The Fruit of the Spirit is Joy

Galatians 5:16-25

I was visiting a woman this past Thursday with Habib when we received a phone call that our Egyptian friend Mike was having severe chest pains. He was just recovering from a mild stroke that had put him in the hospital the week before and now this. We rushed back to Rabat and picked him up to drive him to the clinic in Sale. Mike had written his will with Habib earlier that day and while clutching his heart because of the pain he was experiencing, he added a few things he wanted done.

Mike said to us, “I’m not afraid to die. I’m really not afraid to die.” Habib and I sang choruses. If he died, we wanted to send him off with choruses of praise.

We arrived at the clinic, they hooked Mike up to take an EKG and when the doctor came in to analyze the results, he told Mike his heart was fine and that the pain he felt in his chest and back was a muscle pain.

Well, the transformation was amazing. Hamdullah! Praise God! Hallelujah! It was a happy room. We asked Mike about the pain in his chest and he said, “Who cares about that pain! Praise God!

What Mike experienced was a good dose of joy. He came to the clinic expecting to die and discovered he was given more time to live.

Joy is an important word in the Scriptures and there are several words in the Hebrew and Greek that we translate into the English word “joy.”

There is simchah. This is a Hebrew word that has the connotation of bright and shining.

After David defeated Goliath and the Philistines had been routed, there was a celebration that occurred when the troops returned form the battlefield. I Samuel 18:6

When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes.  7 As they danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.”

This was an expression of simchah joy. Eyes bright and shining with joy as they saw the victorious troops return.

Bright and shining eyes. Like the joy filled eyes of a small child looking at the presents under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning or perhaps the joy filled eyes of the bride and groom as they look at each other when the bride walks down the aisle toward the groom.

There is another Hebrew word for joy, masos. This is leaping and jumping joy like that experienced by the man who was healed by the Beautiful Gate as Peter and John passed him. “He went walking and leaping and praising God.”

This was a good word to describe the joy Mike experienced in the hospital. Habib and I had to hold him down when we left the hospital he was so filled with joy.

Another Hebrew word for joy is rinnah. This is an exuberant expression of joy with particular reference to shouting. There are times in worship when the sense of the presence of God is so powerful, even Presbyterians like myself are forced to shout out a “Hallelujah!” or “Praise be to God!”

One more Hebrew word for joy is gil. This word has its root in “moving around in a circle”. Have you ever seen a puppy so playful that it starts running around in a circle trying to bite its tail? This is exuberant joy. I had horses when I was young and after a hard winter, when spring came, it was a thrill to ride them because they had so much pent up energy they would just race and race with the sheer delight of being free.

In C.S.Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, the last of the seven books describes the joy of being taken up into heaven and racing along. Running and not getting tired. Racing faster and faster. Racing up waterfalls and on to a higher level of heaven. on and on and on. Joy!

Joy is an important word in the Bible and the second of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. What becomes clear as you read the 210 verses in the Bible that contain the word joy is that God wants us to be joyful.

To be overwhelmed by the pressures around us, to be beaten down, to walk around in a cloud of gloom, this is not God’s desire for us. God wants us to be joyful. To live a life of worry and anxiety, to be filled with fear, to live a life controlled by strict adherence to rules and regulations, this is not God’s desire for us. God wants us to be joyful.

God wants us to be joyful because joy is part of the character of God.

Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.

God delights in us. He rejoices over us with singing.

Let me suggest a few things that will kill joy in a Christian.

God has given us instructions about things that are good for us to do and things that are not healthy for us to do. It is good for us  to gather together to fellowship with other Christians. It is not good for us to get drunk. It is good for us to study the Scriptures and it is bad for us to fill our minds with things that are impure. It is good for us to live generous lives and it is bad for us to make getting rich the goal of our lives.

God has given us these instructions, but when we live our lives with a focus on these instructions rather than on God, joy is killed. This is what happened to the Pharisees and other religious leaders, isn’t it? They had more than 600 laws they lived their lives by and argued about how far a person could walk on the Sabbath and under what circumstances a person could walk on the Sabbath because walking on the Sabbath, if there was too much of it, was work and God instructed us to rest on the Sabbath.

