Twenty-five years in the past, I used to be a freshman at Furman College in Greenville, South Carolina. I had grown up within the church. I made a career of religion at age eight and was baptized. God had blessed me with a house church that beloved the gospel and taught me that I might belief the Bible. Nevertheless, trying again now, I can see that one thing was lacking in my Christianity.
There was a deep wrestle in my soul: I needed to be pleased, and I felt responsible for wanting it. My ache to be pleased, I suspected, was extra a legal responsibility than an asset. Residing the Christian life, I assumed, was about my means to place apart what I actually needed to do.
You too need to be pleased. And you may’t escape it. All of your life you’ve been attempting to fulfill your deep-down eager for actual pleasure by discovering that good possession or good partner, having fun with good meals, figuring out influential individuals, accumulating dependable associates, touring to scenic locations, profitable at sports activities (whether or not as a participant or a fan), attaining success in school or work, and getting your arms on the most recent devices. Our unhappy longings gnaw at us late at evening as we scroll by means of social media and flip from channel to channel and let one other episode autoplay.
Now, most of us aren’t endlessly depressing. Not but. Not at nineteen or twenty. We discover measures of satisfaction within the second, however we don’t keep glad, not deep down. Did God make us this fashion? And if that’s the case, why did God hardwire us to ache for pleasure? Why this common seek for satisfaction?
Stunned by Pleasure
I keep in mind as a school freshman, with my very duty-oriented religion, starting to really feel a sort of fascination with pleasure. As a child, I had sung, “I received the enjoyment, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure down in my coronary heart.” Pleasure, when talked about in church, typically got here off so gentle and flippant. And but that one fruit of the Spirit’s 9 (Galatians 5:22–23) related most with the deep longings for happiness I used to be simply starting to understand as a school freshman.
As I learn extra of the Bible, I used to be amazed by what I discovered about pleasure and delight. It was the Psalms specifically that woke up me to the likelihood and promise of actual pleasure — pleasure that isn’t icing on the cake of Christianity, however a vital ingredient within the batter. Three psalms particularly captured my consideration.
Soul-Thirsts for God
First, Psalm 37:4: “Delight your self within the Lord.” And never simply this command, however then this promise: “and he will provide you with the wishes of your coronary heart.” You imply at root God isn’t suspicious or annoyed by my wishes? He made my coronary heart to want, and means to fulfill, not squash, my deepest longings? And the place will that occur?
Second, Psalm 16:11: “In your presence there may be fullness of pleasure; at your proper hand are pleasures forevermore.” Actual pleasure comes not solely from God as a present from his hand, however in looking for his face. God himself — figuring out him, having fun with him — that’s what he made your wishes for. He made your stressed human coronary heart for actual satisfaction — in him. He made your soul to thirst, and he meant for you to not deny your thirst however to fulfill it, in him.
Third, Psalm 63:1: “O God, you might be my God; earnestly I search you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land the place there isn’t a water.” This resonated deeply with me. I needed this, and needed to be extra like this.
The Psalms had my consideration. Many times, they tapped into my soul, discouraged my sense of mere responsibility, and highlighted the central place of the guts — each in honesty concerning the many sorrows on this life, and in hopefully commanding me to “rejoice within the Lord” (Psalm 40:16; 64:10; 97:12; 104:34; 105:3; 118:24).
It was nearly too good to be true to find that my simple longing to be pleased wasn’t simply okay, however good, and that the God who made me really needed me to be as pleased as humanly doable in him. For me to study, after which start to expertise for myself, that God wasn’t the cosmic killjoy I had as soon as assumed, however that he was dedicated, with all his sovereign vitality and energy, to do me good (Jeremiah 32:40–41) — it took weeks, even months, for such excellent news to land. I’m nonetheless not over it as we speak.
And extra excellent news was nonetheless to return.
All to the Glory of God
I knew from rising up that “the glory of God,” which frequently appeared like a throwaway Christianese phrase, was essential. Turning pages in my Bible, I discovered it in every single place, like 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether or not you eat or drink, or no matter you do, do all to the glory of God.”
God made the world, and made us, that he is likely to be glorified. The Bible may be very clear, and our personal sense of justice resonates with the rightness of it, that God made us to glorify him. However that creates a disaster for many people. Does God imply for me to pursue his glory or my pleasure? I need so badly to be pleased, and the Bible instructions, not condemns, my rejoicing in God. And I do know I’m speculated to need him to be glorified in my life. Are his honor and my happiness two tandem pursuits within the Christian life? If that’s the case, how can we pursue each?
Then got here essentially the most outstanding discovery: our happiness in God glorifies God. My pursuit of the deepest and most sturdy pleasure, and God’s pursuit of his glory, will not be two pursuits however one. As a result of, as John Piper champions in his e-book Desiring God, “God is most glorified in us once we are most glad in him.” God’s design to be glorified and my wishes to be pleased come collectively in a single superb pursuit: the pursuit of pleasure in God.
Do You Take pleasure in Him?
God will not be honored once we pay tribute to our personal iron will by saying to him in prayer or church, “I don’t even need to be right here, however I’m right here.” What honors him, what glorifies him, what makes him look good, is pleasure and satisfaction in him. God is most glorified once we say with the psalmist, “You’re my God; earnestly I search you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,” and “In your presence there may be fullness of pleasure; at your proper hand are pleasures forevermore.” We are saying, “Nothing makes me happier than to know you, Father, by means of your Son, Jesus, and to be right here with you over your phrase, or in prayer, or in company worship. Jesus, you might be my pleasure. You’re my treasure. You’re my delight. You fulfill my soul.” In these phrases, and within the coronary heart behind them, God is glorified.
“Not solely does God invite us to consider him, belief him, concern him, obey him, and worship him, however to take pleasure in him.”
