Living the Fullness of God’s Joy
Text: Psalm 16:11
Intro:
This Sunday is our 1st week that we are now having our monthly theme this July entitled “Know God, Know Joy”. As I was meditating our text this month found in Psalm 16:11, I can’t help but to ask God, what kind of joy does God wants us to understand or grasp at this point in time? If you ask many people, including ourselves, what are the things that make us joyful? You see there are a slight difference between happiness and joy that can be found in this world. According to Wikipedia, “happiness” is defined as a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. While “joy” is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. On this 2 meanings we can see that being happy is an emotion while joy is the highest level of that emotion. So being joyful or full of joy means we are not just happy, but super, mega, or having a great emotion of being happy.
In this world where many things we think are sources of joy in our lives, we sometimes mistakenly identify them as the true source of this great emotion. Allow me to give you a glimpse of what the word means in the light of God’s Word. Let’s read our text today Psalm 16:11
Psalm 16:11 NIV
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
English Standard Version
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
ASND:
Itinuro n'yo sa akin ang landas patungo sa buhay na puno ng kasiyahan, at sa piling n'yo, aking matatagpuan ang ligayang walang hanggan.
Earlier we saw in this verse the 3 sources of joy that God wants us to experience, but today God wanted us to see the 3 kinds of spiritual joy.
1. The Joy of Salvation – “You make known to me the path of life” “landas patungo sa buhay”
The writer of this Psalm is David and he clearly mentioned about a discovery of a path of life that God gave him. What is this path of life that David mentioned? David didn’t know about that path, but God made it known to him. We saw David as a young shepherd boy in which God made a path for him to find a life that he will experience God. From being a boy to a successful King of Israel many times David experiences the help of God. You see the path that he discovered is path to God’s salvation – a life that will give us joy.
David knew how many times God saved his life in the hands of his enemies. He surely knew what was the feeling of having a Savior in our God. He speaks of the path to salvation where we remember Jesus said in John 14:6a Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. He did not say that I know the way, but He said He is the Way. He is the path of life that God wanted everyone to experience. He has the roadmap to that life that goes to His Father that is why He also said in the 2nd part of the verse “no one can come to the Father except through Me” which means He knows the Way where infact He is the “only” Way to that life! God allowed David to discover this path because he had a close relationship with God. The Joy of Salvation is about finding a path of life where we can experience God’s salvation through a close relationship with Him.
In Luke 15, we can see 3 parables where Jesus explained the Joy of Salvation. Verse 1-2, we saw Jesus eating with sinners like tax collectors and Pharisees and teachers of the law took notice of it. Then He started telling the parables.
Parable of the Lost Sheep – vv3-7
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Parable of the Lost Coin – vv8-10
9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Parable of the Lost Son – vv11-31
23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
What can we see on these 3 parables? Each of the stories has something to do with losing and finding and all ended up with having a party by rejoicing! On this way Jesus tried to explain to them that He is the way to that life and He tried making it known to them so that they will experience the joy of having been saved. That is why He is there with the sinners for Jesus said “I have come to seek and save the lost!”
The Joy of Salvation is about knowing that we are lost or we are in a hopeless situation right now, but God makes it known through Jesus so we can be found and have a life full of joy partying with angels and other heavenly beings! Have we experienced that? This is the reason why many Christians could not afford to go cold on their relationship with God because every day they are experiencing it.
Psalms 35:9 “Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation.
Are we joyful in the Lord because we are saved? Or are we only joyful in the Lord because of the many blessings He gave? Or have we forgotten the times that we need God and every time we fall on our knees and cry out to God for HELP? Or are we, like David, when he sinned, he knew this kind of joy would be gone as lost his relationship with God.
Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
If in case we have lost it, ask God just like David to restore it. God will always make it known to every one of us the path of life that leads to the joy of His salvation. Let us always remember those days that God has saved us and continue to save us whenever we need Him filling us with His Joy of Salvation
Illustration:
An old woman dearly loved her Lord. Often her cup of joy overflowed. A favourite expression of hers was, "Praise the Lord!" Often, in God’s house, when the minister preached, she would say, "Praise the Lord!" Sometimes, however, the minister was disturbed by this, and he would lose his line of thought - and so he considered how he might kindly discourage the old woman’s outbursts. The woman was very poor, and therefore the minister had an idea. He offered her a parcel of groceries every month on behalf of the Benevolent Fund if she would only refrain from saying, "Praise the Lord!" during his sermons. She greatly needed the groceries, so she did her best to earn them on the minister’s terms. For many Sundays, she kept perfectly quiet during the sermon. One day, however, the minister preached on forgiveness of sin, with its attendant blessings and joys. And as he preached, the old woman thought less and less of the groceries, and more and more of the joys of salvation. Finally, she could stand it no longer. To everyone’s surprise, she cried out: "Groceries or NO groceries - PRAISE THE LORD!"
2. The Joy of Satisfaction
“In your presence there is fullness of joy”
Can we name a person who can make us happy, or can make us joyful? Or what are the things that can make us joyful? Is it possession (materially, financially,) power (authority, rights), pleasure (vacation, travel)? If all of these things are our motivation so we study hard, work hard and eventually die hard to get all of these, then we become prideful. You see man is created not to be contented with what he has now. He will try to do anything just to get the full capacity of this world for his usage.
We can see that in our technology where man tirelessly finds a way to simplify life by doing things comfortable, elegant, fast, efficient and cost-saving. Even in anything you can see today there are always a new version and the cycle never stops, ex. Cellphones, computers, cars, clothes, foods, accessories, etc. Name it there will always be a newer version. Because of all these technologies, there are many big C’s which slowly eats up our society (not cancer, nor catastrophe, nor calamity) but what we call “contentment”. Contentment (kaluguran) is a mental or emotional state of satisfaction may be drawn from being at ease in one's situation, body and mind. Contentment is about our satisfaction being fed.
Are we contented with our lives with God? Are we satisfied with all His blessings to us?
According to Mick Jagger one of his famous songs to hit the Billboard has a lyric:
I can get no satisfaction (2x) And I tried, yes I tried..
Yes, many people tried many sources of joy, but the kind of joy they need is the Joy of Satisfaction which we can only get from the presence of God. David knew the importance of God’s presence in his life and so King Saul. After King Saul sinned before God when he disobeyed, the presence of God went away from him and from then on an evil spirit haunted him. But it’s only the presence of God through David’s songs as he played his instrument that can drive out the evil spirit from Saul.
And we saw the story of King Saul after he sinned, he lost the joy of satisfaction with God and so from then on he was never contented. He was not contented of being King but his contentment was to kill all the potential heir of his throne including David. That’s the effect of sin in us, we will never be satisfied!
God’s presence can only bring us a total satisfaction of all. Even if we have the whole wealth of the world, we still feel empty because it’s only the presence of God can fill us. It’s the sin of this world that makes us more thirsty for everything. We thirst for possession, power, people, which will make us proud and prideful. Mark 8:36 “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” And worst just like King Saul he lost the presence of God which satisfies the most.
David knew the presence of God and its satisfying experience, that’s why he said in Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” That is why when the time comes when he sinned against God, he prayed this prayer in Psalm 51:10 “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”
Are you satisfied with your life? Or is there anything in your life that is still experiencing emptiness? We need the presence of God that will satisfy us. We need the relationship with God to satisfy us. We need the grace and love of God fill us. David knew after he had sinned, he composed one of the worship songs in the Bible in Psalm 41:1-2:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
The Joy of Satisfaction is about enjoying His presence by being grateful and thankful and the result is the fullness of joy.
Illustration:
Alan Carr tells a story about a man who was tired of his friends owning nicer houses than his, so he went to see a realtor to put his house on the market and began to search for a new one. One day as he was reading the paper, he came across a listing for a house that seemed to be just what he was looking for. He called the realtor and said that he wanted to schedule a walk-through.
The realtor replied, "Sir, about that ... you already own that house!"
The 3rd and the last kind of spiritual joy is
3. The Joy of Service
“with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (ligayang walang hanggan)
It’s not enough that we know the path of His life unless we walk that path and enjoy His presence while we are in our spiritual journey, but it’s also important what brings pleasure or joy to our Master and Lord. Because those that would count after our spiritual journey is over. It is not a matter of how we lived here on Earth, but how we lived faithfully which gave pleasure to our Master.
