The Fruit of the Spirit - Joy!

The Fruit of the Spirit — Joy!

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“Cultivate the root and God will bring the fruit”, this is the theme of the series that we’re working through entitled “Sweet – Cultivating a Fruitful Life”. We started this series with “22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Gal 5:22-23 NIV). Today, we’re going to continue this series with a look at the characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit that is joy.

Let’s take a quick look at the definition of joy. I think that this definition will provide some clarity to the struggle we have for joy. Joy is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as “1 a: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires”. Understanding one’s desire is the key to this definition. We are conditioned by television, radio, the workplace, and with our friends to work toward our own selfish desires. Let me give you an example of this selfish desire.

When I was a kid, I traveled a fair bit. My travel was usually confined to a car, but if I were real lucky I’d be able to travel in an RV or cap-over-camper. There is one trip I can’t forget. Well, I could forget it if my family would let me. This trip was with my aunt, uncle, and three cousins. They came and picked me up from my house in Arizona to take me back to their place in Northern California. The excitement began to build as my uncle was packing the camper with all of our stuff. Since the cab of the truck could only hold two, or three if you were lucky, us kids got to ride in the back. Now, with kids in the back there wasn’t a bunch of room inside for all the luggage. No problem, my uncle quickly remedied the problem by tying all the luggage to the top with high quality rope purchased at K-Mart. The twenty­some-odd hour trip started with a bang and all was smooth sailing until we got to Los Angeles. As you might imagine all that luggage bouncing around for that many hours could really take a toll on that high quality rope.

Sure enough, as we were passing through LA, the luggage started to fall off the trailer and bounce down the freeway. I’m here to testify to the strength of Samsonite luggage. As it turned out, I was the only one to see the luggage fall off. Naturally, I did the smart and practical thing and started to ball my fool head off! It must have been miles (or so it seemed) before anyone in the camper with me could recognize that the only word I could utter was ‘luggage’. Finally, they ciphered my hysteria and got the truck pulled around so that we could go gather what might be left of the luggage.

When we finally arrived where the luggage had fallen off, only a single suitcase was left. Great! It wasn’t mine. At this moment, there was no joy in Bradville! I no longer possessed what I desired. This realization consumed me. It consumed me so much that I had forgotten I was on vacation. I had forgotten that I was actually on my way to Disneyland as a stop on the way to Northern California. My joy had turned to sorrow and I was consumed by it. I had lost control of my stuff and felt helpless, scared, and I lost those things that were closest to me at the moment.

You see, I think we’ve all been victims of tying our baggage to the top of our camper with cheap rope. We hope that this rope will maintain control in our lives and we’ll arrive at our destination still in possession of those things we desire. In fact, our world is set up to focus on those things we desire. We

desire success rather than significance. We desire power to control what isn’t ours to control. We desire to be loved so much that we’ll give up moral ground to achieve it. This continuous desire to satisfy our urges and attain joy causes us to give up our freedom.

We try to satisfy these urges in very unhealthy ways. We take away the pain that we feel through alcohol and drugs. We substitute real love for satisfaction of physical desire. We get caught in the moment and we’re not able to see the big picture.

Let me give you a few examples. As parents, we often times get caught in the moment of the kids not fulfilling our desires that we blow our top without remembering the joy we felt the day they were born. As kids, we often got angry at our parents for the rules around the house without realizing that the rules are often times for our own safety. As husband and wife, we get so angry with our spouses over not having our own desire met that we forget the joy of the wedding. We find ourselves strapping our desires to the top of the camper with flimsy rope and when it breaks; we’ve either got a mess to clean up or nothing at all.

