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The Secret of a Happy Heart
A sermon
by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Part of a series from favorite Psalms, “Lift Up Your Eyes!”
You have heard me mention
on occasion the name George Muller. Not a widely known name in Christian
circles, but in my judgment, George Muller was one of the most remarkable men to
ever serve the Lord in the capacity that he did.
He could have been a
brilliant scholar; born in Germany in the early 1800’s, most of his life lived
in England. He was not born to privileged parents. That is, in those days,
unless you were you didn’t get much education. But he taught himself and became
fluent in six languages – German, French, English, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Is
there anyone here who is fluent in six languages of any kind? You see what I
mean. This is a brilliant guy. But his heart was in the poor. Helping those
who were marginalized by society. And especially children. In those days,
parents didn’t live as long as today and often, perished before their children
were very old at all. So the State established orphanages and if poor parents
died, their children left alone were put in these orphanages, which were little
more than jungles. Atrocities took place. Even starvation.
Muller took it upon
himself to establish orphanages for deserted children. These orphanages gave
the children the ability to read, like in elementary school. They were, when
they could read, taught the Scripture. Right and wrong. The Ten Commandments.
The teachings of Jesus. Most of all, they had a place to live and food to eat
and a bed to sleep on and loving care.
Now, the amazing thing
about the way Muller did that was he never established an organization to
support him. Never took up an offering. Never had a fund-raising drive. How
did he do it? This is going to sound simple – he prayed!! When a need arose, he
prayed. And the need was answered. Now, for all of us who are in the kind of
religious work we are, just to leave things to the possibility of prayer seems
unthinkable. Would you? He did.
But that’s really not
what I want to talk to you about. If you read his biography, you will be
incredibly impressed with the fact that his life revolved around a spiritual
core that really didn’t have anything to do with feeding the poor or building
orphanages. That was an outgrowth of being attached to the vine, so to speak.
Here’s what he wrote: “The great and primary business to which I ought to attend
every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned
about is not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord, but
instead how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man might be
nourished.”
Everything came out of a
happy heart. He would begin every day making sure his soul was right before he
went out to meet the world with all of its needs. It reminds me of Karl
Olsson’s bible study book, which is entitled “Come to the Party.” David’s
psalm, on the secret of a happy heart, is Psalm 16. Psalm 16 is not simply one
theme, because life doesn’t just have one theme. It isn’t only about one
atmosphere or one environment or one state of mind because life isn’t that
simple. But as David walks through it, you are discovering and uncovering the
secrets that go into a happy soul. David begins, look in verse 2, “I said to
the Lord ‘You are my Lord and apart from you and I have no good thing.’” It all
begins, soul happiness does, with a confession of dependency upon the Lord.
Without you, I have no good thing. When I was younger, back in my early 30’s,
wow, I was part of a prayer group made up mostly of younger men. But there was
an 80 year old who was with us as well. Young at heart, gentle in spirit,
positive in attitude. When he began to pray, the first sentence was absolutely
predictable.
He would say as he
prayed, “Father God, I come today to confess my absolute dependency upon you.”
And after I heard that about seven gillion times, I began to say to myself,
“Man, that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about getting up and doing it.” Now
that I’m closer to his age than I was then, I think he was right on target.
Because he had come to know that what we do for the Lord is almost completely
dependent upon what He has done for us.
Douglas Steer in his book
on prayer says all prayer begins with a confession of dependency. My friend of
yesterday never heard of Douglas Steer. But the two of them agreed completely.
David says, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” But God
does not always come to us directly with his good thing. Often, he does it
through another person. And now, lo and behold, David talks about the other
people who are the ones who bring to him a happy heart. “As for the saints who
are in the land,“ verse 3, “they are the glorious ones in whom is all my
delight.” It can be translated lots of different ways. This translation, The
New International Version, says “As for the saints, and the glorious ones” that
can be translated “nobles, noble people”, can be translated, well, matter of
fact, Peterson does, “splendid friends.” Whatever you want to say, I would put
it this way: life-giving friends. Who are yours? Life givers. They are not
the people you serve. They are not the purple ... people you are caregivers
for. They are not the people you work with. They are not likely to be the
people you go to school with. They are not likely to be the people who are just
neighbors down the street.
No, there are some people
who give you life, who make something happen within you that changes
everything. And God uses them. You see this sometimes in the secular world.
