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Psalm 51:7-13
Pure, lasting joy is found in…
This is Psalm 51, We have some insight into David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51. And there’s three times the word joy and rejoice is used here.
And we’re going to camp on that in just a little bit. But let me read you part of David’s prayer. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.
Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. And then David prays, create in me a clean, pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. It’s been a difficult week in our country for aviation.
The MedeVac plane that went down in Philadelphia a couple days ago. The horrific accident in Washington, D.C. where 67 people went out into eternity. All of these individuals have stories behind them.
One of the ones on the plane that crashed into the Potomac River was a student from my alma mater, Cedarville University. Grace Maxwell was a junior mechanical engineering student. She’d attended her grandfather’s funeral in Wichita, Kansas.
Was on her way back to finish her junior year of college when that accident happened. There are 66 other stories like that. So, I thought it’d be appropriate if we could just have like a moment of silence for a minute and remember these families in prayer, and then I’ll lead us in prayer.
You may be seated. Well, 17 years ago, the state of Michigan came up with an ad campaign.
You’ve seen it on license plates. You’ve seen it on billboards. You’ve seen it on social media and TV ads.
Simply two words, and it’s still a campaign that they’re using today. The two words are Pure Michigan. That ad campaign has drawn tens of thousands of people to the great state of Michigan and our 3,288 miles of coastline, more than any other state except Alaska.
When you put those 3,288 miles of coastline together, that stretches from Maine all the way to Florida, and certainly Michigan has some great, great vacation spots, and I especially like the western side of the state in the summertime, and just the coastline is so, so beautiful. But this morning, we’re going to talk about a series and introduce it, and then we’re going to get into the book of Philippians. And rather than Pure Michigan, we’re going to call the series Pure Joy.
Is there a lasting joy that we can experience in our lives, even in the world in which we live? And the answer to that question is yes. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. The kingdom of God is not defined by our cookies and coffee and fellowship time afterwards.
But the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. John 10:10, the words of Jesus, Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come, Jesus has come, that you might have life, and you might have it to the full, or overflowing life, or some translations say the abundant life.
So, Jesus has said, I’ve come, you might have a joy-filled abundant life. And I believe that when we look at this and examine this, that Christians, people that know Jesus as their Savior, should be the most joy-filled people on earth. In fact, I’m going to suggest to you this morning that Christians are the only ones who can truly experience the pure joy as we’re going to define it in just a little bit.
So, we’re going to think about pure joy. Max Lucado, a pastor and author in his book, How Happiness Happens, and he uses happiness and joy interchangeably, although we know scripturally there’s a little bit of a distinction between the two. Here’s the subtitle of his book, Finding Lasting Joy in a World of Comparison, Disappointment, and Unmet Expectations.
How can we find joy in that world? Lucado asks the question, how long has it been since you felt a level of contagious, infectious, unflappable joy and happiness? For many, perhaps most of us, the answer is, well, it’s been a while. I used to be happy, but then life took its toll. Now, two weeks ago we looked at a message and we talked about how we’re living in the in-between, in between life in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 1- 2, and Revelation 21-22, which is going to be like the Garden of Eden 2.0. And in between, we live in a fallen world, a sinful world, a world that’s sometimes filled with tragedy.
How can you find joy there? We go back to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, in the Garden of Eden. And by the way, the word Eden in the Hebrew means delight, joy, or pleasure. It was the Garden of Joy.
It was the Garden of Delight. And it certainly was. The weather was perfect.
The location was perfect. There were four rivers that kind of came together. The relationship between Adam and Eve was perfect.
They didn’t have any arguments. The food was perfect, and they had a perfect relationship with God. They were experiencing what God intended, pure joy, until Genesis 3, and sin came into the world.
And along with sin came guilt and blame and anxiety and sadness and death. Well, Jesus has come to reverse all that. Jesus has come not only to rescue us and give us salvation, but to point us down the pathway of life of joy.
Now, there are many things in life that give us joy, and we could if we wanted to, we could open it up to suggestions here and say, what brings you joy in life? And there are many things. Let me read to you, first of all, Ecclesiastes 5:18 and 19. This is what Solomon writes.
This is what I observe to be good. It is appropriate for a person to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toilsome labor, for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives somebody wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil, this is a gift from God.
