Archives for May 2016

Everyone wants joy.

All of us, I think, want to live fulfilled lives.  But joy means different things to different people.  It can be pretty difficult to maintain a positive attitude when all hell breaks loose in your life.  Who do you know that is good at smiling while suffering?  It’s tough.

One person wrote, “Finding joy is a challenge for me. I’m not naturally an upbeat person; I’m more of a melancholy. When I talk about joy, I’m not doing so from the perspective of a generally peppy person who never has a bad day.  Joy is the settled assurance that since God is in control of all the details of my life, everything, eventually is going to be alright, so I make the choice to praise God in every situation.”

So what is joy?

Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure.  Everyone wants pleasure – pleasure makes me feel good. More deeply, everyone wants happiness – it makes my life brighter. Most deeply, everyone wants joy.

Generally speaking, Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and emotions.   While Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self.  The way to pleasure is indulgence.  Your body craves the pleasure of good food, human touch, hugs, kisses and the warmth of a fire.  The way to happiness is lightheartedness. Your mind and emotions desire the laughter of friendship and the fun of good times.  But your spirit, the deepest well of the human, craves the presence, and the light of the joyous Holy Spirit.  The way to joy is the Holy Spirit.

Pleasure and happiness are not necessarily bad, but they are often a substitute for spiritual joy.  Thomas Aquinas once said that, “No one can live without joy. That is why one deprived of spiritual joy indulges in personal sensual pleasures.”  People substitute other stuff for the joy of the Lord.  If Jesus does not consume your life, something else will!  We must choose Joy: Because neither happiness nor pleasure is ever enough.

Again let me ask, “What is joy?”

There are three words we need to discuss in order to understand Joy.  The first is the word “joy” itself.  In the Greek New Testament Joy is χαρά (chara).  The second word is Grace.  In the Greek it is xáris (charis) (they are cognate words meaning that linguistically they come from the same original root word), meaning “good will;”  Because God is favorably disposed toward us he offers us grace.  The third word is Gift.  In the Greek it is χάρισμα (charisma), meaning “a gift, or favor.”

Let me see if I can put it all together for you.  The origin of joy is the Grace of God, which he offers as a gift… because of Jesus Christ, God looks favorably upon us and grants us the Gift of grace and the Holy Spirit.  When we experience God’s Grace and receive God’s Gift, God enables us to experience joy in the deepest recesses of our soul!  Joy comes as a gift directly from the Grace of God.

So how do you get the gift of joy?  You must surrender your soul to the Holy Spirit.  You should try it.  Millions of people for thousands of years have tried the experiment, and not one of them has ever been cheated.  All who seek, find—this is not just a promise about the next life, to be believed by faith, but a promise about this life, to be proved by experience.

In the very act of self-surrender to God there is joy.  We’ve all known people who are cold, suspicious, mistrusting, unable to let go. These people are miserable, wretched. They can’t find joy because they can’t trust.  You need faith to receive the gift of God’s grace, in order to find joy.

Here’s why we smile while suffering: We smile because we have received God’s gift of grace and we are bound for glory!  That is why

We Dance, Even in Our Trials!  1 Peter 1:6

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials”

I want to introduce you to another Greek word.  .  The first is the word was “joy” χαρά (chara).  The second word was Grace;  xáris (charis).  The third word was Gift; χάρισμα (charisma).  But the fourth word is what this message is all about.  The fourth word is Rejoice.  In the Greek it is xaírō (chairo), meaning “to be glad and rejoice.”

But, if you’ll notice in verse six, we don’t just rejoice, we “greatly” rejoice.  When I say “greatly,” I’m talking about a rejoicing that is walking and leaping and praising God!  In the original language, greatly means “leaping, springing up, bubbling up!”  I don’t mean to go all Pentecostal on you, but I think I see the Apostle Peter dancing in the isle!  It’s a jubilation!  The Spirit of the Lord has got a hold of Peter!

1 Thess. 5:16 commands us to “Rejoice always.”  Joy is the inner glow in our spirit, while rejoicing is the outer expression of Joy.  Abiding joy in the Lord should be the aim of every Christian.

Philippians 4:4 commands us to “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”  This is a commandment, repeated twice for emphasis, so that we will not shrug it off. It is a command that we must deliberately choose to obey, especially when we’re in difficult circumstances. It has to do with our attitude which depends on submission to the Holy Spirit. The choice to rejoice often goes deliberately against how we feel. When we go through trials, we are faced with a decision: Will we obey this command to rejoice in the Lord or will we allow ourselves to be swept along by our feelings?

Let me give you three pointers for smiling while suffering and rejoicing in trials.

