Spiritual Growth: Joy

Real joy is not dependent on circumstances. It

can be a steady source of strength, no matter

what you're facing. Discover how joy is more

than a feeling, it's a way of life. Order your

copy of The Strength of Joy by Dean and Jeffrey

Forrest, now available on Amazon and Kindle.

Week number two in our series that we are going

and looking at spiritual growth. Everybody say

spiritual growth. Who was here last Sunday? Wave

at me if you were here last Sunday. And that

means about half of us were not. That's okay.

Because you will understand what's going on as

we continue. I promise. We don't leave you in

the fog if you weren't here a previous week in

the series. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2

.14, it says this, Does not receive the things

of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness

to him. Nor can he know them. Because they are

spiritually discerned. Everybody say natural

man. That's about half of you. 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 3:1–3

3 verse 1 through 3 says this. And I brethren.

Paul talking to the believers in Corinth. I,

brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual

people, but as carnal, as to babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food,

for until now you were not able to receive it.

And even now you are still not able, for you

are still carnal, for where there is envy, strife,

and divisions among you? Are you not carnal and

behaving like mere men? So in this text out of

Corinthians, we see three types of people. Three

types of people found in 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

2 and 3. And this covers everyone. The first

type of person is a natural person. Everybody

say natural. A natural person is one who is unrenewed

and is just led by their flesh and led by their

sensual nature. They're not born again. They're

not in a relationship with Christ. They are not

in Christ. They are still in sin. So that's a

natural person. All they've got to go by to live

their life is living by what feels good or by

what seems right in their own eyes. That's all

they are, natural. Then we see carnal people.

Everybody say carnal. Carnal people are Christians.

But they still live like a natural person. There

hasn't been any transformation. There hasn't

been any change. It's a Christian who still lives

according to their flesh. It's immaturity. They

live on a childhood level because they will not

feed on the Word of God and grow. They will not

receive the Word of God. I like to put it this

way. They just want to rub a little bit of Jesus

on their life. Right? Like when you go to the

pool, you better put on a little bit of sunscreen.

You don't wear it all the time just when you

go to the pool. So carnal people just rub on

a little bit of Jesus when they go to church

every once in a while. And Jesus doesn't really

impact their life outside of their time in church.

It's a carnal person. And then we see spiritual

people. Everybody say spiritual. Spiritual people

are Christians, followers of Christ, who are

being led by the Spirit. The Bible tells us that

we're supposed to be led by the Spirit. We're

supposed to walk in the Spirit. Christians who

are led by the Spirit through the Word of God.

Now this is a growing Christian. You could call

it that. A growing Christian. It's not that they've

arrived at any spiritual maturity level and then

they can just coast the rest of their life out.

This is a growing Christian who regularly receives

the Word of God and walks in the Spirit. That's

a spiritual person. Now, this series is on spiritual

growth, so where does spiritual growth occur?

Where does spiritual growth occur? How do we

move from being carnal to being spiritual? 1

Thessalonians 5 .23 tells us something about

us in general. It says, Now may the God of peace

make you holy in every way. The word holy means

set apart for God. Now may the God of peace make

you holy in every way. Listen, and may your whole

spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until

our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. So we see

that there are three types of people, and then

in this text we find out that we're made up of

three different... Everybody in this room. Let's

look at Hebrews 4 .12. For the word of God is

alive and powerful. I'm just not what I'm preaching

about. Let's get amen right there. The word of

God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than

the sharpest two -edged sword, cutting between

soul and spirit. Between joint and marrow, it

exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. We

see that, I say man in general, mankind, people

that God created, man is a three -part being.

Did you know that you are a three -part being?

You are a spirit. Everybody say, I am a spirit.

I'm a spirit. We see this in this text that we

just read, right? In both of those texts, we

see it. And God says that He created us in His

image, right? How many of you know that God is

spirit? A spirit class of being, right? There

are three spirit classes of being that we know.

There is God. There are angels. They're in the

spirit class. And then there are people. Me and

you that God created. We are spirit beings. That's

what sets us apart from any other animal or any

other living thing in the world. We are spirits.

God is spirit. We're made in his image. And we

have a soul. We are a spirit. We have a soul.

