[Music] so I want to do some review at first I said last night that there are three big discoveries that I made about between the ages of 17 and 24 and and the point was you don't have to know a lot of things you have to know a few great wonderful things and then just pour your life into those things so let me remind you of the first two and then we'll talk about number three the first one was that that I am not God God is God there is an absolute reality outside of me
I don't Define God he defines me I don't create my own meaning in life God tells me why I'm here so I'm not not one of those existentialists that I talked about that just act in absolute freedom and create their own meaning I'm not God I submit to God and I want to understand his being and his way so I can bring my life life into Conformity to his purposes that's the way you don't waste your life so here's God's big purpose God created the universe in order to glorify himself God created the universe to
put his greatness and his Beauty on display the Bible says the heavens are proclaiming the glory of God and I think you can say everything about the creation is about God and part of the discovery was this God intends for his glory to be enjoyed by me and you He commands us delight yourself in the Lord the reason we have a mind is to know him and the reason we have a heart is to enjoy him and here's one more piece to the first discovery my enjoying him reflects his value and so the way I've
tried to put that is by saying God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him so that's Discovery number one just had a huge impact on the way I live my life now Discovery number two was this God intended from eternity that his son Jesus Christ would be the center point of that Glory and the clearest point of the display of his glory is when the Son of God is crucified and rises from the dead and it got sort of complicated last night in in trying to say that Jesus was the
means of my salvation and Jesus is the goal of my salvation the Son of God comes into the world he is the Divine God man he lives a perfect life with no sin he dies in the place of Sinners he provides for them a perfect righteous he Bears all their guilt and so he removes all of God's anger at me and then he rises from the dead to vindicate all of that work and he reigns in heaven today now that work of Jesus Christ is the central glory of God so here's the way I wrote
down to say it today the person who saved me is the person I was saved to see the work of Jesus Christ is the means of my salvation and my salvation is having my eyes open to see him and be satisfied in him so the second Discovery is this the center of God's revealed glory is Jesus Christ incarnate and crucified and risen and reigning now I want to move to uh Discovery number three but before I do I'm going to put in a little parenthesis here as I was thinking about the centrality of Jesus Christ
in the universe I thought about the fact that I'm at a university and I just want to say a word about the relationship between Jesus and the university so let me read a passage of scripture that relates to this this is Colossians 1 16 and 17 Christ is the image of the invisible God by him all things were created all things were created through him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together so God has designed the universe to display the glory of God the center of that glory
is the person and work of his son Jesus Christ and therefore Paul says all things are for Christ history philosophy philosoph anthropology anthropolog physics chemistry everything in this un University is for Jesus Christ all things hold together in him so the question for every University is are you a university I wonder if you know the Latin roots of those two words one Unity versus is the participle of ver means to to turn so how do you get University out of that I think the idea is this a a universe is a reality where there's a
unity and all things are are turning around it and turning to it and when the concept of University emerged in the Middle Ages it was a place where all things were turning around Jesus Christ there is only one hope for a university there there aren't many universities in the world many multivers in the world but if you believe Colossians 1 16 and 17 all things are for Jesus Christ all things were made by Jesus Christ hold together in Jesus Christ there's only one hope for a university that is a school turning around and turning toward
Jesus Christ so I pray that mckeny University Ina I pray that Harvard University and Yale University and Duke University and Liberty University will be universities harty though everything that we study was made to glorify Jesus so close that parenthesis I just thought of that last night now let's go to Discovery number three this is the most practical one things land on the ground here I have said that God means for his glory to be enjoyed God says delight yourself in the Lord Paul says rejoice in the Lord so clearly God's purpose is that he would
be our satisfaction and I said the reason for that is because he is glorified more when I'm more satisfied in him now here's the problem nobody can see your satisfaction satisfaction is in there God does not mean to be invisible if I say my satisfaction in God glorifies God where how what do you see now you you might think well you see him smiling well who cares about that that that doesn't impress anybody unbelievers smile or you might say he worships he worships God so you can tell he's satisfied in God all religions do that
sort of thing all kinds of people get emotional about God nobody gets saved watching somebody raise his hand in worship it doesn't take any miracle in me to lift my hand up in in worship so what is the externalization of joy that glorifies God now before I answer that question let me just say something about Brazil you and I live in a needy land Brazil and the United States of there are rich and there are poor in our land and the gaps grow there are racial detentions in America there are class tensions in Brazil little
