The Marks of a Good Church: Joy

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  Rm 12:12: rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer

  Rm 12:15: Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep

  Rm 16:19: For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil

  1 Cr 7:29-30: But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess

  1 Cr 13:6: (love) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth

  1 Cr 16:17: I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part

  2 Cr 2:3-4: This is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you

  2 Cr 6:10: as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things 2 Cr 7:6-7: But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more

  2 Cr 7:9: I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God

  2 Cr 7:13: For this reason we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all

  2 Cr 7:16: I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you

  2 Cr 13:9: For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong; this we also pray for, that you be made complete

  2 Cr 13:11: Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you

  Ph 1:17-19: the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

  Ph 2:17-18: But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me

  Ph 2:27-29: For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard

  Ph 3:1: Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you

  Ph 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

  Ph 4:10: But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity

  Cl 1:24: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions

  Cl 2:5: For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ

  1 Th 3:8-10: for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?

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  The Marks of a Good Church: Joy

  In the last five years here I know I've sometimes just preached one verse, but I don't know if that one verse has only ever had two words. So, here we are. Rejoice always. There was no way you were going to be able to get to that before I could even say it, for a lengthy introduction to kind of let you find it in your Bible. I couldn't buy that much time. But, this morning, it is important that we let the Scripture in its simplicity, drill deep down into our hearts to really examine our lives and see where does the joy in our life come from? When Paul gives this short command, he gives it with no caveats, conditions, qualifiers, or as we like to say, no ifs, ands or buts about it. He's able to give this command to this church in this time without having to say a bunch of different things around it that would make it sound as if there's conditions...conditional rejoicing. That if things are going a certain way, you know, then I can rejoice, as in we play this game when we're not going below the surface of our own heart. If life is going the way that I want, I get the job that I want, i have the house that I want, I get into the college that I want, and then of course, I'm rejoicing. Or we can be this way in our marriages. If I get married, you know, I can rejoice. If my spouse does what I want them to do, I'll rejoice. If my kids obey me, I'll rejoice. We can do this in church, you know, if the ministry runs the way that I want. If the elders hire the guy that I want, if the pastor preaches the way that I want, if the music's played the way that I like, then rejoicing. And what you've entered into is a thing called conditional Christianity or relativistic rejoicing or, provisional pleasures, however you want to say it. But then Paul would have to rewrite, rejoice sometimes. Be happy when it's convenient for you. And that's what we have to explore today, because these two verses, in and of themselves, though, they are powerful in their punch, they can be taken a lot of different ways and they could produce maybe more questions than just staring at them as themselves could answer. And so we're going to explore that this morning as we talk about rejoicing always. So I've already said the verse. I've read it many a times. And you're waiting like how does he go to, you know, Isaiah 40, the grass withers and the flower fades, and the Word of God, even when it's just two words, endures forever. Amen.