And we live in a body. Do I need to read that

verse again or are you with me? Is everybody

with me? I can back up and read it again if you

say not. Wait a minute, I hadn't heard anything

about that before. So, we're a three -part being.

We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live

in a body. Now, our spirit comes alive at salvation.

Our spirit comes alive unto God at salvation.

In the fall, in the garden with Adam and Eve

in the fall, God said, the day you eat of it,

you will surely die. Right? So, this death is

talking about not being connected to God. Their

heart didn't quit beating and they didn't drop

dead. Did they? I mean, they ate the fruit, but

they didn't drop dead. But something happened.

There was a disconnect in their fellowship with

God. But when we move from being in sin to being

in Christ at salvation, when the Holy Spirit

moves us from, again, in sin to being in Christ,

our spirit comes alive. We're born again. Okay?

Spirit comes alive at salvation. And your spirit

at salvation is united with Christ. At that point,

you put on the righteousness of God in Christ

Jesus, the Bible says. So at that point, you

are clothed in Christ's righteousness. Jesus'

righteousness becomes your righteousness. Jesus'

victory becomes your victory. Jesus' life becomes

your life and your spirit. And you're complete

in Him. Everything that He did, everything that

He made available, because everything He did

in this earth was to make things available for

His followers. He didn't do it for Himself. He

didn't have to come here and die on the cross.

He didn't have to do that for Himself. He did

it for us. So everything that Jesus purchased

with His blood, everything that He made available,

everything that we find out that we have in Christ,

who we are in Christ, that all is ours at salvation,

as far as our spirit is concerned. But, a lot

of times, We don't even know what that is. It

takes spiritual growth to even find out what

that is. What is available? I mean, you can spend

50 years in church and still not know what's

available. Just thought about it this morning.

I've been in church for all 60 years of my life,

but I've been a follower of Christ now for 51

years of my life. That's a long time. So, our

spirit is complete in Christ. Everything's available.

We have it. But our soul has to get involved

for it to actually be reality in our lives. We

are a spirit. We have a soul. Our soul is comprised

of three more things. I don't know why we're

in threes so much. Our soul is comprised of our

mind or our thought life. Our soul is comprised

of our will, which is our desires. And our soul

is comprised of our emotions or our feelings.

One thing about us, we're always thinking something.

I don't know what you're thinking right now.

Maybe it's good that I don't know what you're

thinking right now. Well, our thought life is

always constant unless we're unconscious. Sometimes

even when we're asleep, our thought life is running

when we have dreams, right? We always have desires.

We have a will. We know what we want and we know

what we desire. We all have emotions. Now, sometimes

when you hear me talk about emotions, you might

think that I think emotions are always bad. But

a lot of times we wind up talking about the negative

emotions. But there are good emotions. There

are godly emotions. But our soul is comprised

of our thought life, our desires, and our feelings.

Now, where does spiritual growth occur? Well,

the difference between a carnal person and a

spiritual person is spiritual growth of the soul

or the lack thereof. We'll say that again. The

difference between a carnal person and a spiritual

person is spiritual growth of the soul because

our spirit is already complete. and has everything

in Christ. But we've lived our lives up until

the point that we came to Christ, just living

a soulish and a fleshly life. And we have to

make a turn to grow spiritually. We have to make

a turn. Our spirit has to... be the director

of our soul. And the more your spirit has control

over your soul, you are a spirit being, you have

a soul, you live in a body, the more you allow

the Holy Spirit connected completely in unity

with the Holy Spirit, the more you connect your

spirit with your soul, and your spirit has dominance

over your soul, the more spiritual you become.

Some of you are looking at me strange. Unlike

physical growth, spiritual growth doesn't happen

automatically. It doesn't just automatically

happen. When a baby is born, I mean, the baby

grows up, you know, by the time they're five.

You know, unless there's some genetic thing going

on where they stay a baby their whole life. I

think I've heard that before or heard of a movie

about that or something. I've never seen it or

experienced it. But unless there's major genetic

problems, physically, people just grow. Somebody

smile or something. They're preaching hard plowing

today. Don't make it hard plowing. Unlike physical

growth, spiritual growth doesn't happen automatically.

