God's Passion for His Glory and Our Joy
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 13, Philippians chapter 1. That's also there in your worship guide if you want to go there. Although the last verse we'll be looking at, I forgot to put in in Philippians, so you might want to use your Bible for that. Matthew chapter 13, Philippians chapter 1. As you're turning there, let me tell you where we're going to be going over the next few weeks, months, maybe years ahead.
Joel Brooks:In a couple weeks, we're gonna begin a 8 week series on the Lord's Prayer. When we're done with that, we're gonna take a year, maybe a year and a half or so to go through the gospel of Mark, which I'm really excited about. I've I've loved us taking time to go through the life of David and through Ecclesiastes, but I'm ready for some letters in red, and to just really dig into the teachings and life of Jesus as seen in the gospels. But what we're gonna do this morning is I'm actually gonna go back not to Ecclesiastes, but just to pick up on a theme of Ecclesiastes that kind of percolated up throughout those chapters. And that's this theme here.
Joel Brooks:The theme of us pursuing a life of joy, while also pursuing a life that is lived to the honor of god? Is there any relationship at all between god's glory and our joy. And that's what we're gonna look at this morning in Matthew and in Philippians. So beginning in verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.
Joel Brooks:Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding 1 pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Philippians 1. We'll begin reading in that last part of verse 18. Yes.
Joel Brooks:And I will rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, But that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. For if I live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.
Joel Brooks:Yet which shall I choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the 2. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better. This is the word of the lord. It is to your heart.
Joel Brooks:You would pray with me. Father, what a joy that we get to be here this morning and to hear from you through your word. So spirit, would you take these words and would you speak to us that Christ might be glorified and that our lives will be enriched and filled with joy, the joy that he has promised to give us. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. And, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So I grew up in what I think was a pretty wonderful home. Our family was deeply involved in church. We went to First Baptist Sandy Springs in Georgia.
Joel Brooks:We were there every Sunday morning. Every Sunday night. Every Wednesday night. I grew up going to RAs. Are there any other Royal Ambassadors out there?
Joel Brooks:Okay. Did you make it all the way through, Squire and then Knight? Any GAs out there? Any of you just so confused as to what the heck we're talking about? That's what I grew up going to.
Joel Brooks:The only the only problem was it had to be done right in time because at home at night was the a team and Knight Rider, and I couldn't miss those. But we grew up going to church all the time. I was part of a youth group that was really small though, because the church had been dying. And by small, I mean normally I was the only person in Sunday school. And yet I had 2 faithful Sunday school teachers.
Joel Brooks:It was a couple who would faithfully teach me every week. Brian and Jean Hendrix, if you just happen to be listening to this podcast, thank you for the way you poured into me. And I just wanna go ahead and thank our children's volunteers for the way that you pour into our kids. You have no idea as to, the investment you make in them, the returns that you will have for eternity. It's, it's really astonishing what you do, and thank you for that.
Joel Brooks:Know that my Bible knowledge, that the most of my Bible knowledge I have, did not come from seminary. It came from Sunday school as a child. And those things were poured and taught into me. But I'm telling you all of this just to let you know that when I as I was growing up, I always heard about God, knew God, and the one certainty that had been pounded in me was that I was to live a life to God's glory. I mean that truth was deeply embedded in me from my earliest moments.
Joel Brooks:1 of the first Bible verses that I was told to memorize was 1st Corinthians 10:31. Whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And so I tried. For the most part, I was a really good kid. I when I was in high school, I read my Bible every day.
Joel Brooks:I obeyed my parents. I never really got into trouble. I even knew back then that God was calling me into a life of ministry. But what I didn't realize is that during all of this, there was this growing disconnect in me of what I thought it looked like to live a life for God's glory and what it also meant to live a life in the pursuit of happiness. I just kind of assumed that those two pursuits were 2 very different pursuits.
Joel Brooks:They didn't really have any overlap. I could either obey God by, you know, giving up drinking and swearing and sex and all of those things. Or I could disobey God and pursue all of those things that I saw as a life of pleasure. So to pursue God meant giving up a certain degree of happiness. If you remember a few weeks back when we were in Ecclesiastes 2, I mentioned that, that our youth group, now you're wondering why it was so small.
