Amen. If you would, take your Bibles and open them up to the book of Psalms this morning.
The book of Psalms, and our passage will be Psalm 37, verse 4.
I ask that if you would please remain standing, if you're able, for the reading of God's Word.
Just one verse this morning, Psalm 37, verse 4.
If you were here last week, you know we're taking a break from the Gospel of John for the month of January.
And our aim in this month, the month of January, is to remind ourselves, as we begin a new year, of our mission and vision as a church.
So last week, we covered our mission, which is that we exist to magnify the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And starting this week and over the next three weeks, Lord willing, we'll cover our three-part ministry vision,
which is to enjoy God, to equip the saints, and to evangelize the lost.
But what I've felt compelled to do over these three weeks is to blanket those three aspects of our ministry together with a theme of prayer.
So this week, we're going to cover how we enjoy God together in prayer.
So let's read Psalm 37, verse 4.
Remain standing and listen along as I read God's Word.
It says,
Let's pray once more.
Lord, we ask that you would turn our hearts now to delight in you.
We ask God that you would change the desires of our hearts and then give us the desires of our hearts.
And we ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
You may be seated.
If my math is correct, we've prayed a total of four times together already in our worship service this morning.
We prayed at the beginning of our service, after the call to worship.
And we prayed a prayer of praise after the catechism reading.
We had a prayer for our offering right after the scripture reading this morning.
And then I just prayed for the preaching of the Word.
That makes for four times together.
And of course, if you were in the Sunday school hour, that hour both begins and ends with prayer.
And I don't know if you even know this or not, but if you were here 15 minutes before the Sunday school hour,
we have 15 minutes before the Sunday school hour every Sunday morning.
We walk through the morning service and we pray through the morning service and commit all of our plans to the Lord.
And then guess what?
Well, we're not done praying this morning.
As you might imagine, after I'm done saying everything I have planned to say, I will pray.
And then we will conclude with a time of silent prayer and reflection.
And then I've asked Treg if he would lead us in prayer as a way to apply and respond to what God has taught us this morning through His Word.
I hope that you can tell, if you've been a part of our worship services for any length of time,
that for us, prayer is not just an accessory to our worship.
It is absolutely a vital element of our life together.
It is a vital part of our church family and what we aim to do together.
I'll never forget when I was serving at a church in North Myrtle Beach.
I served as a pastor on staff at a church there.
And we also placed a high premium on the value of prayer.
And we had some family in town visiting us for the weekend.
Amanda's sister and our nephews.
And after the service was over, I do as I always do.
I go around and I say, hey, would anybody like to share anything that they picked up, anything they heard from the morning's service?
And my nephew was probably seven or eight years old at the time.
And he said, I don't really know.
All I know is you guys sure do pray a whole lot.
I took that as a compliment.
You see, we as a church family are committed, deeply committed, to the value of prayer.
Not just as a transition to move us along through various elements of the service.
Not just so musicians or readers can get up and off the stage.
But we believe that prayer is one of the primary ways that we both experience and express delight in God.
Prayer is one of the primary ways that we as Christians and we as a church both experience and express delight in God.
We believe that we magnify the glory of God by enjoying Him in prayer.
Our passage this morning is just one verse.
But it is a wonderful promise for us to believe.
It is, I believe, it's fuel for us for a lifetime, a commitment of God-exalting prayer.
And if you come here this morning and you feel like your prayer life is struggling,
maybe it's grown a bit dull,
maybe for you it's a struggle to force yourself into the discipline of prayer,
I want you to listen closely to what God has promised you this morning.
This promise is for you.
So what I want to do this morning as we walk through just one verse, Psalm 37 verse 4,
is I want to discuss what this promise isn't and what this promise is.
What this promise isn't and what this promise is.
First, let's consider what this promise isn't saying.
Because if God is promising us something,
I want to understand what God means by what God promises, right?
I don't want to import my desires, my wants, my agenda, my selfish motives onto God's promises
because a hundred times out of a hundred, what God has in mind is going to be better than what I had in mind.
