A Christians Joy

Me

I don’t know if you have noticed, but there are two things that are spoken about this time of year perhaps more than the rest of the year combined.

If you scroll through your social media this month you’ll notice many people are writing about what they are thankful for, and that makes sense as thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, but another word that we are about to be flooded with is the word Joy.

I hope you’ll forgive me for speaking about Christmas, if even in passing before thanksgiving, but it occurs to me that Christmas songs or Christmas Carols often proclaim the topic of this mornings lesson.

JOY to the world! The Lord is Come Let Earth receive her king!

Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled! Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies;

God rest you merry, gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our Savior Was born on Christmas Day; To save us all from Satan's power When we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy!

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,

You are welcome for me putting those Christmas songs into your head this early, I told Shambra the other day that I was feeling in the Christmas spirit uncharacteristically early this year.

But once again this morning I find myself wondering if we really understand what the word “Joy” means, especially as it relates to Christian Joy.

I mean I know that I’m supposed to be joyful, I’ve read enough scripture to know that, I know that I’m to rejoice in the Lord always, I know all that. But when I look around the world I don’t find a whole lot to be happy about, at least not all the time.

But I don’t know about you,

Life can be hard, it can be cruel, it can unfair, unjust, and often just terrible.

I mean we watch the news and schools are being shot up. People are drinking and driving and killing entire families. Children are being abused. And even if that isn’t happening directly to us there are things that affect us.

Those we love get cancer, they have health issues, they get sick, they are suffering, they are dying, Some here in our own community don’t know where they will be sleeping the next day or where their next meal will come from.

Church I often times find it extremely hard to be Happy in those circumstances. In fact there are days when my heart aches knowing the troubles and trials of my neighbors, or knowing that a family member is suffering with bad health and I bet I’m not the only one, I bet you do to.

This world can be a painful place. So when we ready scriptures about how we should be joyful and rejoicing, we can often times feel like something is missing from our spiritual lives.

We

How is it that we can live in this broken world, surrounded by sorrow and pain and REJOICE?! How can I look at a child who is dying with some terminal illness and be joyful? There seems to be some tension there that we need to discuss this morning.

Because it’s absolutely true that Joy ought to be in the life of a Christian. Among the fruit of the spirit listed in it is listed second behind Love.

Isaiah prophesied of a time to come in

Isaiah 51:11 ESV

11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

And as we mentioned earlier with those Christmas songs, the proclamation of Christs birth is riddled with the announcement of the Joy Jesus would bring

Luke 2:8–10 ESV

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Luke 2:8-

Luke 1:46–47 ESV

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

So what are we to do with this Christian Joy in the midst of a dark world?

Well first we need to carefully define what Joy is and what it is not according to God’s word.

God

You see, the issue that I think we often run into is that we all too often want to combine Joy with happiness, and we need to stop associating them as one and the same.

Happiness - is of course the state of being happy, and is therefore an emotion.

Hopefully, all of you know what it means to be happy, I pray that you’ve experienced at least once in your life. And usually happiness results in another emotion, Joy. Many of you likely remember running to the Thanksgiving table when the food was ready and feeling happy that it is finally time to eat, or maybe you ran to open the presents under the tree on Christmas morning and felt that thrill of happiness surge through you.

But what I want you to realize this morning is that happiness is different from Joy in one key way. Happiness is directly related to what is happening to you. Happiness relies on happenings, situations that we find ourselves in and our perceptions of those situations.

There is no happiness in sitting in a hospital room and receiving the news that you or a loved one has cancer.

There is no happiness in the knock at the door at midnight when a state trooper tells a mother that her son was killed in an accident.

There is no happiness when we turn on the television and hear of a mass murder event.

These happenings, carry no happiness.

And brothers and sisters, we shouldn’t be so thoughtless to believe that they do because we don’t understand what Joy is and what it is not.

We need to be careful with our words when we approach morning families.

“He’s in a better place now.” “God needed him”

Yes we are to have joy, yes we are to rejoice, but that needs to be contextualized and processed in our faith and hope in Christ, not as happiness in all situations.

Joy - is different from happiness in that it is not determined and does not rely upon what is happening to us. Instead Joy is something we choose to have regardless of any situation we find ourselves in.

Perhaps the best example of this Pauls letter to the Philippians. In these

Why can Paul have this Joy in such a situation?

1 Thessalonians 5:8 ESV

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

1 Thess

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

2 Corinthians 7:4 ESV

4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

2 Corinthians 6:4 ESV

4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,

2 Cor 6: