Back to John 16, but if you would turn to the Old Testament to Isaiah 53, Isaiah chapter
53.
And in John chapter 16, we saw a lot of verses about sorrow and about joy as Jesus is giving
some of his final words and teachings to his disciples before he's going to go to the cross.
And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of joy in our lives, having
joy in our lives.
Now, first of all, I want to point out to you, based on Isaiah 53 and also in Ecclesiastes
and elsewhere, that we can't really expect to have joy in our lives all the time.
We can't expect to be happy all the time and have joy all the time.
And today, we live in a society where we're taught that any time we have the least bit
of pain or sorrow or discomfort, that we need to do something about it.
You know, oh, you need to take a drug for that.
You know, people get the slightest little headache.
And what do they do?
The first thing they do is go take a drug or something to make it feel better.
Like they just can't experience any suffering in their lives or any sorrow in their lives.
And then, even worse, when people go through times of emotional sorrow, times of grief
and sadness, they're told, hey, there's something wrong with you.
In fact, we've diagnosed you with depression and we're going to get you on drugs to take
care of that.
But let me show you from the Bible that sorrow and sadness is a normal part of life and it's
something that we should experience in our lives.
This is spoken of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53 verse 3.
It says of Jesus, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
So we see there that Jesus is described as a man of sorrows and that he was acquainted
with grief.
So did Jesus go through his life with just nothing but joy and happiness all the time?
No, he's a man of sorrows.
He was acquainted with grief.
Of course, one of the most famous verses in the Bible is the one that tells us that Jesus
wept.
And the Bible records three different occasions where Jesus wept.
Now look at you at Ecclesiastes, just a few pages to the left in your Bible, you should
find the book of Ecclesiastes, two books over to the left.
Look at Ecclesiastes 7 verse 1, a good name is better than precious ointment and the day
of death than the day of one's birth.
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that
is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made
better.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of
mirth.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
So is the Bible telling us here that sorrow is always a bad thing to be avoided at all
costs and if you go through too much sorrow and mourning you need to take a drug to fix
that?
No.
So let's go to chapter 4 quickly and then I'll get into the sermon, this is just by
way of introduction because I don't want you to get the wrong idea from the sermon that's
about having joy and happiness in your life.
You can't expect to have joy and happiness all the time, it's not, it's not what life
is about.
But look at James 4 verse 8, it says, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded.
Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up.
Now go to Hebrews 1, Hebrews chapter number 1 and we're going to look at verse 8 but look
at Hebrews chapter number 1 because the Bible talks about the fact that we're going to go
through sorrow and sadness but he also commands us to rejoice.
He tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 16, rejoice evermore.
He says in Philippians 3 1, finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord.
He says in chapter 4 verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
And so our life is a life of joy or it ought to be a life of joy and enjoyment and happiness.
Yes there's going to be sorrow and sadness but there's also going to be joy and gladness
in our lives.
Now so many people today are depressed, right?
You hear that term a lot about people who are depressed.
In fact you hear a lot about people committing suicide today.
I just heard a statistic this week that said that those that are in the U.S. military are
committing suicide at a higher rate than they ever had.
I think they said every single day active duty service members are committing suicide
and then I think they said 17 or 18 veterans a day are committing suicide.
And I guess these are unprecedented levels of suicide and it seems like whenever I hear
about someone that I know or know of committing suicide it seems like they always say the
same thing about that person who committed suicide.
Oh this person had been struggling with depression and it always turns out that they were on
some kind of medication for that depression.
I mean pretty much every time.
I'm not saying, you know I'm sure you could show me a case where that wasn't the case
but I'm just saying every time I seem to hear about it you hear about people and I just
heard about one this week and you hear about how they were on these antidepressants and
these antidepressants often make things much worse.
And let me tell you something, the pharmaceutical industry is putting out a lot of drugs that
are extremely harmful.
Don't trust the FDA or whoever to decide what is safe for you.
You know I would stay away from drugs as much as possible in your life.
I mean just as much as, I mean unless, I like what Jesus said, they the behold need
not a physician.
You know and I mean unless you have a very serious problem you should stay away from
drugs and medicines just because there's so much garbage out there today and I know so
many people who have been addicted to prescription drugs and there are so many harmful side effects
and it seems like whenever you know people who are on a lot of drugs they started out
by taking one medicine and then it created a bunch of side effects and then they have
to take another one, another one, pretty soon they're on antidepressants, pretty soon
they're hearing voices in their head and killing themselves.
