Coca-Cola, Taste the Feeling! You know Coca-Cola's has so many amazing ads. They update their slogans all the time. One was, "Taste the JOY of Coca -Cola." They want us to believe JOY is all about drinking their beverage! Their web page says...
"Modern science defines happiness as positive range of emotions that we feel when we are content or FULL OF JOY. At Coca-Cola our definition is just a little bit simpler. Happiness to us is anything that can bring a smile to someone's face. We're in the business of spreading smiles and opening happiness every day all across the world. We know we might not change the world over night, but if we can add just a few smiles to the world then we've done our job." [Accessed 3/19/2016 at http://us.coca-cola.com/happiness/]
Do you know, that the most popular sermon on our website 2-3 years running, is called "Finding True Happiness?" Tens of thousands have found it through google! A student found this sermon and asked if she could quote in her college paper. People are looking for happiness, but they just aren't finding it. I'm convinced that one of our deepest longings as human beings is to KNOW JOY.
This morning we're in John 16, and it's an incredible passage where Jesus is teaching his disciples about finding joy under pressure. He doesn't open a Coca-Cola, he has something much better, and lasting to offer! I've no interest in talking about joy in superficial way, or in an abstract, preachy kind of way.
Let me begin by asking, "What are you clinging to for joy in your life?" I think we're just alike, in most ways. I have my lovely wife Lara I look to for joy, our three crazy Schnauzers. We enjoy our home-life, shopping, eating, nice things. The challenges of ministry, the growth that happens here, bring me joy. Bass fishing, woodworking, yardwork... I find joy in a lot of things. Let me say up top, God gives us so many things for our enjoyment and pleasure, even Coca-Cola. We shouldn't be sour faced about enjoying life. When I enjoy something I always thank God for them. I was fishing with Mike Roux one night and we just slammed the bass. Before we got in Mike's truck and left, Mike said, "Jon, let's say a prayer for thanks for the fun we had tonight." I like that.
But to find TRUE JOY we have to look deeper than these things. So let me ask, "Who, or what, are you most clinging to for deep, abiding JOY?" In John 15 Jesus reveals several ways we can know deep, abiding joy through our relationship with him. In John 15:11 he even says, "I have told you these things that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." What does it mean to have Jesus' joy in us? What's it mean to have complete joy, and no longer walk around with a joy-deficit?
So let's jump into John 15... the joy chapter!
First, Joy is abiding in Jesus for our life.
Jesus' chosen metaphor to help us understand JOY is a vine. He is clear to say that He himself is the vine, we are the branches. In John 15:5-6 he says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers, such branches are picked up and thrown in the fire and burned."
For a while I had a grape vine in my backyard. Like people, branches can be quite wild. Every summer the branches of my grapes would sprawl out, clinging to anything they could... the vinyl siding on my shed, weed stalks in garden, nearby bushes, bricks and stones, my clothes line, even the ground itself. Think of all the things you've been reaching for, things you've been clinging to, adding to your life, in order to find joy.
Few find contentment. So where do we turn... well we have our toys, our trinkets, our work, our sports, our cars, our homes, our relationships... we have our pleasures, our distractions, our secret delights and hobbies and obsessions... we cling to food and drink. If one thing doesn't satisfy we chase another. But sadly so many folks (even Christians) miss JOY.
The key to knowing JOY isn't desperately reaching out for newer things, bigger things, different things. Nor is the key to knowing JOY isn't clinging to the same old things harder than ever before, hoping they will yield what they've never yielded. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and others, and things to give us something they we're never intended to provide. No, the key to JOY is abiding well in Jesus. Joy is not found in what we're reaching out to in the world... it's who we're rooted in. Joy is learning to more deeply abide in the vine, who is JESUS. It is his joy that we want to receive, and that he freely offers. It is his joy, that will make our joy complete. In the Old Testament God promised that the joy of the Lord (himself) would be our strength.
When we don't abide well in Jesus, as our source of joy, our lives become like a branch that withers up and dies. I wonder how you might describe your life right now? Are you just kind of withering up and dying from the inside-out? How many things need to fail and disappoint before you learn to cling to Jesus, for everlasting JOY?
So the most foundation part of JOY is abiding more deeply in Jesus. John 1:3 simply says of Jesus, "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." In John 14:6 Jesus told Thomas, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Joy isn't some external, it's something eternal! So let's take this a bit farther...
