Please open your Bibles and read along as I go through Proverbs 15 verses 1 through 8.

A soft dancer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge

with the mouths of fools pour out folly.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

A fool despises his father's instruction, but he who heeds admonition is prudent.

In the House of the Righteous, there is much treasure, but trouble befalls of the income of the wicked.

The lips of the wise spread knowledge. not so the minds of fools. The sacrifice of the wicked

is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

Last week we turned a corner in this series on the pleasures of God. You remember that up until last week we had been focusing almost all of our attention on the pleasures that God has in himself and in his works of creation and

and Providence. We had been stressing very heavily that God is self-sufficient, that he is overflowing and full of joy, that he is sovereign in his freedom from coercion and constraint and bribery and blackmail.

And then last week we turned a corner and began to ask what kinds of responses from the human heart might God delight in? What might we do or what might we be that would cause pleasure to well up in the

heart of God.

And I think that's a tremendously important question.

How do we know what to do or is there anything I might say or feel or think that would bring delight to the heart of God?

Because I'm a sinner and I don't feel hopeful that there is.

You know, even if God were to admit me into heaven as a person who is totally displeasing to him it would be hell.

I mean can you imagine an eternity in the presence of God such that whenever he looked upon you he turned away with disgust.

Whenever he happened to cast a glance upon you, he was revolted by what he saw. And he was never delighted, never

pleased with you. I think that would not be heaven. That would be an eternity of misery if God could not be pleased with me in anything that I said or did or felt or was.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 59 that he made it his aim

...