The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Don’t Lose Your Joy (Part 1)

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Do you have joy? Without joy, the challenges of life can seem even more difficult. Jeff Cavins gives a thorough definition of what true joy is. He shares passages from Scripture to help further our understanding of it. Jeff also encourages everyone to avoid robbers of our joy and how to pursue joy even in the midst of suffering. Snippet from the Show You cannot have abiding joy in your life if you are living outside of God’s commands. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is episode 354. Don't Lose Your Joy. And welcome again. Good to be with you. Every week we talk about things related to following Christ and being a disciple, putting the faith into practice, studying the Bible, and just living. It's good to have you with me once again. Don't lose your joy. Don't lose your joy.

Boy, there's a lot of reasons these days why people would say, you know, I'm losing my joy. And it's getting the best of me, whether they're watching the news or things that are going on in the church or their family or at work. But we want to talk today about do not lose your joy. joy once you lose your joy you lose your strength and we don't want to do that okay so before we get into it i would like to let you know that you can get the show notes and in shows like today there's a lot of good ones there's a lot of scriptures i'm going to be using to uh build my case for joy joy joy joy and uh you can get those show notes simply by texting my name jeff kavens that's one word Jeff Kavens to the number, 3377. How biblical can you get? 3377. That's all you got to do.

We'll get the show notes to you. I think that most of us in our lives have experienced seasons of joy. And if you were to ask people, give me a definition of joy. A lot of people would say, well, it's just when everything is going all right and everything's lining. up and I'm in my wheelhouse and I'm being affirmed and, you know, bills are paid and everything just couldn't be any better and I have that joy. Well, that could be a description of joy. I'm sure some people would give that as a description of joy, but that doesn't really line up with what the Bible talks about when it talks about joy because the Bible talks about joy and having joy even when you are facing incredible trials in your life. Like James talks about

this. We'll look at that in just a moment. But James talks about how we can have joy even in the midst of difficult situations. So what we want to talk about here today is how in the world can you have joy in the midst of difficulties? Now, you know that joy is part of the fruit of the spirit. It's one of the fruits of the spirit. And some people have defined joy as a comforting, It's a contentment. You're full of peace. It's an attitude that you have in your heart, and it really flows from your faith in Christ. It flows from your walk with Jesus. And the thing about true joy, which I think there is a difference between true biblical joy

and somebody just feeling exhilarated out there in the world as a result of whatever it winning a hockey game or waiting the lottery or something. But they have this incredible joy, this emotion. But there's a difference between that and biblical joy, which is something that comes from God alone. And only God can produce true joy in the human heart. And he does that through the spirit who is living inside of us. And when we trust in God and we walk in faithfulness with the Lord,

The fruit of that, fruit is something that grows out of a tree, right, or out of a vine. And so we are attached to the vine. We are the branches that are attached to the grapevine in the vineyard, and out of this attachment comes fruit. You don't have to make fruit come. You can't go out in a vineyard and scream at the grape vines. You produce fruit. Produced grapes, I'm telling you, and then get somebody else to come in from nine to five and yell at those plants and then from five to midnight and midnight to nine in the morning and scream at

those plants, produce, it's not going to work. Because fruit naturally comes from the vine. It comes from being attached. And you and I are in Christ, and if we walk in the spirit, then you're not going to have to make artificial joy. It is going to come from you. You can't fake joy, not biblical joy. You can't fake that. So it's important to understand that only God himself is the one who really has the ability to give us the ability to respond to life's difficult circumstances

and then receive an inner contentment and a satisfaction. Now, before we go any further on this and we talk about joy, I want to say something just for a moment here about a kill joy, about things that can kill your joy. And one of those things that can take the joy from you is when you continually hang around critical people. When you are constantly around critical people, critical about everything that you can think of. they're critical about the Pope, they're critical about liturgy, they're critical towards other ministries, they're critical because people are not as orthodox as they are. There is more to faith than orthodoxy. Now, I'm not saying that orthodoxy isn't important.

That is orthodoxy, meaning that we believe a right. You know, we're right in what we believe, and we believe in a proper way. I'm not saying that orthodoxy is not important. What I'm saying is there is more to your faith than just being right. And you can't lose your joy by being around people who are continually just negative all the time. I've got to tell you, I've been around the mountain so many times now, you know, in the faith. And I can tell you so many different times where I ran into a group of men or women or any kind of a group and all they could do is just talk about how right they are or how wrong someone else is

and if we only did this and haven't they read that document and if they knew who they were hanging around with and blah blah blah blah blah blah you know there's so much of that and you know what the result is particularly with young Christians it discourages them it discourages them because that's not the way we are supposed to be living in this kingdom nehemiah chapter 8 in verse 10 says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. And I really do believe just revisiting this thing of, you know, how to bring your joy down, there is such a focus on being right that we're wrong. You know what I'm saying? It's like an ugly orthodoxy. We're so right. We're wrong. And in pursuit of sanctity, you become a downer for those around you.

certainly for those that you are supposed to be witnessing to. Because those that you are supposed to be witnessing to are looking for the joy and they're looking for the love and they're looking for that peace in our lives. They're not looking for you to be right every single time. It's like the guy that he married a beautiful young lady and she became really discouraged. She married Mr. Wright. She married Mr. Wright, but she didn't know that his middle name was always. And that would bring down any marriage, if you know what I mean, right?

