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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Day 4, and our look together through John
chapter 16. You might remember that yesterday we began a look at God's process
of joy. We talked about the fact that part one, step one, the beginning of this
process is confusion.

We're not sure what God's doing because things are changing. And whenever things
change, we get confused. We like things to stay like they are most of the time.

So we get confused because there's a change. And then step number two, this
change starts to sink in and we see that we're going to lose something in that
change and we have the natural response of grief. We should have the natural
response of grief.

We talked yesterday about not cutting that off and pretending that it's not
there. First confusion and then grief. And then step number three is, well, I'd
like to call it a resurrection transformation.

It's joy. That's step number three. But if I had to say it in a longer way, I'd
say it's a resurrection transformation.

Jesus says in John 16, 20, "You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. "
He's echoing the words of Psalm 30 verse 5, familiar words for many people in
the Old Testament. "Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

" And these words of Jesus teach us a principle of joy and the principle is
this. Joy comes not through substitution, but through transformation. It's a
basic principle of joy.

Joy comes through change, not exchange. It's a basic principle. It's a principle
though to turn your life upside down.

You see many people when they're feeling a loss of joy in their lives, they try
the principle of substitution. I'll put something different into my life. I'll
move around, get to some other place in my life and then I'll have joy.

So if you're moving from job to job to job trying to find joy, you're trying
substitution. If you have to have something new in your life every few years to
think that's going to make life exciting and joyful again, you're looking for
substitution as a way to joy. If you're thinking I've got to have, well let's
just be honest, if you're thinking I have to have a new husband, a new wife, a
new family to begin to enjoy life again, you're thinking that joy comes through
substitution and it does not.

Momentary excitement can come through substitution but it'll only carry you
through a few weeks or months. How do you have joy? If you're a parent, this is
one of the basic principles that we have to teach our kids.

How does joy become a part of our daily lives? Well, the disciples of Jesus
learned about joy when they saw Jesus resurrected. In that moment, the worst
thing that life had ever thrown at them became the best thing that had ever
happened in their life.

In that miraculous instant, they realized that joy was not an exchange of
circumstances, it was a change of heart. That's real world joy. Real world joy
is this, you'll weep, you'll mourn, you'll grieve.

And those tragedies that cause you to weep and mourn and grieve, they aren't
replaced by joy. Did you hear what Jesus said? They turn to joy.

God works through even the worst that Satan and life and this evil world throws
at us. And if we'll trust him, he turns even that to joy. He turns crucifixions
into resurrections.

Have you discovered this? The joy of a personal pain in your life being
transformed into a greater trust in God? That's genuine joy.

That's real world joy. Have you discovered at this point in your life the joy of
a fear of death being transformed into the joy of waiting for God in heaven, the
hope of heaven? That's real world joy.

Here's what Warren Wiersbe said about substitution versus transformation. He
said, "The way of substitution for solving problems is the way of immaturity.
The way of transformation is the way of faith and maturity.

We cannot mature emotionally or spiritually if someone is always replacing our
broken toys. Replacing your broken toys is not the way to joy. Resurrections are
the way to joy.

" And this resurrection process that Jesus talks about with his disciples in
this chapter, it happens again and again and again in our lives. It happens
because of the resurrection of Jesus. This process begins with confusion.

We don't understand what Jesus is saying, what life is doing, where it's going.
And then because of that comes the despair, the death on the cross, and then
comes the joy of the resurrection. You'll see this process happen perhaps dozens
of times in your life in powerful ways.

It happens in little ways throughout every week of our lives. In fact, you can
see now, maybe in a fresh new way, some circumstance in your life, some
experience in your life, that the resurrected Jesus has a purpose for your life.
And that his resurrection purpose is to get his resurrection power into every
area of your life.

I'll never forget the story of that great man of faith, R. A. Torrey.

He had a grief. He lost a 12-year-old daughter. One night, as he walked down the
street, as he experienced the loneliness of her absence, she was in heaven, he
was sure of that, but he missed her.

