May 26,2024 | Heavy Joy

Transcript

I'm grateful for many songs that point us to revelation four and five and remind us that one day around his throne, there will be people from every tribe and tongue and nation. All of God's people gathered around praising him. And we're told there that they'll cry out all kinds of things. They'll say, Holy is the Lord, worthy is the lamb.

All kinds of different things. And the picture is just this echo of praise over and over and over again. And I'm grateful we have many different songs that point as to that day, and remind us that what we do when we sing here is a picture of what we'll do. There. Praise God! Children, I think many children have headed out who are headed out.

But if you're headed out to Children's Church this morning, you're welcome to go. You're also welcome to stay in here with us. We're glad you're here. We're going to be in First Peter chapter one this morning.

First Peter chapter one and beginning in verse six. As we consider these truths, we are going to think about joy in the middle of sufferings, in the middle of trials. And the phrase that came to my mind as I went through this week was the phrase heavy joy. And I like that for two reasons. There's two different directions, in fact, that you go about having joy where joy is heavy because we know everybody experiences grief.

That's not the question. I don't have to convince you that there are tons of different ways that you experience grief or suffering or trials, and the this text doesn't ask whether or not you will experience grief. This text instead asks what is going to be developed and displayed in your grief. Or to ask it from the other direction, what kind of heaviness is in your joy?

And I think there's two different kinds that we need to see from this text. The first, which we'll read the text in just a minute. The first is that when we have joy, we find that we experience grief as well. And I think that probably makes sense to many of you. I know from your stories, many of you who have walked with God for a long time, know what it's like to say there is real grief that I feel, and there is real joy that I feel intermingled with that grief.

Our joy is in one sense heavy, but there's another sense our joy is heavy.

If you look at verse eight, the last part, it says, we rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Well, in the Old Testament, the word for glory had to do with weightiness. See, there's a depth. We might use that word more often. There's a depth to joy that we have that is different from just a shallow, happy feeling at the moment.

There's a weightiness and a depth that says, we need the kind of joy that is going to have both of these things. It's going to have grief mixed into it. It's also going to have a weight that makes that joy worth having.

And as I thought about this text. This happens sometimes when you're working on a sermon. You say, how am I going to lead into this sermon? And some of you who have preached have had times where you've written about seven different introductions to your sermon. That was me this week. But one of the things that struck me was the reason for that is, I think, is because there's two different groups that could hear this sermon, and you might need different introductions.

Some of you are here as forgiven followers of Jesus, who have loved him and walked with him for a really long time. And what this text is going to do, because Peter is writing to people like that, this text is going to say, this is what your experience is like. And you might say, I want my experience to be more like that, but you will get the reality of what Peter is saying because you've lived it.

Some of you may be here, and you may have never really put your faith in Christ. You may have never experienced this. And I want to say from the beginning, I'm going to talk about the way they interact with joy and grief. But if you don't know Jesus, if you haven't trusted in him and followed him with your life, you haven't done that.

The things I'll talk about aren't steps to get there. I'm not interested today in giving you a way to cope through grief without Jesus. And Peter's not interested in that, in fact. Christianity offers you absolutely nothing without Jesus. It's not a better way to live or to handle emotions without Jesus.

So this morning, as we look at the reality of what it is, if you say, I'd like that, don't. Here, here's three steps for how I do that myself. Here the only way I can have that is through looking to Jesus. And so before you read the text, I want us to stop in prayer and look to Jesus right now.

Jesus, you are the hope that we have. We do look forward to the day when evil and sin and death is removed, when every knee bows before you, when we will sing with all of your people, glory to God alone. And not only will we sing with all of your people, but we, because your work will have been completed in your people.

We will sing wholeheartedly, without any of the sinful reservations or the pride or the things that get in our way of seeing your glory. We will sing yes, Holy is the Lord. Glory be to God alone.

I pray this morning that you would open our eyes and help us to do that more this morning, as well. For it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. I read beginning in verse six. Peter says, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

This morning, in order for you to develop and display the kind of heavy joy God calls you to. I want to ask this question what perspectives or understanding do you need in order to have that kind of heavy joy? What did the people Peter was writing to? What did they have that led them to both a joy that could coexist with grief, and a joy that had the weight and depth that made it worth having.

What did they have? Well, number one, they felt God's love for them. That's really the first section right before this, verses three through five, where he describes the new birth. He says, according to God's mercy because he loved them, not because they deserved it. He caused them to be born again. He did something they could never have done for themselves to a living.

Hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to a perfect inheritance, something he preserves and keeps for them because he loves them. That not only does he preserve and keep the inheritance, but verse five, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in this. That's how verse six starts.

In this he says, look back at all those things we just talked about, all the ways we talked about God's love for you and the way God has acted to save you when you didn't deserve it. He says in this, that's what you rejoice in. Look back at those things. Feel the love that God has for you. As we're looking in first, Peter, the word I've come back to is we're his.

We're his. And that means two things. That means we're loved as children. That's the first thing that he reminds them of. He says in this, in the fact that you are God's people, chosen by him, loved by him as his children, feel that love.

If you don't feel that God loves you, you'll never have the kind of joy we're talking about.

If you think God is the rigid schoolmaster waiting to slap your hand when you do the wrong thing. If you think God is like we saw in the Book of Job, if you think God is petty and overly critical. You won't feel this kind of joy.

You have to start where Peter starts. In this. You rejoice. Now I want you to notice so that really there's a second step here. First step is to feel is love. Second step is to recognize your joy. This is where I said some of you. If you don't know Jesus, this is not your experience. But if you follow Jesus, if you've walked with him, notice he doesn't give them a command.

By the way, if you go through first Peter, where's the first command in first Peter? The point of this is not a Bible trivia question. It matters. It's in verse 13. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Before that, there's no commands. There's just statements. This is what God has done for you.

In this you rejoice. He's not telling them. And we have to be careful because I will read it this way. If I read through it quickly, I'll read. Here's this great salvation right now. Rejoice in it. I don't want to rejoice in it right now. It's not a command, it's a statement. In this you rejoice. Now, what he's telling them is because verse three through five is true.

If God has given you this new birth, if he has by his mercy, caused you to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus, then you do rejoice in it.

At times that may be veiled, at times you may be distracted. At times you might rejoice in other things. But there's no such thing as a child of God who doesn't find some joy in the fact that they are born again.

And there's no such thing as somebody who's not born again, who finds joy in it. He says, if this has happened to you, you have joy in this. You rejoice.

It's not a command, but it is God's Word. Think about what God's Word does the very first time in the Bible, God speaks that we know of. Let there be light. He just says it. Let there be light, and it is. God's word creates what it describes. And there's you in this room. I know there are many of you.

I could see it on your face, and I knew it would be because I know God's Spirit works within us. When I say in this you rejoice. So if you go. That's right. Absolutely I do. But that's not because I want you to notice. It's not because he said, you rejoice. And you said, that's right, I need to rejoice.

Okay? Rejoice. It's because God's Word is powerful. And he says, and this you rejoice. And you say, because you have the new birth year. Absolutely I do. God's word creates what it describes.

So in order to have heavy joy one we have to feel God's love for us from verse three through five, what has he done for me? What has he accomplished for my salvation? We have to recognize that within me as a believer, as someone who's born again, I feel joy. Not all the joy I want to feel that will be fulfilled one day that we just sang about.

But I feel joy. We need to recognize that. All right. If we say, okay, I feel I know God is love me. I've trusted in that. I recognize that. I feel this leaping in my heart of joy over what God has done. Well, then, how do I deal with trials, sufferings, or testings? That's what he continues to hear in this.

You rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary. You have been grieved by various trials, so we feel God's love. We recognize our joy that we receive testing. As. I'm going to give you three words here for words really temporary, productive, needed. Grace. Knowing God's love for me. Recognizing my joy in the salvation he's given. So there's this reality within me.

Receive testing as temporary, productive, needed. Grace. So first I said receive testing. What counts as testing? He calls it various trials here. There's a lot of things. There's a reason he said the word various. He doesn't give you specific ones. Because there are many different ways we can put them. In some categories we can say were tested by external evil.

So there's something bad being done out there. When I look at the world and say, this is the way I think would be right, and people don't act that way for the moment. Not talking about when I don't act that way, talking about when other people don't act that way towards me. There's suffering or grief caused by external evil.

Peter emphasizes this kind in the book. Let me give you some examples. You could go to chapter two in verse 12. There he says, you keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, sometimes people speak against you as evildoers. Even when you're trying to do good. That's external. It's not about you.

It could be grief, could be suffering. It's coming from outside of you. You could go to verse 20 of chapter two. What credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. There's times that you do good and you suffer for it.

That's because outside of you, something that you'd say this isn't right is going on. Or you could go to chapter three and verse 14 and he says that you sometimes suffer for righteousness sake. So when he says various trials, one category external evil, there's there's things outside of me that I think that's wrong and it's happening and it's causing me grief because I'm suffering in it.

