Quest of Joy

Soul Food • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago • Presented 7 years ago • 27:03

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Our spiritual lives can be easily overlooked and ignored. Like any muscle, skill, or activity, our spiritual lives need intentional conditioning and practice to stay healthy and fit.

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In this series, we are talking about those various habits or rituals in the life of a Christian that feeds and nurtures our souls; those things that help is grow in faith. Today we’re looking at a habit that is often overlooked: joy. What does the practice of joy look like in the life of a Christian?

Joy is not the same thing as pleasure

I think the first thing we need to do is take a moment and talk about what joy is NOT. And this is why. You and I live in a culture which has an unspoken ultimate goal. Pleasure. Our consumer economy, our entertainment industry; marketing professionals go to great lengths to convince us that all of these things exist for the ultimate purpose of providing pleasure.

Now, before I go too far in portraying pleasure as a bad thing, let’s also remember that there is a good and proper place in God’s creation for us as his people to take pleasure in the blessings of God. It’s not that pleasure itself is a sin. But when we take something like pleasure and make that the ultimate objective of everything we do, the result tends to measure everything in this world upon its ability to produce pleasure. And when something no longer provides the pleasure we seek, then it has lost its value, and we throw it out.

In this kind of world in which we are constantly bombarded by a measurement of pleasure, we become easily confused. So, today as we consider the Christian practice of joy, we absolutely must remind ourselves that joy is NOT the same thing as pleasure. So often—without meaning to—we confuse those two things. Often we think that joy and pleasure are the same thing.

I want you to honestly think about this for a moment. Consider right now, if I were to ask you to make a list of all the things in life that bring you joy, how many of the things on that list would actually be things that bring you pleasure? I bet that for every single person here, our lists of things that bring us joy are actually mostly things that bring us pleasure. This is pretty important. We’re going to look at some words of scripture in a moment that speak to the place of joy in nurturing our spiritual lives. And many of us don’t have an accurate understanding of what joy even is.

But let’s allow scripture help us in understanding how joy is something different than pleasure, and how a practice of true joy nurtures our souls and grows our faith.

Philippians 4:4-9

Philippians 4:4–9 NIV

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Inward | practice

There’s an old saying that goes, “you are what you eat.” I eat quite a bit of chicken, so I’m not quite sure what that says about me. But you all know what that saying really means. If all I ever eat is unhealthy junk food, then my body would show it. That kind of diet would be reflected in my personal health. But beyond that, what this saying means is that whatever it is we are overwhelmingly consuming greatly affects who we are and who we become.

Those who have studied the affects of pornography know this to be true. For those who have an addiction to pornography and find themselves constantly consuming pornographic material, there is a resulting struggle to have healthy romantic relationships. If garbage is all that goes into our minds, then at some level this same garbage will also come out.

Joy begins by what we put in our minds

So, look at what Paul does to help us understand true joy in these words. He says, “Rejoice in the LORD always,” and then launches straight into an explanation of how he expects the church to do this. And this is where he begins. Joy begins by what it is we put into our minds. Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy—think about it. Meditate upon it. What you prioritize to put into your mind is what will shape who you become.

I remember sitting beside the hospital bedside of Frank Velzen in the last days of his life. He was weak and could not speak much. So I brought my Bible and would just sit there and read scripture to him. I would read through several Psalms, and Frank would lay there and mouth the words along with me as I read. He knew those Psalms by heart. Frank loved Paul’s New Testament letter of Romans. If you’ve ever read Romans, you know it’s pretty thick theological stuff. I sat and read Romans to Frank because I knew that was his favorite part of scripture. And still he would lay there and mouth the words as I read. He knew it by heart. Something like that only happens in someone who has spent years-and-years meditating upon words of scripture. All of us here who had the privilege of knowing Frank while he was alive would attest to what a godly man he was. Something like that doesn’t just happen by itself. Make no mistake; Frank knew what it meant to take joy in the LORD. And make no mistake; Frank knew what it meant to achieve that joy by taking into his mind the kinds of things that would shape and build joy.

Joy is an intentional pursuit

But here’s the thing. I think the other thing Frank knew was that this had to be an intentional pursuit. This kind of joy doesn’t just happen automatically all by itself. There are many people in this world who find themselves wondering why it is they cannot find joy in the LORD, wondering why it seems they have very little joy in their Christian life. Paul is telling us today that joy is such an important part of our faith. But joy takes some work. There are things we can do to pursue joy.

I’m not a great golfer. Part of that is because I don’t get out and play that much. But I think the bigger part is because I don’t practice. I hardly ever get to a driving range. I rarely spend time on the putting green. I’ve never had someone analyze the form of my swing. I don’t read up on technique or fundamentals. I just go out and play every now and then. And I don’t play well because I don’t practice. I don’t do anything to prepare. I don’t do anything to improve.