  So let's talk about what it means for Paul to give the command rejoice always. And as I said a few weeks ago, as we have gotten into the end of this letter, and most of it has been Paul telling the story of this church, this good church, as we've explored and he's a good leader and these are good people. And now he's giving them, commands at the end. I likened it that some of you that went away to a summer camp or off to college, mom would write you a letter while you were away. So I know now I'm speaking to the 50 and up crowd because phones and everything else come along since then. But back in the day, if you wanted to hear from a family member, maybe you did have to write a letter. They wrote one to you and they would tell you how grandma is doing and the dog and all that. And then if mom wrote you that letter away at college, she would end with, like, brush your teeth, wash your sheets, wear new clothes to class. If you really want to get married, son, brush your teeth. I'm just going to keep reminding you of that. Otherwise, you got no shot. And that's kind of the staccato-like ending of this letter. Paul is giving these Christians commands. And here we have, after 12 to 13, life in the church amongst leadership. And last week, 14 and 15, the mutual ministry amongst the body. You get this simple command straightforward down the middle...rejoice always. The word for word translation...at all times be rejoicing. So there's no way around it. And it just made me think like, you know, is this Paul kind of just doing a modern number of when we walk up to somebody who looks like they're having a bad day, which is, you know, common whether we do that to other people, they do it to us, especially when it's done to you. "Hey, you having a bad day?" "Yeah. Thanks for noticing." "Well. Cheer up." "Okay, great. You know what? That's all I needed." It's crazy how the world works. My bad day is solved by you just telling me to cheer up. I remember, you know, there are certain people that just seem to wake up always on the right side of the bed. And, uh, maybe in the course of life, I've become one of those. But I wasn't always. In college the Lord deemed it appropriate to give me one of those type of roommates to...and still friends to this day. Miracles can happen. But you know, that first year was a little bit rough. He was just always on. He was always excited, always joyful. He would really embody this verse. And I was me...not this verse. And, you know, in little ways we had differences. You know, I was pretty studious and would try to stay on top of work and balance that with being an athlete. And, you know, his college life was Little Debbies and Mountain Dew in late night hangs with not much homework being done. And I was trying to get to bed early, often; because I'd have to work out the next morning. And in one particular season of football in the spring, we'd have early morning exercises. 5:30 a.m. you had to be out on the field, so you had to wake up at five. And I'm trying to be disciplined. Go to bed at a good hour, you know, drink my protein shake, and he's offering me a Twinkie. And then he stays up pretending to do homework, but he's just hanging out with friends in the room...Hey, man, could you please go to sleep? Well, lo and behold, I'd wake up at five. Alarm goes off. And yes, he was even cheerful at 5 a.m. when he didn't have to get out of bed. He did not play football, so he would turn over. Like the proverb talks about the guy on the hinge, the...I'm not calling him a sluggard, but he kind of. He would just roll over, look at me in the darkness...know that I was scowling in the darkness somehow and say, hey, Ash, have a good practice. So that went on for a few days. And then the Lord led me to Proverbs 27:14. He that blesseth...I'm using the KJV because I want this to really hit you. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him. So I went to my friend that evening. And said for my evening devotion tonight, brother, I want you to know about this verse that you have become a curse to me, even though you think you're a blessing because you're so joyful. I mean, is that this? Preacher Chuck Swindoll comments. "Rejoicing always. This doesn't mean you need to be a cheerleader, a clown or a stand-up comedian. It doesn't mean you go through life every day like you're in a scene from The Sound of Music. Or commentator Gordon Fee says, "This is not a sugarcoated call for putting on a happy face. This was a church undergoing severe hardship because of its faith in Christ." And that's important to remember the context of what we've been studying in Acts 17 related to this letter. This church is a good church, and yet it was not a church without problems, especially persecution from the outside. If you remember, in Acts 17, Paul comes and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaiming Jesus as Lord and not Caesar, and that turns the city on them, as in jealous Jews who maybe were saying, hey, it's our way, not that way. Because of a different view on God. And so they were running out of town, and then they got some secular people to join in the riots. And next thing you know, Paul's gone and he's sending Timothy back to check on this church because he's worried about their faith. We saw that back in chapter three. So there was persecution and suffering and affliction which he warned them of. But there was also internally, some of them were sad. We learned that in chapter four. Some of them were grieving because they saw believers in Christ dying around them, and they were anticipating the return of Jesus and thinking, what's going to happen to them? So this command comes within the circumstances of grief and affliction. But is Paul just commanding an emotion here or an experience? I think not. You can't command emotions. It's not how they work. They work off of something else. So just telling somebody to cheer up oftentimes doesn't accomplish it. What we might move to though, from okay, if I can't just grin and bear it and turn happy in a moment, then somebody might invite me into some experience they know brings me joy. Right? So if you've been down in the dumps, they might, you know, hey, listen to a song that, you know, kind of helps you through whatever you're going through. And this can be a temporary fix because we are made by God to experience the full range of our emotions. That, yeah, you could turn, you know, a sad song says so much or whoever wrote that one even yesterday in the car, driving with my family, I was thinking about today and then, you know, just, uh, unintentionally, we have the radio on talking with my wife and, you know, in the background, just some songs that are kind of upbeat. "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never going to keep me down. I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never going to keep me down." I could do this all day. You realize when you read the lyrics how dumb the song is, but when you listen to it, in 1997, you were like, man, I get knocked down, I get up again. Tubthumping or something like that. Chumbawumba I forget. You know, the next song comes on the radio...again it's got a good vibe...sunny day. "Now that it's raining more than ever, know that we'll still have each other. You can stand under my umbrella. Ella Ella...eh eh eh . Ella Ella eh eh eh Ella Ella eh eh eh." But yet it can cheer you up when you hear the melody. Left to itself what is cheering me up here? And that's what I mean by Paul's not trying to tell these Thessalonians go straight at the emotion. You know. Aim for the joy. Or aim for the experience that brings you the joy. Because that's not going to get you to the heart of what it is. It doesn't work that way. It might work that way in the world. And in fact, that's a lot of times what the world will tell you to do. Go do the thing that brings you the joy and you'll be all right. But did they get to the root of it that produces the fruit of it? So while Paul is not commanding an emotion or an experience, he is commanding, and this is the difference, an expression of the Christian's deepest affection. Because joy is an affection, as is love. And he's saying, you've got to get at the thing that produces the affection, that brings it out from within. And that affection we all know is Jesus Christ. Joy is an affection like love, found in a believer's heart, and is a visible expression of a Christian's hope in Christ. That's why in Romans 12:15 he could say, rejoicing in hope. Well, what's our hope? Our hope is in Christ. That's what you've seen in Thessalonians all along. Paul keeps bringing them back to this idea of faith, love, and verse three of chapter one, steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is saying, look, believers, if you're going to be grounded in Jesus Christ, that your hope has to reach back to him. And in that hope you can rejoice even when there's very little happening around you in your circumstances that you can rejoice in. And so that's what we're going to look at this morning. I want to kind of take these two words and expand them out into the New Testament and look at how Paul used them elsewhere, because that's what fills out these two simple words...rejoice always.

