This is an amazing word!
God Almighty—in all of His holiness—lives in unapproachable brilliance in highest Heaven. And yet He also chooses to abide with those who humbly admit their desperate need of His mercy and forgiveness!
You can check out the full sermon from which this clip came by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We have the candles of hope and peace burning brightly. Romans 15:13 tells us that our hope in God’s fulfilled promises and our hope in His fulfilling of His future promises is what brings us not only peace but joy as well.
(You can read all the Scriptures I reference in this post by clicking here.)
William Gurnall noted, “Joy is the highest testimony which can be given to our peace.” That means that hope bubbles up in peace and joy, but joy then sustains and fuels future hope, which allows us to experience peace all over again!
The English dictionary has the right definition for joy: the emotion of great delight caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying. Unfortunately, all of the examples the dictionary gives for joy are fleeting external things.
The Bible makes it quite clear that pleasure is not the same thing as joy, but still people try to find what they call joy in things that bring them pleasure. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.”
Just ask the wisest and richest man who ever lived: King Solomon. He wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes which is all about his pursuit of pleasure, yet every attempts ends with him crying, “Vanity! Meaningless!” But notice something: every time he says this, the phrase “under the sun” is adjacent to it. In other words, nothing on earth can provide true joy.
Paul experienced the same thing in the New Testament (see Romans 7:18-20).
Just like we said about these candles that darkness is not the opposite of light, but it is the absence of light, so too, this wretched state of joylessness is the absence of things that are eternally satisfying.
That means we need something other-worldly—something higher than the sun—to truly bring light and satisfaction. The prophet Isaiah foretold the light that Jesus would bring from Heaven, and this light would be our eternal joy and salvation (Isaiah 9:1-3, 6-7; Matthew 1:21).
Notice how the angelic announcement of Christ’s birth ties together the thoughts of joy with Savior (Luke 2:8-11).
Isaiah foretold this First Advent which Jesus fulfilled (Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:18-19), and which Paul come to discover as well (Romans 7:24-25).
Another biblical definition for the word joy is delighting in God’s grace in our trials because we understand that these trials enlarge our capacity for even greater joy. This is the joy we can know as we live between the two Advents of Jesus. We see this in the example of Jesus fixing His eyes on the eternal joy even as He walked toward Calvary, and how His Father then exalted Him for that (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 2:9-11).
In a similar, Jesus prepares us for the joy following our time of grief (John 16:17-24). The writer of Hebrews agreed with this (Hebrews 12:11), as did the writer of the 126th Psalm (notice the word joy being used four times in just six verses here!).
The Second Advent of Jesus will be eternally satisfying joy beyond anything we can imagine! I love how Isaiah 35 foretells what we can read on the last pages of the Book of Revelation.
This thought from Charles Spurgeon is spot-on: “We who trust in Jesus are the happiest of people, not constitutionally, for some of us are much tried and are brought to the utter depths of poverty, but inwardly, truly, our heart’s joy is not to be excelled.”
May we all live in that hope-filled, peace-fueled joy every single day until Christ returns or calls us Home!
If you missed it, check out the lights of hope and peace in our previous messages in this series by clicking here.
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We lit the candle of Hope last week and today we light the candle of Peace. As we saw, hope is what allows us to experience peace and joy: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
(You can read all of the Scriptures I reference in this post by clicking here.)
But notice the phrase “as you trust in Him” in that verse. Peace doesn’t come just because we want it to, but it only comes as we trust in the One called the Prince of Peace.
Light drives out darkness and exposes sin, and often people don’t like it (John 1:9-11). In fact, Jesus Himself said that He was first coming with a sword to do battle against all of the things that rob us of lasting peace (Matthew 10:34).
Oswald Chambers described it this way, “The coming of Jesus Christ is not a peaceful thing; it is overwhelmingly and frantically disturbing, because the first thing He does is to destroy every peace that is not based on a personal relationship to Himself.”
