Well we are almost through the prophets, both major and minor. And you’ll recall from earlier messages that the designation Major and Minor has nothing to do with the importance of the Prophet or his message, instead it is indicative of the length of his message. And most of these guys had a fairly depressed outlook on life and their message was basically Turn or Burn. So imagine my surprise when reading through the book of Zechariah and discovering words like “Joy” “Celebrate” and “Rejoice.” The warnings were still there, Zechariah hadn’t gone soft on us, but they were tempered and balanced by these admonitions to cheer up.
So who was this Zechariah, and what was with the cheerfulness? We do know that Zechariah wrote the book that bears his name, which is the 38th book of the Bible. He was a priest as well as a prophet who was born in Exile but returned to Jerusalem as a young man.
The book was written in the eighth month of the second year of Darius. That make it relatively simple to date. Just as if we said something had been written in the eighth month of the second year of Trudeau we would know that it happened in August of 1969. In the same way we know that this letter was written in November of 520 B.C., so almost exactly 2524 years ago.
Why was it written? Zechariah was reminding the Jews what God had done through them and what God was going to do through them. And through it all Zechariah tells the people of God to Rejoice, to celebrate and to be filled with joy.
1 Peter 1:8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
You trust in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious Joy. Is that a commentary on your life? Are you joy filled, does the Lord give you joy? Author Tim Hansel tells how he once received a telegram that very simply said, “Until further notice celebrate, everything!” Most of us, me included need to receive a telegram just like that; it’s unfortunate but true that many of us tend to get into the mind-set that says, “Until further notice mope!”
But I am here today to state that I think that we need to take the words of Paul to heart when he said in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Always be joyful. Not sometimes be joyful, or occasionally be joyful or every now and then be joyful but always be joyful.
Now in saying that we need to realize that there is a vast difference between the joy or happiness that Christ gives and what we traditionally think of as happiness. Traditionally what we think of as happiness is directly related to our external stimuli. That is to say that if I feel good then I must be happy and if I don’t feel good then I must not be happy.
Paul Tillich reminds us that happiness is possible even in pain and suffering but pleasure alone can never create happiness. We live in a world that is obsessed with happiness and the pursuit of this elusive state of mind. The world tries with it’s happy pills, and happy hours, and happy faces to stay in perpetual bliss but that isn’t the way that life works. I love the comments of William Lyon Phelps who states “If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care, than the happiest individual would not be either man or woman, it would be, I think, an American
cow.” You say OK, but why should I be happy? Well to be frank:
1) You Should Rejoice Because God wants you to. As a matter of fact the Scriptures command us to rejoice remember 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Always be joyful.
and we could add to that Psalm 5:11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Protect them, so all who love your name may be filled with joy.
not to mention Philippians 2:17-18 But even if my life is to be poured out like a drink offering to complete the sacrifice of your faithful service (that is, if I am to die for you), I will rejoice, and I want to share my joy with all of you. And you should be happy about this and rejoice with me.
and Psalm 32:11 So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure! and let’s not forget Psalm 98:4-6 Shout to the Lord, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy! Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song, with trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn. Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King! Now that doesn’t sound like your typical Wesleyan Church does it?
So first off we should be happy because Scripture commands it. Now I know that should be enough. With that one thought in mind we ought to leave here as joy filled Christians with a song in our hearts and a smile on our faces. But if that isn’t good enough how about this:
2) We Should Rejoice Because It’s Good For Us Honest it is, and if you don’t believe me then listen to what Solomon has to say in Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.
This has actually been substantiated through scientific research. Hey I mean Solomon knew it 4000 years ago, but we had to prove it before we would believe it right. They have proven that laughter changes chemicals in our bodies and releases endorphins promoting a feeling of well being. It doesn’t even have to be genuine or spontaneous laughter, it can be forced of contrived laughter and it will still work. We’ve known the opposite for years, after all what does worry produce? Anxiety, sleeplessness, and large gapping holes in your stomach
A man by the name of Norman Cousins wrote a book called “Anatomy of an Illness” At one point Cousins was lying in bed near death from Collagen disease, Which meant that the connective tissues in his body was breaking down. Cousins recalls that as he was lying so close to death that he heard two doctors talking and one of them said, “I’m afraid we’re going to lose Norman” His head came up and he said, “Norman, I’m Norman!”
That afternoon he did the most remarkable think, he got himself dressed, struggled down to the admissions office and leaned on the counter and told the nurse, “I’m checking out” and she said, “You can’t do that” and he replied “You don’t understand, I’m Norman and they’re losing Norman, I’m checking out.” True story. Checked into a hotel and had his wife bring him Charlie Chaplain movies and episodes of his favourite TV program “Candid Camera.” Norman Cousins discovered that 15 minutes of belly laughter was worth 2 hours of pain free sleep.
He went off all medications except for high doses of vitamin C and high doses of laughter, and he got well. He so shook up the medical world that for years he spoke in conferences to literally thousands of doctors on the importance of laughter.
