[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com Good morning
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a Bible, turn to 3rd John.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be in a lot of scripture this morning, but we will end up back in 3rd John verse 4 that Jenny just read for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're new to Citizen's Church or visiting us, my name is Jayman, and I'm one of the pastors here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're honored that you're worshiping with us this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is also true.
[SPEAKER_01]: That this church is full of godly men who love and lead their families with humility and grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so to you, men, happy Father's Day, I am grateful to know you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is our last Sunday in the Letters of John.
[SPEAKER_01]: We started this series back in January.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also were in these Letters in our Bible classes and in our student ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so many of us have spent the whole spring in these Letters.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is our last Sunday in the series and I'm going to end by considering something that John gives his attention to in all three of his letters.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to read for you and I want you to listen for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: First John one four.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second John 12, though I have much to write you at rather not use paper and ink instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're John four for our rejoice greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you're walking in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: John is a man of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And John talks about his relationship to joy in different ways throughout his letters.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I'm writing so that my joy will be complete so that it'll be perfected and full.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna come see you so that my joy is complete.
[SPEAKER_01]: He rejoices when he hears about the faithfulness of his spiritual son.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, nothing gives him more joy than to hear about the faithfulness of his children.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what we could say about him, just by his writing, is he has joy, he rejoices, and he is after more joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The very purpose of his letter is because he wants more joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: His ambition.
[SPEAKER_00]: is joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we know, just knowing the context of these letters is it's not like an empty optimism.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is an on vacation, writing about joy because his life is really easy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's writing to a church, he's under serious threat, he's writing third John specifically in response to an obstinate church leader who is selfish and prideful named diatrophies.
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't look on the bright side.
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not naive emotion.
[SPEAKER_01]: His life is not easy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Things haven't gone his way, and still, he has joy, and he's after more joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to say something that I hope the Scripture convinces us of this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every Christian in the room should be able to say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have joy, and I'm after more joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've introduced our kids to the shows that we watched as kids growing up, and so the other day we introduced them to a show called Home Improvement.
[SPEAKER_01]: and they made it about 15 minutes in and they just completely lost interest.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the story of a dad who doesn't know how to fix things, hit too close to home for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the pilot episode, you know, we made it far enough to see Tim and Jill get in the fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: And their fighting and Tim says something to her and she interrupts and says, Tim, don't tell me how to feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was in 1991 when that aired.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's not the first time you're hearing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the super common sentiment.
[SPEAKER_01]: We use that even now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't tell me which emotions I should have and which ones I shouldn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get to determine how I feel or react to my circumstances and hear me.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are circumstances in which that can be a fair thing to say, even a wise thing to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one has ever been helped in their anger by being told to stop feeling angry, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you also get passages in Scripture like what Paul writes when he says rejoice always.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I say rejoice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like the Bible is prescribing an emotional reaction.
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like Paul, at least in that verse, is telling us how to feel, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to this quote by theologian, William Barclay, he says, we are chosen for joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are chosen for joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: However hard the Christian way, it is both in the traveling and in the goal, the way of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Christian is the man of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Christian is the laughing cavalier of Christ, a gloomy Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: is a contradiction in terms.
[SPEAKER_01]: And nothing in all religious history has done Christianity more harm than its connection with black clothes and long faces.
[SPEAKER_01]: A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms, meaning a grumpy,
[SPEAKER_01]: Irritable, bristly, walk-on egg shells around Christian is, if that is the default posture of that person's heart, then they are in some way missing what it means to be a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: So hear me, I need to hear this.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a distortion in all of this on this end, which would say Christians should just always be happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, a beat, like, poppy from trolls.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything's always bright and chipper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says blessed are those who mourn.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a reality.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk about this often around here.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a reality that the more mature you become in Christ, the more sadness you'll experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the more mature you become in Christ, the more you are heart reflects the heart of Christ, which means the more your heart breaks for what breaks the heart of Christ, and there is so much brokenness in the world that breaks the heart of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as God's heart becomes ours, we'll experience the range of emotions, and that includes negative emotions, grief, and righteous anger.
[SPEAKER_01]: So don't hear me, please saying that if you really loved God, you would force more smiles.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is true, though?
