this way - it's what happens when there is excitement inside, a tingle, a spark. When you're doing what you really love to do, or you're with someone you really love - "de light comes on."

B.     It is a perfect attitude – something that over-rides every other feeling, and trial

C.     Does that ever happen between you and God?

 

1.      It did with David!

 

a.       David called God his "exceeding joy" (Psalm 43:4)

b.      David said that complete and lasting pleasure is found in God alone: "in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:11).

c.       David not only loved God, he delighted in Him – he thoroughly enjoyed Him!

 

2.      It happened with Paul

 

a.       Paul triumphantly declared “we glory in tribulations” (Romans 5:3).

b.      He was "sorrowful yet alway rejoicing" (2 Corinthians 6:10)

c.       He commanded Christians to "rejoice in the Lord alway" (Philippians 4:4)

 

3.      It happened with James the half-brother of Jesus said, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations" (James 1:2).

4.      Peter delighted in the Lord (1Peter 1:8)

5.      Most of all, it happened with Jesus! Jesus delighted in His Father – that was His whole life here on earth! One long thrill!

D.    So, the truth is, to learn how to delight in the Lord is something I can’t quite teach you, but is instead, seen, and observed, and followed!

 

IV. Message – What is it Like to Delight in God?

 

A.    You Love HIM (1Peter 1:8)

 

1.      You just want to please Him (John 8:29)

2.      The first and most important task is to delight in who he is, not in what he does – even though what He does is always amazing!

3.      David was a lover of God. Period. That’s why God used Him, and blessed him. Whether in the desert with some sheep, or running from cave to cave hiding from king Saul, or on his royal throne, David just simply loved God!

4.      And it is true in your life too – you give a lot of attention to those who just want to be with you and honour you and bless you!

5.      You give less time to those who only want to take from you and get from you!

6.      Do you love the Lord? What a question!

7.      It is the first and greatest commandment!

8.      It is the first sign that you are delighting in God, enjoying God!

9.      Too many look to Jesus only as a fix-it Man, but  sinners, harlots, publicans all found joy in Christ’s presence! They LOVED Him!

10.  If church is dull, and the Bible a bore, then you are missing the point

 

a.       Jesus makes Church awesome

b.      Jesus makes the Bible alive!

 

11.  Do you realise what preaching is all about it? It’s to get everyone in this room more in love with Jesus – look at 2Corinthians 11:1-3

 

a.       Sought-after love – the world and the devil want that love that belongs to Jesus

b.      Simple love

c.       Steadfast love – like a marriage – belongs to no one else!

 

B.     You Love Prayer (Luke 11:1; Mark 1:35)

 

1.      Prayer is spending time with God! If prayer is more than that, then it is soiled and ruined

2.      Prayer is time with God first, asking for things second – when it is the opposite, it dies!

3.      A sign of delight is the time you spend with them

4.      When else do you spend time just with God?

5.      Oh how we need to develop our prayer time, not just our prayer lists!

6.      To pray is not hard. To love prayer is the key

7.      To love prayer is to love God through prayer!

8.      Jesus loved His heavenly Father through prayer

9.      That’s how everybody knew Jesus delighted in God!

 

C.     You Love Serving God (Luke 2:49)

 

1.      Just doing whatever God wants done – no matter how hard

2.      Look at John 21:15-22

 

a.       Peter had denied even knowing Jesus three times, and abandoned Jesus just before the awful tortures and death of the crucifixion

b.      And here was Jesus now, alive, sitting across from Peter, with a pile of some of the biggest fish Peter had ever seen

c.       And Jesus plainly asks Peter, “Do you love me?”

d.      Like I said – what a piercing question

e.       But the question has a purpose

f.       Do you love me enough to do something for me? No matter how hard?

 

3.      Jesus loved and delighted in His Father enough to humble Himself and become a man, and have no reputation, and serve (Philp 2:5-11)

 

a.       No matter what He asks others to do

b.      No matter if no one else follows the Lord

c.       Will you love Jesus more?

 

4.      What has the Lord asked you to do?

 

a.       Isn’t HE worth it?

b.      Didn’t He know what he was doing when he asked you to serve Him?

c.       Can’t He be enough for you as you serve?

d.      If HE cannot be enough, then nothing ever will be!

e.       But if He IS enough, then there is nothing you can’t do!

 

D.    You Endure Afflictions (2Cor 4:8,9; 6:5-10; 4:16-18)

 

1.      You easily put up with troubles, hurdles, obstacles in your life – why?

2.      Because Jesus is with you like He said (Matthew 28:20; Heb 13:5)

3.      In the midst of a sinking, doomed ship in a hurricane in the Mediterranean Sea a little prophet named the Apostle Paul stood and said, “Hey! Be of good cheer guys! I believe God!” He knew he had more to do for the Lord, and so no storm would worry him!

4.      So few Christians endure afflictions today because of one reason only… because they make their own comfort more important than their convictions (what is most important)!

5.      Hey… there is a cross before every crown – period!

6.      Why did Jesus endure the cross? For the joy that was AHEAD (Heb 12:2)

7.      Don’t miss the joy because of your thin-skin!

 

V.    Conclusion

VI. Part 2 next Week

 

 

 

Craig Ledbetter |  Pastor  |  Bible Baptist Church  |  021-4871234  +353-21-4871234  |  biblebc@gmail.com  www.biblebc.com