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do this. Here's a question. You know, uh I mean you're my age. I sort of I saw the first one. A lot of young people. A lot I know there's a lot of young people here. So you probably weren't around when 1978 was there. This show will probably outlive everybody. But I want to ask you about Harrison Ford. Simple question. Do you think he has aged well? Yes. Yeah. I wouldn't mind at that age to look like that. Here's another guy.
Do you think he has aged well? It is all false botox on the face, you know. Okay. Now, here's the third guy. This one is my favorite. Okay. Uh this guy, you know, uh uh is uh very inspiring to me. Probably because of the name, you know, you know, when I was young in school, you know, uh you know how how many Arnolds do you meet in your life? I remember I was in the school. It was a Malay school, you know, and they used to they used to call out a report card. Come to my Arnold
Arnold. Arnold, you know, some of these people can't spell. Then of course he came to the scene and suddenly Arnold was was synonymous of being buff. I was in uni. I went to the gym and they say, "Okay, what's your name? Arnold." They say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me your real name." I say, "It's Arnold." You see, my eyes see. Yeah. Yeah. Because very trendy to call yourself Arnold. Okay. So, what we're trying to do today is uh we're trying to pay homage to to some senior people. I'm going to show you a group of senior people who have aged very well and have really put this tree to shame. Okay? They come from our own backyard. Okay? Nothing like homegrown. All right? Our people don't need botox, don't need to pump iron. And they are very alive. One of the great things in FBC is this you know uh you know when you say in you know when when you tell someone you know you say you know you sing like an old person actually it's an insult in FBC when we say you sing like an old man that's that's a compliment you know so all you young people remember that in fact the young people here don't sing as well the old people okay so this is David Thomas I think he's here somewhere where David Thomas I'm going to embarrass him where is he ah there that's how you brought that back you should get him to sing man My goodness, he brought the house down. So, our senior citizens rock, okay? They they can really bring the house down, okay? And today we're going to look at someone who was really really old, okay? And who could sing like he was alive, you know, and today we look at Simeon in in a text which is really quite understated. And how do we know he's very old? Because of this line in Luke 2, you now dismiss your servant in peace. Essentially, the word here meaning dismiss, the Greek translates itself like in a military term, I let you go. Meaning he's prepared now to die. He has seen something, been revealed, something is so satisfies him. He's prepared to go to the grave. And this is Simeon, okay? And it's a great story. It's about man who doesn't find any other record of him. He never wrote a book. He's not like Paul. He never raised anyone from the dead. He never did huge miracles. He never did anything in what people's eyes say very significant. What is his contribution? He sang a song and scripture immortalizes him. So here's the first thing I want to encourage all of you. Whatever age you are is never too late to make an impact for for the Lord. So we'll look at the text and we'll read at it from vers 25 Luke chapter 2 and it says now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. He had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and the sword will pierce your own soul too." Now try try to get into the text. Okay? We know he's quite old. Okay? In fact, not only verses 29, verse 26 says this. Verse 26, it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. He would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Now, what does the word here mean? The Lord's Christ. And before that, he says he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. It means he's waiting for the Messiah. So try imagine this old man which the Holy Spirit has given some uh sighting to him that you would see the Messiah that which you have been waiting for you'll see. So this old man goes into the temple every day is this baby the right baby because in the temple Jewish custom is 40 days after any birth you bring the baby in to be consecrated according to Mosaic law. So he waits. Every day baby comes in because the Holy Spirit doesn't tell him what day, what the baby will look like, what the parents will look like. One day a poor couple come in. How do we know they're poor? Because the text beforehand tells them that they gave a pair of doves. You find that in verse 24. Now if you know the Mosaic law, if you had money, you don't give those, you know, you give actually cattle. You bring dove but you bring in a lamb to be sacrificed. Now you know they're poor. So here is this old man every day waiting waiting. One day a young teenage couple comes in and he asks himself is this the one? Is this the one? The spirit tells him that's the one. And he goes up he holds the baby and then what does he do? He sings from the bottom of your heart. He sings like he has never sung before. and his words go down in scripture. Now what Luke is telling us is part of a larger picture. There are four songs in the book of Luke. They start off with Mary, then Zechariah, the song of the angelic host and Simeon and they form an arch. The four songs basically tell the same story in different perspectives. Go to look as a physician. The way to look at the text is to look at it in completeness. Now let me give you overview of what the songs are saying. This is what Mary sings. My soul rejoices in God my savior. Zechariah, he was mute when he opens his mouth. Praise be to God. And the angel of the Lord coming before Mary and Joseph, I bring you good news of great joy. And then they break out, glory to God the highest on earth, peace to men to whom his favor rest. And Simeon is in song. You now dismiss your servant in peace. You take a snapshot of some of the