The Joy of Togetherness

Would you join with me in prayer, please? Lord, we come before you confessing our ignorance. We come before you confessing that Lord, we, we are a needy people. We come before You, Lord, fully aware of the fact that apart from your grace, We would have no hope.

Apart from the gospel, we would not have the right to come before your throne of grace to beseech you for help in our time of need. Lord, as we put a close on the year 2012 and as we enter into the year 2013, I pray, Lord, that what is about to be shared would serve as a heartbeat of sorts for us as a church, that as we enter into the next year, we would be a people who would rejoice in the Lord. Father God, be with us. We pray that you would grant to us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of Christ, that you would strengthen us with power by your spirit and our inner man.

Show us your glory. I am a cracked vessel. I pray that you would fill these cracks and see fit, Lord, to bestow your love upon your people, as you so faithfully do. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. I've been a member here at Cornerstone for about 20 years now. I've been here then for the most part, ever since I've been a believer, I did take a 2.5 year sabbatical, however, and I transitioned to the island of Guam and I lived on the island of Guam for 2.5 years and I was received into a church there that is known as Agana Heights General Baptist Church. I have many fond memories of this church.

The church received me, they welcomed me, they loved me, they embraced me. the people there were a beautiful people who were a source of blessing and encouragement to me. There are countless things that I could say to, to, to underscore that, but what I want to do is I want to draw your attention to one particular evening there on the island of Guam. It was a Wednesday evening, and by this time, Marcy, my wife, had come over from the states to the island of Guam.

We were engaged to be married, and the church there in Guam, they knew that I had found the person that I believe God would have me to marry. And so it's this Wednesday night and Marcy had come over to spend a few months on the island of Guam before her and I were to get married. And so we, we hop in my, in my Honda Civic. Two things I said to myself, way back when I first came to the world.

I would never live in a hot and humid place, and I would never have a small car. I had a Honda Civic, and it was the smallest car on the island of Guam. And so there I was coming out of my tinsy little car, me and my wife Marcy, and we arrived at the Front door of the church and so there we are at the front door. Pastor Angelo Sublann greeted us at the door and he was so eager to meet my fiance and he introduced himself to her and, and we had a little bit of a talk and there in the distance there were about, about 20 ft away, there were 4 islander ladies and they were just hanging out, chatting with one another, whatever and of law saw them, he got their attention and he called them to come.

Come over here ladies, come over here ladies. I want you to meet someone. And so he, he, he introduced my wife to them. I want you to meet Carlos' or my wife, fiance, I want you to meet Carlos' fiance, he said, and, and I will never forget the moment.

Their eyes widened and their faces were overcome with a with an expression of joy and in unison all four of these islander ladies screamed at about 90% volume. And then the next thing they did is they ran to my wife and they wrapped their arms around her one at a time and they kissed her all over her cheeks and they were like so happy to meet her and my wife is like sitting there going like, oh my goodness. This is like, this violates my, my, my space, my comfort here, and she was kinda, kinda, if I can use the word tripping out on that a little bit, but the thing about that moment, that, that, that moment of joy, that, that moment of, of joyful togetherness if you would.

Call it that is that is that these, these ladies seem to be honestly and genuinely happy to meet this person whom they had heard about and it was almost as if they anticipated the day when they would get to meet Carlos's fiance.

And when they got to meet her, there was this joy that expressed itself in the way in which they received her, you see, they had loved me, they had welcomed me as one of their own. And therefore, they welcomed my wife also as one of their own. I share this because I believe it illustrates well the joy of togetherness. It illustrates the joy of togetherness, and that is the title of our message here this morning.

The Joy of Togetherness 6 Truths that will direct us towards relational joy, 6 Truths that will direct us towards relational joy. I'd like to begin, however, before we get to the truths with an explanation of what joy is. Let us define joy. The question is, what is Christian joy?

I've got 5 points here. The 1st 3 actually come from John Piper. Listen to what John Piper says. Number 1.

It is not an act of willpower but a spontaneous emotional response of the heart. It is a spontaneous emotional response of the heart. Piper goes on to say, Second, it is not superficial and flimsy, but it is, it is deep and it is firm. Joy is rooted in the gospel.

