Latest / Faith Church Podcast / When God Is Enough | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church

Transcript

When God Is Enough | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church · Faith Church Podcast

0:00
Okay, this morning I want you to turn in your
0:02
word to Psalm chapter 37. I have been living
0:09
and breathing in this passage for months now.
0:14
And I know some of you older ones, you're going
0:17
to hear it and say, yeah, yeah, I learned that
0:19
verse when I was a kid. But I want us just to
0:22
take a fresh look at it this morning. Psalm 37,
0:27
verse 3. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell
0:35
in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight
0:41
yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give
0:46
you the desires of your heart. Commit your way
0:51
to the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall
0:56
bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness
1:01
as the light and your justice as the noonday.
1:08
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
1:14
In the last couple of months, we've been talking
1:16
a lot about his presence, about the Trinity surrounding
1:22
you. We've been talking about the Lord being
1:28
near. Right? So don't be anxious. He is near.
1:33
And today I want us to focus a few moments in
1:38
this passage of Psalm 37. Our key verse is going
1:42
to be delighting yourself in the Lord. But before
1:45
we get there, I want us to take a moment and
1:48
just look at the verses surrounding it. If you
1:54
were to read the whole chapter, what you'll find
1:56
is that David is saying things like, hey, don't
1:59
fret when the wicked are flourishing. So the
2:05
context that he's writing this in is that it
2:08
looks like all of the ones that are not following
2:11
God, all of the wicked are doing well. And so
2:17
he's saying, don't be envious of them. And we
2:22
might say to ourselves, well, I never would.
2:27
And in the Old Testament, the language is pretty
2:30
strong. The wicked. Don't be envious of the wicked.
2:35
In the New Testament, we would simply say, don't
2:39
be envious of people that aren't Christ followers.
2:42
People that their source is this world. Don't
2:47
fret or be envious when it seems like they're
2:50
getting rich. And you know it because you feel
2:53
it when you're scrolling Facebook and you see
2:56
somebody doing well and you're in constant struggle
3:01
and you know they're not Christ followers. And
3:04
you can, oh, that twinge in you. What is that?
3:09
It's probably envy. And David's saying, hey,
3:13
don't be envious. Here's what you're going to
3:16
do. You're going to trust in the Lord. You're
3:21
going to do good and dwell in the land. So we're
3:26
going to see here, we're going to walk through
3:27
this progression in Psalm 37. And it begins with
3:31
this verse in verse 3. And this is our foundation
3:37
right here. It is the directive for our life.
3:42
It is to trust in the Lord and do good. It's
3:50
to dwell in the land. How many of you live in
3:54
this land? None of us became believers and went
3:57
to heaven. We dwell in the land of Lincoln or
4:01
wherever you're at and feed on his faithfulness.
4:10
This is good. This is foundational. When you
4:14
come to Christ, You begin to put your trust,
4:19
not in yourself or this world, but you begin
4:21
to put your trust in God, right? And you begin
4:25
to do good things. You begin to, as you dwell
4:29
in the land, you begin to do good things for
4:31
the kingdom. And you trust in his faithfulness.
4:36
This is all good things. And it is foundational.
4:39
You cannot get to the rest of the verses without
4:43
coming through verse 3 of putting your trust
4:47
in him. Of doing good and dwelling in the land.
4:52
But as I was meditating on this, my thought was
4:55
this. There are a lot of people that go to church
4:59
that have trusted in God. And they're doing good
5:03
things. And they are trusting in the faithfulness
5:08
of God. There is another, though, realm beyond
5:14
that. That's not a bad realm. That's a very foundational
5:18
realm. But there is this deeper realm that I
5:23
want to live in. And it is our second progression
5:28
here of enjoying what I call the fatness of the
5:33
land. I'm moving beyond just trusting him and
5:39
doing good, dwelling in the land. I'm moving
5:43
into now the delight of the Lord. And to me,
5:49
this is a whole nother realm of relationship
5:53
with him. To delight yourself in the Lord. And
6:01
when you do that, what is the promise that is
6:03
given? He shall give you. Everybody say, he shall
6:09
give me the desires of my heart. Does this sound
6:16
like maybe God will do this? If he feels like
6:22
it, no. He's saying he shall give you the desire
6:28
of your heart. But it's very contingent here.
6:35
He doesn't give this promise back in verse 2
6:40
or verse 3. He doesn't say, trust in the Lord,
6:46
do good, dwell in the land, feed on his faithfulness,
6:49
and he'll give you the desires of your heart.
6:51
He doesn't put it there. He puts, he attaches
6:55
that promise to delighting in him. To delight.
7:07
What are some, like, when you delight in something.
7:11
So we had this last week. Last week, you know,
7:14
you were coming to the end of the harvest. And
7:17
my tomatoes are drying up. And I had one last
7:21
big harvest. And so I made sauce. I made sauce
7:26
that I used for pizza, pasta. And it's simmering
7:30
on the stove. And then I found this new really
7:33
good flatbread recipe. And so we were going to
7:37
do pizzas that night for dinner with the flatbread
7:41
and the sauce. Well, you know how it is, all
7:44
of you that cook. As I'm cooking and prepping
7:48
vegetables for the pizza, what am I doing? I'm
7:53
tearing up flatbread and dipping it in the sauce
7:55
and eating it. And I know some of you don't get
8:00
it, but let me just tell you, I can still feel
8:03
the delight of said bread and sauce. Like, I
8:10
didn't need pizza or anything, although it was
8:12
wonderful. just standing there dipping that homemade
8:17
flatbread into the sauce. I said to Darren, it
8:20
was just, did I say this was heaven? I feel like
8:22
I might have said that. The joy. See, he doesn't
8:27
quite, he feels that way when he gets a steak
8:29
or an apple pie. But for me, that bread and sauce,
8:33
I'm just, We can know what delight is when we
8:48
think, I know what delight feels like when I'm
8:51
doing that. And now the word is saying, hey,
8:56
I don't want you just to trust in me. I don't
9:01
want you just to do good and dwell in the land
9:04
and depend on my faithfulness. I want you to
9:09
delight in me. I want you that same feeling that
9:14
just overtook me in my kitchen. You think I'm
9:18
kidding. I'm not. It was a real feeling and emotion
9:22
I was having. I know, Darren's like, I wish you
9:30
felt that way about me. I don't know what he's
9:34
thinking right now. We know what that kind of
9:48
delight feels like. And God loves that we trust
9:53
him. He loves that we do good things for him.
9:57
He loves that we feed on his faithfulness. But
10:01
what he really wants from us is that kind of
10:05
delight. That kind of just taking joy in something.
10:11
He wants us doing that in our relationship with
10:16
him. And when we do that, we have this promise.
10:22
He'll give you the desires of your heart. Listen,
10:26
you can go to church. You can read your Bible.
10:33
You can do good things. You can say Christian
10:36
things and not take joy in God. Not take joy
10:45
in God and have zero expectation that he's going
10:48
to give you the desires of your heart. I think
10:54
what he's just waiting for is somebody to say,
10:57
oh God, if there's nothing else that you do,
11:03
you are enough. And it's interesting how I think
11:12
for an old time, maybe 20, 30 years ago, we were
11:16
so afraid of the fleshly things that we can talk
11:21
away the desires of our heart. But I know you
11:25
sitting here, and I just can't think that the
11:30
desires of your heart are for fleshly things.
11:35
I know the desires of the heart sitting in this
11:38
room. are for your families. They're for your
11:43
health. They're for your spouse. They're for
11:47
your children. They're for your friends. They're
11:49
for your workplaces. They're for your church
11:52
family. They're for this community, for this
11:55
country. And know the desires of your heart,
11:59
because you are righteous people, the desires
12:04
of your heart are good desires that will not
12:09
just bless you, but will advance the kingdom
12:12
through your families, through your health, through
12:16
your finances, through your workplaces, in this
12:19
community. As I was walking through this passage,
12:27
I was thinking in Mark chapter 5 of a woman who
12:34
carried a desire in her heart. And honestly,
12:37
if I were this woman, I would have the same desire.
12:43
In Mark 5, verse 24, it says, a large crowd,
12:48
Jesus was walking, and it says a large crowd
12:51
followed, and they weren't just walking alongside
12:54
Jesus, they were pressing in, it says, on Jesus.
13:00
So he's got this crowd all around pressing in,
13:04
and a woman was there, and she had been bleeding
13:08
for 12 years. 12 years. continually. It says
13:16
she suffered under a great deal of care of many
13:20
doctors. She had spent all she had, and instead
13:24
of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard
13:29
about Jesus, though, she came up behind him in
13:34
the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought,
13:40
if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.
13:46
I love this. It doesn't say, maybe I'll be healed
13:50
if I just touch. No, no, she was convinced. If
13:54
I can just get to Jesus and touch him, I will
13:58
be healed. Immediately, her bleeding stopped,
14:03
and she felt in her body that she was freed from
14:09
her suffering. But Jesus kept, oh, I skipped
14:14
over, sorry. At once, Jesus realized that power
14:18
had gone out from him. He turned in the crowd
14:23
and said, who touched my clothes? And his disciples,
14:28
of course, ever the practical ones, Jesus, you
14:31
see the people crowding around you. Everybody's
14:34
touching your clothes. So what's different about
14:37
this woman? Listen, you can go to church. You
14:41
can read your Bible. You can say Christian things.
