Joy
There was once a young boy who went to spend the week with his grandfather on the farm. While walking around he noticed the chickens, they were scratching and playing around. The little boy said, “They ain’t got it”.
Next he saw a colt in the field playing and kicking up its heel’s to which he replied, “He ain’t got it”. After examining all of the animals on his grandfather’s farm and seeing that none of them had “it”, this boy finally found the old donkey in the barn. When he saw the donkey’s long, frowning face and the way that the donkey just stood there he yelled for his grandfather to come quick. “I found it, I found it” the boy kept yelling. When his grandfather asked what he had found he said, “Pawpaw, I found an animal that has the same kind of religion that you have.”
Is that the kind of religion we have? Do people see us as donkeys, with long, sad faces? Or do we come with smiles on our faces to joyfully worship God. We need to remember that God created smiles and He created laughter.
When we are in worship we hear many things. But there are some things that we never hear in church. For example: Hey! It’s my turn to sit in the front row!
I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over! - Personally I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf! - I love it when we sing worship songs I’ve never heard before! – and, SINCE WE’RE ALL HERE, LET’S START THE SERVICE EARLY!
And we not only hear laughter. It can also be seen in the written word. I have some examples of bulletin bloopers that can bring smiles to our faces.
Don’t let worry kill you--let the church help. This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and LAY an egg on the altar. Thursday night--Potluck supper. Prayer and MEDICATION to follow. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
"Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands. Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Bill’s sermons.
The choir will sing ‘I heard the BILLS on Christmas Day. Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
A country preacher decided to skip services one Sunday and head to the hills to do some bear hunting. As he rounded the corner on the trail, he and a bear collided, sending him and his rifle tumbling down the mountainside. Before he knew it, his rifle went one way and he went the other, landing on a rock and breaking both legs. That was the good news.
The bad news was the bear charging at him from a distance, and he couldn’t move. "Oh, Lord," the preacher prayed, "I’m so sorry for skipping services today to come out here and hunt. Please forgive me and grant me just one wish . . . please make a Christian out of that bear that’s coming at me. That very instant, the bear skidded to a halt, fell to its knees, clasped its paws together and began to pray aloud right at the preacher’s feet. "Dear God, please bless this food that I am about to receive!"
Three elderly sisters were discussing the travails of getting older. One said, “Sometimes I catch myself with a jar of mayonnaise in my hand in front of the refrigerator and can’t remember whether I need to put it away, or start making a sandwich.”
The second sister chimed in, “I know. Sometimes I find myself on the landing of the stairs and can’t remember whether I was on my way up or on my way down.”
The third one responded, “Well, I’m glad I don’t have that problem; knock on wood.” “IS THAT THE FRONT DOOR OR THE BACK DOOR?”
IT’S GOOD TO LAUGH, ISN’T IT!?! A child laughs 400 times a day on the average, while an adult laughs only 15 times each day. Which makes no sense to me since laughter feels so good and is so good for us! So today I want to share with you about a man who LAUGHED and that’s my JOYFUL JESUS!
That’s right. This is a picture of Jesus laughing. Some 2000 years ago, Jesus came to earth and brought a wonderful change to our lives. He brought hope to a lost and hopeless world. He brought peace which goes deeper than any the world could give.
But He had a SECRET…an OPEN SECRET, spread throughout the entire N.T.! It’s a SECRET that explains the grip that Jesus Christ has had on His followers for over 2000 years! SECRET OF JESUS was – and is – HIS INNER JOY!
Now, you won’t find 1 scripture verse in the Bible that says Jesus laughed. If you read of any emotions expressed by Jesus, what are they? The ones that immediately come to mind for me are anger and sorrow.
In Matthew 21, “Jesus drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the moneychanger’s coins..and..told them, ‘Get these things out of here. Don’t turn my Father’s house into a marketplace.’” And, in the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”
Nothing mentioned of Jesus laughing but I think there’s a reason for that. Anger, especially, was mentioned because it was so out of character for Jesus. Jesus wept but Jesus also LAUGHED!
The JOY of Jesus was evident by His great sense of humor!! He had the ability to see the comical side of many a human situation or predicament. His good-natured approach to life was ROOTED IN A GREAT INNER JOY!
Dr. Michael MacIntosh, The Tender Touch of God: The JOY OF THE LORD was at the tomb of the resurrected Lazarus, overshadowing the sadness and disappointment of the dead man’s sisters.
JOY was there when the leper returned to thank Jesus.
JOY was there when a woman caught in the act of adultery was forgiven and released from her sin.
JOY was there when the deaf heard, the blind saw, and the lame walked.
JOY was there when the little children flocked to Jesus!
JOY was there when the boy gave Jesus his lunch so that HE could work a miracle and feed the thousands.
JOY was there when dawn broke and the women knew that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
EVERYWHERE JESUS WENT, THERE WAS JOY!
We, too, express the JOY OF THE LORD in smiles and laughter and shouts and good cheer, and experience His JOY through WORSHIP, PRAISE, PRAYER AND SONG, in WITNESSING, in HELPING OTHERS, in FELLOWSHIP and DISCIPLESHIP. And I ask you, where can there be more joy than here in church?
GOD CREATED SMILES AND HE CREATED LAUGHTER! But sometimes I think God is a comic playing to an audience that’s afraid to laugh. We’re so stressed by trying to live right, eat right, think right, act right, speak right, parent right, exercise right, look right - that we’ve forgotten the joy of Jesus.
Christmas is a time of celebration, and part of the festive fun is food. Our Thanksgiving-to-Christmas consumption of goodies will leads to a few extra pounds and a resolution to start the New Year with a diet.
There’s nothing wrong with dropping your excess holiday weight. But in our thin is in, Barbie-doll culture, dieting has become a chronic obsession. This approach may have some health benefits, sure, but without exercise you may be easing the load while slowly killing yourself. Killing yourself, that is, with stress.
"You do realize," writes a countercultural commentator named Philip LeFebvre, "that if you stand in front of the pastry case at the coffee shop and calculate calories in your head, trying to figure out if a cookie is going to show up on your hips, you are actually doing more damage to your heart from the stress than if you simply ate the darn cookie and allowed yourself to experience the joy of it, right?
[NOTE: Insert "Cookie Ritual" here. See Participation Pointers below.]
The truth of the matter is that you can eat right, drink your bottled water, take your vitamins, get plenty of sleep, and still get hit by a bus. Looking out the windows at your tragically broken body will be a bunch of people who didn’t think twice about eating that cookie.
So go ahead, relax - enjoy the holiday season. God has created a wonderful world for us, and he wants us to experience joy! It’s not like "Stress to the world, the Lord has come."
It’s not like the archangel burst upon the shepherds and said, "Fear not, for today I bring you tidings of great stress -which shall be to all people." That’s usually the way it works: When we’re stressed, we bring our stress to all people - husband, wife, children, the family pet, friends and co-workers.
Instead, the good news was: "I bring you tidings of great joy that will be for all people." We’re so stressed by trying to live right, eat right, think right, act right, speak right, parent right, exercise right, look right ... that we’ve forgotten the joy of Jesus.
Jesus came to this world as a babe in a manger. Jesus brought hope to the hopeless. The “Prince of Peace” brought peace to our hearts amid the turmoil of the world. Because we have this hope, because we have this peace, we can have great joy. We can rejoice because God’s Son has come.
As Jesus himself said: "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh" (Luke 6:21). The laughter of Jesus is the laughter of hope, of peace, and of joy.
Joy to the world!
