Psalm 37, the part that I want to focus on is beginning in verse number 3 there where
the Bible reads, Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and
verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
What I want to preach about this morning is delighting yourself in the Lord.
Now we often talk about loving the Lord and of course we know that the greatest commandment
the Bible says is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and
strength.
But when we think of love, it's a very broad word and it has a lot of different aspects
to it.
For example, the Bible often talks about the fact that this is the love of God that we
keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous or the Bible says in 2 John
and this is love that we walk after his commandments.
So there is a component of love that has to do with doing right by people and doing
your duty and doing what's expected of you.
For example, if I love my wife that means I'm going to stay faithful to her, I'm not
going to commit adultery, it means that I'm going to be a provider that goes out and makes
the money necessary to put food on the table.
Those are things that are encompassed within the word love.
But there's another aspect of love that has to do with delighting in someone.
See it's not just doing what's expected of me but rather finding pleasure and enjoyment
in the Lord.
That also is an aspect of love or having pleasure or enjoyment in my wife is another side of
love because love is very broad.
And so the aspect of love that I want to focus on this morning is that aspect of delight.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, the Bible says in verse 4, and he shall give thee the
desires of thine heart.
Now flip over if you would to Proverbs chapter 3, just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
Let me just show you a few scriptures that connect this idea of delight with love.
First of all the Bible says, while you're turning to Proverbs, the Bible says in Isaiah
42, 1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.
I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
That scripture is quoted in Matthew 12 as, Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved
in whom my soul is well pleased.
So we see there that being beloved and well pleasing is what it means to be someone who's
delighted in, okay?
Look down at your Bible there Proverbs 3, 12, it says for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth
even as a father of the son in whom he delighteth.
So we see that delighting in someone is part of what it means to love someone.
Now let me just give you an illustration.
My wife and I pretty much on a weekly basis we go on a date together, either we go out
to eat or we go out for ice cream or we go out just to do errands because honestly when
you have eight kids just getting out by yourself and doing anything is a lot of fun.
So we'll hang out and go shopping, go out for a snack, go out for dessert, whatever.
And we have a scheduled time each week that we do that.
Now sometimes we'll go other times during the week and sometimes we'll skip it depending
on the situation, but we pretty much have a routine of at a certain day, a certain time
we go out for this date together, just the two of us.
Well here's the thing about that.
I've noticed that it's not enough just for me to show up to that time of date and be
in a good mood and have a good time and take her somewhere nice, but rather I have to actually
convince her that I want to be there, which makes sense, right?
I mean she doesn't want me to just go through the motions of taking her out on a date and
showing her a good time because I have to.
She wants to genuinely believe that I delight in her, that I actually want to spend time
with her, that this is something that I'm looking forward to.
So I've noticed that sometimes if I don't seem jazzed enough about the date, that sometimes
she'll act like, well I don't even want to go, you know?
Because of the fact that she desires love and she desires to be delighted in, not just
a going through of the motions.
Go to Song of Solomon chapter 2.
You find the word delight a few times in the book of Song of Solomon.
And this is what God wants from us.
He doesn't just want us to go through the motions of reading our Bible and praying and
soul winning because we have to, but he actually desires us to like him.
He actually wants us to delight ourselves in him, to enjoy reading the Bible, to enjoy
spending time with him in prayer, to enjoy preaching, to enjoy church, to enjoy singing
the hymns.
He wants us to get pleasure from walking with him and not just do it out of a sense of obligation.
Now let me say this.
Doing it out of a sense of obligation is better than nothing.
So don't sit there and say, well if I can't do it wholehearted I'm just not going to do
it.
No.
Sometimes you do have to force yourself to do things out of obligation.
Sometimes you do things out of duty.
Because if we only did things when we felt like doing them, we'd often not do what we
should do.
So yes, there is an aspect of love that is duty.
There is an aspect that says, hey I'm going to spend time with my wife because it's the
right thing to do.
I'm going to provide, I'm going to stay faithful to her.
But wait a minute, there's another aspect of delighting in doing that.
And God wants our heart also.
He doesn't just want us to only do things out of duty, he wants us to delight in him.
Look at Song of Solomon chapter 2, of course this has to do with the husband and wife.
