Let me ask you a question: Do you have joy in your life? Specifically, does your life as a Christian give you joy? And whether your answer is yes or no, does it really matter? In other words, is joy something that we should expect as followers of Christ? Is it something we need? Or is joy a nice-to-have, a bonus, something that we welcome, if and when it comes, but which isn’t truly essential? I’m asking because I believe it is possible to live what most would consider an exemplary Christian life: for example, attending church faithfully, serving on committees, giving generously, following a high moral code, and doing all the other things that we generally associate with being a good Christian—and yet be lacking in joy. But just because it’s possible doesn’t mean that we should view it as normal or desirable. The author, Henry David Thoreau wrote that,
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”
And I think that many Christians are, if not desperate, then at least resigned, to a Christian life that is dutiful and obedient, even fulfilling in many ways, but which is missing this core element of joy. And they have come to believe that this is normal. But it isn’t normal. It isn’t what God desires for his children. God desires that we not only experience joy, but that we desire it, and hope for it, and seek after it. And this morning, I’m going to make the case for why we should do that, and why joy matters, a great deal, to the followers of Christ.
We’ll look at three things: first, what joy is and isn’t, because part of problem is that people don’t fully understand the Biblical concept of joy. Second, we’ll examine what we can do to foster and promote joy, in our own life and in the life of our church. And third, we’ll consider why joy matters, why it is truly powerful and not just a pleasant by-product of a godly life.
Let’s start with what joy is not. Joy is not the same as happiness, because joy is not a function of our circumstances. Unlike happiness, joy does not depend on whether good or bad things are happening to us. Our emotions change, from one day to the next and sometimes even from one minute to the next. If the sun is shining, and we had a good night’s sleep, and we got a raise at work, then we are happy. On the other hand, if it’s a cloudy day, or we have a headache, or the boss chewed us out, then we might feel unhappy. Or at least a little grumpy. But joy is not like that. You can feel good physically and have joy. You can also be suffering physically and have joy. You can have joy in the midst of happy, positive circumstances. And you can have joy in the midst of unpleasant and difficult circumstances. In other words, no matter what you are experiencing right now, whether your life is easy or difficult, pleasant or painful, you can still have joy.
You might be skeptical, so let me read this from First Peter,
“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Peter 1:3-6)
We’ll come back to this passage. But for now, just note that the Christians to whom Peter was writing were having a difficult time of it. In verse six, we see that they “had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials”. They were not merely experiencing minor inconveniences, or occasional challenges. No, they had been struggling with many different types of hardships, over a long period of time. They were being persecuted because of their faith. And as a result, they were grieving. They were suffering.
Let me paint you a picture of what their lives had become. They were losing jobs and becoming impoverished. Men who had been responsible, diligent workers were suddenly unable to provide for their family’s needs. They were being physically assaulted and beaten, with the authorities doing nothing to help them, or worse, even participating in the assault. They were being arrested and thrown in jail, even though they had done nothing wrong. Their possessions were being taken from them by the government. Things that they needed for daily life were being confiscated. They were being shunned by their former friends, and rejected even by their families. And on and on. Later in this letter, Peter refers to this as a “fiery ordeal”. It was intense. It was brutal. And yet, despite everything, they still were able, not only to persevere in faith, but to rejoice. And not only to rejoice, but to “greatly” rejoice. Because their joy was not dependent on their circumstances. And so, throughout all of this, their joy was not diminished.
Here's a modern example of joy in the midst of suffering. You may have heard of a man named Paul Alexander. Paul contracted polio in 1952, at the age of six. As a result of that terrible disease, he became paralyzed from the neck down and was unable to breathe. And so he was treated with an “iron lung”, a medical device that was commonly used at the time. It was basically an 8-foot long horizontal metal tube, about three feet in diameter, and the patient was placed inside it, with only their head emerging. The iron lung enabled the patient to breathe by alternately increasing and decreasing the air pressure inside the tube, causing the lungs to inflate and deflate. And although no one could have known it at the time, that iron lung was to be Paul’s home for the next 72 years, until his death in 2024.
