Father, we ask you, Lord, in Jesus' name,
that you would pour out your Holy Spirit
upon us.
Father God, that you would take us as
a church, and Lord, that you would propel
us to the world, that we would never
be content to be spectator Christians.
And Lord, I pray that in this gathering
tonight, here now, Wednesday night, with all these
young people that are here, Lord, that you
would just provoke them to good works, to
righteous living, to holy living, that, Father, all
this ridiculous stuff of the world, the things
that the world parades out in front of
the church, of us, of your people, to
indulge themselves, to intoxicate themselves, to prostitute themselves.
Father God, that the people of this body
would be open, and their eyes would see
and discern that those are evil things that
are just as powerful as fruit hanging from
a tree in the Garden of Eden.
So Lord, give us ears to hear, and
give us eyes to see what the Spirit
would say to us tonight.
We ask it in Jesus' name, and all
God's people said, Amen.
Church, grab your Bibles then tonight, if you
would, and we're going to ask you to
turn to two places, as is the protocol
for these Wednesday nights, and one of them
is Matthew chapter 28.
So go there.
That is our theme verse for these Disciplines
of Life series that we're in, Matthew chapter
28.
They're the call to discipleship, and missionary venture,
and Christian living.
And put your finger there, and then jump
on over, hold your spot, and then jump
over to Philippians chapter 4, Philippians 4, verse
11.
You guys been reading Philippians in the morning?
Really?
Good job.
Okay then.
You guys been getting up earlier than normal?
Makes a big difference.
Some of you are groaning right now, I
know, but it's only your body, it's only
flesh, and it needs to be kind of
beat up from time to time in the
things of the Spirit.
Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, in verse 18,
as he came and spoke to them, he
said, All authority has been given to me
in heaven and on earth, and that's a
lot.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them, once they come to
Christ, and they go through the rite of
baptism, that's that outward display of an internal
commitment, verse 20 says, teach them to observe
all things that I've commanded you, and behold,
I am with you always, even to the
end of the world.
Now run on over to Philippians 4, verse
11.
As we look tonight, as the scripture would
say, the discipline of delights.
What does that mean?
Philippians 4, 11.
Not that I speak in regard to need,
Paul says, for I have learned in whatever
state I'm in to be content, even California.
I know how to be abased, and I
know how to abound everywhere, and in all
things I have learned both to be full
and to be hungry, both to abound and
to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
What a tremendous statement of the apostle.
Look at that again, Philippians 4, 11.
He says, I'm speaking in regard to need,
in other words, I really don't have any,
not that I speak in regard to need,
I don't, he's saying, I don't need any
help, because I've learned something.
He says, I have learned, that word in
Greek means, I have learned by experience to
understand something about God, and how he deals
with his people.
Church, listen, you and I need to hear
this.
America needs to hear this.
There's something that we can learn through hardship
and difficulty.
There's something to be learned when we would
say the chips are down at a time
like this.
Paul says, it's a time of great learning,
it's a time of great discipline, and listen,
if we're going to be Christians, and you
young people, listen, because you think you're having
a rough day because your iPhone seizes up,
or your printer won't work, and you think
it's the end of the world, listen, there
are difficult days promised us in the Bible,
and they're coming, and I'm not saying that
to bum you out, I'm saying that to
prepare you, and to prepare us for the
days ahead.
Paul says that there is a discipline of
delights, and we'll define that in a moment,
but that it's found in learning in whatever
state you're in, whatever condition you're in.
This is amazing.
Are you healthy?
Praise God.
Are you sick?
You can praise God.
Are you rich?
Praise God.
Are you poor?
You can praise God.
Do you suffer in any capacity?
You can praise God, is his challenge to
the believer.
He says, I've learned that, and I've learned
how to be a base.
Paul says, I have learned to be rejected,
kicked out, scorned, and left for nobody, and
I've also learned how to abound.
In other words, Paul is saying, I love
it, Paul is going through this world with
all of the stuff going around him, Paul
is saying, Christ has taught me how to
fly level in this world.
And that's exactly the opposite of our culture
today.
We have been taught to base so much
on happiness and happenstance.
That word means that I'll be happy if
things are around me are happy, but if
they're bad, boy, I'm going to really let
you know that they're bad.
And no, Paul says, no, not with Christ,
because even in the difficult times, the Lord
is in the midst of these things.
Listen, everybody.
And whatever hardship you're in tonight, the Lord
is saying, I got you.
I'm teaching you something.
I'm walking you through this.
It could even be death itself.
Now, death is a great thing because if
you're the one dying and you know, Jesus,
I mean, all is well with you.
It's us poor bums that are left behind
that have got to deal with everything else
that goes on.
But in the midst of it all, the
Lord is saying, I can make sure that
you're stable in this life.
The discipline of delight is this, that in
all things I can rejoice.
Have you ever looked at the world around
you?
I know you have.
I'm just putting this into your thought.
You look around at the world.
Do you know any non-believers that are
doing really good?
Huh?
I do.
They're doing really good.
They still have their really nice cars.
They got their boats and their mansions and
they're doing great.
And the temptation is, is to ask Lord,
why them?
Why not me?
Do you remember, have you ever seen Fiddler
on the Roof?
Fiddler on the Roof is awesome.
I'm talking about the, you know, the one
with Tevye, the old one, the real one.
Fiddler on the Roof.
And he's talking to the Lord and he
goes, he talks and he says, God, if
being rich is a curse, I wish you
would smite me with it.
And people think, man, if I was just
rich, it would be great.
Do you really believe that?
It's not true.
But we look at the world around us
and we think now they've, they've got the
opportunity to delight.
