The transcript of a Sermon on James 1:2-4 has been lightly edited.
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to the book of James. Today, as we continue our look through the fruit of the spirit, we are going to look at joy. We looked several weeks ago at the fact that the fruit of the spirit is a product that exists within the Christian through their union with Christ.
And last week we looked at that that opening fruit of the spirit, which is love. And remember, as we look at these, we are not considering them one by one as things to be checked off of a list or things that become for us another law that we have to reach a certain level of proficiency in each of these areas so that God will love us or accept us. But these are fruits that grow out of our union with Christ and describe what it means to be holy before God.
When God says, be holy as I am holy, this is what holiness looks like as we consider these fruit of the spirit. And so today, as we consider the fruit of the spirit, which is joy, we come to James chapter one, beginning in verse one:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Let’s pray to the great God above. We do thank you so much for this word that you have given to us today. Lord, may our eyes and ears be open so that we might hear and understand so that we might see how you would have us to live in light of our union with Christ. And Lord, may this be a message that grows joy within our hearts. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
So in Sunday school today, Bruce opened with this question from Dr. Duguid. Well, no, not that question, sorry. This question, “What things discourage you about your own life and about the church and how is Haggai’s prophecy good news for you?” I looked over at Michelle and very quietly leaned over to her and I said, “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t know anybody that gets discouraged all the time.”
And she’s chuckling now. That’s about the reaction she had when I said it in Sunday school, because oftentimes my life is marked by discouragement. I told you before, I have this astounding gift to be able to see the dark cloud behind every silver lining. I’m a pessimist, but I’m not good at it. I’m sure there’s people that are better at it than I am.
We all know, oftentimes, people who carry around with them the weight of discouragement in this world, but we all know people who at times, regardless of whether life is bringing them smiles and happiness or even if life is dragging them through the mud and it comes through tears, we all know people who are full of joy.
And joy is a fruit of the spirit. It is something that the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts. It is something that the Holy Spirit is growing within us as we walk day and night with our Lord. And it’s something that exists, whether life is good or whether life is difficult. And today, what I want us to do is I want us to look at and begin to understand what joy is.
I think that’s a great question, because oftentimes we get joy confused with happiness. We get joy confused with that moment in the entry of the church where as you’re walking up the stairs or the ramp, you’re you’re kind of preparing yourself mentally. You’re you’re squaring your shoulders up.
You’re standing up tall and straight. You’re you’re cranking the gears on that smile so that that smile stretches ear from ear so that as soon as Chris greets you there at the door and says, “How are you doing today?” You can say, “I am great. I am blessed and highly favored.” I think many times we confuse that with joy.
Joy is defined for us in that first question of the shorter catechism of the Westminster shorter catechism. The question asked, “What is man’s chief end – what is humanity’s purpose upon this earth?” And the answer is “To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
And if you’re anything like me, you quit listening to that answer as soon as you hear the words, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God.” But joy is the rest of that answer: “To enjoy God forever.”
And so when we talk about joy, that’s what we’re talking about. Do you enjoy God? Is God someone who brings you pleasure, who brings you delight, who it is fitting for you to know. It’s not the I’m blessed and highly favored or I’m doing great, even though my life is in the dirt.
It is being able to enjoy God when things are good. It is being able to enjoy God when things are tough and things are difficult. It is understanding, as we’ll see, that is, Paul said, despite all the hardships of life, there is a far greater, infinitely greater weight of glory that awaits me. That is coming through these hardships.
And so today, as we consider that joy is enjoying God, I want us to look at some characteristics of joy. What what does joy look like in the life of the Christian? Following that, we will look at some things that stand in the way or hinder joy in our lives. And then finally, we’ll go over a handful or so of helps, things that help us grow joy within our life.
CHARACTERISTICS OF JOY
So first, what does joy look like? What does it look like to enjoy God?
Well, the first thing it looks like is it looks like a focus upon the future. It is future minded. It is heavenly minded. Look at our passage from James here.
It says, “Count it all joy, brothers.” Now, does he say to count it all joy when things are going great? Does he say to count it all joy when you get the promotion or the raise or you start that new, wonderful part of your life? No. James says to count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.
And and why does he say that? He says, “…for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and steadfastness. When it has its full effect will produce perfection and completion in the life, in the heart of the child of God.”
Count it joy when things are tough. Enjoy God in the midst of trials because there is something that’s being produced in you through these trials. James says, don’t don’t get bogged down there, just kind of navel gazing when life is tough, wallowing in your own self-pity.