[SPEAKER_01]: What I believe scripture teaches is that joy should mark the life of a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: If there was a baseline emotion that you could ascribe to the Christian, it would be joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a theologian whose name I didn't write down says that Christianity is the religion of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: G. K. Chesterton says joy is the gigantic secret of Christianity and I don't want to assume things about you I don't want to speak for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I imagine though that many of us could say that joy does not mark my life like it could
[SPEAKER_01]: would not describe myself as a person of joy who has joy in his after more joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Christianity is a religion of joy and I'm thinking about my life, then maybe I'm missing something.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's my aim this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: My aim is not to preach a sermon that makes you feel joyful.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have the resources to do that as we'll see that's not how it works.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do hope that by considering what the Bible teaches about joy, we might see ways in which we can draw nearer to Christ, and that will be reason for rejoicing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's Father's Day, and we're going to talk about our feelings.
[SPEAKER_01]: The search for joy, the circumstance of joy, in the sacrifice of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to pan out, be on third John, consider a couple different places where the Bible talks about joy, and then come back to third John.
[SPEAKER_01]: The search for joy, the circumstance of joy, in the sacrifice of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ecclesiastes III talks about the search for joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, he's made everything appropriate in its time.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's talking about, if you remember, please ask these, this is just observations of common human experiences.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats drinks and enjoys all his efforts.
[SPEAKER_01]: C.S.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lewis became a Christian when he was 32 years old, so he lived over a decade of his adult life as an atheist and he was reluctant to Christianity and his reluctance to Christianity was very much a part of his public influence, and so I say that to say a lot of people knew that he was not a Christian and was hostile in some ways to Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when he became a Christian, everybody demanded an answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Explain to us how you went from atheism to Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so C.S.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lewis did, as he does, and you wrote a whole book about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the title of his book about his conversion is called Surprised by Joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, he says in the beginning of it, how much my story matters to you, meaning how much you're able to follow what happened in my life depends on the degree to which you've experienced joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You won't understand my conversion if you don't know what joy is and if you don't want more of what joy is.
[SPEAKER_01]: He explains it this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: He describes his first experience with joy as a child.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's remembering his relationship with his brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's reflecting on how he felt when he read a polo
[SPEAKER_01]: an unsatisfied desire, which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_01]: I call it joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a technical term and must be distinguished from happiness and pleasure joy as a characteristic in common with them, the fact that anyone who's experienced it will want it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I doubt whether anyone who is tasted it would ever, if both were in this power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world, but then joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.
[SPEAKER_01]: What he describes is that joy alerted him to something about a soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a reality, meaning significance, satisfaction that is both deeper than pleasure and deeper than happiness and also out of our control.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's sent him searching for the source of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not a Christian experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a human experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone experiences that kind of joy in life that sets them, if they pay attention, searching for more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, ecclesiasties, three gods that eternity in the hearts of humanity, nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are these eternity-sized desires of the soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is an emotion unlike any other emotion that will alert you to your eternity-sized desires and its joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The ecclesiastie says, everyone gets to experience it, and so it's a, let's call it a common joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: A great dinner with good friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's joy in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rocking your child to sleep, and then they actually fall asleep, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's joy in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a truly meaningful sports moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: My center and I watch the highlights of Messie's hat trick from a few days ago, if you don't know he's a soccer player, he scored three goals for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the joy of watching someone be truly legendary at their sport in the biggest moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a kind of joy to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We watch the highlights and Asher said, Dad, he's only one year younger than you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that stole my joy in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: To finish a great book, to be caught up in an amazing concert, to witness a beautiful wedding ceremony.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something happens, something happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not cynical, if you're not apathetic, something happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's too small to say that made me happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or that made me feel good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Miraslav Wolf is a theologian.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, joy is the emotional substance and manifestation of the good life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the thing you feel when you are in the moments of life that make life good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that common joy is alerting us to a deeper desire that we have that's unsatisfied.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it never lasts right, that experience, it never lasts.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you have it and you try to hold it, you can't quite hold onto it and it just makes you want more of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So see us Lewis, he named this joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the majority of his testimony, of the majority of his pre-conversion story is him talking about how he chased that.
[SPEAKER_01]: his whole life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He tried to find it, his whole life.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is major thread from childhood to 32.