Second, Joy is embracing Jesus' words for our life.
Look at the practical thing Jesus says in John 15:7-8, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
I tore out that grape vine in my back yard because it never bore any fruit. I did everything I could think of--I watered, fertilized, pruned, mulched. Not a single branch every produced single grape. So I tore it out and threw it in the burn barrel. Maybe you feel this Christian life just isn't working for you. Maybe you feel you have tried everything. Christians can be some of the busiest people in the world. You've attended Bible study, participated in church programs, served on teams. But all the activity hasn't translating to fruit, it certainly hasn't translating into complete Joy.
A defining issue of joy comes down to Jesus own words. Are we letting Jesus' words permeate all our heart, mind, body, soul, and relationships? There is a verse that has come to define how I feel about Jesus' words. In John 6:33 Jesus says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." Whenever I've let any other words define my life, other than Jesus, I've found that my soul has just kind of withered up and died. But whenever I've let Jesus' words define everything about my life, I've just sort of come to life.
Growing up I was always around Jesus' words--the problem was I never embraced them--I never accepted them--I never believed and trusted them--I let them go in one ear and out the other. I was more concerned what I thought, what people thought, what the world thought. You will die from the inside-out if you never embrace Jesus' words, and joy will be one of the first thing you lose. Jesus' words aren't just any old words, they are light and life, they are our joy. They are our lifeline, the life sap, that is to flow through our spiritual veins, so we bear fruit.
Let's take this idea of joy further still...
Third, joy is obeying Jesus' Words for Life
In John 15:9-10 Jesus says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy will be in you and that your joy may be complete."
Jesus is telling us that the source of his joy isn't just hearing but obeying the Father. In the same way, our joy isn't just "hearing" Jesus' words; but it's found in "obeying" Jesus' words. In Luke 11:28 Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it." We find joy to the extent that we actually follow what Jesus says.
So let's make this practical. There was a long period in my life, where I did not have joy. God would show me some good thing I should do, but I wouldn't do it. I knew he wanted me to be salt and light, but I wanted to fit in. He would ask me to set an example, but I would insight my friends to do say and do evil things. I knew I should be forgiving, but I refused. I knew I should think good about others, but I chose to insult them, demean them, and put them in their place. I let me lust run unchecked. I should have directed my eyes to holy things but I didn't. I should have engaged in wholesome activities, but I didn't. There were places I should have gone, but I went anyway. I saw sexual immorality on TV as entertainment. I didn't keep my word.
I would take justice into my own hands if I was crossed. I never prayed for my enemies, I plotted against them. I was not generous with "my money." I went to church just for show, to please my parents and church people who thought I should be there. I had no prayer life to speak of. I didn't abstain from fleshly desires. I was materialistic. I didn't trust God for my needs, I would sit around worrying, my mind flooded with anxiety about life. I was judgmental, holding people to standards I wasn't even living up to. I was a hypocrite, walking around with a plank in my eye. I wasn't building my life on the rock solid foundation of Jesus' words... I was doing things Jon's way. Now how much joy is there is such disobedience really?
Now when did I change? When did I start to experience joy? It's when instead of dismissing Jesus's words, I let Jesus word's shape my thoughts, feelings, attitudes, my actions. Jesus said that his joy was that he kept the Father's commands. Its right in our text, John 15:10-11. I suppose the opposite is true. Our misery is when we don't keep the Father's commands. We feel closest to God, when we live in obedience. We most doubt God's love when we harden our hearts.
What is my testimony? I have a full cup--and its full because I abide in Jesus, as my source of life. I have a full cup because I embrace his words, as the very words of life. I have a full cup because I follow through (not perfectly), but I keep following through and obeying what Jesus asks of me.
Fourth, joy is walking in God's love for life
In John 15:12-15 Jesus says, "My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead I have called you my friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."
Joy is knowing Jesus laid down his life and died for me. That takes the pressure off of me. I'm not falling in/out of relationship with God based on my performance, and neither are you. God continually holds us in his love, as we grow in joy. The greatest way to find joy in the midst of pressure is to orient your life back to Jesus, embracing his words, obeying his words, trusting him to hold you in his love. That is JOY!