He says, look forward to what is being produced by God in you through these trials. You know, we deal with sickness in our life. We we talk about things that can discourage us in Sunday school today and age, illness, loss of your job, mental, mental and emotional difficulties, just struggles of daily life can rob you of the joy in your life.
And yet James says, “Look at what God is doing through those things. Look at where God is leading you. He’s leading you to maturity in your faith. He’s leading you to grow in your trust and in your hope in him.”
And really, if we look at the scriptures, it’s not just to look at what’s going to happen here in this life as I grow through these trials, but it’s to have a heavenly future focus as well. Why is Paul able to say rejoice in all trials? Why is Paul able to say that one of these days there will be a far infinitely greater weight of glory that lands upon me because of the trials I’m going through? It’s because Paul had his eyes on heaven.
I remember when Michelle and I first met, we were we were going to church and the minister there said, “Be careful that you’re that you beware of being so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” And I know what he was trying to say. Some of us get so focused on when’s Jesus going to come back or when when when am I going to finally be face to face with God? When’s all this going to end that we just kind of get so focused on hoping for that, that we forget to live life. We forget to serve in our neighborhoods. We forget to serve in our churches.
But there is an aspect of being heavenly minded that actually fuels us and our joy and true joy, true enjoyment of God longs for that time where we see him face to face.
Last week, as we looked at 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, “Right now, I look as though I look at God as as though through a mirror dimly or through a dirty window. But one of these days I will stand and see him face to face.” Do you long for that day where your enjoyment of God will reach its fullness, will reach the fullness of its expression because you see God face to face?
Joy is marked by looking beyond what we are going through now. It’s it doesn’t deny that it’s difficult. If if the hardship of your life right now brings tears, it cries those tears, if the if the parts of your life that you’re going through right now bring great happiness, it laughs and it smiles and it honestly says, I am blessed and highly favored. But it’s looking forward to that greater blessing. It’s looking forward to that face to face enjoyment of God where we can fully enjoy his presence and enjoy the feeling of his love.
Joy, we also see in the scriptures, is a settled trust in God. Think about Job, two passages in Job specifically, Job, chapter one, verses 20 and 21.
“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, naked, naked, I came from my mother’s womb and naked, I shall return. The Lord gives and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
And then in chapter 23, beginning in verse eight:
“Behold, I go forward. This is Job speaking. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there and backward. But I do not perceive him on the left when he is working. I do not behold him. He turns to the right, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”
Job has lost everything. Except for his wife and except except for his life. And his friends thought that they could be a help to him by coming and telling him, “Hey, look, all this happened to you because you’re a sinner and you need to repent.”
And 20 chapters into that, Job is like, “I don’t see God anywhere in this. I look before me and he’s not there. I look behind me. He’s not there. I look to my left. I look to my right and no God. He is nowhere around.” But he says, “But when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold, because I know that even though I don’t see him anywhere, he’s here. He’s with me. He’s sovereign over everything that has happened.”
But joy is a settled trust in the Lord. We enjoy God when we trust him. Those trials that we go through that James talked about part of that maturity that those trials are developing in us that we should take joy in is a is a growing trust in God and his presence, even when he and his sovereignty pulls back the feeling of his presence in our lives.
It’s knowing that he is there. And regardless of what happens to me. I’m going to come out looking like God wants me to look. Shane and Shane have a hymn that they’ve that they produce called Though He Slay Me.
And it goes through that just the knowledge of knowing that God could take everything from me, including my life. And yet I will praise him. I will give him glory. I will rest in the work that he is doing in my life. Joy is a settled trust in God.
Joy is also vocal. I know I pick on the people who always have the smile on their face and always say that they’re just doing great and they are blessed and highly favored no matter what happens. But there is truth in the fact that joy is vocal. Psalm 126.
This psalmist, this is a Psalm of Ascent. It’s the song that the people would sing as they were going to Jerusalem for their feast. And Psalm 126 not only is a psalm of Ascent, it’s a lament psalm as well.
And verses four through six open with this cry, “Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev.” Why do you think the psalmist would want the Lord to restore their fortunes? That’s because the fortunes have been taken. Things were not going well for them.
He goes on to say,
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy He who goes out weeping bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shots of joy bringing his sheaves with him.”
The word for shouts of joy is linked to the word for rejoice that we see throughout the Old Testament and it’s a word that has at its root meaning a vocalization of – It is that praise the Lord type scenario where yes Though he slay me Yet I will praise him Yes, I will say God is good. Yes. I will say God is working his will and his glory in me Yes, even though I might do it through clenched teeth and tears.