You could be a Christian for 50 years and still

not grow spiritually. You can be a Christian

for one year and grow spiritually, have a lot

of growth. It's not about time. So, how is spiritual

growth measured? How do we measure it? Did anyone's

parents, as you were growing, you had a doorway

maybe in the kid's bedroom? And every year, you'd

stand up against that door, maybe put a mark

on the door and put how old you were. And then

next year, wow, look how much you've grown. So

we can measure physical growth by just drawing

on a doorpost. But how can you measure spiritual

growth? What are the markers of spiritual growth?

Luke 6, verses 43 and 44 says this, For a good

Luke 6:43

tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad

tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known

by its fruit. So spiritual fruit is the marker

for spiritual growth. Now, I've been in some

churches before where they thought spiritual

gifts was the marker of spiritual growth. But

a spiritual gift, a gift is just a gift. It doesn't

show maturity. How many of you have seen someone

operate in a spiritual gift that you find out

the fruit of their life? They weren't very spiritually

mature, but they were operating in a spiritual

gift. I mean, I've seen it. So every tree is

known by its own fruit. Here's something about

fruit. It's a process. Everybody say a process.

Spiritual growth is a process. And we all should

be in that process. Fruit, first of all, it's

got to bloom. There's got to be a bloom. Then

it's got to grow. Then it matures. Then it ripens.

So there's a process. You don't get fruit. You

don't just get ripe fruit just pop on the tree.

We got Caitlin a lime tree. Is it lemon? It's

a lemon. Lemon tree. Lemon, lime, what's the

difference? Until you eat it. We got Caitlin

a lemon tree for your birthday one year, right?

And that first year, it had a lot of blooms and

had a lot of fruit. I don't know if they matured,

if they ever really worked. Now what year are

we in? Like the third year? And you think, man,

I wish I would hurry up. Sure would like to get

some lemons off of this tree. Sure would like

for that fruit to come. Fruit blooms, grows,

matures, and ripens. We need to know this. We're

all a work in progress. Look at... Look at the

person beside you and say, I'm a work in progress.

You don't necessarily have to say you're a mess,

but we're a work in progress. And listen, we

should all, if we're growing spiritually, we

should all be constantly progressing in that

work in progress. We don't need to stall out.

I mentioned this last week, but sometimes people

stall out as spiritual teenagers. I don't know

if everybody knows what that means. If you weren't

here last week, maybe you've never heard that

term. I don't know if I'm the one that created

it or what. I can't remember if I heard somebody

else say it or if it just hit me one day. But

listen, don't get stalled out as a spiritual

teenager. Most of us can look back at times in

our life when we hit those teen years. I'm sorry,

how old are you? 10? Teen years are coming. So

I'm going to give you some insight. 10 going

on 20. Okay. I can't remember what year it was,

but I remember when I was a teenager, all of

a sudden, I thought my parents didn't know much.

I thought I knew more than my parents. I knew

more about... what was best for me and what I

wanted. I knew I was smarter than they were,

I thought. My parents aren't with me anymore,

but when I look back, I have to say, they were

a lot smarter than I thought they were. They

had my best interests at heart, even though I

wanted something else. So we're all a work in

progress. Don't get stuck. Don't ever get stuck.

We should always be constantly progressing in

our spiritual growth. And this series is about

self -examination. We're not going through this

so that you can look at your family members or

your neighbors and say, well, they're really

spiritually immature. We're not going through

this so we can compare ourselves to each other

and say, you know, I think I'm a little bit more

spiritually mature than JT, but Michelle has

passed me. That's not what we're doing. We're

not doing it for comparison. We're doing it for

self -examination. Because here's what I figured

out. I always think that I'm more spiritual than

I actually am. I always think that I'm more spiritually

mature than I actually am. So when we look at

these measures, we can say, maybe I need to start

focusing on progressing again. Galatians 5 .22,

everybody say fruit. The fruit of the Spirit,

spiritual fruit, is love. That's what we talked

about last week. We talked about agape and went

through what the word agape means and how it

impacts our lives and how it should be evident

and increasing in our lives because the world

will know that we are Christ followers by our

love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Everybody

say love. And then the next one is joy. Everybody

say joy. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. You

know what? It would have been real easy for me

today to just pull out our book that we just

released on the strength of joy and just go right

through there and just lay out all those chapters

in the book that Jeffrey and I just released.

