Your Great God and Dear Savior desire that you would be filled with JOY this Advent and Christmas. Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say rejoice!” But is God saying to just “flip a switch” when we are struggling and not feeling joyful? How are we to understand this word? It is a fantastic message from the Lord and in this text is the antidote for anxiety and worry. I loved researching this text. It is FANTASTIC and I can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow morning in worship at 9:30 am.

Also, we begin a brand-new adult Bible Study “On the Incarnation” tomorrow!

It is joy to serve you dear Christian and I hope to give you the Word of Christ that will fill you with the Lord’s Word on true joy for your life in Christ.

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:

It is hard and painful and causes great anxiety to rise up from our flesh when we are mistreated! To be mistreated is the cause of great anxiety that can easily keep you up all night! But in the midst of this, the original disciples – who especially faced persecution as they were either martyred or exiled for the faith (do we really have anything to complain about?), they were called by the Lord to “rejoice and be glad.” Why? Because of the salvation set before them. Their roads – even if they were roads of extreme hardship – were paved to lead them back to the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus was the cause of their joy; Jesus was their assurance that everything bad would be used by God to lead to greater blessings in Christ. Even if it meant that they would simply get better at falling into the arms of their Savior!

Which leads me to really appreciate how this text presents the concept of joy. It is something commanded of us. And let’s face it: if we conceive of this as essentially a feeling, then the imperative command from the Lord will seem very confusing to us. How does one “flip a switch?!” If you are going through great anxiety, do you simply “feel better” because you think that this is what God is commanding you to do? This invites again terrible – and unnecessary – confusion. This peace, however, is objective. Now, I’m not saying that this objective peace cannot and does not lead to subjective, emotional peace. It does and it should (indeed, it must)…eventually, but you know the old saying, “first things first!” And if we lose the emphasis, if we lose the objectivity of this peace and the proper order of things, then we will never know the subjective peace. So our focus is not on an impossible and phony “flip of the switch,” but rather our focus is on Saint Paul’s true meaning. This peace is the peace that Christ has established between you and your Maker, the Creator, your Heavenly Father. Through the blood of Jesus, peace between you and God has been established. This is now an objective fact: you have peace with God. You are no longer His enemy and as a result, God your friend is committed to standing by your side to help you, to deliver you, to save you, to bless you no matter what you face! And what truly encourages you and propels you in this real reason for joy is the fact that the Lord is near; His coming is soon…before you know it, we will know nothing but glory and we will not even be able to remember what caused us anxiety and worry. This is the truth, this is a fact and this is the objective basis for our peace which stands as a guard at the entrance of our heart: The Lord is with me and His coming is very soon…I have reason once again to rejoice, because none of my earthly troubles will last, none of them will take me from Christ, none of them can remove the crown I will receive on account of Christ! And all of them are a reminder for me to call on the Name of my Coming King who has already saved me!

 

I hope to see you in God’s house tomorrow morning!

In Your Service and To Christ’s Glory,

 

Rev. Dr. Alfonso O. Espinosa