Genuine Joy
15 John 11
“These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full”
In a world that is shadowed with despair, disappointment, in a world that has grief all around; this world stands in need of some genuine joy. Genuine Joy, every human heart hungers for joy, but human kind constantly seeks happiness, everybody wants to be happy. If you listen to people they will tell you that all I want is to be happy. If that’s with you or without you, I just want to be happy. If it in a one-bedroom efficiency, I just want to be happy, if I only have just one suit and one pair of good shoes I just want to be happy.
What if I tell you that on God’s agenda, happiness is not at the top of the list. What if I tell you that God is more concerned about you having Joy that he is about you being happy. You see some of us don’t know the difference or know that there is a difference between Happiness and Joy. Well today we’re going to clear that right up.
Happiness is derived from the root word Hap which means to chance. Happiness deals with external circumstance, what’s going on around you, what is happening therefore happy or happiness is predicated on the happenings. And as we know things around us are sometimes favorable for us and sometimes not so favorable. Therefore the pursuit of happiness will have you on a constant emotional roller coaster, out of control. You have no idea what the next turn will bring but you do know what ever it is, it will change your world because you are is pursuit of happiness.
And if you are in pursuit of happiness, if you are not careful you will think that money will make you happy. See, we need to pay close attention this morning because many times we have put a dollar sign on happiness and you have to understand that although money is good, having mo-money (2) does not guarantee happiness. Now let me tell you why; I want you to turn your bible to Genesis Chapter 1:26.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth.”
Now you have to understand that God did not create you, He did not design you and I for things to ultimately satisfy us. God said let us have dominion over all the earth, that means everything. I want to tell you this morning, Make Money but don let money make you, don’t let things you have dominion over to define you. Amen. Things are all right. Praise God for things but things were never designed to bring about Joy, happiness or satisfaction. The reason for that is that there is always another level of things. I don’t care what you have, someone somewhere got something better than you have.
That new car that you just pulled off the lot and you stopped at the red light and you looking at it, you all outside polishing it, and somebody pulls right next to you with something better and all of a sudden, if you happiness is predicated in that car, then you have lost your happiness, because somebody got a better uhh huh, and somebody got a better house than you, somebody got mo-money than you. And you have to understand something about money, money is good money is fine, as a matter of fact, according to the word of God, money is amoral it is neither good nor bad so I misspoke it is neither good nor bad the Bible does not say that money is the root of all evil, but 1 Timothy 6:10 says that “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Money is all right it is how we obtain it, which comes into question. And what we do to get it and how many people we have to step on to get it.
You would be surprised to find out how many people some people step on just to get a three dollar raise. You be surprised how many folk people step on and lie on and get with the boss and talk about and talk down so that the boss will look favorable to them instead of the next person. Oh no you need to learn a biblical principle that promotion comes from God. Promotion does not come from you kiniving and back biting.
You get there by hook and crook and then guess what you won’t have any security, because you know that God did not put you there. And the same thing you did to that person to get there, somebody plotting on you. You got to understand what goes around… We also have to understand that money is alright, but there is something’s that money cant buy.
· Money can buy medicine, round the clock care a long stay in the hospital, but it cant buy health.
· Money can buy a watch, but money cant buy time.
· Money can buy a diamond but it cant buy love.
· Money can buy a house, but it can’t buy a home.
Understand the limitations of money this morning. Your foundation cannot be built upon something that has limitations because it will fail. Amen
Realize single people that you have to be whole and you have to be complete you need genuine Joy in our life before you get involved with somebody else. Because once you start telling people YOU make me happy, you are giving that person too much power over your life. When you tell an individual You make me happy that person says what?, I make you happy? And you say; when you call me, You make me happy, when I see you, you make me happy, well you’re giving that person a little too much power over your life because if something goes down that’s not in their favor, they will start thinking; oh if I don’t call, I can mess up their happiness. If I don’t come by I can mess up their happiness. Have you looking at your beeper, putting it up on the shelf looking at it, you go to the phone and beep yourself just to see if its working because he or she aint called you yet. You take your cellular phone and call yourself at the house to see if something is wrong with your phone because they haven’t called you yet. What you ought to tell them up front is that I already have Joy and a level of happiness and if you get involved with me, you could possible add to my happiness, but if you decide to leave, I still got Joy.
