Rejoice

Today we are going to talk about something that we as Christians get to do. As a matter of fact I believe this is something we are supposed to do. I believe God has commanded us to do this one thing throughout the bible. I am talking about being happy and rejoicing. Sometimes we see the extremes of both sides of this discussion in our modern churches. On one hand we will see the people who believe we are not supposed to be happy because we are sinners and we disappoint God on a daily basis. We all deserve Hell and we just might get it if we are not careful so there really is nothing to be happy about. If we show any type of enjoyment then we are being haughty and arrogant. Some of this is true to a certain extent but then we have the other extreme. We should be happy because we are forgiven of all of our sins. We are guaranteed a place in heaven because we believe in Jesus so we are supposed to live happy free lives. We are allowed to do whatever and whenever to whomever. Our lives are to be filled with joy all the time. God created this world and he gave it to us to enjoy the things of it. I have heard that it is not arrogance it is appreciation. There is also some truth on this side but remember these are extremes. We must find where God wants us to be. He does not want us to be sad and he surely does not want us to be haughty and arrogant. He wants us to be a humble and meek people with a servant heart. He also wants us to rejoice in Him and not in this world. Let’s first look at what Jesus said about us being happy. When Jesus uses the word blessed, this also means the same as happy according to Strong’s.

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matt 5:3-12 (KJV)

According to Jesus, the poor in spirit, the ones who mourn, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the ones who are persecuted for being Christians are who should be happy. He even said we should rejoice and be exceedingly glad because great is our reward. This is the theme of this study. We are to rejoice in the Lord and not in the worldly things that take us from the Lord. Who do we see the happiest in society today? The people who are the most comfortable, that's who. I am also talking about Christians here. You can go to these friendly seeker, charismatic watered down churches and you will find thousands of people who look like they are the happiest people on earth. The truth is they are not happy they are comfortable. I am not going into the living comfortable bible study, but I will show you what the difference between being comfortable and being happy is. Let’s look at Luke 16.

19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Luke 16:19-25 (KJV)

In this parable the rich man was comfortable and Lazarus is happy or blessed. You can see where Lazarus fell into the description that Jesus gave about who was blessed. I believe Lazarus mourned, he was poor in spirit, meek and hungry. I also believe that Lazarus rejoiced in the Lord because he made it to Abraham’s bosom. Praise God. Are you happy? I mean really happy. We as Christians should be happy. I will say it again that we should have a spirit of meekness and humbleness and we should also be joyous while we are like this. We can put on a spirit of haughtiness and arrogance and appear happy but we should be happy with being Christians. This means we should be ready to serve, and be ready to accept discipline, and be ready to be persecuted with JOY. We have to be careful not to have a rich attitude. Before anyone says I am not rich I will have to say yes you probably are. If you eat 3 meals a day, have a temperature controlled house, have a car and a steady income you are rich. We live in a rich country and we are rich. Would you get mad if someone walked up to you and said that you are a failure? If you would get upset then you have a rich attitude. The truth is you and everyone you know is a failure at something but when you have a rich attitude you think that you have accomplished something. You truly believe that you are better than someone else. You also get the Pharisee attitude, thank you God I am not a sinner like that. Thank you that I don’t drink, smoke, cuss or steal like that person does. Do you gossip, lie, covet anything? Then you are a sinner like that. I am saying this to let you know that you are a failure and you have a reason to be happy. Jesus told us about the rich. He told us about the comfortable.

24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. 25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.Luke 6:24-26 (KJV)

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! Amos 6:1 (KJV)

Here we see Jesus say woe unto you who are rich and full. Woe unto you who laugh now. Woe unto you who men speak well of you. Everyone one of us falls into these categories. Amos said woe unto them that are at ease. This is us also. We must be careful not to fall in the rich mindset that leads us away from God and gives us our fake happiness now. We must also be careful not to let the rich and the wicked to cause us to stumble. Their success will cause us to stumble if we are not careful. You will see what appears to be happiness in the wicked and you will get jealous. Then the thinking that I will be forgiven if I do it anyway, will come into play. Let’s go to Psalms 73.

