Cultivating Joy in Every Season | May 26 2024

Hello and welcome to Trinity Sermons.

We are a church in Mississauga, Ontario, and together we are learning to love Jesus, live

like Jesus, and lead others to Jesus.

Today we are continuing our sermon series, Fruit of the Spirit, and today Rob will be

talking to us about Cultivating Joy.

I hope that you enjoy today's message, and God bless.

Reading from Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 11.

Romans 5:1–11

Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with

God because of what Jesus Christ, our Lord, has done for us.

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where

we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us

develop endurance.

God's endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope

of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because

He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might

perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.

But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly

save us from God's condemnation.

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son, while we were still

His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus

Christ has made us friends of God, the Word of the Lord.

Well, if you have ever found yourself in a situation where you're saying to yourself,

man, I wish I could be more kind, I wish I could be more gentle, I wish I could be more

patient or more loving, then I've got some amazing news for you.

We picked a great Sunday to come to church because we are talking about this very subject

here about how we can become exactly those kind of people.

And we're talking about it this Sunday and for the next several weeks as we go through

this teaching series we're calling Organic.

You see, because in the Bible we read that the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and

peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

Now the Christian faith makes this pretty bold claim.

The bold claim is this, that if you want to become more like this kind of person, if you

want to become more kind and joyful and loving, then the way you do that is not by trying

really, really hard.

The way you do that is not by getting a life coach to kind of help you do that or by reading

a book on the subject.

Now the way you become more loving and kind and joyful is that the Holy Spirit comes into

your life, takes up residence there, and then this grows in your life and eventually you

start bearing this kind of fruit in your life.

And actually I would say that if you missed last week, we kind of talked about how to

cultivate your life in order to grow this kind of fruit of the Spirit.

Now here is the thing, many people object to this whole line of thinking, the whole

line of thinking that says, oh it's only by the Holy Spirit that you can become a loving

person, it's only through the Holy Spirit that you can become more patient.

Even people online, even people online were complaining a bit about this past week.

They said this whole idea is bull, but they actually used another word, they said they

called it the longer word for bull, because they didn't actually believe, and I'm sure

it was none of you that did this.

Although the username was at Rob Wormald, 1946, so I don't know, but I don't know who

that is.

But actually the truth is I get it.

The truth is that you don't need the Holy Spirit to be these kind of people in the world,

we don't.

Because you have neighbors and you have friends and coworkers or family members and they're

kind and they're loving and they're patient people, they're wonderful people.

And yet they don't believe in God, they don't believe in the Holy Spirit and they certainly,

you know, they don't go to church and they don't believe in this whole idea of the fruit

of the Spirit.

And so how do you explain that?

Help me.

How do you explain the fact that there are people who don't even believe in the Holy

Spirit who are demonstrating in their lives the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

And I think the answer is it turns out that there is more than one way to become a gentle,

kind, and loving person.

It can happen through the Holy Spirit working in your life, but it can also happen through

other ways.

So maybe, for example, you are a more peaceful person today because of the work that God's

Spirit has been doing in your heart.

Or it could be that you're a more peaceful person today because you have an amazing therapist

and she's been doing some mindfulness exercises with you and they're really helping and you

feel more peaceful, right?

That's fantastic.

Or maybe you are a more patient person today because you really have come to know God's

love and God's great patience for you and it's growing the spiritual fruit of patience

in your life.

Or maybe you are a more patient person today because the last time you lost your temper,

you were sleeping on the couch for a week and you're just like, I'm not going to do

that anymore.

I'm going to try my hardest to be more, more patient.

So I guess what I'm saying is when we see changes in our life, it might be helpful to

ask the question, is what I'm seeing behavior modification or is it spiritual transformation?

Is this something that is happening that I'm kind of doing on the outside or is it something

that is bubbling up from the inside?

I've often wondered this when I've looked at my own life and I see some changes and I

think, man, now the question is, is that really, is that my doing?

Am I doing that?

Am I making those changes?

