Finding God in Our Feelings - Embracing Joy
Listen up: Joy
Sermon Preamble
Over the past five weeks, we have been unpacking some very challenging emotions and seeking God in the midst of “Finding God in Our Feelings.” (1) We started with a call to be honest about our emotions and feelings. We looked at David’s practice as he acknowledged them, took those emotions/feelings to God sooner rather than later, trusted that God heard and would respond, and drew closer to God through feelings. (2) We then unpacked shame and guilt in Tamar’s story in Genesis to face our own shame and guilt in experiences and feelings we keep hidden. We find God in our shame and guilt as we step into God’s light seeing ourselves the way God sees us as forgiven, deeply loved, free from false narratives, and precious in God’s sight. (3) We then looked at grief in the account of Hannah in 1 Samuel and the various types of grief and loss we face in life. With Jesus walking with us every step, we find God in grief and loss in the death of letting go or something ending in its burial of darkness, disorientation and pain, but then followed by the resurrection of healing and life on the other side of our loss. (4) The following week, we then looked at the iceberg of anger and those feelings that lie under the surface, but manifest as anger, such as frustration, insecurity, and jealousy. Anger is often the result of unmet expectation or desires. Finding God in our feelings of anger involves looking beneath the surface to fulfill our deepest desires. Humans disappoint, but only God can fulfill those deepest desires. (5) Last week, we looked at the feeling of loneliness. We were meant to be in relationship with God and others in connected community. We meet God in loneliness by connecting with God and letting God fill our deepest desires, growing together in building intentional relationships with others, and changing the world with others through service. This message concludes our series, “Finding God in our Feelings.” by embracing, enjoying, and rejoicing in the joy of the Lord.
Feelings and emotions as we weep from tragedies in the last ten days
“Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning” (Psalms 30:5). The past ten days have been particularly hard for our emotions and feelings. On top of the ongoing happenings of the War in Ukraine, rising COVID cases, and the rising costs from inflation, one tragic event after another has occurred the past two weeks. On May 14th, ten African Americans were murdered in a supermarket in Buffalo. One day later on May 15th, there was another racially motivated shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA. On May 24th, the mass shooting of 19 children and 2 teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas rocked us. These events have brought a lot of emotions and feelings to process as we weep and find God in it all.
What are we doing with all the feelings we have right now? Before we get to joy, let us be sensitive to the feelings we may be experiencing now with all that is happening in our country in this time of weeping. People may be having feelings such as deep sadness for grieving families, care and concern for traumatized children, anger with politicians and their lust for power, hopelessness from continued racial hate crimes, and frustration with those unmoved.
Before we move to joy, let us acknowledge our real feelings and bring those feelings to God. Let us apply the practice of David for finding God in our feelings – acknowledge the real feelings, bring the real feelings to God, trust that God hears and will respond, and draw near to God.
Form groups to engage in the following process. Share one real feeling statement as we acknowledge the feeling and bring the real feeling to God together. As each person shares, hold the feeling as a group; feel the feeling with your group member, just as God feels it with us. Then the next person shares a feeling statement. When all have shared, the group prays together. The group or an individual prays expressing those feelings to God or the group holds a silent prayer.
The powerful moment of prayer
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). God is there and is always present. When we are gathered in God’s name in prayer, there is a different spiritual power that comes from praying together. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Prayer itself is powerful, even if it is only one person.
We should bring everything to God in prayer and the sooner the better.
There is a wise quote that says, “Prayer is not the only thing we can do. Prayer is not the least thing we can do. Prayer is the absolute best thing we can do.” Since we are not only fighting forces of flesh and blood, there is a spiritual battle raging that can only be addressed in the spiritual realm.
In prayer, we take our real feelings to God; we trust that God hears and will respond to our prayers. We may not understand what God is doing, but as we join our hearts and minds and share real feelings, we know that God is with us. Let us continue to seek God’s face and seek God in our feelings as we look to God, listen to God, and draw closer to God.
God is working for God’s Will and Purposes.
Biblical Joy
We now move in this message from the first movement of weeping that endures for a night to the second movement of joy that comes in the morning. There is a slight shift in the title of this message. The other titles in the sermon series of “Finding God in our Feelings” were – “Facing Shame,” Facing Grief,” “Facing Anger and what lies beneath,” and “Facing Loneliness.” This title is not “Facing Joy,” but rather “Embracing Joy.”
