Overflowing Love: Joy in God and Generosity

"Father in Heaven the world doesn't care very much about what Christians do behind their doors in private in their acts of piety of Bible reading and prayer as absolutely important as those are what the world watches is how we treat them how we treat our enemies how we treat those who are different from us different race a different education different School different sex different age the world watches whether we love or not and this is what moves people when we take hits and don't return evil for evil when we love our enemies when we do good to those who hate us when we bless those who persecute us when we give to him who asks and not turn away him who wants to borrow from us when we Rejoice at tribulation and endure steadfastly and joyfully through trial being kind and not self-centered this moves the world and we want the world to awaken to the glory of Jesus Christ so grant us to be So Satisfied in Christ and all that you are father for Us in him that we would be freed to love like this so that men would see our good deeds and give glory to our father who's in heaven this is our great desire so come and produce the miracle of love in these teenagers Hearts I pray in Jesus name amen" [00:01:04]

"The theme is God's glory and man's gladness can they really be one and I've argued yes they can be one and that the key to bringing them together is God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him so God gets glory god is shown to be great when you find satisfaction in him so you're getting the satisfaction and he's getting the glory and those are the two things that I wanted most as a teenager I knew I wanted to be happy I knew from my parents and from the Bible that God wanted Glory I I felt deep in my bones they they were at odds with each other and God opened the windows of Heaven as it were and showed me they're not at odds they come together and so we looked first at God's passion for his glory and then we looked at our passion for joy and I gave you eight reasons from the Bible that you should pursue your joy in God all the time radically passionately even if it costs you your life you should pursue your joy in God" [00:02:01]

"I'm arguing that contrary to all expectation unless you are engaged in a rigorous pursuit of your joy in God you can't love other people and if you are engaged in a passionate pursuit of your joy in God experiencing significant measur of that Joy now you cannot help but be a loving person and that's what I want to defend from the Bible tonight okay so that's where we're going let's go to Second Corinthians chapter 8 if you have a Bible go there with me and if you don't then just listen carefully second Corinthians second letter of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 8 let me give you the setting here Paul is on a missionary journey and he has passed through the upper regions of Greece which are called in those days Macedonia that's where Philippi is and neapolis and thessalonica he has passed through there through there preached amazing things have happened there and then he's gone on to Corinth and then he's moved on and he's writing a letter to Corinth to tell them what happened in Macedonia as a means to motivate them to give for the offering that he's taking up for the poor down in Jerusalem that's the situation Paul is collecting money for the poor evidently there had been some terrible crisis and tragedy in Jerusalem and those Christians were in great need and so Paul is going through the parts of the Roman Empire and saying there there's a great need in Jerusalem would you contribute to their need and he's motivating the Corinthians to give by what happened up in Macedonia so what you what I want you to read with me is what happened in Macedonia and what he calls it and I'm going to show you that what he calls it is love and so you watch as we read the first say four verses of 2 Corinthians 8 and be thinking in your mind now what would be a good definition of Love on the basis of the first four verses of 2 Corinthians 8" [00:04:10]

"Brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia for in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part for they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own free will begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints then drop down to verse eight I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that's the macedonians that your love also just like theirs Your Love also is genuine so I only bring in verse 8 to show you what he's calling this behavior of the macedonians in verses 1 to 4 he's calling it love I'm saying this to you Corinthians to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also like theirs is genuine so now we're in a position to say okay Paul what is love now let's go back and take it a piece at a time and see what are the elements that go into what Paul calls a behavior which he designates love and the first thing to notice in verse one is that it originates in the grace of God you see that we want you to know Brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia so what they're about to do started with Grace powerful Grace moving in on the macedonians and doing something amazing inside them that unleashes something amazing you're going to see in verses 2 and three a staggering change of heart in human beings but it all originates in Grace So tonight as we are gathered here and John is prayed and I have prayed and others have prayed oh Lord God unleash love from the hearts of these young people make us a church filled with loving people people who get outside themselves people who go towards others needs instead of going toward their own Comfort make us a people like that now we know where it comes from Grace has got to come divine grace which is why we pray oh God come let your Mighty Grace move in this room" [00:06:42]