I can sing the praises of God It’s one of the reasons the Psalms are so important. The Psalms give us the words to express our joy when we feel anything but joy, when we feel anything but the enjoyment of God. The Psalms remind us that hey, we we are not the first people to walk this road. People have walked this road before me and have still found the way to express praise and joy before the Lord. And if they can do it I can do it too.
And so joy is future minded. It’s heavenly minded. Joy is a settled trust in God Joy is vocal, but joy is also a result of our union with Christ. Remember in Galatians chapter 5 when we looked at the fruit of the Spirit It said after giving the list of the fruit of the Spirit compared to the works of the flesh it says those who are in Christ have been put to death with him in their passions and in their desires.
What Paul is telling us there is that not only will even put to death our sinful man, but we have been raised to new life. Part of that new life that we have been raised to is joy. Jesus perfectly expressed joy long before you and I were called. Look to Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2:
“Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and 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.”
Why did Jesus endure the suffering that he went through so that so that salvation might be accomplished? It says here that he did it for the joy that was set before him. What joy was set before him? Well, it was the it was the satisfaction of God, the satisfaction of God’s holiness, the satisfaction of God’s justice, the ability to enjoy God fully. These were set before Jesus and he pursued everything that he had to endure through that joy.
But that joy also included you. Well, its primary focus was on God and and God’s glory and the enjoyment of God. Part of that joy was your salvation. If you are a child of God, if you are united to Christ, if you are a Christian, that joy that he had in your salvation is yours in Christ. It is there and the Holy Spirit is working to bring it out. Yes, the Holy Spirit calls you to work with him and to to be joyful, but the Holy Spirit is taking that joy that that Christ has won for you and given to you through union with him.
And the Holy Spirit is there working that joy in you so that maybe you’re not like me. Maybe you’re not quite as discouraged or quite as pessimistic But you can say through the tears or through the laughter, “God is good and I will rest in him.”
WHAT HINDERS JOY?
So we have seen a little bit of what joy looks like. What keeps us from joy? Well, the first thing and typically the main thing that keeps us from joy is is our own sinfulness. You know that old man that old sinful fleshly man has been put to death in Christ and God commands us to take off what remains of those filthy rags.
We are covered in the righteousness of Christ. And yet we still have the influence of sin in our lives, and God calls us to remove those rags and to put on righteousness to put on joy in the power of the Holy Spirit. But we go digging through the hamper and oftentimes we try to take out those dirty filthy clothes and we try to put them back on. Because sin is comfortable sin is fun for a time. How can we enjoy God when we’re rebelling against him? Oftentimes it is sin that stands in our way.
I mentioned Psalm 130 as we opened our service today. He waits greatly for the love and the redemption of the Lord. But he admits at the beginning that I am in the pits of despair because of my own sinfulness.
Now I’m not saying everybody here is is that struggling is struggling because of their sinfulness. We’ll cover that here in a few minutes. But I do think it’s important for us to look and to examine our lives if life is not joyful. Where do we need to repent where do we need to confess?
Another thing that stands in the way of our joy is misplaced confidence, and I think misplaced confidence takes two faces.
I was in a conversation with once somebody one time and he said “I can be happy as long as I have control over my own health As long as I eat right and exercise.” Well, I can be happy because I know I’m in control of my own health It’s a typical 20 year old, right? He was he was in his 20s when he said this, and yet we all know you could exercise perfectly you could eat the perfect diet and yet you still have absolutely no control over your health, do you?
And so that type of confidence, a confidence outside of Christ, can bring a false joy, but can also steal your joy when those things let you down. Because whatever it is outside of God that you have your settled trust if it’s a person, it’s a relationship, it’s a certain amount of money in your bank account, it’s whatever, you fill in the blank for you where you find your settled trust, it will let you down. That joy will be sucked away either worrying about it or when it disappears.
But the other point of a misplaced trust shows up within the church, and it’s where we put our hope in our own righteousness. We call it legalism. Where we think, “Okay, I have reached a certain level of righteousness according to the law of God, so now God is going to be happy with me.”
Sometimes that legalism is comes from the nice guy who just always wants approval. You know that person that you always go to and you ask them to do something because you know they’re going to say yes. and they’re going to say yes, because they don’t want to disappoint you. So their hope is in your approval. Or maybe it’s the bargaining legalist who who is coming up on a difficult decision and they go to God and they say, “Okay God if you help me with this then I will – fill in the blank.” Their hope is in what they can do to appease God to make him do this or that.
There’s the strict legalist, the legalist that says “Okay, this is the law that I have to follow. I am NOT gonna lie; I am NOT gonna cheat; I am NOT gonna covet, and I’m gonna eliminate all sin from my life.” They they shrink the law down until it fits their thoughts and their view and they put their hope their confidence their trust in their ability to keep that law.
