- I want to share a bit of my journey this morning with regards to joy (or quite often its lack)
- Things good in life. Great family, good career.
- I excelled at work and church.
- Kids healthy, making lots of money, going up the ladder. Moving around and being promoted. Making friends.
- Only depressing time as a couple of short periods where I was struggling with the idea of moving to a new company.
- Then I became a pastor.
- I followed God's call on my life.
- It was the end of a process that had begun over 10 years earlier.
- And it started great. Had fun with being children's pastor. Used all my energy to build programs, do events, get people in place to serve.
- But even then, my life was beginning to change more than I thought.
- Two years later I moved into the role I am now of leadership and teaching. I thought I would now be able to really make a difference.
- But the more I tried, things did not seem to work out the way I envisioned.
- Work was tough. Attendance was down. Offerings were down. I found out first hand that people don't respond how you want them to. People accused me of being unbiblical. Of poor leadership. They sent nasty notes on the way out the door.
- Home was tough. Not because of anything bad, but my son and daughter moved past high school, into college and ultimately into marriage. Vacations were different. I did not see them as much. I had less income.
- Our together family was changing. I found myself working more and longer.
- I had always considered myself a positive, upbeat person and I found that I was down more than I was up. I was stressed more than I had ever been. I went on blood pressure medication for the first time in my life.
- I remember it coming to a head when after a particularly troubling letter from someone who left the church that I just gave up and curled up on my bed in the middle of the day. Couldn't think. Did not want to pray.
- I was good at sales so I could do what I needed to. I could act. But my wife could tell. My friends could tell.
- If they would characterize my life, it would not have been with the word, "joyful."
- I had a problem. My own life and experience did not match my faith, what I said I believed or what I saw when I read my bible.
- I would read my bible and see things like:
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30)
- My burden all to often felt heavy.
- Or how about this one.
"The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble." (Proverbs 19:23)
- Wow. Not even close by a long shot. And when I would read about Jesus, it did not help.
"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." (John 15:11)
- And there were so many more verses than just these.
- And so a couple of years ago, I began to really search this idea of joy out.
- I do not want to just endure this life. I do not want to spent my next decades trying to get through the 48 weeks of the year that are terrible to have a couple of highlights.
- A Christ-follower should be joyful, not just about our eternity, but in the now.
- So we are spending the next three weeks on this in a 3 week series called "Finding Joy".
- Today I am going to look at the whole idea of the pursuit of joy. Why bother?
- Next week we will look at joy in the context of the trials of life.
- Then we will look at practical ways to cultivate and pursue joy.
- I hope you will join me. This is not a journey I have finished - not by a long shot.
- But I am learning. I hope you will learn with me.
- As I thought about joy, I read books, talked to others and prayed about this idea of joy.
- For you word and detail people, I did a study where I looked up every verse where the words joy, glad, happiness or any of their derivatives were used in Scripture.
- These three words appear around 250 times in the bible, and this does not include looking at terms like rejoicing, laughter etc.
- I went through all the different original Greek and Hebrew words.
- I found that there are 80 different Hebrew and Greek words / word combinations are translated into some derivative of happiness, joy, and gladness.
- And since some of the same Hebrew and Greek words are translated sometimes as Joy and sometimes as Happiness and sometimes as Gladness, it means we must look at the context in which the words are used.
- As I looked into this further trying to find a pattern. Some words referred to situations people were in or should be, some to relationships with others, may to God himself, and some to the blessing of life.
- What I really wanted was a formula or at least clarity. Something that defined joy and where and how I could get it. I am still in this journey. But what I have found and this is the main idea to remember from this morning:
- CHRIST INVITES US TO HAVE JOY.
I. Joy is supposed to be the norm for Christ-followers.
- Everywhere in the bible it speaks as though those that who have a relationship with God, those who call themselves Christ-followers, are to be joyful.
- We read this in the Old Testament:
"You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy." (Psalm 30:11)
"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." (Psalm 126:3)
- When Paul and Peter were writing to early Christ-followers, they said things like:
"Be joyful always." (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4)
"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy," (1 Peter 1:8)
- And joy is one of the evidences of a Spirit-filled life.
