FULNESS OF JOY AND RIVERS OF PLEASURE:
By Pastor Chris Jordan
This morning when you woke up, I hope that your heart was the same as mine, and that you said as the Psalmist David did, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1). I hope that you didn’t wake up this morning and say, “Oh no! It’s another Sunday morning and I have to go to church!” I hope that when you woke up this morning you said, “Yes! It’s Sunday morning and I get to go to the house of the Lord, because I get to meet with Jesus! My God is a good God, a loving God, who has great plans for my life.”
Now today is a very special day for me - August 14, 2005. This is the 16 year anniversary of the day I first encountered Jesus Christ. Sixteen years ago today, on a farmhouse outside of Lacombe, Alberta, a young man named Jerrold shared the Gospel with me and told me that there was a God who loved me so much, that if I would give my life to Him, I would never regret it. And it’s true – I never have. Since that day, I have enjoyed serving Jesus and living the Christian life. And if you don’t know Jesus, I pray that you would meet Him, and realize that Christianity is not just about following a bunch of rules, and dressing up nice to go to church on Sunday morning. It’s about having a personal friendship with the God who not only created you, but loves you so much, and desperately longs to have a friendship with you. That’s the God of the Bible.
But there’s something missing in the church today. There’s something missing, and I wonder if we can find it, because it’s something we need on this journey called the Christian life. There’s something missing in the lives of so many of God’s people, and it’s called JOY. It’s God’s desire that we would have not just a little bit of joy, but fullness of joy, and rivers of pleasure. That’s the title of my message.
This past Friday afternoon I took my family to the mall on a shopping trip, and most of you who know my wife know she likes to shop. As we were getting ready to leave the mall, we stopped at Dairy Queen for some ice cream. We got some ice cream cones for the kids, and as I was scanning the menu, under the “Blizzard” section (that’s the stirred up ice cream with all the good chocolate stuff in it), I noticed an item on the menu that said, “Extra Stuff – 99 cents.” So I asked the cashier, “Could I get some of that extra stuff, please?” She wasn’t quite sure what I meant by that (I’m sure no one had ever just ordered the extra stuff before), so she called her supervisor over, and she said to her, “He wants the extra stuff.” The supervisor explained to me, “You have to order the Blizzard before you can get the extra stuff.” I just wanted the extra stuff for 99 cents – that was a good deal! She said, “No, you have to get the Blizzard – then you can get the extra stuff.” You see, in our Christian lives, so many of us aren’t experiencing the extra stuff – we’re not experiencing the joy of the Lord because we don’t realize that there’s something else we need to have first before we can get the extra stuff. We’re going to talk about that in this message.
In Galatians 4:15, Paul asks, “What happened to your joy?” And I want to ask that same question to you today. When I was at church yesterday, I was looking around our sanctuary during worship to see if I could see any joy in the house of the Lord. There was a little bit of it up at the front with some of our young people, who were dancing before the Lord in worship. But there wasn’t a lot of other joy. And some of you might say, “Well, pastor Chris, my joy is on the inside. I have the joy by faith, brother! I just don’t like to express it on the outside. It’s an inner joy.” Well, if you’ve got an inner joy, then let it out!
So what is JOY? Joy is a topic that is mentioned in the Bible over 650 times (it talks about joy, rejoice, rejoicing, glad, gladness, and delight). So some of you might say, “Joy is not an important topic. You should be preaching about faith or prayer or Bible study, because those are important topics.” But to me, when the Bible talks about a certain topic over 650 times, that tells me it’s a pretty important topic. Here’s just a sampling of 10 of those Scriptures, and what the Bible has to say about joy:
Psalm 5:11 - God wants us to rejoice, shout for joy, and be joyful in Him! Notice it says that God wants us to shout for joy, not whisper for joy.
Psalm 43:4 - the Psalmist calls God His “Exceeding Joy.” Some of you might say, “Well, I don’t need all that joy stuff, brother, I’m just serving Jesus.” Well let me tell you something about this God you’re serving. He IS exceeding joy! That’s His name, and that’s His nature. If you get around God, you’re going to get a little bit of joy in your life, whether you like it or not.
Job 8:21 - do you know what the book of Job is about? It’s about a man who suffered and went through the trials and dark storms of life. Do you know that in the book of Job, joy is mentioned five times? It says that God will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. In the book of Job!
Isaiah 9:3 - it says God’s people rejoice according to the joy of the harvest. When we see people get saved and give their lives to Jesus, that’s joy!
Isaiah 12:3 - the prophet says to draw out water from the wells of salvation with joy. What’s he saying here about the wells of salvation? When you get saved, when you give your life to Jesus, you should be experiencing joy. It’s fun being saved! There is joy in Jesus.
