Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand”

In Psalm 16 David reveals the last part to the journey of joy:

• Participate in God’s pleasure.

Do you know that God wants you to participate in His pleasure? Psalm 36:7-9 says “How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. 8 You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your river of delights. 9 For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see” This is the cry of every human heart, the longing to be loved. It’s what every person on the planet is searching for, something that will satisfy their soul. Those who trust in God’s unfailing love are abundantly satisfied. Our chasing after the carnal is really a craving for Christ that we are trying to satisfy with sin. World religion can’t satisfy, only a relationship with Jesus can. Today many of us are drinking from the sewer of sin instead of the sweet water the Savior offers. Are you thirsty for God? Remember the prodigal son who turned to his father and basically said, “Dad, I wish you were dead, I want my share of the inheritance now.” The son who went out and wasted it on wild and riotous living. The son who tried looking for joy and pleasure in sin, but he couldn’t find it. When he finally came to his senses scripture says in Luke 15:20-25, “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ’Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.” Only when the son came back into the presence of the Father did he experience lasting pleasure. Today I fear we have traded a kingdom party for a kegger, we have become satisfied with sin, surrounded by pigs instead of praise. Why would we settle for what we think is a good party when we could be at God’s party?  We have traded real pleasure for pain. Chasing after the worlds sinful system leads to the sewer, but chasing after God’s plan leads to pleasure. Today we seem to have been lured into the lie that God doesn’t know how to have a good time, but it was the Father who said, “We’re going to throw the fatted calf on the BBQ, we’re going to eat, drink and celebrate. There’s joy with Jesus, its fun being saved, but we have traded the party of praise for the party of puke. In John 10:10 Jesus tells us that: “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” Jesus wants us to experience joy and pleasure, but in the church today we have this idea that pleasure is sin. We can’t experience pleasure, because pleasure is bad, but there is a difference between sins pleasure and the Saviors. Sin’s always leads to pain, the Saviors leads to pleasure. Do you realize that God’s plan involves pleasure? What the world offers us in sin is a counterfeit, and only Christ can meet our true craving. Sin is pleasurable for a season, but it will always take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and charge you more than you want to pay. The wages of sin is death not delight, so we need to stop settling for Satan’s system. Why put up with a counterfeit when you can have Christ? Stop pursuing passing pleasure when you can have the real thing. Today many are paying the price of pain and punishment when they could be pursuing Godly pleasure. So what happened when the older son came to the house and heard the music and dancing? He was angry and would not go in. He was angry over the party, and he refused to join in the praise. I wonder how many of us act more like party poopers than people of praise? Instead of rejoice in the rescue and participating in God’s pleasure he pouted. He was a joy jerk because he had forgotten the heart of His Father. Why did the older brother refuse to participate in God’s pleasure because his focus was on his situation and not the Savior.  He chose to live life based on His interpretation of the facts not the Fathers, his interpretation of the facts led to false feelings. 2 Samuel 6:12-16 says: “Then King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.” It seems that wherever there was a party in the Bible, that there was someone who had a problem with it. But God loves it when His children are set free to experience His joy. Are you judging or joining God’s party? We rejoice in the Lord, not what life has dealt us, not in how we feel but in the Father. So many of us make our praise circumstance based instead of Christ based. In the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy no matter the journey. Jesus said in John 16:22, “Your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”  Nothing and no one has the power to rob you of rejoicing, unless you let them. Like David I want to experience jumping joy in this journey, regardless of the sour pusses around me that have settled for a substitute instead of the Savior. Today are you participating in God’s pleasure or pouting?

Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand”

In Galatians 4:15, Paul asks the church “What happened to your joy?” and I think today more than ever the church needs to consider the answer to this question. Many of us are living joyless lives and I don’t think it’s because we want. I think we are not on the journey to joy because we have forgotten the path to praise. In Psalm 16 David reveals the steps to a journey of joy:

• Pick the path to life

David reminds us that Joy is found on the path to life not death and that only the author of life can reveal its path. The gift of God’s grace is that He has not hidden the road to rejoicing but has revealed and made it known. God gave His greatest gift, His Son Jesus Christ who come and died for our sins on the cross so that we could have life. It is here that we have a choice, continue in the chaos or come to the cross. God does not force us to follow His path He gives us a choice, He has provided the path to life but we have to pick it. What choice have you made, you may feel like you are saved because you grew up in a Christian family but remember we are born sinners not saved. We have a choice to make, will we confess and choose Christ and when we do will we choose to follow Him? In Deuteronomy 30:15-19 God told His people “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.” Salvation starts us on the journey to joy but surrender to His ways are the steps of continued praise. So often we choose Christ and then fail to follow Him, instead of living in the Lord we linger in the lies. If you have chosen Christ then live for Christ, so that your walk reflects His word not your way and wants. Jesus said in John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” Joy comes when we choose to journey with Jesus, to live for the Lord in obedience to His Word. Jesus reminds us in John 10:10 that there is another path one of pain whose destination is destruction, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Satan’s plan is simple to deceive, derail and destroy. Today many believers have been side swiped by Satan, side tracked by the system of this world, and swamped by sin. What are you choosing? Jesus came to save Satan came to steal, Jesus came to bring life Satan came to kill, Jesus came to build Satan came to destroy.  Satan can’t steal your salvation so he tries to rob you of rejoicing by stealing your joy. One of the most effective ways he has in stealing our joy is through sin, willful disobedience to God’s way. In Psalm 32:3-4, David said, “When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long.” Because of the unconfessed sin in his life, David lost his joy and so do we, but when he came clean in verse 5, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” his joy returned, verse 1-2 “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty.” Are you living in the destruction of disobedience are you choosing His commands or catering to your cares? Do you need to come clean and confess, stop serving the sin and surrender to the Savior. Repentance restores but it also redirects our lives back to rejoicing in our Redeemer. Second Satan sneak attack involves stealing our joy through unresolved conflict. Hebrews 12:14-15 says “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.” When we get hurt we often choose to hang onto the offence, unforgiveness steals our joy. Pursuing peace involves a focus on praise not the pain and that means fighting the urge to hold onto the hurt and instead choosing to forgive. If you have a relationship where there’s unresolved conflict, where you’ve been hanging onto the hurt then my question is this, is it worth losing your joy over? Are you putting your energy into feeding the fight or forgiving? Are you growing the grudge or giving grace? I’m not talking about minimizing the hurt I’m talking about choosing to not give it control. Pain wants to take the place of praise in your life and you can put your energy into petting the hurt or a heart of praise, it’s your choice. Conflict is going to happen, offences will occur, we can’t stop people from hurting us, but we can choose what we’re going to do with the hurt. Are you hung up on a hurt that’s hindering your joy? Will you forgive and choose the path to life or keep living in the lies?

• Pursue His presence

If you want to pursue joy then you have to find and live in the place where it is found. Davis tells us that the place of joy is in the presence of God, so how do we get there? Psalm 22:3 says “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” The path to God’s presence is found through praise, Psalm 100:4 says “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.” Worship walks us into God’s presence where we can live in the light of His joy. The journey of joy is one of worship not worry, today many are allowing some dark doorway to bar their way to worship. Today we pursue pleasure, possession and prestige we are more desperate for darkness than we are for God. We line up for the latest technology but not for truth, we are more  tempted by the temporary than we are enamored by the eternal. Instead of living like we believe the bible we live like we are bored by it. What are you pursuing? Romans 8:15 says “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” We are no longer slaves but sons forgiven by our Father, but how desperate are we for our Daddy? Today I fear I have been more desperate over my problems than His presence. We want to pop into His presence when the next problem arises, present our request and then leave. We are consumed with a desire for a change in circumstances not a desire to chase Christ. Are you picking the path to life, do you long to linger with the lord living in His presence?