The Bible has a lot to say about embracing joy. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” (James 1:2). James writes to count it all joy when we go through trials and troubles because it allows God to do his maturing and strengthening work in us. This truth is worthy of joy, even in hard times.
“This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalms 118:24).
“The joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10).
The List of exhortations for us to embrace joy is long and is core to the Christian life. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is an attribute of God. As the song declares, Jesus is at the very center of our joy. Joy and related words such rejoice and joyful are found 430 times in the English Standard Version of the Bible.
Biblical Joy in the Hard Times
The context of joy can include the emotion of happiness and gratitude from positive circumstances. But deeper still, biblical joy includes a state of being independent of the circumstances. We get joy when things are going well, and we are feeling blessed by God. Joy independent of the circumstances can be hard. How do we live into the state of joy in the hard times?
How do we embrace joy like Habakkuk who said it well? “Even thou the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength!” (Habakkuk 3:17-19). We see in Habakkuk’s words a strength and commitment to choose joy, no matter what. We choose joy, not because we are without problems, but because of our faith in our Divine God. No matter how it may appear, God invites us to choose joy. Joy is, in many ways, an act of resistance. Choosing joy is refusing to give in to what may be happening around us. We take a stand with God and for God. Even though it may be hard, we fight back with joy independent of circumstances.
Embracing Joy by starting with God
How do we embrace joy or reclaim joy when we don’t feel the feelings of joy? The order in the process is the opposite from what we have been doing for the other feelings. For the feelings we have unpacked in the prior messages of this sermon series, we started with the feeling and found God through our feelings. However, when it comes to biblical joy, and we are not feeling joyful, we have to start with God. We let God fill us with those feelings of joy in the presence of God, and we thus find the feeling of joy.
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, and eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalms 16:11).
Author John Lindell put it this way: “Joy flows from a deeply rooted conviction that not only does God cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him; but inherent in joy is the sense of delight in God that can cause our heart to smile even if things on the outside seem to be falling apart.” In those hard times when things seem to be falling apart, we rely on the truth that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Equally true is that the strength of the Lord is our joy.
When we enumerate and meditate on the goodness of God in our lives, gratitude begins to bubble up. Thankfulness becomes the dominating character in our interior life, regardless of what is happening on the exterior. Joy is the byproduct of gratitude that erupts and bursts forth from us.
Author Brennan Manning said, “We are not joyful, then become grateful – We are grateful, and that makes us joyful.”
In this tough, fallen world like we are facing today, we have to reclaim that biblical joy. We have to remember the goodness of God like never before. We have to enter into God’s presence with thanksgiving. We have to let that joy bubble up and explode into true worship. God is good and in God’s presence with us is the fullness of joy.
“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sign joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy” (Psalms 5:11). We receive the fullness of joy from God due to both God’s presence and God’s protection of us. “When you go through deep water, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:2-6, NLT).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Sermon Preamble
Sermon Preamble
Over the past five weeks, we have been unpacking some very challenging emotions and seeking God in the midst of “Finding God in Our Feelings.” (1) We started with a call to be honest about our emotions and feelings. We looked at David’s practice as he acknowledged them, took those emotions/feelings to God sooner rather than later, trusted that God heard and would respond, and drew closer to God through feelings. (2) We then unpacked shame and guilt in Tamar’s story in Genesis to face our own shame and guilt in experiences and feelings we keep hidden. We find God in our shame and guilt as we step into God’s light seeing ourselves the way God sees us as forgiven, deeply loved, free from false narratives, and precious in God’s sight. (3) We then looked at grief in the account of Hannah in 1 Samuel and the various types of grief and loss we face in life. With Jesus walking with us every step, we find God in grief and loss in the death of letting go or something ending in its burial of darkness, disorientation and pain, but then followed by the resurrection of healing and life on the other side of our loss. (4) The following week, we then looked at the iceberg of anger and those feelings that lie under the surface, but manifest as anger, such as frustration, insecurity, and jealousy. Anger is often the result of unmet expectation or desires. Finding God in our feelings of anger involves looking beneath the surface to fulfill our deepest desires. Humans disappoint, but only God can fulfill those deepest desires. (5) Last week, we looked at the feeling of loneliness. We were meant to be in relationship with God and others in connected community. We meet God in loneliness by connecting with God and letting God fill our deepest desires, growing together in building intentional relationships with others, and changing the world with others through service. This message concludes our series, “Finding God in our Feelings.” by embracing, enjoying, and rejoicing in the joy of the Lord.
