"Living from the Inside Out: It’s a Piddy Day"

(Galatians 5:22-23, I Peter 1:3-9)

Main Idea: I discover the Spirit’s joy each time I trust that God’s purpose for my life is greater than the problems in my life.

When our daughter Jennifer was about three years old she developed a phrase that was somewhat her signature phrase. We are not sure where it came from but it was not something she could have mocked by hearing her Mom or especially her Dad say. It was really her phrase. She would say this phrase whenever the conversation lulled or there was some need to interject something into the discussion about whatever was being said. Here it is: "It’s a piddy day!" I can still see her sitting in her car seat, holding her blanket, sucking her fingers as we were driving. In a quiet moment, she would stop and announce very confidently, "It’s a piddy day!" So when the conversation starts to drag or we’re going somewhere Kathy or I will say, "It’s a piddy day!" It just makes us smile.

Jennifer has always been a "piddy day" person, lighter, happier and positive. She and her husband Daniel, this past week however, remembered a day in their lives that was anything but a "piddy day." This past Tuesday, August 29, was the day, one-year ago, that Hurricane Katrina redirected the course of their lives as well as the lives of hundreds of thousands of others along the Gulf Coast. They were residents of the Gentilly area of New Orleans attending seminary and their apartment was decimated by the wind and rain and their area and school swallowed by Lake Pontchatrain. They have since settled in Little Rock and are planning to attend another seminary in North Carolina in January.

I called Jennifer on Tuesday just to see how she was doing and what she was thinking. I told her that I didn’t know if she wanted to remember or not but I wanted her to know I cared. She said she was okay but still mad when she sees how badly things were handled for people who truly suffered. She said, "Everything is good. If that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have had the good jobs we have, get to see you and Mom and Mamaw so much, been part of a good friend’s wedding, and never had Roux." (Roux is a six-months old Westie—not a child.) I told her, "I’m proud of you and Daniel. I love you, Sissy." Her response was, "I love you, too!" Hearing the joy in her voice reminded me, "It’s a piddy day!"

How did she and her husband choose the response of joy to this life-changing experience? They were enabled to do that because they trusted that God’s purpose for their life was greater than any problems in their life. When faced with other responses to this redirecting event they chose joy. What happened to them falls into the scale of "inconvenience" rather than "devastating." There are some of you here today who face challenges that range from "irritating" to "inconvenient" to "devastating." How have you responded? Have you chosen joy? Joy is the response of God’s Spirit each time I trust that God’s purpose for my life is greater than the problems in my life. Where does joy like that come from? It comes from "the fruit of the Spirit," the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, "But when the Holy Spirit controls our life, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy…" (Gal. 5:22a).

Today we are talking about joy, the kind of joy that only God’s Holy Spirit can give to a Christian. Remember, we said last week that because of Holy Spirit living in a Christian’s life that we have the capacity and capability to demonstrate these nine attributes that are mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. So, whether you are a naturally joyful person who sees the glass half-full or a naturally negative person who sees the glass half-empty, you, because you are a Christian, can express the Spirit’s joy.

There is so much in the Bible about joy in both the Old and New Testaments. In the New Testament the word for joy means a sense of inward peace that comes from trusting that God is in control over every situation. In some places it has the feeling of being so exuberant that it is hard to hold back. When you really dig into what the Bible says about joy, you discover that joy is at the very center of God’s plan for people because joy is at the very heart of God himself. John Ortberg says, "We seriously underestimate God’s capacity for joy." God is the happiest being in the universe and it is God’s intention that all that he created, but uniquely you and I, mirror his joy. Again quoting Ortberg, "We are to reflect God’s fierce joy in life."

If that is God’s plan or desire for us and if he has given us the capacity and capability by the Holy Spirit to respond in joy, then – why are we not joy-filled people? I think one of the reasons is that we have allowed our material desires to determine our joy. We imagine that "I’ll only be happy when I have…." That is so deceiving because, as Bob Dylan said, "Whatever I want today, I’ll want again tomorrow." Another reason we are not joyful is disappointed dreams. "If only this had happened, then I could really be happy. I would have joy." Disappointments are huge "joy stealers" in our life. However, I think the biggest thief of joy in our lives is when we decide that our problems are bigger than God’s purpose in our lives. We believe that whatever has happened to me from irritating to inconvenient to devastating has eliminated my capacity for joy.

Yet the Bible makes it clear that God loves us so much that he has placed joy in our life through his Spirit. He wants to produce a joy so deep in our life that it will transcend any pain, disappointment, discouragement or problem we have. How does that happen? It happens each time I trust that God’s purpose for my life is greater than the problems in my life. That is what Peter is talking about in the verses read earlier in I Peter 1:3-9. The people Peter wrote to had problems that were beyond irritating and inconvenient. They stayed on the high end of devastating. Yet he tells them that in spite of all they have been through, "even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy" (I Pet. 3:8). What this immediately causes us to realize is that it is entirely possible to be full of joy even though facing devastating problems. How were these people able to do this? Peter tells us they discovered joy by trusting that God’s purpose for their life was greater than the problems in their life.