14:46
And have zero expectation that Jesus will give
14:50
you the desires of your heart. This woman was
14:54
different in the crowd. Jesus, looking around,
15:02
verse 32, to see who had done it. And then the
15:06
woman, knowing what had happened to her, came
15:09
and fell at his feet. Trembling with fear, told
15:13
him the whole truth. He said, daughter, your
15:16
faith has healed you. Go in peace. And be freed
15:20
from your suffering. Listen, there's something
15:24
in chapter 37, verse 4 of Psalms that I want
15:30
us to get. That this woman had. And that is an
15:36
expectation. When she approached Jesus, she knew
15:43
if I just get up close with him, he's going to
15:47
do this. And some of us have been walking with
15:51
the Lord for years and have zero expectation
15:53
that he even wants to give you the desires of
15:59
your heart. And do you know who puts that into
16:03
you? It's not God, because his word says he wants
16:07
to do it. It's the stinking enemy of your soul,
16:11
of your life, of your family, who wants you to
16:15
question whether Jesus wants to do it for you.
16:22
And yet the word of God says, delight in the
16:26
Lord and he shall give you the desires of your
16:29
heart. For years now, I've kept in my, leaders
16:33
have heard it, I've said it here. The phrase,
16:36
no excuses. No excuses. God wants to give you
16:42
the desires of your heart. No excuses. The God
16:46
of the universe is your father. No excuses. I
16:51
won't be satisfied with not having the desires
16:54
of my heart fulfilled. I won't be satisfied.
16:58
No excuses. He's my father. He's created all
17:02
of this. He's able to do it. And he's not just
17:05
able. He wants to do it for you. Not your neighbor.
17:10
Not the elder sitting in front of you. He wants
17:13
to do it for you. He wants to do it for you.
17:21
This is so interesting, this idea of delighting
17:27
in something. Because if you think of a marriage
17:30
and children, I have four children. Some struggle
17:36
to have children though, right? And so they've
17:39
done a lot of studies on fertility. And in two,
17:47
let's see, two papers, there was published a
17:51
journal. The Fertility and Sterility, and another
17:55
journal, Physiology and Behavior. And the scientists
18:01
who wrote them, they had done some study, some
18:07
research on people with low fertility. And they
18:14
argue in this journal that even when a couple
18:19
Now, see, we've never had this issue. So we've
18:22
never had to work at getting pregnant before
18:26
children just kind of appear whenever we were
18:28
ready for them to appear. And so we've never
18:31
had to work at it. But you know, some of you
18:34
know what it is. You're charting things in your
18:38
body, what's happening, so that at the most fertile
18:41
times, you can take advantage of it. So in this
18:44
journal, they're saying this. that couples who
18:48
are intimate outside of the fertile window. So
18:53
they aren't just being intimate when it's time
18:55
to create a child, right? Okay, honey, better
19:00
get home from work on time. Tonight's the night.
19:03
And it's the only time they're delighting in
19:06
each other. And even then they're not really
19:08
delighting in each other. They're trying to produce
19:11
fruit, right? So their argument is that even
19:15
when couples who are delighting in each other
19:19
outside of the fertile window, do you know what
19:22
that does? It does something in the woman's immune
19:26
system, in her body, that can increase the likelihood
19:34
of her getting pregnant eventually. So delighting
19:44
a marriage that is intimate and taking joy in
19:47
each other when it's not time to make the child
19:52
are increasing the likelihood in her body, in
19:57
her immune system of eventually having a child.
20:01
What is happening is that delighting in one another,
20:05
taking joy in one another is doing something
20:07
in the body, in the physiological body. That
20:13
is creating an atmosphere for life. For life.
20:22
And I just wonder how often we come to God when
20:27
we're just trying to get a fruit out of it. I'm
20:32
trying to talk in very PG language because we
20:34
have kids. How often do we just come to him in
20:47
prayer just to delight in him? Not because we're
20:51
expecting an answer to our prayer. Not because,
20:55
you know, oh, the kids are driving me crazy.
20:57
Oh, I need this financial need. Oh, I need healing
21:00
in my body. How often do we come in prayer to
21:05
just delight in him? When we do, what are we
21:08
doing? We're creating an environment in our lives
21:14
for the desire of our heart to be fulfilled.
21:20
And you know, here's, I've been working, to be
21:23
honest, I've been working hard to delight in
21:25
the Lord. I don't know if that's a thing or not.
