Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
10/20/2019A.M.
Finding Joy In The Lord
Luke 2.10 Psalm 16.8-11 Nehemiah 8.10 Galatians 5.22-23 Philippians 4.4
Barbara should have been living the good life…
• She had a … Handsome… Loving… Husband…
• Two beautiful daughters…
• A great job…
• A comfortable home…
• Excellent relationships with extended family and friends…
Even with all this… She frequently felt… Angry… Melancholy… Insecure… Guilt-ridden… And easily upset by minor everyday problems.
Been there?... Felt that way?…Perhaps we have similar feelings even today….
• Feeling like life is a treadmill?…
• Feeling like life is slipping by and we’re not enjoying it…
• Habits settle into routines…
• Days are long… The years are short… Life is just not what we wanted it to be.
There’s no real unhappiness… But genuine joy seems to elude us.
Our Sunday Morning Series is about Living The Good Life.
In John 10.10 we find Jesus saying… I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly… LIFE TO THE FULLEST… LIFE AT ITS BEST… THE GOOD LIFE.
We’re basing our lessons on two Scriptures…
Peter admonishes us to add some Character Traits that will bring about the good life… Add to your Faith… Virtue… Knowledge… Temperance… Patience… Godliness…Brotherly Affection… and Agape Love.
Adding these traits… Peter says…
• Will make our calling and election sure…
• Assure us a right relationship with God…
• Make us fruitful and effective in God’s Kingdom.
The Second Scripture is from Paul… As he admonishes us to live a life that will PRODUCE THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT… The fruit of Jesus living in us through the Spirit He gave us… Love… Joy… Peace… Patience… Kindness… Goodness… Faithfulness… Gentleness… And Self-Control.
This morning… Our focus is on JOY.
Biblical Joy is the gladness of heart that comes from…
• Knowing God intimately…
• Abiding in Christ…
• Being filled with the Holy Spirit…
• And having a right relationship with our fellowman.
Indeed… God created us for Relationships…A right relationship with Him and with one another… The joy of the Lord comes when these relationships are correct.
• Luke 2.10 has The Angels of Heaven announcing the birth of Jesus with these words… good tidings of great Joy… His coming has the potential to bring to into our life.
• Psalm 16.8-11… I have set the Lord always before me… Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices… My body also will rest secure… Because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life… you will fill me with joy in your presence,with eternal pleasures.
Nehemiah 8.10 wrote… the joy of the Lord is our strength.
Galatians 5.23 tellsus that the fruit of God living in us includes Joy.
In Philippians 4.4…Paul encourages us to rejoice in theLord… Again I say rejoice.
Our first point is that
There’s a difference between Happiness and Joy…
Happiness is based upon CIRCUMSTANCES AND SITUATIONS that surround us… What’s happening… To us… With us… in us… Around us…While JOY IS HEART CONDITION.
Question??... What would make you happy this morning?...
• A new house?… A new car?...
• A bass boat?… New Clothes?...
• A dream vacation…
• A different job?… No job at all?
• A husband… Perhaps a different husband?
Happiness is our situation and circumstances being what we want them to be.
Listen church… If there’s a country on earth where people should be happy it’s in the United States of America…
If there is a place in the United States where people ought to be happy its right here… But we’re not!!
• Depression affects 20 percent of American adults…
• Forty million…Almost eighteen percent of us have some kind of anxiety disorder.
But!... But… The good news is that… the joy of the Lord… The Joy of the good life… Isn’t the same as the happiness that eludes us.
Perhaps we catch a glimpse of this difference in the way the words are used in the Bible…
In the NIV… The Words Happy & Happiness appear only twenty-seven times….
While the words… JOY & Rejoice are found 320 times.
Happiness may be a distant cousin of Joy…. But they are not the same… Not at all!!
Tim Hansel says… Joy is a posture…. A Position… It’s about where we stand with God and others. He says Joy is not a feeling… It’s a choice… Not based upon circumstances… But on attitude… Joy is free… But not cheap… It’s the by-product of a correct relationship with Deity and our fellowman.
Perhaps the best example of this Joy Principle is found in Acts chapter sixteen... Here we find Paul and Silas arrested and in a Philippian Jail…
• They were stripped and beaten…
• They were not just flogged… The NIV says severely flogged…
• They were then thrown in prison…
• Their hands and feet fastened in stocks.
No doubt as the night wore on…Every muscle ached… Every lesion on their backs, arms and legs dripped with blood and pain.
They were miserable men… But about midnight we hear them praying and singing hymns to God…While the other prisoners listened…
Indeed… Here we see the difference between happiness and Joy.
The Book of Philippians was written in a… Cold… Damp… Dark… Jail cell… But it’s a Book of Joy.
The word Joy is found six times… Rejoice appears eight times.
We hear Paul say… Even in these chains… I will rejoice… For me to live isChrist… For me to die is gain.
Even a casual reading tells us that Philippians is about relationships… With God and others.
OK… If Joy is about Relationships… And it is!!...
Let’s examine those relationships that bring us joy…
First… Joy comes from a right relationship with God the Father…
When we’re right with God… He rejoices… And it’s only through that relationship that we experience joy in its fullness.
Listen to these Scriptures…
Psalm 5.11…Let all who take refuge in You be glad… Let them sing for joy. Let those who love Your name rejoice in You.
Psalm 16.9-11 again… I have set the Lord always before me… Therefore… my heart is glad… my tongue rejoices… my body also will rest secure… You fill me with joy in your presence… With eternal pleasures at Your right hand.
Psalm 105.3… Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Isaiah 61.10… I delight greatly in the Lord… My soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.
Nehemiah 8.10… Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
God not only desires that we be joyful… He actually commands it… Rejoice in the Lord… And again I say… Rejoice.