Let me ask you; is this God’s will in your life? What is God’s will in your life in these and other circumstances? Let’s take a quick look at some scripture to see. We’ll be looking at 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18. However, before we dig into the scripture I’d like to provide a backdrop. This letter to the church in Thessalonica was written by Paul as an encouragement and urging to stay strong in their faith. The local community was diverse in culture and economic status with a population of about 200,000 – not unlike French Valley. Others had painted an unflattering and untrue picture of Paul and his faithfulness. These attacks called into question the validity of their leadership and really tugged at the resolve of the congregation. In the conclusion of this letter Paul provides the leaders of the church some final instructions. Please stand for the reading of scripture.Paul writes “12Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Here Paul describes for us what God’s will is in our lives for all circumstances. God’s will for our lives is to stop chasing our own desires and surrender the lordship of our lives to Christ. Through this surrender, we’ll have the proper perspective on desire. Our desire will be aligned with the desire of God and we’ll be able to have joy. God wants for us to have a true understanding for what has been provided to us through Christ that we’ll well up with joy, thanks, and prayer. This surrender bears the fruit of the Spirit. This is cultivating the root so that God can bring the fruit. We have a great example of this type of joy in the life of David.

I’d like to take you through a couple days of David’s life to show you how our proper perspective of our desires produces joy. We’ll be reading the sixth chapter of 2 Samuel. Before we read, I’d like to talk for a brief moment about the scene we’re going to look at. We’re going to read about David bringing the

ark back to Jerusalem. The ark had previously been captured by the Philistines during a war with Israel. The ark brought the Philistines lots of pain and sorrow through plagues and other calamities delivered by God. In an attempt to stop these horrible events, the Philistines put the ark on a cart and sent it back to Israel and left it in a field. It eventually ended up at the house of a man named Abinadab. Abinadab had three sons, two of which we’ll read about in the story and the third was the one that was asked to care for it. This scene picks up with David’s desire to rekindle his kingdom’s relationship with God.

Before reading the text, I’d like to visit David’s role a little bit so that we can really appreciate the complications in his life. We must remember that he was anointed king as the youngest son in his family. I suspect there was a lot of love there from his brothers. In addition, David’s life was full of potential distractions. After all, David had 5 Wives, 2 Brothers, 2 Sisters, 17 Sons, and had a 24/7 job as a king. I’m not sure how he does it, but with my minor brood of 2 kids I have a tough time being joyful on the way to the grocery store.

Let’s examine the text.

“1 David again brought together out of Israel chosen men, thirty thousand in all. 2 He and all his men set out from Baalah of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.

6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

8 Then David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah (which means outbreak against Uzzah).

9 David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?" 10 He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.

12 Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God. " So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed­Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

17 They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"

21 David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."

23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.”

As we read we get a picture of a man that loves the Lord with his priorities aligned with that of Gods. We can take three things from this text as it applies to the joy that is God’s will in our lives. This episode in David’s life shows us that we must put God first; we must share our faith and worship with others; and that we must continue to stay aligned with God.

David put God first. He was willing to sacrifice his own dignity to be with God. He puts off the duties of brother, husband, father, and king to do the will of God and rekindle the relationship that was once part of the kingdom. In fact, I think that his anger toward God, although improperly founded, shows us his true relationship with God. God longs for us to have a real and honest relationship with him. He knows our feelings before we have them. He simply wants to be included in our lives as our first priority. Not only does David put God first, but he demonstrates his faithfulness in front of others.

David grabbed 30,000 men for this journey. If you stacked 30,000 men shoulder to shoulder you could cover over four football fields. If they are clad in armor, there might be five football fields. Each and everyone looked to David for an example of how to behave. David was overwhelmed with joy and his ability to finally have the ark back in Jerusalem. Although he was shaken by the loss of Uzzah, he stuck with it and went back. I’m sure that those men were encouraged by his dedication to return. I believe that the reason he was able to share his faith with others was because he was right with God himself.

David worked on his relationship with the God. If you read the book of Psalms you hear him continue to cry out in prayer to understand God’s will in his life. He was a man after God’s heart and he trying to adjust his personal desire to be those of the Lord’s. He wasn’t perfect, neither are we, but God honored his desire to be aligned and blessed him. God has that promise for us too.

God’s will for us is to surrender completely to Christ so that we may be well aligned with His wishes and overflowing with joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. The world has got us backward. The sorrow we feel when we try to manufacture joy is because our priorities are all out of whack. We’ve bought into the worldview of joy. This view would have us concentrate on satisfying our own desires through substance, money, sex, or other means. If we have anything left over we’re encouraged by the world to share what we’ve got. And finally, when all our resources of time, money, and energy are tapped the world says to give whatever is remaining to God.

