This week, Randy Alcorn joins us on the phone.

He is the author of the brand new book, Happiness, Randy.

I want to talk about the enemies of our joy today, the enemies of sin and anxiety.

Let's start with sin.

How does sin poison our joy?

Well, Martin Luther said, sin is pure unhappiness, forgiveness is pure happiness, which is

a pretty succinct way to put it.

And again, Psalm 32, with happier those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered

happy, or those didn't, the Lord imputes no iniquity.

William Whitaker, who is a Puritan and a Cambridge University professor in the 16th century spoke

of sinning away that happiness wherein we were created.

And that is a very graphic picture, not only of what Adam and Eve did, but what we who

are conceived as sinners and have a sin nature, realizing that Christ became sin for us,

who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God and Him.

But we still are capable in this life, in this world under the curse of sinning away happiness.

And I think this is just in such a graphic portrayal of God-granted humanity happiness.

Likewise, He grants to us in Christ an eternal source of happiness.

The God who created the universe, who went to the cross, redemptively for me, in dwells

me, intercedes for me, we're more than conquerors to Him who loved us, yet we still have this

capacity and even inclination to sin away happiness.

And I think one of the things we've got to do, Tony, is stop making this distinction between,

okay, if you want holiness, come to the church, come to Jesus, and that's where you get holiness.

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