Fruit of the Spirit - Joy

Introduction - Bible Reading - Galatians 5 v 16 - 26

Slide 1

I know that some of you were perhaps hoping that this morning’s sermon would be on patience - but you will just have to wait till next week for that - sorry.

No this morning our focus is on Joy. Where we find it and how the Holy Spirit grows it in us in any season of life - even in the face of some miserable pastoral humour.

But before we dig in this morning - let me just remind us of two crucial things in this series.

Firstly, the series is the Fruit (singular) of the Holy Spirit. In one way doing a week by week series is unhelpful because we think of each of them as different fruits - like a tree with apples and pears and oranges etc. It isn’t like that - all of these things combined are THE Fruit. So we can’t pick and choose. Not a pick n mix.

Secondly, this fruit - including joy - is not truly possible without the work of the Holy Spirit in our renewed hearts and minds.

That means that the joy - or any anything else we will speak of in this series is not possible to create on our own.

They are only possible - available to the person who has come to the very end of themselves - realised their need for a saviour - confessed their sins, called on the name of the Lord from the depth of their souls and in their brokenness thrown themselves on the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Only then will the Holy Spirit flood into our soul and begin - just begin the process of bringing life - and therefore fruit.

If we have not come to Jesus - not seeking to follow him - not clear on what it means to be a Christian - we may be very lovely people (you will be I am sure - but these spiritual fruits are not truly available to you). Slide 2

Cut Flowers - dead - but still beautiful - only trees that are alive - bear fruit.

It is the Holy Spirit that grows this fruit and so this series is not a moralistic - must do better - pull yourself up - stick a smile on your face set of sermons.

My hope is that as always - the life will come from deep within us as we see and we meditate and we delight in the beauty of our God - as we see more of Jesus Christ

- the one who so brilliantly and beautifully displayed all these spiritual fruits to perfection and in doing so showed us what it really means to be fully and truly human. Slide 3

Joy in the Wrong Place

How Joyful are we?

It may not have escaped your notice but the perception - the caricature - of Christians in our culture is not usually of a people filled with joy.

Now let’s be honest - that caricature is not always without merit - some of us may have joy it is just that we have forgotten to send the memo to our faces.

But I think that the caricature sticks mainly because as a group of people - as Christians - we actually don’t have a lot of joy.

I humbly want to suggest that we do not have joy the way we should because we - like most of the world outside - have confused joy with happiness and contentment. We are looking for joy in all the wrong places.

Slide 4

I am - I think - quite a bubbly person - an extrovert. I appear - I imagine to be quite joyful - a glass half full kind of guy etc. But I have come to appreciate over the last few months - that that is not the same as the spiritual fruit of joy. And that as my health and energy struggled - things I took for granted - I am not as joyful as I thought.

That is perhaps not surprising. Because for the Christian there is a war going on within us in this life. Slide 5

Galatians 5 v 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

We have two different motivational systems within us. A natural human spirit pulling us one way and the Holy Spirit - God’s own Spirit pulling us the other.

It is a battle - one that will rage in one way or another all the way home to heaven.

For the true believer - we have longings in our inner being to be loving and joyful and peace etc - we feel this battle very much at times. If you do not have these desires - no interest - no battle - thats a big problem.

So how does this battle work in relation to Joy? Doesn’t everyone want to be joyful?

Well, yes - the difference is what we look to, to give us joy. Slide 6

GK Chesterton famously wrote -

When people decide not to believe in God, they do not then worship nothing, they worship everything.

The Bible’s name for that is idolatry - and just in case you missed it - it is there in the list - v20.

So let me ask - whether you are a Christian or not - what is it that captures your heart, validates you - fills you with purpose and meaning - and joy.

There are a near endless list of things that promise us happiness and contentment and joy.

We know - or we should know - that sexual immorality - having an affair etc might bring us some excitement - validate our need to be desired - but it will end in disaster.

Lustful pleasures - porn will end in shame and often drag the user into darker and darker fantasies that can end in illegality. Drunkenness - fine till you wake up the next day…. I could go on - you get the point.

But for most Christians - including me - we look to things that are good in and of themselves to find our joy. We make a good thing - THE thing.

Our job/profession, our family, the success of our business, the security of our bank balance, our standing within the community - what people think of us. How well we preach, how the church is growing.

The problem with finding my joy in those things is that it is like a bar of soap. I think I have it - but then it is gone. How far up the ladder do I have to get before it is enough. How big a church? How much money? How many people have to like me?