"because in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty now let's just stop there right in the middle of the sentence notice two things poverty has not gone away when they became Christians and affliction has increased this is why a lot of people do not become Christians the Bible is very realistic it's not a health wealth and Prosperity Gospel become a Christian you get healthy you get prosperous everything goes better that is not true that is absolutely not true and you know it's not true from your own experience so it says in a severe test of Affliction so these people in Macedonia are being Afflicted we don't know what it was could have been sickness probably was persecution but things are going hard in Macedonia and then it says their abundance or their extreme poverty so they're still poor they didn't suddenly become prosperous now out of those two things Affliction and poverty something absolutely spectacular and inexplicable happens namely Abundance of Joy let's read it again for in a severe test of Affliction there Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty so now just get the whole picture Grace came down in power it did not take away poverty it brought Affliction and in that extreme joy happened clearly then the joy is not in things and the joy is not in Comfort the comfort is being attacked by Affliction the things are being taken away by poverty and joy is soaring and that's what I want for you oh how I want that for you that your joy would be rooted in Jesus Christ in such a way that if poverty came and affliction came Joy would rise now what happens read it again for in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part now the picture is complete Grace came down from God in power to do a heart work first before there was any circumstantial change at all poverty remained Affliction increased joy in Grace I'm forgiven I'm accepted I'm a Child of God I'm heavenbound I know the king of the universe and joy just surged and the effect was it overflowed in what is it called a wealth of generosity on their part in fact look at the generosity described in verse three for they gave a according to their means which wasn't much and as I can testify beyond their means they gave more than they could more than they should in fact it's even better than that they did it without any compulsion without any constraint nobody twisted their arms they did it of their own accord of their own free will and then verse four this is the most amazing statement of all begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints picture it they're poor they're Afflicted so a good natural human way to respond would be to say you've taken up enough offering from us go to the rich people and take up more offerings we've given all we can give and these people are saying please take another offering isn't that what verse four says please we beg of you take another offering from us we know we're poor we know we're under Affliction but would you please take another offering from us that's amazing you can't explain that on human terms that's pure divine grace that's what I want to happen in your hearts I want you to be that kind of people I want Bethlehem Baptist Church and all the churches out there I want them to be the kind of churches that are filled with the kind of joy that when there's poverty poverty and when there's Affliction there is an overflow of generosity now remember vers 8 what does Paul call this he calls it love which is not hard to imagine but now let's define love let's take what we've seen and if Paul in verse 8 says I'm not saying this by command I'm saying it to prove by the earnestness of those macedonians that your love also is genuine when they acted this way and it was love I want you to act this way and be loving like this what's the definition of love now here would be my my effort love is the grace enabled Grace enabled impulse to expand your joy in God by extending it to others well let's let's let's just go right to the text love is the Overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others I get that straight out of verse two love is the Overflow your Abundance of Joy overflowed in a wealth of generosity and it all came from Grace so here's my definition of love love is the Overflow of abundant joy in God that meets the needs of others I just think that's really clear from this text now now if that's what love is do you see how it links up with the first two messages if you don't have that joy in God it can't overflow to meet the needs of others you're going to have to fish around for some other kind of Motive Power in order to be good to other people and you're probably going to become a legalist in the process well John Piper says you're supposed to be good to people or God says you're supposed to be nice to people or the Bible says or mom and dad say I'm supposed to be nice I don't feel like being nice I'm not about to overflow but I'll gut it out and I'll do it by my willpower believe me God is not impressed by that behavior and it does not the Bible does not call it love love is the Overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others have you ever wondered why 1 Corinthians 13 says though I give away all that I have and give my body to be burned but have not love it profits me nothing 1 Corinthians 13:3 I mean you read that and you say what how can you give your body to be burned and how can you give away all that you have and not be a loving person answer it comes from the wrong heart what kind of motive we have what kind of longings we have what kind of overflow we have defines love this is really Risky Business what I'm talking about here because I am building into the very fabric of horizontal love vertical affections for God and saying if these vertical affections for God aren't there you can't be loving person I don't care what you do for people lay down your life for people or give away all that you have you are not a loving person unless it's flowing over from this vertical Delight in satisfaction in resting in god wow that can really get you in trouble you know what I can remember 1967 I was a junior uh no I was a senior in the fall of 67 so I was taking an apologetics class from Miller Erikson at Wheaten College reading