What is the Source of Our Joy?
Psalm 128:
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Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.
Would you consider your life to be happy? What does the bible say about happiness? Someone told me this week that he was not interested in Christianity because the only thing that becoming a Christian does for you is make you feel guilty. Is that true? Jesus said that He came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly. More abundantly than what? More than anything this world can give us. Our problem is that we are trying to live our new life with the same rules as the old life. The old lifestyle doesn’t work. There are pleasures in a lifestyle of sin, but they come at a cost. We pursue worldly pleasures even though the pleasure is always short lived and ungratifying. If we look at the world, they don’t have the answers. I know from experience that the answer does not lie in the world. The answer lies in the Christian life. So why do so many Christians seem so defeated? It is the exact same reason those who are lost without Christ are so defeated. Can we join the Kingdom of God and live by the standards of the world and expect it to work? Of course not. We are trying to live under two masters. The bible tells us in Luke 16:13 that we cannot serve two masters. We will love one and hate the other.
A defeated Christian is usually defeated at the start of their new life. They are willing to transfer their citizenship to heaven, but they are not willing to leave their old homeland. So they become a foreigner to the world and a deserter of the Kingdom of God. A half-n-half Christian will never be happy. You cannot be a part of a Kingdom without submitting to the King.
We must first realize that we are no longer a part of the world system. We are born into God’s Kingdom. The world will pass away and everything that is a part of the world will pass away. Why do we commit ourselves to possessions and pleasures that will one day perish? I am not saying that God condemns us for owning things and enjoying life. I am saying just the opposite. We condemn ourselves when we are owned by things and dominated by this life. God has called us above this life. We can only live the abundant life if we do it God’s way. We ignore God’s blessings in order to fight Him for what we can’t even enjoy. We need to have that shift of focus. We will never enjoy things and have fulfillment until we get outside of ourselves. Proverbs 27:20 tells us that the eyes of man are never satisfied. What I hope to do in this sermon is to assist in helping you change your focus so as to not look through the eyes of man – your earthly eyes, but to look through your spiritual eyes. The greatest riches are not material possessions. Materials will never bring you joy. Worldly pleasures will never bring you joy. You will only have fulfillment when you use these things in the design of God’s plan for your life.
Lets start by looking at the passage I opened with. Psalm 128:1, "Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways." If we fear Him and walk in His ways, we will be blessed. Walking in His ways is a lifestyle of trust and commitment to obey and follow God. A lifestyle change rarely happens instantaneous, but usually takes commitment. One major problem is that many of us want to be a ‘Precious Moments Christian’. We have little trouble looking at the promises of God and looking for warm fuzzies that make us feel good. We have got to realize that these promises only come through obedience. Your happiness is not God’s main concern. God is more concerned with your lifestyle of obedience than He is with your happiness. On the surface that sounds harsh but if you look at the whole picture you will find it is an important principle to know. God is not going to make you happy at all cost. Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Obedience must come first. If you are going to do it your own way, you will not walk in the blessings of God.
Look at Matthew 7:13-14:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." The most important thing in your life is to find the narrow path. That is obedience. It is narrow because you have to walk where God leads you. The worldly wide path is easy to find because you can walk anywhere except where God is leading and you will find it. We must live in obedience if we are to live in God’s presence. God is unchanging. God will always be on the narrow path and if we are to walk with God, we must do so in obedience. This next verse is what we as Christians often miss out on. Psalm 16:11, "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." If you can apply this verse to your life, you will not be counted among the defeated. God shows you the path of life. It is a narrow and difficult path, but on that path is fullness of joy and pleasures. Not just joy, fullness of joy. Not just pleasures, but lasting pleasures. Joy in the world is very short lived if it can even be classified as joy. Only in God’s presence is the full joy found. In Isaiah 55 we are told that our ways are not God’s ways and our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. We think based on our worldly eyes but when we walk by faith we find God’s blessings. By faith we obey even when we don’t see any benefit. By faith we obey even when it doesn’t feel good. We may sacrifice what feels good now in order to obey now, but in God’s presence we soon find full joy that we would have never experienced if we had gone with our feelings and our earthly eyes. God always tests us for obedience before we experience His greatest blessings. If we disobey, we will never discover the fullness of God.