But we also face a broken world, just a world that doesn't work the way we want it to work. Not because somebody is choosing something evil, but because tornadoes happen and hurricanes come and trees fall, because bodies wear down and hearts give out and cancer cells form. Nobody's maliciously planning to hurt you in those tests or trials or sufferings.

But the real. And you didn't do anything wrong in those tests or sufferings. We just got through going through job, and we saw job wrestle with that. But we also face internal sufferings. I don't know if you you stop and think. If you were left locked in a room by yourself, you'd bring plenty of things to bring suffering with you, because we all face our own specific temptations.

Some are more tempted to anger and impatience, some are more tempted to laziness and apathy. We're all tempted to. When when things are difficult, we're tempted to run to something, to numb ourselves or escape. It could be alcohol or drugs or pornography, or immorality or entertainment.

And when you say, I really want to be angry at that person, and as a believer you say, but I know I really shouldn't be angry like that. That's internal suffering. It's difficulty. Not only that. But sometimes internally. In fact, many times when we fight against sin. When you say, here's an idol that I love, I need to put it to death, guess what?

It hurts. You feel suffering when you have to fight against sin because you loved that sin. You say, not as much as I love Jesus. Absolutely praise God for that. But we live in a world where I think so many times we think our goal is to avoid discussing effort.

That's not your goal physically. Not if you want to get stronger. Head down to the gym sometime and get a personal trainer. I'd like to get stronger. I'd like it not to ever hurt. It's never going to work spiritually. The same thing we think my I have to avoid discomfort. Well, Jesus says if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

That does not sound like avoiding discomfort. Paul says in Romans, if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, whose body yours. Fighting sin is not going to look like avoiding discomfort. It's going to be a suffering. It's going to be a trial, something that brings you grief.

When Peter says various trials here, a couple of big picture observations, I want to make one. He speaks in such a general way that you could include external evil. You can include the brokenness of living in a fallen world, and you can include the sufferings and trials of battling sin in your life within you. All of those fit when Peter says, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.

Peter includes every category. There.

And it's important for us to sometimes recognize which category we're talking about, because the answer is different. And he's going to talk about this later in the book. So I won't get into all of it right now. But when you look at external evil, someone did something wrong. To me, the answer is Glorify God. Chapter four, verse 19.

Let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. When there's external evil, you trust that God can keep your soul and you keep doing good. When we live in a broken world and we say this is suffering, we look to the God who said, there will be a day when death will be no more.

And we say, come, Lord Jesus.

When we face within us sufferings because of our temptations, or because of sin that we need to put to death, and then you pick up your sword. You take up your cross and you kill the sin. That is absolutely going to feel sometimes like suffering to you. You will feel some bits of grief because you think that sin is really comfortable.

But you also feel heavy joy. This this battle against sin is hard. But there's a joy that's heavier than that. That's more important and better than that. By the way, this is one of the most dangerous things I think about the prosperity gospel. If you teach that you come to Jesus and everything's just going to be happy and you're going to have health and wealth, and it'll just go, well, everything's perfect for you.

Well, among other problems, one thing that that kind of thinking does is take out the ability to fight sin. The way Scripture describes it. Because you have to go find some the suffering of taking up your cross and killing your sin. Jesus does not intend for you to avoid that.

Now you don't go chasing it because you love to hurt, just like nobody goes and lifts weights because they just love the pain. Well, maybe somebody does, but I don't. You go move the weight because you say there's a goal here and I can't get there any other way or because it is necessary. That's why he uses this word to describe these trials, though.

Now for a little while, if necessary. You have been grieved by various trials. So if you want to have the kind of heavy joy that's worth having, you know God's love for you, recognize the joy that he's put in your heart for it. In this you rejoice. You say, yes, I do rejoice, both for what he's done, for what he's doing now and for the future.

Hope that we have and all of those things, and then receive testing as temporary, productive, needed grace.

It's temporary, he says. For a little while now, I know we can all say, well, it doesn't feel like a little while. Of course, it never does. When you're in suffering, we can make it harder to and say, well, actually, what if it's the rest of my life? Say, well, it is still a little while compared with eternity.

And that's the way Paul talks about it in Second Corinthians three, talking about sufferings and there he says, you do suffer for a little while, but God is preparing for you an eternal weight of glory. And this light, momentary affliction, that's the phrase he uses. That's not Paul saying, your sufferings are just nothing. He's not making them unimportant.

