If you want to enjoy someone, you have to spend time with them. It’s not rocket science, is it? So why is it that so many people believe in Jesus, want to follow Him, but they just never – well, enjoy Him?

This morning I was up a bit early, a bit tired I'd have to confess but I made myself a cup of tea and I went and sat in my favourite arm chair in my study and just spent some time with God. It's my habit to do this and what I've discovered, day after day after day is that God shows up in that place when I do that. Now I know I shouldn't be surprised but here's little old me with a cup of tea and a Bible in my study and the creator of the universe is in that place with me.

And He hears every word, He knows what I'm going to say before I say it and you know, He fills me with a joy, a joy and a peace that, well look I'm good with words but there aren't words to describe how it feels when I spend that time with Jesus in that chair in my study and it's something that, that I'm addicted to. It's not a chore, it's a wondrous thing to do and spend that time with Him each day.

Over these last couple of weeks we've been talking about the joy of the Lord. Let me ask you a question; do you want to enjoy your life, I mean really, really enjoy your life? I don't think there's a single person on planet earth that would answer, "well no, not really." Of course we want to enjoy our lives, it's a no brainer isn't it? Now I'm a pretty up beat sort of a person, people who know me would say I'm positive, I'm optimistic, I tend to see that the glass is half full not half empty, I'm adventurous, I'm just that sort of a person.

I'm not someone who feels down very often, well sometimes, maybe when I'm tired but 99 days out of 100 I'm out there to go and get it, does that make sense? And yet even though I've been blessed with that sort of a personality, let me tell you, it also has some down sides you know, no-ones perfect but even though I've got that sort of personality I spent the first three and a half decades of my life looking for joy and never finding it.

You see there's this big difference between optimism and a positive outlook on the one hand and deep joy on the other, the two are entirely different things. Optimism and a positive outlook, well sure they're great and what they do is they get you out there chasing things down and innovating and all that great stuff but joy, oh how do I put this into words, it's not easy? Joy is like a sense of peace and contentment and rest and a sweet calm delight. When I experience the joy of the Lord it's a firm and wondrous assurance that I have a relationship with God himself.

See, so often people think that Christianity is a crutch for losers, you're all washed up, life’s fallen apart, go on go get yourself a crutch called religion, head off into some spiritual fantasy land. You've got to understand something; Berni was not or is not a loser, I was successful at just about everything I laid my hand to, it just never satisfied me, it just never fulfilled me. It was as though there was this God sized hole inside me that only He could fill and now it's filled, in fact it's overflowing with a joy, it's just a wondrous thing.

I share my experience with you of joy, my story, my testimony because joy isn't something to talk about as a concept or as a theory out of a text book. Joy is a real experience of Jesus Christ himself, He so, so wanted us to have His joy complete to overflowing. Over and over and over again He talked about His joy to His disciples. Now we sometimes think of joy and say, "well you know, some days you enjoy your life and some days you don't." Let me give you a revelation here, for Jesus joy was not an optional extra, for Jesus it's at the heart of our relationship with Him.

You may remember over these last couple of weeks some passages that we've come back to again and again and again. John chapter 15, verse 11:

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

Just before He was crucified, that horrible, horrible thing that they did to Him, this is what Jesus prayed:

Dad I'm coming to You but I pray all these things while I'm still here on earth so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.

He was praying specifically for you and for me.

Now there's something so important that I want to share with you about the joy of the Lord, it may sound a bit glib but actually it is deep and profound. If we want to enjoy God we have to spend time with Him. Let me say that again, if we want to enjoy God we have to spend time with Him. I know, it's not rocket science, you think of any human relationship that you have, you want to enjoy that person, you have to spend time with them.

There's a buzz phrase here in the 21st century called, "quality time". Sure you can sit and watch TV with your kids and you might all enjoy that but you have to talk to them too. Sure husband and wife can spend time together cleaning the house but that's not the same as dinner for two.

There's a good friend of mine, good buddy James. James is a man who's a real support to me, one of my best friends. He's a brother in Christ and when we first came to the Church we now attend, a few years back, he was the one that came with a smile and a hand shake and welcomed me. And James and I try at least once a week to catch up for a coffee to share what's going on in our lives. We enjoy our time together because we spend good quality time together.

If we didn't do that we wouldn't benefit from each other and we certainly wouldn't enjoy one another so why would we think, for just one moment, that this would be any different in our relationship with God? Why would we think that, "well, I can believe in Jesus, I'm going to heaven and I'm going to go to Church for one hour a week and there I'll meet God." And then we wonder why we're not enjoying Him?

The disciples the twelve disciples, they spent three and a half years living with Him, being with Him and He talked to them about His joy over and over and over again. Get a revelation; Jesus wants to spend time with you and with me. He wants us to pause, to draw aside from all the hurly burly and everything we do in life and all the pressures and just quietly draw aside each day and spend some time with Him. See, a whole bunch of people in this world believe in Jesus, they love Him, they want to serve Him and yet they don't enjoy Him because they don't spend time with Him.

I'm a doing person. It is such a temptation for me to get up in the morning and rush into all the stuff that I have to do and I've had to discipline myself to spend some time with Jesus, to stop and to rest in Him and it's the most wondrous place of joy. This is not rocket science!