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"Reassuring Truths About Joy" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Can you have joy when your circumstances
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change and things aren't the
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way that you thought that they would be?
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Maybe something happens to you in life that changes everything,
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and maybe it happened quickly, And maybe you feel powerless with regard
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to the change that has taken place. I think that Joni
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Eareckson Tada can relate to that. In 1967,
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when she was 17 years old, she was swimming
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and diving, and in that— the course of that day,
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she suffered an accident in which she was paralyzed from the shoulders down.
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At first, she was drowning in depression.
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She got bitter and angry toward God,
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but ultimately she turned to faith, and out of that
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she became a best-selling author and an inspirational speaker,
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one who was an advocate for the disabled, and she
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was one who even became a very accomplished painter using
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her mouth. She faced some circumstances, and she
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did not let that dictate her joy.
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You know, so often we talk about happiness. Happiness seems so tied to
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our circumstances. When things go well, we're happy, and when they're
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not going well, we're not. The Hebrews writer is
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writing to a people who have been struggling. They have been facing
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some difficulties in their Christian life. And so
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the Hebrews writer is trying to appeal to them.
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And as he does, he spends the first 9 and a half chapters talking
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to them about all the blessings and the wonderful things they have by
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being in Christ. And the word that he uses that I think summarizes this the
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best is the word better. Some would say that it's a very
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key word to the book of Hebrews. It's found about once every chapter
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in this letter, 13 times in total.
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And what he does in the course of this letter is, is he
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holds up Jesus to various elements of the Jewish faith, and he says
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that in each one In all of these cases, Jesus is better than those.
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He is superior to those. And this was very helpful
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for a people who were being very tempted to go back to
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that very faith. You know,
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when we look at our own lives, there are pressures and problems that come
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into them, maybe something from our past or maybe some
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person of influence in our life that may be trying to pull us back to
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a place that wasn't so good for us spiritually. And maybe
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we begin to wonder, Where's the joy in living
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the Christian life? These folks could understand
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that and appreciate that. And so, the Hebrews writer writes to them,
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and as he does so, he encourages them, but he looks back at
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a time earlier in their lives when they were doing better. They were really
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living the Christian life as they should, but at the time he
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writes the letter, they'd been struggling some more. And he begins to diagnose
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it, the Hebrews writer does, moved by the Holy Spirit, and he says that
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you're suffering from negligence in your spiritual walk.
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Hebrews 2:3. You find
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yourself in a place where you are spiritually hard of hearing and
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immature, chapter 3, verse— or 5, verse 11 through 14.
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That you find yourself in a place to where you need to hear the fundamentals
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of the faith, the basic facts of the gospel all over again,
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5:12. You find yourself spiritually
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sluggish, lethargy, laziness or just
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not willing to move forward. Chapter 6 and verse 12, and you've even
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abandoned the assemblies. Chapter 10 and verse 25.
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At the same time, he points to some of the dangers they were facing.
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He said, you're in danger of slipping away. Hebrews chapter 2 and
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verse 1. You're in danger of being hardened
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through the deceitfulness of sin. Chapter 3 and verse 13. You're in danger
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of unbelief. Chapter 3 and verse 12. You're in danger of
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missing the promised rest that God has for you.
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4:1-3. You're in danger of throwing
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away your confidence, chapter 10:35. You're in danger, if you want
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to sum it all up, of falling away, chapter 13:9.
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And he even laments the fact that there were some who had
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left and he's not sure that they're going to come back, chapter 6:1-8.
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And so, the Hebrews writer is trying to encourage them to hang
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on, and he's giving them resources,
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hooks in which they can hold on to their rope of faith.
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I always think about on Sunday night the fact that we're about to leave the
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relative comfort and support and encouragement of our Christian family,
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and we're about to go out into an environment that is much more hostile to
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our faith. And how do we respond to that on the Monday through
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Saturday? We need to be reminded of the resources.
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And we can look at, and we have before in the book of Hebrews,
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some of those resources. But one of the resources I find very interesting
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is in the back half of the letter. It's a word that he uses.
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It's found, almost 60 times in the New Testament.
