Week Two - Choose Joy | NWBC Sunday Service

[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] hi church uh we thought it was about time we record another worship session uh so here we are you all know april and running around here is baxter archie and hamish who may make an appearance at some point we figured why not involve them in the process as well let's sing i saw satan fall like lightning i saw darkness run [Music] forever but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven i believe in signs and wonders i have resurrection powers but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven my grace belongs to you forever this is my testimony from death to life cause grace rewrote my story i'll testify my jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] sing the praises of the spirit son and father our god we'll finish what he started where god will finish what he started this is my testimony from death to life cause grace rewrote my story i'll testify my jesus christ the rights i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] if i'm not dead then you're not done greater things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead then you're not done greater things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead then you're not done greater things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead then you're not done [Music] greater things are still become i believe this is my testimony from death to life cause grace rewrote my story i'll testify my jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] i raise a hallelujah [Music] in the presence of my enemy [Music] raise a hallelujah [Music] louder than the unbelief [Music] my weapon is a melody i raise a hallelujah [Music] heaven comes to fight for me [Music] is [Music] i raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me i raise a hallelujah i will watch the darkness [Music] in the middle of the mystery [Music] fear you lost your hold on me and i'm gonna sing is [Music] sing a little louder [Music] sing a little louder sing a little louder [Music] everything inside of me sing a little louder [Music] storm louder and louder [Music] oh lord my god when i in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hands have made i see the stars i hear the rolling thunder thy path throughout the universe [Music] and sings my soul my savior god to thee how great thou art how great [Music] how great thou art how great [Music] and when i think that god his son not sparing sent him to die i scarce can take in [Music] [Applause] to take away my sin and sings my soul my savior how great thou art how great thou art and sings my soul i saved [Music] when christ shall come with shouts of acclamation and leading me home what joy shall fill my heart then i shall bow with humble lateration and then [Music] [Applause] [Music] how great thou art and sings my soul my savior [Music] much for joining us this morning it's so good to be with you today it's so good to have been outside this week when the sun has been shining and the birds have been singing would you pray with me lord god we thank you so much for the birds for the trees for the wind for the sun we thank you for the grass we thank you for the dogs lord for the horses we thank you for your creation lord for the fact that you can speak joy into our lives just through being in your creation and we praise you in jesus name amen well it's so good to be with you this morning joining us online it's great to have you with us please chat say hello to everyone in the chat as we are live streaming this morning we have had some families going through some tough times over the last couple of weeks we think particularly of mel in the loss of vom and we also think of karen and michael in the loss of john so would you pray with me for those families in our community who are doing it tough look god we we know that in seasons of life we lose people we know that it's hard we know that it's lonely lord i pray today that you will speak that your holy spirit will bring extra measures of comfort of grace of of uh sense of not being alone to these people at this time lord i pray that we as a church will uphold them in prayer we'll uphold them in our thoughts and will continue to love on those who are doing it tough in our community in jesus name amen well would you look to the screens for me as we hear an update from mel hi everyone my name is mel and i'm currently a missionary in kona hawaii i moved there in january this year to join a school called revival and reformation so i joined staff with ywam there and basically the school is a nine month program three months of intensely studying the bible three months of looking at biblical worldview so what is god's original design for society in government in education in religion science and then three months of communication so how do we take the word of god and communicate it to the world of like god's world and through that's through so many different means social media um just public speaking stuff like that and so i'm currently in las vegas and we just took a team from kona of 17 people we've been here for a month doing outreach um a lot of you may know that i lived in las vegas for two years this is where i first did my dts in 2017 and i fell in love with the city um yeah god gave me a really big heart for this place there's just so much brokenness here um some of the highest rates of suicide human trafficking homelessness and so i really wanted to bring a team from kona to just be harvesters in the field here like jesus talks about praise the lord of the harvest that he would send harvesters into the field and so i felt in my heart was like i want to bring an army of people just to flood this city with the love of jesus and so we've got to see some incredible things um yeah i'd love to share a few stories