It says in verse 3, as the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among
the suns.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love.
Flip over to Song of Solomon chapter 7, just a few pages to the right in the Bible.
Song of Solomon chapter 7 verse 6.
The Bible reads, how fair and how pleasant art thou, O love for delights.
This thy stature is like to a palm tree and thy breast to clusters of grapes.
I said I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof.
Now also thy breast shall be as clusters of the vine and the smell of thy nose like
apples and the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved.
They go it down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me.
So again, the Bible is showing here not just a business agreement between husband and wife,
but actually a sweet relationship where there's desire there, there's delight there, where
there's excitement there, and it's not just a going through of the motions.
You know, this also applies to our marriage, by the way, not just delighting in the Lord.
We should delight in our wife or delight in our husband, depending on, you know, whether
you're a man or a woman, because of the fact that God wants us to love each other and also
to delight in each other as married couples.
And you know, this will prevent a lot of adultery, obviously.
This will prevent a lot of strife and anger if we would delight in our spouse as we should.
And so it's not just enough to say, well, you know, I cooked all the meals and I cleaned
the house and, you know, I took care of the kids and, you know, I'm available to him whenever,
so you know, I don't know what else my husband wants from me.
Well, your husband wants you to love him.
He wants you to delight in him.
You know, or the same thing if a husband said, well, you know, I'm paying the bills, I'm
staying faithful, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
Yeah, but are you showing love to your wife in the sense that you delight in her, that
you want to be there?
Now, sometimes you do have to go through the motions in marriage just because obviously
marriage has its ups and downs.
If we're realistic, we know that marriage is not a Hollywood movie where it's just always
perfect and always exciting and you always live happily ever after every single day.
Sometimes you do have to do your duty, but you know what, if that's all you're doing,
that's a pretty sad marriage if it's just your duty all the time.
And you know what, your spouse will figure that out if that's how you feel.
Your husband can tell, you know, whether or not you really love him and your wife can
tell whether or not, you know, you really love them because of the fact that that delight
comes through.
Well, let's apply this spiritually.
God wants us to love him.
He wants us to love him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and he wants
us to delight ourselves in him and he says, if you will delight yourself in me, I will
give you the desires of your heart.
God will give you success.
God will give you the things that you want in life and I'm not talking about the success
of the world in the sense of, you know, driving a Mercedes and living in a fancy house.
I'm saying God will give you success where you will succeed spiritually, where you will
be able to serve him and do well and prosper.
Now if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 22.
Matthew chapter 22 where the Bible talks about the greatest commandment of loving the
Lord thy God with all your heart.
And this is not just the love that we often talk about where if you love me, keep my commandments.
Yeah, that's important too.
I say that to my wife all the time.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, you know, if you love me, I'm not kidding about that concept.
I'm just kidding that I say that all the time.
But anyway, if you love me, keep my commandments, right?
But what about delighting in the Lord?
What about enjoying being with the Lord?
What about enjoying reading the Bible?
What does the Bible say here in Matthew 22 35 then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked
him a question, tempting him and saying, master, which is the greatest commandment in the law.
Jesus said in him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Flip over to Mark chapter 12, just a few pages at the right in your Bible, Mark chapter number
12 and beginning in verse number 29, the Bible reads, and Jesus answered him, the first of
all the commandments is here, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with
all thy strength.
This is the first commandment.
Now go back to Deuteronomy six because this is actually a quote from Deuteronomy chapter
number six and notice how in Mark when he quoted it, he started out with hero Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
You'll see that exact same quote here in Deuteronomy six beginning in verse four, the Bible reads
here, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might and these words which
I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest
by the way and when thou lies down and when thou risest up.
So the first point that I want to make this morning is that number one, we should delight
in the word of God.
If we're going to delight ourselves in the Lord, if we're going to love the Lord with
all our heart, mind and soul and strength, number one, we need to delight ourselves in
the word of God.
Notice how when this first commandment is carried out where you love the Lord, you end
up talking about the word of God all day long.
You end up having God's word in your heart.
You end up teaching it to your children, talking about it when you get up in the morning and
talking about it when you go to bed at night.
Why?
Because we talk about the things that we love.
Things that are important to us.
