Matt Delves
A slave to sin no more
(rough notes)
Our joy rises as His glory is lifted up. In the same way, His glory rises in our delight in Him.
God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
If this is true, the consequences are staggering for you and for your people.
To spread something, that something is the word of God. Joy is complete in that it is outward focused. There is a passion or zeal as we proclaim and draw others in.
Passion.
Let the nations be glad. A joyful people. Sing to the Lord and bless His name.
Bring gladness to the nations. Let them be passionate for the glory of God. Spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things
In all things. There isn’t a job in which people have that doesn’t have God as supreme.
For all peoples. Global. Mission isn’t over.
Exist for the nations. For the globe.
Through Jesus Christ. Nothing happens unless through the dyeing of Jesus on the Christ.
Spiritual affections, not bodily reactions. Awakened and sustained by the Holy Spirit.
Joy. Fear. Gratitude. Desire. Hate. Anger. Loneliness. Hope. Shame. Sorrow - these are what is meant by what the world has as affections.
Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. God makes it. God creates it.
Spiritual over and against worldly.
Right doctrine serves right affections.
Theology serves doxology.
You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
What is truth for? Freedom.
Freedom from what? Slavery to sin. Sin.
What is sin? Coveting, wanting. The heart produces the desire that then becomes an action.
Truth serves heart change. Heart change is about those feelings that we have.
Right theology serves right affections.
I don’t and I do. There is a saying yes and no.
Make the tree good and the fruit will be good.
Behavior seems to be more ultimate.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The outcome is the fruit that comes from a changes heart.
God is going to do a public evidence in judgement by works. There will be a showing that by works people will know God.
This people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me.
There is a weariness of making behavior the goal.
If you have not love you are nothing - 1 cori thins 13
Everyone must give cheerfully.
How does God feel about an unchearful giver?
They relate in that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
Philippians 1:20-21 - “20 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
Hope in that Christ will be magnified in my body in death.
Why is to die gain? Because he will be with Christ. That is gain.
In death you lose everything you have yet you gain that which is most valuable to you. You gain Jesus. Jesus is what satisfies you most to the extent that nothing in this world is of comparison to Christ.
More Joy in Him is what magnifies Him.
When you live for the glory of God you will be seeking maximum joy.
Psalm 16:11 - “11 You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.”
The world asks us to pursue maximum joy in all the wrong places.
Where does God have the highest peaks of Joy for you?
This will cost you your life. To pursue your maximum joy in God will cost you your life.
The lifestyle is costly.
The bible commands your people to be happy - Philippians 4:4, psalm 32:11, psalm 100 - it is simply not an option to be unhappy.
Depression will happen to pastors.
We must love the cross.
The nature of faith means we should pursue our happiness all the time
John 6:35 -
believing in Him for salvation is a coming to Jesus for our hope and longing and aching in our life.
Come to Christ. You need a savior. You need a God. You need a Lord.
Embrace Christ.
To be born again is to have our values turned on their end.
Hebrews 11:6 - “6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.”
The reward is Christ and everything we have in Him.
Jeremiah 2:12-13 - “12 Be horrified at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled. This is the Lord’s declaration. 13 For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.”
What are you digging in the ground for? Look! Look to Jesus. Come and live!
Why would you spend your money on things that are no gain?
Stop getting your pleasure in what cant be found. Get your pleasure in God.
Hebrews 13:17-19 - “17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. 18 Pray for us; for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything. 19 And I especially urge you to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.”
No advantage for those under your care comes from when you groan in your ministry.
If you aren’t happy in your job, then your people’s health will reflect it.
Take Joy in your job.
When you advertise through your actions that following Jesus is tiresome, weary, depressing then you won’t be able to lead people. You will fail to minister to them.
Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that will be of no advantage to you.
We pastors must fight for joy as though our people’s lives depend upon it.
2 Corinthians 1:24 - “24 I do not mean that we have control of your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand by faith.”
Their joy must be able to weather the cancer and dead babies that abound in the world.
Preach meaty sermons.
There is always pain. Everybody dies. Our joy must be sufficient to deal with it.
The only way for them to be happy is to give them rock solid theology under their feet so that they may face their day of trial.
The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
We are workers with our people for our Joy
An error that is seen.
If right thinking is drifting away from this truth, what does happen is there is a move towards dead orthodoxy.
A reaction to that in our churches is yuck and anti-intellectualism.
Both extremes are terrible and one place they come from is a neglect of this truth.
That God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
Right doing. There is a lot of stress on doing churches.
What happens when a passion for good dead gets disconnected from the truth?
This produces legalism.
The first type of legalism is moral performance.
The second type of legalism is pragmatism.
The reaction is antinomianism and the emergent church.
The heart must permeate our works. There needs to be a deep love for Jesus.
Emptiness is lighting candles and drawing with crayons on the wall.
The emergent church won’t last.
This truth could protect the evangelical church from the extreme pendulum swings that occur.
