Finding Joy - 1 Peter 1:3-5

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You know those people who are just naturally fun and happy to be around? They’re like the people who are always kind, and positive — and you can’t help but walk away feeling better after you’ve talked with them.

And then there are people at the other end of the spectrum — the ones who can find a problem with EVERYTHING? They’re always mad at somebody and they’re upset about something. And those are the people who you just walk away from feeling drained, right?

And then there are some people — like my wife — who says she’s happy and content… but you look at her and she’s got RBF — you know… Resting Baptist Face. In fact — this happens a lot when I’m preaching. And actually a few Sundays ago when I stepped off the platform she said something like, “Wow — I think that was one of the best sermons you’ve ever done.” … and I was like, “Well, could you tell your face!?” Like quit mean mugging me. When she gets old she’s not gonna have laugh lines… she’s gonna have a line right here on her nose where she’s always frowning.

Anyway — my point is — those people who are always uplifting, and encouraging, and just peaceful to be around… you know what they all have in common? It’s not that they’re always happy about everything. They have something deeper than that. They have joy. And there’s a difference between happiness and joy, right?

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Here’s the definition of happiness: A positive emotion that is temporary and dependent on external factors.

Examples of things that might make us happy:

Having a really good day at work where your co-workers behave and your boss isn’t a jerk.

The kids listening and getting along with each other all day (yeah, I know — that doesn’t happen often but we can dream, right?)

A really good coffee from Starbucks when they make it just right.

But what about when those things don’t go right? It can put you in a really crappy mood sometimes when you have those days where

Everybody at work’s off the chain and you wanna throat punch your supervisor, right?

Or when the kids have been yelling and screaming all day and if feels like you’re fighting for your life.

That person cut you off in traffic on the way to work AND your drink at Starbucks got messed up.

Happiness is a lot harder to come by in those situations, isn’t it?

So maybe happiness isn’t what we’re supposed to be chasing after all.

See, we’re not called to seek happiness. We’re called to live in joy.

JOY DEFINITION GRAPHIC

Here’s the definition of joy: A deep and abiding sense of gladness that comes from knowing and trusting God.

Big difference there, right? See — happiness depends on our circumstances, and we’re letting outside forces determine whether or not we’re going to be peaceful, and content, and in a good mood. But joy is rooted in the unchanging character of God — trusting in Him and in His promises.

And tonight I’d like to show you in Scripture where we’re told about what it means to be true people of joy. See — the Bible teaches us that real joy comes from our relationship with Christ — sustained by the Holy Spirit — and is really meant to be a defining mark of the Christian life.

So turn in your Bibles to the Book of 1st Peter — if you’re new to the Bible it’s in the New Testament… toward the back. We’re in Chapter 1, verses three through five. And as you’re turning there — tonight what we’re going to learn is how to combat the lie that many of us have believed … that our happiness is tied the stuff that goes on around us — and we’re going to see the truth of joy can truly transform our hearts.

See, Peter was writing to Christians who were suffering persecution and hardship because of their faith. They needed hope. They needed joy that could outlast their pain. And we do too.

Let’s take a look:

1 Peter 1:3–5 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

There are three things I notice in this passage:

A new birth

an inheritance

and a salvation.

Peter starts front-loading all these great things that have happened in a Christian’s life. But then… he hits us with this idea of suffering. Take a look at verse 6:

1 Peter 1:6 CSB

6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials

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Notice here it says you rejoice in “this”. So, what’s the “this”? It’s referring back to all those things we saw in verses 3, 4, and 5:

Great mercy

New birth

An inheritance that’s kept in Heaven for us

Being guarded by God’s power

Salvation

And we see the result of all of these things right there in verse 3:

1 Peter 1:3 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

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We receive a living hope. Despite all the things that happen — and all the difficult circumstances — and all the hard times, we’re called to rest in a living hope. And based on this — we can see three reasons why we can have joy in suffering.

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Christians in the room, we have

1. A new life and — what Scripture calls — an imperishable inheritance

The first thing Peter wants us to do is focus on the benefit we have as Christ followers. There’s something about focusing on our salvation at the same time as suffering that can bring joy into our hearts, right?

In fact, it makes me wonder… how many times do I sit down and just think about what God has done in my life? Like, it’s really easy when you’re a new Christian, right? Everything is great. You’re just walking around singing worship songs and saying “praise the Lord” every chance you get. And then… life happens, right?

You don’t get the job you were hoping for

Money is tight

You’ve got trouble at home

…and so on

And then, it’s really easy to slip back into old habits and ways of thinking.

But what if we really stopped and thought about what it meant — what if we really pondered on the gift of Salvation that God has given us?

Over in Philippians — that’s exactly what Paul calls for us to do.

Philippians 4:8 CSB

8 whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.

Whatever is true — honorable — just — pure — lovely — and commendable? I’m pretty sure what Jesus Christ did on the Cross fits the bill for that, right?

