Joy and Community
FOR GROUP PARTICIPATION
These elements of the study are best used with others in a group setting.
How Did It Go Last Week?
Share your successes and trials with the group. (10 minutes)
Everyone close your Bibles (!) and recite together Romans 8:31-39. Talk about the new joy, encouragement and insight you have reaped from this passage.
And God Said…
Read aloud Colossians 3:12-17
What is the Point?
Read these statements aloud and keep them in mind during the video. (5 minutes)
• Joy is a community project.
• “Put on Christ” to be his grace to the people around you.
• You are able to live for Christ and serve others only because of what Christ has done for you.
Petition Pray this together aloud.
Joyful Father, who rejoice over us with gladness: as Jesus endured the cross with joy for our benefit, give us to be like him in sharing his joy, in compassion, kindness, humility and love, with each other, which we are enabled to do only by your grace through him, Jesus our Savior. Amen.
Hear the Word
Watch the video. (25 minutes)
Let's Talk About That
Discuss these questions. (30 minutes)
1. “Joy is a community project.” Read aloud 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. While God is able to give his children joy, encouragement and support directly and without an intermediary—as he surely has done when a child of his suffers in isolation—is that his normal design for dispensation? Rather, what is his primary vehicle for delivering grace to his people? So, in a large part, upon whom does your own joy depend? And it follows that the joy of other persons depends upon whom? Discuss then, briefly, the meaning of the title of this session, “It Takes a Church.”
2. Read aloud Colossians 3:12-17. Identify all the character traits that Paul exhorts in this passage (e.g. compassionate hearts, patience, thankfulness)—are any of these traits that can be manifested inwardly to the person that possesses them? Now identify all the actions that Paul exhorts (e.g. bearing with, forgiving, teaching)—are these actions that one can enact upon oneself,
or must they be directed outwardly? So, is he speaking to them as individuals, or as the Church? (Hint: all the occurrences of the English word “you” in this passage translate the Greek plural second-person pronoun.) Is it for our own sakes that we are called to put on these clothes of blessing? Discuss how Paul’s exhortation affirms that the grace of joy is a community project.
3. The character traits and actions exhorted by Paul in this passage collectively constitute an image strikingly resemblant of someone. Read aloud Romans 13:8-14 (emphasize v14) in which Paul exhorts in a similar context, and also Galatians 3:23-29 where his context is admittedly different. In each of these passages Paul’s “put on” command is explicit and refers not to what but to whom? In straightforward, common language, what does Paul mean by his metaphor of “putting on Christ”?
4. We are able to live for Christ and accordingly serve others only because of what Christ has done for us. Read aloud Romans 6:1-11, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 and Galatians 2:19-21. In all three passages, Paul asserts that we died with Christ, by virtue of our being united to him by the Father’s grace. Regarding our own bondage to sin, what did Christ accomplish by his death and resurrection? And given that we are still—and forever—united with Christ, and that he by his Holy Spirit is living within us, what are we able to do, as highlighted by Paul in v15 of the Corinthians passage?
5. Summing up what we have learned in this session, we are called to live for Christ by being his grace to those around us. Or as Tripp says, “God makes His invisible grace visible, by sending people of grace, to give grace, to people who need grace.” Discuss the meaning of this statement, one clause at a time (I have separated the clauses with commas).
6. So, spreading the grace of joy is a Christian “calling” and “mission.” Identify and discuss practical ways that you can fulfill this calling. Specifically, what are some simple actions and priorities that you can embed in your daily routines to become effective and prolific joy-spreaders for all the people near you? What can you do in your own home, for your spouse and children? At your work or school? At your church?
FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION
These aspects of the study can be used in between group sessions on your own, either with your spouse or individually as part of your devotional and confession life.
Do Something
During the week ahead, turn your learning into doing.
Joy is our calling. Joy is our mission. We would be entirely remiss to attend this study and then leave all our learning lodged in our brains. So, for the rest of your life, be a person of joy and give joy to people who need joy. Start with just one person, someone struggling or suffering in some way who needs the joy of the Jesus—shouldn’t be hard to find! Look first in your own home and family, then expand your search. Write them an encouraging card, take them a “comfort-food” meal, walk with them in a pretty park. Be joyful with them and for them.
Then find someone else and do the same. And then someone else.
Search Me, O God
For introspection during the coming week.