But I'm like, I don't need to do that. I don't

need to pull up some previous message on joy.

Here we go. Look at the person beside you and

say, here we go. The fruit of the Spirit is joy.

Joy. Philippians 1 .25 says this. This is Paul

talking. And he's in prison under house arrest

in Rome. He's talking and he says this. He says,

you know, because he's going through this thing.

I'm not reading all the verses around it. He's

going through this thing. He's saying, you know

what? I really would like to go to heaven. You

know? I'm looking forward to heaven. But whether

I'm in heaven or whether I'm in here, you know,

I'm with Christ or I'm in Christ. So I'm good

either way. And then he says this, I'm convinced

that I will remain alive so I can continue to

help all of you grow. Everybody say grow. So

I can continue to help all of you grow spiritually.

Everybody in Philippi, he wants to help them

grow. And how is he going to know that they're

growing? I'm convinced that I will remain alive

so I can continue to help all of you grow and

experience the joy of your faith. Experience

the joy of your faith. Paul can look at these

people in Philippi and say, well, they're growing,

but you know, they're coming up short on joy.

They're coming up short on the fruit of joy.

And I say this every once in a while, but...

You know, if you stand up here and look at people

who come to church, I've been in over 800 churches.

You stand up here and look at the faces of people

who are rejoicing in the Lord. This is the day

the Lord has made. We're going to rejoice and

be glad. They look like their mama raised them

on lime juice instead of milk. Where's the joy?

Maybe Paul remembered talking to the Philippians.

Maybe they looked like they had been raised on

lime juice. And now he's saying, look, I've got

to stay and help you grow. Because there's something

that you need to experience that you're not experiencing.

You need to experience the joy of your faith.

You need some joy. Sometimes, I just don't know.

Sometimes church gets too serious. Everybody's

just serious. We've got to get serious. But if

we don't have joy, something's missing. Come

on. If we don't have joy, something's missing.

We're missing something very important if there's

no joy. Now that word joy in the Greek is kara.

Chora, I guess. I've got to put the right accent

on the right syllable. Or you won't understand.

For all you Greek speakers in the room. Chora.

And here's the definition. Joy. Cheerfulness.

Delight. Gladness. And even in the New American

Standard Concordance, because I went to the Lasical

Concordance, Strong's Concordance, New American

Standard Concordance. And in New American Center,

it says it's great exceeding joy. Great exceeding

joy, cheerfulness, delight, gladness. Is any

of that invisible? Can you have that and people

around you not know it? Hello? Come on. Can you

be cheerful? And then somebody look at you and

say, well, I don't see any cheerfulness. Can

you be glad? See, joy is always visible. I used

to say, because I heard somebody that I thought

was more spiritual than me, I heard him preach

one day. And he said, now happiness is like the

rapids and the part of the river that you can

see. You know, it's always moving. Happiness

is something that you can see. But joy is that

deep, deep current that you can't see. Well,

you know, I thought it sounded real spiritual.

I even repeated it. Until I got to studying up

a little bit more. You glad that I studied? Here's

what C .S. Lewis said. Joy is the serious business

of heaven. Heaven is a joyous place. Heaven is

a happy place. Heaven is a rejoicing place. And

if that's what eternity is going to be, don't

you think God wants us to experience some of

that here? I think so. Romans 14, 17. The kingdom

of God, the eternal rule and reign of God, both

in the earth and both in heaven, the kingdom

of God is not eating and drinking. Now what does

that mean? It means it's not about the rules.

Everybody say, not about rules. The kingdom of

God is not about having a list of rules to be

right with God. It's not what the kingdom is

about. Even though I spent years and even decades

of my life thinking that Christianity was about

trying to keep a set of rules. I've got to do

this, I've got to do that, I've got to do this,

I've got to do that. and I can't do this, and

I can't do that, and I can't do this. Anybody

experience that? The kingdom of God is not about

the rules. It's about righteousness. Everybody

say righteousness. If you're in Christ today,

you can't be any more righteous than you are

right now. You can't grow in righteousness. That's

not spiritual growth. It's not growing in righteousness.