I have this friend — Scott — who is genuinely one of the most joyful people I know. And that seems crazy to me, because sometimes, from the outside — his life looks really hard. His wife has a chronic illness that can take her down for days or weeks at a time. And his son just recently started developing these really intense and painful migraines and Scott feels helpless, because there’s little he can do to make any of this better.

But at the same time — he and his family have so much joy. And they have this peace in knowing that no matter what happens, God is in control. They focus on the eternal instead of the challenge that’s in front of them.

And I have to ask myself — do I honestly have that kind of outlook when it comes to joy? Because my usual response is just to complain. Anybody else?

Peter also describes Salvation as an inheritance that is imperishable — undefiled — and unfading. Kept in Heaven for you. Meaning, it’s never going to fade away. God’s love — and His power — and His ability to keep you in His family never changes.

Your inheritance is kind of like a McDonald’s french fry. You know — you drop one of those things in between the seats in your car and you find it like three years later and it’s still exactly the same isn’t it? That thing’s never breaking down. It’s like if we have a nuclear apocalypse, the only things surviving are cockroaches and stuff off the McDonald’s dollar menu.

Your inheritance is imperishable — undefiled — and unfading. Nobody can take it from you. It’ll never corrode. When we think about what God has done in our life and what we’re looking forward to — that’s it!

That’s why we’ve got to keep all this stuff we deal with in perspective. Suffering in this life is awful. And for a lot of people, it’s even harder than we can imagine. But having an eternal perspective means that we recognize what God has done for us is far greater, right?

That doesn’t mean the bad stuff that happens to us is unimportant. It just means we have a different perspective. I mean, think about it like this: Our pain in this life may feel unbearable, but God bore our sins in Jesus Christ. Maybe there are times that we think we just can’t go on anymore, but then we remember that Jesus kept going unto death so that we can have a new and everlasting life. We don’t think that way out of guilt — we don’t say “Well, Jesus had it hard so I’m not allowed to complain…” NO — that’s a Jesus Juke. Don’t do that to yourself or anybody else. But again — it’s about perspective: reminding ourselves the eternal significance of what we’re going through.

The second thing Peter tells us about joy, is that we

2. Experience joy by focusing on what’s eternal.

Peter also tells us another way to find joy: by focusing on what’s eternal. Peter calls us to focus and rejoin in Salvation and to remember that our suffering is temporary. Look again at Verse 6:

1 Peter 1:6 CSB

6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials

Maybe that’s you right now — maybe you’re suffering through various trials. The problem that a lot of us face is that when we start focusing on all those things we’re going through — most of us focus inward and start focusing on ourselves. And that’s a natural reaction. But what Peter’s telling us here is that at a certain time we finally have to look up and realize what God has done for us. We focus on the eternal.

That’s the problem we face with looking at things through an eternal lens… we don’t understand eternity on this side of it. But in our suffering — God lifts our heads to remind us of the amazing things He’s done in saving us from our sin. And He thought of us and sent His Son to die in our place, so He could have a relationship with us. And may I challenge you church — if we took that perspective whenever we focused on the difficulties of this life — I wonder how our perception of suffering would change?

Paul says it like this:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 CSB

16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Let’s look at the third thing Peter tells us in our passage tonight. The third reason we suffer, is because

3. Suffering shows faith to be true

Look at verse 7 of this passage:

1 Peter 1:7 CSB

7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

See, this shows us that suffering has a purpose. It proves our faith. If our faith is never tested, then we might not know how strong it really is.

I’ve seen people go through really hard times — and sometimes they just crumble. Christians with weak faith tend to lose their faith when something bad happens. When there’s that earth-shattering diagnosis — or when they lose a loved one — or a job. And those things are important — they’re big deals — but when one of those things do happen, and your perception of the world gets shaken up — if you have weak faith — that’s when you fall away and you abandon everything you’ve believed.

But then I’ve seen other Christians go through these really awful things — and they continue to thrive. Not because things are perfect. Not because life is great. But because they’re focusing on the right thing. See, when we have strong faith, then we press into that and we persevere because we’re being tested.

As followers of Christ, we have to understand that hard times will come. These things that test our faith will happen. And we have the choice of responding with joy — not happiness — but true joy through our faith — or we can turn our back on our faith and allow those hard things to define who we are. And that forces us to ask ourselves some pretty hard questions, right? Like,

What happens when your child dies unexpectedly?

When you hear the words “it’s cancer”

When you lose your job

What happens to your faith then? You’ll either respond in faith — or a lack of faith will cause you to feel like none of this matters and that God has abandoned you. So then how do we find joy in that? In fact… if you’re in the midst of a trial right now… how do you find joy in this season of hurt or pain? Well, we begin by remembering that all suffering has a purpose. We might not be able to identify or even be able to put into words what that purpose is, but we know that all suffering has a purpose. In fact, we may never discover that purpose this side of Heaven. But faith tells us that’s okay. It helps us to learn that we don’t have to have all the answers, because we trust God. And that’s where our joy comes from.

That’s what Scripture says. Suffering produces endurance in our faith.

(Conclusion) So, then how do we find this joy?