And yet they're not.
The world puts on a face that it's
delighting, but it's not really delighting.
It's acting out.
And in truth, we're talking about a delight
in the Lord that the world knows nothing
about.
The world, watch my hand, the world delights
like this, whoop, and then whoop, and then
why?
Well, this is some radical, crazy sexual experience.
And then it comes down and then this
is some big drug rush.
And then it comes down and then this
is landing that big super deal.
And then it comes back down.
That's how the world lives from high to
high.
That's not how the Christian lives.
The Christian is to live with a deep
abiding delight in the soul that is placed
there by God.
Every one of us that walk with the
Lord Jesus Christ, there is a depth, there
is a delight that is one of our
characteristics as a believer.
There's a peace and there's a joy in
the life of a Christian.
Now you may be a wonderful Christian this
evening, but you have no peace right now.
And I can tell you right now, we
can all, listen, for those of us who've
lived a little bit longer in Christianity, we
can tell you something.
Even we come unglued at times when we
don't refuel in spirit with the Lord.
Can someone say amen to that?
It is true.
I just wrote a letter.
Boy, am I being personal right now, but
it's just us, right?
I wrote a letter today, a letter.
I wrote an email.
It was about four sentences.
It wasn't a letter.
And I said, dear David, Dr. David, David
Hawking, dear David, I feel as though I
let you down this weekend.
I didn't teach as I should have taught.
I wasn't able to hang out with you
guys as I wanted to.
I was distracted by all that was going
on with the proposition aid issue with attorneys
and with meetings via the phone and conference
calls.
And I feel like the conference hadn't even
happened.
I missed it.
Please forgive me.
And in a minute he responds back and
he says, I love you so much.
I don't even have to forgive you.
And you know, that is precious.
And when you, when you hear that, it's
like, yeah, because listen, here's the thing.
We can become weary at well-doing and
not, not to be.
So it doesn't have to be so because
we need to stay plugged into Jesus.
That's why I challenged you a couple of
weeks ago, get up an hour early and
watch what happens.
Now, some of you may be more physically
tired in the evening, but you must confess
that you are more spiritually strengthened during the
day, which means the Bible tells you that
you should go to bed early and get
up early.
You know that that's biblical.
I'm not kidding.
He's so legalistic.
I'm just beginning.
Be happy.
You don't live in my house then, huh?
Get up in the morning.
You know, it's dark outside.
The stars are out.
It's a wonderful morning, but the world around
us seems to be prospering.
And even King David himself says, why do
the heathen prosper?
Why do they delight?
And God's answer to him is that there's
a delight that's deep within the soul.
In Psalm 73 verse seven, the Bible says
the world, their eyes bulge with abundance and
they have more than what their hearts could
wish for.
Isn't that kind of the picture of the
world?
Proverbs 16, 18 says pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
The world looks like it's getting by, but
it's got no peace and it has no
delight like you and I have opportunity to.
And what about the Christian family, the church?
Why are some doing well and others seem
to be doing poorly, just getting by while
others seem to be so favored by God?
And maybe you're a Christian and you're just
languishing.
Those are things that are quite often reserved
to the mind of God.
But even in the body of Christ, you
can be tempted with the thought of, well,
why does some seem to be favored and
be delighting while other believers are not?
This is my personal belief.
I can't tell you that God laid this
on my heart.
It's just something that I, I think, and
I think about often that in a church
body where it's a real body alive, there's
going to be those that are doing great.
And there's going to be those that are
doing okay.
And there's going to be those that are
not doing so good.
And I think that those of you like
Tevye, who says, well, you know why you
might be here tonight and you're hurting.
And I believe that God in every body
of believer, God will bring believers into a
body that are in need to see how
that body responds to that brother or sister
in need.
We can, well, we do, there's millionaires in
this church.
And then there's people just reduced down to
maybe one or two meals a day.
That's the opportunity to love and to give
and to share and to delight in the
Lord.
Proverbs 11 verse two says when pride comes,
then come shame.
But with the humble, there's wisdom.
It's pretty powerful stuff.
So listen, look at this as we consider
the discipline of delight.
When I say delight, I should probably define
that as delight is truly finding out who
you and I are in Jesus Christ.
To delight is to find out your position
with God, to delight.
We've seen this, and you know, this in,
in life, to delight in an earthly sense,
my position with God, it would be that
a parent looks at a, looks at their
child out on the field or in the
crowd.
And the child, the child turns and sees
the parent and the parent's eyes are fixed
upon that child.
There's that connect, you know what I'm saying?
Or have you ever watched little softball, a
little baseball, little guys that swing the bat.
You know what?
They're more concerned to see if their dad
saw them hit the ball than they are
about running to first base.
Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen?
The coach has got to grab them by
the pants and pull them to first base
because the little guy, he actually connected with
the ball, freaked himself out so much.
And he turns to see if mom and
dad are looking.
It's absolutely.
Well, listen for delight.
That's the word for us in the scripture
for us to turn and look.
And God is looking at you and he's
fixed on you.
And he's watching you to have, as it
were heaven's approval, heaven's thumbs up.
That's why I think there's such a strength
in worship.
When, when we worship him, you can't worship
the Lord in spirit and in truth without
him being affected.
That's why worship is so important.
Well, why do you sing?
Why don't we sing 30, 40 minute with
a songs for, well, why are you asking
like it matters to you?
Those are his songs.
And when you worship him, he, when he's
affected by the worship, the body, the worshiper
or worshipers, you can sense God's pleasure.
Remember Eric, what's his name?
And chariots of fire, whatever his name is
little Lytle.
That's a true story.
