God's Purpose for Your Life - Lesson 6 - Delight Yourself in the Lord

From Sunday, March 29, 2015 I believe that God has a specific plan for every person. And God wants us to know His plan. 17Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17 The Lord wants you to know what His will is for your life. But you won’t find out God’s will by accident - you have to seek His will, by asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer, and by seeking first His Kingdom and his righteousness. For the last several weeks we’ve talked about the importance of you being a living sacrifice - wholly acceptable unto God. We’ve also talked about the importance of renewing our minds with the Word of God. If you will do these two things it will help you to find and follow God’s purpose for your life. King David said: Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:3-5 Note: “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” v.4 This means when we align ourselves with the Lord, He puts his desires in our heart. Now some people misinterpret this passage to mean that God will give them whatever they want: A million Dollar House, A Lamborghini sports car, a particular job, a promotion, or what ever. But this verse is not a free pass to get your hands on everything your flesh craves. Many years ago a man approached me and said: “Psalms 37:4 says that if I will delight myself in the Lord that He will give me the desire of my heart. I want you to pray that a certain woman will become my wife.” I asked him who this woman was, and when he told me her name, I said: “Now hold on a minute. This woman is married to another man and I know her husband, he is a good man.” This fellow told me that her husband was not a good husband to her, and God was sending him to rescue her out of a bad marriage, and be a good husband to her. I said: “My friend, I am afraid you are deceived. God doesn’t want you to be a third party - breaking up their marriage. God isn’t into divorce. Sometimes divorce takes place and God is merciful and will help every divorced person to put their life back together again, but divorce isn’t God’s highest and best for people. In the book of Malachi God says: “I hate divorce.” Its because divorce hurts people! I am not going to pray that God will use you to break up their marriage. I’m going to pray that God will help that man to love his wife like Christ loves the church, and I’m going to pray that they fall back in love with one another. And that God will make their marriage like heaven on earth. And that she will forget all about you!” He didn’t like what I told him, but he had misinterpreted Psalms 37:4. God gives us the desires of our heart, as we seek the Lord with our whole heart. What happens is that as we love Jesus with all of our heart, God changes the desire of our hearts – so we desire good and godly things. After I became a follower of Jesus Christ, the desires of my heart changed. I didn’t want to smoke pot anymore. I didn’t want to attend parties where wild and crazy things were going on. The ungodly things that I was doing before I gave my life to Jesus didn’t appeal to me anymore. In verse 4, the Hebrew word that is translated “delight,” literally means, “to be soft or pliable.” It’s speaking about having a sensitive heart towards the Lord. #1. Pray: “Jesus, may I have a soft and pliable heart toward You.” “May I be sensitive to You!” A. To delight in the Lord means to be sensitive to the things God likes. It means to commit your life to him. To put Him first in your life. If you put Jesus first and delight yourself in the Lord, He will order the desires of your heart. B. But that is a big “if.” Some Christians don’t want to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. They don’t want to renew their minds by reading God’s Word. C. We all have to deal with stubbornness and selfishness inside us… We all have to deal with our carnal nature. And we live in a sinful world, and we battle thoughts and emotions that can lead us astray. D. I’m not saying that you have to be perfect in order to be committed to God, but you have to desire to live more for God that you do for yourself. #2. We All Need To Pray: “Jesus, help me overcome selfishness. Give me the desire to live for You, instead of just living for myself!” A. When you try to live for God - which is what it means to delight yourself in the Lord, I think He puts His desires in your heart. It’s pretty simple. #3. One Of The Ways God Leads Us Is By The Sanctified, Holy, Jesus-Honoring Desires Of Our Heart! A. When the board here at our church, first called me and asked if I would be a candidate to pastor this congregation, I didn’t have a desire to pastor Evangel. And as far as I know, I was delighted myself in the Lord. Five months went by and one evening the