Why Is My Delight in God So Short Lived?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, we're gonna close out the week
00:00:06.840 | with a good, honest question
00:00:08.240 | from a podcast listener named Seth.
00:00:10.360 | Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:11.400 | I believe intellectually that learning about God
00:00:13.400 | can provide a greater joy
00:00:15.440 | than whatever temporary pleasures I may get
00:00:17.540 | from the many distractions that this world has to offer,
00:00:21.520 | and I have experienced times in my life where it has.
00:00:24.520 | However, these times are generally short-lived
00:00:26.960 | and expire very quickly.
00:00:29.200 | Could you give me some tips on how to be more satisfied
00:00:32.000 | in the things of the Lord than in the things of the world,
00:00:35.480 | and in a way that endures?
00:00:37.320 | I know that spending hours watching television
00:00:39.400 | or playing games throughout the day is a waste of my time,
00:00:43.360 | yet I struggle to stop doing these things.
00:00:46.480 | Please help, Pastor John.
00:00:47.720 | - Well, let me begin by congratulating Seth
00:00:53.120 | with the simple and glorious fact
00:00:55.480 | that he believes there are such things as things of the Lord.
00:01:00.080 | That very phrase causes some younger Christians
00:01:03.800 | to just gag because they're on a crusade
00:01:08.500 | to demonstrate that all things are the things of the Lord,
00:01:12.320 | so why are you talking about being more happy
00:01:14.840 | in things of the Lord?
00:01:16.880 | Well, it is true that the earth is the Lord's
00:01:23.240 | and everything in it, and in that sense,
00:01:27.200 | all things are things of God,
00:01:30.520 | but we all know that there's a difference
00:01:34.680 | between balancing your checkbook
00:01:37.280 | and pondering a sweet promise of God.
00:01:40.560 | We know there's a difference between the rising
00:01:43.840 | of the stock market and the saving of a soul
00:01:47.560 | through the gospel, and we know that our joys
00:01:52.040 | ought to be greater in a promise
00:01:55.760 | than in a balanced checkbook,
00:01:58.000 | and we know that our joy ought to be greater
00:02:00.860 | in the salvation of a soul
00:02:02.900 | than the rising of the stock market,
00:02:05.600 | so Seth is onto something,
00:02:08.720 | and he's onto something because he's onto the Bible.
00:02:13.720 | For example, Colossians 3,
00:02:16.760 | "If then you have been raised with Christ,
00:02:19.840 | "seek the things that are above,
00:02:22.240 | "where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."
00:02:25.360 | Set your mind on things that are above,
00:02:28.960 | not on things that are on the earth,
00:02:31.760 | so there's a difference, and he's asking,
00:02:34.360 | "How can I delight more in things that are above,
00:02:37.560 | "not the things that are on the earth?"
00:02:39.560 | Or Matthew 16, 23, Jesus says to Peter,
00:02:42.480 | "Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me,
00:02:45.600 | "for you are setting your mind on the things of man
00:02:49.180 | "and not the things of God."
00:02:52.000 | So Jesus made that distinction,
00:02:53.880 | or 1 Corinthians 2, 11, Paul says,
00:02:57.360 | "No one comprehends the things of God
00:03:00.720 | "except the Spirit of God."
00:03:04.120 | So congratulations, Seth, for asking an important question
00:03:08.820 | in biblical categories that are incredibly important.
00:03:12.920 | So you ask, "Could you give me some tips
00:03:16.720 | "as to how to be more satisfied in the things of the Lord
00:03:21.380 | "than the things of the world?"
00:03:22.980 | And I think maybe the most helpful thing I could do
00:03:27.700 | is to bring you into something God is teaching me afresh
00:03:32.540 | at age 70 that I should not have to be taught again
00:03:37.260 | after 60 years as a Christian.
00:03:39.680 | So I have one tip for you, I'm sorry, just one.
00:03:43.020 | Can do this again another time for more tips,
00:03:45.580 | but this is the one that's just so front burner
00:03:47.900 | for me right now.
