In my reading Monday, the Lord placed before me an article about joy. My first reaction was to put it down, because of some of the author’s initial statements. He said, and I quote, “God don’t make nobody for misery. If we are miserable, it is because we have chosen to say no to joy. God intended joy for us from the start.” In the margin I put a question mark, meaning that I’d have to think about that for a while. It had nothing to do with the grammar, because I like misusing grammar from time to time myself.

I know that I refer to joy fairly frequently. I have preached half a dozen messages on the subject, and I refer to it as points in other messages. Some of my message titles have been: “The Secret of Abiding Joy,” “Whence cometh Joy,” and its antithesis, “Where has the Joy Gone.” We are commanded to be joyful “Rejoice ever more,” ” Rejoice in the Lord, again I say rejoice.”

Joy and rejoicing are far more important than most Christians realize. In the midst of all the books on personal evangelism and how to make Christians out of the children of Satan, there ought to be chapters and books on joy. Laying aside eternal realities which we know to be true, the lost world is not interested in Heaven. Our unsaved neighbors don’t care about theology; about the Second Coming; about sanctification. They struggling from day to day under the effects of devastating sin. They are trying to pay their bills, keep their marriages together and satisfying their kids. They rarely understand the effects of sin, and they don’t care about the solution to that sin. What do we possess today – right now – which they can see which might attract them to the Saviour? One answer is the fruit of the spirit.

If some stranger was standing at the top of the stairs looking at you as you came into the church building tonight or last Sunday, what did he see? Some faces carry a smile, but there is no way of knowing if it was because of a joke or a mean thought. Some people hardly ever smile when they come into this auditorium. Some look as if they’d rather be at the dentist’s office than in the house of God. Some have the same look as if they were walking into a restaurant “Where is my seat?” Some appear to be here only because it is required by divine law. Do they realize they are living in sin by their lack of joy? If they can’t be joyful in the House of God, where will they show the joy of the Lord? “This day is holy unto our Lord… the joy of the LORD is your strength” – Nehemiah 8:10. Some might argue that they are filled with joy on the inside, whether or not it is seen on the outside. But what practical good is that? Only a few enter this house of worship with joy flashing all over their faces. Those are the people who might actually have an evangelistic ministry. Those are the people whose testimony might be considered by those who need it most.

The article which I read went on with some good points and some questionable ones. The author said, “Joy to the world remains God’s GOAL.” Does God have goals? If God does have a goal is human joy one of them? He spent some time suggesting that joy is precious – and I agree with that. He quoted a corrupt version of Romans 14:17, which properly says, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Then he said something similar to what I said a moment ago – “A joyless Christianity (and joylessness cannot be hidden) will become an obstacle to believing Paul’s statement and will render the faith repulsive rather than attractive, whereas a joyful Christianity is a most arresting advertisement for the transforming power of the gospel.” Among a mixture of some good and some mediocre thoughts, he had some ideas which caught my eye.

For example, he suggested four sources for joy. He said that this was generic joy – joy in a fleshly sense. You could even put it into a context of simply “happiness.” But it also applies spiritually to the Christian. I had never considered this aspect of the subject before, and I thought that it was worthy of consideration. I’ll let you decide if either he or I were right. By the way, I am adapting his outline; don’t accuse anyone else of my mistakes and misapplications.

He said, Joy can flow from an awareness of being loved.

Try to picture a truly miserable man; perhaps you have actually met someone like this. Perhaps he is self-destructive, but it might be that he hasn’t gotten to that point. How many thoroughly miserable people are firmly convinced that someone loves him – warts, wrinkles and halitosis not withstanding?

The person who has no one to value him, accept him and care about him or for him, rarely feels joy. To believe that, as a person, I count for nothing – I do not matter – that what happens to me is not going to touch another person, kills joy faster than Roundup on a dandelion. How many people are there in our society who feel this way?

The experience of being loved is a spring of living joy. But I admit that to simply be loved, may not be enough. Sometimes a person’s self-love supercedes the love which he should experience from someone else. And I’m sure that if we reflect on the subject long enough, we could see that other sins might overshadow the love which another person has for us.

But in the case of the child of God, we need to talk about the love which God has for us. The love of the omnipotent One should conquer all other loves. And Paul, knowing this, tells us over and over again, to consider, study and meditate on this love. Even Christians lack the joy which they could have because they are too busy to meditate on God’s love. Paul prayed for the Ephesians “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Because in that love resides the strength of the inner man.

