Finding and Keeping Joy in a Joyless World
Psalm 100
As we approach a day set aside for national Thanksgiving God’s Word reminds us that we need to give God heartfelt thanksgiving. Thanksgiving from your heart is the way to find and keep joy in your life.
On December 4, 1619 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Plantation, on the James River near what is now Charles City, Virginia. This group memorialized their arrival with a day of thanksgiving to God. The pilgrim’ first official proclamation of a “Day of Thanksgiving” was a follow-up to a day spent in fasting and prayer for rain instituted by then Governor William Bradford. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a “day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Heavenly Father.”
Thanksgiving helps you to focus on the good and positive things in life rather than on negative and dark things.
John Haggai in his book, “How to Win over Worry?” Tells about a lady that attended the first church where he served as pastor. She was 29 years old and looked like the advance agent of a coming hurricane. She enjoyed poor health. Her house was in turmoil and her general appearance looked like an accident going to happen. She would come to the worship service and shake the pastor’s hand and it was so limp Rev. Haggai said he felt like handing it back to her. He would ask her: “How are you?” and she would spew out her life woes. He quickly learned not to ask her that question. But he said when he took her hand he really shook it and would give her his best smile and look her in the eye and say: “You look so much better. You must be feeling better today.” Within a few months she actually began to look and feel better. Why? Because her attitude of negativism was changed to optimism.
The story is told of two farmers. One was a pessimist, the other an optimist. The optimist would say, “Wonderful sunshine.” The pessimist would respond, “Yes, but I’m afraid it’s going to scorch the crops.”
The optimist would say, “Fine rain.” The pessimist would respond, “yes, but I’m afraid we’re going to have a flood.”
One day the optimist said to the pessimist, “Have you seen my new bird dog? He’s the finest money can buy.” The pessimist said, “You mean that mutt I saw penned up behind your house. Didn’t look like much to me.”
The two went hunting with the dog the next day. They shot some ducks. The ducks landed in the pond. The optimist ordered his dog to get the ducks. The dog obediently responded and instead of swimming in the water the dog walked on top of the water, retrieved the ducks, and walked back on top of the water with the ducks.
The optimist turned to his friend and said, “Now, what do you think of that?” The pessimist replied, “Hmm, he can’t swim can he?”
Thanksgiving reminds you to choose a life of giving praise and thanksgiving to God. The Apostle Paul gives this instruction in I Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Psalm 100 gives helpful instructions on how to maintain the joy of the Lord in your life. To maintain joy you must praise for it.
“Shot for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
To maintain a life of joy according to Psalm 100, you “Must Praise for It.”
You find and keep joy in your life when you “Worship the Lord with a Thankful heart.”
I. Worship the Lord With a Thankful Heart
Psalm 100: 1-2 “Short for joy to the Lord, all the earth, worship the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful songs.”
You maintain joy when you regularly worship the Lord with a thankful heart. Worship is more than a performance. It is an act of expressing love to God from your heart.
Worship is more than entertainment. Worship is an expression of your heart and soul.
When we gather together for worship we do so to exalt and lift up the name of Jesus. You get out of worship what you put into it.
The story is told of a man who decided to become a monk and joined an order where silence was the cardinal rule. He could only say two words every decade. After ten years, the head monk called him. “Well,” he said, “you can say your two words now.” The man replied, “food tasteless.” Having said his piece, the monk returned to his quarters to spend the next ten years.
After ten more years passed, he was once again summoned to his superior’s office to speak just two words. This time he said, “Bed hard.”
Another ten years passed, now a total of thirty years, and the head of the order summoned the monk again. He was told that the time had come for him to speak his two words. He said, “I quit.” Immediately the head monk jumped up and responded, “I am not surprised. You have been complaining every since you got here.”
Your goal in worship is to celebrate the presence of God and express your love to God. You worship through many ways:
Singing hymns and Gospel Songs and Choruses
Being inspired by special music
Listening to Scripture and the Word preached
Participating in Prayer
Praying at the altar for special payer requests
Making a commitment to act on insights from God’s Word.
Find a life of joy by worshipping the Lord with a thankful heart.
Psalm 100: 1-2 “Short for joy to the Lord, all the earth, worship the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful songs.”
II. Affirm that You are A Child of God
You find and keep a life of joy by affirming that you are a child of God.
Psalm 100: 3 “Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. V. 5 “For the Lord is good, and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
You are created in the spiritual image of God. St. Pascal wrote centuries ago, “Man was created with a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill.” St. Augustine also wrote, “Man is restless until he finds rest with God.”
