I thank God for the privilege of posting the sermon today. Thank you for taking the time to read it.
Starting today, I will be delivering a series of messages on what I am calling Christian characteristics. These are qualities that are to be part of a believer's life as he or she grows in a relationship with Jesus. Today, we will start out by focusing on the characteristic of joy.
Joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we find listed in Galatians chapter 5. It is produced in our lives when we are growing in the Lord.
One thing that I need to emphasize right away is that joy and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness is based upon our circumstances. Often we are happy when we feel good and have what we want in life. We are sad when we have poor health or when something bad happens to us or to those we care about.
On the other hand, joy is given to the Christian by the Lord Jesus. Jesus tells us in John 16:22 that we have joy within us that this world cannot take away.
What is this joy? According to I Peter, we have joy that is unspeakable because we have been forgiven of our sins and redeemed by the sacrifical death of Jesus on the cross. We have joy because we have a relationship with God the Father through His Son the Lord Jesus. Because we are in Christ, we will dwell in His presence for all eternity.
I John puts it another way. We have joy because now we walk in the light of life. Jesus has taken us from the realm of darkness and made us citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
Now the question arises, how do we maintain our joy in the Lord even during difficult times? John 15 tells us the answer. We abide in the vine who is Christ. When we abide in Christ, His life flows in and through us filling us with the power of the Holy Spirit.
We abide in Christ by communicating with Him in prayer and meditation. We abide in Him by learning more about Him. We abide in Christ by imitating Jesus, and by doing what He would have us to do in this world.
One other way that we can maintain our joy in the Lord is by telling others about Him. When the disciples that Jesus sent out to minister returned to Him, Luke 10 tells us that they were filled with joy because they performed the Lord's work in this world.
May the joy of the Lord fill our hearts this day. Amen.
Prayer Requests And Other Matters
I would ask that you pray that the money from my job will come in this week. Please pray that we will not have a bad ice storm next week.
Continue to pray that the fires in the Western US will be extinguished. Some of the fires are under control, so we thank the Lord for this.
Continue to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. Pray that the sick will recover.
Pray for peace in Syria and Yemen.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for Chad and Taiwan.
Next week we will continue with our sermon series, and I will post the message on Friday. I will post the verses on Monday. I will try to post something on Wednesday. May God bless you all.
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