So we need to beware of the worldly teaching that tells us, look if you're sad, if you're
sorrowful there's something wrong with you.
I just heard about someone recently whose spouse died and a few weeks later they were
still sad about it, imagine that.
So they're put on antidepressants, unbelievable.
I mean if your spouse dies you'd probably expect to be sad about that for more than
a couple of weeks.
The Bible talks about people mourning for 40 days when people died and sometimes you're
going to continue to be sad for much longer than that.
That is a normal grieving process, a normal part of life and no Christian should ever
touch these antidepressants, nobody should touch them, they're horrible.
These mind-altering drugs are not what we need.
Now that being said, we ought to have some good sources of joy in our lives.
We don't want to go through our lives depressed, do we?
I don't think anybody here would say, I want to be depressed, I want to be sad and sorrowful.
And you know what, God doesn't want us to be sorrowful either.
That's why he said, rejoice evermore.
That's why he said, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
That's why he told us to rejoice over and over again.
He wants us to have joy and happiness in our life but oftentimes people are looking in
the wrong places for joy in their lives.
They're looking in a bottle or they're looking in the life of sin and so forth.
So what are some biblical ways and there's no way I could fully cover this subject this
morning because just looking up the words joy and rejoice in the Bible, there were several
hundred verses.
I mean there's so much information on this in the Bible but I noticed certain patterns
recurring, certain themes that just kept coming up in every scripture on joy and so I want
to give you three sources of joy in your life.
Three things that will bring happiness to your life.
Not saying you're going to be happy every minute of every day.
That's not the goal but look, this will bring you real long lasting joy and real legitimate
happiness in your life and you know what the Bible says, the joy of the Lord is your strength.
People who don't have any happiness and joy in their life, they don't have any strength
to keep going.
They don't have any strength to keep serving the Lord.
You know, they're going to faint in the way and so we need to have some sources for joy
and happiness in our life that are good sources.
Now first of all, the number one source of joy that I see over and over again in the
Bible is living a righteous life.
Look if you would at Hebrews 1.8.
This is speaking of Jesus Christ.
Yes, he was a man of sorrow but he also had great joy in his life.
Look at Hebrews 1.8, but unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God.
By the way, tell that to those who don't believe Jesus is God.
I mean look at that.
To the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness
as a scepter of thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Why did Jesus have more gladness than those around him?
Because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Go to 1 John chapter 1.
So there we see that loving righteousness, hating sin, brings gladness, brings joy.
Look at 1 John chapter 1 where this is very vividly explained.
Beginning in verse 3 it says, That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that
ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with
the Son Jesus Christ and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.
Yes then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light
and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the
truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Now look at chapter 2 verse 1.
My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now I find it interesting that in chapter 1 he said these things write we unto you that
your joy may be full and then in chapter 2 verse 1 he said these things write we unto
you that you sin not and he said that the thing that's going to give us joy and that's
going to cause our joy to be full is having fellowship with the Father and with the Son
Jesus Christ and the way we're going to have that fellowship is by walking in the light
because if we walk in the light we have fellowship with him.
If we walk in darkness we don't, because he's not in the darkness, there's no darkness in
him at all and so a source of joy in our lives is that we sin not, that we love righteousness,
that we hate iniquity and that we walk in the light as he is in the light and have fellowship
with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Go to John 15, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, go to John 15, John chapter 15.
So according to the Bible living a righteous life, living a life that's not characterized
by sin is going to bring us joy in our lives.
Look at John 15, 10, if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even as I have
kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy
might be full.
So there again we see that joy remaining in us and our joy being full is associated with
keeping Christ's commandments.
See you're not going to be happy as a Christian when you're out living a life of sin.
Now the Bible does teach that sin has pleasure for a season.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11 25, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
But then he says in Psalm 16 11, thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is
fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore as opposed to the pleasures of sin for a season.
You see those who live a life of sin are not happy people.
If you find the people in your life that are the most sinful people, you will find
the most unhappy people in your life.
It's true.
They're often miserable.
And yet why do they commit sin?
Because they think it's going to make them happy.
But does it make them happy?
No, they're sad, they're miserable.
And some of the happiest, most joyful people that you're going to meet are godly Christians
who are serving the Lord, who have found that the joy of the Lord is their strength.
And you know what, it's just, it's so easy to see that sin does not bring any lasting
pleasure or joy.
You know, someone might go out and eat, drink, and be merry and might get drunk at a party
and have so much fun, right?
The next day they can't remember half of it.
The next day they're throwing up.