If we have a hobby, we talk about it all the time if we love it.
If we have any kind of a passion or anything we care about, it's going to come out of our
mouth.
Why?
Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
And so if we have love for the Lord in our heart, if we delight ourselves in God's word,
we're going to be reading it, having it in our heart and talking about it all day long.
Look at Psalm 1.
Just flip over to the book of Psalms.
And I'm going to show you a whole bunch of scriptures from Psalms.
Actually if you would turn to Psalm 119, I'll just quote you from Psalm 1.
You've probably heard it before.
It's a pretty famous verse.
Flip over to Psalm 119, but in Psalm 1 verse 2 it says,
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
So notice, what's the result of delighting in the law of the Lord?
You end up meditating on it day and night.
Why?
Because we think about the things that we love.
We think about the things that we get pleasure from.
We talk about them.
Now when it comes to memorizing the Bible, because the Bible talks about having God's
law in your heart, which would be how we often describe memorizing something, knowing it
by heart, or when we talk about meditating day and night, obviously that's not somebody
just day and night, you know, walking around with a physical book, right?
That wouldn't be possible.
How do you meditate on the word of God day and night?
It's in your heart.
Memorize it.
Learn it.
Quote it in your mind and verbally and in your heart.
And when we talk about Bible memory, some people think, oh, Bible memory, that's way
too hard.
I can't do that.
That's for little kids or something.
Because little kids, they're just like a sponge.
They just soak it up.
You know, that's not true.
Actually little kids who memorize verses, they work hard at it.
The reason little kids walk around and quote, the reason, you know, the Segura kids, they
always have, it's because they worked on it for hours and hours and hours.
That's the truth.
Kids don't just automatically memorize things more than adults.
Now I understand that some people, as they get much older, they might struggle with their
memory.
But for those of us who are just normal adults in middle age or young age, you know, we're
able to memorize the Bible.
The truth of the matter is that little kids are just delighting in it a little more than
adults are.
That's the bottom line.
And when it comes to memorizing scripture, there's no trick or silver bullet that I've
found.
And I've had people show me different tricks and tools and gimmicks and hey, if they work
for you, great.
I'm not down on it if it works.
But I've never found any of that stuff to work.
The way that I memorize scripture is the hard way.
I just repeat it over and over again.
I just chant it over and over again.
I mean, I just get a scripture and I just take a phrase and I just quote it in my mind
a hundred times and I get the next phrase of the verse and quote it a hundred times,
next verse, quote it a hundred times.
That's how I learn scripture.
I don't really have any tricks or tools that I could show you like, you know, for 1995
I'll share with you this method for scripture memory, you know, this will blow you away,
you'll be the best in the Sunday school.
You know, I'm not, I don't have any tricks like that.
And I've tried different tricks and everything and, you know, I've found that just repeating
it over and over again, the hard way, hard work, rote memorization.
And I've memorized, you know, well over a hundred and some chapters of the Bible that
way and it worked for me.
So, you know, that's what I do.
And I'm, and I'm memorizing scripture right now, you know, I'm working on some new goals
for the new year of some chapters that I want to memorize.
And here's the thing about that.
There's one tip to succeeding a Bible memory, only one.
You have to love the Bible.
That's it.
Because if you love the Bible, you'll spend hours quoting it over and over and over and
over again.
And if you don't love it, that's going to bore you out of your mind.
That's the basically the simple truth of it.
Bible memory starts with loving the Bible.
If you love it, if you enjoy it, you're going to put in the hard work necessary.
If you don't, then you won't.
And here's the thing about that.
Let's apply this to Bible reading.
People who read the Bible every year cover to cover, at least one time, or people who
read it many more times than that, four times a year or more, they're people who love the
Bible.
That's how they can spend an hour every day reading or 15 minutes every day reading versus
the guy who just can't bring himself to even spend 15 minutes to read the Bible.
But he's got hours for TV, hours for movies, hours for sports, hours for other hobbies,
but can't take the time to read the Bible.
No, it's not that he can't take the time.
It's that he doesn't delight in it.
You see, when you look forward to something, when you enjoy something, when you take pleasure
in something, you'll find time to do it, won't you?
We find time for the things that are important to us in life.
