Where do you turn for happiness? What makes you happy? Is God your happiness? Not asking if God is the SOURCE of your happiness but is God your happiness? Listen for the difference.

Psalm 43 (The Names of God #4)

 

Sermon Transcript:

God, My Exceeding Joy! (11/22/15 The Names of God #4)

ATTN: To many, Christianity is just a system of rules – do’s and don’ts. When they say, “I’ve not been a good Christian, what they usually mean is they have not kept up with the rules – like going to church, not smoking, etc. synonymous with a good moral life. Think about it. When I say, “He’s a good Christian” what image comes to your mind? A moral person. Who keeps the rules. Who doesn’t smoke, drink or cuss. He parts his hair, goes to church every Sunday and kneels to pray every night before going to sleep. And the more strict he is on those things, the better Christian he is according to that image.

But how does the bible characterize a mature Christian? “Joy, peace, patience, kindness!” According to Galatians 5:22. This person loves life, find little things, everyday things such as a beautiful sunset, a child’s smile, delightful, like a child. This person has discovered that joy is not in doing things bigger and better than before, but doing things we’ve done before but having a new appreciation for it. Have you learned that secret? ILLUSTRATION: Two brick-layers. They are asked the same question of “what are you doing?” One said grumbling, “I’m laying bricks. Can’t you see?” But the other said beaming, “I’m building a beautiful cathedral for God!” Same task. Different perspectiveS. One grumbling. One joyful. Two moms both cleaning after their toddlers. “What are you doing?” One mom: “I’m picking up food crumbs after them. I hate this!” The other mom: “I’m raising princesses of God who will rule the earth one day! I love this!” Have you realized joy does not depend on our circumstances? At least, not Christian joy? Christians primarily don’t try to find joy in better circumstances. No. We have learned the secret of joy that allows us to be joyful in all and any circumstance. Philippians 4:12 know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

What is the secret? The psalmist tells us: “God, my exceeding joy!” The secret is God! Having Him as our joy. Letting Him be the source of our happiness. He is the treasure of our lives and therefore, even if we lost everything, if we have gained God, we have everything. Let’s see how the psalmist’s thoughts progress in this psalm.

I. The problem – divided soul

The psalmist states his problem in verses 1 and 2. V.1, “vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” So, what is his problem? His problem is ungodly people around him are harassing him and making him miserable. Perhaps he’s being cheated or the justice that he deserves, he’s not getting. Maybe his reputation was being tainted by these ungodly who are spreading rumors about him. We don’t know exactly, but he feels he’s being treated unfairly. But that’s not his biggest problem. His biggest problem is with God. In verse 2, “[2] For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” He feels rejected by God because God hasn’t listened to his prayer. Even though he takes refuge in God, even though he prays to him for deliverance and asks him to let his enemies leave him alone, God hasn’t answered his prayer yet and the problem continues. So, what started out as a problem with his enemies has now turned into a problem with God because the psalmist knows that God has the power to solve his problem, but He has not. So, he feels rejected by God.

In this, His soul is divided. In his head he knows that God is for him and he will never leave him, but he FEELS like God has rejected him. Why? Because these evil people are still around him, oppressing him and they don’t seem to be going away!

APP: Ever had that problem in your own life? You hear the promises being preached: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. He who did not spare his own son own son, how much more will he not give you all things? You know this in your head, but you don’t feel it because of your current circumstances. “If God loves me, then why am I still single when all my friends seemed to be married and happy?” “If God cares for me, then why did I lose that job?” “If God loves me then why do I have this debilitating disease on my body?” “If God loves me, then why can I get my locker open in front of that cute girl making me look like an idiot!”

That is what this psalmist is going through. He knows God to be good and just, but when he looks at his circumstances, he’s not feeling it. So, what is he to do? But first, what he does not do….

II. Human attempt at solution

Well, if he were living in the 21^st century America, he would be tempted to listen to the spirit of the age that says, “Listen to your heart!” What are we told to do when we have to make a tough decision in this day and age? “What does your heart tell you? You should be true to your heart. Listen to your heart!” Because that is the remedy for our misery, isn’t it? “Are you in a bad marriage and considering whether you should get a divorce? What does your heart tell you?” “Well, my heart tells me that I deserve better. I deserve a happy life and if she’s not going to provide it for me, then I might as well divorce her and find someone that will! That’s what my heart is telling me.” And the spirit of the age will say, “Then, do that. Whatever makes you happy. You should follow your heart! And if your church will disapprove of you, then forget them! They don’t care about your happiness! Only you can make yourself happy.”

Never mind that the bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick,” (Jer. 17:9) thus it is not to be listened to or trusted. But we trust our heart and try to bring joy or happiness into our lives by manipulating our circumstances. Or another way we try to restore our joy is to “believe in ourselves.” How many times have we heard that in movies and TV shows we should believe in ourselves and be the solution to our own problems? “Believe in yourself!” “You can do whatever you put your mind to.” That’s a good pep-talk. But Jesus says, “Trust in God, trust also in me.” And “Apart from me, you can do nothing!”

