Silver Bells - Joy

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Song + Series Intro

I love that version of Silver Bells. It’s not the boring old Dean Martin version. It’s got all the ingredients of great Christmas Song....it has sleigh bells…which might be all it really takes...

But that one got you moving again, too! I can see it from up here.

I picked that song because I think it captures the mood we want to feel this time of year, doesn’t it? It just makes you feel good.

We’re in a series this month called Love’s Pure Light, as we prepare for Christmas. And we’re doing something new at Lifepoint this year: each week, we’re taking a major theme from the biblical storyline that reminds us what we’re actually celebrating!

Last week, we talked about HOPE, saying that if we hope only for the things IN this world, our hope will certainly end with this world—that we need to find our hope in something OUTSIDE this world—we said that when we find our hope in our vertical relationship with Jesus, we are liberated from demanding things from our horizontal relationships with those around us…demanding things they cannot possibly provide. If you missed that, you can check it out on our website or from wherever your get your podcasts!

This week, we are hitting our second major theme.

And if you have a bible with you, why don’t you open with me to New Testament book of Colossians.

Colossians 1 and we’ll be in vv. 9-14 today as we talk about: joy.

Introduction

And of the four themes we’re going to explore in this series: hope, joy, peace, and faith…I think Joy is the hardest one.

Not because it’s too esoteric…or philosophical…and it’s not because it’s too complicated of a word to unpack in a few short moments.

I think JOY is the hardest theme for us to understand because it’s its the easiest for us settle for a cheaper version of it. And there are many…many cheap versions of joy…some of which we buy into without even recognizing it.

We can think of Joy as happiness…a response to something good that’s happened to us.

We can think of Joy as pleasure…or what philosophers often call hedonism…and we can spend our lives chasing that which makes us feel good.

And yet, when we look at Colossians 1, we see that Paul introduces a very different idea of joy. It’s more than happiness…it’s more than pleasure…it’s more than euphoria and bliss.

And what we’ll see today is that it is the Christmas story itself that makes this kind of Joy accessible…and that the very message of Jesus is and ought to be experienced as “good news of great joy for all people.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me to Colossians 1:9-14. I’ll read the passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

Colossians 1:9–14 ESV

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

PRAY

Prayer-Producing Joy

Alright, let’s go ahead and get started.

I want to take a moment for us to notice how Paul starts this conversation about joy.

Look with me at v. 9 again.

Colossians 1:9 ESV

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Think back for a moment about what we talked about last week. Remember, Paul is writing to the church in the city of Colosse, which is in Modern Day Turkey. Paul didn’t start this church, he’s probably never been there, but he’s heard about it from his co-worker, Epaphras.

And so when he says in v. 9, “from the day we heard...” he’s talking about the day he first heard about this community of followers of Jesus.

And then he shares what he immediately started doing for this church…and I think it’s fascinating.

He doesn’t say, “We immediately jumped into financial funding for you…we have been sending leadership resources, preaching resources, kids materials, etc...”

No, Paul’s immediate and remarkably unceasing response to the news of this new church is…keep reading v. 9.... “…we have not ceased to pray for you...”

In other words, “we have not stopped coming before God on your behalf asking that these things would be increasingly true of you as you continue to share, show, and grow in the love of Jesus!

Now, keep in mind, Paul does not know these people. He doesn’t know the ins and outs of this community…he doesn’t know the specific things they’re wrestling with...

BUT

He does know what they need.

The same things every follower of Jesus needs…and so we can read this specific prayer for the Colossians and know that this is the same prayer Paul would have for us here at Lifepoint!

And listen, if we were going to do a whole series in Colossians we could spend weeks just on these few verses, exploring how rich and deep all these words are…but because we’re on a time crunch this is going feel a bit more like we’re running through the Louvre—that great Art Museum in Paris—with just a glance at masterpiece after masterpiece—all so that we can get to the Mona Lisa if even for only a few moments!

Look at what he says he’s praying for; and remember this is just as much for us as it was for the Colossians:

Colossians 1:9–11 ESV

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

That they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will…meaning that they would have both a sense of what God is doing in their lives and what He’s called them to do in the world around them...

That they would have all spiritual wisdom and understanding…meaning they’d have a sense of why God is doing what he’s doing and have the spiritual maturity to process what they are experiencing in this life...

That because of their wisdom and understanding, they would therefore walk in a manner worthy of the Lord…meaning that they would have as their chief aim and goal in this life to honor Jesus with all that they think say and do…

And that because of their newfound purpose in life, that they would find their faith in Jesus spills over into the works of their hands, while they engage vocations and communities finding that they bear fruit in every good work…are increasingly strengthened for the task at hand, not out of their own willpower but out of the God’s own glorious might...

