Joy! 

Have you ever had the opportunity to watch flames dancing in a fire pit and marveled at the way the flames moved and combined to make a wild and unrestrained statement of pure joy?  

Wouldn’t you love to feel that kind of joy in your heart every day in every situation?

So, what is it that is fanning your flame and growing your joy? Really!

And what is it that is holding back your joy?

If the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is like a fire, just like it was in those disciples on Pentecost day, what are you doing to make the Holy Spirit in you a roaring, jubilant blaze?

Two weekends ago when we went Memorial Day camping, I watched as Sue, Becky Cooper and her fiancée John, Sarah Ketcham’s boyfriend Shawn, and Will and Frank and Jeff G. all put logs on the fire.
 
Each of them was all very careful and determined to get the biggest blaze and the most heat for everyone around the campsite. At one point three fire rings were all burning in a row and the glow was wonderful, toasty, and inviting.

Isn’t that the kind of relationship to the Holy Spirit you would like in your life? 
So, what are you doing to make sure that your heart is filled with God’s presence, so that the way you are living and giving really makes you look like Jesus in action, full of the Spirit, and making others come alive?

Resurrection power is all about coming alive, you and everyone else you come in contact with, just like Jesus did.

Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22-23 that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Last week we talked about what that love looks like in action, when we intentionally love God, each other, and our neighbors sacrificially. 

Because let’s be clear, that is exactly what Jesus did! 

He loved God, his disciples and followers, and his neighbors, sacrificially. He loves you today, tomorrow, and forever, sacrificially, offering up his life on your behalf!

If that doesn’t move you to joy, full out dancing in the streets, singing at the top of your lungs, nothing will!

And living out that deep joy is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do now, here, in our lives, in our church, in our community, in our country, and in our world.

To love sacrificially, and rejoice with our whole being. 

But there is more evidence than just love for the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives, Paul says. Joy!

Because the second fruit of the spirit is joy!

The wild, crazy, jubilant, joy that spills out from people who are not only known and loved by the savior, but who are on his behalf loving themselves and others with God’s amazing love.

Joy so wild and free that it dances in us just like those flames danced above those fire rings on Memorial Day weekend, and above those disciples on Pentecost!

Joy so intense that it radiates God’s love and joy on all who come near.

Joy so jubilant that we intentionally let go of all the things that hold it back, so that we can dance in the darkness and call to others to come and dance as well.

Joy so amazing, that it can no longer be held back by our trials and tribulations! 

Joy no longer limited by who the world tells us we can love. 

No longer bound to grief. No longer bound to fear. 

No longer bound to sin, but released, set free, and finally fully alive with the joy of the Lord.

One of the things I love most about joy is how contagious it is. 

Just get on Youtube when you get home and watch a two-year-old chase his favorite doggie friend around in a circle and listen to him giggle. It’s so contagious! 

Can you tell Noah did that this week, chasing the yellow lab and giggling full out!

As you listen to his joy the weight of the world slips away as you rejoice with him in the wonderous simplicity of a good chase. 

It’s the same for adults. 

Spending time with those who are filled with joy is such an amazing experience. It lightens the cares, the troubles, the challenges of life.

And, most exciting of all, it is also evidence of God’s presence in us!

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

And so, we rejoice, just like everyone of those disciples in that upper room!

He is risen! Hallelujah! Amen.