one of the coolest things for me was we were doing ministry in a mall one night and i met this couple named zach and mariah and me and two friends we got to pray over her leg she was in a cast and she said that she felt the warmth of the holy spirit touching her leg and she felt the pain leaving her leg and so we got to share about jesus give her a recap of the gospel because they'd heard it before they'd be catholic and just share a bit of my testimony about what god's done in my life and they they were hungry we could tell they were hungry but they didn't quite want to give their lives to jesus fully and so we pray we're like god we ask that you send somebody else from our team to them and then later that night we were debriefing and two of our teammates were in a completely different casino in the strip and they said yeah we met this couple named zach mariah and we got to pray for them share the love of jesus um and the holy spirit touched them and i was like i'm done i was like oh my gosh like i prayed this little prayer thinking nothing would happen and then god sent two people from our team to a whole nother like building on the strip to meet them and share love jesus and they said that night that they were they would have to go home and think about jesus more now because of what happened that night that two people encountered them with the love of god so that work encouraged my heart so much that a little prayer sometimes like we think it doesn't work but it really does and god hears it um yeah another one was me and my friend sydney we got to pray for this guy on the street um he was an atheist and he had like a stack of paper in front of him and so we asked him what he does and he likes to draw portraits of people and so we just got to share about the love of god and he said that he used to believe in god like he grew up in the church but he turned away just because of a lot of hurt from religion and so i shared my testimony with him and talked about um the power of jesus like when when the holy spirit comes to live in you how it changes you how you experience joy and freedom for the first time and he'd actually escaped rehab that day and so we got to just pray for him and the lord was delivering things out of him like he was encountering god's love and he decided he wanted to give his life to jesus so we were able to give him a new testament pray with him we blessed him with a new backpack gave him some money and he was so excited like he just seemed so different he was like yeah i want to actually start coming to the streets now and drawing and making money that way you know rather than stealing things so that really encouraged my heart just seeing that was just crazy um and another one was we got to go to this brothel and i got to speak to this one woman about yeah i asked if like anything traumatic had ever happened to her like because i'd had a dream three years ago on that day about rescuing a woman out of out of the water and so i asked her if she'd ever had a near-death experience and so she started opening up to me pulled me to the side and talked about her son who was a drug addict who'd almost died multiple times for the next 45 minutes she took me into one of the brothel rooms and just opened up her heart about how she's had so much damage from religion about how much how many questions she had about god and jesus and if you really loved her and i just got to share my heart and share god's heart with her and that he's a father and that he loves her and that it's not about religion and rules it's about a relationship with him and i got to pray for her and she was crying like the holy spirit touched her and i was just undone like amazed that god would like send me into a brothel to share the love of jesus with this woman like that's literally what jesus did in the bible he sat with prostitutes and so i just felt the love of christ um in that moment it was so powerful yeah so um we just had the most amazing one month here like i cannot even believe everything that god did in this one month um i think a prayer point for me would be just going back to kona i get to start another school the nine month revival and reformation school and hopefully another outreach next year but i would love prayer for vision and just that god would speak and make it really clear what my role is and um just that i'd be able to disciple students well and also i would love prayer for just we had over 90 people give their lives to jesus in this last month but my heart and my prayer is that it wouldn't just be a prayer that they prayed on the street it would be something where the lord really encounters them and where they actually get discipleship and find church community and are not just left hanging by themselves so yeah please pray for the salvations and pray for those encounters that people had with god on the street that that it would actually be a lasting seed that the enemy wouldn't snatch that seed from them um yeah thank you so much for listening and thank you for all your support and your prayers it really means the world to me and yeah thank you how good is it to hear from mel today to hear how she is working with a team to bring life and love to those people she encounters how good is it to hear how jesus heals people in the midst of their path you know we support here at nary warren we support several missionaries each year we put aside money and we put aside we put together the commitment to honor them throughout the coming year we've committed as a church this year to give 25 000 to the work of our missionaries across the world we started just before the current lockdown we started making it so that each month we have a reminder of who our missionaries are and how we support them and particularly of bringing our offering towards the work of our missionaries the month the same month that we do same week that we do communion so this week is communion week and this week is the week that we are reminded to bring out our extra offering over and above of our normal tides and offerings for our missionaries so i'd like you to pray with me if that's okay for our normal tithes and offerings but also for that which we give above for the work of our missionaries please pray with me lord god we thank you that you have empowered people who have a heart to love strangers who have a heart to be in a community where they have not been born into to travel across the world or across the nation to bring life and healing and your message lord we pray that you will take our offering our offering for our normal church community but our offering for our missionaries as well this week lord would you multiply it would you grow it would you do your work in your will in jesus name amen well we come now to a time of communion and i don't know about you but i was thinking this week of the fact that it is the 20th anniversary from the 9 11 terrorism attacks it's one of those moments in history where we have um remembered where we were when we heard when we saw when we first saw that footage i remember when the towers fell down richard and i were actually watching it live on television and we watched those towers fall knowing that there were rescue workers there were fieries there were ambulance people there were police men and women underneath the rubble of those towers falling see each of those people had a calling on their life to help others to serve others to serve their community and they did so and they did so at the cost of their life while not the same as jesus sacrificing his life for us it does show me how as humans we are called to do something in our lives which is over and above what uh we may think it is sometimes we are called to reach out to those next to us and sometimes we are called to physically give our body this week there was the story in the news of a man who had gone on his first parachute jump with his daughter and as he jumped out of the plane and was free-falling and having a lovely time the realization came across his mind that his shoot had not opened and the second shoot had not opened and he and his instructor were hurtling towards the ground knowing that this could very well be his last moments on earth and the instructor positioned them in such a way that as they hit the instructor took the fall he took the forces in his body and this man lived he lived from falling from such a great height i'm wondering whether you've ever considered what it really cost jesus to die for you because he put his body in the line for us he took our sin and he took our sin so that we could have relationship with god in luke 22 verses 14 to 20 it says and when the hour came he reclined at the table with the apostles and he said to them i have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before i suffer for i tell you i will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of god and so he took a cup and when he had given thanks he said take this and divide it among yourselves for i tell you that from now on i will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of god comes and he took the bread when he had given thanks and he broke it to them gave it to them and saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me and likewise the cup after they had eaten saying this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood jesus did give his body and while none of us witnessed it personally each of us is living in a way that we take it for granted we can we can go about our way of life not really understanding what jesus has done for us so i ask you to partake with me the act of communion would you take the bread and eat it and now would you drink the juice in remembrance of his blood shed for all of us let's pray lord god i did not see what you did for me and yet when i take time i can feel it so lord i pray that we each feel what it is to have a relationship with you because of what jesus did for us we can know you lord i thank you that you cared enough for me that you would give your only son for me in jesus name amen now would you please join with me in giving your hearts and your minds to the message that god has asked daniel to bring today well good morning church and i would like to extend to you a very warm welcome as well um it is a surreal experience um i thought talking by myself and to myself um it's something you shouldn't let other people's know and yet here we are and it feels like that it feels like i'm talking to no one and yet i know you're there so um i do realize also that in spite of everything i will try to say no matter how careful i will choose my words there's there's no way to fix probably what so many of us are going through there's no way to change this um with the words i say but i believe that as we spend time in the word of god and i hope and i pray that there will be something for each one of us there will be something that we can we can we we can take and um it can turn into a blessing for our hearts so i pray that as we continue our journey into um into the book of philippians um god's word will actually speak to you and it'll be a blessing for you so the first thing i would like to do before we go anywhere else i would like to actually read the text we we're going to share today so if you've got your bibles if you've got them on an app if you've got them somewhere that the bible text i would like you to open to philippians chapter 2 and i would like to read the first 18 verses in this chapter so if there is any encouragement in christ any comfort from love any participation in the spirit any affection and sympathy complete my joy by being of the same mind having the same love being in full accord and of one mind do