Is Your Joy Really Joy?

What a great day to be in church. Today we're closing out our Soul Good Summer series, and I get to talk about something worth having fun in church over — because we should have fun in church.

We're going to jump in the way we have every week, with our key verse, Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, and he refreshes my soul.

That has been the entire goal of this series as we stepped into summer. We wanted God to do a deep work on the inside of us, in our soul.

When I say the word joy, what comes to mind? A beach in the evening. A great meal with great people. Maybe an empty classroom now that the kids are home for summer. These things evoke what many of us would describe as joy. But I have a question: is it really?

Incomplete Joy vs. Complete Joy

Let's launch into today's message with a verse. In John 15:11 — and if you have a red-letter Bible, these are Jesus's own words —

I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

The fact that Jesus says "so that your joy may be complete" tells me there is such a thing as incomplete joy. In fact, I think Jesus is saying, "My joy is actually different than your joy."

How do we usually describe joy?

• We treat it as circumstantial — if life is good, I have joy; if not, not so much.
• We make it about us — as long as I feel happy.
• We reduce it to a feeling. But happiness is not joy. It's a component of joy, but it is not joy.
• Some think joy is unattainable — "I don't know that I've ever really experienced it."
• And sometimes we assume joy is just fake.

To put it all in one word: our joy is simply incomplete. But Scripture says there is complete joy available. So what if God has more for us than we are currently experiencing?

A Conversation Around the Table

There are few things in life I enjoy more than a great meal with great people. I love a big table with lots of seats. With four kids ranging from 14 to 21, I've learned that once they get cars, jobs, and boyfriends and girlfriends, those full-table moments become a lot less regular. So if you can still gather your whole family around the table, enjoy it while you can.

At our table we do "highs and lows" — everyone shares the high of their day and the low of their day. It's a fun way to start conversation.

Here's what's beautiful about John 15: this is exactly what's happening. John 13 through 17 is a conversation at a table between Jesus and his disciples — the Last Supper, sometimes called the upper room discourse. Jesus knows he's about to go, and he has some things he wants to say to his friends.

Sometimes we see Jesus teaching multitudes on a hillside, or walking along telling parables, or preaching in synagogues. But not here. This is a meal with friends. So when he says "I have told you these things," we have to ask — what things?

The Vine and the Branches

Let's back up to the start of John 15:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful... Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

What Jesus is doing in John 15 is giving us a road map to real joy. And there is one key word used eleven times in these verses: remain.

The King James Version says abide. Another version says dwell. You could also say continue — or one of my favorites, stay. To experience complete joy, we have to remain. Remain in what? Four things.

1. Remain in God's Process

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

There are some things in our life that need to be trimmed off. God's process may not always be the most fun part, but it is always beneficial. Last week Pastor Mark talked about the weights and the sin that entangle us and need to be set aside.

Here's the truth: what hasn't been pruned has been abandoned. Just let the bushes at your house do their thing. A couple weeks ago you couldn't even see one side of my house — I had to send my son out to prune them before the HOA sent us a letter. That's hard to say about our lives, because pruning isn't always fun.

I love this quote from C.S. Lewis:

What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, "What does it matter, so long as they are contented?" ... We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in Heaven.

But that is not what God does, because the goal of God's process is for us to become more like Jesus. And the more we become like Jesus, the more of his joy we can experience. God's process and God's joy are linked together.

Three Things I Lean Into

1. God's Word. Scripture is like a mirror. When I read it, I see myself, but I also see who God is calling me to be. His Word does a pruning work.
2. Prayer. I regularly ask God to show me something I need to trim off my life. But don't just use your prayer time to talk to God — give him time to talk back to you. That's where he'll speak.
3. People. God uses people to shape and prune us — but you need the right people, godly people who are also seeking to be like Jesus. As iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another.

So here's a question: Who in your life have you given that ability to? And a harder one — when was the last time someone challenged you to change? That's why small groups matter. The whole point is to build relationships deep enough that someone can get into your life and help prune it.

The Process Is Worth It

Last year on a camping trip, Pastor Mark hyped up a particular hike. It turned out to be 14 miles long, we ran out of water, and I thought we might die. But when we got to the top, the view was stunning. And I realized: we love what the process produces, but we don't always love the process.

That hard hike was worth it because of what it produced. Whatever pruning God is doing in your life right now, it will be worth it on the other side. You'll look back and say, "God, thank you for what you did in me in that season."

The prayer for this point: Lord, search me. But don't ask for that unless you mean it — because he will.

2. Remain in God's Presence

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; but apart from me you can do nothing.

The vine is what provides life. Anything disconnected from the vine will die. That's why our connection to him is so important.

A man named Brother Lawrence wrote a book called The Practice of the Presence of God with two premises I love:

• Everyday worship — routine tasks can be done with God in mind. Washing dishes, walking the dog, going on a date with my spouse — I can do all of it with God in mind.
• Habitual awareness — those little pockets of quiet, ongoing, loving conversation with him. Pastor Mark has called these micro prayers: "God, be with me before this meeting." "God, show up in this situation."

Here's a beautiful way to say it, and I'd love for you to write it down:

Don't just live for God — live with him.

