“AND WHEN GOD IS HAPPY .
. .”
[A sermon by the Rev. Dr. George Gray
Toole]
Texts: Psalm 34 and Ephesians 1:3-14
St. Andrew’s Christian Community,
August 12, 2007
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INTRODUCTION:
While
the way of expressing it seems to have come to us through the black community,
the thought and experience pervades all cultures,
“WHEN MOMMA AIN’T HAPPY,
AIN’T NOBODY HAPPY,
AND WHEN MOMMA’S HAPPY,
EVERYBODY’S HAPPY!”
…………
Here
at St. Andrew’s it heads the newspaper ad each week,
and it’s the
focus that flavors all that is done.
“LET’S MAKE GOD HAPPY!”
Today,
I would like us to consider three simple
and natural questions that emerge from that:
1)
Why should we aim to make God happy?
2)
How could we ever do that?
3)
So what? In
other words,
what influence/benefit does it have on us?
…………
1.
WHY SHOULD WE AIM TO MAKE GOD
HAPPY?
I
think we can assume that God is not dependent upon us for happiness,
but those of us who are parents and grandparents,
can
take great delight in unsolicited happiness
given
to us by our children and grandchildren.
The
basic answer is: because He deserves it!
We
speak so often about being blessed
by God, or seeking God’s blessing.
Gratitude
wells up on our hearts
and bursts
forth in our desire to bless the one Who has so blessed us.
Does
God need it? No, but God delights in it.
As
the Psalmist says,
“WHAT SHALL I RETURN TO
THE LORD
FOR
ALL HIS BOUNTY TO ME?”[1]
The
Psalms themselves are packed with psalms of thanksgiving.
Those
reasons for thanks include (but are in no way limited to):
the very gift
of life itself,
for
the significant people in our lives,
the
ability to learn,
the ability to communicate,
the gift of laughter,
those who
help us in times of need,
children,
this
world’s beauty,
our ability to be renewed and restored,
healing,
tears,
memory,
a sense of time,
The various senses we have,
being
delivered from danger,
peace
in the midst of turmoil,
music,
art,
for answered prayer,
for God’s action in our lives,
and
for a world of natural order.
ILLUSTRATION
On
the
an inscription in German appears on
the arch in Fine Hall.
While most would accurately
translate it,[2]
“GOD IS SUBTLE,
BUT MALICIOUS HE IS NOT,”,
when
a non-German student asked Albert
Einstein to translate it,
he had already mastered the slang and
idioms of American English.
Therefore he translated it,
“GOD IS SLICK,
BUT HE AIN’T MEAN.”2
………………
Our
gratitude to God for these gifts (and many more)
propel us to bless God.
Scripture
tells us that this gratitude and blessing
makes God happy!
Our
New Testament lesson zeros in on the religious reasons
to bless God
and make God happy.
It
begins, significantly, by declaring,
“BLESSED BE THE
GOD AND FATHER
OF OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST.”
He
then tells us the reason for blessing God
by making a general, summary
statement,
“(WHO HAS BLESSED US)
WITH EVERY SPIRITUAL
BLESSING.”
Then
he gives examples,
1. We have been chosen in Christ before
all time.
2. We have been adopted as God’s own children
through Jesus Christ.
3. We have redemption through His blood.
4. We have forgiveness of our
trespasses/sins.
5. He has lavished His grace upon us.
6. He has made known to us those things
that are mysteries to outsiders.
7. He has made us a part of His great
plan.
8. We have obtained an inheritance.
9. We have been marked with the seal of
the promised Holy Spirit.
10.
You
have become God’s own people.
Wow!
What
an amazing list!
And
you and I know that my list,
your
mental list,
and Paul’s
list in Ephesians
only
begin to state the reasons why our
urge
to
bless God is irrepressible.
ILLUSTRATION
The
whole thing may have best been expressed
in an old hymn
that was often used in the
past
when the offering
was brought forward in a church service.
It
goes like this (you may remember it),
“WE GIVE THEE BUT THINE OWN,
WHAT E’ER THE GIFT MAY BE;
ALL THAT WE HAVE IS THINE
ALONE,
A TRUST, O LORD, FROM THEE.”
…………………..
THERE IS NO
DOUBT
THAT BLESSING GOD
BRINGS GOD DELIGHT.
THE GOAL
IS “TO MAKE GOD HAPPY!”
GOD
DESERVES IT,
AND
IT SHOULD BE,
IN
FACT,
THE GOAL OF EVERY AND ALL
CHRISTIANS!
2.
HOW SHOULD WE MAKE GOD HAPPY?
First,
by genuine and right worship.
The
Old Testament prophet, Amos,
conveyed to the people God’s
disappointment and disapproval
of the manner in which they
worshipped Him.
This
is God’s message through Amos,
“I HATE, I DESPISE YOUR
FESTIVALS,
AND I TAKE NO DELIGHT IN
YOUR SOLEMN ASSEMBLIES.