Matt. 25:21 - For those of you who say, “I don’t need all that joy stuff,” guess what? Heaven is called “the joy of the Lord.” When we stand before King Jesus on the day that we enter eternity, He will say, “Enter into the joy of the Lord.” So you better get used to joy down here on the earth, because there’s going to be a whole lot of it in heaven.
Luke 2:10 - in the familiar Christmas story, the angels appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of the Saviour Jesus as good tidings of great joy. They said, “This is good news and great joy!”
Acts 13:52 - the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Rom. 14:17 - the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is about joy.
Gal. 5:22 - joy is the fruit of the Spirit.
I once read of a little boy who used to escape his bedroom after being punished. He would crawl out of his bedroom window down an old fruit tree to the ground. One day, his father told him that he was going to chop down the fruit tree, because it hadn’t borne any fruit for a number of years. That evening, the boy and his friend bought a bushel of apples, and during the night, tied those apples on the barren branches. The next morning, the man could not believe his eyes. He said to his wife, "Honey, I can’t believe it! That old tree hasn’t yielded any fruit for years, and now it’s covered with apples. And, the most amazing thing is that it’s a pear tree!"
You see, joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life, and you can’t fake it! You know if you have the joy or not. When you have the apples hanging on the pear tree – that’s not real fruit! We can pretend all we want, but God doesn’t want us to pretend. I’m not talking about putting on a mask and pretending that we’re all right when we’re not. I’m saying if we realize today that we don’t have the joy that God intends for us to have, then let’s find out where we can get it, and go get it, amen? Let’s take a look at what God’s Word has to say about this topic of JOY:
KEY TEXT: “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11).
The three things we’re going to look at here are: (1) Pick the pathway of life, (2) Pursue the presence of joy, and (3) Participate in rivers of pleasure!
WHAT IS JOY? The Old Testament word for joy speaks of gladness, dancing, leaping or spinning around in pleasure/intense motion. So it’s not just a deep feeling of joy deep down on the inside – it’s going to come out! But some of you would say, “Well, that’s a little bit too radical for me, brother. Leaping? Twirling? That’s not very dignified!” That’s the idea! Who said anything about joy being dignified? Now what is joy? Joy in the New Testament speaks of a celebration.
When I gave my life to Jesus, I had served sin for the first 17 years of my life, I had partied a lot the world’s way, the way the world said to party. I had always longed within my heart and desired to enjoy and experience life. The concept of coming to church and being bored or boring – I just don’t get it! If there is a God who created us and loves us, wouldn’t He want us to experience joy and pleasure? And yet in the church we have this idea that pleasure is sin. We can’t experience pleasure, because pleasure’s bad. We have this idea that God sat up in Heaven, and when He was getting ready to create the planet, He got out this great big cosmic pen and wrote down a list of all the things that were fun and pleasure and said, “SIN!” We think we can’t do anything fun! When we think this, we’ve missed the plan and purpose of God – joy and pleasure.
See, what the world offers to us in sin is a counterfeit. It’s true that the Bible says sin is pleasurable for a season, but it is always with consequences. Because sin will always take you further than you want to go, it’ll keep you longer than you want to stay, and charge you more than you want to pay. It asks for very little in the beginning, but in the end it’ll bring about your destruction. The wages of sin is death! So don’t settle for the devil’s counterfeit – pursue the real thing!
And some people would say, “Doesn’t the Bible talk about how we need to have times of mourning and sadness? The Bible does talk about sorrow, Pastor Chris, I know it’s in there somewhere!” Well, here’s what the Bible says about sorrow: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Ps. 30:5). So if you want to have sorrow, have it for a night, but in the morning, let’s have the joy! The fullness of joy and rivers of pleasure that God intends for us to experience!
I’m not saying that life isn’t hard, that we don’t go through difficult times and seasons of loss. But joy is different from happiness. I’m not talking about happiness, because happiness is based on our circumstances. We are happy when good things happen to us. I get a new job – I’m happy! I lose my job – I’m sad. Young people – you get a boyfriend or a girlfriend – I’m happy! They break up with you – I’m sad. I get a new house – yes, I’m happy! Then I have to start fixing it up a year later – I’m sad. I get a new car – I’m happy. I realize I have to make payments on that car – the happiness is gone. Happy, sad, happy, sad. It comes and goes! But joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that does not depend on our circumstances. It doesn’t matter how dark it gets, it doesn’t matter what negative things happen to us, if we have the joy of the Lord that doesn’t come from any outside source, but the presence of the Living God, nothing can take it away from you. That’s the kind of joy we’re talking about here today!
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11).
How can we experience the joy of the Lord in our lives? The three things this Scripture tells us we need to do. (1) Pick the pathway of life, (2) Pursue the presence of joy, and (3) Participate in rivers of pleasure!
