Got Joy
Galatians 5:22
Intro: How many of you remember the “Got Milk” commercials? The original one showed this guy who was obsessed with Alexander Hamilton. The commercial showed his whole house and it had pictures and statues and all sorts of paraphernalia every where regarding Hamilton. He is listening to the radio while making a peanut butter sandwich and there is a trivia question that the station comes up with and then they call people at random to see if they can answer the question. If they get the question right they win $10,000.00. Well he stuffs part of the sandwich in his mouth and then hears the trivia question which is who shot Alexander Hamilton. Well he knows that it is Aaron Burr. Then the phone rings and it’s the radio station calling. He answers the phone mumbling because he has a mouthful of dry sticky peanut butter. They ask him the trivia question and he tries to answer and all he can do is mumble. He tries again and again to answer the question but they can’t understand him because of the sandwich in his mouth that he can’t swallow because its too dry. He looks over and sees a milk carton and tries to pour some milk in the glass so he can drink and answer the question. There is only a trickle of milk in the container. Hardly enough to wash the sandwich down. The man cries out in frustration and the words and a voice over come through the screen saying “Got Milk”.
. Many in our world today both Christian and non Christian are much like the man in the commercial. Living in frustration because there is something missing in their lives. Something they need.
. What they need is Joy.
. Paul speaks of joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit in our scripture this morning.
. Paul is writing to the church in Galatia here in chapter 5 and he is talking to them about living life in the Spirit or in other words a life that allows the Holy Spirit to empower us as Christians to refuse to follow our sinful desires .
. That’s the nature of Mankind.
. Paul writes that only the Holy Spirit can empower us to live a life that produces “fruit” as he calls it.
. Lets read our scripture: Galatians 5:22; But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: jlove, joy, kpeace, patience, kindness, agoodness, faithfulness,23gentleness, and self-control…
. Now some folks have a problem understanding just what joy is. Let me give you an example.
. When missionaries in the northern part of Alaska, where the Eskimos are, were trying to get the Bible translated, they had some difficulty. When you go to translate the Bible in any culture, there’s a difficulty in translating some words because cultures and languages don’t always have the same words. There was no word in the Eskimo language for joy. And as they were trying to translate joy, biblically, they drew from experience. And as they watched, they saw that the happiest, the most joyful moments in those Eskimo villages were in the evening when they fed their sled dogs. They’d go out, and the dogs would yelp and wag their tails and get all excited. And so, out of that experience, they pulled the word for joy: "wagging their tails." When you translate the passage where it says, "The disciples, after the resurrection, saw Jesus and they were full of joy," for the Eskimos, it would read, "When the disciples saw Jesus, they wagged their tails." Full of joy.
. If you ever go to this part of Alaska and you are a Christian, I guess you will need to walk around wagging your tail.
. Notice I didn’t say happiness. There is a difference between happiness and joy.
. You see happiness is dependent on circumstances.
. A person can be happy because something happened in their life or the circumstances in their life such as a good job or family and children are going well right now. This can bring happiness.
. I submit to you this morning that we can all be happy at times in our life due to circumstances even if we are not a Christian this morning.
. You see: Happiness is external. Joy is internal.
Happiness is based on chance. Joy is based on choice.
Happiness is based on circumstances. Joy is based on Christ.
.In God’s word, one of the first things apparent to me is that God wants his people to be joyful. In fact, I think one of the great mysteries in life is that as you look at the Christian community, you see a lack of joy. I just scratch my head. We ought to be the most joyful people in the world. We have hope. We have Jesus. This is an old saying but it’s true. Every day is just another day in eternity for us. We are guaranteed this by our faith in Jesus Christ.
. Over in john 14 and 15 Jesus is teaching the disciples and He has assured them in 14 that even when He is gone that He will return for them, He tells them in the same chapter that He is “the way the truth and the life”and that “no one can come to the Father except through Him”in 14:6.
. He then goes on and tells them that the Holy Spirit will be sent to empower, to be an Advocate who will always be with them.
. Then in chapter 15 He talks of the assurance that they can have if they will only remain in Him. Trust In Him and then He tells them why He is sharing this with them.
. verse 11 says this: I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
. As Christians, we should be overflowing with Joy.
. How can we not have joy in our lives. This is the first day or the next day of eternity for a Christian.
. I think that for many Christians they have lost the Joy of their salvation.
. Notice that I didn’t say that they have lost their salvation but maybe they have lost the joy that salvation brings to their lives.
. Just how de we lose that joy.