The gospel is the foundation for Christian joy, and it is therefore deep and it is firm. Thirdly, John Piper says it is not natural, but it is spiritual. In order to experience genuine Christian joy, you must in fact be a Christian, you must be of the Lord, you must have the Spirit indwelling you and joy is an overflow of the Spirit. The Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit, one of the fruits is joy.

And I've added a couple more. Number 4, I would say that joy is relational. You can never experience Christian joy in isolation from another person. Christian joy is always relational, OK?

And then fifthly, it is observable, it is demonstrable. Christian joy is something that is to be seen, that can be seen. If you would have been a fly on the there at the Gania Heights General Baptist Church, and if you would have observed those four ladies and their response and their scream and just the way they related to my wife, the way they responded to, to the introduction to her, you would have, you would have affirmed the fact that they were filled with joy and like how do?

Because I saw the way they acted.

It's demonstrable, it shows itself. OK, joy is something that is unaffected by circumstances. It is a state of mind and an orientation of the heart. Joy is deep.

It is a settled state of contentment, confidence, and hope. So hopefully with this understanding of joy we can now move on to the 6 truths that will direct us towards relational joy. Truth number 1. The Trinity is foundational for relational joy, the Trinity.

The Bible teaches that there is one God who does eternally exist in three persons, one God eternally existing in three persons. The Bible teaches that we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. The Bible makes it very clear that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from the It was God the Son who raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus in fact raised Himself from the dead, and the Bible teaches that God the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.

And you can find another passage in which it says that God was the one who raised Jesus from the dead. So who was it? Was it God who raised Jesus from the dead? Was it the Father?

Was it the Son Jesus Himself, or was it the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead? Yes, it was, because we have one God eternally existing in three persons, we can affirm that each of the persons that God, therefore Himself was responsible for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. God is one God eternally existing in three persons. It's important for us to understand this, and the scripture reveals our God as being a God who does experience joy within the context of the Trinity.

There is a joyful relationship between the members of the Trinity. There is an abundance of and even an overflowing of joy within the context of the Trinity and so God is joyful. First Timothy 1:11, we read, According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. First Timothy 6:15, again, Paul writing to the young pastor, and he says later in this epistle, he says, he who is referring to God who is the blessed and only sovereign, and the word blessed here can be understood to mean happy.

God here is being described as a happy God. He is a joyful God, and I would submit to you that happiness is an aspect of joy, OK, Joy includes happiness, it, it envelopes happiness and it goes way beyond and above and reaches further than, than simply happiness itself, but happiness is, of course, contained inside of this, this joy of God that we are talking about. In Nehemiah 8:10 in reference to the joy of the Lord, we read that the joy of the Lord is your strength, the joy that does belong to the Lord, the joy of the Lord, a joy that you can participate in this joy of the Lord is your strength.

You can experience yourself being strengthened as you participate in this joy of the Lord and rejoice in the Lord yourself, there is a strengthening that can happen to you through the joy of the Lord.

Psalm 16:11. We read the psalmist saying, in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in the presence of God, in the presence of our triune God, there is a fullness of joy that does exist, and it's important for us to wrap our minds around the reality that our God is a God who is joyful. He smiles, he is happy, if you will, OK? He is a joyful God.

We need to know as well that not only, not only is God Himself a God of joy, but God's joy overflows. The Bible makes it clear that God rejoices over his creation. And the Bible makes it especially clear that God rejoiced over the creation of Adam and then Eve, and the account how God said not good for man to be alone, and that God goes on and he makes a helper suitable for the man, and he brings, brings the woman to the man. Adam receives his wife as a gift from God, and God on the other side of that said, Behold, it is very good.

See, creation was good. But it wasn't very good until on the other side of the creation of the woman, and there we have man and woman together, and God is rejoicing over this couple. His joy overflows in relation to humanity. Luke 15:7 in regard to God's joy over people who come to faith in Christ.

Jesus says, I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven. Over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Joy in heaven, joy in the place where God does exist. In the same way, Luke 15:10, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

You begin to get the sense that God is a joyful God. Luke 15:11-32, and the story. This is the story of the prodigal son. And listen to what happens here.