3) We Should Rejoice to Make the Gospel Attractive You don’t need me to tell you that to many people you are Christianity, and so they judge all Christians by the way you behave, pretty scary isn’t it? But you say “Denn, I just can’t be what I’m not, and I’m just not the bubbly, cheerful, happy type.” but Paul wrote in the book of 2 Corinthians 5:17 What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! I wonder if when we traded in the old for the new if somehow we forgot our disposition and countenance?
Oliver Wendell Holmes “I might have gone into the ministry if it had not been for certain clergyman who looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
That unfortunately one area where there is very little distinction between clergy and laity. It is very difficult to believe that the joy of the Lord is your strength when your bottom lip is dragging on the ground. “Well praise God , I’m so glad to be serving a risen God. He fills my soul with inner joy, you too could rejoice like me, would you like to experience the true happiness that only Jesus can give.”
Hot dog with an invitation like that I’d rather jump off the MacDonald Bridge.
Mark Twain once gave a description of a gentleman he knew. and it fits t a T some Christians that I’ve met since I’ve been in the ministry. None of them here. Now if’n you haven’t smiled in 30 years and have the disposition of a hound dog nuzzling a porcupine I’m really not talking about you, and if you think this description fits someone you know don’t look around because someone might be staring at you! Twain described the man as “A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg that looked like he was waiting for a vacancy on the Trinity.”
Trust me when I tell you that in 2004 nobody is interested in something that will make them miserable. If you are trying to sell a car what do you do? You clean it up don’t you? You vacuum out the interior, you clean the dash, make the windows sparkle, was the exterior and then top it off with a gleaming coat of wax. You’re not making it what it isn’t, you ’re simply showing it off to it’s best advantage.
Charles Spurgeon was instructing some young preachers and he gave them some advice that we’d all be wise to follow, “When you speak of heaven let your face light up. let it be irradiated with a heavenly gleam, let your eyes shine with reflected glory, but when you speak of hell, well your ordinary face will do.”
You say “fine, you’ve convince me of why I should rejoice, but what should I rejoice over?”
A) We Need To Rejoice Because Of Who We Are.
Psalm 139:14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—and how well I know it.
How’s your self-esteem, can you say “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—and how well I know it.
You say “Denn, I’ll have you know that I’m not that vain.” Let’s be honest, OK? Are you really humble or is it that you just don’t like yourself very much? I’m just asking.
When you look in the mirror in the morning can you honestly say, “Thank you Lord for making me who I am and what I am” or do you say, “Hey, I am either too fat or too short, like I either have to lose 60 lbs or get 8 inches taller”
But think about it you are a walking talking miracle, only God could have made you what you are. Engineers have never devised a machine to equal God’s supreme Achievement, You! we’ve covered this before but it bears repeating, Every minute of our lives the heart pumps over five litres of blood through our bodies, that’s over 300 litres of blood an hour, 7,200 litres of blood a day through a network of 96,000 km of arteries, veins and capillaries.
Think about it, you represent on the average, 5 million hairs, 20 sq. Feet of skin, 650 muscles, 206 bones, 100 joints, 96,000 km of blood vessels and over 13 million nerve cells.
Within you there is enough fat for four cakes of soap, enough lime to white wash a small shed, the carbon equivalent of 14 kilos of coal, enough phosphorus to make 2,200 matches, enough iron for a 1 inch nail and for good measure a spoonful of sulphur and 28 grams of various metals other then iron. In the course of your life time you will eat 45,400 kilos of food, drink 45,000 litres of liquid and walk about 24,000 km.
You are special and it is not vain to accept that.
Christ told us in Matthew 19:19 love your neighbour as yourself. And that is what causes most of our problems; we love our neighbours as ourselves which isn’t very much. Every one of us was created as a special miracle, and to think of ourselves as any less then that is to question the very sovereignty of God and that my friends is blasphemy.
You are not a mistake or a goof or an accident, you are a divine creation, spoken into being by the same God who fashioned the Great Barrier Reef, who moulded the Rocky Mountains with his hands, scooped out the Grand Canyon with His fingers and cast the Milky Way into the night sky. Rejoice because God has entrusted you with his greatest creation, you! When we realize that we are not just a cosmic accident but are instead part of the divine design then we can rejoice.
2) We Need To Rejoice Because God Loves Us John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Now to be truthful I have some problems with this particular passage of Scripture, not serious problems or even theological problems, but semantic problems. Not with what it says but with how it says it. For God so loved the world, now I know that is true, I have no problem with that, and I know that He loved the world so much that He sent Jesus but it’s when I think of God’s love divided by over 6 billion people that it begins to lose it’s impact. But dividing God’s love isn’t like dividing a pizza, there’s as much there for me as there is for the rest of the world combined.
Let’s narrow it down a bit, For God so loved you that he gave his only Son, so that if you believe in him you will not perish but will have eternal life. Maybe if we personalise it, I could say For God so loved Denn that he gave his only Son, so that if Denn believes in him Denn will not perish but will have eternal life Can you put your name in the blank? Can you believe that God not only created you but that he died for you?