love is Flowing between classes Brazil is the second largest consumer of illicit drugs in the world Brazil has the highest rate of firearm homicides in the world United States is right behind you we kill each other every day in America that's just a taste of the reality we live with and my point is going to be that the externalization of our joy has to do with that I'm going to argue this genuine satisfaction in God inevitably overflows in love to other people and that's the way it becomes externalized so let's watch Jesus talk about that
I'm going to go to Matthew Chapter 5 if you want to look you can use a Bible if you don't have one that's okay so I think I'll have uh abber read verses 11 through 16 instead of my reading it for so let me point to a few parts of this text just to show you why it's relevant you noticed at the end of verse 16 that good works are happening and the result is that people are glorifying God well that's why we're on the planet so something good is happening here something really ultimate is
happening and then notice in verse 12 you have joy Jesus says rejoice and be glad but notice the the context of Joy verse 11 blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and speak false things against you so the setting is one of persecution and hardship and good works are being done by those persecuted people and people are looking at that and they're saying God is amazing it just seems to me that almost never happens when I do a good deed how about you most people when they watch people do good deeds they
say way to go you're a virtuous person they don't say God you're great so this is a very puzzling text to me what is the answer what would be a key for people to glorify God when you do a good deed or another way to say it when you love them that's what good deeds are they're expressions of love to other people and I think the key is in verse 12 rejoice in that day and be glad for your reward in heaven is great that's where God is he is my reward so right here I'm
being persecuted I'm being lied about this hurts it wants to make me angry and instead I look up and God totally satisfies me now and I don't have to be angry and I don't have to return good for evil I said that wrong I don't have to return evil for evil I I I return good for evil it's coming out of me because I'm satisfied in God so if you ask me what do you think the salt is what do you think the light is says in verse 13 you are the salt of the earth
and in verse 14 you're the light of the world and people are seeing that and they're glorifying God what is it it's not just good deeds the world does kinds of good deeds I believe that the salt and the light is joy in the midst of being mistreated and as the situation around you is hurtful and negative and dangerous you're not becoming angry or bitter or or vengeful or you are glad you rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven and then overflowing from that satisfaction in God are these good deeds in
the midst of suffering when nobody expects you to do good deeds that will get attention for God this is huge for me I I make no claim to have arrived at this Jesus is always making me feel you haven't arrived yet which is why I Love The Gospel so much now let me go to another passage of scripture with you to see whether or not we can confirm that interpretation of Matthew 5 Second Corinthians chapter8 another parenthesis I'm G stick in another parenthesis I get so concerned that I'm going to be misunderstood concerning Joy so
many Christians think of joy as something very light and superficial just put a smile on your face and praise God anyhow and you give the impression you just don't understand the suffering of the [Music] world how can you be glad in God when the world is so full of suffering so the point of this little parenthesis is to to explain this one of the most important verses in the Bible for me in regard to Joy and Pain is second Corinthians chapter 6 verse 10 where Paul simply says sorrowful yet always rejoicing that was a description
of himself always sorrowful always glad that's emotionally paradoxical I wonder if you have tasted that Paradox in your own experience you haven't lived very long as a Christian if you have haven't experienced that Paul says Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep is there ever a moment when you don't know somebody rejoicing and somebody weeping no no you have to be able to rejoice and weep at the same time the clearest picture of this for me was when I was 28 years old I got a phone call from my my brother-in-law
my first child was two years old he was standing beside me my wife was sitting on the couch and my brother-in-law said John I have really bad news for you okay what your mom was just killed in a bus accident your father was injured he may not make it they had been in Israel they had a bus accident and both of them were she was taken out he was in the hospital I got the details I could hung up the phone and my two-year-old said Daddy sad told Noel the facts went to the bedroom knelt
down by the bed and cried for two hours and in those two hours I was unbelievably glad not not glad that she was dead but the list of things to be glad about just poured onto me for 28 years she had been the best mom imaginable I was born into a Christian home and she loved me she died instantly without suffering she's in heaven with Jesus and the list could go on and on nobody watching me would say I wasn't sad you know those times you heave until you can't cry anymore and I was just
overflowing with gratitude so I know this is possible sorrowful yet always rejoicing so clo close this parenthesis the point is when I speak Joy I don't mean anything superficial I mean the kind of deep unshakable satisfaction in God that nothing can [Music] affect it's not circumstantially based based in God in Christ in his work and all the promises that he bought for us okay end of parenthesis second Corinthians chapter 8 um let's read this together back and forth let me give you the situation first Paul is writing to the Corinthians the Corinthians live live at