He's saying, in comparison with the weight of glory, a lifetime of affliction is light and momentary. And the same thing here for a little while. These are temporary things. There is no suffering that you face. External, broken world, internal. There is no suffering that you face that will not end. Praise God for that. When we sing of a hope of heaven, there's no suffering, including the battle with sin that won't end.

He says, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. I want to take a real quick grammar point here, because I think it's beautiful for us. When he says, in this you rejoice. He uses a different tense in the Greek than he does here. When he says, you have been grieved, the English uses differences too. It says, in this you rejoice at the present tense versus you have been grieved.

That's there on purpose, on Greek tenses. One of the things that's that's interesting and helpful for us is that when we think of English tenses, we think of time like the tense tells you. Did it happen in the past? Is it happening now or does it happen in the future? in Greek, it that's included, but it's secondary.

And instead of thinking so much about time, they think about how should we view the action of the verb? Should we view it like it's going on now, like you're looking at the process? Should we view it like the whole process put together, or should we view it like that happened? And here's the results. That's the main ones.

He changes the tense here for a reason. If I could paraphrase and expand a little bit, he says in this you are rejoicing and rejoicing and rejoicing and rejoicing, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved. By various trials.

He's acknowledging there's real grief, and one of my burdens looking at this text is because I know there's huge sufferings for different people in this room, and I don't know about all of them. And what I pray is that you would not hear me or Peter or God saying those little sufferings, they're nothing.

That's true. By the way, if you're in this room and you're eight years old. And you might know your sufferings aren't quite as bad as some other people in this room. They're still real sufferings. The answer isn't God saying, well, that's nothing. Don't worry about it. No, it's real grief. But it's encapsulated in this one little spot. You have been grieved, the whole picture, looking at it as a whole, you've been grieved.

But in this you rejoice and keep rejoicing and keep rejoicing and keep rejoicing. The way he talks about this is that there is an unstoppable joy from God's love for you in the heart of a believer that keeps going and keeps going, and will never be defeated because it will go all the way to heaven, where the grief is done and the joy keeps going.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary. I thought for a while just thought about that word necessary. I love it because it says it's on purpose. There's a purpose for all these things that grieve you, outside you, inside you, a broken world, wherever it is, the only way there are trials that bring grief in the life of a believer are because they're necessary.

They're purposeful. There's no pointless, wasted suffering.

That's a huge encouragement for us. Most of us can handle suffering that is on purpose. I use the example of going to exercise. Most of us can handle that. You might love it, you might not, but you can still grasp your mind around, okay, there's a reason for this, and maybe it's not exercise. Maybe it's a joint replacement surgery.

There's a reason for that. None of you sign up for that for fun, but you can handle the difficulty because you say, okay, there's a purpose for this. It's necessary. Well, here, this word, one word here, when Peter says, if necessary, he's drawing you to the fact that the griefs, the trials that you face for a little while are necessary.

Well, who decides if it's necessary? Because that's really. We like to be the ones who decide. We don't have enough wisdom to know that. Just like you don't go to the doctor and tell him which surgery he should perform on. You usually.

It's not Satan who decides it's necessary, because the purpose he gives so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may result in praise and glory and honor, that is not Satan's purpose. So Satan is not the one saying it's necessary. It's God is the one who truly knows when it is necessary, and is because of his grace that he does this over and over in Scripture you will find reasons.

Purpose is given for suffering. Now I want to hesitate a little bit when I say that, because I think sometimes we think this suffering happened to me. God, why did I break my leg? God, why did I get this kind of cancer? In this situation? We want very specific why questions. God doesn't give us those specific why questions, at least not very often and not in Scripture for multiple reasons.

We saw that in Job. That's the way he treated Job. One is so that we'll trust him. Another is because we're not really wise enough to wrap our head around all of those reasons anyway. And there are things in your life you can look back and say at the time I thought, why on earth did that happen? And later maybe you could say, I think this might be why, but even then you might not be completely sure God doesn't give us.

Here's the very specific this happened in your life. Here's why. But he gives us, depending on how you count them, anywhere from probably 8 to 10 reasons throughout scripture. As to big picture why? Why does God allow suffering this is one reason here he says you have suffering. You rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary. You have been grieved so that the tested genuineness of your faith.