So let's understand what he's not saying here in Psalm 37 verse 4.
This is not a procedure to get whatever you want.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you whatever you want.
Maybe my heart might want a Ferrari.
And maybe my heart wants a spouse, children, grandchildren, a job, a new home.
And maybe my heart wants a million dollars.
You see where I'm going.
And so you're telling me that all I have to do is delight in God and I will get whatever I want, right?
Yes and no.
And we'll see how it's yes in a moment.
But for now, we should know that this promise is not a blank check to just get whatever we want out of God.
There's a movie that I loved growing up.
It's called Blank Check.
I won't ask you to raise your hand if any of you have seen it.
It wasn't probably a nominee for any major awards or anything like that.
But it was a good movie.
A kid, he finds, guess what?
A blank check.
And he writes a dollar amount.
I don't remember how much the amount was.
Probably a million dollars onto the blank check.
He goes.
He cashes it.
He turns that blank check into anything and everything a kid could possibly ever want.
He had water slides coming out of his bedroom.
He had candy.
He had all sorts of junk food as much as he wanted.
He had go-karts to ride around his house.
He got everything he wanted because he was given a blank check.
That would be the wrong way to read this verse.
That's not what he is promising us here.
Prayer is not just a means to some other better end.
Where we treat God as if he's a magic genie in a bottle.
If we just rub the bottle the right way.
If we just delight in the Lord enough just the right way.
Then we will get whatever it is that we wish.
We should know that if that's how we treat prayer.
If we read this promise this way.
Ultimately what that's saying is that whatever it is that we want.
We want more than God himself.
And God's value.
God's worth to us.
It lies in his ability to give us whatever it is that we want with or without him.
That's not what this is.
It's not a procedure to get whatever we want.
It's also not a prosperity gospel promise.
It is not a prosperity gospel promise.
You know what the prosperity gospel is.
The essence of the prosperity gospel is love God and bad things will not happen to you.
Love God and bad things won't come into your life.
God wants you to be happy.
God wants you to be healthy.
God wants you to be wealthy.
He would never bring something bad or hard into your life.
And so if you just have enough faith nothing bad will ever happen to you.
It is a dangerous deception.
And it's incredibly popular.
And you can imagine why.
This lie sells.
It is attractive.
Apparently I read this week.
This is Oprah Winfrey's favorite verse in the Bible.
Did you know that?
This is her favorite verse.
In the Bible.
She was in an interview with Stephen Colbert several years ago.
She shared that this was her favorite verse.
But as she explained it, it became abundantly clear that how she understands this promise is radically different from what I'm trying to present to you this morning.
As she articulated it, this is a direct quote.
She said, I love this verse because it means if you focus on being a force for good, then good will come back to you.
If you focus on being a force for good, then good will come.
I spoke with a man several months ago who thought the same thing.
I gave him a ride into town.
We had about 10 minutes to speak.
And so we spoke about the gospel.
And he shared that, well, what he believes is essentially that if you just put out good energy into the world, well, good things will come back to you.
If you put out bad energy out into the world, well, bad things will come back to you.
I want you to see that's not what the verse says, is it?
Look there with me again.
This verse doesn't say be good, be a force for good, do your best, try hard and good will come to you.
What does it say?
Delight yourself in the Lord.
Delight yourself in the Lord, not just in any old God, not just in good, however you might define good.
Delight yourself in the Lord, Yahweh, the God of the Bible, the covenant God of Israel, the God that's revealed in the pages of Scripture.
Delight yourself in him and he will give you the desires of your heart.
And it doesn't say, no matter how much we might want it to say this, it doesn't say that if you delight in him, no bad things will ever come into your life.
It does not say, delight in him and he will only give you good things in your life.
Try telling that to Job.
Try telling that to Jesus.
Or to Paul or to Stephen or Peter or James.
Or to our brothers and sisters suffering for their faith in Sudan.
Try telling that to those worshiping in underground churches in China.
