Principles for Life- Find True Joy in God Alone

September 14, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are two different ways you can look at God. There are two different ways you can view Him. The first way is to see God as an omnipotent killjoy. This almighty being that rests up on high and inflicts upon us His will through a series of rules and regulations that we're expected to follow every step along the way. The Ten Commandments would be a good example of that, of God setting forth His laws that He expects us to keep.

The second way we can view God is to see Him as a loving Father, a loving Father who is gracious and compassionate, a loving Father who only wants to provide and protect His people or His children. The Ten Commandments would be a prime example of that, as God gives to us His directives to protect us and to provide for us.

The latter view of God is the scriptural God we read about from Genesis to Revelation. The God that is revealed to us is a loving Father. He's a gracious and compassionate God, one who is slow to anger, one who is abounding in love, a God who wants to provide for us, a God who wants to protect us. Does He at times admonish us? Yes, He does. Does He at times discipline us? Most certainly. Does He have certain things He expects we will not do and other things that He wants us to do? Absolutely He does. But He does that as a loving Father, providing and protecting for His children. In the same way that a loving parent stops their child from climbing the fence at the zoo so they can pet the giant kitty, in the same way a loving parent slaps the hand of the child that keeps reaching for the boiling pot of water, in the same way a loving parent asks the teenager where you're going, who you'll be with, and what time will you be home. Parents don't do that because they want to be cosmic killjoy. Parents don't do that because they have this inner meanness inside of them. Parents do that out of love and concern for their children. Parents do that because they want to provide and protect their children in the same way God wants to provide and protect for us, in the same way God gives to us the Ten Commandments He handed down through Moses. It's not God as a cosmic killjoy saying, "How can I ruin all of their fun down there? I've got the Top 10 here, that should do it." It's God saying, "How can I protect them. How can I provide for them? How can I love them and care for them and show them compassion and grace?"

What we really have in the Ten Commandments is God giving to us principles for living. God gives to us inherent in the Ten Commandments ten principles for life. These principles for life, if by God's grace we're able to follow them, God would bless us immensely. These ten principles for life, if we were to adhere to them, we would have such a joy-filled life, such a complete life, such a life that is so fulfilled. These ten principles for life God says are commandments, not suggestions, because God is so serious about them, because God knows they are so important for us. They're not just a mere suggestion for us to follow. They are a commandment, and inherent in that commandment is a principle, a principle for our life so that God can provide and protect us.

This week we begin a new series on the ten principles of life that God has handed down for us. It's based upon the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and that we still have here today, the ten principles God gives us so we can have a joy-filled life, a complete life, a life that is fulfilled, a life that we enjoy the peace and contentment of God.

We begin, obviously, with the first one; and there is an order by which God gave the commandments. It wasn't haphazard. God put the most important first. He put the number one there because He didn't want us to miss it. Even if we skipped the rest of the nine, He wanted us to know number one. Because if we can get the first commandment right, the rest of them will take care of themselves. God says you are to have no other gods before me. Luther offers us the explanation. What does that mean to have no other gods before Him? It means that we are to fear, love, and to trust in God above all things else. If we can fear, love, and trust the one true God, then all the rest of the commandments will take care of themselves. If we can fear, love, and trust God above all else, we will have such a joy-filled, content-filled, peaceful life, it's beyond our imagining. God sets forth for us in the First Commandment the key to all the rest and so also inherent in the key with the First Commandment is the key of the first principle and that says, "True joy in this life and true joy in the next life comes only from the one true God." Only from the one true God. You see, God is providing for us and God is protecting us in this commandment because He knows that in this life and in this world, there will be earthly gods that will promise all that God has for us. There will be earthly gods that will promise us joy, happiness, and contentment. But the trouble is they can't follow through. God promises and God delivers. All the other gods of this world, they promise joy. They promise happiness, but they cannot deliver on those promises.

Now understand when God says there is to be no other gods before me, you may have noticed that it had a small "g," not a large "G." We all know that there really is only one true God. It is the God who is the Father in heaven above, the God who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There really is only one true God, but living this side of heaven, we come up with our own gods, small "g." A god then is someone we look to, someone we put a priority on, someone we trust, whatever comes first in our life, whatever takes top priority in our life, whatever we look to for security, for happiness, for joy, for contentment, that, in fact, is our god.