  So let's start at the root. The fruit of our rejoicing comes from the root of our joy being in Jesus Christ. And where we get that is just two letters earlier. Turn left in your Bible to Philippians, because he also gives the command to rejoice, but he grounds it or roots it, if you want to use that language, if you want to picture the tree in Psalm 1, for the person who is prospering at all times because they meditate in the Word of God day and night, and they have fruit that comes in its season and their leaf does not wither. Where does that come from? It comes from being rooted in Christ. So Philippians 3:1, where he tells this church, "Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice...not always. He says, rejoice in the Lord. He says later in chapter 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Same language as in 1 Thessalonians 15 and 16 but he's saying, where is the center of that joy? Where is the fountain head of it? It's your relationship to Jesus Christ. You are in him. He is in you, as we already sang this morning, abiding in him and he in you. This is where the joy is going to come from. And if it's not coming from there, you're latching on to something else, even something that can have the impression of, well, that brings me joy. But it's not necessarily joy that comes from your relationship to Jesus, the source of our joy. He also says, then even in, Philippians 4:10...talks about himself. I've rejoiced in the Lord greatly, as in this isn't Paul just prescribing this for other people. He's saying, that's where my joy comes from, as I can rejoice because I am in Christ. It's bound up in my relationship with Jesus. And as we start down the path of saying, hey, I want to understand what it means to rejoice always. You can't leave behind what is going to produce it, which is the root of your relationship to Jesus Christ. And when you go through the Gospels, you will see that wherever you find Christ from the beginning to end of his life, and all parts in between, when he has been revealed to people for who he is and what he's come to do, joy comes with it. As in, you can't separate a true relationship with Jesus Christ from rejoicing.