I try telling that to my pastor friend, Jeff, in North Myrtle Beach, one of the godliest men I know,
who spent the majority of his working career life doing mission work, building the church in Israel and in the Horn of Africa.
He came home, served as an elder alongside me at our church.
Just learned last week that he has cancer.
Stage four.
Terrible diagnosis for a godly man.
Tell that to my friend Garrett.
Who prayed with his family.
That his family would grow in the Lord.
That they would grow in their hunger for the Lord.
That they'd be drawn nearer to the Lord.
And then weeks later, he finds himself in the ICU with his daughter.
Seizures.
Unresponsive.
Been there since just before Christmas.
Love God and good things will happen.
Does not work in real life.
Love God and bad things won't happen to you.
Does not work in real life.
That's not what this verse is promising.
So if this verse is true, what that means is there must be a way where we get what we want, even if we don't get what we want.
Are you following me?
There must be a way where the desires of our heart are met, even if the wants, the immediate wants of our heart don't go as we plan.
Where we're happy, we're delighted and satisfied, even if our life isn't delightful and isn't always satisfying.
We'll get there.
Last one here.
We should also know that this verse is not possible in our own strength.
This verse is not possible in our own strength.
I want you to notice something here.
It's so interesting to me.
That this is a command.
You notice that?
We tend to place the emphasis on the back end of the verse as if the back end was more important.
So we say, well, how do I get the desires of my heart?
Okay, well, I delight myself in the Lord.
Well, how do I get whatever it is that I want?
Well, I delight in Him.
If I want to be happy, if I want to be wealthy, if I want to be happy and healthy, I delight in Him.
We get the order mixed up.
Read it again.
This is a command.
He tells us, He commands us.
It says, delight yourself in the Lord.
And out of that delight, out of that delight as an overflow, as a sure result of a heart that delights in Him,
is a promise that all of your desires will ultimately be met in Him.
And we're commanded to delight ourselves in the Lord.
It's not the only place in Scripture where we're commanded like this either, is it?
Or the summary that Jesus gives of the whole law.
What is it?
You should, you should, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength.
We're commanded to love God.
That's the call that's made to sinners like us.
Love God.
Love Christ.
Love His Word.
Love His promises.
And you will be saved.
What's the problem?
We can't do that in our own strength.
We can't obey this command in our own strength.
I can't make you love anything just by telling you to love it.
Especially, especially if you're naturally opposed to it.
You can force action, but you cannot force love.
Especially if you're naturally opposed to it.
I'll give you an example.
If I tell my kids to eat broccoli, they might eat it.
If I tell them to love broccoli, I can't make them love broccoli no matter how many times I might tell them.
They'll eat it.
I can force action, but I can't force love.
If you're not an exercise person, it doesn't matter how many times Breeze tells you to lift the weight.
He might get you to lift it, but he can't make you love it.
You can compel action, but you cannot force love.
So how in the world is this command possibly kept?
How can sinners who are naturally opposed to God,
sinners who refuse to delight in the goodness of God,
how can sinners obey this command to delight in the Lord?
It's only kept by a miraculous work of God himself in you.
To change your heart.
So that now your cold, hard, rebellious heart that doesn't want a thing to do with God,
only wants what you can get out of him,
treats him as a means to some other end,
uses him to serve yourself,
sees him as an accessory to your life and not central to your life,
now all of a sudden your heart is changed to love him.
To desire him.
And so what way he wants to trust him,
even if we don't get our way.
That's a work, a miracle of God.
The only way to have all of the desires of your heart
is for God himself to make himself the delight of your heart.
And then to give you as much as you want.
I'll say that again.
The only way for you to have all of the desires of your heart
is for God to make himself the delight of your heart.
And then he says,
Come on, you can have as much as you want.
You can have as much as you want of me.
It happens first at conversion.
