Speaker 1: Well, good morning.
Speaker 2: I want to first say before I get started. Man,
Speaker 2: I've been here for just over a year, and what
Speaker 2: a blessing I know. Wow, thank you for putting up
Speaker 2: with me. What a blessing it has been to be here.
Speaker 2: It has been so encouraging in the way that you
Speaker 2: have welcomed myself and my family into this local body.
Speaker 2: It's been amazing. So thank you for loving us well.
Speaker 2: We are super excited for man, what God has and
Speaker 2: sore for us here. It costs a way for the future.
Speaker 2: So thank you guys so much for loving us well.
Speaker 2: With that, we're gonna be in Psalm sixteen, as Josh
Speaker 2: just said, and so if you'll open up to Psalm
Speaker 2: sixteen a follow along, I'm gonna read the whole thing.
Speaker 2: It's eleven verses, so Psalm sixteen, starting in verse one.
Speaker 2: Preserve me, Oh God, for in you I take refuge.
Speaker 2: I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I
Speaker 2: have no good apart from you. As for the saints
Speaker 2: in the land, they are the excellent ones, and whom
Speaker 2: is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run
Speaker 2: after another, God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood.
Speaker 2: I will not pour out or take their names on
Speaker 2: my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion, and my
Speaker 2: cup you hold my lids.
Speaker 1: The lines have fallen.
Speaker 2: For me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Speaker 2: I bless the Lord, who gives me counsel. And in
Speaker 2: the night also my heart instructs me. I set the
Speaker 2: Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand,
Speaker 2: and I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad,
Speaker 2: and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure,
Speaker 2: for you will not abandon my soul to sheol, or
Speaker 2: let the Holy One see corruption. You make known to
Speaker 2: me the path of life, and in your presence there
Speaker 2: is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Speaker 2: Psalm sixteen David shares where joy is found. And this
Speaker 2: psalm is written from a heart that has learned where
Speaker 2: true joy and true security are found. Joy isn't found
Speaker 2: lasting joy. It's not found in circumstances. It's not found
Speaker 2: in success, it's not found in control. Lasting joy is
Speaker 2: found in God himself. And so as we go through
Speaker 2: the Psalm, we'll see three ways of how we find
Speaker 2: joy In God. We find joy and God by trusting
Speaker 2: in God. The second is we find joy by living
Speaker 2: with God's design, and the third one is we find
Speaker 2: joy by living in His presence forever. And those will
Speaker 2: be up on the screen as we go throughout, so
Speaker 2: if you miss them, they'll be up there. And so
Speaker 2: as I was preparing this morning, I was like, man,
Speaker 2: in my own life, where do I find joy? And
Speaker 2: right away my family came to mind, my three kids
Speaker 2: and my beautiful wife. If you don't know, I have
Speaker 2: three kids. I have a one, a two, and a
Speaker 2: four year old. So we are often busy and we're
Speaker 2: often tired, but man, the joy that they bring. And
Speaker 2: so one of the cool things as a parent is
Speaker 2: getting to watch your kids go from cautious in something
Speaker 2: to confidence in that thing. Last summer, we were trying
Speaker 2: to teach my four year old, who was then three,
Speaker 2: how to jump or how to swim into a pool,
Speaker 2: and we thought the best way to do that is
Speaker 2: to have her jump into the pool. She doesn't even
Speaker 2: like to get her eyes west. We're like, let's just
Speaker 2: get her all in there, and so she's standing on
Speaker 2: the edge, she's nervous. I'm not I'm super happy.
Speaker 1: I'm like arms reaching out. I'm like, come on, you
Speaker 1: can do it, and she's looking.
Speaker 2: At me, nervous, and then looking at the water even
Speaker 2: more nervous, and then me nervous, and then back and forth.
Speaker 2: And she was nervous, but she was making sure that
Speaker 2: I was right there to catch her. And once she
Speaker 2: realized that she could do it and that I was there,
Speaker 2: that I was going to catch her, and she didn't
Speaker 2: even look anymore. She just launched herself off the hedge
Speaker 2: of the pool man. She was having a blast, as
Speaker 2: happy as can be. At one point, she would jump,
Speaker 2: she would get out, she would do it over and over,
Speaker 2: and she wasn't even making sure that I was paying attention.