21:27
That's how I approach everything. I work hard
21:29
to make it happen. So, that's right. I'm working
21:37
hard to delight. It's interesting though, every
21:42
day, and I had a couple of hard days this week
21:45
that there were just difficult days for me. And
21:49
it's, It's very hard when there are a lot of
21:53
things that are burdening you that you want to
21:57
pray for to push them aside and say, no, I am
22:02
in this moment, in this day, solely delighting
22:06
in God. I'm not asking him for anything. I'm
22:10
just here to enjoy your presence, God. I'm just
22:15
here to just be in joy, in oneness with you,
22:19
God. I tell you, that was very hard for me to
22:25
push aside the burdens. And what it reveals is
22:32
whether I trust God with the desires of my heart
22:35
or not. Whether I trust that if I'm just going
22:39
to today solely delight in him and not grocery
22:44
list the burdens, will he still take care of
22:48
the burdens? Surely I need to talk to God about
22:51
the burdens. I guarantee you, he knows about
22:54
the burdens. We've told him about them night
22:58
and day. It was really hard to push them aside
23:08
and just delight in the Lord. And this is where
23:17
we begin to wrestle with, do I really believe
23:19
God wants to give me the desires of my heart?
23:22
And some of you think that he doesn't. Because
23:27
you've been waiting for the desires of your heart
23:29
for so long. and you haven't seen them fulfilled.
23:33
And today, I believe that God wants you to pull
23:37
out those old desires and dust them off. And
23:42
even as we sang it this morning, let fresh winds
23:45
blow upon them again. Waken them up, the desires.
23:50
Begin to have an expectation in your relationship
23:54
with Jesus that he wants to grant them, that
23:59
he wants to fulfill them. Delight in the Lord,
24:10
and he's going to give you the desires of your
24:14
heart. We just too often settle for less than
24:20
what God wants to do in and through you. And
24:24
at some point, we've got to rise up because the
24:26
truth is, is that I believe the desires in your
24:29
heart are there. Because they are the vehicle
24:33
in which he is going to expand his kingdom. And
24:40
that's the truth. Some of you have dreams. And
24:46
God wants to use those dreams to expand the kingdom.
24:51
And we've let the enemy think that they'll never
24:54
happen. You've believed for so long they're never
24:57
going to happen. See, if the enemy can get you
24:59
to quit. Believing in the desires of your heart
25:03
and the dreams that you have, he's sufficiently
25:05
squelched the expansion of the kingdom. Because
25:10
the truth is, is that God put those dreams, he
25:12
put those desires in you so he could expand the
25:16
kingdom. And so I love Kathy's group with a lot
25:19
of our young families is the prayer of Jabez.
25:22
Lord, expand my influence. I don't want to cause
25:29
pain in this life. I want to expand my influence
25:33
and let your kingdom come through it. And it's
25:37
exactly what happened in Jabez's life. And some
25:43
of you need to pull out the desires again and
25:45
the dreams again because it's the vehicle that
25:47
he's going to. You got to fight. You got to fight
25:50
for them, believing God wants to fulfill them
25:54
because his kingdom is coming through them. His
25:57
kingdom is coming through them. And then we get
26:01
into verses five and six, which are very futuristic.
26:05
I love this. And if any, these are great verses.
26:10
If you haven't memorized them yet, you can put
26:12
your name in next week. Commit your way, your
26:17
course of life. That's what that means. Commit
26:20
your course of life to him, to the Lord. Trust
26:28
in him and he shall bring it. to pass. I think
26:34
this is your course of life. This is your journey
26:39
toward eternity that we are on. And the truth
26:43
is, is that the desires that I had in my heart
26:45
at 20 are different than the desires of my heart
26:49
at 51. 51. Almost 52. It's all good. Says the
26:58
older people to me. Yes. See, Lila's not saying
27:03
that to me. These are ongoing desires. It doesn't
27:10
matter how old you are. It doesn't matter where
27:13
you are in life. Your desires may change. They
27:16
may grow. But listen, commit your course of life
27:20
to God. And as those desires change, he will
27:24
cause it to come to pass. He will cause it to
27:28
come to pass. It's futuristic for our ongoing
27:34
life and also for our transformation. Isn't this,
27:38
I love this verse. He will bring forth your righteousness
27:42
as the light and your justice the noon day and
27:46
then rest in the Lord and wait patiently for
27:48
him. Darren just preached out of 1 Corinthians
27:52
and he talked about how we are being transformed
27:56
from glory to glory, right? And so as we're on
28:01
this course of life, we should see from glory
28:07
to glory. The desire is being fulfilled in this
28:12
place of glory, in this place of glory. And your
28:15
desires may change as you go from glory to glory.