[SPEAKER_01]: He becomes a Christian, and then he ends the book this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never read this before before this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: He puts his faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's now a Christian, and he says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what?
[SPEAKER_01]: In conclusion of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: For that, after all, is what the story has mainly been about.
[SPEAKER_01]: To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest
[SPEAKER_01]: What?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm after joy, I'm after joy, I become a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really think about joy that much anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he explains it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer.
[SPEAKER_01]: While that other was in doubt, the pointer naturally loomed large.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I wasn't sure about God, I thought more about joy as we're saying, when we're lost in the woods, the sight of a signpost is a great matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole party gather around in stairs, but when we have found the road and our passing signpost every few miles, we shall not stop in stair.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying my experience of joy before Christ was like being lost and finding a sign.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that sign when your loss that sign becomes a lifeline.
[SPEAKER_01]: But once you find the road, the signpost doesn't mean that much because once you find the road, you know where you're going.
[SPEAKER_01]: He followed common joy, meal joy and friend joy and book joy, and it led him to Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: But once he saw God as the source of joy, he stopped searching for joy and started pursuing God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy is the signpost.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a destination.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I think, maybe many of us don't experience joy is because we pursue joy as an indenit self.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody wants to be happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone could sell a product,
[SPEAKER_01]: that would guarantee pain-free, joy-filled life, we would leverage everything we had to have that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to pursue it as an end in itself, I just want to feel good, I want to be happy, I want to enjoy my life, to pursue it as an end in itself is to miss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's to make life about the signposts and miss where the road is leading.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Christian, look right at me.
[SPEAKER_01]: to enjoy him.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the point of creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: God saved you to enjoy him.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the point of salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The common joy we get, the child, the game, the sun, the trip, the friend, those are signposts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's signpost on the road that lead you to the very heart of God, the very nature of God, so that for all of us, that experience of common joy has to give way to Christian joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's to culminate in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Find its source in.
[SPEAKER_01]: the deep joy that's found in Jesus and Jesus alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we can't do is we can't just settle for the sign and then see one and then go looking for another and chase that common joy instead of chasing the deep Christian joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the point of relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tim Keller, as always, just says it the best way.
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference between a religious person and a Christian is not that one is obedient and one is disobedient.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're both committed to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, a religious person might look more obedient and committed.
[SPEAKER_01]: The difference is that only the Christian is attracted to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The religious person finds God useful but the Christian finds God beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: In your, the Psalmist says it this way, in your presence is fullness of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you believe that?
[SPEAKER_01]: The creeds of the this way, the chief end of mankind is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I appreciate about Lewis as metaphor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even once you find the road, it's still a journey in the woods.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one in the room, no one in the room would say, I found joy in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was super easy, and it's never wavered at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a journey, and we've not fully arrived yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point though is that once I find the road, I'm not gonna go looking for other roads.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not searching for different signs.
[SPEAKER_01]: The joy I was made for is found in God and God alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the search for joy will lead us to God, and when it does, when it does, as every Christian could say, it has, we stop searching for joy, and we start pursuing God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The circumstance of joy, search for joy, circumstance of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: John 16 verse 20, this is Jesus speaking to his disciples before he's arrested, much of what Jesus teaches here about joy makes its way into John's letters.
[SPEAKER_01]: So John learned joy from Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Say that five times fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament but the world will rejoice.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will be sorrowful but your sorrow will turn into joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has sorrow because her hour has come.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when she's delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: In that day, you'll ask nothing of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Until now, you have asked nothing in my name, ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have sorrow now.
[SPEAKER_01]: that I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus isn't talking about any old joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about a joy that is resilient, a joy that lasts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Marian Thompson is a theologian and commentator.
[SPEAKER_01]: I quoted her a lot in the series.
[SPEAKER_01]: She wrote an essay about joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what she did in the essay was she took every single use of the Greek word for joy throughout the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she categorized every use of joy into two types of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's what she called them.
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, there is.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you just look at the use of the word throughout scripture, there is a joy because of.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the first kind of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the kind of joy that's a reaction to good circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: So scripture uses it in a response to lots of different things, a good king,
[SPEAKER_01]: The joy of being reunited with a friend, the joy of a wedding, the joy of wise words.
