Delight Yourself in the Lord
The Ultimate Pursuit in Life
John 14:13, 16:24
Perhaps one of the most overlooked truths in Scripture is that humans find their ultimate happiness in and through their relationship with God. That is true in an eternal way, but it is also true in a physical and earthly way.
Someone might ask, "But what about when people suffer or are persecuted, as we saw this morning? What about all the tragedies and illnesses and family crisis that comes to Christians? How can you say a relationship with God brings ultimate happiness?
I can say it because none of those things have anything to do with our happiness, or maybe a better word to use is the word joy. The problem we have believing God brings ultimate joy or happiness is not in the theology of the statement, but rather in our understanding of what really constitutes happiness.
As we've been reminded over and over for the last few weeks, the psalmist said, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Therefore, I will say it again, humans find their ultimate happiness in and through their relationship with God.
So far we've learned the ultimate pleasure in life is a relationship with God, the ultimate treasure in life is found in Jesus, the ultimate experience in life is living in an attitude and atmosphere of worship, the ultimate gift in life is sharing the love of God with others and meeting their needs,
the ultimate wealth in life is laying up treasures in heaven and the ultimate relationship in life is modeling God's love for us through marriage.
Now, what I hope you are seeing and coming to appreciate is that our relationship with God is a two-way street. For instance, God longs to share His happiness with us, and everything we enjoy in life is because of His gracious gifts to us.
Jesus pursued the cross for the joy that was set before Him. Because of His obedience, God is glorified, Jesus in honored and we are blessed. it is all inter-related and connected with all those involved find joy in the doing of it.
When we worship, we honor and bless God, but in return God gives us grace, goodness and every good gift. Once again, it is reciprocal. God shares His love with us, but His joy is multiplied when we take the joy and blessing we've received and pass it along to others.
The same is true with money and wealth. God doesn't bless us so we can hoard it or spend it selfishly on ourselves. Instead, He wants us to use what we are given to bless others and meet needs.
And in our marriages, we are modeling the relationship that was established before the world was created between Christ and the church. We are provided for and protected, and Jesus is presented with a beautiful bride.
But one of the clearest demonstrations that the pursuit of our joy and the pursuit of God’s glory are meant to be one and the same pursuit is the teaching of Jesus on prayer in the gospel of John.
There are two key verses I want to point to this evening. One is found in John 14:13 and the other is 16:24. The first one illustrates the pursuit of God’s glory. The other shows that prayer is the pursuit of our joy.
Let's think first of all about what it means to
1. Pray to Pursue God’s Glory
Notice what we read in
John 14:13
To illustrate the teaching of this verse, suppose for a moment that you are totally paralyzed and can do nothing for yourself but talk. And suppose you have a friend who comes to live with you and do whatever you need done.
So how would be the best way for you to honor or glorify your friend if a stranger came to see you?
You could say, “My friend, would you please come lift me up and put a pillow behind me so I can greet my guest? And would you please put my glasses on?”
So how would that honor or glorify the one who is serving you? Well, your guest would learn from your requests that you are helpless, but that you have a devoted friend who is strong and kind.
And the honor comes to your friend in that you need him. You depend upon him. In fact, you can't function without him. And those who observe the two of you would discover that all you have to do is ask, and your friend is there for you.
In fact, I would say there could be no greater honor or glory given to a person than for someone to observe that kind of servant heart and sensitive and availability to a friend in need.
With that picture in mind, listen to what Jesus says in
John 15:5
See, just to make sure we understand the picture I've painted, we are the person in the story who can do nothing. We really are paralyzed. Without Christ, we are capable of accomplishing nothing of spiritual value.
But we have a problem because it is God's will that we bear fruit. That is the implication of the beginning verses in chapter 15. He's the vine and we are the branched and the expectation is that we will bear fruit.
In fact, branches that don't bear fruit are good for nothing but kindling. So God wills that we bear fruit — that we love people into the kingdom. But our problem is we are paralyzed. We can't do anything by ourselves. That's the bad news.
But the good news is we have a strong and reliable Friend in Jesus who has promised to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
So how do we glorify this friend who is willing to do for us what needs to be done for us to be obedience to God?
Jesus gives the answer in
John 15:7
How do we glorify God? We pray. We ask God to do for us through Christ what we can’t do for ourselves — to make us bear fruit.
Then verse 8 gives the result we’re after.
verse 8
So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is simply our way of admitting that without Christ we can do nothing. Prayer is us turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy.