When you hear the good news of the gospel
that Christ Jesus comes to save sinners,
that he alone is worthy of our praise,
that he's lived and died and risen on behalf of sinners,
to restore you to God,
to bring you back into right relationship with God,
to wipe away everything that stands in the way
of your full enjoyment of God himself.
When you believe that message,
your heart is changed and transformed
to glory and the goodness of God above all things.
It happens first at conversion.
But even then, after conversion,
your heart, believe it or not,
is often still slow to delight in God.
I know I'm not the only one.
Your whole life as a Christian
is now spent fighting for joy in the Lord.
Fighting for delight in God.
God works that delight in you
through sanctification
sanctification until you're finally made fit
and able to enjoy him forever
in glorification.
That's the aim of the Christian life.
It's to enjoy him,
to delight in him,
to love him.
That's his work
and that's his promise to us in Christ.
Delight in God is the work of God.
We can't do it in our own strength,
but he works it in us through the gospel.
So, what is this verse promising us?
What is this verse promising us?
Well, this verse, church,
I want us to see,
this is an invitation to have your desires changed.
It's an invitation to have your desires changed.
Matthew Henry, commenting on this verse,
he says,
we must make God our heart's delight
and then we shall have our heart's desire.
Must make God our heart's delight
and then we will have our heart's desire.
What is the desire of the heart of a good man,
he asks?
It is this,
to know and love
and live to God,
to please him
and to be pleased in him.
And St. Augustine,
he says it another way,
much simpler.
He says,
love God and do as you please.
Don't you love that?
Isn't that freeing?
Love God and do as you please.
See, we misunderstand that quote
if we put the emphasis on the latter half.
Oh, I get to do whatever I want
and do whatever I please.
That's all that's required of me,
love God,
then I get to do whatever I want.
Yes, if everything you want
is developed and defined
by your love for God.
You can do whatever it is you want.
If it's flowing downstream
from a heart that loves God,
love God and do what you please.
Because the truth is,
genuinely loving God,
delighting yourself in him
will have a transformative effect
on your heart.
If you delight in him,
if you love him,
your heart will change
away from selfish desires,
away from sinful desires,
away even from good desires
for selfish purposes
and towards God
and God's desires.
The one who truly delights in God
deep down in their heart of hearts
doesn't want anything
other than what God wants.
Now we might have other wants.
Of course we will.
We will have other wants,
but if our greatest want
is for God to be glorified,
for his will to be done,
for us to know him more,
for us to grow in him,
we can be certain
we'll have it.
Come what may.
Whatever that may bring,
you can take anything else
away from a Christian,
but if they have God,
they have everything they need.
We can say with the Apostle Paul,
I've learned the secret
of being content
in all circumstances.
Philippians chapter 4,
I've learned the secret
to being content,
to thriving in abundance
and in lack and poverty
and in riches.
The secret, what is it?
I can do all things
through Christ
who strengthens me.
Have you learned that secret?
Have you learned the secret
of contentment?
Come what may,
in abundance and in plenty,
in lack and in hunger and thirst.
Are you content
in who God is?
Is your heart delighted
in him?
That's the work
of a changed heart
by the power of God
through the gospel of Christ.
It's an invitation
to have your desires changed.
Not only this,
it's an invitation
to have our longings met.
You know,
another way to misunderstand
and misapply this verse
is to say,
well, this just means
I should just squelch
all my desires.
This just means
that I should live
like a stoic
and have no pleasure,
no joy,
not want anything.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
It's good.
It's right for us
to have desire.
I would say it's good
and it's right for us
to chase pleasure,
to chase joy.
It's a matter of
where we chase it
and where we find it.
The only way
this promise is true
is for us to shrink,
is not for us,
excuse me,
not for us to shrink
our desires
but instead
to enlarge them.
God wants our desires
to be for things
that are more
than what this world
can provide,
not less
than what this world
can offer.
We read from C.S. Lewis
last week,
I'll do it again.
He says,
Our desires
are not too strong
but too weak.
We are half-hearted creatures
fooling about
with drink
and sex
and ambition
when infinite joy
is offered to us.
