Get Your Heart Happy in God

0:00 It's good to be with you. You heard David mention it for this first session. Our plan is to learn together for a few minutes from George Mueller. Show of hands, who is more than marginally familiar with George Mueller? Many of you. It's wonderful. you may know him you may think first of the great benefactor of orphans in 19th century England across the span of his ministry when he started caring for orphans until he died over 10,000 destitute children were cared for in his orphan houses you may think of him initially as a man of remarkable prayer 50 years after his conversion he was speaking to a group of people and said it would not be an exaggeration to say that he had received 30,000 answers to prayer in the very same day or the same hour in which he prayed them.

1:11 but I want us to focus tonight on a different element of George Mueller's life, and I want to get there by setting him up, helping us see him as a man who walked under tremendous pressure with tremendous peace. Okay, this man, George Mueller, He walked, it would seem, from the outward elements of his life under a couple tons of pressure. If anybody had a reason to look worried and careworn, George Mueller did. If you know him, many of you do, then you probably know that at the beginning of his orphan work, he resolved that he wasn't ever going to ask anyone for money directly.

2:11 except for God. Because he wanted to show both the church and the world that there is still a God in heaven who hears and answers prayer. And his life showed that. You read his autobiography, you read accounts of his life, it shows that. But it shows that that kind of testimony to the church and to the world, It came only through countless trials of faith. He notes at one point, hundreds of times, hundreds of times, we have commenced the day without a penny in hand. At another point, he mentions the many times I could have gone insane from worry. So the world is watching, and not all friendly eyes, this man who had ventured his all upon God in a very public way, seeing what would become of him.

3:18 And it wasn't just George Mueller who would be affected. There were hundreds, at times even thousands of children whose welfare hung in the balance on these days when they didn't have a penny in hand. He was a man who walked under tremendous pressure, which is not to say anything about, the typical pressures he experienced as a pastor who often preached multiple times a week. Okay, he knew pressure. But he was also a man who walked under tremendous peace. If anybody looked cheerful and confident, George Mueller did. One of the most memorable testimonies I read to this point comes from a farmer in Bristol, the city where Mueller lived for most of his life, who said this, I was going up Ashley Hill the other morning, that's where the orphan houses are, when I met Mr. Mueller walking toward the city, had I not known him, I would have said he was a gentleman of leisure and without a care.

4:28 So quietly did he walk, and so peaceful and stately was his demeanor. The 23rd Psalm seemed written all over his face. Spurgeon was Acquainted with him Said he is a man of sweet peace And real joy He smiled so much the lines on his face You could see it when he wasn't smiling What he loved to do He was a man under tremendous pressure Walking with tremendous peace And I set him up that way Because you and I know pressure even if it's not the kind that George Mueller knew probably not as many people depending on us under God but you and I know no pressure and so the question that I want to explore is how was this life possible?

5:36 Where did Mueller find the peace not only to endure the kind of pressure that he was under, but to walk through it with Psalm 23 written on his face for anyone who wanted to see it? and those who know something of his life, we've already mentioned this, you might want to go to prayer as a way to explain how he was this way, and that would go a whole long way toward explaining George Mueller. He was a man who depended on God in everything, big or small. he spoke of how he loved to roll every burden upon God's shoulders.

6:25 Prayer was indispensable to his peace, but there was something underneath that life of prayer. There was some practice, some power underneath his praying that gave rise to it, that led to the kind of peace that he enjoyed. George Mueller prayed the way he did. He experienced the peace like he did because he engaged with God's word as he did. there was a communion with God in scripture and not just any kind of reading scripture but a particular way of coming to God in his word that gave Mueller the peace the power that he needed to endure the life that God gave to him it was a practice that he had to learn there are these key moments throughout his life, even when it comes to the role the word of God had on him in 1841 is maybe the most significant. Okay, this is 16 years after he has been a believer.

7:38 And he writes about a discovery that happened in 1841 that he said led to immense spiritual profit and refreshment. And here's a key sentence for us. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I have ever had before. Okay, you want to understand where my peace comes from, I'm gonna tell you what I discovered in 1841.

8:20 So what was it? He has this long journal entry that he would go back to later in life and say, yeah, I still believe that. Where he explains what this discovery was. If you've read Pastor John's book, Desiring God, the chapter there in scripture, you'll remember this for the rest of our time I want to walk through four different elements of how this man came to God's word engaged with God's word how it led to the life that he had so if you can bear with an alliteration you're pastors I know you can we're going to talk about his pursuit and his priority and his pace and his particular focus each briefly.

9:14 So begin with his pursuit. This is how he talks about his discovery early on in this journal entry. I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. the first thing to be concerned about was how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man might be nourished okay here's a man surrounded by need surrounded by little children looking to him a husband a father a pastor no lack of things to do no lack of places to put his attention my main aim when I wake up is to get my soul happy.