Let’s try something, we are going to put our own names in the blank, together and out loud, let’s recite John 3:16 with our name in there, ready, For God so loved _____ that he gave his only Son, so that if _____believes in him ______ will not perish but will have eternal life
Can you sing with Anne Warner “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong they are weak but he is strong. Yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me he who died heavens gates to open wide, he will wash away my sin let his little child come in. Jesus take this heart of mine, make it pure and wholly thine. Thou hast bled and died for me: I will hence forth live for thee”
If you can sing, Jesus loves me and mean it then you need to rejoice in that knowledge. What makes you happier then receiving a gift? Especially one that you don’t expect, if someone came up to you in the morning and said “I’d like to give you this just because I love you.”
How would you feel? Right on top of the world right? It wouldn’t have to be a new car, although if you were going to give me a new car on of the new Mustang GTs would be appropriate. But it could be a flower, a book, a cup of coffee. Well cheer up folks because Romans 6:23 says For the wages of sin is death, that’s what we deserve but the good news is the second part of the verse that says, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is the gift that God is offering you, He is saying, “Just because I love you I’d like you to have this small token of my appreciation, eternal life” But you need to accept it and you need to say thank you Lord for forgiving my sins, and then you need to reach out and accept the gift.
If you were drowning and I threw you a rope you’d be ecstatic wouldn’t you? You’d be so filled with joy because I’d saved your life. If you were dying of cancer and I discovered a radical new treatment that cured you, I bet you’d show a little positive emotion wouldn’t you? Why because I’d saved your life. If we show joy when we gain a fleeting few moments of this life, how much more joy should there be when we are granted eternal everlasting life?
We should rejoice because Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15 Work hard so God can approve you. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. Why was Timothy to work hard? So he would be approved right? By whom? Paul? No, the church, no, the board members or deacons, or district superintendent, uh-huh so he’d be approved of God.
3) We need to rejoice because We are Playing to an Audience of One
About fifteen years ago I went through a real struggle with the ministry in general and my ministry in particular, I almost left the pastorate during that time and then I read three things by three separate authors that all said the same thing.
Fred Smith, in Learning to Lead wrote “The shepherd or pastor’s ultimate goal is not to please the sheep but to please God.”
Cecil Paul the author of “Passages of a Pastor” says that pastors need to free themselves from and I quote “The Tyranny of Evaluation “ and finally Tim Hansel writing in his book, until further notice celebrate writes that we need to realize that “we are playing to an audience of one”
About that time Angela and I were pastoring in Truro, we were nudging the 200 mark in morning attendance, we had just finished a new church building and were dealing with all the financial pressures that went with being a quarter of a million dollars in debt, which 16 years ago was real money. I was 28 had an ulcer, and irritable colitis and I was lying awake at night trying to deal with the church growth that I had coveted for so long. A major part of that pressure was trying to please a congregation that was becoming more and more diverse in nature.
And in the midst of that struggle that I was feeling I realised that I had been called not to please the people of whatever church I was pastoring but to please God and God alone. It was at that point in April of 1989 that I came to the place that I decided that I need to live my life before God and not fall into the trap of people pleasing. I don’t know what it did for the people of Truro Wesleyan Church but I know what it did for me, it set me free. And that philosophy followed me around the world to Brisbane Australia and back again to Bedford.
If I constantly feel under the gun to please each person in my congregation then I will never feel joy because I will have to constantly live with the fear of failing someone, because I can’t please everyone. So how do I decide who to please? I may preach a message that tickles half of you pink and infuriates the other half of you. I might write a letter that some of you feel was needed and that some felt was out of line. Do I take turns offending you? No. You see God freed me, he has shown me that I’m not called to make people happy; I am however called to make God happy.
I don’t preach to please you, I preach to please God, and if I make you happy when I preach then hey you got a bonus, but if you get offended well that’s the way it’s gotta be. And someday that may get me fired but I’ll be able to stand before God with a clear conscience. Now where does that leave you? Well pastors aren’t the only ones who feel compelled to please people.
There are people who are constantly evaluating you. Your boss has expectations of you as an employee, children expect certain things of you as a parent, parents expect things and behaviour from you as their son or daughter, as your pastor I expect certainty things from you as a layperson, and others expect things from you as a Christian. And if you are going to live your life trying to please everyone then you are destined to live a joyless, self destructive life.
You need to realize that you are to get your ultimate strokes from God and that if you faithfully please Him then the rest will come along because in pleasing God you will become a more valuable employee, a loving spouse, a faithful friend and a dedicated church member and you will be playing to an audience of one and therefore responsible for pleasing only one. God.
Let each one of us learn to laugh, learn to rejoice always and remember when you’re laughing to learn to laugh at yourself, because here’s a little secret I’ve learned through the years “If I can laugh at myself I will never ceased to be amused.”
If you joy is based on circumstances this morning then you need to give your life over to the Lord and let Him place His joy within.
I hope you enjoyed the message. PowerPoint is available for this message, email me at denn@powerpoint4preaching.com or visit www.powerpoint4preaching.com
