Laughter

God created laughter to boosts the immune system.

Laughter will reduce blood pressure.

Laughter will help your digestive system and help you lose weight

People that laugh a lot are less likely to have a heart attack than people that don’t laugh.

Laughter is good for the soul.

Friends, there is healing power in laughter.

The Book of Ps. 137 tells about the time Children of Israel by the waters of Babylon.

1. Israel had been Captured by the armies of Babylon

2. They were exiled...and led away from their own homeland.

3. They were captured and forced into slavery in Babylon.

B. As they look around...

They saw the land was very different from their homeland.

The hill they saw...could not compare to hills of Zion.

C. Seeing all of these differences...

...that there was no comparison to their homeland.

1. There they sat down.

2. There they felt like giving up!

3. They sat down...They were about to quit!

D. They wept.

They cried out in bitter sorrow remembering their homeland...and the hills of Zion.

Psalm 137: 1-2 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars

we hung our harps,

They could not sing!!!

They would not sing!!!

Their captures...Babylon demanded of them a song.

"Sing us a song like you sung in Zion."

1. They could not sing!!!

2. There they sat down.

3. They cried!

What really happened to the Children of Israel was...that they had lost their joy.

Do you need to find your Joy again?

I can be Poor, yet I am rich.

I can be weak, yet I can also be strong.

The merriest laugh I ever heard was in the sick-room of one of God’s dear children.

Because they knew that the greatest healing and the greatest life was still to come.

3. The next laughter I want to mention is what the Bible calls the “The fool’s laugh”

or the expression of sinful laughter at another person’s misery.

Solomon in his wisdom made a comparison.

What is the laughter of a fool like?

He says: “It is the crackling of thorn brush under a pot.”

The kettle is hung between two rods and swung over the fire pit,

The dry thorn brush is put under it,

and the fire is lit

there is a great noise, popping and crackling and there is a big blaze

and then a sputter and it quickly burns out.

Then it is dark again!

That is the Fool’s laughter!

That is the laughter at someone else’s misery.

It is that “ah ha! Gotcha moment.”

You are finally gonna get what you deserve.

It is the miserable in the world who find a brief joy in making other people miserable.

Have you met someone like this?

They find joy in other people’s misery.

Listen I have seen and heard people make fun of others,

Revel in their demise and trouble

Joke about their job loss

Find merriment in their relationship break ups and divorce

Only to find themselves in the same place or in a worse condition a short time later.

I do not say it was a judgment of God on them.

But I do say that merriment born out of the misery of others is wrong.

The road to hell is a gradual one—the gentle slope, an easy path, with no sudden turnings,

without milestones, without signposts.…