Lets break down Psalm 128:1 verse a little and start with the first command: blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. What does it mean to fear God and to fear the Lord? I look back on my childhood and I remember a time my father told me to cut the grass. He worked a 24 hour shift and would not be home until the next morning. I knew I could do this job at my leisure. I went out to play and soon forgot all about the grass until I was getting ready for bed at 9:30 that night. Suddenly it dawned on me that I had not yet done what I was told. My dad would get home at 7am the next morning, much too early to cut since it would still be dark until 6:30. I knew that making excuses wouldn’t work. My only option was to start cutting in the dark. It took me twice as long because I re-cut any area that I was not sure I cut.
I knew my father would not disown me, but I took his commands seriously and I knew that I would be held accountable if I did not obey. Even though it was late and much more difficult to cut grass in the dark, I knew that it was a much better option than to disappoint my father’s instructions. If I did not obey, I would miss out on privileges, my allowance or if I consistently disobeyed I would get punished. I believe that is a reflection of the fear of the Lord. We need to take God’s commands serious. If we don’t, we will miss out on the promises and blessings that we gain by walking in His presence. In Proverbs we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom and this fear of God instructs us and teaches us to obey. Because of the fear of the Lord we gain God’s blessing. I believe fearing God is to take God seriously. We tend to view God as someone who gives suggestions for living, but we don’t really look at the Lord as our God. We don’t stand in awe of Him and commit ourselves to obey at all costs, and to quickly have true repentance when we realize we have not obeyed. When we realize that God is really God and we are accountable to Him, we will begin to fear Him. Each person, believer and non-believer alike will be held accountable one day. If we obey and fear God, we will not fear accountability but we will taste of His goodness and fullness of joy.
Look at Psalm 25:12-15
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Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.If we fear God, He will teach us to walk that narrow path, we will gain the blessings that God longs for us to have. God will show us the secret the world cannot understand - the life that is not subject to the world. Psalm 23 says that God prepares for us a table in the presence of our enemies even in the turmoil that would shake the world of anyone who does not know Christ. I love verse 15, "My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net."
The Cross is the source of our power. Each time we fail, we are tempted, we are struggling, or feel inadequate, the cross is our power. Anyone who has heard me preach has probably heard this dozens of times. I will always teach this because it is the foundation of our faith. If the foundation is weak, nothing else matters. Sin is a net spread to trap every person. We have all felt the entrapment of the net of sin. I love verse 15 because it says I look toward the Lord and He shall pluck my feet from the net. We do not have the power to release ourselves from the entrapment of sin. We can’t be good enough; we can’t be strong enough. Put your eyes on the Cross. That is where our victory has been won. Jesus lived the perfect life that we all have fallen short of. He became that sacrifice that paid our penalty. Sin can’t abide in God’s presence and that leaves us hopeless of earning God’s favor. Jesus became sin for us and was separated from God in our place. It was Jesus who cried, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" when he accepted the weight of your sin and felt that separation in your place. It is Jesus Christ who looks to you and holds out his offering of grace. But it is by faith that we trust in the completed work of Christ on the Cross. It’s by faith that we open our hearts, make Jesus Lord of our life, give our sins to Jesus and receive his righteousness into our lives. This faith makes us as righteous before God as Christ, not because our efforts, but because of the work Jesus completed on the cross for us. My eyes are ever toward the cross and the Lord Jesus Christ plucks my feet out of the net. This gives me the power to walk that narrow path. Because of Jesus, I have a right to be in the presence of the God who loves and longs for me. Because I fear God, I refuse to take my eyes off the goal of reaching toward the Cross. When we look away, we are drawn by lesser pleasures. When I keep my eyes on the Cross, I live my life in victory and in gratitude to God. I obey out of love and I don’t want to leave God’s presence. Only in His presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.