The Two Sworn Enemies of Our Joy
00:00:00.000 | This week, Randy Alcorn joins us on the phone.
00:00:07.880 | He is the author of the brand new book, Happiness.
00:00:10.440 | Randy, I want to talk about the enemies of our joy today, the enemies of sin and anxiety.
00:00:17.840 | Let's start with sin.
00:00:19.400 | How does sin poison our joy?
00:00:22.400 | Well, Martin Luther said, "Sin is pure unhappiness.
00:00:27.800 | Unhappiness is pure happiness," which is a pretty succinct way to put it.
00:00:32.400 | And again, Psalm 32, "Happier are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
00:00:38.520 | Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity."
00:00:43.360 | William Whitaker, who was a Puritan and a Cambridge University professor in the 16th
00:00:48.800 | century, spoke of sinning away that happiness wherein we were created.
00:00:54.400 | And that is a very graphic picture, not only of what Adam and Eve did, but what we who
00:01:01.120 | are conceived as sinners and have a sin nature, realizing that Christ became sin for us, he
00:01:10.400 | who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, but we still
00:01:14.960 | are capable in this life, in this world under the curse, of sinning away happiness.
00:01:22.520 | And I think this is just such a graphic portrayal of God-granted humanity happiness.
00:01:31.040 | Likewise, he grants to us in Christ an eternal source of happiness.
00:01:37.760 | The God who created the universe, who went to the cross redemptively for me, indwells
00:01:43.600 | me, intercedes for me, we're more than conquerors through him who loved us, yet we still have
00:01:50.440 | this capacity and even inclination to sin away happiness.
00:01:55.040 | And I think one of the things we've got to do, Tony, is stop making this distinction
00:02:00.280 | between, "Okay, if you want holiness, come to the church, come to Jesus, and that's where
00:02:09.160 | you get holiness."
00:02:10.160 | And then we end up preaching messages even that are negative toward happiness sometimes,
00:02:16.720 | but we leave people the impression, and sometimes we virtually state it directly, that to get
00:02:22.760 | happiness, you're going to have to go find that out in the world.
00:02:25.480 | You know, we get happiness at the barbecue, we get happiness when we go swimming or surfing,
00:02:30.560 | you know, we get happiness when we hang out with friends or go to a ballgame, but we don't
00:02:38.700 | associate happiness with the church, the body of Christ, the ways that we should.
00:02:44.160 | We don't associate happiness as David does in the Psalms.
00:02:48.680 | I mean, take Psalm 119 alone, the numbers of verses that associate time spent in God's
00:02:55.400 | Word and delighting in God through his Word that associate all those with these words
00:03:00.920 | of happiness and joy, they're just countless.
00:03:03.680 | Yeah, amen.
00:03:05.240 | Yeah, we can sin our happiness away, that is so tragic.
00:03:09.400 | But now let's talk about anxiety.
00:03:12.120 | How does worry poison our joy?
00:03:15.280 | Well, worry is something which involves high stakes and low control is one way to put it,
00:03:22.840 | and I think what happens is in the process of worry, we are failing to recognize that
00:03:29.720 | even though we're not in control, the fact is something better is true, and that is that
00:03:36.640 | God is in control.
00:03:38.080 | And the way sin results in worry is it cuts us off from the very one who we are to trust,
00:03:47.560 | and it makes us think in ways where we are in control of our life or must take control
00:03:55.120 | of our lives.
00:03:56.120 | And of course we're supposed to do certain things, but we are to remind ourselves, for
00:04:02.520 | instance, that we fantasize so many of our worries and troubles, like the French philosopher
00:04:09.400 | who said, "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happen."
00:04:15.080 | And that's what happens in worry.
00:04:17.040 | You know, the Greek word for worry means to divide the mind, and our mind gets divided.
00:04:22.120 | And the most striking characteristic of worry and the way that it kills joy is through its
00:04:29.240 | absolute impotence, you know, because no tornado has ever been stopped, no drought's ever been
00:04:34.600 | averted, no plane crash has ever been prevented by worry.
00:04:38.720 | And so what happens is we pour our time and energy into it, and then if it really did
00:04:45.720 | something, I mean, if it did something of any benefit whatsoever, we could at least
00:04:50.160 | say, "Well, okay, it was worth all the good that came out of my worry, except no good
00:04:56.060 | ever comes out of it."
00:04:57.480 | And so Jesus assures us if we put God and His kingdom first, and His sovereignty, He
00:05:04.600 | will take care of us.
00:05:05.600 | He says, "Do not worry about tomorrow.
00:05:07.880 | Tomorrow will worry about itself.
00:05:09.840 | Each day has enough trouble of its own."
00:05:11.720 | However, I would say this, in context of Matthew 6, He's just called upon the people He's
00:05:18.360 | speaking to to be sure that they store up their treasures in heaven, not on earth, to
00:05:24.200 | be sure they adopt the right perspective, not the wrong one, the good eye versus the
00:05:28.400 | bad eye.
00:05:29.400 | And then He tells them, "No one can serve two masters.
00:05:32.000 | You can't serve both God and money."
00:05:33.960 | So if you're investing your life in the right treasury, if you're adopting the right perspective,
00:05:38.960 | an eternal perspective, and if you are serving the right master, then He says, "Therefore,
00:05:47.780 | do not worry."
00:05:49.000 | In other words, if we don't have those things true in our lives, we have a great deal to
00:05:54.660 | worry about.
00:05:55.660 | What we need to do then is to repent and turn to God and say, "Help me to focus on You,
00:06:01.220 | the source of my joy."
00:06:02.460 | Amen.
00:06:03.460 | Randy Elkhorn, thank you for your time today.
00:06:05.700 | We're talking about Randy's new book, "Happiness, My Pick," for the Book of the Year in 2015
00:06:10.900 | and tomorrow.
00:06:11.900 | I'm going to ask Randy, what is the place of feasting and parties in our God-centered
00:06:16.740 | joy?
00:06:17.740 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke, and I'll see you tomorrow.
00:06:19.220 | [END]
00:06:20.220 | Randy Elkhorn, The Book of the Year 2015
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