The Path to God’s Joyful Presence PT 3
Ps 16:4-6
I.THIS MONTH WE ARE GIVING SPECIAL EMPHASIS TO SEEKING GODS PRESENCE
A. Our verse of the month comes from Ps 16. and deals with the joy of His presence (Read)
II. THERE ARE SEVERAL CRUCIAL TRUTHS ABOUT THE BELIEVER’S JOY THAT WE MUST CONTINUALLY KEEP BEFORE US
1. Joy is a gift of God, and like all of his other inner gifts it can be experienced even in the midst of extremely difficult circumstances.
2. Joy is grounded in God Himself and flows from Him. Rom 15:13
3. Joy is not an isolated or occasional consequence of faith but rather an integral part of one’s whole relation to God .
4. The fullness of joy comes when there is a deep sense of the presence of God in one’s life. Ps 16:11
5. We cannot experience joy while being preoccupied with our own security, pleasure, or self-interest.
III. THE PATH TO GOD’S JOYFUL PRESENCE
Verse 11 is the summary of Ps 16
1. David says God will make known to him the path of life that leads to His presence where there is fullness of joy!
2. I believe that path leading to God’s joyful presence is given in the preceding verses.
B. We have seen the first 4 steps on the path to God’s joyful presence.
1. Complete trust in God’s care and protection (1)
Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 Complete surrender to God as Lord (2)
I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
3. A true conviction that God is our chief good. (2)
I have no good besides You."
4. A SINCERE DELIGHT IN GOD’S PEOPLE (3)As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
E. A DISSASSOCIATION FROM THE UNGODLY (4)
The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
F. A REALIZATION THAT THE LORD IS OUR TRUE INHERITANCE (5)
The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
G. A TRUST IN GOD AS OUR SUSTAINER (5)
and my cup
H. A RELIANCE ON GOD TO SECURE OUR SALVATION (5)
You support my lot.
1. Support = keep, to grasp, to hold, to attain, to lay hold of, to hold fast
2. David is sayings God not only sustains him in this life but God also sustains him for eternity.
3. Lot = his salvation, his eternal inheritance
4. Not only is God his eternal inheritance, not only is God the one who will sustain him in this life but God is also the one who protects his eternal security.
5. Do you rely on God to secure your eternal destiny?
6. If you are afraid that you will lose your salvation how can you have joy?
*If you are continually plagued with doubts about your salvation how can you have joy?
*If you think your eternal salvation depends on you, how can you have joy?
7. We must rely on God and God alone as the One who keeps us saved!
*If it depended on us we would be in trouble.
* Jesus said John 6:39
This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
John 10:27-29
27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 " My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
1 Peter 1:3-7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
Jude 24
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
8.What about those people who say they are Christians put they have fallen away and rejected Jesus?
*They never where born again
*Those are truly born again will remain faithful!
*God will see to it!
9.It does not depend on us, it depends of Him!
10. I can lay my head down on my pillow at night knowing nothing the devil and his demons can do, nothing man can do to me, and nothing I can do, can make me lose my eternal salvation because my God keeps it secure! REJOICE! REJOICE!
*WILL YOU LOOK TO GOD ALONE AS THE ONE WHO KEEPS YOUR SALVATION
SECURE?
*WILL YOU REJOICE THAT IF YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO THAT WILL KEEP YOU FROM SPENDING ETERNITY WITH GOD IN HEAVEN?
I. (9th) A CONTENTMENT WITH WHAT GOD HAVE GIVEN (6)
1. Remember the Israelites casts lots to see which section of the Promised Land would go to which tribe.
*In reality God determined the lots and where each tribe would live.
*Some areas were better than others
2. David rejoices and is content with what the Lord has given him.
*The lines refer to the surveyor’s lines
*The particular divisions within each tribe’s territory and then the casting of lots to determine the particular parcel for each family.
3. The next step to God’s joyful… is to be
content with what God has given you.
*Life is not fixed by chance, or by blind fate, or by man’s own designing and devising.
*It is of God’s ordering (Prov 19:21). As it is with the stars above, so it is with souls beneath. They stand as God ordains (Ps 119:91; 147:3,4).
