The Formula for Joy
We all have moments that define our lives. For me, one of these moments began the week after I graduated high school. You see my dad has always been there for me, but I have not always been there for him. I remember that week I decided to join the Navy and leave the house. I wasn’t just moving across town, I was running away. I could see the look on my dad’s face as I was boarding the plane. There was pain. There was frustration. But I will never forget that there was also love.
It was less than a year later that I found myself in a hospital bed with a life threatening injury. I call my dad, and he took the first flight out he could, and arrived the same day. I was so happy to see him. I just wanted him to take all of my pain away. Soon my Doctor appeared and reluctantly revealed that I had a very bad infection and that it had eaten away much of my hip. I remember the exact sentence the doctor said that was to change my life forever. He said, “Luke, we are going to have to remove your hip.” I took a moment to try and comprehend what was going on. I then realized that I was only 19 and I was never going to be able to play sports again. This one infection was tearing away my youth in one quick motion. My thoughts then turned to my fiancé. Would she still want to marry a man that would now have a disability? I slowly looked at my dad, and as our eyes met, we both started to cry.
When I composed myself, I addressed my Doctor and said, No! I am not losing my hip today, I want a second opinion. I then asked the Doctor to step out. My father said, son, I love you. I was there when you were born and I will be here with you to whatever end. No one loves you as much as I do. Then he said something so profound. He said, son, sometimes you have to go through the pain of today, in order to get to the joy you will find tomorrow.
Well I followed my father’s advice and went through the surgery. But that day I did not go through just one surgery. You see, my earthly father was unable to make it to the hospital that day. The father in my story is my heavenly father. When I joined the Navy I was running away from Him, and I saw the pain in his eyes when I rejected Him. Yet when I needed Him, He came right back to me the same day. The first surgery was a physical surgery that would affect me for the rest of my life. However, the second surgery was a spiritual surgery that would have an impact my soul for all eternity. When God prunes us it hurts, but I can still hear him saying, “Son, sometimes you have to go through the pain of today, in order to get to the joy you will find tomorrow.”
The title of my sermon is The Formula for Joy. My purpose today is to show that God loves us and wants us to be filled with His joy. Turn with me to John chapter 15.
Scripture: John 15:1-11
1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
How are you feeling today? The birth of Christ is approaching, Pikes Peak looks beautiful, and we have an omnipotent God is living inside of us. We should be filled with joy all day long. But what happens? The stress and worry of life sometimes get us down. Even while we serve God, Joy can slip through our fingers. If God promises us that we can have joy in Him, then why do I feel so defeated all of the time? There is no joy in leaving my family to go to college; there is no joy in not being able to pay my bills. Or is there?
When you look at the context and the placement of this text, you can get a picture of what John was trying to point out. Here are the eleven disciples and Jesus. They have just completed the last supper, and are walking over to the Garden of Gethsemane. Now the Garden of Gethsemane was like their group hangout. It was probably dusk and they were walking past a long wall that was covered by vine. In His thoughts, Jesus knew that everything in their lives was about to drastically change. His heart was heavy. There would be a time that His thoughts would dwell on His own death, but for now, his burden was for his friends. Only a few more hours were left until the disciples would be targets in a hostile world. The joy they once knew would soon be gone forever. From this mindset, I believe Christ begins to speak in chapter 15.
He says, 1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. And you can see how John emphasizes the deity of Jesus by using the phrase “I Am”. But here we have Jesus painting us a picture so that we can understand the Light he is about to reveal. He shares this light by using the metaphor of a vine and how it grows. Two of the three characters in this metaphor are found in verse 1. The first being Jesus as a vine of life, and the second being God as the gardener of the branches.
Then in verse 2 Jesus is describing the role that God plays in this metaphor while also introducing the disciples as the third character in the metaphor. It is important to see that God has two primary roles. The first being to take away any branches or disciples that are not bearing fruit, and second to prune those branches or disciples so that they can be more productive. Every Christian will feel some type of pain on account of God.
Either you will fall away and be cast into the fire, or you will be pruned. And by pruning I do not mean that God is going to cut into us. I believe that it is referring to a spiritual pruning. Here is God cutting away at the sin in our hearts so that we can serve Him better.
I find it interesting as Jesus quickly declares in the next verse that the disciples are already clean and have already been pruned. Why would Jesus talk about something that didn’t relate to their current situation? I believe He wanted His disciples to get the full picture of joy instead of only what they needed to hear. How did they become clean? I believe it is not because they were just hearing the Word, but because they were living it.
As we get into Verses 4 and 5 we see the meat of the metaphor. Jesus explains the relationship needed to bear fruit. Since He is the vine, if we remain on the vine, we will bear fruit. If we separate ourselves from the vine, we are nothing and will not bear fruit. What this tells me is that God still gives us choice to remain on the vine. Every Christian retains the choice to follow Christ.
We are not once saved always saved. You don’t get your name in the book because you accomplished the public rituals of becoming a Christian. It all boils down to choice. God will never make us follow Him, but there are consequences if we do not.
In-fact, as we read into verse 6, Jesus shows us what God does to those branches that do not bear fruit. He says, “They are dried up, and cast into the fire”. Well who are these branches? To answer this question we need to ask a second question. How does a person get connected to the vine? If you think about it, God is not just talking about the disciples as being the branches. He is referring to anyone who has begun a relationship with Him. This means that a person becomes a branch when they accept Christ as their Savior.