The background of this is that the son wished his father to be dead. Give me my share of the estate. He goes off and he wastes all of that money on loose living. And he finally gets to the place where he's in the pigpen and he's wishing that he could eat the food that the pigs were eating.

He was an absolutely ruined, broken, and desperate man, and there he is in the pigpen, and the Bible says that the man finally came to his senses. And so he concocts a speech with which he would go to his father and basically say, Yo, Dad, I want for you to make me one of your hired servants. Would you be so kind as to allow me to be one of your hired servants? And here's the rest of the story.

It says he got up and he came to his father, Luke chapter 15 verse 1 verse 20, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and he kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, Quickly, quickly, hurry up, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his bare feet and bring the fat.

calf kill it and let us eat and let us be merry. For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found and he began to be merry. There was joy and Jesus is, is using this to illustrate the joy of the Father over those who repent and over those who get themselves in a position where they are in right relationship to God all over again.

There is joy, but the story continues on in relation to the younger brother, and we read in verse 28, it says that the, I'm sorry, the older brother says that the older brother, the good boy, he became angry, he was not willing to go in and his father came out and he began entreating him, but the answer then he said to his father, look, For so many years I have been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours, and yet you have never given me a kid that I might be merry with my friends.

But when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed the fattened calf for him, and he said to him, My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours, but we had to be merry and we had to rejoice. It was imperative that we rejoiced because this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found. You have this picture of a party that is being thrown for the sinner who repents, and you've got this.

Picture of a father who rejoiced in that and through this party, and that illustrates the very heart of Almighty God. Our God is a God who rejoices over our salvation. Our salvation is a source of joy and pleasure. He delights in that, that is something that invokes in the heart of Almighty God an emotion of joy.

This is our God. Our God is a joyful God. There's a number of passages, let me give to you one, Zephaniah 3:17. Listen to what the Lord says, the Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior, he will exalt over you with joy, he will be quiet in his love, he will rejoice over you with shouts of joy, with shouts of joy.

This is our God, brothers and sisters. It is absolutely critical, I believe, that we view our God aright. I believe that how we view God is critical to how we relate with one another. When I see God as a God of joy, who rejoices over his own, i.e.

you who have repented of sin and believed in Jesus, you who are the sons of God, when I see God as a God of joy who rejoices over his own, then I am more inclined to rejoice with God over those who are His. God rejoices over you. And I ought to rejoice over you as well. We ought to rejoice over one another because that reflects the very heart of God Himself.

I asked you this morning, how do you view God? What is your view of God? Do you see him as some cosmic killjoy up there who wants to blast you at the very moment of any sin, whether that be sin of thought, word or deed? Do you see him up there ready to give you a spanking every moment you goof up?

Well, there is a part of our loving Father who will discipline us when we need it, but he does so out of love. And when we do sin against Him, it is a source of grief to him, but when we are intimate with him, when we are drawn into intimate relationship with him and we enjoy Him, that pleasures God, that is a source of joy to our God. Do you see him as a God? who derives joy from you.

Do you sense that God so desires intimacy with you that when such a desire is fulfilled, he is delighted, he experiences joy. And so relational joy is rooted in the Trinity. It is rooted in the very person of God Himself. Let us move on to point number 2, truth number 2, man was created for relational joy.

We were created. In part, that we might experience joy, joy in the Lord and a joy in our relationships one with another. Such relationships should be marked by joy and such a joy serves to pleasure our God in heaven. He is pleasured by that.

He derives joy from that. Man was created for relational joy. We see this in the original creation account. If you were to look at Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 to 27, we read, God saying, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

And he continues on and he says in verse 27, and God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female. He created them. And so we have a God here who says, Let us make man in our image.

We were created to reflect the image of God, but as Read in Genesis chapter 2 verses 18A and following, we read that the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone, and here we can understand that man could not reflect God's image in isolation. Brothers and sisters, it is impossible for us to reflect the very image of God. Part of that image involves the joy that does exist. within the context of the relationship amongst the members of the Trinity, it is impossible for us to reflect the image of God in isolation.