Another text in John that shows how prayer glorifies God is found in John 4 where Jesus asks a woman for a drink of water:
verses 9-10
Suppose this couple walk into Braum's and a little child comes up and asks them if they'd like an ice cream cone. That would be a nice gesture, wouldn't it? But if the child only knew that this man was in fact, Bill Braum and he owns the company, he could turn the tables and get all the ice cream he wanted!
That's what Jesus says to this woman. “If you just knew the gift of God and who I am, you would pray to me.”
Notice, there is a direct correlation between not knowing Jesus well and not asking much from him. A failure in our prayer life is generally a failure to know Jesus. “If you knew who was talking to you, you would ask me!”
A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying to push his bus out of a rut by himself, because he doesn’t know Clark Kent is on the bus. “If you knew, you would ask.”
A prayerless Christian is like having your room wallpapered with Sacs Fifth Avenue gift certificates, but always shopping at Wal-Mart because you can’t read. “After all, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you, you would ask!”
And the implication is that those who do ask — Christians who spend time in prayer — do it because they see that God is a great giver and that Christ is wise and merciful and powerful beyond measure.
And therefore, their prayer glorifies Christ and honors his Father. Therefore, when we become what God created us to be, we become people of prayer.
What did the psalmist say? "Delight yourself in the Lord!" Glorify God by asking! Honor Him by praying!
But the verse continues, "And He will give you the desires of your heart." So let's think about the other side of prayer.
On the one hand, we pray to pursue God's glory, and on the other hand, we
2. Pray to Pursue Your Joy
John 16:24
Have you ever noticed that connection before? As many times as I've read this verse, I'm not sure I had ever noticed the invitation to pray to obtain fullness of joy.
Now from that, I draw a simple conclusion: Prayerless Christians are joyless Christians. Does that not explain a lot? Prayerlessness always produces joylessness. Why? Why is it that a deep life of prayerfulness leads to fullness of joy and a shallow life of prayerlessness produces joylessness?
Jesus gives at least two reasons. The first one comes from the preceding verses. Notice what we read in
John 16:20–22
There we discover that without prayer, Christianity is a
- Joyless Burden
Notice, Jesus warns the disciples that they will grieve at his death, but then rejoice again at his resurrection. In other words, He says, "You're going to have sorrow when I die, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Question: What is the source of the disciples’ joy? Obviously, it is the presence of Jesus. It can't be anything but that. Jesus says, “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice.”
That means no Christian can have fullness of joy without a vital fellowship with Jesus Christ. Knowledge about him will not do, and work for him will not do. We must have personal, vital fellowship with him; otherwise, Christianity becomes a joyless burden.
In his first letter, John wrote, “Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be full” (1 John 1:4). Fellowship with Jesus, shared with others, is essential to fullness of joy.
So the first reason why prayer leads to fullness of joy is that prayer is the nerve center of our fellowship with Jesus. He is not here physically to see. But in prayer, we speak to him just as though he were here.
And in the stillness of those sacred times, we listen to his thoughts and we pour out to him our longings. Perhaps John 15:7 is the best summary of this two-sided fellowship: “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.”
When the words of Jesus abide in our mind, we hear the very thoughts of the living Christ, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, when we develop a life of prayer, that leads to fullness of joy because prayer is the vital fellowship we enjoy with Jesus.
The second prayer produces fullness of joy is that
- Prayer Provides Power
What kind of power? The power to do what we love to do and need to do, but can’t do without God’s help.
Look at verse 24 again.
“Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Fellowship with Jesus is essential to joy, but there is something about it that motivates us to share his life with others. A Christian can’t be happy and stingy, because it is more blessed to give than to receive. Therefore, the second reason a life of prayer leads to fullness of joy is that it gives us the power to love. If the pump of love runs dry, it is because the pipe of prayer isn’t deep enough.
I don't know if there is any New Testament truth that more clearly pictures the truth of Psalm 37:4 than the two we've considered tonight. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our heart. In New Testament terms, when we learn to pray to glorify God, He brings unspeakable joy and power to our life.
Prayer pursues joy in fellowship with Jesus and in the power to share his life with others. And prayer pursues God’s glory by treating him as the reservoir of hope. In prayer, we admit our poverty and God’s prosperity, our bankruptcy and his bounty, our misery and his mercy.
Therefore, prayer highly exalts and glorifies God precisely by pursuing everything we long for in him and not in ourselves. “Ask and you will receive, that the Father may be glorified in the Son and that your joy may be full.”
I close with an encouragement. Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to.
So how about planning to pray! Make a new commitment this evening to delight yourself in the Lord through prayer. Set a time and place and make this week a time to renew your prayer life, and do it for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.
I say it at the end of every sermon, but this evening I say it with a new emphasis:
Let's pray.