You ought to rent the movie.
It's true.
He was supposed to run in the Olympics
on a Sunday.
And he said, I'm not running a Sunday.
I want to worship the Lord.
I can't.
Yeah.
I'd rent the movie.
See how it turns out.
It's amazing.
This guy asked him, what's your deal?
And he goes, I don't know.
I just know this, that when I'm running,
cause the guy was amazing runner.
He said, I don't know, but when I
run, I just sense his pleasure.
Isn't that a great line.
That's the way I want to live Christianity.
Don't you, don't you want to live your
Christian life that way that you just sense
his pleasure.
That is his delight that has given the
life of the believer.
And of course the discipline is the practice.
And so I want to give you this
verse.
This is an awesome, wonderful verse, very powerful.
And trust me, you're going to want to
write it down.
Cause you're going to want to pray this
verse into your life.
It's Psalm 37, four.
It's very famous verse.
It says delight yourself also in the Lord,
and he shall give you the desires of
your heart.
Keep it up on the screen for a
minute.
Look at it.
Delight yourself also in the Lord and he
shall give you the desires of your heart.
I believe that's true because it's Bible.
But as soon as I read that verse,
I almost want to apologize for it because
it sounds carnal.
Hey, are you kidding me?
If I delight myself in the Lord, he's
going to give me everything that I want.
That's in my heart.
You got to read a little deeper.
Delight yourself also what in the Lord, not
in the Nordstrom's catalog.
Delight yourself in the home home goods catalog
or the, the Lowe's no delight yourself in
the Lord.
And he shall give you the desires of
your heart.
Meaning this, that if you delight yourself in
the Lord, if you catch the glow of
his face, listen, young people, this is going
to sound nuts to you, but actually get
alone with no technology.
What?
Take the phone out of your pocket.
Go put it in another room.
Seriously.
Take the headphones out of your ears.
Go to another place without any wires connected
to you and get alone and just begin
to pray and talk to him and say,
Lord, I want to do what Jack was
talking about Wednesday night.
What help me God help me.
I want to think about you.
What do I, what do I know about
you?
I know that you're Holy.
I know that you're light.
I know that your love God, I know
that you are, um, you're pure and that
you're powerful.
Start talking to him.
Watch what happens.
Have you taken the time to meet him?
Watch what happens when all of a sudden
he begins to turn on the glow, like
he did with the Moses, he'll begin to
pour on the light in your life.
And you'll come out of that place of
being alone.
And you'll be completely pumped up for the
day or for the challenge or for the
issue, delight yourself also in the Lord.
And then when it says he'll give you
the desires of your heart, it means this.
He's not going to give you a Ferrari
so you can drive to church faster.
That's not what it means.
I've already tried that.
It doesn't work.
It means that as you are delighting, just
in the person that he is, he begins
as Charles Spurgeon put it, mind you, he
begins to have intercourse with your heart.
It's the deepest relationship that you can experience
with God.
He begins to change you from glory to
glory, from the inside out, a new creation
in Christ.
Something begins to happen.
And the things as we sing in the
old hymn, the things of this world grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory
and grace stuff, all the problems, all the
issues, the people stuff, the drama in your
life, the issues, the finances, the marriage, the
kids all begin to be shaken and sifted.
And only that which is worthy remains.
And you have a much more clear understanding
of what you ought to do.
When you come out of his presence, when
you come out of his presence, you always
have a clear direction of where you should
go now, rather than a life that's seemingly
confused all the time.
Get alone with him.
Why?
Mark it down.
Number one, delight does this.
It develops contentment in our hearts.
Will you write that down?
In Philippians 411, we read it.
Of course, we'll look at it more deeply
right now.
It says, now that I speak in regard
to need for, I have learned, the word
is confirmed by experience in whatever state I'm
in to be content.
What a, what a wealthy place to be.
Imagine how free you can be.
If Christ rules and range your heart, you
don't have to get the next greatest thing
on the magazine cover this month to keep
your identity or your worth going.
No, no, no.
Your identity is in Christ.
And now you've learned something that there's a
confirming experience.
And what is it, Paul?
What is it?
And whatever condition, whatever situation that I'm in,
I have found this out.
I'm content.
Wow.
Honestly, think what if we all lost our
homes right now?
Boom, gone.
You see, that would never happen.
Let me remind you, you live in Southern
California where the earth moves under your feet.
And you say, well, that in a way,
listen, it could happen.
Well, what would you do then?
What would we do?
First of all, whatever we do, we'd be
doing it together.
Huh?
Which would be kind of cool if you
think about it, because you think I tell
you our Christianity would grow so much in
one month of having to live with one
another.
Can you imagine you'd know who's the servant
around here anyway, man, what are you, are
you going to hang up those socks or
what?
What's your name?
Anyway, dude, Bob, your socks stink.
You would know one another and here's somebody
griping, grumbling, complaining.
Let me tell you something, man, you got
to make it work.
And Paul says, I've learned in whatever condition
I'm in, I'm content.
Paul's the guy you'd want to go camping
with because he makes it work.
Contentment.
Can you say that you're content tonight?
Can you say that with how much money
you make your hourly pay, whatever it might
be that you're content?
How about some of you who are older?
Remember that money you were going to retire
on gone.
I'd been investing in the stock market since
I was 18 years old.
And I'm a, I'm a little freak about
that kind of stuff.
And I got me everything worked out and
I'm going to, and then when this happens,
I'm going to tell I'll be able to
retire.
You know, when I'm 43 years old and
that didn't happen, that's okay.
When I'm 56, I won't have to have
any income that didn't happen.