  Let's start just I'll give you a few of these. I'll give you five roots of our joy in Jesus Christ when people encounter him..when they know who he is and what he's come to do. From the beginning of his life, Matthew 2:10, the wise men are going after Jesus. They've heard that the star has come. They go to King Herod. They're trying to find where it was. And it says, after hearing the king, they went their way. And the star which they had seen in the east, went on before them, till it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. As in from the start, seeking Jesus even before they have met him, and been able to see him face to face, just following the star that was leading them to find him. In seeking Christ every true follower of Jesus is on a path to joy. That's important to know from the start of whatever your experience with Christianity is, to whatever degree you're familiar with it, that if somehow you have adopted a view of the Christian faith that says, you know, hold up on telling people about the joy in Jesus Christ, wrong motivation. It's duty, then delight. I don't think so. Just the approach to hearing who this Christ is, what is he like, what did he come to do? You start to hear the melody, the faint sound of joy being played, and you follow it. You seek it out, and that's what you find with these wise men coming to find him. And then whenever everybody arrives, the angels show up, Luke 2:10, and say his arrival was good news of great joy, the gospel message. Even before you understand the fullness of it, it's good news bringing great joy to people. Even in just seeking Jesus Christ. It moves from that to Luke 10:20. Jesus has sent out his disciples, and they've been given borrowed authority to preach and to do miracles in his name. And they have seen some pretty amazing things, and they come back feeling pretty good about themselves. And, there's a little admonition Jesus has to give them here in Luke 10:20. He tells them, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. I mean, they're feeling that borrowed authority from Jesus, Luke chapter ten. He says, don't merely rejoice that spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. So the highest joy, the greatest rejoicing that a believer has in this life is going to come from knowing that what?...you've been saved by Christ. You seek Christ. And it's a pursuit of joy. You're saved by Christ. It's a relationship with joy. And then we see serving Christ brings joy. John 4:36 when he is talking with the woman at the well, he tells her, look, I am water that's springing up to eternal life, and he who drinks from me will never thirst again. And she's understanding he's the Messiah. The disciples come back. They think you're so hungry, boss, can we get you some food? He says, I have food you know nothing about. I'm here to do the work of the will of the Father. And then he tells them this in John 4:36. You know what will bring greater joy? He who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for life eternal, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together...serving Christ, partnering with him as a follower of Jesus. That privilege brings joy while we're still here on this earth. So it's seeking Christ brings joy. It's being saved by Christ is the highest of joys. Serving Christ is joy. But not just the good side, not just the side of, I should say, the pleasant side. All of it's good, you know, serving Christ and, demons being subject to the disciples. But listen to what he says in Luke 6:10. It's the Beatitudes in Luke, not in Matthew. And he's using joy language. He's talking about being blessed in verse 22, which is another word for happy. For those of you who are like, listen, joy is for Christians. Happiness is for the world. No it's not. I mean, don't try to pull apart pleasure language in the Bible when it doesn't...happiness, joy, pleasure, delight all the same thing. Now I get we can say, well you know, happiness, it comes from hap luck...happy, I get it. But that's not how the Bible uses it. It's saying if you're happy and you know it, if you got joy, joy, joy, whatever you want to say. We get what it's saying. To be happy, to be joyful, to be glad is related. In Luke 6:22, Jesus says, blessed, or some translations...happy are you when men hate you and ostracize you and insult you. Wow, that's pretty bad stuff. What happened to when like, demons are subject to us in your name? Isn't that good? He says. But when you are scorned, your name is evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Here's your response. Be glad in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. So whether it's serving Christ that brings us joy, partnering with him in ministry, or when that service brings us into some suffering, some ostracism, some rejection, being insulted, being even scorned, being called evil for our following Jesus Christ and serving him. When that suffering comes, he says, be glad in that day. Rejoice in that day. Jump for joy, actually. Why? Because you're rooted in Christ. You're taking that suffering and rejection on because of following him. Not because of something about you...because of him. So these roots of joy, whether it's seeking Christ, being saved by Christ, serving Christ, suffering for Christ, and all the way to the end. John 16:22, in the upper room, the night of his betrayal, the day before his crucifixion, he's comforting the disciples, offering them peace, telling them it's going to be okay even when he goes away from them. And he tells them this in John 16:22, therefore you have grief now, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. I mean, do you see the bookends of the Christian life when you're rooted in him from the beginning of seeking him to being saved by him, serving him, suffering for him, and the longing and desire and the joy of seeing him again, it all goes back to what?...joy. Joy is inescapable. It all points in parts of your relationship with Jesus, from the encountering of him the first time you heard the gospel, until you will see him face to face one day. No one can take your joy from you. Which is why then going back to the beginning, rejoicing always isn't a conditional thing, is it? It's not based on circumstances. Because circumstances can change...the conditions of your life day to day. But he's saying your joy can never be taken from you because I will never lose you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ. So the believer that thinks they are losing everything around them and they very well might be. Goes back to one taproot that brings life to the fruit. All other routes shriveled up, gone. What's the taproot that's going to keep feeding the prosperous man or woman of Psalm one? When there's no circumstance left on a human level, a horizontal level to rejoice in...its vertical. Are you grounded? Are you rooted in the love of God, in Christ? That's the believer's joy. That's where it starts. The root of rejoicing always...seeking him, seeing him, saved by him, suffering for him. All different reasons, but all one root, Jesus Christ. It puts you in good company of the saints of yesteryear. John 8:56, Abraham the father of faith. Jesus says this about him. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. How about King David? Psalm 16:11 wrote, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 21:16 you make me joyful with gladness in your presence. Was it good enough for the saints of old...Abraham, David? How about John the Baptist, even before he was born, leaps in his mother's womb when he's in the room with Jesus. But he says this in his life when his disciples are saying, hey, man, is it kind of is Jesus's ministry cutting into yours? Is he taking away some of your glory? Here is John's response John 3:29...he who has the bride is the bridegroom. That's Christ, the groom. But the friend of the bridegroom me...I'm the best man who stands and hears him. And I rejoice greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This joy of mine has been made full. You're in pretty good company. Through the history of men and women of faith. When you are rooted and grounded in joy in Jesus Christ. Joy that comes from one root...him. Joy from God. Joy through the Holy Spirit. Joy in hearing the Word of God. Joy in joining the people of God in worship. Joy in serving God. Joy in suffering for God. All of it still comes back to this. Are you in Christ or are you not? Because if you're not. There is no rejoicing always. That's it. That's the great dividing line. That's why at the end of John 15, we sang abide this morning, John 15:1-11 abide in me and I in you. Apart from me you can do nothing. You have nothing, spiritually speaking. You could have everything else, but if you don't have me, you have nothing. And you can do nothing unless you abide, remain, stay with me...union with Christ. So John 15:11, then he says, these things I have commanded you. I've taught you that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be made full. Whose joy is it, then? It's not found in you. It's found in him. And when he's in you and you're in him, then you have it. When you don't have him, you don't have the joy. Period. That's the root.