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It's found in some very familiar verses that we'll look at at the end of
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this lesson, but it's found 4 times at the end
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of the letter, and it's the word joy.
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And the word joy, if you go into a lexicon, will be defined for you
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as a sense or an experience of inner happiness.
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And the catalyst of that inner happiness may or may not
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be worthy, may not be good, for our soul. But the Hebrews writer points to
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some things that I find very surprising, and yet
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he says these are things, principles that can help us to have joy even
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in unexpected places. What I'd like for us to do is to
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look at that. And by the way, these 4 occurrences occur at
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the end of chapter 10 to chapter 13 in
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that wrapping up, that summation of the letter.
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Where he says, hang on, hold on to your faith.
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What are some things that we can be encouraged? What are some principles that will
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help us to find joy? What does this epistle teach us about having joy?
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Number 1, he says, there is joy in what you possess.
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This is the first occurrence in Hebrews of that word. And what he does there
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in chapter 10 is he walks them back to the early days of
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their faith. He says, you endured a great affliction,
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or conflict of suffering, What did that look like?
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Well, he says that you were made a public spectacle of, you were humiliated,
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but you also joined in with those who were treated in such a way in
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this ordeal or trial of affliction. Not only that,
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you showed sympathy to those who were in prison
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and you accepted joyfully the seizure of
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your property, knowing that you have something that is better and more enduring.
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Therefore, do not throw away this confidence which has great
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reward. That's Hebrews 10:32-35.
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And he makes a statement that perhaps describes
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anybody in their pursuit of happiness. What he's
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saying is that there is joy in your possessions.
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I don't care who the preacher is, that's the message that's going to be preached.
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But the question is, what kind of possessions?
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And Jesus lays out the very basic contrast for us in the Sermon
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on the Mount. When he says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth
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where neither moth or rust corrupt and where thieves break through and
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steal, but rather lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where the moth
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and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal.
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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21.
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Paul says the same kind of thing to Timothy in working
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with the church at Ephesus. And he says, instruct those who are rich in this
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world's goods not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty
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of riches but on God who gives to all things richly to enjoy.
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Instruct those who are rich to do good, to be rich in good works,
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to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves a
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foundation for the future that is life
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indeed. 1 Timothy 6:17-19.
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There is going to be joy in what we possess,
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but some things are more honorable to see as the things
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that are our possessions than others. So, the Hebrews writer says,
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I want you to go back to a time when you were new Christians,
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young Christians, and as you stood up for your faith,
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here's what it cost you. In the first place, it caused
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you to be embarrassed and humiliated. People made fun of you because
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of your faith. But not only that, you were willing to
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lock arms and to stand up with those individuals who were
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being treated in that way just simply because they are Christians, But what blows
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my mind is a price that they were willing to pay beyond that.
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He says, you were willing to accept
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the seizure of your property.
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And what's as a part of that, he demonstrates and he says,
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you did this joyfully. There's our
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first occurrence of the word. He says, when it came to the stuff that you
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had, you were willing to give it up and be happy in doing
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so. Now, that's not something that
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we're probably going to face this week in our transaction of life.
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But what if Christianity came with that kind of a
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price tag? What if we— being a Christian meant
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your stuff was repossessed and it was taken away from you simply
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because you were identified as a faithful member of the body of Christ?
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And what if you were humiliated and shamed in a public
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way because of your faith? You know, there's a relatively new word
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in our cultural lexicon that I didn't even know about until a few
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years ago, and it's the word doxxing. But if you follow politics,
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it's a word that seems to come up, or even if you follow just
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things that go on in Hollywood. Doxxing is the taking of someone's
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personal information and posting it publicly,
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typically on the internet and without the person's permission,
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in an attempt to harass them or intimidate them or to cause them
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distress. And some of the subjects of this, the victims of
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it, include politicians and celebrities and ICE agents and police
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officers. Can you imagine your faith causing
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you to have mistreatment like that? That's what
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it seems like the case was for these fledgling Christians.
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And yet, they were willing to do that. What causes one to
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hold on to their faith when the price is like that?
