Apr. 6 – 1 Timothy 6:2b-10: The Love of Money

Apr. 13 – 1 Timothy 6:11-21: The Good Confession 

Apr. 20 – Easter: John 20

Apr. 27 – The Mission of the Church: By God's Grace and for His Glory

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I had the great privilege last week of taking a private tour of the Tennessee State Library and Archives. One of our members, Chuck Sherrill, is the former head of this impressive institution – he was the State Librarian and Archivist (he jokes that he should have been compensated for two jobs). So I asked Chuck for a tour, and he graciously agreed. About five years ago, the Library and Archives moved into a new, state-of-the-art, massive building in between the new Sounds stadium and the Bicentennial Mall. Chuck oversaw the design and building of this important and impressive building that houses priceless artifacts from Tennessee history – our original state constitutions, handwritten journals from former governors, manuscripts from famous Tennessee writers and poets, etc. 

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Chuck is way too humble to brag about how impressive the whole place is, but I could tell he was enjoying my genuine amazement. Massive robots moved smoothly through climate-controlled warehouses and retrieved bins containing all kinds of historical artifacts. A “blast freezer” the size of a large kitchen cooled newly-received artifacts from 70 degrees to minus 30, instantly killing any organisms and preventing the spread of mold. Chuck let me open through a big drawer marked “Oversized Photos.” The first folio I found was labeled, “Atomic Bomb Test, Bikini Atoll, 1946.” Chuck opened it and found aerial pictures of the massive mushroom cloud. I was like a kid in a candy shop!

 

Here's the thing – was it a big sacrifice for Chuck to walk me through the archives? He’s been there a million times – was he bored walking me through it? No! He enjoyed watching me enjoy it. We all love to introduce someone to something that we love. When someone else tries the queso at San Atonio Taco Company for the first time, I get to say, “I know, right? It’s so good!” Their delight makes me happy, too. 

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This is how worship works. In his Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis writes:

 

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise what ever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.

         

In our texts for this month, we are going to be doing the serious work of delight. We all want to live “the good life,” but what is the best life, really? We are going to ask the question, “What is supremely good in this universe? What is the most delightful way to live?” I believe that the answer to that question may be surprising to many folks – God wants us to be happy. Like any good parent, God wants the best for his children – their delight is his delight. Therefore, God commands us, over and over again throughout his Word, “Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)” This is not God being needy and demanding praise from his creatures. This is a loving Father helping us to thrive in great joy! 

         

The Westminster Catechism was written by a group of English and Scottish theologians and laymen in 1646. The first question it asks is: 

 

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? 

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

        

This is certainly true, biblically speaking (1 Cor. 6:20,31). We are to “delight ourselves in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). But it misses the inherent relationship between our Christian duty and our own delight. John Piper has, for decades now, famously edited the answer to, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. Piper is right – God is most glorified in us when we are the most satisfied in him. This means that when we begin to see God for who God really is – the most glorious, most exalted, most beautiful being in all the universe – then we begin to see and savor God. Piper says that when we become a Christian, when we are raised by the Spirit into life by grace through faith, that’s the moment when we start to awaken to the delighting in God’s glory. Deuteronomy commands us over and over to “love the LORD your God,” but in 30:6, we see that it’s God who shapes our hearts and teaches us to love him more, “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” 

         

My prayer is that, as we close 1 Timothy and celebrate the glorious resurrection of Christ at Easter, that we will all gain some perspective on who God is and who we are, that we will learn to see and savor God as God, that we will embrace the reverential fear of God that actually drives out all other fears and enables to truly live the good life – the life that our Father wants for his beloved children. 

 

Grace and peace,

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