Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
When you asked the man in Mark 9 if he believed You could heal his son, he said, “Lord I believe – help my unbelief.” Lord that is so often how I feel about loving You.
We love You Lord; help our lack of love.
We desire Your presence Lord; help our lack of desire - forgive us for the pathetic weakness of our desire.
We hunger and thirst for the experience of Your favor dear Lord; overcome our lack of appetite.
We rejoice in You; help our lack of joy - excite our dull affections.
We delight in Your love; triumph over our indifference and lack of delight.
So many things have to go right for these kinds of things to take place in our hearts, Lord. We are all here tonight because we believe Your Word has the power to do all this, but Your Word is preached and taught to millions of people without bringing about these results. People hear Your Word every day and go away unmoved, unchanged, unfed, uninterested. For this to work tonight Lord, I need to teach Your Word accurately, and from the right perspective, and with the right emphases, I need to explain things in a way that makes Your truth understandable, and in a way that makes the implications for our lives very clear.
And beyond that, Lord, each heart needs to be receptive to You. Please, Lord, let these truths come into our ears tonight and be accepted into our hearts, and digested into our lives with joy. Protect us from the evil one, who would distract us, introduce doubt, or try to generate boredom. We are seated tonight at Your banquet table in Your honor looking to You to feed us that we might glorify You by rejoicing in You. So fill us full, we pray, in Your holy and wonderful name, Amen.
Affections are at the Core of Love
Last time we talked about the fact that the affections are at the core of loving God. I want to say a little more about that before we move on. First, I want you to understand what I mean by the term “affections.”
Affections are the best measure of the heart
When you and I look out over the world, we interpret and evaluate everything we see. God made us that way. We do not just observe – we observe and evaluate. There are some things that you love and there are other things you do not love at all. In the words of Jonathan Edwards, there are some things that your heart in inclined toward in a favorable way and other things you are inclined away from in a negative way.
Imagine driving along and seeing three different bumper stickers. The first one says something you strongly agree with, or you think is funny. The second one says something that makes you angry. And the third one you do not care about at all. Your mind does not see those in a detached, analytical way only. When you see the first one, not only does your mind read it and think about it, but your heart is inclined favorably toward it. When you see the second one your heart is inclined away from it. And when you see the third one your heart is indifferent.
Part of what makes you a good or evil person depends on your inclinations. If your heart is inclined toward evil and away from good, you are an evil person. If your heart is indifferent and unmoved by things that are truly beautiful and good, or if your heart is indifferent and unmoved by things that are truly evil - that is a sign of something wrong in your heart. If your heart is inclined toward good and away from evil, that demonstrates a measure of goodness in your heart.
In fact, I would suggest that the inclinations of your soul are the most important factor in measuring the righteousness and wickedness of your heart – even more than your actions, thoughts or the decisions of your will.
Actions are not the best indicator of righteousness, because they can be done with wrong motives. True thoughts are not the best measure; demons believe many true things. Not even the choices of the will are the best measure. If a person strongly desires to commit murder and rape, but chooses not to only because he wants to avoid prison, he is not a righteous person. If a person wants to give to the poor, but chooses to give his money to some scam instead because he is deceived through no fault of his own, that is good, not evil.
The best measure of godliness is your affections – what you love. Henry Scougal was right when he said, “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” The Bible is clear that evil people are evil because of what they love, and righteous people are righteous because of what they love.
2 Tim.3:1-5 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
Amos 5:15 does not say “Do good and avoid doing evil.” It says, “Hate evil, love good.”
Ps 97:10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil
Ps 119:104 I hate every wrong path.
1Ti 3:3 An elder in the church must not be one who is a lover of money but one who loves what is good (Tit 1:8)
Ro.12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Ro.7:22 in my inner being I delight in God's law
Do you see how important the affections are? It is not enough for me to just see sin and think, “That is evil.” My heart is not becoming righteous until it begins to incline away from evil instead of toward it.