Now when I'm 109, maybe I'll be, I'll
get a snow cone.
It's all gone.
What are you going to do?
Hey, when all the financial stuff came down,
because there was a lack of contentment, which
by the way, we should launch an outreach
to wall street.
Don't you think we should be preaching in
front of wall street?
Wall street executives were putting bullets through their
head because their world had evaporated.
And the Bible says, watch out for in
a moment, money can sprout wings and fly
away, says the Bible.
And that's exactly what happened.
Are you content with the home you have
or your husband or your wife or this
or that?
Listen, it's a matter of your heart, not
their hearts.
Some of you are married to non-believers.
Some of you tell me, I think I
married Satan and it's your
contentment in Christ that will get you through
that relationship.
Don't be surprised.
Listen, you don't have to worry about going
to the foreign mission field to lead somebody
to Christ.
If you married the devil, you just stay
true, stay firm.
And you witnessed to that person and they
are your mission field.
I know that you'd sign up to go
to the next trip to Africa, or where's
the church going next?
Haiti.
I'm signing up.
Why?
I want to get away from my husband.
That doesn't work.
And that's not good.
But delight develops a contentment of the heart.
Psalm 1715 says, as for me, I will
see your face in righteousness and I shall
be satisfied when I awake in your likeness.
That's awesome.
What a beautiful verse that is.
Psalm 20, verse seven, some trust in chariots,
some trust in horses, but we will remember
the name of the Lord, our God.
You have to remember this over and over
again.
And I know that's easy to say.
Jesus put it this way.
Now listen carefully.
Jesus said in Matthew 6 31, therefore do
not worry saying, what shall we eat?
What shall we drink?
What shall we wear?
For after all these things do the unbelievers
seek for your heavenly father knows what you
have need of all these things, but seek
first the kingdom of God.
Listen, especially you young people put God first
in your life now and watch what happens.
That's why I can't wait for these Sundays
that are coming up in August to celebrate
God's faithfulness, God's generosity, God's ability to speak.
And you young people, you thinking about life,
future ministry.
I want you to hear these Sunday mornings.
God has been faithful.
We've been unfaithful.
God's been faithful.
We've been dopes.
He's been amazing.
But if your heart is open to follow
him, seek first the kingdom of God and
all these things shall be added to you.
That is a promise given by Jesus.
The letters are written and read in your
Bible.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow.
We'll worry about its own stuff sufficient for
the day is its own trouble.
Don't be worried about tomorrow.
God says you follow me and I'll take
care of tomorrow.
That is an absolute fact.
Did you guys hear me?
Oh no.
What next month?
You don't even know if you're going to
be alive next month, next month.
What trust him, seek him, put him first.
Watch what happens.
He will never let you down ever.
He has never let us down.
He has never let you down.
If you think he's let you down, he
didn't let you down.
He just didn't answer the way you wanted
him to answer because he knew that if
he gave you that thing, you'd hurt yourself
with it.
Right?
I mean, it's true.
Okay.
Here's a great passage of scripture.
First Timothy six, verse six, starting there.
First Timothy six, six pulses.
Now godliness with contentment is great wealth, great
gain for.
We brought nothing into this world and it
is certain that we shall carry nothing out.
That's a verse for wall street and having
food and clothing, but these we shall be
content.
Well, but how, how much clothing?
See, this is, this is the American view.
How much food like freezers in the garage,
stuff full like steak.
What?
No.
And then close how much clothes like 400
pairs of shoes or what?
No, but those who desire to be rich
fall into temptation and a snare and into
many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men
in destruction and perdition.
That means their pursuit for wealth destroys their
lives and then sucks them down into hell.
Wow.
For the love of money, money's not evil.
What is the love of it is evil.
Money can be great if you use it
for God's glory, but the love of money
is the root of all kinds of evil
for which some having strayed from the faith
and their greediness and pierce themselves through with
many sorrows.
Is that not amazing?
Is that not our 21st century?
Is this not the year 2010 and 11?
Wow.
So delight develops contentment in our hearts, but
how does it do that?
Well, by recognizing and truly believing this next
verse, jot it down before we moved to
the second point.
It's first Corinthians 1026.
First Corinthians 1026 is true.
It's in the Bible.
It's for real.
For the earth is the Lord's and all
its fullness.
And I want you to underline fullness.
It's great.
The earth is the Lord's and every bit
of sand and everything that you can even
imagine regarding this earth, it's his.
The sparrows are his.
The clouds are his.
In fact, the Bible says in the Old
Testament that the Lord uses the clouds to
write upon.
Don't you like that kind of talk?
I like that.
There's nothing you cannot think of in this
world that's not his.
That's why it's funny to see people.
I'm sorry.
I think as you get older, you get
kind of sarcastic with the way you see
things because you're looking at a magazine.
You're looking at, I don't know, it is
some ad and it shows some guy, you
know, it's so funny because he's got these
incredibly ripped abs.
Okay.
And he's basically, you know, pretty much hairless,
ripped abs, wearing all this Gucci clothes on,
you know, the dude's like 13 years old
and he's got his sunglasses like, and there's
a Learjet behind him.
Have you seen the commercials like that?
And there's like a Bentley car parked right
there.
The guy's not even old enough to park
the car.
And he's like, selling like cologne.
It's like Armani.
And he's like this and it's, who are
they fooling?
You think, oh my, for, okay.
Do you see people like that?
Really?
It's absolutely hilarious.
But the world says, this is what you
got to be like.
This is, this is the meaning of life.
It's an absolute joke.
The Lord owns it all for people to
act like they own it.
Wouldn't it be great to go to Bel
Air?