*As it was with Canaan, which was divided among the tribes by lot (Num 26:55; Josh 13:6), so it is with the inheritance of God’s believing people; it is settled by the hand of God.
*In many things - as to our birth, and family, and associations, and so on - we have no choice.
*But trusting in God, we cheerfully accept the place which he has appointed for us.
*And when we are free to choose, we seek counsel of God, and gladly and gratefully rest in his will
(Heb 13:5)
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, " I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,"
4. Paul learned to be content in all things. Phil 4:11-13
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Will you be content with those unchangeable things in your life?
*family
*intelligence,
*race,
*nationality,
*your body type
*color of your hair or lack of
For you children:
*where you live,
*where you go to school,
*house you live in,
*your parents,
*your brothers and sisters or lack of?
*your parents income level
You will never know the joy of the Lord until you are content with the unchangeable things in your life.
J. THANKFULNESS FOR GOD’S ENABLING POWER IN OUR LIFE (7)
1. David thanks God for giving him the grace to choose Him as his Chief Good.
2. He knows if God had not counseled him by opening his mind to see that God is indeed his chief good, he would not have chosen God.
3.David realizes his life depends on God’s grace!
*Paul realized this: 1 Cor 15:10
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
4. David’s realization that it is only by God’s grace that he has chosen God, brings thanksgiving to his heart.
*this thankfulness brings him to God’s joyful presence.
*a heart of thanksgiving opens our hearts to God’s presence
* Ps 100 :4-5
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good;
5. Is your heart filled with thanksgiving and gratitude to God for all He has done for you?
*When you realize that every good and perfect gift comes from Him your heart must rejoice!
*when you realize that its because of His grace that you love Him, desire Him, serve Him, how can you help but rejoice!
*If it were not for the grace of God we would be in some gutter, homeless, starving, desolate destitute and enslaved to various addictions!
6. But by God’s grace you are not! Rejoice!
K. REALIZATION OF GOD’S CONTINUAL PRESENCE WITH US (8)
1. David realized God was with him every moment of every day!
2. He kept his focus on God throughout the day.
*he practiced the presence of God throughout the day
*Brother Lawrence “Practicing the Presence of God” explain concept (God always in back of his mind)
3. This verse if used by Peter of Jesus in Acts 2:25-26
or David says of Him,
’ I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN.
26’THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED;
MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE;
*notice the joy Christ and David had because they practiced the presence of God continually
4.When we keep God continually before us we are joyful because we know we will not be shaken because He is our strength and support (at our right hand)
*no matter what comes our way He will see us through
*we will not be spiritually destroyed
*He will keep us faithful!
EX. Paul 2 Cor 4:7-12
8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.
5. We are also joyful because we know we shall not be shaken with fear, nor shaken from our hope in Him or moved from His righteousness as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus.
Isa 26:3
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You. NKJV
Heb 12:1-2
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Matthew Henry -Puritan Preacher
That it is our wisdom and duty to set the Lord always before us, and to see him continually at our right hand, wherever we are, to eye him as our chief good and highest end, our owner, ruler, and judge, our gracious benefactor, our sure guide and strict observer; and, while we do thus, we shall not be moved either from our duty or from our comfort.
L. A CERTAIN HOPE OF THE FUTURE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS(10)
1.David had a certain hope about two things
a. that God would not abandon his soul to Sheol (place of the dead)
b. that God would not not leave his body in the grave forever but save him from everlasting decay
2. Peter under inspiration of the Holy Spirit
Applies this to Jesus’ resurrection
Acts 2:-31
31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.
3.John 11:25 Jesus said to her, " I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
4. As Christians we do not need to fear death because:
a. Christ has taken the sting out of death (do not need to fear the experience itself)
b. Our spirit does not die, it goes to be with God in heavenly places (fullness of joy)
c. Our body will some day be raised and transformed into perfect, glorious body! Joined once again to our spirit
5. One of mankind’s greatest fears, the fear of death as been removed for the Christian! REJOICE REJOICE!
Will you walk the path to the joyful presence of God?