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Are you starting to see how important the affections are? I it is important to make this clear, for two reasons:
1. It is critical for understanding this Psalm and for understanding the nature of love for God and true faith, and
2. It goes against what many of you have been taught for many years by good Bible teachers.
Agape is an emotion
For example, how many of us have been taught that the Greek words eros and philos refer to emotional love, whereas agape has more to do with action and the will? I was taught that, and I taught it myself. But it is not correct. It is not supported in the lexicons, by biblical usage or by other ancient Greek usage. The most extensive word study book on the Greek language is Kittel’s 10-volume “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” The article on agape starts with the Old Testament usage of the term, and it says this:
Love in the OT is basically a spontaneous feeling which impels to self-giving or, in relation to things, to the seizure of the object which awakens the feeling, or to the performance of the action in which pleasure is taken.
Agape is a feeling. When that feeling is toward an action, it impels you to do that action. When that feeling is toward an object, it impels you to take possession of that object. And when that feeling is toward a person, it impels you to give of yourself to that person.
Jesus never said anything to overturn the Old Testament formulation of agape love as a feeling. He simply placed emphasis on the parts that were being neglected. Love is a feeling that impels self-giving. Jesus underscored the fact that if it is real, it will indeed impel self-giving. And if there is no self-giving, there is no real love. But Jesus did not say anything to overturn the fact that it is a feeling that impels the self-giving.
If we take seriously the metaphors and images God uses to describe love, the emotional core will become very obvious.
Jer.31:20 Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? … my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him," declares the LORD.
The word translated “dear” is agapatos (from agape), and it is described in terms of the delight, compassion and heartfelt yearning of a father for his beloved child. That is as emotive as an image can be. What kind of love could be more emotional than the delight, compassion and heartfelt yearning of a father toward his son?
Agape is even used to describe sexual love. The noun and verb forms of agape are used 19 times in the Song of Songs of sexual love.
The rejoicing of heaven is described with the same terms as rejoicing now
When we see the concept of rejoicing in God plastered all across the entire Old Testament, and we decide to try to interpret that in some non-emotional way, (first of all, we turn those passages into nonsense. F.B. Meyer talked about the difference between joy and the feeling of joy - what is joy that you can not feel? And what good is it?), if we interpret the commands to rejoice in a non-emotional way, and we are consistent in the way we interpret the Bible, what happens to the promises of future joy? Are we looking forward to getting to heaven and having a joy that we can not feel?
Jer.31:12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD.
If we water down the commands about shouting for joy, so that we do not really have to feel anything, that means the promises of that same thing might mean that you will be in heaven with the same blah affections you have now, just disciplining yourself to shout praises. If heaven will have real joy, then we should have real joy now, because the same terms are used to describe both. It is not as great now as it will be then, and here it is mixed with sorrow, and there it will be pure, but it is the same kind of joy in both places – joy that you feel.
Joylessness is no more excusable than being without other commanded affections
And to excuse yourself by saying, “I’m just not an emotional person” no more absolves the joyless Christian than using that same excuse to exempt yourself from the biblical requirement to experience peace, contentment, patience or hope or any other emotion.
“Experience peace? I can’t – I’m not an emotional person. Be compassionate? You want me to feel compassion Lord? Sorry, I can’t – God didn’t make me an emotional person. Be patient with all men? No can do – I’m non-emotional.” Those excuses are not going to fly.
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I hope by this point the relationship between the affections (the inclinations of the heart), desire, joy and love has become clear. Where there is love, all those things will be present. So if I have my nose pressed up against the glass looking at all the different kinds of cheesecake at the cheesecake factory, there is an inclination in my heart. I’m not just like Mr. Spock, thinking, “Those objects are triangular, edible foods with varying colors…” My heart is inclined toward them. It is saying, “Those little triangles are good.” Part of that inclination includes desire. I want that cheesecake.
And the relationship between desire and joy is what? Once I get one of those fatty little $7 triangles on my plate and into my mouth, I have joy! So do you all see the intergral relationship between inclination, desire, delight and joy? You put all those together and you have love.
Proper love for God is the delight of your soul in God that rises out of desire and causes complete commitment to Him.
Note the two parts of love – the emotional part and the volitional part. When I refer to “the emotional component of love” I mean the delight of the soul and desire. And when I refer to “the volitional and active components” I mean the resulting commitment and actions.