Speaker 2: In her mind, if she was jumping, then I was
Speaker 2: catching And man, guys, that right there, that is trust.
Speaker 2: It's not because the water is safe. The water is
Speaker 2: still not safe. It's because I was there. And you
Speaker 2: could see in that moment you could see the joy
Speaker 2: that she had, that trust in me had then created.
Speaker 2: You could see it through her joy, through the smiles.
Speaker 2: You could see it through the repetition of her getting
Speaker 2: in and immediately running out and jumping right back in.
Speaker 2: Her excitement came from the confidence, her trust that she
Speaker 2: would be caught somewhere along the way in life. Use
Speaker 2: that we grow up and we become far more self aware,
Speaker 2: far more cautious, and we begin to plan instead of trust.
Speaker 2: We depend on our own strength until life gets hard,
Speaker 2: and then suddenly we find ourselves looking for someone to
Speaker 2: catch us. There are moments in life when everything feels uncertain,
Speaker 2: seasons when we are looking for something that's solid to
Speaker 2: stand on, something sturdy, something dependable, something that's unshakable, And
Speaker 2: whether we realize it or not, in those moments, what
Speaker 2: we're looking for is joy. And it's a joy that's
Speaker 2: not weak. It's a joy that is lasting, and it's
Speaker 2: a joy that doesn't depend on circumstances.
Speaker 1: No, it's a joy that lasts.
Speaker 2: So where do we find that joy that brings us
Speaker 2: to the very first point? Joy is found and trusting
Speaker 2: God man. David begins and Psalm sixteen with such.
Speaker 1: A powerful prayer.
Speaker 2: It reads, preserve me, Oh God, friend, you I take refuge.
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem to be a prayer of someone who
Speaker 2: is panicking. It seems to a prayer if someone who
Speaker 2: understands their dependence. What David is saying is God You
Speaker 2: are my safety, You are who I turn to. You
Speaker 2: are my refuge. But David is simply acknowledging this truth
Speaker 2: that he needs God for everything. You see, we often
Speaker 2: just try cry out to God. Maybe it's when when
Speaker 2: things are falling apart. Maybe it's when that diagnosis comes,
Speaker 2: the relationship is breaking. Maybe it's just when finances are tight.
Speaker 2: And David he shows us right here, He shows us
Speaker 2: something better. He lives in a way of depending on
Speaker 2: the Lord, not in desperation of the Lord. See this
Speaker 2: really hit close to me. About a month and a
Speaker 2: half ago, I ran a marathon, and about six seven
Speaker 2: months before that, I did a whole bunch of training
Speaker 2: leading up to that, and I was about twenty miles
Speaker 2: in and man, I was feeling so good, way better
Speaker 2: than I expected to. My legs were strong or they
Speaker 2: ever feeling strong, and my pace, man, it was good mentally,
Speaker 2: which when you're running four hours, mentally it becomes a
Speaker 2: mental game.
Speaker 1: You're like, I can do this. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was in a great place and at one point
Speaker 2: I was like, you know what, I may actually be
Speaker 2: able to do this thing, because I wasn't sure up
Speaker 2: until that moment.
Speaker 1: Everything felt under control.
Speaker 2: Until mile twenty, something changed, something happened. We're three hours
Speaker 2: in and I remember running this race and I see
Speaker 2: people that are running. They look great, and then they
Speaker 2: grabbed their leg and they drop to the ground. You're like, ooh,
Speaker 2: I don't know what just happened to them, but I
Speaker 2: do not want to experience that.
Speaker 1: Well, let me tell you my twenty. The cramps hit hard.
Speaker 2: My legs locked up, and every single step became a fight.
Speaker 1: The pace that I had been running.
Speaker 2: For three hours, it suddenly did not seem possible anymore.
Speaker 2: And at that moment, it didn't matter how confident I
Speaker 2: had been, didn't matter how confident I had felt. All
Speaker 2: that mattered was that I can I keep going. The
Speaker 2: last five to six miles they were slow, Boy were
Speaker 2: they painful, but man, they were humbling.
