A Full Measure of Joy
In our world, transfers happen all the time and are important. We transfer money from one account to another, we transfer jobs, schools. We take what was in one place and put it in another.
There is a transfer of skill from one person to the next, we call it training and the result of that transfer is Ability. Whether you are training a person to be a barista or a surgeon, there are certain skills that have to be mastered before you want them making your coffee or repairing your body.
There is the transfer of information - If a company is going into a new market or developing a new product line they are going to need information, so maybe they hire a consultant or a strategic employee. If an individual is wanting a promotion in their company, they may need to grow in their knowledge and so they go to school or get training so they know how to do something and can make right decisions. This is a transfer of knowledge, from one person to another. This is one reason we read books, take courses – so we can learn.
In this prayer, Jesus is also conducting a transfer, but this is a spiritual transfer and He is transferring his joy into the lives of his disciples – and this is important and significant.
He is openly praying and intending his disciples to hear him in this prayer.
Have you ever listened to how other people pray for you? It can be quite interesting, you can learn a lot about what is on their heart for you. Jesus is praying for his disciples and he is conducting a spiritual and eternal transfer here.
He says “I say this while I am still in the world…” There is something powerful about speaking our prayers out, verbally. We are so inward regarding our spirituality and most of our prayers stay in our heads, maybe that is why so few prayers are answered. Do you ever feel your prayers never make it above the ceiling, maybe that is because they never make it out of your skull. When Jesus prayed, he was verbal.
Jesus desire is that we know what it is to experience real, lasting joy in our lives like he experiences
Jesus wants us to experience joy – full, complete, unrestrained joy. So many Christians today live without joy. So many people in the world live without joy and if anyone should be able to demonstrate a life of joy it should be us, as followers of Jesus. Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit – the evidence of real spiritual life.
We have all been around people who fake joy, and you can tell it is kind of a plastic life they are living – and no one wants that kind of experience.
“Joy is the surest sign of the presence of God” – Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
No one should have more joy in their lives than followers of Jesus. We have every reason to live in joy and express a joy that can change the world. If we have no joy in our life then we have missed the message of the Gospel.
Jesus came to bring joy into our lives, he does not want us to miss living with Joy
John 15:9-12
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Joy is at the center of love – love surrounds joy!
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you …
…. Love each other as I have loved you.
We are very interested in quality of life issues today and Jesus is as well, quality of life to him looks like joy. Living in the love that Jesus has for us fills our hearts with joy.
Obedience is the evidence of love and The pathway to joy is living in the ways of Jesus
Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love
We cannot stop living in His ways and expect our joy to continue. When we trust that Jesus ways are good and right and we are willing to live in those ways, we experience God’s love and Joy grows.
Psalms 19:8
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
Precepts – mandate, intentionality – properly appointed, - to care for, to manage, look after
“I am intentionally going through my life with the desire to fulfill God’s mandate of what is right and true” and when I do this it brings joy into my life
God’s ways are enlightening, as I do them they start making more and more sense in my life
If I want a better relationship with my wife or husband, treating them in godly ways (the way God says I should treat them) will increase my satisfaction (and theirs, and Gods) and I will experience more joy in my life.
Joy is discovered through the condition of my heart and the choices of my actions
It is not that I ‘choose to live a joyful life’ but “I choose to love God and obey Him; and to love others around me” and I find joy filling my heart.
Joy is a condition, quality of our heart that is transferred to us only through Jesus. Joy expresses what is going-on on the inside of our lives and flows out our faces, words, actions, attitudes. Joy is expressed in many different ways, but
joy is unmistakable and is best revealed in the midst of trials.
Joy is the blessing that God’s spirit brings into your life even when others slander you, lie about you, discredit you – a Christians heart can still draw from the well of joy and keep their hearts clean and pure
Matthew 5:11-12
11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Joy that comes from God’s spirit continues to flow in and through our lives in the midst of financial crisis, deteriorating health, or betrayal of a friend
2 Corinthians 7:4 “...in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.”
If Joy was dependent upon circumstances of life being just right then there would be no strength to joy and it would be synonymous with happiness.
Jesus prays that his disciples would know the fullness of his Joy while he is on his way to the cross…
Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. NIV
There are things we let into our lives that will suck joy out of our lives…
Four Joy stealers – Great suckers of joy
Joy suckers are like vacuum cleaners, they care nothing for what they pick up and they put everything they suck up with all the other dirt they have inside. These things will suck joy right out of our lives.
