"The Joy of the Lord"
Sermon Transcript for September 1, 2002
Scripture Reading: John 15:9-11
By Rev. Mike Beck
God has done some great things here at Grace Church in the past five years. There is much more that God wants to do in us, wants to do through us. The next nine months there are three important undertakings before us that in many ways will determine the future of Grace Church for the next 10-20 years. The next four Sundays our fall stewardship emphasis as we partner with God to support the ministries of this church for the coming year. In November we are implementing a new ministry called the "Care Ministry" to better reach out to newcomers, to assimilate them into the life of the church. But there is going to be a wonderful by-product of that ministry in the way it will energize the persons involved in it. And then during the first four months of next year, in our Capital Funds Campaign, in which we seek to add to our facilities. As we stand at the threshold of those three important events, God laid three foundational messages on my heart. The first one two weeks ago had to do with the love of God; recognizing the awesome undeserved love that God has for us. And that love, when we truly begin to grasp it, gives us the motivation for what God is calling us to do. Last week we talked about a hunger after God. When God’s people truly hunger after Him it creates an environment in which God’s Holy Spirit can be at work. Today I want to talk about the joy of the Lord which is so critically important to provide the strength and the perseverance that are needed for the task that God calls us to do.
In our scripture lesson this morning where Jesus says, "I want my joy to be in you", do we realize the context for what He is saying? In the next 36 hours He will be betrayed by one of His trusted friends. The other eleven will desert him. He will be put through the mockery of a trial. He will be stripped naked. He’ll be beaten. He’ll endure the most hideous death ever invented. And here He is talking about "joy" within and wanting His disciples to know that joy of the Lord.
There is a significant difference between what the Bible refers to as "joy" and what the world calls "happiness". Now as I begin to flush this out let me say clearly, there is nothing wrong with being happy. If I’ve got a choice I’d rather be happy than unhappy. I was thinking back on my life over the last week. Last Sunday our family, just about 25 when we get together out at Mom and Dad’s, and last week there were about 11 extended family members that we hadn’t seen in a long time to gather together. My Mom fixed nine different kinds of dessert. It was a happy occasion. We had dinner with friends over at that nice Italian restaurant in Bargersville on Friday night. It was a happy time. Our new home is bringing us much happiness. But I must remember that all of these things, good as they are, are temporary. There will come a time in which our family is no longer able to gather with Dad and Mom as we have done with such happiness for many years. There will come a time that someone else will live in those four walls that we call home.
There is significant difference between happiness and what the Bible calls joy. For happiness is dependent on our circumstances. The good feelings and emotions that happiness brings are often short-lived. Happiness, if we think about it, is normally rooted in things, it’s rooted in accolades, and it’s rooted in accomplishments. Nothing is wrong with any of those. But isn’t it true, the sad fact is that whatever we’ve accumulated or achieved is never quite enough! The last family dinner Mom had six deserts so I guess she decided that wasn’t enough; we needed nine! You’ll allow me this personal illustration. The last two weeks my golf game has been better than it has been in years. I’ve had some rounds in the upper 70’s once again, which for me is good playing. I was playing on Tuesday out at Timbergate. I shot a 37 on the front nine and I’m thinking, "I sure would like to put a 36 with it on the back nine." See, 78 wasn’t good enough any more; now I want 73 or 74. That’s the way happiness works. I ended up shooting 47; God wanted to humble me.
The joy of the Lord on the other hand is something very different. It’s deeper; its impact is long-term. The joy of the Lord is not dependent on circumstances. For the Tyler family, these are not happy days but there is joy in your life. For the joy of the Lord is not dependent on circumstances. Hear this now, it is dependent upon a relationship. Dan made this comment. He said, "Our joy comes from pleasing God; like the way we feel when we watch a loved one enjoying a gift that we’ve given to them. Happiness on the other hand is instead usually the product of what we have done for ourselves." I hope you catch that difference.
In the New Testament we have no further to look than the Apostle Paul. He’s in jail half the time, but when he’s in jail he’s having prayer meetings and songfests. He says, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain". He tells us, "consider it pure joy my brothers when you face many trials for they’ll produce a new life, endurance, and long suffering." He said, "I have learned the secret of being content in all situations."
If you remember when Bishop Lawson preached three Sundays ago he talked about Bishop Alfred Ndorincimpa who I had the privilege of being with in Kenya five years ago. Most of Bishop Ndorincimpa’s pastors and district superintendents were mowed down in cold blood. He escaped to Kenya in exile. And Bishop Lawson had told him at one time when things were tense, "I don’t want you going out." Bishop Lawson tried to call him and couldn’t get him. When he finally got him that evening, when he had discovered that he had been out against Bishop Lawson’s wishes, Bishop Ndorincimpa replied, "What’s the worse they can do to me? Kill me! And if they kill me, I’m with the Lord so Bishop Lawson get over it and quit worrying about me so much. If I want to go out, I’m going to go out."
What is the secret for the Apostle Paul, for Bishop Ndorincimpa, for Christian martyrs throughout the centuries? And by the way, are you aware, I heard this on Christian radio. There have been more Christian martyrs in the last century than in the first century. I think we forget that. What is it for the believers that you know who rise about incredibly difficult circumstances? How do they do that? They have the joy of the Lord in their heart!