nothing from rivalry or conceit but in humility count out is more significant than yourselves let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interests of others have this mind among yourselves which is yours in christ jesus who though he was in the form of god did not count equality with god's a thing with god a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on the cross therefore god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure to all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent children of god without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation amongst whom you shine as lights in the world holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of christ i may be proud that i do not run in vain or labor in vain even if i am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith i am glad and rejoice with you all likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me i just want to make some general considerations okay so if you look in the in the new testament um the the verb to rejoice appears about 72 times and then the noun rejoice um or or joy uh um appears about 60 times so 130 references to joy to rejoicing is not something that um um you could say about other things in the bible so it's got to be a very important message the bible speaks about joy but probably not necessarily the way that the 21st century humans understand joy and and and perceive joy so if you were to put the references that the bible makes in just the new testament um about joy um you can actually slot them into three categories first of all the bible speaks the new testament speaks about the joy of christian fellowship then the new testament speaks about the joy of the gospel and thirdly the new testament speaks about the joy of christian ministry and testimony if you were to go to the greek usage of the word to rejoice or the noun joy you will find out that actually it literally means the joy of living it actually brings together every aspect of our life as human beings and it says basically um joy is actually everything about life you either enjoy life or rejoice in your life or you don't so the joy of living that's probably a more appropriate term that is used in in the new testament so i just want to mention a couple of these things if you go to philippians chapter 4 verse 10 it is the gospel of joy but paul talks about you know rejoicing in the fact that we have the privilege to look after each other and and how many times you've heard this but it's actually confirmed by the scripture itself that we were not created and boy oh boy are we reminded these days we are not created as islands um god has designed human beings as people who need to connect and paul in philippians 4 10 he says i rejoiced in the lord because you have revived your concern for me i'm glad that you remembered that i exist i'm glad that you not only remember that i exist and he said a prayer for me but he actually did something practical to touch my life um they've actually prepared an offering and taken it to actually sent it to paul who was in prison in rome so um paul the apostle says you know basically i rejoice knowing that i'm not alone in this that there are my brothers and sisters who feel the same who feel with me who feel for me who are there for me and also in second corinthians chapter 7 verse 8 and 9 paul writes to to a church that in the previous in the previous letter has to have some stern words about their behavior about the way they live their christian life and and and paul actually um says there is no greater joy than to see now our relationship reestablished our relationship healed our relationship you know mended and now we can have again communion in the spirit so i'm not going to mention the many references to the joy of the gospel there are but i will say this you know at jesus birth there was a choir of angels that actually came and and actually shared you know the the happy the joyful message of the birth of the messiah if you go on the day of resurrection i know in in our in our bibles um when mary meets jesus the term is greetings but actually in greek it's actually may joy be with you maybe may you be full of joy so jesus's resurrection is is is an event that should fill our hearts with joy and strange enough luke actually captures this idea when he when he details the departure jesus ascension back to heaven he actually says that the disciples returned back rejoicing they were happy they were happy so you've got to ask yourself how can that be the more i looked at the bible's perspective on joy i realized how how actually different it is to to what the 21st century the world we live in will try actually to convince us that you know joy is and i think one of the most um um fertile grounds for writing you know um um self-help books is actually this this whole concept of you know you've got it in you you just have to find it you have to find the positive vibes in your life and you know you've got to tap into those things but the more i read about joy and you know in in in the gospel in in the letter that paul wrote to the philippians but in the whole new testament i realized what an empty and and and what a um what a what a uh sidetrack that is because the more i read about joy from the bible's perspective the reality is there is no joy in in us there is no way to find joy within ourselves there's nothing to tap into um as a matter of fact actually you know after everything that's happened last year and this year i actually feel like sitting down and crying for a while there's no um reason to rejoice honestly um and yet where does my joy come from um where does my my my desire for a fulfilled life for a full life come from um it's not within me it's not within me um we are a society that's actually um crazy about staying away from suffering staying