When you think about the Welsh you are almost certain to think of two things:
Rugby football and singing.
Sometimes you can have those two delights in the one place.
I enjoy it when Wales play Ireland
Not just because Ireland is quite likely to beat Wales the days
but because, whatever the result, you are going to get some beautiful singing. That is a delight.
What do you delight in today? What really thrills you?
Good singing? A good breakfast? Being here with others praising God?
Or something you are going to do later or someone you are going to see?
I remember as a child sitting in Sunday school and not thinking about what I was being taught
but really looking forward to going to see my Granny in the country
which is what we did on Sunday afternoons
That was my delight: I endured church in the morning,
but I enjoyed brown lemonade and ginger biscuits at my Granny's
I wonder did God look down and smile at what was going on in a seven year old's heart.
I am sure he smiled at what happened a few years later when I went to our church youth fellowship.
Yes, I wanted to find out more about God but there were girls there and that was another new delight.
If I could sum up my spiritual development over 50 years
it is been trying to live out the meaning of Psalm 37.4
which says we are to delight ourselves in the Lord and he will give us the desires of our heart.
When God is our real delight, then everything else has its true place
Whether Granny's lemonade or interest in girls or Lansdowne Rd or even delightful Welsh singing.
And even better than that
if the ginger biscuits have gone soft or the girls aren't interested or Ireland should lose
we can still delight in the Lord, we can still rejoice in him enjoying his love
while we endure other disappointments.
That's what we learn from Paul and Silas in the jail at Philippi
Beaten up, sore, hungry, fearful perhaps and they sing!
I remember arriving with some friends to set up a camp site.
It seemed that the rain arrived just at the same time as we did.
Well, there was a lot of work to be done over the weekend before 80 boys arrived for 10 days' holiday.
Talk about 'singing in the rain'!
I remember being amazed and encouraged at how the rest of the team just got out in the rain
and got on with it and sang as they worked.
Our reading from Philippians 4 challenges us
as to where and how we find delight in these three main ways
1 HARMONY WITH GOD Rejoice in the Lord always
That's the basic relationship upon which all our other relationships and all our delight depend.
The relationship of being are right with God, having peace with him
peace which the world cannot give peace that passes understanding.
It has been spoken about in most of the singing today e.g. from Llanfair
'Every worthwhile treasure is to be found in him.
Holy, perfect to forgive my sins.
True wisdom, peace and grace of immeasurable worth
give me the strength to overcome all evil.'
This is the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
to deal with our sin to reconcile us to God and to make him our great delight
No wonder so much good music has been composed around it.
If you are not filled with God's true delight today
then consider where you need to get right with him
2 HARMONY WITH OTHERS
These two points dovetail into each other even as there are two ways that a cross points.
Up to God in heaven and across and out to one another.
That is why Paul singles out two women who have fallen out in the church
'to agree with one another in the Lord.'
and he asks someone else to come and help them to harmonise with each other
You see, it is not that one was right and the other wrong though they probably both thought that.
Its not as though Euodia loved Jesus and Syntche hated Jesus
They both loved Jesus but they had differences,
probably of personality and temperament perhaps in terms of their gifting
and in some way they resented or despised each other.
It's not unlike singers in a choir. tenors can't sing like basses and basses can't sing like tenors
But when they accept that and harmonise using the strengths of their different voices
You have a delightful sound.
If you are not filled with God's true delight today
then consider where you may need to get right with others and harmonise
to forgive, perhaps to seek forgiveness to affirm people's different strengths and gifts
and to see how God can use that diversity wonderfully together.
But you may say 'I am in harmony with God and with other people,
But I still lack full delight, I am not a joyful person.'
The reason may be how far are you
3 CHOOSING GOOD MUSIC
8 'whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me put it into practice.
and the God of peace will be with you.
Our lives may lack harmony because we are filling them with disharmony.
We don't radiate joy and peace and delight in the Lord
because we have fuelled our minds and hearts with a load of rubbish.
Any of you who use e mail will be appalled at the plague of unwanted junk mail
some of it stupid, much of it just dirty and demeaning.
What appals me even more is the temptation in me to go further and have a look.
A voice seems to say What harm? Why not?
Well, by the grace of God and only by his gracious presence in my life
I keep destroying those e mails without looking into them.
Verses 8 and 9 of Philippians 4 tell me that there is a lot of good stuff out there in which I may delight,
pure and lovely and right and noble ...
Its not just about good music, which we are privileged to have today
it's about good tv watching, the magazines we read
and most of all the company we keep and the conversation we take part in.
Or should I say gossip?
Haven't we all been in a situation
where we indulged in a lot of complaint about someone who wasn't there
or malicious stories about their weaknesses and problems?
Maybe we get a buzz from that but when you go away where's your delight?
Where's your joy in the Lord?
A teacher around this time of the year gave out to his class
about how badly they had all done in their'pres' or mock exams
how disappointing it was, how poorly they compared with the previous year
One of the class remarked afterwards:
why didn't he spend the time teaching us something?
A good point. We need to choose good music.
Yes, we have to face how bad we can be
but always in the setting of God's delight that we can learn, we can change.
Seek harmony with God through giving your life over to Jesus
Seek harmony with others through accepting the differences which can work together for beautiful music.
And always choose good music. Avoid the talk that is dirty, that degrades.,
Look for what is pure and positive
and the promise is the God of peace will be with you.
Somebody said: 'Peace is joy resting. Joy is peace dancing'
Lord, help us to delight in you
through the joy of Jesus in our lives, because we have peace with you
through the love of Jesus for each other, healing hurts
with the enjoyment of everything that's really good and right.
Speak to us where we each have need:
For some, the need is to find harmony with you
to know that our sin can be forgiven.
For some, it will be the putting right of a relationship
For some dealing with pornography or with negative thinking
Let our memory of today be not only of good music for our ears
but of deep harmony in our lives
|