Do you focus solely on your own need for joy? We all need joy, and it is right to seek it for yourself. But do you recognize that everyone around you needs the joy of Jesus as well? And recognizing this, do you act on it? Do you pray for the Lord to make you “others-centered”? What are some practical measures to remind you to pray that prayer and to turn your love for others into action?
Want to Know More?
In this short seminar, Tripp was able to consider only a few Scripture passages dealing with true joy. To cement your learning, take thoughtful time to study these other familiar passages that elaborate the joy of the Lord (of course, there are many more):
• The joy of the Lord is your strength, Nehemiah 8:10
• Weeping my tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning, Psalm 30:all
• The oil of gladness instead of mourning, Isaiah 61:1-4
• The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, Zephaniah 3:17
• Good news of great joy that will be for all the people, Luke 2:10
For More From Paul Tripp:
• I (Jesus) will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, John 16:22
• The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace… Galatians 5:22
• Jesus, for the joy set before him… Hebrews 12:2.
• Count it all joy when you meet various trials, James 1:2
• Jude’s doxology—very moving! vv24-25.
Watch his video series, Your Walk with God is a Community Project
Outline
SESSION 1
I. Joy is important: joyful people are motivated, grateful, generous people who love and serve well.
II. John 15:11 is the most important sentence about joy ever written (quoting Jesus): “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
A. “…my joy…”: true joy is vertical.
1. True joy comes only from Christ.
2. The gospel is that Christ has broken sin’s power over us, and the Holy Spirit is progressively eradicating sin’s desire from our hearts.
3. But we lack gospel joy because of:
a. Gospel familiarity.
b. Gospel amnesia.
B. “…in you…”: true joy is internal.
1. True joy is within us, not in external relationships, pursuits and circumstances.
2. Creation was never meant to be the source of your joy, and earth will never be your savior.
C. “…full”: true joy is unshakable.
1. True joy is not diminished by trials, and nothing can take it away.
2. True joy tells us that trials are not ultimate—Jesus is.
III. Are you a person whom others would describe as joyful?
SESSION 2
IV. Because of sin, suffering is a universal experience.
V. Romans 8:18-39 is a treatise on why we can have joy even in suffering.
A. Vv18-25: the universality of suffering.
1. Not only people, but the created order itself is groaning as it awaits redemption.
2. Your status as a child of God doesn't give you a ticket out of suffering.
3. You suffer because this broken dysfunctional world happens to be your God-ordained address.
B. God gives us something better than a suffering-free life: in Christ, he gives us himself and his grace.
1. Vv8:26-27: Intervening grace.
2. Vv8:28-30: Unstoppable grace.
3. Vv8:31-32: Providing grace.
4. Vv8:35-39: Inseparable grace.
SESSION 3
VI. Joy is a community project.
VII. Col 3:12-17: “Put on Christ” to be his grace to those around you.
A. God makes His invisible grace visible by sending people of grace to give grace to people who need grace.
B. God sends people of joy to give joy to people who need joy.
C. Therefore the spreading of the grace of joy is our calling and our mission.
VIII.You are able to live for Christ and serve others only because of what Christ has done for you.
A. 2 Corinthians 5:16: by his death, Jesus freed you from bondage to yourself.
B. Galatians 2:20: it is not you who now live, but Christ lives in you.
SESSION 1
Well, we're here tonight to talk about joy. And everyone in this room has an instinctive understanding of how important joy is. Can I illustrate that for you? Well, I'm going to do it whether you want me to or not. I don't know why I'm asking permission. No one, you've never heard anyone say, "I'm just praying I can be part of a totally joyless marriage." You've never heard that. You've never heard a parent say, "We're working on producing joyless kids that would be so wonderful." Or, "I want to go to a completely joyless church. I want a church with no joy," you never heard anyone say that. You have an instinctive understanding that joy is important. We sort of know that joyful people are motivated people, joyful people are grateful people, joyful people love well and serve well and are generous. And so you should be interested in what we're talking about this evening.
In our first session together, I want to talk to you about the most important sentence about joy that has ever been written. Unless you understand this sentence, you will not have a clue where to find the joy that every human being longs for. Inside of every human being is a longing for joy. This is Jesus in his last moments with his disciples. I love this portion of scripture. It's captured in John midway through chapter 13 into the chapter 17. It's tender and sweet and beautiful as Jesus is having his last loving moments with these men who will then carry the gospel around the world after he's gone. And he says this, this is John 15:11, "These things I have spoken to you, I have taught you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." In one sentence. That's everything you need to know about joy, absolutely everything in one sentence.
