Category: JOY - RSI

WALKING IN THE JOY OF THE LORD: PART 4

11/14/2019

I want to point out a few things we should do to generate (release God's) joy in our Christian lives.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 ESV (16) Rejoice always, (17) pray without ceasing, (18) give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (19) Do not quench the Spirit.

Let us note the FOUR elements found in this passage:

REJOICE ALWAYS:
The enemy of the demonic, the enemy of the world, and the enemy of our flesh will try to get us down. When our enemies try to discourage us and make us walk in sorrow, then REJOICE! To rejoice is not an act out of the emotion, otherwise we would only rejoice when things are going well. Rejoicing is an act of the will. We rejoice out of obedience, not out of emotion.

As we read and meditate on the Father's promises towards us we make the willful choice to be thankful and to rejoice. We should open our Bibles and read the passages of God's goodness and His promises. Choose to rejoice in God’s love and faithfulness. We should open our songbook or put on some spiritually up-lifting music and sing. Rejoice in God’s love and faithfulness and again I say rejoice. It is a choice and act of obedience.

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING:
Don’t forget to PRAY. Tell God what is going through your head and what you are feeling. He already knows anyway. Ask Him to bring you peace. Ask Him to put His arms of love around you. Ask Him to restore a spirit of joy in your life. Ask Him to restore the joy of HIS salvation.

Psalms 51:12 ESV Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS:
Count your blessings and THANK HIM for them. Remember how good He has been to you. When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings. A grateful heart is a happy heart. Count your blessings and thank Him for them. Know that the trials we walk in are meant to complete our faith and build steadfastness in us, therefore thank God through them all. Remember that what the enemy has purposed for evil and for your destruction, God has purposed for your good and maturity.

DON'T QUENCH THE SPIRIT:
To quench the Holy Spirit means not doing what He wants us to do. It is not doing the right thing in daily disciplines of the faith. It is not being faithful in small things. To grieve the Holy Spirit is the doing of that which we are not to be doing. It would be acts of rebellion against the will of God. So, be open to the leadership of God's Holy Spirit and have a heart ready to obey.

REMEMBER:
To REJOICE, to PRAY, to GIVE THANKS and don't quench the Spirit, because this is the will of GOD for you.

WALKING IN THE JOY OF THE LORD: (Part 3)

11/12/2019

The prophet Isaiah foresaw the ministry of our Redeemer. In Isaiah 61:1-3, that ministry is foretold as if through the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; (2) to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

In the sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus proclaimed,

Matthew 5:4 ESV "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

That is the essence of the Gospel - the good news - that if you mourn over your sins, Jesus will give you comfort and joy.

In Corinth, there was a brother who committed an act of immorality. The Church rightfully disciplined the erring brother and disfellowshipped him. That action of removing him from the church body caused the brother to realize how wicked his behavior was. He sorrowed over his sin. In 2 Corinthians 2:6-7,11, Paul instructs the congregation to accept back the repentant brother and comfort him before his sorrow became destructive:

2 Corinthians 2:6-7 ESV (6) For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, (7) so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

2 Corinthians 2:11 ESV so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

We are called to walk in the joy of the Lord. Sometimes when a Christian sins he/she needs to be removed from the fellowship for their good and for the good of the body. But the removal is not for condemnation but for restoration. Once they have repented then it is our job to seek to restore them back into fellowship and seek to help them to be restored in the JOY OF THE LORD. Those who mourn over their sin will be comforted.

WALKING IN THE JOY OF THE LORD: (Part 2)

11/8/2019

The strength we need to live a godly life does not come from excessive sorrow or despair, but from our joy in the Lord. Anyone can be unhappy and miserable. In fact, here is an oxymoron. It seems many believers are at their happiest point when they are sharing death and destruction and pain that has happened to someone. If this was not true the TV News channels would not report all the death and destruction, they would report all the good things that are happening in the world. Instead, they report 59 minutes of despair and leave the closing one minute for a feel good story. We need to walk in joy. We need good news. We need to be happy.

Despair does not promote growth.
Despair does not promote transformation.
Despair does not promote thanksgiving, praise, and worship.
Despair knows no victory over temptation and trial.

Joy is the fruit and power of the Holy Spirit that produces a successful, victorious, fruit-bearing Christian.

It has been my conviction that the reason why many of our brethren do not grow spiritually and do great works for the Lord is because they lack the spiritual fruit of the joy in their lives.

Paul says this about the Kingdom of God.

Romans 14:17 ESV For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Why then are so many members of the Lord’s Church lacking in peace and joy? Well, part of the problem may be that we lack pulpit preaching that focuses on generating peace and joy within our brethren. There is a lot of preaching about the end times in these days. Some from the "pre-tribulation" camp and some from the "post-tribulation" camp.

In both I have seen and heard a lot of "FEAR" messages in bringing forth their point-of-view. Whatever your "end-time" position we are not to be driven by the fear of these last days. We are not called by God to be survivors, but overcomers. We are not to fear the future, but we are to fear God. Life in our Lord Jesus Christ is not a life that is miserable, dry, negative, and defeated. Our life in Christ is filled with joy.

1 Peter 1:8 ESV Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

One of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is JOY which is also the character of God. I think that we need to examine our ministries and see how we might foster joy and peace in our membership. We have got to understand that "the joy of the Lord is the our strength" and "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me". If I really want to do the "all things" I need my Lord's strength. If I want His strength then I need to walk in His joy.

