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How Do You Define Joy · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: As we begin this series on joy in the Letter
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  Speaker 1: of Paul to the Philippians, it seemed good to me
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  Speaker 1: that we should probably begin with a definition of joy. Definitions,
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  Speaker 1: as I'm sure you know, are simply descriptions of the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: way people use words. Words don't have intrinsic definitions. They're
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: given definitions by the way people use them. So groups
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  Speaker 1: and societies use words, and individuals use words. So when
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  Speaker 1: I say I want to define joy for you, before
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  Speaker 1: we dig into how it's used in Philippians, I have
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  Speaker 1: to ask, well, whose joy am I talking about or
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  Speaker 1: what usage am I talking about? And so very clearly
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  Speaker 1: I mean joy as the Apostle Paul uses it in
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  Speaker 1: his letters and particularly in the Book of Philippians. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm not just asking about the meaning of joy in general.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about Christian joy as Paul the Apostle uses it.
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  Speaker 1: So let me give you my definition, and then I'll
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  Speaker 1: take it apart, one piece at a time. Christian joy,
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  Speaker 1: as Paul understands it, is a good feeling in the
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  Speaker 1: soul produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us
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  Speaker 1: to see the beauty of Christ in the word and
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  Speaker 1: in the world. So let's take those one at a time.
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  Speaker 1: Christian joy is a good feeling. And by that I
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  Speaker 1: mean it's not an idea. It's not a conviction, it's
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  Speaker 1: not a persuasion, it's not a decision. It's a feeling,
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  Speaker 1: or I use the words interchangeably here and emotion. And
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  Speaker 1: one of the marks of the difference between a idea
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  Speaker 1: and an emotion or feeling is that you don't have
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  Speaker 1: immediate control over your feelings or your emotions. You can't
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  Speaker 1: snap your finger or decide to feel something. So, for example,
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  Speaker 1: if you're camping, I'm gonna go camping in a few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: and it's the middle of the night and you wake
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  Speaker 1: up and there's this gigantic silhouette of a bear outside
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  Speaker 1: your tent, grizzly bear. He seems hungry, maybe he's wounded.
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  Speaker 2: You don't say. Now, let me think about this. There's bear.
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  Speaker 1: Bears are big, bears are dangerous. Conclusion, I should feel
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  Speaker 1: fear here, so I will now decide to be afraid.
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  Speaker 1: Emotions don't work like that. Thinking works like that, but
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  Speaker 1: emotions don't. It happens to you, which means that the
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  Speaker 1: Bible is filled with commands that we do things that
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  Speaker 1: are immediately outside our control to do, commands to rejoice,
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  Speaker 1: commands to fear, commands to be grateful, commands to be tenderhearted.
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  Speaker 1: One of the reasons I'm the kind of Christian I
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  Speaker 1: am with the theology that I have, is that I know,
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  Speaker 1: as I read the Bible, it requires of me things
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  Speaker 1: that I cannot immediately by a decision produce. I'm fallen,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sinful, and yet I know I should be having
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  Speaker 1: those emotions in this moment where the Bible expects me
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  Speaker 1: to have them, and therefore I know myself guilty, and
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  Speaker 1: so this is huge. Saint Augustine said, Father, command what
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  Speaker 1: you will, and grant what you command. And so he
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  Speaker 1: knew that there were emotions toward God commanded of him
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  Speaker 1: he couldn't make happen just like that, and so he said, Oh, God,
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  Speaker 1: if you're going to command me these things, grant that
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  Speaker 1: you would give them when you command them. So the
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  Speaker 1: first part of this definition is it is a good feeling.
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  Speaker 1: Second part, it is in the soul. And by that
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  Speaker 1: I'm drawing attention to the fact that it's not in
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  Speaker 1: the body. The soul, the immaterial part of my personhood,
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  Speaker 1: experiences joy, and the body may have effects of that
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  Speaker 1: I make it. Butterflies in the stomach, come a brightness
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  Speaker 1: to my step with joy. My eyelids may flutter, there
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  Speaker 1: may be tears of joy rolling down my face. But
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  Speaker 1: none of.