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Well, the Hebrews writer is going to give us some answers to this. First of
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all, he says they knew that what they had, what they possessed in Christ
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was better. I need to be reminded of that. And so, this is where
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the Hebrews writer comes back to it again and again.
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What do you have in Christ? What you have in Christ is
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better. It's a better hope than
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the things of this world, Hebrews 6:19.
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It is a better agreement, a better covenant, a better contract
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into which to bring yourself, Hebrews 7:22.
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There are better promises than what this world has to offer,
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Hebrews 8:6. There's a better sacrifice,
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that is, that which is done for our salvation to
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give us purpose in this life, chapter 9:23. There's a better
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country, Hebrews 11:16. There's a better resurrection.
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That is a hope beyond what happens when you go to the cemetery. Hebrews 11:35
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summarizes it in a great way. There's a better future. Hebrews 11:40.
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And there is better blood. Hebrews 12:24.
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Superior in function and characteristic.
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What gives me joy is that what I have in
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Christ is better. That's what I possess.
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Than the things of this world. James 5:1-3,
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the writer James says that the things that you buy with your
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money is rust, is a witness against you,
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but what you have in Christ is better. But it's also better
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because what you have is lasting. It's enduring.
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It's something that's not taken away.
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In Hebrews 11:10, The Hebrews writer calls it a
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city with foundations. I didn't
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realize this, but you know that song, O Zion, lovely Zion, I long thy gates
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to see? It includes this idea from this verse. It's a city
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with foundations. For here we have no lasting city,
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but we seek that which is to come. Hebrews 13:14.
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What we place our hope in that brings us joy is in
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something that we possess that cannot be
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taken away from us. There won't be insecurity. We won't
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have to walk away from it. It won't be something that we're tossed
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out of. You know, I guess you can't go very
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far before you hear news reports about how economics
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are really being strained and things are going poorly in the economy
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and things are costing more and it's causing folks to make all kinds of
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adjustments. And one of the places that's the most fearful and
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yet sometimes comes is to the housing market. I saw in Pew
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Research Center that in July alone,
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93,000 eviction notices were
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filed in this country. Did you know that about 3.6
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million eviction notices are filed in our country in
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an average year in the United States of America? Do you remember
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back in the— some of you will remember the Great Recession of 2008, and this
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was more pronounced because in that economy, that 6 million
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American households lost their houses in the
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midst of all of that. It even has its own phenomenon. They say that
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those who face this situation have housing instability.
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It's the fear, the concern of losing good housing
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situation for poor quality housing and overcrowdedness
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or being stuck into a neighborhood that's unsafe or
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even homelessness. But here's what Jesus says to us,
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and I give unto them eternal life, and no man will take them
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out of my hand, for my Father which gave them me is greater than all,
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and no man will be able to take them out of my Father's hand.
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John 10:28-29. Now we can
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walk away from it, but why would we? What the
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Hebrews writer says to them has great validity for us,
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that there is joy in what we have because what we have is not only
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better, but it's lasting. But it is also rewarding.
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They knew that what they had in Christ is rewarding. He says as
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much when he says, therefore, do not throw away this
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confidence which has a great reward.
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If we hang on to our faith, the reward won't come
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now. It may not even exist for us in this life. For some, we may
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enjoy some comfort, but for those who are faithful in Christ, there is that
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which will never be taken away.
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With that being the case, I need to be encouraged.
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I need to be encouraged not to put more emphasis and more
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obsession into my occupation than my
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salvation. Now, we have responsibilities, 1 Timothy 5:8,
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but we're not living for it. It's not the foundation of our lives
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because our possession is greater than that. And our
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greatest interests are not going to be on the things of this world that
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will bury in the grave, but the things that last beyond that to eternal
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life. And so, first of all, there is joy in what
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we have and what we possess. But the second thing we notice as we
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study in our text is that there is joy
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in what lies ahead. In Hebrews 12:2,
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The Hebrews writer says, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
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finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
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him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
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right hand of the throne of God. How could
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Jesus face the struggle of the cross?
