Untitled Sermon (4)

Sermon: Cultivating Joy in the Midst of Manufactured Desire

INTRODUCTION

A. [Look at research on depression/anxiety in our culture from Alex.]

B. Why have I told you all this?

a. Remember when are starting this series, we had just been looking at the journey to fiath that people have, and the key drivers of influences on this process.

b. The reason we started this series is because Tim found that a common thread in the research he did on people coming to faith is that non-Christian people saw the attraction of the fruit of the spirit at work in the lives of Christians around them.

c. We are living in a culture that seems to becoming more and more discontent, anxious and depressed. We have an incredible opportunities to be light and examples of joy in culture.

(1) It’s an opportunity for non-Christians to see a life giving joy that can only come from the gospel.

d. If we truly are able see this fruit of joy blossom in our lives, it will create such a stark contrast to so much of our culture here in the Sutherland Shire.

e. But the benefit is not only for non-Christians.

(1) We as Christians also get caught up in the stress and busyness of life and often miss the joy that’s promised to us in the Bible.

(2) ….

f. Fleshing out intro

g. The have the opportunity to show the nonchristians around this joy...

h. Dad's po8nt that joy is supposed to overflow out of us. When we have joy that defies our circumstances, joy where none should exist, that is evidence of the holy spirit being at work in our hearts. People notice these things.

i. Seeking to live out these fruit of the spirit, specifically joy, is actually how we can be missional in our everyday, ordinary life. That's we're striving for as a church, doing mission in the mundane

j.

k. Remember Paul talks about the war between the flesh, or our sinful nature, and the Spirit.

C.

1. Biblical Explanation and Definition

1.1. What is Biblical Joy

A. What is Paul talking about when he’s talking about joy here in the context of the fruit of the Spirit?

B. We all know what joy is.

a. Most of us will hopefully have experienced joy at some point in our lives. Maybe it’s enjoying a great meal with good friends, the birth of a child, a wedding

C. What is the joy that we are called to express?

a. A book that the preaching team has been using as we go through this series is called ‘Life on the Vine’ and I found that it gave a helpful definition of joy.

(1) Paraphrasing, it says we normally use joy to communicate an intense satisfaction, a sense of well-being and underlying contentment at having experienced something for which we longed for or deeply desired.

(2) The object of this longing and desire can of course vary, as can the depth and intensity of the subsequent joy.

b. One distinction that may be helpful to make is the difference between pleasure and joy.

(1) Eg Coffee is something pleasure (or so I’ve heard) or good music, but catching up over coffee with a close friend that you haven’t seen in long time might make you experience joy

c. [Insert definition of joy based on Jesus and future hope]

D. The joy that’s spoken about in the Bible I think is often very different to the type of joy or happiness that is spoken about more widely in our culture,

E. I thought it would be useful to spend a bit of time looking at the key differences that distinguish between worldly happiness and the Biblical joy that Paul is talking about as a fruit of the Spirit.

F. The first distinction is that biblical joy is possible in suffering.

a. In fact, joy in the midst of suffering is one of the hallmarks of Christian joy. It’s one of the greatest differences between the Christian idea of joy and worldly happiness.

b.

G. The first distinction is that biblical joy isn’t based on circumstance.

a. Secular society generally believes that our level of happiness is dependent on our circumstances.

(1) If the circumstances of our life are bad how could we possibly be happy? But this often turns into, if the circumstances of my life aren’t as good as the next person’s, how can I really happy?

(2) We have to ‘keep up’ in so many areas of life – in order to be truly happy, we need the latest devices and technology, we need the latest car, we need to the nice house with plenty of room in the backyard, we need a great family with happy kids, we need to find our soul mate, we need that the latest fashion to keep up, the newest beauty treatment, in our area we really need a boat, we need the beautiful holiday, we need to travel and see the world, to dine is fancy restaurants.

(3) These are the things that the world sees as necessary for happiness.

(4) Even if you’re not there yet right now, you at least to be working towards hitting some these goals, because if you’re not moving forward in these areas of your life, then you’ll be falling behind.

(5) Most of would have heard of the book ‘Eat Pray Love’.

(A) It was written in 2006 by Elizabeth Gilbert who after finding herself unhappy in a marriage, got divorced and left to travel the world for a year to travel around the world.

(B) The book details this year of travel and what she learnt.

(C) It was incredibly successful for an extended period of time, spending about 4 years on the New York Times Best Seller List.

(D) Here’s a quote from the book:

“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.

And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”

(E) This is so opposite to the Biblical idea of joy that Paul talks about.

