Joy to the World December 16, 2018

Transcription

1 Joy to the World December 16, 2018 We ve been doing a series on Christmas Carols and this morning is Joy to the World. Background on Joy to The World Isaac Watts was perhaps the greatest hymn writer of his day. He is known for writing such timeless hymns as Our God, Our help in ages past and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. However, Watts is best known for writing the hymn Joy to the World a song played worldwide during Christmas every year. Although he is much loved today for his hymns - during his lifetime he was quite the revolutionary Watts grew up in a world where the music in every worship service consisted only of psalms or sections of Scripture put to music. Watts found the practice monotonous. To him, there was a lack of joy and emotion among the congregants as they sang. He once famously said, To see the dull indifference, the negligent and thoughtless air that sits upon the faces of a whole assembly, while the psalm is upon their lips, might even tempt a charitable observer to suspect the fervency of their inward religion. Isaac Watts One day on the way home from a church service he was complaining about the music and his father told him if he didn t like the songs they sang to write his own. This set him on a lifelong pursuit to write lyrics that exalted Christ and reminded Christians of their hope in his saving work on the cross. This desire is evident in the way he wrote Joy to the World. Watts was inspired to write it while meditating on Psalm 98: 1

2 O sing to the LORD a new song, For He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him. The LORD has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn Shout joyfully before the King, the LORD. Let the sea roar and all it contains, The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy Before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity. Verse 4 must have gripped him: Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Little did he know that this song would spark a joyful noise that would ring through the ages and become the favorite Christmas song of many. Especially since it was not written as a Christmas song Most people who have studied this believe it is about the second coming - the time when God will truly reign as King and all sorrow and sin will be gone - when The whole world will see the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of His love. But I see why we sing it at Christmas. Because without the first coming there would be no second coming. Christmas is full of the hope that one day all of these things will be true. 2

3 But we won t debate that this morning - what I want to talk about is joy. We hear a lot about joy this time of year. We sing a lot about joy. In fact, as Christians, we hear and sing a lot about joy all year round. As children, we learned the song, I ve got the joy, joy, joy But do you? Really? Do you have Real joy? Joy that doesn t come and go like the wind and waves. Joy that is not dependent on circumstance, on whether or not all the people in your life did and said what you wanted them to today, Joy that isn t dependent on how many likes your photo got on instagram or how few that person that you don t like got. Joy that doesn t flee when the car breaks down in the middle of I-75 the Friday before Christmas, when the freezer in the basement quits and you didn t find out until the day before your Christmas guests were arriving and it had all your food for the week in it. When everything that could go wrong goes wrong, do you have joy? Don t you want that kind of joy? Of course we do! But is that even possible? We re not talking about happiness here - not a fleeting emotion that happens to be based on what is happening. Joy is an emotion, definitely, but it is so much more. It is intertwined with peace and faith in the Scripture in Romans 15 where the Apostle Paul prays they will have joy and peace in believing. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 3

4 True joy is a result of believing in God - in receiving Jesus as King of your life - in having Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But there s probably many of you that are thinking, I ve been saved, born again, whatever, but I still lack that joy that I hear so much about. Why? Or maybe you are saying, I used to have that kind of joy but I lost it somewhere along the way - what happened? Can I get it back? Do you have Joy? Where does true joy come from? Psalm 16:11 says: You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 16:11 Do you see where the fullness of joy is? In the presence of the Lord. Do You have the Presence of the Lord in Your life? Because in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of Joy. So instead of looking for joy in all the wrong places we need to be looking for the presence of the Lord because that is where joy is. What is required to have the presence of the Lord? 1. Believing Him And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 I don t know why but God reserves Himself and His presence and His joy for people that believe He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 4

5 So the first thing to do to find joy is to see if you are believing God. When we are depressed the first thing we usually do is look within and around us to try and figure out what is wrong and why we feel this way. But what we really need to do first is ask, Am I trusting God? Do I really believe what He says about Himself and about me? Am I sad because I m fearful that He won t come through, that He doesn t love me, that He won t provide what I want and need? I can tell you through personal experience that all of these fears breed depression and anxiety and their root is unbelief so if we are lacking joy in our lives perhaps the first thing we need to do is repent of unbelief. I m not suggesting that you beat yourself up and grit your teeth and do your best to believe what you really don t believe. That doesn t work. But I am telling you to humble yourself before God, be honest about your unbelief and ask Him in faith to help you to believe Him. That does work because: God is opposed to the proud but He gives grace to the humble and He hears the cry of all who call upon Him in truth. A second thing required for the presence of the Lord is: 2. Walking in the Light - John 14:23-15:11 If joy is lacking in our lives we need to check our walk. Are we walking in the light or are there things hidden? Is there anything that I am doing or thinking or contemplating that if others knew about I would be ashamed? Do I have a guilty conscience? This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 1 John 1:5-6 5

6 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be made full. answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. John 15:1-11 As I have read and reread the words to Joy to the World this week I have focused on the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of His love. Somehow we have thrown out the glories of His righteousness and only want to hear about the Love of God but without the righteousness of God in our lives we will never have His joy. As Hebrews 12 says it is the discipline of the Lord so that we may share in His holiness that produces that Peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives. You know what real joy is? It is being able to be in the presence of the Lord with nothing to hide - not just because you are trusting in the blood of Christ completely but because you have no known sin in your life - you have quit hiding - the war is over. It is impossible to have joy as a Christian without walking in the light because joy comes from His presence and we cannot have His presence if we are walking in darkness - if we are hiding parts of us. Are you hiding? If you are believing God and you are walking in the light as best you know and still don t have the joy of the Lord that comes from His presence let me offer one more thing - 3. Worship 6

7 Deliberate acts of worship are necessary to keep joy alive in us. I think that s one reason the Scripture so often commands us to sing to the Lord. Because God knows we are prone to get bogged down in daily life, in looking at ourselves, in trying to figure out what s wrong with us. Quit looking at yourself and lift up your eyes and worship Jesus! Quit trying to figure out your problems and worship God and praise Him that He s got this. Recently I was so depressed and I was literally crying out to the Lord I got in my car and was listening to music and the song Rescue by Lauren Daigle started to play. I had never heard it but the words go like this: You are not hidden There's never been a moment You were forgotten You are not hopeless Though you have been broken Your innocence stolen I hear you whisper underneath your breath I hear your SOS, your SOS I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night There is no distance That cannot be covered Over and over You're not defenseless I'll be your shelter I'll be your armor I hear you whisper underneath your breath I hear your SOS, your SOS I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night I will never stop marching to reach you In the middle of the hardest fight I hear the whisper underneath your breath 7

8 I hear you whisper, you have nothing left I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night I will never stop marching to reach you In the middle of the hardest fight Oh, I will rescue you And then God just lifted up my head and I was filled with joy in His presence as I looked at Him and who He was and how He had it all figured out. Quit looking at yourself and worship! Quit thinking that you ve got to figure out how to fix all your problems and worship! Quit worrying about everybody else s problems and worship. Joy to the World, the Savior reigns Let men their songs employ Are you singing daily to the Lord about Who His is, what He has done? Are you living a grateful life? Are you daily worshipping and entering into the presence of the Lord through prayer and Bible reading? If we want to be able to sing Joy To The World this Christmas and mean it - it will be because we are in the presence of the Lord. His presence is found by trusting in Him, believing His Word. His presence is found by walking in the light, and His presence is found in worshipping Him as He truly is. May you be filled with fullness of joy in His presence today and every day! Merry Christmas! 8