From Ephesus: Joy

I don't.

She's incredible, very incredible.

I don't know what that was, but Tom Tom jumping out,

that was awesome way to go. All right, Well, we

like to have fun around here. Happy mothers say, I

know you've heard that. Happy mothers say, it's all the

mom's aunts, grandma's mom figures. Spiritual moms. Don't stop praying.

We need you, keep doing, keep doing the mom thing.

My name is Di, I'm part of the team here

at our Mill Creek campus, and I will say it

is the joy of my life to be a mom

to my three four Because I have a son in law,

but I didn't raise him, so I can't take credit

for him. But to my three kids, all four of them,

I know if you're a mom out there, you're going

to relate to this. It's the joy of my life

to watch them grow in love for other people, in

maturity and responsibility and generosity. It's the joy of my

life to watch them laugh and love each other.

I feel blessed. Motherhood is full of.

Many incredible, beautiful moments and the hardest thing you can

do in your life. It is full of trials, it

is full of difficulty, It's got sadness attached to it.

I know that that is not just motherhood. That's parenthood.

And honestly, it's not just parenthood.

It's life. As human beings.

We encounter all kinds of beauty and pain and pleasure

and trial and difficulty and sadness. And you're joining us

today as we tackle the very complex.

Thing that it is to be humans, many.

Of us followers of Jesus, attempting to produce this fruit

of the spirit that makes us look more like Jesus.

And today we're going to talk talk a little bit

about joy. Christian laid the found work of the foundation

for us really well last week. So if you missed

Pastor Christian's message, and encourage you to go back and

catch that he helped us build this great foundation by

which we will go by. I will say joy is

not the first attribute or fruit listed in there. Don't

get caught up in what order we do them in.

That's mostly just because I just thought I was supposed

to teach on joy, so I just chose to teach

on joy.

We'll get them all in there, don't worry.

But would you look with me at Galatians five twenty two,

which is the verse we are following as our guideline

here for this series. It says, but the Holy Spirit

produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self control. And I don't know where you sit

today with joy as the fruit that we are going

to look at. I don't know if maybe joy feels

elusive to you or impossible. I don't know if maybe

you're here today and your primary emotion is sadness, and

maybe you don't even know why sadness is your primary emotion.

I don't know if me saying the word joy is

incredibly frustrating to you.

I don't know if maybe you finish the sentence I

would be joyful if and you have something that you

put in that blank and then you think joy would

come as a result, or maybe you are completely content

and you feel like you are blessed in your life

is full of all kinds of joy, whatever your context.

I want to start us off by noting that joy

is not suggested in the Bible.

It's actually directed.

It's directed in the Bible with phrases like rejoice in

the Lord, be glad, rejoice always. In fact, the Bible

says rejoice always and again I will say rejoice, But

what even is joy? And I think maybe the next

question is what is it not? And then probably the

most prevalent question would be how do we find it?

How do we get it? And how do we grow it?

And so let's tackle those things together. But first, would

you just join me as we pray?

Lord? This morning?

I'm asking, in fact, I'm gonna just pray over this

room and over those who are joining us online or

who will listen to this later on this week or

in the future. Would you just give us hearts that

are open and willing to receive, minds that are open

to consider and to be challenged. And God, I'm asking

that the fruit that comes from you would begin to

show up in our lives in ways we have not

yet seen. In your name, we pray Amen as a

foundation today, I actually want to use a verse that

really started bothering me or sticking in my head a

couple of weeks ago when I was writing the message

for our Palm Sunday, which was the week before Easter.

And so maybe this is not the go to verse

for joy. If you've ever heard a message on joy

or done a Bible study on joy. This might not

be the first one on the list, but it's the

one that's bothering me the most right now, so it's

the one we're going.

To start with.

It's Hebrews twelve, chapter two, and if you have your Bible,

you can turn there, otherwise the words will be behind.

Me on the screen.

But it says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus,

the author and perfector of our faith, who for the

joy said before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,

and has sat down at the right hand of the

throne of God. So we're instructed here by the writer

of heb Is to fix our eyes on Jesus, like

lock in, lock your gaze, fix your eyes.

If you had a.

Scope, it would be like put Jesus in the crosshairs

of your scope. Be in lockstep with Jesus. And then

it goes on to say he's the author and perfector

of our faith, which for you and I really just

means he's our role model. He's the one that refines

faith and joy and the fruit of the spirit, and

we're watching him as our role model.

So eyes locked on Jesus is the role model and.