Now, to most people, this would seem like a terrible fate, to be confined to a kind of prison cell whose total volume was only 56 cubic feet, smaller than your typical coat closet. What we immediately think of is all of the things that Paul could not do. After the age of six, when he fell ill with polio, he never again walked, or ran or played sports with other children. As he grew older, he never married, or had children of his own. He never drove a car. He never owned a home. Most of the normal daily activities that make up our lives were denied him. He never had the simple pleasure, for example, of coming home from a long day at work, having dinner with his family, and then relaxing in his easy chair and watching “Happy Days” or “The Carol Burnett Show” on television.
But here’s the surprising thing: Paul’s life was not defined by these limitations. In interviews, he talked about living fully "in his mind, his heart, and the life he created," rather than being restricted by the machine. Paul graduated with honors from high school, and then attended college by moving his iron lung into a dorm room. He then went on to earn a law degree, passed the bar exam, and practiced as an attorney for years. He became a published author, spending more than eight years writing the story of his life by using a plastic stick and a pen to tap out the words on a keyboard. He even had a TikTok account where he shared his experiences online. Just incredible.
But what is perhaps more amazing than these accomplishments is that throughout his life, despite all of the things he suffered, he maintained an upbeat, positive attitude. He was described by his friends and family as having a “vibrant and joyful energy” that was contagious. He talked about finding joy in simple things and having a purpose. He made it his goal to live fully, saying "I wanted to accomplish the things I was told I couldn't accomplish and to achieve the dreams I dreamed." People noted his love of laughter and said that he had a heart full of love and gratitude. And he talked about this being a conscious choice, rooted in his strong faith in God. He emphasized that God had a plan for his life, and he had a cross with John 3:16 attached to the outside of his iron lung to testify to others of his faith. He talked about his parent’s love and care for him as a tangible reminder of God’s love. For most of us, I think that all the things he accomplished, and the fact that he did it with a joyful, positive attitude, would seem to be beyond human ability, even something supernatural. And in fact it was. Because it was enabled by the Holy Spirit.
Paul Alexander’s inspiring case is an extreme example, of course. But it illustrates the principle that having joy is not dependent on having pleasant circumstances. Which is encouraging, because our circumstances are sometimes far from easy or pleasant. And yet we can have joy, regardless.
Here is something else that joy is not: it is not naïve. Joy does not ignore the reality of pain and suffering; it does not pretend that everything is fine when in fact it is not fine.
I’m going to give you an example from the Psalms. And by the way, if you aren’t familiar with the Psalms, I urge you to read them. There are 150 Psalms; If you read one a day and break up the longer ones into multiple days, you can read through all of them in a year. It would be well worth your time. Because the Psalms are real. They don’t sugar-coat life. They deal with themes of sorrow and despair; feelings of being hunted and surrounded by enemies. They talk about physical affliction and suffering. They deal with guilt and sin, and depression. And yet they always come back to joy, and hope and faith in God.
Here's Psalm 13, a Psalm of David:
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Does any of that resonate with you? This Psalm is a great illustration of the fact that joy does not require us to live in some kind of fantasy world where everything is wonderful. Because David is crying out that God feels far from him, as if he had hidden his face. David talks about having sorrow, and wrestling with painful thoughts. He is looking for answers from God, and not finding them. He is fearful of his enemies. And yet, he trusts in God’s love and he rejoices in his salvation. And like David, we can also rejoice at times like that—when external events are dark and threatening, and when our own internal mental state is unsettled and chaotic: when we are depressed, or anxious, or fearful, or sad. Because joy is more powerful even than our own negative emotions.
Paul also writes about his experience of joy despite trials, in 2 Corinthians chapter six:
“4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; . . . 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
Paul is being brutally honest here, holding nothing back. What had he experienced? Hardships. Distresses. Beatings. Imprisonments. Sleepless nights. Hunger, dishonor, sorrow, poverty. The life of an apostle doesn’t sound very glamorous, does it? And yet, after listing all the trials that he and the other apostles had suffered, Paul concludes with this: (verse 10) “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”. Not occasionally rejoicing, but “always” rejoicing. Not just rejoicing once their trials had passed, but “always”, even in the midst of their sorrows, in the midst of their suffering. And likewise, we can have that same joy, no matter what our circumstances may be, and no matter how we are feeling emotionally.