After Jesus explains the relationships of the vine and branches, in the midst of the metaphor he throws in an odd promise in verse 7. And for all of the literalist out there, this is one of your favorite verses. It basically says, that while you are on the vine, anything you want will be granted to you. I call it the genie verse. In-fact, this verse reminds me of a story.
Three men who were marooned on a desert island. As the days slowly went by, they dreamed of what it would be like to be at home with their friends and family, to be back at their jobs doing the things they loved. One day one of the men found a bottle that contained a genie. He opened the bottle and the genie announced that he would grant each of them one wish. One of the men said, "Boy, I want to be back in Seattle with my wife and kids." POOF--he was gone. The second man immediately said, “I want to be back in Portland with my fiancé" and again in a flash he was gone. The third man was left all alone sitting on the sandy beach. He said, "Boy, it really is lonely with my friends gone. I sure wish they were back here with me again. And POOF—
Obviously, since God does not break His promises, we must be taking this verse out of context. In-fact, look back at verse 7, there seems to be a qualifier to this promise. First we must be on the vine, and second, we must know the will of God. Therefore, if we are so tight with Jesus that we can sense His will, anything that we ask that is in accordance to Him, will be granted to us.
I like verse 8 because it reveals something about God. Sometimes it is easy to think about the all powerful God. Sometimes we overwork our brains trying to contextualize omnipotence and omnipresence. I believe this leads us to think that God has no need for us and our life truly doesn’t affect Him in any way. But I tell you, is not a father affected by his own son? When a little boy turns to his father to give him his last M&M and says, “I love you daddy,” Is there no transaction that takes place. I believe that God gives, but He also receives. And He is glorified by the fruit we produce in our relationship to Christ. It is important to realize that we are not in a one way relationship with God.
Verses 9 and 10 give us the HOW of staying on the vine. When you read it backwards you can better see how this takes place. It begins with God. Then, since Jesus has kept all of God’s commandments, (which is something none of us can do), He remains connected to God. Then the same is said about us, if we keep all of the commandments given to us by Jesus, we will remain connected to Him who is connected to the Father. Then it ends with the overall glue that holds these relationships together which is love. Without love, there could be no relationship with God.
Then we finally come to verse 11. If verse 9 and 10 were the How, then verse 11 gives us the why we should stay on the vine. I think that is important to once again remember the possible thoughts that were consuming Jesus as he was walking toward Gethsemane. I believe he knew that persecution was just around the corner. The road was to be paved with broken bodies and the spilt blood of believers. Therefore, one of the last things that Jesus wanted to give His disciples, before He was taken away, was the gift of true joy and its source. Every Christian receives true joy by glorifying God as they follow Christ.
One of the greatest examples of this would be Paul as he writes to the church of Philippi from a Prison cell. In Philippians 2:17-18 he writes, “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.” Well What Joy is he talking about? Because I know that he was not staying at the Holiday Inn.
He was in chains in a poorly lit room. He probably slept on the rocky ground and smelled of the vilest odors we could possibly imagine. Rats and insects would taunt him at night, and his daily meal provided only enough substance to sustain his meager existence. Paul’s joy, was not sourced by His circumstances; it was sourced by God. Even in the worst circumstances of his life, he wrote about his overflowing joy in serving the Lord. In Philippians 4:4-5 he writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.”
What is our excuse today? If Paul is filled with Joy in Prison, why does life get me down so much? How can I find joy in a job that only pays $8.00 an hour? How can I find joy in burying my wife or child? How can I find joy in such a broken sinful world? I tell you that God is the source of our joy.
He created each one of us and truly yearns for our happiness. He loves us so much that he was speaking blessings for our lives before time began. Oh he wants you to be happy. Oh he wants you to overcome. Oh he loves you so much. – He loves us so much, that He sent His only Son to be crucified for our sins. He loves us so much that He still reconciles us to himself when we reject Him. And He loves us so much that he provides blessings and joy to anyone who follows Christ.
Today, I want to leave you with a simple formula that I believe John is handing us on how to receive joy. And later this week, when you find yourself feeling down or defeated by the circumstances of your life, I want you to come back to this formula and apply it to wherever you are. It reads this.
When we love Christ, we keep His Commandments.
When we keep His Commandments, we produce fruit.
When we produce fruit, we glorify the Father.
When we glorify the Father, we receive Joy. (Repeat)
And the only reason that we are able to receive true joy, is because Christ loves us.
You can find joy wherever you are. And if you find yourself outside of this joy, then perhaps some of the formula is missing in your life, or perhaps you have the order out of sequence. I plead with you that if your joy is not full, then tonight when you get home, I urge you to find a secluded spot and pray to God with your bible open to John 15 in one hand, and this formula for joy in your other hand. And just maybe, in the quietness of your prayer, you will hear Him say, “Son, sometimes you have to go through the pain of today, in order to get to the joy you will find tomorrow.”
I will never forget the look on all the nurses faces as I lay motionless in my room from the surgery that removed my hip. I was motionless, but I was not silent. For, I was overwhelmed with the Joy of God. So there I was, this poor young man who was stripped of his youth. And what was I doing? I was singing! I was praising God because at that moment, I was not worried about my current circumstances; I was savoring my renewed relationship with God and the joy and peace that came with that union. I had found joy. And on that day, the nurses found that joy as well.
I would like us all to stand and sing an old camp song called I’ve got the Joy. And if you have the Joy of God in your heart, I hope you can sing it with a smile.
(Song)
Grace and Peace be with you.