Because we're clothed in the righteousness of

Christ. You can't get more righteous than Jesus.

So we've got to understand that. We've got to

understand that righteousness is imputed because

of what Jesus did on the cross. The kingdom of

God is about righteousness. It's about peace.

And it's about joy in the Holy Spirit. So if

our religious experience is not founded on gift

righteousness, the peace of God, and joy in the

Holy Spirit, then we're wasting our time. These

are the main things. Everybody say main things.

That's what the kingdom of God is about. I did

not write this verse. I just read it. The Holy

Spirit breathed this verse. God's kingdom is

a joyous kingdom. Heaven is just celebration,

continual celebration. As people are coming to

Christ, right? As people are saying yes to the

love of God, there's rejoicing in the presence

of the angels of God over one and... In this

world with all these billions of people, there's

always somebody coming to Christ. Always somebody.

Heaven is just a big old party. Big old celebration.

It's a joyous kingdom. Billy Sunday. Here's what

he said. The trouble with many people is they

just have enough religion to make them miserable.

If there's no joy in your religion, you've got

a leak somewhere. That's what Billy Sunday said.

John Wesley said this, Sour godliness is the

devil's religion. I agree with all those guys.

That's why I quoted them. The fruit of joy, Listen,

the fruit of joy is not always loud or exuberant.

I mean, we don't have to live our lives going,

woo, woo, woo, woo. Woo, woo, woo, woo. We don't

have to live every day of our lives like that.

The fruit of joy is not always loud or exuberant.

But it is real enough. to affect your demeanor.

It's real enough. It's real enough to affect

your countenance. It's real enough to affect

your attitude. It's real enough to affect the

tone of your voice and the words that you say.

It's real enough to affect the responses that

you make for the things that you encounter. Somebody

say, God help me or something. When you have

the joy of the Lord, when you really have the

fruit of joy evident and increasing in your life,

you're going to respond a lot differently. Listen.

I believe the joy of the Lord, the fruit of joy,

when you have it and it's increasing, it's going

to flow out of you. And it's going to make a

difference in your life. And it's going to make

a difference in your sphere of influence. It's

going to make a difference. Because it's going

to be part of your testimony. And people are

going to ask you. Because you're going to be

with a co -worker or a family member and you're

going to be going through the same kind of circumstance,

but your response and your reaction and your

tone and your demeanor is going to be a little

bit different than everybody else. When the fruit

of joy is increasing in your life. John 16, 13

through 15. But when He, the Holy Spirit, the

Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into

all truth. He will not speak on His own. He will

speak only what He hears, and He will tell you

what is yet to come. He will glorify me, Jesus

said, because it is from me that He will receive

what He will make known to you. Listen to this.

All that belongs to the Father is mine. That

is why I said the Spirit will receive from me

and He will make known to you. What does this

tell us? It tells us that God, the Holy Spirit,

is the one who takes the things of God. Takes

the things of the Trinity, of the Godhead, of

the Father, of Jesus. The Holy Spirit takes those

things and then He makes them known to us. He

reveals. Everybody say reveals. He makes known.

He reveals them to us. Supernatural joy. Then.

is ultimately produced by the Spirit of God.

That's why the kingdom of God is about righteousness,

peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's why

the Holy Spirit is connected to that. Because

it comes from Him. Ultimately, it flows from

Him. This spiritual, supernatural joy that we're

talking about flows from the Holy Spirit. Listen,

for any fruit tree to fully mature, any fruit

to fully mature and ripen to perfection, it must

overcome some things. Right? If you've got fruit,

those lemons have to overcome weather, have to

overcome bugs, have to overcome weeds. If you

just leave them for their own, the weeds will

begin to take all the nutrients. He does. There's

no weeds in that container with that lemon tree

in it. But the spiritual application, listen,

for joy to mature and to grow in your life, it's

going to have to overcome some stuff. Because

a joy, That is too fragile to overcome anything.

Is not really supernatural joy. It's just natural

joy. Not supernatural joy. If it will never overcome

anything. That's good preaching right there.