It would destroy any marriage. So the joy of the Lord is my strength. And also, I mentioned this earlier in Galatians 522 and all of these scripture verses are going to be in the show notes. It mentions, Paul mentions to the Galatians, that the fruit of the spirit is, the fruit. That's what comes forth from being in Christ. The key to joy is being in Christ. It's living in Christ.

It's obeying Christ. It is resting in Christ. It is listening to Christ. It is worshiping Christ. It is praising Christ. It is witnessing for Christ. That's abiding in the vine. And Paul says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

I could take a bushel basket of each right now. How about you? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. faithfulness. Now, the importance of seeking the kingdom of God first plays into whether we're going to be people filled with joy or not. And so I would ask you at this point, what are you seeking first in your life? When you have a problem, when you get into an argument, when there is some kind of impasse, when you have spare time and spare change, what do you seek first in your life? Now, that's really important, and it kind of feeds into what I mentioned a couple of shows ago

when I mentioned that one of the problems that we have is we have priorities. We have priorities that you're saying, Jeff, that sounds like we should. Well, yes and no. The key here is not to have priorities, it's to have a priority. And the priority is Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Always number one, Jesus Christ, His kingdom. And if you have that priority and all these other areas of your life that you are, you know, naming with priorities, which we have a habit of never getting around to those because we don't have a priority. We're always having to juggle priorities.

You get it. I did a show a couple weeks ago on that and check that out. but if we have a priority, and that is seeking first the kingdom, then all kinds of things are going to just flow over into our lives. And so Matthew's gospel in chapter 6 and verse 33 says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things are going to be yours. But if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

that is the key. Love God first. People, you know, who don't have joy in their life, I would guess, and I'm just drawing from my own life as well. And there's been those times where I didn't feel any joy at all in my life. Those were the times where I really wasn't connected like I should be with the Lord. I wasn't dialed in to following the Lord, listening for his voice, having daily prayer, reading the word on a daily basis. I started to veer from some of these things. And as I veered from some of these things, the joy started to go away.

The joy started to go away. It did. So there's an importance in seeking the kingdom first, first. Now, Peter said, in 1.8, he said, without having seen him, without having seen him, God, you love him, though you do not now see him. You believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. I love that. I love that. Let me read it again.

Without having seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. So what does it mean you believe in him? Does that mean you just acknowledge that God is there and you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and you acknowledge that he said, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. You acknowledge these things. No believing is more than acknowledging.

Believing that word is faith. Believing is where you make mental assent. Yes, you agree. But then you personally entrust yourself to God. And it's out of that trusting and entrusting your life. to God, even though you cannot see him, but you entrust yourself to him, and you rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. Maybe yours is utterable, but you can get up to that point where it's unutterable, an exalted joy. You know, John, in his gospel, he said in chapter 15 verses 9 to 11,

And he said, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. There we are again. There's that idea of abiding in the vine. The branches are connected to the vine. Abide in my love. Take your nurturing from me. Be encouraged by me.

Receive life from me. Receive grace from me. Abide in me. Don't go away from me. Don't veer off. Don't allow someone to bring the pruner to our relationship. and cut you off. He says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Now that right there, we'll move on from there in a moment here, but just stop there for a moment. Isn't that good? As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. And if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. So how do you abide in God's love? How do you abide in his love?

He said it right there. He said, keep my commandments. There is, and I mean this with all my heart, I think this is a truth here, and that is that there is no abiding joy and rich joy in our life away from obeying God's commands. I think there's spurts of exhilaration, and experts of, you know, oh, wow, we're having so much fun.

I just feel so good and everything else. But that's not the same as a deep, deep, comforting and contentment and a peaceful heart type of peace that we're talking about. And the Bible is talking about. So how do you abide in God's love? You must keep His commandments. And if you keep His commandments, you'll abide. in my love, Jesus said, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

So how does Jesus abide in love, in the father's love? He keeps the commandments. He does everything the father is telling him to do. He continues this John 15, 9 through 11. He ends it by saying, these things I have spoken to you. Why? Why did Jesus tell us that if you abide in his love, if you want to abide, abide in his love, you've got to keep his commandments. Why did he say to do that? Because he just

wants to control you, because he really, he really gets a thrill out of just kind of bossing people around. No, not at all. You know that's not the Lord. So why would he tell us that you should obey my commandments and that's how you're going to abide in my love? Why? He says it right here. Listen, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in. you and that your joy may be full. That is so good. If Jesus isn't speaking straight to your heart right now, I don't know how he's going to do it because he's saying, look, abide in my love, keep my commandments.