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Now we are ready to begin studying Psalm 63. The linchpin of this whole psalm (and in many ways the linchpin of my entire understanding of the process of sanctification), is v.3a.
your love is better than life
David preferred God, and that drives everything. It is that preference for God that made David’s soul thirst for God in v.1 instead of for something else. It is that preference that made David’s lips want to glorify God and sing and shout for joy throughout the psalm. It is that preference that led to the complete satisfaction of David’s soul in v.4, because he preferred the table that had real food on it to the table that did not. It was that preference that made David want to think about God when he was awake at night in v.6 instead of a million other things a king needs to think through. (That is amazing – you can not think about something all through the watches of the night unless your mind is preoccupied with that thing. Imagine being preoccupied with thoughts of God!)
Understanding and believing that can do more than anything else I know of to help you in your struggle against sin, and I know of no greater way to glorify and honor God.
God’s Love vs. Life
To appreaciate this statement we need to think carefully about the meaning of “life,” “God’s love,” and “better.”
Life
This is not a reference here to biological life. He is talking about human life – all that makes up your life (eating and drinking, cars and houses, clothes and toys, money and work, family and friends, vacations and recreation, sleeping and watching TV, exercising and reading the paper, talking on the phone and checking your email - all the parts of life) – and especially the best parts. The reason I say that is he is drawing a comparison designed to glorify God. He would not be saying much if he meant, “God, Your love is better than the worst parts of life.” The point is God’s love is better than life at its best.) His love is better than the most exhilarating moments of pleasure and ecstasy you have ever experienced in life, or eating the most wonderful food in the world, or the feeling of lying down in a soft bed at night when you are dead tired and you can sleep in tomorrow, or curling up in your favorite chair and reading a great book in a mountain cabin with a beautiful snowstorm outside, or fishing or skiing or 50-yard line seats at the Superbowl when your home team is winning.
Furthermore, this verse is true for every person. Therefore, God’s love is better than any part of anyone’s life. That means God’s love is better than standing on stage with thousands of fans going crazy over you. God’s love is better than the most exotic trip on the most lavish yacht. God’s love is better than a private jet, or ruling the world or being the most famous quarterback in the NFL. It is better than all the good things in everyone’s life.
God’s Love
The Hebrew word is Hesed, which refers to God’s gracious disposition toward His people that grants access into His presence.
Ps.5:7 But I, by your great love, will come into your house
God’s hesed enables us to experience and enjoy His favorable presence to bless. For the believer there is a certain amount of God’s love that is always expressed to us, and that never wavers or diminishes.
Ps.26:3 for your love is ever before me
Ps.103:17 from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
Ps.23:6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.
This steadfastness of God’s love is an incredibly wonderful reality. It is wonderful because we can put our trust in it.
Ps.13:4-5 my foes will rejoice when I fall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
Ps.21:7 For the king trusts in the LORD; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.
So we can rely on God’s constant, unwavering, unfailing, uninterrupted flow of favor and kindness toward us. But that is not the whole story. There are greater degrees of the experience of God’s love that do come and go. Frequently you see the psalmists asking God to show His love. That means there is some experience of the love of God that they did not have at the time they were writing the psalm, but that they longed for.
Ps.119:41 May your love come to me, O LORD
Ps.85:7 Show us your love, O LORD
Ps.90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Ps.25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me
There are some times when God pours out His love lavishly upon us, and other times, whether because of our sin, or for the purpose of testing, or for some other reason, God allows us to experience a time of diminished experience of His love. So when the psalmists ask for more of God’s love, they are referring to the direct experience of His favor. And when we pray for that, there are at least three parts to it – and you can see those three parts in the first three verses I just read:
First, we ask that His love would come to us. (Ps.119:41 May your love come to me, O LORD) When God has withheld the direct experience of His special favor, our request is that His love would come to us.
Then there are other times when the problem is not that God has withheld it, but that we have become blind to it. In times like that we ask that God would show us His love. (Ps.85:7 Show us your love, O LORD). When God is showering His favor on you, but it just is not causing joy in your heart. For whatever reason, you can not seem to see it as wonderful. And so you pray, “God, show me what is wonderful about this love You are bestowing upon me. Set it apart as wonderful in my eyes. Distinguish it as marvelous and spectacular. Set it apart in my vision and draw clear boundaries around it so that it doesn’t bleed into anything else. Showcase it in my perspective.”