Feelings and emotions as we weep from tragedies in the last ten days
“Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning” (Psalms 30:5). The past ten days have been particularly hard for our emotions and feelings. On top of the ongoing happenings of the War in Ukraine, rising COVID cases, and the rising costs from inflation, one tragic event after another has occurred the past two weeks. On May 14th, ten African Americans were murdered in a supermarket in Buffalo. One day later on May 15th, there was another racially motivated shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, CA. On May 24th, the mass shooting of 19 children and 2 teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas rocked us. These events have brought a lot of emotions and feelings to process as we weep and find God in it all.
What are we doing with all the feelings we have right now? Before we get to joy, let us be sensitive to the feelings we may be experiencing now with all that is happening in our country in this time of weeping. People may be having feelings such as deep sadness for grieving families, care and concern for traumatized children, anger with politicians and their lust for power, hopelessness from continued racial hate crimes, and frustration with those unmoved.
Before we move to joy, let us acknowledge our real feelings and bring those feelings to God. Let us apply the practice of David for finding God in our feelings – acknowledge the real feelings, bring the real feelings to God, trust that God hears and will respond, and draw near to God.
Form groups to engage in the following process. Share one real feeling statement as we acknowledge the feeling and bring the real feeling to God together. As each person shares, hold the feeling as a group; feel the feeling with your group member, just as God feels it with us. Then the next person shares a feeling statement. When all have shared, the group prays together. The group or an individual prays expressing those feelings to God or the group holds a silent prayer.
The powerful moment of prayer
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). God is there and is always present. When we are gathered in God’s name in prayer, there is a different spiritual power that comes from praying together. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Prayer itself is powerful, even if it is only one person.
We should bring everything to God in prayer and the sooner the better.
There is a wise quote that says, “Prayer is not the only thing we can do. Prayer is not the least thing we can do. Prayer is the absolute best thing we can do.” Since we are not only fighting forces of flesh and blood, there is a spiritual battle raging that can only be addressed in the spiritual realm.
In prayer, we take our real feelings to God; we trust that God hears and will respond to our prayers. We may not understand what God is doing, but as we join our hearts and minds and share real feelings, we know that God is with us. Let us continue to seek God’s face and seek God in our feelings as we look to God, listen to God, and draw closer to God.
God is working for God’s Will and Purposes.
Biblical Joy
We now move in this message from the first movement of weeping that endures for a night to the second movement of joy that comes in the morning. There is a slight shift in the title of this message. The other titles in the sermon series of “Finding God in our Feelings” were – “Facing Shame,” Facing Grief,” “Facing Anger and what lies beneath,” and “Facing Loneliness.” This title is not “Facing Joy,” but rather “Embracing Joy.”
The Bible has a lot to say about embracing joy. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4).
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…” (James 1:2). James writes to count it all joy when we go through trials and troubles because it allows God to do his maturing and strengthening work in us. This truth is worthy of joy, even in hard times.
“This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalms 118:24).
“The joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10).
The List of exhortations for us to embrace joy is long and is core to the Christian life. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is an attribute of God. As the song declares, Jesus is at the very center of our joy. Joy and related words such rejoice and joyful are found 430 times in the English Standard Version of the Bible.
Biblical Joy in the Hard Times
The context of joy can include the emotion of happiness and gratitude from positive circumstances. But deeper still, biblical joy includes a state of being independent of the circumstances. We get joy when things are going well, and we are feeling blessed by God. Joy independent of the circumstances can be hard. How do we live into the state of joy in the hard times?
How do we embrace joy like Habakkuk who said it well? “Even thou the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength!” (Habakkuk 3:17-19). We see in Habakkuk’s words a strength and commitment to choose joy, no matter what. We choose joy, not because we are without problems, but because of our faith in our Divine God. No matter how it may appear, God invites us to choose joy. Joy is, in many ways, an act of resistance. Choosing joy is refusing to give in to what may be happening around us. We take a stand with God and for God. Even though it may be hard, we fight back with joy independent of circumstances.