the book situation ethics by Joseph Fletcher it's not a good book I don't recommend it but we were reading a whole string of bad books and then uh Millard Erikson was assuming the role of the author and we were having battle in the classroom it's a great way to do education I think so you read a book that's not good you learn how to understand another person's worldview and the teacher assumes the role of that person battles and then if you don't win he turns around and becomes the defender so that's what was going on and Joseph Fletcher I can remember it so clearly almost all the class was Swept Away by this argument and I I was just I couldn't quite figure out why I didn't like it but the argument was love cannot be a feeling it can have essential components that are feelings it's got to be sheer action why his argument it is commanded in the Bible and you can't command the emotions and that went into the heads of my classmates like a revelation whoa that's good right just help people if you don't feel like it or if you don't love God just do it I frankly think just do it just do it even when it refers to ethics positive is atheistic but I couldn't figure out what's wrong with this argument since love is not I mean since love is commanded and you can't command the emotions I mean they just come and go right you can't turn on the emotions they just they're there they're not there and you can't turn a switch to make them be there therefore love since it's commanded can have emotions in it as essential and now I know what's wrong with that argument the Bible commands emotions everywhere gratitude is an emotion it's commanded in Psalm 100 enter his gates with Thanksgiving be great ful hope is commanded 1 Peter 1:13 hope fully and hope is an emotion Joy is commanded rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice and joy is an emotion sorrow is commanded weep with those who weep you can't just turn weeping on but you're commanded to compassion is an emotion and you're commanded to do that Ephesians 4 fear is an emotion and you're commanded to do that in Romans 11: 20 contentment is an emotion and Hebrews 13 says be content with what you have and I just I my father and my mother served me so well for 18 years by just saturating my mind with the Bible that when I smelled this argument I couldn't articulate what the problem was I just smelled something's not right here and I'm so glad for a nose a theological nose that can run ahead of my theological brain and sniff out error before my brain can figure out error some of your wisest dearest old Saints at Bethlehem who have very little patience with John Piper's theological bent can sniff out error real quick just because they're so saturated with the Bible something just doesn't sound right and now I know why the argument wasn't true love involves more than sheer willpower love is the Overflow of joy in God that reaches out and draws people into that joy and is willing to die in the process let me give you an illustration this illustration is is on my notes here because I experienced a a conflict with somebody about the interpretation of this story this is a true story I don't have all the details uh and the sources for you it comes from it comes from World War II about I I forget which theater of the conflict it was I think it was the South Pacific but Americans were in a concentration camp Americans were in they were prisoners of war and they were being treated very badly so I won't tell you who who captured them CU I'm not sure and I don't want to put anybody in a bad light but they were captured and they were being sentenced to hard labor every day they went out in squadrons of 20 with shovels and they had to shovel heavy rock all day doing nothing with it just shoveling and come in and then they would count the shovels make sure they're all there send them back to their barracks and that was their punishment for now one day 20 of these American prisoners of War come in exhausted with their shovels lean them up against the wall all the uh sergeant in charge the enemy who's watching over them counts the shovels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 and he turns around and he says who broke his shovel who lost his shovel nobody moves he takes out his pistol and he says I'm going to shoot five of you if the person who broke his shovel doesn't step forward there's this moment of silence and a young Marine it's a true story steps forward the sergeant takes him aside shoots him in the head and kills him and then before he sends them away he recounts the shovels and there are 20 he miscounted now I want you to get inside the head of this kid he's probably 19 20 he's standing there and the application is that he's a Believer I don't know the whole story let's just make him a Believer and make my point or you can see the two points that you have to choose from he contemplates five of my buddies or four plus me are going to be shot if I step forward only one person gets shot and I save four lives maybe five what pushes him forward that's a very loving thing to do maybe though I give my body to be burned and have not love it profits me nothing it might not be love what would make it love I don't think the answer is it's his duty and what we need is more people like that who are willing to sacrifice and do their Duty I I don't think that's the way to handle this illustration I think the way to handle this illustration is to go back to this morning's message and say father you have taught me in your word that to live is Christ and to die is gain you have satisfied My Soul by the Forgiveness of my sins and the providing of a perfect righteousness and though I am a sinner I know that if I die I will be with you forever and therefore for the joy that is set before me I would like now to save my brothers boom that's the way I think love acts for the joy that is set before me this is the Overflow of joy in God or it's not love it's not biblical love at least and that's the way I want you to be I want you to have such radical deep unshakable restful contentment in Christ so that when that kind of issue comes to you you'll be able to be like that 19yearold I'll give you some more stories like that tomorrow when we talk about suffering" [00:10:02]