And then there are times when you are receiving His favor, and you can even see what is wonderful about it, but still your heart is not fulfilled by it. You find you are still restless and unhappy and unsatisfied. That is when you pray… Ps.90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. “God, I can’t sing for joy unless I have joy; and I can’t have joy in You unless You satisfy the longings of my heart with Your love.” His love is like a wonderful meal that will satisfy me once I get it in my stomach, but there are times when it seems like my mouth is glued shut. And I just have to pray and say, “God, please – get this food – this direct experience of Your favor, into my stomach that my soul might be satisfied.”
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Better
Having unfolded the meaning of “God’s love” and “life,” the term “better” explodes with significance. The direct experience of God’s favor is to be preferred above the absolute best anyone’s life has to offer. So, if someone asks you, “Would you like to go skiing?”, if you thought like David, you would say, “If the skiing turned out to be a direct experience of God’s favor, yes! If not, no!” If you had a choice between skiing without the direct experience of God’s favor, or sitting at home with the direct experience of God’s favor - if you truly believe that God’s love is better than life, you would choose to sit at home. And you would choose that because it would actually be more enjoyable to you and more fulfilling.
In fact, if you had to choose between the most pleasurable vacation your mind is capable of imagining - minus the direct experience of God’s favor - or being tortured in the most miserable, horrible dungeon in the world, but with the experience of the favor of God in that dungeon; you would choose the dungeon. And the reason you would choose it is because you would actually enjoy it more. It would bring more joy, more comfort, more fulfillment, and more satisfaction to your heart than the dream vacation without the favor of God. If you doubt that just think about the times when rich people, who can afford any vacation they want, have committed suicide. And compare that with how many martyrs have had songs and tears of joy even in the midst of torture.
Just think of how many times you have been doing something that was supposed to make you really happy, but it did not. The last time it made you happy, and the next time it makes you happy, but this time it does not. There is still something wrong – an ache in your soul, and you can not do anything about it.
Usually what that happens we run around and try to find every possible remedy except the one that will really work. We stuff huge amounts of food down our throats, we go shopping, we do lots of ministry, or play games, go on vacations, go to a psychiatrist and get mood medications, read our Bibles like a magic charm (thinking the reading itself will do something), drink alcohol, take drugs, look at pornography… If you do enough of that kind of thing you can make yourself forget about that ache in the soul, but none of those things will satisfy it. But there is one thing that will satisfy it. Look at v.5. David knew how to find full satisfaction, because he really believed v.3.
How this helps with temptation
When you are confronted with a temptation, if all you do is try to say, “no,” it will work for a while, but not for very long. The reason the “gritting your teeth and trying to resist what your affections strongly desire” method ends with mostly failure is because the impulses of the affections are relentless, and even the most disciplined person will eventually give in to that toward which his heart is strongly inclined.
Think of a person who has been enslaved by alcohol and who is now trying to quit drinking. He resolves not to drink anymore. On Monday he gets slammed with the temptation to drink 50 times. He is so strong in his resolve, and so disciplined and has such strong willpower that he manages to resist that overwhelmingly strong temptation 49 straight times. But on the 50th he finally caves in. The next day he is tempted 100 times. And he resists every single one. On Wednesday he is tempted 100 times again, and he resists 99 of them, but caves in once. He is exhibiting incredible willpower – resisting more than 99% of the temptations. That would suggest that he is doing remarkably well. The problem is, he is still getting drunk every other day, which is about what he was doing before. That is not very good success.
It does not work because ridding yourself of an evil without replacing it with a virtue leaves a vacancy in your affections that will be filled right back in by the evil.
Mt.12:43-45 When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.
The fact that Jesus applies the principle to the entire generation shows that it is a principle that applies generally to evil. Sin cannot simply be eliminated. It must be displaced with virtue. We see that pattern over and over in Scripture. Eph.4:22-32 is a great example. The negative putting off of evil always has a positive counterpart.