There's three things here you got to get. If you want to have real joy in your life, if you want to be that kind of motivated, loving, serving, generous person, you got to understand these three things. The first thing Jesus does is he tells his disciples where to look for joy and he says, "It's my joy. Look to me." It's the first thing you need to know. True joy is vertical. You get it from Jesus. Now you say, "Well, why is that so?" Well, can we talk? You have a big problem in your life, a big inescapable problem. No, it's not your husband or wife that you're trying to turn into your dream. No, it's not your children. No, it's not your irascible boss. No, it's not neighbors who are fighting with you over property boundaries. No, it's not sickness or debt. In fact, please fire your inner lawyer as I say this, I can say that because I have an inner law firm. Your biggest problem is you.
The reason you can't escape your biggest problem is your biggest problem happens to be you. Now, we don't want to think that's true. We want to tell ourselves that if only I wasn't married to this person, if only they weren't my children, if only, if only, if only, we have a thousand things we can point to, but the Bible clearly says you have an inescapable problem and it's you. And the Bible names that problem, sin. You have the most destructive thing in all of the universe living inside of you. And yes, if you're a believer, your sin has been forgiven, but it hasn't yet been fully eradicated. That's a process and it's going on now. And the reason that Jesus can give you joy that nothing else can give you is because Jesus can solve the problem that no one else can solve for you.
Every morning you ought to get up and be blown away that because of Jesus, your sin is forgiven. And not only are you forgiven, you are being transformed. And not only you being transformed, you're being empowered. And not only you're being empowered, you are going to be delivered to a place where sin will be no more. Listen, we're going to get to go to the one funeral we all want to go to, the funeral of sin and death because sin and death will die. Now if that doesn't make you happy, you're seriously comatose. That's true joy to think. Imagine if you had terminal cancer and someone who come to you and say, "I know a doctor who in one visit will eradicate your cancer," would you not drive to that doctor with joy in your heart? Would you not talk to everybody you know about this amazing miracle? Yet, why are there people in this room that know everything I just said, yet you live a joyless life? Why? Well, I'm going to give you a couple reasons.
The first is familiarity. Familiarity with the gospel is a wonderful thing, but it can be a dangerous thing. Let me give you an illustration of what familiarity does to you. Imagine you have a new job and you're driving the very first day to your new job and on both sides of the road, there are these beautiful old trees. It's just gorgeous
and they create a canopy over the road and although there's traffic, you're not bothered by the traffic because you're worshiping. You're thinking, "Man, creation really does display the glory of God. Look how beautiful these trees are. I'm so thankful I get to drive this road every day." Six weeks later, you're pounding on the dash, "This traffic drives me so crazy," and you haven't seen a tree in three weeks. That's what familiarity does. We quit looking, we quit celebrating and we lose our joy. There is nothing more glorious than waking up in the morning saying, "I am redeemed. I am redeemed. I am redeemed. I am redeemed. I am redeemed." Nothing compares to that. I'm redeemed. Familiarity.
Second thing that happens to us is gospel amnesia. In the business of life, in all the frenetic pursuits of all we involve ourselves with, we forget who we are and we forget what we've been given and we lose our joy. Now, I know what it's like for a lot of you. I'm old enough that I don't have any children living with me anymore, but we're still pretty busy. But I can remember when we had four children at home, I felt like I would start putting on my pants on Monday morning and zip them up on Friday. That's just how fast the weeks went. And it just seemed impossible. We would look at the schedule for the week. Our children were in three different schools and it seemed like only an act of God could make us be all the places we wanted to be. I prayed to be omnipresent. I could just be the fourth member to the Trinity for a while, that would be helpful.
And in the midst of that, we just forget who we are and forget what we've been given. Jesus says, "I'm the source of true joy. If you want joy, real joy, joy that will shape and alter your life, I'm the only one who can deliver that to you." But he says something else. He says, "I want my joy to be in you." True joy is vertical. True joy is internal. It's not something that you shop for out here. Listen, your marriage, if you're married, can never bear the weight of your joy because your marriage, because it is a imperfect person, they're married to an imperfect person, won't always be a joyful experience.
Ladies, you have to forgive this illustration. But you're a man and you marry this beautiful woman, you can't believe that you've been blessed with this long future with this person. When you hear her on the phone, your heart lifts. You're willing to do women sort of things along with her just because you love her. You'll say, "Sure, let's go to that garden convention and look at 57,000 kinds of flowers. I would love to do that with you. But you wake up a Tuesday morning and you hear a voice and you look in the bed next to you and there's this human being with robin's nest hair and she speaks to you with zoo breath and says, "Will you take out the trash?" Your marriage can't bear the weight of your joy.