10:11 we've already seen from Spurgeon, from that farmer, from others, he was a man who was happy in the Lord. But Mueller tells us in this journal entry that he didn't usually wake up that way. he didn't come spring-loaded to rejoice in the Lord. There was a, he uses the imagery of feeding. There was this natural or cycle, just like his body needed food every morning, his soul needed happiness in Jesus every morning. He was depleted from the needs of the day yesterday. And so his morning pursuit, what he saw more clearly than ever in 1841, was before I do anything else, before I meet any other needs, before I attend to any other soul, this one needs to get happy.

11:08 Which meant not only a positive pursuit, but a real self-conscious distancing for the moment of other good things that he could have given his attention to. Here's what he says. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, not how much I might glorify the Lord. And the reason is this. I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted. I might seek to benefit believers. I might seek to relieve the distressed, and yet not being happy in the Lord. All this might not be attended to In a right spirit we know this. We know what it feels like to minister, to serve from emptiness, from hunger, and to minister and serve from fullness.

12:11 Know what it feels like to go meet with a church member for counseling or gather with fellow elders or go into some other ministry setting. We're still hungry. and we know what it feels like to go in there so full of God that we have something to give.

12:32 Mueller knew what that felt like. He knew the difference between ministering to others or receiving the pressure and pain of his life when his soul wasn't happy and when it was. So he knew and we know that the needs of the day can feel overwhelming, even first thing. You might wake up to a dozen demands, some of them pouring over from the day before, some of them brand new. And I know how easy it is for me to sit even in front of an open Bible, but to have my mind running ahead, fixing the problems of the day, already trying to meet the needs of the day. If Mueller were here, I think he would counsel us like he counseled some other people in that situation in a different place here's what he said other things may press upon you the Lord's work may even have urgent claims on your attention but I deliberately repeat it is of supreme it is of paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God himself.

13:48 Day by day, make this the most important business of your life. is it the most important business of your life right now, of your morning time right now? So said the man who had hundreds and even thousands of souls depending on him. First thing is a soul happy in God. Okay, so that's his pursuit. That's the overarching driving pursuit, which led then to a certain priority.

14:27 Before this 1841 discovery, Mueller tells us that he used to get up, get dressed and pray as soon as he could, often for a quite extended time. But here was the result. Here's what he says. Often, having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first 10 minutes or quarter of an hour or even half an hour, I only then really began to pray.

14:58 So Mueller, he realized in 1841, he needed a different morning priority. Instead of praying first, scripture first. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation upon it. And then a little later, he goes back to that language of feeding. What is the food for the inner man? He says, not prayer, but scripture. Which is an amazing thing for this man of prayer to say.

15:34 He makes a big, he comes back to this. He makes a big deal out of it. So why? Why was his soul happier in God when his first priority was scripture? two reasons at least one is that he he notes that a sustained period of prayer if you're going to do it in anything more than a formal way if it's going to be sincere if it's going to be earnest it requires some degree of spiritual strength or godly desire is what he says and it's difficult to pray like that if your inner man is not nourished yet but that's not the case with receiving scripture not in the same way we may profitably meditate he says with god's blessing though we are ever so weak spiritually nay the weaker we are the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. You don't have to be strong to eat.

16:48 You eat in order to get strong again. So even on our weakest mornings, when it feels like if I tried to start praying right now, I would be here for half an hour before my mind would stop wandering. I would stop being distressed and preoccupied with this burden on me and I could actually pray. Even on those mornings, maybe when we don't even feel like we don't even know what to pray, we can read, we can hear, we can grab hold of some word that God has said and feed on it and still until we start to feel strong again. and then the second reason Mueller mentioned scripture first then prayer is because when he did go to God's word first he found himself praying soon after just naturally though I did not as it were give myself to prayer but to meditation yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer so hearing from God naturally led him to speak to God so instead of praying for half an hour having his mind go to the ends of the earth, he gave himself to God's word and found himself talking to his father.

18:08 It was scripture first, leading into prayer. That was part of the discovery. So now let's talk this third element. Pursuit, a soul happy. Priority, scripture then prayer, pace. Because when Mueller talks about reading,

18:30 you've already heard it, some of the language that he uses. He has a particular kind of reading in mind called meditation. in meditation you and i know it comes with a certain speed it's not the same way you read anything muller describes it as not the simple reading of the word of god so that it only passes through our minds just as water goes through a pipe but considering what we read pondering over it and applying it to our hearts. in meditation, we handle a passage like a jeweler handles a gym.

19:16 You walk through the hallways of a paragraph of scripture and open up every door that you can, see what's inside. Meditation is like sitting across the table from a verse or a phrase or a word in scripture and letting it query your heart. interrogate you, encourage you, warn you, exhort you. Mueller says this, when we meditate, we search as it were into every verse to get a blessing out of it.

19:50 Now there are about 31,000 verses in the Bible, if my search was accurate. And part of Mueller's strength, it really did come from reading every one of those verses at a pretty good clip. One of his biographers says that by the end of his life He had read through the whole Bible almost 200 times That's more than two times a year but another part of Mueller's strength, another part of his peace, and I'm tempted to say the greater part, it comes from sitting before one of the 31,000,

20:30 lingering there, and feeding on that thing for all it is worth. reading the biography again and again in Mueller's life, it was particular verses and promises of scripture that were his hope and stay in the midst of the biggest pain and trials that he went through. When his infant son died, he says, my soul laid hold on that word in Matthew 19, 14, of such is the kingdom of heaven. when the food was close to running out at the orphan houses, he didn't get alarmed, but he repeated to himself and to his family and to his staff, Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things are gonna be added to you.