00:03:50.400 | And I'm gonna give you one tip and then six reasons
00:03:53.540 | for why it really matters.
00:03:55.500 | Here's the tip.
00:03:56.460 | When you read your Bible every day,
00:03:59.580 | pause before you read
00:04:04.900 | and earnestly, with as much heartfelt longing
00:04:09.120 | as you can muster, pray to God that he would come
00:04:14.460 | and meet you in the reading of Scripture
00:04:17.060 | and open the eyes of your heart
00:04:18.820 | and show you what is really there and make himself real
00:04:23.340 | and bring about amazing changes in your life.
00:04:25.820 | Or to put it very simply, pray earnestly
00:04:29.820 | about the reading of Scripture
00:04:32.300 | just before you read the Scripture.
00:04:35.700 | It's amazing, after all these years,
00:04:38.380 | how many times I simply start reading without praying.
00:04:44.380 | And I can tell the difference profoundly.
00:04:46.500 | So here's what I believe you can expect if you do this.
00:04:51.500 | Number one, in answer to this prayer about the Word of God,
00:04:57.100 | as you begin to read, or the sheer fact of prayer,
00:05:00.620 | God creates a supernatural atmosphere.
00:05:04.460 | He opens you to the fact that this moment
00:05:08.660 | is not just about you and a book,
00:05:11.100 | it's about you and the living God.
00:05:14.420 | By his Spirit, encountering his very voice,
00:05:17.420 | experiencing his supernatural presence in a manifest way,
00:05:22.200 | many Christians long for supernatural experiences,
00:05:26.180 | and this is one that you can ask for and expect.
00:05:29.840 | Number two, in answer to this prayer about the Bible,
00:05:34.300 | as you begin to read the Bible,
00:05:36.100 | God will open the eyes of your heart
00:05:38.500 | to see things in the Word that you would not otherwise see.
00:05:43.500 | You have not because you ask not,
00:05:46.700 | applies to Bible reading,
00:05:48.140 | and you have because you ask,
00:05:49.860 | applies to the very words of the Bible.
00:05:53.080 | The very words of the Bible will take on new dimensions.
00:05:58.080 | They will signify things, point to things,
00:06:01.340 | awaken you to the reality of things
00:06:04.300 | that would otherwise not be so.
00:06:07.580 | You wouldn't see them otherwise.
00:06:09.940 | Most of us are blind to the glories embedded by God
00:06:14.940 | in the very words that he has given us
00:06:18.040 | as we read them so casually.
00:06:21.340 | Reading the word Spirit, the word glory,
00:06:25.220 | the word cross, sin, without praying is one experience.
00:06:30.220 | Reading those words after praying
00:06:34.440 | may be cataclysmically different,
00:06:38.040 | a different kind of seeing in those same words.
00:06:41.240 | Number three, if you pray,
00:06:43.880 | God will open your heart to feel the preciousness
00:06:48.720 | of glorious things and the horror of evil things
00:06:53.580 | that you would not otherwise feel.
00:06:56.000 | Most of us do not feel emotions
00:06:59.680 | that accord with the realities we're thinking about.
00:07:03.800 | This is a work of the Spirit,
00:07:05.560 | and he does it in answer to prayer.
00:07:08.680 | Number four, in answer to this prayer over the Bible,
00:07:12.240 | before we read it, God will work changes in you
00:07:16.000 | that you would not otherwise experience.
00:07:18.400 | I mean, changes in your warfare with sin,
00:07:21.860 | changes in your desires for holiness,
00:07:25.200 | changes in your habits that need conquering,
00:07:29.080 | and changes in your capacities for relationships,
00:07:33.120 | and changes in your experience
00:07:35.880 | of the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
00:07:37.640 | love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness,
00:07:41.800 | meekness, faithfulness, self-control.
00:07:45.320 | Where do these come from?
00:07:46.740 | They come from the work of the Spirit
00:07:48.840 | in and through the word, and I'm arguing,
00:07:51.940 | if you ask him, he will do this.
