Dec 10, 2017 | by Jonathan Waller | series: Advent 2017
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“Joy in Advent”
John 16: 16-24
- Introduction: Today we are continuing our celebration of Advent by focusing on the second major theme, joy
- Christmas is a time of season in which we are reminded to have joy
- Belief in God doesn’t come from the Bible
- Belief in God comes when he reveals himself to us
- As children of God, we have every reason to have joy, but we often allow the heavy burdens of this life to make us forget that joy
- Jesus dropped a heavy burden on his disciples
- There is no satisfactory answer for “How long is a little while?”
- With joy we can choose to focus on heavy burdens or to focus on the joy that is found in Christ
- The source of sorrow is the absence of Christ
- Jesus doesn’t abandon his disciples to their sorrow
- Imagine the great sorrow of the disciples when Jesus was crucified
- All our source of sorrow is because of the absence of Christ in our lives or in the lives of others
- We have the assurance of God himself that our grief will turn to joy
- Jesus gives us his disciples four assurances to comfort them and lead them to joy
- Jesus leaves another assurance, granted prayer requests when we ask in his name
- Asking in Jesus’ name isn’t done by tagging “In Jesus name we pray, amen.” to the end of our prayers
- Conclusion: God has and will continue to reveal himself until all has been revealed
- We won’t have sorrows, we won’t even have questions
- This assurance is a great source of joy in the life of a believer
- No matter what we face in the night, joy will come in the morning