Joy | September 17th, 2023
Call To Worship: Psalm 106.1-3
Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise him enough? There is joy for those who deal justly with others and always do what is right.____________________________
Holy Harvest: Fruits of the Spirit
Joy
John 15.9-11
CPCC 9.17.23
Big Idea: Joy is both personal and communal.
ACKNOWLEDGE SHELLY HENDERSON’S MOM'S HANDMADE BANNER OF THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT.
INTRO: In 2013, a brass plaque appeared on a park bench in North London. It read: “In memory of Roger Bucklesby who hated this park and everyone in it.”
[SHOW PIC]
Most people who saw this plaque probably thought that Roger Bucklesby was a grouch, a man without joy. Pictures of this park bench exploded on Social Media. People wanted to know why Roger was so mean. Why did he hate everyone? Others could not believe that someone would pay the £800 fee for a bench plaque to such a joyless man?
It turns out they didn’t. Roger Bucklesby is a fictitious character created by author Jamie Matlin, who, as a joke, illegally attached the plaque on a Primrose Hill bench to, in his words, “Have a giggle.” While the humorous plaque brought many smiles, it also brought masses of people to the quiet little park. Posting pictures of the Bucklesby plaque became too popular, so it was removed. No more joy from a bench honoring a character without joy.
Today we are looking at JOY, the second Fruit of the Spirit from the Apostle Paul’s list in Galatians 5.22-23.
As I was preparing this morning’s sermon, I realized that Joy has been a frequent topic of many of my sermons. It makes sense biblically as Joy is found throughout the Old Testament. In the opening of the New Testament, the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, brings great joy to all people! Later in the Gospels, Jesus talks about giving His joy to all His followers.
Last week we looked at the first fruit, Love, and I said that the Fruits of the Spirit are a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit to transform our character to reflect Jesus character.
Joy is part of Jesus’ character.
I want to ask you an important personal question: Are you Joy-Filled?
Not joyful, but Joy Filled?
How can you tell the difference?
Joy should be part of your life everyday as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Joy should carry you through good times and not so good times.
Joy is the result of Jesus’ incredible love for you.
Followers of Jesus experience this Fruit of the Spirit as delight, gladness, cheerfulness, contentment, or calm delight. Joy from the Holy Spirit carries us through the day no matter what is happening to us or around us. Regularly experiencing these emotions is what it means to be Joy-Filled.
So how do you live a Joy-filled life? Not alone.
Followers of Jesus Christ experience Joy-filled living in two ways: in personal discipleship and in community fellowship… and here is the most important thing about this, we are meant to live out both at the same time.
Let’s look at the personal joy first. This is the one we have talked about the most.
READ: John 15.9-11
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
As with all the Fruits of the Spirit, obedience to God’s ways produces more fruit in our lives. Key to experiencing the blessing these gifts bring is the first fruit: love. I talked about this extensively in last week’s sermon. If you missed it is online on our YouTube page. Go back and watch it because without loving others as God loves us, we cannot experience the remaining gifts of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
For the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the distinguishing factor of Jesus’ followers were two qualities: Love & Joy.
Without God’ love, there would not be joy. Of course every human experiences times of love and joy, but lasting, life altering joy is different. It is supernatural because it is a gift from the Holy Spirit.
Joy is a natural part of God’s plan for our lives as Christians. It is not an optional upgrade to our faith.
The key to experiencing God’s joy is remaining in Jesus’ love and following His ways: Love God. Love others.
When we take our eyes off of Jesus and His teaching, then we are like Peter when He stepped out of His boat to join Jesus on the water, yet sank because he took His eyes off Jesus and let his situation override his faith.
Nehemiah 8.10 declares: The Joy of the Lord is our Strength!
Joy is not diminished when we face difficulties or trials. Joy is not something that we constantly have to earn from God. It is given to us when we come to faith to change and empower us to think, act, feel and be like Jesus. If you don’t know Joy, you don’t know Jesus.
If you are not God’s joy, ask yourself: “What is robbing me of my joy?’
Have you filled your life with distractions that you hope will bring you pleasure but are not working? Get rid of them and seek Christ.
Are external pressures robbing you of internal joy? Focus on Jesus’ promises to you. John 15.11 “You will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
The second part of living a Joy-filled life is in community, specifically the Church.
Theologian and Pastor Jonathan Edwards helped spark the American Great Awakening to God. As Edwards studied Scripture in the mid 1700’s, he learned something vitally important about God that changed his preaching, and as a result, brought on revival in colonial America. In his work, The End For Which God Created the World, Edwards wrote:
The whole of God’s internal good and glory consists in three things: his infinite knowledge, his infinite holiness, and his infinite joy.
We shouldn’t be surprised by the first two findings: God’s infinite knowledge and holiness, but how many of us consider God’s infinite joy to be equally important?
1 Chronicles 16.27 Honor and majesty surround him; strength and joy fill his dwelling.
Luke 15:10 I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
1 Thessalonians 1.6 So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord.
God is a Joy giving, Joy loving God… and our lives as followers of Jesus are to reflect God’s joy.
So, if God is a God of Joy, and Christians are filled with Godly Joy, what should our churches reflect when we gather together for fellowship and worship?
The Church should be filled with Joy because the people in the Church are filled with joy.
So how come so many people outside of the Church think Church is the last place they will experience Joy, or anything else worth experiencing?
