That Your Joy May Be Full - Leland Zehr

Good morning, greetings to each of you. In the name

of Jesus. It's good to be with you for an

introduction to the message the topic this morning and ask

you a few questions to consider, not to answer, but

to think about. Are you happy? That's right? Are you

a happy person? I looked around this morning a little

bit and thought about that question. Are you happy with

your life? Are you happy with the place that God

has you to be? Are you happy with your job?

Are you happy with your family? Are you happy with

your marriage? You happy with your church? Be happy with

your single life? Another question? As a Christian? Does it

even matter if we're happy? We teach and rightly so.

A big part of the gospel following Christ is a

life of self denial, is a life of cross bearing,

is a narrow way. So maybe for the Christian, the

Christian life, it wasn't meant to be happy. Welcome back

to that right now. Our world is a troubled world.

If you read the news, you know that. If you

don't read the news, you might not know that. But

there are wars and rumors of wars going on around

the world. The Ukraine and Russians continue to fight. The

recent conflict escalating in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.

Just yesterday, the US joining that fears of nuclear possibility

of a nuclear world war, World War three. People talk

about the world economy is in turmoil, trade wars, tariffs,

interest rates, inflation that threaten a recession. There's political conflict, violence, protests, vandalism, destruction.

And then aside from all of that, we have all

our own personal troubles as well, and I don't know

what they are. Maybe their health, maybe their relationship struggles,

maybe there's financial stresses. And these things can make us troubled,

and they can make us fearful, and they can make

us miserable, and they can make us unhappy. Is it

possible to have joy in the midst of troubles? Many

years ago there was another troubled time, and this also

was in the Middle East, was in the country of Israel.

It was the greatest human event of all time. And

for three years Jesus had and his disciples had went

around in a public ministry, ministering to the needs of people,

healing and feeding and preaching about a kingdom of God,

kingdom of heaven. And Yeah, as they came to the

end end of Jesus earthly ministry, rather than a kingdom

being established and built like they had been promised. Everything

seemed to be falling apart. Judas had just left, and

I'll get to the passage here in John. I want

to go to the Gospel of John the story there.

But after the Supper, Judas had left to fulfill his

secret mission, which was a plan to betray his master,

his friend Jesus, except it was no secret to Jesus,

of course, he knew another one of jesus close friends, Peter,

was going to be denying that he even knew Jesus. Shortly,

Jesus would soon be arrested and the rest of his

friends with scatter into the night. But in the middle

of that turmoil, as Jesus was there on the eve

of that night, Jesus spoke to and encouraged the closest

of his disciples there and his friends. He spoke about comfort,

He talked about the comforter will be coming. He talked

about also coming hardships. And he talked to them about

peace and about joy. Why joy and what did joy

have to do with the trouble that they were all facing?

And that is a subject that I want to talk

about a bit here this morning. It's been on my

mind for the last year or two. I'm not sure

a book I had listened to triggered this. I'll maybe

talk just a little bit more about that. And I've

been thinking about that and pondering this subject of joy,

and I need to say, just to make myself feel

better that I as I thought about that subject from

day to day and over the last months, I become

and became more aware of its need in my own life.

I don't in fact, I would say just this last

week was a all kinds of little tests for me personally,

and I thought, and I told my wife, the Devil's

alive and real, putting a subject to the test. So

although I've not mastered it, and don't want to pretend

that I have, I do believe that it is very

very important. I believe that it matters to God, and

it matters to us, and it matters to our fellow men.

And we want to look at some skip through some

of the verses in the Gospel of John, kind of

thirteen to six. But the key verse, I guess i'll

give a key verse here is in John fifteen eleven.

And if you want to, you can turn to the

spot in the Bible. I'll read some other verses there

as well. This is just jumping in here in the

middle of Jesus almost for three four chapters. He just

has a lot to say. He's kind of repeats himself,

kind of circles back around. But the theme was very

much a burden for his disciples. He's trying to encourage them,

he's trying to warn them. And the one verse here

John fifteen eleven says, these things have I spoken unto you,

that my joy might remain in you, and that your

joy might be full. And I don't know if it's

a very good title, but it's the title I gave

just to take the words of Jesus, and that is

that your joy may be full. And I'd like to

think about that joy being full. You have full joy

this morning. And I realize that probably happiness and joy

technically isn't exactly the same. But this was a desire

for Jesus. Jesus had for his followers. And we can

circle back to this question, and maybe we will more.