The next day they have regrets.
The next day they have to, you know, get back to real life.
And there's no joy there.
And eventually it gets old.
It gets boring.
It gets dead and there's no reason for it.
See, real joy, according to the Bible, comes from living a righteous life.
And you know why part of that is?
It's because when you live a life that's filled with sin, you feel guilty about it.
And you start to lose respect for yourself.
And you start to not like who you are.
Because you're living a sinful life and you look in the mirror and you can't really respect
yourself.
You don't really like the person that you're becoming.
And you know what, nothing's going to kill your joy more than that.
But you know, when you're living a righteous and a godly life, and you can be happy with
the person that you are, and you're being the person that you want to be, that brings
joy.
Even if you are suffering.
Even if you are going through hard times.
You know, at least you can respect yourself and realize, you know what, I'm walking with
the Lord.
I'm living a righteous life.
And you know what, that's a great source of joy in your life.
Go to 1 Thessalonians 1.6.
Because not only does the Bible teach clearly that keeping God's commandments brings joy.
Walking in the light.
Not sinning.
These are things that are going to give real joy in our lives.
But not only that, the Bible talks about the fact that if we're filled with the Holy Ghost,
we're going to have joy.
And obviously being filled with the Holy Ghost has to do with walking with God.
Living a righteous life.
Living a life that is free from gross sin and meditating upon God's word day and night.
These are things that are characterized when we're walking with God and filled with the
Holy Ghost.
But look at 1 Thessalonians 1 says, you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.
Galatians 5, when he lists the fruit of the Spirit, the second one is joy.
He said the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance.
Acts 13 52 says, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.
Romans 14 17, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Chapter 15 verse 13, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that
you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
So look, real joy is going to be found in singing the hymns.
You know, being filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, spiritual
songs, it's going to be found in listening to Bible preaching, reading your Bible, going
to church, winning souls to Christ, abstaining from sin, resisting temptation, resisting
the desires of the flesh, and becoming the person that God wants you to be.
You're going to have joy in your life.
You're going to be a lot happier that way.
And you might think it's going to make you happy to play video games all night, but it's
not.
And you might think it's going to make you happy to go out and get drunk or to go out
and commit fornication, but you know what, you'll be much happier being married and faithful
to your spouse till death.
That's going to bring joy.
You're going to be glad at the end of your life and say, you know what, I'm glad that
I did that.
I'm glad that I went to church.
I'm glad that I served God.
I'm glad that I kept myself clean and pure.
You know what, if you want to be happy, and you know, everybody in this room has a varying
degree of happiness today.
Some people are probably pretty happy.
Other people are probably not so happy.
Look, if you're one of the people today that says, you know, my life just isn't that happy.
I just don't enjoy life.
I just don't have a lot of joy in my life.
I go from day to day feeling sad and sorrowful and I'm having trouble finding joy in my life.
You know what, maybe it's time to ramp up the righteousness in your life.
Maybe it's time to get more serious about the things of God.
Maybe it's time to start reading your Bible and praying more and be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
Find a source of joy in the Lord, in the Word of God and so forth.
But number two, another source of joy, look at John chapter three.
Number one is living a righteous life is going to bring you joy.
But number two, you're going to have joy if you're somebody who lives for other people.
You see, the most miserable people in the world are those that are selfish.
Those who are living for themselves.
And we already talked about it on Wednesday night, I'm going to not re-preach Wednesday
night's sermon, but you know, King Solomon was one who just gratified himself and everything
he wanted, he gave it to himself and he lived a life of selfishness and pleasure for himself
and he said he hated life.
He said he was miserable.
He said it was all vanity, it was all worthless.
He felt like his whole life was wasted because when we live our life for ourselves, we don't
really get the gratification that we expect.
But when we do things for other people, we have a lot more joy when we live our lives
to try to make other people happy.
Look at John 3.29, it says,
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth
in here at them, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
And of course John the Baptist here is talking about Jesus Christ being the bridegroom, but
we can just apply this parable and this principle.
He's using an illustration of a wedding and he's saying, you know, the wedding day is
all about the bride and the groom.
But he says the friend of the bridegroom, this would be like the best man, he says,
The friend of the bridegroom which standeth in here at them rejoiceth greatly because
of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled.
And what he's explaining there is that even the best man at the wedding can actually be
just as happy and have just as much joy in being there on someone else's big day and
making it a special day for them and supporting them and being their friend.
And you know, being a friend and helping other people will bring you a lot more joy
in your life than just trying to do everything for yourself all the time.