Your parenting can't bear the way of joy. Your children have never gotten up and say, "What can I do today to fill my mom and dad with joy?" Never going to happen. Your job can't do that. Your money can't do that. When you buy something, you have momentary excitement, don't you? It's new. And after a while, it's not new anymore. If you are a family and you buy a new vehicle, oh, everybody in the family is excited, you know what that's like. It even smells new. Six months later, it just smells. Smells you don't know where they came from. Weird inhuman smells. Nothing kills the joy of a car like children vomiting in it. There's a picture for you for this evening. You see what we're asking is creation to do what it was never meant to do.
Creation was never meant to be the source of your joy. Creation is meant to be one big finger to point you to where your joy can be found. It never works to look there. It's always temporary. It's a short buzz because you're asking the physical world of people, places, possessions and experiences to do what that world was never designed by God to do. Listen, earth will never be your Savior. Never. And there are so many, even in the church, discouraged, depressed, hurt, angry people who are there because they're asking earth to do what it has no power to do. It will fail you. It will hurt you. It will disappoint you. It can't work. It just doesn't work. Your husband should love you, but he can't be the source of your joy in life. He can't. That'll beat up and break down that man, he'll fail every time. It's a horrible burden to put that on your children. Your job can't do. That's not your boss's job. His job is not to give you joy. True joy is vertical. True joy is internal.
But I love this last thing. Jesus says, "And that your joy may be," what's the word? Full. That is actually a full word. Full of content and meaning. He means deep, strong, unshakable. That's what he means. That I will give you a joy that's so sturdy. Nothing can take it away. Wouldn't you like that? So no matter what you're going through, all those unplanned, unexpected, unwanted things that enter all of our lives because we get faced with the fact that we're not sovereign and we don't know what's around the corner. And so Jesus says, "I offer
you a joy that's unshakable." Now think of who he's talking to. He's talking to the disciples. What are they going to face? They're going to face the unthinkable. They're going to watch their master be tortured and crucified in public shame. They're going to watch him ascend and be gone and they need something that keeps them moving and keeps them excited and propels them on this great mission that he called them to. And he said, "I want you to have joy that's unshakable. You find it in me."
I can say this for sure. If you have joy that comes and goes, if you have joy that rises and falls with the circumstance, if you have joy that some person in your life can take away, you're looking to the wrong place for your joy. Because Jesus joy is rock-solid. And you can be in the middle of something you don't want to be in the middle of and say, "Yes, I'm weak. And yes, I'm confused. But I'm redeemed. I'm redeemed. I'm redeemed." My greatest problem in life has been solved by my Savior. He's not only forgiven me, but he's now in the process of transforming me and he will finally deliver me. True joy tells you that your sin, failure and weakness isn't ultimate, Jesus is.
I am deeply persuaded that if we understand the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we should be the most celebrant community on earth. In 1 Peter, Peter gives a scenario about being ready to give a reason for the hope that's inside of you and do it with meekness and fear. Now, think about the scenario. It's somebody who is watching you and they're thinking, "Why is this person so hopeful? Why is this person so joyful? What makes this person tick?" That's who we're supposed to be. We move out into the world with a joy that nothing or no one can take away because our joy isn't external, it isn't horizontal, it isn't circumstantial, it's not flabby and weak. Our joy is vertical, it's Jesus. Our joy is internal. It comes from understanding we are in Christ and our joy is full, unshakable.
Now, I only want to say one thing as we close down this first moment together. Have I described you? Mom's in the room, would you look at me? If your children would describe what you're like, would joy be one of the descriptions? Single people, look at me. Your friends describe you, they'd say, "Wow, this person just has joy, unshakable joy. It's so attractive." Husbands, would your wife say to you, "One of the blessings I have in my life is that I'm married to a joyful man"? Maybe we are looking for joy where it can't be found. Maybe we are gospel amnesiacs. Maybe it has become so familiar to us that we don't celebrate anymore.
Here are the words of Jesus, "I've spoken these things to you that your joy, my joy be in you and your joy be full." Hear this, Jesus came. He lived the life we could not live. He died the death we should have died. He rose again, conquering sin and death. He ascended to the Father so that you would have joy. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus went to the cross propelled by what? Joy. May we have that joy. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this amazing sentence recorded and preserved in your word because you know us, you know that we tend to look at the wrong things to find joy when the true source of joy has exploded into our lives by your grace. May you fill us with the joy that Jesus was talking about, vertical, internal, unshakable. We pray these in your sweet and strong name. Amen.
