Godless and Godly Desires and Pleasures

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The Old Testament reading today comes from the 47th chapter of the book of Ezekiel.

I'll begin reading in verse 1. Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east.

The temple faced east. The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar.

Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside of the outer gate that faces toward the east.

And behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits and then led me through the water.

And it was ankle -deep. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, and it was knee -deep.

Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, and it was waist -deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen.

it was deep enough to swim in a river that could not be passed through and he said to me son of man have you seen this and he led me back to the bank of the river as I went back

I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other and he said to me this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the

Araba and enters the sea when the water flows into the sea the water will become fresh and wherever the river goes every living creature that swarms will live and there will be very many fish for this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh so everything will live where the river goes fishermen will stand beside the sea from and get a to and it will be placed to for the spread of very many kinds of fish of the

Great Sea but it swamps and marshes will not become fresh they are to be left salt and on the banks on both sides of the river there will grow all kinds of trees for food their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail but they will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them flows from the sanctuary their fruit will be food and their leaves for healing today's

New Testament reading will be John 7 verse 37 through 39 that's on page 893 on the last day of the feast the great day

Jesus stood up and cried out if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water now this he said about the

Spirit whom those who believed in him were to were to receive for as yet the

Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified please remain standing morning what a good morning it is it's always great to see a baptism

I was so encouraged to talk with Philip myself with the elders and I was encouraged to talk with Philip's mother about the change that she's seen in him it is just a marvelous thing to see the gospel on display like that and it's great to see it on display in baptism it should encourage all the faithful's heart to see someone identify with Christ because it is just so tempting to identify with the world and so it's been a great morning indeed to see that you know and I got asked him were you wearing jean shorts or they just straight -up jean pants jean pants

I thought for sure you're going for the shorts look but you couldn't quite see it from the outside all right let me go to the

Lord in prayer will begin God in heaven thank you so much for Christ and him crucified and resurrected

I thank you Lord that because of him we don't have to live in the bondage of the flesh and the passions of the flesh and the desires of the flesh as captivating as it can be even to the believer we know

Lord that those who believe upon Jesus we have a new identity we're thankful that Philip has a new identity that he has a power within him now that is that overcomes the power of Satan so I pray

Lord that you would grow Philip in this identity and I pray Lord that we as a church would help him along in that and part of helping him along is being willing to point out his sin

Lord because we know just how deceptive sin can be so I pray that we would be faithful to him and Lord that he would grow mighty in the

Lord and he would be an asset to you by your grace and he would serve the church serve the body of Christ Lord I pray that you'd give him this desire within his heart and may we

Lord now in this moment be attentive to your word may I proclaim it faithfully and may you be glorified in all that we do because you are worthy worthy is the lamb who was slain we praise you in Jesus name amen well

I have been going through the Psalms when I have the pleasure to preach before you and one of the the main theme that I've been trying to grab hold in the

Psalms is proper worship how we need to have proper worship we need to worship God and we need to do it properly and one of the things

I keep on alluding to that I really want to look at more these next couple weeks as a little mini study is part of our worship to God is having proper desires and pleasures that we cannot worship

God rightly if our desires are wrong if our pleasures are wrong in fact we are called to have desire as Christians were called to take pleasure as Christians and the reason why

I think it's important to kind of focus on that is if there's one thing that Christians can be accused of or and especially

Reformed Baptists is that desires and pleasures is a swear word or a bad word

I've heard it said one by someone that a Puritan is someone with the ability to know that someone somewhere is having fun and there's a certain truth to that that we as Christians can be so anti pleasure anti desires that we end up maybe falling into the other side of the ditch in which we say that any kind of desire any kind of pleasure is false and if we are living that way we might not say that but if we're living that way we are going to have a very faulty worship because our worship is supposed to be met in desires and pleasure what does that look like where does that come from what has happened to that this is a sort of things that I want to look at these couple weeks and and how that applies to you who are unbelievers because there are unbelievers out there right now and to you who are

Christians because there are Christians out there right now what is up with our desires and pleasures from whom have they come from and what has happened to them and how should they play a very vital part in our worship today as Christians there is a novel called 1984 and it was published in 1949 and it became very popular these last few years because of the different issues that are going on in our current culture in the book the authoritarian government is doing away with the standard

English called old speak and is making a new language called new speak and this new language new speak it takes words that we're all familiar with and it changes their meeting their meaning so it can fit their political agenda that's what new speak is it takes old speak old the normal English and it makes it new to make it fit their agenda we have seen the leftists do that in our own day -to -day words we know and celebrate are being turned to mean something else like justice inclusiveness love gender mother father the list goes on these words that are old speak are being changed to new speak to fit an agenda such a tactic is now is not anything new but it's something that Satan has done from the very beginning before I go on you might be thinking are you calling the leftist ideology satanic and the answer is of course

