Joy

Welcome

Opening Prayer

Light Advent Wreath

Psalm 51:12

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Worship song

Offering

Junior church

Joys and concerns

Worship song

Apostels creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth;

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And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and buried;

the third day he rose from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and sets at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

for he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

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I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic** church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Joy

As we enter into our third week of Advent we need to look back on why we are celebrating advent. We as Christians use this time in anticipation and to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of christ. This is a time spent on reflection, penance and Joyful expectation. This is when we focus on the birth of christ, and the anticipation of his second coming. We should spend this season to prepare our hearts for christ to come into our lives. When we light the advent candles it represents a visual and meaningful expression of our spiritual journey during this advent season. So we need to remember as we celibate this the third Sunday of Advent we need reflect on the Joy of this season. If we break Joy down it is a positive and intense emotion that create feelings of happiness, delight, and pleasure. It goes beyond short lived experience of pleasure. But is a deeper sense of fulfillment and commitment. Experiencing Joy often is a result of relationships, or meaningful moments in life guided by Jesus. We speak all the time about we can do nothing without Jesus. Joy is a huge emotion Jesus gives us in all we do. In the new testament The Apostle Paul wrights in

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

You see Joy is blessed by God, when we find true Joy and just not feel good feelings. It is truly blessed by God, when we give ourselves to Jesus he intern gives us Joy. Even in times of trouble, as is stated in

James 1:2-3

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

When we consider the benefit trials give us in the end we should feel Joy. When we give our life to christ we need to remind ourselves and each other.

Everything we go through is for the Glory of his kingdom. As Christians when we go through trials and temptations we forget the good it can result for the kingdom of God. We only see how it affects us at the time and forget, when we took up the cross of Jesus Christ he said there would be trouble come our way. When we come to worship this is the time we can experience true Joy through worship. in

Psalm 100:2

Worship the Lord with gladness; and come before him with joyful songs.

When we come to worship this psalm encourages us we are to worship joyfully. When we come to the lord with open hearts to listen to his message and to openly sing his praises, We open ourselves to Gods true joy intended for us. When we allow our hearts to be open to his love we can freely receive his joy. do we ever give our heart openly to anyone or anything and never feel pain?

NO. This is true with the lord but he tells us upfront if we give him our life, we will be hurt, but in the end the salvation will be so joyful the pain will be forgotten. Lets think about our children and grand kids they get our whole heart, but there are times we are hurt by them. Although when we experience the joy they give us we forget all about the pain we experienced. this is the same with God. In the book of John we are reminded in

John 15:11

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

So you see John reminds us our true Joy comes from the Lord. Once we experience the Joy of christ in our heart, only then can we know what true Joy feels like. As we look to the overflowing Joy in God we are told in Romans where this comes from

Romans 15:13

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.

When we feel Gods overflowing joy, the source of this is brought to us by the Holy Spirit. You see just another example of how God is so giving. he allows us to feel the all encompassing feeling of Joy, when we allow him into our hearts. When we experience Joy, it is the transforming power of Gods presence, and the ability to find joy in many different life circumstances. We need to remember true Joy is felt only when we allow God to work inside our heart to be able to feel the difference between Happiness and true Joy.

AMEN

Doxology (RNHC)

Final Worship

Benediction