“Fruit of the Spirit”
JOY
June 8, 2002
Introduction
There were two outs in the bottom of the last inning of the city championship. I stood in left field waiting…waiting to see if our pitcher could strike this guy out…waiting to see we were going to actually win this game and the championship. Our pitcher had two strikes on the batter and threw a fastball. Strike three! We won! It was pandemonium. We all ran and jumped on our pitcher. Everyone was yelling and screaming. We were so excited. It was a moment of pure joy. Our coach had been waiting for us to have our team picture taken. We received our trophies and then we had our team picture made on the field. Fifteen guys, sweaty and dirty, with huge smiles on their faces. A picture of joy.
Tonight, we have the second installment on our study of the “Fruit of the Spirit” from Galatians 5:22-23. Tonight, our topic is joy. The word itself can mean “happiness, gladness, merriness or rejoicing”. As we talked about last week, all the fruit of the Spirit stem from the first one- love. Our love for God brings us joy in our lives. The main point that I want to get across to you tonight is this: God desires for us a life of joy. He wants us to have joy in our lives. He wants our lives to characterized by joy. Sure, we’ll have hard times in our lives, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t joy. In fact, we can have joy in our lives at all times.
We experience joy in our lives when we:
I. LOOK BEYOND OUR CURRENT SITUATION.
As Christians, we continually look to the future. We’re looking to the promise of a Savior to come and rescue us from this world. The joy that Paul is talking about in Galatians 5 can be described as a “festive joy in expectation of a Savior” (TDNT). We have joy because we can forget about yesterday and see past today, looking ahead at the future when Christ will return and all will be right with the world.
On the night before Jesus was to die, he encouraged his disciples to look beyond the current situation. In John, we read about how Jesus is telling his disciples that he will be going away and that they cannot come with him, but that he will return one day to take them with him. He’s foreshadowing his death on the cross. He’s trying to get them to understand that as horrible as the cross is and his absence from them will be, that they need to look past the horror and sorrow of that day to the joy of a new day when he will return and be with them. John 16:20, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”
We all go through times in our lives when we are facing some very difficult situations. It could be a financial crisis, it could be an illness, a loss of a loved one, a loss of a job, a failed marriage; but we can still have joy. James turns the tables on those who would have self-pity about the rough times in life that they face. James 1:2, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” Consider these things with joy because God is using them to make you stronger but also because you see the light at the end of the tunnel. You know that things won’t always be this way. There will come a time when death will not exist, when pain will be non-existent and when all hurt will disappear. You can draw on that promise and take joy in it regardless of your current situation and circumstances.
“I have everything I need for joy!” Robert Reed said.
His hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. Strips of Velcro hold his shirts together. His speech drags like a worn out audiocassette.
Robert has cerebral palsy.
The disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike, and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University, from which he graduate with a degree in Latin. Having cerebral palsy didn’t keep him from teaching at St. Louis junior college or from venturing overseas on five mission trips.
And Robert’s disease didn’t prevent him from becoming a missionary in Portugal.
He moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese. He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language.
Then he stationed himself daily in a park, where he distributed brochures about Christ. Within six years he led seventy people to the Lord, one of whom became his wife, Rosa.
I heard Robert speak recently. I watched other men carry him in his wheelchair onto the platform. I watched them lay a Bible in his lap. I watched his stiff fingers force open the pages. And I watched people in the audience wipe away tears of admiration from their faces. Robert could have asked for sympathy or pity, but he did just the opposite. He held his bent hand up in the air and boasted, “I have everything I need for joy.”
His shirts are held together by Velcro, but his life is held together by joy.
When we come to the conclusion as did Robert that everything we need for joy, we possess in God, our lives too will be held together and defined by joy. Robert looked beyond his current situation of a diseased body and saw the big picture that God had in store for him. What’s holding your life together today? Is it your job? Is it your family? Is it a hobby? Is it money? Or is it God?
Secondly, we experience joy in our lives when we:
II. PARTICIPATE IN THE WORK OF GOD.
Abraham Maslow once said, “I have found that every person who was sincerely happy, radiantly alive, was living for a purpose or a cause beyond himself.”
There is great joy to be found in living and working for a purpose that is bigger than ourselves. The greatest work that we can ever do is the work of God. The whole idea of God giving salvation to man by dying for the sins of man through the person of Jesus Christ and then rising from the dead three days later, defeating death is mind boggling. What’s even more mind-boggling that God chooses us, gives us the responsibility, of telling this message to others and helping them to accept this salvation. We get to do that! We get to point people to Christ! We get to help reunite people with their Heavenly Father and their Creator! That’s exciting! How can we not find joy in this?!?
The apostle Paul, suffered many things, from beatings and imprisonments, to shipwrecks and ultimately death. But he maintained a spirit of joy in all the circumstances he found himself in. He was able to do so because he was doing the work of God that he was called to do. He lived to serve Christ. And what really excited Paul was to have others join him in this work. Philippians 1:4-5, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,”
The Philippians had partnered with Paul to accomplish the work of God. This brought joy not only to Paul, but also to the Philippians. George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying, “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; then being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, and being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
Your life is going to be used up in some way. I encourage you to decide to use it by participating in God’s work, a purpose much bigger than yourself. A purpose that will bring joy to your life.
Finally, we experience joy in our lives when we:
III. INVEST OURSELVES IN OTHERS.
We’ve just passed graduation season. Graduations are filled with caps and gowns and plenty of proud parents and grandparents with cameras and video cameras. I believe that the majority of the time that the parents and grandparents are happier than the graduate. Why is that? They have invested themselves into raising, teaching and supporting their graduate from infancy. There’s a ton of satisfaction in watching people that you’ve invested yourself in succeed. There’s great joy in that.
Again, we turn to Paul, and see the joy he took in the Corinthians and Thessalonians, people whom he invested his life in.
II Corinthians 7:4, “I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.”
I Thessalonians 2:19-20, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.”
It’s time that each of us decided that we were going to invest ourselves in others on God’s behalf. We’re going to share the gospel with those that haven’t heard it. We’re going to spend our time building up and training people in the Bible. We’re going to work together with others in ministry experiences. We’re going to watch those people grow in their faith and succeed. We’re going to take great joy in their success.
Conclusion
This is my challenge tonight, to cultivate joy in your life by:
1. Looking beyond your current situation.
2. Participating in the work of God.
3. Investing yourself in others.
God wants you to have a life of joy. Remember, a big part of having a life joy is your attitude and not hampering the Holy Spirit as He transforms your life to make you more like Christ.