And here it is…ALL OF THIS…so that they may have endurance in all things and patience in all things…with joy.

Friends, Paul knows nothing of this community. He doesn’t know the inns and outs of their daily struggles…but the mark of the Christian life he wants them to experience…what He is praying without ceasing for them is that they have lives marked by joy as the chief expression of their transformed lives in Jesus.

Joy.

I get asked sometimes about prayer requests. If you ever need a prompt to pray for someone…join Paul. You will never run out of people and churches for whom you can pray this prayer!

Human Condition: Confusing Joy

And now to the tricky piece...

What does he mean by joy?

Just like we walked about last week, JOY is one of those words we use a lot — specifically this time of year, right? You’ll see it on cards and signs, in lyrics.

And it’s not a meaningless word. We all have something in mind when use the word joy—some kind of feeling or experience we’re talking about. The truth is, everyone wants it. Everybody wants to have joy.

But how we make sense of JOY…of what it is…how it works…how we achieve it…profoundly matters for how we experience it. If we all want it, how do we get it?

How do we experience true, real, and lasting joy? And not just sing vaguely about it in the month of December...

Actually, I think the way talks about JOY here in this passage is incredibly helpful for us. Look again at v. 11.

Remember, this is part of his run-on sentence prayer...

Colossians 1:11 ESV

11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

Look at those words at the end: for all endurance and patience with joy.

These are not words we typically associate with joy, are they?

I don’t know about you, when I think of something I need to endure though, it’s not typically something I’m looking forward to. I’ve got a 10 hour drive to the beach in a couple of weeks with a child who has nothing but hatred in his heart for the carseat…and he will scream for almost every waking moment of that trip. I will have to endure through that...

You see what I mean?

The same idea with patience...

And it’s interesting when you look into both these words, in the original language of the New Testament, which is Greek, not english, we find they are very vivid words. To endure means to withstand under great pressure…and when it is used in the bible, it almost always has a negative connotation—that you are having to endure something evil. Social Theologian, Cultural Philosopher and Disco icon, Gloria Gaynor famously sung it this way:

“At first I was afraid, I was petrified Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong And I grew strong And I learned how to get along…I will survive!”

That’s exactly what Paul’s talking about with endurance!

And when you look at that word patiences you find that it’s actually made up of two greek words that essentially mean long suffering…meaning you’re waiting it out.

And again, these are not words we typically associate with joy, right? They do not speak of experiences we tend to have joy through! You endure through some of the hardest, most painful seasons of your life....you are patient through some of the most challenging, frustrating, or infuriating seasons of life…and here comes Paul with the audacity to pray that we would have joy in these?

Cheap Joy

And the more time I’ve spent mulling over this, the more I’ve started to see that we have a problem with joy. And I think it’s more complicated than just saying we choose counterfeit versions of joy…that we choose happiness…or we confuse joy with pleasure.

I know you can find lists that compare and contrast joy and happiness and they can be helpful…a lot of times I think it ends up being a game of semantics and just depends on how you define one or the other.

I think it’s more helpful to think of it this way: we tend to settle for for happiness…before it matures into joy.

Let me say it again, we tend to settle for happiness before it matures and develops into joy.

Here’s why that matters.

No matter how you want to define it, both HAPPINESS and JOY are talking about something we feel…something that feels good…that makes you feel full and content. It describes something that is going on in our hearts and minds connected to something we’re going through.

So, for example, you feel HAPPINESS when you get to spend time with a close friend. You feel happy when you listen to Christmas music…you feel happy when you get the Christmas present you want.

You experience happiness because things in this life.

It’s a feeling we want more of and so we chase it! We chase after it as an end in and of itself, giving ourselves to the pursuit of happiness, we will constantly be chasing for things that produce that feeling…we will chase after whatever we think will bring us the most happiness in a given moment.

And what limit is there on the things that can make us happy, at least for moment? Sure, money can’t buy you happiness…but it can buy a lot of things that may make you feel pretty good for while…really there are very few things we are willing to let get in the way of us feeling happy.

Isn’t this what we’re doing when we cut certain people out of our lives? Toxic people? Certainly there are people who you should distance yourself with, but do you see how dangerous it can become if you are the only who gets to define what makes someone toxic in your life? What’s the difference between a toxic person and someone who just gets in the way of your pursuit of happiness?

Isn’t the pursuit of happiness ultimately lurking behind the process of addiction? Coming back again and again to the same thing hoping it will produce once more that same high we once got? Not realizing that each hit demands more and more of us?