Does it matter if we have joy? And if so,

why and if why not? If not? Why not? One

thing that I think probably that the world in general

universally agrees with any religion, culture, race, is that individuals

desire to have joy, They want to be happy, they

want to feel positive in life and to have that

inner peace. What brings you joy? What robs you of joy?

Some things we want to talk about this morning, But

first let's do a little brief overview of John here

John thirteen. I want to take some time to read this.

I gave you a little bit the context already there

with Jesus, but just a little bit more in chapter thirteen.

We know that is the feet washing chapter, and this

is right after Jesus had his last supper with his disciples.

He washed their feet, he fellowshipped with them, he visited

with them, had a good time, I believe, and Jesus

was trying to encourage his friends, those that he loved

about the disappointment, the suffering, and the confusion that was

right around the corner. And if there's an interesting verse

in John thirteen twenty one that Jesus that John the

writer observes about Jesus. Jesus doesn't say this himself, but

it says when Jesus had thus said he was troubled

in his spirit and testified and said barely, I say

unto you that one of you shall betray me. Jesus

was troubled in his spirit. And we're talking about joy

this morning. Jesus must have been visibly troubled in some way.

And why was he troubled? Well, we know that the

reason he was troubled here was because of a broken

relationship with one of his close friends, Judas, whom he

loved and had spent three years together, and was in

the middle of Judas was in the middle of making

a terrible decision that he hadn't understood and thought through,

and he got caught up in the moment. I don't

believe Jesus was troubled because Judas was betraying him, and

Jesus felt bad about being betrayed necessarily as much as

he as he cared for Judas. Jesus' mission was going

to go on. But Judas was a friend of Jesus.

He had been with him, and when you spend three

years was someone in that close a fellowship, you create

a bond. And so it says that as Judas was

about to leave, Jesus was troubled. He was eating suffer,

he was having fellowship, he had washed their feet. And

so my first point here this morning, and I don't

want to make it a big point, but I think

it's just something that we need to acknowledge and reckon with.

I don't want to try to hold up things that

really aren't attainable, that sound good and all that, and

so the first point here I'll just make briefly is

that the reality that hard things come. We have disappointments, betrayals,

relationship struggles, pain, suffering, grief, sickness, and there are times

and moments, maybe period of our life where we become troubled.

We do not feel very joyful. And I don't think

we need to always pretend otherwise. And I don't believe

that it is wrong to have some trouble in our

hearts from time to time. But it is also true

that it is not God's will that we should live

and stay in a troubled state, Jesus says in John fourteen.

Moving on, you can follow along with me. I'll read

the first three verses of John fourteen. So it just

said that John observed that he was troubled. But then

Jesus says, and John fourteen one, he says, let not

your heart be trouble. You believe in God, believe also

in me. In my father's house are many mansions. And

if it were not so, I would have told you

I go to prepare a place for you. And if

I go and prepare a place for you, I will

again and receive you unto myself. That where I am

there ye may be also. And he goes on and

says more, talking about the comforter and coming. But Jesus.

Here it's like he gathers himself after the reality, after

the sorrow in his heart, for what Judas has chosen

to do. And he girds up, and he focuses on

the others, and he says, let not your heart be troubled.

And what he does here is gives them a focus

on a bigger, an eternal and a future that kind

of eclipses that that little painful moment that he was in.

And he goes and verse fourteen, excuse me, moving ahead

in fourteen verse twenty seven, just to hit a few

more verses. Here, he says, peace I leave with you.

My peace I given to you, not as the world giveth,

give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,

neither let it be afraid. So there again he says,

let not your heart be troubled, and jumping ahead to

fifteen eleven, then already read that that these things have

I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,

and that your joy might be full. What things he said,

These things have I spoken unto you. Well, if you

look back, and we don't have time to read all this,

but chapter fifteen, previous to this, he talks about the

vine and the branch and the illustration abiding in him

and staying in him, and reminding them that in the

midst of all this confusion, he takes the picture of

a great vine and its branches, and he said, you know,

don't panic, don't run, don't disconnect, stay anchored to the vine.

So he makes that point, and he says again and a.

All through these chapters he just inter weaves and repeats

about continuing in the love that Jesus showed them, a

sacrificial love. That was another thing that he said as

a way to have full joy, and that the joy

might remain in you. And another one is keeping his

commandments previously, commandments that we maybe think of negative but

commandments that were good for the good and well being

of them and their joy. And it's and I like

how it says that he doesn't say just joy, but

he says that your joy may be full full joy.