In his book, Happy Church, Presbyterian Pastor and scholar Tim McConnell makes a fascinating, and convicting point that, “The Church’s influence on the world depends on it’s joy” (Repeat)
He writes that the tragedy in many churches comes when a church; meaning the members, forget why they do the things they do. They often fall into patterns of behavior that go unnoticed. Things like worship and fellowship become dead rituals and meaningless habits of empty ceremonialism. In other words, they have lost their joy.
I imagine this is what most non-church critics have experienced and want to avoid.
Dr. McConnell makes the argument that Jesus’ church should be filled with joy in everything they do because God wants His Church to be filled with Joy as He is filled with Joy!
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”
It begs the question, “Are we taking our personal and communal joy seriously?”
I have been a pastor long enough to know that a Church without joy cannot last.
Think about it. Would you come to church if you walked into our sanctuary, nobody said hello or acknowledged each other. People argued and didn’t get along. The messages from the pulpit only focused on how terrible everyone was and never spoke of the love or Joy of God? Most people would be out the door as fast as they could and never come back. Praise God that is not the case here…but it is in many churches. Division, stubbornness, quarrels, dead rituals and traditions have put many churches on life support from which they will not recover. You know who likes those kind of churches? Satan. Certainly not people seeking God.
Of course, I just described an extreme example. What happens when a once thriving church experiences crisis and loses its joy and gets stuck?
Just before Paul writes about the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, he writes a tearful plea to the Galatians in chapter 4. Paul planted the church at Galatia. He loves the people there and they loved him. But after Paul leaves, the church members get tricked by false teachers into thinking the way to please God was through certain rituals and traditions. The false teachers turn the people against Paul and his teachings. They became a church without truth and joy. Listen to Paul’s plea to them:
Galatians 4.8-16
Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. 9 So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? 10 You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. 11 I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing. 12 Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles—free from those laws.
You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. 13 Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News. 14 But even though my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible. 16 Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth?
The truth is, without Jesus’ love and joy, the church becomes a bitter club serving only itself.
ILLUS: When our denomination was still new, I was asked to be part of a three-person task force to investigate claims and help a very large church that was in crisis. From the outside, this church seemed to have it all. It was the largest church in the Presbytery by far. Huge staff. Huge campus that was finishing a massive campus remodel. Multiple services and worship styles. It had been a thriving, attraction church…until it wasn’t. I won’t go into detail, but several leadership decisions were causing a great deal of division and mistrust among the staff that spilled out into the congregation. There was no sexual misconduct or financial misappropriation, praise God, but there was a great deal of hurt and mistrust between staff and leadership.
So our little team came in. For several months we interviewed every staff member, employee, and several church members. What we discovered was the pastor was actual in the process of creating an independent church and slowly trying to create loyalty among a group of staff members and church families. It was a highly device move. There was nothing illegal in what he was doing, in fact, if done well, he could have announced that he was planting a church and invited a percentage of the members to join him in creating a new church. Instead, this pastor lied to us and his leadership about his intentions and instead, ended up splitting the church and planting a new church a few blocks away.
The move took a devastating toll on the congregation. There was little joy as friends became estranged from each other as sides were drawn. Half the staff and almost half the congregation left to join the pastor who created an independent church. No denominational oversight. He and his board made all the decisions. For almost a year, the church limped on. People left for more vibrant churches.
Then they hired a new pastor. We invited him to be part of our Pastor small group and I got to know him. It was hard to be the one responsible for healing the wounds of the split, while also creating a new vision to move forward. But my friend did it. It took time, but he focused on bringing healing and joy back to the people of the church. They spent a lot of time in fellowship and worship and creating a place where people would want to invite their friends to join them.
Today, they are still short of the membership they once were, but they are healthy and growing, and more importantly, experiencing the joy of the Lord in their worship and in all their gatherings.
Friends, godly joy is a powerful force.
Psalm 30.11-12
You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!
A church with joy can be a powerful witness for Jesus no matter what their size may be.
ILLUS: A recent survey asked Millennials (25-40 y/o) about their perception of God and the Church. Nearly all considered themselves spiritual, though most of them have never been to Church. Many felt the Christian Church is boring, oppressive, and a joyless institution. Where are they getting that impression if they have never been inside a Church?
Hopefully, not from us!
We as Jesus’ Church and followers were created to be Joy-filled vessels overflowing with God’s joy!
So I want you to make it your goal this week to be Joy-filled.
How do you do this?
I’m going to share two verses with you, one each from the Old and New Testaments. Meditate on them and use them this week to guide you towards real, lasting, godly Joy.
Psalm 100
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
1 Thessalonians 5.16-18
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Living out these verses will help transform your character to reflect Jesus’ character.
Being Joy-filled is a journey of inner peace and trust in Jesus. It is giving God permission to shape your attitude to change you to always be full of joy in the Lord, no matter what your situation may be.
Remember this: Nobody wants to leave a legacy like Roger Bucklesby. By living a Joy-filled life, maybe one day you will have a plaque on a bench on Fiscalini Ranch that says, “In memory of (Your name) who loved this community and everyone in it.”
That’s the difference Joy-filled living makes!
PRAY
Psalm 118.22 says: The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. 24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Help us to live as a reflection of your love and joy this week. May others see us and see you. May our joy for you become contagious. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen
BENEDICTION John 15.10-11 This is a reminder from Jesus
When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
HYMNS
Opening:
#317 Crown Him With Many Crowns v.1-3
#426 Blessed Assurance v.1-3
Closing Hymn
#59 Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee v.1- 4