away from pain as much as we can but the more i read in the new testament i see that a lot of the references to joy come hand in hand with situations of pain suffering loss and it's like are you kidding me um either the bible has got it wrong and paul and everyone else who wrote the new testament you know i don't know what they were doing when they were talking about this or is there something more to joy is there something that the world we live in cannot see it it escapes the the world we live in so i just pray that as i share the next thoughts with you um you ask yourself what do i think about joy how do i perceive joy what is joy for me and then allow the word of god to challenge our thinking about joy and to actually say well you know maybe maybe i need to do something else the title of the series is anyway choose joy but it's not like going to the shopping center and picking up joy or a secret formula or a 10 minute formula um who's the the chef i think he had a series of you know 10 minute recipes you know i wish you could cook up you know joy in 10 minutes um find these secret ingredients but the reality is that joy is a byproduct it comes out of something that happens to us it comes out of our journey and it is with us in our journey and it's actually something that we hope for so paul writes to the um to the philippians and he says complete my joy see paul says i cannot manufacture joy but i know what will bring joy into my life and paul says complete my joy and what do the philippians have to do by being of the same mind having the same love by being a full accord and of one mind paul talks about unity in the body of christ paul says there's nothing else that brings joy to me than to know that you have the same mind that you have the same love that you are in full accord and of one mind there's nothing else there's nothing else that brings me greater joy and i like to think that even though there were probably no symphonic orchestras at the time um paul uses a beautiful little illustration okay so in a symphonic orchestra there are different instruments there are different kinds of instruments you have string wind brass instruments you have percussion so i think if you were to to listen to just the percussion part of a very famous you know musical piece you would be like is that it to it are you kidding me is this music it doesn't sound like music and sometimes even you know more decent instruments as you know string instruments or wind instruments you know you would you would listen to their bits in isolation and you would think gee that doesn't amount to much yet the beauty of it is when the orchestra comes together and every instrument plays their own bit from the same score the magic happens the joy happens and paul almost says you know if if you live your lives individually and and i like the terms he uses you know do nothing out of conceit or rivalry can you imagine what would happen if in in a very piano part of the you know of of of the musical piece you know suddenly the you know the drums decide to actually just you know take the spotlight it's not their turn they're not supposed to be heard but they decide well this is our chance when everybody else is doing nothing else we're gonna just you know we're gonna let them know we are here we we don't get this opportunity paul says that that's not the beauty of a musical piece that's not harmony that's not a chord i i wish i could i could change that term you know full accord will you know fully in tune fully in tuned that's that's what paul says it's actually when we all play our part not out of uh desire to you know um get into the spotlight but paul says actually when we approach the score when we approach the music that we have to play from a position of humility and what does it mean to be humble it actually means to have a realistic appreciation of my value and my worth and you know i think not just the church but the world could do with a bigger dose of humility in in the way we do business and the way we we do our daily transactions with each other um humility gives me a realistic appreciation of my value and worth and paul says when you come from that when you when you approach the music from from that angle you're going to look at others more significant the drum is going to say i just go boom boom and it's great that i can go boom boom at the right time but it's best that i let the violins you know do most of the work and paul says look to the interest of others seek the benefit of others you know actually this is this is this is something that the modern world has figured out but it's a biblical truth the reality is when we try to help others when we try to support others when we try to actually seek to benefit others something amazing happens to our own hearts you know people that suffer the most uh are the the best position people to offer support and to to to offer um um care to to other people and within doing so they themselves pick themselves up and i like how how paul says well great i hope you've underst you've understood my image with you know music and harmony and you know every part doing its role and if you want a perfect example i want you to look at jesus i want you to look at him and i want you to to learn from him how even though he was god himself he never took that for granted but he said for the time i'm here on earth i have a job i have a mission and i'm going to do that i'm going to do that i will humble myself and i'll be just like everyone else because of the joy of what was going to come god was going to honor that and that leads us into the second part where paul talks about you know as you have always obeyed as you have always obeyed so now and i like how sort of everything i share i thought i'll share with you comes from that complete my joy and then paul finishes his thoughts