So I want to think about how we can know the joy of the Lord in our daily lives. But before I answer that question I want to very briefly describe what the joy of the Lord is not. I always find that helpful. I’ve done it the last two weeks—look first at what it isn’t. The joy of the Lord is not perfection of our actions. We’re fallen people. We will fall short; we will fail. What Satan wants to do when we fail is to tell us to quit trying, you’re not worthy of God’s love, you must not be a Christian or else you wouldn’t have done that again. The joy of the Lord is not perfection of our actions. The joy of the Lord is not the absence of pain, or struggle, or doubt. And the joy of the Lord is not constantly going around with a smile on your face. I struggle, now I want to be around pleasant people and I think we ought to have a smile on our face most of the time, but I really struggle with those people that are always smiling. I want to say what world are you living in? It’s not the world I’m living in. And think of our Lord Jesus. He knew anger. He knew fear. He knew sorrow. He knew disappointment. When Jesus went in to the Temple with the whip to drive out the moneychangers in anger, I don’t think He had a smile on His face. When He meets Martha and Mary in the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept", I don’t think He had a smile on His face. The joy of the Lord is not just one continual smiling, happy time.
Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ: Knowing the joy of the Lord begins with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And I know you hear us use that term often, but we use it often because it is possible that persons know all about God, they’ve been in the church all of their life, they don’t know what it means to have a personal relationship with God which is where the joy of the Lord begins. Jesus said in John 15, "Remain in me and I will remain in you. For no branch can bear fruit by itself, it has to remain in the vine. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me, I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me he can do nothing." The joy of the Lord begins with a personal relationship.
Celebrate God’s Blessings: The person who knows the joy of the Lord is daily celebrating God’s blessings. Jackie Miller, you are one of those people. The joy of the Lord I see in you. There’s a lot today that you are sad and you’ve dealt with a lot of loss in the last two years, but Jackie is one of those persons that looks at the cup of life and sees that it’s half full, not half empty. If you want to know the joy of the Lord even in the struggles, you acknowledge and celebrate the blessings.
Think God all the Time: The person who knows the joy of the Lord thinks God all of the time! Do you remember the movie, "Oh, God" with George Burns a few years ago? I did not find that movie sacrilegious at all. I felt it was filled with great truth. And George Burns who plays God in the movie keeps telling the little girl, "think God". Isn’t that what we’re to do when the Bible says, "pray without ceasing"? We think God all of the time.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: To know the joy of the Lord, don’t sweat the small stuff and most of life is "small stuff". In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "I tell you don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food; the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?" And I’ll tell you it sure takes some hours off by worrying. The joy of the Lord is found in not sweating the small stuff.
Give Other People the Benefit of the Doubt: The joy of the Lord, I think, is also found in giving other people the benefit of the doubt. I know some people whose lives are constantly full of turmoil because they are super analyzing every little circumstance of life, reading things into them that aren’t there, not giving people the benefit of the doubt and then wondering why they are so upset. Back again in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Don’t judge or you will be judged. For in the same way that you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" If you want to know the joy of the Lord cut people some slack, be gracious. In fact one of the things we learned from John Savage in his consultation a few years ago John said this is true of every church, it’s true of every individual, they are all radically gifted and at the same time radically flawed. Me, you, every church—radically gifted, radically flawed. If you want to know the joy of the Lord when you deal with other people, look at the gifts not at the flaws.
Surround Yourself with Persons who Know the Joy of the Lord: What I’ll miss most about Charlie is he was so faithful to be there at the Saturday morning prayer group, the men’s’ group. What a privilege to sit in his presence and listen to his wisdom. Positive people raise you up; negative people bring you down. Surround yourself with persons who know the joy of the Lord and let it rub off on you!
Trust and Obey: And then, finally, if you want to know the joy of the Lord there is a simple little equation. No obedience = no joy! In our text for this morning were these words, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love." You want to know my joy—be obedient. In the next nine months God is going to be asking us in many ways, do you trust me? Will you obey me? There will be many times in which we will get weary and anxious and discouraged. John Waggoner is on the Building Committee and Karen’s on the Building Committee and others. There will be times when we get anxious; we’ll get discouraged. The naysayers around us will criticize and want us to go back to Egypt. Satan will pull out every trick in his bag to get us off course. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future."
So in the months ahead, I pray that we will bring to mind often these three messages:
The love of God, which gives us our motivation.
A hunger after God, that creates the environment where God’s Spirit can work
The joy of the Lord, which is our strength.
I’m changing the closing hymn, Sarai. You probably are already ahead of me and know what I’m going to do. This matter of obedience is probably the most important key to knowing the joy of the Lord. Some of you are uncomfortable and you don’t know the joy of the Lord in your life because you are straddling that barbed wire fence with one foot on God’s side and one foot on the world’s side. "Trust and Obey" is what we are going to use as our closing hymn. It’s #467. A lot of what I said this morning is right there in those words. Sing them and let God speak to you through them.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn