I delivered this message around 2000 as part of a series of talks.
Introduction
Well I found out Friday that I would be speaking today to you, and I’m glad for another opportunity to share some things with you.
What I would like to do today is briefly review what we talked about at the end of last time, for those of you who were not here, and make the connection to what we will talk about today. I don’t normally preach without a passage to look at specifically, but we will still look at a lot of Scripture and deal with our subject in a topical fashion.
If you remember, at the end of last time, we were discussing from Luke 2:49 that Jesus was driven by a purpose and mission, namely the glory of God. Then we asked the question of why we exist. And our conclusion was the same as Jesus’, to glorify God. Verses. And we said that another way to say what the purpose of our existence is, was knowing God and making Him known, or as Jesus put it, to love God and to love our neighbor.
We asked the question from the Westminster Confession of Faith which reads, “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer given is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” We know that we are supposed to glorify God, but how? And how does enjoying God fit with glorifying him? Are these two things at odds with each other?
What we will do today is to try to answer these questions and a few others by seeing what the Bible says about them. We’ve got a lot to cover this morning so please stay with me, and listen carefully.
Pray
First, I would like for us to look at the second part of the answer about the chief end of man: “to enjoy God forever.” Then we will discuss the relationship between our joy and God’s glory. I have titled today’s message, “My Duty or My Delight.” Is serving and glorifying God merely our duty or is it our delight?
During the message I will use the words joy, satisfaction, contentment, pleasure, happiness, and delight all interchangeably. So when you here me use one of these, know that I am doing so synonymously with the others.
Let me begin our discussion with a quote, “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.”
Why do people sin, but to bring some joy or satisfaction. A man commits immorality because of the satisfaction that he thinks it will brings him. A woman starves herself from food because of the joy she thinks she will get in being skinny. People sin because they are seeking happiness.
So I begin with our first question.
1. Is it wrong to seek your own joy and happiness and satisfaction?
Jonathan Edwards talked a lot about his happiness.
1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure.
22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
Isn’t this a selfish thing? Let’s look at what the Scripture says. Verses
So we see that not only is it not wrong to seek out own joy and satisfaction, but it is our obligation. The desire for happiness is not wrong but it good. Edwards was right in desiring his pleasure. You may still not like the sound of this so let me explain.
· Seeking our joy and satisfaction in the wrong place is wrong.
Remember Solomon, he tried to find pleasure and contentment and satisfaction in wisdom (1:13), in pleasure and wine (2:1), in possessions – vineyards, fruits, trees, servants, women, riches, (2:4), in labor (4:18), in wealth (5:8), and in anything else you can imagine. Solomon tried it all, and he says that it even rejoiced his heart for a while (2:10), but notice his conclusion in 2:17. Solomon tried it all but it did not satisfy. He realized that joy and satisfaction sought in temporal things only brings temporal joy. Hebrews 11:25–26 So Solomon concluded that only God could satisfy.
Many professing Christians today are seeking for their satisfaction in the things of this world: in money, in TV or the movies or video games or clothes or friends or popularity or relationships or sports or looks or sex of drugs or alcohol and on and on the list could go. Oh, what a shame it is.
C. S. Lewis put it well when he said, “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 the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Some Christians think that they are getting the raw end of the deal in serving God. I know that I’m supposed to glorify God, but I’ll be giving up all my fun. And they say this because of most Christians who have no joy. They think that they will be losing out and having to sacrifice too much. But is it really a sacrifice to give up the world for God?
Ex. Give dollar
Let’s say that I would say to Tom, give me a one-dollar bill and here is a check for $1,000,000. And he answers, “No, I like my one dollar bill.” You would say that he is stupid for not taking it.
Ex. Buy new car
Or lets say that I bought Stephen Dickson a brand new Ferrari, with free gas for five years, a monthly tune up, weekly washing and waxing, and insurance fully paid. And Stephen says, “Well, thanks but no thanks, I really like that station wagon. You would say that he is out of his mind.
Would that be a sacrifice for Bobby or for Stephen to take the check or the car, if they had to give me the dollar or the station wagon? No. That is no sacrifice to give up the worthless for the priceless, in fact, it would be foolish not to.
There is no sacrifice in giving up the pleasures of this world for the infinite pleasures of God. Yet this is what we do. God says here is infinite joy and satisfaction. Come and drink freely. And we say, “No Lord, I like the girls, and the clothes, and the music, and the sports, and the TV, and the relationships, and the money. No, Lord.”
Oh, how foolish we are.
· Seeking our joy in God is the only place to find true joy and satisfaction.
Verses
Jonathan Edwards said, “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
Another man said, “There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.
The old Puritans used to say that inside every man there is a God-shaped void that only God can fill.
