Joy is the serious business of heaven C.S.Lewis

The Living Room

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105





Joy is the Serious Business

of Heaven

The Living Room







Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







It was reported to King David that God had prospered Obed-Edom and his entire household because of the Chest of God.

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







So David thought, “I’ll get that blessing for myself,” and went and brought up the Chest of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David, celebrating extravagantly all the way, with frequent sacrifices of choice bulls.

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







David, ceremonially dressed in priest’s linen, danced with great abandon before God. The whole country was with him as he accompanied the Chest of God with shouts and trumpet blasts. But as the Chest of God came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, happened to be looking out a window.

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







When she saw King David leaping and dancing before God, her heart filled with scorn.

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







They brought the Chest of God and set it in the middle of the tent pavilion that David had pitched for it. Then and there David worshiped, offering burnt offerings and peace offerings.

Joy is the Serious

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When David had completed the sacrifices of burnt and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies and handed out to each person in the crowd, men and women alike, a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. Then everyone went home.

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







David returned home to bless his family. Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to greet him: “How wonderfully the king has distinguished himself today—exposing himself to the eyes of the servants’ maids like some burlesque street dancer!”

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







David replied to Michal, “In God’s presence I’ll dance all I want! He chose me over your father and the rest of our family and made me prince over God’s people, over Israel. Oh yes, I’ll dance to God’s glory—more recklessly even than this.

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







And as far as I’m concerned . . . I’ll gladly look like a fool . . . but among these maids you’re so worried about, I’ll be honored no end.” Michal, Saul’s daughter, was barren the rest of her life. 2 Samuel 6: 12-23

Joy is the Serious

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Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4 (NRSV) Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Philippians 4:4 (The Message)

Joy is the Serious

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Often the word here is translated rejoice. We normally understand that word today, I think, as meaning something that happens inside people, a sense of joy welling up and making them happy from within.

Joy is the Serious

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All that is important and is contained within Paul's command; but in his world and culture this rejoicing would have meant (what we would call) public celebration.

Joy is the Serious

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The world around, in Ephesus, Phillipi, Corinth and elsewhere used to organise great festivals, games and shows to celebrate their gods and their cities, not least the new 'god' Caesar himself.

Joy is the Serious

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Why shouldn't the followers of King Jesus celebrate exuberantly? It's only right; and celebrating Jesus as Lord encourages and strengthens loyalty and obedience to him. N.T. Wright

Joy is the Serious

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this ‘valley of tears,’ cursed with labour, hemmed round with necessities, tripped up with frustrations, doomed to perpetual plannings, puzzlings, and anxieties. C.S. Lewis

Joy is the Serious

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Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

Joy is the Serious

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yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3: 17-19

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







Though the fig tree does not bud What I expected to happen that would insure a secure future is just not there and there are no grapes on the vines, and for all my efforts of managing life nothing has come to bear fruit

Joy is the Serious

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The Living Room







though the olive crop fails that what I relied on and put my hope in to soothe my open wounds has failed and the fields produce no food, that I am looking at starvation and emptiness square in the face

Joy is the Serious

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though there are no sheep in the pen that I have lost all tangible resources I could trade off and no cattle in the stalls, that all my wealth, status, security is gone

Joy is the Serious

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yet I will rejoice in the Lord, Yet even in this I will make a conscious choice to rejoice. I’m not putting a ‘happy face’ mask on and pretending problems don't exist, I am choosing to go deeper and trust.

Joy is the Serious

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I will be joyful in God my Savior. I know that God is my Saviour. That what I am experiencing now does not alter in any way God’s eternal love and commitment to me. Nothing can separate me from God’s love

Joy is the Serious

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The Sovereign Lord is my strength; I find my strength not in self sufficiency, demanding things go my way, but in the sufficiency of God to lead me through the problems, the ‘valley of tears’

Joy is the Serious

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he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, Look what he is doing in me! I am finding a new ability to stand, to be nimble, to jump.

Joy is the Serious

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he enables me to tread on the heights. I have not been disabled by the ‘valley of tears’, rather God has enabled me. I have a steadiness within me, a confidence, a hope to see a far off land where I will be with them (Father, Son, Spirit) forever. Valleys to walk through yes, but a steady hand beside.

Joy is the Serious

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How do you develop the type of joy described by Habakkuk. 1. Realise it is a by product of a life lived fully for God.

Joy is the Serious

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But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others [Love], exuberance about life[Joy], serenity [Peace]. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Galatians 5:22, 24

Joy is the Serious

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2. Don’t scorn or look down on others Joy.

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3. Sit and listen to the stories of those who have been through the ‘valley of tears’ and yet have a beautiful sense of deep Joy. Learn from them.

Joy is the Serious

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RVBC is known as • A community of people that have a deep

‘below the surface’ current of joy.

Joy is the Serious

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RVBC is known as • A community where people can safely be

both real in their struggles and deep in their faith.

Joy is the Serious

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RVBC is known as • A community where ‘old’ and ‘young’ share

life and wisdom together.

Joy is the Serious

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RVBC is known as • A community of groups, from 2 -10 where

people gather together regularly for mutual spiritual formation and support.

Joy is the Serious

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RVBC is known as • A community that because it exists the aroma

of Christ wafts gently into every area of our local society and indeed our world. (If RVBC wasn’t here would we be missed?)

Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

The Living Room







Joy is the Serious

Business of Heaven

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

Joy is the serious business of heaven C.S.Lewis

Spiritual

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