Speaker 1: I was able to finish.
Speaker 2: And as I thought about this experience later, as I
Speaker 2: was writing this sermon, I thought, how often is that
Speaker 2: exactly how we live our spiritual lives. We feel strong,
Speaker 2: maybe we feel capable of ourselves. We feel like man,
Speaker 2: we're in control, until we're not. We rely on our
Speaker 2: own strength, our own discipline, our own plans that we create,
Speaker 2: and then something happens and it changes everything. Maybe it's
Speaker 2: we experience a.
Speaker 1: Loss, maybe we're just exhausted.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's that disappointment has set in. We realize in
Speaker 2: those moments how much we really need the Lord. You see,
Speaker 2: David wasn't waiting until mile twenty to cry out to God.
Speaker 2: We can see that in this psalm. He lived in
Speaker 2: daily dependence. He didn't just run to God when he
Speaker 2: was exhausted. He ran with God from the beginning. And
Speaker 2: that's why he can say in this text, we just
Speaker 2: read I have no good apart from You. And that's
Speaker 2: the difference between desperation and dependence. You see, Desperation it
Speaker 2: cries out when every single thing falls apart. Dependence it
Speaker 2: walks closely with God way before those things fall apart.
Speaker 2: Desperation it usually shows up when we feel like we
Speaker 2: have exhausted.
Speaker 1: All of our own efforts.
Speaker 2: It comes when our strength runs out and those plans
Speaker 2: that we had created they fall apart. And I want
Speaker 2: to be clear, there's nothing wrong with crying out to
Speaker 2: God and desperation. In fact, we'll find so many prayers
Speaker 2: like that in scripture, that kind of prayer. But David
Speaker 2: does show with something super important here he shows us
Speaker 2: that dependence it's not something that's reactive. Dependence is something
Speaker 2: that is relational. It's the steady posture someone who knows
Speaker 2: that they need God long before life forces.
Speaker 1: Them to admit it. Desperation. It comes at mile twenty.
Speaker 2: Dependence starts at mile one. Is learned in the normal
Speaker 2: day today. It's in the routines that we make. It's
Speaker 2: in the decisions that we have. It's in the responsibilities
Speaker 2: that we've set out for ourselves.
Speaker 1: And it's in.
Speaker 2: Those places that joy is formed long before suffering.
Speaker 1: It's where trust is made before trials arrive.
Speaker 2: Look at verse two, he says, I say to the Lord,
Speaker 2: you are my lord, and I have no good apart
Speaker 2: from you.
Speaker 1: I'm like man, David. That's a bold statement, David.
Speaker 2: You're declaring that You're saying that everything good in this life,
Speaker 2: like joy and meaning and purpose and security, all of
Speaker 2: that comes from God alone.
Speaker 1: Yes, But here's the thing.
Speaker 2: We live in a culture that constantly tells us that
Speaker 2: joy comes from success, that joy comes from comforts. However,
Speaker 2: David reminds us that joy is not found and what
Speaker 2: we have, Rather, joy is found, and who we belong to,
Speaker 2: what we've given our lives to.
Speaker 1: David doesn't say that God gives him good things. He
Speaker 1: says that God is his good.
Speaker 2: Thing, and that right there is the difference between enjoying
Speaker 2: God's good gifts that he's given you and worshiping him.
Speaker 2: When God becomes our most important thing, everything else falls
Speaker 2: into its proper places. And so if all of that,
Speaker 2: if all of that we just talked about is true,
Speaker 2: if God is the most important thing in your life,
Speaker 2: and He is who you are trusting in, then we
Speaker 2: ask is how do we actually live like that?
Speaker 1: How do we live in a way that.
Speaker 2: Is leaning towards joy instead of leaning away from it?
Speaker 2: And David answers that when he shows us in this
Speaker 2: text that joy is found and living within God's design.
Speaker 1: So this is the point two, finding joy by.
Speaker 2: Trusting in God, and then as we do that, we
Speaker 2: will find joy by living within his design. Let me
Speaker 2: go ahead and reread verses four and five. For us
Speaker 2: says the sorrows of those who run after another God
Speaker 2: shall multiply their drink offerings of blood. I will not
Speaker 2: pour out or take their names.
