-Transcript-
00:25 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:30 Welcome to the cafe. Pastor Clark Covington here with another message on KJV Cafe. Thank you for joining me.
00:36 This message is about joy. Amen. Joy in Jesus.
00:40 Amen. Being joyful. This message can and will unlock your deepest, innermost happiness if you’re willing to seek the Lord.
00:49 Amen. And this is biblical. And we’re in the second part here of a two-part message on having everlasting joy.
00:58 Joy evermore. Joy today. Is it possible? It is.
01:01 Psalm 16:7-11. David writes about it here. Psalm 16:7-11.
01:07 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I’ve set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand.
01:18 I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope.
01:27 For thou will not leave my soul in hell. Neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. That will show me the path of life.
01:37 In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures evermore. That last, there are pleasures for evermore, I should say.
01:46 Verse 11. Pleasures for evermore. We don’t edit this show too much.
01:57 Amen. We’ll go ahead and just let you know that we’re real people here. But man, there are pleasures evermore in the Lord Jesus Christ.
02:04 We see here David, I don’t know him that well, King David, writing about joy in Jesus. And we see this process, right? He’s going to bless the Lord who has given him counsel. His reins also instruct him in the night seasons.
02:24 So, God’s giving him counsel, so much so that in the night seasons, his reins are instructing him and many people in the ministry, me included, you have these moments at night, the Lord is just opening things up to you.
02:31 It’s hard to explain. Sometimes it can be terrifying, waking up in the middle of the night.
02:36 Sometimes it can be illuminating. I’ve heard that preachers keep a notepad by their bed and make notes or they’ll get on their phone and make notes and all of these things about just what the Lord’s putting on their heart. Again, it’s not like we’re having any new revelations.
02:52 We don’t have that. Amen. We have the Bible.
02:56 It’s not like God’s audibly showing up and speaking to us. We don’t have that. But what we do have, and again, I’m just speaking not of all preachers, but I’ve heard this of other preachers and I’ve experienced it myself.
03:05 What we do have is a closeness with God that allows us in the ministry to share with those in the congregation and those that would listen to the preaching that they too can have a closeness with God.
03:18 I would argue just as close with God, just as close a lay person, someone that, you know, you say, my name is Cindy Smith and I work at the bread outlet downtown.
03:28 Okay, Cindy Smith, you can be as close to God if not closer than any person in the ministry can and the way you would do that is by number one, seeking his counsel.
03:41 Okay. And by the way, what is it? What is it to be close with God? Is it not a relationship? How can you be close to someone if you never seek them? How can you say you love someone and you never spend time with them?
03:52 How can you say that someone is Lord of your life, that you’ve made them Lord of your life when you live in opposition to them and your ways are grieving to them?
04:08 That makes no sense. Yet many people today do that exact thing.
04:11 They claim the title Christian, but they’re living like the world. Oh, how I could go on a tangent there. Truly, maybe I should.
04:19 You know, people say, oh, I’m a Christian and they are living in sin. I’m a Christian and they’re coveting everything under the sun. I’m a Christian and they’re committing spiritual adultery in their hearts.
04:29 They’re having idols here, there, and everywhere. I’m a Christian and they’re committing violence against another. I’m a Christian and they’re desiring to steal and rob from others.
04:38 I’m a Christian and they like every bit of pornography or alcohol or drugs or gambling or any of the other vices that appeal to the flesh. I’m a Christian, but I’d stab my neighbor in the back in a heartbeat. On and on and on.
04:51 What has become of us? God is telling us, let’s get all this under the blood. Let’s take this sin curse and let’s put it under the blood where it’s supposed to be. Jesus Christ died for your sins, friend.
05:06 He died for my sins. Amen. He died forevermore and he was buried three days and he wasn’t dead.
05:11 Amen. He was risen on the third day. Amen.
05:19 Resurrected from the grave and walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights and ascended up to heaven. By the way, he was seen by over 500. Amen.
05:31 He ascended up to heaven and today he’s at the right hand of the Father, alive and well. And Jesus Christ wants a relationship with you. He wants to count you as one that he died for on the cross at Calvary.