Then it goes on to say it was his joy

to endure the cross. It was his joy to endure

the cross, to endure the shame of the cross, to

endure the torture of the cross, to endure the pain

that was coming and was associated with the cross, to

to take our shame and our guilt on the cross.

It was his joy to take that.

And because Jesus considered it his joy to take our

shame and our guilt, and to take the punishment, and

to be crucified and to die, and then to be resurrected.

Because he took that.

Punishment and that shame and is resurrected, he now sits

in victory next to the throne of God.

It was his joy. But did you catch that it

was his joy? It was his.

Joy to endure the cross. Do you know what is

immediately true about joy? Based on that verse? Joy is

not a feeling. It's not a feeling. Joy is not

a feeling. Because I am quite sure that though it

was Jesus's joy to endure the cross, it didn't feel good,

It did not feel happy. It did not feel like

a reason then to celebrate the generic definition of joy.

If we just kind of dig into this, like, what

is what are we even talking about here?

The generic definition.

If you enter the murky waters of the internet and

just google what is the definition of joy, you'll get

something like it's a feeling of great pleasure or happiness,

of feeling of great pleasure or happiness.

If you do a.

Little more digging and go to it, maybe a little

bit more scholarly approach, I don't know. Webster's Dictionary says

that joy is the emotion evoked by well being, success

or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what

you desire.

Could there be a more shallow definition of a word?

Because if we use the dictionary definition here, it feels

like our joy is going to be elusive, if not

in possible to find. It feels like joy is going

to be based on all the circumstances lining up well

for us.

It feels like joy is.

Going to be achieved by getting the things that we

want and then holding on to them. It's going to

be measured by this general feeling of well being and

things are going well and life is lining up, and

that's going to be certainly associated with both emotional and

physical health and probably relational health too. Basically, this understanding

says joy, and here's my definition based on what the

dictionary says. Joy is defined by what we gain and

what we hold on to so retain, by what we

gain and what we retain. But this can't be true

the dictionary definition of joy just it just can't be true,

because if joy is based on what we gain and

what we retain, then people who haven't gained or retained

should not have joy.

But I have seen people with nothing.

I have been in the streets of small slum villages

in Africa. I have had the privilege of being in

the Dominican Republic where the villages of people are enslaved

by sugarcane owners who they own nothing. They don't even

they don't even own the shack they live in. They

don't own any possessions. They can't be free, they can't

attain their dreams, they can't get a better job. I

just recently went to Honduras with a group of people

and we saw these children who celebrated and they had nothing.

And it's true around the world. And the thing that

these people do have is Jesus. And when they have Jesus,

they have a joy that makes no sense based on

their circumstances.

So it can't be true that.

Joy is based on what we gain or retain. It

also can't be true that our joy is based in

what we gain or retain, because this isn't.

How the Bible defines joy. So let's look there.

According to Ephesian or Glatians chapter five, which we read

to begin with, joy is a fruit.

Now, the Bible.

Often uses metaphors, and often the Bible uses metaphors about fruit,

God's people bearing fruit. In fact, there's a verse in

Hosea where Israel is described as a vine.

Loaded with fruit.

So fruits are really common analogy used throughout the Bible,

and here in Galatians, Paul is using fruit and contrasting

it with works, things that we work to get, simply

to prove that fruit is something we can't work to get.

It's produced. It's pretty basic.

You and I we see a tree, a type of

a tree, and we know what kind of fruit it

will produce. An apple tree produces thank you, a cherry

tree produces good job. This is not rocket scientists science.

To us, it's not difficult for us to understand that

a tree produces fruit.

In like with that kind of tree.

John fifteen, Jesus describes himself as the true vine. You

can substitute for vine the word tree, same idea. So

Jesus says, I'm the true vine or the tree. And

then he describes all of us as the branches. And

then he furthers that analogy by saying, and God, the

Father is the vine dresser, also known as a gardener.

So Jesus is the tree, we are the branches.

God is the one who gardens, who takes care of

and in this analogy in John fifteen one, which you'll

see behind me. In fact, if you have your Bible,

i'd encourage you to turn to John fifteen because we'll

kind of park the rest of our time here, and

I will pull some verses from there. But I'd love

for you to be able to scan along with me

through John fifteen.

But as we look at John fifteen.

And we see where Jesus is using this analogy of

a tree and the branches us that bears fruit hopefully

and then the gardener, let's look at a few things

that are very obvious here, or even you and I

could guess and know about fruit. Number one, fruit cannot

grow without being connected to its source. Fruit cannot grow

without being connected to its source. Now, in verses two

and three, Jesus goes on to say, the gardener cuts

off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit. For

a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from

the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain

in me. This is fairly logical for you and I.

