Sermon Tone Analysis

Doing This Increases Christ’s Joy

Author Dane Ortlund quotes Thomas Goodwin’s statement, “Christ’s own joy, comfort, happiness, and glory are increased … by his showing grace and mercy, in pardoning, relieving, and comforting his members here on earth.”

Ortlund then gave the following illustration:

A compassionate doctor has traveled deep into the jungle to provide medical care to a primitive tribe afflicted with a contagious disease.

He has had his medical equipment flown in.

He has correctly diagnosed the problem, and the antibiotics are prepared and available.

He is independently wealthy and has no need of any kind of financial compensation.

But as he seeks to provide care, those who are afflicted refuse the care.

They want to take care of themselves.

They want to heal on their own terms.

Finally, a few brave young men step forward to receive the care being freely provided.

What does the doctor feel?

Joy.

His joy increases to the degree that the sick come to him for help and healing.

It’s the whole reason he came.

So, with us, and so with Christ.

He does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness.

That’s the whole point.

It’s what he came to heal.

Joy according to the Bible writers is rooted in God and what He has done for His people in general and his people in particular.

Have you ever lost your joy for a time?

Note: Joy is a marker of the people of God both individually and corporately.

Joy as a Feeling

Note: Joy can be a feeling: called forth by well-being, success, or good fortune.

A person automatically experiences it because of certain favorable circumstances.

It cannot be commanded or forced on someone.

Matthew 18:13 “the shepherd who looks for the one lost sheep and rejoices over it once it is found.”

This is a picture of rejoicing over the lost who come to Chirst.

Luke 24:52 “And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”

This was after the resurrection and ascension.

Luke 19:7 the author of revelation exhorts his audience by saying, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him the glory; the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come.

Joy as an Action

Note: Joy can be an Action: There is a sense of joy that can be engaged regardless of how someone feels.

For example James 1:2 tells us to “consider it all joy when you face trials.”

Philippians 4:4 commands us to, “rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice.”

This is a command detached from feelings.

Galatians 5:22 the fruit of the spirit reveals that joy in adverse circumstances is only possible as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, who is presented to every Christian.

Remember that the angels declared, “Fear not for I am with you, and I bring you good news of Great Joy that will be for all people.”

Hebrews 12:2 uses joy for the state which Christ saw would be his at the right hand of God and which made him willing to endure the cross.

Joy as Victory

Rejoice, Exult, gloat.

Rejoice, based in a victory that God has won or will win; gloat maliciously at the defeat or trouble of an enemy.

The verb describes the joy that stems from a victory or gloating at the defeat of enemies.

This can be gladness because of victory brought by God to his people as a whole or to an individual, as in the story of Hannah.

When Hannah finally received her child Samuel, she rejoiced in God who has now blessed her with a child, and she will no longer suffer mockery from Elkanah’s other wife.

WHAT IS THE JOY OF THE LORD?

We experience the Joy of the Lord in 3 ways:

“Knowing God,” “Abiding in Christ,” and “Being Filled with the Holy Spirit.”

When does real joy come to us?

1.

The Joy that comes from Knowing God.

We started this morning by stating that Real Joy only comes from God, who has invaded our lives and conquered us, and liberated us from the power of sin and death.

The world is desperately seeking to find Joy, however, it looks for joy in all the wrong places.

NOTE: We must dispense with the idea of pitting the idea of Joy and happiness together.

Happiness is a warm putty, its a warm fuzzy feeling we get of the idea of happiness.

It’s like the song released by Bobby McFerrin in the 1980’s “Don’t worry, Be happy man.”

Think again about McFerrin's song.

The lyrics are very odd from a contemporary perspective.

When he sings, “Don't worry, be happy,” he is issuing an imperative, a command: “Do not be anxious.

Rather, be happy.”

He is setting forth a duty, not making a suggestion.

However, we never think of happiness in this way.

When we are unhappy, we think it is impossible to decide by an act of the will to change our feelings.

We tend to think of happiness as something passive, something that happens to us and over which we have no control.

It is involuntary.

Yes, we desire it and want to experience it, but we are convinced that we cannot create it by an act of the will.

Oddly, McFerrin sounds very much like the New Testament when he commands his listeners to be happy.

Over and over again in the pages of the New Testament, the idea of joy is communicated as an imperative, as an obligation.

According to scripture joy is far more the duty of every Christian as a moral obligation.

This means that a failure as a Christian to be joyful is a sin, that unhappiness and a lack of joy are, in a certain way, manifestations of the flesh.

Note: sometimes we struggle to grasp the idea of biblical joy because of the way it is defined in Western culture today.

Look at what Jesus said in the “Beatitudes.”

“Blessed are the poor in spirit;” “Blessed are those who mourn;” “Blessed are the meek;” some modern translations try to replace blessed with “Happy.”

I tend to cringe when they do this, not because I am opposed to happiness, but because the word happy is so misunderstood in our culture.

Note: Blessed is defined in the New Testament as extreme peace and joyful wellbeing.

*The Joy of knowing God is cultivated in our minds

When we start trusting in Him our minds are transformed.

Romans 12:2

Our joy is cultivated when it is making complete what otherwise would be incomplete.

Note: Trials are not evidence that the Lord has left you and forgotten you, it is proof that the Lord is performing His redemptive work in us.

God has ordained trials as his preferred method for shaping and forming us.

Consider it a good thing that you are being shaped and formed by God.

Look at 1 Peter 4:12-13

*The Joy of knowing God will never be wasted

Note: If the completion of God’s plan comes through our struggles and suffering, “bring it on.”

Look at Job 1:8

Note: Jobs trials come because He is upright and righteous before the Lord.

Look at the letter to the Church at Philippi.

Paul continues throughout the whole letter to speak about the end result of our Joy in struggles.

2:14-18 “Do not grumble or dispute, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad to rejoice with you all.

Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Note: Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering, this means to give his life for the sake of the call.

*The Joy of Knowing God is perfecting us through trials

Note: “count it all joy” and “nothing but joy.”

This is a command to obey.

The word count is a financial term, meaning “to evaluate.”

When James uses “count it all joy,” he is encouraging his readers to evaluate the way they look at their trials.

He calls believers to develop a new and improved attitude that considers trials from God’s perspective.

James gives the reason that believers should react to joy in times of physical persecution and testing, it is the means by which the Father uses to perfect our faith.

1 Peter tells us that God uses such testing to determine the genuineness of your faith.