This is the sermon preview of sermon two of nine in the preaching series Elect Spiritual Fruit. To watch a recording of this message, visit FBCM’s livestream page.
“For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” –Selection from Deuteronomy 16:9-17
I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. WHERE?
Down in my heart! WHERE?
Down in my heart!
I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Down in my heart to stay!
I know you just sang that in your head with me. Maybe even out loud. Don’t even deny it. That classic kids’ church song is infectious, much like the true joy of the Lord is.
But there’s a big catch here, isn’t there: How are we supposed to elect the spiritual fruit of joy when we’re not going through a particularly joyous season in our lives right now?
Let me just be honest, I feel that struggle deep within my bones.
This has been an emotionally difficult week for me personally. More broadly speaking, our world is filled with events that might seem like celebrations: we see giant balloons at car dealerships during each holiday or confetti at a big political convention. But these are actually not celebrations at all. They're fake, mocking versions of real festivals because God’s Spirit is not the root. As Pastor Clif reminded us all last week, you can’t grow an apple from a lemon tree. You can’t grow joy from Party City or a good DJ. And you definitely can’t grow joy by faking it until you make it through the crowd with a grin painted on your face.
Thankfully, God invites us to bring our full, non-joyful selves to him. Interestingly, both the Old Testament Law and New Testament both command times to rejoice in the Lord: to celebrate, and to rejoice. This shows us that God not only commands joy, he wants joy to grow in our lives. And what’s even more impressive, God doesn't instruct us to have a particular emotional response while observing these celebrations. As it turns out, when we do bring our pain to him, God's Spirit is what brings true joy when we celebrate with others.
Josef Pieper is a philosopher who thinks festivals like those found in Deuteronomy should be studied. Festivals, real celebrations, tell us something about what it means to be human. And, "if the Christians are right" he says, the truth that we have been created belovèd by God, the truth that God has come in flesh and died and rose again, these are truths "which determine human life every hour of every day."
To celebrate such truths is not only a great joy, but being people who rejoice in them is part of who God created us to be.
Or to say it another way: we don’t have to find a reason to celebrate. God has already given us something to celebrate. Whether you initially feel the joy of that celebration or not is irrelevant. By merely accepting God’s invitation to celebrate life in Christ with others, you will be surprised to find how the joy of the Lord slowly grows and strengthens you for the journey ahead.
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