And this pursuit of happiness at all costs is plastered all over the place! It is the dominant narrative in our culture today that you should give yourself to the things that make you happy and bring you pleasure.

Let me prove it to you.

A few years ago I was visiting my wife’s family down in Georgia and we were watching the super bowl. And I really couldn’t care less about the game…just watching for the the commercials.

And one came on…it was a beer commercial for Michelob Ultra. And they had one of these motivational commercials where they’re trying to inspire people. I think the idea was like, “Hey you can persevere through hard things....go on and find the silver lining of the situation you find yourself in…make the best of it…get after the life you want!

And the tagline they had was: It’s only worth it if you enjoy it.

It’s still the tagline they still use today.

I’m sitting there watching this with my brother in law and I know the same thought immediately popped into our minds: that has to be one of the dumbest phrases I’ve ever heard! I mean, what a ridiculously awful, bankrupt, and ultimately hopeless idea! And that seems pretty obvious on face value…that this is absurd.

It’s only worth it if you enjoy it…I mean in what world is this actually helpful? What does this possibly offer to anyone in real seasons of pain? What does this offer to your experience with cancer? Death? A painful and, perhaps messy divorce?

So I hear the tagline and I’m like, “Dang, I need to write that down for a sermon!” And my brother-in-law looks at me and is like, ‘Are you serious? Like did you not actually hear what they just said?’”

And I was like, ‘No, you don’t understand. I want destroy that idea some day.’

Well, by God’s grace, today is that day.

See, the unavoidable truth is that something happens to us in our pursuit of happiness.

Because what we discover…in a never end quest to be happy is ultimately an inability to endure through real seasons of pain and hardship in this life. Seasons that ARE REAL…and WILL COME…

Because in the moment, those experiences through which we need to endure…those things that require long suffering do not make us happy.

You see, we so often settle for happiness. And when we settle, it fades. It doesn’t last. And then it leaves you powerless. It leaves you empty…if it’s true that “It’s Only Worth It If You Enjoy It...” than you will be left with nothing when the reality of life sets in.

Joy Pressure-Tested Happiness

But here is where we discover that Paul has something more than happiness in mind when he talks about joy.

Not necessarily different, but a feeling that matures.

I would define it this way: Joy is pressure-tested happiness.

Joy is pressure-tested happiness. In the same way that a Diamond is pressure-tested coal.

Joy is what we are able to look back and see being produced in our lives over the long haul because it is ultimately not rooted in the things and situations of this life. Joy is experienced throughout this life if, and only if, it is fixed out something outside of this life.

This means that you can look back and STILL HAVE JOY through the things that don’t make you happy.

You can have joy…not because of your cancer, but IN and THROUGH your cancer.

You can have joy…through your job change that rips the rug out from under you. You can have joy through your miss-carriage. You can have joy through your longing for a spouse…a child…or anything else you desire, because Christian Joy is not tied to the things OF this world, but it is tied to, located, and rooted in the one who is ABOVE this world!

Just like we talked about with Hope last week, if our joy is rooted to the things of this world, it will perish with this world…and we have settled for momentary happiness. Lasting Joy must be rooted in the one who is outside this world!

Experiencing Good News of Great Joy

And friends, Joy, is at the very center of the Christmas story, is it not?

You may remember the story we tell and retell in the church, year after year…the angels who appear to the shepherds and what they proclaim is that they have “Good News…of GREAT JOY…for ALL PEOPLE!”

The declaration that in the person and work of Jesus, the One who is God in the flesh…who has stepped down in this world…in our human history and human experience…to live the life we should have but failed to live…to die the death we should have died…and rose again with promise and hope of new life for any and all who would trust in HIM....the promise of the Gospel is an ultimate, final, lasting, true GREAT JOY!

This is Paul’s prayer request…that we would experience that joy!

The life Jesus promises and provides for us can be marked by TRUE JOY.

And do you see what that is so much better than happiness? Sure we can have immediate happiness…but over the long arch of our own stories, joy is so much sweeter, so much more powerful…and something we can experience as we endure…as we are patient! In the Gospel, we are liberated from demanding that our circumstances and horizontal relationships make us happy! We can find a true and last joy fixed in our vertical relationship with God.

How do we cultivate Joy?

How do we cultivate Joy? When we think of it as pressure teseted happiness, I think we’re helped.

The process of making a diamond. It takes a while. Joy does not mean we will always be happy. It does mean we can choose to believe that nothing we experience in this life will be wasted by God…and even if we can’t see it now, JOY allows us to hold on to the promise that He will work all things for good.

SPIRITUAL INTIMACY.