Main Thought
God wants us to have joy! God’s joy exceeds expectations, and God’s joy endures. How do we begin to experience this kind of joy for ourselves? We need more than religious routines to experience God’s joy! Important activities - like reading the Bible, prayer, service, or Life Group - lose their power when our faith is absent from them. God wants more than our actions; He wants our attitudes, too! We find joy when we “practice the presence of God.” This happens when our actions and attitudes are led by faith, believing that God will reward us for seeking Him regardless of how we feel. Joy also comes from living with God’s value system. We should treasure Christ, because the love and joy we find in Him are unlimited and unconditional.
Main Passages
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…
- Philippians 3:1-8
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
- John 14:15-17
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
- John 15:11
Discussion Questions
God wants to give us a joy that exceeds expectations in any given situation, and a joy that endures. Have you ever experienced this “joy of Jesus”? Do you have this joy in your life now?
Does God have your:
Actions (the things you do);
Attitude (your reason for doing them);
Both, or;
Neither?
Are there any adjustments you can make to experience the joy of Jesus? Perhaps you can start practicing God’s presence (by living a life that welcomes God’s Spirit), or adjusting to God’s value system.
Family Questions
What do you think it means to be “joyful”? Do you have joy in your life?