Sermon Tone Analysis

Scriputure

So what is JOY?

Joy is a topic that is mentioned in the Bible over 650 times (it talks about joy, rejoice, rejoicing, glad, gladness, and delight).

So some of you might say, “Joy is not an important topic.

You should be preaching about faith or prayer or Bible study, because those are important topics.”

But to me, when the Bible talks about a certain topic over 650 times, that tells me it’s a pretty important topic.

Here’s just a sampling of 10 of those Scriptures, and what the Bible has to say about joy:

Psalm 5:11 - God wants us to rejoice, shout for joy, and be joyful in Him! Notice it says that God wants us to shout for joy, not whisper for joy.

Psalm 43:4 - the Psalmist calls God His “Exceeding Joy.”

Some of you might say, “Well, I don’t need all that joy stuff, brother, I’m just serving Jesus.”

Well let me tell you something about this God you’re serving.

He IS exceeding joy! That’s His name, and that’s His nature.

If you get around God, you’re going to get a little bit of joy in your life, whether you like it or not.

Job 8:21 - do you know what the book of Job is about?

It’s about a man who suffered and went through the trials and dark storms of life.

Do you know that in the book of Job, joy is mentioned five times?

It says that God will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.

In the book of Job!

Isaiah 9:3 - it says God’s people rejoice according to the joy of the harvest.

When we see people get saved and give their lives to Jesus, that’s joy!

Isaiah 12:3 - the prophet says to draw out water from the wells of salvation with joy.

What’s he saying here about the wells of salvation?

When you get saved, when you give your life to Jesus, you should be experiencing joy.

It’s fun being saved!

There is joy in Jesus.

Matt.

25:21 - For those of you who say, “I don’t need all that joy stuff,” guess what?

Heaven is called “the joy of the Lord.”

When we stand before King Jesus on the day that we enter eternity, He will say, “Enter into the joy of the Lord.”

So you better get used to joy down here on the earth, because there’s going to be a whole lot of it in heaven.

Luke 2:10 - in the familiar Christmas story, the angels appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of the Saviour Jesus as good tidings of great joy.

They said, “This is good news and great joy!”

Acts 13:52 - the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

Rom.

14:17 - the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom of God is about joy.

Gal.

5:22 - joy is the fruit of the Spirit.

There’s a story about a little boy who used to escape his bedroom after being punished.

He would crawl out of his bedroom window down an old fruit tree to the ground.

One day, his father told him that he was going to chop down the fruit tree, because it hadn’t borne any fruit for a number of years.

That evening, the boy and his friend bought a bushel of apples, and during the night, tied those apples on the barren branches.

The next morning, the man could not believe his eyes.

He said to his wife, "Honey, I can’t believe it!

That old tree hasn’t yielded any fruit for years, and now it’s covered with apples.

And, the most amazing thing is that it’s a pear tree!"

You see, joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life, and you can’t fake it!

You know if you have the joy or not.

When you have the apples hanging on the pear tree – that’s not real fruit!

We can pretend all we want, but God doesn’t want us to pretend.

I’m not talking about putting on a mask and pretending that we’re all right when we’re not.

I’m saying if we realize today that we don’t have the joy that God intends for us to have, then let’s find out where we can get it, and go get it, amen?

Let’s take a look at what God’s Word has to say about this topic of JOY:

The three things we’re going to look at here are: (1) Pick the pathway of life,

(2) Pursue the presence of joy, and

(3) Participate in rivers of pleasure!

WHAT IS JOY?

The Old Testament word for joy speaks of gladness, dancing, leaping or spinning around in pleasure/intense motion.

So it’s not just a deep feeling of joy deep down on the inside – it’s going to come out!

But some of you would say, “Well, that’s a little bit too radical for me, brother.

Leaping?

Twirling?

That’s not very dignified!”

That’s the idea!

Who said anything about joy being dignified?

Now what is joy?

Joy in the New Testament speaks of a celebration.

See, what the world offers to us in sin is a counterfeit.

It’s true that the Bible says sin is pleasurable for a season, but it is always with consequences.

Because sin will always take you further than you want to go, it’ll keep you longer than you want to stay, and charge you more than you want to pay.

It asks for very little in the beginning, but in the end it’ll bring about your destruction.

The wages of sin is death!

So don’t settle for the devil’s counterfeit – pursue the real thing!

Some people would say, “Doesn’t the Bible talk about how we need to have times of mourning and sadness?

The Bible does talk about sorrow, and I know it’s in there somewhere!”

Well, here’s what the Bible says about sorrow: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

(Ps.

30:5).

So if you want to have sorrow, have it for a night, but in the morning, let’s have the joy!

The fullness of joy and rivers of pleasure that God intends for us to experience!

I’m not saying that life isn’t hard, that we don’t go through difficult times and seasons of loss.

But joy is different from happiness.

I’m not talking about happiness, because happiness is based on our circumstances.

We are happy when good things happen to us.

I get a new job – I’m happy!

I lose my job – I’m sad.

Young people – you get a boyfriend or a girlfriend – I’m happy!

They break up with you – I’m sad.

I get a new house – yes, I’m happy!

Then I have to start fixing it up a year later – I’m sad.

I get a new car – I’m happy.

I realize I have to make payments on that car – the happiness is gone.

Happy, sad, happy, sad.

It comes and goes!

But joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that does not depend on our circumstances.

It doesn’t matter how dark it gets, it doesn’t matter what negative things happen to us, if we have the joy of the Lord that doesn’t come from any outside source, but the presence of the Living God, nothing can take it away from you.

That’s the kind of joy we’re talking about here today!

How can we experience the joy of the Lord in our lives?

The three things this Scripture tells us we need to do.

(1) Pick the pathway of life, (2) Pursue the presence of joy, and (3) Participate in rivers of pleasure!

I. PICK THE PATHWAY OF LIFE: