BELIEVE 22: Joy
April 19, 2015
Well, I’m blowing up this balloon for a reason. In a moment, I’m going to ask Jeff to turn off the sound, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll get some of this hot air out of me, and will be too out of breath to preach too long! NOT!
Blow up balloon!
This balloon represents the joy in our lives. The bigger and bigger it gets, the more joy we have. But the real question is this really joy, or is it happiness masked as joy. Because eventually this balloon will burst . . . (POP balloon).
When that balloon bursts, will there be another one already in place, or will we lose our joy . . . ah, but remember it’s not joy you lost, it was happiness you lost.
I’ve said this before . . .
We need to remember there is a difference between joy and happiness. They are not the same. I am not happy when it is 100ยบ and 95% humidity and I need to cut the grass. That doesn’t make me happy. I lose my happiness when my coffee is no longer piping hot and my chocolate is gone. Happiness comes and goes. Happiness is dependent on our circumstances. Happiness doesn’t help us through the difficult times of life. We will always find moments of happiness during a tough time, but that happiness will not last.
Joy is totally different. True joy is a gift from God. Joy comes when we are aware of God’s grace and presence, when we know we’ve experienced God’s love and forgiveness in our lives. Joys comes when we have a relationship with God. It is available to every person who proclaims faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Think about the difference between joy and happiness.
Happiness is a state of mind. Joy is a mind-set / or you can say condition of your heart.
Happiness is temporary. Joy in the Lord is a constant.
Happiness is dependent on what’s happening now. Joy is not dependent on circumstances.
We can be joyful regardless of circumstances.
When I was a chaplain at a rehab hospital there was a patient named Beanie. That was really her name. She came in with an above the knee amputation. She had a great attitude about it. She was not grieving, she was thrilled to be alive. She was a faithful follower of Jesus. She always encouraged me and others when she spoke.
A couple of years later, I saw her name listed as a patient once again. Sure enough, she had her other leg amputated above the knee. I went in to see her and she smiled and first thing out of her mouth was “Oh, God is good!” WOE! You just had your second leg amputated!? She was still thrilled to be alive. Even though she would never walk again, she didn’t care. God was still good. Beanie had joy!
For every patient we had staff meetings. The therapists, myself, the doctors, social workers, and neuro-psychologists would meet to discuss the patient’s progress. During the meeting about Beanie, the neuro-psychologist said Beanie wasn’t handling her amputation very well. She was in denial. She should have been depressed, as she felt the negative effects of the amputation. I chimed in and said ‘she was fine. Her faith is what was leading her to feel upbeat and joyful.’
You see, joy is all about connection. Actually, each fruit of the Spirit is about connection. In John 15, listen to the words of Jesus . . .
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and 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 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I 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, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
You see, the connection point is the fact that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We must be connected to the source of life. That is Jesus, that is the vine. If we abide in Jesus, we will bear much fruit. That comes in many different ways. We will make a difference in a positive manner because of Jesus, plus we will have the various fruits of the Spirit at our disposal if we wish to accept them.
As Jesus said, if we don’t abide in Him, which means, we are dwelling, remaining, or connected to Him, then we are worthless. We are thrown into the fire. Isn’t that what you do with branches that are not growing. We take those dead branches and use them for bon-fires.
You see, when Jesus tells us he has said these things to us so that HIS joy may be in you and our joy would be full . . .
Do you see what He is getting at? There’s 2 central points here! And we can’t miss either one!!
Firstly, and we easily miss this because it’s so obvious. Actually, I’m not going to tell you, yet. You’ll figure it out. We try to find joy and happiness on our own terms. We try to fill ourselves in the best way possible . . . that we can think of.
The enemy knows we’re weak. That’s why he makes sin enticing. We think if we fulfill sinful desires we will finally be happy. So we buy too much on credit, thinking a new toy, car, electronic, jewelry, clothing, phone will make us really happy. We quickly learn it didn’t work. Now we have debt. We look for love outside of our marriages or relationships. We think a little excitement will make us happy, and we end up filled with guilt. We focus on pleasing ourselves instead of serving others. We are led by satan to make life all about us. He wants us to do anything outside God’s design for us so that we end up lost, like himself.