Why? Why? Because I want my joy to abide in you. I want my joy to be in you. And I want my joy to make you full. full stop as they say i don't know how i say that in hebrew i got to learn but isn't that beautiful john 15 9 through 11 i'm going to put that in the show notes for you right there it's so good oh i got some more good stuff for you here but we got to take a break when i come back we're going to continue

to talk about joy we're going to talk about joy and don't lose your joy you're listening to the jeff kavin show hi my name's father mike schmits i want to let you know about an exciting announcement that could revolutionize the way you listen to the Bible in the year and the catechism in the year. Ascension has released a new Bible and catechism app called the Ascension app. Now, here's what you get. In this app, you get the entire text of the Great Adventure Bible. This is incredible. You also get the entire text of the catechism of the Catholic Church, as long with the Catechism in a year podcast, the Bible in year podcast, and transcripts for each episode. If you're like, I'm tired of listening to that guy, I just want to read

it. There's complete transcripts from each and every episode. One thing that makes this app incredibly unique is that it includes special features that make connections between the Bible and the catechism so crystal clear through color-coded references and all these links. The hyperlinks are amazing. I tried it out and I'm like, oh my gosh, it kind of has changed the way I read through the catechism, kind of changed the way I read through the Bible. These features will help you navigate the Bible and catechism even more seamlessly so you can get more out of your experience. Also, the app provides Almost 1,000 answers to Bible questions.

The people who listen to the Bible in the year, they wrote in with their questions. Almost 1,000 answers. And those answers come in the form of audio clips, video clips, as well as resources excerpted from some of Ascension's published works. If you want to download this app for free, super simple. Just go to the app store and search for Ascension app. I am telling you, if learning about the Bible and the catechism is important to you, then this app will change your life. Welcome back. Welcome back talking about joy today. We don't want to lose this joy, do we? And there's things that we can do to make sure that we're not going to lose joy and we can gain joy. You know, at the top of the show, I was talking about what a downer it is just to be around people that is just constant. You know, that got to be right or there's critical about this or critical about that or that God has raised them up to judge other ministries. You know, God has raised people. up to be weed-wacking ministries. I don't see a lot of joy in those people, but I do see joy in the people

who are intent on knowing God's word in doing God's word. In that obedience, there's just, there's just an amazing joy that rises up. In the Old Testament, Habakkuk chapter 3, verses 18 and 19. I love this as well. It says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Isn't that a strange way to say it? Isn't that something? I'll move on in a second here, but let's go back to that for a second. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. That kind of sounds almost like a verb, doesn't it? I will joy in the God of my salvation. Hmm. I like that. I think we're going to have to memorize this one. It's Habakkuk 318. It goes on. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like Heinz's feet. He makes me tread upon my high places. You know, when I go to Israel, and by the way, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for all of those.

involved in the war that's going on over there. So very sad. So very sad. My heart is there. I was there on October 7th. Had to get out of there after that. Just pray for them. Pray for them.

But when we are in Israel, we go to a place down by the Dead Sea. It's on the western shore of the Dead Sea. It's called Eingeti. Ingeti, there's some caves up in that area. And that's where David, hid from Saul, and then when Saul came into the cave to relieve himself, David cut off the hem of the garment. And anyway, in that area, there are sheer cliffs. This is an area that David would have been familiar with, and no doubt, you know, got some ideas for writing psalms too. But he wrote it in this

area, and some of the Psalms, that is, and these cliffs are so sheer. And if you look carefully, you will see these like little deer hinds and they are walking on the smallest inches of paths right along the edge of this rock cliff. It is really amazing. And Habakkuk borrows from this imagery when he says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like Heinz Feet. He makes me tread upon my high places. Well, I would imagine that the only people that can navigate those kinds of sheer cliffs are joyful people. Not a lot of depressed people would be navigating those sheer cliffs. Now, one of the purposes of God's grace, one of the purposes of God's grace is that the life of the Trinity will help you

to enter into divine joy. One of the purposes of God's grace is that the life of the Trinity is to dispose. That's the word I'm looking for. It is to dispose you to enter into divine joy. That's one of the purposes of grace. Grace is the life of the Trinity. And in the life of the Trinity, grace will dispose you to enter into divine joy. And so that grace is very, very important, incredibly important.