Speaker 1: On my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion, and.
Speaker 2: My cup you hold my lives. David's about to show
Speaker 2: us two different ways of living. He says, those who
Speaker 2: chase after other gods, man, your sorrows are just multiplying.
Speaker 2: And another way we can say that is when we
Speaker 2: are looking for meaning outside of God's good design, the
Speaker 2: results will always be emptiness.
Speaker 1: And we see this all around.
Speaker 2: Us because the world tells us constantly if we just
Speaker 2: had more than we would be more happy, more money,
Speaker 2: more success, more recognition, more freedom. And then scripture tells
Speaker 2: us tells us a different story. It says that God's
Speaker 2: boundaries they're not meant to restrict us.
Speaker 1: No, they're meant to protect us.
Speaker 2: His boundaries are meant to help you grow closer to him.
Speaker 2: We see right here in verse six it says that
Speaker 2: the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed,
Speaker 2: I have a beautiful inheritance. Those lines that are being
Speaker 2: referred to, they're boundaries. It's God's design for life, and
Speaker 2: David is not complaining about them. Rather, David is rejoicing
Speaker 2: in them. He's saying, God, where you have placed me,
Speaker 2: it is good. The life that you've called me to live,
Speaker 2: it is good. And that is such a different idea
Speaker 2: from a culture that equates freedom with the absence of boundaries.
Speaker 2: True freedom isn't found in doing whatever we want. It's
Speaker 2: found in living the way that we have been created
Speaker 2: to live. When we live outside of God's design, things
Speaker 2: will eventually fall apart. But when we walk with him,
Speaker 2: when we walk within his design, even though it's hard.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying, hey, when you find joys, everything's happy
Speaker 2: and go lucky.
Speaker 1: No, there's still hard moments in life.
Speaker 2: But when we do walk in His way and trust
Speaker 2: in Him, that is where we find peace. And David
Speaker 2: goes on to say in this text, the Lord gives.
Speaker 1: Him counsel even at night.
Speaker 2: That right there is a picture of a heart that
Speaker 2: is aligned with God's word and it is shaping his
Speaker 2: inner life. God's word is not just a guide that
Speaker 2: becomes helpful for him to make decisions. It's the guide
Speaker 2: that shapes his desires. And that is what it looks
Speaker 2: like to walk with God daily, not just knowing about God,
Speaker 2: but being shaped by God and being shaped.
Speaker 1: By his word. So that raises a.
Speaker 2: Question, who is shaping us? I want us to think
Speaker 2: about the voices that we listen to. Maybe it's the
Speaker 2: podcast you listen to on the drive to work.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the YouTubers that you watch.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's the music that you listen to, the movies
Speaker 2: we watch, the shows we binge watch, I'm guilty. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's the social media feeds that we doomscroll on all
Speaker 2: day because we're constantly being counseled, whether we know it
Speaker 2: or not. And the thing is, those voices that I
Speaker 2: just said, none of them are neutral. They're all shaping
Speaker 2: the way that we think about life, to shaping the
Speaker 2: way that we think about success, relationships, the way we
Speaker 2: think about identity, and more importantly, they're shaping the way
Speaker 2: that we think and how we think.
Speaker 1: Joy is supposed to look like. We often expect.
Speaker 2: To find joy from those places we listen, we watch,
Speaker 2: we scroll. Maybe it's to hope, to feel encouraged. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's even hope to feel fulfilled. And if we're honest
Speaker 2: with ourselves, those voices they don't just distract us from God. Oftentimes,
Speaker 2: those voices we listen to they contradict the way that
Speaker 2: God has called us to live his design for us.
Speaker 2: One side tells you, hey, do whatever makes you happy,
Speaker 2: protect yourself at all costs because.
Speaker 1: You deserve more. And then we have.
Speaker 2: God's word, and it says things like deny yourself, take
Speaker 2: up your cross, trust in me, walk in my ways.