words here. Peace, joy, praise, rejoice. What are we getting here? We are getting a sense of people who are happy, people who are joyful. Let me take you one step back. Have you ever considered Christianity is the only faith that sings so much? They sing all the time. You're not a Christian here. I want you to stop and consider that. I mean everywhere Christians go they sing. In fact the Bible's full of singing. In the book of Revelation we meet God they sing. Do they have a marriage they sing. Every other marriage you go to no one sings you know but they they sing. Other other religion chant they sing. Uh uh they they they Christmas they do carols. And here's a snapshot from every country in the world. You have there uh the hill people of China. You have the Nepales up there. You have Chinese. You have Indonesia. You have India. You have Africa. They sing all the time. Why? Why did Simeon sing? Why is there so much singing in the Bible? And here's what today's message is really about. Because people sing when they are happy. They are joyful. They at peace. They like Simeon have been so contented. They receive what they wanted. They sing. So today we ask about joy. And here the questions. Are Christians meant to be joyful? Why am I depressed if I'm a Christian? And and Martin Lloyd John Jones, Dr. Martin, very famous old preacher said this now. He said, "Whatever the reason, the fact remains, there are large numbers of Christians who give the impression of being unhappy. They're cast down. Souls are disquited within them." And he says this, in a sense, a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms. I mean, what you're trying to say is this. If you're a Christian and you go around every day looking like you're very depressed, why would anybody want to be a Christian? I mean, think about it. So, but but there's a lot of let's there's almost some Christianity that teaches that is like a sin to be happy. You know, you need to carry your cross. And that's true. You need you need to put others first. Uh you need to you need not to be selfish. Almost like to desire happiness is a sin. You know that that's not wrong. I mean it's wrong. Sorry. Is it's not wrong to desire happiness is what is your happiness then? We're going to go to that in a while. But here the fact what I'm trying to tell you scripture tells you very obviously those who followed the Lord Jesus Christ were happy without a fail. Okay. Now what we're not saying is that we're not saying the absence absence of sorrow. We're not saying you should walk around with a smile on your face all the time. It doesn't mean you cannot be depressed. There's some medical reasons why people are depressed. You go through a deep problem. You get you go into sorrow. Being joyful isn't the absence of sorrow. But what I like to say is as a matter of promise, scripture is telling us this as a matter of promise, as a matter of evidence right through scripture. Generally, Christians should be happier than non-Christians. Can I even push the bar a bit higher? I'd like to propose to you Christians should be the happiest people on the face of the earth. They should be. And today I want to give you three foundations, three principles on this. True joy has a foundation. The second is critical. This is something we don't realize. True joy requires us to go through deep unhappiness. Now, that is a killer. We're going to break that down. The second part of Simeon's prophecy. And true joy has a divine purpose. Hear this thing about evangelical Christianity. They always like to talk about suffering to say suffering has a purpose. It's true. Suffering develops perseverance. Suffering develops discipline. Suffering allows you to connect to people who suffer. But have you realized joy has a purpose too? If God has a purpose for everything, happiness, joy, peace has a purpose. And that purpose isn't self-centered. It's God- centered. We we'll go into that. So here are three parts. Let's break to the first one. True joy has a foundation. And I like to suggest one thing about uh what makes people generally happy. Especially for example, you're Chinese. You meet a Chinese guy on the street and he's he's smiling, he's whistling, he's singing. What would you say him? What what would you say to him? In Cantonese say
meaning you struck lottery. Why? Because to Chinese have being happy is equated to what? Having tons of money. That's a fact. But you break it down. Actually happiness to or joy or peace or whatever you call it comes in three things. Most people pursue. A what you materially have, B what you can do. C what people think of you. You take this away people are not happy. And when I say materally have is everything, good education, your children do well, uh, money in the bank, your health, and they're not wrong things. Yeah. What you can do, the fact that I excel in my work or or or I have this skill, I can sing very well, like I'm good at sports, I'm I'm good at my studies. And the last one is adoration. You get respect. I mean, who wants to be insulted? And this is this is generally every human being Christian or non-Christian goes into this category. And I'm not saying they're wrong, not saying they're right. It's an observation. But the danger is how much do you weigh your happiness into this? In the ' 90s there's a movie called Amdus. old movies are today old man quite sure you haven't watch it quite you know I don't know whether you you can get it online but in in the movie Amdus there is a court musician called celery I can't pronounce him very well he's actually historical figure now this is a movie but it's interesting and and the movie portrays him as a very righteous man he prays he's very pious but he's a man who has everything he's respected because he's a court musician He can because he's he's good at music. He has skills. So he has something he can do. He has respect and has brought him money and fame. So he fits into all these categories. He's a man who has material things. He has skills as a musician and he has respect. He's a court musician in the Selford court in Austria. One day he meets a wife or young upstart called Wolf Gang