Latest / The Daily Word / August 20 – Fullness of Joy
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night, and welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes, and it's my privilege to pastor Architopacampus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode. We're going to be doing a devotion from today's New Testament portion of our Bible reading plan. Today we are jumping in to first John this episode. Epistle of John separate from his gospel. And I have to tell you, I love First John. I love John, but I love First John. And that's actually very appropriate because John is really known for his emphasis on love. He called himself in the Gospel of John the the disciple whom Jesus loved. and that was a major emphasis that he carried through all of his writings. You can see the theme of love. there's a story about John when he was older and he was feeble, not physically able to do much, that he was carried, physically carried into a church service and sat down in front of the congregation, and the congregation was all excited. Because this elder statesman of the faith, the man who had walked side by side with the Messiah, was there in their midst. So they gathered up close, wanting to hear every word that the apostle had to speak. And and and that wasn't that wasn't hard because what all that he said was little children love one another. Little children love one another. That's all he said. And when later asked, like, why didn't you share more? John said, his answer is recorded as being, It is the Lord's command. And if this only is done, it is enough. It's enough that we love one another. Now, we're gonna be jumping into this man's writing, his epistle, and this epistle is kind of different than the ones that we see from from say Paul. instead of this being a letter that is reads like you know, someone addressing issues and fixing problems, this almost more reads like a poetic sermon in which John constantly echoes the teachings of Jesus and applies them to the Christian life that people are now living. And that first echo that I see when I look at this is actually the one that stood out to me that we're gonna be basing today's devotion around and that comes in verse four when John said, These things we write to you that your joy may be full. And that is a mirror copy of what Jesus said in John 15, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. Now, what Jesus was speaking about when he said that, it was right after he had given this image of Jesus being the vine, and his followers, those who put their faith in him, being branches. How when a branch remains connected to the vine, it's able to get all the nutrients and all the water and everything it needs to sustain growth, to sustain growth, and to produce fruit. And it's after all this imagery that Jesus shared that he said, I'm telling you these things so that your joy may be full. And we can understand that when John is saying this in verse four, he's intentionally thinking of the time he heard that come out of the master's lips, and he's repeating it. To his audience, because this letter, the entirety of First John, his purpose is to write everything that he's writing so that his listeners, his audience's joy may be full. So when you're reading this in the coming days, read it with the understanding that everything that John is sharing is for the purpose of your joy being full. So what does that mean? What does it mean for joy to be full? Well Well, what does that mean? Well, let's first start off with full. Full is a word that means replete, having within its limits all that it can contain. That is what being full means. Every bit that you have capacity to hold, you are filled to the brim. That is what full means. So John is saying, I want you to have all the joy you are capable of. Of carrying. So let's understand joy a little bit. If you've been around Lakeshore for any amount of time, this isn't going to come as a surprise because this is kind of a hallmark teaching of who we have. joy, we get it confused sometimes. joy is not happiness. See, happiness changes with circumstances. One minute we're happy, the next we're sad and we're frustrated. Joy is deeper and it is more consistent. It's The delight that we experience from walking in relationship with Jesus, that n nothing else can supply that joy other than Him. I recently taught and I illustrated the difference between joy and happiness like this. Happiness is kind of like the daily forecast for weather. Sometimes the daily forecasts, it's gonna be sunny today, it's gonna be stormy. The next one day is gonna be pleasant, the next day's gonna be hot, like it has been for the last couple weeks here. Yeah, yeah. See, happiness is like the daily forecast, it changes, but joy is more like the climate. See the forecast changes, but the climate describes the environment in which all of those changes that are happening on a daily basis. And climate is determined by where you live. Recently, I went on vacation just a few weeks ago. And while in South Carolina, it is normal for our summer days to be in the 90s and humid and miserable. We went on vacation to Southern California. We went to where the weather conditions, it's in at most the 80s, low 80s, we were experiencing. 75 and sunny while y'all were baking in the heat, and I have to say, I was very fortunate, and I was like, ha, suckers, those of you who are back in South Carolina. But well the the the climate in Southern California is different than the climate here in South Carolina, and my Point there is that when we start experiencing the joy of Jesus, it's like moving somewhere where the whole climate is different. You don't have access to joy, the climate that Jesus provides outside of relationship with Jesus. So when we're talking about having fullness of joy, we're talking about being completely filled with that overarching, this is the new normal way of life. for you as a Christ follower. So how do we get that to change? How do we start transitioning from my old life before Jesus, the climate was what it was, and there was there was there was ups and downs, but there was a overarching sense of, I don't know, despair, whatever, despondency, whatever it was that brought you to Jesus, whatever it was that made you look to him as other in your own personal life. How do I get from there to to this new experiencing the fullness of joy, as full as I can be, of that new climate, as we're calling it. Well, John here in verse three really points to that. And it's the same thing that Jesus spoke of in John 15. Verse three that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ. It was after Jesus said, Abide in me and I abide in you. That teaching is what he said was so that joy could be full. See, it's relating and continuing to relate in Jesus. See, I went to Southern California on a vacation. I did not move there. I got to enjoy the climate there, but then I came back to where it's sweaty again. But when we want to experience the fullness of joy, it's where we go. go to Jesus not just for a visit but we go to a abide in him to walk in daily fellowship with him. Now I want you to understand there are still gonna be even with Jesus like the climate is different but that doesn't mean you're gonna escape from from rainy days or or put it this way, it's not that you're gonna escape from pain. You're not gonna escape from difficulty. In fact we're called in scripture to suffer with Jesus to enter into his suffering The idea of there being no pain and no suffering with Jesus is is erroneous. That's not the case, but he is with us and he is setting the climate in our heart, even when we're going through those hard things. So let's get to practical application. That's scripture, that's observation, practical application. Where are you? Where am I living? Am I trying to manufacture? Joy to find some sort of delight in my daily life apart from Jesus? Am I so busy changing my circumstances, thinking that that will bring happiness? That I'm failing to just come to Jesus despite my circumstances and trust Him to make up the difference? Am I living continually connected to Jesus? Let's bring Jesus. into our life and let him establish the climate of our heart in that ever-changing forecast that goes up and down. When we abide in him, we're going to be transitioning into his joy and that is going to help us to have joy in the disappointments, in the stress, in the good times, in the ordinary moments. We don't want to just visit Jesus when we need him. We want to make him our home. See, we don't change climates by changing the weather. We change climates by changing where we live, and we are coming to a place where we are going to make our home in Jesus, and He is going to take care of the rest. And this podcast recording on the Daily Word, I have spoken to you that your joy may be full. Let's pray, Father. Jesus, I just thank you for who you are and what you're doing. I pray that you would continue working in all of our lives that we may have fullness of joy. That's what you came for, Jesus. You came to bring us joy, joy unspeakable. And Lord, I pray right now that those of us who are only experiencing joy temporarily, we seem to get it and then lose it. And it seems more like happiness than like joy. Pray that you bring us to a place of full dependency on you, walking with you. fellowshipping with you so that you can fill us with your joy. Lord Jesus, we love you and we thank you. Amen.