God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. Why? Because in being alone, we cannot experience relational joy, we cannot, reflect the image of God in the way that he wants us to. And so we continue to read how, how man needed for God to make one like him with whom he could experience relational joy.

In Genesis 22, in Genesis 2:18B, it says, God says, I will make him a helper suitable for him. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name, and the man gave name to all of the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field. And for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. Do you get a sense of what it is that God is doing?

He's setting Adam up. He is setting him up. Here is Adam all by his very lonesome, looking at the pears and eventually the thought perhaps dawns upon him, what is up with that? Where is mine?

There's pairs, there's pairs, there's 2 giraffes, 2 elephants, 2 animals, whatever, 2 of everything, and, and, and there's 1 of me. What's up with that? You see what God was doing is he was setting him up. He wanted for Adam to arrive at that place where he would sense his need so that when God delivered to him the need that he had, he would experience within the context of that relationship to his wife, Eve, relational joy.

God set him up, revealing his need and then he says, yo, dude, go to sleep. It's time for you to sleep. What a gracious act of God to cause him to sleep so he wouldn't feel the pain of the surgery that he was about to undergo. It says in Genesis 2:21, so the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept.

Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place, and the Lord God fashioned into a woman. He edified into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man. And we read that God graciously brought her to the man. yo, dude, wake up.

And then we read, listen to this, underscore this highlighted Genesis 2:23, and the man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of the man. And we read just a little bit later, the man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed. I submit to you that at that moment when Eve was brought to Adam, when that relationship was, was delivered, that there was a joy.

that overflowed Adam, there was a joy that he experienced that just blew his circuits apart. He was ecstatic with thanksgiving, ecstatic with praise. He received her, he embraced her, and there was a joy that did experience that was experienced between the two of them. Relational joy was experienced by both the man and the woman.

This is what God created them for, in part, that they might experience relational joy in relation to one another, and in that they would reflect the image of God. And note the conclusion in Genesis 131 we read God saw all that He had. Remember, before the creation of the woman, it is not good, but on the other side of the creation of the woman, God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. He uses superlative language here.

It was very good. It was very good, you see. God was pleasured by the joy that was experienced by the man and the woman in relation to one another that brought God joy because what it did in part is it served to the very image of God Himself and that is the purpose for which God created us, to reflect his image, to glorify Him, and that is what they did. You see, when in our relationships there is a lack of joy, we fail to glorify God.

We fail to reflect his image. God was pleased. On a scale from 1 to 10, I ask you this morning, 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest, feel free to give yourself an 11 or 12 if you so desire. How much relational joy are you experiencing?

How much relational joy? Is your life marked by relational joy? I don't ask this question so as to point a finger. And I look at my own heart, I look at my own life and I see the, the brokenness and the depravity that does exist inside of me and I'm challenged by the very stuff that I've been looking at over the past several months.

I'm challenged by this. It's like God is saying, Carlos, I want you to manifest joy in your relationships with people. I want you to see people as a source of joy and to delight in them. I want your heart to experience that emotion of joy when you lock eyeball to eyeball with the members of your family, with your fellow brothers and sisters, with the people in your care group.

I want for you to experience inside of your being joy inexpressible and full of glory. That is what I want. I ask you how much relational joy are you experiencing? How much joy are you experiencing in your relationships with others, your spouse, your children, your parents, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

Do you embrace the fact that God wants for you to experience relational joy with others when you experience the biblical joy of togetherness, I believe God is pleasured and he himself experiences joy. Isn't that amazing? That we in our fellowship one with another, we can be a source of joy to God Himself, we can glorify Him, he can derive pleasure through us. We can in so doing, reflect the very image of God.

Well, let us move on to the next truth, truth number 3. Satan hates man, and Satan does not want him to experience relational joy. Brothers and sisters, Satan hates us. He hates us with a passion.

And he will do all that he can to rob us of any capacity for relational joy. He does not want for us to reflect the image of God. He does not want for God to derive joy from us and our relationships with Him and with one another. He wants none of that, and he will pull no punches in an attempt to see to it that God's people are a people who are joyless.

Seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it, to be joyless Christians. To be children of the Most High God, to have our sins forgiven and to have no joy or to have very little of it. I believe God wants us, according to His word, to rejoice in him and to rejoice in him all of the time. Satan hates man and does not want him to experience relational joy.

We will note according to Genesis 3 that Satan attacked man's original relationship to God. He went after man's relationship to God and he sought to bring that under attack. Satan attacked the first marriage relationship, the relationship between the man and the woman. He, he so worked in such a way to where sin entered into the camp and sin.

Mind the relational joy that did exist between Adam and Eve. He attacked this marriage. He went after the woman and eventually the man himself sinned against Almighty God, and the relationship they had with one another went from a place of total embracement to blame shifting. The reason I am in this mess is because of the woman.

It's the woman you gave me, God. The reason we are in this mess is because of the devil. And so we see this marriage beginning to crumble. They hid from God and they hid from one another.

They covered themselves up. No longer was there this experience of intimacy in Intense intimacy and pleasure in one another, but there was this pain that began to exist between the man and the woman. There was this separation. There was this distancing that occurred, and they became strangers, whereas once they were intimate and close.

They were strangers in a sense. He attacked the first marriage relationship. He's attacking marriages, has done so ever since the beginning. Satan attacked the first parent-child relationship.

He went after Abel, didn't he? He saw to it that Abel would be dead, and what was a wonderful relationship between Abel and his parents came to an end. Satan brought it to an end, and he used the instrument of Abel's brother Cain. Cain murdered his brother.

And no doubt there was a distancing of relationship between Cain and his parents as well. He was a source of pain to them. And so we see here, according to Genesis 4, Satan attacked the first parent-child relationship. We also would note that Satan attacked the first sibling relationship.

We've already alluded to this, but the bottom line is this Cain hated his brother Abel. He was jealous of him. And he eventually went on to murder his brother. What came?

What brokenness. What heartache And Satan has been seeking to attack and destroy relationships. Ever since. The evil one hates you.

He hates your God. He hates your marriage, he hates your family. He hates you having a joyful relationship with your parents. He hates you having a joyful relationship with your siblings.

Remember when I was a kid, me and my sister, we would fight over the most ridiculous things. We would fight over who got to sit in the front seat of the car. Who cares? Who cares?

I cared a lot. I wanted that front seat and by George, if he was not willing to give me what I wanted, I would get mad and what, we were a source of grief to my dad. Oh, he would get so upset with us. We would unnerve my dad.

And he would curse in his Chamorro language and say certain words that I wouldn't say here even though you don't know what they mean. But boy, he would get upset with us. We would fight over the dumbest things. My sister and I would fight over which restaurant to go to.

Like he would want to go to Benihana's. I was like, dude, I want a hot dog from the wiener schnitzel, and that was a problem to my sister and me. It's like we would fight over which restaurant to go and we would fight over all kinds of, of dumb little things. And so we see how, just relate and so there's no relational joy that my sister and I experience in relation to one another because of the fact that we were at odds with each other during those times in which we were given over to our own sin and self-centeredness and idolatry.

Again, he hates you, hates your church, both your large church and your house church, your care group. He will hold nothing back in an effort to bring you and your relationships down. He does not want for you to experience relational joy. Lest we make the mistake of shifting all of the blame onto the devil, let us move on to the next truth.

Truth number 4, man's depravity undermines his experience of relational joy. If we were just to follow the events of the fall and look at the effects of the fall itself, we will discover the condition of mankind. These are but a few of the things that we derive from the text of scripture. Man is guilty of thinking wrong about God.

God is no longer naturally seen as a good, loving, kind, protective God who wants what is best for his children and who desires them to experience joy and pleasure in the things that God has for, for them. We will discover that there is a disobedience to God and His commands that humanity is guilty of. In the book of Romans, we read that there is no one righteous, not even one. We find, we discover that man covers up sin so that others can't see his own shame.

We have this tendency to making ourselves look better than we really are. We have this tendency to covering up. We hide in shame and fear, and we don't want. To know that we are screwed up.

We don't want people to know that we are messed up. We don't want people to know that we are weak and that we are needy. We don't want people to know that we are sinful and we are in need of a savior, and so we hide, we cover up so that others can't see our shame. Man is guilty of running from God, running from the good God who desires to give him good gifts, and man by nature runs.