#1.  Remind yourself that your trials won’t last much longer.  In verse 6, Peter phrases it this way.  Dance with me, rejoice greatly, because trials are only “for a little while.”  Just remember, this won’t last forever.  This too shall pass.  Trust in Jesus and wait it out.  There is hope for tomorrow, because on our tomorrow, Jesus is coming again.

#2.  Remind yourself that trials are God’s tools to meet your needs.  That little phrase in verse six, “if need be,”  indicates that there are special times when God knows that we need to go through trials. Sometimes trials discipline us when we have disobeyed God’s will (Ps. 119:67). At other times, trials prepare us for spiritual growth, or even help to prevent us from sinning (2 Cor. 12:1—9). We do not always know the need being met, but we can trust God to know and to do what is best.  Therefore we dance with Jesus, through trials.

#3.  Remind yourself that it’s OK to weep and still rejoice.  Peter was not unrealistic about how difficult our trials may be.  In our verse, he calls them “grievous trials.”  The word means “to experience grief or pain.  It’s interesting that the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is, “Rejoice always” (1 Thess. 5:16). The shortest verse in the English New Testament is, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). They are not contradictory! Our Savior could weep and yet have the fullness of joy, even as He faced the cross (John 15:11).

We would misapply Peter’s words if we took him to mean that a Christian should never feel sadness or grief.  To rejoice in the Lord does not mean that we deny our feelings or that we stoically endure our trials by ignoring how much we hurt.  To deny that our trials are painful is to make them even worse. Christians must accept the fact that there are difficult experiences in life and not put on a brave front just to appear “more spiritual.”

Here is something you may, or may not know.  Rejoicing is a spiritual weapon to fight off attacks on our mind.  It’s like anti-venom from a poisonous snake bite.  Rejoicing is not about trying to pretend you’re not in pain.  It’s believing that when you do rejoice … the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will visit you when it would not otherwise.

We Dance Because We are Growing Deeper 1 Peter 1:7

“that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ”

Nobody knows all that is in store for us in heaven, but this we do know: Life today is a school in which God trains us for our future ministry in eternity. This explains the presence of trials in our lives. Do you want to know why you should dance for joy when trials come?

Trials test us.  Trials test the genuineness of our faith.  Do you want to know who the real Christians are?  They are the ones hanging tenaciously to their faith when trials come.  Too many professing Christians have a “false faith,” and this will be revealed in the trials of life. I’m not saying you won’t doubt or struggle, or even question God.  But once you walk through the fiery trial and make it out the other side, you can say, “hey!  I just learned something about myself!  My faith is genuine!”

Testing is precious.   Our tested faith is much more precious than gold.  Peter illustrated this truth by referring to the goldsmith. No goldsmith would deliberately waste the precious ore. He would put it into the smelting furnace long enough to remove the cheap impurities; then he would pour it out and make a beautiful article of value.  That’s why testing is precious because of God is making something precious of us.

Testing is glory.  When we pass the test; when we see Jesus face to face; then our faith will receive praise, honor, and glory.  Our trying experiences today are preparing us for glory tomorrow.  While we may not be able to rejoice as we look at our trials today, we can rejoice as we look ahead.

We dance because we are born for glory, kept for glory, and being prepared for glory.

We Dance Because We are Going for Glory!  1 Peter 1:8-9

“Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,  9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.”

We don’t have to see it to believe it!  I love the way Peter wrote this verse.  I’m pretty sure he had doubting Thomas in mind when he wrote it.  Our love for Christ is not based on physical sight, because we have not seen Him. It is based on our spiritual relationship with Him and what the Word has taught us about Him.

Some people cannot believe in a God that they cannot see.  But it turns out that our ability to grasp abstract ideas like an invisible God and the power of invisible faith, are marks which only the highest functioning hearts and minds possess.  It also turns out that our ability to maintain a love connection with a God we cannot see is also a mark which only the deepest hearts and minds possess.  We don’t have to see it to believe it.

So here is what happens to average, everyday folk when they believe in a God they cannot see, and love a Jesus whom they have never met… Their hearts are filled with an unexplainable joy!

We don’t have to see it to rejoice in it!  Read verse 8 again, and you’ll see Peter dancing in the aisles!  “yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”  Let me tell you about the kind of Joy that Jesus gives.  It is Joy inexpressible.  It is so powerful that we can’t even explain it!  We are dumfounded by it.  But there is more!  Our rejoicing is full of glory!  This is a superlative word which means incredibly glorious, filled with splendor; It is a word which describes incredible happiness like praising Jesus, extolling God, celebrating the Holy Spirit.  This joy is the most potent antidote to depression, the most amazing supplement to health, and the most incredible ride of a lifetime!  You have got to get some of this.  It turns out, there’s enough to go around for all of us!

