What exactly is the difference between happiness and joy? How do we sustain joy in our lives? This past week, we looked to reconnect to the eternal joy of God this Christmas season.click for the audio:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hjzi542llly6z0j/6%BA%20of%20Joy.mp3
“6º of Joy: Peter, Paul, and Mary & Mary, the Mother of Jesus”
Brimfield Faith UMC / December 12, 2010
Luke 1:47-55
Brimfield Faith UMC / December 12, 2010
Luke 1:47-55
INTRO
Review the series… 6º of Advent is about finding our way back to God. We get lost in the chaos of the season. We allow the world to dictate our views of Christmas, instead of determining our focus for the season. Does it drive anyone crazy that it’s Happy Holidays or Season Greetings instead of Merry Christmas? I was watching a sitcom this week and they were talking about rediscovering the meaning of Christmas. I thought it would be interesting, but the reality was they missed the point almost entirely. They allowed each character to define their own meaning for Christmas. The reality is the meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ into a dark and broken world. There isn’t much negotiating in that but the world tries. I would propose this, let’s focus on getting back to the basic in our own lives and guide the way for others to get there. Say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanza, say whatever you want, but remember this season is about finding our way back to God.
This week we are reconnecting to joy and we are moving from the musical group, “Peter, Paul, and Mary” to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. We are going to break them up into two sections today. So let’s look at the first three degrees of joy now.
DEGREES ONE – THREE
1º Peter, Paul and Mary are a musical trio known for their popular folk tunes in the 1960’s. Comprised of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers there music had a strong sociopolitical commentary in politically charged era. There songs ranged in content with many successful on the charts. Some of their most famous songs include, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and “If I had a Hammer.” [Show clip]
2º “If I had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in 1949 in support of the Civil Rights Movement. The lyrics sing, “If I had a hammer / I'd hammer in the morning / I'd hammer in the evening / All over this land / I'd hammer out danger / I'd hammer out a warning / I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters / All over this land.” The Civil Rights Movement paved the way for African American music to gain popularity. One of those artists was rapper MC Hammer.
3º MC Hammer was born Stanley Kirk Burrell in Oakland, California. Hammer was a popular rapper in the late 1980’s to the mid-1990’s known for hits like, “U Can’t Touch This” and “Too Legit to Quit.” While he enjoyed great popularity for a short time, he filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Playing off of his sharp decline, he starred in a Super Bowl commercial for Nationwide Insurance in 2005. [Show clip]
WORLDLY HAPPINESS
The gift of God this week is Joy. While we could talk about how we move from a place of misery to joy, I want to talk about the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is a fleeting feeling. Joy is a sustaining inner state of being. Joy is divine, eternal and a fruit of the Spirit. The world has tried to teach us that we can replace eternal joy with lasting happiness. The world has tried to teach us that we can have lasting happiness if we continual pursue the fleeting feelings. When we do this, we end up in a cycle of elation and depression. We find a moment of ecstasy that is followed with moments of disappointment. Sustaining happiness doesn’t exist in the form we have been taught. Sustaining happiness is found rooted in eternal joy. Therefore, we need to stop expecting the world to sustain our happiness.
MC Hammer had a conversion experience of sorts after he went bankrupt. He is now an ordained minister who faithful follows Christ. He learned that no matter how many millions of happiness you have it is still fleeting. He realized that the moments of happiness would continue to be fleeting unless they were rooted in Christ. As we talk about moving from worldly happiness to eternal joy, it is important to recognize how we have been chasing fleeting feelings. Instead of trying new things, bigger experiences, try looking for eternal joy that will sustain and satisfy the soul. To do this, let’s take a look at the next three degrees of Joy.
DEGREES FOUR – SIX
4º Nationwide Insurance provides insurance and financial services based out of Columbus, Ohio. Insurance is a means of risk management to help account for the potential risk of loss. It has been around since the origins of human society. A legal insurance term that describes events outside of human control, such as a flood or tornado, is called an Act of God.
5º An Act of God is also a term used to attribute an event to divine intervention. The Scriptures are full of stories of when God broken into the world and acted on behalf of his people. God primary agent by which God acts in the world is through the Holy Spirit.
6º The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead and the primary agent for God’s actions in the world. In the Gospel of Luke, an angel appeared to a young Hebrew woman and told her that she would bear a son and name him Jesus. The angel explained that, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The woman was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and she was filled with joy at the news.