For example, during the First Gulf War, ABC was doing an interview with a Saudi
Arabia official. And the Saudi was predictably informational, careful, can I
use the word boring? And then something happened and it changed everything.
The one who was being interviewed suddenly stopped. His face brightened up.
And here’s the conversation that took place: “Wait a minute, wait a minute,”
said the Saudi official. “Was that Ted Koppel’s voice? Was that what I just
heard?” “Well, yes.” “May I say hello to Ted?” “Well, yes.” “Ted Koppel, is
that really you?” “Yes.” “Well, I watch you every night.” Now this is in
Saudi Arabia. “I watch you every night. You are great. Keep up the good work.
I can’t wait to get home tonight and tell all of my family that I talked to Ted
Koppel.” Now, friend, whatever you think of CNN, ABC, whatever you think of Ted
Koppel misses the point. Even in the secular world, when a person who matters
enters a life, it changes everything. Those who study us say that in a family,
when one person changes, everybody else has to change. There are life givers,
you see. Many people wonder, in the Gospels, how it could be that Jesus could
walk up to his disciples and say, “Follow me.” And they did!
They dropped everything.
Followed him. Some from tax collector’s tables, some from fishing nets, some
from other vocations. Why? Because the Lord Christ became for them life
giver. And Jesus understood that about himself. The one word he used in those
eight “I am’s” – the one word he used twice is the word life. “I am the way,
the truth, and the life.” “I am, “ he said later, “the resurrection and the
life.” You’re with me! I want to ask you a question. Who is the life giver in
your life? Have you thought about it, named them, kept touch? Spiritual
vitality demands life givers. Not just acquaintances. But those who can
bestow, those who can share, those who can align and those who when they have
been with you have made a difference. David had life givers. And now as he
writes this Psalm, and I don’t know when he wrote it, but my judgment is it was
later in his life, he must have remembered life givers. Samuel, who anointed
him when he was a boy and said “You will be the next king.” It would take two
decades for him to get there but that was true. And upon that life giving
promise, David lived his life. And there was Jonathan, his best friend. His
best friend ever.
The king’s son. The king
hated David; Jonathan loved him. Life giver. The king was a life destroyer;
the son was a life giver. Who’s yours? Abiather – you say, “I’ve never heard
that one before.” He was a priest and every time David got in trouble, he
turned to his priest Abiather. And then, huh, there is Abigail. Abigail you
will find in I Samuel 25. It is not a happy picture in David’s life. He is an
angry, driven, hating, man. He is not king yet. He is in his younger years.
Peterson, in his book about David, called “Leap over a Wall,” calls Abigail an
icon. A person who lives in such a way that the beauty of the Lord streams
through. And if you read this story, you will discover that David is on the
march. He is in the desert; he has gathered four hundred warriors around him,
they have their swords, shields, and spears ready, bloodshed is about to happen,
because you see, the man and his whole area that has insulted David is going to
pay for it.
And in the middle of the
desert, a single figure appears on the horizon and walks straight to David.
Falls on her knees before him, offers food, makes the plea. David has a
murderous rage riveting through him. He has hate as a self-made man right now
and he is empty of God. And Abigail turns it around. He suddenly understands
again whose he is and the emptiness of the God absent is replaced by the God
alive. Who is your life giver? Before all of that is over, David has laid down
the sword and the spear and the shield. And he has.. he has done what the Lord
Jesus told us to do. He has turned the other cheek. And he and his men leave.
One person, one life giver, and David pauses in his Psalm to remember the life
giver. Who’s yours?
But David then turns to
thanksgiving. The incredible miraculous power of thanksgiving and gratitude.
Listen to him. “Lord,” he is making melody now, “Lord, you have assigned me my
portion and my cup. You have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen
for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. And I will
praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. And I
have set the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand and I will not be
shaken.” It is a hymn of praise. Of thanksgiving. “The boundary lines have
fallen for me in pleasant places.” And that’s true of most of us, isn’t it? If
you want to compare us to the rest of the world, we are so blessed. Have you
told the Lord lately, “Thank you.” You were strong enough to be here and to
walk in this morning and as Rob in his prayer said, “Let’s be thankful.” The
thanksgiving gratitude magic is that it can take the gloomiest situation and
pick it apart and bring out the gold and the silver and the rubies of
thanksgiving and gratitude, and you can say, “Lord, thank you.” Try it right
now if you are down; if somehow or another things have not seemed to be in
pleasant places. Find the… find a little spot of gratitude. A very wise woman
who had lived most of her life where the boundary lines had not fallen in
pleasant places, was asked, “How have you done it? Day after day, week after
week, never ending care giver, how have you done it?” And she didn’t hesitate.