I have this visual in my head of the apple

tree in my backyard. I mean, I was sitting on

my deck yesterday, I was looking at the apple tree

and I was thinking about this message, and I was thinking,

I mean, yes, if I go cut a branch off

of my apple tree that has these tiny little apple

buds starting, those aren't going to continue to grow as

soon as I cut that off. I can't just lay

the branch in my backyard and go, look, the sun

is shining on you and water is coming from the

sky on you. Therefore you should produce fruit. It doesn't

work that way. We all understand. As soon as the

branch is severed.

From the tree, it cannot produce fruit.

We cannot produce fruit unless we are connected to the source.

That source for you, and I is Jesus. So Jesus

is saying just as just as a branch can't grow

unless it's connected to the tree, so all of us

we cannot produce fruit unless we are connected to our source.

And it's very scientific. If we're disconnected, no fruit, you

with me logical, So the fruit cannot grow without being

connected to its source.

Number two, fruit.

That is produced is in keeping with its source. Fruit

that is produced is in keeping with its source. So

just as my apple tree in the backyard is not

going to begin producing cherries or peaches, you and I,

in connection to Jesus, are going to produce the fruit

that comes from the source we are connected to. So

the source Jesus does not produce things like sin or evil,

or selfishness or wickedness or self centeredness or any of

those kind of fruit. Who how does that fruit get produced?

It gets produced by us. The Bible calls that our flesh,

our nature, not connected to the source, produces those things.

When connected to the source, we produce the fruit of

the source. And that's what we're digging into. And we

look at the fruit of the spirit. That's a good

place to ask ourselves, probably which kind of fruit do

I want to produce? What do I want to bear fruit?

What kind? Do I want it to be the fruit

of selfishness or evil or wickedness?

Or do I want it to be the fruit of

the spirit, like love and joy and peace and kindness.

I just had this thought this week while I was studying,

because you and I we work really hard to get

something like joy operating in our life. Right. We're gonna

talk about this more in a second, too, but we

work really hard to get joy forgetting that the joy

is produced as a fruit. And so here you and

I are sitting around going how do I get more joy?

How do I work up more joy in my life?

How do I discipline myself to be more joyful? How

do I force myself? How do I pretend like I'm

more joyful and hope that the feeling of joyfulness comes

after it? But that's the problem is we can't produce

the fruit. What jumped out in addition to this comes

from John fifteen eleven. So Jesus, after describing the importance

of staying connected to him to the tree, he goes

on to say that when we're connected to him will

be filled with his joy and joy will overflow. And

what jumped out to me was that Jesus says, you'll

be filled with my joy. That's what Jesus says, You'll

be filled with my joy. Joy is the byproduct of

being connected to Jesus. He gives us his joy, which

I hope just sets a few people free right now

this morning, because instead of us having to work really

hard to manufacture this feeling that we can't figure out

how to maintain or retain or gain to begin with,

that we can't figure out how to discipline ourselves to have,

Jesus says, if we remain connected to him, he gives

us his joy. It's not this elusive feeling. We got

to figure out how to go find the work of

the spirit. Here begins when we surrender our life to Jesus.

So here's how that process works.

We say, Jesus, I can't do this life on my own.

I need you to be my savior, forgive me and

then fill me with your spirit, which happens when we

surrender our life to him. He says, I'm going to

give you my spirit to help you follow me. And

as we surrender our life and continue to surrender our

life to Jesus. That fruit is what is produced as

a result of a life that is surrendered to Jesus,

obedient to Jesus. Following Jesus, you guys are really quiet

out there. So the fruit is the product of the

spirit at work inside of you and me.

So first, joy is a fruit that's.

Like a big, big grasping concept. We got to hold

onto there. But second, I think we should look at

what joy is not. Okay, so we already said joy

is not a feeling. Joy isn't a feeling, even though

many of us spend our lives chasing that feeling, frustrated

that we don't have that feeling, it's not a feeling.

But number two, joy is also not happiness. It's not happiness.

Happiness is circumstantial. It's based on our health, it's based

on success, it's based on you know, we're enjoying life

and things are going well for us and everything's falling

into place and lining up, and happiness, unfortunately, is fleeting

because even though we got that relationship that we thought

was going to make us joyful, there's conflict. And because

even though we're healthy, then people we love die or

our bodies break down, and we become sick.

