Around Christmas time, kids come to mind for many of us. Whether it’s our own childhood experiences, watching kids open gifts, their excitement leading up to Christmas, or their Christmas performances, kids are such an exciting part of the Christmas season. So this season we get to take our cue from kids and act a little childish in how we have love, wonder and joy.
Big Idea: Joy is an essential quality of the Christian life
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. – Romans 14:17 (ESV)
4 characteristics of joy in the Christian life:
- Available for Everyone
- 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. – Luke 2:8-10 (ESV)
- Given by God
- 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
- Placed in God
- 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4 (ESV)
- 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:10-11 (ESV)
- Fulfilled by God
- 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. – John 15:11 (ESV)
- 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ – Matthew 25:21 (ESV)
“I had often called myself an optimist, to avoid the too evident blasphemy of pessimism. But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit in to the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do NOT fit in to the world.”
“I had tried to be happy by telling myself that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from God. But now I really was happy, for I had learnt that man is a monstrosity. I had been right in feeling all things as odd, for I myself was at once worse and better than all things. The optimist’s pleasure was prosaic, for it dwelt on the naturalness of everything; the Christian pleasure was poetic, for it dwelt on the unnaturalness of everything in the light of the supernatural. The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed even in acquiescence. But I had heard that I was in the WRONG place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring.”
- G.K. Chesterton