Got Fruit?part 5(Joy) Series

Joe Bedy

Central Christian Church

January 22 2002

The Spiritual Life Part 5 (Joy)

Who can define JOY for us tonight?

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

We have talked about the Spirit led life as the way to worship God in His Spirit and in truth, with our spirit reflecting attitudes and behaviors that would bring Him honor and glory.

Joy is a whole lot different than happiness Oswald Chambers said “Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not.”

Having the fruits of the Spirit i.e. of the Holy Spirit capital “P” Pneuma means our pneuma our spirit has the attitudes that reflects Christ who lives in us to other people. As a matter of fact Paul points to this in verse 24, immediately following his description of the spiritual fruit we should bear.

He says: “Gal 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

You see Christians are “little Christs” they bury the old self in the grave of baptism and live a new life immersed in Christ, that acts like Christ would act.

For Christ to shine through us through spiritual fruit, when our trees are rattled, we must have died to ourselves. Crucified and murdered what we want or refusing to battle for what we think we deserve.

I tried to find people who had learned this secret of crucifying self and living for God and other in my research for this message. As you listen see how you compare in your life. Here is what just a few of them had to say about joy:

6528 Happiness is a feeling. Joy is an attitude. A posture. A position. A place.

TIM HANSEL

6529 Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about. The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.

DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY (1837–1899)

6532 I have no understanding of a long-faced Christian. If God is anything, he must be joy.

JOE E. BROWN (1892–1973)

6534 If you have no joy in your religion, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.

BILLY SUNDAY (1862–1935)

6537 Joy is a positive thing: in joy one does not only feel secure, but something goes out from oneself to the universe, a warm, positive effluence of love.

RICHARD HOOKER (1554–1600)

6538 Joy is distinctly a Christian word and a Christian thing. It is the reverse of happiness. Happiness is the result of what happens of an agreeable sort. Joy has its springs deep down inside. And that spring never runs dry, no matter what happens. Only Jesus gives that joy. He had joy, singing its music within, even under the shadow of the cross.

SAMUEL DICKEY GORDON (1859–1936)

6541 Joy is not in things; it is in us.

RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883)

6544 Joy is that deep settled confidence that God is in control in every area of my life.

PAUL SAILHAMER

6545 Joy is the echo of God’s life within us.

JOSEPH COLUMBA MARMION (1858–1923)

6548 Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.

LÉON HENRI MARIE BLOY (1846–1917)

6549 Joy is the serious business of heaven.

C. S. LEWIS (1898–1963)

6552 Man cannot find true essential joy anywhere but in his relationship to God.

OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874–1917)

6560 The joy of the heart colors the face.

6561 The joy that you give to others

Is the joy that comes back to you.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807–1892)

6564 The word joy is too great and grand to be confused with the superficial things we call happiness.

KIRBY PAGE (1890–1957)

6566 This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for our own way, but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God’s way, acquiesce in his will, and in so doing find our peace.

EVELYN UNDERHILL (1875–1941)

6567 Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

SIR JAMES M. BARRIE (1860–1937)

6568 True joy is not a thing of moods, not a capricious emotion, tied to fluctuating experiences. It is a state and condition of the soul. It survives through pain and sorrow and, like a subterranean spring, waters the whole life. It is intimately allied and bound up with love and goodness, and so is deeply rooted in the life of God.

RUFUS MATTHEW JONES (1863–1948)