ETERNAL JOY
Many people turn to things like insurance in attempts to preserve this fleeting life. It is important and even required by law that we have certain types of insurance. It helps us to reduce the risk of losing everything but the reality is that insurance cannot remove the risk of loss and the temporal nature of the world. Having life insurance doesn’t mean you will live forever. It simply ensures that those you leave behind will have means to be provided for upon your death. Having car insurance doesn’t mean you won’t get into an accident. We cannot rely on insurance or any other earthly means to sustain happiness. When our source of joy and happiness is worldly, it will be fleeting. How, then, do we find eternal, lasting joy?
Eternal joy begins in the Hope of God.
To find eternal joy, we need to build on the last two weeks of sermons. The Hope of God is the starting place to living a life full of lasting joy. The hope of God is found by clinging to your relationship with God, especially in difficult situations. One of the most important lessons I learned in my life was when I was 18 years-old. I was struggling in college classes, had sustained a swimming injury that threatened my season, and was experiencing problems with my friends. In that situation, I realized the only thing in life that couldn’t be taken away from me was my relationship with God. And so I hung onto God and he sustained me through that season of my life.
When we cling to the presence of God, we will find sustaining joy. Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” If we can learn to draw into the Lord, we will begin to discover that eternal joy is rooted in the hope of God. Joy is deeper than an emotion. It is a state of being that begins by knowing God deeply. That state of being leads us to a place of feeling joyful and happy. If you are feeling depressed, sad or lack joy, you need to begin to remedy the situation by digging deep into God.
In James 1:2 James says, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy…” Joy is not produced by the favor of one’s circumstance but by the depth of one’s relationship with God. We can indeed find eternal joy and happiness when we cling to the Hope of God through all circumstances. Sustaining joy goes beyond clinging to the hope of God.
Eternal joy is sustained in the Peace of God.
Last week, we talked about the peace of God. If we desire to be sustained in joy, we need to live in the peace of God. In order to live into the peace of God, we need to work towards well-being and wholeness through engaging in life-giving practices. One practice that I want to highlight this morning is to actively love and serve others. Often times, we lose our joy because we become to internally focused. We dwell on our own problems and struggles. Instead of simply focusing on ourselves, there are times when we need to get outside of ourselves and reach out to others.
We can do this by sharing in meaningful relationships with others. When we get depressed, we have a tendency to withdraw. To live in the peace of God and be sustained in joy, we need to stay connected to other people. At the heart of joy is loving relationships. Worldly abundance will not sustain joy but loving relationship while not without challenges have the potential to discover the fullness of joy.
Another great way to sustain joy in the peace of God is to serve others. Whether it be here at the church, downstairs with the Food Cupboard or just your spouse, it is important to serve others. Jesus said, it is better to give than to receive. I think giving to people in service is a great way to find joy. Serving produces joy because it is life giving and connects us to God and to other people.
Eternal joy fulfilled by expressing it.
As we begin to discover joy through the hope and peace of God, it is important to express it. In Luke 1, we see Mary’s response to the news of her pregnancy. She sings a song to her cousin Elizabeth. Listen to the beginning of it. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savoir, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” It is significant that Mary expresses her joy outwardly.
The Bible is replete with examples of rejoicing through singing, dancing, leaping, and other exuberant acts. David dances with joy in the streets. In Deuteronomy the Lord calls the people to rejoice. The Hebrew people are known for the dancing and rejoicing. In Nehemiah, Nehemiah calls the people to rejoice. He says, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Acts of rejoicing will lead to greater joy. Studies have shown that if you smile, it will make you feel happy. You don’t have to feel happy before you smile. Your body doesn’t know the difference and it will respond to the smiling. While I’m not encouraging a fake happiness, there are time when we need to call ourselves into a place of joy. We do this by rejoicing and being joyful over that which God has given us. John Wesley use to tell his preachers to “Preach until you have faith.” A contemporized translation of that would be, “Fake it until you make it.” The act of joy can indeed produce more joy in your life.
CONCLUSION
It is time to learn to live a life full of joy. There are certainly going to be difficult times, challenging times, and trying times. You might even be in that place this morning. Instead of chasing temporary happiness, I would call you to find a place of deeply rooted joy in the Lord. Out of the place of hope, live into peace and be filled with joy. Express that joy and let it be contagious. Tis’ the season to be filled with joy. Christ has saved you. Christ has given you new life. Christ brings you hope and peace. Christ will sustain you into eternity.
