Everything Is Awesome & Nobody Is Happy Your Journey To Joy

 Everything Is Awesome & Nobody Is Happy

Your Journey To Joy

Opening Illustration:

Point:

We often lose our joy. Well I brought some joy with me this morning. Joy detergent, Almond Joy, Joystick. What happens when you run out of Joy? You have an empty bottle, all you have left is Almond, and you video game doesn’t work. Life just isn’t as good when you run out of joy. Maybe you are here this morning and you’ve lost some of your joy. Something is bothering you, troubling you? You’ve got worry that just wont go away. You’ve been disappointed, hurt, or grieved? You’re running on empty, you’ve lost your joy.

The Bible speaks to “joy” quite often. If you were to perform a Google search asking about Bible verses containing the word “joy”, you will find dozens and dozens of pages. I know because I did just that in preparation for today’s message. Hopefully we have all experienced the “joy” of knowing God and being saved through Jesus Christ, His Son. But, if I were to ask you to define “joy”, what would you say? Im sure that there is a Webster’s definition of the word but if I were to ask 100 people on the street to define for me the word “joy” I bet that I would get 100 different answers. Most people liken joy to happiness. Everyone seems to be selling happiness these days - drug dealers, pharmaceutical companies, Hollywood, Disney, toy companies, and of course happiness-pedaling gurus.

If you were Hindu, you might say that joy is something that we can only experience through our 5 senses. Joy comes and goes as is the story with everything that we experience. If you were Muslim you would say that joy comes through complete and total obedience to Allah, following the dogma of the Pillars of the Faith. If you were agnostic you might say that joy comes through a moment by moment experience. If you want joy for an hour, take a nap. If you want joy for the day, go fishing. If you want joy for a year, inherit a large sum of money. If you want to have joy for a lifetime, then help someone. Do these things and you will have a life of joy but when your life is over, your joy is over as well. 

Point:

So what is joy? A search for the word JOY came up with 155 verses in King James Version. Another source reported that the word JOY appears 88 times in the Old Testament in 22 books; 57 times in the New Testament in 18 books. There are 15 different Hebrew words and 8 Greek words to describe JOY - both as a noun and as a verb. This shows that Joy constitutes something that is tangible or concrete as well as intangible or abstract.

In Hebrew - the original language of the Old Testament - several words for Joy, each with different shades of meaning, appear. Similar is the case in Greek – the original language of the New Testament.

In both the Old and New Testaments, the words translated as "Joy" mean much the same as the English word: gladness, cheerfulness, calm delight.

As a believer, I would define joy as a gift of God. Happiness fades but joy endures. Joy is an understanding that God is in control. Joy is trusting that God loves you and will provide for you in the midst of trails and hardship. Joy is fullness. Joy is purpose. Joy is hope in grief. Joy is the belief that the best is yet to come. It is the forgives of your past, strength for your present, and hope for the future. It is living everyday to love everyone, serve others, and to be fully obeying God. Joy is salvation of sin, life over death, light over dark, and peace over unrest. 

This morning, answer for me today’s question. Is your joy being smothered or strengthened?

Today’s Thought:

Is Your Joy Being Smothered or Strengthened?

Background and Context:

Paul returns again to the theme of joy in this verse. This time, he strongly emphasizes that such an attitude should be constant, not temporary. This echoes the words of Philippians 3:1, to "rejoice in the Lord," a phrase Paul also uses in Philippians 4:10 regarding his own actions. Believers find their joy and hope in God. Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) and is important for every believer. 

Paul seems especially focused on the idea that rejoicing is to take place at all times. We often forget that Paul wrote these words while a prisoner in Rome. He had been wrongfully arrested for some time, shipwrecked on the way there, bitten by a snake, and left under house arrest for two years (Acts 27:39–8:16). He had every reason to complain, yet focused on rejoicing. Both his teaching and example provide an amazing model. Every believer should seek to rejoice in the Lord despite difficult situations, just as Paul did.

So, let’s read this morning from Philippians 4:4 from the English Standard Version of the Bible. 

Today’s Scripture:

Philippians 4:4 ESV

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

Quote:

“A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers, 

or day-dawn without light.” 

