What would make you happy?

Do you ever think, “If I only had ______, I would be happy?”

• “If I only had another $10,000 annually . . .
• “If I only had a nicer, more reliable car . . .
• “If I only had an Iphone . . .
• “If I only had a better job, a better boss . . .
• “If I only had a wife, a husband . . .
• “If we only had children . . .

Many people think that more money, more material assets, or a better family situation would make them happy.

Most of us know that Scripture tells us that is not the case, that we are to find our greatest joy in God. Indeed, our mission statements as a church states that truth: We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the JOY of all peoples.”

But how does Scripture argue that having a passion for God is truly the way to happiness? And is that consistent with what we see around us?

In this series, we are considering: Where Do You Find Identity, Security, and Joy? A Scriptural Understanding of Money, Giving, and Material Possessions. We’ve seen that we can’t find our identity in money, possessions, our jobs, or even our families. We are to find out identity in what God does through His Son: We are adopted into His family, we are His beloved children, we are heirs, joint-heirs with Christ.

We’ve also seen that it’s foolish to trust in money or possessions for security, for we may lose them all in this life, and will definitely lose them all at death. And it demeans God for us to rely on His gifts for security, rather than to trust Him. But when we trust God, we must understand what He promises. He doesn’t promise us any easy life. He doesn’t even promise that we won’t suffer hardship, illness, persecution, or early death. Yet He does promise that He will use every hardship for our good and His glory. Nothing will separate us from His love. He will bring us to Himself, and will wipe every tear from our eyes

As we turn to joy, consider the attitude of children toward their parents. Some children are loyal to their parents, and are thankful to be part of a family – but they don’t love their parents. They don’t take joy in their parents.

Or consider the attitude many of us have toward the US military. We are protected by the military, and are grateful to those who serve well. But that’s different from loving the military, from taking joy in the military.

In the same, it’s possible to be thankful to God for salvation, to be grateful for the security He promises, yet not to see Him as treasure, not to love Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, not to delight in Him above the joy we take in His gifts.

And to do that is not a minor sin. It is demeaning to God. It is idolatry.

So let us consider Scripture’s commands in this regard, and Scripture’s arguments so that we might truly rejoice in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ.

 

1) Scripture Commands Us to Rejoice in the Lord

a) We are to rejoice because He gives us identity and security

Note that Scripture does tell us to rejoice in the Lord because of the identity and security He gives us. For example, the psalmist says “The Lord is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14).  He sings a song of delight, in part, because of the security God provides.

b) We are to rejoice primarily because of Who He is

Turn to Psalm 100. Recall that when our English Bibles print the word “Lord” in all caps, the Hebrew word is not a title but the name of God, likely pronounced “Yahweh.” Substituting “Yahweh” for Lord helps us to get the point of this psalm, especially the phrase, “Yahweh is God.”

The psalm begins with three commands, each telling us to rejoice:

Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth!
Serve [worship] Yahweh with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Why are we to rejoice?

Know that the Yahweh, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Note that the psalmist rejoices in part in the identity and security God gives him. But more than that, He rejoices that God created us for a purpose; He created us for Himself. He created us for His praise. He is the only God, and He is truly God. So He alone is worthy of such praise.

Verse 4 then reiterates the command to delight in Him:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Verse 5 then explains the primary source of this delight: God has revealed His character to us, and He is the proper object of our delight.

For Yahweh is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

He is good – he does not do evil, nor is He influenced by evil. He is loving – and that love will never end.

He is faithful, fulfilling every promise – and that will continue through all human history.

So you must delight in God. He made you – for Himself! He gives you identity, He gives you security, and these should lead to joy. But most of all: Delight in God for who He is: Good, loving, faithful.

 

2) God Gives Us the Only Possible Joy in the Next Life

It’s illogical to expect money to provide us with lasting joy, because you are eternal and money is not. You need a source of joy after the end of this life, and money won’t provide that.

Jesus speaks of this eternal joy as treasure in heaven:

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³ Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Luke 12:32)

IF you hold on to your possessions in this life, you will lose all. There are thieves. There are moths. The most effective thief of all is death. Your possessions will not provide one bit of joy after death.

But treasures in heaven will never be taken away. For no thieves, no moths, can take from you the joy of being in God’s presence. And that’s the greatest of all the treasures in heaven: Not the streets paved with gold, not the gates made from a single pearl, but seeing Jesus face to face, being in the presence of God the Father always.