- put off your old self (v.23) … put on the new self (v.24)
You do not put on the new self and that old self will be back with a vengeance.
- v.25 put off falsehood (negative) … speak truthfully (positive)
If you try to stop lying, but you do not develop a love for truth, it will not work.
- v.28 steal no longer … share with those in need
You can not just stop stealing. You have to start loving generosity.
- v.29 Get rid of unwholesome talk. How? By replacing that sin with the virtue of saying only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
- v.31 Get rid of all bitterness … v.32 Be kind and compassionate
Sin is like water. If you get a shovel and try to dig a hole in water, it just rushes right back in. You have to displace it with something more substantive. The guy who is battling his enslavement to alcohol will not have success until there is some other thing that he actually prefers to alcohol. When the inclination of his soul tips more toward that other thing, he will choose that thing above drinking. And for that to happen, that other thing has to be more appealing to him than liquor.
More Desire, not Less
When we try to address the problem of sin by reducing our desire for that sin – instead of by increasing our desire for righteousness, it does not work.
If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.
What Lewis is saying is the fact that God offers reward so often shows that obviously God wants us to have strong desires. The promises of reward are supposed to motivate us, and they will not do that unless we have strong desires for them.
Lewis goes on:
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.
The key to godliness is not to focus on reducing your desire for evil. Think about it – if all you do is reduce your desire for evil, once you get it reduced down so it is very small, you are still going to choose that thing if you do not have any other desire that is greater. It does not take strong desire to get you to act – all that is required is that no other desire be stronger.
For example, take people who bite their fingernails, but are trying to quit. How much pleasure do you get from biting your fingernails? Almost none. How powerful is that desire to bite the nails? Very weak. If those people have a choice between eating a wonderful meal and biting their nails, they chose the meal. If they have a choice between doing something fun and biting, they chose doing something fun. They will prefer almost any desire above biting their nails. But when there is no stronger desire present, they bite their nails.
No matter how small you make the desire for evil, unless there is a greater desire you will still chose the evil. On the other hand, it is possible to have a HUGE desire for evil, but still not chose it. If you have a HUGE desire for some evil, but at the same time you have a desire for some good that a little bit stronger, you will chose the good. So do not focus on reducing desire for evil – focus on preferring the experience of God’s love.
Preferring and Despising
The good news and bad news about preferring is this - each time you are presented with a choice, and you genuinely prefer one option over the other that has the effect of causing the heart to despise the rejected option to some degree.
Mt.6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
The reason you can not hold on to both is because the more you prefer one, the more that makes your heart begin to despise the other one. That is one of the problems with deciding to sin and just thinking, “It is OK – I’ll just repent later and ask forgiveness.” First of all, there is no guarantee God will grant you a repentant heart. But even if He does and you are forgiven – just think of the damage that is done. Since you preferred the evil over God, that taught your heart to despise God in that instance. And that is going to be hard to retrain your heart. Now for a while all temptation is going to be much harder for you to resist. And finding joy in God is going to be that much farther from your grasp.
That is the bad news. But there is also a wonderful part to that principle. Each time you prefer God to evil, that trains your heart to despise that evil. And so the more you do that, the more it will reduce your desire for evil while increasing your desire for God. The way to conquer sin, then, is to increase desire for good. And desire for good increases when desire for God increase. The more a person loves God and enjoys fellowship with him, the more that person will tend to prefer unbroken fellowship to the pleasures of sin.
Two Banquets
Enjoyment and the pursuit of satisfaction and pleasure and fulfillment are pictured in Scripture in the metaphor of eating and drinking. Your soul has appetites and longings and needs just like your body does. And God expects you to pursue the satisfaction of those appetites. God does not want you to go without eating. He created you with a voracious appetite, and He expects you to feast. The only question is which table are you going to sit down at to feast?
Proverbs 9 is a chapter about two banquets. And both banquets are being advertised and promoted. And they both have a publicist. God’s banquet is being announced and promoted by wisdom, which is personified in this chapter as a woman. If wisdom were a person, she would be shouting out into the streets and advertising God’s banquet.
