A Continual Feast

Habakkuk’s Joy in the Midst of Famine

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Old Testament reading is Habakkuk 3, verses 17 through 19. Though the fig trees should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olives fail, and the fields yield no food.

The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's.

He makes me tread on my high places.

The Healing of the Ten Lepers

Today's New Testament reading is gonna be in Luke 17, 11 through 19. It's on page 876. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, "'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.'.

When he saw them, he said to them, "'Go and show yourselves to the priests.'. And as they went there, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, "'Were not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?'.

And he said to him, "'Rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well.'".

You may be seated.

It's good to be here, home again, worshiping with you. I hope that next week, we can kind of give you a sense of what the ministry was like these last three weeks there. I can honestly tell you, except for, oh, I don't know, two days, except for two days, it was work.

It was work.

But it was wonderful. It was wonderful. The ministry was delightful. The people were amazing. And frankly, I think the ministry over there was as good as it was because of my dear wife, Becca. I am still amazed at the fact that while we were staying in the pension, they call it, Lucci's place, we know Lucci, and while we were staying there, she went out to meet the neighbors and got in an hour conversation with a woman who didn't know English and another woman who didn't know Romanian.

That's amazing to me, how my wife can have a conversation for an hour with someone who doesn't even speak our language. I mean, this woman loved her so much, she even showed her her outhouse. I mean, that's how much she loved Becca.

And so, it was a great time of ministry. I want you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs. I wanna look at one proverb today as we consider Thanksgiving.

It's Proverbs 15, 15. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word and we pray that today, as we explore the depths of even this proverb, we pray that you would cause us, cause Thanksgiving to rise in our hearts.

We are thankful. Again, we are thankful for what you've done for us in Christ which opens up whole new vistas of gratitude for us. This proverb takes us into one. Help us now as we think through this and we'll thank you for how you will use it in Jesus' name, amen.

Thanksgiving as a Continual Feast

Now, we all love this great feast day that we call Thanksgiving Day. My children tell me that this is their favorite holiday and I can see why that is. For one thing, there's the food. There's that golden brown turkey on the table.

There's seasoned stuffing, steaming mashed potatoes and gravy. I hope none of you are hungry right now. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar, sweet corn, homemade rolls and buns and to top all of that off, there's a great selection of pies, not the least of which is Carrie's Perfect Pecan Pie.

But you know, that's not all there is to a great feast. It's all that goes on around the table that makes Thanksgiving such a wonderful day. There's family memories, all the stories of growing up, all the things we didn't know happened that our children tell us did happen.

You stole whose goat and put it on whose porch? That's all part of Thanksgiving. A bunch of grandchildren's stories. We love to recount all the stuff we've seen in them and what they've done in the last couple years.

There's the old folks recounting the old days and what it was like. Games eventually come out. There's lots of love and laughter. Now, who wouldn't want that all year long, right? Who wouldn't want that all year long?

What if every day was a festival like Thanksgiving? Now, I'm not here to tell you that every day is gonna be like Thanksgiving. That's not what I'm going to do. There's lots of pastors who are preaching today and pounding their people over the head with the fact that you need to be thankful every day, but we're not gonna do that today.

But the Bible does say that it is possible to be thankful every day. It says that a continual feast can be yours. Let's look at Proverbs 15, 15 again. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.

Now, let's work on that proverb together, shall we? I want you all to say with me the first half of that proverb, okay? You can look at it. There it is, right? Let's do it, ready? All the days of the afflicted are evil.

Now, some of you are too cool to have repeated that with the rest of the congregation. I want you to open your mouths and say it now. Let's do it one more time. All the days of the afflicted are evil, all right?

Let's look at the second half, all right? What does it say? But the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. Let's do it. But the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. All right, let's do it all together now.

Here we go.

All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. All right, now, you've got a proverb now in your head that you can remember all year long. Now, all right? This is a pithy little reminder of how to be thankful, right?

All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. You can remember that. You can keep it in your mind.

That will help you.

This is hiding God's word in your heart. I think this is a Thanksgiving text that can help us all year round as we repeat the word of God in our hearts. Now, do you want to experience this continual feast?

Then you have to recognize that you experience the evil of affliction. You do experience the evil of affliction. Now, right now, some of you may be thinking, but doesn't that contradict the promises of God?

I mean, let's think about that. Hasn't God said, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. And what about James? Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

And what about Paul in Romans chapter five? Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. What about all those promises?

