Fruit of the Spirit: Joy
Notes
Transcript
Intro Joy of Holy Spirit
Intro Joy of Holy Spirit
For the past several weeks we have been talking about the fruit the Holy Spirit brings to the life of believers. Thus it is called the fruit of the Spirit.
To often we call it the Fruits of the Spirit, but instead of many it is the one fruit that produces many different things.
And we have talked about so many of these different aspects of the fruit, so today lets talk about Joy.
What is Joy...
Joy can be defined many different ways....
The dictionary says joy is…a feeling of great pleasure and happiness… but so often that is define by circumstances and events in our life… But when those things are gone.. the joy a person has tends to leave.
So joy can be a very up and down emotion for many people. But the joy the Lord produces is different my friends… It is something The Lord is doing in us, not what we are doing..
So lets talk about God’s joy and the idea of the Fruit of the Spirit.
And in doing so I would introduce to you just a few thoughts about what the joy of God does for us...
1. The Holy Spirit brought Joy through the Messiah Prophecy
1. The Holy Spirit brought Joy through the Messiah Prophecy
Now think about the the people of the Old Testament while were joyful at times did not always have true contentment that only He could bring to the people. What would bring them true hope and true inner peace.. It would be Jesus.
Let me share with you Isa 9:2-3
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
_____________________
This passage is one of the prophecies given to the people about the coming of the Messiah, that one was coming who would change everything.
The love the contrast the Lord gives to those living in that time.. they are compared as people walking in darkness.
It was dark because the light of the world had not yet been introduced to the world, but they were waiting.. and now they had seen a great light.
The promise of God was about to be revealed for a child would be born...
And this light that has been shown to them, it has multiplied their joy...
Why? Lost in sin and helpless as a person, as a people and nation soon it would all change and their would be joy.
Now this ecstatic, happy, laughing joy, but a joy that leads to peace and tranquility. Why… help has arrived, they have been saved and delivered. No longer left to wrestle alone under the oppression of this world.
The joy thusly leads to an outward expression of the heart, they rejoice before you as they did at times of harvest and victory.
So the joy of the Lord leads to thankfulness..
Now we understand this passage is leading up to the messiah… they were to be glad, God had remembered their covenant and His people and was at work on their behalf.
Stop there and ask yourself, where you glad when you found the Savior? That joy wasn’t something you automatically produced, but it was God at work in you bringing out joy and most importantly praise for you had seen Jesus.
2. The Holy Spirit brought Joy to His Arrival....
2. The Holy Spirit brought Joy to His Arrival....
As Mary conceived and did indeed bring forth a son into the world we know that there was much joy with the news...
One such place when we think about joy was Elizabeth when met Mary her cousin, after the Lord has visited Mary.
Luke chatper 1: 41-45
42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Do you remember that after the Lord visited Mary she went to see her cousin Elizabeth who was about 6 months along, carrying the child who would be John the Baptist.
And when Mary entered her home ( remember Elizabeth did not know what God was doing her Mary’s life unti this day..)
But upon seeing here, Elizabeth rejoices and and even the baby in her womb leaped for joy.
They were both happy, (Elizabeth and her baby) and the greatest sight is the one who was prepared to usher in the messiah, make His path ways straight, he leaped for Joy even in His mothers womb.
He was filled with great joy, blessing and the truth that God was with them.
in both of these areas, the first thought with the Old Testament and now here in the New Testament in Luke chapter 1 there is joy for finaly there is hope, there can be peace and contentment.
No longer a struggle, no longer conquered but instead the truth of the gospel would ensure they conquered, that they overcame sin and shame. They would be no longer bound to sin..
But they would be free by God’s almightly hand of forgiveness.
To have you sin, your pentaly removed from you make you at peace...
It gives you joy for you are right with God, to know Him is to know the joy and peace He has
Now lets go back to Galatians 5 and look at it again
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
So after we are in Christ, this joy that is a portion of the Spirit is a wonderful treat from God.
The word Joy is the greek word Chara… and what is unique about this is the origin, it is not a worldly joy, but a God given joy and that is what Paul stresses through his teachings.
Paul constantly encouraged believer to rejoice in the Lord because of the joy they now possessed.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Now the root word for Joy, “char” and for grace are the same, so they are closely related ideas. There is a connection between them, so Paul knew that those who have experienced God’s saving grace and stood firm in the faith, they can continue to celebrate the Christian life as a festival of Joy.
Listen to this..
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
There was joy to abound by standing firm in the faith, not wavering.
And that is important, “without wavering” includes the idea of being steadfast, not doubting but also not being filled with anxiety and fear. Christian joy is there regardless of the outward circumstances and it helps us to grow.
James says what
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
So instead of worry, by thankful, rejoice in what God is producing in you through it all...
But we hardly ever feel that way because we grew up being conditioned by another way of thinking.
And as your faith grows, as you grow in your relationship with Jesus, you are also growing in your relationship with God and the Holy Spirit…
so faith growing, joy grows and your walk with God ( 3 three persons grows)
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Let me share this last thought with you...
Christian joy is marked by celebration and expectation of God’s ultimate victory over the powers of sin and darkness
, a victory actualized already in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who “for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Heb 12:2)
but now has been exalted to the right hand of the Father whence he will come in power and great glory. The joyful cry of the believer is “Maranatha!” “Lord, come quickly!”