The Joy of the Lord | God is My Source!

Our message this month is about the Joy of the Lord. When we talk about joy and happiness what things come to your mind? Maybe you think of Christmas or your birthday when you received some presents. When I was a boy what brought happiness to my life was being involved in the Boy Scouts because we did lots of hiking in the mountains of Georgia and camping out in the woods. Later when I was in high school my focus turned to doing well in school. My happiness came from doing well in math and science. Then when I started working at a job I was often happy when I could do my job well and get all many duties accomplished. Another occasion that brought me a lot of happiness was going out to lunch or dinner with my friends. Often we would go to a pizzeria. Then I would have a contest to see who could eat the most slices of pizza. I usually won. The most I ever ate was 10 slices of pizza.

Now, did you know that joy and happiness are not the same things? Happiness depends on our outward circumstances. If every thing is going well for you, then you are happy. So happiness comes from outside of us. But joy, joy comes from inside of us. Because joy does not depend on a person’s circumstance, a person can be joyful all the time.

But, you might ask, how is that possible? If is possible when we turn our lives over to God through Jesus Christ. It says in the Bible that, we should not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. You see, it is not our joy based on our own strength; it is God joy and God strength.

We often have many things to worry about:

Worried about things we do not have
Worried about the ways others have mistreated us
Worried about the future
Worried about friends
Worried about the things to eat
Worried or afraid of the dark
Worried of afraid of animals
Worried of loosing someone you care about
Worried about doing poorly in school
Worried about getting in trouble

We can be happy when we are worried. In those circumstances we often feel that some one or something is against us. But I have good news for you tonight. If God is for you, then who can be against you? What can anybody do to you if God is on your side?

How can you feel this way? Well, it is not accomplished through our feelings, but through our relationship with Jesus. The things that are happening to you may not look good. Yet God is not limited by what is happening to us. No, but what is happening to us can be changed by God.

Let me tell you something about God. First, he is all powerful. There is nothing too hard for him to do. Back before Jesus was born into the world, God sent his angel to speak to Jesus’ mother Mary and the angel told Mary that she would have a son who would become the Savior of Israel. Mary responded, “How can this be?” And the angel replied, “For everything spoken by God is possible.”

Though God is all powerful, yet he cares about us and our individual needs. I remember when I was a boy. Jesus told us that not one sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing about it. What Jesus meant was that God knows every little detail about our lives. One day when I was playing with some tiny toy cars. And I lost a wheel on one of the cars. I looked around where I was playing but I could not find the lost wheel. So I prayed and ask God to help me find the wheel. So I kept looking and I kept praying and after a little while, I found the missing wheel. Yes, no one is too small that God does not hear him and no request is unimportant to God. God has an incredible amount of love for each one of us. That is why he Bible says cast your care on God for he cares for us.

When we come in to God’s presence we experience joy. Why? Because God loves us and he enjoys spending time with us. Jesus said, Behold, I stand at the door of your heart and knock. If any one will open the door, Jesus will come in and fellowship with him. So if you want to have more joy in your life, start spending more time with God. Sings songs of praise to him, read his word and talk to him through prayer. Not only with you have more joy by doing these things, they can help you overcome difficulties.

I remember number of years ago I was out work and needed to find a job. So each day I would go out searching for a job. But before I left the house I would spend an hour singing and praising God. I was not going to go out and search on my own strength, I was going to let the joy of the Lord be my strength. And as I continued doing this for several weeks, soon I found a good job.

And there were other times in my life when I was defeated, discouraged and without strength to go on. Back in 1999 I left the U.S. and move to Belize in Central America to live. There I was involved in a church and worked hard to help it to grow. Yet, some people in the church found fault with me and put obstacles in the way of my ministry. Did I give up? No. Thought I felt discouraged I took time to praise and worship God. Psalms 126:5-6 tells us that, “Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, Will assuredly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.” What was the outcome of that disappointment in my life? God gave me a new and bigger ministry reached people all over the town that I was in.

Those of us who know Christ do not have to accept defeat in our lives. When our circumstances look bad, that is the time to start praising God. Why? Because God is all powerful, he cares for us and he responds to faith. Faith is expressing your confidence in God that he keeps his promises. Just like when your pastor makes you a promise, you know that he intends to keep it. God can certainly change our circumstances. The book of Acts in the Bible tells us about two missionaries Paul and Silas. They traveled to a town called Philippi to preach the good news about Jesus Christ, yet they got thrown into prison. Did they get discouraged and give up? No! At midnight they were praying and singing hymns to God. And what happen. There was an earth quake and all the doors of the prison were open and all the chains fell off, but no one tried to escape. The person in charge was so amazed that he gave his live to Jesus. And the next day Paul and Silas were set free.

Listen everyone; your lives can also be filled with the joy of the Lord. When we turn our lives over to him and make Jesus the Lord of our lives we no longer have to worry or fear about our futures. We have no reason to fear even when things are not going the way we want them to. Because God is the one who looks out for us and takes care of us we not longer have to be concerned only about our own self-interest. We are free then to help others who are in need. We are able to be a blessing to people. And this is what can really bring much joy to your life because Jesus has told us that it is more blessed to give and help out others than to always be the one receiving gifts or being helped.

I heard a story once of a man who had a dream. In the first part of his dream he visited hell. He was surprised to see there that a big banquet had been prepared. On the tables were all kinds of delicious food, meat, pastas, fruits, vegetables and deserts. Yet all the people there were unhappy and sad. They were hungry and miserable because that we not able to eat any of the food. Why was that? Because each person had a fork almost a meter long attached to one of his arms and a long spoon attached to the other arm. So they were not able to feed themselves. Then in the dream, the man visited heaven. There he found a great banquet had also been prepared. And the people there had same long forks and spoons attached to their arms too. But the people in heaven were different. They were happy and joyful and were enjoying all the food at the banquet. What was the difference? They were using those long forks and spoons on their arms to feed each other. They had joy because that they took care of the needs of others first, and then their needs were met.

So do any of you want more joy in your life today?

OK, here what you need to do:

First ask Jesus to come into your heart today. Jesus has been standing at the door of your heart knocking, asking you to let him in. Bow you head to him now and pray, Lord Jesus. I believe that you died for me, to take the punishment for my sin and that you rose from the dead. Please, come into my heart and give me your joy. I make you the Lord of my life. Amen.

Second, now that you received Jesus as savior and Lord. Now continue to follow him. Let him teach you through his word, the Bible, how to stay close to him, how to always do what is right and how to demonstrate his love. Then you will always have joy, fear will not have control of your life and God will always guide you and will always meet your needs. God is our father and he likes to take care of his children. So we can always have his joy in our lives. And his joy is our strength.