1. Critical attitude - critical thinking of others or self Criticism of others will suck my joy out -
“Refuse to speak a negative word about yourself or others, when someone speaks something negative about you, refuse to receive it and renounce it in the name of Jesus!”
People can often steal your joy through criticism when we are loving ourselves more than God.
When we focus on tearing others down, we really take ourselves down at the same time.“I know I am supposed to love this person, but...” = no joy
There is a place for positive criticism, and that place is soaked, dyed, baked, glued, and so thoroughly saturated in love. If positive criticism is not delivered and more importantly received in love the questions should be rightly asked “was that really positive criticism?”
We can be so consumed by what others think of us and it will suck your joy.
A friend & i were visiting this week. He was telling me of a conversation he had with a person in his church who was uncomfortable with the idea of evangelism and sharing her faith because she didn’t want to look out of step with her friends – she didn’t want to look ‘religious’ –
She had no joy in her life and she had no impact either.
2. Focusing on hardship
Joy is the evidence of experiencing the Gospel in the midst of difficulty
Life is hard – for everyone – when my mother was very sick and she let her illness consume her thoughts and attitudes, her joy in life wasted away, but when she did not let her illness and the hardness of her life become the focus of her life – joy was free to grow in her.
“Life is hard, but God is good”
It is actually in the midst of difficulty that our joy should be most evident…
This is hard and I am not happy about it – sucks joy
We can buy into the world’s message that when life’s difficulties come upon us we should respond with sadness or fear or sense of being ‘cheated’ and that keeps us from experiencing Joy. The joy of Jesus transcends our circumstances – and that does not make sense to the world around us.
Focusing on the hardship of unresolved hurt or pain only leads to bitterness – this is why resolving relationships is crucial because it restores joy.
3. Settling for imitations
Selling out short – thinking that satisfying my desires will be the evidence of joy in my life.
Almost anything can be an imitation of a source of joy
Kids – Friends – Relationships – Sex – Money – Career...
They way they typically work is:
I pour my life into them, they promise to provide me some level of satisfaction, that satisfaction means I will feel good about me in some way, me feeling good about me is the same as joy – and I have just settled for an imitation of joy.
We all do it, - We think getting married will satisfy my heart
We think having kids will satisfy my heart
We think getting this job, this career, this promotion will satisfy my heart
“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)
4. Disobedience - Stop obeying him –
When you stop obeying him, your joy will dry up
Trust that He is good – he is not trying to control you – he wants to transform you
When we consciously determine not to obey him, we have just entered the realm of rebellion. We are listening to and responding to something or someone (particularly this someone) other than Jesus.
God wants to bring us back to the original design of who we were made to be, what we were made to do, and that we were to be and do that in a relationship with him, a trusted relationship of love. This going back to formula – in a sense – requires a transformation on our parts – transforming how we think and act – so that joy again begins to flow in us and through us.
Some are not sure they really want to be transformed, or that they need to be transformed. We live in the medicated age, the age of supplements, if you just add this to my life things will be better. If I do this yoga, if I take this herb, if I read this book then it will balance my life and everything will be good, I will be happy, and joy will be restored. But that is not the path to joy, it is a dead end. All that ends up in the vaccum cleaner with last years efforts.
When we stop responding to the Lords precepts should we be surprised when our joy disappears. If our joy is not complete – full, a plethora of joy in our lives could it be that we have stopped obeying him, and experiencing his love?
Jesus is transferring his joy and placing it in us, but how do you and I live in that joy?
Realize God is good and really does love you – in the midst of your mess, in the middle of your confusion, at the center of your uncertainties He really does love you
He makes that love known – he meets you wherever you are at
He sent his son
He accepts you on the basis of your faith in His son
Respond to His love – wherever you are at, you can respond to him.
Turning away from whatever is captivating your focus and looking to him
Acknowledging you need Him – and this other stuff wont respond to you like he will
Begin to obey Him – if that means forgiving others then forgive, if that means
The joy he intends for us is a full, complete and permanent joy, that can not be moved or shaken. If you are not experiencing joy in your life, perhaps you should ask yourself if I have stopped responding to him in obedience. Am I experiencing his love in my life. If you are not experiencing joy you can begin today, you can begin right now,
Realize God is good and he loves you
Respond to him, be moved in your heart and mind towards him
Turn away from whatever is captivating you and holding you back
Begin obeying him
Experience the joy begin to flow into your life and grow