The Case For Joy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A couple years ago I was asked to come and speak at a Men’s Retreat for a church in North Carolina. They asked me to specifically cover a “Biblical case for joy.” They wanted to learn about why we have the mission statement we do as a church, “Helping People Find Joy in Jesus.”
Now, I wasn’t on the schedule to preach today but I thought that since this week is a stand-alone sermon, I thought I’d take some time today to refresh our minds and hearts on who we are and why we believe God has called us through His Word to help people find joy in Jesus.
We just heard from this Psalm the heart of David desperately seeking the Lord. He says, “I have set the LORD always before me.”His eyes were fixed on him, there was nothing else in this world that could take his eyes off of Him. And the result of dwelling on his God was that “his heart was glad and his whole being rejoiced.”
Now why is this the case? Verse 11,
Psalm 16:11, You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
For so many people, language like this is almost foreign to them in reference to relationship with God. For so many, it seems as though God is more interested in their duty and strict obedience to his commands rather than just sheer delight in him which then leads to joyful and glad obedience.
And yet, there seems to be deeply woven within the human heart a desire for joy. Is this desire wrong? Should we suppress that longing for joy? Or, could it be that obedience flows out of a heart that is glad in God? That rejoices in Him? The Psalmist here seemed to think so.
I want to lay a Biblical case for joy; an argument from Scripture that says rather than suppressing the desire for joy, let’s chase after it. But let’s chase after a joy that sustains and is worthy of our pursuit.
We believe that the greatest joy, the greatest happiness, the greatest peace you could ever experience is found in relationship with Jesus. We believe everything else in this world is just a cheap knock-off of the real thing. In fact, nothing found in this world was intended to bring us lasting peace and joy but was rather created to point us to the Creator where real joy is found.
I’ve got four points from our text today which lay this case for joy.
Point 1 lays a foundation for the hard-wired pursuit of joy that’s within us.
Point 2 looks to the source of all joy.
Point 3 reveals the problem we all face and why we just can’t seem to find lasting joy.
Point 4 unpacks the solution to this problem and where to begin a life of abundant joy.
Let’s dig in. As the Psalmist alludes to. We believe everyone is:
1. Wired for Joy.
1. Wired for Joy.
Psalm 16:8-9, “I have set the LORD always before me…My heart is glad, my whole being rejoices.”
We are wired to seek out what makes us happy. We pursue that which we delight in and we delight in what we pursue.
That’s true of every human being.
I would argue that if you were to ask any random group of people what they wanted to get out of life, and if they were in control of life’s circumstances, they would give an answer that would sound something like, “I want to be happy.” “I want peace.” “I want my life to have meaning and purpose.”
(illust. – Jarrod O. – money, success, women, “this is it? I’m wasting my life”)
We desire joy. We long for it.
And it’s a longing that’s been observed for thousands of years by humanity, from philosophers to theologians to even secular humanists.
It was Augustine who wrote over 1600 years ago that
“Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy.”
Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French philosopher and mathematician once wrote, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”
Thomas Boston, a Scottish theologian and pastor from the late 1600’s said, “Consider what man is. He is a creature that desires happiness, and cannot but desire it. The desire of happiness is woven into his nature, and cannot be eradicated. It is as natural for him to desire it as it is to breathe.”
J.C. Ryle once wrote, “Happiness is what all mankind want to obtain – the desire for it is deeply planted in the human heart.”
Even the philosophers and psychologists of today acknowledge this reality.
Nancy Colier, a psychotherapist and interfaith minister once wrote that, “Our lives are an endless search—a search for something we call happiness. We continually gain it and then lose it, again and again. And yet, despite its inherently transitory nature, we continue trying to capture happiness, permanently, like a moth in a cage. Permanent happiness is the goal of our life—a goal that we can never reach.”
Simon Sinek, business leader, author and speaker wrote in his book, “Leaders Eat Last”, “In our world today…feelings of isolation and high stress have fueled industries that are profiting from our search for happiness. Self-help books, courses and any number of pharmaceuticals make up multibillion-dollar industries designed to help us find that elusive happiness, or at the very least to reduce our stress. In only a few decades, the self-help business alone has grown to $11 billion. The biggest thing the self-help industry seems to have helped is itself.”
But he also says this, “Our search for happiness and connection has led us to seek professional advice. In the 1950’s, a few of us went to weekly sessions with a therapist. Today in the U.S…there are 77,000 clinical psychologists, 192,000 clinical social workers, 105,000 mental health counselors, 50,000 marriage and family therapists, 17,000 nurse psychotherapists, and 30,000 life coaches. The only reason the field continues to grow is because of increasing demand. The more we try to make ourselves feel better, the worse we seem to feel.”