Pr.9:1-5 Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars. 2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. 3 She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city. 4 "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. 5 "Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.
Then starting in v.13 there is another feast – the feast that the world offers. And that feast is advertised and promoted by folly (which is the opposite of wisdom). Folly is also personified as a woman.
Pr.9:13-18 The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. 14 She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, 15 calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. 16 "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. 17 "Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!" 18 But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.
They both cooked up some tasty meat, and mixed up some wonderful drinks, they both have the table set, and the banquet is ready. Now it is just a matter of getting you to come sit down at the table. The issue is not whether you will feast. The issue is at which table are you going to sit? It is all about preference.
If you think the Christian life is all about saying “no” to the feast - if you just stand there at the world’s feast trying to say no - not only will you fail, the little bit that you do succeed will bring no honor to God at all, and so it will not even be real success.
How does it glorify God if you just say no to some sin? That glorifies no one but you. What God wants is not for you to say no to the feast. What He expects is simply for you to prefer His feast over the world’s. He wants you to see that His is better. And He wants you to sit down and thoroughly enjoy it.
Ps.141:4 Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil … may I not eat of their delicacies.
Ps.36:8 [Those who take refuge in You] feast on the abundance of Your house; You give them to drink from Your river of delights.
That is what we have before us. You will resist a temptation when you have a strong taste in your mouth for God’s delicacies. So you have the impulse to sin, and you say, “God, I really believe that the experience of Your favor is something I will enjoy more than this sin.”
It will not, however, always be a conscious decision.
Your affections, not your resolve, decide which feast you will choose most of the time
All day long you choose between the world’s delicacies and God’s river of delights. 1000 times a day you have to choose. 99% of those you will choose without giving it any conscious thought – you will just choose whichever one your affections are more inclined toward. That is why if you are operating on your resolve and commitment alone, you will mostly fail.
And after you fail, someone will ask you, “Why did you choose that sin?” and you will say, “I don’t know. I didn’t even think about it.” Your head will turn with a lustful look without even thinking about right or wrong. You will respond with an angry mouth before you have a chance to even think about your words. You will wolf down a whole plate of food you have resolved not to eat without even thinking about what you are doing. Your affections are what carry you through the 99% of life that you do not give conscious thought to, and so no matter how hard you try otherwise, you will find yourself seated at the banquet that your affections most prefer.
Preference glorifies God
The reason God set it up this way is because He receives the greatest glory when you prefer Him. Whatever you prefer the most, that is what you glorify in your life. That is how you make your day to day, routine decisions in life glorify God – by preferring Him. Every time you prefer God to something else, You show Him to be greater than that other thing – and that is the heart of worship; showing the goodness and excellence and desirability of God.
If I have a choice between playing a video game or hanging out with you, and I prefer to hang out with you, that shows you to be a somewhat desirable person. If I would prefer being with you over a cruise to the Caribbean, that really says a lot about what a wonderful person you are. But if I just say no to a cruise, that doesn’t say anything about you at all.
We glorify God when we prefer God. We glorify the world when we prefer the world. If we chose pornography, then we are honoring pornography as the highest treasure. If we choose food, we are honoring that as the highest treasure. If we prefer Christ, we are honoring Him as the highest treasure. God does not want us to just say no. He wants us to say “I would rather have something better.” He wants us to prefer His feast. He does not want you to just resist the world’s feast – He wants you to resist it because God’s is better. Because the more you enjoy His feast, the more that glorifies Him.
Christ is a Treasure
It all boils down to how much you treasure the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mt.13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
What drove him to sell everything he had? Commitment? No, it was joy. He wanted that treasure so much more than he wanted all his possessions, he couldn’t wait to unload all his stuff to get it.
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Next week we really start getting into the fun stuff. Think about this: When I experience an impulse to sin there is something I know I shouldn’t do, but I’m tempted to do it anyway. why can not I seem to resist? It is because at the moment of the impulse my heart can not see anything it would rather have. Just telling yourself that fellowship with God is better won’t cut it. You have to have actually experienced a kind of fellowship with God that really was more enjoyable than that sin. That comes through seeing (v.2) and being satisfied (v.4).