05:37 And all you have to do is accept his free gift of salvation. And then once you’ve accepted his free gift of salvation, all you got to do is seek him with your whole heart. One time I wanted to preach a message and I don’t know if I ever titled the message this way is all God wants is all you have.
05:45 Amen. And that’s the truth. God doesn’t want 3% of you or 8% of you or just Sunday afternoons, Sunday mornings.
05:52 God wants all of you. Amen. He created you.
05:56 He desires to have a closeness with you. And guess what? When you’re close to God, you have a joy that is unspeakable. A holy righteous God, a pure and loving God, a God that literally his name is love and is the definition of love cannot do anything but provide joy and peace.
06:06 When you get close to him and David got close to him, how? By getting counsel from God, by setting the Lord always before him.
06:21 He is always before him. And we need to, you know, we need to be always having God in the forefront of our mind.
06:29 I heard someone say one time, bringing every thought, it might even be in the Bible, bringing every thought into, uh, into, uh, uh, under, under review of Christ.
06:39 I can’t think of the word, every thought into the view of Christ under review of Christ. Uh, the idea is bring in subjection.
06:48 I think it was bringing every thought in subjection to Jesus. And if we have that attitude that no thought is hidden, that no, uh, cause again, with our heart and our mind and our passions, that’s when we get in trouble. And so we get into sin.
07:08 If we’re giving it all to God, it’s going to be hard to fall into those sin traps that the devil lays out for us so cleverly because we’re giving it all to God. We’re not assuming anything.
07:08 We’re asking the Lord, is this okay? Is that okay? We’re spending time with God.
07:12 We’re getting counsel from God. And as we do that, we have a dependency upon God that produces a closeness with God. And this is potent in that night season in the quiet times.
07:23 And what do we do? Well, we have fellowship with God, right? And this is, you know, in the Bible, you read the old commentarians, they’ll use the word intercourse and it’s nothing perverted or anything.
07:34 It’s nothing lewd. It’s just the idea of having that fellowship, that closeness with God, uh, and, and being so close to God that we’re spending time with him all the time.
07:44 You know, that fellowship. I mean, think of a father and son or father and daughter relationship. You know, the best ones are where they get really close and they spend a lot of time with each other.
08:00 Amen. Uh, our kids, I see them all day, every day. Pretty much.
08:01 I’m a homeschool dad. Amen. I’m preacher dad.
08:04 I’m school dad or teacher dad. I’m dad, dad, disciplinarian, dad, um, um, dad, taking them to the park or to the Sonic to get a slushie, whatever. Right.
08:12 I’m with them all the time. Sometimes they get to come with me on work trips and so forth and ministry trips. Look, that’s a close relationship.
08:17 I can honestly say I’m very close to my kids, uh, all three of them because I spent a lot of time with them. I desire to spend time with them. They desire to spend time with me, hopefully for now, at least, amen.
08:28 And we have a closeness. Now we look at our heavenly father. Do we have that closeness? And if we do, if we’re close to God, then we’re going to have joy.
08:36 Why was David glad? He was always seeking God, thus he was not moved by anyone. He had a peace in knowing his heavenly father was near. He had a peace in knowing that God almighty was close to him and heard his prayers.
08:49 You know, the Bible says that God hears the prayers of the righteous and that God is far from those that are doing evil and so forth.
08:57 The Bible clearly delineates that God hears the prayers of the righteous and that God is away from those that are living in sin. They’re living in, in enmity or warfare against him.
09:08 The Bible says that he is not, that’s not with me is against me. God is very clear on this and he’s taken sides. God’s taken sides, amen.
09:15 Jesus talks about being a sword and splitting even families. And I’ve seen that in my own family, you know, where the son doesn’t talk to the dad or the dad doesn’t talk to the son or the mom to the brother or whatever it is. You know, that’s how Jesus Christ is.
09:29 He is splitting families from believers and those that are not of the faith, amen. Whether it’s in families, whether it’s in friend groups, whether it’s in peer groups, whether it’s at work. Look, God’s taken sides.
09:39 And if you’re on the winning side, amen, and you’re close to God, then you’re going to have joy from that relationship. That’s going to be a fruit. The fruit of a closeness with God is joy and it’s peace and it’s confidence in God.
