Today I watched a sermon online from my church back home, and I had to share the truth that I was shown. But first let me open up to you all a more personal side as I explain why this spoke such depth to me…
These past couple of weeks have been anything but “great”. Everything that I thought I was so sure about, I have felt such unclarity and confusion about. Everything that I thought I had perfectly planned out, went wrong and down paths I never thought I would have to figure out. But more than this all, I have just felt so, empty. Why? I couldn’t be sure. From the outside, one would think everything was great. What do I have to complain about? I have a great family, loving friends, a beautiful home, and plenty of food to eat. I am certainly blessed. But for some reason, I wasn’t feeling happy. I was feeling confused. Unsure of where to go next. Directionless. I was questioning so many things that I had been so sure about for so long. And still am unfortunately. But this sermon spoke such truth to me.
Are you feeling like your joy has been taken from you? Are you struggling during this holiday season? Have you just been feeling empty? Maybe this will shed some light of truth for you as it did for me…
The sermon was based on the subject of “Advent: The Coming Light”
What is Advent?
Coming from the Latin word “adventus”—meaning “arrival” or “coming”—Advent is a time of patient waiting, hopeful expectation, soul-searching, and calendar-watching as we await the arrival and coming of Jesus, the Savior.
The passage in the Bible that was discussed was Isaiah 9:1-7, which begins like this:
“But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish…”
“The passage is about more than longing and dreaming for better days ahead, although that is certainly a part of the passage. It is really about living under threat in a world that is beyond our control, a world that lies in the hands of leaders who make stupid and selfish and even cowardly decisions, who refuse to trust God. But in the midst of all of this, the passage speaks to the Christian’s true hope and glory. The reality that God is on His throne and His power and His plans can never be thwarted, so in that we rest and in that we rejoice”.
The major point I took from this sermon? That no matter what I’m currently experiencing, what season of life I’m currently going through, or what event has just happened, I can have JOY. No, that doesn’t mean be “fake happy”, when you are truly upset. But what I learned is there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is based on our current situations and season of life..Joy is something, that when a child of God, cannot be taken.
This made me question, why wasn’t I feeling joy? And then I realized it was because I have been putting a “+ sign” by my need for joy. What does that mean? See, as a believer in Christ, solely what Christ has done for me, and the gift of eternal life he has given me, should be all I need to experience joy. I should be so overly filled with joy and thanks for what He has done for me. But instead, I had put a + sign in my life. “Yes God, I’m thankful for what you have done, and I will be joyful if only…” Fill in the blank with what you believe will make you happy.
I wasn’t being truly thankful for what God had done for me. I had lost the meaning of it all. And I had forgotten what I am called to be joyful in as a Christian…God coming improvehearingnaturally effexor again, and my eternal home in heaven.
What I took away from this? No, not everything will just become perfect and joyful just after hearing this sermon, its about life application step by step. I need to remember why I believe in Christ in the first place, and decide each and every day that I wake up, that I will rejoice, no matter my current situation. I need to be thankful for what He has done, and allow that to be my only necessity for joy. No + signs attached. No getting lost in all the wordly desires and momentary satisfactions. I need to stay in tune to His voice and continue to daily be in His word, so that I can be joyful because of HIM, and Him alone <3
I’m going to leave you off with some very powerful quotes by famous speakers that apply to this all, but I hope that any of this can resonate with you as it did for me. If you have any specific questions, or want to know more about this “God person”, please, never hesitate to email me (freshfitnhealthy@gmail.com)
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“Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life; the quiet confidence that ultimately everything will be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in all things.”
“The religion of Christ is the religion of JOY. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison-house, to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy – deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy – in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Saviour, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?” (Octavius Winslow).
“So the choice is ours. We can be joyless Christians, or we can be joyful Christians. We can go through life bored, glum, and complaining, or we can rejoice in the Lord, in our name being written in heaven, in the hope of an eternal inheritance. It is both our privilege and our duty to be joyful. To be joyless is to dishonor God and to deny His love and control over our lives. It is practical atheism. To be joyful is to experience the power of the Holy Spirit within us and to say to a watching world, “Our God reigns’” (Jerry Bridges).
“We are going to put text here about something and then you can take notes on it.The amount to which you understand the gospel is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances. If you grasp what a treasure the presence and acceptance of God are, then even when life goes really wrong you will have a joy that sustains you, because you’ll recognize the value of what you have in Him. When life punches you in the face, you’ll say, ‘But I still have the love and acceptance of God, a treasure I don’t deserve.’ And the joy you find in that treasure can make you rejoice even when you have a bloody nose. You have a joy that death and depravation cannot touch” (J. D. Greear).