Joy

Romans 5:3-11

³ We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴ And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵ And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

⁶ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹ And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. ¹⁰ For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. ¹¹ So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

There was once a young boy who went to spend the week with his grandfather on the farm. While walking around he noticed the chickens, they were scratching and playing around. The little lad said, “They ain’t got it”. Next he saw a colt in the field playing and kicking up its heel’s to which he replied, “He ain’t got it”. After examining all of the animals on his grandfather’s farm and see that none of them had “it”, this boy finally found the old donkey in the barn. When he saw the donkey’s long, frowning face and the way that the donkey just stood there he screamed for his grandfather to come quick. “I found it, I found it” the boy kept yelling. When his grandfather asked what he had found he said, “Pawpaw, I found an animal that has the same kind of religion that you have.”

As Christians – we should experts on joy. We should know about joy more than anybody else. I am not talking about the “I love Jesus yes I do, I love Jesus how about you” kind of joy. There are some Christians who are the most miserable people on earth. The words out of their mouth are “I love Jesus, he means more to me than silver or gold,” but their body language, their attitude, and their face say something totally different.  I met a lot of these kind of people a couple of decades ago at the camp meeting where I was the youth director. I remember thinking, “you have followed Christ all these years and nothing inside of you has changed?” They had no joy!! All they could do was complain about me, loud music, and focus on everything I was doing wrong.

(A little side note: if you complain all the time, if all you can see is the negative in your situations in life, you need to recommit your life to Christ, be baptized again and start all over)

Joy is the fruit that only God can produce in you. No one can produce joy. Joy comes from being in a relationship with God.

For a Christian, joy is a deep kind of rejoicing – an assurance a security  – a mirth. Mirth is a deep seeded gladness. There is a deep seeded gladness that says I have the only thing that really matters. (credit to Tim Keller) I have the assurance and security that no matter what happens in my life – nothing is going to separate me from the love of God. When everything is failing around me. When my life is not going the way I planned. When unfairness comes my way, when disease comes my way, when a lost job comes my way, when stuff happens to me that try to knock me down and out, I have deep seeded gladness.

Troubles are always going to come. Life is always going to throw you curves.  Christians are not immune to suffering. Because of the deep seeded gladness (we call joy) we become unsinkable. We might be constantly pushed down but we do not stay down.

Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8

⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Joy makes us unsinkable. We may be pressed on every side by troubles but they cannot crush us.

Joy makes us unsinkable. We are perplexed (or unsure of what is going on in our life) but it  cannot drive us to despair.

Joy makes us unsinkable. The world tries to destroy us, but God will never abandon us.

Joy makes us unsinkable. We get knocked down by disappointment and uncertainty, but it will not destroy us.

Joy makes us unsinkable. Suffering is going to find us but we know it only last for the moment.

Romans 5 tells us to rejoice when we run into problems and trials because we know deep in our heart that they will help us develop endurance. Endurance develops character, character strengthens our confidence in God. Paul is not telling us we have to be happy about it. Paul doesn’t tell us to put on a happy face and say everything is ok. Paul doesn’t say to fake your way through the pain, sorrow, trials, and perplexities of life.  There is a difference in joy and happiness. The Bible never teaches us to fake happiness and put on a religious show when things happen to us.

Happiness comes from the comfort of having the things that you want. Happiness happens when we have our comforts and things are going our way. Happiness is a counterfeit joy. Many think it is joy but it is not. Think of it this way, when a child gets what he/she wants they are happy. When you take away that thing that is bringing the happiness the child throws a fit.

Joy is a deep kind of rejoicing. When unhappy moments come in our life we can fall back on something deeper. That something deeper is the deep gladness in knowing (in my heart, mind, and soul) that I put my confidence in the God who is in control of my life.

I met with Nathan Harmon this week. This is the young man who spoke at our Championship Sunday a few weeks ago. I asked him, “ what does joy look like?”  He didn’t have words to describe it? He simply did this:

He basically said he had an unspeakable joy. He went onto say that you can’t explain it. I prodded him on. He finally said, “I know when things come my way and try to discourage me – I know that Christ is in me – he is not going to leave me or forsake me. I know my creditors are going to call. I know things are going to happen in my life that will try to take me down.  The joy I have comes from having a deep seeded relationship with Jesus. I understand  how much he loves me now.”

Joy comes when you put your confidence in the one who is in wise control of your life. Our confidence is not in the health of our bodies, it is not in the security of our jobs, it is not in our bank accounts – our confidence is in the hope of  salvation. This kind of hope will not lead to disappointment. Because I am saved and I know Christ, I am  confident that God is in control. Knowing that he is in control I have a deep seeded gladness that will not let me stay down.

In other words, we might constantly be being pushed down but we don’t stay down. We have a spiritual buoyancy that comes from  focusing on  the unchanging privileges we have in God.

• We have the privilege of forgiveness
• We have the privilege of mercy
• We have the privilege of compassion

Joy comes from focusing on the Blesser and not the blessing.

CS. Lewis says this, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Happiness is resting in the blessing and not the Blesser.

Joy is resting in the Blesser and not the blessing.

There is nothing wrong with the blessing and the pleasures we enjoy. What is wrong is what we put our focus on. My in-laws have been extremely generous to my family. They have taken us places I have only dreamed of going. Initially I felt guilty. But when I realized it was a tremendous gift from God, I began thanking and praising Him for the beautiful gift.

Look at what David says in Psalm 4:7

You have given me greater joy
than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.

Do you hear what David is saying? They only have joy when the harvest is good. To put in modern-day terms, they only have joy when the stock market is up and I have joy all the time. Their joy is in the stock market. My joy is in the one who owns all the wealth in the world and is going to give me everything I need.

David is focused on the Blesser!

When you are focused on the Blesser,  you understand the blessings and understand their place in you’re your life. The blessings you have and the pleasures you experience are just a tiny sample, or as Tim Keller puts it, a “DIM HINT”,  of the joy of the Lord.

 The deep seeded gladness of knowing the Blesser is in control of  your life.  You don’t live for the blessing – you live for the BLESSER.

I was tempted last night to simply read this poem as the message today. It sums up well everything that  has been said. If you would like a copy of it I will  need to get permission from her if it is okay to share with you. This was written by a 16-year-old girl who I have the pleasure of knowing. Her life was touched by some bad news this past week. Listen to her response to the bad news she received this week:

She wrote a poem  – It is called LIFT

Lift

Bad things happen

So they say

But in my world

they are a fantasy.

A fantasy I try to forget

A fantasy that’s not real

Hasn’t happened

Never will.

Then it becomes real

My heart sinks

Like boulder in the ocean

All the way down

To the tips of my toes

Making it hard

To lift my lips to smile

To lift my feet to walk

To lift my head to see.

Tears flow like a river

They try to lift the boulder.

Sometimes it does

Other times it doesn’t.

When will it go away?

When will it end?

With my head weighted down

I do the only thing I know to do.

When I can’t lift my lips to smile

When I can’t lift my feet to walk

When I can’t lift my head to see

I pray.

Jesus fills my soul

With an ocean of joy

Smashes the boulder

Takes it away.

I am overflowing joy.

I can lift my lips to smile

I can lift my feet to walk

I can lift my head to see.

Lifting is no longer a burden.

It is forever gone.