28:19
But if you will commit your course of life, if
28:22
you will delight in him, he will make it come
28:26
to pass. And some of you just need to decide,
28:29
I'm going to believe that. I'm going to believe
28:32
that. That he wants to cause it to come to pass.
28:37
Now here's why. And I'm going to ask if the worship
28:40
team will come this morning. Here is why you
28:45
can have confidence as you delight in the Lord.
28:49
It can be hard to, in a relationship, delight
28:54
if you know there's no reciprocation, right?
28:58
In Zephaniah chapter 3, this is what we need
29:03
to get a hold of. And remember that all of these
29:07
prophets, of the Old Testament, they all had
29:12
the word of the Lord because usually it meant
29:15
they were in bondage because of their rebellion.
29:20
And the Lord has to cause them to be taken by
29:25
their enemy, right? And every time he does it,
29:28
here's the good news. He always gives a promise.
29:32
Even in their rebellion, even in their idolatry.
29:36
I say that to say some of you think I don't deserve
29:39
it. The beauty that we sang of today is that
29:44
he hung on a tree and he died and rose again
29:49
for me. Zephaniah 3 .17 The Lord your God is
29:57
with you. The mighty warrior. the mighty warrior
30:04
who saves. He, this mighty warrior, he will take
30:11
great delight in you. This mighty warrior takes
30:21
great delight in you. Some of us need that revelation
30:29
because man has not delighted in you. Man has
30:33
not. Friends have rejected you. This world has
30:40
rejected you. But there is this Lord your God
30:44
who is a mighty warrior and he takes great delight
30:49
in you. In his love, he will no longer rebuke
30:54
you. Even if it's my fault, which it is, he doesn't
30:59
rebuke me. He delights in me. He rejoices over
31:06
me. Over me with singing, with singing. And I
31:13
think because we can't see in the spiritual realm
31:17
always that we're coming to God disgruntled and
31:22
frustrated and angry, consumed by the desires
31:28
we're not seeing fulfilled. And we can't see
31:33
that all along he is rejoicing over you. That
31:39
he is delighting over you and he is singing over
31:45
you with joy. That's what he's doing. And he's
31:53
just saying, I would just wish that my son and
31:57
my daughter would realize the relationship I'm
32:03
inviting them into of delight and joy, of singing
32:09
and rejoicing. And I'm going to take care of
32:12
the other stuff. Jesus said it himself. Those
32:17
of you that are tired and weary, come to me.
32:21
My burden's easy and light. I've come to make
32:25
things easier for you. To lift the heavy load,
32:32
the heavy weight. He died on a cross because
32:36
he delighted in you. We'll do hard things for
32:40
the people we love. And Jesus did a hard thing
32:43
for you and for me. And today, It's a choice.
32:51
It's a choice that we each make. We can walk
32:53
out of here and we can walk out keeping the desires
32:57
of our hearts subdued. Or we can open the windows
33:01
of our soul and say, here they are, God. Here's
33:05
my desires and I'm going to take my desires right
33:08
now and I'm just going to lay them at the altar
33:10
at your feet. I can't make the desires happen.
33:15
I've gotten so burdened trying to make the desires
33:18
happen. So I'm just going to lay them at your
33:21
feet and forget about them for a while while
33:24
I take joy in you, while I delight in you, while
33:28
I rejoice in you. Amen? And so you have that
33:32
choice today. You can take them out with you,
33:36
carrying and suppressing them, thinking he's
33:38
never going to do it for you. Or you can say,
33:41
that's me. care about my neighbor, the person
33:44
next to me. That's me. He's rejoicing in me.
33:47
So here are my desires. I'm coming with expectation,
33:51
God, that you are going to give me the desires
33:55
of my heart. You are going to give them to me.
33:59
So stand with me this morning, if you will. See,
34:02
I made sure to get done early because some of
34:06
you need to be up here. Probably a lot of you
34:09
need to just find your way. And forget about
34:12
it all. Just forget about what's outside the
34:16
door and just begin to take delight in your Savior
34:21
this morning. Teach me, Jesus, how to delight
34:25
in you. Teach me how to take joy in you today.
34:30
And so as the worship team leads us, let's take
34:33
a few moments and let's bring our desires to
34:36
the altar. And let's say, here we are. Jesus,
34:39
I'm here to love on you this morning. I'm here
34:42
to take joy in you this morning. I'm not here
34:45
to get anything because I believe you're going
34:47
to give it to me as I take joy in you. And let's
34:51
just begin to worship. So make your way, find
34:53
a place, and just begin to love on Jesus this
34:56
morning.