Like an ignorant child
who wants to go on
making mud pies
in a slum
because he cannot
even imagine
what's meant
by the offer
of a holiday at sea.
We are far
too easily
pleased.
Do you desire
to be happy?
Of course you do.
Well, you can
chase that happiness,
you can pursue
that joy
and drink
and sex
and ambition
or
you can pursue
happiness in Christ.
We are offered
infinite joy
in Christ,
joy that we can
experience
right now
in part
but then
in full.
Do you desire
to be rich?
Wealthy?
Have some property
maybe?
Have a home?
A little bit
of equity?
Your own little slice
of paradise
here on earth?
That's too small.
Don't you understand
we will inherit
the new heavens
and the new earth?
We're sons and daughters
of the king.
We'll be citizens
of the kingdom of God.
Do you desire
to be healthy?
Of course you do.
Friend,
the time is coming
when all sickness
will be wiped away
for good.
When all death
will be wiped away
forever.
No more sorrow,
no more suffering,
no more disease.
I think this is
an encouragement
for us to put
our hope there
in better promises.
You know,
where the prosperity
gospel goes wrong,
you might be surprised
to hear this,
it is not in saying
that God wants
your healing.
They're not wrong
in saying that God
wants your prosperity
or your happiness
or your health.
You may be surprised
to hear that.
Prosperity theology
goes wrong
by shrinking
God's promises
down to a fraction
so that they can be
had right now.
It makes our desires
not too big
but too small.
Ten billion dollars
in your bank account
is a fraction
of the riches
that await us
in glory.
An inheritance
for promise
that is imperishable,
undefiled,
unfading,
kept in heaven
for you
who by God's power
are being guarded
through faith
for salvation
ready to be revealed
in the last time.
Even though
if necessary,
you now have
had to endure
various trials
so that the test
to genuineness
of your faith
more precious
than gold
those refined by fire
may be found
to result
in praise
and glory
and honor
of the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you want
health
and happiness?
A hundred years
of life cancer free
on this side
of eternity?
That's a good run.
That is a fraction
of what lies
ahead of us
in glory.
I used to have
a church member
I think I've shared
this with you before
who as he aged
and got older
his knees were aching
his back was aching
everything was aching
y'all know how that is
and he would tell me
you know pastor
I just want one good day
before Jesus comes back.
Just one good day
where I'll feel good
before the Lord returns.
And I loved
to remind him
brother when Jesus
comes back
you will feel better
than you've ever felt.
More alive
than you've ever felt.
More limber
than you've ever felt.
There's better promises
ahead of us
than what anything
in this world
can offer you.
This is an invitation
to have your desires
changed
and to have your desires
met
in ways that
far surpass
our greatest expectations.
Ultimately church
this is an invitation
to true
and lasting
joy.
don't you want that?
And don't you
crave that?
Everybody does.
Delight yourself
in the Lord
and he will give you
the desires
of your heart.
You know that's what
the message of the gospel
is all about.
The gospel
is an invitation
for sinners
to know
true
and lasting
joy in God
through faith
in Jesus Christ.
Christ.
That's why
Christ came.
Christianity
is not
a religion
of do's
and don'ts.
It's not a binding
restrictive religion
of rules
to follow.
Christianity
is an invitation
to endless
infinite
joy
and the
fount
of endless
joy.
God himself
John Piper
has been
one of the
greatest advocates
for something
called
Christian hedonism.
Anybody ever
heard of that?
Christian hedonism.
A hedonism
you don't want
to be called
a hedonist.
Right?
A hedonism
is if you're
a hedonist
you're somebody
that pursues
pleasure
any which way
you can find it.
A hedonism
is the pursuit
of pleasure.
A pleasure seeker
is a hedonist
but Christian hedonism
narrows it
to say
God wants you
to be happy
and the only way
you will truly
be happy
is in God.
God wants you
to be satisfied
and the only way
you will ever
truly be satisfied
is in God
himself.