As I have repeated to near exhaustion, joy is a gift from God – it is a fruit of the Spirit. And when the child of God fully comprehends that joy which is from above, it conquers and cures whatever cares there are here below. That Christian may be in pain, or poverty, or perplexity, but if he realizes that he is enwrapped by the love of God, he will still possess joy – unspeakable and full of glory.

A second source of joy flows out of accepting one’s situation as good.

I’m not sure that any non-Christian can really possess a joy from this source. Let’s say that he is fighting cancer; he is undergoing radiation or chemo; he is on pain meds; he has the best possible care in the world. And his doctors have told him there is a 95% chance of victory over this disease, or at least remission. I suppose he may have a bit of joy, or perhaps the hope of joy, in knowing there is a good chance. But can that man rejoice saying that his situation or condition is good? Or perhaps a family is near bankruptcy, but the husband has his health, and his wife has a part time job. In this case there is good reason to think that if conditions hold then in two years they will have their feet back on the ground. They may have a peace or a joy in hoping for deliverance, but can they rejoice in their poverty? A better example might be the man in prison with a year left on his sentence. I doubt that anyone can really rejoice in his prison cell unless he is a child of God with a clear heart.

People who are constantly complaining about their current condition, can not be joyful people. If they are covetous or discontent, those poisons will kill any possibility for joy. How many of the people of Israel were joyful during their forty years in the wilderness? I think that there were probably quite a few – but they were all little children. They played in their sand castles, teased the lizards, chased the road-runners and collected pretty rocks. They were happy because they were oblivious to the problems, and they had never tasted leeks and garlics.

Romans 8:28 doesn’t fit this point perfectly, because it looks toward the future. But it can still resonate in the Christian heart, producing joy. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Paul said, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” That contentment produced a special kind of joy. “Timothy you can have joy too, if you’ll learn that having food and raiment you can be content.” Perhaps the key to this kind of joy is seen in Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” When we live under the realization that we have Christ, even though our world be in crisis, we may have joy.

A third source of joy can come out of possessing something worthwhile – really worthwhile.

You’ve finally bought that luxury car which you’ve had your eye on for twenty-years. Your smile is from ear to ear as you show it off to everyone. You are happy; you are over-joyed. But don’t count on continued joy. There is no eternal joy in a new car. That new car may not last the week. Is that kind of joy really justified?

Perhaps a greater source of joy might be a family which loves you. You may rejoice in your spouse or your accomplished children. You may have great joy because you have the best mother or father that a child could have. I won’t try to rob you of that joy.

But your joy in loving and being loved by another human being, is minor league stuff compared to loving and being loved by the eternal holy God. There should not be an unjoyful face in the house of God, where the people are all children of the Lord.

When I was still a stupid little Canadian kid, I would dream of trading places with Prince Charles, the son of Queen Elizabeth. He and I are about the same age. What joy there would be living in all that wealth and luxury with access to every toy known to child-kind. Since then I’ve found out that to be the child of the Queen is not all I thought it would be.

But to be a child of the King of kings, has never been proven to be anything less than absolutely joyous. Eternal life should put and keep a smile on our faces. To have access to the throne of grace is a joyous privilege. We could spend a half hour making a list of those things we possess in Christ, and everyone of them are joy producers. Sadly, we hear of them so often without meditating on them at all, and we miss the possible joy.

Finally, doesn’t joy flow out of giving things which are worth giving?

Our self-centered generation can hardly grasp the idea that giving might be a joyful thing, but it is. Every once in a while, we can watch a child joyfully give a homemade gift. Sometimes she is more thrilled with that than to receive something herself. What do you suppose would that little girl would enjoy more – giving her mother that homemade picture or handing her mother a $10,000 diamond necklace which her father asked her to pass to her mother?

We know the joy of giving earthly gifts. Are there better gifts? Last Sunday I pointed to David’s joy at bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. I think there was a horizontal joy in the blessing that he was presenting to Israel. But there was a much more exuberant joy in his unabashed praise to God. What were the emotions of Paul and Silas while they licked their wounds in the Philippian jail? “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God.” Were they just passing the time, because pain kept them from sleeping? Were they merely singing the obligatory five hymns before their prayer meeting? They were most likely enthusiastically rejoicing in that were permitted to suffer for the Lord’s glory. And that joy which pierced through their pain was heard and felt by the other prisoners. What was Paul’s emotion when he wrote, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Christians ought to be joyful people. They are commanded to be joyful. Christians ought to be the most joyful people on the planet. They are loved, their situation is always good, they possess the best the Lord has to offer and they can freely give what they possess.