Speaker 2: And so when we throw our hearts in our minds
Speaker 2: with counsel that run against God's design for us, it
Speaker 2: should be to no surprise when we feel like we
Speaker 2: don't get to experience any joy, or that joy is
Speaker 2: distant from us. When David had said that the Lord
Speaker 2: counsels him even at the night, that means that God's
Speaker 2: truth was so deeply planted in his heart it shaped
Speaker 2: him when no one else was speaking. That kind of
Speaker 2: counsel does not come by accident. That kind of counsel
Speaker 2: comes from intentionally getting into God's word.
Speaker 1: Pastor Josh said it a few weeks ago.
Speaker 2: It's constant weeding and feeding of your garden of your heart.
Speaker 2: It's weeding out the sin and ungodliness, and it's feeding
Speaker 2: your heart with the knowledge of truth. And so then
Speaker 2: the question is it is not if you're being shaped.
Speaker 1: The question is who or what is shaping you.
Speaker 2: If we want a joy that last, we can't keep
Speaker 2: looking forward in places that were never designed to give it.
Speaker 1: Joy is found.
Speaker 2: We live within God's design, and that starts by letting
Speaker 2: God be our primary counselors. We've talked a lot about joy,
Speaker 2: a lot about Christian joy already, but we really haven't
Speaker 2: defined it. I think we all kind of a framework
Speaker 2: of what joy may be in our lives, but I
Speaker 2: want to define it for us. Michael Reeves, he's a
Speaker 2: well known author. He puts it this way. He defines
Speaker 2: Christian joy. It's a deep, enduring delight that comes from
Speaker 2: beholding and rejoicing in Jesus Christ. It is not something
Speaker 2: that we manufacture ourselves, but something that naturally bubbles up
Speaker 2: as we fix our eyes on hill Man, beholding and rejoicing.
Speaker 1: In Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Guys, that's the beauty of Christian joy.
Speaker 1: We can't produce it by our own effort. We don't
Speaker 1: force it, we don't work our way into it.
Speaker 2: Joy grows as we behold Jesus, who he is, what
Speaker 2: he has done for us, the grace that he has
Speaker 2: shown to us. And so it's never am I doing enough?
Speaker 2: It is what am I beholding? Because when we become
Speaker 2: like what we behold, we rejoice and what we treasure
Speaker 2: the most beholding Jesus. It's not just in the early
Speaker 2: morning hours with our bibles open. Although that is very
Speaker 2: important and we should be doing that. But we behold
Speaker 2: Christ in the ordinary, everyday life. Maybe it's through fellowship,
Speaker 2: Maybe it's through prayer, Maybe it's through obedience. Maybe it's
Speaker 2: through repentance, through conversation, through relationship, through remembering the gospel. Guys,
Speaker 2: God's design is not about taking joy from you. It's
Speaker 2: actually to lead you to the only joy that last,
Speaker 2: and that leads us to our last point, find joy
Speaker 2: by living in His presence forever. David's confidence is super
Speaker 2: powerful here and verse nine he says, therefore, my heart
Speaker 2: is glad.
Speaker 1: My whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure.
Speaker 2: Why can David say something like that, Wow, Guys, It's
Speaker 2: because he knows his future is secure in God's hands.
Speaker 2: Go on to say, you will not abandon my soul
Speaker 2: to shield or let your Holy One see corruption. What
Speaker 2: David is saying right there is even death does not
Speaker 2: get the final word. He's not just saying God will
Speaker 2: be with me in this life. He's saying God will
Speaker 2: not even abandon me in death. And that right there
Speaker 2: is a category of hope that this world just simply
Speaker 2: does not have the best that the world can do.
Speaker 1: Is try to deny it.
Speaker 2: They can try to distract from death, they can try
Speaker 2: to maybe delay it, but they world cannot defeat it.
Speaker 2: And David, the joy he's speaking of right here, it's
Speaker 2: the kind of joy that survives the grave. To be
Speaker 2: quite frank, death, it's coming for all of us. We
Speaker 2: cannot escape it. And so if death is unavoidable, which
Speaker 2: it is, then the question is not, well, man, how
Speaker 2: long am I going to live? No, the question needs
Speaker 2: to be where does my joy rest? Because when we
Speaker 2: find our joy in Christ, we are then receiving a
Speaker 2: joy that continues in His presence forever. And that's important
Speaker 2: because it it starts beginning for us to.