And I want to make the point. And this is

again I just mentioned it briefly, but if you would,

if we were to take the time to read the

verses after verse eleven, if you just want to glance

over them, Verses twelve thirteen, fourteen, He talks about, this

is my commandment that you love one another as I

have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this,

that have man laid down his life for a friend,

and so on. And I'll just say this for now.

A key to joy is relationships. And that is just

in this in different forms throughout his words. And now

i'll read. The last verses I want to read is

in chapter sixteen. If you move ahead versus twenty, I'll

just jump in at twenty through twenty. I think four barely.

I send to you that ye shall weep and lament,

but the world shall rejoice. And ye shall be sorrowful,

but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman

when she is in travail has sorrow because her hour

has come. But as soon as she is delivered of child,

she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a

man is born into the world. For now ye, for

ye now therefore have sorrow. But I will see you again,

and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man

taketh from you. That could be another title, but just

it's a point. No man, no man taketh your joy

from you, Verses twenty three and twenty four. And this

that day ye shall ask, And in that day ye

shall ask me nothing barely I say unto you. Whatsoever

ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will

give it you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name?

Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full.

And Jesus makes this little illustration here the moment they

were in of pain, and he's just reminding them that, yes,

it's painful, Yes this is a dark time. But he

compares a mother with a giving birth to a child

and the birth pains, and there is it is very painful,

it's scary. It's all those things. There's anguish in the moment,

but the minute that that's over and the mother is

holding her precious little baby, the sorrow leaves and joy

is full in that mother's heart as she looks into

the face of that little baby. What is joy? That's

probably a good thing to consider. I don't know what

you think of when you think of joy. Joy is

not a shallow, giddy, lightheartedness. Joy is not always the evidence,

is not always necessarily measured by the one who laughs

the most. But joy, as I'm talking, and that the

Bible is referring to here, is a cheerful, calm delight.

And I like that, especially that last, a calm delight.

I think our demeanor matters. I think we should express joy,

and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit more.

But that is not really the essence of joy, that

the outward everything that we do. But it is a

calm inner delight is what Godly joy is. That is

what God and Jesus did and once his followers to

experience and to have and full simply means complete, a

complete calm and inner delight. Joy is a fruit just

a few things here. Joy is a fruit or the

evidence of the presence of God's spirit. We know it's

a fruit of the spirit. Galatians five twenty two. But

the spruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering.

We could mention that so it is a fruit of

the spirit. The Bible says that God, or maybe us

as as God. Do you envision God as a God

of joy? Or is he a man that sits up

there with a furrow on his brow? The Bible says

that God rejoices over his people with joy in zeph

and Iyah three seventeen. In the Old Testament. I'll just

mention this briefly. Won't go into it either, but much

but God commanded his people multiple times to rejoice as

a command, to keep feast days, to get together, to

take time off work, to spend seven days together feasting

and worshiping and rejoicing. Deuteronomy. I could read one verse,

thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and my son,

thy daughter, and thy maid servant, and my manservant, and

the levite and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow

that are within the gates. And he goes on and

talks more sixteen eleven, says that will show me the

path of life, and in thy presence is fullness of joy.

And at thy right hand are pleasures foreverborn. So the

Christian life is and I don't want to try to

separate this or water down it, but it is self sacrifice,

It is self denial, it is cross bearing, it is

all those things. But it is also a calm delight

at least that is what God desires for his people.

The Gospel. You think about the word gospel when it

was introduced in the New Testament. The word gospel means

the good News. And when the angels came to the

shepherds after Jesus was born, the angel said, fear not behold,

I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be

to all people. And he goes on and tells him

about the birth of Jesus. So the whole event in

the christ in life and Jesus and his purpose and

all of that, it is a message of good news

and is of joy. And maybe if we don't have that,

that's why that would maybe one contributing factor to our

Sunday School lesson of why it's hard to share something

that you aren't don't believe in, don't love. Maybe you're

thinking this all sounds good, brother, but you have no

idea what I'm going through, and if you knew what

my life has handed me, you would understand why I

rarely have joy. And I'd like to just address that

with a couple points. That might be true, that might

be true to some degree that I don't fully understand,

but there's someone that does. And this isn't coming from me,

this message this morning, I'm trying to make it come

from the heart of Christ, but it comes from Jesus,

and he is the one teaching us, and he is

the one that desired and that we have joy, and

he does understand. Another point to that is everyone faces

and experiences hardships of some kind, and it's not wise

for us to in our head imagine or believe that

we have at worse than others, and therefore we are

justified in not being joyful. It's not helpful, it's probably

not true. Another thing is joy is not the absence

of hardship and sorrow, and this is important one I

think we should all try to remember. Joy is not

the absence of hardship and sorrow. But joy is one

of the things that God has given us to help

us through those difficult times. Where does joy come from?