  Now let's talk about the fruit. The root of our rejoicing is our relationship in Jesus Christ. That's how we can apply 1 Thessalonians 5:16. Starting off, am I rooted and grounded in Christ in a saving relationship with him? Where does that move to? Well, again, studying the rest of the New Testament, the fruit of rejoicing always doesn't stay vertical, as in it's not just about you and Jesus the rest of your life. Because when you study Paul's use of rejoicing, the rest of his 13 letters 29 times, I looked up every reference 20 out of the 29 they're horizontal relationships where he's talking about rejoicing. As in when Paul's talking about rejoicing in the New Testament, in his letters to churches. 20 out of the 29 times he's using it, it has to do with life in the body of Christ. So those vertical dimensions of your relationship with God, the root that goes down deep, that then is going to spring up, needs to broaden out in the fruits of your relationship with other people. Or else you're not experiencing that joy to the full. If you're just keeping it to yourself, living an isolated Christian life. And this is from the example of Paul. So I took those 29 references this week. And I tried to categorize them, sort of like I just did with the roots of seeking Christ, being saved by Christ, serving Christ, suffering for Christ, seeing him again. There's five dimensions of our horizontal relationships that we see Paul talk about...our joy related to other's joys. And so let's start with the most basic one, Romans chapter 12 that we already read this morning. But I'll read it again. Romans 12:15, rejoice with those who rejoice. The first dimension of horizontal fruits in our life related to rejoicing is sympathetic joys, we'll call them. They all begin with us. Sympathetic joys, as in one way that we can see the application of rejoicing always in our life, is when we sympathize with our Christian brothers and sisters by rejoicing with those who rejoice. That we get involved in other's lives. It's hard to rejoice with a brother and sister in Christ if you have no investment in anybody else's life but your own. I mean, if it's just you and Jesus and you think, hey, I'm happy doing that. It's then impossible to rejoice with somebody who's rejoicing. And just as we see in this verse, you don't just enter into their joys. Look what else you do. You weep with those who weep. That's not by accident that Paul pairs those next to each other. He's showing the full range of the Christian experience. We're going to walk with people through their joys, through the high fives, through the peaks, through the heights. But we're also going to what? We're going to weep with them in the low times, in the valleys, in the darkness. We're there for both. Uh, we don't get to pick and choose based on our personality. As I talked about last week, you know, when you see somebody hurting and you're going to encourage the faint hearted and you become faint hearted and you say, no, you know what, Ashoff, I'm here for the joys. You got sorrows, email Kurtis. We're a great tag team that way he comes in, I tag him in. He's good for weeping with those who weep. I'm here to rejoice when things are good. That's just not how Christianity works. I mean, I look back to my last week a handful of times, hanging out with brothers in Christ, getting together with them. You know, I can't run a pre-screening. Hey, friend, we're going to have lunch today. By the way, I'm only here for the rejoicings leave behind the sorrows. It happens in a single conversation, and that's the real thing. You know, I'm getting together with these guys. They're telling them about how life is good and God is kind and all this. And then it just can pivot so quickly into this moment of sorrow and this moment of brokenness. And that's just what it is. But it's built on this idea that when we enter into others’ lives for the highs and lows, this is what we signed up for...sympathetic joys. That in the midst of our lives as believers, we have to be at all times able to go there with somebody. And it doesn't matter how our day's been, if God has lined us up in some sovereign way to meet with somebody for a lunch, or to call them on the phone, and they've got to pour their heart out over the phone and like you're there for them in it. It's a sympathetic joy that also could be mixed sorrow. So that's the first fruit of rejoicing always. Sometimes it's in sympathetic joys, Paul says. Now let's talk about sacrificial joys. Go back to Philippians for a moment. Philippians 2 shows this. These Macedonian churches, one in Thessalonica and one in Philippi, have a lot in common that Paul has to encourage their joy because he's talking about it in both of them. But Paul rejoices in sacrificing for others joy. Philippians 2:17-18 listen to what he says to this church. Even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Now that's coming at his cost, isn't it? He's pouring himself out for them. He's sacrificing and serving them for their faith. And what is his response? Oh, you guys are such a drag. No, he says, I rejoice and share my joy with you all, but it's reciprocal...notice that in verse 18. And I want you, I urge you to rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. Sacrificial joys, as in when we sympathize, we rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. This moves into the category of I'm serving people to the point of sacrifice, and that's a joy for me. And one we should be joyful recipients of it is what he's saying here. But also he wants them to, I guess, mimic what he's doing, imitate him as he imitates Christ, that they should be rejoicing in the same way and sharing the joys with him. So that's a sacrificial joy. And you also can hear that in Colossians 1:24, Paul says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. There's lots of ways Paul embodies this. Philippians 1:25, I know that I'll remain and continue with you for your progress and joy in the faith. Why? Because he loves them. He takes joy in them. So that's sacrificial joys. How about strengthening joys? Go back to 1 Thessalonians...that he takes joy in seeing this church made stronger. Look at chapter three. Remember at the beginning of chapter three he was saying, man, I couldn't endure it. I had to know how you were doing. I was worried about your faith. Thessalonians. Uh, those jealous Jews and those rioters were coming in trying to discourage you. And so, verse eight, he says, I've heard out of your distress and affliction that you were still being built up in faith and love. And he goes in verse eight, now we really live if you stand firm in the faith. Your life is my life. Verse nine, what thanks can we render to God for you?, listen to the joy language, in return for all the joy which we rejoice before our God on your account as night and day we keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face and complete what's lacking. He has strengthening joys, as in when he hears about a church being stronger in faith and he gets to participate