Embracing Joy by starting with God
How do we embrace joy or reclaim joy when we don’t feel the feelings of joy? The order in the process is the opposite from what we have been doing for the other feelings. For the feelings we have unpacked in the prior messages of this sermon series, we started with the feeling and found God through our feelings. However, when it comes to biblical joy, and we are not feeling joyful, we have to start with God. We let God fill us with those feelings of joy in the presence of God, and we thus find the feeling of joy.
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, and eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalms 16:11).
Author John Lindell put it this way: “Joy flows from a deeply rooted conviction that not only does God cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him; but inherent in joy is the sense of delight in God that can cause our heart to smile even if things on the outside seem to be falling apart.” In those hard times when things seem to be falling apart, we rely on the truth that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Equally true is that the strength of the Lord is our joy.
When we enumerate and meditate on the goodness of God in our lives, gratitude begins to bubble up. Thankfulness becomes the dominating character in our interior life, regardless of what is happening on the exterior. Joy is the byproduct of gratitude that erupts and bursts forth from us.
Author Brennan Manning said, “We are not joyful, then become grateful – We are grateful, and that makes us joyful.”
In this tough, fallen world like we are facing today, we have to reclaim that biblical joy. We have to remember the goodness of God like never before. We have to enter into God’s presence with thanksgiving. We have to let that joy bubble up and explode into true worship. God is good and in God’s presence with us is the fullness of joy.
“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sign joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy” (Psalms 5:11). We receive the fullness of joy from God due to both God’s presence and God’s protection of us. “When you go through deep water, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:2-6, NLT).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Sermon Preamble
- Looking back on the series, “Finding God in our Feelings,” which topic resonates most with you in your faith journey? What are the some of the key takeaway points for you to apply in Finding God through your Feelings?
- Discuss your feelings from the tragic events of the mass shootings in May 2022 that took place in Buffalo, New York, Laguna Woods, CA, and at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. What is your primary feeling related to these events and why? Pray within your group as you acknowledge those feelings in prayer to God.
- How does praying your honest, real feelings start a process of you drawing closer to God?
- There are nine fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. All believers have the Holy Spirit within guiding them in their life journey, their prayers, and love for God and others. Might the same Holy Spirit within all believers guiding them in prayer be a factor in special power from group prayers? Why?
- As we draw closer in listening to God in prayer, what spiritual practices help us discern the Will and Purpose of the Kingdom of God?
- What is the difference, if any, between a feeling of happiness because our outward circumstances have no problems, and a feeling of joy as an inward feeling not dependent on outward circumstances?
- What is the source of joy that is not dependent on outward circumstances?
- Habakkuk 3:17 describe very hard times and problems in the outward circumstances (agricultural fields empty and barren, flocks dying, and cattle barns empty). Habakkuk’s people also faced violent oppression from wicked humans in power (Habakkuk 1:2-4, 1:13-17 and subsequent) with similarities to the violent racism today. Despite the hard times and violent oppression, Habakkuk determines his choice to rejoice in the Lord. Since joy is among the fruits of the Spirit that we all have, can we choose the guidance by the Holy Spirit rather than the fallen sinful nature to achieve joy even in hard times? How?
- How is biblical joy, in many ways, an act of resistance?
- History and today’s events teach us that certain faithful followers of God face hard times economically and ongoing violent racism. Yet, like Habakkuk, they still embrace joy and rejoice in the Lord knowing that the Lord is their strength. How are they able to embrace joy independent of their outward circumstances, injustices, oppression, and racism? What transformation is taking place on the inside that helps in embracing joy independent of outward circumstances?
Posted in Finding God In Our Feelings
Posted in Finding God, Mental Health, feelings, grief, joy, rejoice, joyous, Buffalo, Laguna Woods, Uvalde, weep, prayer, power, Habakkuk, Psalms 5:11, Psalms 16:11
Posted in Finding God, Mental Health, feelings, grief, joy, rejoice, joyous, Buffalo, Laguna Woods, Uvalde, weep, prayer, power, Habakkuk, Psalms 5:11, Psalms 16:11
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