DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTER:
JOURNEYING TOWARD JOY
by Martha-Jean Fitch
August 24, 2008
TEXT: John 15:1-11, Acts 13:44-52

There was once a worshiper who was shouting with praise in the law pew of a church at various times during the service. He would shout "AMEN" and clap his hands. Finally, after one gleeful "alleluia", the usher rushed up to him and asked, "Is there anything wrong?" "Not at all", he responded, "I've got the Spirit". "Well," said the usher with a frown on his face, "you didn't get it here."

Do you have the Spirit and can people tell it by your actions? Are you overflowing with the joy of the Lord? This morning, we sang ("The Joy Medley") ("Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.") Are you really as joyful as that hymn seems to indicate? Did you sing that song this morning with a smile on your face, remembering God who is giving and forgiving and the wellspring of the joy of living?

Once a man from Kentucky had to travel to St. Louis on business. After he finished up his business late Saturday night, he decided that he would find a church to worship in the next morning.

The streets were quite deserted, but finally he saw a police officer and asked him for directions to the nearest Protestant church. The police officer was quick to respond and told him right where to go.

The stranger thanked the police officer for the information and was about to walk off when he asked the police officer: "Why have you recommended that particular church? There must be several churches nearby that you could have recommended."

The police officer smiled and replied: "I'm not a church man myself, but the people who come out of that church are the happiest looking church people in St. Louis. I thought that would be the kind of church you would like to attend."

How would people describe our church? Are we a church of joy? Would people see us as filled with the Spirit of joy?

Now some of you may be thinking - "I can't be joyful - don't you know what I am going through?" I do know that there is pain in everyone's life - oftentimes pain that eats away at a person's happiness.

But believe it is possible to have joy even in the midst of difficulties -because of the deep and abiding joy that comes only from God. For you see, as Thomas Hilton puts it "joy is a by-product of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The world doesn't give this relationship and this joy and so the events of this world cannot take this relationship and this joy away." (C. Thomas Hilton, "Ripe Life")

Happiness can disappear with the next telephone call. Your loved one dies - the doctor's report is not good - your car needs expensive repairs. You can start the day full of a happy-go-lucky heart and then someone criticizes you -an argument breaks out in your family - everything seems to go wrong at work or at school. And there goes your happiness. Happiness depends on what is going on around us. It can be wiped out in a second.

But true joy bubbles up from deep within and cannot be taken away from us. Deep joy is based on our relationship to God through Jesus. It is based on our trust that God will always be there for us and will help us no matter difficulties we have to face in life.

The Apostle Paul was one who really knew what it was like to face persecution and difficulty and yet he knew that the joy of the Lord was his strength. Open up your Bibles to the book of Acts in the New Testament and let's look together at difficult time Paul had when he and Barnabas went to Antioch to preach to the Jews about Jesus. Follow along with me as I read Acts 13, verses 44-52.

44On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
46Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
47For this is what the Lord has commanded us: " 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth]"
48When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
49The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.
52And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Wow! Can you imagine what would happen if I came in today and began my sermon about Jesus, just like Paul and Barnabas did, and you started yelling and throwing things at me and then you made sure I was kicked out of Galesburg? How do you think I'd feel? Devastated.  Afraid for my life. I might be so upset that I would be tempted to give up the thought of ever preaching again.

But that was not the case with Paul and Barnabas. It says in verse 52, "…the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit".  Filled with joy? How could that be possible? They had just been persecuted and run out of town. Things weren't looking good - in fact it was looking pretty frightening. How could they be joyful?

I believe they could be joyful because the Holy Spirit gave them power to be joyful, even in the midst of suffering. They were attuned to the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and always kept their eyes focused on Jesus. No matter what happened to them or what was taken away from them, they knew deep and abiding joy in Jesus.

You see only one Person can step into your life and give you joy in the midst of pain…and give you peace in the midst of the storms of life…and give you security when the rug is pulled out from under your feet … and that is Jesus Christ. Even if everything in this world could be stripped away from us - we can never be separated from the love we know in Christ Jesus. And that's the assurance is what can give us a deep and abiding joy. That's the joy that you see in the Apostle Paul. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and knew a deep joy that could not be taken away from him - even in the midst of persecution.

As a third century man was anticipating death, he wrote these last words to a friend: "It's a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians - and I am one of them."

What a way to describe Christians! People - filled with the Holy Spirit - showing forth the fruit of joy, even in the midst of trials and heartache. Would that 21st century Christians were described like that!

So why don't we see more joyful Christians? Why do we see so many Christians with broken spirits? Partly, I think, because the world has dealt them such a lousy hand. There is true heartache and pain that can crush your spirit.

