Riverside Community Church
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As I studied this week on the One Another’s, I had an epiphany as it were. I realized and started to grasp that what we are lacking and needful of in our Christian walk is joy and gladness. Real soul joy and glad full hearts. This needs to change in all of us and in this church. We have to work on this deliberately. We’ve been missing or lacking joy in the journey and gladness in our souls. Let me read our main text today which is about speaking and singing to one another.
Ephesians 5:18b-19 (NIV)
18… but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,
Sounds like there should be gladness in church and joy should be our tone to one another. Yes, GLADNESS and JOY.
Philippians 4:4 (NIV)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! be joyful
Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 14:17 (NIV)
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
Romans 15:13 (NIV)
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
James 1:2 (NIV)
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
1 Peter 1:8 (NIV)
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
Jude 24-25 (NIV) DOXOLOGY
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Wow, God has great joy in us!!!!
Have we established that we are to be joyful and have gladness individually?
I think so, joy is to be a hallmark of Christians. Also Joy and gladness and joyfulness are to be also present in our worship, when we come together collectively.
Read from Psalm 100
Psalm 100: 1-2
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
I am not wanting to berate you, hassle you, critique you on your level of joy in your life, I want you to measure it yourself, your joy level. Then I would like to give you some ideas from the Bible to help increase your joyfulness and gladness.
So on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being perfect joy and 1 being no joy, assign yourself a number. Answer it before God. My answer before God is ____.
Let’s do something about our joy levels, that gladness of our hearts. Let’s address this and enjoy living joyful lives.
Some basic stuff first:
THE SOURCE OF JOY IS GOD
Romans 15:13 (NIV)
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so
THE UPSHOT OF GOD LIVING IN US AND FILLING US WITH HIS SPIRIT IS JOY
Romans 14:17 (NIV)
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
THE RESULT OF LIVING IN THE SPIRIT IS FRUIT, EVER GROWING FRUIT
Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy
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How can a Christian have joy, more joy, and gladness? Good question.
Remember we read Psalm 100, listen again carefully as I read verse 3 also:
Psalm 100
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God. -God is ours
It is he who made us, and we are his; -we are God’s
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
So if God is yours and you are God’s:
Then that difficulty you have God can solve, God is yours.
Then that burden you carry, God can ease, you are God’s own.
Then that fear that shadows you can be replaced, God is yours.
Then that worry that shackles you can be broken, you are God’s.
Then that affliction that encumbrance, that weight, that problem, that shortage, that need you have, know this for sure, God is yours and you are His.
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Take delight in this, take joy and make JOY your own for God is an ever present help and will never leave you or abandon you. This is truth believe it & be free!!
But why so much difficulty in our Christian walk to have joy, joy in our daily lives?
Let me continue in Psalm 100 because if we don’t do what Psalm 100 says then our joy leaves and we end up in a miserable life. Listen carefully, your joy depends on it:
Psalm 100
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
If you’re not thankful, you will not be able to shout for joy and have gladness possess your heart. Here is our problem with having joy, it’s not that we’re unthankful but we keep seeing and thinking and feeling those things we don’t have, the problems we have, that lack, the dissatisfaction that exists in our lives, the negative critiquing of others. Just plain un-thankfulness. This is what we look at and think about à what’s wrong, what shortage I have
What ‘want’ goes unfulfilled. The solution is to be thankful for what you have, and what God is doing in your life.
This is the will of God concerning you: that you be thankful in all things.
Practice daily the discipline of thankfulness and let joy grip your heart.
As you let joy grip you more and more bring that it to church with you and let joy infect all of us. Speak / Sing to one another. Be joyful by being thankful.