SESSION 2
Well, you simply can't talk about a life of joy without talking about suffering. And so I want to spend some time talking to you about suffering and joy. If you're not suffering now, you will someday. And if you're not suffering now, you're near someone who is. I'd like you to turn if you have a Bible with you or your iPhone or iPad or what other weird sad off-brand you're carrying. Sorry. I'm just not that mature. And turn to Romans 8, beginning with verse 18. This passage is the treatise on why you can have joy even in suffering.
Verses 18 through 25 are very interesting because what Paul does there is assumes the universality of suffering. That suffering is a universal human experience. Between the already of our birth and the not yet of our home going, suffering is a universal human experience. And he tells us why that is so. This is so important. He says it's so because we live in a world that's so broken by sin. The created world itself is groaning, waiting for redemption. You groan when you're in pain. You groan when you're frustrated. You groan when you don't know what to do. The world we live in is groaning. That means it's not functioning the way that God originally intended. And so the brokenness of this world, somehow, someway, will enter your door.
Now, let me be clear. Paul wants you to know a couple things. The first is that you're being a child of God doesn't give you a ticket out of suffering. [inaudible 00:02:48] of your conversion and not yet of your home going. God hasn't promised that because you're a Christian, you won't suffer. The second thing he wants you to know is you're suffering not because God's punishing you for your sin, not because God has favorites, not because God's forgotten you, not because he's ignoring you. No, none of those things are true. You suffer because this broken dysfunctional world happens to be your God-ordained address.
You live in a dysfunctional place. Now you're thinking, "Wow, Paul, this has just filled me with joy." That's what the rest of the passage is about. Because Paul loves the gospel, knows the gospel, lives the gospel, he's not going to leave you there. And the rest of the passage is about why you can have joy in the middle of suffering. Let me give you the summary statement. And then I want to walk you through what Paul says. The summary statement is this, God gives you something better than a suffering-free life. He gives you himself. He is the greatest gift that could ever be given. It's the one situation where the giver is the gift. And you know what comes along with that gift of God? His grace. And what this passage is is a explanation of that grace that meets you in the hardest moments of your life and gives you reason for joy even though you're suffering.
Here's the first thing. This is verses 26 and 27. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. There will be moments in your suffering where you're so weak, despondent, confused, you don't know what to pray for. In my suffering, which there was a video some of you saw, some of you didn't see, there were moments when all I could pray was, "Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Lord, help me."
And here's the first thing. God meets you in those moments with intervening grace. The Spirit of God carries your groanings to the Father. You don't have to pray theological prayers. You don't have to have the right things to say. God meets you with shocking tender compassion and carries the groanings of your heart to the Father. Is that not beautiful? There'll be moments when you're so emotionally distraught, you're so broken, prayer is almost impossible. And in those moments, God doesn't judge you. He doesn't say, "Get your act together." He carries those wordless groanings to the Father.
That's intervening grace. But there's a second thing. This is the next couple verses. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Now, you hear all the time Romans 8:28. Is that true? You all hear this all the time. The problem is you don't hear 29 and 30. And because of that, I think many people in this room have totally misinterpreted and misunderstood Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28 is not saying to you that every bad thing you face will turn out beautiful somehow, someway. It's not true.
Maybe you have a sickness that you will not survive. Maybe your spouse will walk away never to return. This is not a guarantee that God will fix all those things for you so you can walk around with a saccharine spiritual smile. It's not what it's teaching. Verse 29 and 30 tell you what 28 is about because it defines for you what the good is. God will do good. But what is that? For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. He's teaching you the theology of unstoppable grace. That this good thing that we just celebrated in the last session, this wonderful redemptive thing, nothing will ever stop the march of God's grace in your life. Nothing.
It's an unstoppable march of redemption. He will not stop until every microbe of sin is delivered from every cell of every heart of every one of his children. And then he'll say, "Enter into my kingdom. All things are now ready." There's a lot of things that break in your life. There's a lot of things that quit in your life. There are a lot of things don't last long in your life. There's a lot of things that break under pressure. Redemption doesn't break under pressure. And the most beautiful thing that's happening to you as a result of the person and work of Jesus marches on. Even in your moments of dramatic fear and dramatic weakness and dramatic confusion, your
confusion, your weakness, your fear will not stop the gracious hand of the Redeemer. I love saying that. It's something you can depend on.
