Finding True Joy and Fulfillment in God

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The climax of joy in God is when it is so full it spills over for other people and the Really thrilling thing in the human soul is when you see another human being delighting in God because you've delighted in God enough to die for that person or at least visit him in the hospital or do something that yes is inconvenient yes involves self-denial but no ultimate self-denial you're questing life and joy and fulfillment at every point when you lay down your life for Jesus. [00:06:04]

Jeremiah 2: 12- 13 I love this text, this is one of the most wonderful texts for preaching Christian Hedonism. Jeremiah 2:12 and 13 says be appalled oh heavens at this be shocked, be utterly desolate says the Lord for my people have committed two evils now let's watch the definition of these two evils number one they have forsaken me, the Fountain of Living Waters and have hewed out cisterns for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. [00:59:36]

So the nature of sin is this: people who stop pursuing joy in the fountain and start pursuing it in the mud. It's like C.S. Lewis in his book the Weight of Glory says we're like little children making mud pies in the slums because we can't imagine what a holiday at the sea is like. The blindness of sin has so gripped us. [02:20:56]

Faith is coming to God for reward and sin is turning away to the mud pie in the slum and so yes I believe the Bible does teach that you must pursue joy in God, you must it is your duty it is a commandment just like Thou shalt not kill. [02:45:95]

Mark 8:35 says whoever would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me and a cross is where you die, and suffer. What do you do with that? Piper, it's the most common objection that I get and so I have a real simple stock response: read the rest of the verse because the rest of the verse says because he who would save his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake will save it. [03:20:68]

I believe in self-denial with all my might but no such thing as ultimate self-denial. Let me read a quote from Flannery O'Connor, a novelist Christian who died here about 25 years ago, a southern novelist, and I was into her writings reading everything of hers. I was a lit major at Wheaton so I got into these kind of things and found tidbits here and there. She said I don't assume that renunciation goes with submission or even that renunciation is good in itself always you renounce a lesser good for a greater good. [06:00:80]

Emotions are commanded in scripture everywhere. We're commanded to have joy, first Peter 4 rejoice in the Lord. We're commanded to have hope, Psalm 42 hope in God. We're commanded to have fear, Luke 12 fear Him who can cast both soul and body into hell. We're commanded to have peace, Colossians 3:15 let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. [09:50:00]

We have a very weak and superficial Christianity today because we have defined the emotional life right out of conversion. We have made conversion such a slapdash simple thing that doesn't need to involve the emotion so that you can get it done quickly with a signature or prayer that you don't need to toy with the emotions anymore. [15:00:60]

I think we need to be real careful with this notion of service to God lest we put God in the category of a plantation owner who can't make it without his slave labor. God is not a plantation owner who makes it on the basis of slave labor. We just have to be real careful when we use Biblical images of servanthood that we don't wind up belittling God. [16:20:40]

If you want to glorify God stop trying to serve him and let him serve you that's what the text says. Now of course you all know that the Bible is just full of commands and illustrations that we should serve God so what we're experiencing is that the Bible often speaks in apparent contradictions like this in order to keep us from taking one particular image and misusing it. [17:54:20]

You serve money by calculating all of your life to be in a position to benefit from money. You make all your decisions of how to be underneath money when it drops, it's dropping there I'll be there, money's dropping there I'll be there, you're moving you're always moving so they'll be under the waterfall of money that's service to money. [19:49:76]

God is served by those who are humble and lowly enough to let themselves be guided and used by God. [21:16:32]

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