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Sermonette: Count It ALL Joy
Praising God
#1874s
Ronny H. Graham
Given 09-May-26; 21 minutes
2026-05-09
summary: Covering James 1:2, this lesson explores the importance of facing every trial God places before us with joy for the sake of our spiritual growth. As we examine passages throughout the Bible, we see that not all of God's instructions are easy to follow. Maintaining a joyful attitude during difficult circumstances is among the most challenging commands we are given. In other translations, trials are even described as "gifts" and "friends," offering additional perspective on how believers are called to approach hardship. Scripture also provides many examples of heroes of faith who rose up and obeyed God's instruction. The march around Jericho and Christ's night before His death both demonstrate individuals courageously stepping forward to fulfill God's will. Though not every trial we face will be on such a great scale, each one provides an opportunity to joyfully praise and trust in God.
transcript:
Have you ever read a scripture and thought, how can I possibly accomplish that? Or maybe how or what does God expect from me? Now one such scripture that might come to mind is Matthew 5:44. You do not have to turn there, but it says, love your enemies, and not only love them, but bless them that curse you. Wait a minute, that's not all. It keeps going. Do good to them that hate you. And lastly, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. Another one might be seek the Lord with all your heart. I was thinking the other day and began to consider, given the world in which we live with so many distractions, how can we possibly focus long enough to accomplish this. What does it mean to seek with all your heart? Putting God first is a tall order. it is it even possible, given our surroundings? May be somewhat related to the second one here we find this one in I Thessalonians 5:16 and 17 to rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. Years ago I gave up on listening to the radio and I thought. That would give me more time for prayer and meditation while driving. But it seems more often than not, about the time you get started, someone cuts you off in traffic, and there goes your meditation or your prayer. Rejoice when someone cuts you off in traffic or perhaps rejoice when someone. is sitting obliviously at a green light on their phone while they hold you and everyone else up. And that's not all. Everyone behind you thinks it's you, and they start honking at you. Now Allie and I had a chance to rejoice on the way to church. We actually tried it. We said hallelujah twice and the guy turned off. Now how about Romans 8:28, our next one here. All things work out together for good. All things. Perhaps you just lost your job. Because you just had to be off on Saturdays, the car broke down. You do not even know how you're going to pay the rent, much less the high gas bills. And now your wife comes in gleaming with some wonderful news that she's pregnant again. 4 kids was not enough. But all these things which seem to be piling up on you are for your good. Now my number one fan and my dear wife. Reminds me from time to time that God says we must suffer like Christ suffered. Brethren Jesus Christ suffered unto death. Wow, we must suffer like Christ suffered. That's a tall order and most certainly a tough act to follow. Now, one of my best friends back in my high school days had quite a few sayings. But he had one that he would say every now and then that he felt like a frog because he always bumped his rear end when he, when he hopped. I have no idea where he came up with that saying. But how many of us feel like we take 3 steps forward and 12, or 3 backwards? I'm sure there are many more of these scriptures that we could come up with. And wonder how can I possibly accomplish these things. Now there is one more I'd like to try to focus on for the remainder of this sermonette. And this one we will turn to back in the book of James. James chapter 1 and verse 2. And it reads, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Now, having already written this down before Richard's sermon last week, this is where I begin to squirm a little bit in my seat. But in this case, perhaps being on the same page is not a bad thing. James says, count it all joy. There is that three letter word again, all. All joy, all things, all your heart, rejoice always. Perhaps God wants to know if we are all in. To use a poker term. Now adding a few more adjectives to what seems like the simplest of terms all means the whole thing, the entire thing, everything in totality, holding nothing back. Now let's consider a few more translations to this verse here in James 1 and verse 2. The Moffatt translation says greet it as pure joy. When you encounter any sort of trial, JB Phillips says, when all kinds of trials and temptations crowd your lives, my brothers do not resist them as intruders but welcome them as friends. The message Bible says consider consider it a sheer gift. When tests and challenges come at you from all sides. And the last one here comes from the Amplified Bible. And it says, consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Welcome our trials as dear friends and consider it nothing but pure joy. A sheer gift. How many of us have ever been able to do that? How can we possibly face The trials of our lives with pure joy. Now let's consider briefly for a moment. That's the same thing, is not it? Briefly for a moment. The word joy. It's a word that we are all familiar with, but sometimes it's good to refresh our thoughts. In the Old Testament, weddings and harvest time epitomize joy in Israel. As a matter of fact, I believe our wedding ceremony for the church here begins. There can be no more joyous occasion than this we now enter, at least that was the one at our wedding. Israel's feasts were a time of joy, feasting and celebration. How many of us look forward each year to the Feast of Tabernacles all year long with great anticipation. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary describes joy as a state of delight and well-being that results from knowing and serving God. It goes on to say that joy is the fruit of a right relationship with God. And cannot be created by our own efforts. Think about that one. Joy is a fruit of a right relationship with God. How many in the world today have confused pleasure or perhaps the seeking of pleasure and being comfortable with joy? And being joyful. Pleasure and joy are two different things, and Paul even goes so far as to say. That false teachers are lovers of pleasure, always looking to have a good time. We can find that one in II Timothy 2:4. Loving God will produce everlasting joy. Loving pleasure will not, and we have Solomon as an example. Now, one last definition from Mounts's dictionary says. That the Hebrew word for joy can be translated rejoicing, gladness, and happiness, which can be expressed by shouting, dancing. Playing music and lastly, singing. You know, it never occurred to me before, but after looking into this subject, It is truly amazing, at least to me, how many, how much music and singing