Setting up Stones: Sharing Joy and Grace As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:9-11 ESV). To be Desperately Broken We give God the Glory Engaged in Peaceful Unity Living as Ministers Vibrant Disciples Embracing a God-sized Vision Sharing Joy and Grace T O N E S God’s love within us and glimmering through us is what sets these stones up in our lives and what holds them together. As you see at the top of the page we have set up six stones together so far and they are being held together and shone through by love. So far we have realized that if we are to be all that God wants us to be as the Church then we are To Be Desperately Broken, We Give God the Glory, Engaged in peaceful unity, Living as minister, Vibrant Disciples and Embracing a God-sized vision for our life, and today we set up the seventh stone and the first S in S.T.O.N.E.S. We are to be Sharing Joy and Grace. We are saved by grace through faith, and the moment God’s grace takes hold of our lives we have joy. We must remember that these two gift to be manifest in our lives then they must be shared. So what is joy and how is it shared? There is no doubt that joy has become a major goal in every life. Most of us have wrongly come to see joy as the end means of meeting a need. And we have several basic needs. We have the need to satisfy hunger and thirst, the need be loved, the need to belong, the need to have an ultimate purpose, and the need for a sense of self worth. We might have some more immediate needs such as the need for a job or maybe a better one; the need for a friend or two; the need for a place to live; better grades; a better income, and even the need for something to be one way or another. But the truth is the more we look for joy and attempt to obtain it the more it slips away. When we think something will bring us joy we are often willing to risk our health and our life in order to get it. We have blurred the truth of joy so much in our life that we have deemed that even temporal happiness is worth the risk. It is true; we will do strangest things, the most dangerous things, the most spontaneous things and most exciting things just to have what we want because we think that joy is at the end of it. Just the feeling has become worth it for us. We have so wrongly defined joy as a feeling that we settle feelings instead of learning how to have joy. Joy is not a feeling even though good feelings do often follow joy. What does it mean to have and share joy? Lets understand first that once we have joy--really have it—then we cant help but share it, but before we can share anything, we must have it our self. Joy is no different. How can we expect to share joy when we are down and out, restless and unhappy, griping and grumbling? We can’t and we won’t. When this is the case we end up sharing unhappiness. So as believers and as the church we must have joy ourselves before it can be shared. The problem is that joy we can’t manufacture joy, but that is exactly what we have grown accustomed to trying to do. We frequently go to a lot of effort to get what we think is joy as mentioned earlier, but joy is eternal. So anything that we achieve on our own is nothing more than temporal happiness and not joy at all. I want to share two stories I read to help clarify joy. The first story is about Mohamed Ali. Three times Mohammed Ali was the heavyweight boxing champion of the world--a feat that has never been matched. His picture appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated more times than any other athlete. At the height of his popularity he was floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. Everywhere he went reporters, trainers and staff followed him. Whatever happened to Mohammed Ali? What is he doing today? Gary Smith, a sportswriter went to find out. During their visit Ali showed the reporter the barn, his training gym next to the farmhouse. In the barn on the floor leaning against the walls, were pictures and framed newspaper articles from his prime. There were photos of the champ punching and dancing. There was also a picture of Ali holding his championship belt high in the air. The thriller in Manilla a framed poster read. As the sportswriter examined the pictures he couldnt help but notice the white streaks across them, and soon found out that these white streaks were bird droppings from the pigeons who had made his gym their home. Despondently Ali then walked over to the row of pictures and one by one turned them face down. He then walked to the door and stared out at the countryside and said, I once had the world and it was nothing.” Ali thought he had lost what he never had in the first place. The second story is told by Max Lucado. Pastor Max Lucado tells of another man named Robert Reed. Im sure you have never heard of him. Roberts hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He cant bathe himself. He cant feed himself. He cant brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his clothes. His shirts are held together by strips of Velcro. His speech drags like a worn out audio cassette. Max once heard Robert say, I have everything I need for joy. He graduated from high school. He attended Abilene Christian University. He taught at a St. Louis junior college. He ventured overseas on five mission trips. His disease didnt prevent him from becoming a missionary in Portugal. In one of his public appearances from a wheelchair, the audience watched his stiff fingers force open the pages of his Bible. He could