Hear me right, please.
I am not asking if you giggle or laugh a lot. I have seen some deeply-hurt people use laughter as a cover. Drunks laugh.
I am not asking if you are enjoying pleasure. Pleasure is a fool's-gold look alike of joy. Not that there is anything wrong with pleasure - or laughter for that matter. Pleasure is a real, and often a good experience. Let's face it - eating smoked salmon on wheat wafers beats 99 tuna on Wonder Bread; it's a real pleasure. But it doesn't last.
The taste of the salmon fades from your palate; just like sounds of the symphony eventually die out; or the hockey game comes to an end; or the warm summer sunshine slips over the horizon.
Pleasure and laughter fade.
And then what?
What happens when pleasure is replaced by tragedy?
What happens when boom time is replaced by recession?
What happens when vigour is replaced by illness?
Then what?
Let me ask my question this way -
Do you have a deep and lasting sense that there is something right about your life, something that runs deeper than the moment, deeper than pain or pleasure?
Do you have an inner sense that no matter what the immediate circumstances, no matter what the immediate experiences, somehow YES! life is worth living - the challenges are worth facing, the successes worth savouring and the setbacks endurable?
Is there real joy in your life?
It IS possible to have, you know.
Remember the bible passage we just read. Remember especially those key words -- "... the fruit of the Spirit is.....JOY"
We said last week that our moral, emotional and spiritual insides are sort of like a computer programme with some glitches and bugs in it. The glitches we know as sin. It is that inner part of us which has become distorted and twisted away from God's original and perfect plan for us.
Jesus Christ, after winning forgiveness and salvation for us through His work on the cross and in the grave, sent the Holy Spirit to live by, on, and IN all who believe in Jesus. This Spirit would begin the job of rewriting that inner code we carry around, shaping us into new people, allowing our lives to bear a new kind of fruit.
That's what we call "The Fruit Of The Spirit."
Part of that rewritten inner moral, spiritual and emotional code is..... JOY.
And what we want to know is how the Spirit can guide and mould us towards experiencing true joy, to gaining that deep and lasting sense that there is something right about your life, something that runs deeper than the moment, deeper than pain or pleasure;
to gaining an inner sense that no matter what the immediate circumstances, no matter what the immediate experiences, somehow YES! life is worth living - the challenges are worth facing, the successes worth savouring and the setbacks endurable.
Please open your bibles and read with me.
Hear Jesus say: I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
COMPLETE JOY - Now, there's an offer that's hard to resist!
COMPLETE JOY - a deep, inner sense:
- that "it is well with my soul"
- that it's worth getting up in the morning, life matters
COMPLETE JOY - a delight in life that runs deeper than pain or pleasure [Davis "Joy" in Evangelical Dictionary Of Theology].
THREE KEYS TO JOY
"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you..." -
What is the "this" that Jesus told his listeners?
If you go carefully through the verses of our passage you will notice at least 3 things:
1. In V.4 he says, "Remain in me."
2. In V.9 he says, "Remain in my love."
3. In V.12 he says, "Love each other as I have loved you."
Remain in me..... Remain in my love..... Love each other.....
Three keys to having the complete joy of Jesus in our lives.
Three keys which the Spirit of God uses to mould the fruit of joy into us.
Let's consider each briefly.
REMAIN IN ME
"Remain in me and I will remain in you" says Jesus.
Not - stay within earshot, or keep in touch once in a while - but remain in me. Jesus uses a picture of a vine. I've brought the closest thing I have to one - a plant. See how the whole thing is carefully and intimately connected. Notice how supple and succulent the leaves are. Remember: they get that way because of the life juices that flow throughout the plant.
Now notice this part that I separated from the plant a couple of days ago. For the first day or two it looked all right. In fact, there are still a couple of segments of it that seem not half bad at first glance. But overall - it's dying.
Joy comes through an intimate relationship with Jesus, through making him the centre of our existence, the most important person in our lives. Joy comes when we deliberately and personally invite Jesus to take up residence in our heart.
You cannot have Joy - a deep, solid, lasting delight about life while at the same time turning your back on the Creator of Life and his precious son Jesus.
One of the things that bothers me a lot is how people try to marginalize faith as an element of one's life; to put it in a little box as something good for Sunday and perhaps on occasion throughout the week. We have faith in God just like we have a membership in the model railroad club, serve on the local Community Association board, or have a night pass to go skiing;
sometimes you use it and sometimes you don't.
Unfortunately, if you try that, you'll find in short order that it DOESN'T WORK! Such faith is no faith, and gives no joy! It's like trying to have your body live a vibrant life without any blood in it.