And is joy an emotion or a feeling or is

it a choice? Is it our thinking is or is

it a spiritual matter? If we're right with God or

we just automatically joyful. I got a sketch on the

whiteboard I'd like to share. I don't want to overcomplicate

it and overwhelm you, and I won't go into every detail,

but just a little bit here for you to consider,

and then to maybe go into a little bit more.

But joy just the definition there. But then there are

areas that I think that our belief and maybe there's

more that affect our joy and I have God made

them all emphasies that. But you think about the human relationship.

We have the body, soul, and spirit that you often

hear and talk about. But if I got some of

these wrong, you can correct me. But for the most part,

our body, what we see, what pow we're made up

or flesh or bones or nerves are all part of

this or hormones, health, nutrients, exercise and rest. You got

the soul, the emotions, the thoughts, choice will feelings, the

spirit or the spiritual part of our life that we

call which is redemption and a relationship with God and worship.

And then human relationships and all these things. It's a

quadrant of four things that I believe that sometimes we

I don't want to overcomplicate it, but I think we

often oversimplify it. Is what I'm concerned about, especially depending

on our personality, and what I'm what I maybe mean

by that is that especially in a church and in

a setting, we we can feel like the spiritual which

is very important and very foundational, and it is very necessary.

It's kind of the soul area of our life that

affects our joy. And I think that that's not right,

and I think that that God. I know that God

made us, and he and we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

And I can't dissect and explain everything to you, but

these are areas that for whatever reason, God did not

just make us angels that float around in spiritual beings.

That he made us flesh and blood with false failures,

our desires, our appetites, things that kind of war against

the flesh and the spirit. There's that, but all of

these things are part of God's creating us, and so

from that standpoint, they're all a spiritual matter. They're all

affect our relationship with God and how we respond in

those areas. I'll just briefly go over them. I'm gonna

have to keep moving because i really want to not

go over time today. But the spiritual just hit those

a little bit. The spirit the spiritual is we could

think connected to the vine. Jesus gave that illustration. It's

a good one, it's simple. But when the vine is

not connected, the joy, the sap, the juice, the nutrients

does not get to the vine. And so that is

the the spiritual life, the relationship, the redemption, the being

forgiven from our sins, and that whole thing. And you know,

true joy in the aspect that we're talking about, comes

from God, and it's very essential. Yes, there's elements of

joy that we can have and people of the world

can have without a relationship with God. But it's not

the same, it's not as deep, it's not It isn't

what Jesus was talking about. Not everything is only a

spiritual matter. He created our physical bodies. And I'll just

say a little bit about that. We can be right

with God, we can forgive our sins, we can read

our Bible, we can pray. But if we have not

slept all night, or if we have not eaten properly,

or we do not exercise, we do not take care

of our bodies. It affects our joy. It just does.

We can understand and that with a two year old

that as parents, you understand. There comes a point when

this child is unreasonable, he's being naughty, but discipline is

not what he needs in the moment. At that time,

he needs to be taken to a dark room, laid

down to rest, and put to sleep, and when he

wakes up, his body is rested, he's joyful, he's happy again.

There's moments like that, and so that we need to

We need to just understand that that is part of

the equation of joy if our body, and that is

true for us. If I get I know, some people

say I can just sleep, get on five hours and

be fine, and I if I only get five hours

of sleep a night too consistently, I can do it

for a little bit, but then starts to take a

toll and I get run down, I get grumpy, and

I need to just go sleep. It's not an excuse.

I don't think we should sin because we're sleep deprived

and things like that, but it plays a part. We

have hormones and this This is you know, really complicated

but or beyond what I understand. But just a few

of them, like adrenaline and cortisol. Those are hormones again

that God gave us for a purpose to There are

survival instincts that when something happens we fight or flight

and we get that surge of adrenaline and cortisol and

it has its place. There's happy hormones of dopamine, sera

tone and oxyoxytocin andendorphins that again they're they're I don't

know how they all work, but they are. They are

released when we experience pleasant things. They feel good. They're

pain relievers when you eat good food and it just

feels so good. Those are those partly those hormones that

God has given us to get a task done, to

achieve a goal, to go exercise, to experience experience kindness.