He shifts blame. He finds all of the reasons in the world to blame someone else for the mess he got himself in. Man fails to value others to the degree that he should, as precious gifts from the Lord. We see out of the overflow of the fall that there is an insubordination.

A nation to God's creation order, we see the husband failing to lead his wife. We see the wife's desire to rule over her husband. We see as a result of the false self-centeredness and pride and arrogance, jealousy, anger, and murder, we see that there is this push towards autonomy, individualism, and self-centeredness, and we squeeze God out of the equation. Romans 1:21 and there's several passages we could go to, but here's just one of many, but we read that man did not honor him as God.

Nor give thanks. We did not glorify Him. We did not give thanks to Him. But man became futile in his speculations.

It goes on to say that he exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image. A little later, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. We will serve the creature rather than the creator. We will make things more important than God Himself.

We will rejoice in those little things of life and not see it as connected to God Himself who gives to us all good things to enjoy so that at the end of the day, our rejoicing ultimately is a rejoicing in the Lord who is good and who gives good gifts to us. The Bible goes on to say here in the book of Romans that God gave them over to degrading passions. A little bit later, in verse 28, we read, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper, and we'll begin to see just an unpacking of.

Relational sins and such relational sins render such a person, such a people unable to experience true biblical relational joy, the joy that God would have for them, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.

They are gossips, slanderers, hate. Leaders of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Ultimately, in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul says all have sinned. All have sinned.

There is no one righteous. Oh, what about me? No, not one. No, not one.

Such is the fruits of the fall, and such is man's depraved condition and what a mess are we in? The Bible says that before Christ, we were dead. We were dead in our transgressions and sin. Try to get a dead person to respond to you.

He won't, he cannot, he is unable. We were dead in our transgressions and sin. We were apart from God's grace, unable to respond to him favorably. We were apart from God's irresistible grace and his calling us unto himself.

We were unable to come to him. We were dead. In our transgressions and sins, we are fundamentally flawed, our constitution is corrupt, we are ruined in our sin and totally depraved, we are broken apart from Christ and are rendered unable to experience genuine relational joy. Let us move on to truth number 5.

That is bad news. We've got the devil, we've got our own flesh. Oh, what a mess we are in. But we arrive at truth number 5 as it relates to, to just relational joy and we discover here that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to man's failure to experience relational joy.

How can I experience relational joy, Pastor Carlos? How can I get myself to a place where I have joy in the Lord, where I have joy in my relationships with people around me? How can I do this? And I would submit to you that the solution to the problem is the gospel.

We need to hang out at the foot of the cross and take into account who it is and what it is that the Lord Jesus Christ that God has done for us in His Son, we need to wrap our minds around the reality that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for us. He died for us, he experienced torture and agony and suffering beyond our ability to comprehend. He was willing to undergo separation. The relational joy between him and the Father was cut off so that the relational joy that we could have with the Father would not be cut off.

We need to wrap ourselves around the reality that our mountain of sin has been completely forgiven, and God takes our sin, cast it as far as the east is from the west, and the Bible says he counts it against us no longer. It's not like he forgets, but even though he knows of our depravity, I love you. And it is my desire to experience joy out of you. I want for you and I to experience an intimate relationship with one another, and I want for you to experience my joy.

This is what I want for you. This is the gospel, the Bible teaches us that through Christ, we have a savior, through him our sins are forgiven, we are justified, we are adopted, we are freed from the guilt and power that sin has over us. And this was something that brought pleasure to God to do this for us. The Bible says that he heals us by his stripes.

We are healed, we are healed from our sin and brokenness that renders us unable to experience joy in relationship. We have a God who gives to us His joy. Listen to Jesus in John chapter 15 verse 11. Jesus says these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, that my joy may be a joy that is inside of you.

That your joy may be made full. I want you to experience fullness of joy in me. I want you to have the joy that is mine and the joy that has been mine throughout all of eternity past. I want that to be deposited inside of you.