[SPEAKER_01]: It also talks about the joy that comes when sad circumstances have been reversed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the joy that comes in the morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God delivers, when God heals, when sorrow turns to joy, when weeping, turns to dancing, it's joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the source of the joy is a joyful circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm joyful because of this wedding, I'm joyful because of this child, I'm joyful because got answered this prayer, I'm joyful because my sins are forgiven, I'm joyful because this relationship has reconciled.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a joyful circumstance and so you point to the circumstance as the source of the joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's another kind of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a joy because of and then
[SPEAKER_01]: And what it means is the circumstance I'm in calls for something other than joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a sad circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's disappointing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It calls for grief.
[SPEAKER_01]: It calls for angry, it calls for sadness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's painful, not joyful.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there is within the painful circumstance, a joy notwithstanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a joy that's present where joy doesn't seem to belong because I have access to joy that is not threatened by my circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: could Jesus look at His disciples and say your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you, a Peter would be crucified upside down.
[SPEAKER_01]: James would be thrown off of a building in stone to death.
[SPEAKER_01]: John would be persecuted into old age.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of them would know the loss of friends and family.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of them would know the suffering of persecution.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of them would know the pain of relational betrayal.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of that is in front of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus says something will happen that will give you lasting joy that will last through all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I will see you again.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about his resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to watch him die, they'll be full of sorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will see him come back to life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that moment of joy, that death-defeating life-giving reality will give them access to joy notwithstanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a joy that will persist even through circumstances that don't call for joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus says that this way, it's like the relationship a new mom has to the pain of pregnancy and labor.
[SPEAKER_01]: When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow
[SPEAKER_01]: But when she's delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what that's like, but I've seen it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I watched my wife labor and deliver three children, and then watched her care for them as newborns as she recovered from major surgery.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's remarkable.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's way tougher than me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get a sore throat and I'm like, babe, we need to start a prayer chain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, call the prayer warriors.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I've never heard her say?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I've never heard any mom say.
[SPEAKER_01]: The pain wasn't worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I could, I would give back the child to avoid the pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Never heard that.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus says she no longer remembers the anguish, it doesn't literally mean she forgot.
[SPEAKER_01]: It means the pain of labor does not compare to the joy of the baby.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a gift of life that is way to your campaign.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a gift of life that puts the pain and proper perspective.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gift of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gift of resurrection life in Christ is a joy that cannot be undone by sorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a gift that is way to your than pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here at this way, Christian joy, at its core is not an emotion, it's an event.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the lasting circumstance of joy for the Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we view both ends of this through the lens of Jesus' resurrection and return, it means that if we bring both our joy and our sorrow and view it through the lens of Christ's victory over death and his imminent return, it will increase both.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: Enjoy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever kind of common joy, Christian joy, Godly joy, good joy, your experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let that be a signpost to the deeper joy that will come when Christ returns.
[SPEAKER_01]: A couple of months ago, my son asked me, Dad, is it okay to not want Jesus to come back until after the Mavs went another championship?
[SPEAKER_01]: It took me way too long to answer that question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever,
[SPEAKER_01]: There are things that you want, there are meaningful things that you desire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Things that would give you joy, maybe some of us could say, you know, I want to have kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: before Jesus returns, or I want to see those kids grow up, or I want to finish college, or I want to see this business through, or like if you're engaged, the thought of Jesus coming back before you're wedding, it's like, would we get our deposits back, or how would that work?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I told my son.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever a maves championship would feel like, we'll pale and compare us into the joy of seeing Jesus face to face.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever desire there is for joy was placed in you by your creator and seeing him will be a joy like nothing you could ever imagine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so whatever future desire you have, family, career, it's a signpost of a joyful destination that is the unrestrained presence of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Christ returns, oh, hear this, when Christ returns, if you have hoped in Him, you will not be disappointed.
