We are familiar with the first two verses of this passage from Isaiah. Jesus quoted it in Luke 4. That same Spirit is upon us who have been given the commission and charge to do the same – to be like Jesus to the world around us.

We have the responsibility and the authority and power to

• preach good tidings unto the poor,
• to bind up the broken-hearted,
• to proclaim liberty to the captives,
• to loose those that are bound;
• to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
• and the day of vengeance of our God;
• to comfort all that mourn;

Now, that is our responsibility and ministry – each of us – to do these things. But it is verse three I want to center on today. This is the verse we leave out, and we cannot leave out anything in God’s Word.

Among other things, Jesus came:

Beauty for ashes – Imagine your beautiful home burning to the ground and all you have left is ashes. That happens to many things in our lives, not literally, but essentially. We are left only too often with nothing but ashes of what used to be beautiful.

But God can raise the ashes up and restore them to beauty. He can resurrect anything. Our God is a God of Restoration.

The oil of joy for mourning – He can turn our sadness into joy. Do you have joy? There is a literal epidemic of depression in our world today. People are down – people got the blues – people are discouraged, if not downright in despair.

But God can remove our mourning and turn it into joy.

The oil of joy and the garment of praise signify what the people would do to prepare for a celebration. They would anoint themselves with fragrant oils, facial creams, in order to lift the countenance (the facial expression). And they would put on festive clothing.

You know, it wouldn’t hurt some of us to take off those black mourning outfits and put on a party dress every once in a while. I don’t agree with the minister who said that God is a ‘party animal’. That seems a bit disrespectful to me. But I do think God likes a celebration – particularly from those who have been blessed as we have.

Martin Luther’s life, one day, came into his study dressed in black clothes of mourning. Luther asked her who had died. She said, "God!" He jumped up and yelled, "What do you mean God is dead? Are you mad? God is not dead! Where did you get such a fool idea?" She said, "From you! You’ve been moping around here for days as if God had died."

Hey! God’s not dead. Smile! Shout! Celebrate! God’s alive. Jesus is alive. Are you alive?

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. A spirit of heaviness is a mood or attitude of depression, gloominess, blues.

Well so what! Jesus was nailed to the cross so you could get free from that ‘whipping post’ mentality.

Now, I want to make four points here.

Do not be anxious! Don’t worry! Fear Not! You haven’t faced anything yet that God cannot handle.

Are you tired of being anxious? Are you tired of worry zapping your time and energy? Do you want the peace that passeth understanding?

If you’re anxious and want to be set free, please stand up.

Now your part is to cast your care, or anxiety, upon Him. You do that through prayer. That’s what we are going to do. The peace is His responsibility. You can’t buy peace. You can’t strive for it, for strife is the opposite of peace. You have to receive it from God. You need supernatural peace. PRAY

A friend of mine, years ago, recorded and song that said, "Put on the garment of praise." That’s good advice, and I’m sure we have a duty to do that, but that’s not what this passage says. It says that Jesus came to give us a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

In other words, He came to lift our gloominess and give us joy. Psalm 40:3 says:

I think we have taken too much on ourselves sometimes. We assume the responsibility for too much. Sure, we have a responsibility to live right, to help ourselves a little, to be obedient, etc. But we face the danger of turning Christianity into a psychological attitude adjustment instead of a radically life-changing miraculous experience with Jesus.

Faith is not psychology! Faith does what psychology cannot do. Faith picks up where psychology fails. Faith help those of us who cannot help ourselves.

(By the way, the Bible does not say, "God helps those who help themselves.")

Yes, you need to praise God. You need to offer the sacrifice of praise when you don’t feel like it. But even more than that, you need a touch from God to give you a spirit, or attitude, of praise. Let God lift the blues from you.

If you need a ‘blues lift’, please stand up! PRAY

David was certainly in a depressing situation. You think you’ve got it bad, but at least nobody is picking up rocks yet. So David encouraged himself.

Now, here is the point I want to make. You cannot find lasting joy outside of God. But, once you receive that joy from him, you have to continue to enjoy it. Don’t expect other people to keep you excited, or inspired, or to make you happy, or to encourage you. They will let you down.

Sometimes you just have to encourage yourself. Talk to yourself! David did!

You need to give yourself a little pep talk every so often. Often nobody else will. Don’t look to somebody else for your joy or happiness. Nobody can make you happy but you. (Even God can’t make you happy if you don’t want it.)

The point is this – You must control your emotions. You must rule over them. You don’t have to give in to moods. Take charge.

You don’t think you can do that? Sure you can. Just try answering the phone while you’re in an argument with your spouse. "You lazy, no good…ring…Jesus loves you, Rick speaking."

Paul told Timothy to:

How? The same way you stir the sugar in your tea, you need to stir the sugar in your spirit.

• Read your Bible – how will you know it if you don’t’ read it? It will change you.
• Pray – prayer puts you in communion with God and communion with Him will change you.
• Fellowship with other believers – we affect one another. We need the good influence of others.

Do you have abundant life, or are you just doing your time here on earth? "Can’t wait till this is over!"

If that’s the case, then you might as well go on and die and get it over with. You won’t do much good down here with that attitude. Jesus has abundant life, and He’s giving it away to all takers. You just have to go to Him and claim your prize.

If you are a Christian, you should be bubbling over with joy. If you’re not, then you need another drink from the Fountain of Life.

Please stand if you need a fresh drink form the fountain.