God is your heavenly Father. He created you for a purpose. You are wonderfully made. Someone has said, that “God made you and God doesn’t make junk.” You are precious in His sight.
The Bible teaches that you become a child of God through putting your faith in Jesus and accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. God has a wonderful plan for your life but sin blocks you from knowing His plan for your life. John chapter 1 says that Jesus was in the beginning of creation with God and Jesus is God. Through Jesus all things were created. Jesus was in the world, and though the world was made through Jesus the world did not recognize him. He came to this world and the world rejected Jesus and crucified him on a cruel cross. Verse 12-13, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” You become a child of God through a spiritual birth.
As a child of God you know that God will take care of you. God is for you and not against you. His faithfulness continues from one generation to another.
My Great grandfather on my mother’s side was a Christian, Child of God, my grandfather was a Christian, and my mother was a Christian. My father became a Christian later in life. My four children are all professing Christians. God’s faithfulness does carry through from one generation to another. If you haven’t had the privilege of having a Christian heritage you can become the beginning of a new generation of God’s faithfulness.
To find a life of joy you must praise for it.
First – Worship with Lord with a thankful heart.
Second – Affirm that you are a child of God
Third:
III. Practice Living a Life of Thanksgiving and Praise
Psalm 100:4 “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Living an attitude of praise is a healthy way to live.
Proverbs 17:22 “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 4:22 Good news is “life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.”
Proverbs 25:11 “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”
God’s Word is Good news. Good news gives you hope and a sense of wellbeing.
The devotional reading for November 6th in Daily Bread reports on an article published in 1997 in the American Heart association journal. The article noted the negative physical consequences of hopelessness. The article stated that people who had experienced extreme feelings of hopelessness and despair had a 20% greater increase in arteriosclerosis--hardening of the arteries over a 4-year period. Other studies connect hopelessness to heart disease and heart attack and death.
The Psalmist said, “Come before the Lord with thanksgiving and praise.” You alone determine if you will have an attitude of thanksgiving.
From time to time it’s good to check your attitude. Did you know that planes have an attitude? The attitude instrument is a critical part of the planes instrument panel. The attitude instrument tells the position of the airplane in relation to the horizon. When climbing the airplane has a nose-high attitude and when diving it has a nose-down attitude. The attitude of the plane determines its performance. To change the performance of the plane you change its attitude.
The Apostle Paul taught, Philippians 2:5 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” Your attitude determines your outlook on life. Your attitude determines whether you see the glass half empty or half full.
Which of these four attitudes best reflects your life:
1 – “Make the World Go Away.”
2 – “Raindrops keep Falling on my Head.”
3 – “I did it my way.”
4 – “Oh, what a beautiful morning.”
I Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
What is God’s will for you, to be a negative, moaning, complaining and critical person? No! “Be joyful always, how? 1. Pray continually. 2. Give thanks in all things. 3. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Hearts focuses in Jesus sees the bright side of every situation. Hebrews 12:1-3 gives practical advice on how to maintain joy in your life.
Verse 1 “Throw off everything that hinders and the sins that so easily entangles.”
Throw off bitterness – get rid of all past hurts
Throw off anger – when out of control turn control over ` the Jesus
Throw off all desires for revenge – Don’t say, “I’ll never rest until I to ------------- to -------------- to get even.” Do say, “I’ll forgive and turn the past, present and future over to the Lord. I’ll rest in Him.
Verse 2 “Fix your eyes of Jesus who for the joy set before us – endured the Cross.”
Jesus was treated unjustly. He did nothing wrong
Jesus was spat upon – he did not retaliate
Jesus was wounded – he cried out in agony (crown of
thorns were pressed into his head, nails driven into his
hands and feet)
Jesus died praying: “Father forgive them, for they do not
know what they are doing.”
Verse 3 “Consider Jesus who endured such opposition for sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
To find and keep a life of joy – you must praise for it. This Thanksgiving put into practice Psalm 100:
– Worship with Lord with a thankful heart.
– Affirm that you are a child of God
-Practice Living a Life of Thanksgiving and Praise
Consider Jesus – A Jesus filled life is a life of joy overflowing with thanksgiving.
“I found happiness, I found peace of mind.
I found the joy of living, perfect love divine,
I found real contentment,
Happy living in accord.
I found new happiness all of the time,
Wonderful peace of mind when
I found the Lord.”
