My Desire

Sermon Preached at Connection Fellowship
Sunday, March 22, 2009

My Desire and Blessing
Psalm 37:1-5

INTRODUCTION
Today we come to the last message in our series, “Hope for the Journey”. We started in Psalm 1 with Pastor Steve helping us to get lined up for encouragement. Then we found hope in knowing that God was our Shield and Sustainer in difficult times; He is our Pathmaker as we search for the right direction; and in Him we find our eternal Identity. He is our Sovereign who is always in control; and because of this, He is the Rock upon which we can build our lives.
He is our Deliverer in times of trouble, our Shepherd to guide and feed us every step of our journey, and our King who knows us personally. He is the Forgiveness that we can not only know, but personally own. And, as John David told us last week, God is our Provision that can be tasted…and found most satisfying.
With this in mind, we should certainly be able to find hope in this journey called real life. But as we approach chapter 37, we are left with a piercing question: “What else could you want?” But we are a society and a people who always seem to want more…and more. The Psalmist knew this and writes in the first 5 verses of chapter 37 these words:

TEXT
1 Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. 2 For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb. 3 Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.


Let’s look at these verses in the context of what we have learned:

UNDERSTANDING
First, he says, “don’t fret about others that could hurt you.” Fretting is the opposite of faith. Remember, God is our Shield. He says, “don’t envy those who seem well off by doing things the wrong way.”
Envy is when we begin to focus on what others have with a strong desire, even jealousy, to have it also. It is not wrong to strongly desire some things…but not that which has been obtained by wrongdoing.
Not only is envy unhealthy, but it is not wise. You see, verse 2 tells us that whatever is obtained through wrongdoing will only last for a short while. We should focus on desiring the things that are of lasting value.
We are in the middle of March Madness and I really like basketball. As a kid, I used to watch the Kentucky Wildcats. At half-time, in the middle a January snow, I would go outside and shovel the court off so I could practice the moves I had seen. But I really like the commercials that the NCAA is running now about the fact that so few college athletes will actually ever make a living playing their sport. I wish I had spent a bit more time when growing up on things that did not just last a short while.
In verse 3, we are encouraged to trust in the Lord. This is the opposite of fretting and envy. And the Bible says that truth faith is always acted upon in obedience to God. God’s promises have always been based on obedience that is in direct response to faith. When we do this, we are promised to dwell in peace and to be fed by the Shepherd’s faithfulness.
There is a great promise here in verse 4 that struck me years ago as I was praying about vocational ministry. I grabbed on to the idea that God wants to and will give you the desires of our heart. However, it was not until later that I began to grasp that it comes with the condition of ‘delighting’ in God. But what does that mean?

[Warren Wiersbe] explains: “…delight comes from a root that means ‘to be brought up in luxury, to be pampered.” This speaks of enjoying the Lord Himself, not just what He gives to us.
“This is not a promise for people who want things, but for those who want more of God in their lives.”

When that becomes our reality, God’s desires for us become our desires for ourselves…which are best, and much better than what we could envy from someone else.

I always thought verse 5 was some set direction that we were to follow or some set of actions that we were to do in order to show that we were delighting in God. However, as I have studied this text, I have found that the verb here [commit] actually means to ‘roll off your burden’ to God.
So what does this have to do with ‘committing our way to God’? Everything. Because as long as we worry, we carry a weight that distracts us from following Him. His way is the way of faith. Do you see how the verse ends? TRUST in Him and He will accomplish that desire.

We have to escape or relinquish this mentality of self-dependence. Let me summarize what God’s Word is saying:

* Faith is the opposite of fretting or worrying.

* Envy is caused by a lack of confidence that God has and will provide all that we really need. That lack of faith is also rooted in the idea that this life is all that there is…and what others have will last.

* Our obedience is our display of faith. Our faith is evidenced by our feeding on what God provides and not trying to fill it with what others have…or what Satan offers.

* Faith is when we express to God that we know that He is all that we need and all that we desire.

* Rolling our burdens onto Him and trusting that His path is best…and making it known that He is all we desire…He will deliver.


CONCLUSION
So we are left with one question:

What is your greatest desire?

If the answer is ‘God Himself’, upon the promise of the Word of God…you will receive it!


You and I will find our greatest hope for this journey of life when God Himself becomes our greatest desire.