Pure Delight

Sermon for 12/5/2004

Pure Delight

Psalm 18:19

Introduction:

My wife’s delight is chocolate

Rules of chocolate:

If you’ve got melted chocolate all over your hands, you’re eating it too slowly.

Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car. The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn’t that handy?

If you can’t eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can’t eat all of your chocolate, what’s wrong with you?

What do we call equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate: a balanced diet.

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

Put “eat chocolate” at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you’ll get one thing done.

WBTU:

A. To take delight in something is to get great pleasure, be happy about, make merry over, and derive enjoyment.

B. Many men seem to delight in sports. For others it’s camping, fishing, or hunting.

C. Women delight in shopping.

D. Youth delight in video games. College students delight in parties.

E. One might identify delight in this way. It is what happens when there is excitement inside, a tingle, a spark. When we are doing what we really love to do, or when we are with someone we really love. Like what one young lover said to his partner, “When I held you in my arms, I felt a cold chill run down my spine. I thought it was true love until I realized your pop sickle was dripping.”

Thesis: In Whom Does God Delight? And How Does God delight?

For instances:

In Whom Does God Delight?

1. In His Son

A. (Isa 42:1 NIV) "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

B. (Mat 3:16 NIV) As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.(Mat 3:17 NIV) And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

C. (Mark 9:7 NIV) Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"(Mark 9:8 NIV) Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

D. God the Father delighted in his Son at Creation. God the Father delighted in His Son during the days of the Old Testament. (1 Cor 10:4 NIV) and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. God the Father delighted in his Son at his birth as a baby. God the Father delighted in his Son as he went through his human life.

2. In His bride

A. God delighted in the nation of Israel. (Ezek 16:4 NIV) On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.(Ezek 16:5 NIV) No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.(Ezek 16:6 NIV) "’Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!"(Ezek 16:7 NIV) I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. (Ezek 16:8 NIV) "’Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.(Ezek 16:9 NIV) "’I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.(Ezek 16:10 NIV) I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.(Ezek 16:11 NIV) I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck,(Ezek 16:12 NIV) and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.(Ezek 16:13 NIV) So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.(Ezek 16:14 NIV) And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.