Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

The Advent season is about preparing our hearts and narrowing our focus on the first and second advent of Christ.

For centuries the church has done this by focusing on four major themes that run throughout Scripture: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

Today we’re going to study the third theme: JOY

Transition:I think you would all agree with me, happiness is a universal desire in the heart of every human being.

I think you would all agree with me, happiness is a universal desire in the heart of every human being.

What we’re up against:

God has hardwired each of us to experience joy.

It’s interesting to discover what brings people joy.

It would go against God’s created order to assume that it is more spiritual to live an ascetic lifestyle.

As if to say, the more stoic I can be about the here and now, the more celebratory I’ll be in the ever after.

When the Creator God stepped back from each day of Creation, what did he say?

“It is good.”

And we know that when he stepped back to review all of His work, He added to that, “It is very good.”

Wisdom - the attribute of God says it this way,

Proverbs 8:

Prov 8:

The Creator God found joy in His creation, His wisdom delighted in His Creation...

Transition: What makes you happy?

What do you celebrate over?

When was the last time you leapt for joy?

Companionship / sex / intimacy / romance (rejoice with the wife of your youth Proverbs 5)

Food and wine ()

Work

Nature

Pets

Weddings and parties

Children (heritage, joy of grandparents)

Good friends

Exercise

Transition: Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just always be happy?

Phil 3:

Culture and society advise that if we want happiness we have to cut out all the negativity in our lives

We take a good craving, and the good things that God has made and we turn them in to objects.

And we demand that those objects perform for us.

And if they don’t perform well enough for us, we replace those objects with other objects.

What’s worse is that we tend to do this not only with things, but with people.

To the point we dehumanize our closest relationships: marriage, friends, neighbors, kids...

Ultimately what we’re saying is, “Thing, I need you to do the impossible for me.

I need you to be the source of my joy and contentment.”

This is impossible because nothing that was created was intended to be the source of ultimate joy and satisfaction.

Did we not learn this by the actions of our first parents who had almost everything?

They had to have the forbidden fruit, which was really just about them having control to dictate what was good and evil, but the point is that even though they had fulfilling relationships, work, spiritual unity with their Creator, pets, nature, food… it wasn’t enough for them.

That deep seed of evil that we talked about last week that the Bible classifies as SIN, pervades all of humanity in all of life since that moment in history.

Transition: Well that’s just disappointing and confusing.

We’re told always rejoice, and we live with this longing for happiness, but due to SIN that pervades humanity, we’re all out of luck?

Yes.

And no.

As far as I know, not one person has taken that information and said, well since we can’t always be happy, there’s no use trying, I’m going to design my life to be miserable.

No, we’re human beings.

Something inside of us still tells us that we can experience lasting happiness.

And I’m not really here to debate other religions and their methods, or society and their methods…

But, you’ve probably all heard these cliches and maybe others:

Fake it till ya make it

Turn that frown upside down

Suck it up, buttercup

You’ve got to find the silverlining

Remember, there’s always someone out there who’s got it worse than you

Now, all of those at some point might be a little helpful, but you can’t build a worldview on any of those.

They’re a house of cards.

Transition: The Scriptures offer something hopeful, something altogether different.

The Scriptures offer “Joy in the Wilderness.”

Since our first parents experienced sorrow, whether it was the sorrow of being literally kicked out of their home, or the sorrow of the first failed crops, or the sorrow of holding their dead son who had just been murdered by their other son.

I don’t know who went first but Adam mourned the loss of Eve or vice versa, but sorrow doesn’t skip over people.

Sorrow and suffering are painful reminders that SIN is still a part of our world.

SIN reminds us that we’re not home yet.

Sorrow and suffering are painful reminders that SIN is still a part of our world.

SIN reminds us that we’re not home yet.

But through the sorrow and through the suffering, there is a glimmer of hope that prevents us from giving up and keeps us on the journey.

And that hope, when clung to with faith, produces joy even in the midst of the wilderness.

THE STORY

The Exodus Story contains so much beauty and hope

Beginning with the birth of a hero by the name of Moses

Moses was born at a perilous time in Israel’s history

The Pharoah of Egypt commissioned a genocide on the male babies of the Hebrew people

But God spared Moses through the water as his mother placed him in a basket that made it’s way to the Pharaoh’s own daughter who rescued Moses from the river and even hired his mother to nurse and care for the boy

Although Moses grew up in the Pharaoh’s palace, he never lost sight of who he really was

By the third chapter in the Exodus story, GOD has visited Moses and revealed his plan for Moses

He would use Moses to redeem God’s treasured possession

And while it took time as God judged the Egyptian people for their heinous crime against the Israelite people, finally the Pharaoh let God’s people go

As the Israelites begin their journey they are beginning to think the unthinkable was becoming possible

We know this story well - there they stood between two impossible situations (the Egyptian army on one side, and the Red Sea on the other)

God miraculously parts the waters and the people cross through on dry land

It wasn’t over yet, the Egyptians pursued them through the water, but God shut the water in on them, bringing final judgement on the Pharaoh and his army

The next part of the story isn’t told very often, nor is the significance explained

Exodus 15

Transition: I want to examine this song together with you.

It’s easy to skim and pass over some significant and meaningful pieces of the story...

Let’s observe:

What was their living situation?

Homeless

What was their financial situation?

Besides the things they borrowed from the Egyptians, they have no income to speak of

What was their resource situation?

They only had the clothes on their back, and the food in their pack

What would you call what this group of homeless, moneyless, supply-less community doing here in chapter 15? They’re celebrating, singing, dancing, joyfully worshiping?

I understand that God had just dramatically and miraculously saved their lives from impossible odds, and yes, I know that if we keep reading we will find them complaining because they don’t know where they’re going to get food and water.

Transition: But I think that we’re missing out on something if we don’t see that the joy that they were expressing wasn’t only because of the rescue they had experienced.

They had a forward focused joy.

A joy that came as a result of anticipating the promise which was to come.