- Jesus himself said:
"So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." (John 16:22)
- Joy is commanded. Joy is expected. It is not the exception. It is not something that we get occasionally between problems. It is to characterize our lives constantly and characterize them to the point that others will know.
"Christian people too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and lack of freedom and of absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this is the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity." (Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, Martyn Lloyd Jones)
CHRIST INVITES US TO HAVE JOY because:
II. The goal of joy is God's glory.
- This is a weird one. If I am joyful, then isn't the end result of joy my joy?
- But joy the way God designed it is for him. We are not pursuing joy so that on top of all the other blessings we have living in this wonderful country we get to be joyful on top of it.
- God's design is for us is to see the glory of Christ and be enthralled with his beauty about all else.
- Our joy brings God glory in two ways.
- We are commanded:
"Delight yourself in the LORD." (Psalm 37:4)
- When we are joyful because of Christ, then the focus on our lives is him. We think about him. We praise him. We enjoy him for who he is.
- I spend more time considering how amazing God is than anything else and that puts God directly where he should be - at the center. That brings him glory.
- But when we are joyful, it also results in God be glorified to others.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)
- When we come to know Jesus, when we pursue him, it is supposed to result in us being filled with joy. Christ-followers should be the most joyful people around. We should be known for our joy.
- A miserable Christ-follower is a lousy ad for Jesus.
"Christ will be glorified in the world when Christians are so satisfied in him that they let goods and kindred go and lay down their lives for others in mercy, missions, and, if necessary, martyrdom. He will be magnified most among the nations when, at the moment Christians lose everything on earth, they say, 'To live is Christ, and to die is gain.'" (The Pursuit of Joy, John Piper)
- This is important because the joy we are talking about is not a fluffy, happy, vacuous ignorant type of joy. Nehemiah said, when talking to a nation of people that were coming back from captivity and were faced with numerous challenges, including how to follow God properly:
"Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10)
- The joy that we are talking about is the joy that gives us the strength and power to be merciful, to serve. It is the joy that puts our lives on mission. It is a joy that allows us to abandon our connection to everything up to and including the point of martyrdom.
- These truths may not help a whole lot. I am a Christ-follower. I am supposed to be joyful. It brings God glory. What happens when I am not joyful?
- I know that I should, but I am not.
- Now I have guilt because I am not joyful and "good" Christ-followers should be joyful. Or I become upset and angry and disappointed because my lack of joy makes me even less joyful.
III. I cannot produce joy on my own.
- You see, we have a problem. Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are deceitful and wicked. Joy is based in God. I cannot become joyful because I want to.
- Joy cannot be earned by what we do.
- We cannot earn joy through technique or legalism.
- Joy is not a matter of "doing" a, b and c to be joyful. When we work hard and succeed, at best it produces pride and self satisfaction.
- Joy is not circumstantial.
- Many Christ-followers would lead you to believe that your circumstances are an indicator of God's blessing and that our joy will come from that.
- But if this were true, then most of the world's Christ-followers will never be joyful.
- Paul wrote this about some churches in Macedonia.
"Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity." (2 Corinthians 8:2)
- In our country, we say we are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And pursue it we do as though circumstances will bring us joy. Joy is a gift. God does not "owe" me joy.
- Joy is not positive self talk.
- You have heard of these. "Just focus on the positive." "Look on the bright side of life." "Know the good in you." "I think I can."
- This is short term and works only as long as you can ignore the difficulties of life. But James says that we are to:
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." (James 1:2)
- Joy is connected to emotion but is not dependent on it.
- We can tell when people are joyful. It exudes from them. We know it. It is not hidden.
- Joy will come out in our emotions.
- But we do not have to be bubbly and happy and ignore that sometimes things are brutal to be joyful.
- So we have this conundrum. We are commanded to be joyful. We are to be joyful. But only God can grant us a joyful heart.
"Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul." (Psalm 86:4)
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
- This includes being joyful.
- We are responsible to fight for joy, (and we are going to examine more closely how to do this in two weeks) but when we have done this, it is still only by God's grace.
"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever." (Hebrews 13:20-21)
- Our joy is pleasing to him. He will work it in us. CHRIST INVITES US TO HAVE JOY.
- At this point (and maybe you can identify) I could be utterly frustrated.