Joel Brooks:Is because, you know, we went to the mall on Friday nights and we handed out tracks. And if you remember, I shared how going there, you know, you'd see in the parking lot other high schoolers drinking, laughing, Lao music. And how my youth minister would say, it only looks like they're having fun. I'd be like, it it does. It's it's pretty convincing, actually, when when I look at what they're doing.
Joel Brooks:But it didn't bother me. Actually, I wasn't really tempted to do those things because I knew I was doing the right thing. The right thing. I was living a life for the glory of God. And if that meant sacrificing some happiness, then I would sacrifice some happiness.
Joel Brooks:Because I just assumed that God was glorified through dutiful obedience. Sacrificial obedience. And then all this endless pleasure stuff is just things that would happen in my next life. I don't wanna overstate things. Overall, I was generally a very happy kid.
Joel Brooks:But but looking back, I I can certainly see the disconnect. The the disconnect that was growing there. I thought God's glory, personal happiness were 2 separate pursuits. As a matter of fact, I actually thought that if I enjoyed pursuing God, if I enjoyed some things in worship, if I enjoyed volunteering some things, that actually took away from God's glory because I enjoyed it. God was most glorified if I just made sacrifices.
Joel Brooks:If I did something even because I I I didn't wanna don't wanna do this, but God, you're worth it. And so I'm just gonna begrudgingly I'm gonna do this. And I thought that's how God would receive most glory. So I had these two desires. The desire to glorify God with my life, then the desire to be happy.
Joel Brooks:And they battled one another all throughout high school and most of college. And and then I came across some writings of CS Lewis and some writings from John Piper. And then I got to John Piper came to Beasts and Some and and taught. And my my life got turned upside down when thinking through those things. I had already read a number of books by CS Lewis as I went through college, but it was actually a sermon of his that rocked my world.
Joel Brooks:His sermon, The Weight of Glory. If ever there were to be an addition to the Bible, it would be that sermon, weight of glory. Now I'm not saying you should add it to your Bible. But if you were to print it off and just put it in the back, I'm not gonna argue with you and just look at it from time to time. Because that book or that that sermon had a profound impact on me.
Joel Brooks:And really it was this one paragraph that you might be familiar with. But I wanna go and put it up there and read this to you. Whole sermon's fantastic, but this one paragraph. If there lurks in most modern minds, the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the stoics, and is no part of the Christian faith. If we consider the unblushing promises of reward, and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.
Joel Brooks:We are are half hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. I have never in my life heard anyone say anything like that or read anything like that. But there was in in black and white right before me.
Joel Brooks:That my struggles that I had with sin were were not due to any desire that I had for pleasure. It's not that I was desiring those things too much, it's that I desired pleasure too little. My desire was too weak. It was only half hearted. I was not seeking pleasure with nearly the resolve that I should, and what I was doing was settling.
Joel Brooks:I was settling for mud pies in a slum because I could not fathom a holiday at the sea. My problem was that I was far too easily pleased. And so after reading this, I began just going through the Bible again, searching for those unblushing promises of reward. And they're everywhere. The the entire Bible's just filled with them.
Joel Brooks:The gospels are filled with them. Here's just a few. Psalm 1611. One of our favorites as a church. In your presence is fullness of joy.
Joel Brooks:In your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 30 4:8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. 1st Peter 1. Peter tells us that if we believe in Jesus, we are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
Joel Brooks:John 16. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete. John 15 to 11. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. And then, of course, we come to the parables that we just read earlier in Matthew 13.
Joel Brooks:The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Jesus here, He's teaching about what what it looks like to follow Him as King. And notice that there is not a shred of sacrificial duty involved. Not a shred of it.
Joel Brooks:You do not read. The kingdom of heaven is like a man stumbling across a book with a lot of rules. And because this man knew he needed to glorify God, he he went to the local ATM, got out a few $100, and he bought this book so he could follow the rules in order to live a life to the glory of God. It's not how it reads, but it's how we read it, isn't it? It's how so often we live our lives.
Joel Brooks:The kingdom of heaven is like it's like finding out that you need to go to church every week. That you need to volunteer in the children's ministry. That you need to participate in a home group. And so out of guilt, you sacrificially do all of those things and give of the precious time you have in order to check those things off the list to the glory of God. Listen to this parable again.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, man. I mean, just in 2 sentences. I mean, I've got to preach 30 minutes. Jesus, 2 sentences. He just unpacks.