H. Transition

a. Paul himself is a great demonstration of rejoicing suffering.

b. The extent of what Paul is going to suffer is alluded to in Acts 9 after Paul has his miraculous conversion. God says that Paul will be his chosen instrument to carry his name, but then also says “I will show him he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

c. Paul is going to have it bad.

d. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists for us some his suffering. It includes “great labours,… imprisonments with countless beatings often near death.

e. He says

(1) “24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

f. And yet this is the same man writing about joy in our passage today.

I.

2. How our Culture Inhibits Joy

2.1. Sub point

A. A

2.2. Entitlement

A. The entitlement of our culture:

B. For us in our culture, we just expect everything and everyone to work for us with nothing ever going wrong. It's our right to never be inconvenienced and and for things to run as they should.

C. If, for some terrible reason, things do go wrong, like a train being delayed, our child getting a crazed knee at school, the internet running slowing, a person cutting us off at the lights or the world cup stream not working, we think it some grevious wrong that has been committed against us.

D. We say, 'I would drive like that, or I would never be so negligent.' Well strap onto our high horse and write a complaint, most likely on social media so that everyone can join the collective outrage, and who knows, it may even go viral. Together we'll tear down whoever committed this heinous crime. I mean, come it's the 2018 - how is this still a problem. Perhaps we'll also consider suing then pants off that teacher who negligently let our child scrape their knee to cover the mental trauma caused. [google most ridiculous lawsuits]

E.

F. Now while I expect most of us here wouldn't get that extreme, there is a pervasive sense of entitlement that seeps into us through our culture.

G. We do expect in general that things will go right.

H. While there's not inherently wrong with wanted things to go smoothly, we easily fall into the trap of focussing 95% of our time pouring over the 5% of our day that didn't go right.

I. And I am so guilty of this. Sometimes it just feels good to hang on the the wrongs committed against us. For some reason, the outrage, anger and bitterness feels good. We like feeling superior to the other people around. We forget all the mistakes that we make and drill on the flaws of others.

J. And what's the effect of this? I think it actually breeds a deep discontentment in us. And if we let this attitude of discontentment deep into our thinking, I think it will inevitably start to squeeze the joy out of our lives.

K.

L.

M.

3. How to Cultivate Joy

3.1. Sub point

A. L

3.2. Future hope

A. I might be wrong here, but it seems like most people, regardless of whether they are Christians or not have a sense there something is not quite right in the world.

a. It might not seem obvious all the time, but there are times where the broken of the world is almost palpable; we can feel the wrongness.

(1) You feel it when you hear the stories in the news of children being abused, the vulnerable being taken advantage of by people in power. You feel it when a life is taken far too early and you lose a loved one. You feel it when relationships break down. You feel it when you hear of chemical weapon attacks overseas; when there’s no justice for the refugee. There’s injustice, conflict, famine, stress, volcanos, poverty, orphans, floods, disease, starvation, tragedy.

(2) We are surrounded by brokenness

b. It’s all well and good for me to sit here and preach joy from the pulpit, but it’s completely different when that brokenness hits close to home.

(1) I was don’t to trivialise suffering but saying “Don’t w

(2) As we said earlier, Christian joy shouldn’t ignore the suffering around us, but it

(3)

(4)

(5) Wrap up verses/passages

(6) From Keller:

4. What amazes me is even Ivan Karamazov knew that, and Ivan Karamazov, which you know if you read The Brothers Karamazov, was an unbeliever. Yet he understood something. He understood it very well, and he wrote this.

5. He says this in the novel. Of course he is a fictional character, but Dostoyevsky says this through him. He says, “I have a childlike conviction that the sufferings will be healed and smoothed over … and that ultimately, at the world’s finale, in the moment of eternal harmony, there will occur and be revealed something so precious that it will suffice for all hearts, to allay all indignation, to redeem all human villainy, all bloodshed; it will suffice not only to make forgiveness possible, but also to justify everything that has happened with men …”[1]

(1)

(2) Romans 8 (at least 18-25, maybe some extra stuff)

(3) Hebrews 12:2 and John 17:13 – Joy great enough to endure the cross and this is the joy that Christ gives to us through the Spirit. That is what enables us to have joy

(4) He’s a God that didn’t ignore our brokenness – no instead he came from heaven to walk with us in our brokenness and ultimately save us from it

(5) Jesus doesn’t trivialise our pain and suffering – story of Lazarus

(6) Could also mention Isaiah 65:17-25 or Rev 21:4

[1] Keller, T.J., 2013. The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.