The prayer for this point: Lord, show me. Ask God to show you the little moments where, up to now, he's gone unnoticed — and starting today, begin recognizing him there.

3. Remain in God's Purpose

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

We often walk into summer asking, "What's in it for me? Am I going to have a great summer?" But I don't think that's what's in God's heart.

The psychologist Abraham Maslow defined a "hierarchy of needs." At the very top, above everything else, he placed transcendence — the need to live beyond yourself. That's fascinating: a psychologist discovered what God has been saying forever. We are made to live beyond ourselves.

Miss Janet

One of the best examples I know is Miss Janet here at Grants Mill. I met her in 2021 when she stopped me and asked if she could do the Growth Track in person. I told her to start that very day — and she did.

Since then she's become a greeter, she cooks dinner for Highlands College students multiple nights a week, and she's one year into the two-year Highlands College Leadership Institute program. And here's the coolest part: she is 86 years old.

So for everyone thinking, "It's too late, I've waited too long" — no, you haven't. It is never too late to find what God wants to do and to live beyond yourself.

That's why Serve Day isn't just filling your calendar. It's an opportunity to step outside yourself and live that transcendent life God has for you — because that's where the joy is. Growth Track starts next week, and it's not just three experiences; it's something we want you on for life.

The prayer for this point: Lord, use me.

4. Remain in God's Passion

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love... Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last... This is my command: Love each other.

There is a passion God wants to put inside us that only he can give. People ask how I stay joyful (the answer isn't caffeine — I've been off it for ten years). Here's what I do: I remind myself regularly that I am chosen and appointed by God, and that he has called me to make an impact on others with his love and joy.

I didn't call me. God did. And you didn't call you. God did.

Think of it like this: if the purpose God has for you is a boat, the passion is the fuel. You can see the boat on the outside, but the fuel on the inside is what powers everything else.

The Most Joyful Person I Ever Knew

The most joyful person I've ever known went to be with Jesus ten years ago — my dad. He was a pastor on our team for the last six years of his life, and the last two he was the Greystone campus pastor. He lived a life full of God's joy.

For ten years now, almost every week, someone I've never met comes up to tell me the impact my dad had on their life. Not long ago at Bass Pro Shops, an employee walked up and said, "You don't know me, but my marriage is still intact because of your dad."

And I'll be honest — I'm not standing here saying all of life is happy and easy. My dad passed away from cancer, 366 days after his diagnosis. Not having him is very hard. On Father's Day last week, grateful as I am for my heavenly Father, I still miss my dad every single day. I've asked God why many times over ten years, and I still don't have the answer.

But here's what I do understand: my dad loved Jesus with all his heart, he lived a life of joy, he knew what it meant to remain, and I am going to see him again.

My Dad's One-Liners

The day he was diagnosed, he gathered our whole family in the living room and said:

There are always two rooms we can go into, and the doors are open to both. One is filled with pain and sorrow. The other is filled with joy. For us, we're going to choose the door that holds joy.

I don't know what you're walking through today. I know life is hard. But there are always two doors open, and we get to choose. And in the moments we're tempted toward the other room, we have to hold each other accountable and pull each other back into the room that holds joy. And this isn't Keith Lindsey joy or Blake Lindsey joy — this is Jesus's joy, and it's available to you.

Another line he lived so beautifully:

I want to be so full of Jesus that he sloshes out on those around me.

Remember, "complete" joy literally means full, overflowing. What if we were so full of Jesus that when we walked into the grocery store, his goodness and joy just spilled out onto everyone around us?

Real Joy Begins With His Joy

Here's the thought that sums up the whole message:

Real joy begins with his joy — Jesus's joy.

Last week Pastor Mark ended in Hebrews 12:

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

The word joy there is the exact same word used in John 15 — and it means a joy that is fueled by others. So do you know what the joy was that held Jesus on the cross? It was you and me. You were his joy.

So if you want real joy, it has to become a joy that flows through you for others. As we step toward Serve Day and Motion and everything ahead, what a great time to live out the joy only Jesus can give.

An Invitation to Respond

Many of you are sitting there thinking, "I don't have his joy." Let me say it boldly: you can't have his joy until you have him.

Has there ever been a moment where you gave control of your life to Jesus — received forgiveness of your sin and let him be in control? Or maybe you did it long ago but you don't feel close right now. This is a moment to come back to him.

If you want that step, pray this with me:

Jesus, today I give you my life. I want you to be in control. Forgive me of my sin. Make me brand new. Transform my life. Be my Lord and my Savior. I believe you gave your life on the cross to pay for my sin, but you rose three days later, and now you live in me. From this moment forward my life will never be the same, and I will never look back. Thank you, Jesus, for changing my life. In your name I pray. Amen.

And for the four points in the message — whichever one hit home — open your hands to receive what God has for you:

• If you need to remain in the process, may God strengthen you and remind you that the process is always beneficial with him.
• If you need to experience his presence, may he make himself known in the little moments of life.
• If you need to remain in purpose, may he give you clarity and confidence to live out what he's placed on your life.
• If you feel low on fuel and need to remain in passion, may he fuel your life with the same love Jesus had for us, poured out into the lives of others.

Starting today, we make a commitment: we're going to live with real joy — his joy. In Jesus's name. Amen.