Folks, legalism will rob you of joy in a heartbeat. Because if you know yourself well enough, you know that you’re gonna let yourself down Somebody said one time, “You know I don’t like it when people tell me to listen to my heart or to trust myself because I’ve let myself down way too many times.” Our joy cannot be in our own righteousness. Our joy has to be in the completed righteousness of Christ.
And sometimes just trials that come because we live in this world can can try to steal our joy. I mentioned the the guy that pursues his joy in his exercise and in his diet. You know disease happens all the time; car wrecks happen; people trip and fall. There are things that happen to us that are not because of necessarily anything we’ve done as sinners. But just because we live in a world that’s fallen that’s broken that that is groaning in anxious anticipation of the return of our Lord.
And those things will seek to steal our joy And we must know that.
WHAT HELPS OUR JOY?
Well, what what helps us build our joy? Well, first off it is the confession and forsaking of sin. If you are lacking joy in your life and you examine your life and find out that it’s because you have reached back into that dirty laundry hamper and tried to put on those soiled sinful clothes that the Lord has taken from you, Confess. Repent. Turn from those sins look for help from your brothers and sisters in Christ to draw you back Into that joy that you can have knowing that you are a forgiven child of God.
If you are outside of the church if you if you are hearing some of these things for the first time or maybe you’ve heard them a million times, but they’ve not sunk in, then make sure that you are truly right with God and Confess and repent and forsake your sinful life.
Another thing I think that oftentimes we forget In the pursuit of joy is that God has placed us in this family. I think many times I get discouraged because I’m unwilling to go and to share my struggles with other people people that I know that will pray for me, people that I know that will lift me up, people that I know that will support me. And yes, you know call me out when I need to be called out, but but remind me that “Hey, I’m I’m only human.”
I forget that sometimes I’m only human. But God has placed us in this family and You know, we are called to encourage one another It’s why we gather together according to Hebrews 10 is to be an encouragement to each other. So we share those burdens we walk with them together. We allow God to to fill us and to meet us through the people that he has given to us.
Another way that we can help with joy is to take the long-range view of life. You know, whether it’s catechisms or creeds we talk about to the world that is to come. That you know those glorious promises that await us in the new heavens and the new earth. But when things are hard at work, do you think about heaven? When the car is broken down on the side of the road, do you think about heaven? Are you taking that future view of life? Like Paul, seeing that great weight of glory that awaits you in the new heavens and in the new earth – not just because you want to escape these things but because you know that God is working that glory in you now even through the trials.
And then finally, finally in this point, I’ve got something else to go after the finally. But finally in this point we should be ones who give thanks in all circumstances. We can thank God for the hard times; we can thank God for the good times. We can thank God for the family when everybody’s getting along and everything’s clicking along on all eight cylinders. We can thank God when, you know, a holiday turns into a knockdown drag-out fight. Are we thankful to God in all things. I I Don’t get into – I do get into cultural prognostication every now and then – but I think one of the problems in our culture right now s we have convinced ourselves that somehow in America we have missed out on prosperity.
That college education and cars and bank accounts and houses and all those things are not prosperity. We forget to be thankful for everything that God has given us, whether that’s a lot or a little. And I think a growth in gratitude to God will lead to a growth in joy.
CONCLUSION
So now really finally, joy is enjoying God. As part of our purpose that is part of our calling. We should enjoy God in worship. We should enjoy God in the sacraments. We should enjoy God in our own private worship. We should enjoy God in the good times and in the trials. Puritan author Thomas Watson says,
“He that enjoys much of God in this life carries heaven about him. The enjoyment of God’s sweet presence here is a down payment of our enjoying him in heaven. It is the enjoyment of God that makes heaven.”
Yes, we look forward to the promises. Yes, we look forward to the healing of our pains and our hurts and the destruction of death. But heaven is the eternal, unfettered joy of being in God’s presence. Without anything standing between us any longer. That is what we seek to live as we learn to live joy in this world. Do you enjoy God? Let’s pray.
Father we do Thank you so much for all that you have done for us, and we thank you that you have made it possible for us to enjoy you. Through Jesus we can approach you in joy. And so Lord help us to enjoy you in all of life. Whether life is good or whether life is hard, may we find joy and enjoyment in you.
We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
But as you go, part of the way that God builds joy within your life is to give you a blessing. As you leave this place, take this blessing with you:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. So that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit.”
He who testifies to these things says “Yes, I am coming soon!”
Amen, come Lord Jesus.
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