Jesus calls Himself bread and water. What are these pictures of?
ex. Can think of a time that you were so thirsty that all you could think about was water.
· Joy is not contingent upon circumstances when found in God.
Let me explain it this way. When we attempt to base our joy and contentment anywhere other than God, it will change with out present circumstances. For example, if my joy is found in my possessions and I lose all my possessions to a fire like the Fredericks or a tornado like Oklahoma then I will lose my joy. If my joy is found in my girlfriend or boyfriend, then if she breaks up with me I will lose my joy. If my joy is found in my good looks or my athletic ability, and I am burned in a fire or injured permanently in a car accident then my joy is gone. So joy found in things other than God is at best temporary, and others no real ability.
But joy and satisfaction found in God, the eternal and unchangeable one, not only will bring infinitely greater joy, but will bring unending, eternal joy. Do you follow my logic? Since God never changes and is the only place for lasting joy, my joy and contentment, when found in God alone, will never change. When my house burns down, or my girlfriend breaks up with me or my parents die or I lose all that I own, that in no way will affect my joy and happiness in God.
This was true in Job’s life. Job lost his possessions and his family and his own health. Yet Job was able to say, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Turn with me to Acts 16:25. Paul and Silas were as content in God in a prison as when they were free.
The book of Philippians is another example. This is one of Paul’s prison epistles. And Paul, while sitting in a prison cell, writes one of the greatest letters of encouragement. The words joy and rejoice are used 18 times in this 4 chapter epistle.
Verses
So there we see that pursuing our joy is not wrong, but rather it is commanded granted that is sought in God alone and nowhere else.
But I thought that we were supposed to glorify God. How can we glorify God and yet be concerned about our own joy and happiness?
2. What is the relationship between God’s glory and our happiness?
Are these at odds? How do they fit together?
· We first must ask what is the glory of God?
Well, what is the glory of anything? What is the glory of Mt. Everest? What is it about Mt. Everest that makes it glorious? The glory of Mt. Everest is the fact that it is the highest point on the earth standing 29, 028 feet tall at it highest point. There is no other mountain peak like it. It is unique. And there is no mountain taller. It is excellent.
Or what about the Grand Canyon in Arizona. What is the glory of the Grand Canyon? This massive whole spans at its widest point 18 miles and is a mile deep at its deepest point. This huge gigantic canyon is glorious in that there is no canyon like it. It is unique.
Or what about the Angel Falls in Venezuela. These falls dump water 3,212 feet high. This is the tallest waterfall in the world. Nearly 3/4 of a high.
The Pacific Ocean, is the largest and deepest of the world’s four oceans, covering more than a third of the earth’s surface and containing more than half of its free water.
So then the glory of something is its unique excellence.
What then is the glory of God? It is His unique excellence.
Verses
Who else can speak and command the universe into existence? Who else can calm the winds and storms? Who else can heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and cause the lame to walk? Who else can turn water into wine or feed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes? Who else can cause the rain to stop or the sun to stand in its place? Who else can sustain the whole universe by the word of His mouth? Who else can send fire from heaven or turn the seas to blood or cause earthquakes and hail storms at His command?
There is no god like our God. He is glorious. He is uniquely excellent.
· How then do we glorify God?
How do you glorify Mt. Everest or the Grand Canyon or the Angel Falls or the Pacific Ocean? You glorify something not merely by knowing it is uniquely excellent, but by seeing it and experiencing it and being in awed by it so that you esteem it more highly and by express that estimation.
In other words I do not glorify Mt. Everest by simply knowing that it is nearly 6 miles tall, but by going there and seeing it and esteeming it more highly as a result and tell everyone about it.
In other words, we glorify God not merely by knowing about His unique excellence.
Edwards said, “God is glorified not only by His glories being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole, both by the understanding and by the heart.”
If we see the Grand Canyon and are not caused to delight in its greatness and majesty and say, “Wow a big whole in the ground.” We do not glorify the Grand Canyon.
So to see the glory of God and not to delight in it and be satisfied in it, is not glorifying it.
John Piper says it this way, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”
Do you see the connection. The glory of God and your joy in God are not at competitive but complementary.
In other words we glorify God not merely by knowing about His unique excellence, but by seeing it as he reveals it, and esteeming Him more highly and delight and satisfying ourselves it Him (which is worship) and expressing that to others (which is praise).
The chief end of man is to glorify God by delighting yourself in God. By seeking Him, and knowing Him, and loving Him, and worshipping Him and talking about Him and praising Him and being satisfied with Him. And in so doing God gets what He most wants, namely glory. And you get want you most want, infinite joy.
I close with this, “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
As Psalm 37:4 says delight yourself in God, taste and see that the Lord is good, come drink of the waters of God, and gaze at His glory.
Pray