The Bible tells us that God wants us to enjoy things. He wants us to enjoy life. And sometimes we come up with this dichotomy between the material world and the spiritual world.
And 1st Timothy 6:17 says, put your hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our what? Enjoyment. So, God wants us to enjoy life. I don’t know, where you find joy? A good steak, maybe, brings some people joy.
I’ve got a good friend, pastor friend, he pastored a church in Michigan Center for a number of years. He’s retired now. His name is John, but he goes to Chicago every year, and he goes to the, I think it’s Giordano’s Pizza, and he just loves that deep-dish pizza.
And I’m a big pizza fan. Food can bring us joy. A new vehicle brings you joy.
There’s something about the smell of a new vehicle and a new car. As some of you know, last week we were going to head to Florida for a week, and that kind of had to change our plans. And so, we said, well, what can we do just to get away for a day? So, Thursday, Diane and I drove over to Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University.
They’re having the Lion King Broadway performance. There’s a one o’clock performance on Thursday afternoon. There was 3,300 people in that auditorium watching the Lion King, and that brought us great joy.
A beautiful sunrise, beautiful sunset, a Super Bowl win. Anybody know what that’s like? We don’t know what that’s like in Detroit, do we? Here’s one thing, and now I’m speaking, looking out at some of you, I’m speaking to a lot of first-time grandparents that are here, especially Jean and Rich. Congratulations on being grandpa and grandma this past week.
Yep, Andrew and Gabby. But grandkids bring you great joy. I can speak to that from experience.
Lord willing, someday you’ll all experience that. So, we’re going to play a little clip, I think, of our…this is shameless promotion, by the way. Here’s our grandson, Weston.
He’s three years old. And last Sunday afternoon, our middle son and daughter-in-law sent us this little clip. He learned a Bible verse at church last Sunday, and he was so excited, they wanted to share it with us.
And so, he learned some hand motions too. So, this is just 10 seconds long, but here’s Weston.
Ah, a friend loves you at all times, Proverbs 17. Look at that. Look, he is just so proud of himself that he said that Bible verse.
That brings us joy. I hope that brought you a little bit of joy. Like I said, shameless promotion, but pure joy.
There is a joy that is sustainable. And here’s our premise, the lasting pure joy is experience in a relationship with God, because that’s what God made us for. And so, Revelation 4:11 says, God’s created all things.
And then the King James Version translation says, and for your pleasure we were created. So, we were created to have a relationship with God that brings joy to God and joy to us. See, some of these other things that we mentioned bring joy, but it’s kind of a temporary joy.
The new car eventually breaks down and you got to pay repair bills, eventually begins to rust. And all these other things are temporary joys, but there’s a lasting joy in a relationship with God. Psalm 16:11, you have made known to me the path of life.
You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. And so, we were created to have this intimate relationship with Jesus and with God that brings joy to Him and brings joy to us. Now, for the Christian, the best is yet to come, that’s heaven, but God still wants us to experience joy here on planet earth.
So, I want to suggest to us in the next 20, 25 minutes, four keys to the pathway of joy. How can we find joy in this world in which we live in, this pure, lasting joy? They all begin with the letter S, and so we’ll work our way through them here in just a little bit. So, here’s the question.
Is joy a feeling, an emotion, or is joy a choice? As I thought of that, I’m going to say it’s both. There are some times where we just have great feelings of emotion of joy. There are other times in life where we just have to choose joy.
That’s not a feeling, it’s a trust in God and deep contentment that comes from knowing that maybe we don’t understand God’s plan, but we know that He’s in control. And so, as we go through these four S’s, I’m going to liken it to some college classes, and there’s 100-level classes, 200-level classes, 300-level, and then 400-level is a senior class. And so, I think for our walk with God, we’re going to journey through finding joy, and eventually we’re going to get to number four, which is probably a graduate-level class, because it’s very difficult to experience joy in our point number four.
1. Salvation
So, let’s jump into point number one. Where can we find pure, lasting joy? Pure, lasting joy is found in salvation, in the joy of forgiveness. Luke chapter 2, verses 10 and 11, we become so familiar with these verses around Christmas time, but here’s the angelic announcement to the shepherds in Luke chapter 2. The angel said to them, do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy for everyone.
