Pursuing Joy

Our Great & Glorious God,

It is the flame of our lives to worship you, the crown & glory of our souls to adore you, heavenly pleasure to come before you this morning.  We pray that you would give us power by your Spirit to help us worship now, that we may forget the world and be brought to fullness of life, be refreshed, comforted and blessed.  We come together this morning pleading for your grace.  We acknowledge and confess that sin is our mighty foe, born in our birth, alive in our lives, following us like a shadow and it intermingles with our every thought.  BUT…  but your Son is mightier than any foe!  So to you, O LORD, We lift up our souls.  We trust in you, Lord Most High.  Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; Those who do not know or love you shall be put to shame, so cause us to know your ways, O LORD; teach us your paths this day and every day after. Lead us in your truth and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation; for you we wait all the day long.  Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.  Remember not the sins of our youth or our present and continuous transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember your people, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!  Remember us for the sake of your great name and glory!

May you grant hearing of your Word this morning that it may enlighten, restore & revive us this morning.  Awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering, establish the weak and make ready a people for their Lord for their joy.  Be a sanctuary to all who could not gather with your people this day.  I pray that we would decide to know nothing among ourselves, friends, peers & co-workers but Jesus and Jesus crucified and that the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us with everything good that we may do Your will, working in us that which is pleasing in Your sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Lord’s Day Evening from The Valley of Vision:

MOST HOLY GOD,
May the close of an earthly sabbath remind me that the last of them will one day end.
Animate me with joy that in heaven praise will never cease,
that adoration will continue forever,
that no flesh will grow weary,
no congregations disperse,
no affections flag,
no thoughts wander,
no will droop,
but all will be adoring love.
Guard my mind from making ordinances my stay or trust,
from hewing out broken cisterns,
from resting on outward helps.
Wing me though earthly forms to thy immediate presence;
May my feeble prayers show me the emptiness and vanity of my sins;
Deepen in me the conviction that my most fervent prayers,
and my lowly confessions, need to be repented of.
May my best services bring me nearer to the cross,
and prompt me to cry, ‘None but Jesus!’
By thy Spirit give abiding life to the lessons of this day:
May the seed sown take deep root and yield a full harvest.
Let all who see me take knowledge that I have been with thee
that thou has taught me my need as a sinner
hast revealed a finished salvation to me,
hast enriched me with all spiritual blessings,
hast chosen me to show forth Jesus to others,
hast helped me to dispel the mists of unbelief.
O great Creator, mighty Protector, gracious Preserver,
thou dost load me with loving kindnesses,
and hast made me thy purchased possession,
and redeemed me from all guilt;
I praise and bless thee for
my sabbath rest,
my calm conscience,
my peace of heart.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5

Jonathan Edwards says this about our great mediator:

The redeemed are dependent on God for all. All that we have–wisdom, the pardon of sin, deliverance, acceptance in God’s favor, grace, holiness, true comfort and happiness, eternal life and glory–we have from God by a Mediator; and this Mediator is God. God not only gives us the Mediator, and accepts His mediation, and of His power and grace bestows the things purchased by the Mediator, but He is the Mediator. Our blessings are what we have by purchase; and the purchase is made of God; the blessings are purchased of Him; and not only so, but God is the purchaser. Yes, God is both the purchaser and the price; for Christ, who is God, purchased these blessings by offering Himself as the price of our salvation.

(HT: Tim Challies)

Do you remember when life first entered your dead heart, when the chains of sin were broken, when the dungeon of your sin-dead life flamed with light?  In those first days, weeks, months, Andrew Murray in Abide in Christ says, “you experienced that His word was truth; all His promises fulfilled; He made you partakers of the blessings and the joy of His love.  Was not His welcome most hearty, His pardon full and free, His love most sweet and precious?”

Yet many lose the blessings they once enjoyed and the love and joy of their first days with their Savior becomes “faint and feeble”.  Listen to Murray explain why:

“Often you have wondered what the reason could be, that with such a Savior, so mighty and so loving, your experience of salvation should not have been a fuller one. The answer is very simple. You wandered from Him.”

If your affections for our Savior are faint and feeble, if your joy in His saving love has waned, put off everything you are abiding in and abide in Christ.  The power of sin has been broken, so take hold of the everything spiritual blessing God has gracious given His people in Christ.  The gospel is not only the door to life with Christ, but also the power to abide in Him every day.  We cannot do this in our own strength… all “this Jesus Christ himself alone must do by His Holy Spirit. But what I would fain by the grace of God be permitted to do is, to repeat day by day the Master’s blessed command, ‘Abide in me’”.