And when people say, oh, I don't have time, I don't have time, no, no, it's just not a
priority for you.
Because whatever is a priority for you, you will find time.
And look, my marriage is a priority.
I find time to be with my wife, to spend time with her, okay?
Because that's a priority to me.
Church is important to me.
That's why I make time to show up and be there at the services.
I make time to get out soul winning.
I make time to be in the Word because these things are priorities.
But to put in a lot of time into something, you've got to love it.
It's that simple.
How could you sit and memorize the Bible for hours if you don't love the Bible?
Not going to happen.
And so delighting yourself in the law of the Lord, that's what leads to meditating on it
day and night.
Now look at Psalm 119.
I'm going to show you a bunch of scriptures that associate delighting in the Word of God,
loving the Word of God, with memorizing the Word of God.
Look what the Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 15.
I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways.
I will delight myself in thy statutes.
I will not forget thy word.
Notice, not forgetting has to do with delighting in it, loving it, meditating in it.
Verse 23, princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
Look at verse 35, make me to go in the path of thy commandments.
For therein do I delight, incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness.
Go to verse 47.
Notice he says I delight in the commandments.
You know, I wonder if today we delight in God's commandments.
It's amazing to me how certain parts of the Bible people avoid or they don't want to talk
about because they're ashamed of God's Word in this adulterous and evil generation.
You know, it's like, well, you know, I know the Bible, you know, says no to homos, but
you know, God's really a nice guy, don't let that, no, no, I love all God's commandments.
You know, well, you know, yeah, the Bible does tell us, you know, not to drink or, you
know, the Bible does tell us not to commit adultery or, you know, well, yeah, you know,
I guess we're not, it's like, why don't you love the commandments of God?
Why don't you say, you know what, I love the fact that God forbids adultery.
I love the fact that he forbids stealing.
I love the fact that he forbids killing and murder.
I hate murder.
I hate adultery.
I hate sin.
I love God's Word.
I love purity and cleanliness and righteousness and God is, oh, how love I thy law, it's my
meditation night and day.
That ought to be the attitude.
Not like, oh, man, well, you know, I know God's kind of strict.
No, God's perfect.
This book's great.
And then, you know, atheists will be like, well, what about this verse, huh?
And the Christians are like, oh, man, let's not talk about that verse.
I love it.
What verse do you want to talk about?
I love it.
You've got to love all of it.
I love Leviticus.
Love Numbers.
Love Deuteronomy.
Love Josh.
Love it all.
Be ashamed of God's Word.
You know who ought to be ashamed of himself?
Sinful, wicked people.
Why would we be ashamed of God's law and God's Word?
We ought to delight in it and say, you know what?
These laws are great.
These rules are great.
God made all the best rules so we can live the best kind of life.
I mean, you want to talk about your best life now.
I mean, Joel Osteen needs to talk more about the commandments then if he wants you to live
your best life now because you'll live your best life by delighting in God's laws, God's
Word, God's commandments.
Look, Jesus Christ and what he taught us and what we have in the New Testament and what
we have in the entire Bible, it's all perfect.
And we ought to love it.
I don't know about you but when I read the Bible, I love it.
I love it.
I mean, it's just the stories.
I love the stories.
I love the commandments.
Love all of it.
That's what God wants us to do.
He wants us to actually not just love him in the sense of doing our duty, that's important,
but he also wants us to like him.
He also wants us to delight in him.
He wants us to enjoy it.
He wants us to take pleasure in it.
And you know, I love how David talks so much about this in Psalms.
We don't even have time this morning to look at all the scriptures where he talks about
how God's Word is just sweet in his mouth.
It's like honeycomb unto him.
It's better than gold.
It's better than silver.
It's better than anything.
It's better than wine.
Better than anything.
He says God's Word is his favorite thing.
The Word of God.
He said, I opened my mouth and panted for the longing that I had for God's Word.
That's why David's a man after God's own heart.
It's not because he was a perfect person.
He made a lot of mistakes, right?
But you know why he's a man after God's own heart?
Because he loved God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength.
And you know what?
Here's the thing.
If you would really love your wife with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, I bet
she'd forgive a lot of flaws in you.