What’s the great joy? Today in the town of Bethlehem, what? A Savior has been born, a Rescuer, a Deliverer, the Savior of the Messiah, Jesus. I don’t know how long you’ve been a follower of Jesus or experienced that day when you realize that you can’t make it to heaven on your own. And in order to get into heaven, you have to be perfect.
Because God’s holy. So, we need some help. We needed a Savior.
That’s why Jesus came, why He died on the cross. That’s why when you put your faith in Him, the great exchange happens, 2nd Corinthians 5:21, He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become what? The righteousness of God. Christ’s perfection gets credited to our account.
We stand before God, a holy God is justified, just as if we’ve never sinned because He sees us through the gift of Christ. We have the forgiveness of sin. Acts 16 is the story of the Philippian jailer, and we’ll probably get there when we go into the book of Philippians starting next Sunday.
But you know the story that Paul and Silas end up in prison for preaching the gospel. They’re beaten, they’re put in stocks, and at midnight they’re singing praises to God while their backs are probably still raw from being beaten. God sends an earthquake, the Philippian jailer comes to faith in Christ, and we read in that story that the jailer brings Paul and Silas into his house and set a meal before them.
He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household. That moment of salvation brought great joy because it’s the understanding that we are forgiven. So, 1st Peter, Peter writes in 1st Peter chapter 1 about this concept of joy and salvation.
For you are receiving, let me back up to verse 8, though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and even though you do not see Him, you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And so, there’s joy in realizing that Christ is our Savior and our salvation.
Sometimes the longer we’re away from an event, the less and less impact it has on us. And so, we sometimes just need to go back and revisit that wonderful moment when we received Christ as our Savior, and we received that gift of salvation and the joy that it brought in our lives.
2. Sanctification
Well, there’s a second pathway to joy, and after we come to know faith in Christ, it’s called the joy of sanctification. This is the joy of what the Bible describes as walking with God or walking with Jesus. It’s the joy of intimate fellowship with God because Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through Jesus. We already read Psalm 16:11, you fill me with joy in your presence.
Jesus described life eternal in John 17, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God. So, eternal life is, yes, quantitative, we’re going to live forever in the presence of God, but it’s also qualitative. So, once we come to faith in Christ, then it’s this whole process of growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.
It’s the joy of sanctification, of becoming more and more like Christ. Quite frankly, in this Christian life, it’s not a sprint but a marathon. Sometimes we can lose the joy of our salvation.
Seven letters to seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 to the church at Ephesus, Jesus says, you’ve forsaken the love you had at first. Kind of fallen away from that first love of that relationship with God. Peter tells us in 2nd Peter 3:18 to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So, what hinders the joy of sanctification life with Jesus? Well, one thing is sin in our life. That’s why we read Psalm 51. We know the background of Psalm 51, it’s David and his adultery with Bathsheba and scheming behind the scenes.
He sends Uriah to the front lines, and Uriah is killed in battle, and David has this cover-up going on. And for a year, he lived with that guilt and shame until the prophet Nathan confronted him. David in Psalm 51 confesses his sin.
He says, God, would you bring back to me the joy of knowing you, the joy of fellowship with you. The same is true with you and me in our walk with God, that while our sins have been forgiven, we still need to restore fellowship with God when we sin. And so, 1st John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just what to forgive us, to restore that relationship.
And so, there’s joy in an intimate relationship with God. There’s joy in fellowship with God. And so, sin can be a hindrance.
But also, this takes discipline in our life, doesn’t it? To grow in our relationship with God takes a conscious decision of discipline and of what? Spending time with God. Yes, on a Sunday morning in worship, but also throughout the week. And so, Paul writes to Timothy, who’s a pastor in Ephesus, in the last part of chapter 4 verse 7, he says, train yourself to be godly.
The word there for train is the Greek word gymnos, which we get the word gymnasium. And so, Paul’s telling Timothy, just like you have a physical workout, you need to have some sort of plan for what? Your spiritual discipline workout. And so, if we’re going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, then we need to have a plan to what? Be in God’s Word, be praying, be fellowshipping with a body of believers, and experience the joy of intimate fellowship with God.
