The Light of JOY

 

Luke 2:8-10 NLT

 

1) Christmas is - Good news of GREAT JOY

 

“The founders of every major religion said ‘I’ll show you how to find God’. Jesus said, ‘I am God who has come to find you.’” Timothy Keller

 

Eph 2:1-2

 

Rom 5:8

 

Rom 5:1-2

 

2) Happiness and Joy are not the same thing 

 

Joy: Charis - calm delight, an adopted attitude of internal cheerfulness. 

 

Rejoice: Chairo - calmly happy, well-off, full of joy 

 

JOY - is a state of the HEART 

 

Heb 12:2

 

1 Pet 1:3-8

 

JOY - is an internal delight - a CELEBRATION OF THE SOUL 

 

“I sometimes wonder whether all the pleasures of life are not simply substitutes for joy” C.S.Lewis 

 

3) Joy is an expression of God’s presence in us 

 

“Joy is the birthmark of the child of God. Every Christian ought to have conscious joy. And if you’re not living a life of joy, you are living beneath your privileges” Adrian Rogers 

 

Rom 14:17 

 

Acts 2:46,47

 

JOY - is a product of PRESENCE!