Delight Yourself in the Lord
The Ultimate Gift of Life
2 Corinthians 8:1–2, 8
The psalmist said, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart". The ultimate pleasure in life is found in our relationship with God. There is nothing else on earth that can compare to being in His presence in right relationship.
In fact, in Psalm 16:11, the psalmist said, "In Your presence, there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore."
That means the ultimate in joy and happiness and pleasure is found in the presence of God. It's not just a happy and blessed place, it is the happiest and most blessed of all.
That's why Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a man who discovers a treasure in a field and in order to obtain it and the joy it brings, he sells everything he has so he can buy the field that contains the treasure. That treasure is Jesus, and what we're being taught is that He is the ultimate treasure in life.
There is nothing that is worth more than Jesus. There is no earthly pleasure or treasure that is more valuable or that we should be more interested in than our relationship with God.
No wonder, as the psalmist wrote in Psalm 84, as we saw last week, couldn't wait to get to the tabernacle of the Lord so he could worship. Worshipping God was the ultimate experience of His life. In fact, just a few minutes spent in the doorway of the tabernacle worshipping God was better than a thousand days anywhere else in the world!
So when we have received that kind of pleasure and we have discovered that kind of treasure and we've learned that kind of worship, what does that do to us in regard to those around us?
It seems to me that when we enjoy that kind of vertical delight in the Lord, the sheer pleasure of knowing God and enjoying a relationship with Him made possible by Jesus, and learning to worship Him in unrestricted passion, it will express itself in some horizontal relationships.
And I would submit to you that because of the ultimate pleasure we find in delighting ourselves in the Lord and the delight of obtaining the treasure that is Jesus and discovering the ultimate experience of life in worship will lead us to share the ultimate gift of life with others, which is love,
Let me show you what I mean by looking at
1. The Love of the Macedonians
2 Corinthians 8:1-8
Now it is important to know that Paul is writing to the Corinthians about the Christians who live in Macedonia, and his hope is that the Corinthian believers will become like the Macedonian believers. And primarily, he wants them to imitate them in the way they love.
So what does Paul say to them about the love of the Macedonians?
Well, first of all, he points out that their love is a
- Result of God's Grace
Notice, in verse 1 he says, "I want you to know about the grace God has given to the Macedonians."
And then, verse 2, he continues, "this grace God has given has filled them with an “abundance of joy.” Now understand, they were not joyful because God had made them rich. In fact, they were in “deep poverty” according to verse 2.
So, their joy was not in things or circumstances or material possession, but in God.
Third, this grace-initiated, abundant joy overflowed because when Paul took up a collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem, they gave liberally.
So let's think about that. Here's the way it worked in Macedonia: God extended grace to the Macedonians, and they were so overwhelmed that He would do that, so filled with joy, that in response, love began to flow out of them to meet the needs of others.
Or to put it in the terms of our study, they delighted themselves in the Lord because they had discovered the treasure hidden in the field. And from a thankful and joyful heart, they began to spill love out into the lives of others. So in simple terms, the love Paul is commending here is simply the overflow of joy in God which meets the needs of others.
Then, notice
verse 4
They actually begged Paul to let them take part in the offering! This generous giving they did was not because of guilt of out of reluctance or complusion. they gave liberally because their relationship with God compelled them to do it! They wanted to give it! They were eager to give it!
When these poverty-stricken Macedonians beg Paul for the privilege of giving money to a love offering, they did it because they wanted to do it!
And if they were in deep poverty, I think it safe to assume they were denying themselves whatever food and clothing that money might have bought them, but their self-denial is not for the sake of some sterile, joyless act of duty.
They are giving up the pleasure of extra food for the joy of sharing God’s grace with others. These people are so full of joy in God that giving — even out of poverty — is not a burden, but a blessing. They have discovered the ultimate gift of life which is love! Love is the overflow of joy in God which meets the needs of others.
But there's more to that kind of love than just doing something. Some believe love is not so much an emotion as it is an action. Love is an action, but their love is
- More than an Action.
What did Paul say in
1 Corinthians 13:3
Why did he say that? Because genuine love is always more than action. Now remember, Paul is lifting these Macedonians up to the Corinthians and saying, "I want you to learn from how they love and give." But it wasn't just because they were generous.
He uses them as an example because their giving went much deeper than just giving some money. Their giving was the overflow of the abundant joy in the grace of God.
By the way, we need to keep in mind if our actions don't flow from our joy in God’s grace, they are not expressions of love. They are just Christian duty or obligation.
The only thing that the apostle Paul will call love is the giving of people who have found their satisfaction in God, and now seek to expand it by sharing it with others.
