Joy

Here's part of message I was listening to this morning given by John Piper, entitled,
Quest: Joy! Found: Christ!

Blaze Pascal was a French mathematician and genius who died in 1662. He's not most famous for his mathematics, however; he's most famous for his little book, "Pensées," which was his thoughts. Because until he was 31 years old he was on the flight from God; he was running. But, something happened November 23, 1664, 10:30 PM. We know it exactly, because when it happened to him, he wrote it on a piece of parchment, and sewed it into his coat, and it was found eight years later, when he died. He was a young man, still. And let me read part of what he wrote on that simple piece of parchment as he sewed it into his coat in 1664:

Year of grace 1664. Monday 23 November feast of St. Clement. From about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight: fire. God of Abraham, God of Issac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars. Certitude, heart-felt joy, peace, God of Jesus Christ! God of Jesus Christ! My God and your God! Joy! Joy! Joy! Tears of joy! Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, may I never be seperated from Him.

In 1968 Pascall took those words, "Joy! Joy! Joy! Tears of Joy!" and changed my whole orientation on the Bible. Pascall asaulted my fear of happiness with this quote: All men seek happiness; this is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

I always thought this was true, but sinful. Sure, every man seeks happiness, but every man is a sinner! God began to pound away into my heart, that self-denial, this Biblical reality that Jesus commends, self-denial means is not: "its not right to want to be happy," which is what my gut told me for so many years. It might sneak up on you, you might have a day of happiness, but to pursue it, to want is bad. But it never hit me, it never got inside me that self-denial is not the renunciation of the quest for joy. It's the renunciation of the lesser, inadequate joys, for bigger and longer ones. That's what self-denial is. It might cost you your life to get serious about the quest of joy; it cost Jesus his life! It says in the Bible, "for the joy that was set before Him, He despised the shame and embraced the cross." It cost Him his life to go for joy, it might cost you your's. But don't let anybody ever tell that what Pascall says is not true; it is true. Everybody seeks happiness. And the most amazing and wonderful thing was to discover that the Bible says astonishing things about joy.

Jesus aim in all he taught was to bring joy to those he taught. Becoming a Christian means finding a joy that is so satisfying it makes you want to forsake everything else to have it. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up and then in his joy sells everything he has and buys that field. That's self-denial: "take my car! There's a billion dollar treasure hidden in the field and I just need enough to get it! Take my life if I can have this treasure." Joy will overtake every sorrow for those who trust Jesus.
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Just wanted to share this as it really reminded me why we live as Christians, and what Joy is to us, and why we are able to live!