Untitled Sermon

Joy Where does it come from

12/20/20

Joy

Joy to the World

Immanual, God with Us (My heart sings a btand new song, the debt is paid, my chains are gone…)

O Come O Come Immanual

Announcements – No bible study this week due to Christmas company; like Gateway Community Church on Facebook (we have 22 followers this week!, keep inviting friends)

Prayer

Good morning friends, today we are continuing in our four-week Christmas series: HOPE, JOY, PEACE, LOVE. Last week you remember we shared a message of HOPE, how redeeming, salvaging and restoring of something brings us hope. Hope for better days, new purpose, new life, new appreciation. Hope, it seems, would be the Segway into our next topic, JOY. If one has HOPE, JOY must be a by-product. After all, how can one have JOY in their minds if there is no HOPE in their hearts? I want to say that again: how can anyone have JOY in their minds if there is no HOPE in their hearts? Now, I don’t want to mislead you, Joy is not merely a condition of your mind, or a “good attitude” toward things. No, as we are going to explore today, JOY is not dependent upon our circumstances. JOY is not a condition of just our attitudes. JOY can’t even be turned on for a special season such as Christmas. JOY is rooted deep within our hearts, so deep in fact that it transcends our circumstances, our attitudes, and our mentality. JOY wells up from within us. And as we will learn, JOY wells up from HOPE.

So again, I ask, How can we have JOY if we are lacking in no HOPE?

This message is going to get personal for me this week. I want to admit, because of the gloomy days this week with little sunshine, and the ongoing national and world news, and a battle that continues to wage in my mind, I have not been especially joyful this week. I want to be. I know as a pastor preparing a message on JOY, I should be. But this week I have struggled to get there. So press on with me…because I HAVE found JOY in the truth of God’s Word.

The truth is, JOY and JOYFUL is referenced within the pages of God’s Holy Book 247 times!

JOY is that important to him. And JOY IS a condition of the Christian life that must be shared, as a light, with the world, because JOY is not of this world.

I. JOY in God’s Word

Turn in your bibles and read the Announcement given to mankind upon the arrival of the Messiah. Luke 2:10 says “But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great JOY that will be for all the people.”

In Isaiah 12:3, the prophet writes in his songs of praise, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” And in 12:6 again he sings, “Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” Emmanuel—God Among Us. Wow!

Friends, we just sang about that joy in our selected worship songs this morning. Joy to the World, the Lord has come.” “Rejoice, Rejoice, o Israel, to you shall come Emmanual shall come to thee, O Israel….from depths of hell Thy peole save, and give them victory over the grave….disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.” Emmanuel, God With Us, what JOY we can have!

II. JOY in our Hearts

a. Not always easy

b. Our circumstances (use Australian speaker…)

III. JOY shown in the World through us

a. How (dig the well deeper within our hearts through God’s Word)

b. Why (JOY is not of this world. It comes only through God and we must share and show it to a dark, depraived world)

IV. JOY is needed, for God’s Peace to be brought forth (Pre-lude to next week’s message of PEACE)

How are your circumstances this week? Are you bothered by what you see happening in this world? How do we do all this and cope with what we get to deal with in this world?

Is your happiness dependent on your circumstances surrounding you? If this is the case then let me help you with some understanding of the difference between Joy and Happiness.

Happiness is circumstantially based.

How do we find it? Where does Joy Come from?

Deuteronomy 16:14,15

14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.1

1 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 16:14–15). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Joy is not determined by circumstances its determined by God who can give this to us. God in his infinite wisdom offers us a chance to have joy in our lives and its not based on the circumstances surrounding us but the fact that he wants us to have joy in our lives in all circumstances. When we take our eye off of God is when we will begin to see the Joy taken away from us.

Lets examine for a minute the current state of our America.

If our hope as I spoke of last week is in a govt and our world around us how can we have true hope? I am of the same thinking with Joy. If we tend to try and find Joy from our current circumstances will we ever find true Joy? I don’t believe so.

Its been kind of a hard week for me this week. Gloomy weather, Death of a friends father from Covid, death of a friend who I am not sure was saved, the current state of the Election process and the current state of America. I could spend a time hashing this over in my mind many times and come to an understanding that all of these things while being real things that have happened or are happening can really become quite depressing. Focusing on all the negative situations surrounding us is enough to put us in a short depressing mood. I woke up Saturday in a funk and just wanted the sun to shine, our country to change back to the way it used to be and our lives back to normal before covid and all the craziness of this world. Is anyone on the same page with me? We are here to go thru this world but it is not our home or our hope and joy. Paul said in Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again: Rejoice. Gods call on us is to Rejoice in him. How do we do that with all this around us?

Let me introduce to you Nick Vujicic! Play Video

He is a man filled with Hope and Joy for life today but was not always that way. If anyone would have a reason not to be hopeful and without joy he does right. What did he say. Its about a choice and Faith. He says our hope is not in this world its int Jesus Christ.

How do we as humans get all this right? It has to be by our focus on the Father the one who longs for us to have joy in our lives because he lives in us. AMEN?

Romans 12:12 Kays life verse. Joyful in Hope Patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

James 1:2 Consider if pure Joy.

Finding joy in your trials. How is this possible?

i just found today one of my classmates Dad died this past weekend from Covid. Find Joy in This one!

I have another friend I heard died this week. He is the one who introduced me to Kay. I don’t know where he was in his relationship with Jesus. Find Joy in this one.

Joy in reconnecting with Old friends today.

Don and Laura Lebruska. Love always wins.

Joy in Laura’s heart to see Don improve so well.

Joy to see the joy of others when Hope is alive and well and

despair is far from it.

How has your Joy been affected by the things or circumstances you have experienced? If circumstances play a role in your joy then I ask is it really Joy?

Joy is found in my Bible 247 time in my sermon writing program. 605 times at Gotquestion.org

it must be a big thing to God because he calls us to Joy in Deuteronomy 16 in the festival of the tabernacle he calls for joy.

Deuteronomy 16:14,15

14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.1

1 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 16:14–15). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

And when God had armed the men and all of his people to turn Sauls kingdom over to David we see in Verse 40. there was Joy in Isreal.

40 Also, their neighbors from as far away as Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali came bringing food on donkeys, camels, mules and oxen. There were plentiful supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, olive oil, cattle and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.

1 The New International Version. (2011). (1 Ch 12:40). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The joy of Isreal willing to go to battle to install a new ruler, King David.. They were anxious to get King David on the throne.

Sual was a very hard ruler and did not want to let his leadership and rule go at any cost hence Joy was among all the people.

2 John 4 4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

1 The New International Version. (2011). (2 Jn 4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

John is over joyed that the children of the the lady chosen by God are walking in the truth. Why wouldn’t he be? Nobody wants to live in the lie right

and in Thessalonians 3:9 Timothy is encouraging the believers and thanking God for the joy they have in the presence of God.

1 Thessalonians 3:9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?1

These are just a few place of the many found in Gods word Joy being expressed thru believers in His word. Do you see a recurring theme among all the verses presented? PPAUSE Joy Happens because of God!!!

The prediction of Jesus Birth happens hundreds of years before hand in Isaiah 9

where god tells of His Son being born. Lets read.

6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 1

1 The New International Version. (2011). (Is 9:6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The Truth Revealed!!! This was hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

How can this be? GOD!!! He is the one who designs the best things. He took a baby born in a manger where there was no room for his own son at an inn and made him the light of the world to bring joy and good tidings.

The True Christmas Story Luke 2:8-21

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 1 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. 1

1 The New International Version. (2011). (Lk 2:16–21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

This is the true Christ story