And there are many gods of this world that promise all of that and more; but, in my way of thinking, there is only one god of this world who captures everyone. It's not made of wood. It's not carved out of metal. It's less tangible than that. The false god of this world that promises everything and delivers nothing is money and wealth. In fact, I'm convinced it has always been that way since the beginning of time. The one thing that promises everything and delivers nothing for us is money and wealth. Is it any surprise that the devil's last ditch effort at Jesus to pull Him away from the Father as he takes Him to a high mountain, he shows Him all the riches of this world? He tempts Him with all the money, all the wealth He could ever imagine and says, "Now just bow down to me." Is it any wonder that scripture in the New Testament says that money is the root of all kinds of evil, not that money itself is evil, but money leads to all kinds of evil because money ends up being our god. It ends up being the thing we trust, that we look to for security, we look for to bring us happiness and joy? Is it any wonder that Jesus spoke more about money than any other topic in the New Testament? You read through the gospels. The one topic Jesus touches on again and again and again is money. Why? Because He wants to protect us. He wants to provide for us. He doesn't want us to fall for the lie, fall for the deception that money will bring us happiness, that money will bring us security and joy. Jesus even pitted the two against each other. He said, "You cannot serve money and God. It's going to be one or the other." He knew that the number one challenge to the only true God was the false god of money and wealth. And I am convicted and I believe all of us have fallen for the lie. All of us have fallen for the deception. Why is it then we spend the majority of our life trying to earn more money? Why is it we lose countless hours of sleep worrying about money and finances? Why is it that we stew about our portfolio and look at the stock market every day worrying what's going to happen next? We look to money as our sense of security. We look to money as a way of bringing happiness and joy into our lives. Each of us has fallen for the carrot that's hanging out in front of us, but we're never going to eat the carrot. How many times have you heard this? I don't really want to be rich, but I just want to have enough money to take care of my family, to live comfortably, and maybe go on a vacation once a year. You know what the problem is? Each time you set up a bar like that, when you reach it, when you have enough money to live comfortably, take a vacation once a year, provide for yourself, you raise the bar. And all of a sudden, I don't want to be rich but now if I could just have . . . The fact is, my friends, you'll never have it. You'll never achieve it. The bar will keep moving higher and higher and higher. If you're looking to money as your false god, if you're looking to money to bring joy and happiness, contentment and security in your life, it's never going to happen.

My mother was a big fan of Elvis Presley, so pardon the analogy from Elvis. But Elvis, as you may know, grew up dirt poor, incredibly poor, poorer than any of us can imagine. At the height of his career, when he had more money and possessions than at his childhood in his wildest dreams he could have ever imagined, you know what he wrote in his diary? I am the most miserable person in the world.

Money promises everything, and it delivers nothing. God says you shall have no other gods before me because He cares about us, because He wants to protect us. He wants to protect us from the disappointment, protect us from the disillusionment, protect us from running after something that is really worthless, whether your false god indeed is money or whether your false god is power and influence or whether your false god is your career or it's a relationship, no matter what it is, if it's anything different from the one true God, it cannot fulfill the promises that it's making to you and God wants to protect you from that. He wants to protect you from that hurt, protect you from the disappointment that comes from running after it. You see, in reality, only God can follow through. Because when God promises you joy, God delivers joy. When God promises you peace, He delivers peace. When God promises you contentment, He delivers contentment. Why? Because God understands. God understands what really brings true joy to the human life. God knows that true joy is not something that somehow happens externally, but it happens internally. In other words, true joy doesn't come from something outside of us. True joy happens inside of us. God knows and God understands that no amount of money, no amount of power and influence, no material possessions we have can ever, ever bring contentment and joy on the inside. That's why Jesus said, "I have come to bring life so that they may have it and have it abundantly." Jesus said that if we want to enjoy life, if we want to have an abundant life, it's only going to be through Him and through His coming into the world.

What Jesus points out to us, what all of scripture points out to us is that every human being has a hole inside of them. They have something missing inside of them. There is a gap. There is this gorge there that is not filled up. That gap, that divide is God and us. There is a separation between us, His creation, and Him, our creator. And that division happened because of the sin that entered into the world. And our sinful nature and the sins we commit continue to divide us from God. There is this gap inside of us, this hole that's missing inside of us and until that hole is filled up, until the gap is bridged, we will never know true joy. We'll never know contentment and peace in our life. That's why Jesus came so we could have an abundant life. Jesus came to fill in the void with God's love, grace, and mercy. Jesus came to bridge the gap between us and our Father in heaven. Jesus laid down His life so our sinful nature and our sinful condition could be paid for so we could stand forgiven and our relationship with God could be restored. The gap has been bridged by Jesus. God not only promises joy, but God delivers joy because God knows that the only true joy we have is when our relationship with Him has been restored. And once our relationship with God has been restored, once the gap has been bridged, then everything else falls into place. Jesus says this, "Seek first God and His kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will be given to you." Jesus said, "The first thing you do is to seek out God and His kingdom and His righteousness." In other words, have no other gods before you. In other words, put God first in your life. Make Him the only true God, the only source of happiness, joy, security, and all the rest; and, once you do that, then everything else falls into place, all of the money issues, all of the relationship issues, all the health issues, everything else in our life, falls into its proper place on the pyramid of priorities once the number one spot is taken by God. When we make God number one in our life, then and only then do we experience true joy.