There are Christians today whose Christian lives are defined not by joy but by the list of things they do and the things they don’t do. This kills joy.

A focus on our sinfulness apart from an experience of God’s love kills joy in a Christian. Awareness of sin is a healthy part of the Christian life, but when a person or group sit around and point out sin in their lives, it is an unhealthy, destructive experience. I don’t need to be reminded of how bad a person I am. I don’t need someone telling me all the things that are wrong with me. Awareness of sin comes naturally out of an experience of God’s love.

We had a wonderful worship service last week and it seemed to me that God gave us a gift of being especially aware of his presence and love for us. When Jenny asked us to pray for a person who came to our mind, both Annie and I prayed for someone who was very difficult for us to love. I prayed from the heart for one of my sisters and this was the first time in a long time I have been able to do that. But this came out of an experience of God’s love in my life, not be someone beating me up and telling me how bad a person I am.

A focus on sin apart from an experience of God’s love kills joy in us.

A focus on the difficulties you face in life kills joy. There are times when life is very difficult. There are times when live seems unbearable. If you get news that someone you love has an incurable disease, especially when that person is a young child, that is very hard news to take. If life seems continually difficult with financial problems, health problems, or relational problems, focusing on the problems will kill joy.

A focus on all the dangers of the world kills joy. A couple hundred years ago the world seemed safer. In large part this is because a couple hundred years ago, news of the world extended only a horse ride away. Today we hear instantaneous news of tragedy anywhere in the globe. CNN reports earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons, regional conflicts, shootings, plane crashes and other tragedies. As a consequence, the world seems a terribly unsafe place in which to live. I have actually met a handful of couples who decided not to have children because they thought it was wrong to bring a child into this kind of world.

A focus on the dangers in the world kills joy.

Do you see the connection? A focus on anything or anywhere other than God kills joy. Rules and regulations, sin, danger and difficulties, whatever is our focus other than God kills joy. We live joy-filled lives when we focus on God, when we abide in our relationship with Jesus.

When we focus on God and his work in the world and our lives, we are filled with joy.

Let’s take a look at some examples in the Scriptures.

In Nehemiah 7 and 8 we read of a six hour Sunday School class.. Nehemiah takes place when Israel has been brought back from captivity in Babylon after sixty to seventy years of living in exile. They come back with great exhilaration and begin to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Ezra, the priest,  gathered all men and women who were capable of understanding and read to them from the Book of the Law, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. From daybreak to noon he read to them, obviously not all of the Pentateuch, but he read to them “making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.”

The people gathered were a generation who had not received instruction from the Book of the Law and now, for the first time, they hear about God who called Israel to be his people, spoke to them of his love and commitment toward them and instructed them in how they are to live. Their response to this illustrates joy that comes from hearing the Word of God.

Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

Joy results from hearing the word of God, of his love and commitment toward us.
Psalm 19
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

We have joy because God is more powerful than any person or power in the earth
Psalm 47
Clap your hands, all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy.
2 How awesome is the LORD Most High,
the great King over all the earth!

That alone is not so good. A powerful God who does not love us, does not care about us is terrifying, not joy producing. But as we read in our call to worship from Psalm 30, this all powerful God is one who loves us and helps us when we are in need. The psalms revel in this good news.
Psalm 28
Praise be to the LORD,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.

We experience joy because of what God has done for us in history.
Psalm 126 writes of the reaction of Israel when they returned from their sixty to seventy year exile in Babylon.

When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who dreamed.
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
3 The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.

In Matthew 28 we read of the resurrection of Jesus and the angel at the tomb speaking to Mary of Magdalen and the other Mary.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Can you believe it? Jesus who died, now glorified, king of all kings!

In Luke 24 we read of the ascension of Jesus into heaven.
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.  51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.  52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Can you blame them? How could they not be filled with joy? Jesus who they followed for three years had died. Their dreams had been crushed and then resurrected when the resurrected Jesus pulled their hopes up from the grave with him.

Joy is experienced because of being surprised by God. “Amazing! I can’t believe it! Could it possibly be more wonderful than this!”

