Increasing Joy
Isaiah 9:2-3 (New International Version)
2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 3You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.
INTRODUCTION: Bittersweet.
Bittersweet. On the one hand, bitter. On the other hand, sweet. There is a kind of chocolate that is bittersweet. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like that kind of chocolate. Not only that I have had about 3 bittersweet experiences the past couple weeks, and I have had enough of bittersweet living.
The Chargers lose in the playoffs – bittersweet. Sweet season, sour ending. Bittersweet.
Last Monday we moved Laura in at Concordia – Irvine to go to college. Bittersweet. Happy for her, sad for us. It’s funny what you remember when the time comes to move your daughter out of your home and into a dorm. When Laura was a little girl, she saved her allowance for 8 weeks to buy The Little Mermaid videotape. Great Disney movie, that is until the last scene. Most people love the ending, but not me. Ariel, the little mermaid, is going to get to marry Eric the prince and live like a human on land what she has always wanted. Everyone is celebrating, and her father, King Triton says to Sebastian, his court musician, “Sebastian, there’s only one problem.”
“What’s that, your majesty?” Sebastian asks.
“How much I am going to miss my little girl.” Triton replies.
Bittersweet moving your daughter into her dorm.
Bittersweet, I found out this past week one of my cousins has stage 4 gastric cancer, 6-12 months to live. Life is so precious, eternal life such a gift. But life on earth? Often so bittersweet.
I don’t know about you, but when I look at these verses from Isaiah 9, 3 words leap off the page from verse 3, increased their joy. In a bittersweet life and in everyday life, I could use some increasing joy. How about you would you like to increase your joy? Today let’s look at 3 Expressions of Increasing Joy
EXPRESSION 1: Change your focus from your circumstances to Christ. Isaiah prophesies in Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.” -- (New American Standard Bible)
Notice the contrast darkness to light and living in a dark land to light shining on them. One of the contrasts with joy and circumstance is found in a phrase called, “the joy-to-stuff ratio” defined by the Cincinnati Business Courier as “The time a person has to enjoy life versus the time a person spends accumulating material goods. As families become more affluent, sometimes they begin to suffer from what has come to be called ‘affluenza’: They focus their lives around accumulating more and more stuff that they have less and less time to enjoy;
their ‘joy-to-stuff’ ratio gets out of balance.”
As Vicki Robyn points out, “When we were babies, more stuff did indeed mean more fulfillment. We were fed, warmed, and sheltered. When we were uncomfortable, when we cried, something came from the outside to take care of us. Our needs were filled. At the same time, we learned a powerful lesson: Look outside yourself and you will be fulfilled.
We then went from bare necessities (food, clothing, shelter) to some amenities (toys, a wardrobe, a bicycle) and the positive relationship between money and fulfillment got even more embedded. Remember your excitement when you got your baseball mitt or Barbie doll? We got an allowance to learn the value of money. We could select and purchase happiness ourselves! And so it went, year after year.
Eventually, we slipped beyond amenities to outright luxuries-and hardly registered the change. Our first car may have been a Wow! for months, but the fourth (probably newer and more expensive) quickly became transportation and another bill to pay. And so it went, with each new acquisition being a thrill, but a more expensive thrill-and the "high" wore off quicker.
One day we find ourselves with the best that money can buy, but with less happiness than when we got our first bicycle at age seven. A process-buying stuff-that worked for survival, comforts, and some luxuries, now seems to lead directly to more responsibilities, more worries, more commitments, more to lose if robbed, more taxes and more need for accountants and financial managers.
Whether our money comes from employment or inheritance, we all hit fulfillment ceilings in terms of cars, houses, vacations, clothes, conferences, workshops, et cetera, and never recognize when the formula of money = fulfillment not only stopped working, but started to work against us.
The point, it seems, is the peak of that Fulfillment Curve: Enough. Enough for our survival. Enough comforts. And even enough for true "luxuries." Enough is appreciating and fully enjoying what money brings into our lives. It’s not buying what doesn’t add to quality of life. Enough is dynamic-a daily mindfulness of our deep purposes and what we need materially to achieve them.”
Then comes the message of the New Testament that joy is found not in cash, but in the cross. No wonder Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” -- (New International Version)
Instead of finding our joy in stuff, Paul says inner joy is found in a Savior. The challenge is to change your focus from cash, from circumstances, from anything but Christ to focus on Christ. The result is you are increasing joy.
Question: So where do you need to change your focus? What’s keeping your eyes from Christ and His love active in your life?
