Challenges: God is Good and Wants Me to Be Happy

*This post is part of a series on challenges I’ve faced while in seminary. START AT THE BEGINNING.

No, I didn’t turn prosperity preacher during seminary. But I am convinced that the two most important truths I’ve learned during this time are two of the most important truths anyone can learn in life: God is good and wants me to be happy.

In some sense, most of the posts in this series will be devoted to why I am convinced that God is good. I probably won’t get too much push back on this claim. But some may think, “How can he claim that God wants him to be happy? That just sounds so self-centered and shallow.”

My answer begins and ends with the ministry of John Piper. Passion OneDay 2000 was a watershed moment for many believers in my generation. I wasn’t there in person, but it didn’t take long for me to hear about Piper’s sermon, “Boasting Only in the Cross.” (If you’ve never heard it, take a listen, and see why it impacted so many.) In this sermon, I heard loud and clear, “Don’t waste your life on trivialities! Pour it out in service to the kingdom!” I heard the hard sayings of Jesus and, like so many, became determined to do hard things for Jesus. A year later, I even found myself in China teaching English for half a summer in response to this call.

But in being introduced to Piper so late in his ministry, I missed some of the foundational writing which provided context for that OneDay sermon. I missed concepts like, “The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God” (Let the Nations Be Glad, 35, emphasis mine) and “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him” (Desiring God, 10, emphasis mine). Yes, Piper said these kinds of things in the OneDay sermon, but I don’t think I heard them.

I heard that I needed to work hard for God. I heard that I needed give and live sacrificially. I heard that I needed to “deny myself.” (And I still believe these things!) Yet, even if subconsciously, I began to believe that these truths meant I needed to deny myself of happiness. Why? Because seriousness and sternness are innately godly…right?

Long story (for another time) short, I returned from China disappointed…disillusioned…and unhappy. For various reasons, I found myself questioning both God’s goodness and His desire for my good. And unfortunately I wasn’t able to shake these for a long time.

But what I’ve discovered during my time in seminary is that happiness in Christ is the fuel of the Christian life. Sure, there is a time and place for doing our duty when we don’t feel like it; but even in this, we know there is greater joy on the other side. It is our delight in God and His ways which ultimately make our obedience pleasing in His sight (cf. Ps. 27:4; Ps. 119:47).

The promise of the New Covenant is the gift of a new heart, which, by the power of the Spirit, is compelled to walk in God’s ways (Ezek. 36:26-27). This heart is a heart of joy, for the fruit of His Spirit is joy (Gal. 5:22).  As the psalmist says, “…in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11 ESV), and “I delight to do your will, O my God…” (Ps. 40:8 ESV). And, in the words of Jesus, “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6).

Why do I use “joy” and “happiness” interchangeably? Because for so many I think the word “joy” has come to mean merely a sort of contended peace. And that’s not bad! But I do wonder if, in only using “joy” to describe the Christian life, such believers miss the command to “Delight yourself in the LORD…” (Ps. 37:4). Yes, we are content. Yes, we have peace. But our faces also light up and our hearts leap at the blessing it is to know and be known by – to love and be loved by – God! 

In this, my final semester of seminary, I finally read Let the Nations Be Glad and am almost halfway through Desiring God. I wish I’d read them two decades ago. Still, I am grateful for the help they have been in overcoming this emotional challenge.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I now believe that the most important thing I can do each morning, as I start my day, is find happiness in Christ. This helps me rightly delight in God’s good gifts without allowing them to become idols. Of course, I don’t live in a constant state of happiness. I have to fight for joy just like everyone else. But I’m grateful for the realization that this is something I can…no, I am commanded to…fight for.

NEXT POST

An Update from the Duke Family

Dear friends,

I’ve been wanting to write this update for a while now, but a number of factors have delayed it. As of my last post, our church plant team was considering the city of Greeley, CO for our location. Within 24 hours of that blog post, we felt redirected to the town of Windsor, CO. After two week-long vision trips and lots of conversations with local pastors and North American Mission Board representatives, Windsor very clearly rose to the top of our list.

One of the reasons I’ve hesitated to announce this outside of our church is that I was waiting for confirmation from the Lord. I knew what I wanted to do; but so often the Lord’s plans are different than our own.

Then, a few weeks ago, we got word that a new baseball sports park (the largest in the world!) is going to be built in Windsor. Construction starts October 1. The influx of people that this development will bring into the area will in itself more than justify the planting of a new church. Windsor is on the verge of incredible growth, and we want to be right in the middle of the kingdom growth that this will bring! We had already chosen the northwest corner of the town as our target area, and this just happens to be where the new sports park will be built! All of this is very exciting, and it was the kind of confirmation that I was looking for.

