Joyful, Joyful

 

[The following is a manuscript of my devotional message delivered on Sunday morning, the 30th of June, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  This is a fifth Sunday service where we sang our favorite hymns.  A recording should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God,

And the great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

Amen.

                                        --Psalm 95:1-7a

Please listen and follow along to the joyful and reassuring proclamation the Apostle Paul made to the church in Rome, and to us, as recorded in the first 11 verses of the 5th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible…

1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

--Romans 5:1-11 (NLT)

We have been made right in God’s sight, not by anything we’ve done, but by the faith God Himself gave us and the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  We do not deserve the grace God shows us, the blessings He pours out over us.   Those were bought by the precious blood of Jesus.  When we realize how truly, richly we are blessed, we should be filled with joy and rejoicing, confidently secure in the promise that we will share in God’s glory.

Now yes, I know... some days it feels like we are far from blessed.  Some days the world is laying too heavily on our shoulders.  Some days it’s a struggle just to get out of bed.  Some days we feel far from blessed.  But you know, Family… those days are a blessing, too.

There’s an old saying that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  Our tough times help make us stronger. They build endurance, which strengthens our character.  They show us that we can survive, not matter what befalls us.

And this feeds our hope and trust in God’s words, in Jesus’ deeds, in our promise of salvation that leads to eternal life.  This trust and this hope will not disappoint us, for God loves us, a love made manifest by His gift of His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, a love shown by the sacrifice of His own Son.

So let us always be joyful in this life, in good times and bad.  And right now this morning, let us make a joyful noise to our Lord!  For God is good all the time.  And all the time, God is good!

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for choosing us to follow Your Christ, Your Son Jesus.  Thank You for giving us faith that we can be made right in Your sight.  Father, because of our faith, we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing Your glory.  Please help us be more merciful and kind, more humble and gentle, more giving and forgiving in our daily walk, so that we might show the world Your love through our love.  May we always sing Your praises, glorifying You in all we do.  This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.