One of earliest praise songs I learned was about JOY. Maybe you recognize the words: “I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart –Where? Down in my heart –Where? Down in my heart –Where? I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart –Where? Down in my heart to stay.” Did you know that song was written a hundred years ago?
If only JOY were a matter of singing a simple praise song. This month we're exploring some of the deeper wells from which JOY percolates. Romans 15:13: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Take the hymn “Joy in my Heart”, that was written in 1925, by a young man named George William Cooke. At a young age (by the time most head to college) Cooke had joined the salvation army and twice circled the globe preaching Jesus! He didn’t write that song to overcome depression. He preached and sang so fervently was because the JOY was already welling up within him. And if he didn't do something to express (let out the steam), he’d otherwise explode inside.
Wouldn't you like to experience the overflow of joy that comes in knowing Christ? One of the paradoxical truths about JOY is that some of the greatest JOY is felt not “during" or even “after" an event, but in anticipation of an event. The Joy of Anticipation is what the ancients practiced, as they longed for the Christ to be born and revealed to all the world.
Hebrews 11:1-2 says, “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were commended.” Wait a minute that doesn't seem to make any sense. How can you experience the reality of something for which you are still hoping? How can you have confident joy about something that's not yet appeared? After literally listing about every hero of OLD, Hebrews 11:31 says, “All these were commended for their faith, but they did not receive what was promised.” The ancients experienced JOY almost exclusively through anticipation
During the first Christmas, the JOY we read about is the JOY of anticipation. Yes, we see a mother's joy that a son has been given her. But her deeper joy was anticipatory—it was rooted in what that child was yet to become. The child was born on Christmas Day, wrapped in a cloth, laid in a manger. But even after 30 years, of JOY of that baby's life was just beginning to be unwrapped!
And even after Jesus ascended into heaven, our JOY is not unlike that of the Ancients. We eager expect and wait for Christ to be revealed yet again on that Last Day. We long for our salvation to appear in the sky, and to take us to be with him forever, in the new heaven, and new earth, enjoying new resurrection bodies!
Let's explore another well from which JOY percolates. There is the JOY of anticipation, there is the JOY of giving, of generosity! We live in a world where everyone looks to his own interests, and not the interests of others. Our world doesn't cultivate generosity; if anything, it cultivates shrewdness, cynicism, distrust.
The most obvious target is our government. Every day in the paper we read how we’ve been defrauded of billions. Our national deficit is nearly $40 trillion—and yet the waste accelerates. There is no brake switch. Runaway freight train! Every week in the new some new villain (corporate, Wall Street, or crypto thug)— pardoned. Everything tells us to hunker down, pinch every penny (oops, nickel), save like a madman, protect your nest egg. Take. Consume. Possess. Own. Amass. Maximize. Acquire all you can, like Solomon. (Ooh, if I could be like Solomon… be like Solomon, be like Solomon…).
YET… The most obvious thing we observe is, there is no JOY in taking—there is only compounding misery. This truth has been immortalized in Christmas characters like the Scrooge, or the Grinch. Just like building anticipation counters instant-gratification. . . practicing generosity counters greed, misery, and isolation
You don't have to go to church to hear a sermon extolling the benefits of generosity. The tangible, this-worldly benefits of generosity, are well attested in popular culture: “The happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” Ben Carson, “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give”. Joan Marques, “It’s easier to take than to give. It’s nobler to give than to take. The thrill of taking lasts a day. The thrill of giving lasts a lifetime.” Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Aristotle, “The unfortunate need people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.” A writer said, “Giving liberates the soul of the giver”.
I think we’d agree with all these sentiments—but why is it so—why the indivisible, strongest imaginable correlation, between giving and generosity and Joy? When we turn to Scripture, there are these unorthodox, seemingly reckless accounts of financial generosity.
• There is Mary of Bethany in John 12 who recklessly pours perfume all over Jesus' feet, perfume worth about a year’s wages.
• There is the Widow in Luke 21 who shows up at the temple treasury, and deposits her “penny” “her mite" – all the wealth she had.
• There are the Macedonians in Philippians and 2 Corinthians who despite their extreme poverty gave all they could and even beyond.