Because you know, the more you try to gratify yourself, it's never going to satisfy you.
You're just going to want more.
You know, you see people who live that way and they're never happy.
They just keep buying themselves more things and you know, it's not going to bring any
joy.
But when you find other people to help and try to do something for them, that brings
you a lot of joy.
Somebody said this, and if you would go to Acts 20.
Somebody said this, you know, if you spell joy, and I think this makes a lot of sense,
it's spelled J-O-Y, Jesus, others, you.
You know, that's how you should live your life.
That should be your priorities.
Your number one priority should be Jesus.
Number two priority should be other people.
And your third priority is you.
That's how you're going to have joy in your life.
When you put yourself last and put Jesus first and others before you.
The Bible says, in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves.
Look at Acts 20 verse 35, it says, I have showed you all things, how that's so laboring
you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it
is more blessed to give than to receive.
See you can get more out of what you do for other people than out of what you get.
You know, when you're a very small child, when Christmas rolls around or your birthday
rolls around, you know, you're very excited about what you can receive from other people.
And when you're waiting till Christmas, you're waiting for that gift.
You know, you want to get something.
And you want to get something for yourself.
And you want to have that for you to make you happy.
But you know, as you get older and you see kids as they get older, they start getting
enjoyment from buying something for their siblings or buying something for their parents.
And oftentimes they get more excited about what they're giving than what they're getting.
And as an adult, hopefully you're there, you know, and you're not just all excited, you
know, that you're going to get some gift on Christmas.
But hopefully as an adult you get to the point where you can't wait till Christmas, not because
you're begging, not because you're begging to open a present early, you know, but you're
begging to give a present early.
You know, you can't wait to give that gift.
Because as you get older and wiser, you understand that it's more blessed to give than to receive.
And you know, please hold all the emails telling me that I'm pagan for celebrating Christmas,
okay?
I'm sick of that subject.
But anyway, you know, living life for others, right?
You know, giving, not just all about getting.
Not just all about being the bridegroom all the time, but sometimes being the friend of
the bridegroom.
Having somebody else have joy and helping them on their special day.
You know, go if you would to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.
First Thessalonians chapter 2, and not only that, but the Bible tells us, rejoice with
them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.
You know, sometimes when other people are happy, it can make us happy, it should make
us happy.
And when other people are sad, it should make us sad.
But look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, it says, for what is our hope or joy or crown
of rejoicing?
He's saying, where do we get joy?
That's our crown of rejoicing.
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ is coming, for ye are our glory
and joy.
He's saying, look, you're my joy.
See, he's not getting joy out of gratifying himself.
He's getting joy from other people.
He's saying, you're my joy.
And the people that he's referring to when he says, you are my joy, are basically people
that he won to Christ.
People that he reached with the gospel.
Now go to Psalm 127, this is the last scripture on this point, Psalm 127, famous passage.
But Paul is referring to people that he won to the Lord, that he reached with the gospel
of Christ saying, you're my joy.
You're my source of joy.
You're my crown of rejoicing.
You're my glory and joy.
But look at Psalm 127 verse 3, the Bible reads, lo, children are in heritage of the Lord,
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate, and if
you would, turn to John 16.
But we see here that having children can bring happiness, right?
Because he says, look, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is
his reward.
And then he tells us, happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them, because he
bears children unto arrows in the quiver.
And he says, happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them.
Look, happy is the man who has a lot of children, the Bible's saying there, okay?
So how do children bring happiness?
Because you know, when you have a child, again, you're not really spending as much time on
yourself, are you, when you have children?
And that's why many people refuse to have children.
That's why we see many people who say, I don't want to have children.
And we see people remain childless because they want to live a self-centered and selfish,
self-fulfilling lifestyle, and children would get in the way of that.
Now look, I'm not referring to the fact that obviously some people are unable to have children.
And most people who are unable to have children usually will eventually have children.
You know, often we see people in the Bible who didn't have children, and they prayed
unto the Lord, and you know, 20 years later they had children, like Rebecca and Isaac,
for example.
And so those that are unable to have children should obviously just be patient and wait,
and wait upon the Lord.
Many people have gone out and done all kinds of crazy treatments and everything, only to
then later give birth naturally to children.
You know, they just need to wait.
It's very common.
And so those who don't have children because of the fact that their bodies are unable at
this time to produce children, or they are infertile at this time, you know what?
That's in God's hands.
That's not selfishness on their part.
That's just in God's hand.
That's God's will.