Both the Old and New Testaments highlight the joy that is ours eternally as we see God face to face:

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)

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. ⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. ⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. ⁹ It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD/Yahweh; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9)

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10)

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” . . .  6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:3-4, 6-8)

In Revelation, note the similarity with the images from Isaiah 35: God wipes away our tears; He removes death. But the Revelation passage goes further. Here there are only two categories of people: Some are children of God, loved, comforted, having joy for all eternity. The others – those lacking faith – have their portion in the lake of fire. All are in one group or the other.

So we are to rejoice in Him:

• For the identity and security He gives us
• For His character that He reveals to us
• For the eternity of joy He offers to all through Jesus Christ – the only alternative to eternal suffering.

 

3) And He Gives Us Great Joy Now

But there is an additional reason to rejoice in God. He gives us great joy in the present. Consider four points:

a) Eternal joy gives us joy today

Imagine you receive letter saying a rich, unknown relative died and left you $5 million. You check it out and find that the letter is not from some scammer in Nigeria, but is indeed genuine. You have to pick up the check at the Bank of America building uptown. As you are walking down Tryon Street, you you’re your friend: “Hey, on my way to pick up check for $5 mil.” But someone bumps into you right when you hit send. You drop the phone. The screen shatters.

How do you react?

Do you say, “Oh, no, my Iphone is destroyed! And I’ve got 18 more months on my contract!”

No! You’re about to pick up a check for $5 million! You can buy hundreds of Iphones! Forget the broken screen; rejoice!

Just so, the eternal joy promised us puts sorrows and failures in this life into perspective. We rejoice today because of the promises yet to be fulfilled.

b) Money and possessions do not give us true joy

We already read Psalm 16:11; fullness of joy is in God’s presence, not elsewhere.

Psalm 4:7 directly compares the joy from God with the joy from material goods:

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

Note that the psalmist is not saying “I will have more joy eternally than they have now.” Rather, he says, “You have put more joy in my heart.” He is speaking of the present. He sees God’s enemies having plenty of food, plenty of drink. They look to be having a great party. But the psalmist says: “I have more joy because of You than the joy that comes from the greatest party. I have more joy because of You than that produced by Mercedes and mansions.

Furthermore:

c) Riches don’t satisfy even now

Even many of those who have an abundance of riches and know nothing about the joys of fellowship with God are not happy on their own terms. Ecclesiastes 5:10 states this well:

Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. (NIV)

When I was in graduate school, we were part of a church in Silicon Valley. There were rich people all around us. And many, many were profoundly unhappy. Our pastor, Ray Stedman, labeled this unhappiness “Destination Sickness:” The illness that occurs when you get everything you thought you wanted, everything you worked for, everything you thought would make you happy, and find that you are still dissatisfied.

You don’t have to go to California to witness this disease. Pick up a newspaper almost any day and read of successful, rich people whose lives are a mess, who are fundamentally unhappy.

Riches are often like a drug: They give us a high, but to maintain the high, we have to obtain more and more and more and more. If we love money: We will always want more, no matter how much we have. And we will always worry that we may lose what we have. So we remain dissatisfied.

So money cannot give us joy.

God gives us joy in the future and also in the present. Let’s turn to one way He gives us joy now:

c) We have joy as we fulfill the purpose of our creation

What is that purpose?

Isaiah 43:6-7 refer to God’s scattered sons and daughters, “Whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Thus, our purpose is to glorify Him.

Now, it’s not immediately clear that there is a link between glorifying Him and having joy. Indeed, we all know people who will sing, “O praise Him, O praise Him, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!” with no joy whatsoever.

But God’s command to glorify Him is not burdensome. Fulfilling the command does not diminish our joy – father it is a way to joy.

Consider Psalm 67:3-4. First, a translation note. The Hebrew verbs here are in a form similar to imperatives. Most English translations use the word “let” to communicate the imperative. But “let” is ambiguous, making the verse sound as if we are asking God to give the peoples permission to praise Him. I’ll read these verses using “must” instead, which communicates the imperative force of the verbs unambiguously:

The peoples must praise you, O God;
all the peoples must praise you!
The nations must be glad and sing for joy.

As Isaiah 43 shows us, all humanity is created for God’s glory. So all the peoples must praise Him. But the psalmist then draws a parallel between praising Him and being glad, between praising Him and singing for joy.

Consider it this way: Our Creator made us to this end. He made us to take joy in Him. With that in our makeup, whenever we look elsewhere, we will eventually be disappointed. We will eventually be dissatisfied. If we do finally submit to Him, however, we find great joy, as we discover, “This is what I was made to do!”