He gives an example here, when we're probably familiar with more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, we don't think gold is less valuable when it's tested and purified, we think it's more valuable. So he says, well, even more precious than that. But if I take that example out so you can see the connection so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

He's drawing their attention to something in the future, and specifically to reward. Because you could ask, well, whose praise and glory and honor. We know God ultimately receives praise and glory and honor. We also know God receives praise and glory and honor. Whether or not your faith is genuine, because he will be glorified forever.

So who receives it? God's servants do. Now we'll all say any praise and glory and honor that I get, ultimately, is because God has done it in me. Absolutely. But when God looks at you and says, well done, good and faithful servant, that's praise. That's honor. It's not ultimate honor. God gets that, but he tells you. And let's not try to be more spiritual than God is.

Let's not try to be more holy, if you will, than than God. If God tells you, you can look forward and say, live in such a way. Have joy because you will one day be praised with well done, good and faithful servant, then it's okay for us to look forward to that. That's what he points you to. He says, as you have real joy entwined with real grief because of trials, it's going to display over and over that your faith is real.

That's going to be so. People around you see that I've got news for you. Sometimes it's so you see it.

Have times when you go through difficulties and everything kind of swirls around and you're like, I don't even know is this, is this do I even really believe what I said? A couple weeks ago, I was I was thinking about something God was doing in my life, and I thought.

My first thought was God's reworking and just undoing things in me and helping me to see sinfulness within me so that he can rebuild and make me more honoring to him. That was my first thought. My second thought was.

But I'm not sure we're on the rebuilding part. So is he even really doing that?

And I thought I was reading this section, chapter verse five, who by God's power are being guarded through faith. I thought of the promise and I said, yes, absolutely. He is doing that. Do I know how that works? Do I know when it works? No. But he is rebuilding those things for his glory and his honor. And the question came, is that even what's happening?

That's what I want to think is happening. But God, by his power, points me to His word, guards me through faith, and I say, yes, that's what he's doing. Which makes me say, yeah, this faith is real. It makes me see it in me. You see, God doesn't have to test your faith, so he knows whether it's genuine.

He already knows. That's not why he's testing it.

But sometimes you might not even know.

And so you go through trials and the weightiness of grief that comes with joy. Because without that weightiness, you don't get the weightiness of joy that's filled with glory, which is what he gets to in the next section.

He tells them in verse eight, though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Why on earth does he tell them this? They know this already. They know they haven't seen him. They know they don't see him now.

They have to know they love him. They wouldn't. It wouldn't be true if they didn't know it. They have to know they believe in him. Why does he draw their attention to something that they already know to an experience they already feel? Well, for one thing, I think he wants them to know they're not second class Christians. Because remember, Peter did see him.

Peter stood on the Mount of Transfiguration and saw him in glory. Peter walked with Christ. Peter walked on water with Christ. Peter did all kinds of things. So one thing he's doing is saying, you didn't see Jesus like I did, but that's okay. You still love him. That's one thing he's doing, but another, he's describing the tested genuineness that he is talking about.

What does real faith look like? It looks like the kind of faith that hasn't seen Jesus. And I think because probably there's a mixed group here, he uses it, says you don't see him and you haven't seen him. He says, some of you haven't seen him at all. Some of you don't see him now. But you did. So this is both case.

Either way, you don't see him right now. Well, what's true of tested genuine faith. First, they love him. We use these words all the time, and we don't always define them. They love him. They they experience him as valuable as a treasure. They're like, I want more of that relationship. Which is craziness. If you don't have real faith, you don't see him but tested genuine faith says, yes, this is a real relationship and I really love Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him, though you don't. Now see him. You believe in him. They have confident trust for everything. He will do what he said. That's what he'll do.

This is what tested genuineness of faith. Looks like. It looks like when there are trials, you feel the depth of the grief. You feel the heaviness of the grief, but you also rejoice in the salvation you have. Because even though you don't see Jesus with your eyes, with the eyes of faith, you love him and you trust him.

That's what tested genuineness of faith looks like. Not only those, but he continues and rejoice with joy. We get right back to joy. It's it's like the deep, weighty, good feeling, good affections, or good emotions that are connected with love and trust.

And you should see the connection that joy has to be there. If I were to tell you that I really love someone and then tell you, but I have no joy in them. You'd either say no, you don't love them. I think that's probably the right answer. Or at least there's something very wrong here. If I were to tell you I have complete reliance on something, especially if I were to tell you I have complete reliance on Jesus for my eternal life, you say, well, do you ever have any joy about that?

No, I don't think you're relying the way you say you are. They're all connected. This is part of tested genuineness of faith. And he points to them and he says, this is true. Now remember, he's telling them something they already know. So that means he's reminding them, right? He's looking at them, saying, you already have faith and love and joy in Jesus.