Are we faithful for all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us? These blessings came from God and somehow God used these blessings to bless us and others. It is also a source of our happiness because of His endless provisions. I remember the parable of the talent in Matthew 25:14-30, where a master called his 3 servants and entrusted each of them with 5, 2 and 1 bags of gold accordingly and went on his journey. The servant with 5 bags of gold doubled it because he faithfully used it with a profit and it goes as well with the servant with 2 bags of gold. Both of them got their master’s nod by saying in:
Matthew 25:21 ESV “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
But what happened to the 3rd servants who did nothing to the single talent that was given to him, he just hid it out of fear for he knew his master’s character to gain from the earnings of others. What did the master told him in verse 26-30?
26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28“?‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
God is not after the quantity of the talents we have for our service to Him, but He is looking at the quality of our service to Him. Don’t hide that God-given talent to us, there will always a purpose why God gave it so that others may also get benefits out of it. God would always be delighted once we are used to give Him the highest form of praise.
God is after the 3rd kind of our spiritual joy and that is the the Joy of Service. Who among here is happy when he/she serves? This kind of joy can be felt when we knew that we are serving not ourselves but others instead. You see God’s full motivation of saving His people is service. We know that He is God and He created everything and He can control them but when it comes to His people, He has given them free will. And for Him to connect with them, He needs to go down here on Earth not to say that I am your Creator and God but I am your Servant. “For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve”.
It’s also the same with us who experienced His path of life (salvation) and He satisfies us with His presence (fullness of joy) and an eternal pleasure which is in His right hand (which means His pleasure is forever more) that the effect of His pleasure is eternal. I remember the verse in Hebrew 12:1-2
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What does that mean? By focusing ourselves to Jesus, we can run our journey of service to God because He is the One Who started it all in us through our faith in Him. There is a joy set before Him (what kind of joy set before Him?), that is to sit on the right hand throne of God. But He did not get it easily. It says “He endured the cross, shame, the pain, etc., that is service to His people.
The joy set before Him is often something like a woman giving birth. She is ready to endure the discomfort of pregnancy and the final agony of giving birth for the joy of having a child. Because of the coming joy — “the joy that was set before him” — you can be strong enough to get through the pains of today.
All our pains can be our source of our joy because His joy is His strength:
In Habakkuk 3:17-18 says
17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Joy of our Service is about the joy of serving God faithfully in spite of all the hardships. That is why Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Our Joy of Service will never be forgotten by God.
Illustration:
C. S. Lewis once provided a powerful image of the difference between heaven and hell. He described hungry people sitting at a huge banquet loaded with delicious food. Every person had a meter-long fork and knife attached to their hands (that’s about three feet long). The scene in hell was one of anger, frustration, and fighting as people scrambled to feed themselves. They could reach the food with the long knives and forks, but they were too long to feed themselves. The conflict, screaming, and unfulfilled hunger continued for eternity--that is hell.
But the scene in heaven was quite different. The same tables were loaded with food, and the people had the same long forks and knives attached to their hands. But instead of chaos and conflict, there was joy, laughter, and pleasant conversation. The difference? In heaven, the diners weren't trying to feed themselves. Each person was patiently taking the food and feeding the person seated across the table.
C.S. Lewis concluded that people who spend all their lives trying to fulfill their own selfish desires are already experiencing a kind of hell. But those who live a life of service to others will find themselves at home in heaven. They had learned the joy of service on earth, and now they had eternity to enjoy it, only more so.
Are we trying to serve because we are the beneficiaries of it? Or are we trying to serve because we love God and His people? Jesus said “whatever you do to the least of your brethren, you do it for Me”
Conclusion:
Living in the fullness of God’s Joy is about enjoying our spiritual joy not the kind of joy this world can give. Let us be reminded of the 3 kinds of joy were given so that we may enjoy life with God by having our relationship with God. These are:
Joy of Salvation
Joy of Satisfaction
Joy of Service
Can we identify what joy do we need this day?