in that, he takes joy in it...their maturity in Christ. That's the real Christian life. Do you understand that? Do you look for that in your own life? Do the things you rejoice in in our church, are they just merely conditional, circumstantial joys for you? Or are you in the long haul with people around here? That you're going to take your time and get to know them and pour into them, and they pour into you and you're it's like your own kid. You want to see them mature. You want to see them grow physically, mentally, emotionally, all that good stuff. So it is spiritually. It's rooted in Christ. But the fruit of it is man. I rejoice when I see my...that's why it's crazy to not connect in a church, to think coming Sunday alone is going to do that for you. Because you're not in anybody's life. What do you have to rejoice with? What do you have to rejoice in if you don't make relationships and rejoice in them being strengthened in Christ? And then on the opposite end of that, at least on a human level, the fourth one is sorrowful joys. You have sympathetic joys, sacrificial joys, and serving people, strengthening joys in helping them be built up in the faith. But you also have sorrowful joys. Turn to 2 Corinthians 7:6-9. And by the way, in pulpit curriculum this week, if you download that from our website next to the sermon. I'll list...I'll give you the sheet of all 29 uses of rejoicing in Paul's letters. And you can look these up on your own. But I'm just I've tried to bring them down to just a few categories. This one is sorrowful joys. Why do I use that language? Because there are times that our joy is mixed with sorrow, when we're leaning into somebody's life, admonishing them for their sin. So Paul says this to the church in Corinth. Chapter seven, verse eight. For though I caused you sorrow by my letter i don't regret it, though I did regret it. It's wonderful how that mixes right there. Why did he not regret it, but he regretted it? For I see that the letter caused you sorrow though only for a while. You know, as in, maybe at first you were just I was rejoicing because repentance was going to happen, but then it was just short lived. Verse nine, now I rejoice not that you were just made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance, as in, it wasn't enough for the people in this church that were living in sin to hear Paul admonish them, to tell them, turn around, stop going your own way, sinners. But then he sees, oh, they weren't just sorrowful. He just doesn't get a report like, Paul, that was a really heavy letter. Like everybody was crushed by it, but nobody changed. Well, what good is that? There's no rejoicing then. Just making them sorry for their sin. The rejoicing comes in when he says, you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance, for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation. Sorrowful joys, what are those? That's when we actually expect life in the body to care about when we're in sin. And come to talk to us about it. And yes, there can be tears involved. We talked about that last week when Paul said in Acts 20, Ephesians, I went house to house with tears admonishing you...your tears and mine. It's painful. That's real. But look what it produced. Look what fruit is in it now. The fruit of joy of seeing you walking in Christ again. So there's sorrowful joys. That's why John could say there's no greater joy than to see children walking in the truth, because the whole Christian life is marked by our continual repentance. Seeing our sin, turning from it, remembering the promise of the gospel. God loves us in Christ. So there are sorrowful joys, and then lastly, their selfless joys. Uh, flip forward to Philippians chapter one. So what's a selfless joy? As in, you're so caught up in your joy in Christ and in the good of others that even when it may lead to people maligning you, you being passed over, others being picked instead of you, that you can rejoice in that when Christ is being promoted. That's what Paul is saying in Philippians 1:12-18. He talks about being thrown in prison, verse 12, Philippians 1, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, my circumstances have turned out for the progress of the gospel. So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known through the whole Praetorian Guard. As in look, because I'm locked up, Christ is being preached, so I'm happy about that. But also he gets a report...listen to verse 15. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and strife. So while Paul's in prison in Philippi, there are people around Philippi saying, ah, that Paul, he must have done something wrong. He's in jail. What is his response to that? He says, verse 16, some are doing it out of love for me and love for the gospel. Verse 17, the others are proclaiming Christ out of selfish ambition. They're trying to make themselves look good and make me look bad. Thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. But listen to the selfless joy of Paul, verse 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, if Christ is proclaimed in this, I rejoice. That's a selfless joy. That's saying, like, look, I like this isn't about me. It never has been about me. So if Christ is being preached and somebody gets picked over me for some ministry opportunity, some position, some promotion. I'm okay with that. My ego can step aside for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what I take joy in. And even if they're personally attacking me and saying things that aren't true about me. Now again you have to say, where does this rejoicing always come from? It comes from Paul's identity in Christ. But where do we see its fruits? Well, you've seen it in selfless joys, sacrificial joys, serving joys. I mean, all these different ways that you look in your life and say, hey, if I'm going to apply this application, if I'm going to take rejoice always and see where it's going to land now, you can kind of have a way to look out on your life right now and say, hey, who are all the relationships I have? Am I making any sacrifices for others? Am I serving other people even in things that may not be turning out the way I want? Am I okay to be selfless and still rejoice that Christ is being promoted? Do I see other people being strengthened in Christ...coming to Christ? Well then that's where the joy should come from. Now, all that being said. The roots of our joy being in Christ, the fruit of our joy being seen in relationships with others. You may be sitting there today saying to yourself. I don't feel like I'm experiencing joy in Christ. Adam, I don't disagree...clearly from the scriptures, Jesus Christ is the root of my joy. I'm good with that. Bibles make it very clear it's not an experience to seek out. I'm not just relying on my emotions to get to it, I get it. It's an expression of the affection in my heart for Jesus. But what if I don't feel it? What if I don't feel the affection? What if I don't feel the joy? I think a lot of us go through those seasons and for different reasons.