When you walk down a hall and and you pass

a person and they glower and look at the floor,

or if they look at you and say good morning

and smile and say something, there there's a there's an

actual physical effect that comes over us. Those are God given,

those are those are just part of our body. There's

appropriate physical touch hugging a child, wiping away tears. That

that is also part of the human connection of joy

in marriage, there's the physical relationship in in sports. I

find this interesting that, you know, there's the high fives

and the fists, bumps by the tough guys and different things.

And I'll just say this, I didn't do a lot

of thought on this, but I see we kind of

shrink back from the Holy Kiss for whatever reason it's

and I understand that, but I wonder if if it's

not the Holy kisses, it's not so much that it's

the Holy Kiss's fault as some other things that make

it seem a little awkward and weird for us. And

yet the men of the world are bumping and thumping

and high five and but it's that physical touch, it's

that handshake that connects people. It's real, it's it's a

it's a real, physical, joyful human connection. He created our soul,

the emotions, the choice, our thoughts, the will to choose,

our nervous system, the ability to think. And you know,

I don't understand and again all the emotions, the emotional

part of our body. But it's real. And if if

we as young healthy people don't think so. You know,

if you experience some day or witness someone that has

got overloaded for whatever reason, has a nervous breakdown, that's

a that's a part of reality, and it's a it's

a hard thing, something is not healthy and taken care

of in the body. One other area human relationships, and

and probably that's the one in the background of my mind,

was the thing that was triggered in a book that

I read or listened to a year or two ago.

And I'll get to that. But again, these human relationships

are part of what God created. He created Adam and

Eve in the garden and then and then humanity from there,

and the Bible it's so important. The Bible talks so

much about that, the importance of and instructions on how

to love one another and to get along and you know,

to love one another. Phrase on a pulpit is just

like it's so said so often it becomes almost meaningless,

but it is essential, and it is crucial, and it

was the second and greatest commandment, next to loving God

as ourself. Joy is a little bit like maybe you

could think of it like gas in a car or

running a marathon without food and water, or like fertile soil.

When soil is fertile and has its proper nutritions, little

plants can just blossom and grow. But when there's no joy,

the soil is depleted, and plants suffer and struggle and

often die, don't do well, and when we when we

live a joyless life, we run out of gas in

different ways. Another reason that it's very important to be

full of godly joy is that hearts that are low

on joy are very susceptible to addictions and to pseudo

joys substitute joys. When we have that hole in our

heart that is not filled with a proper, healthy, godly joy,

we are just very very susceptible to falling into all

kinds of things like drugs, alcohol that doesn't affect us

so much, but it affects a lot of people, pornography, pleasure, entertainment,

even food. Food is not wrong, but when we overuse

it when we're glat it can also be a form

of filling that void. All these things give us the

human body short bursts of joy and pleasure that seem

like joy, but then they drop us back into despair.

If we don't have the joy of the Lord so

it's just that's what creates that addiction cycle. If we

want that joy, we want that feeling, but it doesn't last,

and so someone just gets into whatever their vice is

one of the one of the greatest safeguards to all

of that. We preach against that and don't do that,

and don't do that, and don't do that. But when

our heart is empty and does not have joy, it's

pretty hard not to do those things. And that is

a reason to seek to have our hearts and our

minds filled with God's joy. A few things that take

take away our joy, or we could call joy leaks.

I'm just going to hit these briefly. Worry and fear.

You already know this, but worry and overthinking our future.

I want you to listen to this. It's just basic,

but it's it's true. Worry and overthinking about our future

robs us of joy and peace in the moment, and

then a lot of the time those future things don't

even happen, and even if they do, worrying about it

didn't help. All you did is ruin your whole time

between that and what you're worrying about, and you're unhappy,

you're fretting, and Jesus taught us in Matthew six, the

end of the chapter on the Sermon on the Mountain,

how to deal with worry and anxiety and not to

do that. But you know, there is the reality. And

I said, I don't want to try to hold up

unattainable ideals. But what do you do with hard things

in life? Just complex situations. We do need to think

about them. We need to spend time thinking through them.

