Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Story of Adoption

I once heard the story of young boy who was adopted from a village in Africa.

The family worked for several years to adopt their son.

Once they did, they brought him into their home with joy and exuberance.

They gave him a bed.

They gave him meals and fed him well.

They even bought him marvelous toys.

In spite of all of this, something was amiss.

The family began to notice a pattern of behavior within the young boy.

Every night when they would tuck him into bed.

But then every morning, they would awake to find him laying on a dirt pile behind their house.

They would find that in the night the child would sneak out his bed and hide food from the fridge.

Confused and bewildered they couldn’t figure out his issues.

The family came to find out that often times when an adopted child is brought to their new home, they would revert back to their old behavior.

Brothers and sisters, we are no different than this child.

C.S. Lewis said...

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

The Bible says that we have been adopted into the family of God.

It says that we have been made “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”

It says that we are “no longer strangers and aliens”

But when we consider the course of our lives, we see that we so often live as strangers and aliens.

Most simply: the sin in the garden is repeated over and over.

It is asking the question, “Did God really say?”

Or asking, “Is God really good?

And temptation is simply placing before us the question if God really has our best interest in mind.

My concern for you and I today is to impress upon you the same thing that John did to his hearers.

What kind of fellowship do we have?

Is it a dull and boring fellowship?

Joy: The Product of the Fellowship

My concern for us here today is to press in upon us that there is really more joy in fellowship with God than anything else.

That there is more joy in fellowship with God than anything else!

That there is more joy in obeying God and walking with Him than anything else possible.

Now it should probably be mentioned that there is a textual variant in verse four, and if you want to hear a better explanation of that you can go back to the last time Colten Kisner was here.

He gave a great reasoning for the difference in the translations, but I am arguing that they are essentially the same meaning.

Joy: The Product of the Fellowship

Its helpful to begin by defining the word joy.

In a number of languages ‘joy’ is expressed with phrases like ‘my heart is dancing’ or ‘my heart shouts because I am happy.’

MLJ made the distinction between happiness and joy.

He says that happiness is the feeling of a child playing with a toy,

but joy is the overwhelming feeling the child has when they get a new toy.

If I were to ask you, what makes Christ happy?

What would you say?

This is not a trick question, and I suppose there are many answers we could give to it.

We as Christian know that Christ is pleased when we obey and follow him.

But we wonder, what does his heart do as we consider our weaknesses and failures?

Our initial gut reaction to Christ dealing with our weaknesses and failures are actually contrary to his actual reaction toward us.

We are apt to think that he, being so holy, is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them.

Basically what Thomas Goodwin is saying is that our gut reaction to Christ is consistently thinking he is scowling at us.

I heard someone once say in referring to his church, “You all will be saved, but it will be by the skin of your teeth.”

My fear is that we all often tend to think in these terms.

“Oh, yes, I know Jesus loves me, but I am one of those second class Christians.”

“Yeah, I have fellowship with God but he only really tolerates me.”

And that could NOT be any further from the truth.

His Joy is Our Joy

The truth is that Christ while remaining completely holy is also compassionate which invigorates Him to come near to us.

“Christ’s own joy, comfort, happiness, and glory are increased and enlarged by his showing grace and mercy, in pardoning, relieving, and comforting his members here on earth.”

What Goodwin is saying is that as we have fellowship with God, Christ’s joy actually increases.

Like the parent of the adopted child rejoices as the child comes to them for his needs.

Jesus is right now ascended to heaven and is indeed seated at the Father’s right hand.

His joy actually grows and increases as we come to Him for fresh healing.

Hebrews says that since we should be spurred on by the great cloud of witnesses that have went on before us.

We are now to turn our attention to Jesus in a special way.

A way that was different than the cloud of witnesses.

It was the joy of the glory of God in the salvation of the church unto Himself.

And Christ does not do this begrudgingly.

It was for this joy of obedience to His Father that He went to the cross.

In that moment on the cross, Jesus valued the salvation of His people above life, honor, and reputation.

What I want you to see is that TRUE HAPPINESS, TRUE JOY, is only found in fellowship with God.

He delights in interceding on behalf of sinners.

Another word which is worthy of our examination is the word, “Complete”

“Complete”

The word for complete means to be fulfilled or filled up to the brim.

John is saying that this whole message, the hearing, the seeing, the touching, and the proclaiming is for this end.

The end or the fulfillment of what John is proclaiming to us is the joy of being in fellowship with God.

What was broken in the garden has been reunited in Christ.

Namely our fellowship with God.

But brothers and sisters, when we experience the fellowship that John is describing.

We are bringing to completion this mission of God.

We are bringing to completion the reuniting of God with man in fellowship.

We should examine our hearts and ask if we experience this joy.

What gives you this kind of joy?

What gives you “a little kid opening a present on Christmas” kind of joy?

this is an invitation to me and you.

to examine our lives to find what we really find joy in, so that we may turn our affections upon Christ.

This is an invitation to find real true lasting joy.

There is only one kind of true happiness and it comes from fellowship with Christ!

What are some barriers to this joy filled fellowship?

Now we defined joy, but what is meant by “our joy”

Rightly Defining “Our Joy”

One barrier for us to experience the joy of our fellowship with God is actually ourselves.

We are actually the ones who get in the way.

The war we fight is against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

We begin to expect certain things from God which he never promised we would have.

Let me give you an example

The lie of feminism.

I see this lie actually manifested in both men and women.

"We should be the same.”

(Women) “I should be able to do it all.”