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  Speaker 2: Those effects in the body are joy. They are distinct.
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  Speaker 1: The body is chemicals and muscle and nerve and made
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  Speaker 1: up of electrons and atoms and molecules, and when those
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  Speaker 1: things move, that's not a moral event. So the body
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have right and wrong. A movement of my arm
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  Speaker 1: back and forth has no moral significance until I tell
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  Speaker 1: it by my will or my emotion to punch somebody
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  Speaker 1: and then becomes bad, or hug somebody in need then
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  Speaker 1: becomes good. But it's my soul that is imparting virtue
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  Speaker 1: right or wrong to the physical dimensions of my life.
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  Speaker 1: And the Bible clearly says it's right to feel joy
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  Speaker 1: in God, it's wrong to be anxious about this situation.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore there's a rightness and a wrongness to these emotions.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore they're not mere bodily movements. They are movements
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  Speaker 1: of the soul. That's number two. The third part of
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  Speaker 1: the definition is these movements of the soul are produced
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  Speaker 1: by the Holy Spirit, which is clear because I cannot
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  Speaker 1: make these things happen. They're called the fruit of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter five, verse twenty two. The fruit
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace. So my
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  Speaker 1: joy in my soul overflowing towards God, is coming from
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  Speaker 1: the work of the Holy Spirit. And the fourth peace
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  Speaker 1: is that he does this. The Holy Spirit does this
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  Speaker 1: not magically without my mind being engaged. He does it
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  Speaker 1: by causing me to see the glory, the beauty.
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  Speaker 2: Of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Galatians three to one says, rejoice in the Lord. Well,
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  Speaker 1: how do you rejoice in the Lord if you don't
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  Speaker 1: know anything about the Lord? How do you rejoice in
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  Speaker 1: the Lord if you're not seeing things about the Lord
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  Speaker 1: that cause joy to rise up in your heart? And
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  Speaker 1: that's the work of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't just
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  Speaker 1: flick a switch and you rejoice with no mental content whatsoever.
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  Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is given, according to John sixteen fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: to glorify Jesus Christ, which means the Holy Spirit opens
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  Speaker 1: the eyes of my heart to.
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  Speaker 2: See the beauty of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And when I see Christ in all that He's done
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  Speaker 1: and all that he is, then my heart is drawn
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  Speaker 1: out in joy towards him. So the Holy Spirit bears
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  Speaker 1: this fruit by causing us to see the beauty of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And the last piece, the fifth piece, is
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  Speaker 1: we see Him in his word and in the world.
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  Speaker 1: It's obvious that the most authoritative and the clearest place
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  Speaker 1: where we see the beauty of Christ is in his Word.
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  Speaker 1: That's why the Holy Spirit, who is charged to glorify Christ, inspired.
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  Speaker 2: The Word so that we could read the Word know the.
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  Speaker 1: Christ, have eyes to see the beauties that call joy
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  Speaker 1: up out of our hearts. But it's not just in
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  Speaker 1: the Word that we see Christ. We see him in
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  Speaker 1: his gifts in people. We see him in his gifts
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  Speaker 1: of nature. We seem in his gifts of food and
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  Speaker 1: all the good things that our Father in Heaven gives
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  Speaker 1: to us.
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  Speaker 2: Every gift of Christ to us.
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  Speaker 1: Is intended to be a communication of something of himself.
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  Speaker 2: And so we see Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Not only we taste Christ, not only in his word,
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  Speaker 1: but also in his.
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  Speaker 2: Works.
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  Speaker 1: So when we take up joy in Philippians now, and
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  Speaker 1: it's an incredibly important place not only in the book,
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  Speaker 1: but in the Christian life and in God's whole scheme
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  Speaker 1: of things. The definition that I'm working with is Joy
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  Speaker 1: is a good feeling in the soul produced by the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit as he causes us to see the beauty
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  Speaker 1: of Christ in his word and in his work.