I also believe there are several thieves that try to rob us of our joy….attitudes and circumstances and yes, even people that threaten to take away our joy. Satan doesn't want us to live joyful and fulfilling lives. As St. Francis of Assisi once said: "The devil is most happy when he can snatch from a servant of God true joy of the spirit."

So how do we stand firm amidst the thieves that are out to destroy us and take our joy away from us? How can we resist the temptations that the devil is constantly throwing at us in order to destroy our joy? How do we journey toward joy?

I believe the only way we can truly know true joy is to have a deep relationship with Jesus and to hang on to him like a strong and steady anchor.

Remember Jesus' parting words to His disciples before he died? He told them that He was the vine and that we are the branches. He said: "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me." (John 15:4) We are called to dwell in God's love and keep our eyes focused on Him. And you know why Jesus asked us to do that? He says in John 15: "I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete." (v. 11) Jesus wants to share His joy with us - He wants us to be a joyful people. And only by abiding in Him, will we ever begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy.

But what does it mean to abide in Jesus?

First, I think it means to put our focus on the Lord and trust His promises.

Charles Spurgeon once said: "Christian men are but men. They may have a bad liver or an attack of bile, or some trial and then they get depressed…But what then? Well, then you can get joy and peace through believing. I am the subject of depressions of the spirit so earful that I hope none of you ever gets to such extremes as I go to. But I always get back again by this: I know I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in Him. Because He lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and my downcast soul and get the victory through it. So may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping it. In your most depressed seasons, you are to get joy and peace through believing."

I have found that when I am feeling most anxious or afraid, my mind is all focused on the problems or struggles I am facing. I am being over-powered by those giants in my life. But if I purposely turn my mind to the promises of God, those giants seem to shrink. I am reminded that God is greater than all those problems. All of the sudden I can feel a deep joy in knowing that God will give me the power to face whatever difficulty comes my way. I can trust those promises that say God is with me - God will never leave me - God will sustain me and God will strengthen me. I can proclaim that if God is for me - who can be against me. I can rely and depend on the Lord - not on my own strength or anyone else's. These promises I have learned from the Bible give me hope and courage….and ultimately, joy.

Abiding in Christ also means to let go of our worries and sorrows and give them to Christ, resting in His presence. Our fears and worries and sorrows are much like deadly insects that bite and devour our plants. In order for our plant to be strong and healthy and bear fruit for God we need to give up those things that tear us down and destroy our joy.

We do this in prayer, saying "Lord, I leave this in Your hands. May Your will be done in this situation." And then we lay that burden down at the foot of the cross - and we don't pick it up again. This takes a conscious decision to release our problems to the Lord and to lean on His everlasting arms with everything we've got. God will hold on to us and give us the strength to endure and a deep and abiding joy.

As the psalmist said in Psalm 94:18 & 19:

If God hadn't been there for me,

I never would have made it.

The minute I said, "I'm slipping, I'm falling,"

your love, God, took hold and held me fast.

When I was upset and beside myself,

you calmed me down and cheered me up.

We journey toward joy by trusting God's promises and by casting our burdens on Him and leaning on His everlasting arms. But we aren't given this gift of joy just for ourselves. No - God wants us to share the fruit with others.

And so we also journey toward joy by thinking of others, not just focusing on ourselves. Jesus said, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." (John 15:10) We can only know true joy when we start to love as He loves others.

A man came to his pastor one time and said, "I don't know what's wrong with my life, but that first Christian joy I knew has passed by. I still live a moral life. I go to church. But how can I recover the lost radiance of my faith?" His pastor said, "This is what you should do: go to the store and buy a big basket full of groceries and go to an address of a poor family I will give you. Then when you have given your gift, you sit down with them to find out what they need. Let them know that you are interested in them and that you are their friend. Then lead them in the Lord's Prayer before you leave and the radiance will come back."

Have you lost that joy - that radiance of your faith? Have circumstances and people and attitudes robbed you of the joy that you once held? Jesus wants us to have that joy! Jesus wants us to stay close to Him so that His joy can be in us and will show forth to others! Jesus wants us to let go of anything that is killing our joy, to give our worries and our sorrow to Him, so that His joy can thrive within us. He wants to live in us and shine through our hearts by loving others. Do you have that joy?

Jesus came to give us life - an abundant life full of His joy and strength. Can you come to Him now and trade your sorrows and pain for His joy? Can you lay down your anxiety and your anger and let the Holy Spirit fill you with joy and peace?

Jesus is waiting to enter your heart. Why don't you let Him come in. There's nothing in this world to keep you apart. There's nothing in this world to keep you from the joy Jesus wants you to have.