have been a real tear jerker, but pity and even sympathy was the last thing he wanted. He held up his bent hand and boasted once again, I have everything I need for joy. How can it be that one time ‘Mr. Big’ never found it while this physically broken man was held together with joy? It seems that the more we go chasing after it in our very human and often sick ways, the more it escapes us. John 15 gives us clarity to sharing joy and grace. As we look at John 15 we realize that Jesus is giving us some instructions with painful consequences if we dont follow them. He says that we have to love. True love is often painful and it is hard work. Why, because it is sacrifice. Jesus said, Lay down your life for your friends. Where is the joy is that? We can see how it would take grace because grace is giving someone what they do not deserve. Jesus then says that we are required to bear fruit and to become His disciple. We are so used to quick fixes that we are looking for joy in every quick fix, but we will never find joy in those quick fixes. Joy requires patients and God’s timing, and as John 15 reminds us joy only follows obedience to Jesus Christ. Jesus says, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. We experience joy not by pursuing everything that He commanded in part, but pursuing everything that Jesus commanded. Joy is not the end product of anything. Joy is the by-product of abiding, loving and obeying. In other words, joy is the by-product of obeying and sharing God’s grace. It is found in each step of obedience. Those who make following and obeying Jesus priority receive joy as a gift. Do you want joy? Then forget chasing joy. It is not the goal or the end product, but instead the by-product of abiding in and living for the Lord. Jesus is saying. Remain in me and I will remain in you. Bear fruit as the branch that is part of the vine. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has on one than this; that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. Then you will have joy. Mohammed Ali found out how ‘out of reach’ joy was in spite of his attempts to discover it, but Robert the cerebral palsy victim was the one who experienced the lasting joy. He did so by making discipleship his goal in spite of his circumstances. Joy is never contingent on our circumstances. James reminded us of that truth as he said, “consider it pure joy to go through every trial or trouble.” If it is true joy you want then you will only find it by giving your life to Jesus because of His Grace and then giving it away to others and sharing His Grace. We share joy and grace by picking up on the command that Jesus gives. My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Treat each other with respect and integrity. Even if we dont particularly like each other we commit ourselves to each other’s growth, development and care as the Lord enables us. It may inconvenience us. It may change our plans. It may deprive us of personal pleasures. It may test our patience and even what we see as personal rights and privileges. It will stretch us. But it is the way we share God’s grace by letting them see Jesus in our life no matter the sacrifice. When you are a saved by Jesus then you have His grace and have become a friend of God. And when you are a friend of God then you can’t help but share His grace out of love and obedience to Him. When you do then as a friend of God your joy will be complete and you will want to share it. We have joy because of God’s grace, but we share grace because we have joy. In other words, we are sharing the grace of God when we are imitating the God of grace. We display grace the way Jesus did. How did Jesus display grace to us? There is no greater display of the grace of God than the Cross of Christ and to share the grace of Jesus we must desire Jesus so much that we deny ourselves and make the sacrifice to come after Him. Pride is produced anytime that a sacrifice for Christ is not motivated by a love for Christ. We must deny ourselves deny himself What Does it Mean to Deny Yourself? Dont trust in your own righteousness. Philippians 3:9 says, “may we be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” We deny ourselves when we stop trust in our own wisdom. Proverbs 3:5--6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” We share grace and joy as we make the sacrifice and stop insisting on our own way. Philippians 2:17 says, “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.” We share grace and joy as we volunteer to die or take up our cross. Notice that this cross must be taken up. The cross we bear is not something that happens to us. It is something we voluntarily pick up. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Are we willing to openly follow Christ knowing so that unbelievers (and even some who claim to trust Jesus) will look down on us, ridicule us, and maybe ever persecute us in order that someone might see Jesus clearly? Do we love the Jesus that much? Hebrews 12:3 says, “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Sharing joy and grace means sacrificing for others. 1 John 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Sharing joy and grace means that we willing to live less comfortably so that others see Jesus. And in the love and obedience of doing so we will find joy? Are you sharing joy and grace? We should be it is a requirement if we have them!
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 13:42:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015