And I bet your husband would forgive a lot of flaws in you wives if you would just love
him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and delight in him.
Because love covers a multitude of sins, that's why.
So God wants us to delight in him and to love him.
Look down at Psalm 119 again.
Verse number 47.
And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I've loved.
And I will meditate in thy statutes.
Notice delight, love, love, all about rules.
And you'll notice that today we live in a Christianity that will often say, hey, you
know, forget the dos and the don'ts, man, it's a relationship.
But you know, we have to love the dos and don'ts.
Because they're perfect.
I mean, that's what I see in the Bible.
The Bible says in verse 70, their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law.
It is good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.
Look at verse 77.
Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live, for thy law is my delight.
Let the proud be ashamed, for they deal perversely with me without a cause.
But I'll meditate in thy precepts.
Verse 92.
Unless thy law had been my delights, I should have perished in mine affliction.
I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou has quickened me.
Verse 143, trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, yet thy commandments are my delights.
Verse 174, I've longed for thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law is my delight.
Did you notice how many times in that passage not forgetting the word or meditating on the
word day and night was associated with delighting in it?
Because when you love God's word, you read it.
If you love your wife, you're going to spend time with her.
And I'm talking about love in the sense of delight, right?
Because it's not a drudgery.
It's something you look forward to.
It's something that you say, yeah, let's do it.
Right?
Well, what about reading the Bible?
Yeah, let's do it.
What about Bible memory time?
Let's do it.
I'm looking forward to it.
What does the Bible say in Psalm 112?
Flip back just a few pages to Psalm 112.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you from Psalm 40 where it says, I delight
to do thy will, O my God.
Yes, thy law is within my heart.
Look at Psalm 112 verse 1.
Praise ye the Lord.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon earth.
The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Wealth and riches shall be in his house and his righteousness endureth forever.
These are some big promises to those who delight greatly in God's commandments.
Do you see that in verse 1?
That's a big promise.
What about this?
Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
That's a pretty big promise.
And what's that associated with?
His delight is in the law of the Lord and it is law that he meditate day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in
his season and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
That's a big promise.
I want to take advantage of that promise.
Love God's word.
Meditate on it.
Delight in it.
Romans chapter 7 verse 22, you don't have to turn there but just give you a New Testament
verse on this.
The Apostle Paul said, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
He said, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my
members.
Talking about the flesh.
Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity of the law of sin which
is in my members.
Go to Psalm 122.
So the Apostle Paul in the New Testament is reiterating the same thing that we found in
Psalm 119 where he says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
Now I remember when I was a kid, people would say, well you know, you got to love your sister
or you got to love your brother or you got to love your parents or love one another.
But you don't have to like them.
Who's ever heard that statement?
Like, you got to love them but you don't have to like them.
But here's the thing, God wants us to love him and like him.
We need to like the Bible.
I like it.
I like all of it.
That ought to be the attitude.
We ought to love God's word and love the Bible.
So number one, delighting in the word of God.
But number two, we ought to delight in the house of God.
Delighting in the house of God.
Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 122 verse 1.
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
Now we could go to Hebrews 10 and show you where it says, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much
the more as we see the day approaching.
And we could approach it from an aspect of, hey, don't forsake the assembly because God
said so.
And we could show where right after that he talks about, you know, if we sin willfully,
referring to not going to church, all the doom and destruction that God has planned
for us.
But the bottom line is though, we ought to just enjoy going to church.
We ought to love it.
Delight in it.
Now just as much as your husband wants you to delight in him and the wife wants her husband
to delight in her, and just as much as God wants us to delight in him and his word, you
know, even the pastor of the church wants you to delight in church, right?
I mean everybody wants you to be excited about it and happy about it, not just, well, we
got to go to church.
And you know, I don't let my kids say, oh, we have to go to church.
That should never be spoken.
No, we get to go to church.
We're looking at, and you know, my children don't say that.
My children do love going to church and they do look forward to it.
Is it a church day?
Yeah, you know, they get excited about church days.
But they ought never say something like, oh, we have to go to church now.
We have to go to church today.
No, no, no.
Going to church is fun.
Going to church is a blessing.
Going to church is a joyful experience.
