Happiness + Joy

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much and hello again radio friends, how in the world are you? Oh, I trust everything is going alright at your house, I’ve just finished praying that God would cause His wisdom, and love and blessing to flow through my voice, and heart to you, and I just trust there’s something in this few moments that we’ll be specially, let’s say custom made, for your need.

You know God has given us, Peter says, “All things that pertain unto life and godliness, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these promises you might be partakers of the divine nature.” So that whatever need you have today my dear friend God has the answer for you before you ever were aware of a need God had the answer in his Word and by his Holy Spirit. I pray that that may be so for you today.

Come with me at Ephesians 1 and we’re in the middle of verse 3, blessed says Paul, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ”. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Take that verb from the that verse from the end, take it from the end and go backwards, Christ is in the heavenlies we are in Him and so everything that He is in heavenlies he has given to us and that means all the spiritual blessings that there are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says to the people at Corinth, “All things are yours and ye are Christ and Christ is God’s. “All things are yours whether Paul, Apollos, or Cephas are the world or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Blessed in Christ is the heavenlies”. Paul also says to the people in Corinth in chapter 1:30, “of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Spiritual blessings have to do with wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. He has blessed us with His wisdom. James one says, “If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. Let him ask in faith nothing wavering.”

My friend Mr. Hill was asked to go to a certain radio installation operated by the US Government, some years ago, because something had happened in that installation that whenever they threw the main power switch on it blew out the main tube. Now those power tube, transmission tubes, cost about $100,000 a copy at that time. So you can see you don’t want to blow out too many of them. And so, the people operating this installation sent a hurry up call to Baltimore and my friend answered the phone, and they said, we want to talk to the chief engineer, he said, he is in Europe. Well, let’s talk to his assistant, he said, he is sick. They said who is this?, He said I’m the president of the company and they said, oh.

They told him what the matter was and he says, well I’ll come down and see what I can do. He got in his car and as he drove along he says, he prayed earnestly that God would give him a word of wisdom about this matter. And there came in to his mind the realization that there was one adjustment that needed to be made so that the amount of current that was being sent through the machine would be properly controlled. They got down to the installation, was met by the engineers on the site and they said, we’ll take you to your quarters and you’ll probably want to begin work tomorrow morning.

And no he said, “I’ll do it right now”. So, they went over to where this huge radio and radar installation was. He said, “Now fellas if you’ll take off that little backing plate over there” and they did and he said, “now if you’ll move that lever two notches to the left” and they did, he said, “now put the back and plate back on,” and they did. He said, “now throw the switch” and they said, “not us we’re not going to blow another tube”. Well he said “if you won’t I will”. And so finally they got up their courage and throw the switch turning on the power and the installation begins to hum with its accustomed sound and everything was fine, they were amazed. And they said how did you know what to do? Oh, he said, I had little talk with God on the way down and He gave the idea.

Now, I can’t guarantee you my friend that every time you strike a technical snag you’ll be able to pray and get the answer. I’ll simply say this– anytime you need divine wisdom you’ve got it in Jesus, Hallelujah. Isn’t that great? Anytime you need divine wisdom you’ve got already in Jesus. “He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ”. Wisdom is the ability to know what to do with what you know and God will give you His wisdom, He has promised to do so in answer to your prayer of faith. Wisdom and righteousness, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “Righteousness is spontaneous goodness of character and conduct. A righteous person is spontaneously good because he’s good inside”. “Out of the abundance of the heart”, the Bible says, “the mouth speaketh”.

People do not become sinners because they commit sin; they commit sin because they are already sinners. That’s our problem you and I have sin in our hearts, and as a result we say and do things that are wrong, and the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s righteousness imputed and imparted to us and He then makes us righteous. Spiritual blessings having to do with righteousness, God will make you righteous, inside so that your acts and your words will be righteous outside. Praise God for that! Spiritual blessings in Christ, then he said sanctification, sanctification is the quality of being set aside for God’s special use. God is not interested in making hermits and recluses and spiritual oddballs. He wants us to be full of the joy of the Lord and He wants us to live every day in the world but not of it. And so, the Holy Spirit of God can make you a person who is specially set aside for God’s use, spiritual blessings in Christ. The quality of being special for God.

And then the last word in 1 Corinthians 1:30 is redemption. Redemption was planned before the foundation of the world, was implemented in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to live and to die and to rise to again to be our living Savior, and it finds it’s focal point in your life and in mine when we commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus says Lord and Savior of our lives. Redemption is an historical fact and a present continuing miracle in your life and mine, and it will ultimately be complete when our bodies are transformed to be like His. The whole creation says Paul in Romans 8, “Groaneth and travalieth in pain together until now waiting for the adaption that is the redemption of our bodies”. There is coming a day when God is going to redo this old sin cursed creation, and sorrow, and sickness, and sighing, and death, and pain, and tears, and heartbreak are going to be gone, and you and I are going to have sin proof, and death proof bodies.

We know says the Apostle John, “that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Paul says in Philippians 3, “We look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change this body of humiliation that it might be fashioned like unto his body of glory”, wonderful prospect, redemption. A historical fact accomplished on Calvary, a present miracle accomplished in your life and mine, a future prospect when God redoes, so to speak, this entire sin filled creation and you and I get bodies adapted to glory. Well, Hallelujah for that!

He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. The Lord Jesus said, “These things I have spake unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full”. The joy of the Lord is one of those spiritual blessings in Christ. Joy is something more than happiness. There’s a little British chorus that used to be sung, the words of which go “I’m happy when everything happens to please but happiness comes and goes. While the heart that stayed on Jesus the Savior ever with joy o’er flows. Happiness happens but joy abides in the heart that is stayed on Jesus”.

You don’t have to just depend on happiness dear friend, you can have joy. One of the spiritual blessings in Christ is His joy in spite of everything that may happen. When Dawson Trotman was taken from us back I guess it was in the ‘50’s now as a result of a boating accident what the world calls an accident, he was drowned, and numbers of us then went to attend the funerals service held at Glen Erie, Colorado at the headquarters of the Navigators which Dawson Trotman founded and which he headed up for so many years.

Well, we were all there, the leaders of a couple of scores of outstanding Christian organizations, and missionaries and Bible teachers, and all sorts of people came for that service, and it was indeed a glorious, joyful, triumphant service. No hint of the why questions that so often trouble people, “why did all this have to happen” although there was a sense of loss certainly, there was no bitterness but there was the calm and sweet assurance that we were going to see our friend again in that glad resurrection morning. And so, the service concluded I watched Leila Trotman because I was seated in a place where I could see her, her face was serene there was just a trace of a little smile on her face as she greeted friends and well-wishers. There was only one evidence of the breaking heart of one who had lost husband, and lover, and best friend all at once. When she turned for the last time away from the casket and walked on out, but otherwise the service was a beautiful triumphant service.

I was in charge of the press relations as I recall and I was talking with some of the reporters and one of the newspaper reporters that was there asked me a naïve question, naïve to us but quite serious to him. He said to me, “Mr. Cook, does your group always believe in happy funerals?” All that he had seen there was the joy in the hearts of people who knew that they were going to see Dawson Trotman again because he was God’s child and so indeed were we. “Does your group always believe in happy funerals”, well I tried to explain to him, no we aren’t happy because we’ve lost a dear friend and a great Christian leader but we are fill with the joy of the Lord because we belong to our Savior and we know that we’ll see this good man again in the resurrection. My dear friend’s spiritual blessings have to do with the joy of the Lord in your life. Can you say that you have that joy, can you say that you have that joy? I trust that that may be so.

Dear Father today, help us to appreciate the spiritual blessings we already have in Jesus, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!