God put us in this world to love him. He put us in this world to serve him. And he put us in this world that we would be partakers of the divine nature. That's what God has called us to, is to partake of the divine nature, of the eternal beatitude, we might say, to be with God forever and ever. And part of this divine nature is joy. It's joy. Let me just read this to you. Can I, it comes from the catechism of the Catholic Church. I'll put this in the show notes for you too. I'll read it now, but I'll put it in the notes. It's paragraph 1721 and 1722. And it says this, God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him. And so to come to paradise. beatitudes makes us partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life with beatitude man enters into the glory of christ and into the joy of the trinitarian life such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man it comes from an entirely free gift of god whence it is called supernatural as is the grace that dispens

poses man to enter into the divine joy. Let me say that last line again, because if you're running or just driving with both hands on the wheel, you might not have caught that completely. It comes from an entirely free gift of God, whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the joy, divine joy, the divine joy, entering into the divine joy. Isn't that good? That is so good. Make note to self. Put that in notes. Put it into the notes. So those are a few things there today about joy. And I have so much more, but I think I'm going to have to wait until the next show to share a few more

things with you about joy. Oh, let me share one more thing with you here. I got to do this. And then I have so much more that I am going to make a part two out of this about entering into the joy of the Lord. Joy, I'll end with this. Joy is good for your body and your emotions. Did you know that? It is. Joy is good for your body and for your emotions. I think I mentioned to you several times that I would go get a checkup, I would go and I'd get a checkup down at Mayo Clinic. And it was down at Mayo Clinic that I ended up meeting this incredible doctor who was more concerned with joy and forgiveness and a sense of peace inside than he was any kind of tests that that they might give you. He was more concerned with that. And the reason for that was,

that there is a, there is a relationship between joy in your life and your health. There is a relationship between joy and your mental health, your physical health, your emotions, and so forth. And so when I read Proverbs 1722, it just really did something for me. You know, I thought, well, of course. Of course. You know, there's so, I'm going to read it in a second. Don't worry, but there's such an emphasis these days on natural medicine, you know, going back to the herbs and, you know, the green tea and organic and all that, you know, roots and everything. And I'm into that. I get it. And people want to treat roots and spices and, you know, all of it. They want to treat it as natural medicine is what

they say. But listen to what Proverbs says. This is from Solomon. Proverbs 1722. It says, a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Now, that's what the Bible says. Mayo Clinic says the same thing. The doctors at Mayo Clinic, who work in this natural healing, a department will say the very same things to you, and that is that if you do not have joy in your life and you have bitterness in your heart and unforgiveness towards other people, it's going to affect your body big time. And they're starting to track this stuff. And so here, Dr. Jeff is passing on to you. I'm just kidding. I'm not a doctor. But I'm passing on to you what Proverbs says, and that is a joyful heart is good medicine.

It is. So how do you get the good medicine? You abide in his love. How do you abide in his love? You do what he said. If you want good medicine, if you want joy in your heart, from this point all the way till next week when we get together, you have to focus. Tell me you're going to focus. We've got to focus on doing what Jesus called us to do.

and we will not know what he's called us to do unless we read his word or pay attention to the daily gospel, go to Mass and hear it. You need a steady diet of the Word of God. Might I suggest the Great Adventure Bible Study? The Great Adventure Bible study, I take you through the entire Bible in 24 one-hour sessions, the entire thing. I'll do it with Matthew as well, Acts as well. Matthew's 24, one-hour sessions. 20. I think it's 20 sessions in Acts. But anyway, that's a good beginning. That's going to give you 468 hours just for those three studies. Get the Word of God in your heart. Barry it. Put it into

your heart. Memorize the scripture. Obey it all day long. And I'm telling you, if you take that prescription and put it into practice, God promises you. It's going to be joy in your life because you're abiding in God. You're abiding in God and you are going to be disposed to enter into the divine joy, says the catechism. Isn't that great? Oh, wow, this has been good and I just realized I had prepared so much more and so I'm just going to, I'm going to move it to the next show. So this is going to be, don't lose your joy, part one. And next week will be part two. I do hope and I do pray and I really seriously mean this that you will enter into and abide in in in Christ and that you will abide in Christ by doing what he said and so just read the word and ask the Lord you know each

day Lord what do you want from me today what can I do how can I walk with you and I think you're going to see the old joy meter start to rise let's pray in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit Lord Jesus thank you so much for giving us life thank you so much Lord for the for the word that you have shared with us. We thank you that you have called us to be divinized, to come into the Trinity and live the life of the Trinity. Lord, we need that so bad right now, and we do lift up Jerusalem to you,

and we lift up all those who are in the Gaza Strip, the innocent people that their lives are being torn apart. Lord, we lift them all up to you, both sides, and pray that your peace will somehow touch these people. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I love you.

I really do. Pray for me. I'll continue to pray for you this week. It's going to be a joy to be back with you next week. God bless.