Because Joy goes deeper than happiness. Joy goes down in your heart; Joy goes down in your spirit. Cause there are times I aint happy but I got joy. I got some joy because of what happened to me when I got saved. I stopped trying to find my joy in people. My joy is not in people. People are just like circumstances, changing all the time. People will let you down, they cant help it they wont even be trying to but they will disappoint you. They will have you running around talking about I don’t believe she said that, believe it she said it. Why did you expect her not to say it? You can’t let people be the source of your Joy; you can’t let places be the source of your joy. You can’t let possessions be the source of your joy. You can’t let position be the source of you Joy. Because as the Bible says in Matthew 6:19 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt.”
But do what “lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.” the genuine Joy that I am talking about this morning is Jesus,. Jesus is the source of a deep inward satisfying Joy. Don’t tell me that you can’t have joy if you are saved because the Holy Spirit of God now indwells you and he produces love and He also produces Joy.
You know what I have discovered, is that people ignore Jesus; a lot of people ignore Jesus because of our false distorted presentation of Jesus. Somebody lied to us and told us that sanctification is translated to mean twisted face, looking mean, looking ugly and somber. No pep in you step, no glide in your stride no dip in your hip, just looking homely and you trying to tell somebody that that is Jesus Joy, aint smiled in 15 years and telling someone that you have Joy down in your soul.
To holy to laugh. I don’t understand it, you have the Spirit of God with you and one of the graces that he produces in our lives is that of Joy. Jesus was not gloomy. Jesus new the fullness of Joy. Our Lord repeatedly spoke of Joy. Turn to John 15:11 these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full”.
Jesus experienced fullness of Joy. And the good part about this is He also desired His followers to not only experience the fullness of Joy. But His desire was that His Joy would remain in them. His desire is also for that joy to reside in you and I. Now look at the word remain. Now Jesus knew and He told His disciples that He would be leaving, and they could not go, but Jesus said I want you to be as joyous when I’m gone as you are now that I’m here. So what is this saying to us? Let me make it plain. Jesus is saying it is easy to be joyous and praise and worship in church among other saved people. With the music and the Choir and the preaching. But I want the joy to remain in you:
· After the benediction
· After the choir sings the last song
· After the preacher says amen
· On Monday at your Job keep my Joy
· When the bills are due will you keep my Joy
· When you are facing insurmountable trials and tribulation will you have Joy
· When you are being persecuted will you have Joy
· When your being lied on will you have Joy
· When the world is against you will you keep my Joy
· In a crowd of unsaved people will they see your Joy
· When you body is racked with pain will you still have joy
· When sickness has invaded your body will you have joy
Jesus said I want my joy to remain in you no matter what your going through because the Joy that I have given unto you is the foundation that has no limitations, it wont fail, so put your trust in me and keep my joy with you, in you and your joy will be full. Not just an ounce of Joy this is full joy. He did not say anything about happiness. Because your surroundings or your circumstances aren’t always going to be happy. You are going to have to deal with some enemies, that aint no happy situation.
God’s people even in the early church, they rejoiced because God’s mighty work was within them they rejoiced as God saved other people. I don’t know about you but my heart wells up and I come to tears when the Lord saves another soul.
God’s people in the early church rejoiced even in the midst of persecution. As a matter of fact the book of Philippians is a book of Joy, Paul encouraged the church at Philippi to rejoice in the Lord. And he gets to Philippians 4:4 and he repeats his words of encouragement, when he says, “rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” Just rejoice, you might say but I don’t feel like it, it has nothing to do with how you feel. Has absolutely nothing to do with how you feel. We are confusing Joy with happiness again, joy has nothing to do with how your body feels. Praise that Lord. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Go here for a minute with me this morning. What we have done to Christianity and all of us might be guilty; we have presented a Christ who always seems to be sad. I know that Isaiah 53:3 says that He is man of sorrows acquainted with grief, but read it in its context. This is in reference to when Christ was dying for our sins. He was not a man of sorrows Himself, He took my sorrows, He took my grief. Just like He was not a sinner, but He took my sins. He took my sorrow, I’m the one with too much sorrow, too much grief, but He took my sorrow and my grief but He Himself was not sorrowful. He did not walk around with a twisted face like some of us think sanctification looks.