Peace is only possible when the war is over. Modern-day diplomats use a phrase “sue for peace,” but this can only be done when one side admits defeat. God is at war with sin and He only gives peace to those who throw up their hands in total surrender to Him (Isaiah 57:14-21).
Jesus said He was the Light of the world and the only way to peace with the Father. The apostle Paul elaborates on that idea—
Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the Cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household. (Ephesians 2:12-19)
That’s what Jesus provided for us at His First Advent. Now, as we live between the Advents of Jesus, we can expect to have trouble in the world, but never peacelessness (John 14:27, 16:33).
The Messiah’s peace will:
As our hearts are guarded, we are prepared to stand firm in spiritual battle, and we are equipped to do God’s will, we can live in peace concerning Christ’s Second Advent.
Jesus will appear again to fulfill one of the first promises made about the peace He would bring. God told satan that Jesus would crush his head, and then Paul tells us, “The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet” (Genesis 3:15, Romans 16:20)!
So we have no fear of Death or Hell because the Prince of Peace has forever defeated those things for those who “trust in Him” (Revelation 20:10, 14; 21:1-5).
The bottom line:
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our Advent series, you can find them all here.
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The word Advent means the appearing—something that bursts onto the scene. At this time of year we are actually thinking about TWO Advents. We look backward in gratitude to celebrate the first Advent of Jesus when He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. And then we look forward in joyful expectation to the second Advent of Jesus when He will return to earth again as King of kings. As we will in this time between the Advents, there are four qualities that we should exemplify—the first is hope.
When the candle is lit, darkness disappears.
Darkness is not the opposite of light, it is the absence of light. In the same way, despair or hopelessness is the absence of hope.
Adam and Eve lived in perfection, but when they tried to do things their way—instead of obeying God’s way—their sin caused them despair. They tried to cover their nakedness, but with a hopeless covering of dying leaves. God came with a promise of full restoration, and illustrated it by covering them with the skin of a sacrificial animal (Genesis 3:7, 15, 21).
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
Job knew the hopelessness of self-covering and finality of earthly life, and even David—the man after God’s own heart knew this too (Job 6:11-13, 17:13-16; 1 Chronicles 29:15).
But Job and David both knew the hope they could have in their Redeemer (Job 19:25; Psalm 16).
Hope in both the Old and the New Testaments means a patient waiting, anticipating with pleasure, having a confident expectation. It’s a light shining in the darkness that cannot be extinguished—it’s hope that despair cannot darken (Isaiah 9:1-2, 6-7).
At His first Advent, Jesus appeared in our “clothing” so that He could become our sin and then clothe us in His righteousness (Hebrews 2:17; John 1:14; Romans 4:6-8; Hebrews 6:16-20). For this we look back in gratitude.
But we don’t live today merely in gratitude for Christ’s first Advent, but we also live in confident hope of Christ’s second Advent (Acts 1:11; John 14:1-3; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Revelation 22:7, 12, 20).
He came into this world of sin,
Made flesh and blood His dearest kin;
He died, that He might take us in,
And keep us till He comes again. —Scott Hubbard
How do we live out this confident hope—
Follow along with all four of the Advent attributes by clicking here.
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Last week I mentioned that I was a bit surprised that scientists had done so much research on the benefits of gratitude because science tends to have an over-reliance on the tangible world. But it’s hard to ignore that there are so many intangibles (like gratitude) which make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
We get ourselves into trouble if we focus exclusively on the tangible or intangible. We also get ourselves into trouble if we don’t use all of the resources God has given us.
The Bible tells us that we have been created in the image of God, and that one of the things that separates us from the other creatures in the world is our soul (Genesis 2:7). Our soul is compromised of our mind, our will, and our emotions.
(Check out all of the Scriptures I mention in this post by clicking here.)
We cannot allow any one of these to lay dormant or even considered less valuable than the others, nor we can allow any one of these to bully the others.
When my emotions flare up, when my mind is dark, or when I feel selfish, I need to remember to engage the other two parts of my God-breathed soul. This is where gratitude comes into play.