21:30 And when his brother and his father died and he didn't know if they were believers, he says it was one verse that settled all questioning in his soul genesis 18 25 shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just this is his pattern when he is in pain he's going to a verse he's wanting to listen to the specific ways god's voice comes through in the words of a sentence, of a promise. And the result, he says, is I believed his promises. I poured out my soul before him. I could rise from my knees in peace. That was it again and again. So now real practically, here's a question. Maybe the biggest thing that keeps me morning by morning from meditating more like Mueller did is that I feel like I don't have time.

22:30 i've i'm trying to read the whole bible i've got a bible plan i'm trying to pray for people in my life how am i going to slow down to sit with one verse out of the 31 000 like muller did how did he do it he's reading the bible twice a year or more how's he doing this too one of the answers is that he just spent a ton of time with the bible he was a man of one book in many ways but there's also this little glimpse that he gives in his journal that is fascinating to me and helpful here's he says that it was mainly in the later parts of the day after breakfast that he gave himself to reading larger portions of the word of God and that he devoted himself more especially to prayer.

23:31 Okay, so he has these anchor points after breakfast time or sometime later in the day where he is aiming for breath. He's wanting to read the whole counsel of God's word. But that suggests that here in the morning time, first thing before breakfast, first. his goal is simple.

23:54 He's not trying to meditate and move through an ambitious Bible reading plan and get through a big prayer list. His goal is instead to move at whatever pace his soul needs to get happy again in God. That's his goal. so all of us in here are gonna have to figure out a way under God within the circumstances of our life to do both breadth and depth, right? We got to read the whole Bible. We got to sit with one verse. How are we going to do it? This is how Mueller did it, and so here's one question that I've been asking myself. How often, how often do you approach God's word without any specific plan or need, felt need, to get through a certain amount or to pray a certain amount, but the goal is simply, I'm drawing near to my Father. I am coming to get happy in Christ again.

25:00 And if that means I get through a chapter, then that's great. If that means I sit with a single verse then that's great because right now every goal is taking a back seat to the main goal of what my soul needs most what other people in my life need most from me which is a soul that is happy in him that's how Mueller began his day and so he passed through deep trials with peace all right we've considered his pursuit a soul happy in God we've got his priority scripture then prayer pace was slow, meditative. Now, particular focus.

25:40 Mueller came to the Bible wanting to hear whatever his father had to say to him, wanting to be reproved, encouraged, exhorted, whatever the word might be. But he also had something specific in mind. He came wanting to see something in particular. He wanted to see more of God. That's what he wanted most. That's what he needed most. It was going to be the only way that he was going to get perspective on the impossible pressures that were coming his way in the next 12 hours.

26:14 He had to see above them to the one who reigns above them and rules over them. so he writes this in another part of the autobiography through reading the word of god and especially through meditation on it the believer becomes acquainted with the nature and character of god besides god's holiness and justice he realizes what a kind loving gracious, merciful, mighty, wise, and faithful father he is. There is no explaining the life of George Mueller, I'm convinced, apart from seeing a man who is daily riveted by what a kind, loving, gracious, merciful, mighty, wise, and faithful God he had. and it came through this way, among others, of reading scripture.

27:11 So let me close, just one example among others. Picture him sometime between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. walking in his garden with a New Testament in hand. It's a typical day, a typical season of ministry, which means that he is surrounded by need. Personal need, family need, church need, orphan need. He's meditating on Hebrews 13. And he gets to verse eight.

27:48 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. and instead of going on to verse nine, this is what happens. I meditated on his unchangeable love, power, and wisdom while I prayed about my present spiritual and temporal circumstances. Suddenly, the present need of the orphan houses was brought to my mind. I said to myself, Jesus, in his love and power, has supplied me with what I have needed for the orphans. In the same unchangeable love and power, he will provide me with what I need for the future.

28:38 Joy flooded my soul when I realized the unchangeableness of our mighty Lord. in the face of impossible pressures George Mueller rested his soul on the character of this God this Jesus revealed through this Bible and so often seen in new fresh needed ways through the slow prayerful work of meditation and brothers the same Jesus of love and power is with you in your family troubles and soul troubles and church troubles fully able to meet every need that you carried in here, fully willing in ways beyond what you can ask or imagine, even if it looks different from what you expect.

29:49 And the peace that we need to rest there is gonna come in part from waking up in the morning, reading scripture with a slow meditative posture and grabbing hold of those descriptions of God that get your soul happy in him. I'd invite you to stand with me. We're gonna pray and then just have a minute or two as we transition. Our Father, thank you for your book thank you for every verse of the 31,000 thank you for what you tell us again and again of yourself and your word thank you that this is the word that revives the soul and makes wise the simple and rejoices the heart would you give us grace day by day by the power of the spirit to get a soul that is happy in you again.

31:03 And so to walk through the life that you've given us with peace and joy and usefulness. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.