I. PICK THE PATHWAY OF LIFE:
“You will show me the path of life…” (Psalm 16:11). What is the pathway of LIFE? Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10). The thing that we need to understand as we’re living life here on Planet Earth is that we have an enemy, the enemy of our souls, who wants to steal, kill and destroy in our lives, but Jesus has come so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. If you read through the Scriptures and do a study on the topic of joy, every time you see it, it is accompanied with adjectives – great joy, exceeding joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. It’s fullness of joy that God wants us to have! But in order to experience the joy, we must pick the pathway of life. Now what is the pathway of life?
God said, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.” (Deut. 30:15-19). What does it mean to choose life, and pick the pathway of life? It means to choose the Bible, to live our lives according to the Word of God. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11). Joy comes from living a life in obedience to the Word of God! If you think about it for a minute: If there is a God, and He created this world that we’re living in, and He gave us a Book – the blueprint for life that tells us how to live, and His desire is that we have abundant life and fullness of joy, if we’re not experiencing what He intended for us, could it be that we’ve strayed just a little bit away from this book? Because He said that when we walk in obedience to His Word, when we follow the guidelines that He has laid out for us, there is fullness of joy!
Someone described the B.I.B.L.E. once in terms of this acronym: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Do you want to know how to live life to the fullest and experience abundant joy? You have to pick the pathway of life, and that life can be found in the Bible. This book is life.
Now I’ve said that Jesus came to give us life, but it’s also true that we have an enemy who has come to steal, kill and destroy. And one of the things that the devil wants to steal from us is our joy. Where do you think many of the negative circumstances in life come from? There are two main ways that the devil tries to steal our joy from us.
The first way the devil tries to steal our joy from us is through sin. When we choose to disobey God and His commandments, we lose our joy. In Psalm 32:3-4, David said, “When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.” Because of the unconfessed sin in his life, he lost his joy. But look what happened when he came to his senses in verse 5, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” After David confesses his sin, his joy returned! “So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!” I’m not saying that we have to be perfect – we all struggle with sin and miss the mark – but when we sin, we need to be quick to repent and confess it to God so we don’t lose our joy. So the first joy-stealer is unconfessed sin.
The second way the devil tries to steal our joy from us is through unresolved conflict. The Bible says, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” (Hebrews 12:14-15). When we get hurt or offended by someone, and we choose to hang onto that offence, that unforgiveness is something that can steal our joy. So we need to choose to forgive! If you have a relationship where there’s unresolved conflict, where you’ve been hanging onto a grudge, let it go. Is it worth losing your joy over? Now conflict is going to happen in our lives. Jesus said that offences will come, and we can’t stop that. We can’t stop people from hurting us. But once we’re hurt, we can choose what we’re going to do with that hurt. We can either choose to hang onto it, and let a root of bitterness spring up, or we can choose to let it go, and forgive. Choose joy!
II. PURSUE THE PRESENCE OF JOY:
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy.” (Ps. 16:11)
I want to show you something here that I discovered very early on in my Christian life – the way to pursue the presence of joy. How do we get into the place where joy is? The Bible says that fullness of joy is found in God’s presence. That tells me that if I want to experience joy, I need to get into God’s presence. But the question is – how do I get there? The answer is found in another Scripture: “But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3). Do you want to know where God’s presence is? It’s in praise and worship. When we praise and worship God, it brings us into God’s presence. Isn’t this what Psalm 100:4 says? “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.” As we worship God, we walk through the doorway into the presence of God, and in His presence, there is fullness of joy. Now why is this joy so important? Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Do you want to know why we have so many weak and defeated Christians? Because we don’t have the joy of the Lord that gives us strength to go from day to day! When our circumstances are dark, and they are bad – when we experience loss and pain and suffering in our lives, we need that joy which comes from being in His presence, which comes from praising and worshipping Him! So we need to literally dance for joy! As we worship and praise the Lord, we come into His presence where there is fullness of joy, and the joy of the Lord gives us strength. Isn’t that good?
Now how do we get into the presence? Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing…These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:5,11). When we spend time with God on a daily basis – not just weekly when we come to church on Sundays – through reading His Word, spending time in prayer, abiding in Jesus – we experience His presence.
If we want to experience the abundant joy of the Lord, it’s not good enough to just come to church on Sundays and think, “I’ll just press in in worship with all of my heart, and I’ll just soak up and listen to all of the teaching from the pastor, and that two hours will give me everything I need to go through the week.” Can I show you the problem with that? Picture with me a jug containing the most cool, refreshing water. This jug of water represents the presence of the Lord. Now imagine a Styrofoam cup that represents our lives as Christians. If we want to experience the joy of the Lord, where do we need to be? In the jug of water – in the presence of the Lord! As long as that cup of water is immersed in that jug – as long as we remain in the presence of the Lord – there is fullness of joy. But our problem is that we don’t stay in the presence of the Lord. When we leave the presence of the Lord, what happens? We leak! Our lives are like Styrofoam cups with a hole in the bottom of them. We’re leaky containers! I wonder if this isn’t why Paul exhorted us to, “Rejoice always, Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thess. 5:16-17). It’s only when we pray without ceasing – when we abide in the living, tangible presence of God – that we can rejoice always.