I love reading the Psalms when I’m battling the negative emotions that seem to rush in during trying times. The psalmists were so honest about what they were feeling. Check out a couple of examples in Psalm 7:17 and 9:1-2 where we see David engaging his mind and his will to make the choice to be grateful to God despite his circumstances.
In the New Testament, we see a similar response from Paul and Silas when they are falsely imprisoned in Philippi (see Acts 16:22-26). Despite their cruel circumstances, they chose to life thankful worship to God. Luke write that the other inmates were listening, and so was the jailer and his family, who ended up accepting Jesus as their Savior.
I’ve got three important words for you when dark times threaten to hijack your gratefulness:
We see another psalmist doing this in Psalm 42:1-6. He asks his soul why it is so downcast, and then he says, “I chose to remember God in all His goodness and I chose to praise Him!” These words are repeated again in Psalm 42:11 and 43:5, which tells me that giving thanks to God is not a one-and-done thing, but something that needs to be continually repeated.
You can get some conversation starters for your self-talk in two simple ways:
Keep a gratitude journal: Write something down at the end of each and every day. Write it down. Re-read it regularly. Tell others about it. And then be ready for others to ask you about Jesus—just like the Philippian jailer—when they notice how thankful you are!
Use your mind to talk back to your fears and worries, and then engage your willpower. Don’t let your gratitude get hijacked by the circumstances around you, but allow your thankfulness to help you reframe your circumstances into God’s plan.
Check out the other messages in our Be Thankful series by clicking here.
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Do you remember this song: “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”? It goes on to say, “If you’re happy and you know, then your life will surely show it….” Frankly, I’m concerned about Christians that are unhappy.
Charles Spurgeon was talking to his students and he said, “I commend cheerfulness to all who would win souls; not levity and frothiness, but a genial, happy spirit. There are more flies caught with honey than with vinegar, and there will be more souls led to heaven by a man who wears heaven in his face than by one who bears Tartarus in his looks.” Tartarus, in Greek mythology, is a sunless abyss, below Hades, in which Zeus imprisoned the Titans, which is the exact opposite of the Paradise described in the Bible.
Unhappiness generally comes from ingratitude. An unhappy Christian gives God no praise, robs Him of glory, and paints God in a bad light. A happy Christian lifts God high and invites others to know this All-Good, All-Happy God too!
Christians need to fight against the downward pull of negativity in which our culture seems to so easily gravitate. In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul says that a Christian who doesn’t engage in the complaining that the world is known for will shine brightly. Quite simply, thankfulness is the antidote to complaining (Philippians 2:14-18).
(Check out all of the Scriptures I reference in this post by clicking here.)
Even those who may not recognize the the authority of Scripture have extolled the benefits of gratitude. Psychologists and medical professionals have identified three benefits from a thankful heart:
And Christians can add one more benefit to this list:
The well-known Cleveland Clinic reported that an attitude of gratitude leads to overall wellness. When you are grateful for what you have, it improves your outlook mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally.
Here are five things you can start doing today that will increase your gratitude levels, enhance your Christian testimony, and generally improve your life:
Let me close with this observation from Blaise Pascal: “There are three kinds of people in the world; those who have sought God and found Him and now serve Him, those who are seeking Him, but have not yet found Him, and those who neither seek Him nor find Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the second reasonable and unhappy, and the third unreasonable and unhappy.”
Reasonable, happy saints are the ones who lift God high and invite others to know this All-Good, All-Happy God too! Not just at the Thanksgiving season, but starting now and then going all year long!
Follow along with all of the messages in this series called Be Thankful by clicking here.
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John Stonestreet used an interesting term (pre-political) that got me thinking about how many government programs would be unnecessary if the Church was doing what Jesus called the Church to do.
Here’s the full quote from John Stonestreet: “Christian political engagement should hit its fever pitch not during elections. The only way to relieve the political pressures of our day is to build up the pre-political aspects of our life together, especially the family and the Church. When we care well for our children, our neighbors, and our communities, the state doesn’t have to.”