Joel Brooks:It packs such a punch. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure. It's hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, He goes and sells all that he has and he buys that field. Jesus said that his kingdom, following him as a king, it's like stumbling across a treasure.
Joel Brooks:A treasure so great, so vast, so beautiful that a man is giddy to sell everything he has just in order to have that. And when he has that, he doesn't even take into account the sacrifice he made because in light of that treasure's worth, it wasn't even a sacrifice. And Jesus, he tells that that one short little story and I picture him looking around like, do you get it? And people don't get it. It's like, okay.
Joel Brooks:Again, I'll tell you another story. And so he says this, again, the the kingdom of heaven, it's like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding 1 pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. It's nearly the same story, but not quite. Jesus tells this one a little different to put a finer edge on it. Because this time, it's not just somebody stumbling on treasure.
Joel Brooks:This time, it's a merchant who's seeking for it. It's a merchant. Someone who knows what they are doing. Someone who knows the true value of things. What's worth a lot and what's worthless.
Joel Brooks:And this merchant is someone looking for pearls, and He knows what a good pearl looks like. And the goal of a merchant is this. You don't buy something to keep it. You buy something to sell it. So so you buy something and then you know it's worth more and so you can sell it for more and that way you could get money to buy what you really want.
Joel Brooks:That's what a merchant does. A merchant only acquires the merchandise in order to sell it. A merchant doesn't keep the merchandise. But then this merchant has a This merchant's out there looking to find that pearl, those pearls that he can then flip for a greater profit. He comes across this this one pearl, and he has never seen anything like it.
Joel Brooks:It has such beauty. It takes his breath away. He instantly no longer desires anything else. Because what could possibly compare with this? How could he possibly flip this and buy something greater?
Joel Brooks:He can't. This is the greatest treasure there is. So he sells it all in order to have this, just to have it. And he walks away thinking he never made a sacrifice. So do you get Jesus' point in telling these stories?
Joel Brooks:I mean, do you really get his point? He's saying, I'm that treasure. I'm the greatest treasure you will ever find. And by the way, it's gonna cost you everything to have me. But you're gonna walk away giddy, thinking it was the best bargain you could have ever had.
Joel Brooks:It's not gonna be a sacrifice at all when you compare it to the joy that I bring into your life. There is more joy to be found in knowing Jesus than to be found in any other treasure. And this is what Paul is talking about in those verses we read in Philippians chapter 1. In that passage, Paul, he's having this internal debate as to whether he wants to live or die. He's in prison.
Joel Brooks:He's like, I don't know. Do I want to keep living? Do I want to die? There's this debate. He says, whatever happens to me, I do know this.
Joel Brooks:Christ is going to be honored in my body. Christ is gonna be honored in his body because for him to live is Christ and to die is gain. And that's an astounding claim. That to die is gain. Know what happens when you die?
Joel Brooks:All your treasures are gone. When you die, your friendships are gone. Your spouse is gone. Sex is gone. Your children are gone.
Joel Brooks:That dream house that you spent so long decorating, gone. Your hobbies are gone. Playing golf, playing pickleball, gone. And all of these things will remain gone until the resurrection, in which there you will be given a new physical body and you can once again enjoy physical pleasures. But yet Paul says losing every one of those physical pleasures is gain.
Joel Brooks:How? Because the answer in verse 23. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is better. In other words, Paul, he weighs the pleasures of this life compared to the pleasure of just being in the presence of Jesus. He says, give me Jesus.
Joel Brooks:There's no comparison. When I look at everything I could have, all the pleasures of this life compared to just being in the presence of Jesus, give me Jesus. For that is far better. And that is why Jesus will be honored in his body in this life is because Jesus was his greatest treasure in this life. Christ is glorified in you.
Joel Brooks:When he becomes more precious to you than all life can give you and all death can take away from you. Paul's joy was found in Jesus. Any of you grow up Presbyterian here? You grow up learning the Westminster Catechism? Question 1, what is the chief end of man?
Joel Brooks:We have, like, 5 Presbyterians. But you got it right. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I used to think I was talking about 2 separate things. The chief in a man is to glorify God over here.
Joel Brooks:And then and to enjoy Him or find joy in Him forever. But it's not 2 separate things. And that certainly is not how the, pastors and theologians who wrote that document thought of it. Because they say, what is the chief end? Singular.