I’ll give you one more thing that joy is not. Joy is not excitement, or enthusiasm, or exhilaration. Those are fine, but they tend to be short-lived. Joy is something more lasting and fundamental. Here’s a definition:
“Christian joy is a deep and abiding gladness which comes from valuing the things of God over the things of this world.”
Let’s unpack that.
• First, “joy is a deep and abiding gladness.” In other words, joy isn’t something fleeting, something that comes and goes depending on our circumstances. It is lasting, and it penetrates deeply into our soul.
• Second, joy “comes from valuing the things of God over the things of this world”. Can the things of this world give us joy? Yes, temporarily. The problem is that they don’t last. Pleasures, achievements, possessions, experiences—all of these can give us a feeling of joy for a time. But eventually, that kind of joy fades. The joy that comes from God, on the other hand, is eternal. That is why Paul instructs us to think differently about what matters:
“. . . set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Colossians 3:1-2)
In order to have joy, we need to value the things of God; we need to set our hearts and minds on things above. Now, does that mean that we neglect the affairs of daily life? Not at all. We need to go to work, and do the dishes, and pay our bills, and go to the doctor, and take care of children. And the book of Ecclesiastes (9:10) tells us that we should do those things with diligence and intention, with all our strength. So Paul isn’t saying that we should give less than our full effort to whatever may be our calling in this world. But even as we do all of those things, we have to keep in mind that this life is not all there is, that our true identity is bound up with Christ, and that our future will be far greater than anything we experience here below. Because that’s where joy comes from.
So how do we do that? How do we set our hearts and our minds on things above? Because the default is for us to do the opposite, to set our hearts and minds on earthly things, on everything around us. How do we redirect our desires and our thoughts to the things of God? In previous weeks, we’ve looked at the importance of maintaining regular daily habits of Bible reading and prayer. Even if we read only a paragraph, when we open the Bible and read it, we are inviting the Spirit of God to redirect our thoughts to Christ. And even if we pray for only a minute or two, we are opening our heart to God. And those intentional acts of devotion, even if they are brief, serve a very important purpose: they wake us up. They open our eyes. They shatter the illusion that this world—the world that we can see, and hear, and feel—is all that there is. They turn our focus and our gaze to things above, and turn our focus away from this world, which is constantly trying to force us into its mold. They remind us that we have a purpose and a destiny that is eternal.
And in fact, anything we do which has as its goal drawing closer to God can help us do this. So, for example, coming to worship on Sunday morning, and actively engaging by paying attention to the words of the hymns, and listening to the sermon, and encouraging one another during the fellowship time—even putting our offering in the offering plate, if we do that as an act of worship—those activities all turn our hearts toward heaven. And conversely, if days pass with no Bible reading or prayer, and if weeks go by between Sundays in church, then the world around us will be clouding our vision, and dulling our hearing, and making us insensitive to spiritual things. The simple truth is that we are forgetful people. We need to be reminded. There’s a reason why God established the week as seven days, instead of ten or twelve. Seven days between times of worship. Why? Because that’s about how long it takes before our hearts and our minds to start to drift away from God, and need to be reoriented toward Him.
All right. I like to give you something practical that you can do to apply what you hear on Sunday morning. So here’s an idea. When you read the Bible, take notes. It’s very simple. Get a notebook—I bought this one at the Dollar store—and keep it with your Bible. And whenever you read your Bible, when you come across something that seems important, or meaningful, or interesting, make a note. That’s all. Just write down a note about what you found. It doesn’t need to be an essay. Just a note, or a question. It doesn’t seem like much. But that practice, of taking notes when you read the Bible, will make you a more attentive reader. It will cause you to think more deeply about what you are reading. It will help you to focus. And again, if you do it regularly, it will transform your understanding of Scripture.
