Return to Joy
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Psalm 16:8–11 (NASB95)
8 I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. 10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. = Therefore my heart is glad
Last week we ask the Lord to restore our joy.
We talk about the gift of laughter and Joy, but we need to answer how exactly do we get there.
right relationship with God produces, Joy.
So, the question becomes if we are in wrong relationship, how do we get in right relationship?
the answer is repentance.
One of the most important and misinterpreted of the gospel messages is the message of repentance. Mankind has made many ways to come to God that excludes repentance and turning from his dead ways.
John Wesley wrote a hymn titled Turn, Why Will Ye Die?
The key here is to turn
To turn, to return, to turn back
15 For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing,
The life of a Christian MUST began with repentance and continue that way.
And if you Don't have a relationship with repentance you don’t have a relationship with God.
I used to say quite often repentance is one of my best friend that lead me always to Jesus.
I look at my life now and wonder do i still have that attitude.
when i first started preaching most of my messages were about turning to God and turning from sin
Repentance is an attitude that must be maintained.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
For God to perform his perfect work in a believer it is important that one has the attitude of brokenness before God.
In 1863 Abraham Lincoln made Proclamation 97 Appointing a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer.
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and
Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
Notice what he calls the day… Day of Humiliation.
Humiliate means, to reduce (someone) to a lower position in one's own eyes or others' eyes : to make (someone) ashamed or embarrassed.
We have lost this… when is the last time our sin did this to us.. when the last time it brought us to brokenness. when it reduced us…
i know there is not condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. but thats a person who has turn to God in repentance, who has confessed his fault
Then the idea of humiliation was connected to humbleness.
Lincoln said, confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon
how wise
Humility is born out of repentance.
One of the hardest things for a man to do is admit he is wrong.
Admit he is distant and in darkness
Repentance is accepting full responsibility for what one has done
or for what one is and admitting his failures.
Repentance brings one to the end of himself
Repentance prepares the heart to receive God’s grace and salvation. Without proper preparation, the Word will not find place to spring up like a seed, the ground must be prepared for the seed.
23 “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?
notice what David says in Psalms 16:11
Psalm 16:11 (NASB95)
11 You will make known to me the path of life
Distance from God produce darkness, devastation, depression.
Nearness to God produce, Joy, light, and life.
Lets look at
3 example of this in Luke 15
It starts out be saying
2 Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus receive sinners and eats with them
18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.
So Jesus starts to tell them three parables or stories, all about lost things. The first parable is the parable of the lost sheep.
Notice how all 3 end
The Lost Sheep
4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
there was one distant sheep
To many of us the parable may not make much sense.
Why would you risk losing 99 sheep just for one? Aren’t the other 99 more important than just one lost sheep?
Maybe we should ask isn’t the one sheep as important as the 99
7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
See, the other 99 sheep do not need finding because they are not lost. Jesus’ entire ministry was about the lost
10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Notice the joy of the shepherd when he has found his sheep he has sought to save. He puts the sheep on his shoulders and with rejoicing runs to his neighbor and tells all his friends that he has found the sheep that he has lost
That is the same thing He did when He found you, He gathers all of heaven and rejoices when you repent and each time you repent, Jesus finds you.
2. The lost coin
Luke 15:8–10 (NASB95)
8 “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 “When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ 10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Notice this woman has 10 silver coins. This points to the fact that this is all she has in her savings
Now a silver coin here is one drachma which is a Greek coin equivalent to the Roman denarius. Now one denarius is an average day's wages.
So 10 coins or 10 denarius to us is two weeks of work. Now let’s say in two weeks you make $2,000.
If you lost one day’s wage you would have lost $200. That’s a lot of money. No wonder she searched every where to find it. She got a lamp and looked under things.
She swept the whole house. Then she finds it. Notice her excitement, she tells everyone.
Again heaven has that same excitement because it has found something valuable, that’s you.
The last parable and most familiar to us is the parable of the lost son, better known to us as “The Parable of TheProdigal Son.”
3. The lost Son
The word prodigal means wasteful, so I guess we can also call this the Parable of the Wasteful Son.
notice verse 13
13 “And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living.
Not many days later, it doesn’t take long to get distance from God. He was in a far country.
He wasted everything.
All that his father had worked hard to earn for him was lost.
Now he is broke, lonely, lost, and now there is famine in the land, so he is hungry.
He was desperate and now this son became a servant to a Gentile.
His fellowship was with pigs and the Jewish people didn’t have pigs because they were seen as unclean.
So he found fellowship with them and would have eaten what the pigs ate.
Then something happened: he came to his senses and he realized something. If I was at my father’s house I would not be hungry.
11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
17 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 18 ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight;
We must come to our senses and realize that we must return to the place where our God is.
We must humble ourselves and find repentance and return to the God.
notice what happen when the son comes home
21 “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
