Thre Fruit of Joy
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
We are doing this series because it’s important for us to live out the values we call the Fruit of the Spirit.
Why? the world is desperately seeking all of these Fruit. They are looking for love… joy… peace…
They are looking for these, they just do not know how to find them because they are looking in all the wrong places.
The Fruit of the Spirit are things that we grow internally because we are “in Christ” and these are a by product of our relationship with Jesus.
Sunday, we looked at the fruit of love. And because of that, I hope that you have been more loving since.
Tonight we are going to look at Joy. Joy is not an extra. Joy is essential to our lives.
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
Check out Nehemiah.
10 And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”
The enemy knows that when you don’t have joy, you are weak, so he doesn’t want you to have joy.
Without Joy it’s a lot harder to handle pressure… difficulties… to face trials… there is no ease from the Holy Spirit.
Are you glad we serve a God of joy? Churches have ruined the Christian life with legalism and rigidity, but we serve a god who is full of joy. And Hw wants you to have a joy-filled life.
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!
We need to get our joy back into our lives. When we do, our life will look different and it will feel different because joy changes things.
We don’t want a joy that’s fake, fleeting or fragile, but one that is rooted in the fact that we have in us a living God and when we are in him, we are full of his joy.
11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
I want us to look at a story of lost joy and the restoration of that joy.
We are looking at the younger brother and the older brother who both lost their joy.
12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. 13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
1. Joy isn’t out there somewhere it’s right here
1. Joy isn’t out there somewhere it’s right here
He had this faulty thinking that if I can take what I have here, and go out there and buy whatever and do whatever, then I will I have joy. That still happens every day in our culture today. When we are not walking by the Spirit and we are allowing the flesh to lead us.
The flesh tells us that Joy is out there somewhere… next vacation… golf game… new car… new relationship… promotion … when we get enough money. It’s somewhere out there.
When we live like this immature boy, where we think joy is something we have to discover, we will lose sight of everything we have right now.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’ 20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
My prayer is that your kids… my child would wake up to the fact that joy is not out there, and they would go home… would come home to God through Jesus. Too many people have become caught up in the idea that joy is out there somewhere.
It’s like when a kid begs you for his new present at Christmas, and he just can’t live without it… then three weeks later (if that long) it’s in the bottom of the toy box. Because their friends at school have a newer toy and now they want that toy.
That’s how we can become. Even in our older years, we can stay immature as believers.
11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Joy comes from being in God’s presence. That’s where the fullness of joy is. If you are not full of joy today, I pray that you will come to your senses like this young man did and realize this is where the joy is with what is right here with you… your relationship with Jesus.
We can transfer our joy to a circumstance. When I have …. then I’ll have joy. Delayed joy is denied strength.
One lady could not have children and didn’t have joy because of that. She put her joy into being able to have a child. God showed her this verse.
1 “Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, you who have never been in labor. For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge your house; build an addition. Spread out your home, and spare no expense!
Get ready for the promise from God.
What is the issue you are in where you need to rejoice before the promise is fulfilled. We need to rejoice in the middle of the process.
22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.
Don’t wait on the miracle to rejoice.
Maybe you are in a season of financial need… maybe you feel empty…
17 Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, 18 I’m singing joyful praise to God. I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. 19 Counting on God’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I’m king of the mountain! (For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)
Maybe you need to do a cartwheel this week. Maybe things look bad out there, but we need to understand that our joy doesn’t come from out there, it comes from in here. If we need stuff to make us joyful, we are no different from the world. There joy is based on accumulating wealth and things. We need to have joy that pops out from the inside.
Why? Because we have come to our senses. They boy went home and we need to go home because the Father is in the house. We need a good joy in our homes.
What would it look like if we came to our sense and said, I’m not waiting on the promise to be fulfilled to have joy.
Who did you give your joy to? a job? a person? politician? stock market? news?
Joy is not external it’s internal so stop going out there looking for joy.
4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. 5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.
Look what James said,
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
How can we do this? We can do that because our joy is not in our circumstances, but in our relationship with God.
The younger son had to find out that joy was not out there… it was at home.
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
But the older son was still at home working like he was supposed to. He never enjoyed what he was toiling. Are you enjoying what you are doing? Don’t wait.
Why wait? I’ll enjoy it when I retire… you better enjoy life now.
We need to rejoice now…
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
The older brother did not rejoice…
Luke
2. Joy is to be released not reserved
2. Joy is to be released not reserved
We are not to keep the joy to ourselves. It needs to move from the inside to the outside.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’ 28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’ 31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’ ”
Comparison is a thief of joy.
You could have celebrated whenever you wanted… you chose not have joy and because you chose not to have joy, now you resent joy.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
if we could take a taste of your life, would we see that the Lord is good in your life? Would we see that joy is there? Joy changes the culture of your home. Joy changes the flavor of your home.
1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
That is a lot noisy joy. Joy is not quiet. It’s noisy.
Challenge for this week
Get up every morning and when you get your coffee, and also get you a cup of joy. Ask yourself, is this coming from the Lord? from joy? Am I filling the house with thanksgiving? If you wake up and do this, you will raise your level of Joy. How different would it be?
We need to model this for our kids and grandchildren. If we don’t they will go and search for it like the Prodigal did.
3. Never lose sight of the fact that you’re found.
3. Never lose sight of the fact that you’re found.
Look what the father said
32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’ ”
If you can’t find anything in the natural to give thanks about, here are a few.
If you are saved… if you are forgiven… if you can call Him your father… if you have received his grace and mercy…
The bible says,
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
We need to remember the joy of our salvation. We need to ask God to restore the joy of our salvation. Because Paul said…
22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We need to rejoice in that… we are forgiven and saved. I was lost and deserved damnation but he gave me grace. If you will focus on the joy of your salvation this week, it will rock your world in a good way.
He has done everything we will ever need.
7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
Prayer time…
Thank you for your salvation and I pray for those who need you to restore the joy of their salvation.
Help us to recount your goodness and that as we do that we will let that joy flood us and flow out of us. Give us your joy and let it flow through us.
Maybe you are like the prodigal son who has been out there, and you need to come home… pray this with me…
Sinners prayer.