Two of your major themes, Pastor John, are God's sovereignty and the centrality of joy

in God. And last time, in episode 116, we talked about the joy of Calvinism and God's

joy as the foundation of our joy. But you wanted a second half to explain how Christian

hedonism and Calvinism connect. So explain this for us. Tony, last time, when you posed this

question to me about sovereignty of God and joy, I said that God's joy in the fellowship of the

Trinity is the foundation of his sovereignty and the overflow of his sovereignty. As God creates

the world to share in the joy that he has in him. So now the question becomes more specifically

in this world. There is so much sorrow. We are disappointed again and again. We're discouraged,

we suffer, we fail, we're assaulted, we get sick, we die day after day. It seems to me, I mean,

I feel that the world is attacking our joy in God, our families joy in God, our churches joy,

in God, our nations joy. We're constantly being assailed by things that threaten our joy.

And the question is, how does God's sovereignty work to help us fight for joy in God? Because joy

in God is the reason we're made and it's what glorifies God. And the answer comes in Romans 828

and 832 in Genesis 50, verse 20. When I read Rejoice Always in 1 Thessalonians 516, I say to God,

oh God, do you mean always, really? And I think his answer is yes, but not a superficial smiley face,

praise God anyhow, but rather with a second Corinthian 610 kind of answer, sorrowful yet always

rejoicing, that there is a joy in God that is constant even in the midst of sorrow, in

loss. And the reason that can be is because God in Christ has committed himself to work everything

together for our good. Romans 828 and Romans 832 shows that Christ in his dying for us and

rising is the ground of Romans 828, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

Will he not with him give us all things that he's won't he work everything together for our good?

So because Christ came and identified with us, bore our suffering, bore our sin, rose from the

...