Anyway. One of the greatest indicators of spiritual

growth. Is whether your joy survives pressure

or not. I think I need to say that again for

my own benefit. One of the greatest indicators

of spiritual growth is whether your joy survives

the pressure that comes. Because we live in a

fallen world. And we face pressures every day.

Hey, when we got here at 7 o 'clock, the lights

wasn't on, the air conditioning wasn't on. We

opened up the doors and put scotches and we set

all this up in complete darkness. Just the light

from that door was the main light that we had.

You know? And the air conditioning wasn't on.

I'm not even going to put my shirt back on that

I set up in because I could wring my sweat out

of it. Listen. But it was up to us whether we

let this temporary discomfort steal our joy or

not. Now that's nothing compared to some of the

things people in this room are facing. You know,

just being hot and sweaty and setting up in the

dark. That's nothing compared to some life challenges

that we face, right? But it's an indicator of

spiritual growth whether your joy survives, whether

it's small, seemingly small pressures. I guess

everybody that... has a pressure, thinks it is

major at the moment. But then when we put it

in perspective with everybody else's pressure,

then we might see that ours isn't that great.

But when we're going through it, we think that's

the worst thing that could possibly happen to

anybody today right now. Right? Will your joy

survive the pressure of this life? Nehemiah 8

.10 says this, The joy of the Lord is your strength.

The joy of the Lord is your strength. This was

a time where they were wanting to rebuild the

wall and they read the Word to them and everybody

was broken and everybody was repenting, which

is not a bad thing. But all of a sudden, God

sent a message to them. He said, you know what?

If you're going to complete this task of rebuilding

the wall, you've got to have the joy of the Lord.

Because you're not going to be able to do it

just focusing on yourself. You've got to have

the joy of the Lord to give you strength. for

what you have ahead of you. And I'm going to

tell you today, you need to have the joy of the

Lord for the strength to face the next thing

that you're going to face, the next trouble,

the next pressure that you're going to face.

You need the joy of the Lord to strengthen you.

Joy affects your spiritual endurance. It's important.

It's important. The Spirit of God wants to produce

something in us. Everybody say fruit. The Spirit

of God wants to produce something in us that

circumstances that we face cannot steal, cannot

take it away from us. That's what God wants to

work in us. That's what God wants to work in

you. Psalm 1611. It says this, in your presence,

God, in your presence is fullness of joy. At

your right hand are pleasures forevermore. There's

fullness of joy in the presence of the Lord.

How are you going to have the joy of the Lord?

You've got to be regularly in His presence to

really get it, to really have it. Listen, joy

does not flow from circumstances. That's just

natural joy. That's not supernatural joy. If

the only time you have joy... is when everything's

going your way and you're winning in every area.

If that's the only time you have joy, that's

just natural joy, not supernatural joy. Because

the fruit of joy does not flow from circumstances.

It flows from connection. How many of you experience

joy when you get together with other believers

and worship together? I hope you experience joy.

I guess that's part of what keeps you coming

back, I hope. Worship services can encourage

you temporarily, but they can't sustain you on

Monday and Friday. It can't sustain you. Only

abiding can sustain you. I mean, you get revved

up a little bit every Sunday, but that's... It's

not going to carry you through the challenges

and the struggles that we're going to face in

this fallen world. Just like this phone. How

many of you have a cell phone? How many of you

know if you never put it on charge, it's not

going to last very long? I mean, some phones

say that they can last how long? Three or four

days? Mine won't last a whole day most of the

time. Listen. How do you expect to live this

life being disconnected? You only charge on Sunday

morning. You only hook up to the charger on Sunday

morning. Then you expect that charge to last

you until next Sunday morning. It's going to

take more than that. To move, listen, to move

from carnal to spiritual is going to take more

than that. Philippians 4 .4 says this, Rejoice

in the Lord always. Rejoicing is an expression

of joy that's on the inside. Rejoice in the Lord

always. Again, I say rejoice. And I want to remind

you that Paul didn't write this from a beach

resort. He was not at a five -star. resort writing

this. He's imprisoned. So his joy and rejoicing

didn't depend on his circumstances today. His

joy was bigger than that. And he wrote to the

Philippians. He said, look, you're not experiencing

what I'm talking about. And I've got to stay

here to help you grow so that you can experience.