We should take a field trip there on
a Wednesday night, go to Bel Air, go
grab one of those big gates, you know,
Sylvester Stallone's house and say, Hey, the Lord
owns this house.
You know, let us in the Lord.
But people, when you get deceived by that,
you'll walk around and you begin to think
you can't smile.
Why?
Because I'm somebody I'm really rich and important.
You can't smile when you're rich and important.
I guess you have to, you have to.
I saw Kobe Bryant at Disneyland.
He looked all bummed.
Why?
He looked bummed.
He's a bazillionaire.
He's one of the most famous faces in
the world.
And he said, Disneyland, the happiest place on
earth.
And he's like this dude, you're Kobe Bryant.
You're a bazillionaire.
You can buy Disneyland.
Cheer up.
He needs Jesus.
Kobe needs Jesus.
You don't have Jesus.
You've got nothing.
No, you don't tell me that I've got
all this stuff.
You've got nothing.
It's all going to burn.
You can't take it with you.
Jesus will never leave you.
You can't take this world with you.
Point number two, delight strengthens our faith in
God.
Delight strengthens our faith in God.
This is amazing because here it is.
Listen, we choose to delight in the Lord.
And we all experienced this when something happens
in life.
In a split second, you will choose to
go carnal flesh, freak out or follow the
Lord.
And sometimes listen, it may be also something
happens.
And then you realize, wait a minute, Christian
God's on the throne.
It's going to be okay.
You know what I'm talking about?
And then there's some people that are just
amazing.
The place blows up and they just go,
praise the Lord.
It's all, it's all good.
I'm not like that.
I'm like, I'd like to, you know, shoot
aim and, and then figure out what's going
on, you know?
But we're all different.
He didn't die for our personalities.
He died for our sins.
But the thing is that we all meet
at a common place and that place is
Christ.
And we delight in him.
The Lord knows the things that are coming
to our world.
The Lord knows.
I forgot them.
I was going to bring you two magazines,
news week and time news week and time
magazine time magazine says America is back.
The amazing economic recovery of the United States.
Yeah.
And the other one says the broken States
of America, how the, how 50 States are
going bankrupt to opposite magazines.
And that's a perfect commentary on the direction
of this nation.
Nobody knows what's up in the world.
Nobody knows what's up.
And there's one group saying we're fine.
We recovered.
We're fine.
We recovered.
And the other group has got its face
in the mud and it's just saying, it's
over.
It's over.
And then the Christian says, Hey, the earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof God's
in control.
And listen, at the end of the day,
at the end of the day, and at
the end of time, remember this, if you're
not a Christian here tonight, and you love
to make fun of Christians, Christians are really
fun to make fun of.
I mean, you know, we're great, but here's
the thing.
At the end of life, at the end
of time, at the end of the day,
we wind up being on top, not because
we made it is because our God sees
us to the top.
He'll get us there.
And, and everything that you're doing, striving to
get to the top, your claws are on
the wall, trying to make it up.
Okay.
God takes the Christian and goes, just like
a little kid, pick them up and put
them on the wall.
It's pretty amazing to delight in him.
It strengthens our faith and Philippians 4 12.
Look at the next verse.
He says, I know how to be a
based.
I know how to hardly ever get a
chance to have some food pulses.
I know how to spend time in jail.
Paul was in jail many times.
I know how to get beat up.
Isn't that amazing?
Paul says, yeah, I know how to get,
I know how to get flogged with a
Roman cat and nine tails.
That's I've been left for dead.
I got stoned and they threw me on
the side of the road thinking I was
dead.
I love pulses.
I've learned that.
Can you imagine if Paul showed up tonight?
Door opens up sanctuary doors open up.
Paul walks down here.
Hey, what's going on church?
Oh yeah.
Can you imagine he'd be all scarred up
according to church history.
He's kind of ugly.
His eyes were really ridiculously close together.
He had a big sharp hook nose and
he was bowlegged, short ball headed.
And his eyes were sore, a pussy from
eye infection.
That's why he had others.
He had to have his letters dictated often,
not always, but often.
Can you imagine Paul showing up?
Hey, and he starts to talk to us
about things you need to say.
I know.
I want to tell you guys, I remember
being so beat up that Luke and Luke
spent a month putting me back together.
Dr. Luke, I was, we don't know everything
that happened to him, but he was so
brutally beaten.
He was so left for dead.
He was so shipwrecked.
He spent day and a night in the
open ocean and a storm hanging on to,
I guess, a piece of wood and that
Mediterranean's got sharks in it on top of
it.
And he's out there bobbing around little Paul
serving the Lord.
Can you imagine?
I don't know.
Satan saying to you, Hey, how's your God
treating you now?
Think about that.
Paul would have said, shut up.
I'm serving my God.
If I get swallowed by a shark or
shipwrecked or whatever.
How do you stop a guy like that?
We should all be like that.
We've got 2000 years of experience to glean
from.
And we walk around.
No delight in the Lord strengthens our faith
in God and Proverbs 4 23.
It says, keep your heart with all diligence.
That's a military term, garrison your heart with
forces.
Get your mind under control.
Stop goofing off.
Get your emotions under control.
Keep your heart with all diligence for out
of it springs forth the issues of life.
Isn't that great?
Paul encouraged himself in the Lord.
He was powerful.
Isaiah 41 10 says, fear not for I
am with you.
Be not dismayed for I am your God.
I will strengthen you.
Yes, I will help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand.
How many of you are right-handed?
Raise your hand.
How many are left-handed?
Raise your hand.
That's it.
See God's right-handed.
He said, I will uphold you with my
right.
