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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: December 20, 2015 | 10:00am
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SERMON SERIES:
The Weary World Rejoices
Joy is uncommon. Do you know what I mean? The feeling of pure unrestrained bliss is something people tend to be suspicious of. Would you agree? In our culture, when there is so much around us that wants to rob us of the feeling, meeting a person who is genuinely, and without hesitation, joyful, you’re almost tempted to ask yourself: “What’s wrong with that person?”
Let me tell you what I mean. My wife will attest, there are a few things in the world that just make me objectively joyful: traveling to Minnesota is one, squeezing my kids’ little bottoms–that’s another, and watching really good movies, especially, though not limited to, the superhero and LOTR genre (I bet you didn’t know that was a genre…it is). But the other day, Amy came home and I was in such a good mood, there was no mistaking it. And the first words out of her mouth, not kidding: “You had candy didn’t you?” When I eat candy, there is a physiological transformation that takes place inside of me, I imagine the kind of effect a person experiences when they are “on something.” Sugar literally makes me happy, anyone else?
Sometimes in our day when we see someone who is just categorically joyful, we are tempted to think to ourselves, “What is that person on?” If they’re like me, then it’s just sugar. If we’re tempted to think that real joy is hard to come by, so much so that one has to find it through pharmaceutical substitutes and such, then the question is, why? Why is it that joy uncommon? I think there is a really simple answer for us: sometimes life is difficult.
I don’t think any one of us would disagree with this statement. We all know that there are times when life is just hard. It feels like we’re pushing a boulder up a steep slope, like the myth of Sysiphus, only to have it roll back on us, crushing as it goes. Or maybe we feel like we’re carrying a heavy weight from which we just can’t free ourselves. Life is hard, and the people around us, and even ourselves, we go through times that are hard, and it’s hard to be joyful, would you agree? But that doesn’t mean joy can’t be present at the same time. Hmm?
Download the entire transcript here: Zephaniah 3 14-20 Hurricane Lamp