Jesus as he is anticipating his death. In John chapter 16 verse 22, he says to his followers, therefore you too now have sorrow. But I will see you again. On the other side of my death, on the other side of my suffering, on the other side of the crucifixion, I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be in the presence of the resurrected Lord, to see him in glorified form and to be able to be like Thomas putting your fingers in his hands inside and to see him, I would venture to guess that there was a joy. That radiated from the face and the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, that would have been an absolutely unmistakable joy, and Thomas would have participated in that, would have observed it, stuck his finger in the side, and he himself would have been overcome with joy, and that would have pleasured God, that would have delighted God.

He says, therefore you too now have sorrow, I will see you again, your heart will rejoice, he says, and no one takes your joy away from you. It is a joy that cannot be taken away from us.

There is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. He who began the good work, he will complete it. We have every reason in the world to rejoice. John 17:13.

Listen to Jesus as he prays to the Father. But now I come to thee, O Father, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. Do you get a sense that the Lord Jesus wants for us to reflect his image, the image of God, and he wants such a reflection to entail joy, relational joy. The gospel.

Gives us every reason in the world to rejoice and out of the overflow of the person and work of Christ, who he is and what he has done for us, we can delight in one another and see one another as those in whom he delights as well. If you want to experience relational joy, spend much time in the presence of the Lord. Meditate on the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and ultimate return of the Lord. Allow the good news of the gospel to stir the affections of your heart.

Remind yourself of the reality of who God is and what He has created you for. Reflect upon your depravity and brokenness and run. swiftly to the cross. Remind yourself that your countless sins have been forgiven and that you are a child of the Most High God.

Embrace the fact that the Lord rejoices in the opportunity to have intimacy with you. Rejoice in the Lord and allow the reality of your relationship to the Lord to blaze the trail of relational joy with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. You may be here this morning and you've yet to put your faith in Christ. I want to just take a moment to say to you, young person, older person, whoever, whatever, if that you have yet to be born again, you have yet to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to submit to you that at the end of the day, you will never experience the joy that God designed you for until you repent of your sin and believe in Christ.

And on the other side of that, There is joy. The burden is lifted, the brokenness is addressed, the sins are forgiven. What an incredible joy that does belong to those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's move on to the final truth.

Truth number 6, the eternal state marks the future time in which redeemed man will experience relational joy in a full and complete way. Brothers and sisters, do you look at the future and do you smile? Is there a longing in your heart for God and to be in His presence? In the meantime, we seek to live for His glory, but there is a day that will blow our fuses that is yet to come.

The eternal state marks the future time in which redeemed man will experience relational joy in a full and complete way. We will be in the immediate presence of the Lord and remember again the passage that says, in his presence, in his immediate presence, as we behold Him face to face, there is fullness of joy. In that future time, we will be sinless. We will no longer be able to sin, not even in thought, desire, word or deed, and we will forever be able to exult in the Lord unhindered.

Does that not encourage you? The battle will be ended. The battle between the flesh and the spirit, my, my struggle with sin, my, the, the ways in which I feel myself to be broken and unable to be what it is that God calls me to be, this angst that is inside of me will be addressed and I will be in the presence of the Lord, and I will be sinless before him, able to worship him perfectly. And as we anticipate the future, we also come to understand that we will be reunited.

We will be reunited with believers who have already gone on to be with the Lord. Brothers and sisters, some of you out there have loved ones who have died in Christ. They have gone on before you. They have paved the way, and the day will come.

You will see them again. Parents will see children, children will see parents, brothers will see sisters, sisters will see brothers. For those of you who have loved ones who have died in the Lord, you can look to the future and you can smile. I will see such and such again someday.

As many of, my family had to bury my father-in-law a little less than a year ago. And Papa Tom went on to be with the Lord January 26th of 2012, we grieved and we continue to grieve, and Thanksgiving rolls around and Christmas rolls around. And we miss Papa Tom. But we know We will see Him.

Again someday. You have loved ones that have gone on before you, and, you will see those loved ones who have died in Christ again someday. Do you not look forward to the reunion? And I would submit to you, what a day of rejoicing that will be.

What an incredible day. It will blow our senses. What a blessing this glorious gospel. First Thessalonians 4:13.

