CHECKING IN
Take a few minutes to talk about what you have been experiencing this past week.
This past week you wrote an honest and compassionate letter to yourself. You reflected on what you would say to yourself if you could have spoken into your life in a past season of pain and suffering. What did you feel when you opened and read this letter later in the week? How is God teaching you about how joy can heal past sorrow?
If you took time to read the book of Job, what did you learn about God? What did you learn about how to experience joy in hard times? What did you learn about yourself?
This past week you looked at a picture of yourself from your past. This image captured a time of childlike, carefree joy and play. Tell about how you are starting to see that joyful spirit return. If you have the picture with you, and feel comfortable sharing, show it to the group.
Graduation Day
We have all been to a graduation ceremony. It’s always a big day! The graduates sit in rows, proudly wearing a robe and a goofy hat. (Think about it, y’all, is there any hat invented that is more impractical and silly than a graduation cap?) Music of some sort is playing quietly in the background as the graduates stand up, follow the person in front of them, and walk across a stage.
There is always a dignitary, teacher, principal, or administrator on the stage handing out diplomas. This single sheet of paper in a decorative folder says it all. You have arrived. You finished the course of study. You have graduated!
As you walk off the stage, you move the tassel from one side of your graduation cap to the other . . . a bold sign that you are leaving an old life and season and starting something new. You walk off the stage as a new person—transformed, graduated!
Right? Well, sort of!
A graduation is not just the end of a story; it is actually the beginning of a new one. Now it’s time to start a career, set a life direction, begin a whole new chapter. It is time to live life!
Well, y’all, this is graduation day. No need to wear a goofy hat, and you won’t get a certificate to hang on the wall (but you can make one for yourself if you like). Today we finish our six weeks of thinking about Defiant Joy and learning to Laugh It Up! But this is not the end. It is the beginning of a whole new life for you.
THINK ABOUT IT, TALK ABOUT IT
Tell about a graduation ceremony you were in or attended that had something funny, surprising, or unique happen.
[Your Response Here]
How are graduations a perfect time to launch a person into a whole new future?
[Your Response Here]
What can group members do to make sure that today is not the end of your journey into joy but just the beginning of a whole new, amazing life?
[Your Response Here]
LIFE will put you to the test. It can be difficult and unexpected, heartbreaking and hope-challenging. But Joy is a fighter. And so are you.
WATCH THE SESSION SIX VIDEO
Feel free to reflect, jot down your thoughts, listen, laugh, and even ask questions!
One Big Thought . . . We don’t have to keep running out of joy; we can overflow with it!
[Your Response Here]
Sometimes we think of joy as a limited resource that we have to keep pouring into an empty heart and life that leaks faster than we can fill it up. Well, this is just not what the Bible teaches. The truth is, we can live every day full of joy to the point that it overflows from us to those around us.
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The journey we have been on . . .
[Your Response Here]
Fountains and not buckets
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Remember the sounds of joy, and invite them back into your life.
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Faith . . . the center of joy
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YOU may be living your worst day. But grab on to hope that it isn’t your last day.
BE HONEST
Take time to talk about any of the questions, statements, and Bible passages below, choosing what works best for your group. Have fun and be honest.
1. What has been one of your biggest and joy-growing moments over the past six weeks of this study together?
[Your Response Here]
2. What are ways we can cheer each other on in joy and inspire one another to keep growing in joy even after our Defiant Joy study is over?
[Your Response Here]
3. Look at the key lessons we’ve learned (below) and tell about one way you are going to seek to overflow with joy as you embrace that powerful biblical truth:
Truth #1: Joy grows when I stand confident in who I am in Jesus.
Truth #2: Hope is the anchor of my faith.
Truth #3: I have to fight for joy.
Truth #4: I can have joy even in times of struggle and suffering.
Truth #5: Confidence in who God is and what God can do will grow my joy.
[Your Response Here]
Read (together or ask volunteers) the following four Bible passages.
John 15:11: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Psalm 16:11: You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
John 17:13: “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
Romans 15:13: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Some people think of joy as something that is lacking, scarce, and fleeting. If you take these four passages seriously, what is God’s desire for you and me when it comes to joy? What can help us embrace with greater passion and belief this truth that overflowing joy can and should be the normal condition of our lives?
[Your Response Here]
5. Imagine your life is like a fountain that bubbles with joy. In hard times and good times joy can run freely, gush out, and overflow. If this was the nature of life and joy, what kind of life would we have? What would this say about joy?
[Your Response Here]
Read (together or ask a volunteer) Psalm 51:10–15.
10Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
6. Remember, King David wrote this psalm after he committed adultery, murder, and tried to cover it all up. Then he got caught, called out, and confronted! He was buried in guilt, shame, and disappointment. As you read this prayer of David, how do you see joy coming back into his life and hope being reborn?
[Your Response Here]
As joy came back, how did his life change for the better according to this psalm?
[Your Response Here]
7. Your deepest anxieties, worries, struggles, and sorrows are no secret to God. They are an open book before Him . . . and yet He still loves you and wants you to experience overflowing joy. Why is it so important for us to be aware that God knows everything about us and still offers us unending joy? How can we learn to embrace God’s joy with greater passion?
[Your Response Here]
8. What are some of the sounds that come to your mind when you think of joy? What are ways we can make a joyful sound? (Get creative here!)
[Your Response Here]
Read (together or ask a volunteer) 1 Peter 1:8–9.
8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
9. Being anchored in faith and knowing what we believe leads to deeper and more impactful joy. What are some of the things the Bible teaches that lead to growing joy?
[Your Response Here]
If we don’t believe these things, how can this decrease our joy?
[Your Response Here]
10. In 1 John 1:4, we learn that there are things we can do to make the joy of other people complete. When we have joy, it is not just for us. If joy is a fountain, let’s turn it on and share it with other people. Remember running in the sprinkler as a kid? Well, y’all, be a sprinkler of joy and let others run around you and feel God’s love. What are ways you can shower and sprinkle joy as you walk through this coming week? How can your group members pray for you and cheer you on as you become a shower of joy?
[Your Response Here]
PRAY
Spend time as a group or on your own talking with God about any of the following topics:
Pray for God to make you a fountain of joy and not an empty bucket that needs to be filled up over and over.
Pray for courage to be an ambassador of joy everywhere you go.
Ask God to bless the ministry of the book Laugh It Up! and this study Defiant Joy.
Thank God that He is the giver of joy.
JOY enables you to practice gratitude in the present.