Or is that God's doing?

Or is it like some combination of the two?

Or put another way, is what I'm seeing in my life a result of willpower or a result of

God's power, the Spirit's power?

I seem to be more kind.

I seem to be more gentle, but is that just because I'm trying a lot harder or is it because

the Spirit is actually making changes in my life?

I want you to take this mango tree as an example.

Now there are two ways you could get mango growing on this tree.

The first way is that you could get a mango seed and you could plant it and you could

water it until it sprouts and you could transplant it and you could care for it and you could

tend it and you could weed it and you could feed it.

And as it grows and grows and grows, it'll produce branches and then buds and then blossoms

and eventually mango will grow on that tree.

And that is one way to get fruit on that tree.

There's another way to get fruit on that tree and that is you could just go down to no frills

and you could buy some mangoes and then you could come back and find a tree and you could

get some electrical tape and you could wrap that electrical tape around the mangoes and

attach them to the tree that way.

Now I'll let you decide which option I went for this morning, but my point is this.

There's two ways to get the fruit on the tree.

One is happening organically, the other is happening from the outside, but the mangoes,

you know, they still taste good, you know, either way.

So here's another way of asking the same question.

When we see change and fruit in our life, is that change coming from what you might call

a restrained heart?

Like I'm trying to be more patient.

I'm trying to be more kind.

I'm trying to like tape these mangoes onto my life.

Or is it coming from an actual changed heart?

Like God's love is the thing that is making me more patient.

I want to say I've done a really crude job here, but it's actually really hard to tell

in human beings.

You could be sitting by two people this morning and they both appear to be very patient.

But one is doing it out of a restrained heart like, gosh, when's this guy going to be done?

I got to be patient, got to be patient.

And the other person is doing it from a changed heart that God is growing that patience with

in them from the inside.

So as I'm saying, there's kind of two ways to get it onto the tree, but there is one

fruit of the spirit though.

But I would say it's really hard just to take onto your life.

It's really hard to force this fruit of the spirit I'm talking about.

And I'm talking today, of course, as you know by now, we're talking about the fruit of the

spirit that is joy.

Joy.

Joy has always been one of the distinguishing marks of a person who has genuinely encountered

the love of God and the Holy Spirit is working in their life.

Now again, everybody can experience joy from time to time.

The birth of a child, a graduation, a promotion, you win the lottery.

These are all occasions for joy.

Christianity does not hold the copyright on joy like that.

There's lots of different ways you can be joyful.

But I will say this, Christian joy is very, very different.

And let me explain what I mean.

You see, in most religions, most religions I think operate on this principle.

If you are a good enough person, if you believe all the right things and behave in all the

right ways, then maybe, maybe God will love you.

You know, if you were good enough, if you really gave enough, if you really did enough,

if you really served enough, then maybe God will extend his favor to you.

Maybe God will bless you.

Maybe God will actually accept you and welcome you into whatever that religion's idea of

heaven might be.

That's how many, many religions operate.

But that is not, I would say, a recipe for joy, because it's hard to live joyfully when

there's always this overlying anxiety like, am I doing enough?

Am I accomplishing enough?

Am I being the right kind of person?

Will God come through for me?

In the end, it's anxiety-provoking and not necessarily joy-growing.

But the Christian faith operates in a completely different way.

Christianity says, God loves you.

God loves you before you ever did one good thing.

God loved you.

Before you ever believed one true thing, God had already given his life for you.

He loved you that much.

God's love is not based on anything you could do or have done or will do or have said or

it is a completely, completely free gift.

You don't need to live a perfect life.

You don't need to live a perfect life.

Jesus already lived that perfect life and he has given that life to you.

Now that, that can make you really, really joyful.

Religion says, live a certain way and maybe one day you will get a chance to experience

joy.

Maybe, maybe, we'll see.

Christianity says, God loves you.

Now go and live in that joy.

And that is a big, big difference.

And for that reason, Christians have always been some of the most joyful people who ever

walked this birth.