How do we find joy if we’re in the middle of a trial. Maybe you’re in the middle of something so deep right now it feels like you don’t even know what to say to God. That’s a good time to return back to the Word of God. In fact, the Psalms are a great place to go to. Over a third of the Psalms written are complains to God. I mean, look at Psalm 69:

Psalm 69:1–4 CSB

1 Save me, God, for the water has risen to my neck. 2 I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing; I have come into deep water, and a flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. 4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me, are powerful. Though I did not steal, I must repay.

You can pray like this. Or you can even write those things down. There’s example after example.

This is an example of lamenting. A lament is a cry out to God, but there’s also a turn. There’s a confession of trusting in God. And so when we find ourselves in the middle of a trial, this is how we discover that joy. We don’t minimize the pain. We don’t just try to ignore it or shove it all down. That doesn’t work. We express is to God. And the beautiful thing about connecting with God like this in our lowest of lows — is that it fuels our praise of Him when we’re back on the mountaintop.

The 77th Psalm is a reflection of that. Look at what the Psalmist wrote:

Psalm 77:11–14 CSB

11 I will remember the Lord’s works; yes, I will remember your ancient wonders. 12 I will reflect on all you have done and meditate on your actions. 13 God, your way is holy. What god is great like God? 14 You are the God who works wonders; you revealed your strength among the peoples.

That’s what it looks like to have trust in God — even when things around you don’t make sense, amen?

Finally tonight — remember that Jesus knows your suffering — and know that HE is with you in the middle of it.

When we suffer — we can have faith in trusting that Jesus also knows our pain.

We can look to Jesus, because He also suffered.

When we feel betrayed and it hurts, we can remember that Jesus was also betrayed by Judas — one of His closest friends.

When we feel alone, we can remember that Jesus’ disciples left Him all alone.

When we lose a loved one — we remember that Jesus lost Lazarus — and He wept.

When we’re sick — we remember that Jesus knows what it feels like to feel terrible inside a human body.

And when we feel pain — we remember that Jesus knows excruciating pain.

This doesn’t mean our pain and suffering goes away — it just reminds us that we’re not alone in it.

Maybe you’re here tonight and all you know is the suffering — but you don’t necessarily know about the joy your salvation brings. If that’s you tonight — let me assure you — you don’t have to be perfect to come home to God. If you’ve never placed your trust and faith in a relationship with Jesus Christ — let tonight be that night. You don’t have to clean yourself or pray some perfect prayer. He’s just looking for honesty. Maybe that prayer looks like, “God — I can’t keep carrying this — but I’m believing that you can.” It doesn’t have to be eloquent… it just has to be real.

And if I’m being real with you — don’t misunderstand — surrendering your life to Jesus doesn’t mean everything will suddenly get easier. In fact, it might get even harder, because then you’ll start to experience spiritual attacks too. But — also have the promise that we never have to experience it alone again, amen?

One last thought about joy:

A couple weeks ago I placed a Starbucks order to for pickup through the app. And after I placed the order, it said it was going to be 20+ minutes before it was ready. And I thought, “That’s weird… must be a mistake with the app.” And so I get there, and I walk in — and it is like chaos in this place. The line of people waiting for their drinks is wrapped around the place like three times. People were mad and complaining. And so I stand there for a few minutes trying to get a lay of the land and to see how long it was actually gonna take to get my drink.

There are like four workers behind the counter — they’re all flustered, and sweating, and tripping over each other. I overheard one of them say it was the busiest they’d been since the holidays and then I overheard them tell another customer they were like 40 orders behind. And so I’m thinking “Well, I don’t have time to wait for this. I’ve gotta go.” But as I’m walking out, another girl comes in to work. And I gather that they’ve called her in because it’s so hectic. Now mind you, she looks to be significantly younger than the rest of the staff — but she doesn’t walk in with a panic. She comes in with a smile. And she kind of yells out to the entire room to give them just a few more minutes and they’ll get things under control.

And so before she even starts trying to make drinks, she starts organizing the orders that are all there ready for pickup — and she’s directing her co-workers on what to do next — and then she just jumps in. And she’s making drinks and taking phone calls — and dealing with angry customers. And within like ten minutes, she and the rest of the team knocked out those 40 orders and had people out the door. It was like mesmerizing to watch.

But what do you think would’ve happened if she approached that situation like the rest of her co-workers? What would’ve happened if she walked in — saw the mess — and immediately got flustered and overwhelmed like the rest of her team? It would’ve added to the chaos and just made the situation that much worse.

But instead — she came in with a different perspective: she recognized that this situation was temporary — and her attitude could cause it to have a much worse outcome — or a much better one.

Which outcome are you going to choose tonight?

Last thing — it’s this quote I love. Some of y’all have heard me say it before but it’s so good I’m gonna use it again:

Iverson Quote

“Misery might love company, but so does joy. And joy throws much better parties.”

— Bill Iverson

Church, we can find joy in all of our circumstances by focusing on the eternal hope of our Salvation — and that far outweighs any suffering we experience in this life.

PRAY