TEXT: Galatians 5:22-23

SUBJECT: Kids’ Sermon #30: Joy

Children,

This afternoon’s sermon is for you. I hope your parents and others listen too, of course, but I prepared it thinking about you. Listen carefully because it is God’s Word that I’m preaching. And because I’m going to ask questions.

Today, I’m going to talk about "The Fruit of the Spirit". You’ve heard those words before, haven’t you? I suppose you know what they mean, but just in case you don’t, let me quickly remind you.

The "Spirit" is God’s Spirit or the Holy Spirit. His "Fruit" is not apples or lemons or cherries, but what He produces in your life because He lives in your soul. Every Christian—including kids—has the Holy Spirit living within him. You can’t see Him by looking in your ear or down your throat or in an x-ray, but He’s there. If the Holy Spirit is living in your soul, then others can His fruit in your life.

There are nine fruits of the Spirit. The one we looked at last month is also the most important: "The fruit of the Spirit is love". Before we come to the next fruit, I want to ask you three things:

1. Did you hear that sermon?
2. If you did, have you been more loving than you were before?
4. If you haven’t been, do you know what you are? You’re a "Hearer of the Word and not a doer". And that’s bad. God didn’t give us the Bible to listen to, but to obey! Now do it. "This is My commandment that you love one another".

What is joy? Joy is happiness.

God wants you to be happy. Many people think He doesn’t. They think He’s mean and strict and takes pleasure in making us unhappy. He doesn’t. In fact, God commands us to be happy. Many verses say so, for example, Psalm 40:16, Philippians 4:4 and I Thessalonians 5:16.

Not only does God command us to be happy, but He tells us about men in the Bible who were happy—who were full of joy.

I think of David, "Dancing before the LORD will all his might".

There’s the man who once lay crippled at the Beautiful Gate, now healed by the power of Jesus Christ. He was seen,
"Leaping, walking, and praising God".

Remember John the Baptist? When he was still in his mother’s womb, he "Leaped for joy and was filled with the Holy Spirit"" when the unborn Lord Jesus dropped by the house.

The Bible is full of happy people. Do you know who the happiest one was? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 45:7 says He was

To "be anointed" means to be chosen for some special work. Often it was to be a king or a prophet or a priest. The Lord is all these things. But that’s not what the verse says. It says God chose Him to be the Happiest Man in the World!

He was. And He is.

This means that joy does not depend on everything being easy or fun for you. Was the Lord’s life easy? Was it fun? It wasn’t. His parents blamed Him for things He didn’t do and accused Him in front of strangers—very embarrassing.

His brothers despised Him so much that they wanted to put him in a home for the crazy!

He worked hard His whole life, but never made any money, never owned a home, didn’t even have a place to lay His head.

His friends made Him mad and broke His heart. When He needed them most, they left Him, one swearing they’d never met.

Although He did good to everyone, no one appreciated it. When Pilate wanted to let Him go, the crowd yelled out for His crucifixion.

Even there—on the cross—people gave Him no rest, no pity, no compassion. Even on the cross they mocked Him and cursed Him and dared Him to do something about it.

Like the Lord Jesus, the believer has problems. Sometimes we have a lot of them and they’re very serious. But problems don’t take our joy away from us because,

1. They don’t "Separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". Nothing does that. Look at Paul’s list in Romans 8:35-39.
2. They’re good for us (though we can’t see how at the moment), "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10, cf. Hebrews 12:11).
3. They fit us for heaven, "For this light affliction, which is but for a moment is working in us an eternal weight of glory" (II Corinthians 4:7).

If joy doesn’t come from things going well in your life, where does it come from?

In comes from fellowship with God, Psalm 16:11,

"In Your Presence is the fullness of joy;

Believers have come into fellowship with God through good works, going to church, giving to the poor, and obeying your parents. Right? Wrong!

Believers have come into fellowship with God through faith alone! By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we always believe in Him, we always have joy—even when we’re sick or hurt or lonely or scared. Even then, we have joy because we have…Christ.

Unbelievers find joy in the same way: By coming to God through faith in Christ. If you’re not a believer—even if you go to church every Sunday—why don’t you believe in Christ right now and find the joy you want—and He wants you to have?

You get it through faith alone in Christ alone. Romans 15:13 says,

"May the God of hope fill you with all

That’s my hope and prayer for you. God bless you.