Joel Brooks:Not what are the chief ends? Plural. What is the one chief end of man? It's to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If it helps you, you can think of it this way.
Joel Brooks:It's to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. But we glorify God through our enjoyment of God. If we do not rejoice in Him, we will not glorify him. This is why the Bible rings with all those commands to praise him out of joy. Never ever will you read that we are to praise him out of duty.
Joel Brooks:Psalm 3074, delight yourself in the Lord. 3211, be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Shout for joy, those of you with an upright heart. Psalm 331, sing for joy in the Lord. Psalm 674, let the nations sing or be glad and sing for joy.
Joel Brooks:Psalm 100, shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Never are you called to suck it up. Go to church.
Joel Brooks:Sing. You're filled with joy and that fuels you to sing to the glory of God. Let me give you a similar illustration to one that Matt gave, a few weeks back. The the illustration which Matt, humiliated himself and talked about how he gave flowers for just really selfish motives. And I just wanted to remind everybody of that.
Joel Brooks:A similar illustration here, but husbands, imagine if you came home and you gave your wife a bouquet of flowers, and she responded, wow. That that is so sweet. Why'd you do this? What what was this for? And you told her, well, I'd been reading a book.
Joel Brooks:This book was on how to be a glorious husband. And it said that one of the things that, you know, good husbands do is from time to time, they bring their wives flowers. And so when I read that, I knew I needed to bring you flowers. Now let me ask you. If you responded that way, how does your wife feel?
Joel Brooks:Who received the glory in that moment? Did your wife receive honor and glory or did you receive honor and glory? You did. It was all about you and your sacrificial duty and how you're an amazing husband that you did these things. But what if you responded this way after you gave her the flowers and she said, why did you do this?
Joel Brooks:And you said, I just love you so much I can't help myself. It made me so happy to give those to you. That she is glorified through your happiness. Apart from your happiness, she cannot be glorified. The 2 are wed together.
Joel Brooks:God will only be glorified through our happiness. If we try to glorify Him through duty, we only glorify ourselves. This is why glorifying God and enjoying God are tied together because He will never be glorified if you try to do that, worship Him out of a sense of duty. This is John Piper. He famously said it this way.
Joel Brooks:God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And do you realize what what incredible news that is? That God's desire to be glorified and your desire for joy and pleasure are not opposed to one another, but they are wed together. God will only be glorified when he pours into you his joy as you pursue him.
Joel Brooks:There is no greater pleasure in life and in death than knowing Jesus. Once again, He is our treasure. And if there are times that you don't feel that, you don't feel that He is your treasure and that you are only pursuing Him half heartedly. I want you to be encouraged with this thought. He is not half hearted in His pursuit of you.
Joel Brooks:He is wholehearted in his pursuit of you, and he sees you as his treasure. Deuteronomy chapter 7, God refers to His people as His treasured possession. It's the first time He refers to us as His treasured possession, but He refers to us as His treasured possession a number of times throughout the old testament. God says that we are his treasure and then we find out later that he actually joyfully gave up everything in order to have us. Sound familiar?
Joel Brooks:In Hebrews chapter 12, we read that for the joy set before Jesus, He endured the cross. Jesus was able to make the ultimate sacrifice, to give up everything out of joy, the joy set before him. That joy was his treasured possession. And the reason I think this is because when Jesus was in heaven, he had everything. Before he ever came to this world, he had all glory, all majesty, all power, perfect fellowship with the father and with the spirit.
Joel Brooks:He had everything. The only thing he didn't have was you. And Jesus gave all of that up to come that He might have you His treasured possession. And for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. And that He did that for reasons I'm incapable of understanding, but he did not want to be in heaven without us.
Joel Brooks:And so out of joy, he gave it all up to find us and to bring us to himself. Are you half hearted or whole hearted in your pursuit of joy? If you hear nothing else I have to say this morning, just hear this. Jesus is a treasure. Would you joyfully give it all to have him?
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Father, as we come to celebrate communion, would you remind us that you are indeed our treasure? There is no gift that you could give us that is greater than the gift of your presence. You are the treasure. And thank you for pursuing us, sacrificing for us that we could enjoy your presence forever.
Joel Brooks:And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
