How Do I Pursue Joy in Christ?

00:00:05.000 | Theologian Michael Reeves joins us again from the UK, filling in this week for John Piper.

00:00:09.000 | And today's question is rather simple. It's profoundly important, but the question itself is rather simple.

00:00:15.000 | Michael, how do we pursue our happiness in Jesus?

00:00:19.000 | First, I'd want to say this is important, pursuing our happiness in Jesus, that joy in Christ isn't an optional extra.

00:00:28.000 | We were made to share the Father's eternal pleasure in his Son.

00:00:34.000 | The Father is always delighted in his Son, eternally found pleasure in him.

00:00:38.000 | And we were created to share the Father's sweet pleasure in his Son.

00:00:44.000 | To love Jesus is to be made more like God himself, more like the Father.

00:00:50.000 | So this is important. Now, I confess personally that wasn't a message that I knew well when growing up as a young Christian.

00:00:59.000 | I think the message that I thought the gospel was, was I am a sinner.

00:01:08.000 | Christ dies for my sins in order to buy me heaven, which meant I was grateful to Christ for redeeming me from hell and bringing me to heaven.

00:01:19.000 | But the real reward of the gospel, I believed, was heaven, not Christ, not God himself.

00:01:28.000 | And that changed personally for me through reading Jonathan Edwards.

00:01:34.000 | And I was torn by his description of the hypocrite in the Religious Affections, where he says that's a good description of the hypocrite, that you are using God to get something else.

00:01:45.000 | Your delight is not in God himself, the one we are made for.

00:01:50.000 | So I think this is very important as an issue, and I feel the personal significance of it.

00:01:56.000 | It's changed what the Christian life looks like to me.

00:01:59.000 | It means sanctification has a rationale to it that it didn't before to me.

00:02:05.000 | So we need to pursue our happiness in Jesus. And I want to use that word "pursue."

00:02:10.000 | This is something we can't simply sit back on.

00:02:13.000 | Paul in Philippians 3.14 uses strong, striving language.

00:02:19.000 | I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

00:02:25.000 | It's an active thing. He wants to press in to know him.

00:02:28.000 | I think the question is, so how then do we do this?

00:02:33.000 | First thing I'd say is this. I'd say two things.

00:02:36.000 | First thing is know him. Grow in your knowledge of Christ.

00:02:42.000 | For it is knowing Christ that is why the Father so delights in him, because he is simply delightful.

00:02:50.000 | Now, a past generation, the Puritans I think of, this seemed to be in the mainstream in a way that it's not today so much.

00:03:00.000 | So you see a number of Puritan works, for example, Thomas Goodwin's The Heart of Christ in Heaven.

00:03:07.000 | There's a great work to read and to consider the ascended, glorified Jesus, to fill your vision with him so that you know him.

00:03:17.000 | And I want to say fill your vision, not simply so that you know about him, but so that he eclipses other concerns for you,

00:03:25.000 | so that his glory is of greater concern than your glory or your worries.

00:03:31.000 | So we need to fill our minds, our vision with him. Goodwin's Heart of Christ would be something I'd recommend.

00:03:38.000 | Owen's The Glory of Christ I'd recommend as well. Charles Spurgeon, Christ's Glorious Achievements.

00:03:47.000 | I would read some of these older, rich works. They help you see how a Christ-focused generation of the past read Scripture to know Christ better.

00:03:58.000 | Fill out your knowledge of him. I try to think of something John Owen said on this.

00:04:05.000 | He talked about this a number of times in his works and said things like this. Do any of us find a lukewarmness, a spiritual stupidity and senselessness coming upon us?

00:04:19.000 | Well, there is no better way for our healing than this, a fresh view of the glory of Christ and abiding therein.

00:04:29.000 | He wrote, after having buried 10 of his children, he would write, "A due contemplation of the glory of Christ will restore and compose the mind."

00:04:45.000 | He's not an ivory tower theologian. Having suffered deeply, he knows that it's a view of Christ's glory, compassion, grace, holiness,

00:04:56.000 | will enable you to go through all that life throws at you and to go through it with a joy.

00:05:03.000 | So press into know Christ better. That's how we pursue our happiness.

00:05:06.000 | But I'd add one more thing to that. Compare Christ to whatever else it is that you treasure.

00:05:15.000 | So what is it that you really want? Is it love? Is it you want to be loved?

00:05:21.000 | And that can come across in various ways, a sexual addiction, a desire for fame.

00:05:27.000 | Those are really varieties of wanting to be loved. Is it acceptance? Is it money? Is it power? Is it comfort?

00:05:34.000 | Now compare that thing you dream of and love with Christ. Which is better?

00:05:39.000 | Does pornography offer you the satisfaction, acceptance and love that Jesus does?

00:05:46.000 | Does money offer you anything in comparison to the riches of Christ?

00:05:51.000 | Does passing temporal power offer you anything in comparison to what Christ is offering?

00:05:58.000 | And when you see how much better Christ is than those other things you go running after,

00:06:04.000 | you will choose Christ rather than those things, and you'll walk away from them with freedom.

00:06:10.000 | Wonderful, Michael. And this is why we need you to keep writing books about the glory of Christ.

00:06:16.000 | Thank you. I say that because he just finished work on an excellent book titled "Christ Our Life"

00:06:20.000 | which is scheduled to release on September 1st in the UK.

00:06:23.000 | It will be titled "Rejoicing in Christ" and released in the US early next year.

00:06:28.000 | And speaking of books on the importance of seeing and savoring Jesus Christ,

00:06:32.000 | see John Piper's book "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ."

00:06:35.000 | You can download it right now for free from our website at DesiringGod.org.

00:06:39.000 | Just click on the "Books" tab on the top of the page and you will find it,

00:06:42.000 | "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" is the title. It's a wonderful little book.

00:06:46.000 | Well, tomorrow we will hear from Michael Reeves one more time.

00:06:49.000 | Christ is not just glorious and to be adored as he is often separate from us.

00:06:53.000 | The Bible teaches us that all Christians are united to him.

00:06:57.000 | Michael has written and spoken a lot about union with Christ, and tomorrow I'll ask him,

00:07:01.000 | why is it important for Christians to understand and embrace the precious truth of our union with Christ?

00:07:06.000 | I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John Podcast.

00:07:10.000 | [Pastor John's Podcast - Ask Pastor John]

00:07:16.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do I Pursue Joy in Christ?

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