A smart lady in one of our small group studies on biblical financial principals once shared an acrostic for joy that I think summarizes how we can apply these principles in our lives. (J) Put Jesus First. (O) Love one another. (Y) Put your own selfish desires last. God’s desire for us is to submit to Him, worship Him, and serve Him.

As we’re working on root issues for God to bring the fruit, we’d be negligent not to mention that we need Christ for the Holy Spirit to indwell in us. The key to having the fruit of the Spirit is that we must first have the Spirit. Matthew 6:33 says“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” We don’t get the personality of God’s Spirit to live in us until we submit to Christ as our Savior. We need to confess our sins to Him, ask for forgiveness, and have faith that he died for our sins and was resurrected on the third day. He is alive today and wants a close personal relationship with us. Without that relationship, we can’t have the Spirit, let alone any fruit. If you haven’t made that commitment in your life up to this point, now is the time. We need the strong rope of Jesus Christ to keep our baggage on top of the camper. We don’t deserve forgiveness, and that is the power of grace. After we’ve submitted to Christ, the next key to having joy is to love one another.

Loving one another accomplishes a couple goals. The first goal is that it takes our focus off ourselves. When we love and serve others, we often have to sacrifice our own selfish desires. I’ve seen people in the dumps find a cause to support and do work for others as a way to revive their joy. In addition to taking the focus off ourselves, loving one another is a way to share Christ. In Matthew 22:39, Christ has commanded us to love each other. By loving one another we bear witness to Christ’s love for us.

Finally, we focus on ourselves. We give up our selfish desires by putting ourselves last. In fact, I think we grow tremendously in our faith when we put ourselves last and rely on God to provide. This is also a significant opportunity to cultivate the root. We must spend time in God’s word. We must use this step in the acrostic to marinate in God’s truth. Through Jesus, loving others, and working on our own walk with the Lord we can really be joyful.

In closing, I’d like to put this whole idea into perspective. God wants us to surrender to Christ so that we can be filled by the Holy Spirit and overflowing with fruit. I’d like for you to imagine with me for a moment that a loved one gave you a great gift. They purchased a single ticket for you to go out on a deep sea fishing excursion. If you don’t like fishing, bear with me.

You sneak out of the house at about 2am on a Saturday morning, leaving work and the stress of the family and yard or house work behind. You get to San Diego just in time, hop on the boat and start to

relax as the boat goes out to deeper water. By the time you no longer see land you’re really starting to enjoy yourself. No more worries, for now at least.

Then, out of the middle of nowhere there is an explosion on the boat. The explosion occurred on the other side of the boat and you find yourself paddling to keep your head above water. The captain, crew, and others are nowhere to be seen. You are all alone with nothing between you and the shore but miles of water. You finally realize that the boat didn’t have life jackets either. The thoughts start to dart through your mind, will I ever see my kids again, will I see my wife or husband, will they be okay without me? The worries that plague your week with work, finances, stress, and fatigue are no longer your concern. You paddle without any success. You’ve been at it for a great while. You’ve been swimming so long your arms are numb and your legs are all cramped up. You spend a few moments going up and down in the water to where your face goes under and panic sets in. You can’t swim any longer, your body is completely exhausted. Through the panic the realization of the end has poked through. You wrestle with the emotions of fear, pain, sorrow, and grief as you commit to one more burst of energy before you go under for good. You give up. Your body can’t do it anymore. You have just exhaled the last of your air on the way down.

All of a sudden you feel someone grab the collar of your shirt! You feel the quick tug upward. Do you feel it now? Do you feel the joy of having a second chance at life? Do you feel what is like to be rescued? By the time you get all the way into the boat, you lunge for the person that pulled you up to give them a hug. You’re overwhelmed with tears as you realize all the things that you’d do different, some of the things you would stop doing all together. You’ve been saved from certain death!

This feeling of being rescued is the joy that Paul is talking about. We’ve been saved from certain death by the price that was paid for us through Christ and nobody, and I mean nobody, can take that away. God’s will is our complete surrender to Him so that we can have this joy. Let's Pray