Your Heart's Desire Series

What is it you want most in your life? What is it that makes you tick? What’s your heart’s desire?

Physically the human heart is amazing instrument of God’s creation:

From the moment it begins beating until the moment it stops, the human heart works tirelessly. In an average lifetime, the heart beats more than two and a half billion times, without ever pausing to rest. Like a pumping machine, the heart provides the power needed for life. http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/

Spiritually the Bible speaks a great deal about the heart. We are told that “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9

How can we know what is in our hearts? If I said to you that there is a battle going on inside of us, old nature, new nature, evil and good, self, and Spirit, sin or sanctification would you really understand what that all means?

The battle for the heart is based on the battle for the mind but it’s deeper than that. In our minds we are commanded to think on what is right and good and true and Holy (Phil. 4:8)

But the word for heart is deeper than the mind. We are instructed to, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

The NLT says “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Prov. 4:23 NLT)

The word for spiritual heart here is refers to the whole personality. Not just the thought life but The Real You. God knows the heart and He knows the Real us even when we don’t know our own hearts…so today look with me at Psalm 37:4

What makes you happy? Simple question but I guarantee many Christians don’t know the answer to that. Americans waste more time and money chasing after things that satisfy slightly.

Could I suggest most Americans don’t really know what they are after. Most people here in our country couldn’t begin to understand this verse because they don’t know their heart’s purpose.

Rick Warren writes, “The smile of God is the goal of your life. Since pleasing God is the first purpose of your life, your most important task is to discover how to do that.”

Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, (pg.69)

Our verse says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

This verse is accomplished in two stages notice the breakdown.

I. Our Desire for Him “Delight yourself also in the Lord.”

Think about America today and the words delight yourself. Most people are seeking happiness in money, power, success, self-indulgence. They look for happiness everywhere except the LORD. Even Christians seek out things of the world that grant limited happiness. Here it where the heart is conditioned to believe that the world has something more to offer than God.

Jesus didn’t die for our sins so we could get our way. He didn’t die so we could be happy apart from knowing and loving Him. It doesn’t matter if we think we’re always right, have the best

opinion or that everyone should listen to us we can’t find true happiness if our desire isn’t pleasing the Lord.

So it begs the question. How can we know if our desire is pleasing to Jesus?

Simple question and a simple answer. You Ready?

It pleases the Lord if it advances His kingdom. Jesus gives the answer in His sermon on the Mount. The Bible says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

If what we are doing is drawing others into the kingdom of God and what our plans are will draw others closer to the Lord than what we are doing is going to please the Lord.

Kenneth Taylor worked for Moody Press. He and his wife did family devotions with their children. The kids couldn’t understand the KJV Bible. So daddy translated the KJV into what we now call The Living Bible. All because a dad’s desire was that his kids could understand God’s Word.

If there is any thing other than delighting yourself in Jesus you may feel happy from time to time but you are not truly happy?

There’s a reason for that by the way. The enemy. The enemy causes many to believe that there are other desires to be had. Food for example. Man who doesn’t love to eat?

Seafood is my downfall...when I See food I can’t wait to eat.

So people over eat but not all of it is food problems. People over indulge at work, pile on more responsibilities, add a side order of family problems have stress for desert and before you know it they have a diet of wrong desires.