But God’s design for us is joy. So, the first point, you forgot already, didn’t you? The first point is that our joy doesn’t come from the world, but our joy comes from CHRIST! Look again, He said MY joy would be in you!! It’s His joy which fills us. Not the world’s joy, not my family’s joy, not even my joy. But it is always Christ’s joy which fills me!!
The second point is that Christ gives us His joy so that we may be completely filled with joy. The word filled literally means ~
to fill to the full / to cause to abound / fill to the brim
to furnish or supply liberally
to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting to full measure,
That my friends is the amount of joy we are supplied with. We receive so much that it is filled to the top of our JOY cup. Ever have someone give you a cup of something and it’s filled to the top! You have to bend over and not pick up the cup because you have so much in your cup. That’s the picture Jesus wants us to get from this.
Yet, it’s amazing when you look at some Christ followers isn’t it? Most of us look like we’ve been defeated. From the look on most of our faces we look pretty gloomy. Yet, we’re supposed to have joy. From the look on our faces you would think God is stern and angry and has commanded them to also be stern and angry. But God is a God of joy.
So, how do we remain or just find joy? Here’s a couple of thoughts . . .
Recognize God as joyful. That may sound really strange, but think about God, not as ready to smite you because you did wrong, but think of God celebrating loving you. Can you picture God with a smile on His face. That’s why I have an oil painting in my office which a friend did of Jesus smiling with a child.
Here’s a great passage to consider ~ In Zephaniah 3:17, the prophet Zephaniah tells us ~ 17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love;
He will exult over you with loud singing.
Isn’t that a great passage?! Listen in your heart and spirit how God feels about you — “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He takes great delight in you, He will quiet you by His love, and He will rejoice over you with joyful shouting.”
God delights in you and breaks out into song when He thinks about you! Isn’t that cool!! That may be difficult to believe. I love how the Living Bible paraphrases the last part of the verse:
Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord Himself exulting over you in happy song. Can we do that? Can we believe and picture God as a God who is joyful and joyfilled.
If we’re struggling with joy at this point in our lives, could it be that we are not even aware that joy is one of the great attributes of God. When we recognize God as joyful we will be even more drawn to Him. Because He is not an aloof judge waiting for us to mess up so He can punish us. He created us to be His delight. He sings over you.
Remember God’s attributes in worship. God delights in us and finds great joy in you and I. Think about this . . . when we celebrate His attributes in worship . . . our joy flows back to God. The Westminster Confession states ~ our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We’ve been designed to respond in worship through both reverence and rejoicing.
Our worship of God on Sundays should be the culmination of our individual worship during the week. We practice Spiritual Disciplines, like Bible Reading, prayer, fasting, worship, celebration, silence and more through out the week, as we seek God’s presence and joy in our lives. So, when we come to worship on Sunday, we should be ready to celebrate and rejoice with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not having glum faces and critical spirits.
When David focused on God’s character in Psalm 28, he couldn’t help but break out into joy. LSLIDEisten to verse 7: The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.
When you consider God’s Character, does your heart leap for joy?
The last thing we can do to help us experience the joy of the Lord is to ~
Release your problems to the Lord. It’s one of the great things we can do when we are hurting. We release our control and our problems to Christ. I would add to this that we seek Christian community. We seek others within the church who can help us when we are struggling. Even in the midst of pain and sorrow and troubles, we can still experience joy. We usually define happiness as the absence of something bad, such as pain, suffering, or disappointment. But Christian joy is our response, even in the midst of suffering.
This doesn’t mean we like what is happening to us or our loved ones, instead, we help to bring about healing, but we can still have joy.
In Acts 16, the authorities beat Paul and Silas. After they were severely beaten, they were thrown in prison. They were put in an inner cell and had their feet fastened in stocks. Acts 16:25 tells us their response — — 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
This word for praying is not the word used for making requests but rather the word used for praise, or worship. Instead of asking God to get them out, they turned this situation into an opportunity for rejoicing.
The bottom line is God’s call in our lives to abide in Him, as He will do for us.
Habakkuk was one of God’s prophets to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. He lived during a very tough time when the Babylonians were on the move and threatened to defeat Judah and destroy the city of Jerusalem. Habakkuk questioned why God would let something like this happen. God listened to and answered Habakkuk’s question. At the conclusion of his short book Habakkuk wrote these words.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord God is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places.
I think that says it all. Our joy is not based on the circumstances in our lives. We don’t rejoice in circumstances, we rejoice in the Lord God, our Savior.