the bottom part of gree he's going to refer to the macedonians that's the top part of Greece and he's telling the Corinthians how well the macedonians responded so the Corinthians would be like that and Paul is collecting money to take to the poor in Jerusalem okay here we go we want you to know Brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia for in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part for they gave according
to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord now drop down to verse eight I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others namely the macedonians that your love also is genuine now the reason I include verse eight is this the word love is used and the way it's used shows that he's describing the first three verses as love I want you to have love the way those macedonians did and verses 1 to three is a description of that love so what is love
According to second Corinthians 8 1:3 verse one the grace of God came in Macedonia God was um Paul was preaching the gospel of grace the gospel was I love you I send my son for you I will save you I'll forgive you for all your sins I'll remove my own anger away from you I'll provide you with the righteousness that God requires so Grace came in Macedonia they received this and what happened verse two in a severe test of Affliction so Affliction increased please don't think that I'm preaching some kind of easy gospel if you
receive the grace of God Affliction will increase the joy I want you to have in God isn't based on the absence of AFF back to verse two in a severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty stop so not only had Affliction come poverty had not gone away so now you have brand new Christians being persecuted in some way poverty remaining and what's sandwiched between Affliction and poverty here their Abundance of Joy what's that based on not the absence of Affliction not the absence of poverty it's the grace of God came
God showed himself to them as a gracious God and they just were amazed at how good that is it satis IED them so deeply that their Affliction didn't make them unhappy and their poverty didn't make them unhappy God had made them happy now the point is what did that Joy produce you can't see Joy you can only see the externalization of Joy what was it in verse two in their severe test of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity that you can see and I hope you're
hearing Matthew 5 blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you that's the Affliction rejoice in that day and be glad for great is your reward in heaven that's the Abundance of Joy and they overflowed with a wealth of generosity that's the good works of Matthew 5:16 how would you define love now on the basis of this text here's mine love is is the Overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others you think that's faithful to 2 Corinthians 3ans 82 I mean I'm trying to get the very words from the text
so I think we were on the right track when we interpreted Matthew 511 the way we did love is not just good deeds Good Deeds don't get any glory for God by themselves God is glorified when our Good Deeds are flowing from satisfaction in God the in circumstances where the world doesn't expect you to be happy in other words the key to love is joy in God let me raise an objection here an objection to what I'm saying this is a real objection from 1967 I was a junior in college I was in a class
on apologetics and the teacher assigned the book by Joseph Fletcher called Situation ethics and my classmates were very impressed with the argument of this book one of the arguments of this book went like this kind of a syllogism two premises and a conclusion premise number one love is commanded in the Bible premise number two emotions cannot be commanded conclusion love does not include the emotions oh and they were so impressed with this argument and I mean I I grew up in a Christian home my parents read me the Bible every day so I'm just saturated
with the Bible at age what I was 20 years old and that argument didn't smell right to me I could I couldn't put my finger on what's the problem just there something wrong with that argument here's what's wrong with the argument premise number two is false remember what that was emotions cannot be commanded what you know your Bible gratitude is commanded Psalm 100 hope is commanded first Peter one Joy is commanded Philippians 4 sorrow is commanded Romans 12 compassion is commanded Ephesians 4 fear is commanded Romans 11 contentment is commanded Hebrews 13 so when I
when I saw this I thought Joseph lecher you may be impressive but you're just not biblical so the objection was this the definition you just gave of Love Is wrong because love can't include emotions like joy in God because love is commanded you can you can't command Joy that's not a valid argument the Bible is clear the love of the Corinthians was the overflow of joy in God that's what verse two says their Joy overflowed in generosity for the poor if you try to pull the root of joy out of that equation you get legalism
the performance of religious Duty for the poor you're going to get the glory for that not God just across the page in my Bible is chapter nine a very famous verse maybe you'll hear it differently now in view of what we just saw so chapter 9 verse 7 each one must give as he has made up his own mind not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful Giver so we have the same issue generosity in in chapter 8 verse2 and giving in chapter 9 verse 7 and in verse two of chapter 8 that