Listen, in those moments when you can't work because you're broken and weak, God is at work. Let me tell you a little bit of my own story. At the moment of my greatest ministry influence, I was rendered weaker than I've ever been in my life. 10 surgeries in seven years. I couldn't keep myself out of the hospital. So broken at moments, I literally could not get out of a chair. In that moment, a couple things happened. I actually wrote a book in that weakness, a proof of the march of the grace of God. That book [inaudible 00:12:29] I just talked about. You'll think this is an exaggeration, but it's not. When I got that first copy of that book, I held up my hands and I tearfully said to Luella, who's here someplace, my dear wife, "I don't remember writing this book." And for the first time in my writing history, I sat down and read my own book from cover to cover. That's what God can do. Your Lord isn't limited by your weakness.
The other thing I realized, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, was that much of what I had thought was faith in Christ wasn't. I was strong. I was productive. And there's a lot of pride in that. And it was in my weakness that I began to really realize what it means to truly rest in the grace of Jesus. You see, in my weakness, I couldn't get out of a chair, but Jesus was out of his chair working like crazy on my behalf. Not just intervening grace, not just unstoppable grace, but a third thing. This is verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Intervening grace, unstoppable grace. Here's a third thing, providing grace.
The argument here is the strongest argument ever. And it is that if God would go to the extent of offering up his Son, his one and only Son as a sacrifice for our sins, would it make any sense for him to abandon us in our suffering? That would make no sense whatever. And he says, "If he gave us Jesus, won't he with Jesus graciously give us ..." What are the words there? Say it.
Crowd: All things.
Speaker 1: Say it like you mean it.
Crowd: All things.
Speaker 1: All things. Now, that doesn't mean that your savior is a vending machine. You put in your prayer coins and you press the button of whatever you want to pop out for your life. No. But this one who knows you better than you know yourself and who knows everything you need in those moments, he will graciously, willingly, joyfully, generously give you exactly what you need.
There were days when discouragement would wash over me. And I get a text from a friend. And it would be ... He's Irish. It would be this wonderful Irish choir singing this great hymn. And I'd listen to that hymn and I'd weep and I'd remember again who I am and what I've been given. That's my Lord graciously giving me all things. In your suffering, you're met with intervening grace. In your suffering, you're met with unstoppable grace. In your suffering, you're met with providing grace. But there's one more thing. It's the crescendo of this passage. And I love talking about this. Intervening grace, unstoppable grace, providing grace, inseparable grace.
Let me read these beautiful words to you. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, "For your sake, we are being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Now, why does Paul end this way? Why is this his crescendo after talking about intervening grace and unstoppable grace and providing grace? Why this? Here's why. Because there are two cries in the heart of every human being. The first one is, will somebody love me? Every human being, whether they know it or not, is in search of love. And that search was wired in our heart by our Creator to drive us to our Lord. But there's a second cry that's even scarier. It is once they get to know me, will they still love me? Now, think about it. This
passage is spoken into the suffering of the fallen world. Your Lord knows that your suffering will be messy. He knows in your weakness, you will think the wrong things and you will say the wrong things. In moments, you'll doubt his goodness and his faithfulness. Listen, nothing, none of that mess can make him regret that you're his child. There's nothing I love talking about more than what I'm going to say next. I don't know if you've thought about this or not, but the hardest moment of all of the suffering of Jesus was that moment when the Father turned his back on the Son. And Jesus cries out, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
Hear what I'm about to say. Jesus took every ounce of your rejection so that in your fear and despondency and weakness and failure, you would never again see the back of God's head because he will not turn from you. His promise is nothing can separate you from my love. Imagine me sitting in that chair, broken and weak, realizing I would be sick in the rest of life, and saying to myself, "But the Spirit of God intervenes for me. But the grace of God is unstoppable. But God will provide for me whatever I need. And that nothing can separate me from the love of God." All of a sudden, in that moment, joy begins to lift, even though my suffering is still there. You see, what God gives you, as you bump your way through this fallen world and you get bruised and broken, is the best gift ever. It's the gift of himself. And with that comes his intervening, his unstoppable, his providing, his inseparable grace. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. How beautiful is it that even in our suffering, we have reason to joy because you meet us in those moments and you pour your grace down upon us. May we not give way to panic. May we not think we're alone. May we bask in that grace. Jesus name. Amen.