. There are several ways we can lose our joy.
. The first way is unrepentant sin.
. As Christians we have been saved by the Grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ and our sins will be forgiven.
. The apostle John writes in 1 John 1:9; 9But if we confess our csins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our csins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
. Sin will take our joy from us folks;
. In psalm 51 King David has been convicted of his sin with Bathsheba by God through sending the prophet Nathan to him and David writes in verses 1-8 .
. 1Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your gunfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
2Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3For I recognize my hrebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.
5For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
6But you desire honesty from the womb,
teaching me wisdom even there.
7Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Oh, give me back my ijoy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
. David’s unrepentant sin Had caused him to lose his joy.
. On over in verse 12 he writes; Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
. Let me share another Psalm with you this morning: psalm 32
. 1Oh, what ijoy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
2Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt,
whose alives are lived in complete honesty!
3When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.
4Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.Interlude
5Finally, I bconfessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my crebellion to the LORD.”
And you dforgave me! All my guilt is gone.Interlude
6Therefore, let all the godly epray to you while there is still time,
that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
7For you are my hiding place;
you protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of victory.Interlude
8The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
9Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”
10Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD.
11So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!
. Look at how it ends. Rejoice in the Lord, shout for Joy.
. Has sin robbed you of your joy this morning Christian?
. All we need to do is share this with God and ask for forgiveness and He can and will restore to us the Joy of Our salvation this morning.
. Another way to lose our joy is to allow resentment and bitterness to take hold in our life and especially in our spiritual life.
. This happens to many seasoned Christians
. Let me tell you what I mean.
. When we are saved into the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ we are on fire for God aren’t we. We want to work for the Lord and be in His service anyway we can.
. As we participate in what we call church life, we work and try to do what we think God wants and commands us to do. As we work hard for the Lord, we see that not everybody feels this same compulsion that we do. As the years go by, we get disheartened by the lack of commitment by many of the church members.
. The old saying becomes a self fulfilling prophecy that 20% of the people do 80% of the work and we look around and that old spirit that we had before the Holy Spirit came to reside in us rears its ugly head and we develop a spirit of resentment and bitterness
.
. The writer of Hebrews warns us of this in chapter 12 vs 15 where he writes: …Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many…
. When we allow this resentment and bitterness to come into our lives, it robs us of the joys that come with being a child of God.
. We wind up being one of those old sour puss Christians that has lost the Joy of their salvation.
. If you are here this morning and you have this heart of resentment and bitterness, it will rob you of the joy that our savior wants us to have deep within us.
. Let it go. We are called to be faithful in ourselves. In Philippians 2:12 the apostle Paul writes: Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
. Don’t worry about others, show the results of YOUR salvation and rekindle the Joy that comes from your salvation.
. Those are just a couple of ways that we can lose our joy and we need to be mindful of them and when we find ourselves in those situations we can depend on the Holy Spirit to help us through those times.
. As I said earlier though, we as children of God should be joyful Christians.
. I want to share just a few of the reasons for joy this Morning.
. First of all Joy should spring from our relationship with Jesus Christ.
. I’m reminded of a children’s song about this joy in Jesus.
. How many of you remember the song Down In My Heart?
. I’ve got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart .
I’ve got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart, down in my heart to stay.
. Then it talks about the love of Jesus down in my heart and then it talks of the peace that passeth understanding down in my heart
. When we have the Love of Jesus, we have joy and peace down in our heart.
. Notice that the little song is just full of theology. The song calls joy a possession.
. It says THE JOY. Not just happiness but something that we posses deep down in our heart and soul.
. We are Joyful because we possess Jesus. And are heirs to all that He has promised us.
. We are joyful because we understand the truth.
. Ever since creation people have been searching for the truth.
. Satan tempted Eve by casting doubt on what God had told them. Did God really say that?
. Pilot when questioning Jesus before He was crucified asked What is truth?
. Folks we know the truth and the truth has made us free.
. All that we know and understand about God should make us joyful.
. Back to the beginning of the sermon.
. Jesus said that he told us all these things so that our joy can be complete.
. So that no matter what our external circumstances are, we can and should be joyful people.
. Paul said it best in Philippians chapter 4 when he said that he has learned to be content no matter what his circumstances. Paul had a joy that was as the children’s song stated down in his heart to stay.
. My question to you this morning is, Got Joy?
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
. Sources:
. The Holy Bible, NLT
. Journeying To Joy, Brian Bill
. Fruit That Is Never Out Of Season, John Maxwell