God chooses to open or to close the womb.
It's a very biblical concept.
And it's not a punishment necessarily because often, as in the case with Rebecca and Isaac,
you have very godly people waiting 20 years to have children.
No question about that.
But when people choose to not have children, that is selfish.
That is wrong.
The Bible commands us to have children.
Okay?
I mean that's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
But the Bible commands us to have children.
The Bible tells that children are a blessing.
That children are a reward.
That children are good.
But today we live in a society where children are viewed as a burden because we live in
a self-centered, selfish society.
That's why.
We live in a society that says, oh if you have children, you know you're not going to
be able to drive the fancy cars and live in the fancy houses and go backpacking across
the nation and do all this fun, exciting stuff, you know you're going to be burdened down
with children.
You know what?
Children are not a burden.
They're a blessing.
They bring joy.
Children are a source of joy.
Happy is the man that had this quorum.
I mean you say, Pastor Anderson, you must be miserable.
You have seven children.
I mean the stress, just the stress of having to provide financially for nine people.
You must not have a quiet minute in your home.
It must just be chaos.
Well that part's true.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, I mean it's definitely not quiet most of the time.
But you know what?
We have a lot more joy from our children than the negatives.
There's more positive than negative.
And having children teaches you to be unselfish.
And by the way, even if you don't have children, being married should teach you to be unselfish.
You know if you want to have a good marriage, you should be unselfish, because you know
what?
You don't just get joy from your children, you can also get a lot of joy from making
your wife happy.
You can also get a lot of joy from making your husband happy.
You see, if you're a person who goes into marriage just trying to see what you can get
out of it, you're going to have a miserable marriage, you're probably going to end up
divorced.
You know, you've got to get into marriage with an attitude of, you know, I'm going to
make her happy, or I'm going to make him happy, and not go through life seeing how much you
can get out of it, but rather seeing how much you can give, because it's more blessed to
give than to receive.
And then when you have children, it teaches you even more to live for others, because
you're constantly making sacrifices for the children.
You know, you constantly have to put aside maybe plans or financial expenditures because
of the cost of having children and the time and effort spent teaching them, training them,
bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
It's a great sacrifice, but the joy is worth it.
And so having children, you say, well I don't have children, how am I going to have joy?
Well point one still applies, living a righteous life.
But number two, we can take the point of having children here and living for others, and you
know, we can apply this spiritually, because over and over again in the New Testament,
winning someone to Jesus Christ is likened unto having a child.
You know, Paul talked about people that he won to the Lord as being his son in the faith,
or he said I've begotten Onesimus, because Onesimus was one that he'd won to the Lord.
He considered Onesimus a son to him because he had reached him with the gospel.
And you know, you may not be able to have physical children at this time in your life,
but you can have spiritual children.
You can go out and win someone to Christ, you can disciple that person, you can love
that person, teach them, train them, get them in church, and find great joy in helping that
person grow in the Lord, just like a parent physically watching their child grow up has
great joy.
And so joy number one is found in living a righteous and godly life.
Joy number two is found in living a life for others, whether that's for your spouse, whether
that's for your children, whether that's for people at your church that you're helping
out, whether that's for reaching the lost with the gospel, helping the poor, whatever
it is, people are going to have a lot more joy in their life, they get to focus off themselves
and start living a life that's about other people.
You know, and you find often that people who are depressed are very introverted people.
They spend a lot of time by themselves.
You know why that can make you depressed?
Because they're not doing things for others.
They're not being a blessing to others.
They're spending a lot of time just focused on themselves, thinking about themselves.
Poor me.
You know, instead of getting out there, getting around other people, seeing what you can do
to help people, see what you can get involved in for the cause of Christ, see what you can
do to make other people happy, and you know what, when you make other people happy, it'll
make you happy as a byproduct.
And it'll be a more lasting joy, because it's more blessed to give than to receive.
But thirdly this, go to James 5.
First of all, we said number one, joy is found in living a righteous and godly life, abstaining
from sin.
None of us is perfect, we all have sin, but you know what, the more we resist temptation,
the more we live a life that is not characterized by sin, the happier we're going to be.
It's just a fact.
Secondly, it's in living for others, not for ourselves.
Jesus, then others, then you, spells joy.
And then thirdly this, joy is found in enduring hardships and finishing a goal.
There's great joy in going through hardship and then achieving a goal, achieving something
in your life.
Look if you would at James 5.11, the Bible says, Behold, we count them happy which endure.
You see how there's happiness and enduring tough times and making it through to the other
side?