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
But as we're going through this sermon, a question that might be on your mind, I mean
this is the question that was on my mind as I studied this in the Bible and I was reading
all these scriptures about delighting in the word, delighting in the Lord, delighting in
the house of God and so forth.
You know, I asked myself this question, what makes one person delight in it and another
not?
What makes one person love the Lord and another not love the Lord?
What makes one person love hard preaching and another person can't stand hard preaching?
What makes one person love Bible reading and Bible memory and another not?
What makes one person love singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and another person
not love it?
And honestly, if you study the Bible on this subject, you will find that the answer to
that question is simply a choice that you make.
It's an act of the will on your part.
That's why this is a command where God commands you to love the Lord.
That's why this is a command where he says an imperative, delight yourself in the Lord.
Love the Lord.
I don't believe in this nonsense doctrine of we don't have free will.
You know, it's foolishness, okay?
We do have free will.
We wake up every day and we choose and God sets before us life and death and God sets
before us a blessing and a curse and God says choose life and every single day we wake up
in the morning and we write the book.
We decide what we're going to do with our lives and you know what?
That's why God even said, you know what?
What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
What you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
That's why he said to Adam, hey, you name the animals whatever you want and whatever
Adam named them, that was the name thereof.
You see, God gives us free will.
I heard somebody say, well, you'll never find free will in the Bible, but then you just
do a little search in the concordance for the word free will.
You'll find it, I believe, like 17 times.
The word free will.
Hey, if you're going to make an offering unto the Lord, he talks about a certain offering.
Do it of your own free will, he said.
Not because you're being forced to, but there's this foolish doctrine that makes us all into
robots and God controls everything like a puppet master and basically none of us have
any free will.
No, we have free will and I firmly believe, I've studied the Bible on this, I went through
all the scriptures that we're reading this morning and other scripts on delight and I
came to the conclusion that it's very clear that this is a choice that you make.
This is an act of will where you decide, you know what, I'm going to love the Bible.
I'm going to love church.
I'm going to love the things of God.
I'm going to love the commandments of God.
You make that choice, you get on that path, God will give you the grace to do it.
God will help you do it and that is the way to get on board with what I'm talking about
this morning.
Look, think about it in your marriage.
If I went into my marriage, and the reason I keep bringing up marriage is because it's
such a great illustration of this, okay?
Because it's a loving relationship on this earth that we can relate to because, you know,
we understand, okay, I'm married, I have my spouse, we have relationship, you know, that's
something that we can see whereas God is unseen, okay?
So that's why I like to relate it to marriage just because it's such a great illustration
of this.
What if I went into marriage, think about this, what if I went into marriage desiring
to dislike my wife?
What if I said, you know what, I'm 15 years into this thing and I want out of this marriage
so I'm going to try to not like my, I'm going to find everything I don't like about my wife.
Think about if I went into it with that attitude, don't you think I could will myself to dislike
my wife?
Why?
Because I'd think about all of her negative attributes and I'd focus on those things.
I'd think about all the bad things that have happened in our marriage, all the bad times,
all the bad things that she did and I would just think about all that and dwell on that
and focus on that.
I mean this is what people do after they get divorced, right, where they're just like,
it's like they just trash everything about their marriage, like it was all bad.
Look if I decided to right now dislike my wife, I could make myself dislike my wife
by just forgetting all the good things, not paying attention and just focusing on the
bad and just willing myself to dislike my wife and she could do the same thing to me.
There's plenty of negative things that she could bring out about me and negative memories
and negative attributes to just say, oh that, oh, you know, and just despise me in her heart
if she wanted to.
Or you can go into marriage wanting to like your wife, wanting to have a good time, going
to that date desiring to have fun and desiring to have a good time and saying, you know what,
this is something I'm looking forward to, this is going to be good, this is going to
be fun and then you're thinking about all the things that you like, all the good attributes,
all the good times and then you delight in it and then you delight in her, then you delight
in him.
It's the same thing with the Lord.
You know, it's all about, here's the word, your attitude going into it.
What's your attitude going into church?
What's your attitude going into reading your Bible?
And when you go into it with the right attitude, you'll delight in it more and more.
You go into marriage with the right attitude, you'll have more and more delight.