Now, I realize that is a big statement, but let's see if it will stand the test of Scripture. Are there other places we can look and discover that real love is always motivated by the joy and satisfaction one has found in God, and because of what they've received, they want to share it with others? I think there is.
2. Examples of Christian Love
For instance, in 2 Corinthians 9:7, we discover that
- God Loves Cheerful Givers
2 Corinthians 9:7
I take that to mean that God is not pleased when people act benevolently, but don’t do it gladly. When people don’t find pleasure in their acts of service, God doesn’t find pleasure in them. He delights in cheerful givers, cheerful servants.
If we are indifferent to whether we do a good deed cheerfully, we are indifferent to what pleases God. And what pleases God is when we delight to give.
Therefore, it is very essential that we be aware of what God has done for us and how much joy and delight that brings so that we, in turn, can share that with others and pursue the joy of giving to them.
Not only does God love cheerful givers,
- God Loves Cheerful Pastors
1 Peter 5:2
So here, Peter tells the elders how to go about their ministry of shepherding the flock of God. And he applies the same principle to the pastoral ministry that Paul applied to financial stewardship in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.
Which may be summed up: God loves a cheerful pastor. God’s command is not just that we do our work, but that we find joy in it. If we don’t go about the duties of our ministry because we expect to find great joy in it, then we've missed some of the impact and purpose of our calling.
Several years ago, I talked with a pastor who had just celebrated his fifth anniversary at that church, and he said, "In five years, there has not been one moment of joy." He went on to tell me the resistance and fighting started his first week on the field, and there had not been any relief.
Unfortunately, I know too many pastors who have lost their joy. The circumstances and challenges have robbed them of the joy and happiness that comes from seeing God at work. I believe God places pastors in their place of service, not only to be a joy and be a messenger of joy, but to receive joy from what they do and the people they serve.
Phillip Brooks, an Episcopalian pastor in Boston one hundred years ago, and author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” wrote about the pastorate:
I think, again, that it is essential to the preacher’s success that he should thoroughly enjoy his work. I mean in the actual doing of it, and not only in its idea. No man to whom the details of his task are repulsive can do his task well constantly, however full he may be of its spirit. He may make one bold dash at it and carry it over all his disgusts, but he cannot work on at it year after year, day after day. Therefore, count it not merely a perfectly legitimate pleasure, count it an essential element of your power, if you can feel a simple delight in what you have to do as a minister, in the fervor of writing, in the glow of speaking, in standing before men and moving them, in contact with the young. The more thoroughly you enjoy it, the better you will do it all.
In order to minister in the church, or in the world, in a way that pleases God, it is important, I think to keep in mind what the words of Jesus that Paul uses in
Acts 20:35
Now, when Paul calls on his hearers to remember what Jesus said, he does that as incentive for how we do our ministry. And I will tell you this: I want to do everything I can to be obedient to the Lord and to do my ministry as He instructed, not just to be obedient, but to be blessed! I want to receive everything He has for me as I learn to give as He gave.
And as I think about these examples of cheerful givers and cheerful pastors, it seems to me the greatest hindrance we have to loving other people is the same thing that hinders our worship of God.
The obstacle that keeps us from obeying the vertical commandment to delight ourselves in the Lord, is the same obstacle that keeps us from obeying the horizontal commandment to be cheerful givers.
And the obstacle is we are satisfied to settle for less than God's best. We just come to church out of sense of duty or with very little expectation of blessing and we settle for fulfilling a habit on Sunday.
And we do not believe Jesus when he says there is more blessedness, more joy, more pleasure in a life devoted to helping others, than there is in a life devoted to our material comfort, so we refuse to get involved or sit on the sidelines while others serve.
But Jesus said,
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19–20)
I don't want us to be satisfied with the substitutes the world has to offer when Jesus has promised us so much more! A life devoted to selfishly accumulating all the creature comforts we can while we ignore the opportunities to love those we come in contact with is like throwing money away!
But if we will just learn to give cheerfully and love passionately, we can enjoy a life that yields dividends of joy, both now and forever!
Think about it like this:
The message we have for the world is the gospel! It is the good news of eternal life in Christ. And what we are saying to the world when we share that message is, "You don't have to be satisified with what the world and the devil have to offer you. You can leave all that behind and come to Christ in whose presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore."
So why should they listen when we don't live that way ourselves?
That is the challenge of being, not just hearers of the word, but doers.
And once we live in unbridled, passionate worship of the Lord and demonstrate unselfish, cheerful giving to those in need, then our gospel message will be much more believable.