And even though we.

May have found success at work, we also can take

steps backward and lose a job, or be laid off

or end up, you know, in conflict with coworkers or

a boss. So success is fleeting. So happiness based on

success is fleeting. So joy cannot be based on these things.

Joy is also not an event. It's not the perfect day,

it's not the perfect ceremony, it's not that beautiful party.

It's not the wonderful vacation. Those those are wonderful. We

want those things, but that is not where joy is found.

And this might be the most controversial thing I will

say today, but I believe joy is not a choice.

I do not think joy is a choice. After all,

how could it be both a choice and a fruit.

It's one or the other.

It's either a fruit that's produced in us by a

work that's bigger than us, or it's something we have

to figure out how to manufacture. Have you ever seen

it or said it or heard it the phrase choose joy?

Raise your hand if you've said it or thought it,

Like right now, if you go on Etsy and like

search choose joy, you're gonna find like a sign for

your bathroom, a bumper sticker, a sticker for your water bottle,

a T shirt, tank top.

Whatever, whatever.

Could there be a worse way to find joy than

just focusing on joy? Because what happens when you focus

on joy, You're like laser focus on the joy, and

then you can't find the joy.

So you're frustrated that you don't have the joy. And

the more you think about the fact that.

You don't have the joy that everybody else has.

The more frustrated you are that you do not have joy.

It's like the worst It's the worst thing. And we

do it all the time.

I mean, we go on social media and we're like,

look how joyful everybody else is. What are they doing?

I just have to choose to be joyful. And it's

this like I'm gonna force myself. I'm gonna will it

into existence. Now. I appreciate that there's perspective here. I

appreciate that there are times where truly the change of

our perspective from our circumstances to something bigger does help.

But focusing on the joy that we don't have does

not help. Jesus was focused on the joy set before him.

That's that's the phrase that has messed with me for

a few weeks now. The joy set before him For Jesus,

the joy set before him was joy was not found

in focusing on having more joy. The author of Hebrews says,

for the joy set before him not, and so Jesus

focused on joy more and chose it. Jesus's joy was

not found in focusing on joy, was not found in

a pain free, simple task that he had to obey

because he was facing the cross, he was facing the torture,

he was facing the shame, he was facing the pain,

so it wasn't easy. Jesus's joy was not in the

event come on, the crucifixion was not the perfect vacation

that is on you know, TikTok or Instagram. So his

joy wasn't found in the event itself. It wasn't found

in the pain before him. We know this because the

Gospel writers tell us that right before Jesus was arrested

to begin the process of crucifixion, he was in the

garden sweating blood. Sweating blood because of the torment. To

come and joy don't feel like they go together for me.

So how does this work?

How did Jesus have joy? It was the joy set

before him, And can I propose to you him.

It was not the joy in the event.

It was the joy in the outcome of the event.

It was not the joy of the cross. It was

the joy of the outcome of the cross. It was

not the.

Joy of the torture or the death. It was the

outcome of the torture and the death. That was the

joy set before him. Knowing that perspective shift that if

he would obey his father, if he would go to

the cross, if he would endure and be obed the end,

even to death, that then he would be resurrected, and

that resurrection would bring you and I freedom and life.

That was his joy. His joy was bigger than.

His own circumstances. It was bigger than the pain. It

was bigger than the event. It was the outcome of

the event. Do you know that the opposite of joy

is not sadness.

The opposite of joy is hopelessness. Hopelessness if there is.

No hope that it will it will be better in

the end, that there will be justice, that there will

be a way forward, that there will be an end

to pain, that there will be an end to strife.

There can't there can't be joy, but we have the

ultimate hope.

That's what Jesus dated.

His hope was in the the outcome of the event.

And because he had that hope, because he.

Could lift his eyes above the circumstance, he was able

to have joy. And I'm really visual, so I picture

it like this. If I focus on the mess in

front of me, the pain, the difficulty, the strife, the

things that make me sad, the things that feel like

they're never going to be fixed, and you fill in

the blank.

You know what that is for you. If I focus here,

I'm going to live here.

If I'm able to do that perspective shift and fix

my eyes on Jesus and model my life after Jesus

and surrender my life to Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

He works in me to produce the fruit of the Spirit,

one of.

Which is joy. It's not found here.

It's found when I put my eyes up here and

I look above all of that, and I go, this

is about me pursuing Jesus. For Jesus, his hope was

in the resurrection and in the forgiveness of sin.

For you and I.