Because as Paul wrote in Romans, God showed his great love for us already by sending Christ

to die for us.

While we were still sinners, we didn't do anything to deserve it.

You know, God took the initiative so now we can have joy.

Now we can rejoice.

Why?

Because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends with God.

If this is true, do you see how Christians should be the most joyful people in the world?

In fact, in a commentary on this, John Stott says, he says, the major mark of a justified

believer, which is just a fancy way of saying, a follower of Jesus who has come to realize

that everything has been done.

God's love is there for them.

The major mark of that person is joy.

Really joy in God himself.

We should be the most positive people in the world, John Stott says.

And if you think about it, wasn't Jesus one of the most joyful people you'd ever come

across?

I remember Jesus' very first miracle.

And you know, your first miracle is the one you want everyone to remember and the one

that kind of says, this is what I'm about.

And Jesus' very first miracle, he went to a wedding, great big party, they ran out of

wine.

So Jesus, he makes some of the greatest wine in the world has ever seen.

So why?

Because the party can keep on going.

So the joy can keep on flowing.

Jesus was just a fountain of joy.

And so too, have Christians been?

Stephen Neal says it's because they were a joyful people that the early Christians were

able to conquer the world.

Christianity didn't conquer the world because of violence or because of power.

They didn't have any power.

They had joy.

And their joy was absolutely contagious.

And so since the very, very, very beginning, joy has been a major mark of someone who's

been truly touched by the Holy Spirit.

But there's a problem.

Why are there so many joyless Christians out there in the world?

A lot of people following Jesus, a lot of people who've been going to church their whole life,

they don't seem to have a lot of joy.

They're bitter.

They're angry.

They're constantly frustrated.

They have this low grade kind of anger about them right there.

Why is that?

It's a problem because a joyless Christian is one of the worst advertisements we can

show the world.

If we are who we are supposed to be, we should be positive and full of joy.

But why is there sometimes so little joy?

There's a few possible answers for this.

But I'll give you three.

One possible answer is just that we don't actually believe that God loves us.

Yeah, yeah, we've been coming to church and we've been hearing it every single week.

You've been coming to this table and experiencing it every single week.

And yet still you treat Christianity like every other religion.

I've got to work hard.

I've got to do things.

I've got to say things.

I've got to give things.

I've got to, if I want to earn God's love, I've got to be a good person.

There's no joy in that, right?

People go to church the whole life and they're miserable because they actually don't believe

the gospel.

Gospel means good news.

They actually don't believe the good news.

They're being told every single week.

So there's a disbelief there.

Secondly, it could just be a disappointment, right?

Throughout their life at some point, you pin your joy to something and it really let you

down.

You pin your joy perhaps to a career.

You said, if I could just really get a career and get a great job, then that would give

me the joy I'm looking for.

And you did that and the joy never followed or it evaporated pretty quickly.

And then you tried the next thing.

And the next thing you said, well, maybe I had a girlfriend.

Maybe if I had a boyfriend, that would give me the joy I'm longing for.

And it didn't satisfy.

You know, and you kept on going.

Maybe if I got married or maybe if I went on that great big trip or maybe if we had

kids or we got the house or got the car and you did all these things and the joy just

never lasted.

You always let you down.

And so now you kind of walk around chronically disappointed, right?

You have a resting sad face because you've always been let down, but your joy never came

through.

And that can lead to this third thing that some people, they ultimately then say, I've

been disappointed too many times that I don't believe there is any joy out there in any person

or anything.

And so you start building a wall and you just say, you know what?

I am going to just not look out there for joy anymore.

I guess I'll just look inside myself.

This is what a lot of Eastern religions would say is they say, detach yourself, detach yourself

from other people.

They will let you down.

Detach yourself from the things of the world.

They will never satisfy you.

Detach, detach, detach, and then you will find your joy.

So if you feel like you do not have the joy of God, the fruit of the spirit of joy growing

in your life, you might ask yourself, you might just look at that list and say, why is that?

