Joy
Notes
Transcript
Joy
Joy
Now all or most of us has been to a sporting event and even if you haven’t been to one you probably seen one on TV. There is a lot of JOY or happiness when the home teams scores. Everyone in the whole arena or stadium jumps up with a loud roar of cheer especially if it at key moment in the game. Then the home fans are happy when the home team wins. There is joy and happiness in those things and we should have the same excitement and joy for God.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Rejoicing in all Good things
Rejoice During trials and Tribulations
We’ll rejoice in heaven
Rejoicing in all Good things
a. Rejoice in the Lord
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
As Christians we need to rejoice in the Lord because he has provided for all of us. I mean even the nature praise God.
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, and all it contains;
12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
9 You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;
You greatly enrich it;
The stream of God is full of water;
You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
You settle its ridges,
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.
11 You have crowned the year with Your bounty,
And Your paths drip with fatness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness drip,
And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.
13 The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, yes, they sing.
God provides for the earth and the earth rejoices how much more should we rejoice because God provides for us. God has provided us good health, through the good health we can work and we can make money and we can sustain our selves. Good provides the rain in turn it provides fruit but also grows food for the cows that we eat.
17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
God is so awesome and wonderful he deserves to be praised everyday continually like in it says in Philippians 4:4. Also, if we can’t rejoice God here on earth have can we in Heaven. In many ways we are preparing ourselves for heaven and in Revelation talks about how the living creatures give glory to God.
9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever,
10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
b. Rejoice in Christ
We can rejoice because God sent His only Son to be the savoir of the world and that He could be the ultimate example for us to live.
Now God and Jesus praised and rejoiced each other.
There are two times that I thought of were God gave praise to Jesus and God was happy
16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,
17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
1 Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.
2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
God was well-pleased with His Son.
Then in turn Jesus rejoiced in the Lord
21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
Now Jesus and God our examples and we need to praise them or rejoice in them as well and we can rejoice in Jesus by his birth
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
With out Jesus being born there could be no savior of the world. We can rejoice that Jesus was the perfect man and that he lived here on this earth to know all the struggles and temptations we go through, so we can draw close to Him and he can help us in time of need.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We can rejoice that Jesus forgives Sin
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
We can rejoice in the death of Jesus
16 “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”
17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?”
18 So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”
19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’?
20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.
21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.
22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
Without out Jesus dyeing on the Cross there would be no salvation for us. We should take great joy that Jesus died to take all our sins away. That we are no longer slaves of sin but slaves of God. That God through Christ loves us more than anything
We can rejoice because he lives
We can have great joy that Jesus conquered death he was victorious and defeated the devil so that we can have the joy of hope and know that he lives in us.
Think about a child awaiting Christmas morning. As the season of anticipation builds, each day that leads up to it sparks excitement and joy. Now, imagine the ultimate gift – Jesus' resurrection. When we reflect on His living presence in our lives, that same anticipation arises; a joy that no present can match. It’s as if every day holds the promise of Christmas because Jesus is alive and His joy is ever-renewing within us!
We can have Joy in Jesus because he comforts us.
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Through Jesus we should have Joy in him each day because he cares for us wants us to be close to Him. He is a great friend, and He loves us all and that's something we can take joy in.
C. Joy in People
We can have joy from other People
11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
People can bring us so much joy, Good people who are Christians know have to build each other up and encourage us. Its good to have friends that can make us laugh and have fun and enjoy the company of one another
Imagine walking into a room where people light up at the sight of you. You can feel that warm rush of joy; it’s like a common bond we share. This is the joy of community. When we see each other and are present in each other’s lives, we create a tapestry of relationships that not only enrich our lives but reflect God’s joy in us. Just as we light up for those we love, God lights up for each one of us.
We have Joy when one Person turns to God
10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
If there is joy in heaven when one sinner repents how much much joy should we have? Even the gentiles were excited when they learned salvation was for them.
18 When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”
As Christians there was much joy when we decided to be baptized and repent and turn to God and we felt relief knowing are sins were forgiven and we should have the same amount of joy for others who do the same. I recently had distant relative of mine get Baptized and Everyone on facebook but even person were joyful and praising God and were happy that someone made the decision to follow God and now be a brother in Christ.
Even in simple term there is sense of joy or hope when we have a visitor join us. In the congregations I’ve been in any time there is a visitor every one jumps up a greets that person with a smile. Even the ones who have left us we happy to see them come back.
D. The world is not all bad
Not everything on this earth is bad and we can take joy from it as well. Now a lot of things that I’m about to mention can lead to sinful things but in moderation they are good and we can find joy in sporting events, games, video games, eat out for dinner, watching a movie, going shopping, going for a drive, reading a book, spending time with others, marriage, and so on.
God wants us to be joyful people because those who always are sad or grumpy bring us down and we tend to have a negative impact. I think of other who have depression they try everything ( but come to Jesus ) to find joy or happiness and they go as far as taking pills to do so. We don’t want to be like those people we want genuine joy and we want to be joyful people because Christ said we are the light of the world.
I’ve been around negative people there tolerable for a little bit after awhile you catch on to there negativity or you become appalled by it that you separate yourself from them. Now, I will say that there is time to be more mellowed out and be straight forward but overall we need to be a joyful person. We need to be like Sojie mother and sister.
2. Rejoice in trial and Tribulations
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
This right here can be challenging because I don’t know about you but I don’t like when my life encounters trials. I get upset when my cars breakdown and I don’t have any money. But this is life and things break down and God might be using those things to challenge us. There are two types of people those who run from god when things get tough or the ones who draw closer to Him. A lot people when times get really difficult they draw closer to God, so what am I saying well God might be putting situations in life to have us draw closer to Him. Not only that but also from James it produces endurance so when we face the next trial we are ready and we can overcome it because we did the last time.