This joy that I'm talking about, this fruit of

joy, you need it. We need it. Joy in the kingdom

of God. Joy in our faith. We need it. This is

a big old word. Etymological. Etymological link.

There's an etymological link that I've got to

talk about. That just means root words. Everybody

say root words. Root words. You probably knew

that. You probably learned that at school. It's

been a long time since. All right. But we had

root words, and we had different words coming

from this root word, and we built other words.

Well, there's a link between some things. Korah

is joy. I got this from Help's Word Studies.

Kara is joy because of the link. It's joy because

of grace. Kario is rejoicing because of grace.

And karis is grace. Notice how they all have

kar in them. And when you look at the Greek,

it's actually an x something, but this is the

way we convert it to. English for us to be able

to pronounce it. Even though it's Greek. So there's

a connection between joy, rejoicing, and grace.

They're all rooted and founded in the same thing.

Because you can't have joy without understanding

grace. And your joy will not result in rejoicing.

Not the God kind of joy that I'm talking about.

Not the spiritual fruit of joy that I'm talking

about without understanding grace. The most widely

accepted definition of grace in the church is

unmerited favor. Who's heard that before? Grace

is unmerited favor. Well, that can kind of be

abstract where you can't really put your... Hand

on. So, I've expanded the definition. It still

means the same thing. Grace is actually God's

acts of kindness and favor towards you. God's

acts. God has done a lot of things out of His

kindness for you, out of His favor for you, whether

you realize it or not. He's done so many things

and made so many things available. And that's

why I believe in my studying this week, because

I keep studying, I keep digging deeper, right?

The Holy Spirit is the one who takes the things

of God and makes them known to us. So the Holy

Spirit is the one that connects us through the

Word of God to let us see those things that are

now available to us. He makes the Word of God

come alive on the inside of us. all of a sudden

we're growing in grace because we're understanding,

well, God did this for me. God's made this available

for me. This is who God is. It's no longer theological.

It's no longer philosophical. It becomes applicable

for us to apply to our lives, to really grasp,

to take hold of. And when we really begin to

take hold of all of these things that God has

done for us, hey, I don't believe we can ever

exhaust it, because there's so many things that

He's done for us and made available for us, showing

us His kindness and favor, that as we grow in

that, that's going to result, as the Holy Spirit

causes it to come alive and we grow in that,

then it's going to result in joy flowing in us

and through us. I hope I'm saying this making

sense. It makes perfectly good sense to me, but

I hope you're getting it. I hope you're receiving

what I'm saying. 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Paul was

talking to God and saying, God, remove this thorn

from my flesh. Man, these people are following

me around. They're attacking me. I've got people

who say that they're not even going to eat again

until they kill me. and every time I go somewhere,

people are against me, and they're talking against

me and trying to run me out of town, trying to

throw me in jail. God, take away this thorn in

my flesh. And you might say, where do you get

that from? Well, go to the Old Testament. It

says thorn in the flesh. It was talking about

people. I'm not talking about disease or sickness

or eyesight. Thorn in the flesh. God says if

you don't get those Canaanites and all of them

out of here, they're going to be a thorn in your

flesh. So Paul was saying, I've got a lot of

people against me. Could you take this persecution

away? And here's what God said. My grace. is

sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect

in your weakness. New Living Translation says,

God said, my grace is all you need. It's all

you need, Paul. All you need is my grace. And

Paul is teaching about the grace of God and teaching

about who we are in Christ. He's teaching about

what we have in Christ. That's how we find out

all of these things. The Bible tells us who God

is. His grace is sufficient. I don't know what

you're facing, but the grace of God is sufficient.

What He's already done, His acts of kindness

and favor towards you, what He's already made

available to you, that's sufficient. To carry

you through anything you face. His grace is sufficient.

So listen, joy then is the natural expression

of confidence in who God is and what He has accomplished.

It's just natural. It's a natural expression.

It's not a forced expression. It's a natural

expression of confidence in who God is. Because

who God is, as He has revealed Himself in the

Word, will take care of most of your problems.

And the ones that that don't cover, the ones

that who God is won't cover, will be covered.

By who you are in Christ. And what you have in

Christ. And the Holy Spirit. He's the great connector.

