Sermon Passage: Colossians 1:1-8
Matt Dirks
I love these words by John Piper that reflect Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1: “Faith in the promises of God and a passionate preference for the joy of heaven over the joy of the world frees a person from worldly self-centeredness, from paralyzing regret and self-pity, from fear and greed and bitterness and despair and laziness and impatience and envy. And in the place of all these sins hope bears the fruit of love.”
Forcing yourself to show love toward someone else doesn’t work any better than forcing yourself to stop sinning. Internal holiness and external love don’t come from sheer willpower… they come when you find something sweeter than your selfishness.
That’s what you’ll discover in this prayer of Habakkuk, “Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls…” (You think you’ve got problems? Habakkuk’s lost everything. Probably even his pet goldfish) “… Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”
The key to thriving in your relationship with God and others is the joy you take in your salvation. If your salvation is just a fire-insurance policy, it will never produce the fruit of love and righteousness. You’ll keep on falling to the same temptations and you’ll keep on hurting the people around you when you act out of self-centeredness rather than love. But if your salvation is a source of constant joy, your life will be transformed. Your extreme gratitude to God will overrule every selfish ambition and empty conceit.
Got joy?