O 10.3.24
Where’s Your Juice?
John 15:11 Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
Joy is the juice Jesus offers in this passage. Joy is the end result Jesus wants you to EXPERIENCE from the prior ten verses.
So, we can measure the degree to which we are affected by Jesus’s teaching by assessing our joy! And here is the danger…or the trouble…or the opportunity depending on how you look at the situation.
- How many Christians do you know?
- How many of them, you included if you’re Christian, experience Jesus’s John 15:11 joy?
While I know many, many followers of Jesus, I do not know many joy-filled people. Of course, being joy-filled requires some degree of definition so I understand the standard. Are we talking cheerleader joy or something else? And we can spend time clarifying joy.
But my intent in this Overflow is broader.
I want you to see the NUMBER of times Jesus offers “juice” and the VARIETY of juices He offers. I am using juice as a “Jim-term” to describe the quality of life available to everyone who follows Jesus.
Consider the following juices from Jesus:
- Blessed life in Matthew 5:1-12
- Soul rest – Matthew 11:28-30
- 30, 60, 100-fold life – Mark 4:20
- Significance – Luke 5:1-11
- Treasure – Luke 18:18-27
- Spirit-filled – John 3:1-8
- Living water in one’s soul – John 4:13-14, 7:37-39
- Abundant life – John 10:10
- Sight – John 14:12
Jesus offers so many more juices! Pick any one of these and assess the degree to which you EXPERIENCE them. You have to look around at your version of Christianity and ask if it is producing juice in you! Where is the juice??? Who has stolen your juice?
I think, and I may be wrong on this but I don’t think I am, that those who are in Christ are supposed to have a BETTER quality of life than those who are not in Christ. I think Jesus had a FAR greater quality of life than anyone and I see Him offering His quality of life to everyone!
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). Jesus cannot offer rivers of living water unless HE has rivers of living water to offer. His quality of life is BETTER and He offers that to those who are thirsty.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He can offer rest in our souls because HE has rest in His soul! We who accept His invitation should EXPERIENCE rest in our souls that we can enjoy AND offer to others.
Where are these juices in your life? Free flowing in the lives of Christians? Imagine the impact of people coming to faith if Christians demonstrated this kind of fruit?
Powerful.
I have no idea when or where Christians/Pastors/Theologians lost sight of Jesus’s juice, but the enemy has succeeded in steering us into at least three powerless routes. One is the eternal route. In the eternal route we are led to believe that what while Jesus is great as our source for eternal life He is not so great as our source for abundant life!
LIE.
What Jesus can do for me eternally is GREAT. What I can do for myself daily is BETTER???
A second route MANY have been lured is the political route. Christianity is about winning a political or cultural war. Our quality of life depends on who is President, Governor, and Mayor. This is infuriating. NO WHERE in any of Jesus’s juice offerings does He teach that living His juice depends on a federal government. The federal government simply has nothing to do with experiencing rest for one’s soul, joy, blessings, treasure, or Spirit-filling.
A third route, equally as nefarious as the other two but maybe not as obvious, is the intellectual route. Jesus is all about rational understanding. Logic rules in the Kingdom. Being able to trounce others, in and out of Christianity, with a sober defense of your position, is the core of the faith. Knowledge reigns supreme. Joy? Eh, not as important. Inner healing? Only for those weak enough to have been wounded. Living water? Let me exegete that in Greek but show you how it actually works – not so much.
LIE.
LIE.
LIE.
Hey…if Satan cannot keep you away from Jesus’s eternal life, he will work hard to keep you away from Jesus’s abundant life. When you accept “juice” as the standard of what Jesus has for you in the Holy Spirit, then you will see warfare, lies, gaps, and confusions with far greater clarity.
OVERFLOW is Trexo’s summary word for Jesus’s juices. Our Father pours into us by His Holy Spirit more than we need for ourselves. We receive. We use. And we distribute. Because He goes first, we have no pressure to produce. We breathe. Relax back in. Open our hearts. And daily get filled.
May your life be FILLED with Kingdom juice as we run God’s race…in the OVERFLOW!