Pastor Raymond Osborne

�The Second Fruit of the Spirit - Joy�
Romans 5:1-11

This morning�s message is one of the occasional participatory sermons. What I want you to do is repeat after me:

�Woe!�

Okay that was fairly good, but sound a little more miserable when you do it. Try it again for me, �Woe!�

Now I�m going to sing a little chorus and I�m fairly confident you�ll know where your part comes in. Ready?

Gloom, despair, and agony on me! �Woe!�
Deep dark depression, excessive misery! �Woe!�
If it weren�t for bad luck I�d have no luck at all! �Woe!�
Gloom, despair, and agony on me!

Oh we laugh because we think it�s funny, but it hits close to home doesn�t it?

Have you ever noticed that quite often God�s people are the saddest looking bunch in the room? I mean we spend most of our time walking around with our knuckles dragging the ground!

Do you know that Jesus wants us to be JOYFULL people?

In the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John we have what I call, �the real Lord�s prayer.� I want to share some of the words of that prayer with you this morning.

6"I have revealed you[1] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.� (NIV)

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you? And in that prayer Jesus asks that you may have a �full measure� of his joy in you!

What is it that we, as Christians have to be joyful about?

1. We are children of God, and brothers and sisters of Jesus! Remember the words of the Apostle I shared in the first message? �16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.�

I do my very best to raise my children in a way that they will know that they are loved unconditionally. Throughout my years of serving Christ and His church I have found myself on numerous occasions listening to individuals whose lives were permanently scared by their parents. My feeble attempt as I grope for words of wisdoms usually leads me to say, �But do you know that you are not only a child of your earthly parents, but you are a child of God, and that God will never treat you in any way other than that of parental perfection?�

You and I should become filled with JOY to know that we are children of God!

2. Secondly, we have reason to be joyful because we have eternal life through Jesus the Christ! For God so loved you and me that he gave what? His only Son! That if you and I come to believe in him we will have what? Eternal life!

We are told in the Acts of the Apostles, �And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.� (Acts 2:21) Notice the inclusiveness that is part of the salvific nature of Almighty God! I don�t care who you are, if you will allow yourself to have an intimate relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior of you life, then that which God has promised is yours! That beloved, is something to be joyful about!

3. Thirdly, as God�s children, we ought to be joyful that God is a God with an unending well of grace and forgiveness! In 1 John we receive a promise more valuable than all money or material possessions this world has to offer!

�If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!� (1 John 1:9)

If you and I come to God in sincere repentance, seeking his forgiveness, then we are promised that we will receive it!

Not only does God forgive our sins, but he forgets them! Did you know that? Stephanie told me just the other day that she had a dream that she died and went to heaven. St. Peter gave her the grand tour! At some point in that tour he led her into a room with all these clock-looking devices and each one had a name underneath it. �What are these?� she asked. �These are what is known as sinometers Stephanie. This is how we keep track of everyone�s sins up here.� �Wow! Can I look up some people I know?� �Well, I don�t know.� �Oh please, pretty please? I�ll bake you whatever kind of cheesecake you want.� �Okay, I�m not looking! I did not see this!�

So Stephanie goes out in pursuit and the first one she looks for is Judy Payseur. Click. . .click. .click. Then she decided to look up Buc Ross, Click. . . .clickclickclick. Wow! Then she decided she�d look for mine. Guess what? It wasn�t there! �Hey Pete! (they�re on first name basis by now) Where is Raymond Osborne? I�ve looked but I can�t find it.� �Well, let�s see, that just can�t be. It�s got to be here somewhere. Oh! Now I remember! That baby was moving so fast they�re using it down in hell for a fan!�

That�s a cute story, but you know what? There is no such thing as a �sinometer.� How do I know that? Let me read you a verse from Jeremiah, �And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.� (Jeremiah 31:34 KJV)

Not only does God forgive us of our sins, he buries them deep in the well of forgetfulness. Now that is something for you and I to be joyful about! Even if we can�t forgive ourselves for things in our past, God does!

4. Finally, one of my favorite verses in the Bible says, �Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.� (1 John 4:4 NIV) Let that saturate your souls beloved! That�s a reason to shout! There is nothing in this world that is greater than the one living within our lives! Nothing!

Listen to the words of the Apostle:
�35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.� (Romans 8:35-39 NIV)

Beloved, we are to be producing the fruit of the Spirit and one of those fruit is joy. You may not have that joy in your life right now, but I assure you God wants you to have it! This is the day that the Lord has made! REJOICE and be GLAD in it!

We began by singing I want us to end by singing! Find the words that were printed in your bulletins this morning and sing with me!

I�ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart! Where?
Down in my heart! Where?
Down in my heart!
I�ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart to stay!

Chorus:
And I�m so happy! So very happy!
I�ve got the joy of Jesus in my heart!
And I�m so happy! So very happy!
I�ve got the joy of Jesus in my heart!

Verses:
I�ve got the peace that passes understanding

And if the devil doesn�t like it he can sit on a tack

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen!

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