SOAKED IN JOY: part 1

JOY COMES THROUGH THE STORY OF JESUS
March 23, 2008
with Adam Waters

INTRODUCTION
• Happy and You Know It (played very sarcastically)
• Do you ever get the feeling that the church has missed the point? That the church has NO CLUE what's going on with your life? How can I be happy-clappy when my life has been so tough this week!!

GETTING RID OF WASTE
 JOY has very little to do with clapping hands, stomping feet and shouts of excitement.
 GREEK: inner feeling of delight (used 18x in Philippians) something that life can't take away
 PAUL: writing about “joy” from prison (odd place if joy means happy)
 JOY is not taken away by our circumstances
 CS LEWIS: it must be sharply distinguished from feelings of happiness or pleasure.
 JOY occurs when all is right between me and God.
 “Joy of the Lord is our strength.” Neh. 8
 The source of JOY is Jesus and friendship with him.
 Matthew Henry describes joy as “The cheerfulness that comes from time spent with our friend.”

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY WEEK...
Ethne was sick
My back went out
I missed work
Corrie has been sick
The basement of the church flooded
Most of the church leaders have been sick
We had lots of car "issues"
It was tough in the middle of it to find joy

Here's what Paul wrote from prison...
Philippians 1:3-11 Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus. I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

2008 is leading us to grow... to swim. As a swimmer, I will…
 SATISFY the Spirit’s leading.
 WIN the battles of the flesh.
 INHERIT the Kingdom.
 MANIFEST the character of God.

SWIMMING LESSON: JOY comes through the Story of Jesus
 Joy causes us to share the story. (1:5) Paul’s joy is overflowing with joy that though he is stuck in prison (still sharing btw), his partners are overflowing the story.
 Joy causes us to grow the story. (1:6) Our relationship with Jesus should be a growing one. It shows that his work on the cross is finished, but his work with us isn’t.
 Joy causes us to defend the story. (1:7) No matter where we are at, our passion for the story of Jesus that we find ourselves a part of should continue in full-force.
 Joy causes us to love the story. (1:8-9) The first fruit of God’s spirit is love. It is the ultimate expression of our joy towards each other because of what Jesus did for us.
 Joy causes us to SWIM the story. (1:10-11) Paul’s emphasis is the same as ours is for the “soaked” series all year long. That we learn to SWIM (tell acronym again). That we learn to grow in our faith. That our intimacy with Jesus comes so close… that we are so soaked in joy (inner delight in Jesus) so much… that we are confident in the story of Jesus so much so that our life echoes it.

As I went through this tough week, I began to ask myself some questions...
**Can people see it in me?
**Can they see the joy of that the story of Jesus brings?
**Am I soaked in the joy of knowing Jesu and his story?

TODAY
**Can they see it in you?
**Is your life soaked in joy?
**Do you want it to be?

WRAP UP
I love ducks. They have the ability to let all the cold rain of this life not penetrate their lives. A sponge on the other hand soakes up (like in the basement after the flood this week) and it's really hard to remove the cold, nasty rainwater.... Do you want to be a DUCK or a SPONGE?