What’s crucial fact you’ve realized in faculty? I posed this query to myself in fascinated by what I needed to say to you this morning. Of the numerous new details and liberating discoveries I made in these all-important, trajectory-shaping faculty years, what has proved most life-changing? Right here’s a technique I might put it: For me, the only most essential breakthrough in all my faculty studying was discovering that God isn’t just the suitable object of the verbs consider, belief, concern, obey, and worship, but additionally he’s essentially the most becoming, most satisfying, most worthy object of the verb take pleasure in.
Imagine God, belief God, concern God, obey God, worship God, sure! However do you take pleasure in him? Not with the small enjoyment of chuckling at a intelligent business, however the giant enjoyment of basking earlier than an ocean. Not the skinny enjoyment of buzzing together with a pop tune, however the thick enjoyment of coming to the long-anticipated pinnacle of a symphony or a fantastic novel. Not the shallow enjoyment of buying some new gadget, however the deep enjoyment of reconnecting and catching up with a longtime buddy.
Not solely does God invite us to consider him, belief him, concern him, obey him, and worship him, however to take pleasure in him. Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, style and see that the Lord is nice!”
Studying to Fly
So, in gentle of that single best discovery in my faculty years, let me ask simply briefly this morning what it means for the each day and weekly rhythms of the Christian life.
In different phrases, how can we become involved? What steps, humble as they might be, can we take? How can we place ourselves to obtain the grace of God, to obtain his pleasure? In his mercy, he has not saved it a secret how he gives ongoing grace and pleasure for the Christian life. I prefer to summarize it in three elements — three previews of what our focus can be tomorrow evening.
1. Hear His Voice
Every new day introduces a contemporary event to listen to his voice within the Scriptures, not primarily as marching orders, however as a meal to feed our souls. Not only for soul vitamin, however for enjoyment. God desires our common sitting down along with his E book to be extra like coming to dinner than going to the grocery retailer. Don’t attempt to retailer up fact for tomorrow or subsequent week. Come to take pleasure in him as we speak. Just like the Israelites within the wilderness, when God gave them manna, merely collect a day’s portion and luxuriate in.
2. Have His Ear
Some name it prayer. After we take pleasure in God, prayer begins to be a means not simply to ask God for issues we might take pleasure in, however to take pleasure in God himself. In prayer, we reply to what God says to us in his phrase, and in doing so, we commune with him, each asking for extra of him and experiencing him in prayer, within the second, as our best enjoyment. The guts of prayer will not be getting issues from God, however getting God.
3. Belong to His Physique
Lastly, then, is belonging to his physique. One very important manifestation of life within the church is company worship. After we pursue our pleasure in God, company worship turns into the gorgeous alternative to collect collectively, not simply with fellow believers, however with fellow enjoyers of God.
How would possibly it change company worship for you — not simply in church on Sunday morning, but additionally right here in chapel — to go searching and assume, “These college students and professors not solely consider within the fact of Christianity however they take pleasure in the God of Christianity.” As we sing, we’re having fun with Jesus collectively. As we pray, we’re having fun with him collectively. As we hear his phrase learn and his message preached, we’re uniting our hearts collectively within the God who himself, within the individual of his Son, grew to become one in every of us, lived amongst us, suffered with us, died for us, rose triumphantly from the grave, and now sits in energy — with all authority in heaven and on earth — at his Father’s proper hand, and is bringing to move, in his good persistence and ideal timing, all his functions in our world. For our eternal pleasure. Collectively.
One Nice Possession
Coming to take pleasure in God — not simply consider him, belief him, worship him, and obey him, however take pleasure in him — has modified the whole lot for me. It’s modified how I method the Bible, how I method prayer, and the way I method company worship and fellowship. However there’s nonetheless one final piece lacking: What about love for others, particularly when it’s pricey? Will having fun with God transfer me towards others, or away from them? Will pleasure in God transfer me towards arduous, painful, pricey wants on this fallen, sin-sick world, or away from them?
My reply, which I can testify to in expertise now for 25 years, is that discovering pleasure in God liberates us to really love others. I depart you with one superb testimony: Hebrews 10:32–34. The state of affairs is that some on this early church had been put in jail for his or her religion, and others, as a substitute of going into hiding, went public to go to them in jail. In doing so, they uncovered themselves to the identical persecution their brothers had been receiving:
Recall the previous days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a tough wrestle with sufferings, typically being publicly uncovered to reproach and affliction, and typically being companions with these so handled. For you had compassion on these in jail, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, because you knew that you simply yourselves had a greater possession and an abiding one.
So, these early Christians put themselves in hurt’s means by coming ahead to offer meals and fundamental wants for his or her associates in jail, and so they too had been persecuted. Their possessions had been plundered, whether or not by official decree or mob violence. And the way did they obtain it? Hebrews 10:34: “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. . .” What? How? Are you able to see your self joyfully accepting the plundering of your possessions? The place did this come from?
The reply is within the final a part of Hebrews 10:34: “. . . because you knew that you simply yourselves had a greater possession and an abiding one.” The phrase for “property” is identical phrase, within the plural, because the phrase for “possession.” Actually, “you joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions [plural] since you knew you had a greater and abiding possession [singular].” Since you had God as your heavenly treasure, you had been in a position to settle for the lack of your earthly treasures within the calling of affection — and never simply settle for, however settle for with pleasure. You joyfully accepted the lack of your finite, earthly, restricted possessions since you had the infinite, heavenly, all-satisfying singular Possession, whose identify is Jesus Christ.
So, do you take pleasure in God? Once you take pleasure in God, you might be lastly free to give up your small, personal enjoyments (known as sacrifice) for the higher enjoyment of assembly the wants of others (known as love).