EXPERSSION 2: Stay connected to Jesus the source of your joy. Writing from a German concentration prison camp in the final days of his life and of World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, “The Christian life is not one of gloom, but of ever increasing joy in the Lord.” – joy even in a concentration camp? How do you experience such increasing joy? Stay connected to Jesus the source of your joy. Jesus says the night before he dies in John 15:5, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” -- (The Message)
It is interesting to study how different groups and faiths deal with the key to increasing joy. Those in the business of weight loss speak of increasing joy as being essential to lose weight. Tough to do when Krispy Kreme’s increase joy for a moment and one’s waist line a whole lot longer.
Buddhism believes increasing joy is found in the ending of suffering. Sounds good, but have you been able to end suffering in your life or others? The best we can do it seems is bittersweet suffering.
Islam speaks of increasing joy found in service and in following all the legal aspects of the law. Sounds like a need for perfection. I am not to good in that one either.
Meditation says empty yourself to increase your joy. Empty your mind. Empty your thoughts. The result they claim is increasing joy. Good to get rid of stress perhaps, but not always a guarantee of increasing joy but of emptiness, and opened to being filled by anything including the stress I just got rid of.
What’s the secret then to increasing joy? Stay connected to Jesus the source of joy. Paul, from a prison cell, says in Philippians 4:4a, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” -- (New International Version)
Paul doesn’t say, “Rejoice in the possessions you have.” “Rejoice in the place where you live.” “Rejoice in the doctor’s report.” “Rejoice in the paycheck you received.” He says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” The meaning of that word rejoice literally means to return to the source of your joy. That’s what makes the “in the Lord always” part so important. The Lord, not your circumstances, is the source of daily joy. Robert Louis Stevenson observed, “To miss the joy is to miss everything.”
Well, if you miss the Lord, you miss the source of inner joy. What Jesus has done for me on the cross and receiving that gift is the source of lasting joy.
It is the union with the Lord that brings inner joy. Billy Sunday noted, “If you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.”
Paul writes these words of joy from a prison cell. Not a posh, minimum-security cell, but from a cold cell, probably with a guard chained on either side. In that kind of lousy setting, Paul has patched any joy leak because he recognizes Jesus as the source of his joy.
QUESTION: Where is joy leaking in your life? Where do you need to plug the hole with the love of Christ who gives His life for you?
EXPRESSION 3: Find God’s voice for your life and belt it out. We used to call work, “vocation”, one’s voice. We need to grasp again that understanding of work. We tend to think in terms of career, something I chose. While vocation or calling is something God gives. Career reflects my own pursuit, calling and vocation are gifts from God.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus offers not a career choice, but a divine voice for life when he says in Matthew 4:19, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” -- (New International Version)
Here’s what’s great about calling. We are not just called to work for God, we are called to work with God. Jesus doesn’t say, “Go, be fishers of men.” He says, “I will make you fishers of me.” That’s why the increasing joy. Jesus is present, and he gives God voice for my life.
In my garage, I have jar filled with spare parts. Left over nuts and bolts, odds and ends, from different projects that were some assembly required and are now left over. Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking they are spare parts in God’s divine plan. Remember this one truth, you are not a spare part in God’s plan. You have a purpose, a divine song that God wants you to sing with your life. And if you are going to sing your purpose, belt it out. That’s what Isaiah is doing in Isaiah 9:3, “Our Lord, you have made your nation stronger. Because of you, its people are glad and celebrate like workers at harvest time or like soldiers dividing up what they have taken.” -- (Contemporary English Version)
Such a divine voice singing increased joy in life is found in the athlete who competes not for the trophy, but for a greater motivation -- the love of the game.
Such a divine voice singing increased joy in life is found in the leader who can’t wait to sound the trumpet and unleash people’s potential and move the organization from good to great.
Such a divine voice singing increased joy in life is found in the writer resenting a blank screen and hating the deadline, but knowing there is no other joy than that of creating.
Such a divine voice singing increased joy in life is found in the gardener who loves to create beauty, the accountant who finds joy in order, the nurse who delights in healing, the mechanic able to use the skill of his hands to repair.
QUESTION: Where is the divine voice calling you to sing? Are you belting it out or just stumbling along?
CONCLUSION: Enjoy the banquet.
One person put it this way about joy, “Far too many people spend their lives reading the menu instead of enjoying the banquet.” Isaiah today invites us to enjoy the banquet of life with an extra helping of increased joy. Such joy flows out of a relationship with Christ that changes my focus from my circumstances to Christ, staying connected to Jesus as the source of my joy, and finding God’s voice for my life, and belting it out. Life’s menu is filled with bittersweet moments. Yet increasing joy comes through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen.