To date, we have four couples on our church plant team, and our home church, Christ Baptist, has agreed to support us for five years. I am blown away by God’s provision!

We leave this Sunday, July 9th, for a 6-day mission trip to Colorado. About half of the mission team is also on our church plant team, and they will spend a couple of days during the trip doing research in Windsor. Our mission trip will involve prayer walking, gospel conversations, man-on-the-street-type Q&A, cookouts in the park, and hosting a “thank you” dinner for the volunteers at a sister church plant.

We are in the process of applying for partnership with NAMB, and we hope to be invited to in-person interviews September 26-27.

If all continues to move as smoothly as it has thus far, team members will begin to look for housing and employment in the last quarter of 2017. Our church plant team will also form a new small group which will meet weekly beginning August 25th.

By early 2018, our new youth minister at Christ Baptist should be in place, and throughout the spring of 2018, team members will make trips to Windsor to secure homes and employment. Our target move date is July 15, 2018.

We will spend the first 18 months in Colorado learning from other church planters in the area, loving our neighbors, and having gospel conversations. Our vision is for a church where every member is a disciple-maker. We hope to develop at least two strong small groups before considering acquiring a facility in which to meet.

Our desire is to then obtain a multi-use facility that will add value to the Windsor community. We have a ton of ideas here. Maybe it will function as a co-op workspace or cafe. Perhaps fitness or art clubs will use it during the week. It could house an after-school program and/or counseling and recovery groups. And, of course, our church will worship there every Sunday evening.

How can you help?
1. PRAY – continue to pray that God would confirm the calling He has placed upon the lives of our church plant team.

2. LISTEN – if you hear of anyone that is moving to northern Colorado in the near future, please connect them with me. We would love for them to consider joining our team.

3. INVITE – from January to July of 2018, I hope to spend time casting the vision for our plant in churches around the country. My goals in this are to build a network of prayer support and seek out others who might join us in Windsor. If your church is open to me coming and speaking, please let me know.

Thank you all for your friendship and encouragement over the years!
I really feel like God has been preparing us for this work for a long time.
Knowing that you are behind us makes all the difference!

In Christ,
The Duke Family

 

Denver: Days 3-4

Our team is sitting in the Denver airport about to fly home, so I thought I’d take these few minutes to finish telling you about our vision trip to Denver, CO. Thank you so much for the prayers and encouragement via comments, Facebook, email, and text. They have been an invaluable part of the trip.

On day 3, we spent the morning with a precious family in the northern Front Range, who is a friend of one of our team members. They were so gracious. They prepared breakfast for us, mapped out a tour of the Fort Collins area, and took most of their morning to show us around. Thank you Matt and Becky!

In the Fort Collins area we found a culture that felt familiar to us North Raleighites, along with more affordable housing. We also drove by the newly constructed Mormon temple.

There seems to be a stronger church presence in Fort Collins than Denver, but there is still great need.

For example: the Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Lamier County states: “On average, one person in Larimer County [the county in which Fort Collins is located] dies from suicide every 4 to 5 days.” Our team talked about how hard this is for us to understand. Fort Collins is highly educated and affluent, offers almost unmatched opportunity for recreation, and has the Rocky Mountains for its backyard. Why then is there such depression and hopelessness?

I would never want to oversimplify a problem as big as this, but as believers we understand that beautiful landscapes were never meant to offer lasting peace. Their beauty is intended to cause humans to recognize the Creator and worship Him. No amount of knowledge, money, or fun will quench our spiritual thirst for love and joy. This is why a continued and ever-growing gospel witness through church-planting is so important.

We finished our morning tour with an even clearer vision of the need for church planting along the Front Range and with excitement about where God might call us. And since we weren’t able to secure any more meetings for Saturday afternoon/evening, we decided to head into Rocky Mountain National Park for some fun and to talk through all that we’d experienced over the previous 48 hours.

Once inside the park, it’s not hard to see why the mountains are such a draw. They are magnificent! God was just showing off when He formed those jagged peaks and crystal clear streams.

After our time in the park, we headed back down to the city of Denver. What a contrast! We transitioned from taking pictures of Elk (who couldn’t care less if we were around) to attempting to navigate the city’s public transportation system.

I’m really glad that we ended our exploration of the Front Range by spending Saturday night walking around the city. To me cities accentuate most vividly the brokenness caused by sin. How can a person who has limitless parties, partners, entertainment, food, and drink never find contentment? How can someone who has lived in the city for almost a decade soberly and sincerely state, “I have no friends” (True story told to us by one church planter, and apparently not an uncommon one)?