- I am supposed to be joyful . . . got it.
- My joy brings God glory . . . check.
- I have to work at it and it is a gracious gift from God . . . OK.
- I had learned all these things about joy and was still not the joyful person I desired to be.
- I then learned something startling.
IV. Joy is connected to what I desire, not my theology.
- Theology is simply our belief system about God. You can believe all the right things and still be joyless.
- Have you ever considered that every lack of joy we have is because there is some desire we have that is not being fulfilled?
o I want to have enough to pay the bills and be able to go on vacation.
o I want my family to get along.
o I want to be free from an addiction.
o I wish that my spouse and I were on the same page.
o I so want my health to be better. I want to be pain free.
o I want to lose weight.
- The list goes on.
o I want security and don't have it.
o I desire to be significant, but don't think I am making a difference.
o I want people's approval but am not getting it.
o I want to be successful but look like a failure.
- We can believe all the right things and study joy and know every verse about rejoicing, but having joy does not come from believing the right things (as important as this is) but from desiring the right things.
- John, one of Jesus' disciples, wrote several letters when he was an old man. In his first letter, which I was reading this past week, he began like this.
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete." (1 John 1:1-4)
- That grabbed me. Complete joy. This means to be lacking nothing and to remain full.
- What is it. I went back and read it again.
- His joy, the joy that he desires to share with them, to be complete, is a joy that comes from knowing Jesus. Experiencing him.
- This Jesus he saw. He knew him. He touched him. He watched him. He is God's word of life. He was sent to them. He was God. He had before and still had a relationship with him. This was the object of his desires. And this was enough to complete his joy.
- Christ is the only desire that will fulfill and never disappoint.
- Our problem is that Christ seems unattractive and unreal compared to things we see and like.
o A new living room set more quickly satisfies a craving.
o A car will gratify us.
o Another trip to the refrigerator will indulge me.
o A compliment will make me happy.
o Peace and harmony between our kids will give us peace.
- But when our desires on which our joy is based are centered on anything other than Christ, joy will at some point become very elusive.
- The prophet Jeremiah when talking to the nation of Israel hundreds of years before Jesus lived, said it this way.
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jeremiah 2:13)
- They had available to them the living water. God. To satisfy their desires.
- But they had set their hearts on other things. Their desires were for things other than God.
- And these cisterns would never hold water. They would never give the joy and satisfaction that God, and only God, can.
- What desires do you have? What is most important to you? Are you joyful? CHRIST INVITES US TO HAVE JOY.
- Next week we will be looking at this further. What joy looks like. What shapes our desires and what do about that.
- In preparation, you have an assignment for this week. I want you to consider this question.
- What robs you of your joy?
- As you go through the week, and you find yourself with no joy, consider why.
- Maybe you know this right now. Maybe you consider yourself joyful and have never thought about it.
- Take some time to consider what robs you of your joy.
- Next week, we will talk more about it.
- Richard Stearns, president of World Vision went to Haiti about a year after the big earthquake in 2010. While there he went to a church, a tent put together with duct tape.
- The people were clapping and smiling as they sang song after song and lifted their prayers to God. The worship was full of hope, full of courage, and overflowing with thanksgiving to the Lord.
- No one was singing louder or praying more fervently than Demosi Louphine, a 32-year-old unemployed single mother of two. During the earthquake, a collapsed building crushed her right arm and left leg. After four days, with no medical care available, both limbs had to be amputated.
- She was leading the choir, leading prayers, standing on her prosthesis and lifting her one hand high in praise to God
- Following the service, Richard met Demosi's and her two daughters, ages eight and ten. The three of them now live in a tent five feet tall and perhaps eight feet wide. Despite losing her job, her home, and two limbs, she is deeply grateful because God spared her life on January 12th last year.
- "He brought me back like Lazarus, giving me the gift of life," says Demosi She believes she survived the devastating quake for two reasons: to raise her girls and to serve her Lord for a few more years.
- CHRIST INVITES US TO HAVE JOY.
- The pursuit of joy is a worthwhile one.
- We can be joyful.
- We can bring God glory.
- It is his pleasure to give us joy.
- And he will, when our greatest desire is for him.