So, J. I. Packer in his classic work, Knowing God, chapter 3, Knowing and Being Known, here’s what he writes, what were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves for in life? To know God. What is the best thing in life bringing more joy, delight, and contentment than anything else? It’s knowing God.
And so, there’s joy in salvation, the joy of forgiveness, there’s joy in sanctification, the joy of intimate fellowship with God. I’ve heard Dr. Joel Stowell tell this story many times. He’s a former president of Moody Bible Institute, and written many, many books, and just been a great man of God for many, many years.
And Dr. Stowell’s been on a lot of boards of different mission organizations, and he tells a story that he was at a big banquet, and I forget what the organization was, but the main speaker was Billy Graham. And they had a platform and a dais, and some of the, up on the platform were not only Dr. Graham, but some of the specially invited guests, and Dr. Stowell shows up, and they had assigned seats, and he noticed that he’s placed sitting right next to Billy Graham. He said, what do you say to Billy Graham? And so, he got into a conversation with Billy Graham, and he says, well, Dr. Graham, tell me, what in your long life of crusades, and speaking all over the world, and thousands and thousands of people to come to Christ, what’s been the highlight? Is there one highlight of your ministry? Would it be that crusade in Seoul, South Korea, where there’s like one million people there? And Dr. Stowell says, Billy Graham kind of like brushed his suggestion aside, and he looked at Dr. Stowell, and he says, you know what the greatest joy of my life has been? The greatest joy of my life has been my time’s intimate fellowship with God, and reading His Word, and sensing His presence, and walking with Jesus.
3. Serving
That has been the greatest joy of my life. So, pure, lasting joy is found in salvation, and it’s found in sanctification, and pure joy is found in serving, in serving the joy of obedience, joy of obedience. Upper Room Discourse, John 15, Jesus says, if you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I’ve kept My Father’s commandments, and remain in His love, I have told you this, so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
What’s Jesus saying? There’s joy in obedience. As I’ve kept My Father’s commandments, as you obey God’s Word, and God’s plan for your life, you’ll have joy as well. Acts chapter 20, verse 35, Dr. Luke’s quoting the words of Jesus.
Jesus says, it is more blessed to give than to receive. In other words, He’s telling us the principle that there’s more joy in what? Giving to others, serving others, than being on the receiving end. And so, there’s joy in serving.
Did you know that if you’re a follower of Jesus, if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior, at the moment of salvation, that God gives you at least one spiritual gift? There’s three or four passages in the New Testament that list what those gifts are, 1st Peter 4, Romans chapter 12, 1st Corinthians chapter 12. And when we’re operating and understand how God has gifted us to…for the purpose of what? Building up others and encouraging others. When we operate in our giftedness, we experience joy.
So, sometimes in my week, I have people stop by and they want to chat or want to pray with me and share something with me, and they’ll say, oh, I’m sorry to bother you. I’m sorry to interrupt you. I don’t mean it like, no, no.
This is not an interruption. This is how God has gifted me, and I would love to pray with you and encourage you in your journey with Jesus, because that’s my giftedness. So, when we’re operating in our giftedness and discover how God has created us in a unique way to what? To build up the body of Christ.
And this is one of the things that I truly believe, that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, not to judge our sins, that’s already been paid for. But He’s going to ask us, what have you done for me since you’ve come to faith in Christ? How have you faithfully served me with the gift that I have given you? 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire, Olympian Eric Liddell, Scottish athlete and Christian missionary, won a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics for the 400 meters. He felt God’s joy when he ran.
He was a runner. His famous quote was, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure”. So, I don’t know what you would, how you would fill in the blank there, but God’s given you a gift, and when you operate in that giftedness, there’s a great joy that comes in doing that.
There’s pure joy that’s found in salvation, knowing that our sins are forgiven. There’s pure joy in a relationship with God and growing in our relationship with Him. There’s joy in serving and serving others and ministering to others, but now we get to the 400-level class, the graduate-level class, and this is the last one.
4. Suffering
Pure and lasting joy can be found in suffering, in suffering. It’s the joy of understanding God’s purpose in pain. That’s the whole theme of the book of 1st Peter, written to exiles, written to people who had to leave their homeland because they were being persecuted, and the whole theme of 1st Peter is pain with a purpose.