WALKING IN THE JOY OF THE LORD: (Part 1)

11/6/2019

The Christian's life should be characterized by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. One of the fruit listed in Gal.5:22 is the fruit of JOY.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

I have seen many unhappy believers not having the JOY of the Holy Spirit being manifested. The opposite of walking in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit is to walk in the fresh. Paul tells us to walk in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. One of the desires of the flesh is sorrow. Sorrow is an ungodly grief birthed mainly out of selfishness. However, there is a Godly sorrow. The ungodly, fleshly sorrow of the flesh leads to self-piety and can lead to depression. The Godly sorrow leads us to the Joy of the Lord as an end result. In our spiritual lives, a godly sorrow for our sins can be a wonderful thing. Paul speaks of its benefits in 2 Corinthians 7:10.

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

When we realize how we have fallen short of the righteousness and holiness of God, how we have offended Him, how we have rejected His will and rebelled against the One who is so loving and kind, it should generate remorse within our hearts. It should cause us grief, shame, and sorrow to sin against the Holy One of Israel.

Such sorrow is good if it brings us to repentance. It is beneficial if it causes us to humble ourselves, confess our sins, seek His gracious forgiveness, and motivate us to make the decision to change our ways. These steps lead us to the obtaining of salvation of the full man. God desires that we have this kind of sorrow and remorse. This kind of sorrow is essential in getting us to where we should be in a holy walk and lifestyle. We should feel about sin the way the Father feels about sin. When this happens and we repent, we experience the Joy of the Lord.

However, this is opposite of the ungodly fleshly sorrow, which is not from God nor is it the will of God. This sorrow is counter-productive. This is excessive sorrow or despair. Brothers and sisters, it is destructive when we continue to feel grief, guilt, shame and sorrow AFTER we have been convicted of our sins, AFTER we have confessed them to God, AFTER we have sought forgiveness and made the commitment to change. This means we are not trusting God and His Word about what He says about our lives in Christ. After confession and forgiveness, God wants to replace the grief and sorrow with holy gladness and joy.

DOING THE "ALL THINGS"

6/29/2019

SO, YOU WANT TO DO "ALL THINGS"?

That we might have joy (1 John 1:4):

This 1 John 1:4 verse is the only use of the word “joy” in John’s Epistles. However the blessing of joy is seen throughout his letter. Joy is a result of walking in a close place of fellowship or communion with our Lord. We as believers quote Philippians 4:13 often.

Philippians 4:13 ESV I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Sometimes we get the caboose before the train engine. We know that according to John in his Epistle that walking in communion or fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ brings about JOY.

We know that according to Nehemiah 8:10 that the JOY of the Lord is my STRENGTH.

Nehemiah 8:10 ESV Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

We know that fellowship brings about joy, and joy brings about strength, and according to Philippians 4:13 that I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Then I can reason that the “all things” must start with fellowship or communion with our Lord. Fellowship produces joy, joy produces strength, and strength produces all things.

BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS: (Part 10)

4/24/2019

Closing out the Introduction:

This is the final post introducing the Book of Philippians.

As we leave the introduction notes and begin with the Book of Philippians we are faced with a promise that contains a promise.

The promise is that suffering will come to believers. But in this promise is the promise of assurance that each suffering can be faced by faith with joy in the Holy Spirit. Let's look at the Scriptures on the promise within a promise.

Philippians 1:3-4 ESV I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, (4) always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

Philippians 2:16-17 ESV holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (17) Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Philippians 4:4 ESV Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Philippians 4:11-13 ESV Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (12) I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. (13) I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

JOY IN THE MIDST OF TROUBLE:

4/21/2019

BOMBINGS-DEATH-VIOLENCE. BUT JOY CAN BE FOUND IN CHRIST, EVEN IN MOURNING.

Even though we are to walk in a attitude of rejoicing we also need to remember that it is not a time to set back in a relaxed mode. This is the message I speak every day now.

The times we live in are perilous times. It is hard to turn on the news without some major event happening bringing death and destruction. There has only been one other time in the history of man that the world as a whole was like it is today, and that was in the days of Noah right before the flood. Our Lord that in the last days it would be as the days of Noah.

Genesis 6:5 ESV The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Psalms 14:2-5 ESV The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. (3) They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. (4) Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD? (5) There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

Matthew 24:37-39 ESV For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (38) For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, (39) and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

THE BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS: (Part 7)

4/12/2019

We are continuing with the introduction to the Book of Philippians as we see Paul's theme of joy and rejoicing established throughout the book.

In the example Paul set for us, his first and foremost reminder is for us to be followers of Christ. When we read about the fruit of the Spirit in Gal.5:22-23, sometimes we might miss what Paul was saying as He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to pen those words. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is actually the character of God. It is not just what God does, it is who God is.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

God loves us as an action, (not the feeling thing which we seem to dwell on so much). True Biblical agape love is more than what God has done or what He will do. True Biblical agape love is who God is. God is love. The same can be true with each one of the fruit of the Spirit.

1 John 4:8 ESV Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God exercises, releases and gives joy as an action, (not as a feeling). God is joy, it is His character. God exercises, releases and gives peace as an action, (not as a feeling). God is peace, it is His character. This is the example that Paul followed and walked in, and admonishes us to do the same as believers.

Imagine, having joy that is not controlled through emotional zeal. Imagine, being able to express joy out of obedience to the character of God (the fruit of the Spirit), no matter what our emotions are doing. No matter if our emotions are that of being happy or sad, hurt or accepted, loved or hated, we can bring the emotions under subjection to the Spirit, the Word, and the Character of God within us and have joy unspeakable and full of glory as an act of obedience.