Amadeus Mosad. And here is the script. Celery says, "Are these original?" The wife comes to see uh Celery with the hope that the husband can get a job as a court musician. And the wife says yes, he doesn't make copies. As Celery marvels at the work of Mozart, he narrates the story. astounding actually beyond belief. He has simply written down music already finished in his head. Here again was the very voice of God. I was staring through the cage of this meticulous inkstrokes and an absolute beauty. So here is a man who is respected as a musician, who has skills as a musician, who has made money musician and he sees what? He sees a talent bigger than him. What does he do? And then the next uh scene in the movie is really interesting. What he does? He goes to a room and he goes to a cross. There's a cross of Jesus. And you know what he does? He burns the cross. And this is what he says. This is exactly from the movie. From now on, when he looks at the cross, we are enemies. He says this to God. You know you and I because you chose for your instrument a boastful infantile boy because you unjust, unfair, unkind. You see, if your happiness is based in these three things, here's the simple common sense. If I take that away from you, where would your happiness be? Your confidence is because you're good at a certain skill. Then economy shifts. That skill becomes obsolete. You go into insecurity. Your happiness are because your kids are good at their studies. They bring you pride. But as they grow older, your kids change and don't appreciate your parents. Where's your happiness? Your happiness is in your health. And because your health allows you to do many things one day an illness you doesn't expect hits you. What happens to your happiness? Celery has something very common we all have. It's called jealousy. It eats into him brings out bitterness and brings out insecurity. And what scripture is teaching us is to find a happiness that has a deep foundation. A happiness that the world cannot take away. And what we do right now is try to compare happiness as the world seeks it and happiness as the way Simeon found it. Now let's look at Simeon. He's very happy and he's going to die. Did he make more money after meeting Jesus? No. Did his health improve? No. He was going to die. Did he become famous? No. Scripture doesn't record him again. Only years later when the Bible's compiled, he's immortalized. So he doesn't get fame. Doesn't make money. Has he got any talent? We don't know. Maybe maybe he sang out of tune. The scripture just say he sang. He's got no other skill. He was happy. So I'll break it down to two tables for you. Worldly joy focuses on instant joy. You know everyone instant joy. I mean I'll give you example your your phone. Okay your phone you know your phone has a built-in obsolency. You know that right? Every device like cars and phones are built to break apart after the warranty. Why? so that you can upgrade. You can upgrade if you don't upgrade that they'll all go out of business. So the R&D guys designed such a while in ways so that after two years it will start to break down. So you upgrade but this is what our culture is doing. You know what an upgrading culture is telling you I'm never satisfied. I got to get the new feature. So happiness becomes transient. Why? Because it's instantaneous. instantaneous happiness has no roots and afterward loses his luster. But look at Simeon. What scripture tells us very very profound is that he waited. You know this is a man who waited for the consolation of Israel. He waited for the Messiah. That was his happiness. He waited on the Lord. Secondly, worldly joy. You discern what makes you happy. When I was in uni, I still remember there was a girl I knew, very, very pretty, had so many men chasing her. She got married. Uh, one month ago, she WhatsApp me, she got married again. You see, here's the point. The happiness in the beauty that that that happiness becomes a curse because you can get any pick of any guy you want. You choose. You decide. And if the the husband doesn't the boyfriend doesn't satisfy you, get another one. That's what the world teaches you, right? You decide what makes you happy and you pursue it. That doesn't work out, find something else that makes you happy. But what scripture tells you is not that it's what your happiness is in because that focus can be very dangerous. So what does he do to discern what makes him happy and a lot of things make us happy. Simeon goes to scripture and he goes to the Holy Spirit. How do we know that? Because his song is a song from Isaiah. He's a he's obviously a student of Isaiah. Remember that time they had no Bibles, you know. So when he sings about my eyes have seen your salvation, this is taken right off Isaiah and it's taken from the spirit. So it's a happiness that discern from the spirit and from studying God's word. Here's the other one. A joy that cheats death. Every happiness you have disappears at death. But here's a joy he takes to his grave and beyond. Now that's really really profound. I mean Steve Jobes in his in his final words very famous. I mean all over the net he talked about he had everything but in the end he had nothing because all his wealth could not stop his illness. Here was a man who was able to take his happiness beyond the grave. Lastly, it is a joy that's centered on self because that's what the world teaches is me or my family on extension. But see joy is centered on God. And what is it? And he says this, my eyes have seen your salvation. Verse 30, which you have prepared in the sight of all people. My eyes have seen your salvation. Zechariah uh the the angels say the same thing. I bring you good news of great joy. What is it today? In the town of David, a savior has been born. Chapter 1 10-11, Zechariah says, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel. He has redeemed his people." True joy has his foundation in the salvation Jesus brings. Now, we all know this in our minds, you know, it doesn't hit our hearts. Okay? So, let me give you an example. Okay? Uh this month, December, can I get this on? No. No. No one. No. Anyone can get this on for me?
