Lecture 1: You Were Created to be Happy in God

Introduction: Why Did God Create the World?

Philosophical Debate. Edwards Answer:

John Locke (1632–1704)

Anthony Ashley Cooper (1671–1713)

Francis Hutcheson (1694–1747)

Joseph Butler (1692–1752)

Baruch Spinoza (1677)

George Turnbull (Aberdeen, 1723).

The first criterion is that whatever the end of creation is, it cannot entail a deficiency, dependence, or mutability in God. God is unchanging and does not need or lack anything. “God is not served by human hands as though he needs anything,” This rules out answers like God was lonely. Or God wasn’t happy. Or God was in need.

The second criterion is that whatever the end of creation is, it must be inherently valuable before creation, inherently valued by God before creation, and yet still be capable of being achieved by the act of creation. Edwards shows that this clears the table of all answers but God himself.

Thus, the third criterion is that the end of creation must manifest God’s supreme regard for himself.

Finally, the fourth criterion is that the end must be a consequence of the creation of the world

The Answer, philosophically, is that God himself being seen, known, and loved by the work of the Spirit, this alone, is a sufficient answer for why God created the world. You exist to see, know, and rejoice in/be satisfied with all that God is.

Edwards’ Answer

God’s acts of providence and redemption.

God’s acts being seen and known by creation.

God’s acts not only being seen and known, but being loved and treasured by his creation.

An emanation of God’s glory to all of eternity.

God Delights in God

God has always and always will delight in himself and in his glory. God does all things in order that he would be seen and loved.

1. Creation

“all things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16).

2. Redemption

“He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1:5-6).

3. Sin and Evil Powers

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Col. 1:16

4. Humans

“ I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Is. 43:6-7

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Gen. 1:27

Culmination of the Universe “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Hab 2:14

“God did not create to get wealth; he created to display wealth.” | Piper 84 in Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

God Commands You to be Happy in God

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4)

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation” (Ps. 95:1)

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart (Ps. 37:4).

It is not enough that God, his attributes, and his works be seen and known, but that they be rejoiced in! Seeing, knowing, acknowledging, is one of the steps in getting to the consummation of rejoicing in his attributes, his works, and his person. God is glorified when you see him and treasure him–that’s why he created the world, that’s why he created you. Don’t be satisfied with just understanding God. Press into God until you delight in him.

“The love of God is not merely to be analyzed, understood, and adopted into holistic categories of integrated theological thought. It is to be received, to be absorbed, to be felt. Meditate long and frequently on Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. . . It is far from clear that anyone can be a mature Christian who does not walk in this path.” | DA Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

Joy in God is the Only Sustaining and Satisfying Good

You were designed to be satisfied with God. It’s how he made you.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).

When God commands you to be happy in God, he commands what is for your good. It’s a blessing.

Do you really believe that? If you were to take this doctrine (Made to be happy in God) and display the doctrine in your life, what would it look like?

Life is a Fight to be Happy in God

The fall affects our emotions, our affections, and our loves. The biggest frustration of a Christian is that so often our affections are being pulled in a hundred directions. They are not as affected with the things of God as we would like.

RUTHERFORD QUOTE

God gives us the Spirit to help us in our fight for joy. Through the work of the Spirit, our affections are transformed and reoriented to their right place and to their right object–God.

God changes hearts. I have seen it. I have tasted it. This is what God does. Edwards was right. The Spirit’s role is to open the eyes of your hearts to see, know, and taste God.

Never, never underestimate the power of the love of God to break down and transform the most amazingly hard individuals. . . God’s love so transforms us that we mediate it to others, who are thereby transformed. We love because he first loved us; we forgive because we stand forgiven.” | DA Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

The First Step to Delighting in God

The first step in delighting in God, as is emphasized in our church, is by looking at him in the Scriptures. The more you spend time in the scriptures, the more you spend time looking at Christ, the more your tastes and affections will begin to be oriented towards him. As a result you have more and more joy. The less time you spend meditating on and gazing at Christ through his Word, the less your affections and tastes will be oriented towards him. If you don’t look at him, study him, know him, don’t expect your heart to love him.

Read the Word

Memorize the Word

Pray for God’s work on your heart

Fast from the things of earth and orient yourself towards heaven

Read biographies of men who love God deeply

Delight in God Leads to Loving/Serving Others

One of the marks of truly delighting in God is that as your joy increases when you bump into others, you are so filled that your joy flows out of you onto them. Godliness flows out of you. Acts of love flow out of you. Service flows out of you. Self-sacrifice flows out of you.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” 1 John. 4:11-12

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” 1 Jn. 4:8

In this series this fall/winter, I want to emphasize that there is an outward focused way on increasing your joy in God, and that is through loving and serving others in such a way that includes them in the joy you have in God.

Everyone of us, are trained and wired to think that joy is found in serving ourself. It is found in indulging ourself, in a life of comfort, in a life of self-promotion, in a life of being liked by others, and so on. I want to argue, that abundance of joy comes in a life spent for others and I want to argue that this is how God designed it. Genuine joy in God overflows to meet the needs of others even when it’s costly—especially when it’s costly [EMPHASIZE].

Scriptural Support

Acts 20:35

35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35

The exhortation is to work hard by helping the weak. The weak person doesn’t benefit you by your helping them. There is no payment offered back. They are weak. Yet the command is to help the weak. Why?

It is more blessed to give than to receive. There is more happiness, more fullness, more joy, more benefit in giving yourself, spending yourself, sacrifice, than for accumulating for yourself. [EMPHASIZE]

Heb. 10:32-34

“But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding on” (Heb. 10:32-34).

Partnered with those persecuted

Property is plundered - joyfully

This implies that the person is not overly attached to possessions, but to God. What do your partnerships say about your treasure? How do you respond to being plundered?

A better and abiding possession

If God is not your joy, your treasure, you will not spend your life for others. Rather, you will make every effort to make sure your comfort and possessions are preserved, maintained, and protected from any form of plundering.

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:7-9).

1 Corinthians 13:5

“Love seeks not its own.” 1 Cor. 13:5

1 Corinthians 10:24

“Let no one seek his own but that of the other.” 1 Cor. 10:24

This is an orientation that God is calling us towards.

Romans 15:1-3

Romans 15:1–3 (ESV)

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Rom. 15:1-3

My Main Inference:

If this is how God designed it, then this should be the pursuit of your life. To be happy in God and for that happiness to overflow in your pursuit of the happiness of others through acts of love and service. Any other pursuit, I am arguing, will not leave you ultimately satisfied. Hence why depression and anxiety are through the roof in one of the most luxurious societies in the world.