The Scriptures I reference in this video—Isaiah 3:4-5; Mark 12:28-31; Matthew 25:34-40.
The post I mention in the video that was prompted by the Isaiah 3 passage is It’s Not “Them,” It’s Us.
If you would like to watch the full sermon from which I took this clip, you can find that here.
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Jesus had just healed the sick people that were brought to Him, and then we read:
So the crowd was astonished as they saw those who were unable to speak talking, those with impaired limbs restored, those who were limping walking around, and those who were blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. (Matthew 15:31)
Before Jesus ascended back into Heaven, He told His followers that they would do the same things He had done, including preaching the Gospel and healing the sick. The focal point is still to be the same as it was while Jesus was on earth: “They glorified God.”
We would laugh if an ax boasted about the tree he had cut down. We all know that the power came from the lumberjack.
It was the lumberjack who chose the ax, sharpened the ax, and skillfully used the ax to chop down the large tree. The felled tree is a testament to the lumberjack’s strength.
In the same way, God may use one of us as His instrument to display His power. If the blind receive their sight, the lame can walk, and the lost find Jesus as their Savior, we would laugh if the one who prayed or preached boasted about his ability that brought about these miracles.
These changed lives are a testament to the power and wisdom that flows from God. The one who prays or preaches is merely the instrument that was used by Him. God may pick up that person again and again, or He may lean him against the wall after one use. God determines the best instrument to use for His glory.
In fact, God Himself says, “Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it?” (Isaiah 10:15). And, “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know Me” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Be careful if you find yourself thinking, “Look what I have done,” and let your heart quickly change that to, “Look what my merciful God has been please to do through Me!”
It’s not about our glory, is all about God’s glory!
(Check out what A.W. Tozer said about a Christian neither boasting nor belittling.)
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Much like Jude who had a message he wanted to deliver to the saints, but was compelled by the Holy Spirit to address something concerning him (Jude 3-4), I, too, was excited to deliver the next message in our series on discovering your gifts and then living in your gift zone. But I am deeply concerned about the words and actions of Christian saints during these past election cycles.
(Check out all of the Scriptures I reference in this post by clicking here.)
I recently heard John Stonestreet say, “Currently, politics is carrying far more cultural weight than it is able to bear.” I agree: Christians are putting far too much emphasis on political candidates than the Bible would suggest.
I frequently quote something from Charles Colson that always makes people smile. He said, “Salvation will never arrive in Air Force One.” The flip side is true as well: Neither will the Apocalypse arrive on Air Force One.
We have to remember that the Most High is sovereign over all the nations of the earth, and He gives them to whom He choose (Daniel 4:25, 32). When we think that our candidate or our party is the only way our nation can be saved, aren’t we elevating the political process above God’s plan?
I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to anyone, but there are no perfect candidates, perfect political parties, nor perfect party platforms. We can study our Bibles, pray, study the candidates’ lifestyle and policies, but ultimately we will have to cast a ballot for an imperfect candidate.
God doesn’t have an “R” or “D” next to His name. He has not endorsed a political candidate. You may be sitting next to someone right now that is going to vote for the opposite political party that you will be voting for. And the way we interact with those people—whether they are fellow Christians or not—is deeply concerning to me.
Moses saw a couple of fellow Israelites fighting each other, and he asked them, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew” (Exodus 2:13). The Hebrew word rea means a friend who is also a fellow citizen. These Hebrews were citizens of Zion, but they were living in Egypt, and they definitely weren’t treating each other in a way that would be a testimony to the Egyptians.
When Stephen retold this portion of the story in his sermon, he phrased it this way, “Men, you are brothers” (Acts 7:25-26). Stephen used the Greek word adelphos which literally means “from the same womb.” But the Christians used this word to mean brothers and sister in Christ—people with whom we will spend eternity.