It would seem as though we are wired for joy. Creatures made to pursue happiness. A people chasing after pleasure.
So, the question before us: Is that wrong? Is our desire to be filled with joy a part of the fall or part of our created design?
Scripture is filled with language leading us to a happy God who delights in His children and calls us to find joy and pleasure in knowing Him and being found in Him.
Randy Alcorn says it this way.
“What if a happy God made us for happiness, and therefore our desire to be happy is inseparable from our longing for God? What if God wired his image bearers for happiness before sin entered the world? What if wanting happiness isn’t the problem, but looking for happiness in sin is? What if our desire to be happy can be properly redirected to God and all that he wants for us? How might this perspective on happiness change our approach to life, parenting, church, ministry, business, sports, entertainment, and everything else? Since unhappy Christians make the gospel unattractive, wouldn’t the gospel become contagiously appealing if Christians embraced happiness in Jesus?”
Where does this longing originate?
2. A Happy God.
2. A Happy God.
Psalm 16:11, “In your presence there is fullness of Joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
David said God’s very presence brought “fullness of joy.” It’s a joy that comes from the very presence of God himself, a triune God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, since eternity past have joyfully delighted in one another. A delight and joy that is overflowing. A joy that becomes ours just from being in God’s presence.
We see this joy spill out in Scripture.
In Matthew 3:16-17 we see the baptism of Jesus and it’s here that we see all persons of the Trinity present. Listen to verses 16 and 17:
Matthew 3:16-17, And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
When God the Father says that he is “well pleased” with the Son, the language being used there is one of delighting in, finding joy in, being happy with. God the Father takes great pleasure in the Son.
We see this same phrase used again by God the Father of the Son in Matthew 17 at the transfiguration.
Matthew 17:5, He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
In Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus would physically step into the world, we see the delight that God the Father had in the Son.
Isaiah 42:1, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
In John 17, Jesus is praying before his arrest and crucifixion and in his prayer we hear this.
John 17:24, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Here’s what we’re seeing in those texts. The triune God was perfectly happy, perfectly content, full of joy, full of love and delight.
Happiness, joy, delight, pleasure was not a created emotion when God spoke life into existence. It’s part of who He is and who he has been from eternity past.
Steve DeWitt writes, “Before you ever had a happy moment, or your great-grandparents had a happy moment, or Adam and Even had a happy moment – before the universe was even created – God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit were enjoying a perfect and robust relational delight in one another.”
The problem is sin has corrupted us. It’s taken us from being worshippers of the Creator to worshippers of creation. And so, a battle for lasting, meaningful joy rages within us.
3. The Battle for Lasting, Meaningful, Abundant Joy
3. The Battle for Lasting, Meaningful, Abundant Joy
Anybody in here walking in perfect, complete, abundant joy always in and through every season of life?
Right, obviously there’s a problem that we all face. Genesis 3 happened. Sin entered into this world.
And with that, a complete and total breakdown of all the good God had created. There’s now a distorted image of what brings joy to our lives.
In fact, we even see in the temptation of Eve in Genesis 3 a lie that the Devil spoke to her causing her to doubt in the goodness of God. No longer did she see God as her source of lasting delight but instead her eyes turned to creation.
Genesis 3:6, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Did you notice some of the language in that verse? She saw the fruit was “good.” It was a “delight” to the eyes. There was a “desire” to make one wise.
That’s language of joy, happiness, pleasure. All the things that both Adam and Eve found in God were now redirected to created things. It wasn’t that the fruit they ate had some poison in it that all of a sudden unleashed sin into the world. It was that, no longer was God the one whom they treasured and delighted in. They turned from him and chased after lesser joys, lesser delights.
And that has been the story of humanity from that point on.
Puritan, Thomas Brooks said, “God is the author of all true happiness; he is the donor of all true happiness… He that hath him for his God, for his portion, is the only happy man in the world.”
The flip side of that quote is that those who do not have God for their portion are in a constant state of unhappiness.
Though we didn’t read it this morning, look at verse 4.
Psalm 16:4, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.”
Now the philosophy of the world is you don’t need God to be happy.
There was a comedian who once said, “Have you ever heard someone say, money doesn’t buy happiness.” Uh, do you live in America? Cause it buys a Wave Runner. Have you ever seen a sad person on a Wave Runner? Seriously, have you? Try to frown on a Wave Runner. You can’t!”
Now it’s a funny bit and I get, to some degree what he’s saying.
But here’s the problem with that logic.
What happens when you get off the Wave Runner?