Though we don’t see it now, we will get it in glory!  One of these days soon we are going to experience the end of our faith.  We are going to see Jesus face to face, and the joy that we experience then will make the trials in this life pale in comparison.  There is nothing like seeing Jesus!

To rejoice in the Lord always is an attitude of contentment and hope that transcends circumstances.   The joy Paul is exhorting us to is decidedly not the kind of joy the world offers.

Some days, it’s easy to smile. You wake up to the sounds of birds chirping, with the warm glow of the morning sun cradling your face. You take several deep, cleansing breaths standing beneath a perfectly cascading shower, just before drawing a smiley face on the steamed-up glass with your index finger.

You pick up a perfect cup of coffee, just the way you like it. You hit every traffic light. You sing to your favorite tunes. And you arrive at work refreshed, excited, and anxious to create and collaborate.

But not every day starts this way. Sometimes you wake up to chaos, in your head or in the world around you. You hit snags, and bumps, and roadblocks at every turn. You try too hard, or don’t try enough, and things fall apart, or things fall short.

You struggle, you fight yourself and other people, and you find yourself wishing you could stop the world so you could get off for a while.

But there is an alternative. When things go wrong, you can fall down or look up. You can shut down or wake up. You can accept that the days won’t always look bright, but commit to finding something worth smiling about. Not sure what that might be? No worries, I have a few ideas….

Today I am going to share with you why we smile. You see, when you have Christ, you have hope, and that makes it possible to smile even while suffering. And today we are going to talk about 1 very important reason we have to smile.

But first, let’s have some fun. I want you dig down deep into your happy place and tell me in a word or two, what makes you smile: (give time for interaction)

Did you know that smiling is good for you?

Did you know that your face has 44 muscles in it that allow you make more than 5,000 different types of expressions, many of which are smiles. But smiling happens without much thought. Like when you watch a friend do something silly or embarrassing. Or when a police officer lets you off without a ticket. But did you know that smiling triggers important and healthful activity in your brain? Yep, there’s a serious mind-body connection there.

Let me give you seven reasons why smiling is good for you![i]

1. Smiling can make you happy (even when you’re not). It turns out that the simple act of smiling sends a message to your brain that you’re happy. And when you’re happy, your body pumps out all kinds of feel-good endorphins. So the next time you feel sad or upset, try smiling. It just might make your body—and therefore you—feel better.
2. Smiling can make others happy. “When you’re smilin’, the whole world smiles with you.” Research shows that smiling is contagious. Studies show that something as simple as seeing a friend smile can activate the muscles in your face to make that same expression, without you even being aware that you are doing it. Crazy, right?
3. Smiling makes you more attractive.   Ever wonder why we always smile in photos? Because people usually look their best—when smiling.
4. Smiling can help you de-stress. Smiling helps reduce symptoms associated with anxiety. When that smile signals to your brain that you’re feeling happy (even though you’re not really feeling happy…yet), your body will usually slow its breathing and heart rate. Smiling can lower blood pressure, improve digestion and regulate blood sugar. smiling can do wonders!
5. Smiling can help your heath. Some have enen suggested that you should laugh yourself well. This concept was popularized most spectacularly by Norman Cousins who became very ill with a collagen disease in the mid-1960s. Even though he was in constant pain and felt like crying all the time, he embarked on an experiment using laughter to stimulate his healing. He found movies, jokes, and stories that were funny, hilarious, and just plain silly. The more he laughed, the less pain he felt. He used joy to activate his immune system and endocrine system into proper functioning.[ii]
6. Smiling can help you land a job. If you’re about to go on a job interview, you may think that your appearance is just about wearing nice clothes. Wrong! you have to wear a smile. In a study published in the December 2009 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, interviewers think people who smile are more likeable, confident, conscientious and stable.
7. Smiling can lead to laughter. Have you ever laughed without smiling? It’s pretty impossible to do. Numerous studies have been done on the health benefits of laughing, including how it acts like a mini workout that burns calories and works the abs. Laughter also helps blood flow, lowers blood sugar levels, reduces stress and improves sleep. It may also raise the level of infection-fighting antibodies in the body, which helps boost your immune system. So the moral of this story is smile—and laugh—often!

Smiling just feels good. Go ahead, smile now. Doesn’t it Make you feel happy to be alive? It sure does beat the heck out of a frown.

So the next time you’re feeling down or out of sorts, try a smile. If you can’t find a reason to smile I’m going to give you one today. Here it is; We smile because we are born for glory!