So if way is not a feeling, if joy is

not found in an event. If joy is not some

characteristic or attribute that we've got to discipline ourselves to

make and produce inside of us. If joy doesn't show

up because I work really hard to attain it, how

do I find it?

How do we find how do we find joy?

And before I give the very simple answer that you're

probably already there in your mind and know where I'm going,

let me just say one more word about social media,

because joy has never been found there. It's never been found.

And I'm not just gonna talk about social media. I'm

gonna talk about comparison. Joy has never been found.

When you take.

Your life, your body, your relationships, your vacations, your house,

your possession, and you put them up against someone else

that you see next door to you or at work,

or someone in your family or on social media, you'll

never find joy there.

Comparison we will destroy any fruit of joy.

That Jesus is trying by his spirit to produce in

you and I. Comparison is the joy killer. So how

do we find joy? It's quite simple, at the risk

of sounding basic and pastoral. True joy is found only

in Jesus, only exclusively, exclusively in Jesus, in a life

walking with Jesus, in a life surrendered to Jesus, in

a life in lockstep with Jesus, in a life where

our eyes are fixed on Jesus.

Only there do we find true joy.

We cannot produce the fruit of joy, that is the

fruit of the spirit of our own accord. We can't

produce both joy and hopelessness. So if you've got hopelessness

in your life, the real question for all of us

today is have you surrendered your life to Jesus. Because

a life surrendered to Jesus equals a life of hope,

and in hope, we can trust that with our eyes

fixed on Jesus, he's working. He's working in the circumstances too,

But they may never line up how we want. We

may never gain and retain all the stuff that we want.

But let me remind you you don't need those things.

What you and I need is the work of the spirit.

Inside of us. What you and I need is.

The fruit that's produced because we've surrendered our lives to Jesus.

And here's the great news about that. There are promises

in the Bible of what you and I have in

our life. Beside the fruit if we are surrendered to Jesus.

First of all, Jesus promises to fill us with joy,

but also the Bible says, the joy of the Lord

is our strength. You ever just felt wiped out and weak? Well,

rather than trying to just muscle your way through things,

we surrender our life to Jesus and he gives us

his joy, which what strengthens us. And in his presence this,

this is Psalm sixteen to four. In his presence we

are filled with joy.

Looking for joy today found in Jesus.

Looking for any other fruit of the spirit, peace, love, kindness, gentleness, goodness,

self control, It's found by surrendering our life to Jesus

and the work of the Holy Spirit within us. I'm

gonna I'm gonna ask you if you bow your heads,

because I want to close us in prayer, a very

simple message.

That isn't the most simple to walk out.

And if you're sitting there in a little bit of

condemnation for yourself, thinking I'm not doing a very good

job of surrendering my life to Jesus and therefore I'm

not producing the fruit of the spirit, here's our reset

moment where we just surrender our lives again. Maybe you're

hearing you just you never knew that you even could

surrender your life to Jesus and experience this fruit.

This is your opportunity.

So all across this room online, I'm inviting you to participate,

even though I can't see you. If you just needed

to be reminded that I got to surrender my life

to Jesus, and or you're asking God to fill you

with his joy, would you just slip your hand up

and down so I can just pray for you.

Great, awesome, awesome, awesome.

Would you agree with me as I pray Jesus we

make a choice right now, and I believe that I

am speaking on behalf of those in this room, but

their hearts echo this cry with me and online. Some

will hear this message right now online. Some will hear

it in the hours or days or weeks to come.

Whenever it is that we are confronted with this opportunity,

we want to take the opportunity to surrender our life

to you Jesus. That means we got to surrender control,

so we lay down all of the energy it takes

to force ourselves to muster up all these feelings that

the world tells us that we should have.

We surrender.

Our own desires, our desire to attain things and hold

onto them. We surrender our sin, our self centeredness, our wickedness.

Those are the fruit of our own flesh, of our

own self. And we say, Jesus, would you wash us clean,

would you fill us with your spirit? And then would

you begin, by the work of your spirit to produce

fruit in us. And we're specifically asking for the fruit

of joy. That whatever the circumstances are in our life

right now, whatever the painful things, wherever the sadness is,

wherever the loss of dreams it feels like it is,

or or the lack of peace, Lord, we're just asking

right now that you would fill us with joy, help

us to lift our eyes above the circumstances.

Fix them on you.

And you say, and I'm going to quote your word

at you, Lord, that it's in your presence we are

filled with joy. So as we leave this place, may

we walk with joy, trusting you, following you in lives.

That are surrendered to you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.