Joe Bedy
Central Christian Church
January 22 2002
The Spiritual Life Part 5 (Joy)
Who can define JOY for us tonight?
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
We have talked about the Spirit led life as the way to worship God in His Spirit and in truth, with our spirit reflecting attitudes and behaviors that would bring Him honor and glory.
Joy is a whole lot different than happiness Oswald Chambers said “Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not.”
Having the fruits of the Spirit i.e. of the Holy Spirit capital “P” Pneuma means our pneuma our spirit has the attitudes that reflects Christ who lives in us to other people. As a matter of fact Paul points to this in verse 24, immediately following his description of the spiritual fruit we should bear.
He says: “Gal 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
You see Christians are “little Christs” they bury the old self in the grave of baptism and live a new life immersed in Christ, that acts like Christ would act.
For Christ to shine through us through spiritual fruit, when our trees are rattled, we must have died to ourselves. Crucified and murdered what we want or refusing to battle for what we think we deserve.
I tried to find people who had learned this secret of crucifying self and living for God and other in my research for this message. As you listen see how you compare in your life. Here is what just a few of them had to say about joy:
6528 Happiness is a feeling. Joy is an attitude. A posture. A position. A place.
TIM HANSEL
6529 Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about. The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.
DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY (1837–1899)
6532 I have no understanding of a long-faced Christian. If God is anything, he must be joy.
JOE E. BROWN (1892–1973)
6534 If you have no joy in your religion, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.
BILLY SUNDAY (1862–1935)
6537 Joy is a positive thing: in joy one does not only feel secure, but something goes out from oneself to the universe, a warm, positive effluence of love.
RICHARD HOOKER (1554–1600)
6538 Joy is distinctly a Christian word and a Christian thing. It is the reverse of happiness. Happiness is the result of what happens of an agreeable sort. Joy has its springs deep down inside. And that spring never runs dry, no matter what happens. Only Jesus gives that joy. He had joy, singing its music within, even under the shadow of the cross.
SAMUEL DICKEY GORDON (1859–1936)
6541 Joy is not in things; it is in us.
RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883)
6544 Joy is that deep settled confidence that God is in control in every area of my life.
PAUL SAILHAMER
6545 Joy is the echo of God’s life within us.
JOSEPH COLUMBA MARMION (1858–1923)
6548 Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.
LÉON HENRI MARIE BLOY (1846–1917)
6549 Joy is the serious business of heaven.
C. S. LEWIS (1898–1963)
6552 Man cannot find true essential joy anywhere but in his relationship to God.
OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874–1917)
6560 The joy of the heart colors the face.
6561 The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807–1892)
6564 The word joy is too great and grand to be confused with the superficial things we call happiness.
KIRBY PAGE (1890–1957)
6566 This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for our own way, but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God’s way, acquiesce in his will, and in so doing find our peace.
EVELYN UNDERHILL (1875–1941)
6567 Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
SIR JAMES M. BARRIE (1860–1937)
6568 True joy is not a thing of moods, not a capricious emotion, tied to fluctuating experiences. It is a state and condition of the soul. It survives through pain and sorrow and, like a subterranean spring, waters the whole life. It is intimately allied and bound up with love and goodness, and so is deeply rooted in the life of God.
RUFUS MATTHEW JONES (1863–1948)
6571 You and I were created for joy, and if we miss it, we miss the reason for our existence. . . . If our joy is honest joy, it must somehow be congruous with human tragedy. This is the test of joy’s integrity: is it compatible with pain? . . . Only the heart that hurts has a right to joy.
LEWIS B. SMEDES
ANYTHING LESS THAN JOY IS TRULY INCOMPATIBLE FOR THE CHRISTIAN.
ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN WHAT I MEAN – I AM NOT SAYING THAT THERE WILL NOT BE TIMES WHEN WE BECOME-ANGRY OR SADDENED, TIMES OF GRIEF OR DISCONTENTMENT WITH AN EVENT IN OUR LIFE, BUT FOR THE CHRISTIAN IT SHOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE THE OVERWHELMING JOY FROM GOD’S RICHES FLOODS INTO OUR LIVES AND THE CURRENT WORLDLY ATTITUDES ARE WASHED AWAY LIKE THE CHANGE OF A TIDE.