Let’s rejoice in that together.
Review the series… 6º of Advent is about finding our way back to God. We get lost in the chaos of the season. We allow the world to dictate our views of Christmas, instead of determining our focus for the season. Does it drive anyone crazy that it’s Happy Holidays or Season Greetings instead of Merry Christmas? I was watching a sitcom this week and they were talking about rediscovering the meaning of Christmas. I thought it would be interesting, but the reality was they missed the point almost entirely. They allowed each character to define their own meaning for Christmas. The reality is the meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ into a dark and broken world. There isn’t much negotiating in that but the world tries. I would propose this, let’s focus on getting back to the basic in our own lives and guide the way for others to get there. Say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanza, say whatever you want, but remember this season is about finding our way back to God.
This week we are reconnecting to joy and we are moving from the musical group, “Peter, Paul, and Mary” to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. We are going to break them up into two sections today. So let’s look at the first three degrees of joy now.
DEGREES ONE – THREE
1º Peter, Paul and Mary are a musical trio known for their popular folk tunes in the 1960’s. Comprised of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers there music had a strong sociopolitical commentary in politically charged era. There songs ranged in content with many successful on the charts. Some of their most famous songs include, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and “If I had a Hammer.” [Show clip]
2º “If I had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in 1949 in support of the Civil Rights Movement. The lyrics sing, “If I had a hammer / I'd hammer in the morning / I'd hammer in the evening / All over this land / I'd hammer out danger / I'd hammer out a warning / I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters / All over this land.” The Civil Rights Movement paved the way for African American music to gain popularity. One of those artists was rapper MC Hammer.
3º MC Hammer was born Stanley Kirk Burrell in Oakland, California. Hammer was a popular rapper in the late 1980’s to the mid-1990’s known for hits like, “U Can’t Touch This” and “Too Legit to Quit.” While he enjoyed great popularity for a short time, he filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Playing off of his sharp decline, he starred in a Super Bowl commercial for Nationwide Insurance in 2005. [Show clip]
WORLDLY HAPPINESS
The gift of God this week is Joy. While we could talk about how we move from a place of misery to joy, I want to talk about the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is a fleeting feeling. Joy is a sustaining inner state of being. Joy is divine, eternal and a fruit of the Spirit. The world has tried to teach us that we can replace eternal joy with lasting happiness. The world has tried to teach us that we can have lasting happiness if we continual pursue the fleeting feelings. When we do this, we end up in a cycle of elation and depression. We find a moment of ecstasy that is followed with moments of disappointment. Sustaining happiness doesn’t exist in the form we have been taught. Sustaining happiness is found rooted in eternal joy. Therefore, we need to stop expecting the world to sustain our happiness.
MC Hammer had a conversion experience of sorts after he went bankrupt. He is now an ordained minister who faithful follows Christ. He learned that no matter how many millions of happiness you have it is still fleeting. He realized that the moments of happiness would continue to be fleeting unless they were rooted in Christ. As we talk about moving from worldly happiness to eternal joy, it is important to recognize how we have been chasing fleeting feelings. Instead of trying new things, bigger experiences, try looking for eternal joy that will sustain and satisfy the soul. To do this, let’s take a look at the next three degrees of Joy.
DEGREES FOUR – SIX
4º Nationwide Insurance provides insurance and financial services based out of Columbus, Ohio. Insurance is a means of risk management to help account for the potential risk of loss. It has been around since the origins of human society. A legal insurance term that describes events outside of human control, such as a flood or tornado, is called an Act of God.
5º An Act of God is also a term used to attribute an event to divine intervention. The Scriptures are full of stories of when God broken into the world and acted on behalf of his people. God primary agent by which God acts in the world is through the Holy Spirit.
6º The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead and the primary agent for God’s actions in the world. In the Gospel of Luke, an angel appeared to a young Hebrew woman and told her that she would bear a son and name him Jesus. The angel explained that, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The woman was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and she was filled with joy at the news.
