“The Things God Delights In”
#1) How well do you know Him?
“SECURE ATTENTION”
A) Right or wrong there is one thing that almost all people want.
1) Most of us want to be known, we like popularity but there’s more to it than just that.
2) We don’t just want to be known we want to be understood…
3) Almost no one likes being misunderstood by others.
4) We all want our point of view to be seen and more often than not we want it to be agreed with.
5) We all would like others to know why we feel the way we feel.
6) Though this may seem important to some there are by far more important things concerning this thought.
7) Being known and understood isn’t nearly as important as knowing and understanding.
8) To often we have things backwards in the most important areas of life.
9) This truth is evident in light of Gods word.
“PRESENT PROBLE”
B) Jeremiah 9:23-24 Wisdom, might, and riches are the things that most people want to be known for.
1) Yet God clearly declares that in these things we should not glory.
2) God’s giving us a very important truth concerning mans tendencies…
3) God’s showing us that we tend to glory and brag in the things we excel at.
4) The things a person excels in are the things he most intimately knows.
5) If a man glories in His wisdom, His power and His riches then obviously this is where his focus is.
6) Jeremiah 9:24 “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me”
7) God declares to us that it is better to know and understand than to be known and to be understood.
8) If we will glory it must be because we understand and know God.
C) Sadly few today desire to know and understand God.
1) Few of Gods children understand that God has a great desire for us to know Him.
2) Jeremiah 24:7 God has actually given us a heart to know Him.
3) We were made to know God, not in a superficial way but in an intimate way…
4) If you excel in mans wisdom, power and riches then this is where your heart is…
5) Jesus tells us in Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”
6) God desires that He would be the treasure of our heart.
7) God has already shown us in the Crucifixion that we are His treasure.
8) Each of us here possesses that knowledge, the knowledge that God died for us.
9) Jeremiah reveals the very details of the knowledge that God desires for us to posses.
“SOLVE PROBLEM”
#2) The Delight of the Lord.
A) Jeremiah 9:24 …“that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and rightousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
1) Verse 23 is our problem and verse 24 is our cure, Gods given us all that we need.
2) This morning you can bring delight to God by desiring to know Him.
3) The three things God wants us to know about Him are three things that are essential to your loving Him…
4) Look at the first thing the God of the OT and NT wants us to KNOW about Him…
5) These three things are what God wants us to know about Him.
6) “… I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness…”
7) God places mercy at the top of His list, with out this all we could do is flee from God.
8) We read this and take it so lightly, to see that God exercises love and kindness toward such an undeserving people is amazing.
9) It’s this love that has pardoned us from the judgment that God had to deliver on sin.
B) God’s judgment was exercised on Christ…
1) Sin was laid on Jesus, it was found on Him and it was our sin that condemned Jesus to a physical death…
2) Jesus became our scapegoat.
3) He bore our judgment and punishment because no man could.
4) This is something that God wants us to UNDERSTAND and KNOW.
5) We are so worried about who we are instead of being concerned about who Jesus is to us.
6) He is God and He wants you to know Him, to know about Him and to know what He delights in.
7) When we know Him we will live after Him bringing glory to His name.
8) Philippians 3:7-10 For Paul all things were secondary to the V8 “…knowledge of Christ Jesus MY Lord…”
9) By Paul’s desire to know God still to this day is bringing Jesus glory.
10) It’s natural for us to become like those we live with, those we idolize and think about the most…
11) That person for each of us should be Jesus.
12) Paul says His desire is to V8 “win Christ”; to be found not with His righteousness but with Gods righteousness.
“VISUALIZE DESIRABILITY OF SOLUTION”
C) Jeremiah 9:24 “… I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness…”
1) God will exercise judgment righteously both on the saved and unsaved.
2) It’s His righteousness that revealed my sin; it’s also His righteousness that comforts me…
3) In His righteous I have confidence knowing that His word and promises are true and that in Him I am secure.
4) It’s when God convicts the lost of His righteousness that they are led to seek His salvation.
5) It’s in Gods righteousness and in the knowledge of Him that we can be strong.
6) Put your trust, your faith and your hope in God today and let Him be the Lord of your life today.
