This week, Randy Alcorn joins us on the phone. He is the author of the brand new book, Happiness. Randy, I want to talk about the enemies of our joy today, the enemies of sin and anxiety. Let's start with sin. How does sin poison our joy? Well, Martin Luther said, "Sin is pure unhappiness.

Unhappiness is pure happiness," which is a pretty succinct way to put it. And again, Psalm 32, "Happier are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity." William Whitaker, who was a Puritan and a Cambridge University professor in the 16th century, spoke of sinning away that happiness wherein we were created.

And that is a very graphic picture, not only of what Adam and Eve did, but what we who are conceived as sinners and have a sin nature, realizing that Christ became sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, but we still are capable in this life, in this world under the curse, of sinning away happiness.

And I think this is just such a graphic portrayal of God-granted humanity happiness. Likewise, he grants to us in Christ an eternal source of happiness. The God who created the universe, who went to the cross redemptively for me, indwells me, intercedes for me, we're more than conquerors through him who loved us, yet we still have this capacity and even inclination to sin away happiness.

And I think one of the things we've got to do, Tony, is stop making this distinction between, "Okay, if you want holiness, come to the church, come to Jesus, and that's where you get holiness." And then we end up preaching messages even that are negative toward happiness sometimes, but we leave people the impression, and sometimes we virtually state it directly, that to get happiness, you're going to have to go find that out in the world.

You know, we get happiness at the barbecue, we get happiness when we go swimming or surfing, you know, we get happiness when we hang out with friends or go to a ballgame, but we don't associate happiness with the church, the body of Christ, the ways that we should. We don't associate happiness as David does in the Psalms.

I mean, take Psalm 119 alone, the numbers of verses that associate time spent in God's Word and delighting in God through his Word that associate all those with these words of happiness and joy, they're just countless. Yeah, amen. Yeah, we can sin our happiness away, that is so tragic.

But now let's talk about anxiety. How does worry poison our joy? Well, worry is something which involves high stakes and low control is one way to put it, and I think what happens is in the process of worry, we are failing to recognize that even though we're not in control, the fact is something better is true, and that is that God is in control.

And the way sin results in worry is it cuts us off from the very one who we are to trust, and it makes us think in ways where we are in control of our life or must take control of our lives. And of course we're supposed to do certain things, but we are to remind ourselves, for instance, that we fantasize so many of our worries and troubles, like the French philosopher who said, "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happen." And that's what happens in worry.

You know, the Greek word for worry means to divide the mind, and our mind gets divided. And the most striking characteristic of worry and the way that it kills joy is through its absolute impotence, you know, because no tornado has ever been stopped, no drought's ever been averted, no plane crash has ever been prevented by worry.

And so what happens is we pour our time and energy into it, and then if it really did something, I mean, if it did something of any benefit whatsoever, we could at least say, "Well, okay, it was worth all the good that came out of my worry, except no good ever comes out of it." And so Jesus assures us if we put God and His kingdom first, and His sovereignty, He will take care of us.

He says, "Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." However, I would say this, in context of Matthew 6, He's just called upon the people He's speaking to to be sure that they store up their treasures in heaven, not on earth, to be sure they adopt the right perspective, not the wrong one, the good eye versus the bad eye.

And then He tells them, "No one can serve two masters. You can't serve both God and money." So if you're investing your life in the right treasury, if you're adopting the right perspective, an eternal perspective, and if you are serving the right master, then He says, "Therefore, do not worry." In other words, if we don't have those things true in our lives, we have a great deal to worry about.

What we need to do then is to repent and turn to God and say, "Help me to focus on You, the source of my joy." Amen. Randy Elkhorn, thank you for your time today. We're talking about Randy's new book, "Happiness, My Pick," for the Book of the Year in 2015 and tomorrow.

I'm going to ask Randy, what is the place of feasting and parties in our God-centered joy? I'm your host, Tony Ranke, and I'll see you tomorrow. Randy Elkhorn, The Book of the Year 2015 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9