They need Jesus – the Friend of sinners – to heal their brokenness and satisfying their longing. And they need the church – His body – to be the tangible representation of that healing and satisfaction.

On our last day, we visited a brand new church plant (in only their second week of public worship services), which is working hard to be the hands and feet of Christ; and after worship, we had a final team meeting to discuss where we need to go from here.

There is still a lot of work to be done before it can be decided if Denver is where we will plant. Many follow-up emails need to be written and phone calls made. Further study needs to be done on specific neighborhoods. But more than this, as all of the knowledge we’ve gained and experiences we’ve had begin to settle in our minds, we need God to direct us.

Pray that He would continue to direct us.
Pray that if Denver Metro or somewhere else on the Front Range is where He wants us to plant a church, He would make that clear.
And pray that when steps of faith need to be made in the coming days, we will not shy away from them but move forward in obedience to our King.

For His sake and for the joy of the nations,
Andy

Moldova 2016 MUSIC

Several of you who attended Face to Face camp in Larga last week asked for links to the songs we sang. Here you go!

1. “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman

2. “Blessed Be Your Name” by Matt Redman

3. “Christ is Enough” by Hillsong Worship

4. “Cornerstone” by Hillsong Worship

5. “Deep Cries Out” by William Matthews

6. “Forever” by Kari Jobe

7. “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin

8. “Great Are You Lord” by All Sons & Daughters

9. “Happy Day” by Steve Fee

10. “How Can It Be” by Lauren Daigle

11. “How Great is Our God” by Chris Tomlin

12. “Lord, I Need You” by Matt Maher

13. “Mighty to Save” by Hillsong Worship

14. “O Praise the Name” by Hillsong Worship

15. “This is Living” by Hillsong Young & Free

 

ENJOY!

Saved to Be Spent

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” -Luke 9:23

So far in 2016 I’ve been thinking a good bit about the question, “What is our salvation for?” I mean, I know that I am to be sharing the gospel with others, discipling them, and producing fruit in my character (love, joy, peace, etc.), but what does this look like in every day life?

A new horizon opened up when I encountered a little video series entitled “For the Life of the World” by the Acton Institute. The message of the series is that we, just like Israel in exile, are called to “seek the welfare of the city where [God has sent us]…and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare [we] will find welfare” (Jer. 29:7).

We are called to add value and beauty and LIFE to whatever spaces and relationships God placed us in. We do this most powerfully as we share the gospel and see broken and sinful human begins transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus (Col. 1:13-14). But sharing the gospel is not where it begins or ends. In fact, we are called to leverage all of our gifts – as human begins made in the image of God and begin re-made into the image of Christ – for the flourishing of our neighborhoods, cities, workplaces, churches, families, and friendships. 

There is a temptation in the American evangelical church culture to be very thankful for all that God has given us (1 Tim. 6:17) without realizing that it has been given for a purpose. We have been blessed with a house, a job, a family, a church, etc. in order to be a blessing in the context of the relationships that those things create.

Though we are called to enjoy what God has given us, Christians are not saved and blessed that we might use these things up on ourselves. We are blessed that we might bless (Gen. 12:2). We are saved to be spent. 

And this is why Jesus says in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” In Luke 9, Jesus has just revealed to His disciples who He is (vv. 18-20) and what He has come to do (vv. 21-22); and what He has come to do is pour out His life for the eternal life of the world (John 3:16-17).

In like manner, we have been given the great privilege of signing over all that we own, all that we love, all that we hope for, and even our very lives, to the One who saved us.

“Here is my life. Spend it as you will,” should be our posture.
“Spend it in ordinary or remarkable ways.”
“Spend it through times of suffering and times of comfort.”
“Spend it in times of need or in abundance.”
“Spend it right where I am, or spend it in a foreign land.”
“Spend my resources as you please, Lord.”
“Spend my family’s time as you will.”
“Spend my life for Your glory and for the eternal life of the world.”

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake,” Jesus says, “will save it” (Luke 9:24). 

Praise Him through the storm

Last year (2012) in Moldova I felt the Lord lead me to share some specifics from my personal testimony that are less then easy for me to recount. After doing this I felt foolish, questioning God’s leading and even questioning God. The next day I was a little encouraged to hear that my testimony had impacted a particular student at camp. I’ll call this student Joe. I came to find out that this student’s father had taken his own life just one week prior to camp, and what I shared apparently helped him in this time of grief. So I left Moldova still discouraged but hoping somehow that God might use the ministry I had done there in spite of my weaknesses.