REMAIN IN MY LOVE
Then, #2 - v.9, Remain in my love.
As you search for joy, think about that - God loves YOU!
What does Jesus say to his followers? Notice:
v.9 - they are LOVED by Jesus
v.15 - they are called FRIENDS of Jesus
v.16 - they are CHOSEN by Jesus
Loved (v.9) and chosen (v.16) friends of Jesus (v.15)-
What a title!
Can you believe that this applies to you?
It's right there - black and white!
Loved and chosen friends of Jesus - v.9,15,16
Wow - what a support, what a strength that gives to life;
strength and support we can find nowhere else.
Tell me, believers - do you give yourself time to experience and soak up that flow of love from Jesus... your friend?
Do you have a daily quiet time with him?
Do you take the time on a regular basis to gather with other believers and celebrate his love in worship?
REMAIN IN MY LOVE.
Then notice - loved and chosen friends of Jesus - notice this:
v.10: If you obey my commands you will remain in my love.
Do those words mean that Jesus has put us on probation, is standing back with his arms folded over his chest, calling out, "I'm watching. If you blow it I won't love you anymore!"
No!! No!! No!!
It is this. Can a love relationship between a husband and wife continue when one of the partners keeps getting caught up in extramarital affairs; or when one of the partners keeps promising to be considerate of the other and work for the other but never does it? Fat chance, right?
Can a love relationship between Jesus and a person continue when that person continues to get seduced by values and enticements which run counter to the will of Christ, when a person becomes involved again and again in spiritual adultery?
Can a love relationship between Jesus and a person continue when the person never says, "I love you, Jesus" or pays attention to Jesus, or considers what Jesus demands of his or her life?
"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love..."
There's another side to this in the context of the whole discussion of joy. The obedience to which Jesus calls us is an obedience to his Laws for life - laws that are crucial towards our well-being. I've said it before - they are the Creator's blueprint specifications for life. Follow them and life functions well. Flaunt them and things fall apart.
Have you ever bought a new piece of stereo equipment, and tried to set it up and operate it without first reading and carefully following the instructions? Frustrating, isn't it? You inevitably connect something wrong, and occasionally you blow the whole thing and need the repairman. No joy in it then!
God gives us a package called "life." And the sad thing is that too many people open that package and try to make it run right without consulting the instructions on the box. It leads to terrible frustrations, certainly not joy-filled living.
LOVE EACH OTHER
And then Christ's third ingredient to a joy-filled life:
v.12: My command is this - love each other as I have loved you.Someone once said, JOY is "Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others in-between" - J... O... Y...
There's a lot of truth to that.
Joy is inextricably linked to our love for others. We cannot possibly experience joy when isolating ourselves from the rest of God's people. That's because we cannot experience God's love when isolated from the love of God's people, or when holding unloving attitudes towards others.
Sounds harsh, but that's the basic truth as Jesus himself puts it.
Hold a grudge, refuse to extend yourself, hide within a little shell around your life, and you will find joy a scarce commodity.
Love only can grow when it is shared.
Give love away and you will find it growing in your own heart. Try to greedily keep the little love your heart knows at present, hoard it from others, and you will soon find it evaporating..... along with the Joy of the Lord!
THE GROWTH OF JOY
Remain in me.... Remain in my love.... Love one another....
Follow the path of these three signposts and you will find a deep-seated sense within you that life is OK, things will be all right - it is well with my soul, and with my life.
Perhaps first a bud, then a little seedling, but eventually a vigorously growing and healthy plant of joy.
It doesn't mean that all will be roses. Just look at the setting in which Jesus speaks these words. They are part of a long speech he makes, which really begins in ch13 of John and ends in ch.18. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You look it up. Jesus' promise of joy doesn't mean a life of ease.
Jesus himself speaks in our reading of being "pruned" - those occasions where God will allow us to be tested and challenged in order to strengthen the metal of our faith, and more firmly fasten our grip of dependence on Him.
At the time of pruning things don't seem pleasant. It can actually hurt. It may seem rather ugly.... just like an apple tree after pruning seems pained and ugly. But come summer time those trees that are pruned produce bigger and better fruit; they DO better than the trees that have been left alone and ignored by the farmer - never pruned.
God the Father will prune those who are his through various situations of life so that they produce bigger and better fruit for him, that the potential and gifts which He has entrusted to them can be utilized to the maximum.
And such utilization will also result in increased joy.
CONCLUSION
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Your Joy - a delight in life that runs deeper than pain or pleasure
Found by remaining in Jesus
remaining in his love
loving one another.