  So I took some time to think about that and come up with some categories for where there could be a famine of rejoicing always in your life. And again from the scriptures we'll have a few of these categories. But really, when I use that language of famine, I'm thinking of the parable of the soils; Matthew 13 and Mark 4, where Jesus talks about, hey, the soil in those parables, Jesus explains later, is the human heart. And the condition of the heart, determines a lot of how the effectiveness of the Word acts, as in there can there can be a soil that it just hits. It goes nowhere. It's a hard heart, it's a dead Heart. There's some soil that's shallow. It gets in there, but when things come, it chokes it out. So kind of using that as a baseline. I just want to give you a few different categories for where you might not be experiencing joy in Christ today.

  Category number one. The first category for why you may not feel any joy for Christ in your life. And this is all heart language because it's on the inside. Category one is a dead heart. It's number one on the list. And though it certainly could be more than this. It certainly may not be less than this. What I mean by a dead heart is if you're sitting there and you say there's no joy in Christ in my life. I can't remember the last time I had joy in Christ. You might say I've had joy around people I've admired, but like to actually say, my joy is in Jesus Christ. I don't know what you're talking about. Then my first question for you is, are you sure you're in Christ? You have to start there. You have to start with...do you know that you are in Jesus Christ today? Meaning, have you been born again? Are you united to Christ? Have you experienced the new birth? Something that you can't conjure up from the outside no matter if you were in church from the time you were born. I mean, really, when you think about it, the church people probably have the most to fear in this department. Why? Because you could be buying into false joys, peripheral joys, if you've been raised in the church. That's a good ride from the time you're a kid, right? I mean grow up, go to Awana, summer camps, youth groups and good reason to be joyful. Like why would we not want the church to be a place where a young person grows up and says, man, being a Christian is the greatest thing, and seeing people model that joy in their life. That's a good thing. But you have to sit there and ask yourself, though, have I bought into all the peripheral stuff but never the center? Is my joy in Jesus Christ this morning. And if you find yourself questioning that, here's the solution. Matthew 13:44, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again, and from his joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. The discovery of who Jesus Christ is and how precious he is, how priceless his life is, was, and always will be to you is what makes you out of joy be open to that exchange, as in, I'm willing to give it all up, whatever it is I'm holding on to this morning. Whatever hopes, dreams, ambitions, desires, I've had. But I don't have Christ and I don't have joy in him. Jesus teaching in this little parable, saying, finding me is like, you're not even looking for it in this parable. This field doesn't belong to this man. Otherwise he wouldn't have to go back and hide it. Somebody else's field...he is wandering through it, comes upon a treasure, wasn't looking for it, recognizes its value, hides it and in joy over it goes and sells out everything...no holding back, because of how valuable the treasure is. That's a relationship with Jesus Christ. And it's nothing less than that. So are you in Christ today? Have you rightly appropriated the value of the person and work of Jesus Christ that would make you want to trust him with everything you have? Precious just in his person...who he is as the Son of God. If he did nothing else besides that, the fact that it's God makes him precious. Makes him infinitely valuable because he's God. But then, unbeliever, think of what he's done as God. He comes down from heaven in the incarnation takes on the form of a man, born in a manger, just in his incarnation He is precious to us. When we think of what he gave up to come and to live in the world like we live it in every way, tempted as we have been tempted. How precious is he in his perfection?...never to sin once: never in thought, never in word, never in deed. Precious to us in his perfection. Because then he's precious to us in his forgiveness, that he could actually take our sin away on the cross, precious in the atonement. That God could receive his perfect life as a substitute for our sinful life. And then precious in the resurrection. To come back from the dead, to defeat death, to show that death is no longer ruling and reigning over those who sin. But you can be forgiven forever. How precious is Christ to you today? I mean, that's what you need to draw from this morning if you find yourself with no joy in Jesus Christ, you have to see him purely and perfectly and who he is and how infinitely valuable he is. And if you've seen him for anything less than that, you haven't been born again. It's all in, because then you look at your life and say, what? What do I have that I would want to keep if I can get all of that? So Christ, take my life. Make it yours: all of your forgiveness, all of your grace, all of your perfection for all of my sin. That's the great exchange. But you won't make it if you don't see its value. Toss it aside like it's not worth anything. People do that every day. But don't do it today. See