SESSION 3
Well, we've talked about the fact that true joy is vertical, and true joy is internal, and true joy is unshakable. We talked about the fact that you can have joy in your suffering because you're met there with intervening, unstoppable, providing, inseparable grace, but there's one more piece that's very important, and it's this. Your joy is a community project. Let me say that again. Your joy is a community project. The reason is joy is spiritual warfare. There is an enemy who wants to rob you of your joy, who wants to whisper in your ear, "Where's your God now? Where's His promises now? I thought He was good. I thought He was with you." In those moments, you need people who are with you and who love you and who model in front of you the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Again, if you have your Bibles or your electronic whatever, turn with me to Colossians chapter three, beginning with verse 12. Now, as I read this passage to you, you won't think it's a joy passage. You may wonder, "Why is Paul reading this passage to us?" Well, fasten your seatbelts, and put on your crash helmets. Here we go. "Put on then as God's chosen one, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So, you must also forgive, and above all these things, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful, and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
Look with me at the first couple verses I read. Verse 12, "Put on therefore as God's chosen one, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another. And if one has to complain to each other, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Now, notice that the word picture put on is like clothing. It's as if Paul is saying, "Dress yourselves in these clothes. Get dressed in this stuff. Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience bearing with one another. And if anyone has to complain to each other, forgiving each other, and over all these things, put on love."
Now, think with me for a moment. Where did Paul get this list of character qualities? Did he just decide, "I'll make up my own list?" You don't understand this passage unless you understand he's describing someone. He's not just describing something. He's describing someone. Help me here, theologues, in the room. Who's he
describing? Jesus. He's literally saying, "Put on Christ." Why? For the person next to you. Listen, the word that Paul elsewhere uses for this is ambassador. Be an ambassador of Jesus. What is the only thing an ambassador does? You can talk. It was easy, wasn't it? You get a little star on the corner of your page. You can take home, and show your mom.
Yeah, the only thing an ambassador ever does is represent. So, this is a high and holy calling. This is everybody in this room. This is not formal paid ministers. This is not watermarked staff. This is every believer. Every believer is called to put on Christ. Every believer is called to be an ambassador for Christ. Listen, here's what he's saying. You are the look on the face of Jesus. You are the tone of his voice. You are the touch of his hands. There's nothing that you could do with your life that's more important than that. Here's the model. God makes His invisible grace visible by sending people of grace to give grace to people who need grace. Want me to say that again?
Congregation: Yes.
Speaker 1: I'll rewind the tape. God makes His invisible grace visible by sending people of grace to give grace to people who need grace. You could say it this way. God sends people of joy to give joy to people who desperately need joy. Joy is our calling. Joy is our mission. You have moral responsibility for the joy of the people whose lives you touch, because joy is a war, and I desperately need joy exciters, joy igniters in my life. Now, notice what he's saying here. He's not just saying, "Go out and preach the gospel to joyless people." Is that what he says? It's not what he says. He says, "Go out and reflect Jesus to joyful people." That's my calling.
Now, think about this selfish, angry, hurtful, abusive, controlling, dysfunctional relationships. What do they do for you? They are joy vacuums. They take your eyes off of who you are and what you have in Christ, and they put your eyes on all the nasty stuff that's happening to you and how much it hurts you. You know that's true. When you're going through one of those relationships, you know what it's like. You wake up in the morning, and you got a knot in the pit of your stomach. You haven't even met anybody yet, because you know what you're going through, and all of a sudden, your eyes are taken off Jesus, and Paul is saying, "Don't be that kind of people. Don't let that happen to your relationships."
Get up in the morning, and by grace, put on Jesus, and reflect His love, reflect His compassion, reflect His forgiveness, reflect His patience, reflect Jesus to the people around you. Excuse me. Let me give you a parenting example. You have a 14-year-old son, and he comes to you on a Thursday night, and says to you, "For the first time, you haven't heard anything about this. I have a science project due tomorrow." You can't believe it, and you say, "Well, what do you need?" It's 10:00 at night. He says, "Well, I need some poster board. I need some markers," and then he mumbles really quickly, "And 12 baby chickens." You can feel the temperature change within you, and you say, "Then go out behind the house and lay them," and then you go off.
"In my day, I would've never thought of coming to my parents 10:00 the night before, and talk about a science project. In my day, we didn't have science projects. I made up my own. I was such a good student." Now, as you're going off telling your child how righteous you are, what are they thinking? "My, how wise my mom is, my dad is. I wish I could be like that person, and clearly, Jesus is with me." Listen, in those moments, not only is your child not helped by that self-righteous lecture, but he's harmed by it because in his weakness and failure and foolishness, what he needs to see is Jesus, because Jesus is the only one who can rescue that kid from himself.