What Peter told these Christians two thousand years ago is true for Christians right now. In I Peter 1:3-6 he tells us that we have a reason for joy that is greater than any other reason we might have in our lifetime. What is that? It is the privilege that God has given us of "being born again" (v. 3). This transformation that has occurred in us because of God’s mercy and Christ’s resurrection makes us his child and because we are his child he has secured a priceless reward for us in heaven (v. 4). That reward is so magnificent that nothing can prevent us from receiving it and that when Jesus returns it will be seen for the marvelous gift that it is. Then he says, " So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while." (v. 6) That means that I have every reason to be full of joy regardless of my present disappointments or problems because God is using those things to accomplish his best in my life. I can respond with joy because his purpose for my life is greater than the problems in my life.

Peter describes in beautiful language in verse 7 how God uses problems to aid or enhance his purpose in our life. He uses the analogy of gold being heated to withdraw from it all the impurities so that it shines more magnificently. So our problems play their part in making us a more amazing person as a Christian. This part of God’s purpose overwhelms the problem to the extent that when Christ returns the only thing that is seen is the amazing quality of our faith.

However, none of this happens without trust. That’s what he mentions in verses 8-9. He tells them that even though they have no tangible evidence of God’s purpose ("You have never seen him.") they still trust that God’s purpose is greater than their problems. The result is "…Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." (v. 8b-9) Peter tells them and us: God’s purpose for Christians is that they will outlast and outlive their problems.

So where does all of this leave you? Does knowing that someday God’s purpose for you is to be with him forever in heaven make all your problems go away? Does it change the fact of your irritation or inconvenience or your disappointment or disaster? No, and there is nothing in the text we looked at that says that. The reality that God’s purpose for your life is greater than the problems in your life is something that supports your life when everything else is gone. Lewis Smedes calls it a "fall-back hope." He says we have things in our life that we want to happen but it’s not the end of the world if they don’t. We have other things in our life that we want to happen and can wreck us if they don’t. The chances of our having something vital to our life taken from us are pretty great and when that happens we need a "fall-back hope." "It is a hope that supports all our other living hopes and still survives when those hopes die" (Standing on the Promises by Lewis Smedes). That, my friends, is what God says is ours at the end of our days here and that is a hope that can give joy to us right now.

Now here is the question: Are you committed to trusting that God’s purpose for your life is greater than the problems in your life? Unless you do, you will never discover the Spirit’s joy. Please do not even think that I am talking about a ridiculous, "Oh, I am so happy that my life has been devastated" response. That has more to do with emotional instability than the Holy Spirit’s joy. What I am talking about is a stability that you have down inside of you that settles you in the middle of your challenges. That stability is a quiet understanding of God’s purpose in spite of and through your problems that doesn’t change. When you remember the stability of God’s purpose and you trust that his purpose is greater than your problem, you discover the Spirit’s joy pushing through your life. Don’t even begin to tell me that is not possible because I can give you names and addresses of people who have discovered the Spirit’s joy through life’s most horrific devastation! It is possible because they trusted that God’s purpose for their life was greater than the problems in their life.

So, do you want to have it said about you that "even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy"? If you do, then you must discover the Spirit’s joy. Here’s what I want you to do if you have let your joy be stolen because of your problems. I want you to find a moment this week, get a piece of paper and write these things:

Then write: When will I trust that this is true? From that point on the response is up to you. God will not force you to be joyful but he has done everything to make it possible. If you can’t see that, then you will never discover the Spirit’s joy.

One year ago Patrick Wooten and his family were trapped by the floodwaters of Katrina in the area of New Orleans called Algiers. They had beaten back looters, snakes and the elements and had made their way to Louis Armstrong International Airport, waiting evacuation. After several days of waiting, they were flown to Camp Edwards in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He said that while they were at the airport waiting evacuation, "We had to sleep on the floor with the dogs and everything so you know that’s how you made your clothes smell." After the three-hour flight to Cape Cod, the passengers were met on the tarmac by a line of people: Red Cross volunteers, physicians, ministers, and others from the community. These Cape Codders were so happy to see the evacuees, safe and sound at last, that they naturally opened their arms to hug each passenger. Patrick Wooten recalled, "You come out there and getting off the plane, I said, ‘Oh, man, I really don’t want to do this to these people, touch them. I’m stinky.’ And so they’re overlooking that filth, you know what I’m saying, man? ‘Come here and give me a hug.’ I say, ‘Okay, here you go, but I’m stinky.’ They ain’t worried about how stinky I was. They said, ‘Come here.’ I said, ‘Oh, man, this is love.’" (The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley, p. 590).

There will come a day in every Christian’s experience where we will experience a welcome more amazing than that. All the things that have caused us sorrow as well as all the things that have made our life difficult will be seen as the foundation for our joy. It’s not going to matter how big or how small our problems have been because Jesus will be waiting for us with open arms longing to embrace us. He will say to us, "I am so proud of you. You trusted that my purpose for your life was greater than the problems in your life and you let my Spirit’s joy be seen! I love you. Now, let me show you why it was worth it all." That, my friends, will be a truly "piddy day."

Today I invite you to discover the Sprit’s joy by trusting that God’s purpose for your life is greater than the problems in your life. Because of his purpose: "It’s a piddy day."

Sunday, September 3, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org