1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. 5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. 6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. 7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. 9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. Psalms 73:1-14 (KJV)

1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Jer 12:1 (KJV)

It is true that the wicked will prosper. The evils of this world will do better than us in this world. They will seem happy and blessed. They will seem to rejoice in the things of this world. They will also be a stumbling block for millions of Christians. These Christians will see what they have and will want it. The Word of God will be watered down to more of a guideline rather than absolute truth and our youth will want the things that the wicked have. Let’s be honest here. Everyone will rejoice in something. We will buy things that bring us joy. This is why people watch movies and videos. These things are created by the wicked not God. This is why people set their standards according to the world’s standards. What kind of clothes and shoes to wear. What kind of car should I drive for the kind of person that I am. These standards are created by wicked people. This is how the devil tells us how we can be happy. Isn’t he such a LIAR?!! Light is more powerful than darkness so why don’t we want to rejoice in the things of God rather in the things of the wicked. God wants us to rejoice in him not in the things that come and go. God is Eternal and so is the happiness that we can find in him.

40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Lev 23:40-41 (KJV)

22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. John 16:22 (KJV)

7 And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God. Deut 27:6-7 (KJV)

Here are a few scriptures on what we should rejoice in. I believe this is a commandment because the word tells us to rejoice in the Lord over 120 times. This is something that God sees as being very serious. There are some who say that you cannot be happy all the time or that God does not want us to be openly happy. If God did not want us to rejoice he would not have given the people all of the feasts to celebrate. He could have made them all fasts instead. He gave us the feasts and said to rejoice before the Lord. Let’s look at another area of being happy. Have you ever witnessed to someone who said something like “I am not ready to be a Christian because I want to be able to dance and party when I want to”? The best thing to say here is I am a Christian and I dance when I want to. I party when I want to. The truth is I do these things when I want to. I just never want to because these are not things of God and we are told to put these things away. So where should we find our joys. We should have joy in going to a prayer meeting. We should be so excited when we get to gather to have bible study and church. These things should bring us so much joy. I remember getting so excited about doing everything for God. We gave up our nice brick house with a beautiful yard in Talladega to move to the basement of a mud brick house to serve God. We were at church at least 5 days a week and church was 1 hour away and we lived on 700 dollars a month. We always made it to church no matter what else was going on. Find your joy in God. We can be like many of the other groups that know that they are sinners and be really sad or we can realize that our God, the creator of everything, loves us so much that he has forgiven our failures. We have eternal life. We should not be arrogant though and have a spirit of haughtiness and walk around being foolish and high minded. We are still sinners and we will fail again. We should have that peace that comes with being content with who we are. It is easy to tell if someone is happy with who they are. When someone is unhappy with themselves then they try hard to be someone else. This always comes out in arrogance and haughtiness. Always. They try and convince everyone around them that they are who they are but the truth is they want to be who they act like. This is one way Christians seek happiness in the wrong places. There is only one place to find happiness, God. We must rejoice. Do the animals seek happiness? Does the cat go looking for something to bring it joy? Where do you sacrifice your faith by trying to bring yourself happiness?

20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he. Prov 16:20 (KJV)

15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. Psalms 144:15 (KJV)

Are you rejoicing in the Lord? If not then you are rejoicing in the wrong things, because you are rejoicing in something. When you start finding other things to rejoice in, then you will start backsliding, guaranteed. If you start rejoicing in music, cars, TV, clothes or anything other than God then you will start backsliding. God wants us to find joy in him and not in the things of this world because he is the only thing that is eternal. Why would we want to rejoice in things that we know are not of God. Do we want to make sure we enjoy the things of this world just in case God isn’t real? I rejoice in times of trouble, I rejoice when I am persecuted for Christ’s sake, I rejoice when friends and family turn against me because they think I am a bible thumping Jesus freak, I rejoice when things are going great, and I rejoice when Satan wins the battle for the day, because he may have the day but I have eternity with the Father, Amen.