How to Get Everything You've Ever Wanted

Good Afternoon,

Sunday night was another exciting night at Element. We began with our first Sunday Night full on worship team led by the High School. God really moved in worship through these students. After worship we split from the high school and had our Element service.

It was encouraging to see your children bring their friends to youth group. One particular young lady that came is Ryan Hall’s neighborhood friend Ariel. Ryan has been witnessing to Ariel and we have been praying that she would come to know Jesus. This is exciting because God is obviously at work moving through your sons and daughters. Billy Leighty brought his three friends again along with another brother from that family.

Many others are inviting their friends and bringing them to church. I talked to some of your children over the phone last week and heard amazing stories of them and their families praying together each night as a family for their lost friends. This is how the Kingdom of God is built. Who would ever think that God would use a Jr. High student to change the world?

THE MESSAGE

The title of the message was How to Get Everything You’ve Ever Wanted. I began by asking, “Who has ever wanted something really bad and did not get it?” (Of course everyone raised their hands). I then read Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I then said that this is the key to getting everything you want (“…He will give you the desires…”), but the key is you first have to “delight yourself in Him.” Therefore, we must find out what it means to delight ourselves in God.

In order to explain what it means to delight yourself in the Lord I began by telling the bizarre story of Jephthah in Judges 11. Jephthah was a mighty warrior that God called to save the Israelites from the foreign enemies of Israel. The elders of Gilead asked him to lead Israel in battle to fight the Ammonites. Jephthah agreed to the task but knew that it was going to be through God that the battle would be won. Therefore, Jephthah made a vow to God: “Lord if you will give me victory over this army, I will sacrifice a burnt offering of the first thing that comes out of my house.” After this vow the anointing of God fell upon Jephthah and he was victorious. When the battle was over as he approached his house a great tragedy occurred. His one and only daughter walked out of the house. She was to be the burnt offering. Jephthah fell to his knees and wept and ended up keeping his word sacrificing her.

All the Jr. High students gasped at this story. I explained to them that, first of all, human sacrifice is a sin. I then explained that what Jephthah did wrong was he tried to bargain for God’s blessing rather than trust in Him (something we often do).—“Lord, please give me this…Make me successful in…If You will do these things Lord, then I will do anything for You. I will read my Bible, pray, worship…” Although we may not say it out loud we often say it in the back of our minds.

After telling this story I turned back to Psalm 37:4 and read it again: “Delight yourself…” I then explained what this verse actually means. The word delight actually means “satisfy”. In other words, you have to “satisfy” yourself in the Lord. He must be the one you find happiness in. Satisfy is an action verb, like eating or brushing your teeth. We therefore have to put ourselves to action in satisfying ourselves in the Lord. It is an effort, an action, not just thinking happy thoughts about God.

We must make ourselves find satisfaction through Him alone. Not through sports, not through how good you look—how pretty you are, not through making good grades, video games, t.v., being successful, winning, etc. A vicious cycle occurs in our lives when we fail to do this. When we are bored, empty inside, looking for something to fill us we will be moving from one thing to the next to satisfy us. When sports don’t satisfy you, you’ll go to relationships. When relationships stop satisfying you, you’ll focus on making good grades. When making good grades doesn’t bring you happiness, you’ll go to video games. After video games you’ll go back to sports. Then sports back to relationships and on and on the cycle continues—for days and days, to months and months, to years until it consumes your entire life. And the scary thing is the more things we try to make us happy the more numb our hearts become, and the more sinful things we will be willing to try to make us happy.

Finally, I explained to them the reason that no other thing will work besides “satisfying ourselves in the Lord” is because of a simple truth that St. Augustine spoke of. He wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.” We were created for God alone; for his pleasure.

When we start to satisfy ourselves in The Lord, such as read our Bibles when we would rather watch t.v.. Pray when we are tired. Worship when we are sick. Obey the voice of God when He speaks. Listen and respect our parents when we have another agenda. God begins to satisfy us. And when He becomes our satisfaction our desires become His desires. AND WHEN OUR DESIRES BECOME HIS DESIRES WE WILL WANT WHAT HE WANTS TO GIVE US. AND WE WILL GET EVERYTHNG WE NOW WANT.


Making it Real:

After this message I prayed and asked the students if they feel they have not been satisfying themselves in the Lord like they should be— If they’ve been looking for sports to bring them happiness, or relationships, t.v., or some other thing other than God. Around 12 students raised their hands. We then prayed that God would transform us and give us the strength to make Him our satisfaction.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
As a parent we want to help you in any way we can to teach your child to satisfy themselves in God. An example of what you could do is have your child for the next two weeks cut 15 minutes of t.v., computer, or sports and have them read their Bible in place of that time. My parents did something very similar to this when I was younger and although I didn’t want to at first the discipline produced a passion in me and now I love it more than anything. If your child learns this principle at a young age it will save them from a ton of trouble and no telling what God will do with them.

Thank you,

Ryan Austin
Element Jr. High Leader