And when things go wrong - our joy - our happiness disappears. Slide 7

Ecclesiastes 2 v 8 I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire! 9 So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. 10 Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labours. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

Those words come from Solomon - he had it all - everything good and bad that the world chases - and his conclusion is it is meaningless. If we follow the crowd - allow our natural human nature to rule - we will locate our joy in all the wrong places - and one day - perhaps many years from now - our idol will let us down - we will be exposed and any sense of joy will go with it. Slide 8

Joy Beyond our Circumstances

The promise of the Bible - for the Christian is that as the Holy Spirit works in our life - we can have joy regardless of the circumstances of our life - a joy that is much much deeper than happiness.

Perhaps the most amazing example of Joy in the Bible comes from a man called Paul - who wrote a sizeable chunk of the New Testament and in particular a letter written to the Philippian church - all about joy.

It is particularly surprising that his letter is about joy - because when he wrote it he was in prison in Rome.

Now - that is a hard place to be - in prison - especially since Nero was probably the Caesar at the time in Rome - and he was not a huge fan of Christians.

But let me take us a bit deeper. Paul was in Rome, because he wanted to get there. He had asked to be taken there and used his roman citizenship to get an audience in Rome. Paul was an incredibly effective communicator and orator - across many cities he had preached to hundreds if not thousands.

Finally he is in Rome - fill the amphitheatre - preach the Gospel - thats the plan - and here he is in prison - his ambitions, his hopes surely shattered.

His circumstances have changed drastically - and yet his joy did not diminish.

That is because his joy - was not based on his circumstances - or his success or his reputation. It was based not on things at all - but on Jesus Christ. Slide 9

Philippians 1 v 21 For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.

The beautiful, but very uncomfortable truth of the Bible is that growing the fruit of true, deep, joy often truly comes through reversals of fortune, through hardship.

It is a blessing to discover our idols - and to realise that they let us down - that they promise lasting joy but don’t deliver - they fail us and sometimes we need troubles to make us see it. Slide 10

James 1 v 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

This is completely counter cultural isn’t it - when troubles come - when life turns upside down - it is an opportunity for joy. Slide 11

Growing fruit is all about a farming/gardening metaphor - right? We have a plum tree in our garden - and all throughout the winter - Heather kept telling me to prune it. Cut back the dead branches. I did not. There have been no plums this year - the fruit has disappeared.

God prunes his people - it is really painful, incredibly humbling - but it is not done without purpose - it is to make us fruitful. This fruit - all of them - that we are looking at these weeks - more of them in us as a church and individuals is what matters. Might come through desperate hardship and trial. Slide 12

Jesus is the vine - connected to him life flows - Cling to Christ - Mastula from Uganda - Joy.

And I know that some of us here this morning feel like we have been pruned hard - life has been so difficult. Pain and loss and depression and hurt and brokenness……. We feel pressed in on every side…. Slide 13

2 Corinthians 4 v 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Joy In a Person - Jesus. Slide 14

The battle - the challenge - the call - is not to be better - but to seek every day to locate my joy, my identity, my life, my position in my relationship with the risen and alive Jesus.

To find my joy in what He says about me - in what He is making of me. Battle to do it. Meditate - every day - speak to Jesus - or we will forget.

It can be no coincidence surely - that the context of Galatians 5 comes after Paul has reminded his readers that nothing they can do will earn God’s love - and that through the gift of grace they have become God’s children.

We will be like him - we will be with Him - that is heaven (hell is to be without him - the one who is the joy of our soul - forever - please don’t let that be you).

Nothing - not angels or demons, not trouble or calamity, not persecution or hunger - not even death can separate us from Christ Jesus.

And get this dear Christian - fighting through tears and sadness and hardship.

Get this dear Christian tempted to find your joy in anything else…..

Jesus - God himself - sets his joy on you. You are His delight. The creator of the whole cosmos - the glory of the heavens - pure perfection - you - we - are his delight. Slide 15

Zephaniah 3 v 17 For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty saviour. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

He is the Father - running to his lost child - joyful they are home at last.

Even his sorrow - sits together with his joy.

Isaiah 53 - a man of sorrows - Luke 22 v 44 - in the garden before the cross - the agony and reversal of the cross - sweating drops of blood.

Why - for the joy that was set before him Hebrews 12 - Jesus endured the cross.

What is his joy? Us - His people. The joy of bringing his people home to be with him

Eternal Joy - untouchable - incorruptible - this life not all there is.