Why is it not growing there in abundance?

Is it because I actually don't believe God loves me?

Is it because of that thing that happened and someone really let me down and now I don't

have that joy?

Or have you kind of walled yourself off from the possibility of joy, from the very sources

of joy?

Jesus is the one thing you can attach to and won't let you down.

It's the one thing you can pin your joy to and not be disappointed.

Again as Paul writes, the hope we're talking about will not lead to disappointment.

For we know how dearly God loves us.

Do you know how dearly God loves you?

Because he's given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

So the good news is that today there is a possibility for joy in your life.

Even in my life, not a forced joy, not a pretend kind of joy, not a tape a mango to a tree

kind of joy, but a joy that is actually growing in your life that is rooted deeply in the

good news of Jesus Christ.

And this joy, I want to say, kind of comes to us in two ways.

On the one hand, it can come to us as what you might call a future, a future joy.

When you know that something good is going to happen to you in the future, it can give

you all sorts of joy in the present moment too.

When I was a kid and I knew my birthday was coming, you know, I wouldn't just be joyful

on my birthday, I would be joyful in the week or two leading up to my birthday.

The anticipation gives you joy.

Or Christmas, for many of us that's the story of Christmas.

It's not just about Christmas Day, it's about all the lead up and all the joy and all the

excitement that comes as you get ready for that wonderful thing.

Because you know it's coming, you know it's coming, you know it's coming.

And in the Christian faith, we know something really, really good is coming.

Right?

Yes, the world may be screwed up in countless ways and your life may be screwed up in a

whole bunch of different ways, but we know that there is a glorious future that awaits

us.

And if you can lock into that future hope, that will somehow even bring joy into your

present life right now.

Now I'm saying not all, again, not all religions operate that way.

For many religions, the future is a great big maybe.

It's a great big question mark, right?

If I live this way, maybe there'll be something for me at the end.

Christianity says no, that's not joy.

And no, that's not true.

You can be certain.

You've already got a great future waiting for you because one day you're going to find

yourself in God's presence.

See all the stuff going on in this world.

One day you're going to find yourself in God's presence and you will run to Him and He will

embrace you and you can pin your hopes on that.

That is guaranteed.

Why is it guaranteed?

Because Jesus' death and resurrection has guaranteed it.

That's why we're joyful.

Partly because we have this certainty about the future that gives us a joy in the present

moment.

Look what Paul writes.

Tell me, isn't Paul thinking about the future here?

We confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

And this hope, he's thinking so futuristically, will not lead to our disappointment.

His joy comes from a futuristic looking forward kind of faith when you have that certainty

about the future.

It gives you joy even in the present.

But secondly, and this is really important.

You can have joy not based on just what God will do for you in the future or what will

happen in the future, but based on what is happening to you right now.

Now, many of you will say, well, Rob, this is where we part ways because I can understand

the whole future joy thing.

The one day there will be this great thing that happens down the line.

But Rob, if you knew my life, if you knew what I was going through right now, you would

know that in the present, joy is impossible.

Rob, if you knew what he said to me, if you knew, Rob, what she did to me, if you knew

how they hurt me, if you knew what I had been through, if you knew what the doctor said,

right, then you would know joy in the present is not a possibility for me.

The present life circumstances have kind of stolen that away.

But again, a key feature of Christian joy is that Christian joy does not depend on circumstances.

Now that is a crazy bold statement, and many of you will be saying like, how can joy not

depend on circumstances?

And this is where some people, they start to make a really big distinction between happiness

on the one hand and joy on the other.

It's actually helpful sometimes to think about those two things differently.

Because happiness definitely does depend on your circumstances.

Happiness happens when you've got everything lined up in your favor, in your life is going

pretty much the way you want it to go.

That's happiness.

That's happiness.

I came across this website and it talked about what are the key ingredients for a happy

life.

And it mentioned these things.

You've got to have food, you've got to have shelter, safety, sleep, good relationships,

and meaningful work.

