Blog

Jan 05, 2025 06:00am

The Joy Set Before

135 Views

At the beginning of August, I started listening to a sermon series on the Fruit of the Spirit; each week, the preacher focused on teaching one fruit found in the Galatians 5:22-23 list.

I remember listening to the sermon on “Joy” with both anticipation and expectation.

The cares of the world as well as my personal life had become too much. I needed to know.

How do I do it?

How do I maintain being “happy” when the world and my personal life are H.A.R.D.?

Is that even possible?

The above is my inner dialog now word vomited out to you.

I finished the message and nothing changed in my mood or spirit.

I cannot say nothing changed in my life because it did; things went from H.A.R.D to H.A.R.D.E.R.

Cue a gasp of pure shock.

How could God allow me to find this series only to be met with greater opposition?

I’ve learned God desires to teach me about joy not through a one-stop shop sermon, but over a period of …?

I don’t know what time period to put there as this is still a lesson the Lord is actively teaching me.

The theme verse of the “Joy” sermon was Nehemiah 8:10, “…And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

A verse the Holy Spirit has been reminding me of as well as placing in my path over and over again during the past several months.

Don’t you find it odd that grief is so closely linked to joy in this verse?

In the preceding verses of this passage we read that the people are convicted/grieved by their sin which results in their repentance.

Nehemiah encourages them in verse ten to “not be grieved” (i.e., feel guilty, sad, etc.) because in repentence their strength was renewed. God did not want them to feel guilt or to grovel, but understand that He had forgiven them of their sin, therefore they could rejoice.

Wait…

I thought joy was an emotional state or disposition of optimism that results from positive circumstances?

While it’s true that joy and happiness can be synonymous emotions that result from supporting circumstances, spiritually speaking, joy is not an emotion but a fruit.

The Bible has a lot to say about fruit.

The fruits listed in Galatians are a result of the inward work of sanctification (i.e., the Holy Spirit convicting and ridding the disciple of sin and self in order to make them more like Christ.)

They serve as evidence that the believer is walking by the Spirit, with Christ, and is no longer living to satisfy but die to their flesh.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:15-20 that we can know a person by their fruit. He goes on to say that if a tree does not bear “good fruit” that it will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Physically speaking, to yield a plentiful garden much effort, sweat, and labor is put into the growth process before a harvest is produced.

What I’m learning is that growing the spiritual fruit of joy requires:

Effort to spend time with the Lord and in the Word
Weeding out the flesh
Relying on God to produce joy within me, despite my circumstances, as I look to the steadfast example of Jesus

I don’t know about you but this process does not scream “JOY” to me, at least not the emotional/circumstantial kind.

As Christians, we are to continually become more like Christ. So what about Jesus; how was the fruit of joy produced in his life?

Jesus was a man of many demands. Over and over again in the gospels we read about Jesus taking intentional time to be alone with the father.

We know Jesus did not give into the flesh as he was completely sinless, but he did have to learn to die to it in order to produce true joy in his life.

Hebrews 5:8-9 puts it this way, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him…”

Learned obedience sounds like spiritual fruit in the making to me.

Just as we have to rely in all circumstances, Jesus also had to rely on God in all circumstances to bring forth his will; both our joy and his.

Our joy is found in two things: our salvation and being a minister of reconciliation (i.e., the gospel) to others.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was

set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The phrase “set before him” does not mean what was immediately in front of Jesus, but what was to come after the 30 years of mockery, rejection, and eventual death on a cross (AKA the H.A.R.D and H.A.R.D.E.R. stuff.)

Jesus’ joy while he endured, was keeping the end in mind; salvation for all that none may perish, but may have eternal life with and in him forever.

We also must live with the end in mind; becoming more like Christ, making disciples, and spending eternity with him. This is the soil in which joy is grown.

When we focus on the joy set before us through H.A.R.D and the H.A.R.D.E.R joy is produced.