You've heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy.
Just a few pages to the right in your Bible, look at 1 Peter chapter 3.
We count them happy which endure, the Bible says.
Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 14, it says, But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake,
happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.
So right here it says that if we suffer, we're happy.
Now you say, that doesn't make any sense.
Why would suffering make you happy?
Why?
Because enduring hardship for a righteous cause and enduring hardship to reach a goal
can bring happiness.
You see, it says here, if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye.
Now often times people have a mixed up notion that says, well, happiness is the absence
of suffering.
But yet there are many people who can suffer and be happy through their suffering.
You see, if we just laid around all day on pillows and had someone fanning us with palm
branches and putting grapes into our mouths, we'd probably think, yep, then I'd be happy.
That would be happiness.
But you know what?
We'd become very bored with that very quickly.
We would not be happy.
We would want to go out and do something.
I mean, think about it.
If I said to you, let's go hiking, okay, and let's say we were a group of men, you know,
let's take women and children out of the equation.
We did a men's hiking trip, for example, last year.
Who was on the hiking trip with us?
Okay, several people, yep, Trent was there, Mal was there, and look, everybody who went
hiking is still in church, see, hiking keeps you in church.
The church that hikes together stays here.
But anyway, we went on a hiking trip.
Did we set out to find the easiest trails we could find?
What do you mean?
Why do you say it like that?
You know, because look, if we're going to go hiking as men, we don't open up a hiking
guide and go to the one that says very easy, you know, handicapped accessible.
That's not what we're looking for.
You know, what did we find?
We find the one that says, most difficult, extreme danger warning, you know, level 5,000,
or you know, whatever.
We're looking in the hiking guide for the hardest possible trails, you know, the steepest,
most treacherous, most difficult.
Why?
Because we find happiness in the challenge.
We want to suffer, okay?
And look, anybody knows that anybody who does hiking is looking for a difficult challenge.
Basically, they want the most difficult challenge that they can complete.
Now, you don't want something too difficult, or you know, you have to be carried out, okay?
But you want it to push you to the limits, because you want to have the joy in finishing
something difficult.
You know, when you finish something difficult, that brings joy.
You've endured it.
You know, now, throughout the journey, some that were on the hiking trip experienced feelings
that were other than joy, okay?
But at the end of it, most of them were glad that they did it, you know, and they're glad
that they finished it, okay?
And by the way, guys, the trail that we went on last year was not as hard as the one we
went on the year before that, okay?
But not to take away from your achievement or anything, no, I'm just kidding.
They were both hard in their own way, because the second one was longer.
But anyway, you go out and you do something difficult, and then you have joy in accomplishing
your goal.
Finishing something hard.
Finishing something challenging.
He said, if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their
terror and either be troubled.
Go to 1 Peter 4.14.
If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and
of God rested upon you, on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part, He's
glorified.
You see, according to the Bible, you know, if we take a spiritual application of this,
you know, suffering for Jesus Christ's sake, it brings us happiness.
Because we're enduring hardship, because we're trying to reach a righteous goal, we're trying
to finish off our lives as godly Christians.
Acts 20 verse 24 says, and if you would turn to John 16, I think I had you turn there earlier
and then we've navigated away from it a couple times, but this time I promise we're actually
going to look at it.
Acts 20, 24 reads, but none of these things move me.
In the context there, he's talking about all the hardships in his life, all the bad things
he's gone through, all the persecutions and afflictions.
He says none of these things move me, neither count on my life, do unto myself, so that
I might finish my course with joy.
He says finishing the course is going to bring me joy.
The hardships mean nothing.
I'm set with my face like a flint, you know, to finish the job, to finish my course, to
endure unto the end.
He says I want to finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received from
the Lord to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Look at John 16, 20.
It says verily, verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall
rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrows shall be turned into joy.
He's saying look, there are going to be times in your life when you're weeping and sorrowing
and the ungodly people around you are laughing and smiling and happy.
The world's rejoicing, you're sad, you're sorrowful.
But he says your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
He used a great illustration here in verse 21.
A woman when she is in travail, that means she's in labor, hath sorrow.
I mean look, does a woman in labor have sorrow?
Now especially if they're not totally drugged up.
Now my wife has given birth, you know, to our children naturally.
The last six of them were born at home.
No drugs, no painkillers, you know.
And let me tell you something, when she's in labor, she's in sorrow.
There's weeping, there's pain.
It's not fun.
But look what the Bible says.
When a woman is in travail, she has sorrow because her hour has come.