The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Revelation 21:3 says, I heard a loud voice from The throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall no longer be any death, shall no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

The first things have passed away.

And in Revelation chapter 22 verse 3, we read, There shall no longer be any curse. There shall no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his bond servants shall serve Him, and they shall see his face. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads, and there shall be no longer any night. They shall.

And they shall not have need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them, and they shall reign forever and ever. Brothers and sisters, Look into the future. And smile. Know that there is a day of rejoicing that is beyond your ability to fully comprehend.

The Trinity is foundational for relational joy. Man was created for relational joy. Satan hates man and does not want him to experience relational joy. Man's depravity undermines his experience of relational joy.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution. And the eternal state marks the future time in which redeemed man will experience relational joy in a full and complete way. I trust that these truths will direct all of us towards relational joy. I would like to present a few examples as we wrap things up.

I want to present to you the example of Jesus. On the occasion of the Lord's Supper, he said, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Why Jesus? Because I want so bad for you to understand gospel reality.

I want so bad for you to know that I will die for you so that you might have joy in me through your sins having been forgiven. In Hebrews 12:1 we read in regard to Jesus himself, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, for the joy, what was the joy that was set before the Lord Jesus Christ? What was that joy that enabled him to be able to endure the cross of suffering? The joy had to do with relationship.

The joy had to do with joyful relationship, relational joy. He knew that he would be in the presence of the Father once again, and he knew that through his death the opportunity for us to be in relationship with Him would be established, and that was the joy that was set before. him and the Lord Jesus Christ says, come hell or high water, I don't care. I will do whatever I need to do.

I will go through whatever pain necessary. I will overcome every single obstacle that there is so that I might establish a relationship with these lost, sinful, depraved people whom I love with my blood. Praise the Lord for his heart, the example of Jesus, the apostle Paul's example, Philippians 4:1. They listen to Paul, Paul's heart for the Philippians, therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, I long to see, I cannot wait to see you, my joy and my crown.

His desires to stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. You get the sense that the apostle Paul, that, that, that these Philippians and, and all believers everywhere were a source of relational joy for him. He was doing nothing more than merely reflecting God himself in the heart of God himself. 1 Thessalonians 2:19, Paul says, who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation?

Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? John, And 3rd John chapter 1 verse 4 says, I have no greater joy than this, no greater joy to hear of my children walking in the truth, gospel truth, experiencing intimate relationship with Almighty God, having their sins forgiven through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have no greater joy. There is nothing better than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.

So we've got Jesus, we've got the apostle Paul, we've got John. These are 3 examples of people who understood and experienced what it meant to have relational joy. Whether the effects of relational joy. Very quickly.

When we have relational joy one with another, we experience in fuller measure, we experience God. We experience growth, community growth, sanctification as a body, not merely as an individual. And on the other side of this relational joy we experience evangelistic opportunity. When the lost and dying world looks in and they see the dumb, gritty Holy Ghost grin that's upon her face, they, they're like, what in the world is that all about?

I remember before I came to faith in Christ, these believers, they, they had this, this happiness, they had this, this giddiness, they had this joy in the Lord. That I knew I did not have, and it provoked me to jealousy. I knew that I needed what they had and that I didn't have what they had, and God used that in part to bring me to the place where I came to faith in Christ. And so when we, when we experience relational joy with one another in the church and in the care groups and in our, in our families and so on and so forth, evangelistic opportunity abounds.

I want to ask for you, to, to pray with me. This is the time if you want to prepare your offerings, your, your tithes and your giving to the Lord as the ushers come forward to receive a portion of what the Lord has blessed you with. I'm gonna take the time here to close this in prayer. Heavenly Father, I trust that you would use your word to minister to your people.

I pray, Lord, that as we anticipate the next year, that the year would be marked with relational joy, that even against the backdrop of difficulties and trials, we would still have joy, that Lord, we, we would rejoice in you and we would rejoice in one another and in so doing we would reflect your image, that Lord, would more fully understand how you are a God who derives joy when we have joy in you and in one with one another. Oh God, please just fill us with your fullness and cause us to overflow with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

And now we sing onto you in praise of you and we do so, Lord, with joy and gratitude. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.