After arriving at camp this year, I was pleased to find that Joe had been placed on my team! Joe follows Jesus, he is an older student, and he was a huge help to me throughout the week. However, on Wednesday morning I noticed that Joe was not himself. During the entire Bible study he had his head buried in his Bible, specifically the Psalms. So after our team Bible study was over, I pulled him aside and asked him what was wrong. It had been one year since his father’s death, and he was broken. Many in the camp grieved with him that day. We held our brother, and we cried together. We prayed, and we asked for comfort from the Lord. His grace was abundant, and Joe returned to his normal energetic self the next day.

The rest of the week was amazing. We saw the Holy Spirit draw many to salvation. God moved mightily among his people. Friday night came, and with it our last worship service. All week long we had been singing a song written by Martin Smith entitled, “God’s Great Dance Floor.” It’s a party song, and we were in a party kind of mood! Everyone was dancing and clapping and singing at the top of their lungs. It was a special moment that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

But then Linda (on the American team) cried out, “Something’s wrong with Joe!” Several of us rushed over to check on him. His eyes were open, and he was sitting up, but he could barely communicate with us. Someone said that he had a heart problem, and we began to worry. Then he passed out.

I don’t know that I’ve felt the full weight of a mostly grown man who was seemingly lifeless before, but I do know that I never want to again. We laid him on the ground, and Linda checked for a pulse. Initially none was found, but we quickly realized that his heart was still beating and he was still breathing. But he was not conscious. One of the Moldovan leaders splashed some water on his face and tried to wake him. Another leader pulled his car up to the site, and six people picked Joe up and placed him in the vehicle. An ambulance had been called and would meet the car half way. Joe started regaining consciousness after being placed in the car, but as they drove off, we all worried about his condition. The whole camp was shocked. Many wept. How could this joyful night and life-changing week end in the darkness of such uncertainty?

And then, God’s people began to pray. We prayed through tears. We asked for healing. We exclaimed our trust in the only One who holds our lives in His hands. What else could we do? Then we began to think that perhaps the Enemy may have a part in this trouble. Who are we to know if he was or wasn’t the source, but a unified thought began to enter our minds. We must return to praising God. After weeping for a moment, praying for a while, and placing our trust in our Father, we were compelled to return to the same praise that we had been offering Him less than a half hour earlier. Only this time the mood was obviously quite different. Instead of dancing with our feet, we raised our hands as a child longing to picked up. “How great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God.” Instead of shouts of praise, there was, at first, a humble yet focused determination in our voices. “Blessed be Your Name, on the road marked with suffering, though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your Name.” We got word that the ambulance had met the car Joe was in and that he seemed to be doing better. He was awake and talking but would still be taken to the hospital for testing. “Lord I need you, every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need You.” At this point the Moldovan worship team came up and did a couple of songs. The mood was changing. What was moments ago an intentional yet difficult decision to praise God in spite of our circumstances gradually returned to a free and joyful expression. Even the clapping started up again. Voices became louder and louder. And though the language was Romanian, there was a heart-felt adoration that transcended human dialect.

Then they asked me to sing another song in English:

You’re rich in love, and You’re slow to anger.
Your name is great, and Your hear is kind.
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing.
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul.
Worship His Holy Name. 
Sing like never before, O my soul. 
I’ll worship Your Holy Name.

One more Romanian song was sung, and we dismissed. As I walked back to my cabin, I had the overwhelming thought that perhaps I had just been a part of the most significant worship service I would ever experience this side of Heaven. Whether or not this is true or even if such a comparison is possible doesn’t really matter. Heaven had touched earth in the midst of suffering. God’s Spirit had led God’s people to praise Him in the middle of a storm that could have very easily diminished the impact of a week beautifully orchestrated by God. Darkness had fallen. But the light of Christ shone in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it. The enemy had struck his blow, but Christ had won.

The next morning the students and leaders loaded into buses and headed into town. Camp was over, and it was time to return home. As the buses pulled up to the church, there was Joe, standing outside waiting for everyone to arrive. The hospital could find nothing wrong with him, and so they released him. He had stayed the night at church, and now he was reunited with his spiritual family, the ones who had worried about him and the ones who had prayed diligently for him.

I wish I could have been there to see that scene. I wish I could have hugged Joe one more time and thanked God together with him for the happy ending to this story, but I was on another bus headed toward home.  As I peered out the window that morning and looked across the rolling hills of Moldova, I realized that my faith had grown. Without even knowing it, God had carefully painted another sanctifying stroke on the canvas of my life. Our verses for the week were Ephesians 2:8-10. Verse 10 reads: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus,” and oh how masterful an artist He is!