This inward pursuit of joy that Paul is talking about here today is practice. It’s time on the driving range. It’s swings in the batting cage. It’s hitting the weight room. Taking the time to pour over the words of scripture, to participate in Bible study groups; this is time that intentionally feeds the words of God into our minds and into our hearts. This is time that intentionally pursues the heart of God. This is what Paul says we need in order to intentionally pursue joy in our lives. It takes practice. I cannot walk onto a golf course and play a great game without first dedicating time to adjust the way I play through practicing. And we cannot walk out and the door here today and live a life of joy without first dedicating time to adjust the way we think, to adjust what it is we are feeding into our minds.

Outward | Play

But it doesn’t end there. Because joy, as Paul describes it, is not just an inward experience. Joy also shows up as an outward expression. It must have some way of taking action in our lives. Paul urges his readers in this letter to see what his rejoicing looks like, and then put it into action for themselves. So, an intentional pursuit of joy is only the beginning. True joy in the LORD also takes a step of outward expression.

Inward experience must result in outward action

Let’s flip my golfing game around the other way. Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation—and I mean extremely hypothetical. What if I were to actually become a decent golfer? What if I spent hours at the driving range and on the practice putting green? What if I sought out the advice from an instructor and corrected all those little things in my swing that go wrong? What if I studied other great golfers and learned from their technique? What if I did all of that, but then never go out and actually play a round of golf? All I do is practice, all I do is improve my ability, but it never actually shows up because I never step foot onto a golf course. That would make no sense.

Many of you know that one of my hobbies is cooking. I love spending time in the kitchen preparing different kinds of meals. But what if people never ate any of it? What if I continued to spend hours experimenting around with new recipes and creating wonderful dishes, but then just threw all that food into the trash? Unimaginable! What a waste! I do all the work of preparing, but no one receives the nourishment.

Yet this is exactly how many of us treat Christian joy. We do all the work of preparing, but then we skip over receiving the nourishment. We spend time in God’s Word doing all the inward pursuit of joy. And then we just let it sit. Our joy never finds its outward expression. We’ve done all the practice, but we never get in the game.

What does joy look like in our lives?

So, what is the game here? I began today by reminding us what joy is NOT. Joy is not the same thing as pleasure. Joy is not a circumstantial euphoria that randomly swings in and out of our lives. Joy is not a momentary happiness. But all this today still leaves a big question out there. So, what is joy? What does rejoicing in the LORD actually look like when it takes an outward expression in the way we live? That’s a pretty important question.

gentleness, don’t be anxious, express thanksgiving, peace of God, contentment

Again, let’s take a hint from Paul. Look at some of the words he uses in his exhortation at the beginning of today’s passage. Let gentleness be evident. Don’t be anxious in prayer, but rather express thanksgiving. And twice Paul says God’s peace will be evident in our lives. In the verses immediately following what we read today, Paul goes on to say that in every situation that comes his way, he has contentment.

These aren’t just inward feelings. These are outward expressions. These are all the kinds of expressions that join together and show up as joy. Maybe when we think of Christian rejoicing, we think about the many Psalms that instruct Israel to rejoice. Maybe we think about rejoicing—as the Psalms describe—as being loud shouts and singing. The Psalms also describe rejoicing as something of a worship celebration. This is all true. Authentic and genuine worship is, in fact, one of the outward expressions of joy.

Look again at what Paul says in verse 4. Rejoice in the LORD always. Joy is not just for worship. Joy shows up in other expressions as well. Like what? Once again, let’s not stray from what Paul is telling us in scripture. If you back up and read the verses right before this passage, Paul is addressing two specific people in the church there in the city of Philippi. These are two people who seem to be having a rather bitter disagreement. And Paul is urging these women to embrace a nurturing expression of joy in their relationship. Joy shows up in our relationships with one another. Joy becomes a way in which we live in relationship and in community with one another.

This joy feeds our souls, nourishes our faith, and only comes from God

And this joy feeds our souls. This joy is nourishment for our faith. And this joy has only one source. This joy comes from God alone. We will never find a joy like this that comes from anywhere else. All the other places in this world where we go looking for some other kind of peace, some other kind of contentment. All those other places fall short. All those other things besides God to which we turn can never nourish our souls. Day after day we see a world full of people who bounce from one high to the next. Drugs. Alcohol. Money. Success. There is an endless cycle of ups and downs for those who pursue these things as something that can provide joy. Those things will never nourish us. Those things will never feed us. True joy comes from God alone.

Look at what God has for you today. Look at what God has provided. You have an invitation to be wrapped in his grace. And in his grace, there is a life of true joy. Let the Holy Spirit nurture that within you. And let the God of peace prompt your eternal expression of joy.