Speaker 1: Ask deeper questions of ourselves.
Speaker 2: What kind of joy actually outlast suffering, outlast loss and death?
Speaker 2: Because if our joy is rooted in our circumstances, what
Speaker 2: happens when our circumstances change?
Speaker 1: The joy will fade away.
Speaker 2: If our joy is rooted in our health, what happens
Speaker 2: when our health fails? If our joy is rooted in
Speaker 2: our careers, what happens when our career ends? If our
Speaker 2: joy is rooted in our relationships, what happens when those
Speaker 2: relationships are then broken?
Speaker 1: You see, David is.
Speaker 2: Inviting us into a joy that has a stronger foundation
Speaker 2: than anything this world has to offer. It's a joy
Speaker 2: that's rooted in God himself, and man, if we're honest,
Speaker 2: even with that kind of future hope, which is so
Speaker 2: encouraging to look forward to, life can still feel unstable.
Speaker 2: Life can still feel unpredictable. I'm not saying that it's
Speaker 2: going to be easy by any means. There's gonna be
Speaker 2: a lot of times where things feel out of control.
Speaker 1: I was thinking as I was preparing this morning.
Speaker 2: When do I feel out of control? Like it's not
Speaker 2: in my control anymore? And the first thing comes to
Speaker 2: my mind is when I'm an airplane thirty thousand feet
Speaker 2: in the air, and have you ever been there? And
Speaker 2: you hit bad turbulence and your heart's racing and your
Speaker 2: stomach kind of drops a little bit, and maybe you
Speaker 2: grab the legs of the people beside you, you squeeze them.
Speaker 1: Don't do that, that's weird, but maybe some people do.
Speaker 2: I was on an international flight last year, and actually,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pause a story before we go any further.
Speaker 2: My wife saysn't very dramatic, so you can decide after
Speaker 2: I tell the story I was on an international flight
Speaker 2: and I was sitting on a plane and I was
Speaker 2: smushed in between probably two people. Actually don't remember where
Speaker 2: I was sitting, but the you know, the seats are
Speaker 2: small and I am big, so I was probably smushed.
Speaker 2: And I was watching a TV show probably, and I
Speaker 2: like to eat, so I was definitely eating. And but
Speaker 2: what I do remember is this bad storm, right, a
Speaker 2: bad turbulence, and the plane was shaking hard enough where
Speaker 2: you know, the seat belt signs come on and then
Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh, you know, because tightening your seatbelts, because
Speaker 2: that's what saves you when you crash. And then then
Speaker 2: you hear USh from this is the flight deck, flight attendants,
Speaker 2: please be seated, And I'm like, okay, this is where
Speaker 2: we go down because if the if the flight attends
Speaker 2: can't even give me coke, then this is probably not
Speaker 2: a safe situation at all. And the plane gets quieter
Speaker 2: for a moment and you can feel the tension in
Speaker 2: the air, and then the pilot comes from the flight
Speaker 2: attendant or from this speaker and he says, hey, this
Speaker 2: is your captain speaking. This happens literally every day. It's
Speaker 2: not a big deal. We're gonna fly right above this
Speaker 2: and we'll be in clear skies in just a few moments. Now,
Speaker 2: the turbulence did not immediately stop in that moment, just
Speaker 2: like in life, We're gonna have this joy, this joy
Speaker 2: I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean life's problems just stop.
Speaker 2: The plane was still shaking. The storm was real, trust me,
Speaker 2: it was real. But guys, the turbulence, it was only temporary.
Speaker 2: It didn't change the destination. It just made the flight
Speaker 2: uncomfortable for a few moments. And that right there is
Speaker 2: the difference between worldly joy and Christian joy. Worldly joy
Speaker 2: can only last as long as there is no turbulence.
Speaker 2: But the joy that David describes right here, it is
Speaker 2: rooted in a destination that has already been secured by Christ,
Speaker 2: which means when life does feel shape, when sorrows come,
Speaker 2: because they will when suffering, hits will probably face suffering
Speaker 2: as sometime when your future feels unclear, I've been there.