But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy
that a man is born into the world.
So when a woman is in labor, she's in a lot of sorrow.
She's sad, she's crying, she's in pain.
But then it's amazing because I've watched my wife give birth seven times and when she
gives birth, it's amazing how just boom, the sorrow is turned into joy like that.
I mean just extreme pain and sorrow becomes just total joy, elation, just the rapture
of having just given birth.
And so that's what Jesus is using to illustrate what our lives are like.
And he says in verse 22, ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again and
your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you.
And so the Bible tells us that you know what, we go through hard times and travail and labor
and sorrow, but he says our sorrow is going to be turned into joy just like when a woman
gives birth.
That's how our lives are going to be.
Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.
You know we're in sorrow, we're in heaviness, but we have hope.
We're going toward a goal.
We know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.
And so we're moving toward the goal, we're enduring hardness, and we know when we cross
the finish line, the joy that we have at that time is going to overshadow any sorrow that
we have.
Solomon, my son Solomon, went with me on the same brutal hiking trail in California.
We did this really long, we did it all in one day, went all the way down into this deep
canyon, hiked across the bottom of the canyon, and then went straight up, very, very steep
trail, ascended like 3300 feet in just a couple miles, very steep trail.
And you know what, Solomon had some sorrow on that trip.
It was just me and him because we ended up having to split up from the two other guys
that were hiking with us.
There were four of us on this trip.
We had to split up because they had to go get the car and move it because the trail
we were going to take ended up being blockaded and we had to go a different way.
And so it's just me and Solomon, the sun's going down, I mean it was starting to get
cold, I mean we've pushed our bodies to the limit, we're going up the steep hill.
How old were you at the time, son, 11?
Yeah, you're still 11 like he is now, yeah.
So we're going up this trail, it was less than a year ago, but we're coming up this
trail and I mean, there was some sorrow.
It was a trail of tears, you know, it was pain.
But let me tell you something, he toughed it out, he made it to the finish, he did not
have to be carried out.
I mean he did an unbelievable task for a child of that age, I mean he climbed the mountain,
he endured the pain and suffering, and let me tell you something, the joy that he received
at In-N-Out Burger when he was told, you know, when he was told that he could order whatever
he wanted.
And this is one of the things that I motivated him on the trail.
You know, we're going up this really steep trail, I'm telling him, son, look, we got,
you know, first of all, I used fear.
I said, look, you know what happens when the sun goes down, son?
Wild animals come out and they're going to tear us apart.
I said, bears and mountain lions are going to come kill us, son.
So do you want to be torn to shreds in this trail?
Or do you want to be at In-N-Out Burger ordering whatever you want?
And I said, even the sodium benzoate caramel color Coca-Cola, son, if that's what you want.
I mean, whatever the drink, whatever the food, and I mean, all of a sudden he just shot up
the hill.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, he endured the suffering, he endured the pain for the joy that was set before him.
You know, and I think more than the burger, more than the double-double, you know, more
than the fries, more than the Coca-Cola, he probably just got more joy out of just having
finished something that grown men have had to be carried out of.
You know, and he finished it.
I guarantee you that brought him more joy than even that burger.
But you know what?
He had to endure a lot of pain and a lot of suffering and a lot of sorrow to get to that
point.
And you know, that's how our lives are.
You could take the easy route, you could be on easy street, you could sit around on a
floaty in the pool all day, okay?
Or you can actually take the hard road in life, serving God.
And let me tell you something, serving God's not easy.
It's rated most difficult as a trail when you're living for God.
And if you're going to be a righteous person, the Bible says ye and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But you know what?
There's so much joy associated with enduring hardship, making it to the finish line, finishing
a goal that's worthwhile, finishing something that matters, that it's all going to be worth
it when you hear that, well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord.
He said over and over again in the Bible, and if you would go to Habakkuk chapter 3,
I'll close with this, that enduring hardness is something that brings joy.
Enduring hardship, finishing a difficult task.
And the Bible says, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the
day of one's death than the day of one's birth.
So first of all, we said number one, joy is found in living a righteous and godly life.
It's not found in sin.
Sin will give you a false, just a shortened joy, just a pleasures of sin for receiving
that's very short-lived, and the sorrow that comes after the sin will overshadow any joy
that the sin brings.
The sin will bring temporary joy, then the sorrow afterward will overshadow that.
And you'll say it wasn't worth it.
Living a righteous life is the exact opposite.
Number two, joy is found in living a life based on making others happy and serving others
and helping others, not in a self-centered, selfish life.