As he thought about the fact that he wouldn't hear her laughter again, it just
washed over him. He leaned up against a lamppost, and he looked up, and
according to his story, he began to pray. And somehow in that moment, here's
what he said, "And just then, the fountain, the Holy Spirit, whom I had in my
heart, broke forth with such power, I had never experienced before.

And it was the most joyful moment I had ever known in my life. " Now, did he
never miss his daughter again? Of course not.

But he also had that moment to hold on to, that moment of joy. I cannot tell you
how many people have told me, when they've gone through a difficult time in
their lives, I never felt closer to God than when I went through that time. Now,
that doesn't guarantee that's exactly how you're going to feel.

People feel differently at different times. But that's just an example, again,
of how God takes this process of the difficulties we go through and reminds us
our joy isn't found in the circumstances of this life. Our joy is found in the
miracles of God.

Joy, God's joy, is never temporary. Joy is never partial. Jesus wanted to give
us a picture, a picture of this transformation kind of joy.

And the picture that he gives us in verses 21 and 22 is the picture of a woman
giving birth to a child. Listen to what he said, "A woman giving birth to a
child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets
the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

And so with you. Now is your time of grief. But I will see you again.

And you will rejoice. And no one will take away your joy. " Jesus' picture of
transforming joy to his disciples that night, a baby.

The same baby that causes the pain of labor also causes the joy of birth. And as
Jesus talks about a baby and joy, he talks to his disciples, then and now, talks
to you and me, about two things to remember about this genuine joy that he wants
to bring into our lives. Number one, Jesus says, remember this, if it can be
taken, it isn't joy.

If it can be taken out of your life, it isn't joy because his kind of joy can
never be taken away from us. No one can take away your joy. So if it's something
somebody can take away from me, some job, some bank account, some hope for some
thing to happen in the future that I'm counting on for my joy, if it could be
taken away from me, it is not joy.

It might be happiness, it might be a dream, it might be a wish that I have for
my life, but it isn't joy. If it can be taken, it isn't joy. And he also reminds
us of a second thing.

True joy grows out of Jesus' presence. Now is your time of grief, but I will see
you again and you will rejoice. True joy grows out of the presence of Jesus in
your life.

It is our relationship with him. That's what can't be taken, your relationship
with him. But it's happening in your life right now because of that
relationship, your growth, the change of heart, what's going to happen in your
life in eternity because of your relationship with him.

This is a reminder to me. It's a reminder to you. If your joy comes and goes,
you're either looking to the wrong things in life or you're looking to the wrong
relationship in life.

The process of joy, Jesus' process of joy works exactly the opposite as the
process of joy that the world looks to. You see, all around you, you've got
people who are looking for joy. And their seeming joy, the things they want to
hold on to, the toys they want to hold on to, the next pinnacle that they want
to reach, their seeming joy turns rapidly to sorrow.

You reach out for the brass ring and when you get it, you look at it and think,
it's not much. It turns rapidly to sorrow. But our sorrow turns triumphantly
into permanent joy because of what only Jesus Christ can do.

As we talk to God today, as we talk to Jesus, I want to encourage you to pray
for joy. Pray for joy in your own life. Jesus says he wants to give it.

It's one of the ways that people around us know that Jesus is real. And so say,
Jesus Christ, the joy of the Lord is my strength. You've said that you want your
joy to be in my life, and yet lately, you might need to be honest and say,
lately there hasn't been much joy, there's mostly been a feeling of loss.

Jesus, I pray that my grief would turn to joy, that instead of trusting in this
thing that I haven't gotten, this wish that isn't being realized, this
circumstance that isn't turning out, instead of trusting it for joy, I pray that
somehow in my heart, you'd work the resurrection miracle, the transformation
miracle of turning the loss that I feel over this thing to joy in you, in your
presence, in your eternity, because I know no one can take your love away from
me. And I pray that even through this experience, through the experiences I'm
going to have this next week of loss, that in those experiences, I would realize
the depth of your love for me like never before. And I ask this, Jesus, in your
name, amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to finish this chapter, John chapter 16, by
looking at Jesus' words on prayer and on peace.