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How could he go through the pain that was involved in
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that? Well, the Hebrews writer says that he was providing for
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us an example of faith and faithfulness that would
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help us to focus and to finish. Hebrews 2:9-10,
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we see Jesus, who was for a little while made lower than the angels for
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the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of
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God should taste death for every man, and to be the one that we look
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to, that forerunner that we could run behind,
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to look beyond what we're going through in this moment and to see what's ahead.
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So what that tells me is that there are times in my life where what
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I'm struggling with is not pleasant?
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How do I make it through those hard moments of my life right
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now? It's by looking to the joy that's ahead.
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The Hebrews writer talks about this earlier in the letter when he says in Hebrews
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5:7, who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered
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up strong cryings and tears unto the One that was able to save Him from
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death, and was heard in that He feared, though He were a Son, yet learned
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he obedience by the things which he suffered. Therefore,
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being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to everyone
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that obeys him. When we look at Jesus, we see him
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enduring the cross. How could he go through the pain
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and suffering? He didn't enjoy that, those 6 hours. It was,
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yes, the reunification, being again reunited with
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his Father in heaven. He longed to be back with him,
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but it was also the joy of knowing that what he was accomplishing was
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going to do good for us. He saw the joy that
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was set before him.
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Sir Ernest Shackleton was a British explorer,
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and in 1914, before the beginning of World War I,
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he carried his crew in a ship called the Endurance, and he was trying
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to explore across Antarctica. And in the midst
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of that, the ship, as the waters began to freeze, captured his
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ship in ice. And as that ice swelled and as the ice
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field grew, it ultimately would crush and break apart that ship.
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And so now an exploration expedition became an expedition
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for survival. They were given ways to the freezing
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temperatures that almost froze them to death. They were
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subjected to hunger. There was great doubt as to whether
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they would survive. And so finally Shackleton and a couple
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of his men decided to go in an open boat and brave the dangers
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of that water to get to South Georgia Island for help. And they got
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back and they were able ultimately to get back to those 28 men
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and they all survived. The mission changed, but his
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mission became one of ensuring the survival of others.
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Now, Jesus was unlike this in that Jesus was— came
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to this earth and accomplished the very mission that he set out for. And he
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did have to give his life, but it ensured our
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spiritual survival. The Hebrews writer says
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that we can endure the suffering that we're going through now for the joy that's
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set before us. Whatever hardship, whatever temptation,
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whatever trial, whatever suffering, we can make it through
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if we will look ahead. But he compares it to running an endurance
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race. I like to run, but I'm not foolish enough
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to try to do a marathon. Maybe some of you are. But I know
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that they say that if you're going to run a marathon, that there are some
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dangers that you need to be aware of. That one of the things that's
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going to happen to a lot of folks who run in a marathon is they're
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going to cramp up. I'm talking about severe cramps, not your average ordinary
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ones. Or it may be that in the course of running
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that race that you find yourself just mentally where you hit
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this wall and it's so bad that you can't put one foot in front of
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the other. And they say that this happens to a lot of folks at the
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latter stages of a marathon that they just— they can't mentally
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go on anymore. And there are some people in running a race that
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they just run out of fuel, that they haven't properly prepared themselves with the food
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and drink that they need before they go. And then there are
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some that just— they just give up,
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that the mental strain becomes too much and they're done.
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Now, I read on websites and magazines when I was at one
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time thinking about doing this, and I saw that there were as many as 12
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challenges like this But what they said was that with the right
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kind of training, no matter what the challenge is, you can overcome that.
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Now, you're like me, and you're probably not going to run a marathon in this
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life, but we're all inevitably in the marathon of
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life, and we are told that we must run and we can't stop.
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I love what Isaiah says, and Peter and Paul both quote him. In Isaiah 28:16,
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behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
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and whosoever believes in him shall not be disappointed.
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The Hebrews writer encourages us to look ahead
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at the joy that is set before us and don't stop running
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even if right now things aren't pleasant. There is joy in
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what lies ahead. But then third,
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there is joy in what suffering produces. The Hebrews
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writer actually hasn't changed his focus here from
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chapter 12 and verse 2 to chapter 12 and verse 11.
