Fruits of the Spirit 03 - Joy

Reading: Psalm 30
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,   Psalm 30:11 (NIV)

I.   Out of the Pits

     A.  The Fruits usually start out as the pits

           1.  The Joy that is a fruit of the Spirit isn’t a brittle mask we wear to try to fake everybody out about how much we hurt inside.

           2.  The Fruit of Joy doesn’t have to look like joy when it first starts growing.

           3.  It is a common human experience to (sooner or later) experience the kind of pain in life that sends us to the pit - to the point where we wonder if we’ll ever be happy again, to wonder if we’re going crazy.

                 a.  The death of a loved one (especially a child), losing a job, the painful tearing of divorce, abuse of all kinds, rejection or betrayal by friends, failure of a dream.

                 b.  It is because of the work of the Holy Spirit that we come face to face with our sin and realize, to our horror, what we have done to our relationship with God and our fellow human beings.

     B.  We don’t get out of the pits by Jumping

           1.  How does David get out of the pits?

                 a.  David doesn’t say “Thanks Lord for giving me the strength to jump out of the pit.”

           2.  If you’re in the pits and someone says Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again Rejoice (Phil 4:4) you might end up feeling even more depressed because you can’t do what the Bible seems to be saying.

                 a.  Don’t worry. When David claims that God rescued him from the pit, it meant that for a while he was actually in there.

                 b.  True joy can’t come from pretending to be happy when you’re not.

                 c.  If your joy fruit is small and green and sour, what do you suppose you need to do?

     C.  God lifts us out

           1.  David needed to be air lifted. There was no way he could get out of there by gritting his teethe, or pulling on his bootstraps, putting on a smiley face, or jumping really high.

           2.  David says “Thank you Lord for rescuing me.”

                 a.  Who is it that does the rescuing?

           3.  David calls out to God (v.2) and God heals him.

                 a.  David needed not only rescue but healing.

                 b.  That healing feels like resurrection to David. It’s like he was dead, but now he’s alive.

                 c.  God rescues us and makes us alive in Christ.

II.  The Lie of Self-Reliance

     A.  We think “I’m Strong enough”

           1.  What happens to David in v.6? He gets spiritually cocky: “Nothing’s going to shake me up anymore!” “I’ve arrived” “I’ve done the depression thing, I know how to lick it now.”

           2.  And look, David realizes God is blessing him, that God is giving him strength.

           3.  Like we do so often, David falls into the trap of thinking that God is working in his life in such a way that soon he won’t need God at all.

                 a.  Just a note: God never works that way!

     B.  We think “It’s Up To Me to get better.”

           1.  Way to often, we assume we need to get better before we go to the Doctor — that it’s up to us to get out of the pits (after all we got ourselves in).

           2.  We sometimes get advice from well-meaning friends and family members - “Straighten up” “Suck it up and go on!” “Don’t think about it.”

                 a.  And there are times when we over-react and choose to embrace the pit, because it’s easier to do that than take responsibility.

           3.  When the rug has been pulled out from under us and we can’t find “up” anymore, when the pain is so big it makes us numb, we can’t get better on our own, even if we knew where to start.

     C.  The lie gets Exposed

           1.  David thought he had made it. But even in his success he goes through a horrible experience: God hides his face.

                 a.  David was so busy admiring the unmovable mountain he had become, he didn’t notice that God left the picture.

           2.  When David finds out that God is not in his life, he describes himself as if he were dying.

           3.  Even when we’re at our strongest and feel our best, joy is only possible when God is a part of our experience.

III. Pain Transformed

     A.  Pain is not denied, but Healed

           1.  Christian Joy isn’t about skipping over painful experience like a stone over smooth water.

                 a.  Don’t say to each other, your hurt isn’t real, or, if it is, it isn’t important.

                 b.  It is a lie to say that real Christians wouldn’t cry like that.

           2.  Christian Joy comes from God, who heals our pain (v.2) — takes away what was really there.

           3.  This includes, most importantly the pain of our separation from God — another fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into (and sometimes think it’s up to us to get ourselves out of!).

                 a.  God heals our pain, restores our joy.

     B.  Grief changed to Celebration

           1.  God changes David’s grief, his deep sorrow that expressed itself in uncontrolled wailing. . .God changed that to dancing!

                 a.  God changed it by His mercy (v.10)

           2.  God changes our grief to celebration,

                 a.  Our grief over the pains and sorrows of normal human existence

                 b.  Our grief over our deep sin which alienates us from God whom we need so desperately.

           3.  Joy is a fruit of the Spirit because only God can produce true and lasting Joy — only God can give us something to really celebrate!

                 a.  And its a fruit of the Spirit because God does give us true and lasting joy.

     C.  The point of Joy is to Celebrate God

           1.  Our Joy is in the Lord (Phil.4:4) — Who He is, and what He has done and is doing for us.

           2.  Our Joy is in the Lord, when even between the tears we know, really know, that somehow God will turn even this wailing into dancing, because that’s who God is.

           3.  Our Joy is in the Lord who has paid the price, who has restored our relationship to Him, who has given us the free gift of salvation, who promises to rescue all who call out to him.

The Bottom Line:

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