with rejoice with me so as you have always obeyed tells paul to to the philippians you see there's no fellowship for the sake of fellowship you know it's great to be together it's great to man can't wait to be back in in church as as all outside of church just just to be allowed to meet with 10 15 of you and you know just have fellowship together but but it's not just having fellowship together just being together is not enough there's got to be a common purpose and this is where paul says you know there's got to be a common purpose and is there a greater purpose for christian life than to live a life of obedience to god see it's easy to say i love you lord but the reality is the best way to say i love you lord is actually to obey to obey god's commands to obey your father's will to seek with absolutely everything that is in you to follow his command then paul says a very strange thing work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure no this is not a passage that says somehow if you tried hard enough maybe you could actually save yourself maybe you could get into god's good books maybe you could actually convince him that you know you're worth it you deserve to go to heaven that's not what the bible teaches it teaches clearly that the only way to get to the father is through the son is through what jesus did for us so why is actually paul trying to say let me try to illustrate this okay um imagine you're you're a tradesman or imagine you're an artist and imagine you know your masterpiece the most important thing in your life um something that you are you know involved with it involved with it takes all your energy takes all your creativity it takes everything you have this is it this is this is going to be your legacy you know and paul comes i think from the same perspective he says what is the most important thing for your life and the reality is i think it should be it's my relationship with god eternity salvation and paul says it's good that you've come through the gate but now you have to run the race on the track on the narrow track and you have to keep running until you cross the finish line i think these are the terms that actually really describe our salvation it is yes coming through the gate but then it's got to be running down the track and it's got to be finishing you know crossing that finish line and and our salvation beloved is should be the most important thing um yes we go to work yes we do so many other things in our life but but the purpose the supreme purpose of our existence should be our salvation and that is expressed our connection with our heavenly father with with jesus christ our lord and savior and paul says you know seeking uh to live a life that pleases god being more and more like christ is the the best guarantee that you will run the right race you will run in the right direction and you will actually cross the finish line that's basically what paul is trying to say to them when he says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure christian life is not an independent life as we come to have fellowship the most important purpose of our gatherings would should always be to spur each other into running the race into living a life that honors our heavenly father did you notice paul says do nothing and now he comes and he says do all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless innocent children of god without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world what a challenge what a challenge a lot of the time we define christian life by what we do not do but paul says hey there's more to christian life than do not do it's actually this is what you have to do and i like the terms he uses without grumbling or questioning now i i would be the first person to say ask questions you know check things out don't just take things as given you know i hope you're going to check everything i said this morning and say man he's got it right or maybe he hasn't and that is actually okay being a christian doesn't mean i check my brains out when i come into the church or when i read the bible i don't have questions i don't think that's what paul talks about i think what paul is talking about is check your attitude oh lord how many times do you have you know work colleagues that you know you're ready to start working on the project and you realize three questions down the track they have nothing to do with the you know project they don't benefit the project they don't move the project forward they actually contribute nothing to the project it's actually they're picking up a fight about you know a conversation you probably had three years ago and you were right and they were wrong and they can't get let go of it and it's it's all a matter of attitude they don't want to know the project better they don't want to find more about the project they don't want to come up with solutions and therefore ask good questions they're just picking a fight with you and paul says it's the same thing it's a matter of attitude without grumbling or questioning god never says just go and do it don't ask any questions he's saying ask the right questions with the right attitude with the right intent and don't forget when you choose to live a life that honors god you should be different to what the world looks like you know that's a very good check if you if you if you try your best but you realize man i'm enjoying my workplace but it's almost like sometimes i don't fit here it's okay it means you're not doing business the way the world does business it means you do not treat people the way the world treats people it means you are different you're a child of god and that reflects in the way you live your life and then paul says holding fast to the word of life stay in the scripture love the scripture read the scripture fill your fill your life with the