No one wants to be a part of a church, or a family where everybody’s walking around looking sad. Come to Sunday morning service where there should be Joy and rejoicing, praise and worship and its like you are attending a funeral without the casket. Since I become saved, this is what I have noticed; saved people allow unsaved people to dictate how they express their joy. Let me explain, I have so many times heard this, “how can you be having that much fun and your saved, you cant be having fun if you’re saved,” what are your doing dancing, what are you doing joking.” As though you can’t laugh and joke if you are saved. Saints why do we let the unsaved muffle the Joy that God has given us. And furthermore, saved people have reason to rejoice and laugh and joke and dance because of the joy of our salvation, because of eternal life, because we have the victory made possible through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I’m going to keep on dancing, laughing, joking, singing all that the Lord allows me to. The unsaved will not dictate how I express my Joy, only God will.
Another thing, Joy is contagious. The unsaved should be able to see your joy and say hey, I want some of that, where can I find that, that is what I have been looking for, take me to the place where I too can experience the joy that you are showing me. That is the Joy that Jesus showed, and that is the Joy that he wanted to remain with his disciples and that’s the same Joy He wants to remain with us.
Let me elaborate on why we have this distorted view of Jesus. Because there are artists who paint their depiction of Christ, but they always paint Him in His agony. I have never seen a painting of Christ smiling. They always paint Him on His way to Calvary. They paint Him while He’s on Calvary, with blood streaming down form His body. But He was not always that way. That was one isolated event and even on His way to Calvary, Now this verse just blew my mind, turn to the book of Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross,” the scripture tells us that our Lord endured the cross because of the Joy that was set before Him. Even the cross could not take away Jesus’ Joy. So you might wonder where did Jesus find joy on the cross. His Joy came from the fact that by enduring the cross, He redeemed creation through doing His father’s will.
Look at what Jesus is teaching us. Even though His circumstances meant agony and eventually death, Jesus still had Joy because He was doing His Father’s will. Genuine Joy can not be stolen by circumstance. We let somebody talking about is steal our joy, bill situation staling your joy, aches and pains in your body stealing your joy.
But Jesus said not even the face of death should steal the Joy that I’m leaving for you. Because in John 11:25 Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life and he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live.” So not even death should steal you joy.
Another point, In James 1:2, when James says count it all Joy when you fall into divers temptation, he is not saying be happy about being in trouble. What he is saying is that you have to have enough faith to look on the outside of the situation. You got to have enough faith to say that I am in trouble now, but I know I’m not going to always be in this trouble so I’m going to rejoice now because I know that I’m coming out of this trouble. Some of us got to learn how to shout in advance. Many of us don’t want to shout in advance.
Anybody can shout when you get the raise, I dare you to shout before you get it. Sometimes that’s why we don’t understand each other because we see some Christians going through and you know they are really going through. But they’re still in church and they’re still praising and worshiping and they are still giving it all to God because they got this mind set that I aint going through this forever.
This too shall pass, so I might as well get my shout in now. I may as well rejoice now because I know that I’m coming out this mess, I don’t care what your going through Child of God and we know that all things work together for good to them who love God to those that are called according to his purpose. If you believe that then that a reason to rejoice right there. That’s is why sometimes I just cut up anyway.
That’s why you may see me up in the balcony dancing, yelling praises to the Lord, because I’m not going to try to bridle God’s joy, I’m not going to act the way someone else thinks I should act, I’m going to act the way The Holy Spirit shows and moves me to act, I refuse to be a victim or be driven by circumstance.
Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for though art with me. Now some of you have been in the valley so long that you have pitched a tent. You’ve been down so long that getting up has not even crossed your mind. I’m here to tell you that I’m not going for that. I’m not settling for that, this too shall come to pass and it came to pass. I wish I had some help in here.
Oh yeah, I get in the valley sometimes but I’m going through the valley and because of the joy of my salvation, I will not be afraid and I will not run because by the light of Jesus I am lead and I coming out of the valley. You tell the valleys in you life take a good look at me because I wont be here long, I’m just passing through,
“Weeping may endure for a might, but Joy, I said Joy cometh in the morning.
Some of us also think that salvation and sanctification means isolation. “Child I don’t go no where”, I’m saved, I’m Holy, I go to work because I need somewhere to live, I go to church, but other than that. Saints, the Bible says you are the light of the world. Now if the world is dark, how is the world ever going to get some light if you just stay home? That’s not the purpose of the light of the world. Darkness does not overcome light, every time light shows up darkness dissipates. When light show up darkness scatters.
