Liberating Joy in Christ
Once
Rick Warren interviewed Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.
Warren asked, “Your life and ministry have been so blessed and fruitful in many
ways. What is the secret?” Then, Bright told his story. He was living without
God and without hope in his early 20’s. But through his pastor, he received
Christ. And he just fell in love with Jesus. One Sunday morning, led by the
Holy Spirit, he and his wife literally wrote out a contract of total surrender
of their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they signed the contract to become
Christ’s slave. During the interview, Bright said, “My wife and I have been
slaves now for 50 some years, and I must tell you it's the most liberating thing
that's ever happened to me… My life's message is to be a slave of Jesus. And all
that involves. Love your master, trust your master, and obey your
master. Obviously, I'm a son of God, heir of God, joint-heir with Christ, and
if Jesus was described as a slave… this to me is the highest privilege anyone
could know. I evaluate everything I do in light of what He wants me to do.
I try to relate every move, every day, in light of how I can help fulfill
His Great Commission and fulfill His commandments.”[1]
In today’s scripture the Israelites once again fall in love with God and renew their covenant with God, particularly in three areas of their lives – marriage relationship, sabbath-keeping, and giving. Actually, many churches today operate under a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. “How is your marriage?” “How do you keep the sabbath?” “How much are you giving to the Lord?” We normally dare not ask those questions to each other. It’s as if we have an unspoken agreement: “I won’t talk about it if you won’t, so we can go right on living as we are.” But in fact, these three are the very areas that we must talk about and make it right for our spiritual growth. The Israelites promised to restore their marriage relationships, sabbath-keeping, and giving, not out of guilt or dutiful drudgery, but out of joyful exhilaration!
Two
Types of Joy
There
are basically two kinds of joy found in the Bible. In John 2, Jesus performed his
first miraculous sign at Cana’s wedding banquet in Galilee. He turned water
into wine. All the people there enjoyed tasting the best wine and rejoiced! But
the joy they had was different from each other. The first group of people,
including the host and many other guests, they rejoiced because of the good food
and the premium wine. But the second group of people, including the servants
and Jesus’ disciples, they rejoiced because they had found the Messiah, the
Master of their lives. So what made these two different groups of people have
different degrees of joy? Because the degrees of commitment were
different. The Bible says that the host tasted the water that now became wine
but did not know where it came from. However, the servants did know because
they themselves had filled the jars with water and took it to the master. Many
Christians are invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb. They rejoice over
many blessings from God. They enjoy them. But, this joy is the joy of the host.
Jesus turned water into wine, not just to entertain people, but to reveal
His glory and show us that He is the true Master of the banquet and our lives.
Only when we dedicate ourselves to Jesus Christ, we are then able to have greater
joy that the servants had.
Then, what is the essential difference between those two types of joy? One is temporary, and the other is eternal. Solomon said, in Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” But here, the Hebrew word Habel also means “temporary.” So, this verse can be translated in this way: “Temporary! Temporary! Everything is temporary!” And Solomon used the rhetoric on purpose, especially irony and paradox to emphasize the truth. In 2:24, he said, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God.” To eat and drink, to work, to spend time with friends and family – surely these are blessings from God. They are good. But, here Solomon is saying, “All of them are temporary.” Our physical health and strength will fade away. Our family and friends will pass away. Our children will leave us. To find our joy in them is not the point of Ecclesiastes. Instead, in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 Solomon concludes this way: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” The point is this: Choose for yourselves today whether you will live for temporary things, or for eternity. Solomon exhorts us to live for everlasting joy rather than temporary one.
Eyes
on Eternity
The
people of Israel, in the past, rejoiced because of the “blessings” from God –
their possessions, health, family, and friends. But now, they rejoice because of
“God” Himself. And they now rededicate themselves to the Lord, and God gives
them even greater joy. This is a virtuous circle of joy. When we dedicate
ourselves to the Lord, He gives us greater joy. Nehemiah 12:43 says, “And on
that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them
great joy.”
In my early twenties, my bucket list was to travel around the world. I saved all my wages, and right after being discharged from the army, I went to Canada. I went to Europe. I went to Thailand. At that time, my purpose for saving money was to travel as much as I wanted. It was good. I really had a wonderful time with friends and enjoyed nature and people. And I still do love to travel, but it is not my bucket list anymore. If the Lord wants me to, I would be willing to stay in the same place for life, because I’ve found greater joy in my heart. Now I still save money, but I do it with a different purpose. Now my joy is to give to God’s missions as much as I can. Because now I know which one is temporary and which one is eternal.
Would you want to care more about eternal things? Then reallocate some of your money, maybe most of your money, from temporal things to eternal things. A.W. Tozer said, “As base a thing as money often is, it yet can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor; it can keep a missionary actively winning the lost to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.” Our earthly treasures can become heavenly ones.
Training
Wheels of Giving
Jesus
said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). Here
Jesus is saying, “Show me your checkbook, your bank statement, and your tax
statement, and I will show you where your heart is.” Where is your heart?
Let us set our hearts on the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us gain an eternal
perspective.
Then, how can we gain this eternal perspective and not be entangled with temporal things? Both the Bible and church tradition say “tithing” can be an excellent way to cultivate the eternal perspective. In Leviticus 27:30 the Lord says, “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.” Some people argue that tithing is an Old Testament practice. Tithing is legalism. But Jesus Himself reaffirmed tithing, but he emphasized that we have to do it with acts of love and justice. He rebuked the Pharisees’ hypocrisy and said, “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (Luke 11:42, NLT).
The early church fathers, such as Origen, Jerome, and Augustine, taught that the tithe was the minimum giving requirement for Christians. Tithing is not the finish line of giving, but it’s just the starting blocks. In this sense, Randy Alcorn rightly said, “Tithing is like training wheels of giving.” It helps us to learn and cultivate the “mindset of eternity.” In all ages, the tithe is the powerful antidote to materialism. It is our visible affirmation of faith, “I own nothing; Jesus owns everything!” It is a visible symbol of putting first things first.
Five
Minutes after We Die
Probably,
some of you have seen the film, Schindler’s List. German businessman
Oskar Schindler bought from the Nazis the lives of many Jews. At the end of the
film, there’s a heart-wrenching scene in which Schindler looks at his car and
his gold pin and regrets that he didn’t give more of his money and possessions
to save more lives. Schindler had used his opportunity far better than most.
But in the end, he longed for a chance to go back and make better choices.
Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. John Wesley said, “I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.” Missionary C. T. Studd said, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything.” And in verse 11 Solomon comes to a conclusion, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.” Here he is saying, “There is a time for everything. So, seize the day! Redeem the day! Live for eternity that God had put in your heart!”
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matt 13:44). My prayer is that we may find this hidden treasure, and in our joy go all in and live for eternity. Amen.
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