1/15/12 11 am – Joy: The Lifeless Fruit of Today’s Christianity

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SERIES: STOP DOING AND START GROWING
TITLE: JOY: A LIFELESS FRUIT IN TODAY’S CHRISTIANITY
TEXT: GALATIANS 5:22

INTRO:
· Grace of the Spirit…Love (agape – love feast) - divine, self-sacrificing, self-giving love. It is the basis, the foundation of the other graces of the Spirit.
· Today, JOY: A LIFELESS FRUIT IN TODAY’S CHRISTIANITY.
· When a person lives in the sphere of love, then he experiences joy—that inward peace and sufficiency that is not affected by outward circumstances.^[1]
· GK DEF: 5479. χαρά chara, khar-ah´; from 5463; cheerfulness, i.e. calm delight:—gladness, × greatly, (× be exceeding) joy (-ful, -fully, -ulness, -ous).^[2]

· Joy is a gift of the Grace of God. It is not a work that can be manufactured. WE EXPERIENCE THE JOY OF GRACE WHEN WE DELIGHT IN THE BLESSINGS WE POSSESS OF GOD.
· We often mistake the material blessings that we have as a sign of God’s approval and the source of our joy.
· But the Kingdom of God is made of the spiritual blessings of God.

o Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink (physical blessing); but righteousness, and peace, and JOY in the Holy Ghost.

· God does not saved you then cause you to live a miserable life so that you would enjoy heaven that much more (some of you believe that!), but He saves you so that you might have a heavenly, grace-filled joy that is evident to those around you TODAY!

I. THE FUN OF JOY

a. Newsflash: Joy means having fun! Fun is not just something experienced by the un-churched who live for the pleasures of the world.
b. McGee - The world has what they call the “happy hour” in {bars} cocktail parlors all across our land. People don’t look too happy when they go in, and they sure don’t look happy when they come out! ^[3]
c. That is because the world cannot give to you the joy you seek.
d. Their joy is a manufactured fun that has no sustaining worth.

i. EX: More $, more fun…etc.

ii. EX: The more I do, the more God will “joy” in me – oppressive.

e. If your Faith is not Fun, then there is no joy.

II. THE FULLNESS OF JOY

a. John 15:9–11 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
b. We were created BY God to have joy IN God. When we seek to fill that joy with something else, we will never be fulfilled.
c. 1 John 1:4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
d. It is God’s joy in us that produces more joy in our life.
e. True joy does not depend on our circumstances around us because it rests in the knowledge that God is in contro.
f. That is the truth behind Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
g. We can have joy in trials because God is the source of our joy and not our circumstances.

III. THE FULFILLMENT OF JOY

a. Romans 5:1–11 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
b. Our salvation and our security in God is the fulfillment of our joy.
c. Resting in God and His promises.

CLOSE:

· 1 Peter 1:3–9 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
· In spite of all that you may be going through, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ produces a joy that is unspeakable.
· Our joy is not conditional to our circumstances – because God is bigger than our circumstances.
· Our joy is not based on the world’s philosophies and material desires because the spiritual blessings of God far outweigh them.
· God’s joy is fun and filled with fulfillment. God created you to Joy in Him and there is nothing the world can offer you that will fill that need.
· Our Joy is in God, because God is in us through His Son Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
· Christian, have you lost your joy?
·Hymn Writer Loses Joy Of Salvation
· Robert Robinson, author of the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” lost the happy communion with the Savior he had once enjoyed, and in his declining years he wandered into the by-ways of sin. As a result, he became deeply troubled in spirit. Hoping to relieve his mind, he decided to travel.
· In the course of his journeys, he became acquainted with a young woman on spiritual matters, and so she asked him what he thought of a hymn she had just been reading. To his astonishment he found it to be none other than his own composition. He tried to evade her question, but she continued to press him for a response.
· Suddenly he began to weep. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he said, “I am the man who wrote that hymn many years ago. I’d give anything to experience again the joy I knew then.” Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the “streams of mercy” mentioned in his song still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his “wandering heart” to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship.
· —H. G. Bosch^[4]

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^[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Ga 5:22). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
^[2] Strong, J., S.T.D., LL.D. (2009). Vol. 1: A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (77). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
^[3] McGee, J. V. (1991). Vol. 46: Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (Galatians) (electronic ed.). Thru the Bible commentary (104). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
^[4] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.