Author Bruce Larson wrote… Joy is the surest sign of God’s presence in our life… The bottom line for us is simply this… Grimness is not a Christian virtue. Never has been. If God is really the center of our life and being… Then Joy is inevitable.
Church… If we have no joy… We’ve missed the heart of the Good News… Amen?
C.S Lewis described this joy sixty-five years ago in terms that make just as much sense today… A car is made to run on petrol… And it would not run properly on anything else. God designed the human machine to run on Himself… He is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn… The food our spirits were designed to feed on.
Indeed!!.. It is in Him that we live move and own our being.
Listen!!...
• Joy comes from our being the people and person God wants us to be…
• Joy is the result of our obedience…
• Joy is knowing we’re right with God
• Joy is knowing we are… Forgiven… Pure… Holy… Guiltless… Heaven-bound…
• Joy is knowing that God is in control of our life… That He is working all things out to our Benefit… Working to give us the Good Life Jesus came to make possible.
We hear David say in Psalm 35.9… My soul shall be joyful in the Lord… It shall rejoice in His salvation…
Secondly… Joy is a right relationship with Jesus.
Here it is church… Christian joy is letting Jesus live out His life through us… So that Who & What He is…. We are to become.
We hear this idea almost every Sunday…
• We are to conform to His image….
• We are to develop His… Heart…. Attitude… Disposition… Behavior….
• We are to keep our eyes on Jesus… live like Jesus… And when we do… And when we do… That life produces Joy.
Colossians 1.11 reads… For… In Christ… In Christ… We are strengthened… Accordingto His glorious power… With all patience and longsuffering with Joy.
John 15.11… At the conclusion of Jesus’ thoughts on Him being our Good Shepherd… He says… I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Listen… Joy is the flag that’s flown from the castle of our heart when the King is at home… When the King is in residence.
In other words… Joy is determined by whether or not Jesus is at home in my life and yours… amen?
And Nehemiah says… His presence gives us the power to live the Good life… The ABUNDANT Life.
Thirdly… Joy comes when we submit to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the purveyor of joy… He gives us Joy!!
When we become a Child of God…The Holy Spirit comes to live within us.
Everyday Christianity is our turning our life over to… His guidance… His control.
Perhaps one reason we’re not experiencing the joy of the Lord is that…
• We haven’t given control of our life to the Spirit…
• Perhaps we are not walking in step with the Spirit.
Here it is church… The Holy Spirit doesn’t just want to be a resident in our life… He wants to be President.
• He wants to lead us into truth…
• To remind us of Jesus’ teachings…
• To convict us of sin guilt…
• Convince us of righteousness and judgment to come…
• He wants to be our… Guide… Counselor… Paraclete… The one who walks beside us… Leading us into all truth.
Indeed… Biblical Joy and the Holy Spirit go together…
Romans 14.17… For the kingdom of God is not a matter of ritual… Of eating and drinking… but of… righteousness… peace… and joy… in the Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 1.6…You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5.22…The fruit of the Spirit is JOY!!
Then finally… Joy is ours when we are right in our relationship with others.
As God’s children… We are to be a heart for others…
A heart for the lost… So that we’ll mention Jesus to them… Share Jesus with them.
When in that better land…
Before the bar we stand…
How deeply grieved our souls may be…
If some lost one there…
Should cry in deep despair….
You never mentioned Him to me.
Listen church… There is no greater Joy than knowing that we are heaven bound and that we are taking someone else with us… Amen?
We’re to have A heart for the saved… So that we enjoy Genuine Christian Fellowship.
Genuine Fellowship is our hearing and heeding the ONE ANOTHER passages of the New Testament… There are over a hundred such…
• We are to care for one another…
• Teach and admonish one another…
• Bear one another’s burdens…
• Serve one another…
• Encourage one another…
• Be kind one to another…
• Prefer one another…
• Be hospitable to one another…
• Be subject to one another…
• Forgive one another…
• Pray for one another…
• Accept one another…
• Be of the same mind one-toward-another.
We are family!!… We’re community!!… Koinonia!!… Fellowship!!… There’s One anotherness!!
The bottom line was expressed by Jesus that night in the Upper Room… As He washed feet… The greatest in the kingdom is the one who serves… You will be… blessed…You will be JOYOUS… If you do these things.
Allow me to end with this story…It’s from Billy Graham’s Book… Just As I Am…
He and Ruth were on an island in the Caribbean… They had been invited to the home of the wealthiest man on the island.
After lunch… Like Barbara… The man confessed in tears… I am the most miserable man in the world… I have my Yacht… I have a private plane… Two helicopters… I could go anywhere I want… I have everything I want to make me happy… Yet I’m miserable.
The Grahams talked and prayed with him… Trying to point him to Jesus.
Leaving… They returned to a small cottage… The home of the preacher where they were staying… As they visited during supper… The minister said… I don’t have two pounds to my name… But I am the happiest man on this island.
Retiring for the evening… Mr. Graham turned to Ruth and asked… Who do you think is the richer man? She didn’t need to reply.
Listen church… Deep seated Joy in this life is…
• Not based upon what we own…
• Not on what we possess…
But on relationships… Who possessES us.
Indeed The Joy of the Lord is our strength.
If you’re here this morning…
• And God is not your father…
• Jesus is not your Lord…
• The Spirit is not your guide…
• And the saved not your brother…
You cannot possess genuine biblical Joy.
But you can have the JOY of these relationships by becoming God’s child by… Faith… Repentance… And the New Birth of water baptism.
If we are His child… Let us walk in the light so that the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse our sins… Then rejoice in the JOY of our Salvation…
Come enjoy the Lord as we stand and sing.