Righteous right hand.
That's good.
He strengthens our faith delighting in him.
Our faith will be strengthened.
What does that mean?
We'll have a new attitude about God in
every situation.
We'll have a new attitude about other people.
Don't we need that?
America needs that.
Our world needs that.
We'll have a new attitude about life.
We'll have a new attitude about love and
about possessions.
We'll have a new attitude about forever.
Eternal things will really live in light of
eternity.
The Bible says in Psalm 138, eight, the
Lord will perfect that is complete, which that,
which concerns me, your mercy, O Lord endures
forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
He won't.
I wrote down three examples real quickly about
how God finishes his work.
He will not give up.
Watch this.
Think about Moses.
What do you know about Moses?
Think about Moses.
God called that little guy when he was
just born, there was a death sentence on
his life.
Was there not?
And he gets put in a little, listen,
he gets put in a little basket and
put into the Nile.
The word for basket in Hebrew, Moses was
put in a coffin.
His mom and dad, they believed the Lord
and they put him in a little, little
reed basket, which is the word for coffin,
but they sent him in faith.
Can you imagine that is something that you
take your baby boy, you go down to
the river and you'd launch your little guy
out into the water.
And on top of it, the Bible says
he was so incredibly cute.
Little baby Moses.
Moses was a cute little guy.
In fact, it says it three or four
times throughout all of scripture, how cute he
was.
And his mama and his dad put him
out in the water in faith, trusting.
And what happened to that guy's life?
He was picked up by Pharaoh's daughter.
And he became known as the son of
Pharaoh, the son of Pharaoh's daughter, Pharaoh's his
grandpa.
Moses becomes the second most powerful man in
the world.
And God gets ahold of his heart and
says, Hey, you belong to these people.
And the Bible says that Moses chose to
be with his people rather than the riches
of Egypt that were there for just a
little while.
God's people are still today.
Where's Egypt?
Israel exists.
Where's the Egyptian empire?
Where are the Pharaohs?
I know where Moses is, though.
So you think about Moses, how God finishes
his promise.
Has God given you a promise?
He will finish it.
What about King David?
This guy's amazing to me.
By the way, of all people of antiquity,
all people of antiquity, there is no more
of a man written about found, of course,
in the Bible than King David and such
in-depth things of his life.
Called to be a king at an early
age, gifted and favored by God.
Listen, my friends, David, did he not delight
in the Lord?
I don't know when's the last time you
read the Psalms, but you ought to read
them again.
I tell you what, are you feeling down?
Read the Psalms.
Are you feeling up?
Read the Psalms.
Are you just kind of read the Psalms?
It is the book of God governing emotions
in a man's life, in the midst of
all of his hardships.
Listen, he delighted in the Lord, and you're
going to see David in heaven.
In fact, somebody asked me this question.
This is a great question.
During the millennium, the Lord reigns, but there's
the prince of the Lord also.
You ever read that in Ezekiel?
The prince of the Lord.
That's going to be David.
Did you know that?
Does God not keep his promises?
Taking him from the backwoods of Israel and
Judah all the way through to the day
when he'll fulfill the written word of God,
where it says that the Lord will reign
in Jerusalem, and he will establish his prince
with him.
David, for a thousand years.
And then what about Daniel?
I mean, we could go on all night
because you could talk about Jonah.
You could talk about Noah.
Daniel was amazing.
Just a kid, 13, 14 years old.
Nebuchadnezzar, then general of his father's forces.
I believe it's Nabal-pelazar was his dad.
Nebuchadnezzar was the general.
And while he sacked Jerusalem, he's taken Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
But you know them as Shadrach, Meshach.
What's their other name?
What?
Abednego.
And I know them by their Hebrew names.
Sorry, are you a bunch of pagan worship?
I'm kidding.
And takes them all the way to Babylon,
and God preserves Daniel's life all the way
through and outlives them all, and is able
to know secrets of heaven.
It's pretty amazing.
And then third, and we'll end with this,
the discipline of delight is this, that we
delight, his delight, our delight in him results
in a new attitude of mind.
This is important for us right now.
A new attitude of mind.
In Philippians 4, 13, the next verse, it
says, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.
Okay, now you got to stop for a
second.
How many have been Christians for five?
Well, you've been Christians, anybody been Christians for
like three years or under?
You're new.
Raise your hand.
That's okay.
Okay.
I figured like, you know, three years, you're
a Christian, three years old, three years as
a believer, you're still learning a lot of
stuff, and Bible, and this, and how do
I do this, and what?
Okay.
When you hear this verse, let's admit this.
If you don't know the power of God
at work in your life, and you have
not spent time to delight in him, to
see him to that point where you're saying,
Lord, okay, now take me.
If you haven't, if you haven't gotten there
yet, by the way, you can do that
tonight.
You have to like earn it.
You don't get stripes and okay, now you
can tonight say, Lord, I surrender.
If you haven't seen him work, when you
read a verse like this, it sounds like
something you'd read out of a Tony Robbins
motivational brochure.
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
You know that little train?
What's his face?
I think I can.
It's like, no, without God, that's a goofy
verse.
I can do all things.
It sounds arrogant.
Excuse me.
Will you move over?
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
It's like, who are you?
This is the great thing.
We are no bodies, but with him, we're
his child, we're his kids and the Lord's
in us and he's working in our lives.
So now all of a sudden, when I
think about delighting in the Lord, what do
I find out?
It results in a new attitude of mind.
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
This is a fantastic verse because as I
walk, live, breathe, live with him in this
life, the things of my life around my
life, situations, choices, decisions.
If I'm walking in a way where I'm
including him on everything, Lord, what do I
do?
