Advent 2008 #1 Joy
Luke 2:8-11 (NIV)
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Good news of great joy.
Joy, have you ever tried to define it?
The dictionary offers us ecstatic happiness, pleasure, or satisfaction;
the response of the mind to any pleasurable event or state
I’m sure those feelings can accompany joy.
I like those feelings.
Let’s call that kind of joy surface joy.
There is a deeper joy that I want to call spiritual joy.
Spiritual joy doesn’t depend on what’s happening.
I think Spiritual joy is much greater than a feeling.
Today I want us to consider spiritual joy.
What is spiritual joy?
Do I have spiritual joy?
How can I get spiritual joy?
What is spiritual joy? It has little to do with what’s happening.
The reason I don’t think that joy is dependent on what’s happening is because the
Bible reveals circumstances where there is joy in the midst of suffering.
Acts 16:22-25 (NIV)
The crowd
joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to
be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown
into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon
receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in
the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the
other prisoners were listening to them.
You’re attacked by an angry mob,
You’re arrested.
You’re stripped and then beaten,
Flogged means hit with a whip or stick.
Then not only locked up are you locked up in a dark cell, filthy cell,
The guard locks your feet in stocks.
I don’t know about you,
But that kind of afternoon wouldn’t make me happy.
This is not an experience I would want to suffer.
Now its midnight and what do Paul and Silas start to do?
They start singing praises to God loud enough for the whole jail to hear.
That’s an example of the kind of joy that I want.
Joy is not dependent on what is happening.
Well, what is joy? It has little to do with your feelings.
I think that joy is more than a feeling because joy is listed as
part of the fruit of the Spirit.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, Self-control.
The continual, observable growth of the Spirit’s fruit,
Is a blessing of living the life God intended for you to live.
The fruit is the way disciples of Jesus are to be in this world.
Therefore joy must be more enduring than fickle feelings.
So, if joy is not based on circumstances,
And its not a feeling,
Then What is it?
The answer may just be in the greeting the angel gave to the shepherds,
Good news of great joy,
That great joy is that a savior has been born.
Joy is the result of a right relationship with God.
When your relationship is right with God you have
the assurance of God’s ultimate salvation;
the confident trust that God will redeem every situation;
the knowledge that God will never forsake you;
the conviction that your future is secure in Christ
Next Question: Do I have Spiritual joy?
Do you have this assurance,
This confident trust;
Do you know,
Are you convinced that God has your best interests in mind;
That He has the final say;
That He will eventually settle all scores?
Probably the best way to answer that is to consider your response to suffering,
difficulty, trials, tribulations, oppression and failure.
Nobody likes stuff like that.
Most of us do our best to avoid those types of situations.
But they happen.
When you find yourself in the midst of one,
Do you rejoice, or complain?
By rejoice I’m not saying you put on a false face of being happy and content in the
Bad circumstance—that’s just a lie.
No posers please.
Rather in the midst of unpleasant circumstances you find within you
the ability to praise God because
With the Apostle Paul you can say:
2 Timothy 1:12 (NLT)
That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
Things may look bad,
Things may look grim,
Yet because you know God,
You know your future is secure.
“Even if you die, yet will you live” Jesus said.
Got joy?
Or do you have worry, fear and doubt?
Not only does joy make it possible for you to rejoice in the Lord in times of
difficulty, suffering, grieving, sadness and pain,
Joy empowers you to keep going.
Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)
“Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
There are times when we must face overwhelming situations,
You’ve been there, where it doesn’t matter how tough you are,
You’re not tough enough,
The temptation is just to give up and give in.
It’s Spiritual joy
That gives you the power to keep on keeping on.
You are strengthened to fight the good fight,
To finish the race set before you,
To regroup and try again,
Joy gives you strength to endure;
Strength to obey.
Joy is spiritual adrenaline,
that triumphs through suffering.
Do you have joy?
Do you have a “deep down confidence that God has the last say and
He will work good for His children?” http://blog.alanriley.com/wordpress/p=176
How can you get joy?
Joy flows from your relationship with God.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1027.htm
The more intimate your relationship with God is the more joy you will
experience no matter the circumstances you find yourself in.
(Oswald Chamber, HGM 52)
So if you are lacking in joy,
Then you know that you need to meet with God and together work on your
relationship.
You meet with God through your practice of the spiritual
disciplines.
Let’s start at the basics—
Have you asked God to accept you as His child because you believe that
Jesus is the way the truth and the life?
Romans 5:6-11 (NLT)
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
When you accept the fact that you are a sinner,
When you believe that Jesus is you’re only savior,
When you commit to being His disciple,
When you ask God to accept you as His Child There is an incredible spiritual transformation that
takes place within you.
God forgives you of your sins
God reconciles you to himself,
God adopts you as His own,
God empowers you to live as His child.
That’s a wonderful new relationship with God.
This is ground zero for creating a righteous relationship with God.
It’s called being born again, becoming a Christian, being a believer.
Right now you can have a wonderful new relationship with God.
Once you have been reconciled to God.
It is through the practice of the spiritual disciplines:
Bible Study, Prayer, Fellowship, Service, Worship, Obedience and
Contemplation that you keep your relationship with God
Vibrant and growing,
That you fan into flames, spiritual joy.