So, you walk into your son's room, and you say, "You know I love you. I really do love you, and I know exactly how you got yourself into this mess, because I'm like you. I prioritize the things that I enjoy, and I put off the things that I don't enjoy until I've gotten myself in trouble. But you know what, there's hope for you and me, because Jesus came into this world to rescue fools like you and me from ourselves. No, I'm not going to take you to the all-night chicken farm. Tomorrow, you're going to have to go in, and you're going to face your teacher because there's no way you're going to get this project done, but I love you, and more than the fact that I love you, Jesus loves you."
What a beautiful opportunity to put on Christ. How do you respond when you're at the grocery store, and you
have just one item, one single little item, and a lady pulls in front of you with a cart with 150 items? At that point, you want to share something with her, but it wouldn't be Jesus. How do you respond when you're with a group of people, and you give an opinion and somebody disagrees with you? Sort of embarrassing. Now, you see, the reason I'm giving you these examples is because what Jesus calls us, what Paul calls us to in this passage is absolutely impossible. It's totally unnatural for everybody in this room.
So, the only way that we are ever going to be those joy igniters is if Jesus rescues us from us. If we say, "I am such a poor ambassador. I'm so filled with myself. Won't you meet me? Won't you rescue me from me?" The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Jesus came, I love this, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves. Hear this, Jesus came to break your bondage to you, and that's good news. Our tendency is to reduce the feel of our concern down to our wants, our needs and our feelings. You could argue that the DNA of sin is selfishness, but Jesus knew that. So, He came not only to forgive you, but to make the impossible possible for you by His grace.
You know how he did that? He literally unzipped you, and got inside of you by His spirit, so you now have the power. Please hear I'm going to say to say no to those raging emotions. Say no to those selfish thoughts. Say no to those antisocial desires, and turn and go in your ambassadorial direction, because it's no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you. The life you live, you can now live by faith and the son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. Christ lives in you. Christ lives in you. Christ lives in you. Your Lord is not so unkind and unloving, unwise to call you to a task without enabling you to do it.
No, it's not natural. It's supernatural, but it's ours in Jesus. Your joy is a community project. Joy is the calling of the body of Christ. Live with one another in such a way that your relationship to other people reflects Jesus. So just being near to you, they remember again who they are and what they've been given in Jesus. That's what Paul is saying. Reflect His forgiveness. Reflect His compassion. Reflect His patience. Reflect His humility. Reflect His love. So when people are near you, the very way that you live with them reminds them of who they are in Christ, and what's the result of that? Renewal of joy. What a beautiful plan.
There are people in this room who maybe you've never known this kind of joy. I would plead with you. Quit looking in the wrong places, and look to Jesus. There are people in this room who have lost their joy. You're a functional joy amnesiac, and you don't even know it. I say, remember the words of Jesus in that final tender moment with His disciples when He said, "I've spoken these things to you so that my joy would be in you, and your joy would be full." There are people in this room that joyless people turn you off, joyless people make you mad, joyless people irritate you, and when that happens, you don't reflect the character of Jesus.
In those moments, you have forsaken your calling, and you've made it all about you. Listen, God stimulates the joy in joyless people by sending people full of joy to renew the joy in people who have lost it. That's the plan. God makes His invisible grace visible by sending people of grace to give grace to people who need grace. Who in your life needs joy? Paul says, "Don't start by preaching at them. Start by putting on Jesus, and reflecting His character so patiently, so sweetly that because you've put on those clothes, they remember who they are, and they remember what they've been given." Joy is our birthright as believers. May our savior, in tender mercy, renew our joy.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this joy journey we've taken in your word. Every passage we've looked at is there by you recorded and preserved for us for our rescue and transformation. May we look to you for our joy. May we remember because of your intervening, unstoppable, providing, inseparable grace, we have reason for joy even in suffering. May we remember that joy is a community project, that it's our moral responsibility. May we reflect you in such a way that people around us remember who they are and what they've been given, and their joy would return.
It's right for us at the end of this evening to say we love you, but we would confess that our highest, joyous thought in life is that we have been loved by you. You are a rock and a fortress. You are a son and a shield. You are hope and truth and life and reconciliation and peace and redemption. Thank you that you care about our joy. We love you. We pray these things in your sweet and strong name, amen. God bless.