That's why you rejoice not commanding them to just telling them they do. Verse six in this you rejoice. In the end of verse eight, you rejoice with joy that is in expressible and filled with glory. He says, that is the reality. And today if you look, if in your heart there is any part of you. Absolutely any part that truly loves Jesus, that's not there because Satan put it there.

And if it's really love for Jesus through the eyes of faith, if it's really reliance on him, if it's really joy in him, it's not there because you put it there and figured out how to do it. It's there because God showed his great love to you. And as you see that that is tested and genuine, that gives you confidence to look forward and say, one day I'll be before him and he'll say, well done, good and faithful servant.

That gives him the joy to say what he says in verse nine, obtaining the outcome of your faith. Here's the goal of faith. Here's where it all lands, the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. In our world, we people talk about mental health or soul health all the time. What we're going to see going through this book, Peter keeps pointing them to say, God actually cares about the health of who you are, not just your body.

In fact, not primarily your body, but your soul. And he says, the way to have salvation for your soul is through faith tested, genuine faith that results in love and joy and reliance. Because of what Christ has done. There's that phrase joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Maybe that catches your eye. You're like, what's that? Well, Joy is this interesting thing.

Like, it gets it's it's sticky. It gets its moral quality from what you're rejoicing in. If I were to tell you, I have this incredible joy in killing kittens, you'd be like, can we get rid of him now? What's wrong with his soul? Because, Joy, even if I were like, no, I mean real joy. Like deep seated, amazing good feelings that last.

Just because I get to kill kittens, you say? No. The thing you're rejoicing in is the problem.

Because joy gets its moral quality from what you're getting. Joy from.

So if you're going to have joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, that joy is found in a God who is inexpressible and filled with glory. You know love from that God that is inexpressible. Paul calls it that you would know the love that passes knowledge, or you'd be filled with a peace that passes understanding. It's inexpressible.

But when your joy is found, it's not that you don't try to express it. We got a whole book of trying to express it. It's that you can't express its fullness, it's inexpressible, and it's filled with weighty glory.

So the question for all of us, like people who heard this the first time, when you look at what God has done for you, when you look at sufferings outside, inside brokenness of this world, wherever they come from.

We can feel the depth of the grief, and that's good. We can feel that weight, but with that, we feel the joy of our salvation. And because we feel, in fact, I would even say because like, both of these are necessary, because we feel the weight of the grief that opens up for us a different weight of glory.

God wants you to have a heavier, weightier, more meaningful joy than you could ever have with what this world offers. He does not want you to have a worse joy. He wants you to have a weightier, better joy. And for that to happen, it's necessary sometimes for a little while, for us to be grieved by various trials. So how do you deal with that?

You look at what God has done for you and what he is doing in you. Even where we're weak, even where we struggle. Do you find real love for Jesus in your heart because of what God has done? Do you find real joy in him? Do you find real trust in him? In the grief? When the tears flow.

When you do, it points you to the fact that God really is at work, that this faith really is real. And that makes you look forward to the day when he praises you. Well done, good and faithful servant. Or as he Peter says in chapter five, when the chief Shepherd appears, you receive the unfading crown of glory.

So I want to conclude this way. I said at the beginning, I'll say it again Christianity offers you nothing without Jesus and without the salvation he gives nothing. This is not a pep talk on how to deal with grief. Hold some happy thought in your mind and wait till it passes. That's not the Christian answer.

J.I. Packer said, if you ask, why is this suffering happening? No light may come, but if you ask, how am I to glorify God now? There will always be an answer. I want to modify the last part of that. If instead of saying, how do I glorify God? We take that one step deeper and say, if you ask, why is this trial happening?

You may not know, but if you ask, how do I see the spirit filling me with deeper love and trust and joy? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you will find that answer.

Because the spirit is poured out within your heart.

I invite you to take a moment, bow your heads. Go before God. If you're not a believer in Jesus, if you say, I don't see that joy, I don't see that trust. I don't see that love. But I want to I, I can see that there's something there that I wish that I had. We would love to talk with you.

There are many people here who would talk with you. You can come talk to me or any of our regular attenders. They'll either be able to help you or find someone who can. And we would gladly change our schedules to help you with that this afternoon. If you're a believer in Jesus, look to the faith and joy and love that God produces in you and celebrate it.

And look forward to the day when that is completed. I'll just invite you to go before him in prayer. Respond as God spirit leads and then I'll pray.