Speaker 2: The joy we have in Christ it is not threatened.
Speaker 2: The turbulence is temporary. The joy is eternal. And that
Speaker 2: right here is the confidence that David has right here,
Speaker 2: because ultimately, this passage points beyond David. This passage points
Speaker 2: to Jesus, and Peter actually quotes Psalm sixteen and Acts two,
Speaker 2: and he explains that David was speaking prophetically about the
Speaker 2: resurrection of Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of this psalm.
Speaker 2: He trusted the Father completely, even to the point of death,
Speaker 2: and God did not abandon him there. He raised him
Speaker 2: from the grave. And that means our hope it is
Speaker 2: not just for this life.
Speaker 1: Our joy.
Speaker 2: It is not imprairie. Our confidence does not need to
Speaker 2: be weak. So when life feels hard, because it will
Speaker 2: at times when grief hits. There's some of us right
Speaker 2: here this morning who are grieving when anxiety rises, when
Speaker 2: circumstances just seem to break us and tear us down.
Speaker 2: Christian joy does not need to pretend that that storm
Speaker 2: is not real. We can rest and the confidence that
Speaker 2: the storm will last forever.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus lives, our future is secure.
Speaker 2: And that's why David ends with these words right here
Speaker 2: in verse eleven. He says, you can make known to
Speaker 2: me the path of life in your presence.
Speaker 1: There's fullness of joy.
Speaker 2: At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is the
Speaker 2: promise we and now hold on too. It is real joy,
Speaker 2: and it is found in God's presence and it is
Speaker 2: for eternity.
Speaker 1: And if you're here this morning and you want to
Speaker 1: consider yourself a Christian, please do not miss this. Everyone
Speaker 1: is looking for joy. We're all trying to find joy
Speaker 1: in life.
Speaker 2: But apart from Christ worldly joy, it will never last.
Speaker 2: It can feel good when life feels good, but it
Speaker 2: cannot survive death.
Speaker 1: And the hope right here that David.
Speaker 2: Describes, it's the hope that Jesus has secured. It's through
Speaker 2: his resurrection, and it is offered to you. Christ does
Speaker 2: not call you away from joy. He's actually calling you
Speaker 2: to the only joy that lasts. And for those of
Speaker 2: us who ring Christ this morning, this is where that joy.
Speaker 1: This is where it becomes permanent.
Speaker 2: It's a joy that unders sorrow, stands firm and uncertainty,
Speaker 2: and it looks beyond the grave. It's the joy that
Speaker 2: David anticipated and that Jesus fulfilled. And in Psalm sixteen
Speaker 2: it invites us to consider for our own lives. It
Speaker 2: teaches us something super important. Joy is not in our circumstances.
Speaker 2: It's in closeness to God when we trust in Him,
Speaker 2: when we live within His design, when we place our
Speaker 2: hope in Him. We then get to experience the kind
Speaker 2: of joy that endures suffering, It overcomes fear, and it
Speaker 2: carries us through every single season. And so the question
Speaker 2: today is where are you looking for your joy? Is
Speaker 2: it in success? Is it in comfort?
Speaker 1: Or is it in Christ and Christ alone? Because when
Speaker 1: God is your.
Speaker 2: Refuge, when He is your treasure, no matter what happens,
Speaker 2: you then get to say, with confidence in your presence
Speaker 2: is fullness of joy. Please stay with me and pray. God,
Speaker 2: you are so good and you thank you for loving
Speaker 2: us so well, even though Lord, we don't always deserve it.
Speaker 1: Lord.
Speaker 2: I think as we just read about finding joy, Lord,
Speaker 2: I just pray that and thank you for all the
Speaker 2: things that you've blessed us within this life that we
Speaker 2: can find joy in. But I do pray that we
Speaker 2: find joy ultimately in.
Speaker 1: You, in and in you alone. Lord.
Speaker 2: We love you, and we thank you for loving us.
Speaker 2: We have all these things up to units and your name.
Speaker 2: We pray Amen.