Finding True Joy: Embracing Christian Hedonism

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The Longing To Be Happy is a universal experience has great missionary implic ation and Evangelistic implications in this city everybody wants to be happy and this is not evil it's like hunger it's neither good nor bad in and of itself it's just there the Longing To Be Happy Ephesians 5:29 Paul said talking about marriage and why husbands should love their wives who happen to be their own flesh he said no man ever hates his own flesh there it is but nourishes his own flesh and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are his body. [00:03:21]

We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy as though it were a bad impulse instead we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction now the gist of that long sentence is don't deny it as though it were evil Stoke it until it isn't satisfied with anything less than what will be the greatest and longest lasting happiness. [00:05:16]

The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God to settle for anything less is insane we will see why it's insane a little later the key text here is Psalm 1611 which I quoted last time it's one of my key and favorite verses thou Dost show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy in thy right hand are Pleasures forever more those are the two things I want I want my joy to be full and I want it to last forever that's only found in the presence of God at his right hand in fellowship with him. [00:07:25]

The happiness that we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love love number three was vertical Hedonism find your joy in God that's vertical Hedonism now number four says vertical Hedonism comes to its consumation when it draws other people into the experience of it if you settle for vertical hedonism manifest an indifference to whether others come into it it will begin to shrivel God has not designed you to enjoy in a privatised way his glory. [00:09:02]

To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure to that extent will we fail to honor God and love people or let's put it positively the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part not optional a necessary part of all worship and virtue so my main thesis here at the end and this is what we're going to spend some more time on now is you can't honor God if you don't make it your vocation to be happy in God you can't honor God if you don't pursue happiness in God. [00:12:36]

The foundation of that truth and that Quest is that God has the same Quest before I do God's Quest is to be happy in glory GL ifying God now I stood up in the chapel at Wheaten College in 1985 I can remember this it was a real tense moment the first time I'd ever preached at my alma mater I've only done it twice and so there's about 15,600 students there and it's a big blue Chapel with chandeliers and you know Premier Evangelical students. [00:14:07]

The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever that's the foundation of my quest to give glory to God I grew up in a family and in a church that hammered away wonderfully at 1 Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat whether you drink or whatever you do do it to the glory of God so I knew that I was to live to the glory of God whatever it meant but I don't remember anybody telling me when I was growing up God lives for the glory of God. [00:15:04]

God chose us for his glory read Ephesians 1 1-14 sometime we won't read it now but I can remember when I first taught Ephesians I saw this verse 6 verse 12 verse 14 I can see them there in my arcing and under each one of those arcs was to the praise of the glory of God that phrase to the praise of the glory of God's grace he chose us to the praise of the glory of his grace he redeemed us to the praise of the glory of his grace you exist to the praise of the glory of his grace. [00:18:24]

Jesus is coming back to be glorified in his Saints and to be marveled at by all who believe so from the beginning of creation to the consummation of the universe God does everything he does for the glory of his own name that's the foundation of my quest for joy in God's glory he shares the same Quest he has that priority and therefore I share God's priority of God when I saw that I'm trying to remember the year I read that book I think it was my senior year at Seminary. [00:20:39]

To be loving he must give me what is best what is best is God when you receive what is best the experience of the joy of having it is not complete until you can give expression in admiration and praise for it or to it and therefore if God wants to bring my delight in God the best gift to consummation he must seek my praise to be loving God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue and the most loving act. [00:25:34]

The nature of sin teaches us that the Bible means for us to pursue the fountain and not to heue out sists that won't work so my answer to the first objection is yes the Bible does teach these things number two objection what about self-denial I mentioned this already I'll pass over it perhaps more quickly the Bible says Jesus says whoever would save his life will lose it whoever will save his life will lose it aren't you commending people to save their life to enhance their life then you're teaching suicide. [00:39:55]

The concept of serving God can really be offensive to God do you know that you can offend God by serving him why acts 17:25 God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything now did I say that too fast God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything for he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything that text says you offend God if you serve him Psalm 50 verse2 if I were hungry God says to Israel I would not tell you the world and all that in it is mine. [00:52:30]

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