09:51 You know, when you’re close to God, you’re not saying, well, I’m not sure about God and I don’t know who God is and I’m not sure what the scriptures say.
09:58 When you’re close to God, you’re saying, I know who he is. I’ve seen him show up time and time again.
10:03 I know my God. I know, you know, I love the Old Testament. Start talking about God.
10:08 God himself starts saying, is my arm shortened? Is my hand weak? Amen. If you understand God, you understand he’s all powerful. You understand that he has all sovereignty.
10:12 You understand that anything happens in this world, he’s allowed it. I love how brother Adrian Rogers used to say, not a blade of grass moves without God’s permission. That is the granularity he’s dealing on.
10:28 That is the specificity that God operates in. That is the detail that God is working within. And so God, when you understand who he is, you have joy, confidence, and peace in who he is.
10:38 And all of that manifests into a happiness. We’re not going to hell. Amen.
10:45 That’s never ending joy. We have our heart, our glory, our flesh. We all rest in what? A hope.
10:52 We have a hope in Christ that produces deep joy. And if you don’t have joy in Christ, ask yourself, are you close to him? Christ won’t be corrupted. David mentions that the son will not be corrupted.
11:02 Amen. The holy one won’t be corrupted. So we have a security of salvation that will never change.
11:08 We can understand that Jesus, the same Jesus in the Bible is the same Jesus today, who’s the same Jesus for every more. And those promises that he’s given us will never return void, will always be there, that we can count and bank on them as true.
11:23 The fullness of joy is only in God’s presence.
11:28 It’s an exclusive relationship. It’s not like there’s some other way to have deep joy in this life. God designed us.
11:34 He is the engineer. He built us. And inside of all of us, we have this gaping hole.
11:39 We have this void that materialism won’t fill, that the lust of the flesh won’t fill, that worldly things won’t fill, that carnal living won’t fill, that nothing will fill but Jesus Christ himself.
11:50 And when Jesus Christ comes into us and when Jesus Christ becomes number one in our life and when Jesus Christ takes up residence in our hearts and when Jesus Christ becomes Lord of Lord and King of Kings in our life personally, we have a joy that surpasses all understanding.
12:04 I probably have as many concerns, issues, things that were going on now that I’ve ever had, and I have more joy than I ever have.
12:15 Those things don’t add up in the world’s sight. The world look at me and say, look at this sucker. This guy’s half washed up and he’s got this thing going on, that thing going on.
12:23 And I wake up and I say, thank you, God. You blessed me here. You blessed me there.
12:27 You blessed me everywhere. Look at these kids. Look at my wife.
12:32 Look at this ministry. Oh, Lord, how good you’ve been to me. Oh, Lord, how great you are.
12:39 Oh, Lord, how your power is shown through me because I am weak and I’m feeble and I’m messed up, but you continue to work through me and do something with me. Praise your name, God. Praise your name.
12:46 Can you say that today? You can and you should, amen. You can and you should. The joy that comes from God can and should start now and it will never cease.
12:56 It’ll never ever cease. If you trust God, you seek counsel from God, you turn to God. And by the way, all of this revolves around the idea of having faith.
13:07 So that means that you believe in God. The book of Hebrews tells us it’s impossible to please God without faith. You must have faith that he is who he says he is and he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
13:20 So you have faith. You trust God. You lean upon God.
13:25 You see God move. You give him praise. You don’t question all the time.
13:45 You know, every time a message like this is preached, someone may be listening, thinking, if I do this, what the preacher is saying, then everything will go according to how I want it, how I imagined it. And then something just changes. Something goes a little off kilter.
13:53 They say, ah, I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.
13:55 Well, now you’re trying to put God in your box. You know, the Bible says that his ways are higher than our ways as the heavens are from the earth. And now you’re trying to say that God should be doing what you want to do.
14:00 And we have to be like Christ and say, nevertheless, Lord, not my will, but thine, not my will, but thine. And we defer to God’s will. And we trust God even when we don’t understand what’s going on.
14:09 And we follow him with faith as Abraham did. Amen. And oh, how Abraham was blessed.
14:14 And Paul and so many others and David, and we can too, when we trust God, we can have joy forevermore and we can have a wonderful faith that helps others know Christ.
14:27 Thank you for listening. Take care. God bless. And amen.