Where is the Joy? Is it really that elusive? Is it only to be captured for the moment to slip away from our grasp? I am amazed at the number of gloomy faces in the Body of Christ today. This is not part of God’s plan for us. I believe God intends his children to live a life full of joy; a joy that transcends the difficult circumstances and situations we face on this earthly journey.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the full (John 10:10) and part of that fullness is joy. Would you not agree? Joy should be contagious in the Body of Christ and serve as a powerful witness to the world. Joy should spread like wildfire and kindle the embers in the Body losing their glow.
God uses our joy to create a hunger and thirst in the hearts of others and that is what we have to offer the world. After all, who wants to hang around a bunch of gloomy and sad people? The very thought is depressing to me. I believe the Word of God and the God of the Word tells me we can capture the joy and keep it. In preparing a message for the faithful saints at Antioch Baptist church, the Lord spoke to my heart about this subject and I want to share with you what the Lord has shared with my own heart about capturing the joy. Please read and consider the following two verses in John 16:
"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ’Where are You going?’ "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” (John 16:5-6)
How intriguing the disciples have their hearts filled with sorrow as a result of previously asking the Lord in John 13:36 & 14:5, “Where are You going?” Yet, Jesus said of his disciples in Verse 5 “…and none of you asks Me, ’Where are You going?” Is this a contradiction of Scripture? Had Jesus forgotten the disciples previously asked this question? What does he mean?
’The disciples had not asked Jesus where he was going in the sense meant here (John 16:5). They had been concerned with their own immediate loss and with the desperation that had filled their souls. They were concerned with how his departure would affect them; and had not asked how it would affect him either in this world or the world to come. They had forgotten a relationship is a two way street that impacts both parties not just one. They had forgotten in Christ we are two world people. We may live here on earth but our citizenship is in heaven. We may walk on this earthen sod but we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Yet, it is easy to forget if we focus on ourselves and this world alone. All the disciples could think of was the empty place at the table not the table being prepared for them in heaven’s glory. They had no thought of the glorious place to which Jesus was going and would prepare for them. As a result, Jesus said of them: (verse 6): “sorrow has filled your heart” So what fills or controls your heart? How can you as a Christian keep sorrow from capturing your heart when we live in a world filled with tribulation?
First, capturing the joy means we have to ask what impact our requests and actions have on the Lord and His Kingdom. Our flesh must be contended with for its nature is self-centered and it causes us to view situations as one-world people. Jesus knows the heart of all men (John 2:24-25) and He knew his disciples were not thinking of him or his kingdom. Their hearts were asking where are you going because we are comfortable here and your leaving will upset that. The disciples did not want to step out of their comfort zone and sense of security. As a result, Jesus said sorrow filled their hearts. They forgot the Lord’s promise in Matthew 6:33 (and this includes joy). Although their question was right, their motive in asking was wrong. We must ask with proper motive and as two world people when we pray. The Bible says, “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…(James 4:3) and “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:3-7). It is important to ask the Lord if my requests and actions are taking me where He is going. Am I in step with His will?
Second, capturing the joy means we must be intent on one purpose: In John 16:5, Jesus is intent on one purpose: “But now I am going to Him who sent me.” He came to earth for one purpose: to do the will of His Father – to seek and save the lost; to give his life a ransom for many and accomplish the work he was given to do (John 17:4). We too should have the same attitude and intent in our heart if we want our heart controlled by joy. The Lord said as the Father has sent me so send I you (John 20:21). Philippians 2:2 affrims “make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” And it as the great Apostle Paul who said: “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
Jesus was never distracted and always moved forward in his earthly ministry. Likewise, we must be moving forward in our Christian life. Moving forward means we can neither live in the past nor be content with the false sense of contentment offered by the status quo. Being status quo Christians brought sorrow to the heart of the Disciples. Again the great Apostle says, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) Where are you in the race today? Are you living in the past of regrets and failures? Are you content with the status quo? Or are you moving forward with one intent and purpose and experiencing the transforming joy Jesus talks about?
Third, capturing the joy means we need to learn God often brings joy to our lives by transformation. The circumstances do not necessarily change but a transformation takes place. Jesus was trying to tell the disciples He was going to the Cross to suffer the most painful death imaginable, yet the Scripture tells us “…for the joy set before Him Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame.” And we are admonished in Hebrews 12:3: “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not, grow weary and lose heart.” Losing heart means to lose your joy. Jesus said to his disciples in John 16:20: “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.” The Lord doesn’t remove the grief but transforms it into joy. God takes seemly impossible situations, adds the miracle of His grace, and transforms trial into triumph and sorrow into joy. “The Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing because he loves us” (Deut. 23:5; see Neh. 13:2). So capture the joy! Your sorrow will actually be the very thing that causes you joy when living in Christ.
Finally, we must continually examine what we are doing now for the Lord. The Bible says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5) In other words, you are two-world people – you are in the world but not of it but you are to be an ambassador to it. . Therefore, we are to be controlled by the Christ that lives in us. So I must ask am I on board with where Jesus is going? As we start a new year this is the question we must address. First, am I his child? The journey for capturing the joy starts there. If His child, am I tuned in to His purpose, His plan and His mission? Oswald Chambers says, “Let the attitude of the life be a continual “going out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have an ineffable charm about it which is a satisfaction to Jesus. You have to learn to go out of convictions, out of creeds, out of experiences, until so far as your faith is concerned, there is nothing between yourself and God.” Not only will you capture the joy but God will use your life to impart joy of the Lord to others.
Jesus says to our heart: “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). Maybe this morning the request is for salvation -- Maybe it is for a restoration of your joy. The invitation is ours. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." Again the choice is yours. In Christ there is joy; in the world there is tribulation. This is the position we need to claim as two world Christians: we are in Christ, and therefore we can overcome the world and all of its hatred, disappointment and heartache. Jesus paid it ALL, all to Him we owe,
Give Him the Glory!
