Deuteronomy 28. Listen to this principle. Verse 47. Because, he is speaking to Israel, because
you did not serve the Lord your God, with joy, and a glad heart for the abundance
of all things, all the blessings, therefore you shall serve your enemies
whom the Lord will send against you in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and the lack of
all things. What's it saying? Very important principle. If you don't
rejoice in serving God, you're going to end up serving the enemy. If you don't
rejoice in doing right you're going to end up in rejoicing in unrighteousness. And,
what's going to happen is as you rejoice in sin it, he says you're going to end up, you're
you're hungry, you're going to be naked, you're going to be suffering all wants,
you're going to be without, lack, because the more you serve what's not good, the more you don't
have, the more you are not full. When you serve that, when you rejoice in what
is bad it ends up in emptiness. Again, those things, doesn't, pornography doesn't make
your life richer. Makes your life poorer. Adultery doesn't make your life richer.
Makes it poorer. Same with all these things. And it's
not just the dramatic things like that. It's the little things as well. Whatever
is not of God. You know there are denominations that have gone largely
wholesale into apostasy. And I'm not saying everybody's because lots of times in those
denominations there are some churches that have broken away, or they hold true.
But there's ... and you wonder why. Have you gone to
their services? I'm not, and I'm not talking about any one particular service. But they tend
to be the very same denominations that have stopped
delighting in God. And have stopped rejoicing in God. You go to the services
it tends to be like a funeral service. You know ... Proverbs says
he who strays from the path will end up in the congregation of the dead. Or, ecclesia,
or the church of the dead. Well that's what's happened in many of those
churches. It's the same denominations ... most into apostasy with their stance
tend to be the most dead in their worship. Their pa .., you know, you know
they're passionate about their apostasy and
their causes but not about God. So that tells you ... if you don't delight in God
that's what you end up ... what happens. That's dramatic
but it happens. It's a principle. If you don't rejoice in God you rejoice
in the ways of the enemy. Delight yourself in God. Delight yourself
in the Lord. Be rooted and grounded in love. Then you will, the more you delight yourself
in God the less you will be tempted in sin. And to the degree that you delight,
that same degree you'll be overcoming sin. Now listen to this. Proverbs.
Listen to this. Proverbs 5. Talking to, where it says my son, talking to, for the lips
of an adulteress, and you can read adulterer in the same way, drips honey.
Meaning smooth. Smoother than oil is her speech, but in the end she's as bitter as
wormwood. Sharp as a two-edged sword, her feet go down to death. Her steps take
hold of Sheol, like hell. She doesn't ponder the path of life. Her ways are
unstable. She doesn't know it. Now then my son,
listen to me. And do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her.
Don't go near the door of her house or you will give your strength to others.
And your years to the cruel one. And strangers will be filled with your strength.
And your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien. And you will
groan at the end of your life. What's that? It's an example of delighting
in what is not of God. Adultery. And what's it saying? It says, well at the beginningi
it seems sweet. But because it's wrong it's going to end up working against you,
harming you. The more you delight in it the more it will destroy your life.
Now this is written thousands of years ago. And I've seen it happen today
in the twenty-first century. I've seen it in people's lives. Same thing happens. It is just as
true now. One form or the other it leads to destruction of lives. In one form or
the other. That's what happens with adultery. It says, why will you give yourself to that?
Because what's going to happen is, you're going to, it's going to take
away your life. It's going to take away your family, it's going to take away your life.
But then it gives the antidote. Now listen. Drink water from your own cistern.
Your own well. And fresh water from your own well. Why should
your springs, your life be dispersed ...? Why should your streams of water flow on the
streets. Your life ... Let them be yours alone and rejoice
in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe let her breasts
satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love.
It doesn't say just don't do wrong. It doesn't say just don't do that sin.
It doesn't say that. It says, it doesn't just even say be faithful in your marriage.
Although of course that's part of it. It says rejoice in the wife of your youth!
That's the key! Rejoice in the good! Rejoice in what God gave you. Rejoice in
what you have. Rejoice in what is legitimately yours. Rejoice in what
is a blessing from God. Drink waters from your own cistern. Not somebody else's well.
Not the well on the grass that looks greener on the other side. Because it
always does. It's an illusion. When you get there same thing. It'll destroy your life.
Delight in what is good. Let her satisfy you. Be exhilarated with her love.
That's saying there's something that you have to choose to do. Before, you know
you want to overcome the sin. But it's giving you the key. You can't just say okay
I want to resist this. We've got to have something to not resist over. And so
therefore rejoice in the blessings you have from God. Let yourself be satisfied
by right. But you have to choose to do that. Choose to rejoice. Choose to be
exhilarated. Choose. Delight thyself. Take pleasure in what is of God. It may take time.
Especially if you have problems. I'm not, not just marriage. This applies
to everything. Maybe it's ... but practice it. You may not feel it yet but that's
why it says choose to do it. Exhilarate. Be satisfied. Take pleasure
in what is good. And this is, this is not just for men this is for women.
Women, rejoice in the husband of your youth. Your life will be blessed. It's going to build
you up. Rejoice in what is good. What has God given you? Rejoice in that.
Don't rejoice in what is not and what's on the other side. Rejoice. If you're
being pulled continuously to a particular sin, chances are you're not
really rejoicing in the good God's given you. And so you're kind of
rejoicing in that to fill you up. If you know something is wrong stop delighting in it.
Stop, stop playing around with it.
Stop flirting in your mind with it. Stop delighting with it. When it comes up cut it off.
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