III. PARTICIPATE IN RIVERS OF PLEASURE!
“At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11b).
God wants us to participate in rivers of pleasure. Would you take a minute or two to just meditate on the awesome truths contained in this next Scripture?
“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.” (Ps. 36:7-8)
Do you want to know why people put their trust in the Lord? Because of the preciousness of His lovingkindness. It’s the goodness of God that draws people to repentance. Those who trust in God’s lovingkindess are abundantly satisfied, and this is what every single person on this planet is looking for! They are searching for something in life that will abundantly satisfy them. Why do you think people turn to drugs and alcohol and all kinds of sexual perversion? They are looking for something that will abundantly satisfy – but there is only one thing in this life that will satisfy the deep longings of our hearts – the presence of the living God. Religion will not do it. The reason people aren’t going to church is because religion doesn’t do it. People in our nation statistically are hungry for God and spiritual things, but they don’t like the church, because there’s too much religion and tradition there. They want God, but they want something real. And we need to give it to them!
If we could just allow the presence of God to transform us into people of joy, we would very literally draw people to Christ by the joy that’s in us. They would say, “What do you have, and how do I get it?” That’s how I came to Jesus. Before my friend Jerrold ever preached the Gospel to me, when we worked together at McDonalds flipping burgers together, there was something different about this young man. There was something that he had that I didn’t have. He was fun, funny and filled with joy, and yet the fun and the jokes that he had was different from my other friends, because it was clean and sober fun. And I said, “How can he have as much fun as I am without getting drunk?” See – it’s the joy of Jesus.
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. We need to learn to drink from God’s rivers of pleasure. Are you thirsty for God’s new wine? Allow me to share this familiar Bible story with you, the story of the prodigal son. The son who said to his father in essence, “Dad, I wish you were dead – I want my share of the inheritance now.” He went out and wasted it all on wild and riotous living and finally came to the end. He had tried looking for joy and pleasures in sin, but he couldn’t find it. When he finally came to his senses, here’s what happened:
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ’Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.” (Luke 15:20-25).
You see, the kingdom of God is a party. It’s a par-tay! Can I put it in modern language for you? We hear the word merry and think, “Oh, they were merry.” No – they had a par-tay! The father said, “We’re gonna throw the fatted calf on the BBQ, we’re gonna eat, drink and par-tay!” The kingdom of God is a party! There’s joy! It’s fun being saved! But listen to this. Oh no! What happened when the older son came near the house and heard the music and dancing? “But he was angry and would not go in.” (v.28). He was angry because of the party! And how many Christians in the church today don’t like the party? “There’s too much joy! The music’s too loud! There’s too much dancing and celebrating! We need to have times of seriousness, hallelujah!”
Here’s my closing challenge to you. Let’s do a little Greek lesson on a Scripture here: This verb is in the imperative tense. That means it’s a commandment. Do you want to obey the Lord? We are commanded to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” (Phil. 4:4). Rejoice – it’s a choice! “Well, I don’t feel very happy today pastor Chris!” We’re not talking about happiness here, we’re talking about rejoicing in the Lord. It’s a commandment! And do you think that God would command you to do something you can’t do? “Well, I can’t rejoice today because this happened in my life.” How can we rejoice? In the Lord. In the presence of the Lord where there’s fullness of joy. Jesus said, “Your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” (John 16:22). Nothing and no one has the power to steal your joy, unless you let them! Unless you stop rejoicing and being in the presence. One last story…
“Now it was told King David, saying, "The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.” (2 Sam. 6:12-16).
The Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart. I want to be a man after God’s own heart. I want to be like David. Notice though it seems wherever there was a party in the Bible, that there was someone there who didn’t like the party. But God loves it when His children are set free to experience His joy. One last Scripture to convince you today that God wants you to have joy. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God in your midst…will rejoice over you with gladness…He will rejoice over you with singing.” Can you picture God as being joyful and singing? “Well, that doesn’t seem like the God I know!” Well, maybe you’ll meet Him today. It’s time for the people of God to be set free to dance for the joy.
Father, right now I thank you for those reading these words. You see the need for joy and freedom and victory, and those who are going through difficult trials in their lives, and need the joy of the Lord. God, I pray for a breakthrough of joy, that there would not be one sour-puss faced, miserable, depressed, downcast person. Pour out your joy upon those reading this today, in Jesus’ name, amen!
Lift up your hands right now and say, “I want the joy!” Shout for joy right now! Dance for joy right now! Receive it!
Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Blog: http://pastorchrisjordan.wordpress.com/