Does this contradict that? And I would say, well, those certainly are God's promises, but notice, they never say that affliction is a joyful thing. In fact, it says, right? Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials.

Not only this, but we rejoice in our what?

Sufferings. All right?

They don't say that suffering and trials and hardship and difficulties are joyful things. It does not say that. What it does say is we have a different perspective on those trials. We know what those trials produce.

That's why we can look at it differently. We know that it matures our faith. That's why we can look at it differently. We know that even the hard things of life work for good. It doesn't say that the afflictions are good things.

It says that God works through the difficult things, through the hard things, through the bad things. In fact, I would say that we need those reminders because affliction is not a good thing in itself.

It never is. It's not how life should be. Affliction is the result of living in a broken, sin, curse world. This world is out of joint. It's not how it's supposed to be. Affliction is difficult. And so we can say with Solomon, all the days of the afflicted are evil.

Until you recognize that, you won't be able to enjoy the feasts that God has for you. Life in a broken world is a life of affliction. Every day you wake up and open your eyes and affliction is sitting at the foot of your bed.

You know it.

You know it.

It's right there. It's like, it's one of the first things you're gonna meet. There's bodily afflictions. Just wearing out, right?

Wearing out.

Well, yesterday I cleaned part of my garage and I spent a couple hours out there and I'm stiff.

What's that all about?

A broom, moving some things, and I get stiff. Well, come on, you're wearing out. Diseases invade from the tonsillitis you had when you were six to the cancer that you now have and everything in between.

Bodily afflictions, disease invade. There's injury.

You know what?

I cried when I was six years old when my brother cut my finger off. He cut my finger off. I cried. That was not a happy time for me, okay? You say, wait a minute, just to ease your mind, you don't see me walking around with only half a finger because the doctor sewed it back on and it took, okay?

But nevertheless, those sorts of things happen and they're afflictions. They're circumstantial afflictions. You're disappointed at the grade you got but you are devastated at the fact that your best friend has betrayed you.

Your marriage is good but you still have those arguments and there's still heartbreak. You have the job you always wanted and yet something goes wrong every day, right? You look forward to watching your kids grow up when you hear these words, multiple sclerosis.

There are all kinds of afflictions in the world. In fact, we could take eternity to list all the afflictions that are in life and we would still have mortarite. That's the way it is in a broken world and those days are evil because affliction changes so much of life.

You can't climb the ladder anymore or you're not allowed to. All right, your children become your bosses. That's an affliction, all right? You lose friends to death. The older you get, the more you lose.

Your grandchildren become strangers. You don't even know grandpa and grandma anymore. Disappointment and betrayal breaks your heart and breaks relationships. They're evil but here's the worst thing. The worst thing of all is affliction becomes the lens through which you interpret life.

Affliction becomes the lens through which you see life. We live in a culture like this now. People's lives now are defined by affliction. You're a victim of discrimination. You're a victim of oppression.

You're a survivor of abuse. The very afflictions that come our way are now used to define who we are.

And you know what happens?

Bitterness, anger, despair, anxiety become your default responses to life. And we see it in our culture around us. We're defined by our afflictions and so it's true. All the days of the afflicted are evil.

They don't see anything else but that and that defines their existence. And so we live in a culture of despairing, anxious, bitter people. It's growing because of that. All the days of the afflicted are evil.

And so it appears that there's no feast for the afflicted, just evil days. No Thanksgiving Day feast can ever erase, can ever erase the evil of the afflictions that you've experienced. And frankly, maybe some of you today are in that place.

You see only the wrongs, the slights, the injustices, the lost opportunities, the disappointments, the afflictions of this broken world. That's all you see. And all the days of the afflicted are indeed evil.

No feast, no festivity, no gladness. All the days of the afflicted are evil. As you define yourself and think of yourself in terms of your afflictions, they do become nothing but evil. But what does he say here?

This proverb tells you though, that a good life does not depend on eliminating the affliction. I want you to think about this. If you define yourself as a survivor of abuse, there's no way you can eliminate the affliction.

Why?

Because it's happened in the past. You can't do anything about the past. But you think in terms of that, you define yourself in terms of that. And you can't eliminate it. So what? All your days are evil.

All your days are evil. So it doesn't depend on eliminating the affliction. Doesn't depend on that. Nevertheless, you can experience, he says, a continual feast. Enjoying the feast does not depend on your circumstances or eliminating evil days, but it depends on what?