God wants you
to chase
hard after
all the joy
and pleasure
that your heart
can possibly
imagine
and the only way
to have fullness
of joy
is in God
himself.
See most people
if they think
about God
at all
they go through
life as if
this verse said
delight yourself
and he'll give you
the desires
of your heart.
Do whatever
you want
delight yourself
if there is a God
he wants you
to be happy
he'll bless you
he approves of you
you deserve
whatever your heart
desires.
You see how
false that is?
Delight yourself
in the Lord
the source
of infinite
eternal joy
delight yourself
in him
and you will have
all the desires
of your heart.
Westminster
catechism
it tells us
what's the
chief end
of man
is to glorify
God
and to enjoy
him
forever.
Psalm 1611
one of my
favorite verses
opened our
service this
morning with
this verse
it says
you make known
to me the
path of life
in your presence
there is
fullness
of joy
at your
right hand
are pleasures
forevermore
that's why
we're commanded
church
to delight
yourself
in the Lord
and you will
have all
the desires
of your heart
this verse
is an invitation
to true
and lasting
joy
in
him
and that's
why
that's why
this verse
is an anchor
for our
prayer
and prayer
as we said
at the beginning
of our time
together
is one of the
primary ways
that we both
experience
and express
delight
in God
prayer
is one of the
primary ways
that God
changes our
hearts
prayer is one of
the primary ways
that we have
the desires
of our heart
met
David Platt
he says
the secret
to prayer
is making
your wants
God's wants
and then asking
for whatever
it is you want
don't you love
that
the secret
to prayer
is making
your wants
God's wants
and then go
ask for whatever
it is you want
I want to ask
you this week
as we go
from this
place
I want to
encourage you
to stretch
yourself in
prayer
this week
stretch yourself
in prayer
now that may
look different
for every single
person in the
room
everyone has
a different
prayer life
it looks a
little bit
different for
you
than for
you
than for
you
than for
you
I want
to encourage
you this
week
one application
I want
to give
to you
stretch
yourself
in prayer
this week
for you
that may
mean going
from zero
minutes to
five every
day
for you
that may
mean
beginning to
pray with
your spouse
that week
for you
that may
mean
leaving your
phone in
the bedroom
while you
go somewhere
else
spend some
time without
distraction
alone with
the Lord
in prayer
I want
you to
stretch
yourself
and fight
for your
heart's delight
in the Lord
because it's in
him that you'll
know fullness
of joy
church we're
going to
conclude as
we always
do with
prayer
I'll pray
for us
and then
we'll have a
time of
silent prayer
it's an
opportunity for
you right
where you are
to respond
to what you've
just heard
from the
word
in prayer
and then
I've also
asked Treg
if he would
come up
and lead
us in a
time of
focused
prayer
as we
apply the
truths that
we've just
heard from
God's word
so if you
would
let's bow
together
and pray
Lord we
pray for
deeper delight
in you
maybe for
the first
time if
there's any
here who
don't know
you and
they hear
this call
to delight
of the
Lord and
that seems
so foreign
to their
hearts
God we
pray that
you would
place love
for you in
their hearts
now would
you do it
God would
you place
in them an
irresistible
desire to
know you
and to
love you
to be
with you
to obey
you
and father
for for
those of
us whose
desire and
delight has
grown cold
father we
pray that you
would kindle
a fire in
our hearts
that we
might love
you more
we ask that
we would
grow in
you
father we
pray for
new desires
in our
hearts we
pray for
your desires
we ask
that you
would lead
us away
from sinful
desires
worldly
desires
selfish
desires
would you
show us
clearly what
those desires
are in our
hearts and
lead us to
repent of
those and
to seek
fulfillment in
you
God we
pray these
things with
confidence that
you hear our
prayers that
even when we
don't know how
to pray as
we ought that
the spirit
himself intercedes
for the saints
according to
the will of
God we
love you
Lord and we
pray all this
in Jesus name
amen church
let's continue
to pray
silently where
we are
you