My friends, that's the challenge of this principle God gives to us. The challenge is to do it. The challenge is to make God first in your life. He is taking care of the gap between you and the Father. Now He says, "Make God first in your life." It's more of a surmountable challenge than maybe you might want to believe. In fact, the devil is going to be fighting against you all the way. In fact, he's going to be fighting against you in just a moment. Because if you're going to make God first in your life, there are three key areas that you need to put God as number one. You need to make God first in your finances. You need to make God first in your family. You need to make God first in your friends. Did you feel the devil coming in? It came right after I said the word finances. Some of you are out there thinking, there he goes, the preacher's going to try to get after my money again. Giving must be down. He's touching my pocketbook. Stay out of there. You're going to have to fight him off, because I had to fight him off because I didn't want to preach this because it makes me uncomfortable too. But I am convicted in my heart that we have to hear this message. We have to come face to face with it. If you do not put God first in your finances, He is not first in your life. If I don't put God first in my finances, He is not first in my life. If you are convinced like I am convinced that the number one false god that the devil uses to pull us away from the one true God is money and the promise that money brings with it of joy and happiness, the promise that it cannot fulfill, then you have to be convinced like I'm convinced God is going to be number one in your life when God is put first in your finances. God tells us that. God tells us He's supposed to be first in our finances. In other words, we look to God for our security, not our savings account. We look to God for the safety and the well being of our home and our family, not in our portfolio but in God Almighty and what He does for us. In fact, God says you can demonstrate the fact that He is first in your finances by giving back to Him. That's why God asked for that. God gives us a choice to exercise the ability to demonstrate that He is first in our finances. That's why He says give back to me a portion of your income, and He says take it off the top. Don't take it off the bottom. If God is first in your life, then He's the first thing that you think about, and He's the first portion that you take off and you give back to the work in His kingdom. What I'm saying is this, if you pay all of your bills, you do everything you want to do throughout the week and if there's something left over, you give that to God, He's not first in your life. What I'm saying is this, if the tip that you gave last night at the restaurant is larger than what you're going to put in the offering plate this morning, then God is not first in your life. We have to come to grips with the fact that if we want to have joy and contentment in this life, God has to be number one and it starts with the number one temptation, God has to be first in your finances. He has to be first in my finances. Then He will be first in your life.

God has to be first in your family. Your family has to have Jesus Christ as the central hub for all that you do. Prayer is not the exception in your home. It is expected. Talk about spiritual matters, about God and His word, has to be something that happens on a regular basis, not something that makes the kids say, "Boy, what got into Mom and Dad today?" Family has to be centered and rooted in God and Jesus Christ because you need that foundation if you're going to ward off the devil, if you're going to keep God first in your life.

God has to be first in your friends. God has to be first in your friends, especially your friends of influence. What I'm saying is you need to surround yourself with Christian friends, Christian friends so you can mutually build each other up, Christian friends who you can mutually pray for each other, study scriptures together. I'm not saying that you should not have non-Christian friends, no. You should have non-Christian friends, but they can't be the majority. If you have surrounded yourself with non-Christian friends, instead of you influencing them, they will influence you and they will pull you away from the one true God and set up something else as the false god. You need Christian friends that surround you and build you up. That is why you hear from me more times than not you need to be involved in a small group in this congregation, whether it's ChristCare, whether it's the circles, whether it's a home bible study, whether it's something that you come up with, but you need to be on a regular basis surrounded by Christian brothers and sisters so you can be built up in the faith and keep God number one and then enjoy all the blessings that come from that.

God is not trying to spoil all of our fun. God loves you so deeply and He cares about you so much that when He issued the Ten Commandments what He gave to us was a way of providing for us and protecting us. God wants to protect you from the false gods of this world that promise everything and deliver nothing. God wants to keep you with the one true God so you can live your life and live it abundantly. You can have joy, peace, and contentment. But true joy is only found in the one true God. Amen.

Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church