What does he say here? On your heart. It depends on your heart. It's your heart that determines whether you have a continual feast or not. The heart is the control center of all that you do. When you see the scripture use the word heart, don't think emotion, okay?

Oh, my heart is broken, right?

Okay.

We use the word heart now in terms of our emotions, but when the Bible talks about the heart, it uses it this way. It says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he, right? Out of the heart come all these sins.

The heart is the control center. What you think, what you believe, what you love, what you value, where you put your hope, what you serve are determined in the heart. The inner man, that part of you that thinks, that makes value judgments, that hopes, that's the heart.

It's the thinking and emotions and affections and values that you have and that you believe and that you put your hope in. The importance of the heart is a consistent theme in scripture. A very, to me, pivotal text, and it has been for me for some years, is found in Jeremiah chapter 17.

I want you to look at that with me for a moment. Jeremiah 17, verses five through eight. Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. Now notice this. What makes you a shrub? An unfruitful shrub.

Your heart.

Where are you putting your trust? Where are you putting your hope? That determines what kind of a person you are. It says you then become a shrub. But he goes on. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

Ah.

Your fruitfulness does not depend on your circumstances. It depends on your heart. Now I have used this almost every time I sit down with someone to help them with something. I've almost invariably go here.

Now I want you to notice, here's why. Notice something. Where is the tree? Where is the tree? Now most people say to me when I ask that question, it's next to the stream. And I say, no, it's not. Notice what it says.

When the heat's on, when the drought is there, it still produces because it's like a tree. It's in the desert.

Desert.

The circumstances don't dictate to you, does not dictate to you whether you're gonna be fruitful or not. What determines it? It's not your external circumstances. It is what? It is where your heart is.

Where are you, what do you trust? You trust in the Lord.

All right?

And that produces fruit even when it's drought, even when the heat is on, it produces fruit. It depends on your heart. This is central in the scriptures. It depends on your heart. And Solomon is saying to us in this proverb that this continual feast depends not on your external circumstances, it depends on your heart.

All right?

It depends on your heart. And that's what we need to see. It's the state of your heart that determines whether or not you have a continual feast. And right now I'm talking to all of you, there are some of you who have received bad news in the last month since I've seen you.

Some of you have received bad news. Can you still have a continual feast? Some of you, some of you have maybe been diagnosed with something since I've been here last. Can you still have a continual feast?

It doesn't depend on those things, it depends on your heart. That's what he's saying here. Now be careful that you don't use the wrong materials for building a cheerful heart. How then do I build a cheerful heart?

Well, first of all, I want to warn you, don't get into the wrong building materials. For example, turn over to 1 John chapter two. 1 John chapter two. Let's look at verses 15 through 17. 1 John chapter two, verse 15.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Let me say this, you'll never produce a cheerful heart just getting what you desire, just fulfilling every desire you have, right?

You're never gonna get a cheerful heart if you get everything you have. You know why? Desires are deceitful, they never pay off, they never deliver what they promise. If you say, I'll be thankful I have a nice house, a nice family, a reasonably good car, a good job, I'll always be thankful forever.

No, you won't, because you can get all those things and you'll want more before you're thankful. So don't fall into the thing that you produce a cheerful heart because of everything that you get. It's not the case.

You'll never produce a cheerful heart through convincing self-talk.

Right?

When I talk to people, I can think of one particular person in the last three months that I've talked to who is constantly doing these self-talk things like, I'm not so bad, I'm okay, I'm doing fine, things are hard, but I'm a good, I'm good.

You'll never get a cheerful heart through convincing self-talk. You know, it's not as bad as it could be, things could be a lot worse. I'm good, basically I'm a good person, right? You're never gonna get a cheerful heart that way.

You'll never produce a cheerful heart through comparison.

Right?

I was complaining the other day that I had no shoes, but then I met a man who had no feet. Well, I'm thankful because I'm not as bad off as that poor guy, but what about that guy? Does he have a right now to be ungrateful because he doesn't have feet?

Right?

You're never gonna get a cheerful heart by comparison. Right, you remember what it was like, all of us, I'm talking to the old people now, and which is not many of you out there, but when I was growing up, this is the constant refrain we would hear, we'd complain about our food, and it was like, you know, there are tens of thousands of Chinese starving today, right?