I am but Satan has been doing this from the very beginning he rules by lies and he uses desires and pleasures to lure and keep his victims and he's changed what desires and pleasures should be he has changed it to mean something different but we must understand that desire and pleasures were created by God and to be enjoyed by us he created it not

Satan in the beginning of the Bible we see that God has created desire and pleasure for our good and that Satan hijacked those things to mean something very different God is all -powerful he's an all -powerful

God he created by his power but in regards to your desire and pleasure he is also very good

God created in power and majesty and might but in regards to your pleasures and your desires he's also very very good as well he created all things in power but has done it in a way to be enjoyed that is he's done it good for example in power he has made it to where you can eat lunch after the service and get strength from it right all these things that go into this creation providing you with life he has done that in his power but not only has he created in power in that way but that lunch that you're going to eat it's going to taste good isn't it especially if you eat here it's going to taste really good so eat here it's going to taste good why does it need to taste good what's what's what's the point of it tasting good because our

God has created it good not only can we be nourished with life but that can actually taste good and enjoyment we can take pleasure in our food

God has created all things good as well you run through creation account and you see his goodness on display

Genesis 1 3 light was good 1 10 the dry land and the sea were good

Genesis 1 12 the vegetation and the fruit produced were good versus verse 18 the

Sun to give light to the earth during the day and the moon at night were good in verse 21 the creation of his fish in the sea was good in verse 25 it was good when

God created the living creatures on the land to creep around the earth and in verse 31 when

God creates man and puts them in this good earth we see that it was then very good it reminds me when making a coop for my chickens and ducks and I as I was making all the different things with the coop

I could see it all that had its own purpose and that purpose was to create this environment this life for these chickens and ducks to enjoy and so all these little different parts as it contributed to that main goal it was good it was good it was good as it all came together

I mean it was kind of good it does the thing but it could have been better but it was good but then it was very good when

I placed those little chickens and ducks in there and I saw them going around and enjoying the coop and living and enjoying themselves that was really good that's the same thing with our

Creator God he created all these things good he puts man in it he sees man enjoying it taking pleasure in it and it is now very very good so God made all things good and when he places us in creation to enjoy his good creation this is called very good and so we need to see that desires and pleasures that's not just something that the world gets to do in their sin but God has created you to desire

God has created you to meet that desire and for you to find pleasure we are to live a pleasurable life look at what the scriptures say when

God placed Adam in the garden and 2 9 Genesis 2 9 and out of the ground the

Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight look at that look at those words

Genesis 2 9 and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the site it didn't need to please the site but it does please the site it's pleasant to the site and it's good for food the tree of life was in the midst of the garden of the tree of knowledge of good and evil what was around Adam was a manifestation of the goodness of God to man pleasant to the site good for food it was pleasing a whole creation for us to have life in and enjoy for our desires to be had in the goodness of God what he has given and for our desires to be met which produces pleasure deep within our hearts this godly desire and pleasure if you notice it's simple it's very simple and that's the same today to find pleasure and delight in your life it is not a complicated affair it is actually extremely simple and the moment it becomes unsimple is the moment that you have missed it all together it is a simple affair so not only has

God created in power but in goodness that means he created you with a capacity to desire the goodness that he has created and to find pleasure in that goodness he has created you to take joy and pleasure in his goodness in fact doing so when you are living a pleasurable life doing that is actually good for you and glorifying to God so do not be satisfied with a worship that is not pleasurable right do not be satisfied with a worship and I've been saying this that is not pleasurable that is not true worship worship is pleasurable do not be satisfied when it's not do not be satisfied with no desire for walking with the

Lord in prayer and scripture meditation do not be do not be satisfied when those things have lost its luster there's no pleasure and do not think well this is just a

Christian life because it is meant to be so much more do not be satisfied with a boring

Christian life because God created all things good and for you to find pleasure in his creation by worshiping him in it now we're gonna get to this especially next week but there's a time when it is not desirable it is not pleasurable what do we do in that well we're not satisfied in it there is a battle but we'll get to that later you want to know the saddest thing about someone who is addicted to alcohol or drugs or pornography or whatever it may be in this world video games that the pleasures they are seeking to those things and those things is found in abundance and the simplicity of living a life in God's world for his glory and honor enjoying what he's created but instead they go away from the simplicity and they fill their minds with goofy things why do you have such a hard time desiring and taking pleasure in God why is that the most difficult thing you'll ever do in your life if we're created for it why is it so hard or if God has made us to desire and have pleasure does that mean what