Lord, what do you want?
Do I go left?
Do I go right?
You know what?
Charles Stanley wrote a book.
It's called, uh, the presence of God or
practicing the presence of God.
That's a great discipline.
Okay, Lord, you get a new project at
work and it gets handed to you.
You got to dedicate it to God.
Take it, take that work order, go to
the bathroom.
Well, I don't know where you're going to
go, where you can't do it at your,
you know, out in the office.
Maybe you can.
I don't know.
Go to the bathroom.
I don't think anybody's going to follow you
in the bathroom.
Go in there and Lord, this is, I
dedicate this to you.
This project, give me a good team and
Lord bless it.
Father glorify your son in this.
And Lord, just may it be obvious to
the world around me that one of your
kids has had jurisdiction over this project and
that I can glorify you in it and
you give it to him.
I mean that I'm dead serious about that.
It changes your complete attitude when you delight
yourself in the Lord in the most difficult
situations of life.
If you today say, I'm going to delight
myself in the Lord.
If you don't, you're going to get depressed.
You're going to get down.
You're going to get weary.
And when that kind of stuff goes on,
where do you go in your mind?
Most people, when they get like that, they
go internal.
That's bad.
When we go inside, we just clam up
and it's not good.
No, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.
It's through Christ that Paul is able here
in the book of Philippians to have a
life that he actually enjoys.
He's living for other people.
And he says, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
And I thought about this.
And isn't that isn't that what the world
is after tonight?
You guys, you can do everything.
You can do it.
Just put your mind to it.
Say you can do it right.
Everything the world says and everything that the
world wants to achieve, they fall short in.
And then the Bible comes along and says,
you can do all things through Christ who
strengthens you.
What does that mean?
I don't know, but it's big.
It's really something.
Only in and through Jesus Christ is it
possible to achieve the stuff that the world
is flirting with.
They'll never get it, but you can have
it.
It's human nature to want to go to
explore.
You think about that, to go see what's
on the other side.
It's human nature.
It's what God put in us.
But isn't it amazing that the greatest expedition
of all life and time is to know
the Lord and the world is pursuing everything
that the Lord can give, but they don't
go to him.
I want this.
I want that.
Why don't you get him and delight yourself
in him and watch what he does regarding
the desires of your heart, meaning whatever your
heart begins to want has been placed there
by God.
Listen up.
We're almost done.
This is the key to success.
What is, what is it?
Yes, this is it.
Delight yourself in the Lord.
He begins to inject in your heart the
things that he wants you to be excited
about.
Here's the funny thing.
You say, well, what if I don't want
that thing?
That's the miracle about it.
He, as you delight yourself in him, he
begins to inject things into your heart that
he wants you to do.
And those are the things that you can't
wait to do.
So like, let's say you don't want to,
I don't want to go to whatever fill
it in.
I don't want to go to Las Vegas.
I don't want to go to Nevada.
I don't want to go to Detroit.
I don't want to go to Philadelphia.
Oh God, don't call me to Las Vegas.
If God wants you to go to Las
Vegas, he won't tell you I'm sending you
to Vegas.
He won't do that to you.
Like, you know what he'll do as you,
as you say, Lord, I love you.
And you're awesome, God.
And you're, and you pursue him.
Guess what happens?
Las Vegas.
Stupid place.
Las Vegas.
Wonder what's going on there right now.
Anyway, you know what happens?
You start getting a burden for Las Vegas,
and then you have to go.
You drive down some street, you see people
in your heart starts to wait for them.
And then you start getting so excited about
Vegas that when you come back and you've
been praying and you tell your friends, I
think I'm going to Vegas to be a
missionary.
Your friends are going to say, are you
nuts to them?
You're not nuts.
But what happened is God, as you delighted
at him, the very thing you thought you
would reject winds up becoming the desire of
your heart.
And wild horses couldn't keep you away from
Vegas to be a missionary.
Ezekiel 3626 says, I will give you listen,
a new heart and a new spirit within
you.
That's about the heart.
But we're talking about the attitude in the
mind.
Did you know that the moment you accepted
Christ, you got a brand new heart?
So what is that?
You got a brand new seat of emotion
as a believer.
Brand new.
Our hearts were desperately wicked.
God gives us a new heart at the
moment of conversion.
That's not true about your mind.
It's kind of a bummer, huh?
But God in his infinite wisdom knows all
things.
We didn't get a new mind.
I want a new mind.
Give me a new mind.
God says, no, you got a new heart,
but you don't get a new mind.
You have to renew your mind.
And that's why we're here tonight like this.
You have to scrub your mind.
I remember years ago, Rory said, you have
to be brainwashed.
And I said, what'd he say?
He said, you have to be brainwashed in
your head.
And he's right.
You need a brainwashing.
Now you Christians y'all brainwashed.
I hope we need a mind change.
It affects our attitude.
That's renewed day by day.
The Bible tells us in Romans 12 one,
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice.
Okay.
Anybody tells you to put bombs on you
and blow yourself up for God doesn't know
Romans 12 one.
God doesn't want you dead.
He wants you living for him.
Holy and acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service and do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing.
The word is renovation.
Your mind that you may prove, listen, that
you may prove, discern, recognize what that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God is
for your life.
Wow.
Delighting in God will absolutely change your attitude.
Do you suffer depression?
Delight in the Lord.
King David said, it's so cute, man.
I think it's Psalm 42.
Don't quote me on that.
I'm going from memory and I'm not responsible
for that anymore at my age.
David, David goes like this.
He says, why so downcast?
Oh, my soul.
Isn't that great?
