Sermon Central
-
Joyride - Pt. 4 - Check Your Oil!
Contributed by Steve Ely on Aug 24, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: We have the right to pursue happiness. However, we soon discover that happiness is fleeting. Joy is better, but how do you find, obtain and keep it?
Joyride - Pt. 4 – Check Your Oil
I. Introduction
Hold on. Close your eyes. Clinch your teeth and perhaps your cheeks. The roller coaster called life can spin you and turn you inside out. Jesus boards this ride of life and makes us one of the greatest promises next to salvation! We read that promise in . . .
II. Text
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
You will remember that I told you that it is important to backtrack and hear what He told us (on purpose) so that we could find out what prerequisites we must meet to obtain fullness of joy.
We have been learning some important things about joy:
1. To have fullness of joy we must be willing to embrace and appreciate pruning?
2. To have fullness of joy we must be rooted in Him which is revealed by whether His Words are at home in you and if we become obedient to His commands.
3. Our strength level is determined by our joy level. The Joy of the Lord is our strength.
4. If Jesus' joy enabled Him to face death, then surely His joy in you can empower you to face life!
5. There is only one location that joy can be found which in His presence. So we cannot confuse condition and location because happiness is the product of condition. Joy is the product of location.
So I want us to wrap up this ride today by asking you a question, “Have you checked your oil lately?”
Let's start in the New Testament in
TEXT: Hebrews 1:8-9
But to the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. You rule with a scepter of justice. You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”
Then in the Old Testament we are familiar with a passage that was a Messianic prophecy that in Luke 4, Jesus quoted to announce His own arrival on the scene. However, He only quoted the first part. We like the first part and overlook the part He didn't quote but which He still has the authority and power to fulfill then and now.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Some thoughts on these passages as they relate to Jesus and to us and in particular this repeated phrase of oil of joy.
1. Jesus' joy was a result of love and hate.
The writer of Hebrews reveals that Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy because He loved justice (in another version it says righteousness) and hated evil (iniquity, or unrighteousness). What brought the anointing on Jesus will bring the anointing on you. Too often we have no anointing of joy because we don't love what He loves and hate what He hates. We love what we love and hate what we hate thinking that will produce joy and it instead produces distraction, pain, and anger. I see that we are filled with love for things that God hates and we have no joy. I see that we are filled with hate for things that God loves and we have no joy. What we love (we get that) and hate (hate can produce joy?) determines whether or not we are anointed with joy!
He is anointed because He is righteous; we are anointed that we may be righteous. Isaiah says He will anoint us with joy so that we can be trees of righteousness.
2. Jesus was anointed with joy above the others but not to the exclusion of others.
The writer of Hebrew says He is anointed above others meaning that those around Him have a level of anointing that He exceeds. This lines up with what Isaiah tells us that the Messiah would arrive on the scene to do. He will come and give us the oil of joy! In fact, He should have more joy than us and at the same time we should have more joy than those around us that don’t have Him!