When we were born the first time we were not born for glory! But verse 2 tells us that as sad as we were, God was smiling, because He had a plan for us:

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.+ 1 Peter 1:3

Here is God’s plan of salvation for lost sinners. – We were chosen by the father, purchased by the son and set apart by the Spirit. As far as God the Father is concerned, I was saved when He chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world. As far as the Son is concerned, I was saved when He died for me on the cross. But as far as the Spirit is concerned, I was saved one summer day in August 1962 when I heard the gospel and received Christ.

Here is how to get a smile to spread across your face: Thank the Father that He chose you. That is election. Election and foreknowledge means more than just knowing or planning in advance, in the Bible it’s all about God setting his love on us! Deuteronomy 7:6-8 opines:

“The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you.”

Your smile should spread when you thank the Son for dying for you. He shed his blood to give you grace and peace.

And the smile should keep spreading when you thank the Spirit for sanctifying you! Now the word “sanctification” doesn’t mean anything to most of us, but it should. It comes from a Greek word which mean “to make holy.” We should smile because the Spirit is bound and determined to make us just like Jesus!

But we are just getting warmed up. You see it is because of the work of the Trinity that we are so blessed that we smile! The work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit makes verse 3 possible!

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We smile because we are Blessed!

There are three blessings that I see in these verses: Let me list them so you can smile with me:

Blessing #1! We smile because we have a living hope. 3.

Blessing #2! We smile because we have an incorruptible inheritance. 4.

Blessing #3! We smile because we are kept safe by the power of God. 5.

Are you smiling yet?

We smile because we have a living hope! 3

The first reason we can rejoice is because we have a “living hope.” It is not simply a “hope so,” but it is as alive as the resurrected Jesus! Believers in Jesus Christ have been “born again” to a living hope because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. When we realize that the ultimate destination on this long, difficult journey is eternity in heaven, it makes the potholes and breakdowns in life worth bearing.

To the unsaved, hope is nothing more than wishing upon a star. But our hope is alive because Jesus is alive! We smile because our hope is alive!

We smile because we have an incorruptible inheritance! 4

The second reason we can rejoice in suffering is that we have an incorruptible inheritance that does not fade away, which is reserved in heaven for us.

It is totally unlike any earthly inheritance! Have you ever had the privilege of traveling? Have any of you, on any of those trips showed up a little late and found that your guaranteed room reservation had been given away? You show up at 9:30 at night exhausted from a long day of travel, give the guy your name and credit card, and wait while he does some voodoo on his computer, then stares through you like you’re a ghost. If your name isn’t on their little screen, you don’t exist! You then give him your confirmation number, but it does no good. In the end you wind up in a flophouse two blocks down with nothing but a halfhearted apology because somehow your reservation just vanished!

When you make reservations to the greatest place in the universe, that is not what happens! They are guaranteed! They are incorruptible – that means that your name will always be legible in the book of life. They are undefiled. In other words, the vacation booking in heaven is better than described. It will exceed your expectations. It is a permanent reservation.

We smile because we are kept safe by the power of God! 5

The third reason to rejoice in suffering is that we “are protected by the power of God.” No matter how acute the persecution, you and I will never be lost in the process. God’s hand of comfort and strength will remain with us. No matter the calamity, no matter the cause of death, the depth of pain, the horror of catastrophe—God is in control. And He is all-powerful, all good, and all knowing.

And here is something that should make you smile. Your salvation is not up to you. If it was, you’d have lost it long ago. Your salvation is up to God. The joyful promise is this; that your salvation is kept secure by God’s power. What did Jesus say about that?

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” John 10:27-29

No one can tell us all the reasons we go through such hard times. Nobody can explain it to our complete satisfaction. But because we know the kind of God we have, we can accept the mystery of suffering and know for sure that God will protect us by His power from now throughout eternity.

So smile, because you have the greatest reasons in the universe to rejoice.

Now, I can think of some crazy ways to make you smile.

Pop in a funny DVD, read the Sunday comics, buy a hula hoop and act like a kid, Bake something that has a silly face on it, Blast your favorite music and dance around with absolutely no regard for rhythm or appearance, go to your favorite spot, whether it’s a beach, bike trail, or mall, Tell someone how much they mean to you, Create a gratitude list for the day…

Heck, you may be able to even read the word smile and feel better. According to research published in Psychological Science, simply reading certain words may even make you feel better.

But, as good as those are, I don’t just want to give you temporary, fading, short term reasons to smile; I want to give you lasting permanent joy. Here’s why we Christians really smile: We smile because we have a living hope. We smile because we have an incorruptible inheritance. We smile because we are kept safe by the power of God.

Smile on that!

[i] http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp?id=1529

[ii] http://www.theherbsplace.com/content/364-ahmlaugh