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I. What Robs Us Of Our Joy

A. Concessions (Lack Of A Devotional Life)

Point:

The Psalmist writes, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” David’s words captured in Psalm 16:11. “In your presence there is fullness of joy”. When we are present with the Lord, we experience the fullness of joy. When we are present with the Lord, our joy is refreshed and renewed. 

Point:

I have met so many Christians who lack joy. They seem to be missing the abundant life that is found in Christ Jesus. Who knows what happened in their life to rob them of their joy? It is one of the saddest, most tragic events of the human experience, to know Christ and to lack the joy of His relationship. 

Point:

When I was writing this section of my message, I spent a great deal of time in thought and prayer. There are just so many things that rob us of our joy in knowing Christ. Then it hit me. Our joy is bolstered and buttressed when we know Him and when we are in His presence. When we make spending time with God our daily first priority, we gain new understandings of joy. 

Do you know what happens? The older we get, the more busy we become. We start making small concessions. Lord I will spend time with you tonight. I am just to busy in the morning to give you the time that you need. Father, I really want to be at church, but the window on beach season is closing and I really don’t want to miss out. Here is one that I told myself in college, “Lord I have my entire life to spend with you, I think that I am going to take this time for myself.” Friends, some of the greatest sins that we commit happen when we tell God that we need to “take time for ourselves”. 

If you are missing joy this morning, ask yourself, “how much time am I spending with God each day”. Ask yourself, “am I giving God the very best part of my day or am I giving Him the leftovers”. 

Point:

Jesus made spending time with His Father His top priority. Mark 1:35, in the 21 King James Version, states, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Jesus knew full well that He needed time with His Father because it was in the presence of His Father where He received the fullness of God’s joy. Jesus was able to drive out demons, heal, teach, and demonstrate powerful miracles because of the priority that He placed on spending time with His Father. Could it be that your weak faith, fueled by a lack of spending time with God daily, is creating a vacuum of joy in your life? 

James 4:8 ESV

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

I. What Robs Us Of Our Joy

A. Concessions (Lack Of A Devotional Life)

B. Companions (Negative People)

Point:

There is perhaps nothing more joy robbing than dealing with a toxic person. What is a toxic person? A toxic person is someone who is constantly doom and gloom. A toxic person is always critical, always cynical. A toxic person always sees the worst, highlights the dark instead of basking in the light. A toxic person is someone who robs you not just of joy, but they also rob you of your time and your energy. I was at a conference a long time ago and the speaker called these types of people “Energy Vampires”. The just seem to suck all the life out of you. 

Point:

Do you have a toxic relationship with someone today? Do you know any negative people, energy vampires? Here is what I have learned about spending time with negative people. The more time that I give them, the more my temperature changes. Get it? The more time that I spend around toxic people, the more toxic I become. My attitudes begin to reflect their attitudes. My values start to mimic their values. My speech starts to sound like their speech. I have to be very careful because allowing negative people into your circle of joy may seem like a nice thing to do. You may even thing that allowing a negative person into your circle of joy is something that Jesus would do. You might even think that your circle of joy may bring a negative person around to your way of thinking. Here is what I have learned. The only person that can change a toxic personality into a Christ-like personality is Jesus, not Stuart. I have no power to change someone’s heart. I have not power to pull someone from hell and commit them to heaven. Only Jesus has that power. 

“But preacher, how can a toxic person be introduced to Jesus if you don’t spend any time with them?” Well I never said not to spend any time with toxic people. After all, before Jesus we were all toxic. We were all sinners. Yes, be a witness. Sure, spend time with people who are negative, even toxic. In fact, I spend time with people like that every week. However, the people that are closest to me, that encourage me the most, and those to who I look for accountability are not negative people. They are joyful and joy filled through their knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

I Corinthians 15:33 ESV

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

I. What Robs Us Of Our Joy

A. Concessions (Lack Of A Devotional Life)

B. Companions (Negative People)

C. Comparisons (They Are Better, More Godly, Stronger, ect.)

Quote:

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

Point:

It’s true: When we compare ourselves to what others have, or simply how they are, we are essentially making ourselves feel down right inadequate and deflated – with a low self esteem to match. With social media being a platform to flaunt every aspect of our lives, high expectations to be earning a certain amount, to own the latest materials and to look a certain way – it’s only inevitable that as humans we are going to give in to the trap that is self comparison.

