Find Joy Through Family! Series

Find Joy Through Your Family!

Series: Find Joy in the Journey

Thesis of series: Joy needs to be experienced in the journey of life! But Joy, like any other attitude, can come and go. It is not guaranteed simply because we are born again believers. We must put ourselves in the places where experiencing joy is a possibility. We need to go after and find joy in our journey of life. What are you doing to cultivate joy? Remember joy is a choice!

Many get all caught up in our, so called, destinations but in the process, we never enjoy the moments in the journey of life to that destination. But God is more concerned with the journey, than the destination so we need to focus less on the destination and enjoy the journey today – we need to find the joy in the here and now.

Introduction to Series:

Quote from Chuck Swindoll’s book “Laugh Again”: “I know of no greater need today than the need for joy. Unexplainable, contagious joy. Outrageous joy.”

Studying about joy in Scripture, looking at verses which speak of joy, helps build an understanding of how to put ourselves in places where it is possible to find and maintain an attitude of joy in our journey of life. Scripture reveals it is possible to find laughter and joy in living life in a sin-filled world! The Apostle Paul teaches us this can be done!

Scripture Texts for 2019:

Phil. 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

John 15:11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Sermon: Finding Joy in the Journey through Family!

Thesis: We need to learn the keys to having a healthy family if we want to fend off the attack of the enemy on our families. If we want to experience joy in the journey of life!

Texts: Ephesians 5: 1-33; I Corinthians 13

Introduction:

It’s no secret that Satan has declared all out war on Biblical families. In the Garden of Eden, he disrupted the marriage of Adam and Eve with deception about God. In the very next chapter of the Bible, his influence was so great that a brother killed a brother and the killing and dysfunction in families has continued on thru time. From that moment in Genesis His focus has been on destroying Biblical homes.

Question: You may be thinking – Why?

Why does Satan and his demonic forces attack biblical families? The following thoughts are from an article from Chuck Lawless:

Bottom line - He aims in general to destroy what God has created. That’s just his destructive nature. If God had granted him permission to do so, he would have killed Job and wiped out all biblical families he could.

Listen carefully the enemy is not your spouse – your wayward child or even other family members it is the influence and deception of Satan on other people. It’s a spiritual war not a fleshly war!

The enemy wants to destroy the witness of our marriage. Paul told us in Ephesians 5 that our marriages are a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the enemy destroys my marriage, I can no longer model the gospel by loving my wife Kathy as Christ loves the church. It would impact my kids and grandkids. It would tarnish the witness for Jesus.

Chuck Lawless states, “Satan hates our children. He delights when our adult decisions affect our children by turning them against God and the church. Sometimes we become the enemy’s tools to do that when we follow his ways more than God’s. The enemy wants to take out the primary place of disciplemaking. The first place for making disciples is in the home, where parents are to disciple their children. When that home is messed up, the church’s disciplemaking work is only harder.”

He strives to remove people from ministry through family conflict. From hindering kids from following their call because of family conflict and strife. The conflict convinces them of God’s unwillingness to care about them. The bottom line is that Satan wants to so destroy and disrupt our homes that we have no energy left to do ministry.

Chuck adds, “Satan wants to redirect the church away from evangelism. He will do whatever he can to keep us from taking the gospel to our non-believing neighbors and the nations” he primarily does this by attacking and disrupting our homes so that our pastors spend all their time trying to put out family fires.