Today, we launch a new series, Seven Practices of a Healthy Christian. This series fits nicely after talking through Creed for the summer. First, we discussed our creed and now our deeds. Beliefs always precede our behavior. You can find today’s sermon notes on YouVersion and go to “Live event.” Tweet with the hashtag: #faithathome.
For some of you who have seen The Harry Potter movies, you’re familiar with the Mirror of Erised. The Mirror of Erised was in the first book and in the first movie. It is a mirror that shows the deepest and most desperate desires of one’s heart. Erised is the word desire spelled backwards. Harry Potter stumbles upon the classroom where the mirror was being stored. Upon looking into it, Harry saw himself surrounded by his dead parents and relatives. He saw several smiling family members. Harry’s family died when he was an infant. In the mirror, he sees his family loving him and looking at him. On his next midnight visit to the mirror, he brought Ronald Weasley, hoping to show him his family. However, Ron saw himself, as he a sports champion. Every single person places their ultimate hope in something and everyone sees something different in the mirror. Whatever controls us is our Lord.
We’ve chosen one verse to highlight worship: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). My aim this morning is to convince you of this one big idea: The reward of Christian Discipline Is Fueled by a Delight in Jesus Christ.
There are two words missing from the lips of many Christians in our day: consistency and constancy. Constancy and consistency. Christianity is not fueled by duty. Offering the Christ of the cross the roses of worship because you must is not what fuels Christian worship. A begrudging passion for your spouse doesn’t honor your spouse. And a dutiful pursuit of God doesn’t honor Him. When a couple falls in love there are hormonal fireworks. But in marriage they must cultivate delight in one another. It is the consistent, persistent, faithful, intentional, affectionate pursuit of one another during better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and healthy times that cultivates a capacity for delight in each other far deeper and richer than the fireworks phase. Similarly, the practices are one of the ways we cultivate delight in God.
Many days your walk with Christ may seem mundane. But we will be surprised at the CUMULATIVE power these seven disciplines have to deepen our love for and awareness of Him. But it’s fitting to focus on worship first because it’s the zenith of Christianity. The furnace of Christian worship is fueled by overwhelming pursuit of pleasure in God Himself. Christianity is fueled on the high-octane rocket fuel called delight. Healthy Christian growth in godliness doesn’t primarily come from trying harder but from cultivated desire for Christ. Desire to please God is the power for the Christian life. Godly people are seen as yearning, longing, hungering, thirsting, and fainting for God. They are seen as enjoying, delighting in, and being satisfied in God.
1. Conversion Begins Your Spiritual Taste for God
You had enjoyed food and friendships and being productive and investments and vacations and hobbies and reading and shopping and sports and TV and travel … but not God. He was an idea – even a good one – and a topic for discussion. But he was not a treasure of delight. All of this changed at your conversion. Your conversion marks the first time you were in the presence of God. And your cravings for Him have been awakened. Your desire for Him – no matter how small – has been awakened when you were converted to Christ. And the truth is that a believer’s heart and soul will always crave more of God than he presently experiences. Your conversion marks your freedom.
It’s a freedom to leave the pleasures of this world for a greater pleasure – a Being who is more infinitely desirable than the nicest homes DFW has to offer. Remember, Desire to please God is the power for the Christian life. Again, my aim this morning is to convince you of this one big idea: The reward of Christian discipline is fueled by a delight in Jesus Christ.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).
Christianity is fueled on the high-octane rocket fuel called delight. At your conversion, your new life’s goal is to see and savor “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4b). The Holy Spirit converts you and it is He that makes the fuel of your worship white-hot. The truth of the Bible causes you to be born again and Scripture is the furnace that causes your worship to be alive and warm.
The resulting heat of the Spirit’s work at your conversion… and the Scripture’s work to keep your worship warm… is how our affections push their way out from inside of us in our singing, our bowed heads, our lifted hands, our obedient lives, our tears of confession, and our longing for more of the presence of God.
When I speak of conversion to Christ, I’m not simply talking about deciding to follow Christ. I am not preaching about decisional Christianity where your mind analyzes the options and finds Christianity to be acceptable. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8)! I am instead talking about tasting and longing for Christ. Where heart and mind are united together in the pursuit of Christ.
Again, this is not a decision of willpower but a conversion unto a holy desire. Once you had no delight in God, and Christ was just a vague historical figure. But now, sick, dying followers of Christ lie in their hospice beds think and dream of meeting Jesus Christ. The difference between a believer and a non-believer isn’t what they believe, it’s what they love. “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come” (1 Corinthians 16:22)!
We can hear George Beverly Shea singing (8 am service): I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands; I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause; I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame; I’d rather be true to His holy name
2. Delight in God Despite Economic Trouble
Habakkuk is a little known book toward the end of the Old Testament portion of your Bibles. In order for you to sense the weight of Habakkuk’s delight, you need to understand his question. Habakkuk’s book is a dialogue with God. Instead of speaking to the people about God (the normal behavior of a prophet), Habakkuk spoke to God for the people. Habakkuk saw evil that never seemed to be punished and he asked for God’s response to the evil and suffering he saw. In his dialogue with God, Habakkuk asked God directly how the wicked could go unpunished. God responded: You must wait to see the work I am about to do on the stage of world history. Habakkuk responded: How could God use the evil of Babylon to punish God’s own people, Israel, who were surely more righteous than Babylon?