Imagine if Usain Bolt had tried to be a weightlifter. Imagine that he goes to the gym day after day, and keeps lifting weights, but finds that others far surpass him. But then one day on a lark he goes to the track, and runs. This man was made to run! Consider his joy in discovering, “This is what I was created to do!”

That’s the joy that is ours when we turn from what never satisfies, and fulfill the purpose of our creation: Living to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

d) There is more joy in Him even when we suffer

At this point, some of you might say, “Ok, Coty, I agree that money doesn’t satisfy. I agree that God promises us joy eternally. But you’ve also said that God doesn’t guarantee freedom from suffering. And life is hard! I’ve been sick; I’ve been disappointed. People have let me down. My loved ones are suffering; others have turned their backs of Jesus; others have died young after terrible pain. And you’re telling me: This is joy?”

That’s a logical question. A good question. A question that Scripture addresses directly:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:9-11)

What does this have to do with suffering?

Remember that Jesus makes this statement the night before his crucifixion. In the next 24 hours, Judas will betray Him, He will be beaten, whipped, and mocked; soldiers will drive nails through His flesh; they will hang Him up naked on a cross; He will die a horrible, painful death.

This is the man who says: The Father has loved me. I remain in His love. And I have great joy in Him.

We have to understand that if we are to understand His command to us. He tells us, “You are to remain in my love. Keep my commandments. Stick close to me, and you will  have my joy, fullness of joy, joy overflowing – regardless of your circumstances, just as I have joy, regardless of my suffering.

Paul makes a similar statement in Romans 5:2-5:

Through [the Lord Jesus Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Even in our suffering, we know that God is at work. He uses suffering to conform us to the character of Jesus. And He gives us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Encourager, to remind us of God’s love, and to demonstrate God’s love to us.

Finally, consider the story of the Habakkuk. The prophet writes this book about 20 years after a great revival under King Josiah. But he has seen the revival peter out, and the land filled with corruption, evil, and violence. He has prayed and prayed for God to intervene, but nothing has happened. And so he cries out again, asking for justice.

God answers: “I’m going to do something you wouldn’t believe even if I told you.” At this point, Habakkuk may well have thought, “Wow! A revival even greater than I can imagine is coming!” But then God says, “You know those Babylonians – those vicious warriors? I’m going to bring them here and they will destroy your nation.”

Habakkuk is floored. He rightly asks, “How is this consistent with your revealed character, O God? Your eyes are too pure even to look at evil. So how can you use evil men doing evil deeds to accomplish your purposes? And when they conquer us, they won’t praise you – they’ll just be like fishermen praising their nets! I’m your prophet, and I have to explain this to your people – so I’m going to wait here until you help me understand.”

God does answer, saying, “My righteous one will live by faith.” He then pronounces five woes on the Babylonians – and, implicitly, on anyone who does not live by faith in Him. They will be destroyed. But in the middle of the five woes, God says:

The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

God has a purpose. He has an eternal plan of redemption. He is working it out. And there is real pain and suffering that takes part as that plan is fulfilled. But all history is moving towards this goal. God will be glorified in all His creation. Humanity will fulfill its purpose.

Habakkuk responds to this revelation with a psalm, contained in chapter 3. He concludes with these words:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

Note that Habakkuk is imagining a time when the permanent crops fail (fruit trees, grape vines, olive trees), the annual crops fail (“fields yield no food”), and the livestock all die. In an economy that was primarily agricultural, this means zero economic activity, zero income. Even in such an extreme circumstance, the prophet says: I will rejoice in the Lord! He gives me strength to go even where I don’t want to go. I will take joy in Him.

My friends, you and I were created to glorify God through delighting in Him. Yet we have all turned elsewhere to find joy.

• We have turned from what is eternally satisfying to what will never satisfy
• We have turned from fullness of joy to light, momentary joys
• We have turned from the sweet fountain of life to sips of diet soda

Our God cries out to us

• “Come to me!
• “I will give you rest!
• “I will give you fulfillment
• “I will give you accomplishment!
• “I will give you an eternal inheritance!
• “I will give you Myself!
• “Only in My presence is fullness of joy. Only in My presence are pleasures forevermore.

So turn to Him and be saved!

• You won’t be protected from suffering in this life
• You won’t be guaranteed a $5 million dollar check

But you will have what is more valuable – what no money can buy: God Himself. His arms around you. His empowerment to play your role in His plan.

This is the path to genuine joy.

So: Where is your joy?