Some of us believe that darkness is more powerful than light, that’s why when we see a saved person talking to an unsaved person their first thought is he better not hang around him because that unsaved person may drag him into his ways.
Why couldn’t it be the other way around? Why couldn’t it be that if he keeps talking to that unsaved person, something may be said to draw that unsaved person to Christ. Light is more powerful than darkness and the devil is a liar. I thank God that saved folks talk to unsaved folks because if they didn’t I would have never been in a position to receive Joy. The Lord wants you to go into the highways and the hedges and let them see the Joy that the Lord has given you so that they will be compelled unto Him. Let them see you going through the valley. Tell them that I know misery loves company but you are going to have to find another guest at your party because God is seeing me through.
You can learn a lot about the Joy that Jesus displayed even from the way His enemies described Him. Turn with me to the book of Luke 7:34. “Behold the Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, behold a gluttonous man, and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
They called Jesus a winebibber or a person who frequently drinks alcoholic beverages. Now why did they call Him that? Jesus was not a winebibber So why? The reason they called Him that was because He had such a free uninhibited Jovial Spirit that they assumed that he must be under the influence of some type of alcohol. Have you ever seen someone having a good time and your first reaction, was they on something. They got to be on something.
Listen, You start operating under the genuine Joy that God gives you, you start rejoicing in the bad times, in the sad times as well as the good times people around you are going to start asking “what did you take this morning.” What have you been snorting, sniffing or smoking, because they are not use to seeing the Genuine Joy of Jesus working through someone.
You should tell them “that may have been the case in my life at one time” but praise God that
I am now only under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
And I’m hooked on Jesus I’m strung out on the Lord.
This Joy is not in a bottle, not in a dollar, not in a drug
this joy is not even in a woman or man but this Joy,
I said this Joy is in Jesus. And God desires joy for you. No one wants to be a part of something that does not produce Joy. Even when Jesus made His entrance into the word, It was the angels who stood up and said
Shepard’s Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, I said good tidings of great Joy which shall be to all people,
Joy to the world, Joy to the World for the Lord has come,
and He has come so that you may have joy and have it more abundantly.
All you have to do is look over your life, and see how good God has been to you,
Look how far He has brought you
and look where the Lord is taking you
and you cant help but have Joy.
All you have to do is look back over you life,
you had some scrapes, you had some dangerous times,
the devil tried to take you out,
But God had a plan for my life,
God said Satin, let my child go, I have work for him to do.
And I said thank you Lord for sparing my life.
Thank you for your grace, thank you for your mercy.
But first Lord I am compelled to confess. For I acknowledge my sin,
my sin is ever before the against thee, thee only have I sinned,
done evil in thy sight but Lord wash me, wash me, purge me,
Create in me a clean heart, renew within me a right spirit
Lord, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Fill me up Lord, fill me up,
till my cup runneth over. Thank you Lord for your Joy that makes me complete.
I will stay on the battlefield, laboring for the Lord
because that is the source of my Joy, doing my father’s will.
I will continue to do my Father’s will as long as I have breath
until that day when my Lord says; Well done thou good and faithful servant,
enter into the joy of the Lord.
Do you understand what genuine Joy is this morning,
Do you understand what Jesus Joy is this morning,
do you understand what the joy of your salvation is this morning
then you ought to say thank you, Lord I thank you.
Lord I’m gonna shout your name
Lord I’m gonna praise your name
Lord I’m gonna Dance for ya
Lord I’m gonna Smile for ya
Lord I say thank you
For the precious gift of Joy
That you’ve given unto me
I will not let anything of this world
Steal it away
I’m going to protect my Joy
Keep it safe in my heart
And Lord You told me
That you would fill my cup with Joy
Until in runs over
That I would not have room receive it
So Lord, I have discovered
That The best way to protect my joy
Is to make sure
That everyone around me
Gets some of the Joy
That’s running out of my cup
I don’t have room for it all
My cup is full
So let me share my Joy with you
For everyone around me
The buffet is open
Joy for everyone, in the name of Jesus, In the name of Jesus
Amen, Amen and praise God.
Minister Cedric Portis
Email: cedque8@cs.com