THERE SHOULD NOT BE CONTINUALLY GRUMPY COMPLAINING CHRISTIANS.
Grumpy Christian. To me that seems like an oxymoron on the same level as “jumbo shrimp,” or “plastic glass,” or “congressional budget cuts.”
We all like being around people who are generally upbeat, don’t we?
I mean, if you had your choice of being with someone who had a smile or someone who looked like he was weaned on sour lemons, whom would you most likely choose?
That is why we must follow the Spirit and have a joyful life. After all what person would want Christ, if our attitude was continually grumpy and prune faced. I would not want any part of that Jesus. I particularly do not care to be around sour faced people who have no joy! Do you?
If I was a heathen, I would say “hey if that is what your Jesus has done for you pal, well you keep him, I can have a whole lot more happiness at the bar or with the folks at Ybor city.” Even my lifestyle that controls me brings me more happiness apparently than this Jesus brings to you!
Wendy’s has the Beef, but Christians where is the fruit?
We are called to bear fruit.
Bear good fruit or get cut down and thrown in the fire.
Christians we are called to be fruit bearers, have you heard the Word, do you understand it?
Jesus said in:
Mat 13:23 "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."
If we have heard the word and do not refuse to understand it then…
We have a responsibility to change our pneuma( our attitude to one of joyfulness) and not maintain an attitude that is any less any longer.
Joy has God as its object and its source.
If you can focus on Him, then it is easy to have joy in Him.
Listen to Psalm 28:7-
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
Just taking the time to think of all He has done for you in securing your salvation and in offering you a full and abundant life will go a long way to experiencing that joy.
Take some time to look over His wonderful promises in Scripture given so that you and I who don’t deserve it can live lives in close relationship with Him.
He has gone above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak, to give you eternal life in heaven and a full life here on earth.
Rejoice! Not only has He given you breath for today, we’re told in Ephesians that He has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ!
He has promised to be active in your life at all times. The great, awesome, mighty God of all creation is also all-loving.
Join with King David in allowing your heart to leap for joy and give thanks to Him.
There is joy in the Lord.
Next we look at…
Remember the JOY of your salvation, remember how dirty you were before Christ cleansed you, remember death has no victory and no sting that because of Christ, when you die-you really do not die. Remember your resurrection and have the joy preparing for it.
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it!
I love that verse. Don’t you. God is in charge of the day, the meal and everything else included in it, if we are grumpy about it, we have not really crucified self and our complaints well they are saying to God, “your day is not good enough- I deserve better!” Oh ok, well how bout walking out of where you are and walking in Hell, how about leaving your comfortable life and go some place where they treat you like dirt, spit on you, kick you and ridicule you, drive nails through your hands and kill you on a cross-How would that be? Well lord come to think of it my day is pretty dog gone good, thank you. You see that is the day I made for my son,, my first born son and here is what the prophet said about him:
Isa 53:2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isa 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
The lack of joy in our life is directly proportionate to the amount of grumbling and complaining we do.(REPEAT)
What would they say about you or me?
Jesus showed us joy, clearly because He never complained about what was said or done to Him. He went right on serving. We cannot complain and be joyful people, the devil will use our complaints against us to steal or joy and harden our hearts.
Whether you are joyful and being obedient to the Spirit or you are miserable or if you live someplace in between those two extremes, well that is not dependent on your circumstances – if you are joyful or not, quite frankly, if you are joyful or not, well, that’s up to you!
Try to guess who penned these words!
We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with him right now—to be happy with him at this very moment. But being happy with him now means:
loving as he loves,
helping as he helps,
giving as he gives,
serving as he serves,
rescuing as he rescues,
being with him for all the twenty-four hours,
touching him in his distressing disguise.
MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA (1910–
JESUS DID NOT TEACH US THAT WE HAD RIGHTS TO COMPLAIN, WHAT HE SAID WAS: JOHN 15:8 "BY THIS IS MY FATHER GLORIFIED, THAT YOU BEAR MUCH FRUIT, AND SO PROVE TO BE MY DISCIPLES.
GOT FRUIT?
EXCERPTS FROM A SERMON BY BRIAN LA CROIX AND DDRAYPER’S Book of QUOTATIONS
