Sermon Tone Analysis

Let me ask you a couple of important questions this evening.

Are you ready?

Here's the first question: /"Are you a happy Christian this evening?"/

The second question is similar to the first.

Here it is: /"Can you rejoice in what God has done for you in the past, what He is doing for your now, and what you expectantly anticipate Him to do in the future?"/

God wants you to be a joyful and expectant Christian.

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God?

That is the question we are trying to get a handle on as we look together at the characteristics of the Spirit-filled life.

That filling may be manifested in many different ways.

Some folk may get all excited, and feel like dancing in the aisle.

Others are going to experience a peace that floods their soul even in the midst of difficult moments.

Some will get a momentary rush of elation that confirms the Spirit’s presence in their life.

And still others will experience the Spirit by the illumination of truth in the Scriptures that perhaps they never saw before.

Those are all well and good, but the Apostle Paul asserts that the filling of the Spirit is also evidenced by the development of certain attributes in the believer’s life.

Our joy is a response to the same message that the Angel’s gave to the shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem: Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

As we sit here this evening, you and I are a part of the all people that the angels give good tidings to.

It’s news that ought to fill our hearts and minds and souls with great joy: A Savior has come into the world who saves sinners.

If we were to literally translate that phrase great joy it would read mega-gladness!

Let me ask you another question: Does the presence of Christ in your life bring you mega-gladness?

Joy is one of the attributes of a Spirit-filled life!

!

I. REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS!

* Philippians 3:1 /"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord!"/

* Philippians 4:4 /"Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again: Rejoice!"/ NIV

* 1 Thessalonians 5:16 /"Be joyful always;"/ NIV

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God wants you to know joy

#. few things have done more harm to the cause of Christ and brought more disrepute to His Church than joyless Christians!

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God wants you and I to experience a joyful heart and to have cheerful faces

#. the two are connected ...

* Proverbs 15:13 /"A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance,"/

* Proverbs 15:30 /"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart,"/

* ILLUS.

God has even designed us in such a way so that it is easier to exhibit cheerfulness then to exhibit sullenness.

It takes 64 facial muscles to make a frown, but only thirteen to make a smile.

I'll tell ya what folks: I see a lot of Christians who are working their faces too hard!

Their attitude is (say with frown on face and crossed arms) "Yea, I'm a Christian.

Hallelujah."

!! A. THE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE JOYFUL BELIEVERS

#. the non-Christians in our culture see too many mean-eyed furrowed-brow, locked-jaw, crossed-arm, petty-minded, unsmiling Christians

#.

I don't mean any of your of course!

#. the world needs to see joyful believers who can praise the Lord no matter what their circumstances are or their lot in life may be

#. the Apostle Peter told the recipients of his first epistle that the Christian's joy is an inward grace that issues from the believer's faith despite trials and temptations

* 1 Peter 1:6-9 /"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

7 These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."/

#. joy is not merely a simplistic or sentimental way of dealing with life, but a way to meet life head on

#. according to the Apostle Peter in this passage, joy occurs even in the midst of grief caused by suffering through all kinds of trials

#. joy is an effectual, spiritual gift given by God to believers that helps to sustain us in difficult times and increases our happiness in good times

#.

happiness is a feeling and usually is determined by outside events or circumstances

#. joy, on the other hand, is an attitude, a disposition, a mind-set that flows from a deep conviction that God is alive and real and in your life and in control

#. it enables you to meet the challenges of life and to wade into impossibilities with enthusiasm and expectancy

#. /"rejoicing always"/ in the Lord enables you to let go of the frustration and pick up the broken pieces and start over again

!! B. REASONS BELIEVERS CAN REJOICE

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FIRST, we can rejoice because of saving grace

* /" . . .

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”/

(Matthew 1:20-21, NIV)

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Jesus said that being born again is like finding buried treasure

* ILLUS.

Most of us love stories of people finding buried treasure.

In 2009, an amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector stumbled upon the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found.

It was a massive seventh-century hoard of gold and silver sword decorations, crosses and other items.

They call it the Staffordshire Hoard, and it consists of at least 650 items of gold and 530 silver objects, and thousands of other items of archeological value.

Terry Herbert, who was unemployed when he found the items in a friends field stands to receive a tidy sum.

The Government of England keeps all such treasure found, but has to pay the finder it’s estimated value of over $5 million dollars.

* Matthew 13:44 /"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."/

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Jesus stresses two points in this simple little parable

#. first, that salvation is a great treasure and its gain requires a cost

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secondly, and the point of this evening's message: that discovering God's treasure of salvation brings great joy

#. we can rejoice because of God's saving grace

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SECOND, we can rejoice because of sustaining grace

* Psalm 18:35 /"You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great."/

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God does not save us only to leave us to our own strength

* ILLUS.

In the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL you will find, among other things, Lincoln's well-used Bible.

In the flyleaf is a note he scribbled as he made his way by train to the capitol for his inauguration.

Listen to his words as he asks for sustaining grace from God: /"I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington.

He never would have succeeded but for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied.

I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine blessing which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support.

And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive the divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain."/

#. we can rejoice because of sustaining grace

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THIRD, we can rejoice because of glorifying grace

* John 17:22 /"Father, give them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:"/

#. the day is coming when all believers will hear the trumpet of God that signifies our Lord's Second coming

#. on that day all those who have given their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ are going home

* Philippians 3:20-21 /"But our citizenship is in heaven.

And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."/

* ILLUS.

Henry C. Morrison was one of the great missionaries of the late 19th century.

After serving for forty years on the African mission field, he headed home by boat.

On that same trans-Atlantic steamer also rode President Theodore Roosevelt returning from one of his famous big-game trophy hunts.

As they entered the harbor ship's horns blared and fire-fighting ships sprayed fountains of water into the air.

As they docked, there was great fanfare as bands played and all kinds of dignitaries waited to greet the President and welcome him home.

This dear missionary and his wife with their luggage in hand quietly made their way to the deck of the ship to exit.

No one had come to welcome them back home.

There were no bands playing or banners flying in their honor.

Henry Morrison went to his hotel room with a rather heavy heart.

As he sat there on the bed, he asked his wife, “Honey, for 40 years we poured our lives into ministry and service.

And yet we come back to America and not a single soul comes to welcome us home!”