ETERNAL JOY
Many people turn to things like insurance in attempts to preserve this fleeting life. It is important and even required by law that we have certain types of insurance. It helps us to reduce the risk of losing everything but the reality is that insurance cannot remove the risk of loss and the temporal nature of the world. Having life insurance doesn’t mean you will live forever. It simply ensures that those you leave behind will have means to be provided for upon your death. Having car insurance doesn’t mean you won’t get into an accident. We cannot rely on insurance or any other earthly means to sustain happiness. When our source of joy and happiness is worldly, it will be fleeting. How, then, do we find eternal, lasting joy?
Eternal joy begins in the Hope of God.
To find eternal joy, we need to build on the last two weeks of sermons. The Hope of God is the starting place to living a life full of lasting joy. The hope of God is found by clinging to your relationship with God, especially in difficult situations. One of the most important lessons I learned in my life was when I was 18 years-old. I was struggling in college classes, had sustained a swimming injury that threatened my season, and was experiencing problems with my friends. In that situation, I realized the only thing in life that couldn’t be taken away from me was my relationship with God. And so I hung onto God and he sustained me through that season of my life.
When we cling to the presence of God, we will find sustaining joy. Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” If we can learn to draw into the Lord, we will begin to discover that eternal joy is rooted in the hope of God. Joy is deeper than an emotion. It is a state of being that begins by knowing God deeply. That state of being leads us to a place of feeling joyful and happy. If you are feeling depressed, sad or lack joy, you need to begin to remedy the situation by digging deep into God.
In James 1:2 James says, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy…” Joy is not produced by the favor of one’s circumstance but by the depth of one’s relationship with God. We can indeed find eternal joy and happiness when we cling to the Hope of God through all circumstances. Sustaining joy goes beyond clinging to the hope of God.
Eternal joy is sustained in the Peace of God.
Last week, we talked about the peace of God. If we desire to be sustained in joy, we need to live in the peace of God. In order to live into the peace of God, we need to work towards well-being and wholeness through engaging in life-giving practices. One practice that I want to highlight this morning is to actively love and serve others. Often times, we lose our joy because we become to internally focused. We dwell on our own problems and struggles. Instead of simply focusing on ourselves, there are times when we need to get outside of ourselves and reach out to others.
We can do this by sharing in meaningful relationships with others. When we get depressed, we have a tendency to withdraw. To live in the peace of God and be sustained in joy, we need to stay connected to other people. At the heart of joy is loving relationships. Worldly abundance will not sustain joy but loving relationship while not without challenges have the potential to discover the fullness of joy.
Another great way to sustain joy in the peace of God is to serve others. Whether it be here at the church, downstairs with the Food Cupboard or just your spouse, it is important to serve others. Jesus said, it is better to give than to receive. I think giving to people in service is a great way to find joy. Serving produces joy because it is life giving and connects us to God and to other people.
Eternal joy fulfilled by expressing it.
As we begin to discover joy through the hope and peace of God, it is important to express it. In Luke 1, we see Mary’s response to the news of her pregnancy. She sings a song to her cousin Elizabeth. Listen to the beginning of it. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savoir, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” It is significant that Mary expresses her joy outwardly.
The Bible is replete with examples of rejoicing through singing, dancing, leaping, and other exuberant acts. David dances with joy in the streets. In Deuteronomy the Lord calls the people to rejoice. The Hebrew people are known for the dancing and rejoicing. In Nehemiah, Nehemiah calls the people to rejoice. He says, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Acts of rejoicing will lead to greater joy. Studies have shown that if you smile, it will make you feel happy. You don’t have to feel happy before you smile. Your body doesn’t know the difference and it will respond to the smiling. While I’m not encouraging a fake happiness, there are time when we need to call ourselves into a place of joy. We do this by rejoicing and being joyful over that which God has given us. John Wesley use to tell his preachers to “Preach until you have faith.” A contemporized translation of that would be, “Fake it until you make it.” The act of joy can indeed produce more joy in your life.
CONCLUSION
It is time to learn to live a life full of joy. There are certainly going to be difficult times, challenging times, and trying times. You might even be in that place this morning. Instead of chasing temporary happiness, I would call you to find a place of deeply rooted joy in the Lord. Out of the place of hope, live into peace and be filled with joy. Express that joy and let it be contagious. Tis’ the season to be filled with joy. Christ has saved you. Christ has given you new life. Christ brings you hope and peace. Christ will sustain you into eternity.
Let’s rejoice in that together.
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