That's the recipe to happiness.

But people, listen, think about it.

Most people in most parts of the world, in most centuries of human existence have not

had all these things.

Some of you, even this morning, I didn't get a very good sleep last night, I hate my job,

my relationships are falling apart, and rent is too high.

So what does that mean?

Does this mean that actually nobody can be happy?

Does it mean we're all consigned to a life of unhappiness because we cannot get these

things?

Well, actually, according to the world's definition, that may be true.

You're doomed to live an unhappy life if you define happiness this way.

But joy?

Joy is still an option.

Because joy does not depend on your circumstances.

Jesus actually says, these are the great lines.

Maybe you should just remember this one.

He says, no one can steal your joy away from you.

In John 16, no one can steal it away from you.

Look what Paul writes.

Paul says, we can rejoice even when we run into problems and trials.

Now, he doesn't say, I rejoice for my problems and trials.

That would be kind of a sick thing to do.

But he says, even in my suffering, I have joy.

Even when everything is stripped away, even when the house is gone, the car is gone, or

he is gone, and she is gone, or all those favorable circumstances that I had created

for my life, even when they are all stripped away.

In that moment, you will realize there is one thing that cannot be taken away from you.

In that moment, you will cling to God's love like never before.

You will cling to the promise of Jesus like you never have.

In that moment, you will realize and you will have found your true, true joy.

So, actually, that's why some people say suffering can be the thing that leads us into true and

lasting joy.

Because it's only when we hit bottom that we look and see there's one thing we still

have, God's love, God's love.

So joy, there's a way to have joy.

It can be joy about our glorious future that even bleeds into the present, or it can be

joy in the present, despite our circumstances.

Even suffering can have joy, Paul says.

So there we go.

We've talked about the problem, and we've talked about this.

There's this possibility of having joy.

Let's just end quickly here by talking about how do we get there?

What is the pathway to this joy?

Well, what I would say to you is, and I've kind of already said this, so I will be quick,

but the way to access this joy is simply this.

You need to know what you've been given, and you need to know what it costs.

You know what God has given you, and you know what it costs God to give it to you.

I guarantee you you will have joy.

Let me give you an example.

Say for example, I went away on a vacation and I asked someone to host it for me.

And while I was away, well, when I got back, I checked in with them and they said, okay,

everything's fine.

And they said, oh, by the way, while you were gone, a bill came in the mail, but don't worry,

I paid it.

I looked after it.

How should I react to that statement?

It's actually really hard to know how to react, because I actually don't know what the bill

was.

I don't know.

If it was just like, oh, a 75-cent bill that came from the library because I have an overdue

book, then I might say, oh, yeah, thanks.

Appreciate it.

That was really good of you.

But let's say instead, a Canada Revenue Agency had finally caught up with me and finally

realized my real name and where I live.

And they now know that I haven't paid taxes in like 15 years.

And they finally set me the bill, and it's $45,000, and I have no ability to pay this

bill.

And if my friend said, oh, I paid that bill for you, well, that's totally different.

That wouldn't be just like an, oh, thanks.

That would be like, get down on your hands and knees.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, filled with joy and gratitude for what this person has

done.

So the question is, do you know what it is you've been given?

And do you know what it cost?

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time, and He died for us

sinners.

And so now, now what?

Now we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

That's what you've been given, and that's what it cost, cost Jesus's life.

Jesus had to lose all his joy so that you could find your joy.

Pope Francis said, the joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter

Jesus.

It's a fruit of the spirit.

Why tie mangoes on your tree?

Why take them on there?

And you can grow it organically, it's the fruit of the spirit of Jesus Christ.

So thanks be to God for giving us this joy, not just some fleeting happiness, but a greater

joy than anything we could ever imagine.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us today for our sermon, and make sure to come back again for our next

sermons as we continue to work through the other fruits of the spirit.

Today's sermon was taken from the May 26, 2024 service at Trinity Church Streetsville

in Mississauga, Ontario.