In Acts 16:34 we read of the jailer who witnessed the earthquake that delivered Paul and Silas and came to faith as he saw God’s hand in the release.

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

Joy is experienced because of seeing God at work through us and even more so because of being God’s child.
Luke 10
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.  20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The disciples came back excited beyond belief because they had been able to do the things they had seen Jesus do. Bubbling over with joy they reported back to Jesus who reminded them that even greater than the thrill of seeing God work through them was the joy they had because they had been made God’s children and had the promise of eternal life lived in God’s presence.

When we focus on God and his work in the world and our lives, we are filled with joy.

We are filled with joy because of what God has done for us.

Romans 5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.  5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It all comes down to this, where is your focus?

I have a friend who is terrified of heights. Let’s imagine that we had to cross a deep chasm over a narrow bridge. It seems to me that the trick would be to keep the focus on the other side rather than the long drop to the bottom of the chasm.

When our focus is on Jesus, we are able to endure. We are able to experience joy. When we take our focus off Jesus, we panic and all we can see is that long drop to the bottom of the chasm.

When we focus on God and what God has done for us, we are filled with joy which allows us to carry our joy through difficult times. Look at the example Jesus set for us.

Hebrews 12
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus agonized, suffered and endured the physical, mental and spiritual pain on the cross because his focus was on what he knew would happen after all this suffering. Suffering doesn’t last forever for the Christian. Suffering will always end for the Christian. Eternal life lived in the presence of God in paradise is what lasts forever and so pain and difficulty can be endured.

So James says in his letter:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Jesus is forever, suffering is only temporary.

How do we become more joyful?

I’ve known Christians who believe that they are to walk around with a big smile on their face, no matter what. Regardless of circumstances, effort needs to be made to keep that smile on the face. These groups take as a text for this behavior verses such as this verse from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

I have a big problem with this belief: Joy is not something we can put on with our own efforts. To go to seminar and learn how to think positively about life and maintain a positive approach to live is to miss the mark of Biblical joy by 1.6 kilometers (a mile).

To put on a smile is not natural. It is not real. And it is not Biblical. We are not better witnesses for Christ by covering who we are and what we are feeling with a smile.

The Biblical understanding of joy is that it comes from within, not without. Joy is a gift God gives us. Joy is the natural consequence of living a life in relationship with God.

Joy comes as a gift from God. In one sense, you might say it is a reward for living a life deeply attached to God.

If you want to have more joy in your life, look to Jesus. Spend time with Jesus. Feed your soul of joy by praying, meeting with other Christians for study of the Scriptures and prayer. The smile will follow.

Christy Wilson was a man who radiated joy who served God in Afghanistan for many years and then when he was forced out of that country, came to the seminary where I studied to be a professor of missions. He was a godly man who touched many, many lives.

He came to speak at the church where I attended three or four years ago, just about a year before he died. After the service I talked with him about two friends, who he knew well, both of them had been serving God in this part of the world for many years and both had left to go back to the United States because of family problems. The son of one family was brutally attacked and traumatized and for his sake, they needed to go back to the US for help. The daughter of another friend had severe dyslexia and they had to return to the US for her benefit.

I asked Christy about this and said it seemed as if Satan were winning, pushing these people away from where God had been using them and where they were still needed.

His immediate response was to say, “Oh no! Now they will be able to do things for God they never would have been able to do if they had stayed where they were. When I was forced out of Afghanistan, I was able to teach students at Gordon-Conwell and be used by God in many other ways.”

Christy Wilson was a man who abided deeply in Christ and a man in whom the fruit of the Spirit shone. For him, Romans 8:28 was not a cliche used to console someone when tragedy hit. For Christy
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
was his life experience.

His focus was not on the problems, the difficulties. His focus was on God who works all things out together for good. His focus was on God who has no limits placed on his creativity, on his ability to work all things together for good.

Do you want to see the fruit of the Spirit grow in your life? Do you want to experience the joy-filled life God wants you to live?

Abide in Christ. Put your focus on who he is. What he has done. What he is doing. And what he will do.