This is very simple. In order to value the things of God; in order to cherish and prize the blessings and the promises that are our birthright as children of God, we first have to know what those blessings and promises are. That’s why God gave us the Bible. To reveal himself to us, and to reveal to us what he has given us in Christ. Because otherwise, we wouldn’t know. We couldn’t know. Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The treasures which God has prepared for us, both in this world and the next, are things which we cannot know of, or understand, with our worldly, human, mind and senses. No matter how clever or insightful we may be, no matter how wise or understanding we are, we cannot know what God has given us, and what he will give us in Christ, apart from revelation. And therefore, we cannot treasure and value God’s gifts unless we are reading the book in which He reveals them to us; his Word, the Bible. That’s how the Holy Spirit enlightens us. By enabling us to understand what the Bible is saying to each one of us.
Now, reading and studying the Bible helps us to understand what God has given us, as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes (1 Corinthians 2:12). It helps us to set our minds on things above. But in order to set our hearts on things above as well, we need to act. Here’s the key: Jesus said that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). The way we usually think of it is that when someone values the things of God, then they will invest more of themselves and what they have in His work. That’s true. But Jesus tells us that it also works in the other direction: that the more we give of ourselves and of what we have to God, the more we will end up valuing the things of God. And so when we take the things of this life that we treasure—our time, and our energy, and our possessions—and we invest them in the things of God, then our hearts will follow our investment. And setting our hearts on things above helps to bring us joy. Now, there’s more to be said about what our giving of ourselves and our substance needs to look like in order to gain the full spiritual benefit of it, and I’ll do that soon in another sermon. But for now, just know that we should give only what we can give cheerfully, rather than grudgingly or under compulsion. The implications of that principle I will save for a sermon on giving and serving. So stay tuned.
All right. Third point. Does all this really matter? Does joy have real power? Let me give you an illustration from modern life. When you watch a commercial on television, whether they are selling cars, or laundry detergent, or soda pop, what are they really selling? From a logical perspective, if you were selling laundry detergent based on its function, you might show the results of scientific studies which compared the amount of dirt and grime that your product removed to the performance of its competitors. And I do remember seeing ads like that twenty or thirty years ago. But now, the marketers have gotten more sophisticated, and they’ve realized that what really sells is not scientific evidence, but what? Joy! Joy is much more powerful than mere data. And so they show people singing, and dancing, and exulting in the joy of having clean clothes. Let me ask you: have you ever burst into song, or danced a little jig, when pulling clothes out of the dryer? Probably not. If so, I really do want to use whatever laundry detergent you’re using. No, most people don’t rejoice over their laundry. But if you believe the commercials, using Downy detergent will give you joy. Because the marketers understand the power of joy as a motivator.
More importantly, we see this principle in the life of Christ. Listen to Hebrews 12:1-3:
“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)
What was Jesus’ motivation in going to the cross? What was it that gave him the strength to endure God’s wrath for sin, the power to willingly give himself up as a sacrifice, in order to pay the penalty for all our evil and wickedness? It was joy. Verse 2: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” Jesus paid a terrible price to pay for our sins. His suffering was far greater than the physical torture of crucifixion. Isaiah 53:4-6 describes it in this way:
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
God laid on Jesus the iniquity—the sins, the wickedness, the evil, the moral corruption—of every one of us. Jesus bore the guilt and shame of every one of God’s people, and he suffered God’s wrath for every one of their sins. And the knowledge of what was coming, of what he would have to bear, was so terrible, so agonizing, that Jesus pleaded with his Father, three times in the garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” But his Father did not. And so Jesus went to the cross. What was it that enabled Jesus to submit to the will of the Father and endure all of that? Again, it was joy. The “joy set before him”, the promise of all the blessings that would flow from his obedience and sacrifice. Fixing his thoughts on that joy to come enabled Jesus to endure the physical and emotional torment necessary to pay the penalty for our sins. And in the same way, we need joy in our lives, and we need to fix our minds on the joys to come, in order to persevere in faith, and to bear up under whatever trials and suffering we may endure in this life.
Let’s close where we began, with the passage from 1 Peter:
“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Peter 1:3-6)
What has God given us in Christ, through his resurrection from the dead? A new birth,
a living hope, and an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. And protection by the power of God. May we set our hearts and our minds on these things, so that we can have this same joy in our hearts, so that we also can rejoice “greatly”, as they did. Amen.
