JOHN 15:9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
I want to talk to you this morning about happiness and joy. Isn’t that a great subject for a sermon? I thought so...I mean, after all....who isn’t seeking happiness and joy? It may be no coincidence that pastor Rhonda’s middle name is joy....I found my Joy! But let’s look and see what God says about these subjects and where we are individually with happiness and joy in our own lives.
First, I must say that there seems to be a lot of joy missing from the average christians life. I mean, really...you guys should all come up here some Sunday morning and look out amoungst you. Maybe I’ll bring a camera someday....No, you guys all look great and I’m so HAPPY that you are here. But sometimes your JOY isn’t showing....you don’t look HAPPY... I think it’s important that we distinguish these two words...happiness and joy....so that we realize that we can have joy mixed with UNhappiness at times in our walk.
Did you know that joy is not a recomendation but a command? We even sing a song found in PHILLIPIANS 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. So what’s the difference between happiness and joy. Glad you asked! (I researched it just for you!)
The word HAPPY comes from the root of the Greek word "HAP" which means literally.... chance. This is the root of several other words in our language...happen, happening, hapless, and yes, even haphazard! Happiness thus is described as a glad feeling that depends on something good happening. Happiness is an emotion that God wants us to experience, but to understand that we won’t always have that feeling. The Bible tells us that things will happen to us sometimes that will make us feel different emotions.
ECC 3 tells us in verse 1"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" it goes on to say in verse 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. As a matter of fact, Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming Christ in Chapter 53:3 calls Jesus "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief". But Jesus continually talks about joy, doesn’t He?
He mentions the word happy one time....JOHN 13:17If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them...and that is just after He has washed His disciples feet and given them an example. As a matter of fact, the word "happy" only appears 25 times in the Bible. The word "happiness" appears...guess how many times in KJV? NONE! Look it up! It shocked me! But the word joy? 187 times. Rejoice, or rejoiced? 240! God desires for you and I to have the joy of the Lord over the fleeting happiness (chance) of this world.
The happiness of this world is temporary. Have you ever been really happy about something only to have that emotion stolen away from you in an instant? JOHN 16:22And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. So Jesus was telling His disciples just the opposite of what we were just saying....you see, sorrow, like joy, is fleeting whenever you posses joy. Here’s another one..PSALMS 30:5 tells us that sorrow may last all night...but what comes in the morning? JOY! Joy is the foundation that supports all of our emotions and makes them "healthy" emotions.. including happiness and sorrow alike.
Look at how important it is to maintain your joy...GAL 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. We all know how important it is to love, but look what’s second only to love on this list....joy! It’s even in front of peace! These are fruits of the Spirit, and joy is a very important fruit! By you fruits you shall know them...
JOHN 15:1I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. How do we keep our joy full? He just told us! If you don’t feel that you have much joy, maybe you need to get closer to the vine and start bearing more "fruit"!
Here’s Webster’s definition of Joy..1 a: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : b: the expression or exhibition of such emotion.
Why are we so joyful? Well...mostly it’s because of gratitude! God saved us when we were most undeserving and gave us His promises! Aren’t you grateful for a loving God? 2 PETER 1:4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Somebody ought to be shouting up in here!
Here’s the Biblical formula for joy....Add to your life these ingredients...gratitude, humility, forgiveness, faith, hope, patience, and love (sound familiar?...fruits). Now take away these things...resentment, anger, fear,worry, greed, jealousy, pride, and complaining = JOY!
A lot of people think that "getting something" will make them happy. We say "if only I had this, then I would be happy....or I’d just be happy to have a little more to live on every month"....Have you ever really wanted something for a while, and then you got it? It made you happy initially, but after a while you realized that it wasn’t all you’d hoped it would be. That’s why you have to remain in joy! Happiness only lats for a season, remember?
To grow in joy we must resist our own self-pity and selfishness and our aptitude to become self-absorbed. You’ll never be joyful if you keep concentrating on what you don’t have rather than being thankful for what God has given you!
Now I want to talk about REJOICE. Here’s that definition..."to feel joy or great delight". When we are gathered here, we are rejoicing, or re-inforcing our joy for the Lord! COL 3:16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. And look what power rejoicing has....James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Sing songs! Praise Him when you DON’T feel like it! Smile whenever you’re NOT very happy! Make a choice to rejoice! If you will let your joy show and be full, you can learn to rejoice even in times of trial!
James tells us in chapter 1:2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
And if you are tired of non-believers picking on you because of your faith, Jesus said in MAT 5:11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.............
ROMANS 5:3.......we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. How did we rejoice in our sufferings? By the Holy Spirit of God, that’s how! That’s the "oil" of our joy.....it keeps it burning!
So...where are you at with your joy? What does your joy-meter show? Do you feel like the joy has been sucked out of your life? Does your joy show? Need some help with your joy? Let’s see how the disciples got it.....ACTS 13:52And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Ghost to have fill our joy...to help us have joy when we really don’t feel very joyful.....to keep Satan from stealing our joy from us.
While heads are bowed and eyes are closed this morning, I believe that God would have us examine ourselves....do we have the joy of the Lord in us? Without joy, our lives can be pretty miserable. PSALMS 16:11 tells us "in thy presence is fulness of joy". Jesus said in JOHN 16:24 ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Have you recieved the free gift of the Holy Ghost? Maybe you need to surrender it all to God and ask Him for that Godly joy that you once had...but now seems so long ago when you last felt the joy of Christ. The joy of the Lord is my strength...and can be yours, too!
If you want your joy restored to you, come this morning. God will meet you here and return what is rightly yours as a child of God....an inheritance that God has promised. Would you come and profess to Him this morning and say "God, I want my joy back....I have slowly over the years let Satan take it from me...but I’m asking you now to restore what was once mine...and give me your joy back!"