Point:

Some of the most joyless people I know live in the shadow of self-abasement attached to self comparison. What is the common word there…you guessed it…self. When we compare ourselves to others, it is really just the sin of selfishness. We covet what other have, what we thing we deserve. We are angry when others succeed because we feel that we deserve the success. We are jealous because he is stronger, better looking, she is prettier, thinner. In order to make ourselves feel valuable we must make others feel cheap. We long for the power that someone has so we try to cut their legs out from underneath them while we pretend to be their friend. 

Point:

Of all the things that rob us of our joy, comparison may just the worst. It may also be the most Satanic. Rewind if you will to the very start of time and you will be introduced to a character named Lucifer. In the Hebrew, the name Lucifer is translated from the Hebrew word "helel," which means brightness. This designation, referring to Lucifer, is the rendering of the "morning star" or "star of the morning" or "bright star" which is presented in Isaiah.

Scripture commits a great deal of time to Satan. He is mentioned and discussed at length in both the Old and the New Testaments. Satan was the chief, the greatest, the most beautiful of all the created angels. God. He was the prince of all the angels, the bearer of light. Still, being the most beautiful, princely angel of them all was not enough for Lucifer. “The Star of the Morning” wanted more and Scripture tells us that he compared himself to God. He wanted to seat himself on the throne of his Creator so he led a revolt. Satan was easily vanquished but not without loss. Satan, through the evil of self comparison, was thrown from heaven to earth. He would deceive the man and the woman leading to the fall of all creation. This deception would set into motion God’s rescue of all mankind through His Son Jesus Christ. We know the rest of the story. One day, Satan will be eternally punished. Why? Where did it all start? Pride! Selfishness! Comparison. 

Galatians 6:4 ESV

But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

II. What Is The Journey To Joy?

A. It Starts With Jesus

Point:

Brothers and sisters, if you are looking for joy this morning, you won’t find it in me. You won’t find true joy in a relationship. You won’t find joy at the bottom of a bottle or by popping a pill cap. The only way to find, true, real, lasting joy is to discover Jesus. Jesus can turn around your worst situation, heal any trouble, mend any brokenness, and bind up any brokenness. 

Your journey to joy doesn’t just start with Jesus, your very salvation starts with Jesus. The hope that you have for eternal life starts with Jesus. Your desire to overcome death with life starts with Jesus. The only way to defeat Satan is to start with Jesus. 

This may seem obvious but we live in a culture that states quite the opposite. Our culture states that if you want true joy, true happiness, then start with yourself. Look inside. Find your own truth. Be your own god. Adam and Eve went down that road already and do you know what they found in themselves, death. Not joy. 

Point:

I know that Christmas has come and gone, but I want to remind you the message of the angels as they were speaking to the shepherds. Do you remember what they said? In Luke 2:10 AMP it states, “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.” What was that good news? The good news was Jesus. Jesus is the start of joy. If you are looking for joy this morning. Start there. Start with Jesus. 

Acts 4:11-12 ESV

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

II. What Is The Journey To Joy?

A. It Starts With Jesus

B. It Is Strengthened By God’s Word

Point:

Friends, if joy starts with Jesus, then it is strengthened by God’s Word. Do you know what sparks real joy for me? Time in God’s Word. It’s the single biggest joy boost I know. I cannot tell you how many times (especially in the last 11 years of being a pastor, father, and husband) I’ve started my morning with a heavy burden or worry or deep missing. But once I get into God’s word, there’s a great exchange that takes place: I give God my burdens and take back his abiding joy and peace. 

Point:

There is nothing like quieting all the voices around us to open the Bible and hear from God. The word is living and active and God will use it to speak to the circumstances of our lives. God can speak very personally and practically through his word. His word helps to guide us, to give wisdom, to discern, to teach, to correct, to warn and to affirm. 

God’s Word restores our joy by bringing us into His presence. Scripture has been breathed out by God. In fact, “to have the Word of God is to have God Himself, for when Scripture speaks, God speaks.” To understand the word and to apply the word, we must have the Spirit working in us. And with God comes the fullness of his peace, his deep love and his joy.  