To cause that truth to come alive on the inside

of us. There's another point. John 15. Verses

5 and 11. Jesus is talking. He says, yes, I am

the vine. You are the branches. Listen, those

who remain in me and I in them will produce much.

Somebody say fruit. So fruit is a mark of our

spiritual growth. A measure of our spiritual

maturity. Jesus said, those who remain in me

and I in them will produce much fruit. And then

verse 11, as he talks about abiding in him, being

connected to him, he says this, he says, I've

told you these things so that you will be filled

with my joy. Y 'all got a smile or something?

I've told you these things so that you will be

filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow.

The purpose of joy is not just for your enjoyment.

The purpose of joy is to overflow. To spill out.

To flow through. to fill you with His joy to

the point that you overflow with joy. Look at

the person beside you and say overflow. And smile

while you say it, please. Overflow. Overflow.

So joy is the natural flow from being rightly

connected to the source. We have to be rightly

connected. Rightly connected. There's a lot of

different ways people try to connect to God.

A lot of different ways. But we have to be rightly

connected. We've talked about some of it already.

Some people try to be connected to God by trying

to do all this self -effort to be a good person.

To connect to God. It's just one example. You'll

have to let the Holy Spirit reveal to you what

you're dealing with right now. Listen. Joy is

a natural flow for me and rightly connected to

the source. The source of life. The source of

joy. The source of peace. That's next week. The

source of all that you need. The source of love.

Got to be rightly connected to the source. I

want to end with these statements from the topical

lexicon. Listen, joy in the New Testament is

more than an emotion. If you think joy is just

an emotion, it's bigger than that. The joy that

I'm talking about is bigger than just feelings

and emotion. It is the settled, Spirit -given

delight. Gladness, cheerfulness that arises,

listen, from the redemptive acts and abiding

presence of God. Everybody say grace and presence.

This joy, this fruit of joy rises. As grace is

unfolded and revealed. And as we abide in the

presence of God, rightly connected to the vine,

which is where the source flows, the life flows.

You know, you don't wind up with any fruit without

any life flowing through the vine, through the

tree, through the branch. Right? And then this

one. Joy is rooted. In divine initiative. That

means that joy comes from God. This joy that

we're talking about, it comes from God. It comes

from God. It's experienced in the believer. You

can have it. And it is expressed. Because if

you got it, it's going to automatically be expressed.

It can't be hidden. It's expressed both now and

in the age to come. There's been a time in my

life where I thought, boy, when I get to heaven,

I'm going to experience the joy of the Lord when

I get to heaven. Ganda was even singing a song

this morning. You remember what you were singing?

Something about heaven. When we all get to heaven,

what a day of rejoicing that will be. We'll sing

and shout the victory. That's an old one. I don't

know if you know it or not. Listen. We sing songs

about the joy of the Lord in heaven. But God

doesn't want you just to... Wait on heaven to

have His joy. He wants you to experience His

joy. Today, every day, He wants you to walk in

it. He wants you to be strengthened in it. Because

that's what's going to carry you through. It's

the joy of the Lord being your strength. So the

measure of your abiding joy That means that you

have it. You don't lose it. When challenges come,

when struggles come, you don't lose it. You're

abiding in this joy. It's part of where you live.

You can live in it. You don't have to be like

this. Your life doesn't have to be a spiritual

roller coaster. Hallelujah. The measure of your

abiding joy is a good measure of your spiritual

growth and your spiritual maturity. Remember,

this is self -evaluation. I'm not asking you

to bump up joy in the flesh. Because we all know

people who can turn it on even though it's not

genuine. When you will know if it's genuine or

not is when you're by yourself and you face a

challenge and you say, you know what? A while

back, I would have responded a whole lot differently.

I would have responded a whole lot differently.

But you know what? I have a joy. It's based on

the confidence that I have in God. God's faithfulness.

God's goodness. I know His goodness is running

after me every day. and I know I'm facing this

temporary difficulty right now, but I'm not going

to lose my joy. I haven't lost my joy. That's

when you know that the fruit is progressing.

You can be there. If we couldn't be there, the

Bible wouldn't have told us all this stuff that

we just talked about today. You can have it.

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