More than Enough: Joy
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: Joyful relationship with God must be our highest aim and a prioritized goal within itself from which all of the rest of life and ministry flow.
God is
The Bible is
The Cross is
God Is
Knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he’s sent is the aim of eternal life.
Prior to his crucifixion for which he would die for the sins of the world and provide a pathway to reconciliation with God, Jesus would clearly communicate the end game.
John 17:3 ESV
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
If God describes eternal life in this manner, then there is nothing higher or better.
“The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ.”
-Oswald Chambers
The Psalmist would speak about his relationship with God this way:
Psalm 84:1-12 ESV
“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!”
A dwelling place implies a place of habitation and a place of meeting.
Our desire must be to meet with God and not to simply know about him.
There is no substitute for God in our pursuit of joy because he is both the giver true joy and sustainer of it.
This is why joy is characterized as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
When the Psalmist speaks of the sparrow and swallow finding a home near the altar of God, it speaks of the security, peace and eternal provision that only God can provide.
“Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially “deify.”
-Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Until your soul longs and faints to meet with God, you will never be satisfied with earthly things.
No amount of success, wealth, sex, companionship, travel, enlightenment, prominence or accolades will ever be able to replace a growing relationship with Jesus.
The Sons of Korah acknowledge God as their King, their ruler, their Lord.
This is the only way to come to God, in repentance from sin and faith in Jesus as Lord, in obedience to his Word.
The Bible is
Daily feeding on the Word of God is the only way to truly know this abundant life in Jesus.
“Normal Christian life is a process of restoration and renewal. Our joy is not static. It fluctuates with real life. It is vulnerable to satan's attacks.”
-John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
I had to learn that having margin in your life is not sin.
You have to have the time and space to seek the Lord.
John 1:1-5 ESV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:14 ESV
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
What does the Word tell us about meeting with God?
Psalm 84:5-8
Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
When you are invited into fellowship with God and pursue dwelling in his house, it means you have found a home both personally and corporately.
What was Zion and what does it represent?
Zion was the city where the temple was and where corporate worship took place.
This means to relate with God fully, you must go to Zion.
Even an only child has parents with whom they must relate to remain healthy and grow.
When you live in the community of faith, God gives you continual encouragement and a song of praise to him to sing.
Selah means to pause and think about this reality.
You find your strength in God as your heart leads you to Zion.
There is no knowing the fullness of God without his body because a heart full of God leads you to Zion, the city of worship amidst the community of believers.
It is then, that as you go through the Valley of Baca (which means weeping), that you turn it into a place of soul satisfying springs for you and others.
God pours out continual refreshment upon his people from Heaven and gives pools (abundance) where people can relieve their thirsts together.
They go from strength to strength as each appears before God in Zion.
We are meant to be relational people, a communal people.
This starts and ends with God as we obey his word to dwell in his house.
What this means for us:
When you realize that God is more than enough, you are able to endure trial with joy, knowing that he who is in charge is trustworthy.
You are able to serve with joy because you know that the one who leads you is worthy.
You are able to obey his commands with joy because you want to love the one who has loved you more than any person ever has or ever will.
When God is your goal, you have a new measure of success.
You are freed from insecurities because your success is found in knowing him and making him known (think about the prophets).
“The Calvary road with Jesus is not a joyless road. It is a painful one, but it is a profoundly happy one. When we choose the fleeting pleasures of comfort and security over the sacrifices and sufferings of missions and evangelism and ministry and love, we choose against joy.”
-John Piper, Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
The Cross is
The cross of Jesus will forever be your ticket to a growing relationship with God and his Kingdom purpose for your life.
Romans 1:16-17 ESV
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."”
The cross is how we find rest in the presence of a Holy and righteous God who will judge sin.
Psalm 84:9-12
Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!”
When we meet with God understanding our unworthiness, but his greatness, we begin to learn that there is no better place to be than the with the one who literally gave his life for ours, in love.
Galatians 6:14-15 ESV
“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”
You must be made a new creation to fully enjoy the joys of Christ.
You must remember the power and purpose of the cross to continue to daily live in the joy of that life.
“The pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an “extra” that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. It is not simply a way to “enhance” your walk with the Lord. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your “faith” cannot please God. It is not saving faith. Saving faith is the confidence that if you sell all you have and forsake all sinful pleasures, the hidden treasure of holy joy will satisfy your deepest desires. Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable, but also that He is desirable. It is the confidence that He will come through with His promises and that what He promises is more to be desired than all the world.”
-John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher