Living With Joy

Chad Zudweg

Advent • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Philippians 4:4

Joy

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Joy is not an emotion. It comes when we change our focus to Jesus and what He has done for us.

Notes

Transcript

Intro

We are in week 4 of our Advent series and we’ve lit 3 of our candles.

Week one we talked about hope

Week two was peace

And last week was love.

Each week we have had a child come up and read a scripture and then help light the candle of the week.

Today we have Maddie Deeran who is going to read Luke 2:8-11 as this week's theme is Joy.

Light Candle

Pray

The title of my message is “Living with Joy”

Many people think that joy is just happiness.

That if I’m happy that means I have joy

And if I have joy that means I’m happy.

It doesn’t always work that way.

You see happiness a lot of times is circumstantial

You only are happy in certain circumstances.

Certain THINGS make you happy

This is why people strive for certain things in this life because they think it will make them happy.

“If I only had this job I would be happy.”

“If I only had this much money I would be happy.”

“If I just could become famous I would be so happy.”

And yet we see over and over again people and celebrities who have all these things yet are getting divorced, checking in to rehab, or even taking their own lives.

Because those things may bring you moments of happiness but it will NEVER bring you true joy.

Joy is deeper than that.

Joy isn’t based on things.

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.”

Other versions may say something along the lines of, “always be full of joy”

So he’s talking about Joy here.

He doesn’t say, “be happy all the time”.

He says “rejoice” or “have joy”.

He also doesn’t say rejoice in the Lord during the good times.

He uses a VERY important word.

“Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS”

So Paul is trying to tell me that I need to have joy in the good times AND the bad?

That even in the middle of a difficult season, I still need to have joy?

I think Paul even knew how crazy that sounds.

That’s why he repeated himself

He says, “AGAIN I say rejoice”.

I don’t know of any other commands that get repeated.

I don’t read anywhere, “don’t murder, again I say don’t murder”!

But Paul repeats himself with this probably because he knows how crazy this sounds.

But one thing we need to notice is that this is a COMMAND.

This was not a request from Paul

This was not, “hey if you feel up to it in the moment, rejoice”.

He’s TELLING US as a believer you must rejoice.

How can I have joy in a moment of sorrow?

How can I have joy when I lose my job?

Or when someone close to me dies?

Because this kind of joy doesn’t come from you.

At the end of the verse of Nehemiah 8:10 he says, “...for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

This joy comes from God through the Holy Spirit.

It’s a joy that can be hard to understand.

Much like peace.

In fact the verse that we read in Philippians is written right before a verse we used on peace.

Philippians 4:5-7 “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.”

So before Paul goes into how we should not be anxious and give our requests to God and then the PEACE of God which surpasses our understanding will guard our hearts, he tells us to REJOICE.

I think joy and peace go hand in hand.

When you truly rejoice in who God is and realize you don’t have to be anxious, God’s peace will follow.

Think about the fruit of the spirit.

When you have the Holy Spirit living inside you there should be some fruit that we see in your life

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

First notice how it says “fruit”, not “fruits”.

All these things should be evident in us.

But one of the fruit is JOY

When you have the Holy Spirit in you there should be a joy in you that people just don’t understand.

And it’s not just an emotion.

Sure the feeling of happiness can be part of joy but it doesn’t always.

I believe it’s the Holy Spirit helping you with your mindset.

Joy to me is a mindset.

It’s something you focus on because you see the bigger picture.

Think of this verse in Hebrews.

Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Remember we talked a couple weeks ago about how Isaiah said the God gives peace to those whose minds are stayed on Him?

Here’s the same thing where the Hebrew writer says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

It’s a common theme if you want to have these things like peace and joy in your life.

But notice how it says, “for the JOY set before him he endured the cross…”

Joy was something that Jesus set before him

He didn’t have joy because of the feeling he was going to have on the cross.

I promise you those nails going through his hands hurt just as bad as it would going through yours or mine.

But he found JOY in the outcome that was going to take place BECAUSE of what he went through on the cross.

Your joy is not going to come from your circumstances, especially in a difficult time.

But it will come when you keep your eyes on Jesus and remember what he did for you on the cross .

It will come when you realize that when you give your life to him, your name is in the Book of Life and you get to spend eternity with him!!

I heard a pastor say, “Joy is a focus before it’s a feeling.”

Why do you think James says this…

James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

How on earth can you consider it JOY when you face trials?

Because it’s not about focusing on the trial but on what can come from the trial.

Trials produce perseverance in your faith which will mature your faith.

And I would think we all want to mature in our faith.

So when you face trials it’s not about focusing on the circumstance but what the outcome will be when God is said and done.

And THAT’S what gives you joy.

Close

Psalm 16:11 ESV “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

You want to experience the fullness of God’s joy?

You will only find it in His presence.

But God’s presence is everywhere right?

This isn’t speaking of God’s presence everywhere.

It’s more about YOU being PRESENT with God!

To truly be in the presence of God YOU need to be present with God.

Take time this week of Christmas and truly be present with God.

Turn your focus to him and not those around you.

And I believe you will be able to experience the fullness of God’s Joy.