You go into church, you go into the service of the Lord with the right attitude and you'll
learn to take pleasure in the things that God wants us to take pleasure in and you'll
learn to hate sin and you'll learn to despise that, it's like I was saying, you know, if
I want to dislike somebody, I can.
Well you know what, if you want to hate sin, you can get to the point where you hate sin.
You can get to the point where you love church.
The Holy Spirit is there to help you.
But you have to go into it with that desire, that willing heart.
Go if you would to Malachi chapter 1.
Number 1, we want to make sure that we delight in the word of God.
Number 2, we want to delight in the house of God.
And number 3, we want to delight in serving God.
Delight in serving him.
Delight in giving unto him.
Delight in sacrificing for him.
That's what the Bible teaches in Malachi chapter 1.
Now, the reason that I stopped and talked about the act of the will is because I don't
want you to walk away from this sermon and just say, well I just don't really delight
in the Bible so I guess I'm just not going to be real successful at Bible memorization.
I guess I'm not going to be real successful at marriage because I just don't really delight
in my wife that much.
As if it's just an accident or something.
No, no, no, you've got to make a decision my friend.
And say, you know what, I'm going to love the Lord with all my heart.
He said this is the first commandment.
He didn't say this is the first statement about some people who automatically just happen
to love the Lord.
No, he said this is the first commandment.
He said here's a commandment.
Love the Lord.
Here's a commandment.
Love thy neighbor.
That means you have the choice to love the Lord and you have the choice to love your
neighbor.
God wouldn't command you to do something that's impossible for you to do.
So he says love me.
That means that you wake up in the morning and you decide I'm going to love the Lord.
I'm going to delight in him.
What does the Bible say in Malachi chapter 1 verse 10?
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught?
Naught means nothing.
Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught.
I've no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at
your hand.
From the rising of the sun even under the going down of the same, my name shall be great
among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering
for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.
But you profaned it in that ye say the table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof
even as meat is contemptible.
Now watch this.
This is the key at the beginning of verse 13.
Ye said also behold what a weariness is it.
What does it mean when he says, you know, what a weariness is it?
It's saying, you know, man, what a drag.
Basically they're saying that it's something that they don't enjoy but that it's something
that they do as a drudgery, right?
It's just such a drudgery.
It's such a weariness.
Oh, here we go again.
Go to church again.
Read the Bible again.
Go sowing again.
It's such a drag.
Oh, what a weariness is it.
And you've snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts.
And you brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick.
So basically their heart's not in serving the Lord.
So this is back in the Old Testament when they would do burnt offerings.
They're bringing the burnt offering and they, because their heart's not in it, it's such
a weariness, it's such a pain to have to do all this stuff.
It's just like, oh, here, let's just sacrifice this one to the Lord because it's so lame.
Let's just give it to the Lord.
It's already, it can't even walk.
It's already been torn anyway.
Give that to, give that to the Lord.
It's sick.
Oh, this one's sick?
Let's just sacrifice that to the Lord.
Why?
Because their heart's not in it.
That's why.
You don't do your best if your heart's not in it.
He said, thus she brought an offering.
Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord?
But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrifices unto
the Lord a corrupt thing.
For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
Okay, so go back to verse 10 now that we've read the whole context.
It says, who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught?
He's basically saying that would even just shut the doors of the house like unless they're
basically being paid or unless there's something in it for them.
It's like they have no heart to just serve the Lord out of cheerfulness and because they
want to, but it's like they're only going to do what they're being forced to do.
You know, who is there among you that would even shut the doors for naught?
Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught.
And what does he say next?
I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts.
So God doesn't have pleasure in us when we're just doing things as a drudgery, when we're
half-hearted about our service for the Lord.
And when our heart's not in it, we end up doing things halfway.
We end up doing things sloppily.
We don't give it our best, right?
But when our heart's in it, when we delight in it, we give it our best.
That's what God desires.
He says, you know, I have no pleasure in you.
When you come with this half-in, half-out, you show up to church, you show up late, you
slump down in your seat, you sleep through part of it, you know, you're not turning to
the Scriptures.
You know, Pastor Harris is like, hey, turn to 2 Corinthians 9.
No, really, turn to 2 Corinthians 9, 2 Corinthians 9.
