Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Jeremiah 9:23-24 The Key to True Happiness

Jeremiah 9:23-24 The Key to True Happiness

Last updated on: June 14, 2018 at 3:00 pm by Jim Erwin

Jeremiah 9:23-24 The Key to True Happiness 2018-06-14T15:00:42-05:00 Jim Erwin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 The Key to True Happiness

Jeremiah 9:23-24 The Key to True Happiness is a sermon about the fact that true and enduring happiness results from knowing God personally.

Proposition: True and enduring happiness results from knowing God personally.

The soul is measured by its flights,
Some low and others high,
The heart is known by its delights,
And pleasures never lie.

Where does your pleasures lie? If you are like the people in Jeremiah 9:23, your happiness may lie in worldly pursuits:

“This is what the Lord says: The wise man must not boast in his wisdom; the strong man must not boast in his strength; the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth.” (Jeremiah 9:23, HCSB)

To put it another way: Many people put their pleasures in health, wealth, and wisdom.

The Bible says that you should find your happiness in God:

“But the one who boasts should boast in this, that he understands and knows Me — that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration.” (Jeremiah 9:24, HCSB)

A theologian of the fifteenth century made this astounding claim:

The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.
Henry Scougal1

The measure of how great a person is can be found in what he or her loves.
You can know how great a person is by looking at what he or she loves.

Today, we live in a world which entices us to love all kinds of things. Primarily, the temptation is to satisfy myself with many things in this world – which provide health, wealth, or wisdom. The world will try to provide many different sources to provide me happiness.

Our own achievements ought not be the source of our happiness (23)

To “boast” means to exclaim with joy. When I boast, I am describing the source of my happiness.

There are THREE Common sources human happiness

Wisdom (skills, intelligence, experience) Wise
Strength (physical, political, military) Health
Riches (monetary, relational) Wealth

God says that the only source of true happiness in my life is found in Him.

Knowing God ought to be the source of our happiness (24)

If you want to be happy, You must know and understand God. Knowing God personally involves knowing these things:

God delights in faithful love. This is the basis of the relationship

“Who is a God like You, removing iniquity and passing over rebellion for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not hold on to His anger forever, because He delights in faithful love.” (Micah 7:18, HCSB)

Notice that in the Psalms, God says that He loves righteousness and justice. He also made the earth full of His love.

“He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.” (Psalm 33:5, HCSB)

Out of God’s love, He created a way for us to be redeemed from the world of sin. God filled the world with His love. Then Satan hid it from other people through sin. So God wants to take love and use it bring us back to Him.

The Old Covenant stems from God’s love.

“Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: Yahweh—Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7, HCSB)

The New Covenant also comes from God’s love.

“Israel, put your hope in the Lord. For there is faithful love with the Lord, and with Him is redemption in abundance.” (Psalm 130:7, HCSB)

God took His Son and allowed Him to suffer a death on the cross, by bearing our sins. God was happy to kill His Son.

“Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.” (Isaiah 53:10, HCSB)

The reason it made God happy to kill His Son by taking all of the sin and placing it on Him, As a result, of this act of love, we can come to Him.

““For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, HCSB)

Therefore, God wants us to be loving.

“He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37, 39, HCSB)

God delights in justice: Stipulations of the relationship

“Here is My Servant whom I have chosen, My beloved in whom My soul delights; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations.” (Matthew 12:18, HCSB)

““This is My Servant; I strengthen Him, this is My Chosen One; I delight in Him. I have put My Spirit on Him; He will bring justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1, HCSB)

“And there came a voice from heaven: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!” (Matthew 3:17, HCSB)

God sets out correct strategies for fellowship known as covenants. The Mosaic law and atonement, which was the embodiment of the Old Covenant. This old covenant pointed to the need for a Savior. God has to be just because people could not get to know Him properly through the Mosaic Law. Instead of using the Law to get to know their need for God, they abused the law and fell away from God.

“Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons. The turtledove, swallow, and crane are aware of their migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.” (Jeremiah 8:7, HCSB)

“Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22, HCSB)

“You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.” (Hebrews 10:6, HCSB)
“For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6, HCSB)

“You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; You are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.” (Psalm 51:16–17, HCSB)

So God had to provide a way to pay for sin. God’s own Son as Sacrifice for the world. The Justice of God is not condemnation, but life. Justice is not punishment, but a path to God. The justice of God should point us our need for God. This should point us to the love of God. The love of God should point us to His Son.

God delights in Righteousness: Fulfillment of the relationship

“For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6, HCSB)

God Himself is the standard of righteousness, or right living. Jesus, God’s Son fulfills God’s righteousness. This is why God told people to listen to Jesus. God told Jeremiah this about Jesus.

““The days are coming” —this is the Lord’s declaration— “when I will raise up a Righteous Branch of David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is what He will be named: Yahweh Our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5–6, HCSB)

God told people who witnessed the baptism of Jesus.

“While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him. Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5, HCSB)

“For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!” (2 Peter 1:17, HCSB)

The God of the Bible exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. To know him means to put into practice these fundamental principles in which he delights (9:22–23).2

“So the one who boasts must boast in the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 10:17, HCSB)

“Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the child of my body for my own sin? Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:7–8, HCSB)

Footnotes

1 John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God, Rev. and expanded. (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2000), 15.

2 James E. Smith, The Major Prophets, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1992), Je 9:22–25.

Previous Post

July 23, 2013

Orbiting Jesus

Next Post

July 28, 2013 How to Make Jesus the Leader of My Life

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Chronicles 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Kings 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Chronicles 2 Corinthians 2 John 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy 3 John Acts Advent Amos Book Review Colossians Comics Culture Watch Daniel Deuteronomy Ecclesiastes Ephesians Esther Exodus Ezekiel Ezra Galatians Genesis Guest Post Habakkuk Haggai Hebrews Hosea Humor Inspiritational Isaiah James Jeremiah Job Joel John Jonah Joshua Jude Judges Lamentations Lectionary Lent Leviticus Link Love Luke Malachi Mark Matthew Micah Movie Review Nahum Nehemiah Numbers Philippians Political Watch Prophecy Watch Proverbs Psalm Revelation Reviews Romans Ruth Science Watch Sermon Series Sermons Simple Thoughts Song of Solomon Titus Top Ten Uncategorized Video Review Zechariah Zephaniah

Select a Month May 2026 October 2025 September 2025 June 2025 February 2025 January 2025 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 January 2022 June 2021 January 2021 October 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2009 June 2008 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 October 2006 September 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 September 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Abraham's brother?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jacob Nahor Isaac Lot