You following me? At some point, the Wave Runner’s going to run out of gas. At some point you’re going to have to dock it and go on with the rest of your life. Life is not a 24/7 ride on a wave runner. And even if it was, you’d grow tired of it and you’d want something else.
The problem is that the things we so often look to for our source of joy don’t last. Everything has a ceiling to it.
In 2005 Tom Brady sat down with Steve Kroft from 60 minutes for an interview. At this point in his career, Brady already had three Superbowl victories. And yet, in the interview Brady talks about this desire for something more.
Here’s part of the exchange.
Steve Kroft: This whole experience -- this whole upward trajectory -- what have you learned about yourself? What kind of an effect does it have on you?
Brady: Well, I put incredible amounts of pressure on me. When you feel like you're ultimately responsible for everyone and everything, even though you have no control over it, and you still blame yourself if things don't go right -- I mean, there's a lot of pressure. A lot of times I think I get very frustrated and introverted, and there's times where I'm not the person that I want to be.Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, "Hey man, this is what it is." I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: it's gotta be more than this. I mean this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean I've done it. What else is there for me?
Kroft: What's the answer?
Brady: I wish I knew. I wish I knew.
What’s happening here in his heart? “Sorrows are multiplying” because he’s chasing after false gods and idols to be happy and he’s coming up empty.
Here’s a guy who, by the world’s standards, has it all. Top of his game, rich, loved by his team and the city he plays for. Victory after victory after victory and he still thinks that something’s missing.
We all feel it. Hitting that ceiling.
And so, what’s the solution?
4. The Beginning of a Joy-Filled Life.
4. The Beginning of a Joy-Filled Life.
Look at verse 8 again,
Psalm 16:8, “I have set the LORD always before me.”
The puritan, Stephen Charnock wrote, “Though the fall be the cause of all our misery, yet, recognizing it is the first step to all our happiness. – Stephen Charnock”
A joy-filled life begins with confessing where we have put creation before the Creator.
In Psalm 32 David confesses and speaks of the result of confession.
Psalm 32:1-5, Blessed (happy) is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
What we see in this text is a man, David reeling with guilt and shame and misery because of unconfessed sin in his life.
He says his bones are wasting away because he’s hiding his sin. There’s a heaviness on him because of it.
Can you relate to that? We’ve all felt that right? That pain, that misery because of unconfessed sin.
If you’re familiar with Edgar Allan Poe, he has the short story of the “Tell-Tale Heart.” The story of a madman who murders someone and hides the body under the floorboards. As the police are questioning him all he can hear is the beating of the victim’s heart.
It gets louder and louder and louder until finally he admits to the crime so that he’ll find some kind of peace and release from the guilt.
As believers in Jesus, we are fully pardoned and justified before God the Father because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. We are forgiven. We no longer stand before God a condemned people.
However, continual confession of sin in our life as the Spirit brings it to light causes us to experience a healthy ongoing relationship with our God.
Unconfessed sin hinders that relationship. It causes nothing but misery and unhappiness in our life.
And this is going to be the ongoing battle in our life; the constant pull to find ultimate joy in the things of this world rather than in the God who made it. Sin is the ultimate killer of joy because sin breaks the relationship between us and our God.
Which means the grace and forgiveness we receive through Christ is a most beautiful friend.
Randy Alcorn states that “Confession reunites us with the one from whom happiness flows.”
This is what makes the gospel so beautiful and appealing.
We know we’re broken individuals living in a broken world. We’re going to be daily faced with the temptation to stray, to wander away from “the one from whom happiness flows.” We’re not always going to “set the LORD before us.”
What makes the gospel so beautiful is that in those moments we don’t need to run from God we run to him pleading the blood of Christ knowing full well that we’re forgiven.
One author says it like this. “It’s not the sinless God but sinful people who sometimes refuse to forgive. Nothing we’ve done or ever will do can surprise God or cause him to change his mind about us. No skeletons will fall out of our closets in eternity. He has seen us at our worst, and he still loves us. Arms wide open, he invites our confession and repentance, which he always meets with his grace and forgiveness.”
Conviction and guilt over sin should drive us to the cross where we always find acceptance and mercy.
Confession frees us. Forgiveness heals us, and Jesus restores us.
Charles Spurgeon said, “While we are young, perhaps we are foolish enough to look elsewhere for happiness, but when we grow old and cares and sorrows increase, happy, indeed, are we if we have the happiness that comes from pardoned sin!”
So, where does a joy-filled life begin? On our knees in confession, pleading the blood of Christ, knowing with confidence that we are loved and accepted by God because of Christ.
This is why the Psalmist can say, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”