Let us always remember that others who are participating in the American political process are BOTH fellow US citizens AND brothers and sisters in Christ.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King, when Gandalf sees fellow citizens and friends at each other’s throats, he exclaims, “Work of the enemy! Such deeds he loves: friend at war with friend, loyalty divided, and confusion of hearts.” Indeed, the enemy of our souls would love to see the chaos of a nation at war with itself; especially to see Christians at odds with each other.
Paul said, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). On the flip side, Jesus said that when we think or speak poorly of a fellow human, we are in danger of judgment (Matthew 5:22).
Listen to Paul’s appeal to his friends at Philippi—
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
And then he specifically addressed a couple of sisters in Christ who were ad odds with each other—
I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 2:1-2, 4:2-3)
The politicians we have are always downstream from culture, which means we have allowed those sorts of politicians to be in place.
John Stonestreet used a phrase I hadn’t heard before, but I think it’s appropriate: “Christian political engagement should hit its fever pitch not during elections. The only way to relieve the political pressures of our day is to build up the pre-political aspects of our life together, especially the family and the Church. When we care well for our children, our neighbors, and our communities, the state doesn’t have to.” How true this is!
I wrote something this summer based on Isaiah 3:4-5. In essence, I wrote that God gives nations the “leaders” they deserve. They are leaders in that they occupy an office, but they don’t lead people nor care for the citizens—they don’t have wisdom to lead nor do they care about anyone but themselves. This is the inevitable result for a nation that turns its back on God! So if we think our political and civic leaders are self-focused, unskilled, and childish, we should look in the mirror. It’s not “them,” it’s us. We have to change—turning wholeheartedly to God—and only then God can change our leadership.
We need to be praying for our governmental leaders, not vilifying them. We need to be speaking well of our fellow US citizens. We need to be especially treating our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ well.
Our hope is not in the results of an election. Our hope is in Jesus. The way we treat BOTH fellow US citizens AND brothers and sisters in Christ will either point people to Jesus or to manmade political systems.
I pray we can do better at pointing people to Jesus! I pray I can do better!
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A quick recap: We are all gifted by God, but we typically restrict ourselves to a comfort zone which is much smaller than our God-given gift zone. In order to maximize our impact for the Kingdom of God, we are going to have to get uncomfortable with staying comfortable—we are going to have to trust God as we push out further into our gifts.
Last week I gave you a homework assignment to think about the things you love to do. Why do we need to know this? Because it is one of the indicators of our areas of giftedness.
In the whole carrot-versus-stick discussion, you will find that most people are motivated by reward way more than they are by the fear of punishment. Look at how these God-fearing men were motivated by the God’s rewards:
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
Who’s more likely to get the reward: the one who loves what they are doing or the one who hates what they are doing? We are more likely to stick with what we love doing, and you are going to love doing what you are gifted by God to do.
Why we do what we do is much more important that what we do (Isaiah 1:11, 13, 15; Matthew 7:22-23).
We have been gifted by God to do great things. When we do those great things, we are rewarded and it brings God glory. That realization should answer the question of why we do what we do (Ephesians 2:10).
The way we see the world, what motivates us, and how we act are all determined by our gifts. We are working on the same Great Commission, but how we live that out will be different because of our different gifts.
In the Old Testament, the saints wanted Zion to be strong and God-glorifying:
In the New Testament era, the saints should all want the Body of Christ to be strong and God-glorifying. Toward that goal, we still need warriors, worshipers, wisemen, reformers, teachers, counselors, workers.
Toward that goal, we all have a part to play (Ephesians 4:12). Check out the example of Paul in…
What’s the difference? Silas and Timothy used their gifts so that Paul could use his. Without the “enzyme” of Silas and Timothy’s gifting, the whole Body of Christ would have been impoverished.
One of the things that will help your spot your areas of giftedness is noticing what you are passionate about—What do you love to do?
Let me give you three things to consider:
Our prayer should echo what Paul prayed:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-12)
If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series Living in Your Gift Zone, you can find them all here.
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Craig T. Owens 