Refueling Your Spiritual Joy | PreachingToday.com

Behold the beauty of God.
• Psalm 65:1–2
• The writer was about to burst with joy because of the beauty of God.
• Thirteen times in this passage, he reflects on God and what God does, and it filled him not only with worship, but a wondrous joy.
• We might be tempted to think that our joy comes from thinking that God makes much of us, but our joy comes from gazing at God, from making much of him.
• Illustration: John Piper on God's Great Splendor [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• The magnitude of our joy is based on the magnificence of what we adore.
• Behold the beauty of the Lord, and your heart will begin to overflow with joy.
• Stop long enough to answer the question: "How great is my God?"

Reflect on the salvation of God.
• Psalm 65:3–4
• Rescue is always a reason for rejoicing.
• Illustration: Heroic Rescue in New York Subway [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• Throughout the Bible, God's saving work is frequently linked with joy. For example, John the Baptist leapt in his mother's womb, angels sang at Christ's birth, there was celebration over finding a lost sheep.
• In Psalm 65, you'll notice two sides of salvation mentioned: the present removal of sin (v. 3) and a future home with God (v. 4).
• God chooses us to come and live with him—what more could fill us with joy?

Wonder at the works of God.
• Psalm 65:5–8
• The awesome deeds of God are an answer to us—acting on our behalf, defending us, enacting justice on our enemies, saving us, sustaining us, helping us, restoring us, and redeeming us.
• When we think of how God is at work, we cannot help but have joy.
• Illustration: Recent Converts View Biblical Miracles with Awe [see Illustrations and Quotations below]
• The reservoir of your joy is filled when you wonder at the works of God.

Harvest the bounty of God.
• Psalm 65:9–13
• It is God's nature to fill and to make fruitful, and when God produces fruit, we experience enormous joy.
• The farmer plants the seed, God produces the crop, and the people are glad in the harvest.
• There are two ways to harvest the fruit of joy: be filled with the Holy Spirit and be faithful to your holy calling.
• Your joy may be found in discovering your giftedness and serving as God made you.

John Piper on God's Great Splendor
"No one goes to the Grand Canyon or the Alps to increase his self-esteem. This is not what happens in front of massive depths and majestic heights. But we do go there, and we go for joy. How can that be, if being made much of is at the center of our health and happiness? The answer is that it is not the center. In wonderful moments of illumination, there is a witness in our hearts: soul-health and great joy come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor."

John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself (Crossway Books, 2005), p.13

Heroic Rescue in New York Subway
After entering a New York City subway station in the first week of 2007, 19-year-old film student Cameron Hollopeter suffered a seizure while waiting for a train. As his body convulsed out of control, the young man stumbled down the platform and fell onto one of the tracks—directly in the path of an inbound train. Fortunately, a 50-year-old construction worker named Wesley Autrey noticed his distress.

Standing on the platform with his two young daughters, Autrey realized that nobody else in the station was going to help. According to later interviews, he decided: "I'm the only one to do it." Placing himself in great danger, Autrey jumped down onto the tracks and grabbed hold of Hollopeter. With only seconds to spare, he rolled with the younger man into a drainage trough cut between two tracks. An instant later, the train cars thundered just inches over both of them. Amazingly, neither man was injured.

In the ensuing days, Autrey was rewarded handsomely for his bravery. Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented him the city's highest award for civic achievement, calling him "a great man—a man who makes us all proud to be New Yorkers." Autrey was also given $10,000 from Donald Trump, a trip to Disney World, and a year's supply of MetroCards from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. His boss even bought him a "hero" sandwich.

When asked about his invitations to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Autrey noted, "good things happen when you do good." Still, he is modest about his new status as the Hero of Harlem. "I just did it because I saw someone in distress," he told reporters. "Someone needed help."

Other observers respectfully disagree. Elliot Sander, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, called Autrey's rescue "a death-defying act of bravery. We truly have not seen anything like this … . He was at the right place at the right time and did the right thing."

In the end, Wesley Autrey is just glad that he could help. "It's like a fairy tale come true," he said. "What better way to start the year off than saving a life?"

Van Morris and Sam O'Neal; sources: Verena Dobnik, "NYC Subway Savior Showered with Gifts," Associated Press (1-4-07); Jill Gardiner, "Subway Hero Gets the Red-Carpet Treatment," The New York Sun (1-5-07)

Recent Converts View Biblical Miracles with Awe
Mark Galli tells the following story in his book Jesus Mean and Wild:

A group of Laotian refugees who had been attending the Sacramento church I pastored approached me after the service one Sunday and asked to become members. Our church had sponsored them, and they had been attending the church only a few months. They had only a rudimentary understanding of the Christian faith, so I suggested we study the Gospel of Mark together for a few weeks to make sure they knew what a commitment to Christ and his church entailed. They happily agreed.

Despite the Laotians' lack of Christian knowledge—or maybe because of it—the Bible studies were some of the most interesting I've ever led. After we read the passage in which Jesus calms the storm, I began as I usually did with more theologically sophisticated groups: I asked them about the storms in their lives. There was a puzzled look among my Laotian friends, so I elaborated: We all have storms—problems, worries, troubles, crises—and this story teaches that Jesus can give us peace in the midst of those storms. "So what are your storms?" I asked.

Again, more puzzled silence. Finally, one of the men hesitantly asked, "Do you mean that Jesus actually calmed the wind and sea in the middle of a storm?"

I thought he was finding the story incredulous, and I didn't want to get distracted with the problem of miracles. So I replied: "Yes, but we should not get hung up on the details of the miracle. We should remember that Jesus can calm the storms in our lives."

Another stretch of awkward silence ensued until another replied, "Well, if Jesus calmed the wind and the waves, he must be a powerful man!" At this, they all nodded vigorously and chattered excitedly to one another in Lao. Except for me, the room was full of wonder. I suddenly realized that they grasped the story better than I did.