“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save??3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.?4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (Habakkuk 1:2-4).
When Habakkuk looks around at his own nation, he sees a sick and decadent society. There was a growing crime rate. Physical violence was rampant. Today we could list the shootings of students by students in our schools. Road rage… The battering of wives and children… Violent abortions and euthanasia… Violence in love triangles and in human trafficking. But Habakkuk cannot understand how could God use the evil of Babylon to punish God’s own people, Israel. I gather this from verse six where the word “Chaldeans” is a synonym for Babylon. Isn’t Israel more righteous than Babylon? Habakkuk lists the sins of the then world-power Babylon:
“You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.?15 He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad.?16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.?17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever” (Habakkuk 1:14-17)?
This isn’t figurative language that Habakkuk is using in these verses. Babylon literally drove a hook in the sensitive bottom lip of their captives and stringed them along in single file. Habakkuk goes on to describe that those who were not captured with a hook, were dragged in a net. Archeologists have discovered an inscription that depicts Babylonian deities dragging a net where their enemies squirmed for release. All the while the Babylonians are seen gloating over their enemies torture.
Habakkuk is perplexed. All of this leads to prophet’s conclusion: he trusts in God despite upcoming calamities.
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,?18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.?19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments” (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
He delights in God despite impending disaster. He is foreseeing a future where these is no fig… no fruit… no olive…. All of which represent the choicest products of the land. He sees no grain in the fields… no flock… and no cattle. There is not fig cakes, no wine, and no oil. There is no bread… There is no milk… There is no meat… There are six clauses and each of the six grew in increasing severity.
Figs were a delicacy in Israel and losing them would not produce a severe hardship. But sheep and cattle made up much of the wealth. Without these animals to provide wool and provide labor to till the soil, the people of Israel would experience starvation. Habakkuk foresees the judgment of God coming where none of the pleasures he loves is available to him. Life’s luxuries will be gone as well as life’s necessities. But there is a counter expectation. Despite all of this Habakkuk moves from a complaining prophet to a happy prophet… Despite the setbacks to come, he expects to mount with swift surefootedness to the heights of the mountains. Though he might lose everything in this world which normally brings life and joy, he vows to rejoice in God Himself. This isn’t toughing it out. This isn’t hanging in there. This is the work of God’s grace and this is the reason for delight in Him. God’s people receive grace upon grace. Even the most horrifying setbacks cannot break the confidence of God’s people. He expresses his desires in deep emotions. We are commanded to worship God in the deepest of passionate emotions. Our worship of Him is be fueled by delight in Him. No matter the circumstances. And he uses two names for God – “God, the Lord” – that emphasize His power and might. He uses the strongest names for God. The sovereign God in the universe has declared His unswerving allegiance for His children: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
3. Doesn’t this Make Too Much of Emotions?
My first goal in the first sermon of this series is for you to fall in love with none other than God Himself. Let your passion be single! “To know Him in your mind and to delight in Him in your heart is one passion” (John Piper). Pleasure in God is the power for the Christian life. Again, my aim this morning is to convince you of this one big idea: The reward of Christian discipline is fueled by a delight in Jesus Christ. The Bible commands that you delight yourself in God. Listen to the words of the Bible:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.?2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.?3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.?4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips… 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:1-5, 8).
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8)
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)
“Each of us has a battle raging within us over what we love most – God or something else!” It’s entirely too simplistic to see the Christian life in either disobedience or obedience for legalists obey to impress those around them. There is an obedience that is fueled by legalism. And legalism isn’t rocket fuel that will cause you to lift to the heaven. Legalism will not cause you to lift off the ground at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Legalism is motivated to obey in order to impress those around me. But there is a brand of obedience is caused by an inner relish to delight the King. You are threatened with terrible things if we will not be happy in Him.
“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48)
God is serious about you finding your happiness in Him: “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:22)
God has set eternity in two very contrasting states of existence. One is heaven which is populated with those who breathe in the air of the beauty of Jesus Christ. Citizens of heaven will be captivated with His Diving majesty for eternity. The other place is a place of abject misery. Hell’s citizens experience what the book of Revelation calls “the Wrath of the Lamb,” where Christ torments its citizens in misery throughout all of eternity. God has purposed from eternity past as the architect of eternity, to construct two opposite places for people to exist – and they exist in either abject misery or unquenching delight. God has constructed eternity with our emotions in full view. If God is not more enjoyed than the meal you are about to have then you blaspheme God by eating the meal.
If your health… If your family is more enjoyable than God, then you blaspheme God. You must pursue pleasure in God. This isn’t icing on the cake of Christianity. Delighting yourself in God is not a sand trap on the golf course called Christianity. Pursuing pleasure in Christ is right down the middle of the fairway of Christianity. No human being can receive the full measure of His majesty and His glory. Therefore, God satisfies our taste buds in increments until we reach eternity. A begrudging passion for your spouse doesn’t honor your spouse. And a dutiful pursuit of God doesn’t honor Him.