And that was supposed to motivate us to like our spinach, you know? It doesn't work, it doesn't work. Any kind of manufactured, idolatrous strategies that make me and my situation, that make me and my situation the basis of Thanksgiving is doomed to fail eventually.

Now, that doesn't mean I shouldn't be thankful for the good things that I have, that God has given me, but if my Thanksgiving depends on that, it will inevitably fail. You will find that you will slip into ingratitude and complaining.

The Need for a New Heart

How then can you cultivate a cheerful heart? Let me tell you some things that you can do to cultivate a cheerful heart so that you will have a continuous feast. If it depends on your heart, how then do you build that cheerful heart?

Well, first thing to understand is you cannot manufacture that kind of heart because you need a new heart. Everyone needs a new heart. Titus chapter three, Titus chapter three, all right? Beginning in verse five, well, verse four.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

We need a heart transplant because the original heart will never produce a continual feast. The original heart will not do that. Our sinful natural hearts will always misinterpret affliction. It will always desire what it shouldn't.

It will always pervert and twist God's good gifts so that we want the wrong things or we want the right things more than we want God. Augustine talks about, Saint Augustine talks about the woman who gets the engagement ring and she says to her lover, the ring is enough.

I don't wanna see your face again. But that's the way we often respond to God. Thank you for all these gifts. Just don't bother me with anything else now, okay? I'm really thankful for everything you've given me, right?

We love the gift more than the giver and that's where we really have to be careful. But that will always happen unless you get a new heart. Jesus, the one who saves you, has to pour out His Holy Spirit upon you so that wicked original heart now is replaced with a heart that loves God, with a heart now that doesn't follow after the passions and the desires of all the world has to offer or all that I want.

It follows hard after Christ and wants Him. You need a new heart. If you're gonna cultivate a cheerful heart, you need a Savior who'll give you a new heart. That's where it starts. You'll have a cheerful heart when you view yourself properly.

I love, and I've probably quoted him, and this will sound familiar to some of you. I probably have quoted him probably 20 times in the last five years, but old, I don't think he's a Puritan, but in the line of the Puritans, a fellow by the name of Scudder wrote these things.

For what are you of yourself? All right, here's a great phrase to remember. For what are you of yourself but a compound of dust and sin, unworthy of any good, deserving of all misery? Isn't that good?

I'm a compound of dust and sin, unworthy of anything good. You stand in need of God, but not He of you. It is of His mercy that you are not consumed. When you are thus sensible of your own need and that help can come only from God and that you are worthy of no good thing, then you will be glad and thankful at heart to God for anything.

And humble man will be more, listen to this, and humble man will be more thankful for the least mercy than a proud man will for the greatest. When you understand that you don't deserve anything from God, you will have more of a cheerful heart.

Do you believe that you're entitled to what you have or do you believe that all of it comes from God's mercy, His compassion for you, His grace, and He gives you all these things even though you don't deserve it?

All of these things. You know what I'm reminded of? This is what pops into my head. 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse one. I call it my do not lose heart chapter. And there the Apostle Paul begins that chapter with these words.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. He's not worthy of any good thing. He's not worthy of any good thing, but he says because of God's mercy I have this ministry.

And I scratch my head and I say, okay, you mean this ministry where later on in the book chapter 11, and I encourage you to read those, you say you've been beaten three times with rods, you've been whipped, the flesh torn off your back three times, you've been shipwrecked, you've been hungry, you've been naked, and you say, what?

Oh, God's been merciful to me. How in the world is that mercy?

You know why?

He doesn't deserve anything that God gave him. And even the worst things that happen in his life are because of the ministry that God gave him by his mercy. He could have been a comfortable Pharisee, a world renowned scholar that everyone would go listen to.

Paul had that reputation, by the way. He was a very renowned biblical scholar. He was a Pharisee. And he could have had a comfortable life with all kinds of adulation. And the kind of thrill that comes from putting ideas together and seeing them fit and convincing people of all these things.

But he said, God was merciful and gave me the ministry of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, for which I suffer, but that's all mercy. You see, there's nothing that we're entitled to. And yet God is merciful to us.

We're not entitled to anything. See, it's all of God's mercy. Here's the third thing, you'll have a cheerful heart when you have a proper view of your heavenly Father. When you have a proper view of your heavenly Father.

You know what that is? God, your Father, is always for you and never against you. That's what we have to get into our minds. Our Father is always for you and never against you. Well, you say, I just got this diagnosis that's horrible.

