LIVINGJOY

“I want something else to get me through this semi-charmed life.”

– Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”

“Most Christians I know have just enough of the Gospel to make them miserable, but not enough to make them joyful.”

– Tony Campolo

PROMISES OF JOY

• Our “joy will be complete” (John 15:11).

• We’ll “leap for joy” (Luke 6:23).

• Holy Spirit will produce a lasting joy inside of us (Galatians 5:22-23), making it a key trait of our faith.

• Be “full of joy in the Lord” (Phil. 4:4) and to “be joyful always” (1 Thes. 5:16).

• We are filled with “an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8).

WHY THE JOY GAP?

• Either the Bible hypes joy and offers us an unrealistic portrait of its practical impact.

• Or, we are somehow missing out, leaving God’s precious gift unclaimed.

GOD’S GREAT GIFTS: GRACE & JOYWhile grace is God’s priceless gift to the unsaved, joy is his most tangible and transformative gift that he gives to his followers this side of heaven.

Joy is dynamic proof of our future hope as believers and our greatest distinguisher to a cynical world held hostage by life’s circumstances.

“Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”

– G.K. Chesterton

WHAT IS JOY?

Joy is nothing less than the nature of God pumped through our bloodstream.

It’s a blessed invasion of the Spirit of God deep into my soul.

STEREOGRAMS

JOY IS PERMANENT

• I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)

• You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. (1 Thes. 1:6)

• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23)

JOY VS. EXPRESSIONS OF JOY

Joy is the divine substance underneath.

Joyful expressions come and go quickly, but the joy flowing through my bloodstream never leaves me.

LOGIC 101

My joy is the nature of God living inside of me.

God’s nature is unlimited.

∴ My joy is unlimited.

SUPPLY & DEMAND

The lack of joy in a believer’s life is a demand problem, not a supply problem.

“What a lump of sunshine that man was! The very sight of him seemed to fill me with exhilaration for his joy was wholly in his God!”

– Charles Spurgeon

ABSOLUTE DRUDGERY?

• Deny yourself?

• Take up your cross?

• Follow him to Golgotha?

• Lose your life?

Once we understand what true joy is, surrender no longer sounds like a death march, but a journey to joy.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

John 15:11

JOY IN LIQUID FORM

Surrender is not a miserable act at all. It’s our way out of misery.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”

James 1:2

INDY JOY

JOY THROUGH TRIALS

While happiness and sorrow are mutually exclusive, joy and grief walk hand in hand.

James 1:2 is not an ideal to strive for. But a description of what life is like when you walk with Jesus Christ during the worst of days.

JOYVERSUSHAPPINESS

LIVESTRONG“It’s your life. You will have it your way.”

LIVEJOY“It’s God’s life. He will have it his way.”

LIVING JOY

We are like deathless people in an endless tale of joy.