Pleasure and Delight

Transcript:

Good Morning & Greetings in Jesus name! What a blessed morning this is, we are blessed to be in God’s presence. We are blessed to enjoy His nearness, we are blessed to enjoy His presence up close and every time we pray, we worship and seek His presence, we are so blessed!

The Lord is not far away from us, the Lord is very close at hand and yet, as a diligent seeker of God we need to understand the language of God, we need to know how to impress God, we need to know how to communicate with God, we need to know how to bring a smile on the face of God.

If you have a best friend and you don’t know his/her likes and dislikes then I doubt if you two really are best friends.
The Lord wants us to know what are the things that He delights in.

Psalm 147:10, He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse, nor does He take pleasure in human might.

I don’t know what you are trying to impress God with; is it your capability to earn money, is it your strength, your physical capacity, your great beautiful family life or is it your technological expertise?
Everything that you bring to God is not going to bring Him pleasure, is not going to make Him smile.

We know the story of Cain who brought vegetables and fruits from his garden as an offering and all God could see was his hard work. This wasn’t an offering that had God’s presence but it represented Cain’s hard labour and that was not bringing pleasure to God. You can give that to God but that’s not going to make Him smile, that is not going to make Him happy.

This morning I want you to understand this, yes, we can give Him our strength, our abilities, our resources, our finances, but that’s not what He is looking for. He is looking for something much deeper.

Psalm 147: 11, The Lord delights in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

The Lord’s delight is not in your strength or the strength of a horse, not even in your abilities, His delight is in those who fear Him, who respect Him, who revere Him.

Will you and I be counted in those who revere the presence of God?

It says the Lord’s delight is in those who put their hope in His unfailing love.

I want to ask you this morning, where have you placed your hope? Is your hope in your medical insurance or have you put your hope in a salary that you can bank on, is your hope in the fact that you look beautiful and you will get a bridegroom or is your hope in the fact that your family is well-known in the city and somehow jobs and solutions will come looking for you?

Where have you placed your hope in?
Now, it’s easier to place our hope in God, when we have nothing.
When we have everything, when we have people’s love, appreciation and support, it is harder and more challenging to put our hope in God, in the love of God, in the provision of God, in the power and wisdom of God.

But the Lord says, if you will put your hope and trust in my unfailing love, then I will delight in it, I will take pleasure in it, I will enjoy it, that is what makes me smile.

I don’t want to waste all my life trying to please God, trying to delight God with the most futile things. Just showing Him all the phones and the iPad, the money and my clothes, that’s not going to bring pleasure to him. The strength of the horse is not going to cause Him to be happy, the human wisdom and might are not going to put a smile on His face.

But I know that when I fear Him, every morning I forget myself and I begin to respect Him, fear Him, read His word, get into His presence and worship Him, get lost in His presence, when I fear Him and when I put my hope in His unfailing love, that encounter with His love, with His favour over my life, that is what He delights in, that is what He takes pleasure in.

So, let me invite you this morning to enjoy the pleasure of God, trust in His unfailing love, put your hope in the right places, and the Lord is desiring to delight in you, my dear friend.

Prayer: Abba Father, we know that you take no pleasure in the strength of a horse, nor do you take pleasure in human might, but we do know you take pleasure and delight in those who fear you, make me a man/ a woman, make us a people that fear you, that respect you, that have put our hope and trust in your unfailing love and help us to never forget that help to never settle for anything less than that,
we love you, we give you the praise, in Jesus name we pray. Amen!