Song of Joy
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
WELCOME
WELCOME
GOOD MORNING
Turn with me to Psalm 126, as we continue in our series through the Psalms of Ascent
KIDS MINISTRY
Kid’s Ministry is Important - Next Steps
November - Staged re-opening to ensure the safety of our kids and our volunteers while coming alongside families to help disciple the next generation
Ultimately, discipleship of children is the responsibility of the parents. The church exists to come alongside families to equip and resource you for this task.
Family Discipleship (Church Center or xpointe.com)
Kid’s Bible Memory - Kids ask your parents.
Video lesson with activity pages and ideas for how to help you kids interact with the Bible Story
REVIEW
REVIEW
PSALMS OF ASCENT
Collection of 15 Songs that would be sung on the 2-3 day journey to worship in Jerusalem
Themes:
Spiritual Disciples (Hands): What you are suppose to do… (Read your Bible, pray, go to church, give, share your faith, etc.) Growth, progress, value, and maturity are all contingent on how well you are performing.
Songs of Renewal (Heart): 1) Repentance, 2) Providence, 3) Gathering, 4) Humility (servant), 5) Rescue, 6) Hope
HOOK
HOOK
SONG OF JOY
This doesn’t mean Happy
Happiness is an emotion that is like a kite dancing in the wind of circumstances. happiness rises and falls in relationship to the conditions surrounding us.
Joy is an anchor that sinks beneath the surface conditions to find a solid footing that holds holds us in place in spite of raging wind and waves.
NEEDS OF THE HEART:
TIRED & WEARY - Exhausted, when the alarm went off this morning and it took effort to start a new day. Sometimes I sit up and just sit on the edge of my bed mentally preparing myself for another day filled with challenges.
DRY & DISCOURAGED - Those who are walking through a spiritual or emotional desert. You haven’t felt the life-giving rains for some time. Your spirit is parched. Your mind and heart discouraged.
NUMB & EXHAUSTED - Your emotions have been so heightened over these past months that you are simply shutting down, waiting for a reset button. Maybe somehow the turning of a page on the calendar year will bring about a magical change.
TODAY’S SONG IS FOR YOU
THERE IS HOPE THAT JOY COMES IN THE MORNING
“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
READ THE PASSAGE |PSALM 126
READ THE PASSAGE |PSALM 126
REMEMBER OUR JOY IN GOD’S PAST FAITHFULNESS (1-3)
REMEMBER OUR JOY IN GOD’S PAST FAITHFULNESS (1-3)
PAST TENSE | REMEMBER
PAST TENSE | REMEMBER
“When the Lord restored…we were like… then...”
In the darkness of discouragement, despair, and depression - it can be hard to hold onto to joy and hope.
Today’s passage invites you look in 2 DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS in the midst of your present circumstances.
First we look Back
It’s a call to remember these secure, historical, fulfilled truths that are often too easily forgotten
ISRAEL
ISRAEL
Generations of Israelites had only known slavery. 430 Years of slavery in Egypt. Children were born into slavery, lived their life in slavery, and died as slaves in a land that was not their home.
Exodus 5 tells us how the Pharoah demanded bricks from the Israelites without giving them any straw. They had to go collect the resources they needed while also injustly being forced to produce the same number of bricks as when they had been given the needed resources. If you complain - BEATEN! Don’t make enough bricks - BEATEN! Work too slowly - BEATEN!
On day you are living out the 4 century old tradition of slavery and the next day - FREE!
It was like a dream - how do you even dream of freedom when all you’ve known is slavery?
God stretched out his hand and freed them from the powerful hand of Pharoah. They watched as chariots and horsemen were swallowed up in the Red Sea after they crossed on dry land.
What else can you do but laugh and sing
Laugh at the unbelievable, miraculous reversal of fortunes
Sing of God’s strength, salvation. Exodus 15 contain the lyrics to the song God put on their lips.
Israel looked back and REMEMBERED
DAVID
DAVID
I wonder if the same was true for King David as he penned this Song?
Now sitting on Mount Zion - remembering God’s faithfulness not only to the nation but to him personally.
PAST PAIN
The years of hiding in the in caves in the desert as King Saul hunted him down. The fearful nights praying for deliverance. Not knowing if you would survive or not. The surrounding circumstances feeling like absolute chaos.
Then, in God’s timing, David himself is sitting on the throne - and though he was a man after God’s heart - David feels weight of his sin after sleeping with another man’s wife and then having her husband killed. The tears of the inward storm - the violent emotions.
PAST JOY
David himself was led to laughter and song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies (2 Samuel 22) and when God delivered him for himself (Psalm 51).
BRIDGE
BRIDGE
EUGENE PETERSON
“We nurture these memories of laughter, these shouts of joy. We fill our minds with the stories of God’s acts. Joy has a history. Joy is the verified, repeated experience of those involved in what God is doing. It is as real as a date in history, as solid as a stratum of rock in Palestine. Joy is nurtured by living in such a history, building on such a foundation.”
FIRST, A SONG OF JOY LOOKS BACK
PAST PAIN
Remember a time in your life when you were in need and God met you
PAST JOY
Remember the emotions, the deliverance - the testimony - the laughter - the song in your heart.