And some of them are unpleasant, and so we need

to dedicate some time to consider, to think. But God

has given us the avenue of prayer. He's given us

the avenue of counseling with other godly people. But prayer

is a thing that God has given us that we

can come to and give our worries, ask for wisdom.

And then the mistake that I often make is I'll

tell God, But then I'll just take that worry right

with me and go back to my day. And if

we leave those worries and let them go, we can

have joy. To leave them in God's hands and ask

for wisdom doesn't shed us of thinking. But another one unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness turns into resentment and bitterness and resentment and bitterness

hardens our hearts and robs us of joy, and along

with that it can bring us all kinds of other

physical Unforgiveness is an underrated damaging problem in the lives

of people. Unforgiveness locks us up in a prison of

a joyless of joylessness, wrong thinking patterns, and we could

go all different directions with this. There's many ways we

can think wrong, but you know we can. We can

wake up on a Monday morning and regardless of the

circumstances and the realities around us, just what we do

in our minds and think on and dwell on in

our house and our pickup, in our tractor, in our truck,

wherever we might be, makes a tremendous difference of our

our having joy or not. We can take some real

trips in our mind that are just not healthy and

helpful or real. Two Corinthians ten fives as cast down

imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the

knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity everything or every

thought to the obedience of Christ. Since we need to

control our mind, that is part of joy, of protecting

joy idleness. I'm gonna make two points that are opposite

here idleness and living for self. Now a person is

selfish and is pursuing joy like gold at the end

of a rainbow, he'll never find it if he's just

in a selfish state of mind. He's just trying to

get that feeling of joy. A self focus robs us

of godly joy. Joy is often a byproduct or a

fruit of living God's living life, God's way. And now

the next point I want to give in a little

bit of an opposition of this, and that is things

that rob stress can be stress and over busyness. And

there's these two opposing problems. And it's good to be busy,

to serve and to help and to be productive, but

it is also possible to just get overwhelmed with good projects,

things that are good, like Mary and Martha. And sometimes

we need to sit at the feet of Jesus. When

we're over busy and stressed, we lose our joy. It's

just too much. Some people can handle more than others.

We understand that, but we need to find that where

God wants us to be in serving and in saying no.

And I'll say this, and you've heard it before probably,

but I'll just put it out there for you to consider,

and I almost don't like it. It's called the eighty

twenty rule, and what that means is that and this

is true in organizations, and I hope it's not true

in churches, but it's kind of a people problem. Twenty

percent of the people do eighty percent of the work,

do to eighty percent of the production. And I don't

like that that even being possibly a reality. And I

don't think we want to start pointing fingers and saying

I'm a twenty percenter, But I think it'd may be

good once in a while for us to consider the

group we are in. Where do we fall in that.

Are we stepping up and filling our role? Or am

I just on the shirt tail riding along while a

small minority is just pulling this thing along. We need

to consider that and adjust accordingly. Some need to go

one way or the other. A well functioning team, organization

or church where everyone is engaged and pulling together is

a pleasant thing to be a part of, and it

brings joy. You see that on a job of five

or six guys, they're working together, everyone's filling their role,

and there is just production and joy and good will

all around. The minute you have a person or two

just kind of leeching. It kind of robs from everyone

things that bring us godly joy. Well, I already touched

on some redemption. I just want to say that again,

the source of joy comes from like Jesus said, he

wanted to give them his joy. God and Jesus are

the source of joy. It's a foundational principle. Some other

just little practical things. Singing and I'm not a big singer,

but if you ever are dealing with not feeling will

bad mood. God has given us the gift of singing,

and it's the last thing you feel like doing when

you're but it's one of the best things that we

can do. It takes our minds off of ourselves. There's

something about singing, and we can listen to music too,

but singing with our own voice is even better. If

we let ourselves go and sing in thanksgiving, it often

kind of fills our hearts with joy. Another one is gratitude. Gratitude,

i'd say, and joy are just kind of like Siamese

twins if they support and encourage each other. Is I

don't know if it's possible to have one without the other,

not long term, they pulled each other up gratitude and joy.

And then the last point here I want to say

a little bit more about fellow human relationships as a

source of joy. God has given us that, and this

is maybe where we come full circle back around to

the question does it even matter if I have joy?