[SPEAKER_01]: What that means, what that means, is that any experience of lesser joy now,
[SPEAKER_01]: Every experience with joy in this life, in this moment, you can follow that to its destination in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So follow the good meal.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we were to make a practice of this, our joy would increase.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you follow a good meal, follow the answered prayer, follow time with friends, follow the gift of family, follow every experience of joy and good, godly, common, Christian things.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you follow that to its ultimate fulfillment and say this will, this will find its penultimate satisfaction in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will be cause for rejoicing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think often what we do is we experience joy and then we immediately turn it into a problem
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to protect this, this is threatened, I have to maximize it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of doing that, if we were just to open our hands and give thanks for it, and then let it set our eyes forward to Christ's return so that it creates in a excitement to see Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow your joy to Jesus, the other side of that is bring your sorrow to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sick, I've lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if we just named the sorrows that could mark a day like today, some would say Father's Day is hard because my dad was not a good father.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't talk anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad is gone and I miss him.
[SPEAKER_01]: My child is gone and griefs like a cloud.
[SPEAKER_01]: My child is running from the Lord and I just feel like all I can do is pray that we can't have kids and I want kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, here again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Blessed are those who mourn.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus did not smile at Lazarus' tomb.
[SPEAKER_01]: He yelled and he cried.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the joy Jesus offers is not a suppress the sad and fake a smile kind of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not joy because of it's joy not withstand.
[SPEAKER_01]: It simply means this, in this painful circumstance, I will contend for the faith that says, there is no sorrow in this life that will not turn to joy at the return of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no tear, he will not dry, there is no pain, he will not heal.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it may not be the kind of joy that puts a smile on your face, but it is the kind of joy that puts hope in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not joyful for the suffering, but I have joined it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when Paul says, rejoice always, and again, I say rejoice, it's not a command to pretend that life doesn't hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an invitation to remember that there is joy that suffering can't take away.
[SPEAKER_01]: So one of those,
[SPEAKER_01]: Genuinely, I wish I had better words to articulate this experience that I've had.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the most joyful people I know, not in a chipper way, but their soul has a weight to it that's quick to rejoice in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are the very people who have suffered in ways that only the resurrection can heal.
[SPEAKER_01]: and their joy is not the joy that comes from avoiding pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a joy that comes from having such profound pain in your life that you have to long for the return of Christ over and over and over again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it does not take the pain away, but it does give the pain a foundation of joy that is quite unshakable and beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Third John 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: Search for joy, the circumstance of joy, and then third John four, we see in the life of John, the sacrifice of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Travel joy greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth as indeed you're walking in the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: John says, I have no greater joy than to hear that everyone loved my letter and thought I was a great writer.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I have no greater joy than to hear that something bad happened to die out your fees.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no greater joy than to hear that I am considered the best to possible ever.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no greater joy than to hear that you acknowledge how hard I work for the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: His joy is not about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a pastor named Gavin Ortony wrote a book about humility and he defines humility this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the kind of joy we see in John's life.
[SPEAKER_01]: The source and shape of his joy points outside of himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here at this way, there is something that is incompatible with joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's selfishness.
[SPEAKER_01]: They cannot co-exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: Show me a self-absorbed person, and you will show me a joyless person.
[SPEAKER_01]: The person whose life purpose does not extend beyond their self or their self-interest.
[SPEAKER_01]: If my life is just about my success, if my life is just about the approval I get from others, if my life is just about securing my comfort, if my life is just about gaining more and more control, there's only surface-level joy to be found in that life, because there's only surface-level purpose in that life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why many of us stay stuck?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if I said, you know what, joy is about, joy is about healthy habits.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about a good morning routine and attending a little church and reading these books and making these minor habit adjustments to your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: What many would say is okay, I'll give that a shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if we say, joy is about repenting of pride and getting over the self and sacrificially giving your life away for the good of others, many years of the ha,
[SPEAKER_01]: Like being chronically offendable and irritated is just not that bad, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, see John here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in the truth and behind that statement, behind that experience of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Years and years and years of Christ shaped others centered living.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sacrificed himself, his preferences, his comfort, his flesh, his security, his time, because his life is not simply about him, it's about Christ and his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he lays down his life and in return, gets joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy comes on the other side of self-sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus models this for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews 12 says, for the joy set before him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He endured the cross, despising it's shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: He seated at the right hand of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus gives his life away in obedience to the Father and sacrificial love for you and me, and his reward for that is joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so John is simply following in the footsteps of his Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: David Brooks is a journalist and he wrote an article about the difference between happiness and joy that I found very helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he uses the image of a graduation ceremony to make the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says it this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are two kinds of emotion present at any graduation ceremony.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the graduating students, there's happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've achieved something.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've worked hard and are moving closer to their goals.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a different emotion up in the stands among the families and friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: That emotion's joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not thinking about themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Their delight is seeing the glow on the graduate's face, the laughter and her voice, the progress of his journey, the blooming of a whole person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happiness usually involves a victory for the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy tends to involve the transcendence of the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happiness comes from my accomplishments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy comes when your heart is in another.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy is the gift that life gives you as you give away your gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I could be more explicit as a pastor, Joy is the gift that God gives as we like Christ give away our gifts and give away as we forget ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: No greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: John is assuming a role here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's calling himself a father.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a spiritual father to this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we could make a relevant connection on Father's Day.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Trenzik in the role of Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: is sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we speak of fathers who have character and integrity, what we will describe is a sacrificial kind of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: The worst version of Dad is the one who makes his family sacrifice for him, for his pride, for his sin, for his comfort.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's another version of Dad who sacrifices for his family, but he does it for the credit.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's loaded with expectations.