No. Yes. Anybody? Someone get this on for me? Yeah. Okay. I want to run a little test. Okay. December is when um it was my wedding anniversary. 19 years. Next year 20 years. I have to buy my wife a very big rock. I want to ask a test. I want to ask you one too. Ken. No, I want to No, don't. Uh, is this on? I want to ask the men here how they should treat their women. Fair. Okay. So, here's a simple question. You can ask me. Okay. You can say, "Arnold, have you fill in the blanks?" First service we had some very strange things coming out. Okay. So, you can say, "So, you can say, Arnold, did you buy roses for your wife?" Say, "Okay, something like that." Okay. So, let's ask Peter. Okay. So, uh, my question to you, your question is to ask me, have I been nice to my wife? Have I been a good husband? Okay. You can ask anything. Do I cook for her? Do I wash the toilet? Do I whatever. Name any question. Okay. All right. Question. Just ask me one question. Do you know her love language? Do I know her love language? Oh, that's very profound. Okay. Love language. Love language. You know what I did today? I brought along a notebook. You know, love language. Okay. Okay, I'm going to write it down. Okay, love. Do I know her love language? Let's ask around if let's get the woman's view. Do I know her love language? See, I take this very seriously. Okay. Second question. Do you spend time with her? Oh, wow. Okay. Do I spend time with her? Spend time with her? Let's ask uh let's ask some people from the African continent. Okay. Let's get a let's get a global perspective on this. Okay. Any African brothers and sisters here can answer? We have a whole group of Rwandis here. Okay. Okay, brother, can you tell me how should I treat my wife? Any questions? Do you know why she likes? Do I know what why she likes? Do I know what she likes? Oh, okay. Do I know this is better than first se? Do I know what she likes? Do I know her love language? Do I spend time? Do I know what she likes? Uh, anyone else? Shall we ask anybody here, brother? What do you think?
Uh,
do you know what's a passion? Wow. Do I know what's a passion? Wow. Okay, very good. What's a passion? Okay, let me try to list it down. Do I know a love language? Actually, I don't know what that means, but uh I will try to mean that. Do I understand her? Okay. No. What does it mean? Okay. Right. Do I spend time with her? What does she like? What is a passion? Okay. Let me put it this way. Do I spend time with her? Do I know what makes her happy? You can say that. Okay. And you talk about language. Do I communicate with her? Now let me let me why don't I turn it around instead of saying because why am I telling you that my wife gives me great joy. Now let me turn it around and say God gives me great joy. How then the question applies do I spend time with God? Do I know what God likes? Do I know what is God's passion? Do I understand the language of my communication with God? You see where I'm going with this? My wife brings me great joy. Why? Because I have a relationship with her. I work on that relationship. So why is it Christians are not happy? Because they don't have relationship with God. They don't work on it. They don't spend time with God. They don't read scripture to find out what God makes God happy. They don't know what make God's passionate. You see where we go? So unless your joy is God's salvation because he loves you so much, he makes he is your savior and your lord, you develop a relationship with him. If you don't do that, you won't have joy. So let me break that down a bit deeper. And this one is important. See, true joy requires us to go through deep unhappiness. Now, you will see that's crazy. Who in his right mind wants to be unhappy? Now, you see, Simon breaks down three points and they're obviously all unhappy. First, this child is destined to cause the falling arising of many Israel to be a sign that will be spoken against. That doesn't sound very joyful. Secondly, the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. The last one is very evident. A sword will pierce your own soul. He's telling that to Mary. You know, he's telling Mary, you are going to cry and grief like you have never done. You will like someone just cut right into your soul. Let's break the first one. And and again, Martin Lloyd Jones is very useful. The order is interesting. He says the falling and rising. Why not rising then fall? Why falling and rising in one breath? You know, at one point Jesus is about to do a sermon and the crowd comes is packed. You know, try imagine yourself in one of those big mega churches and everyone comes to hear this so-called men of God. And what do they want to hear? They want to hear prosperity. They want to hear happiness. They want to hear God's blessing me. God's going to heal me. God's going to bring all this good news. God's going to bring all these great things. Jesus sees the crowd and the first thing he says is blessed are the poor in spirit. Then to rub it in, he says, "Blessed are those who mourn." Why? Because it's simply this. If you want to be happy, you really have to be unhappy first. Unhappy about