Is that your business or your business if I have

it or not? Well, it is if we're on the

same team, the same home, in the same church, with

the same group. Because joy. The fact is that joy

or lack of joy does affect others. Joy is influential

and affects other people. Sometimes I don't know about you,

just sometimes it's just good. It feels good. Now, this

is kind of an oxymoron, but it feels good to

be grumpy and fussy and complain. There's just something just

cut loose a little bit. I suppose you can debrief

with your close friends in that way and it's fine,

but on a regular basis and living life in that

attitude is very selfish because although it might feel good

to you, it doesn't feel good to anyone around you.

And you know that you don't like your spouse to

be grumpy and negative, or your family or your co workers,

and so another maybe temptation to be a little grumpy

sometimes and to not have joy is it's kind of

a shaded form of manipulation. You know, a two year

old throws a fit and shows how unhappy they are

so that they can get what they want. Sometimes we

as adults can be tempted to do that. You know,

if I come in and be grumpy first with my wife,

then maybe she'll be the one that needs to work

at making me happy and I'll get something out of this.

And so we can use this as manipulation if we're

not careful, and we shouldn't do that. It's selfish of course. Relationships. Now,

this book, I want to just give it to you.

I'm not going to say much out of it. I

think some of you have read it, but it's called

The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder, And if

you're a book reader, it's not a big heavy book,

but I think there's some really good things that would

be worth our time if you have the time to

listen to it or read it. Read it that is

helpful in organizations, in churches. He's primarily talking about church.

One of the main points that he makes I guess

is that the church at large, the church has focused

on It's not an Anabaptist book to just talk in

general on truth, facts, doctrine, defining beliefs, and positions, which

are all very important, but they're not complete. And he

makes the case that there's often a big disconnect between

those important things and many other very important aspects and virtues,

like expressing joy and practicing joy in relationships with one another.

We know this is true in marriage, that you know,

facts and positions and agreements don't make a happy marriage.

I mean, we have some of those understanding, But it's

the little things. It's the connections, it's the play, it's

the fellowship, it's the positive interaction. Joy is primarily transmitted

through our face and our eyes. And I wrote on

there somewhere eyes that say I'm glad to see you.

And that might seem kind of trivial, and we're above

all that, but we're not. Little things like that feed

and share joy, and when we're sullen and unhappy and

make it known, it kind of robs joy from others.

Another thing I might say, just playing and eating and

fellowshipping together is doesn't sound spiritual, but it can be

spiritual in the big picture, it's part of building relationships.

How about safe relationships having Do you know what I

mean by safe relationship relationships that you're not always analyzing

and worried about the possibility of being criticized picked apart.

Criticism and backbiting destroy a sense of safety, fellowship and

joy in a community. Empathy I got to mention this one.

Empathy and compassion in times of sorrow. I said earlier

that joy does not eliminate grief and suffering, but it

shares in someone's grief and suffering and can help make

it bearable. And I think that's really important. I think

I would have not understood that basic principle. When someone

is suffering and hurting and grieving, sometimes we want to

go fix it and take it away, and we don't

know how we can't, and so we just do nothing

because I can't fix that problem. But sharing in the

grief brings joy to wear a person. And you've probably

experienced it, or you're in sorrow or pain and some

brother sister comes and hugs you, says some kind words,

and you're simultaneously experiencing both at once. There's this deep

joy of gratitude for this person in my life at

the same time I'm suffering. And that is the fuel,

the gas in the tank that we are to help

each other with the hug kind words, rejoice with them

that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. And closing,

I'll just ask a few more questions and a couple

more thoughts. What makes faith? What makes a faith, a religion,

a church compelling and attractive? What drew people to Jesus

in comparison to the religion of that day? They were

religious people. They came to him like magnets. Was it

because he was a the way he dressed. Was it

because he was a plain man, because he was conservative?

Was it because he kept order and paid attention to detail. No,

the scribes and the Pharisees did that. It was because

he had a living faith, a doctrine that was alive,

a fruit that was coming out of his life that

was peace and joy, kindness and gentleness. And the disciples

of Jesus were not just students enrolled for three years

to learn about the Bible and to memorize it, but

they were on a journey of character transformation. And I

think that that is our journey, to strive to be

on that journey. That is part of the work of

the church, to disciple one another, to help one another,

to try to continue to conform into the likeness of

Jesus Christ. In one of those ways God wants us

to live is with fullness of joy. I hope this

can be a blessing encouragement. Jason, do you wanna Do

you have some thoughts? Or sure, we just have a

song and let's do that. Let's have a song and

then we'll stand for a closing prayer after that. M