She said, “I have learned to be grateful for the smallest thing.” Gratitude.
Would you like to have a happy heart? Learn the magic, the miracle of
gratitude. Of thanksgiving. Of praise. Let your heart sing the melody line of
verses 3 through 5.
But there is another side
to life and we know it. Boundary lines don’t always fall in pleasant places.
Sometimes they are not in pleasant places but ugly places. Hurtful places.
Stressful places. What do we do with them? David knew many of these, and yet
he made an amazing discovery and I.. I would so hope that you’d make this
discovery this morning. And that is God’s with you at the bottom of the heap as
well as at the top of the heap. Listen when he says, “My heart is glad and my
tongue rejoices, but I have learned that you will not abandon me to the grave.”
Verse 10 “And you will
not let your holy one see decay.” By the way, that’s a verse early Christians
use as the prophecy of the resurrection of the Lord. But right now, David is
looking at his life. And he has discovered that he will not be abandoned to the
grave. The grave, the word there, Hebrew word is shoel.
It’s the word for the place of death, dark, no light, no life. And it was the
early belief that when you died, that’s where you went. The King James
translates that, and maybe it’s a good translation, the King James translates
that word Hell. Translates it consistently throughout the Psalm. David is
saying, “I have discovered you are with me even when I walk through Hell.” When
I walk through Hellish times. Psalm 139, and we’ll be there in a few weeks,
Psalm 139 says, “If I ascend into heaven, you are there. And if I descend into
Hell, you are there. And even your right hand shall hold me.” The right hand
is the hand of power and the hand of grace and the hand of presence. David uses
it again here. Look in verse 11. “You will fill me with joy in your presence
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Jan Karon writes not only best
selling novels, but on occasion, devotional material as a believer. And one of
her little books, “Patches of God Light,” and one of the entries she has from
Madeline Lengel, also a writer, Madeline writes, “I, who live by words, am
wordless when I approach you, O Lord, in my prayers. The stifled voice that I
have learns to be quiet and listen. To listen with the heart, to understand
that silence can be joy. As I listen, time breaks into time; breaks into words,
and finally breaks me apart. And then, in the silence, your presence puts me
back together, leaves me healed and mended.” No wonder David wrote, “You have
not abandoned me.” You know what Jesus said to his disciples right before he
died. Listen to it. John’s gospel. “I will not leave you orphans, abandoned.
But I will come to you.” And he doesn’t say what kind of situation. He says,
“I will come to you.” If this morning, you feel abandoned, like an orphan, the
Lord Jesus, in His own spirit, comes to you and says, “I will not leave you an
orphan.” Listen to the windup of how to have a happy heart. “You will fill me
with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
A man who lived an
uncommonly positive life, way up in years, his body wasting away but his spirit,
his spirit still vital, joyous and overcoming. Finally his body got to the
place where they knew he could not live very long and they took him to the
hospital. In that hospital, they treated him and they discovered his joyous
spirit, in spite of everything. One day, the priest came in to see him and he
noticed a chair that had been pulled up alongside the bed. He said, “Has
somebody been here to see you?” He says, “O, my daughter always comes, but not
this time of the day.” “The chair?” “Oh,” he said, “some years ago, a friend
told me that the way to learn how to pray was just simply to talk to Jesus. And
so every day, I just pull up a chair and I place Jesus on that chair and I talk
to him. And that’s what I’ve been doing when you walked in.” The priest was
puzzled, and he said, “You really believe Jesus is in that chair?” “Oh, most
certainly. You see, I don’t have to see him to know he’s there. I just invite
Jesus to sit and we have a good talk.” Some days later, the daughter of this
man went to see the priest. She said, “Dad passed away this early afternoon.
He’s gone. And I wasn’t there.” Said, “He had seemed so contented and I hadn’t
had anything to eat and I needed to run some errands so I left him. When I got
back, he was gone.” And she broke into tears. Some of us have been there. As
much as we’ve tried, we wanted to be there when and it just didn’t work out that
way. She looked at the priest and she said, “But there was a strange thing that
happened. Instead of his head being on the pillow, he had leaned over and his
head was on the chair.” In Thy presence, there are joys ever more. The secret
of a happy heart.
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