God's Gift Of Joy |
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| Message Series - God's Christmas Gifts For You | |
| Written by Dan Walker | |
| December 16, 2007 | |
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This week I'm going to talk about God's Gift of Joy. God wants to give you and me the gift of joy, joy that is not fleeting but lasting. Christmas should be a time of joy NLT 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Always be joyful. That includes at Christmas. We sing "Joy to the World" at Christmas. The coming of Jesus should bring joy into our lives but sometimes we don't feel too joyful. Two things often keep us from joy in our lives. The first is the bad that shouldn't happen. Bad things happen often because of no fault of our own. People get sick, relationships splinter, jobs are lost, bad things happen. We wonder how can we have joy in such times? The second thing that can keep us from joy is the good that doesn't happen. We have a dream but it never seems to come to pass, your prayer just doesn't seem to get answered. When you look at the bad things that happen that shouldn't and the good that should happen that doesn't, you realize that we live in an imperfect world. So the joy we're talking about today must work in an imperfect world, because that's where you and I live. The message of Christmas is that joy can happen in an imperfect world. Jesus was not born in the perfect circumstances you see in Christmas cards. Jesus was born in a dirty, smelly stable on prickly hay in a manger, not in a sterile soft clean hospital bed. Yet that birth opened the door for the joy of God to pour into our lives. The message of Christmas is that because Jesus came you can choose to be a joyful person. It's all a matter of what you choose to focus on in your life. If you choose to focus on the bad that shouldn't happen, you'll be an angry person. If you choose to focus on the good that doesn't happen, you'll be a discouraged person. But if you choose to focus on the wonderful news that Christmas has brought to our world, you can be a joyful person. It's your choice. Today we want to look at the question "How do I choose joy?" To answer the question we're going to look at some guys who were part of that first Christmas, the shepherds. They were out in their field near Bethlehem and God brought them a message of joy. The end result was joy in their lives, joy because of three choices that they made. Three choices that you and I should also make in order to receive God's gift of joy this Christmas. Message Audio |
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This Christmas season we've been looking at God's Christmas Gifts For You. God's gifts are the best Christmas presents of all. In this series we've looked at God's Gift of Purpose. Jesus came to give purpose and meaning to your life Last week we looked at God's Gift of Strength. You can't fulfill your purpose in life in your own strength, we all need God's power.
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