I've just got some news that's just blew me away. God's still for you? Yes, he's for you. The God who gives you comfort as a source of enjoyment can use the same hand to bring cold and hunger and peril to help you to glory.

As one writer put it, the Father is wise. He may give you little. Listen, he may give you little, not because he does not love or care for you, but because he knows that if he gave you more, it would prove to be a temptation and snare.

And when things are hard, you need to remember, God is always for you and never against you. And the hand of love that gives you all good things, that same hand of love brings affliction in your life because God loves you.

That affliction is not meant to say, God doesn't care for you. It's meant to say he loves you and he's working a purpose in your life. Any good gift comes from his loving hand and every affliction comes from that same hand.

Fellowship, Hope, and a Cheerful Heart

Four, you'll have a cheerful heart as you walk with others, as you walk with others. Listen, you won't have a cheerful heart if you neglect the fellowship of believers. If you start saying, we don't need to be there, we can't go, you know, I don't care to go.

You know what?

You're headed right down the road to ingratitude. You need to be thankful by being with other believers. Look over at Proverbs 15 again. Just look two Proverbs down to verse 17. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it, right?

Love sweetens the simplest foods, hatred embitters the richest feast. And when you're with other people, with love, you'll have a feast. You won't have a continual feast if you choose to neglect the people of God.

And here's the last thing I wanna mention to you. You will have a cheerful heart as you put your hope in God's future, in God's future. Romans 8, 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

I want you to think about that. How can I be thankful no matter what the circumstances? Because God has something better.

Do I believe that? Do I really believe that?

You know, in my own, I'm reading through the book of Luke and I'm really trying to digest it. I'm trying to really meditate on it. And the other day, in fact, the other day when we were in Durres in Albania, I was sitting on the balcony and I was reading Luke chapter six and here's what struck me.

It's Luke's rendering of the Beatitudes where he has blessed and woe. Blessed are you who are hungry now for you shall be satisfied. Woe to you who are full now for you shall be hungry. Hey, I can be full now and I can enjoy it now but I'm gonna be hungry.

But you say, you know, it's hard, I'm not, if you will, I'm hungry. You're going to be satisfied. It doesn't matter what's happening. There's something better. You will be satisfied. I love this one. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.

Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you who have sorrow now and not happiness.

You know why?

Because later on, you're gonna have happiness more than you can imagine. And here's the point.

Do I believe that? Do I really believe that?

Do I believe that even though life is full of sorrow yet there's coming a day of unending happiness?

Do I really believe that?

I can, I will have a cheerful heart if I believe that God is just loading it up for me to enjoy which, by the way, is Him and all the things we're supposed to be as humans. It's all coming. It's all coming.

I'll be happy then. I may have unhappiness now, I may have sorrow now but it's coming a day when there's no end to it. In fact, that's the very thing that's gonna define my existence. You know what, that gives you a feast now.

That gives you a feast now in the sorrows and the heartaches of this age because there is something. There is something better. If you have a cheerful heart, you'll have a continuous feast and you will then always have a heart of thanksgiving.

There was a pair of missionaries one time, a pair of missionaries. I imagine, I think you know of these missionaries. They went into hostile territory and because of a good deed they did to a woman who was being exploited by her masters and they delivered her from that exploitation.

Because of that, because of that good deed, they were hauled before the magistrates, they were beaten and reviled in front of the whole town, humiliated in front of the whole town and they were dragged off to prison, they were chained up with no access to light, no access to food, no access to any comfort, nothing but their thoughts and as they lay there bruised and in pain and in the darkness, what do you think they did?

They prayed and then they sang at the top of their voices. How could they do that? How could they do that? Because they had cheerful hearts. They had cheerful hearts by the grace of God and they had a feast even in that cell.

God help us to mature, to grow, to strive for cheerful hearts so that we will have a continual feast. Father, we've had a feast this morning in your word and yet Father, you say we can have a continual feast.

That never ends.

In this life and the next, help us then to set our hearts on the things they should be set on. Help us to develop and to grow in our cheerful hearts help us to do this Father, not so that our life isn't miserable, help us to do it for your glory.

This world needs to see, this world where all the days are evil because everyone is afflicted, help us to stand apart as those who also have suffered affliction but because of our hearts, we have a continual feast.

God help us. We want your name to become famous and it can be if we're a grateful people. So help us to that end we pray in Jesus' name.