Sermon Tone Analysis

The Joy of the Lord

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Introduction

You know the routine.

Relatives have come from afar and it is time for a family picnic.

Of course everyone wants pictures of the event and so the cameras come out and somebody takes charge and lines everybody up and then a few people begin to take turns with a whole tableful of cameras.

With each picture the command comes, “Everybody smile!” Mostly that works, but when you get back home and look at the pictures you have taken, you notice some people with “pasted on” smiles on their faces.

They just are not able to smile on command and it looks like it.

Have you ever felt that the command in Scripture which says, “Rejoice in the Lord” is like that?

Does it feel like you are being told to put on an act for the camera, or for the rest of the church?

You are supposed to have joy, but you don’t feel joy.

How can God tell us to rejoice, when there is so little reason sometimes to rejoice?

What is the joy of the Lord and how does it function in our lives?

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I.                   What Is The Joy Of The Lord?

!! A.                 The Joy of the Lord

This summer I have had the opportunity on numerous occasions to attend concerts at Assiniboine Park.

As some of you know, I really enjoy jazz and Winnipeg has some great jazz musicians who have performed at the Lyric.

When I have attended these concerts, on a beautiful summer evening, with people whose company I enjoy, listening to the beautiful sounds made by very skilled musicians, I am happy.

I can hardly keep my feet from moving.

I truly enjoy it.

Of course life can’t always be great concerts in the park.

When the Bible talks about the joy of the Lord, is it talking about the feeling and experience I have at the concerts in the park?

I think we all know that that is not what the joy of the Lord is.

When Philippians 4:16 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” we know that we do not always have those kind of feelings.

What then is the joy of the Lord?

As we look at Scripture we find some shocking things that are said about the joy of the Lord.

In 2 Corinthians 8:2, Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to fulfill their promise to take up a collection for the Jerusalem churches.

In order to encourage their generosity, he points to the generosity of the churches in Macedonia and he says a most unusual thing.

He says, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”

Please notice that these churches were experiencing “severe trial” and that they also lived in “extreme poverty.”

However, they still were filled with an “overflowing joy.”

They did not have the conditions of a concert in the park.

They had great difficulty but still had great joy.

How do you explain that?

What does that say about what joy is?

One of the most powerful verses about joy in the Bible is Habakkuk 3:17-18.

Habakkuk has just found out, by a revelation from God that his nation is going to be destroyed.

The book of Habakkuk begins with a question by the prophet.

He asks, “Why are your people so wicked and why do they seem to be getting away with it?”

God answers him by saying, “I am aware of the wickedness of my people and I am going to punish them by bringing an evil nation against them to destroy them.”

Habakkuk is shocked by this answer and wonders how God could allow a nation even more wicked than Israel to be the instrument of God’s punishment.

God answers him again and by the end of the book, Habakkuk has heard something from God that allows him to say, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

That also is not the joy of a concert in the park, yet it exists in the most difficult circumstances and is present in the worst possible conditions.

How do you explain that?

What does that say about what joy is?

What is joy?

Let me suggest a definition and then explain it out of Scripture.

Joy is: A peace filled confidence about life because of the character, acts and promises of God.

!! B.                 Reasons for Joy

This is not about feelings, but it is about a choice we must make each day.

Why can we make this choice?

!!! 1.                 Who God Is

A moment ago I mentioned that Habakkuk heard something from God so that he was able to “rejoice in the Lord” even in the midst of complete crop failure and an absolute disaster in the livestock industry.

What had he heard from God that allowed him to rejoice in those situations?

Habakkuk 3:19 is a partial answer to that question when he says, “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”

Also in Habakkuk 2:20, God had said, “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

What allows us to have a peace filled confidence about life is the character of God.

These verses tell us that He is “the sovereign Lord” and that “the Lord is in His holy temple.”

When you take swimming lessons one of the things they teach is how to throw a buoy to a person who is struggling in the water.

When I learned, I was taught to put my foot on one end of the rope then to gather up the rest of the rope and throw the buoy to the person and pull them in.

They very specifically told us that if we did not step on the rope, it could very likely happen that the rope would go out with the buoy and we would have no rope with which to pull the person back in.

Sometimes it feels like we are being tossed by the great waves of the sea and even if we might have a buoy to hold on to, no one has the other end of the rope and no one is able to help us.

These verses assure us that God has the end of the rope and will never let go.

When we examine Scripture, we have declaration after declaration and story after story that tells us of the character of God.

He is love, He is kind, He is holy, He is just, He is powerful, He is wise and the list goes on.

When we know these things about God, we have reason to be filled with joy at all times.

!!! 2.                 What God Has Done

If God is like that, then there should be all kinds of experiences of God actually acting on behalf of His people to help them, and indeed there are.

A second reason we can live in joy is because of all that God has done.

This idea is expressed in Psalm 28:7 where we read, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.

My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.”

This verse has an interesting order to it.

The foundational confidence of the Psalmist is in the character of God when he says, “The Lord is my strength and shield.”

The writer makes a decision about that truth, declaring “my heart trusts in him.”

As he trusts in God, he has an experience of God’s acts.

He says, “I am helped.”

Because he has thus experienced God’s help, he has joy and declares, “My heart leaps for joy.”

Joy is possible because he has experienced God’s gracious acts.

Isaiah also had a similar experience of God acting.

He writes in Isaiah 61:10, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

In this verse the writer explains why he is able to have joy in the Lord.

The reason is because of what God has done.

Using beautiful poetic language, he explains that God has given him salvation.

Which acts of God do you recall?

I think about how God never lets go.

Even when Adam and Eve sinned, God promised to restore His people.

Even when things got so bad that He had to destroy the world in the flood, God promised to restore His people.

Even when Noah and his descendents sinned, God still promised to save them.

When Israel rejected God, when the Pharisees rejected Jesus, God continued to work out His plan of salvation in order to redeem His people and forgive their sins and give them eternal life.

I rejoice in God because of these great acts.

We attended Faith Works on Thursday because our daughter was leading the worship in song.

She sang a song which is a song about her life.

It speaks about brokenness and emptiness, but also about how God guides and holds on in love.

When I heard that I was rejoicing at what God has done in her life!

I think about the times when He has restored my soul, when He has provided wisdom and direction, when he has shown a path through a difficult situation, when He has protected and provided in ways that were beyond the bare necessities.

As we meditate on the acts of God, we are encouraged and have reason to rejoice in Him.

The past acts of God assure us of His interest in us and give us reason to rejoice.

!!! 3.                 What God Promises

But joy also comes from the promises of God in which we can put our hope.

Isaiah 12:1-3 says, “In that day you will say: ‘I will praise you, O Lord.