Point:

God’s Word renews our joy by revealing His promises to us. God’s word is filled with promises. Getting into God’s word every day not only reminds of his promises but God’s constant faithfulness to those promises. He was faithful to Noah. He was faithful to Joshua. He was faithful to Daniel and faithful to Nehemiah. Our circumstances don’t tell the whole story because God’s promises are at work and will be fulfilled in his perfect timing. We can count on God coming through and we can wait well because we know without a doubt that God can only ever be faithful, shielding us, protecting us, and providing us with His everlasting joy. 

Matthew 4:4 ESV

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

C. It Is Sustained Through Prayer

Point:

If Jesus is the beginning of joy, and God’s Word strengthens our joy, then prayer is what sustains our joy. Think of prayer like a filling station for your car. The more you drive your car, the more fuel you will burn. Each week you may have to return to a gas station to refill your tank so that you will be able to drive once more. If you refuse to purchase gas, your tank will empty, and your car will cease to work. You’ll be stranded. People often choose to operate like that don’t they. Under their own power. They are smart enough, strong enough, they don’t need God’s help. Eventually though life has its way with us all and we are all left feeling empty, hopeless, and joyless. Prayer is the gasoline for the soul. Prayer is the conduit through which God blesses us with His peace and joy. When we deprive ourselves of daily prayer, cooperate prayer, we deprive ourselves of God’s joy. We deprive ourselves of His power working through us. 

Point:

There is joy in the secret place of prayer. There is joy as we choose to center our life in God and knowing Him. There is joy and breakthrough even in the darkest of circumstances when we choose to make Jesus our highest ambition, our deepest desire, and our greatest goal. Then He breaks through for us with transcending peace and supernatural understanding. Henry and Richard Blackaby remind us:

Quote:
“Jesus did not pray that you would be merely happy or even that you would escape grief. He prayed that you would have the same joy that the Father had given Him: a divine joy, a joy that comes from a deep and unwavering relationship with the Father. It is a joy that is grounded so firmly in a relationship with God that no change in circumstances could ever shake it. This is the kind of joy that Christ is praying will be in you.”

Point:

Prayer is such a powerful tool in our discovery of joy. It reminds me of Mark 9 when Jesus heals the demon possessed boy. Nothing could be done for him. No one could heal him. Not even Jesus’ disciples. They bring the boy to Jesus and Jesus drives out the unclean spirit. Privately His followers asked Him why they were not able to drive out the demon. Jesus replies “this kind can come out only by prayer”. Jesus understood as we should that prayer is the key to seeing God move, revealing God’s joy. 

I would say this, the level of joy that we have in our life is proportional to our prayer life. If you are lacking joy, it very well may be that you are not spending time daily in prayer. Talk to God, speak to Him, listen to Him, and you will receive His joy. 

Romans 8:26 ESV

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

D. It Is Solidified Through Service

Point:

If Jesus is the beginning of joy, God’s Word strengthens our joy, prayer sustains our joy, then our joy is solidified by serving others. 

Point:

While our culture views climbing the ladder as successful, Jesus offers a different perspective. At one point He told His disciples, “The greatest among you will be your servant”. He placed a high value on His followers serving others.

During the last supper, Jesus got up from the table, wrapped Himself with a towel, and washed the disciples' dusty, dirty feet. He then went on to teach that His disciples must follow His lead and serve each other. He promised that those who served others would be blessed. Another time, Jesus told His disciples that even He, the very Son of God, did not come to be served but to serve others.

The Apostle Paul echoed the words of Jesus teaching that we are to serve one another from a heart of love. It’s the perspective of love that truly is the game-changer. As you love others and serve them, the amazing truth is that you will actually be blessed and filled with joy.

Point:

Scripture teaches the law of divine reciprocity. As you plant seeds of loving service and generosity, you will reap a harvest of abundance. Just as the ground only harvests what you planted, so in your relationships with others, what you sow, you will reap. The wise writer of Proverbs said it this way, “Whoever refreshes other will himself be refreshed”. When you invest your life in others serving and loving them like Jesus, you yourself will be well-loved and end up feeling more connected. When you seek to bring Christ-like joy to others, you yourself will be filled with joy. It’s just that simple. 

Find someone to serve in the name of Jesus and you will have joy. 

I Peter 4:10 ESV

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace…”

Your Journey To Joy Can Start Today!