And everybody's just like, nope.
Or like, you know, or sing the song, all right, let's sing our song, you know, turn to song
number 162, To God Be the Glory, and basically, nobody's turning or you're not singing or
it's just like, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, or
just lip-syncing.
You know, God's not pleased with that.
God wants us to show up wholehearted.
He wants to show up and be excited and say, I was glad when they said to me, let us go
into the house of the Lord, this is my story, this is my song, you know, singing out, turning
in the hymnal, singing loud, you know, bring your Bible, turn in the Scriptures, showing
up, being happy to be there, rejoicing in the Lord, because the joy of the Lord is your
strength and not just going through the motions.
Just like my wife didn't want me to show up for that date and just, oh, here we go again,
it's that time of the week again, you know, get this out of the way so I can do something
better with my time.
That's not good enough.
That's not going to work.
Well, what do you want, honey, I took you out to an expensive meal, darn it.
No, you're supposed to delight in it.
Spend lots of money and enjoy it.
No, I'm just kidding.
Enjoy the sacrifice.
Don't serve her that which is lame, you know.
We're going to McDonald's for the date.
But anyway, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7, we find the same thing pretty
much that we see in Malachi chapter 1, where it says, every man, verse 7, every man according
as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, watch this, not grudgingly, nor of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver.
See what I mean about serving the Lord with gladness, cheerful giver, delighting in serving
God.
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency
in all things may abound to every good work.
But a lot of people will take verse 7 and just say, oh, well, let's just not give then.
Let's just not, God only wants us to do it willingly and cheerfully, so it's okay not
to do it.
Is that what he's saying?
No, he's saying do it cheerfully.
Do it cheerfully, okay.
It'd be like if I said, well, you know, the pastor was preaching and he said that, you
know, when I go out with my wife, I'm supposed to have my heart in it and my heart's not
in it, so therefore, date time is over, you know, for 2016.
No dates.
You know, hey, I'm only supposed to do it when my heart's in it, so, you know, we'll
just skip it.
I mean, imagine what kind of relationship I'd have with my wife, right?
If we never went on dates together, we never spent time together, we never went to the
bedroom together and did that which married couples do in the bedroom, what kind of a
relationship am I going to have with my wife?
A terrible relationship.
I'd be destroying my marriage.
So the answer is not to just say, oh, well, let's just not do it then, you know, unless
we're, no, no, no, what you need to do is you need to do it and you need to get your
heart in it and you need to get cheerful about it and you need to learn to delight in it
through an act of the will, through deciding what you want to be as a person.
I want to be a cheerful giver.
I want to be one who says, I'm glad to go to the house of the Lord.
I want to be one who delights in the Lord and meditates in his law day and night.
I don't want those promises to be for some other guy, like a David, some other guy, but
too bad I can't tap into it.
No, no, no, you write the book of your life.
You make the choice.
Are you going to delight in Hollywood, you're going to delight in the world, you're going
to delight in sin, you're going to delight in that which is carnal and worldly, or are
you going to delight in spiritual things?
What kind of a person do you want to be?
You decide.
You show up to church and you decide, you know what?
I'm glad we're going to church.
And you know what?
We're singing the hymns.
Great.
Let's do it.
Let's sing the hymns.
Let's listen to some preaching.
Let's read the Bible.
It's going to be great.
Go into it with that right attitude.
Love the Lord thy God, the Bible says, and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments
and his commandments always.
Deuteronomy 30 verse 15, see I have set before thee this day life and good, death and evil,
in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and to keep
his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply,
and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for everything that you've done for us, Lord.
Thank you for your unspeakable gift of eternal life.
Thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that taketh away our sins, Lord.
Thank you for heaven.
Thank you for church.
Thank you for all the wonderful blessings and countless benefits that you've bestowed
upon us, Lord.
Help us not to be these lame, grumbling, grudging givers and grudging church members and grudging
spouses, Lord.
Help us to not just love you on paper by doing our duty, but help us to actually have that
feeling of love in our heart, Lord, where we actually feel joy and pleasure and we actually
love you not just with our mind, but also with our soul, also with our heart and with
all our strength, Lord.
Help us to delight in you and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.