9 January 2022: “Delight yourself in the Lord”

Welcome

(1) Belated Happy New Year to everyone.

(2) The next Elders and Deacons’ meeting is 10 January, 7pm.

(3) The next Cell Group meeting is Wednesday 12 January at 7pm.

Personal Testimony

“I always believed in God, but thought He was distant, harsh, cold, and too ready to punish my wrongdoings. Then Jesus revealed Himself to me and I realised that God was so very gracious, kind and loving. Rather than punish my wrongdoing He actually bore the punishment for all of it! How wrong you can be about someone!”

Worship

Word

Please read: Ps. 37

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

What about this as a New Year’s resolution? – “to delight yourself in the Lord” – being the first thing you do when you get up; then as you go through the day and the last thing you do before sleep. We are told to delight ourselves in the Lord, in His presence – not in our circumstances – David is in the midst of much evil and wickedness (Ps 37:1,7,8-9,10,12-13,14-15,16-17,20,21-22,27-28,32-33,34,35-36,38,40) but he is also in the presence of the Lord, hence his exhortation: ‘Delight yourself in the Lord’.

Delight yourselves in Jesus! Paul urges us to fix our minds on Christ not on carnal things:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Col. 3:1-2

And he practices what he preaches when, in prison, he writes:

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.

Phil. 4:4

Jesus in the midst of His enemies (Lk. 9:44, 53, 58; 10:3, 10-15), rejoices in the Spirit, in His Father’s ways:

Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

Luke 10:21

There is so much to pull us down in life and make us depressed. What would we lose if we determined to daily and continually delight ourselves in the Lord, in His presence, Amen!

Quote of the week

“It is one thing to have a lot of information about God, but it is another thing to bask in the warmth and reality of His presence. The great secret of the Christian life is to begin experiencing God as He desires me  to experience Him. God’s greatest delight is to bring me into His presence”

A. W. Tozer

Verse of the week

You will fill me with joy in your presence.

Ps. 16:11

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, thank You that we are always in Your Presence because of what Jesus has done in reconciling us back to Yourself. Thank You that in Your Presence is fulness of joy. Help us the more to delight in You and Your ways, Amen.