** Psalm 37: "Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land, And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity."
PRAYER
** TITLE: Delight yourself in the Lord -or-
** What I learned from Rascal Flatts…..
STORY:
Started with Andi’s 18th birthday…..tickets to Rascal Flatts at State Fair
Don’t care for concerts at Fair, Cheryl and I – hear Alan Jackson couple years ago
Screaming, Beer, Can’t hear, Not my thing
Andi and I have Rascal Flatts together (and Grey’s Anatomy), so went
** Tickets $60 each, then have to pay to get in to Fairgrounds and park
Of course, had to buy a $30 T-shirt
Then…..decided to buy Fan Club membership, $20 each
All for pleasure of standing in Pit for 3 hours!
Then, to hype it up even more SMOKE plus a very loud warmup group
** After about 1.5 hours, finally get into the Rascal Flatts portion of concert
Me, raising my hands…….wasn’t in praise and worship to Lord
Song: “Raise up your hands if you all want to hang with me and my gang….”
** Lights, fireworks, buildup, then see ol’ Rascal himself (Gary)
** At several points of evening, Andi would look at me and smile uncontrollably
A look that could best be described as unrestricted joy……..delight
When I took this picture, Lord spoke to me:
That is how I want you to delight in Me, I spend on you luxuriously, Do it just because I love you, I love it when you feel just like Andi does now…..about ME!
** God would say to you from Psalms 37 today, “Delight yourself in Me…..”
** SONG: Example. (play)
** Couldn’t believe it, Paid all that money, Start song then audience sings
If we could only sing like that in the church!
Quartet Convention two weeks later, 15,000 people singing How Great Thou Art, Promise Keepers 20,000 men singing Lord I Lift Your Name on High
I recognize some of weaknesses with just praise choruses today
Lord wants you to have a song in your heart that makes you Delight in Him!
** I’d Like to give you my recommendation of how you can fulfill this scripture in your life!
Give a neumonic device……word RED…..stands for words, Recognize, Eliminate and Delight
Don’t care if you remember those three words, would like you to use the word RED as a reminder to you every time you see something RED this week to be reminded of the Lord’s love for you and how He wants you to delight in Him
** R: Recognize God’s Goodness
Reminded of old song: “Look what the Lord has done.”
Ps 37: 23-26 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.”
Walking out in my garage this week, and the Lord reminded me of how much He has done for me………two cars, lovely home, wonderful family…
Even if you don’t feel like you have much, you are still richer than 75% of the rest of the world.
Cheryl reminded me, speaker in England, go out, take everything out of your garage, put a mattress and a chair in there with yourself, then you have as much as almost all of the rest of the world does.
We are so blessed……..we need to remind ourselves every day of all the examples of how the Lord loves us……..so easy to forget
** E: Eliminate – We need to learn to eliminate some of the “delights’ of the world
Ps 37: 27-28 “Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever...”
Probably the biggest reason we do not delight in the Lord is because we fill our lives with all the delights of the world. No room left for Him…
This point, preacher normally goes into a list of all the “stuff” you need to get rid of in your life……..not his own. “Confession is good for the soul but not for the reputation.”
You don’t need me to do that. The Lord is already talking to you about what stands between you and Him…..what makes you desire the stuff of the world more than Him…..that’s why so few of us really delight in Him.
** D: Delight in the Lord – Our text:
Ps 37: 4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Wayne – politics stuff, “What is your passion?”
Asked Cheryl, did I delight in you more when we were young, first married
She surprised me, think we delight more in each other now, older
Makes sense, Younger: get what we want, Older: happier pleasing each
other more
Question: What causes you to delight in the Lord?
The Lord wants you to delight in Him……..promise with it……..He will give you the desires of your heart.
Didn’t say “needs”…….another scripture, He will supply your needs
He wants to give you the desires of your heart
Problem, our desires are far away from delighting in Him
Time in the Word (joy), spend time with Him (delight), is God lonely?
** Father is saying to us: Delight yourself in Me…..
If you don’t know Him, no way you can delight in Him -- Call to salvation
Most of us as Christians have had a time when we felt His closeness
Maybe even so close as to experience the unbelievable joy of Him, delight in Him
SONG:
I’ve used pictures and music to touch your emotions and see that God loves you and delights in seeing you happy and really delights in you delighting in Him
Close with one of my favorites, Brand new from Poet Voices
Talks about how the Father loved us before we even knew Him
Bible says “…while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
The kind of thing that stirs my soul and helps me delight in Him
Closing
PLAY SONG
Prayer
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