APPLICATION #1 - Together with family and/or friends - write down a list of God’s past faithfulness and deliverances when you were in need.
Thursday - Family Night...
PRESENT NEED (4)
PRESENT NEED (4)
RESTORE ME
RESTORE ME
THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW
The sounds of laughter and songs have once again turned to silence of need and longing.
It is a cry to be RESTORED, RENEWED
#1 We Have Need
#2 God is Our Help
NEGEB
NEGEB
PRESENT NEED
The song has moved from looking at God’s past deliverance and declaring our present need for help.
There is hope that JOY will once again return “like streams in the Negeb!” (126:4)
NEGEV DESERT
The Negeb in the south of Israel is a vast Desert
4,633 Miles of vast desert - receiving only 1 - 10 inches of rain per year
We simply call this September in Florida. We receive more rain in one month than this region receives all year.
The sun drinks up any moisture leaving the ground barren and parched …
BRIDGE
BRIDGE
This is why I said at the beginning that this Song of Joy is for the:
Tired & Weary
Dry & Discouraged
Numb & Exhausted
This is a song for those who are crying out - Restore me! Renew Me!
Perspective #1 - Look Back
Perspective #2 - Look Ahead
Eugene Peterson writes, “There is no reason to suppose that God will arbitrarily change his way of working with us. What we have known of him, we will know of him. Just as joy builds on the past, it borrows from the future. It expects certain things to happen.”
TRUST IN GOD’S FUTURE PROMISES (5-6)
TRUST IN GOD’S FUTURE PROMISES (5-6)
RAIN IN THE DESERT
RAIN IN THE DESERT
The sun drinks up any moisture leaving the ground barren and parched … but there are seeds hidden beneath the cover of dust and sand. Though months pass without rain we know that in years past God sends rain and will send rain once again.
When the clouds release the joyous rains, the dry channels from past rains will spring to life.
The desert blossoms with bright, bold, and deep colors as though the earth itself is breaking into song.
The Bold Red Anenome
The Deep Purple Negev Iris
This is a picture of Future Joy
Longing & Waiting | Hopeful & Expecting
SEED OF PAST JOY of God’s faithfulness in your life - and planting it in problems of today.
SEED OF FUTURE HOPE in God’s continued faithfulness - to give you strength to carry on through the night.
SOW IN SORROW, HARVEST WITH JOY
SOW IN SORROW, HARVEST WITH JOY
SOW IN TEARS | REAP WITH JOY
You may plant those seeds today with tears and a heavy heart but you will harvest the fruit of those seeds with shouts of joy and laughter.
“Sorrow may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)
This is how we endure. This is how we don’t lose heart.
BEARING THE SEED |
May you resonate with verse 6 this morning…
“Weep as you plant this seeds in the desert”
As far as your eye can see the land is barren and carry the weight of hopelessness and despair
HOPE
There is a song rising - though you can’t hear it yet
There is a harvest coming - though you can’t see it
2 ACTIONS
Look Back - Remember God’s Past faithfulness
Look Ahead - Trust in God’s future promises
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
EUGENE PETERSON
“One of the most interesting and remarkable things Christians learn is that laughter does not exclude weeping. Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow. Pain and hardship still come, but they are unable to drive out the joy of the redeemed.
A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.”
CHRISTIAN CAN GRIEVE WITH HOPE
CHRISTIAN CAN GRIEVE WITH HOPE
Because joy is an anchor of trust the holds firm to Jesus and not just a fleeting emotion… Christians can grieve while maintaining a hopeful joy.
FUTILE STRATEGY OF PAIN
FUTILE STRATEGY OF PAIN
Eliminate everything that hurts in the relentless pursuit of comfort
Numb our nerve endings so we don’t feel pain
Activity, Entertainment, TV, Work, Exercise, Alcohol, - we take good things and use them with excess to bury and mask our pain
Get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks
Get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships
Lighten the boredom and pain by vacations and entertainment.
THERE ISN’T A HINT OF THESE MECHANISMS ANYWHERE IN PSALM 126
FAITHFUL STRATEGY FOR JOY
FAITHFUL STRATEGY FOR JOY
LOOK BACK - REMEMBER GOD’S PAST FAITHFULNESS
LOOK AHEAD - TRUST IN GOD’S FUTURE PROMISES
GOD’S PROMISES:
“Nothin can separate you from God’s Love. - life, death, angels, demons, fears for today or worries about tomorrow, no powers of hell - nothing.” Romans8:38
Never Alone! “
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
You are redeemed, called son and daughter,
“God’s peace guards your heart” - Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
COMMUNION
COMMUNION
TO THE JOYFUL - THANKSGIVING
TO THE HURTING - LONGING & REMEMBRANCE
BENEDICTION
BENEDICTION
GUESTS & GIVING
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wednesday Night Prayer & Devo at 7:00 PM - Engaging with the Holy Spirit
What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit or quench the Holy SPirit.
How does the Holy Spirit fill us?
Children’s Ministry Starts next Week
Service Transition Process
Wipe down seats
Put unused communion elements in bins at the door when you exit
9:00 AM SERVICE
3 Volunteers to reset the communion elements
Exit through the courtyard
10:30 Service
5 volunteers to help us reset
BENEDICTION
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.