00:07:54.920 | Number five, if you pray this prayer
00:07:57.360 | at the beginning of your Bible reading,
00:07:58.840 | God will, from time to time,
00:08:00.840 | provide the very guidance and leading
00:08:03.920 | that you have been longing for
00:08:05.560 | in regard to big decisions in your life.
00:08:08.740 | God delights to bring fresh vision and guidance
00:08:12.520 | into the life of his children
00:08:14.520 | while they're spending time with him and his word,
00:08:16.680 | and he does it if we ask him to help us as we read.
00:08:21.520 | And finally, number six, in answer to that prayer
00:08:25.680 | over our reading, before we read,
00:08:28.560 | God will give you a fresh sense of his reality.
00:08:33.560 | I know this because it happens to me.
00:08:36.560 | It happened to me this morning in a wonderful way.
00:08:39.840 | I was reading Psalm 122, and I read the phrase,
00:08:44.720 | "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,"
00:08:47.640 | and my thought turned,
00:08:50.040 | and I totally was not expecting or planning this,
00:08:53.240 | my thought turned not to the political situation
00:08:57.040 | in the Middle East, but to the desperate lostness
00:09:01.880 | of millions and millions of Jewish people,
00:09:05.360 | right here in my city and around America
00:09:07.680 | as well as around the world,
00:09:09.360 | the millions of Jewish people
00:09:11.520 | who reject Jesus as their Messiah.
00:09:14.680 | Jesus made it so clear during his lifetime
00:09:18.160 | that if people, including Jewish people, reject him,
00:09:23.160 | they reject life.
00:09:25.720 | And the reality of God, the God of Israel,
00:09:29.160 | the God of salvation, the God of heaven and hell,
00:09:32.240 | the God who will one day lift the veil off of Israel
00:09:35.960 | and take away the hardness of heart became so real to me.
00:09:40.640 | And I prayed earnestly that God would open the eyes
00:09:44.040 | of Jewish people and show me how I can be better used
00:09:48.680 | in this way.
00:09:49.800 | I was totally unready for this experience at that moment
00:09:53.680 | when I read that phrase.
00:09:56.560 | And I hope and I pray it will have an ongoing effect on me,
00:09:59.720 | and I think God did that because I had paused
00:10:03.840 | and prayed that God would speak to me during this psalm
00:10:08.840 | through his inspired words.
00:10:11.880 | So Seth, that's my one tip, and I'll say it again.
00:10:16.120 | When you read your Bible every day,
00:10:19.040 | pause before you read,
00:10:21.480 | and earnestly, with as much heartfelt longing
00:10:24.360 | as you can muster, pray to God that he would come
00:10:29.360 | and meet you in the reading of Scripture
00:10:33.120 | and open the eyes of your heart
00:10:35.040 | and show you what is really there and make himself real
00:10:39.200 | and bring about amazing changes in your life.
00:10:42.440 | - Thank you, Pastor John, for this simple
00:10:46.240 | but profoundly important tip for Bible reading
00:10:49.240 | and to fuel our delight in God.
00:10:51.480 | May God open our eyes to behold
00:10:53.520 | wonderful things in his word.
00:10:56.280 | Well, it is time for the weekend and time for us to break,
00:10:59.000 | but on Monday, we return to the topic of Scripture
00:11:01.320 | because we have a listener who wants to know
00:11:02.720 | if the circumstances of Paul's epistles,
00:11:05.360 | the letters that he wrote to very specific people
00:11:08.400 | and very specific cities
00:11:09.880 | and into very specific sets of circumstances,
00:11:13.200 | does all of that specificity render those epistles
00:11:16.480 | less relevant for our lives today?
00:11:19.080 | And how would we know?
00:11:21.080 | It's a good question.
00:11:21.920 | John Pepper will pick it up on Monday.
00:11:23.600 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:11:24.960 | Have a great weekend, and we'll see you on Monday.
00:11:27.480 | (upbeat music)
00:11:30.060 | (upbeat music)
00:11:32.640 | [BLANK_AUDIO]