The Little Mermaid vs Joy
Blockbuster Summer Series • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Tell the background story of “The Little Mermaid”
Speak to the the thematic elements of the movie
Rebellion
Wandering
Lack of Contentment
Rebellion leads to: “happily ever after”
Overprotecting parents
Rebellious teenagers
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
Three Questions About Joy:
Three Questions About Joy:
What is Joy?
“the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires”
“a source or cause of delight”
Proverbs 10:28 (ESV)
28 The hope of the righteous brings joy...
I thought God’s purpose was to make me full of happiness and joy. It is, but it is happiness and joy from God’s standpoint, not from mine.
Oswald Chambers
2. Where is Joy found?
Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The presence of God on the throne of grace is an overflowing source of delight to the godly; and let them not fail to drink of the streams which are meant to make them glad.
Charles Spurgeon
3. Why is Joy greater?
Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The joy of Christ is an outflow of the relationship He draws us into.
We have, in this life, moments of fleeting happiness…but they are fleeting when we allow them to be so.
Joy is greater in that it is not a myth or a fairy-tale.
J.I. Packer says it this way:
Joy is not an accident of temperament or an unpredictable providence; joy is a matter of choice.
J. I. Packer
AS we choose what is greater we arrive at something greater…He is Greater.
Three Misguided Thoughts on Joy/Happily Ever After Conveyed by Hollywood:
Three Misguided Thoughts on Joy/Happily Ever After Conveyed by Hollywood:
Rebellion will lead to blessing:
Ariel rebels against her overbearing father. (He was extreme.)
The movie fails to recognize her father’s desire to protect.
Ariel’s disobedience brings her into becoming a Princess.
2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),
3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
2. The grass is greener on the other side.
Ariel looks to the human world as though her frustrations will pass with a change of location.
Ariel was already a daughter of the king…she was unwilling to be content in her blessing.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain,
3. Partnership with the “World” will work
out for our good.
Ariel partners with Ursula to gain her “legs” and maybe to get a chance at being human.
She risks everything for a chance utilizing the “power” of a witch.
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
Three Aspects of Joy The Church is Called To:
Three Aspects of Joy The Church is Called To:
A Gladness of Heart.
Psalm 67:4 (ESV)
4 Let the nations be glad...
We who have gone through the day of sadness, shall enjoy together that day of gladness.917
Richard Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest
2. Future focus.
Sin and hell are married unless repentance proclaims the divorce.
Charles Spurgeon
This life may have momentary displeasure, but this is just the beginning.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Our gladness is based in the recognition of the justice/equity that the Lord brings.
Psalm 67:4 (ESV)
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
We are not liberation theology followers.
We do not believe that Jesus came to set us free from the oppression of men on the earth nor the struggles of this life.
We recognize that day is yet to come.
3. A Proclaiming Spirit
Psalm 67:4 (ESV)
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
Sin and hell are married unless repentance proclaims the divorce.
Charles Spurgeon
We must recognize that the Lord has set us free from the old to dwell in the new.
Dwelling in the new is grounded in a realization the work being His and the blessing being ours.
Walking Away, But In...
Walking Away, But In...
Take joy in Christ.
Find Solace in His active work.
Recognize He has started and will finish.