12/17/2023 Church service

周日礼拜

视频

JOY
喜悦

Isaiah 52:9- Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
以赛亚书 52:9: 耶路撒冷的荒场啊，你们要一同欢呼歌唱，
因为耶和华安慰了祂的子民，救赎了耶路撒冷。(page 1200)

Psalm 30:5 … Weeping may last for the night, but there is a song of joy in the morning.
诗篇 30:5: …我们虽然整夜哭泣，早晨必定欢呼。(page 907)

Psalm 16:11: You make the path of life known to me.
Complete joy is in your presence.
诗篇 16:11: 你把生命之路指示我，你右手有永远的福乐，
我在你面前充满喜乐。(page 892)

Luke 2:10 – And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
路加福音 2:10: 天使对他们说：“不要怕！我告诉你们一个有关万民的大喜讯 (page 1770)

Isaiah 58:8 - Then your light will break through like the dawn, and you will heal quickly…
以赛亚书 58:8: 如果你们这样做，你们的光必如晨光照耀，
你们的创伤必迅速痊愈 … (page 1658)

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视频脚本 Script

Break Forth – Advent Week Three
Isaiah 52:9,10

Break Forth into Joy, Oh My Soul
Break out - Shout for joy together

Paul & Silas in the prison
Acts 16: About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

Their praise created an earthquake that shook open the doors of the prison and made their chains fall off

Maybe that will also work for emotional chains? Chains of addiction?
Chains of lukewarmness - or mediocrity?

What you FOCUS on expands. Focus on the Promises – not the Problems.

We’re not fighting FOR victory - we're fighting FROM victory

Break Forth does indicate effort on our part. ;)

“the sacrifice of praise”

The word joy means delight, happiness and pleasure. However, from a biblical standpoint, joy is a powerful force that resides in your spirit once you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life.

JOY is part of the Fruit of the Spirit

Just because you may walk around all day with a frown on your face doesn’t mean joy is not in your spirit.
It just means you’ve suppressed it—you haven’t tapped into it.

And if you haven’t tapped into joy, then you are not experiencing the strength of the Lord.

Nehemiah 8:10 … the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Faith sees the objective and stays focused

Psalm 30:5 - Weeping may last for a night…

Good News: It is morning in God’s House today

2023 isn’t over yet – so we have to quit acting like we can’t move forward until 2024!

“We will see the bamboo shoot out of the ground in 2024”

In our third celebration of Advent, we are encouraged to consider a big and bold and challenging and encouraging idea that’s wrapped up in a three letter word: JOY.

Joy is part of Christmas, right?
There are great and wonderful reasons, we are told, reasons that are both historical and current in our lives, for being jubilant and celebrating good things and expressing this loaded word: JOY.

But you know, it’s hard to string those letters together, when, because of how very hard life can be, and how very real our present pain is, we are may presently be bleeding.

Often we come to church bearing the wounds of our past week. (Let’s be honest.)

Did your week make you weak?

James 1:2,3: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

Here we are, back again at this word: JOY.
It is the theme of our advent celebration today and it is a “Christmas” word.

No matter how we feel or what we think when we see that word, it is a word to be reckoned with.
It’s on billboards and Christmas decorations and greeting cards and…

…all staring back at us. J – O - Y

A famous Christian writer: “Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us.”
“Joy,” he says, “is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think of or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete.
Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing…can take that love away.”
“Break forth into joy”
God’s Word translation: “Break out into shouts of joy”
Psalm 16:11 - You make the path of life known to me. Complete joy is in your presence.

And so today we really do need to consider JOY. What does this season call us to?

What does God say to us in this season of light, especially when we may be so aware of the darkness around us and inside us…
When our experience of life is presently, perhaps, the opposite of joy…

Let’s look at another familiar passage: Luke 2:8-12 (read)

This Joy is Transcendent Good News of Great Joy. For all the people.

So there’s something in the message of this season that is universal – for everyone;
…not like bad things like we find in the secular news – it’s something that informs us about a great joy.

There’s not a lot in life that’s for everyone equally. We’re used to understanding that life doesn’t treat everyone equally.

“Life’s not fair”

Not everyone is wealthy or healthy. Not everyone has the same access even to the necessities of life.

The gap between the rich and the regular folks has never been greater than now.

There is a great deal of inequity in the world. But there’s something about this news of great joy that the angels bring to us that is for ALL the people.

In this news we all share something in common.
In this news we are united across dividing lines.
There is something very good in this news.

Something we should want to hear, want to know about.
Maybe even want to spread to our neighbors.
…And it is news of great joy.

This news is worthy of our attention. It is worth stopping to hear. It’s good.
It’s about something that will bring great joy.
 And it’s for you and for me and for the one sitting next to you.

What is the nature of this news of great joy? At the very least it is transcendent.

That means it goes beyond ordinary limits; it surpasses what we expect;

it exceeds our imagination.

If everyone in any circumstance of life can access this joy, it must be a joy that rises above circumstance.

It must be a joy that is not the property of one class or one nation or one people.
If this is a joy for everyone - it is a generous joy.

If it is a generous joy about the great news of Christ’s coming, then it’s going to cause me, it would seem likely, to shift my focus from only my needs, to the needs of someone else… like you.

Maybe this is a joy that takes me out of my personal sorrow.

Maybe my own sorrow changes, (?) maybe it doesn’t…

…but what seems to me to be implied here is that this joy, this news of the Incarnation, (God taking on human flesh,) lifts me up above my situation and calls me to participate in something much greater than my singular life.

Somehow this news connects me to you and you to me.

And it calls to both of us to lift our eyes up, to look beyond the valleys and even the hills to the One who created us both…and He is reaching out to us.

So I think I better look up. And rejoice. I think that would be a good thing to do.

Isaiah 58:8,9 - Then your light will break through like the dawn, and you will heal quickly. Your righteousness will go ahead of you, and the glory of the LORD will guard you from behind. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer.
You will cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am!”

“Break forth into joy”

Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City  AL  36870
United States
Pastor: Mike J Koger

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