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In chapter 12 and verse 11, he makes this statement. He says that there
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is— that no discipline for the moment is joyful,
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but sorrowful, but to those who are trained by
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it, afterward it produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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Now, as the writer here is speaking, he says there's 2 contrasting elements.
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He says that discipline is not joyful,
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but sorrowful. But second,
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afterward, it produces for us the peaceful fruit of
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righteousness. He's saying that discipline doesn't necessarily—
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is not going to and probably not going to make you happy. In fact,
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it won't. But there's what happens on the other side
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of that. Now, in this chapter, he's talking about 2 forms of discipline.
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There's, first of all, the self-discipline that we have got to exert on ourselves.
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Verses 1 through 3, that this is what's going to cause
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us to put our focus on Jesus. It's going to cause
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us to free ourselves from the burdens that can weigh us down. It's going to
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cause us to fix our eyes on him, and it's going to cause us to
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fortify ourselves against being weary and losing heart.
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In the first place, there are things that we can do that can help us
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through the trials that are meant to discipline us through our self-discipline,
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that can produce joy. But then there's divine
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discipline, the discipline that the Father is putting into play
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into our lives. And he says various things about that. He says
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certainly it's valuable, verse 5. It's a token or
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an indication of God's love for us that He allows us to be disciplined,
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verse 6. He says that it can produce endurance
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for us, verse 6 and verse 7. And it's also an indication that God
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is our Father. There is divine God
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disciplines us that we may share his holiness.
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You know, when something bad is happening in your life, it's not necessarily a
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punishment for your sin; it may be God doing something
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in you that can make you holy and that can
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help you in living the Christian life.
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They called him Colonel Coughlin.
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And he was tough. He was a guy that
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would, as a head coach, had some very strict rules. He would
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turn the clocks 5 to 15 minutes ahead in the
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team facilities in the front of team meetings to
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get— make sure that everybody was there on time. He fined team captains if they
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arrived 2 minutes early because he said, I think you should be there at least
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5 minutes early. If you're there 2 minutes early, you're late. He was a stern
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disciplinarian, and he always had this tough look on his face.
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Half of the teams he's coached for 17 seasons went to the playoffs. 2 of
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them won the Super Bowl. Everybody said, man, he was tough
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on you, but he never sugarcoated it, and you always knew
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where you stood with him. He— but player after
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player gave this tribute after he left coaching that he loved
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his players, that he cared about what was going on in their lives and
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with their families, but he was tough.
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You know, when we think about the things that we're going through that may be
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adverse, our struggles and our trials,
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perhaps it's God at work in those things to produce
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in us holiness. But there's also what happens as it refines
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our faith. On the other side of the difficulty
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that we may be facing that might be trying to rob our joy,
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Doesn't it make us more caring and compassionate and patient and
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understanding with people who are going through the same kinds of things?
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Right after he says this, the Hebrews writer says, I want you to support the
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weak and I want you to seek peace
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with all men. What we see is
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that there is joy in what suffering produces.
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That's counterintuitive to how we think in this life. But then
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fourth, there is joy in seeing others grow.
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In a series of exhortations with which the Hebrews writer closes the
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letter, in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17, the writer says
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that we are to submit to those who lead us and
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we are to obey them and that
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they may do this. They're those who will give an account, that they may do
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this with joy and not with grief, for that
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would be unprofitable for you. Seems to me there
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are 2 parts to this. It's— when we read this verse
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in its context, that's written to us as members, for those
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who are leading us in the Lord in the local church, that we are to
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submit to them. We're not to be subversive with them,
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that we're not to defy them. We're not to lobby against
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them, that when they make decisions that we don't understand, that we need to trust
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them, these who are serving, these godly Godly men who
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have been qualified by the Holy Spirit, Acts 20:28,
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that we have a part to play, that the degree of grief
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or joy that they feel is directly tied to how we respond to their
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leadership. And that's how I typically look at this passage,
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but I do believe there's another side to that. There's a word, there's a
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message for those who lead. And I want you to think about this,
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not just in terms of— while there is a direct application to our elders,
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But if you're leading, if you're influencing anybody, you find
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yourself in this same position, that the ideal that the Bible
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holds out for you if you lead others is that there is
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joy possible. There is joy in
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investing in other people. There are people in your life right now that you
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want to influence and that you want to bring closer to Christ,
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that you want to share him with, And in the course of
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doing that, it doesn't mean that there's going to be joy in the moment.