What's wrong with you?
He talks to himself.
Why are you so discouraged?
So what's, and he begins to talk to
himself and he begins to build himself up
in the Lord.
We ought to do that sometime.
Hey, put your eyes on the Lord.
Will you now get out there and be
a man for Jesus?
All right, let's go.
Probably wouldn't go over big, but Paul's, I
mean, David strengthened himself in the Lord like
that.
We need to do that.
And so what does this discipline of delight
look like?
In our lives, number one, a deep and
deepening trust in the Lord in difficult times.
Church, we have to have difficult times.
It, we, listen, it's going to get tough.
It has to get tough.
Every life has its tough times.
Why?
So we can delight in him.
You guys, if there was no tough times,
then there is no call to delight in
him.
You know, like the Bible says, wives submit
to your husbands.
You know why it says that?
Because the Bible knows already that it's going
to be tough for you to do that.
That's why the Bible says it.
If it wasn't tough, it wouldn't even, it
wouldn't say it.
Why does the Bible say, husbands love your
wives?
What does it say that?
Because husbands don't normally have a tendency to
love their wives.
They have a tendency to what was mine.
Is that all I get?
We're commanded to love our wives because man
is kind of weird that way.
And then the wife is like, why should
I submit to this thing here?
Why should I do this?
Thank you.
And the Lord says, listen, here's the deal.
Listen, you love her the way she needs
to be loved and you submit to him.
And both that becomes your ministry.
Some of you young people are thinking, I
thought God brought us together to be happy.
Where does it say that in the Bible?
It's to be holy.
It's to have a ministry.
And so the man turns and says, man,
I gotta, I gotta work on loving her.
I gotta know.
I gotta, I have to listen and I
have to figure this out.
And she's like going, Oh Lord, help me
to submit.
This is that's life.
It's there because it's not normal.
When the Bible says delight in the Lord,
why it's not normal.
We need him and it's going to deepen
our trust in him in hard times.
Secondly, a real expectation of God is that
he's going to do something with your life
is why we want to delight in him.
Oh God, I want you to use my
life radically.
Start praying radical prayers.
Write this verse down.
If you care, Daniel 1132, Daniel 1132, and
those who know their God shall carry out
great exploits.
Third, a reckless abandonment of your plans and
desires to God.
Just forget it.
God, I give you me.
And so Paul comes and he says in
another place in myself, there's no sufficiency whatsoever,
but my sufficiency is of Christ.
Sufficiency, my absolute confirmation of fullness.
Wow.
So what does that mean?
We go, we're done.
You can close your Bible.
What does that mean?
What do we, how do we leave here
tonight?
I said, Lord, I'm choosing now and agree
with me.
If that's you tonight, Lord, I'm choosing right
now to delight myself in you.
For all of us, no matter what your
age might be, you say, Lord, I am
now committing more of myself to you.
Lord, tonight I, I surrender.
Maybe tonight you're living a life that this
is absolutely foreign to you.
And you're not even sure if you know
Jesus Christ personally.
Let's pray.
Let's wrap this up, but not without opportunity
for you.
If you know the Lord, then just be
talking to him now.
If you don't know Jesus or you're not
sure, please believe me when I tell you
every Christian is to know, says the Bible,
you are to be certain that you know
your dad in heaven.
How can you, how can you be his
kid and not know that you belong to
him?
That's impossible.
If you don't know that you belong to
him, it's probably because you're not one of
his kids yet.
So let's pray right now.
And just, just fix that tonight.
Father, we come to you this evening.
And Lord, we ask in Jesus name, that
by the power of your Holy spirit, Lord,
as the storm clouds of culture are forming
Lord, as lightning is on the horizon, father
of our society coming undone.
And we see father, even our own government
at odds with itself tonight, we see cabinet
members of our government warring with one another.
And the world's gone mad without you Lord.
And then there's your people.
We ask you father, God, that you'd multiply
and magnify your presence in our lives.
And while we pray that we also pray
right now that if you're not a Christian
tonight, you're not sure you want to be
sure tonight while heads are bowed and eyes
are closed.
I'm going to ask you tonight that if
you believe that Jesus Christ died on the
cross and rose again from the grave, as
the Bible says, the Bible says he's God
come to earth in human form to die
for us as our sacrifice so that you
can inherit heaven through him and him alone.
If tonight you can say to him, Lord,
I have sinned.
I've had lustful thoughts or angry thoughts.
I've been selfish or irritable, or I've committed
this crime or the other thing doesn't matter.
Can you tell him that?
Because it's true.
If that's you tonight, while I'm looking across
the sanctuary, everybody who Jesus called, he called
publicly and I'm doing that right now.
If that's you tonight, will you just put
your hand up wherever you're at?
God bless you.
Anyone else?
You put your hand high so I can
see on the aisle in the back up
front.
My goodness.
Many hands in the back over here to
my left in the very, very back.
Anyone else over here?
Yes.
And in the back right there.
God bless you.
Young man in the very, very back.
Anyone else over here?
There, there and there.
Father, for these who have raised their hands,
two of you in the back, God bless
you right here as well.
Awesome.
Over here.
Somebody get in that, huh?
Thank you, Lord.
For those of you who raised your hands,
just tell him this right now.
Lord, I come to you now in Jesus
name.
I'm at my end.
I'm asking you to change my life.
I'm surrendering.
I'm quitting tonight.
I'm handing you the controls of my life.
Jesus, I believe that you died and rose
again, and I'm calling you to be my
Lord now.
Take the absolute control of my life.
I surrender to you in Jesus name.
Amen.
I'm going to ask everyone to stand right
now.