there is in the Bible. Did you know there is over 185 songs in the Bible that they know of, and there may be some more. They just Don't know about. But do we ever consider how they are used? Have we ever thought much about why we begin our services each Sabbath? By singing When we think of creation, And consider all the things that God has made. Do we realize that he also created the song and the instruments to play them? Now let's consider for a few minutes the some of the ways we find music and singing in the Bible. Now, the first one we will consider is titled The Song of Moses. We'll just brush through these and we, I'll reference a scripture, but you can look them up later if you want. Now we find the song of Moses in Exodus 15, and the children of Israel had been freed from over 400 400 years of slavery and now, after crossing the Red Sea, had witnessed the destruction of their enemies, and they began to sing, praising God for delivering them. The second one we will look at, we find that trumpets were used, and this one is located in Joshua chapter 6. Now this is the story in the fall of Jericho. And it doesn't mention any particular song, but I wonder, were they shouting praise to God? Were the priests just blowing as loud as they could without no harmony? With everything God does having order, I find it hard to believe that everyone was just blowing and screeching at the top of their lungs with no rhyme or reason. In any event, The walls of Jericho came down after the blowing of trumpets. Now this is a little side note that one of my kids mentioned to me. Did you know that archaeologists believe they have found Jericho and the walls did not fall straight down, neither did they fall inward. In their excavations, what they found was the walls fell outwardly. And they concluded that they felt this way, exposing the entire city and the armies of Israel just walked right in. Now the next one we will consider is David, and of course, how could we talk about music without mentioning David. I believe if I checked properly, this is the first mention of David's musical ability in playing the harp, and we find this in the story. In I Samuel 16. Now after Saul's demise, God had taken his spirit from him, and he sent a distressing spirit to trouble Saul. The only way for him to be comforted was by music from David's harp, which David played before him. Can we therefore conclude that music has the power to ward off evil spirits? In Saul's case, it certainly did. Now we might just get a hint into what it takes to love our enemies from this one. Even though Saul tried to kill David more than once, he managed to come back before him. And continue to play. Now our relation to what happened with Saul. It has been determined that music affects every part of the brain. Such as stimulating the different attitudes. And they have also concluded music in D major has been shown to stop seizures. And they have actually named it the Mozart effect. Did something like this happen to Saul? Now, there is so many references to David, we do not have time for them all, but let's turn to the next one in 2 Samuel. II Samuel 6, we will read part of this one. Um, verse 5 and then 15 through 6, 16. II Samuel 65, 15 and 16. First in verse 5, then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cistrums, and on cymbals down to verse 15. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. This is the occasion where they are bringing the art to Jerusalem. Here we find a huge celebration as the Ark of God was returning. To Jerusalem and quite possibly everyone who had or could play an instrument was doing so. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. Perhaps another one of those scriptures. Do we praise God with all our might? Now the playing of music and singing was most certainly done in celebration. But what about when we are facing the difficulties of life? It was very hard for me to rejoice and sing at the gas pumps this week. Now this brings us to the next one, which we also heard last week. Let's go back to the Book of Acts. Acts 16, we will read verse 23, 22 through 26. Acts 16 beginning in verse 22. Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were loosed. Here we find that the multitudes rose up against Paul and Silas. And beat them with many stripes and threw them in prison. Now what did they do? They began praying and singing hymns to God. This was quite a song, brethren. Perhaps they were still wiping the blood from their wounds. They began praising God, and He freed them. When we think of an earthquake, we probably do not think of freedom, but that's exactly what happened. And do you know what else happened? At that time, the jailer repented, and he and all his house with him were saved. He even took Paul and Silas into his home, washing their wounds and putting food before them. And rejoicing as he did so. Had he previously looked at Paul and Silas as his enemies? Was it Paul and Silas's singing that caused this man to pray to repent? Perhaps the next time we are faced with a trial, it may just be that God wants to hear us sing. Some of us might even cause an earthquake. Now reading through Revelation, it seems that there is music surrounding the throne of God. And I look forward to today and we can hopefully hear that. Now, as we begin to close, there is just 2 more of these, and these come from our Savior. And I have to tell you that this first one never really crossed my mind until my son-in-law brought it up in a speech in Spokesman's Club. Let's go back to Matthew for this one in Matthew 26. Very familiar. Matthew 26:30. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Jesus Christ was about to face death on the cross, and what did he do? Before he was arrested. He and his disciples sang a hymn. Was he praising God? You know, there is speculation. Among those who look into these things that he might just have sung Psalm 22, which is one of the Messianic Psalms beginning with, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that's page 18. In our hymnal Now, this last one really just blew me away. Let's go back to Zephaniah. And I want to read it in the Living Bible. Zephaniah chapter 3. And we will read verses 14 through 18. Zephaniah 3, beginning in verse 14. It says, sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem, for the Lord will remove his hand of judgment and disperse the armies of your enemy. And the Lord Himself, the King of Israel, will live among you. At last, your troubles will be over. You need fear no more. On that day, the announcement to Jerusalem will be, cheer up, do not be afraid, for the Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty savior. He will give you victory. He will rejoice over you in great joy and gladness. He will love you and not accuse you. Is that a joyous choir I hear? No. It is the Lord Himself exulting over you in happy song. What do we see here, brethren? Did they hear a choir singing? No, it was the Lord singing. Can we conclude that Jesus Christ The king of kings is rejoicing and singing to his bride. What a joyful day that will be indeed. I must ask then, brethren. Are we all in?
RHG/aws+/
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