So the world and the Bible present a very different view of how to obtain happiness, don’t they? The world says happiness is in having everything our way. The problem, of course, is we can’t have everything our way. We are like a child who wants to eat the cake and have it too. How many young people I have talked like the idea of raising family and having kids, but they don’t like the idea of getting married and settling down. Because they don’t want to lose their freedom. So, they are paralyzed. In their perfect world, they will be in a committed relationship to provide them security, but they also want to be free to explore other options. In their perfect world, they want to have children and provide them with nurture and stability, but at the same time they want to be with their friends and party like they used to when they were in college! Well, guess what? That perfect world doesn’t exist! Not even in heaven because that world is a contradiction in terms. And it’s a contradiction because it’s a lie. The spirit of the age, Satan, has lied to us – you can eat the cake and have it too!

What seems to be joy giving, is actually joy robbing! When I look around me, I see broken people everywhere. Spiritually speaking, I see bodies strewn about like a bomb exploded in the middle. Breathing, eating and drinking, but not really living like God intended – in joy and love and hope!

 

III. The Right solution – God is our joy!

Instead of following his heart and believing himself to make himself happy, what does the psalmist do?

v. 3 [3] Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Whatever that means, it is NOT: “I’ll follow my own heart and take care of it myself. I’m going to tell my enemies off and do to them as they have done to me. I’m going ruin their lives as they tried to ruin mine!” No. He says, “send out your light and your truth; let them lead me;” In other words, I’m not going to lead myself. I’m not going to act out my heart. Rather I’m going to seek for God’s light and God’s truth. “I want to be guided by YOU, God, rather than myself.” Why?

Because, “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy,” Because God is my joy. God is my happiness. He is the only one who can bring me to the very source of joy, which is Himself! A Christian is somebody who believes and acts on: 1) God knows more than me, 2) His way is better than my way. 3) Doing it His way ultimately will make me happier in the end.

What makes that decision hard though is that it’s not immediately apparent – that, doing it God’s way, we feel as though we won’t be happier in the end. That’s when we experience the “crisis of belief” – Do we trust god or do we trust ourselves? What do we do? What assurance do we have that following God’s way will work out better for us? What we need is to see God Himself as He is.

v. 3 again, the psalmist says, “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!” Light and truth is what he needs. Why? Because even though he knows that God loves him and has his best interest, he can’t really feel that love. He knows that the problem isn’t really God. The problem is with him! He can’t see God. He can’t feel Him. So, he’s asking God to let him see and let him feel! “Lead me with light and truth!” Why? Because I can’t see it and I can’t feel it. And when God answers, where will He lead him to? V. 4, “then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy.” God will lead him to Himself, who is joy Himself!” So, when God gives us joy, true joy, it’s not always by removing our obstacles. It’s not by removing our problems. Rather, it is by allowing us to see God and feel God more clearly. The psalmist does not say here that he is now joyful because God has removed his enemies. No. His enemies are still there, but when He is able to see God clearly, his problem is no longer a problem.

APP: “But I don’t understand pastor. What is it about God that brings joy? Can you be more specific? What is this you are talking about? Is it when you find money in the bank that you didn’t know you had???”

EX) There are times when I worry about the future of our church. Will it just disappear all of sudden, will I have a job, what about all the members we take care of? What if this school shut us out? What if what if… you have similar worries about your job. When your boss is not happy with you, you immediately think “what if I get fired or I get laid off…” But at those moments I preach to myself, “God is the one who told me to start this church and it is his church and so he cares about it more than I do. So, I will simply trust him that he will take care of it. I don’t have to manipulate or control to keep it going. Besides, my identity is not in being a pastor or a church planter, but being a child of God and that’s never going to change!” And usually mediating on the word of God deeply along with it, my heart is filled with the goodness of God who will take care of me and my family and our church. My task is to simply trust Him. When I do that, there floods in that sense of release, peace, and joy knowing that God is in charge.

Question: Is it then wrong to have joy in things or people other than God? Do we only have to have joy in God and not in others? Here’s my answer: Our joy is in God often experienced through people and things. But the source of joy is God.

C.S.Lewis helps here. And this is golden. “ I have tried . . . to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don’t mean simply by giving thanks for it. One must of course give thanks, but I meant something different . . . Gratitude exclaims, very properly, “How good of God to give me this.” Adoration says, “What must the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations (flash of light) are like this!” One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun . . .”

What he’s saying is when there is legitimate pleasure, like good music, we do not stop at “Wow, that’s beautiful!” but we go further and think, “What great God we have to create the mind of the composer who composed this beautiful music. How beautiful God must be!” Another example: When I hear my girls say at night, “I love you. Good night!” and my heart aches with love, I think to myself, “How God must’ve loved His Son like this and yet He gave Him up for me? How much must He love me?” Sunbeam to the sun. When I feel the rays of the sun, I trace back to the sun. When I feel love and joy, I trace back to the source of joy. God.

Would you, this Thanksgiving week, take time to number and name the things that you are thankful for and trace back from those things to God who is the source of all good things we hold dear? He truly is God our exceeding joy!