Some people try to believe in Jesus from a distance. I tried – and believe you me, it just doesn’t work. So when you talk to them about the joy of the Lord – they say “Sure – but not for me.” Really?

Over the last couple of days on the program we've been talking about the fact that it's God’s plan to fill us completely and utterly with His joy, to make our joy complete but how easy is it to stand off at a distance and look around at all the trouble in this world and all the mistakes that so called Christians make in their lives and we think, "Yeah right, look at all that suffering, look at the mess the place is in. God? You have to be kidding. Joy? What a load of rubbish."

Well that’s one reaction and you know something it's not an all together uncommon reaction, I know it well. It used to be my reaction to stand at a distance and "poo hoo" this notion of God, that God is love and peace and joy and He wants us to experience those attributes of His nature; no. The problem is you just can't do that from a distance, let me explain.

I visited a barber shop recently to have my hair cut and as Bert the barber went to work, well he began to talk as you do in a barber shop. What do guys talk about? Well a whole bunch of things, sport, politics, interest rates. Eventually you end up on the subject of God and Bert said to me, "You know Berni; I don't believe that God exists." “Mm, that's interesting, why do you say that?” Here's what he said, "Well you just have to go out into the street to realise that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God existed would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed would there be so much pain and suffering in the world? I can't imagine a loving God would allow all of those things to happen."

Well I thought about that but I didn't want to get into an argument with him so when my hair cut was done I paid and headed out the door. But just outside I saw a man in the street with long stringy dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt so I turned around and headed straight back into the barber shop and I said to Bert the barber, "You know what Bert, barbers don't exist." He was a bit taken aback, "How can you say that?" He asked, "I'm here and I'm a barber and I just worked on you." "No,” I said, "Barbers don't exist because if they did there wouldn't be any people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards like that guy outside."

But Bert was sharp as a tack, he said "Ah," he said, “but barbers do exist. That's what happens when people don't come in to see me." "EXACTLY!" I said to him, "That's the point. God exists too but all that stuff you were talking about, that's what happens when people don't go to Him." End of discussion. You get my point? People want to criticise God from a distance but you just can't do that.

We're talking this week about joy, God’s joy and if we want to enjoy our lives we have to enter into that joy. After all that's what en-joy means, to enter into the joy. You can't stand at a distance and complain about God, you can't say "He's not real", you can't criticise Him for how He runs the joint, outside. You want the joy you have enter 'into' the joy.

I've always liked poetry, I always have. There's a beauty and a wonder in taking something profound and expressing it in poetry and the Book of Psalms is a book of songs and poetry and Psalm 100 says this:

Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we're His, all His people the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise, give thanks to Him and praise His name for the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues to all generations.

Mm, it's beautiful isn't it? "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." See God, God has a heart full, a God sized heart full of joy that He wants to pour into us, into our lives, into our hearts.

That's what we looked at over the last couple of days on the program and Jesus said it over and over and over again. In John chapter 15, verse 11 we see a time when, well His disciples were really afraid. Jesus is about to be crucified, everything is falling into a screaming heap, they're afraid for their own lives, they're afraid for Jesus, they don't know what’s going to happen and look at what Jesus talks about:

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

That’s an amazing thing for Him to do. I mean either He's the Son of God or He's a lunatic, how can He be talking about joy at this time? We kind of sit back at a distance, either totally scornful of God or, as I used to be, or maybe kind of believing in Him from a distance. Believing that He's God but you never, never really believe that well, He'd want to fill me, me! With His joy:

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Wake up, God is talking here. God is talking about His joy, a joy we can't find in this world, a joy we can't find words to express, a joy unspeakable and He wants to pour that into our lives. As Paul said:

The Kingdom of God isn't about physical things and rules. It's about righteousness and peace and joy that come from the Holy Spirit.

God wants to open the windows of heaven and pour His joy into your life and into my life. Ah man, that's hard to accept, that's so difficult to accept and later on this week we're going to be talking about just accepting that joy but today, can I just say to you, we can't have that joy by just standing back at a distance, we can't have that joy by, I don't know, hanging around outside wondering what it will be like inside but never going.

We can't have that joy, we have to walk through the door, we have to enter into the joy to enjoy. You have to ask first, spend time with Him and pray and beat His door down and don't leave Him alone until He does what He said He'd do. Give us His joy and so make our joy complete, it's a joy that fills us in the good times and the bad times.

Ask, search, knock, whoever asks; receives, whoever searches; finds, whoever knocks, to that person the door will be opened. I mean look at us, we're not perfect, I'm a parent but I want to give good things to my kids, how much more do you think that our Father in heaven will give good gifts to those who ask?

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

God never wastes words; I believe God has brought us together today because He wants to say those words to you, because He wants to give you His joy, the joy of knowing Jesus Christ. He wants to make your joy complete. I have my ups and downs, I have some good days and some bad days but every day the joy of the Lord flows around in my heart because He promised it to each one of us.