Life is painful, but God has a purpose in our pain. So, the joy is not in suffering, but we make a choice to experience joy knowing that what God will accomplish in our lives through our suffering, He has a plan and that He has a purpose. So, let’s just look in conclusion here at a couple of passages that describe this in the New Testament.
Acts chapter 5, the early church, the apostles are preaching and teaching in Jesus’ name and they’re constantly getting thrown into prison. They’re constantly being beaten and then told not to preach anymore, and that’s what’s happened to the apostles in Acts chapter 5. Let me read to you verses 40 and 41, it says, his speech persuaded them, the Sanhedrin, not to…not sure what that phrase is referring to, let me start a little down. They called the apostles in and had them flogged.
So now they’ve been beaten. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Here’s the verse I want, verse 41, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for His name.
Pretty amazing response, isn’t it? Just been thrown into custody of the Sanhedrin, you’re being flogged, you’re being told not to teach in Jesus’ name anymore, and when the apostles leave, they’re rejoicing because they had the privilege of what? Suffering for Jesus. James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4 gives us part of the reason why God allows trials in our lives and this kind of counterintuitive command, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Why in the world would James say, consider it joy when you experience difficulty? Well, you have to know something in order to do that.
So, he tells us, because you know, here’s what you need to know, the testing of your faith produces perseverance, where there’s hupomone, endurance in a trial. Our first response to a trial is, God, get me out of this. Sometimes God allows us to remain under that trial because He has a greater purpose and that is character formation, Christlikeness, and let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
And so, 1st Peter 5:10, the book that has the topic and theme of pain with a purpose, here’s how Peter closes the book, and the God of all grace who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a while, after you have suffered will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. So, God’s purpose is character building, wants us to become like Christ. Sometimes the way that happens is through suffering.
That’s where you’ve got to make a choice, not necessarily a feeling of emotion and elation, but it’s a feeling of trust in God that He’s accomplishing His purpose. So, I think this is how Jesus felt when He faced the cross. He faced the crucifixion.
He prayed in the Garden of Eden with sweat drops of blood coming down His forehead, Father, if it’s possible, remove this cup from me, but nevertheless not my will, but Your will be done. So, Hebrews 12:2 says, fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, for the joy set before Him endured the cross. He had His mindset and His goal on what? Salvation, paying our redemption, and so He endured the crown of thorns, and He endured being spit on, and He endured being beaten to a pulp before He went to the cross.
Why? Because He was thinking of you and me. He was purchasing the salvation, and it brought Him. So pure joy is found in the joy of forgiveness.
Questions to Consider
Sins are forgiven. God will remember them no more. It doesn’t mean that He forgets them, it means He’s not going to hold them against us anymore. There’s joy and satisfaction in a fellowship with Jesus and in serving and in suffering. And so let me just ask a couple of questions here as we conclude.
1.
Number one, am I experiencing the joy of salvation and the forgiveness of sin? 2nd Corinthians 13:5 says, examine yourself and then make sure you’re in the faith. There are thousands and thousands of people that sit in a church building every Sunday, but they never put their faith in Jesus for salvation. It’s not by works. It’s by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And that should bring us great joy, the forgiveness of sin.
2.
Number two, am I experiencing the joy of daily fellowship with God? Maybe we’ve got our workout plan that we’re working on for physical training, but what about our spiritual journey? Do I experience the joy of daily fellowship with God? There’s so many helps that can help us in the area of doing this. So, we’ve got lots of daily breads from our daily bread ministry in Grand Rapids that are on the back table, but there are hundreds of devotional books that can help us.
And sometimes we’re like, well, I can’t do it seven days a week, well then do it five days a week. Something’s better than nothing. Am I experiencing the joy of daily fellowship with God?
3.
Thirdly, am I experiencing the joy of exercising my spiritual giftedness of serving others and building up the body of Christ?
4.
And lastly, am I experiencing joy in understanding that pain and suffering have a greater purpose? God allows that into our life to draw us to Himself, to conform us to the image of Jesus, and have a greater purpose in our life.
We’re going to jump into the book of Philippians next Sunday because that’s called the joy epistle. The word joy and rejoice is used 16 times, and it’s written from a prison cell, and yet the Apostle Paul models joy even in the midst of pain and suffering.