The Voice Of Joy (A Joyful Hope)

Good morning and we welcome everyone to our 1st Sunday for the month of March 2022 with a monthly theme “A Joyful Hope” with our theme verse found in Romans 12:12

Romans 12:12 NLT Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

"Be joyful in hope." This means that, no matter what is going on around us, and no matter where we are at the time, we are constantly looking ahead.

ERV Be happy because of the hope you have. Be patient when you have troubles. Pray all the time.

To rejoice is a command. Jesus promised us His joy, but at times, it can evade us. Let us therefore give voice to joy…

Philippians 4:4 ERV Always be filled with joy in the Lord. I will say it again. Be filled with joy.

What Paul is saying here is that we should rejoice at all times, whether we are sad, happy, angry, confused, or even tired: there shouldn’t be a moment that goes by that we aren’t giving thanks to the Lord for His love and provision.

You cannot make yourself happy, but you can make yourself rejoice, in the sense that you will rejoice in the Lord.

Illustration:

A doctor told his patients that the most dangerous disease of the world is “unhappiness”. It spreads chaos not only in the mind and soul and in one’s relationships but in one’s body as well.

Introduction:

• Joy is distinctly a Christian word and a Christian thing.

• The word ‘joy’ appears nearly 200 times in the Bible, which helps us understand just how important it is.

• True joy comes not from circumstances but from our relationship with Jesus.

The Christian redemption from unhappiness is a needed redemption. If we are not redeemed from unhappiness, we are not fully redeemed.

A very cultured unhappy woman said: “If I had what you have, I wouldn’t be in the mess I am in.” She surrendered the “mess” to Christ and was transformed.

• A joyful heart is a normal result of a heart burning with hope.

• But there is all the difference in the world between rejoicing and being happy.

You cannot make yourself happy, but you can make yourself rejoice, in the sense that you will rejoice in the Lord.

• Happiness is something within ourselves, rejoice is “in the Lord.”

But how do you rejoice when things have turned against you?

How can you rejoice when someone has walked out on you, or you have lost a loved one? How can you rejoice when you have been diagnosed with a terminal disease, or when you live your life in a wheelchair? How can you rejoice when, no matter how hard you try, things are not going right in your church?

• The Scripture conveys that to rejoice in the Lord is to have joy or delight in the Lord; to feel joy when you think of Him always.

Paul does not tell us to rejoice in tragedy that might come our way. He is not asking us to rejoice over the fact that someone we love is gone. He wants us to rejoice "in the Lord."

Paul wants us to rejoice in the God who never changes, who forgives, who always takes us home, and who never turns his back on us.

The closer we live to this Lord, the more we will be able to rejoice in him, even when things turn against us.

Jeremiah 33:11 (AMP Classic Edition)

[There shall be heard again] the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord… Give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good; for His mercy and kindness and steadfast love endure forever! For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed and return to be as it was at first, says the Lord.

Do you know that joy has voice? This is our title for today’s exhortation…

The Voice of Joy

There are 3 truths that I would like everyone to understand whenever we discussed the subject of joy in us particularly the voice of joy.

Truth No. 1 is that Joy is a Spiritual Force

• Joy is not just a state of mind or a fleeting emotion. Joy is a very real force, and the devil doesn’t have anything that can stand up against it.

Joy is not a luxury. Laughter is a powerful force against the wiles of the enemy.

God laughs… Learn to rejoice and laugh.

Now, the world will tell you that joy is a rare and fleeting emotion that only a blessed few experience on a regular basis. But what the world doesn’t know is that Bible joy is not the same thing as worldly happiness.