Shout For Joy Series

INTRO.- Shouting can be good but it also be bad. It depends on where you are shouting and to whom.

ILL.- JACKIE KLEIN is a devoted mother of two little boys in the suburbs of Portland, Ore. She spends hours taking them to soccer and Cub Scouts. She reads child-development books. And she is calm 90 percent of the time. Then there is the other 10 percent, when, she admits, “I have become totally frustrated and lost control of myself.” And then she yells.

Amy McCready, the founder of Positive Parenting Solutions said, “I’ve worked with thousands of parents and I can tell you, without question, that screaming is the new spanking... Parents resort to reminding, nagging, timeout, counting 1-2-3 and quickly realize that those strategies don’t work to change behavior. In the absence of tools that really work, they feel frustrated and angry and raise their voice. They feel guilty afterward, and the whole cycle begins again.”

Is shouting or yelling the answer for parenting? I don’t think so, but I also know that most parents have done this at some time or other. We get frustrated because the kids aren’t behaving so we yell at them.

Proverbs 15:23 “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply—and how good is a timely word!”

Shouting at children is not giving an apt reply for their disobedience or bad behavior. We may think it’s timely, but it isn’t the answer to correcting a child.

Proverbs 13:24 “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”

Proverbs 22:15 “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.”

Even though shouting at kids may not be the right and appropriate thing to do, there may be a time for shouting.Shouting for your favorite team at a ball game may be a good thing, unless you are not sitting in the grandstands of the opposing team!

Beyond shouting at ball games for your favorite team is there a good time to shout? Yes, according to our text, there is.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. It sounds like there is a time and place for shouting. We are to shout for joy about God! Or perhaps shout in joy to the Lord. Our text is telling how we should respond to God if we know Him and walk with Him in life. We should have an ongoing relationship to Him, an ongoing relationship of joy.

PROP.- How should we respond to our great God?

1- We shout for joy

2- We worship with gladness

3- We know (or recognize) He is God

I. WE SHOUT FOR JOY

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Job 8:20-21 “Surely God does not reject a blameless man or strengthen the hands of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”God can fill us with joy and the Holy Spirit. Acts 13:52, Gal. 5:22

Job 33:26 “He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state.” If you see God in scripture how can you not get excited and express joyous praise to Him?

Psalm 42:4 “These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.”

How do you go to the house of God? Have you ever shouted for joy to the Lord? Honestly, I’m not sure that I have. Of course, that depends on how you define shouting for joy to the Lord.

ILL.- Old preacher Vance Havner used to say, “The same church members who yell like Commanche Indians at a ball game on Saturday, sit like wooden Indians in church on Sunday.”

We need to get serious about our faith in Christ. I’m not saying that we all have to yell and scream, whistle and shout, etc. but there should be some sign of seriousness to our Christianity.

Someone once said, “If there’s a throb in the heart there should be a thrill in the step.” Or I would say, at least a smile on the face and a song in the heart.

I don’t know about shouting for joy in the church but I do think an occasional “Amen” to God’s Word might be in order. I’ve heard it said and believe that whenever say “Amen” to God’s Word it says that we agree with God and that’s always a smart thing to do!

ILL.- Walter Scott was a preacher in the early 1800’s. He didn’t try to reform anything, but he did want to help restore the New Testament church as she was in the beginning. His slogan was “Back to the N.T.” This story is told about Walter Scott. One day Scott rode into a schoolyard on his horse. The children gathered around him and he told him to hold up their left hand. When they did, he said, “Put faith on your thumb, repentance on your forefinger, baptism on your middle figure, remission of sins on your ring finger, and the gift of the Holy Spirit on your little finger.” THEN HE HAD THEM REPEAT THOSE WORDS. Faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Over and over, they repeated those words. Then he told him to go home and tell their parents that a man would be down at the schoolhouse to speak on that subject that night. They all went home and told their parents about the strange man who would tell them about faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.