EVEN THOUGH YOU OFFER ME
YOUR BURNT OFFERINGS
AND GRAIN OFFERINGS,
I WILL NOT ACCEPT THEM;
AND THE OFFERINGS OF
WELL-BEING OF YOUR FATTED
ANIMALS I WILL NOT LOOK
UPON.
TAKE AWAY FROM ME THE
NOISE OF YOUR SONGS;
I WILL NOT LISTEN TO THE
MELODY OF YOUR HARPS.”
Jesus
captures what is intended here when He says,
“THE TRUE WORSHIPER
WILL WORSHIP THE FATHER
IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.”3
That
means worship must not be
dull,
boring,
totally
predictable,
done on
“automatic pilot”,
or
to impress anyone other than God.
Therefore,
it must be
God-centered,
from the heart,
imaginative,
reverent,
engaging
all of the people,
joyous,
and
lively.
Worship
should be something we look forward to
and which we continue to feel and
think about
long after the service.
Second,
it is personal devotion to God
I
want so much to re-institute (where it is no
longer present)
the practice of prayer before meals
and daily
private prayer.
Devotion
to God is essential for our spiritual health
and
it makes God happy!
………………………
Third,
our own spiritual growth.
Too
many of us are anemic Christians,
who rarely seek to understand our
Bible,
or seek to learn more the healthy
aspects of the Christian faith.
Fourth,
the development and encouragement of
Christian fellowship.
Other
Christians are a wonderful resource for our growth in the faith.
Moreover, there is the enjoyment of
getting to know one another,
for we are, after all,
sisters and brothers according to Jesus!
Fifth,
essential to the Christian faith is
mission.
ILLUSTRATION
The
Rev. Dr. James I. McCord,
who, when he was President of
Princeton Theological Seminary,
was fielding questions and
answers before a group in
when a man stood up
and declared,
“ALL THE CHURCH SEEMS TO DO
IS TO PUSH ME TO
GIVE, GIVE, GIVE!”,
To which Dr. McCord said,
“THAT’S ONE OF THE BEST DEFINITIONS OF
THE CHURCH
I’VE EVER HEARD,
AFTER ALL,
THAT WAS THE PATTERN OF JESUS’ LIFE!”
The
Church is meant to spend itself in mission,
even mission to those they don’t even
know,
and from whom there is no
discernable benefit
in the eyes of the
world.
ILLUSTRATION
When
I was Senior Minister at the Towson Presbyterian Church,
we had a large special education class
(as a matter of fact, my wife,
Donna, was a lead teacher).
As the parents of its members
became older
I began to become
concerned about what would happen to
these men and women
when their parents died.
Who would
care for them?
Where
would they live?
We
devised a plan
to donate almost an acre of prime
Church
for the construction of a
state-of-the-art home for people with
special needs.
We raised the
funds,
drew up
the plans,
got
the necessary approvals,
and
built the facility.
Members
of the community were stunned
to discover that we had no role in
selecting who would become
residents (they assumed they would all
be our people),
even though we had a number
of people we hoped would be
admitted. The county would decide that.
Moreover,
many of our neighbors were astounded
that we had spent nearly a half
million dollars
and would get nothing in
return.
Why,
some asked,
would anyone give away prime land in
central
and pay for a nearly
half-million dollar home
without expecting
to gain something from it?
As
one person said,
“SOMEBODY OVER THERE
DOESN’T HAVE A GOOD BUSINESS HEAD!”
When
asked why we did it,
my answer always was.
“IT’S WHAT OUR LORD WOULD HAVE US DO
FOR THESE SPECIAL NEEDS PEOPLE,
AND WE DO GET SOMETHING IN RETURN.
IT IS THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING
THAT WE HAVE DONE SOMETHING SPECIAL
IN JESUS’ NAME.”
……………………
One
of the hallmarks of this congregation
is the generous and extensive mission
in which it is engaged.
You realize that mission
is not an option,
but a mandate for Christian men
and women.
Central
to all of this is
Christian mission
is help given with a message of hope.
I admire groups and agencies
that offer help to those in need.
I’ve served on the
boards of some of these wonderful
groups.
BUT WHERE WE ARE
DIFFERENT
is in the fact that we offer the
message of hope in Jesus Christ.
We
don’t do mission just because we “want to help people” . . .
That’s not enough.
When asked why we do mission,
the answer has to be,
“BECAUSE JESUS TAUGHT US TO CARE
AND GAVE US THE MESSAGE OF NEW LIFE IN
HIM.”
SO WHAT? WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE IN OUR LIVES?
The
answer is a simple and brief one.
We
know what it means to anticipate the words of our Lord,
“WELL DONE, GOOD AND
FAITHFUL SERVANT.”
IT IS THEN THAT
WE KNOW THAT
WE HAVE MADE
GOD HAPPY!
“AND WHEN GOD IS
HAPPY,
THEN EVERYBODY
IS HAPPY!”
Amen.
© 2007 George Gray Toole