Devotion, Dedication, Duty, Defilement Series

What am I Missing Here?

Steps to Recovering Your Joy

5/15/2011 Calvary Baptist Church

Psalm 85:8

SERMON 6: Devotion, Dedication, Duty, Defilement

Series based upon the sermon by F.B. Meyer, “Where Am I Wrong?”

What am I missing here? What is wrong with me? Why am I not finding joy in the Lord?

• First, may I say to you, that it is good that you have noticed this.

• It is only by the Holy Spirit’s work in your life that you even care.

• Furthermore, it is a good sign of genuine conversion.

• For the lost man or woman, there is no thought of this.

• To them, they are just fine and see no need of the question.

• But to you, whose spirits resonate with this preacher’s question, you know that something is missing.

• You see in the faces, in the lives of others, a light, a joy, a power.

• And as you honestly evaluate yourself, you must admit that you do not have this light, this joy, this power!

REVIEW

1) Dispositions differ

2) Emotions are not the test of our spiritual state.

• #1: FAILURE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN HIS STANDING (OR POSITION IN CHRIST) AND HIS CIRCUMSTANCES.

• #2: PERHAPS YOU LIVE TOO MUCH IN YOUR FEELINGS, TOO LITTLE IN YOUR WILL.

• #3: PERHAPS YOU HAVE DISOBEYED SOME CLEAR COMMAND

• #4: PERHAPS YOU LOOK TOO MUCH INWARD ON SELF, INSTEAD OF OUTWARD ON THE LORD JESUS

• #5: IN SECTION 5 OF THE OVERALL SERIES, WE PREACHED A PORTION CALLED “STINKING THINKING.” WRONG … THOUGHTS é FEELINGS é ACTIONS

What is “Stinkin’ Thinkin’?

Any thought that …

1) Turns my mind toward ingratitude

2) Turns my mind against God, creates resentful thoughts against God.

3) Expects that, though Jesus, the prophets, the Apostles suffered, I am exempt.

4) Begins the trek toward resentment, bitterness or hostility toward my fellow believer, spouse, etc.

5) Elevates my selfish expectations to demands.

6) Ruins my testimony by creating a foul spirit.

We must bring these thoughts in subjection to Christ if we are to ever find our joy again!

• TODAY: WE CONCLUDE OUR SERIES “WHAT AM I MISSING HERE” BY LOOKING AT FOUR FINAL SOURCES OF LOST JOY.

I. DEVOTION (Ps. 85:8; Mt. 14:23; Genesis 19:27)

PERHAPS YOU SPEND TOO LITTLE TIME IN COMMUNION WITH GOD THROUGH HIS WORD

QUOTE: [Language Updated] It is not necessary to make long prayer, but it is essential to be [often] alone with God; waiting at His door; hearkening for His voice: lingering in the garden of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the dawn or cool of the day.

[HANDOUT QUOTE BEGINS] No number of meetings, no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of Christian activity can compensate for the neglect of the still hour. [HANDOUT QUOTE ENDS]

When you feel least inclined for it, there is most need to make for your closet with the shut door. Do for duty’s sake what you cannot do as a pleasure, and you will find it becomes delightful. You can better thrive without nourishment than become happy or strong in Christian life without fellowship with God.

When you cannot pray for yourself, begin to pray for others. When your desires [falter], take the Bible in hand, and begin to turn each text into [request to God]; or [begin to recount God’s] mercies, and begin to [turn] each of them into praise. When the Bible itself becomes [boring to you], [check to see if] you have not been spoiling your appetite by [junk food] and renounce [it]; and believe that the Word is the wire along which the voice of God will certainly come to you if the heart is hushed and the attention fixed.

"I will hear what God the Lord will speak" (Ps. 85:8).

[HANDOUT QUOTE BEGINS] More Christians than we can count are suffering from a lack of prayer and Bible study, and no revival is more to be desired than that of systematic private Bible study. There is no short and easy method of godliness which can dispense with this. F.B. Meyer [HANDOUT QUOTE ENDS]

Matthew 14:23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

• Jesus told us to enter our prayer closet.

• Jesus set the example for us.

Genesis 19:27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD:

• This was at the time that God was destroying Sodom.

• Abraham is up early, interceding for Lot.

• Is there no one for whom you should be interceding?

• Are there no troubles in your heart that you need to take to the Lord?