Joy

Introduction:

I wanted to start out this sermon today a little differently.

I want to begin by asking a question and then working through these next 25 or 30 minutes getting to the answer.

My question is this: How do we have joy in this life no matter what our circumstances are?

It’s easy to say we are joyful when things are going our way, but how many of you can say that things don’t always go our way?

We looked last week at a passage in Hebrews 12:2 that says, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

How could Jesus be joyful knowing what was ahead of Him?

We are going to leave here today knowing that we can live a life of joy no matter what we are going through now or what we will experience in the days, weeks,months, ahead of us.

As we go through life we tend to loose focus of the bigger picture as we get caught up in our day-to-day schedules and to-do lists.

Many of us constantly have our minds on the here and now that we get lost in the small details of life.

I am finding it truer everyday that we live, and grow older, that soon we will all pass away into eternity.

As a pastor, I spend lots of time:

In the hospital with people who are about surgery.

Other times I spend time in the hospital with others who are struggling to stay alive or with families as their loved ones are passing away.

I have even met with people who had a terminal illness to plan their own service after they pass.

Of course, I have spent a lot of time with families whose loved one just passed away to be there with them and to help them in the grieving process.

There is one thing that is certain in life—we will all pass away into eternity.

We are all here now as we live our lives not knowing when God will call us home.

Not one of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

Since it is a fact that no matter what we go through in this life, how much money we save up, how many possessions we acquire, or how successful we are, that we will ALL experience a time when we move into eternity we should all have this on our minds—we all need to take time to look at the “Big Picture”.

This should NOT cause us to be fearful when we think of death, but it should be our reason to be joyful because death has been swallowed up in victory.

Charles Spurgeon said, “To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live.”

If dying is one thing that awaits us all but we know what awaits us, we can have joy through any temporary circumstance.

I love this beautiful word joy because it describes the way we feel in our spirit.

Joy is much more than a feeling or emotion, but much deeper.

The Bible refers to joy as a fruit of the Spirit.

True joy is only something that is produced from the Spirit.

Someone that is not born-again and does not have the Holy Spirit living in them, do not have true joy.

They may be happy for a time, but not truly joyful.

We, as Christians, have the opportunity to choose joy in any circumstance because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

If I have a fear of spiders, which I kinda do, I don’t have to talk my body into jumping back or feeling scared if I see a big spider or walking through a web.

My body just does that.

If you are afraid of snakes and you step over a log and a snake is sitting there, you don’t have to stop and say to yourself, “That there is a snake. I don’t like snakes with their long splendor bodies, the way they slither on the ground, and the way their tongue comes out.

I should probably be scared and jump back.

I should probably be afraid of this thing because he could bite me.

We don’t have to talk ourselves through these things. They just happen.

Our body reacts to the way we feel inside.

This is exactly how joy works.

We don’t just tell ourselves to be joyful.

If you are suffering loss or pain you cannot just say, “I will not be upset. Instead, I need to be joyful.”

It’s hard to be joyful through bad times.

However, we can make a decision to live a life of joy when our perspective is correct.

When we are focused on the Lord and eternity, we can live a life of joy.

If we are so caught up in our day-to-day activities we will loose focus of the big picture.

When we go on a trip we always have our destination in mind—What will it be like when we get there? Who will be there? I can’t wait to see what everything there looks like.”

When we are on the journey we still experience things like the kids fighting in the car, pulling over to get gas or use the restroom, or troubles that happen along the way, but those things cannot take your focus from the fact that when we are going through this but the end is near.

When our trip gets to seem long of worrisome we can remind our self about the destination.

We are all on a journey to eternity.

For some of us the journey may be short and for some it may be long.

Now matter how the journey looks for us one thing is certain—our journey will end at some point.

As Christians, we can remind ourselves that we are on our way to a place far greater than where we are now.

Our destination will be a place much better than any place we have ever visited.

We can have joy knowing that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18.

No matter what we may go through now, it will soon be gone.

What is Joy:

Joy is defined by the world, in Websters Dictionary, as an emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.

The world says that joy comes from success or gaining possessions.

So, if you do not achieve these things then you cannot experience joy.

The Biblical definition of joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with inner contentment and satisfaction, because we know that God will use these experiences to accomplish His work in and through our lives.

Paul said in Philippians that he has learned to be content in all situations. .”

James 1:2–4 NIV

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The world says that we can have joy when things go our way, but James tells that we should be joyful when we go through hard times because it produces perseverance in us.

The more that we practice choosing joy, it will naturally flow from us.

For example, everything seems to be going good for you in life and you get called in by your boss to tell you that you are getting laid off from your job.

You can either begin to worry about what will happen or you can ask yourself, “How is God going to come through this time? How is the Lord going to work this one out?”

You can have joy even when things are bad because your Father has your back and when we get through this you will be much stronger.

2 Chronicles 20:20–30 NIV

20 Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” 21 After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” 22 As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 23 The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 24 When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped. 25 So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it. 26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, where they praised the Lord. This is why it is called the Valley of Berakah to this day. 27 Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the Lord had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies. 28 They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the Lord with harps and lyres and trumpets. 29 The fear of God came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. 30 And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

Many times throughout the Old Testament joy was a result of the victory that God gave the Israelites at different times over their enemies.

We see here with the Israelites under the leadership of King Jehoshaphat getting word of this great army coming against them.

He did get so worried and scared and start panicking, but the entire nation prayed, fasted, and looked to the Lord.

God answered and told them to not be afraid or discouraged because the battle is the Lord’s and not their’s.

Do you think at that time you could find joy instead of worrying?

I sure do.

They obeyed God, He defeated their enemies, and they returned to Jerusalem joyfully.

Church, we have victory over our enemy.

We have every reason to be filled constantly with joy.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends the 72 out and they come back to Him with JOY saying, “Even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Jesus answers by saying, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven.”

If your joy is based on temporal things then your joy will be taken away at some point.

Your source of joy cannot be the fruit of your circumstances, but the fruit of the spirit.

Our joy needs to be rooted in the fact that God has given us victory over our death, hell, and the grave.

Our joy needs to be based on the fact that our name is written in Heaven through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and we have the power to overcome every evil spirit that tries to rise above the Lord’s will.

To answer our question at the beginning, we can have joy through life no matter what our circumstance is because we the Lord is for you and has defeated your enemies in the past of has defeated your enemies in the future.

We have a reason to have joy today.