And number three, we found that joy is enduring hardship, enduring suffering, making it to
the finish line, finishing the course with joy.
And let me conclude by saying this, joy is not based on everything going perfectly in
our lives.
Because there are many people today who are grumpy and grouchy, and you know, you probably,
you have people like this at work who just every day are just a grouch.
Every day they're grumpy, you know, hey, how you doing, it's Monday, what?
And they're just always complaining, and you know what the Bible says, when the people
complain to displease the Lord, and the fire of the Lord burned among them.
And you know, God hates complaining, grumbling, I mean just look it up in the Bible, murmuring,
trembling, complaining, whining, sniveling.
And you know, people who are like that, nothing makes them happy, they're just always like
that.
You say, well I just complain a lot because everything goes bad in my life.
I have a reason to complain, look what I have to put up with all the time.
Easy for you to say, your life's perfect.
You know, I'm just, everything goes bad for me, you know.
But look, it's a lie.
There are people who go through life rejoicing, and there are people who go through life whining
and complaining and fussing and sniveling.
It's the type of person Paul said I've learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be
content.
And people just have a bad attitude, are you listening?
People just have a bad attitude and they disobey God who says to rejoice in the Lord always,
to rejoice evermore.
And they go through life complaining, which is a sin, murmuring, which is a sin.
And when they go through life that way, they not only sap themselves of happiness but they
sap the people around them of happiness.
And they make the others around them grumpy and grouchy and sad.
You know what, a person who goes through life grumpy and grouchy and mad all the time and
down in the dumps and depressed every day, depressed continually, you know what, I guarantee
you it's because one of these three things is just an off-kilter in their lives.
Either they've got sin in their life that's making them feel bad about themselves, and
they can't respect themselves because of sin, or maybe number two, they're not living for
others.
They're living for self, so they're down in the dumps all the time because everything's
not going perfect.
They're all gloomy about themselves.
Therefore, that person is not willing to take on any challenges in their life.
They're not willing to take up the cross and follow Christ.
They're not doing anything hard.
And you know, trying to do everything the easy way makes you a non-joyful person.
But look at what, this is one of my favorite scriptures in Habakkuk chapter 3.
Are you in Habakkuk?
Did everybody find Habakkuk?
Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 17, I like this scripture.
It says, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor
of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off
from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.
Let me ask you this, does it sound like things are going pretty good?
He's saying everything about his life is failing.
Everything's going bad.
The field, the herd, the house, everything.
He says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
See there's a way to find joy even when things aren't going right.
How do you do it?
You know what, Habakkuk knew he was a righteous man.
He was living for God and he joyed in the Lord.
He found happiness even when everything was going bad, total famine, total destitution.
He said I'll joy in the Lord.
He said I'll joy in the God of my salvation.
And you know what, Habakkuk lived his life to preach the word unto others.
He suffered.
He endured hardship because every single prophet of the Bible endured hardship.
Every single prophet was persecuted.
Look, don't sit there and say well I'll be happy when things straighten out of my life.
You need to get some joy in your life now.
You need to get some, you're making the people around you miserable with your frowning, glum
attitude.
You know, be happy, cheer up, rejoice in the Lord.
And you know what, there's so many people today committing suicide.
That shows you that there's a lot of depression out there because there are probably a lot
of people who are depressed who don't take it that far.
But yet they're depressed.
Yet they're on that road.
Let me tell you something.
This is something that we need to focus on.
You know, not giving in to the despair and despondency that can creep into all of our
lives.
And you know what, I've gone through sorrow and heaviness in my life and depressed just
like Jesus did.
Just like Elijah did.
Just like Jonah did.
I mean, it's a normal part of life.
But the difference is that you've got to find joy to pull you out of it.
That's the difference.
We're all going to go through the sorrow and despondency and depression that's a normal
part of life.
The difference is, do you turn to drugs, do you turn to liquor, do you turn to sin, or
do you turn to these three scriptural things?
That's going to be the difference whether you end up joyful or whether you end up in
a premature coffin.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and for your advice that you give us.
Thank you for these scriptures that you've given us on joy.
Thank you for the happiness and joy that you give us in our lives.
I thank God that the Bible doesn't teach us, you know, be miserable every day for my sake.
I thank you that instead it teaches us that, you know, we can have joy.
We can rejoice.
We can have joy in our lives.
It's through serving you.
It's through enduring hardship.
Help us to grab a hold of these things and to study our Bibles and to walk with you and
not to be selfish.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.