For Your Joy! (10/12/19 Topical)

ATTN: Some of you know that I ran a marathon last week. By God’s grace, I did finish. I didn’t quite hit my goal but I came close. Now, I didn’t just get up and ran a marathon. I have been training more seriously for  about 6 months, running 3 or 4 times a week slowly building up the mileage until I could run 18, 20 miles comfortably. Now, one of the reasons why I decided to train and run the marathon is because I’ve heard that it teaches a lot about life and discipline. And it did. Let me just mention one lesson I learned. There is a difference between doing something because you enjoy it and doing something through will-power simply because it needs to be done. I never enjoyed running. So, when I crossed the finish line, the first thought that came to my mind is, “Thank goodness this is done. I’m never doing this again!” Now, contrast this with someone who enjoys running – Dara. I spoke with her before I ran the marathon to get some tips because she’s a person who ran 55 marathons in her short 35 years of life! She enjoys running. I don’t. So, there will be a difference in how much she runs and how much I run. 

Now, when it comes to marathons or any other physical activity, it really doesn’t matter ultimately if we enjoy what we do or we just have to grit our teeth and do it. For example, It’s great if you enjoy your job, but if you don’t happen to enjoy it, well, you still need to put food on the table. So, just do it whether you like it or not. But when it comes to spirituality, joy is not optional. We are commanded to rejoice in God. 

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Philippians 4:4 

In other words, our joy in God should not be an icing on the cake of our walk with God. It’s good if we enjoy walking with God, but if we don’t enjoy walking with God, then it’s okay. We just suck it up and do it anyway. That will not work because that will be an insult to God. 

During one of my long runs, I thought about this: What would please God most? After all, that is why we were created – to glorify God. Then, an answer came to me, “What pleases me, a father, most when it comes to my children?” It is obvious. It’s when they are happy, being satisfied with what I provide for them. As a father, I’m not pleased at all when they are complaining or taking things for granted. But when they make these cute cards or origami genuinely thanking me for taking them on vacations, and happy in it, that’s when I am most pleased. In other words, as a father, I am the happiest when my children are happy to be with me and around me. That’s really it as to what will please God most. It’s not my dogged obedience. It’s not even my sacrifice. (the pharisees did that and God wasn’t pleased!) But it’s being happy and pleased in Him. So, I asked myself the question: Do i delight in God or do i merely serve him? Do i find pleasure in God or am I simply exercising my will-power? And I had to admit, lately, I’ve not been very happy in God. Not because God is not pleasurable, but because I have not been seeking after Him. I’ve been so busy serving Him that I forgot to enjoy Him, which is what I’m created for! I am created to glorify God and that by enjoying Him! That is the most important thing! God is most pleased with me when I am most pleased with Him, if you will. 

That is why Paul is exhorting us to rejoice in God because he knows that’s what will glorify God most. And Jesus knew this better than anyone else as we can see that he said “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb 12:2) Jesus was going to his execution with joy in his heart! How? Because he was a masochist who enjoyed pain? No! Because He knew in just a few moments, He will see His Father face to face. Death for Him was a door that opened up to His Father’s throne. He looked forward to it! 

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.Psalm 16:11

As pastors, our goal is to help you attain that joy. No, not by praying for you to have a better job, better health, better future, etc but even if you lost your job, your health, your house, that you would still be joyful because you have Christ! That is the goal that I have for you. My goal is for you and me to be able to confess these words and truly mean it:

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7–8)

If you have ever been in love, you know this feeling. As long as you had her love, nothing else mattered. We have Christ as our possessor. We have a trillion dollar waiting for us in our trust. If we are bickering and complaining because we have been passed for a promotion, or our hours been cut, or our children are being difficult, it’s because we have forgotten what we have! The greatest treasure who is the source of all good things, and the power to fix all evil is already ours! 

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[d]be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So, immediately after telling us to rejoice in God by reminding us of what we have, Paul tells  us not to be anxious about anything. But how? By offering up our burden to our Treasure who is in charge of our lives, who works all things for our good. He is our greatest treasure! Do you believe this? 

Do you believe God works all things for your good as Romans 8:28 says? Then, do you believe that even your failure is working toward your good? Your singleness is working toward your good? Your children’s rebellion is working toward your good? Your unbelieving husband is working toward your good? If you believe that, then you should rejoice! You are exactly where God wants you! Not “when God gets me to this place,” or “When god gives me this one thing I want” I will be where God wants me, but now! If you haven’t gotten there, it’s because God deemed it better that you don’t get there yet. Do you believe this? If you do, then, rejoice! 

APP: Sometimes the only way to gain the treasure is lose all other imitations. 

I am becoming more and more convinced that the more stuff we have, the less we will enjoy christ. “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matt 19:24) The more lights we have around us, the less clearly we can see the beauty of the night sky. The more sweets we have before dinner, the less we can enjoy the steak dinner. The more entertainment and niceties of life we gather around us, the less we tend to enjoy God. 

And yet, we pray for success, health, and prosperity, don’t we? What if instead, we prayed for more of christ knowing that that might mean that he takes away our comfort and health to make us see Christ more clearly? 

ILL: When an American pastor asked members of the North Korean underground church how Americans could pray for them, they answered, ‘You pray for us? We pray for you!’ When he asked why, they responded, ‘Because Western Christians often put so much faith in their prosperity and political freedoms that they don’t know what it’s like to have to depend completely on God. And because of that, they often do not get to know him in all the ways he invites us to.'”

I don’t think it was coincidence that Paul wrote more about joy in this epistle of philippians which was written while he was in prison. He was bound. He was limited. The less things he had, the more of Christ he could have and greater the joy. 

APP: Simplify your life. Declutter physically, mentally, and spiritually.  

1. Mental: Go on a regular fast from media – e.g. No going online on Tuesday. 
2. Physical: Work out regularly. Sleep 7-8 hours a day. 16:8 fast. (fast for 16 hours and eat for 8 hours – e.g. 12 pm to 8 pm) Instead of eating breakfast, spend that time in the Lord.
3. Spiritual – First thing you grab in the morning should be the bible – refuse to check your phone until you’ve read the bible for 20 mins.  
4. Communal – Prioritize your church community. Rather than meeting only after everything else, put that first in your schedule and put other things around it. Honor God that way and see what God does. 

All this denying so that you can have more of Christ, the source of all joy!