giving is Flowing from Joy and in verse seven of chapter 9 it's flowing from cheerfulness it's not flowing from compulsion compulsion would mean I don't really want to give to the poor but everybody's watching me and it's the right thing to do so I'll give to the poor this text says God does not love that God loves a cheerful Giver you live in a land oh I shouldn't say this let's see if we can say it another way we live in lands religiosity is all over the world do right things because God Is Watching it's
not Christianity I don't know what kind of tradition you come from but I'm arguing that the key to a life of genuine Christianity is genuine joy in God and the opposite of it is not paganism it's reluctant dutiful compulsory doing right things [Music] so look around Brazil look at the religion Christian forms of religion do you find people thrilled with the grace of God and their worship and their service is just pouring out of that or do you just find religion people doing the traditionally right things it's really sad so that's my case well I
could make it a little bit uh how much more time we have here okay I'm going to give you one more Texs chapter 20 chapter 20 verse 35 one of the few quotations of Jesus outside the gospel and it goes like this my joy in God flowing out to meet the needs of others grows you get that I want maximum joy in God this text is saying if you let it spread to others it gets bigger your joy in God flows into the life of another their joy and your joy together is for you a
bigger Joy um um you gotta cut that into short pieces when when when when you let your joy flow into another person their joy and your joy together is really a bigger joy for you your joy is in their Joy let me read it again Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive a blessing comes to you when you give now when I was working in my doctoral studies in Germany this is 1971 to 74 I was working on a degree in New Testament [Music] studies my thesis was on love your enemies
I spent three years doing almost nothing but reading about this I read endless eth ethical essays and [Music] books about motivation especially where does love for enemies come from it's amazing how often you read something like this there is a reward for doing good but if you do good for the reward it's not good so here I am with my nose again like Joseph Fletcher Jose Fletcher I'm say that doesn't smell right to me why not acts 2035 I mean if that were true okay if that were true and here's here's what I'm I'm saying
might be true if you do good for reward that's not good if that were true here's the way verse 35 would have to read okay in all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and we must forget the word words of the Lord Jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive because if you remember that it will ruin all your good deeds won't it I mean he's enticing you to evil he's not he's not just saying there is a blessing that
that comes with giving he's saying remember it let me give you an example the example is too early make another statement first I believe contrary to that ethical theory that when I love a person for the blessedness there is in it I love them better okay now my illustration I'm I'm at home playing with my children it's 8 o00 at night this would have been a long time ago when they were little I get a phone call that Helen I'm just making up this name an old woman in my church has just had a heart
attack she's at the hospital down the road would I please quickly come Helen is a wonderful Christian but they don't know if she's GNA live I've been out every night this week the first time I've had with my kids in a week I don't feel like going that's not good pastors should love their people so I'm going and I'm driving to the hospital and I'm praying that God would affect my heart would you give me so much joy in yourself that I would Delight in blessing Helen so I I walk into the hospital room while
God's word working on me I put my hand on her arm she opens her eyes she smiles and she says oh Pastor you didn't need to come that's the way the older people always are young people say it's about time you came what what if I said to Helen when she said you didn't need to come what if I said I know and I didn't want to come but I'm a pastor and it's my duty to come and so I'm doing the right thing and I'm here to bless you you're all laughing and that's a
really healthy laughter you should laugh that out of the world Helen will feel more loved if I enjoy this then if I do it begrudging the reason acts 2035 is not a contradiction of Love even though I'm seeking my blessing is because in getting a blessing I'm giving a bigger one if I said to Helen this Helen I love being here it makes me happy to pray with you I get so blessed by pointing people to Jesus would she say to me you you are so selfish all you're doing is seeking your joy she would
not say that she would feel more loved if I enjoyed loving her I don't buy that ethical theory that if you seek a reward in loving you ruin the deed because the reward is including Helen in my my joy my Jo my joy is getting bigger as I wrap it around Helen so Joy is the key to love and love is the externalization of my satisfaction in God and therefore you might say the universe was created for love let me end like this two passages of scripture first Peter 3:18 Christ suffered once the righteous for
the unrighteous to bring us to God so he died to bring us to God and what do you find when you get there Psalm 16 verse 11 in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand are Pleasures forever more the reason I have come to Brazil is 2 Corinthians 1:24 not that I lorded over your faith but I am a worker with you for your joy because God is most glorified in you when you're most satisfied in him especially when that satisfaction is externalized in loving other people that's what Brazil needs from you
let's pray father I pray that this University would be increasingly filled with that kind of people and I pray for those who are listening right now that you would give them eyes to see the glory of Christ and give them new Hearts to enjoy him and may that fullness of joy overflow in love I ask this in Jesus name amen amen