• There were the reckless converts to Christ in Acts selling homes, lands, possessions and giving to anyone as they had need
• There is the secret economy, taught by Jesus (Mt 5-7), where giving in secret…freely giving your tunic to one who demands it of you… freely giving to anyone who asks for a loan… giving to your enemies.. relinquishing worldly wealth that moth and rust destroys… is somehow spiritually advantageous!
• It doesn't stop there. There is the madness of the Father who divides his entire estate knowing his youngest son is a total delinquent.
• There is the dishonest manager in Luke 16 who realizes his days are numbered, so he goes out and reduces everyone’s debts. He's fearless. He’s commended not for his dishonesty but his shrewdness… for brazenly gaining by giving.
In no Biblical example, even in nefarious parables like dishonest manager parable, does a person ever lose by giving (even if wealth has come by dishonestly). The good Samaritan in Luke 10. The righteous, in Matthew 25, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”
From both a Biblical and Worldly vantage point—it would be extraordinary indeed—to ever lose by giving. When it comes to generosity, you simply cannot rely on conventional mathematics. The most recklessly wonderful, terribly great, foolishly wise advice proves ever true… Luke 6:38: " Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.".
It's that famous John Bunyan quote from the Spiritual Classic, Pilgrim's progress, “A man there was, and they called him mad; the more he gave, the more he had." Giving overwhelmingly results in increase, not loss. Again, why is this so?
For you JOY seekers among us, may I suggest two equally profound truths? First—JOY is the essence of Human Flourishing. You might recall the story of the Scottish Olympian, Eric Liddell. He was both a Sprinter and a Christian Missionary. His story immortalized in the movie Chariots of Fire. He famously refused to run the 100 meter race on a Sunday due to his Christian convictions. His famous quote was, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure!” What is he saying? He’s saying, “God wired me up as a human being, to run. But he also wired me up to worship. And whenever I run, and even more when I worship, I feel his pleasure!”
The reason giving multiplies joy is because God made us (wired us) to be generous. And we feel the greatest pleasure and joy, at those points when we’re doing what God made us to do. Running. Worshiping. Exercising our natural gifts, abilities, talents. Imitating God. Telling the truth. Guarding our tongue. Remaining pure. Living a holy life. Helping a person in need. Building. Creating. Contributing. Making-Multiplying disciples. Giving. Giving unleashes endorphins in our body—giving is one of the deepest, most pleasurable things we can do. It has its own high!
There is a joy and pleasure you have when you run, and walk, and live the life of worship, of generosity, God wired you to live! Joy is living into your design! Isn't it true that at the points you most obey God, you most feel pleasure? We're wired to be givers. There is no joy in a scarcity, cynical mindset. There is no joy in the impoverished lifestyle of being a user, a taker, a Grinch, a scrooge.
Second—JOY is the essence of Divine Flourishing. There is no more joyous, being in all the Universe than God Himself. I think the mystery of God’s JOY corresponds to God’s generosity. There is no more generous, life-giving being in all Universe than God. We experience JOY living according to our wiring…. But even more so… live according to GOD's image, divine nature!
What does the Bible tell us in Philippians 2? Philippians 2 is thought to be one of the earliest Christian hymns. The Philippians 2 hymn testifies that it was out of the overflow of God's own generosity (nature), that Christmas ever came to be. And if God finds generosity to be the most joyous and expedient mode of being, all the more so for us!
[Prescription for COMPLETE JOY/FLOURISHING! Give!] “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
[GIVE LIKE CHRIST] 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The earthly economy, human flourishing, is built on generosity. The more we give, the more and more everyone wins. None of us would want to live in an ungenerous world! But we give because God’s first gave. The Divine Economy is all about generosity. God wins by giving. God wins not by grabbing, grasping, but by pouring himself out… like all of himself… as in, he empties the whole jar… as in, he gives up the whole estate… as in, he doesn't just pay a year’s wages, but gives up his very life!
Hebrews 12:2. for the joy set before him he endured the cross!
Proverbs 11:25: "A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed"
Paul is Acts 20:35, “35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
2 Corinthians 9:7 ("God loves a cheerful giver")
JOY FULL? Build that anticipation and generosity into your Christmas!