Let us abide in our great and glorious Savior today through the power of the gospel and with the help of the Spirit.

“God is the ultimate focus of Christ’s death on the cross.  Yes, Jesus died for sins and for the unrighteous, but ultimately Jesus died for God and his glory.  For when Christ brings us to God, he brings us into a right relationship with God.  It’s as if the universe is set back where it should be – a relationship in which he is the center and we orbit around him in a safe proximity and nearness, a relationship in which his glory is the point and we find our joy and meaning in being a display of his worth rather than our own.”

~ Michael Lawrence, It Is Well, 215

When we find our joy and meaning in living as “a display of his worth rather than our own”, we do what we were created to do.  We find ultimate joy when we decrease and He increases because He is the ultimate focus of everything.  Though everything around us and everything within us tells us to put ourselves on display for all to see, Christ died so we could live for Our Father and His glory.  When He is the center, everything is as it should be… even when thinking about the ultimate purpose of the cross.

Our dear Father, owner of heaven and earth, our Shield, our confidence, we stand in awe and wonder of You this day, for You laid the foundation of the universe, measuring it out and laying it on its cornerstone.  The stars You made sing for joy and give You glory.  You created the seas and then shut them in by Your great power, setting their limits saying, “This far shall you come and no farther.”  We stand in awe because it is You who has commanded the mornings since the dawn of creation.  We ask that You would cause your name to be central on earth as it is in heaven, cause Your kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, and cause Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We plead with You to pour out Your grace and mold us into the image of Your Son.  Let us gaze on Your glory this morning until we are transformed by that great sight and become Christlike among the people of our generation. We pray that You would turn to us and be gracious to us. Let us see Christ in ways we never dreamt possible.  Let us hear His voice in ways we never have experienced.  Pierce our hearts with the Sword of Your Truth. Break the love of self that dwells deep inside with the weight of Your glory and beauty.  Stamp out the false humilities and pride by the power of the Spirit through Christ’s precious blood!  We thank You for Christ and His work on our behalf on the cross.  Unstop our ears and melt our hearts that we may hear Him, follow Him, cling to Him and satisfy ourselves in Him alone.  O Merciful Shepherd, come to us in power and in truth!  Amen.

“God creates everything for his glory… All of life and history is about glorifying God. My very reason for drawing breath today is to glorify God.”

~ Michael Lawrence, Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, 124-125

Why are you breathing today?

“He [Satan] would have us think that we’re better off without God, that our best interests are served by pursuing our own desires and enlarging our liberty from anything that would restrict us from fulfilling those desires.  But Satan was lying on that day when he deceived Adam and Eve, and he is still lying.  Satan intends our enslavement, not our freedom.  He doesn’t intend to enhance our lives; he intends to hasten our death… Our ears need to be saturated with the Bible and our minds shaped by the worldview the Bible creates, so that we will recognize the lie when it’s whispered softly and sweetly in our ear.”

~Michael Lawrence, Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, 134

“Jesus’ body bore our sins on the tree, and it was a horrible, bloody, fatal, and physical reality.  The New Testament tells us this to underscore the extent of the servant’s service on our behalf (cf. Phil. 2:5-11).  Not only did he take the form of a man and humble himself to wear the garb of a servant, but he also became obedient.  He even became obedient unto the ghastly death of the cross for our sakes.  We see that the whole point was to emphasize how full, complete, and extensive was the servant’s obedience to the Father on our behalf.  Even when his body is marred beyond human semblance, he bows himself down and says, “For the sake of the salvation of sinners, my Father, let your will be done.”

~ Sinclair Ferguson; Christ, the Sin-Bearer, in Atonement, 113-114

“We obsess about the future and we get anxious, because anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before it gets here. We must renounce our sinful desire to know the future and to be in control. We are not gods. We walk by faith, not by sight. We risk because God does not risk. We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God. And that’s all we need to know. Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting in the promises of God.”

~ Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something, pp. 47-48

I found this quote helpful as I am about to make a 15 block walk to the Brazilian Consulate to apply for a visa as the group leader for our trip this July to Sao Paulo.  Many details of the trip, not the least of which is bringing 23 students to Brazil, have caused anxiety.  I confess that this morning and encourage you to “walk in God-glorifying confidence” this day… a day the Lord has made and sovereignly controls.

(HT: Thabiti Anyabwile)