For those of you who are already believers:
You might say, I remember that time when God first took me in and made me
Spiritually alive in Christ, and there was joy,
but somehow my joy has been beaten out of me.
Your problem is not unique.
The Apostle Paul writes to believers in the church he started in Galatia
Galatians 4:15 (NIV)
What has happened to all your joy?
There are three major joy stealers—
Gravel and Weeds, Spiritual Warfare, and Not Living Out your Calling.
ONE: Jesus gave us an interesting parable that we call the Parable of the Sower.
Matthew 13:3-8 (MSG)
What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
Jesus disciples—Pete, Andy, Jim, John, Phil, Bart, Tom, Jimmy, Simon, Thad, and
Judas.
After hearing this parable asked Jesus for the meaning of his story.
Here is Jesus answer:
Matthew 13:18-23 (MSG)
When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
"The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
"The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
"The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."
Maybe what happened to your joy was gravel and weeds.
The only way to deal with gravel is till and fertilize
Gravel internal hindrances—
Habits, attachments, agreements and addictions that cripple
your spiritual life.
Gravel can be legalism or license.
Here’s how to restore your joy--
Break that gravel up, by fearlessly facing the things in your life that
Keep you from living as a fully devoted follower of Jesus.
You must bring your habits, attachments, agreements and addictions
to the foot of the cross to be judged, so that you can be healed.
Once broken up you need to aerate, fertilize the soil of your soul.
That’s what your practice of the spiritual disciplines does,
They prepare the soil of your soil for growth.
The only way to take care of weeds is to pull them and
prep the soil to kill them if the come back.
2 Timothy 2:20-21 (NIV)
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
Here’s how to restore your joy—
Get rid of the stuff that doesn’t encourage you to live as a fully devoted
follower of Jesus, that hinder you from living your life to the full.
Purge your life of everything that doesn’t promote righteousness.
Ask God to show you the things that are choking the spiritual life out
of you.
He’ll tell you and then give you power to deal with them.
“Weedicide” is the spiritual disciplines practiced for the purpose of
encounter.
When you are keeping in step with the Spirit,
You tend to kill a weed before it takes root.
What happened to all your joy?
Gravel and Weeds, could be.
TWO: You have an enemy who desires to rob you of your joy.
Satan is a joy stealer.
Here’s a quick list of indicators that you may be under spiritual attack:
Worry: "an inordinate anxiety about something that may or may
not occur."
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2003/02/17/devotion.aspx
Fear: a nonspecific "dreadful uneasiness.”
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2003/02/17/devotion.aspx
A Sense of Hopelessness, helplessness and defeat
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2003/02/17/devotion.aspx
Persistent feelings of insignificance, worthlessness, uselessness, and
inferiority
http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/our-daily-bread/2003/02/17/devotion.aspx
Sometimes continual feelings of depression, anger, jealously, envy,
and just plain grumpiness
http://hubpages.com/hub/5-things-that-steal-your-joy
These can all be symptoms of spiritual warfare.
Here’s how to restore your joy--
You win spiritual battles by putting on the full armor of God—
Ephesians 6:12-18 (NIV)
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
You put on the full armor of God by you practice of the spiritual disciplines.
If you have some of those symptoms dogging you,
Pray against them, bring them under the authority of Jesus,
order them to depart.
Clean house, get rid of the gravel and weeds.
James 4:7-8 (NIV)
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Don’t forget to wash your hands,
Purify your heart,
And be settled in Jesus
Quick to submit to his will and his way,
Then draw near to God through your daily practice of the
spiritual disciplines.
Do this and Satan will flee and these symptoms
will disappear.
THREE: Another joy stealer is not doing what God has called you to do.
You know that God has called each and every one he brings to himself
through faith in Christ to a ministry.
You know that God has equipped you with spiritual gifts, and passions to
Enable you to bring the kingdom to others.
When you aren’t doing what you are designed to do,
There’s no joy, instead there is a sense of meaninglessness.
You feel like you have not purpose,
That you are just taking up space,
You’re not making a difference.
And something deep within keeps telling you that your life was meant
for more than just consuming and surviving.
Here’s how to restore your joy--
Joy flows from our fulfilling God’s call upon our lives.
Discover God’s calling that is upon your life and take the steps
to be the person God hardwired you to be,
doing the things God has equipped you to do.
What is Spiritual joy?
the assurance of God’s ultimate salvation;
the confident trust that God will redeem every situation;
the knowledge that God will never forsake you;
the conviction that your future is secure in Christ.
Do I have joy?
Not just that occasional surface joy,
But that deep and abiding spiritual joy that gives you strength in times
of difficulty and suffer.
How can I get joy?
You will never know the joy of the Lord
“until [you] get rightly related to God.”
(Oswald Chamber, BSG 54)
The greater the intimacy you share with God,
The greater your joy flows.
Joy flows in a deep sense of reconciliation to God,
of acceptance with God,
adoption of God, and
an intimate relationship to God.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1027.htm
Joy flows as you continually surrender to God,
Prepare the soil of your soul for a harvest.
Resist the attacks of Satan.
Do what God has called you to do.
Joy flows as you practice the spiritual disciplines that
Result in one personal encounter with God after another.