[SPEAKER_01]: See how hard I work.
[SPEAKER_01]: See how much I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: the best version of death is the dad who sacrifices for his family and then delights in the good that his sacrifice brings to his family.
[SPEAKER_01]: all the sweat, all the time, all the work, all the presence, all the thought, all the energy just laid down, not to be seen and celebrated, but simply to be a blessing to my home and my children.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're reward that he gives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not credit, not leisure, not accolade, the reward is joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: because his heart is in another.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the joy that comes from giving yourself a way for the people that you love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And John is that kind of spiritual father.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gives his life away for the glory of Christ and in return he gets joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gives his life away for the churches that he leads and pastors.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in return he gets joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is the sacrifice of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we would do well.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would do well to imitate his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what we're offering this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not offering joy as an end in itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't work like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a signpost.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a destination.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we're offered though is Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: As the source, Christ as the circumstance, Christ as the model of sacrifice,
[SPEAKER_01]: You are on a journey for joy and you have found it in God, made and saved to enjoy God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have access to joy that nothing in this life can take away because of the resurrection and return of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: As you give your life away in the name of Christ for the good of others, the joy of Jesus will grow in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know what we can't do?
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, I can't preach a grumpy sermon about joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we can't miss is that as we stumble, whether we would describe ourselves as somebody who's full of joy or fumbling towards joy or just completely failing to have any joy at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter where we are in that, there's a reality right now that your heavenly father delights in you, rejoices in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not a mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: that when Jesus is describing what salvation is like for heaven, He describes it as a father who welcomes home a lost son.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He says this, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if there was joy in the heart of God at your repentance, how much more joy in the heart of God at your life right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for who you are and what you've done.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we're after is not joy is an end in itself, what we're after is the source.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have placed eternity in our hearts that we might follow our empty souls to the fullness of joy that's found in you or Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: just repeat that we might believe that there is joy in your heart for your children.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father in heaven who delights in us, and so we thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: that the journey, the beautiful reality that if we were to follow our desire for joy, we would not just find that desire satisfied in you, Lord God, but we would find in you joy and response.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Jesus, we need you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every Sunday, especially right now, I am at the end of my notes, and I'm at the end of myself, and I don't know anything else to do, but to ask you, spirit of God, to take your word and appropriate it in the lives of your people.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the, would you lift the face of the despairing and discouraged,
[SPEAKER_01]: and at the thought of a face to face eternity with you or Jesus that you would fill our hearts with joy, would you confront the self absorbed?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh God, may we take seriously the thought that's so much, that's so much of the absence of joy in our life is self-inflicted.
[SPEAKER_01]: and would that lead us not to self-hatred, but lead us to repentance and confidence and Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: In Lord, would you help us help us to be a people who make a practice of rejoicing?
[SPEAKER_01]: That we would deeper underneath greater stronger
[SPEAKER_01]: than whatever circumstance we are in, is the reality of an empty tomb and pregnant promises that you will return.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you just take a minute, friend?
[SPEAKER_01]: And just pray to God on your own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you just respond to His word?
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow conviction to repentance.
[SPEAKER_01]: and follow comfort to the heart of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you, Lord, in your presence is fullness of joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we invite you to come.