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It may be a very difficult process, but what you're trying to do in fulfilling
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your mission and your purpose as a Christian is that you're trying to
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help people to be prepared to stand before the Lord and give an account for
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themselves, 1 Peter 4:5. And so
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in doing that, there may not be joy right now. It may be difficult.
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It may be fraught with waiting until that happens.
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You may be doing a lot of investing right now that doesn't
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pay off until much later. But one of the most mature responses of a Christian
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is what the venerable John says near the end of his life when he says,
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I have no greater joy than to hear of my children walking
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in the truth. When you're trying to help other people to come closer to Christ,
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there is joy in seeing them grow.
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I suppose if you were to talk to our elders, some have been serving for
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months and some have been serving for years. And those who used to serve
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as elders in this congregation, over the long course of time, they would
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talk about the growth and the maturity and the development that they saw in
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individuals, maybe seeing them as they came up out of the water to some later
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stage in their life as the result of what was poured into them
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by them and others. But all of us can look
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into the lives of others that we have shared Christ and tried to
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lead ourselves. Maybe it was rocky at first,
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but to see that growth and development, there's a
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joy there that you can't get from anything in this world.
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There's an underlying principle. What seems to be the thread
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that ties all of this together is that none of these things seem to
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be what would bring us joy. There is joy in
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the proper possessions. You know, Israel had Canaan, we have heaven.
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And in both cases, as Obadiah would put it, we are to possess our possessions.
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There is joy in what we possess because it's
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better, it's lasting, and it has a great reward.
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There is joy in what lies ahead.
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You're going to have some moments this week that may not very— be very joyful
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at all. You may be in the midst of a season or a difficulty that's
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somewhat protracted that seems devoid of joy?
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Can you do like Jesus and see ahead and
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look beyond that and know that beyond the suffering
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and the difficulty, there's a joy that can keep you holding on?
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But then there's a joy in what the suffering that we have produces
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in us, that God is at work even in the struggles that we face.
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To refine our faith. And on the other side of that, make us
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better fitted to be a servant in this kingdom. And there's joy in
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investing in other people and helping them to grow. What's interesting
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in all of these is that the joy is not determined by
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what anybody else does or does not do.
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It's a joy that's developed within based on a
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relationship with the one who's above. You trace that word joy
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through the New Testament. Matthew 13:44,
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it's the one who discovers the kingdom and for joy of
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that, he sells all that he has that he may have that. It's the
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joy that's described for the angels in heaven in Luke
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15:7, in Luke 15:10,
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that is of a soul that's reclaimed heaven's
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happiness. It's the joy that we see when it's
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described in Matthew 25:21, Enter the joys
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of your Lord. It's the joy we see in the early church when
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the Samaritans are Christian in the city in Acts 8:8. And when people are
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converted and the report of that is shared in Acts 15:3. And so it is
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all the way through the Bible. You see that word joy. It's a spiritual concept
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for spiritual people that causes us to have to look past the
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things that we're facing physically sometimes in order to understand
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and achieve. God wants you to have joy.
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Yes, when we're here together, but joy as you go out into some
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more adverse headwinds, if we'll do as they did
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and look to where they look. There's a joy in Christ not
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found anywhere else. It's why at the end of our sermons that we appeal with
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an invitation or an encouragement to respond to heaven's invitation
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because we realize, we believe God's Word is true, that there's no joy apart
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from a right relationship with our Lord, a joy that
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comes, a joy in heaven when we respond in faith,
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that repents and is baptized to have our sins washed away.
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There's a joy that's to be found when even if we've
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departed from him, we come back home, or when we give over to him the
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things that are too heavy for us to carry alone as we bear one another's
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burdens. Perhaps tonight you have some need that you need to make known to us.
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If we can help you in any way, won't you come as we stand and