Oct 19, 2025

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Dr. Christopher M. Brooks
Pastor to Pastors | Local Church

Joy Is The Serious Business of Heaven
Abide in Love, Joy FULL
John 15:5–11

I. Key Theme: MENO AGAPE HARAH PLAYRAO
("Abide – Love – Joy – Full")

II. Abide (Meno) – Remain in Christ
Definition: To dwell, endure, make your home.

• Spiritual Practice:
  
  

 
Training the mind to return to God like a compass needle to north.
Reflection: What are you abiding in today?

III. Love (Agape / Hessed) – Steadfast Love
Definition: Loyal, never-ending, sacrificial love.
Scripture:
  • “No greater love…”
  • “Perfect love casts out fear.”
Reflection Questions:
  • Who loves you well?
  • Who or what taught you to love better?

IV. Joy (Harah) – Strength from the Lord
Definition: Gladness, delight, cheerfulness.
Scripture:
  • “The joy of the Lord is our strength”
  • “Everlasting joy will crown their heads” (Isaiah 35:10)
Reflection Questions:
  • What fills or drains your joy?

V. Full (Playrao) – Living in Wholeness
Evidence of abiding:
  • Keeping His commands
  • Loving God and others through the Spirit
  • Repenting quickly and returning
Not a strategy to avoid problems, but a skill to endure them.

VI. Neuroscience of Love & Joy
Dr. Allan Schore: Joy and attachment form brain development.
Right Brain (Fast Track):
  • Relational identity
  • Emotional connection
  • Character formation
Left Brain (Slow Track):
  • Logic, strategy, problem-solving
Critique of modern discipleship:
  • Left-brain heavy (doctrine, willpower)
  • Right-brain light (attachment, joy)
Call to become “full-brained” Christians
  • Combining emotion, intellect, and identity in Christ

VIII. Joy as a Spiritual Discipline
Joy is a theological virtue, not just an emotion.
Seen throughout Scripture:
  • Even in suffering (Paul: “sorrowful yet rejoicing”)
  • Jesus Himself was "for the joy set before him endured the cross”
Joy empowers us to face trials with strength and hope.
Quote: “Joy is the serious business of heaven” – C.S. Lewis

IX. Practical Steps to Abide in Love & Be Full of Joy
Abide
  • Spend time in Scripture and fellowship.
  • Make room for God’s Word in your life.
Love
  • Rebuild relational attachments to God and others.
  • Ministry without love is empty.
Joy
  • Joy is transmitted face-to-face and through voice.
  • “You make us joyful with your presence” (Ps. 21)
Full
  • Let the Spirit fill you.
  • Be delighted in God’s presence—and delight in others.