H2O Church
My early experience of Christianity was that of extreme joy. But that soon evaporated due to my view of God as wanting my duty. My great discovery could be summarized in a question--Is God a well or a fountain? In this talk, we'll examine the God of joy.
Zephaniah 3:17 ESV
“It is a glorious thing for God to be as happy as He is. God’s glory consists much in the fact that He is happy beyond our wildest imagination.” John Piper
Meditations on Joy #1—The Pursuit of Happiness is Universal.
“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.” Blaise Pascal
Meditations on Joy #2—God appeals to our Happiness, not to our Duty.
Matthew 16:24-25 ESV
If the hardest command appeals to our own happiness, is it possible that all the commands appeal to our own happiness?
Deuteronomy 5:29 ESV
Duty kills Joy.
John Carnell wrote, “Suppose a husband asks his wife if he must kiss her good night. Here answer is, “You must but not that kind of a must.”
Psalm 37:4 ESV
Meditations on Joy #3—God is, indeed, infinitely happy.
Job 38:7 ESV
Hebrews 1:8-9 ESV
John 15:11 ESV
Meditations on Joy #4—the Source of God’s Joy is His Power to Redeem Evil.
God’s zoom lens enables Him to hate what is happening in that moment, being both grieved and angered by evil. But when God looks at life through His wide angle lens, He has joy, not joy in the evil that is occurring, but joy in how He will move into even the evil of our lives and redeem it.
Isaiah 46:9-10 NASB1995
Isaiah 53:10 NASB1995
Hebrews 12:2 ESV
1 Timothy 1:11 ESV
This becomes THE GOOD NEWS OF THE HAPPY GOD.
Meditations on Joy #5—Salvation is the conversion of our Joys.
“The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis
Matthew 13:44 ESV
Luke 15:3-7 ESV
Meditations on Joy #6—Healthy Discipleship is fueled by Joy.
What if God ISN'T this way? What if God were not a God of joy? What if God is moody, constantly frustrated, petty, demanding praise, constantly bothered by how much we screw up. What gigantic impact that has on how we view worship, scripture, and prayer.
“Joy…is the gigantic secret of the Christian.” G.K. Chesterton
Psalm 16:11 ESV
Jeremiah 15:16 ESV
Psalm 43:4 ESV
Jeremiah 32:40-41 ESV