There is one final passage I want us to consider and it is found in Hebrews 10, and what I want us to see, in particular, is how the joy that early Christians had, produced love, even in the midst of severe persecution. Let's begin with
Hebrews 10:32–34
So these Christians were motivated for prison ministry the same way the Macedonians of 2 Corinthians 8:1–8 were motivated to relieve the poor.
And in the same way, their joy in God overflowed in love for others. They looked at their own lives and said, with the psalmist, “The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life” (Psalm 63:3).
They looked at all their possessions and said, “We have a possession in heaven that’s better, and that lasts longer, than any of this.”
And with joy, they renounced all they had and followed Christ into that prison to visit their brothers and sisters.
Now remember how we defined love. Love is the overflow of joy in God which meets the needs of others.
Then, to drive the point home, the author of Hebrews gives Moses as an example of that kind of love in
Hebrews 11:24–26.
And as I read it, notice how similar the motivation is to the early Christians of chapter 10 and the Macedonians of 2 Corinthians 8.
Hebrews 11:24–26
The author of Hebrews is remarkably consistent in what he's saying. In 10:34, he says that the desire of the Christians for a better and lasting possession overflowed in joyful love, which cost them their property.
In 11:6, he says that you can’t please God unless you come to him for the reward of his fellowship.
In 11:16, he praises the patriarchs because they “desire a better country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
And in 11:24–26, Moses is a hero because his love for the heavenly reward overflowed in such joy that he counted the pleasures of Egypt rubbish, and was bound forever to God’s people in love.
And then in 12:2, the writer gives the highest example of all:
Look to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
The greatest labor of love that ever happened was possible, because Jesus pursued the greatest imaginable joy: namely, the joy of being exalted to God’s right hand in the assembly of a redeemed people.
God's call, even with Jesus, is to surrender the second-rate, fleeting, unsatisfying pleasures in order to obtain first-rate, eternal, satisfying pleasures.
Could Jesus have escaped the burden and sacrifice of the cross? Absolutely! But to have done that would have been to sacrifice the exalted joy being seated at the right hand of God.
The same is true with us. We can deny self, and take up our cross and follow Jesus, and experience the fullness of joy now and pleasures forevermore.
Or we can have what the world offers now, and turn our back on the best God has to offer.
That's why God invites us to delight ourselves in Him so He can give us the desires of our heart. We begin with unreserved worship and the result of being in His presence is that the love we experience there will overflow out of us to meet the needs of others.
Whether it is true or not, I'm not sure, but the following story is a vivid illustration of what I've been trying to say to you this evening.
One afternoon three children, two boys and a girl, entered a flower shop. They were about nine or ten years old, raggedly dressed, but at this moment well-scrubbed.
One of the boys took off his cap and gazed around the store somewhat doubtfully, then came up to the person who owned the store and said, "Sir, we'd like something in yellow flowers."
There was something in their tense nervous manner that made the man think that this was a very special occasion. He showed them some inexpensive yellow spring flowers. The boy who was the spokesman for the group shook his head. "I think we'd like something better than that."
The man asked, "Do they have to be yellow?" The boy answered, "Yes, sir. You see, Mickey would like 'em better if they were yellow. He had a yellow sweater. I guess he'd like yellow better than any other color."
The man asked, "Are they for his funeral?"
The boy nodded, suddenly choking up. The little girl was desperately struggling to keep back the tears. "She's his sister," the boy said. "He was a swell kid. A truck hit him while he was playing in the street." His lips were trembling now. The other boy entered the conversation. "Us kids in his block took up a collection. We got eighteen cents. Would roses cost an awful lot, sir--yellow roses, I mean?"
The man smiled. "It just happens that I have some nice yellow roses here that I'm offering special today for eighteen cents a dozen." The man pointed to the flower case.
"Gee, those would be swell! Yes, Mickey'd sure like those."
The man said, "I'll make up a nice spray with ferns and ribbons. Where do you want me to send them?" One of the boys responded, "Would it be all right, mister, if we took them with us? We'd kind of like to--you know--give 'em to Mickey ourselves. He'd like it better that way."
The florist fixed the spray of flowers and accepted the eighteen cents, and watched the youngsters trudge out of the store. And he felt within his heart the warm glow of the presence of God, for he had remembered anew the meaning of the words of Jesus: "Even as you have done it unto one of these little ones, you have done it unto me.
That is the heart of worship that spills out in love to meet the needs of others. The love of God is the ultimate gift that can ever be given. May God help us to share that gift cheerfully, so that needs are met and we are blessed.
Let's pray.
