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What to Expect on Sunday |
We continue in our series on the fruit of the Spirit, the goal being to be "full of it," full of the fruit of the Spirit referred to in Galatians 5:22, 23 (read). Today’s fruit is Joy. First of all, a reminder of the over-arching theme in the series: To be full of the fruit of the Spirit, one must seek the fruit of the Spirit, not from creation, but from the Creator. The problem is we tend to seek such things as love, joy and peace from creation—our jobs, our relationships, our money, etc.—rather than from the Creator. C.S. Lewis writes, "Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." Where do you find joy in your life? Is your primary source of joy things from creation? I suspect if we sat down and made a list of things that bring us joy that list would be very long—much like a list at Thanksgiving time of things we are thankful for can be very long. I find joy, for example, in family gatherings. There’s usually a lot of laughter when our family gets together and it is a great joy to be together. The laughter of children is a frequent source of joy. Reading a really good book is a joyful thing. The topics might not be particularly joyful topics, but just the experience of a relaxing time with a good book is a source of joy for me. Listening to a favorite piece of music can be joyful. As I’ve admitted to you before, the Beatles are my all-time favorite group and listening to their music is a joyful thing for me. It’s just impossible for me to be in a bad mood listening to Beatles music. I’m not a skier, but it sure looks to me like fresh powder on a ski slope is a joyful thing for those who are skiers. I suspect it’s pretty hard to not be filled with exhilarating joy on a glorious, sunshiny Colorado day in the mountains schussing down the slopes on fresh powder. A victory for the Denver Broncos fills a lot of people with joy. Notice the difference sometime between the crowds walking down the ramps at Mile High Stadium (I still can’t call it Invesco Field…not even Invesco Field at Mile High) following a loss and the crowds following a victory. Some people let it affect their entire week until the next time the Broncos play! But, a Bronco victory seems to fill many people with joy. Or, how about this—a bundle of joy? This is the newest addition to the Shepherd family, Julia Christine Ebmeier, daughter of Chris and Beth Ebmeier. Beth, as you may know, sings in the choir. Julia was born a week and a half ago, had a little hiccup with the need for some surgery to correct a constricted artery—thus the reason for the oxygen—but is now home and doing fine. But, what we call babies, isn’t it…a bundle of joy? All of these things of creation can bring us joy. The problem, of course, is that such moments of joy can be fleeting. The joy of a Broncos victory is a particularly tenuous joy. Yet even the joy of a family gathering can be fleeting. Eventually, each family member goes on his or her way and we can no longer be joyfully together. Occasionally, there are those rare moments in a family gathering where tension mounts over something somebody said or did and joy leaves the room. Occasionally, a good book reading gets interrupted, or a hoped for good read turns out to be not so good. No joy in that, more a waste of time. And listening to Beatles music in…say, a traffic jam diminishes the joy. It might make enduring the traffic jam go a bit better, but I wouldn’t label such a moment as joyful. The ski industry does not guarantee a day of skiing on a sunny day with fresh powder. Sometimes it’s cold and windy, sometimes the snow is hardpacked and icy. No guarantee of joy there. And, yes, raising a child is a great privilege and a joy…but there are moments of challenges even in that where joy seems fleeting. The issue is not to stop seeking joy from such things—certainly there is and will be joy in such events and many more like them. I’m not suggesting we should stop looking for joy in such things. Rather, I am suggesting that the highest, most sure source for joy in our lives is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ—a relationship where we become filled with the fruit of the Spirit. That is the beginning for experiencing true joy in our lives. Interestingly, the joy we draw from things from creation is enhanced when we have first discovered joy in the Creator. Peggy Noonan, author and columnist for The Wall Street Journal writes, "Here is something I began to feel after I had faith: the unexpected joy of living things. At some point, living things began to seem precious to me, and I wanted to pet them, hug them—babies and dogs and lizards, whatever. For me, the great fruit of belief is joy." To experience greater joy in creation, begin with the great joy that is found in the Creator. Yet, too often our energy is spent on seeking joy from creation. Brennan Manning, a Christian author and contemplative, gives us challenging words as a gauge of where we find our joy. In his book, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, Manning writes: "To ascertain where you really are with the Lord, recall what saddened you the past month. Was it the realization that you do not love Jesus enough? That you did not seek his face in prayer often enough? That you did not care for his people enough? Or did you get depressed over a lack of respect, criticism from an authority figure, your finances, a lack of friends, fears about the future, of your bulging waistline? "Conversely, what gladdened you the past month? Reflection on your election to the Christian community? The joy of saying slowly, ‘Abba, Father?’ The afternoon you stole away for two hours with only the gospel as your companion? A small victory over selfishness? Or were the sources of your joy a new car, a Brooks Brothers suit, a great date, a raise, or a loss of four inches from your waistline?" How do you respond to the question, what brings you the most joy in life? Is your answer "the things of creation," or is your answer "the Creator?" Jesus came to bring us a joy that is everlasting. The angel, in announcing Christ’s birth to the shepherds, said, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people," (Luke 2:10). Jesus himself, in his message to his disciples during their time together in the upper room, says, "I have told you this (the importance of remaining in Christ’s love—our topic last week) so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete," (John 15:11). You want "complete" joy, or "perfect" joy? It is only found in Christ. And it is a joy that nothing can take away. Later, in that same upper room discourse, Jesus assures his disciples there—and his disciples that come later—that their grief will turn into rejoicing and their joy will be such that no one can take it away (cf. John 16:22). Jesus came to bring us a joy that is everlasting. It is an everlasting joy, first of all, because we know that our future is secured. While others may fret about the future, may wonder about and worry about what awaits them at the end of their lives, or perhaps even becoming melancholy at the thought that their lives will someday end—a perspective that, tragically, drives them to search even more obsessively for joy in the things of creation, the person in Christ can look ahead with full assurance of Christ’s promise of everlasting life for those who proclaim him Savior and Lord. Does that not fill your heart with joy? Someday, the glories of heaven await us where there will be reunion with loved ones and the full presence of the Living God will be before us. What a joyful thought! Yet, more than that, the complete joy Christ brings is not just a future joy, it is a present joy as well. Christ promises to walk with us, to be a constant presence with us in this life and such a thought fills my heart with joy. It is a joy that nothing can take away—no circumstance, no event, no person can take that joy away from me. It is the kind of joy Paul discovered in his relationship with Jesus Christ and wrote about in most of his letters, perhaps nowhere more prominently than in his letter to the Philippians. The great theologian, Karl Barth, called Paul’s joy expressed in Philippians the great "nevertheless." Repeatedly, Paul wrote about his circumstances—imprisonment, the strong possibility of his death—yet would find a way to describe his joy through a "nevertheless." Imprisonment is harsh, my death appears imminent…nevertheless I rejoice in the Lord, culminating in Paul’s encouragement to, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4). Such a joy, such a fruit of the Spirit, is, once again, cultivated in the soil of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you long for joy like that—a joy that rises above every circumstance in life and a joy that nothing can take away from you? You will only find it in Christ, being filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Talk with Christ. Invite him into every area of life. Seek his counsel and wisdom for things that happen in your life. Begin each day with a prayer of thanks to him for the day ahead and a commitment to serve him throughout the day. Read his word and meditate upon its meaning for your life. Carry something from his word for you that day into your activities for the day, or the week, and discover how his word is relevant for you and applies to the situations that develop in your life. Ask him to fill your life with more joy. Seek such joy through Jesus Christ and you will discover the fruit of the Spirit filling up in your life and leading to your ability to fulfill Paul’s command to "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" |
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