scripture holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of christ i may be proud that i do not run in vain or labor in vain i am glad and rejoice with you all likewise you should be glad and rejoice with me so i think what paul says is the joy of living the joy of living a christian life but there's an element of of the future about this joy it will never be complete until that day of christ when we will come together as god's people redeemed by the sacrifice by the blood of jesus until that day when we go to heaven and we we get to spend eternity together with all the saints through all the ages throughout all the ages so whilst we can have joy as we negotiate our christian life paul says there is a there is an element there is a percentage of that joy that actually angers us to the future to what it's going to be on that day of christ when he returns when he comes back you know when you will be able to look at your work colleagues and your neighbors um at the people who thought man this guy has totally lost the plot or she's totally lost the plot what are they on about you know what what's all this talk about you know humility putting other people's interests man it's a it's a free-for-all you know the first in you know gets the biggest portion of it and on that day you will be vindicated because on that day they will realize although it's going to be too late that actually you were not a lunatic you actually believed the truth you actually were in contact with you know with something more than just what this world has to offer and it was worth living such a different life and i want to wrap up by sharing with you three more texts romans 14 17 for the kingdom of god is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the holy spirit that's the reality nothing of what i said can produce joy in your hearts nothing of what i said can actually lift up your spirit because i cannot produce joy in my own heart and i cannot produce joy in anyone else's heart is actually the work of the spirit it's a supernatural encounter that we cannot manufacture it's for those who actually do have the spirit of god in their life for those who are part of god's kingdom they can rejoice they can rejoice when the sun is shining they can rejoice when the going is easy and they can rejoice when there are clouds and when there's pain and suffering on the journey galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 just comes to reinforce the fruit of the spirit is first love then second joy if we have the spirit of christ if we have the holy spirit in us it's not us who manufacture this it actually is the presence of the spirit so to some degree we exclude other possibilities and we say no matter how hard no matter how clever the world will try to manufacture joy and to sell it and to say we've got it the reality is true joy only exists from that close intimate relationship with jesus with our heavenly father our god through the holy spirit and lastly romans 5. i've i've chopped down the 11 verses to probably the most essential that three times paul actually mentions joy in that passage and he says we rejoice in the hope of the glory of god so that's there's an element of the future in there one day we're going to see our heavenly father and we should rejoice about the opportunity but paul says we rejoice in our sufferings we rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ through whom we have now received reconciliation our greatest joy should be the fact that we are privileged to be called sons and daughters of god i just pray that somehow these words will bless your hearts i have no idea except with a few people that i do have contact with um i have no idea where life is taking you at the moment but i pray that as we share you know last sunday this sunday and you know for a few more sundays to come as we look at philippians the spirit of god will produce joy in your hearts let me pray and that will conclude our message this morning heavenly father what a timely reminder that we are so privileged to know jesus christ as our lord and savior it's none of our doing it's everything he's done for us and because we are in this relationship because our past is sorted out and our future is guaranteed that no matter what today brings we can actually rejoice we can actually press on we can actually run the race and we're hopeful that we are going to cross the finish line father i just pray that you will take the word that paul shared with the philippians and you will make it relevant for each one of us in the context we find ourselves at the moment father i just pray that in inexplicable ways in supernatural ways you will produce that joy that revitalizes us that touches every corner of our lives every corner of our existence and father i just i just pray for myself personally i'm drained and i'm tired and i have 27 drained and tired faces of kids and beyond those their parents it's been a tough time but father in a supernatural way in a way that you can only produce it i pray that you will not just help us to drag ourselves over the finish line at the end of term three but because of he who lives in us because of your spirit and us may we finish strong this week and maybe that may that be a testimony of the fact that christ lives in our hearts he's our hope and we know that no matter what happens right here and right now there will be a day one day when we will be vindicated when tears will be wiped out when there will be no pain when there will be no suffering i pray father for all these things in the precious name of your son our lord and savior jesus christ amen [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Narre Warren Baptist Church

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Id: c89dqSIlyW0

Length: 65min 45sec (3945 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021