Christ for who he is and what he offers you, and trust in him for salvation. First reason you may not have joy in Christ is because of a dead heart for the unbeliever. For the believer, you may have a calloused heart, a hardened heart due to a season of unconfessed private personal sin. Hiding it, keeping it, holding on to it. Thinking you can't let it be known. Can't go get help. It's too great of a sin. It would ruin your life. But it's ruining your life to not say anything about it. It's making you unhappy. It's making you miserable as a believer. Psalm 32, David went through this. And he was a man of God, loved God. No one loved God like David did, passionately from the heart. And yet listen to his testimony. Psalm 32, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long, sin will make you weak. Spiritually, physically, mentally, it'll break you down if you keep it private. Day and night your hand was heavy upon me. God was putting that hand on him. Why? He wanted to break him. Not as a bruised reed that snapped completely, but to say, David, you've got to break at this point. You can't keep hiding it. So what does he say in verse five? I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my sin to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. When is that time? It's right here, right now. Stop hiding your sin. Psalm 32 says at the beginning, how blessed is he whose sin is forgiven, whose sin is covered. If you keep trying to cover it you're basically saying, then Christ can't cover it. But if you uncover it, then you realize he does. As a believer, he already has. So what game are you playing hiding your sin? It's making you miserable. Confess it to him now. Go to someone else for help as we saw last week. If you're that weak in your sin, you need help. Go seek it out. So then in Psalm 51, the joy of your salvation could be restored. It's dangerous to play with sin as a Christian. Because you don't know how far it will take you. You don't know how hard it will make you. Hebrews 3:12-13 take care brothers and sisters, that there not be in any one of you, an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Encourage one another day after day, as long as it's called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. If sin is deceiving you this morning as a Christian, it's also hardening you every moment you keep it in. Every moment you continue to bury it and hide it. What's to hide if Christ died for it? What's to hide? To go and let somebody else know that you've been doing it is the humbling you need. Maybe because you've struggled being so self-righteous, keeping such a clean slate. How could anybody possibly know you're not perfect? None of us are. Otherwise we wouldn't need the Savior. So let your sin be known because it'll rob you of your joy. It'll steal your happiness, but Christ can restore it. Last category from a hard heart. We'll call this one a cold heart. You're not necessarily in a state of spiritual hardness because of hiding your sin, but maybe you're in a state of spiritual coldness due to a season of personal isolation from church fellowship. The warmest place for the Christian is the church. And that's where it's going to be gathered in, with the most light and the most heat gathered with the body of Christ connected to one another. That's why Hebrews ten gives the admonition. Right after saying, hold fast the confession of our hope, our hope in Christ without wavering. Yes, individually, we must hold on to our hope, our confession. Christ is all, of course. But right after that, he says, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. Do you see how quickly he moves there? So if you're saying I'm not experiencing much joy in the Christian life right now, and it isn't a hidden sin in your life, and you are in Christ, but are you at a distance from the body of Christ? Where it can be cool on those fringes. There's nobody warming you up when you're cold. Nobody bringing you light and heat when you need it for your own growth, and they need it for theirs. Proverbs 18:1, he who separates himself seeks his own desire and quarrels against all sound wisdom. Isolation can rob you of joy. Because as we saw already this morning, Paul's joy, though rooted in Christ, bore fruit in what?...life in the body together. To rejoice with others, rejoicing in the Lord too. So you put all this together this morning and you see how much more there is to rejoicing always than at first meets the eye. But how wonderful it is that we have a God who is our everlasting joy, and has designed life in Christ for us to be one of joy when we're connected to him and connected to one another.

  Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning for your Word. Thank you for its clarity. Thank you for its simplicity. As we've been saying the last few weeks, these are not difficult commands to understand, but they certainly are to apply because they get down to the deepest parts of our heart. Even this morning they force us to ask the hard questions like, why am I not rejoicing in you, Father? Why am I not rejoicing in the Son? Why am I not rejoicing in the Spirit? And to be able to examine that question and go deeper than maybe we're used to going. We pray that you would bring the good fruits of a restored joy in you. We know joy is from your Spirit. It's a fruit of his. But we also know rejoicing always is something commanded. So, Spirit, move our hearts closer to the love of God in Christ this morning to bring us the fullness of joy you promised. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.