Rejoicing in the Lord is a lesson often best learned in trials. In this excerpt from the upcoming Sovereign Grace Leadership Interview Series podcast (“The Pastor + Joy”), C.J. describes a trial that God used to shift the ground of his joy.

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Joshua Harris: C.J., I am wondering if there is a personal story in your own life where you experienced—whether it is a trial or a difficulty—a shift where God was helping you realize your joy wasn’t grounded enough in the work that he had done for you?

C.J. Mahaney: Many stories come to mind (and the lessons continue to this day). I wouldn’t want anybody to perceive me as some kind of compelling model of joyfulness on a daily basis. It is a fight I seek to wage on a daily basis. And I can certainly look back and discern instances, circumstances, and periods of time where there was a transfer underway in my life, helping me to shift the ground of my joy from created things to the Creator, a shift from temporary to the eternal.

A pronounced one for me was a ten-year period where I contracted a particular virus that had a debilitating effect on my body and mind on a daily basis. I am reluctant to speak of this and rarely do speak of this, because I don’t want to be misunderstood as I make reference to this period. Though it was challenging, there was nothing life-threatening about this, and I don’t even consider this experience to be suffering, per se. I know people who have suffered. I know people who presently are genuinely, severely suffering.

But for me it was prolonged. It was chronic. It was wearying. It was challenging. And it did remove any sense of happiness or joy, as derived from circumstances, from my life on a daily basis over those years.

So the fight was a particular challenge during that ten-year period. From the wonderful care I have received from my friends and fellow pastors, from the wonderful books that I have read in relation to suffering, from the wonderful examples that I have observed in and throughout Covenant Life Church over the years, and primarily from the clear teaching of Scripture, I was able to see, early on, the many ways God was working. This was intended to be a sanctifying work in my soul.

So one aspect of my sanctification was to be weaned from emotional dependence and weaned from any dependence on circumstances.

Throughout those numerous years, by God’s grace I was able to experience this transition from the ground of my joy being in any way a personality, emotion, or circumstantial, to an appreciation for the person and work of Jesus Christ on my behalf. And I would argue the trial left a purer form of joy.

 

The audio recording of C.J.'s first message delivered at the New Attitude conference is now online.

The Troubled Soul: God's Word and Our Feelings
C.J. Mahaney
Psalm 42:1-11
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Louisville, KY

Download here.

Listen here:

WAKE FOREST, NC--Last Friday night, more than 800 college students from the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Campbell College, Appalachian State, Clemson, and Duke all gathered for the Missio Dei conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The students were treated to messages from C.J., seminary president Dr. Daniel Akin, and several of the most strategic missions leaders within the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Missions Board.

On Friday night the conference kicked off with C.J.’s sermon “The Cup,” a message centered on the narrative of the Garden of Gethsemane (Mk 14:22–28, 32–42).

Throughout the gospel of Mark, the Savior has been forgiving sin, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, walking on water, calming storms, feeding thousands with a few loaves and fish, was briefly transfigured, amazing all with his teaching, boldly confronting the religious authorities; he was compassionate, authoritative, fearless. But in the Garden of Gethsemane everything changes. Something dramatic takes place in this garden. Here we encounter a Savior we are unfamiliar with. Here we discover what it meant to him, the Holy One, to bear away our sin. Here in this garden, he contemplates God’s wrath and resolves to endure God’s righteous wrath through the experience of human weakness.

Outline

The experience of human weakness involved:

1. Relational abandonment (vv. 27, 50 with 15:33-34). “This crucible of human weakness would involve relational abandonment.”

2. Distress of soul (vv. 33-34). “During the Last Supper, Christ was giving thanks and leading his disciples in the singing of a hymn. There was no indication of deep distress or shuddering terror. But once he enters this garden, he is deeply distressed and deeply troubled and overwhelmed with sorrow even to death. Why? In this garden, the Savior begins to experience a foretaste of what it means to be the sin bearer. Here in this garden, the Savior contemplates the cup and its contents. The cup dominates the heart and mind of the Savior while he’s praying in Gethsemane. Isaiah tells us the cup is the furious and righteous wrath of God against sin. This prospect of being the object of God’s righteous wrath is so horrific to the Savior that he prays, ‘If possible, take this cup from me.’… The Savior staggers—he does not sin—but he staggers as he contemplates the weight of this horrific prospect. In the garden he is not contemplating the physical pain of crucifixion; he is contemplating the fierceness of God’s wrath poured out upon him for our sin.”

Application

1. Recognize his love for you in his darkest hour. “He resolved to drink the cup of wrath dry on our behalf and leave not a drop so that we—by grace—may drink the cup of salvation. Just a few moments before he contemplated this cup, he took another cup representing his blood and the New Covenant and his finished work on the cross, and he placed that cup in the hands of the disciples (who were both undeserving and ill-deserving). Then he went to Gethsemane and took in his hands the cup we deserved.”

2. Receive his care for you in your darkest hour. “It’s important that we make distinction between his suffering and our suffering.…I don’t want to minimize your suffering in any way. But I want to protect and preserve the uniqueness of his suffering, because if I do, you can be comforted in your suffering. Having endured this suffering, he is uniquely qualified to comfort us in the midst of our suffering. He uniquely understands our darkest hour (Heb 4:14–16).”

Conclusion

After the message, Dr. Akin summarized the message’s impact with these words:

I was listening very carefully when C.J. preached. Sometimes at a conference like this people are very enthusiastic and demonstrative in their response to the preaching. But tonight as C.J. preached, there was a holy silence in this room. There was not much stirring because we were standing on holy ground. I’ll never, ever look at the Garden of Gethsemane the same again.

Listen to the complete address here (see Fri., Feb. 1).