what? Unhappy about your sin. Unless you're unhappy over your sin. Unless you recognize you're broken and completely poor spiritually, unless you mourn over your sin, there will be no joy. The problem with a lot of Christians is they want the joy that God gives, but they want to hold on to all their old lives and all the stuff they still do, the lust and envy and the the deceits and all these things in which we know God's not very happy, but we want to hold on to it, but yet we want to be happy. It's like being in a marriage. You know, you want to be unfaithful and yet you want your wife to love you. So, it doesn't work that way. So, the first thing you need to break to build. The second is quite interesting. He said there will be a sign that will be spoken against. Meaning Jesus is going to be a target. Now, what does it mean? And and and isn't he going to bring joy and peace? And he says it later, do not suppose I've come to bring peace on earth. Wow. Didn't he just say peace on earth? Isn't that the Christmas message? Peace on earth. He says this, "I did not come to bring peace by a sword. I come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against his mother, a daughter-in-law against a mother-in-law. Man's enemies will be members of his own household." And particularly we see this in certain groups where in our society where when you become a Christian, you betray the religion of your forefathers. My ancestors worship in a temple. Now you want to be a Christian or you decide to marry and they say no you need to have this kind of Buddhist rights or tawist right Hindu rights no it's got to be Christian or in a funeral they say you become a Christian who's going to honor me at the grave you see Jesus brings a peace that actually breaks you know there's no neutrality here because he is not here to actually be a peacekeeper he's here to make real peace and that peace actually is going to tear people apart. I I I give you a simple example. Let's just say you want to marry a a girl and the girl is great and you know she'll make a great wife and your friends say that but your mom and dad think she comes from a bad background, not the right social class, not uh not educated enough, wrong race. Now would you still marry that girl or would you for the sake of peace of your mom and dad not marry her? It will be a very poor testimony of your love if you followed your parents because real joy, real peace, real love, anything valuable has a price. And Jesus Christ is very simple, complete, total, nothing less. Next slide. a joy that comes from the peacemaking and not peacekeeping. And he says this, and this is how he wraps it up a bit. He says, "The thoughts of many will be revealed." And in John 3 to Nicodemus, he says the same thing. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world. Men love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light. Fulfill his deeds will be exposed. Now took me a long time to really understand this but what he's basically he's saying this true joy to know true joy you must first know yourself especially your failings I I give you example say you are CEO of a company or your your management what's the danger about anybody in corporate you hold on you know so the company moves in such a way that requires you to let go of your your your leadership The biggest temptation to say no, I need to hold on for the sake of the company. But the real reality is you don't know yourself. The real self is once you let go, you lose control. You feel incomplete. You see, we can we can replicate this many ways. What we're trying to say is that we are the last person to know our own failings. And because we are the last people to know our own failings, we're not happy. Now this is a truth which took me a long time to realize about some of my own insecurities. For man to admit his insecurity is very very very difficult especially for men but more so for all of us. But here is what scripture does. He will reveal our hearts and you realize your struggles your insecurities your worries your sinful tendencies. That's why Paul says in in in Ephesians, put off your old self, put on your new self. You cannot put off your old self unless you're aware of it. Unless your mind is re is is revealed on this. So true joy, you must first know yourself. And here's the last one. And he tells Mary some very painful words. A sword will pierce your own soul too. And this one is self-explanatory because at the end of Luke it says a large number of people follow him including women who mourn and will for him and one of them would be Mary. And what is Simeon saying? Simeon is saying this. God promises a joy that takes us through suffering not avoid it. Because God wants to anchor us so deep in his love to to to have you so convinced that God loves you. He's wrapped his love so much around you. The world can break, but you will be there in his love and he will carry you through. He will complete the work that he began. Now, why are we still unhappy? Because let me tell you this, happiness isn't a mental thing. You know, it's not there. And and I think uh uh this writer John Eldridge X focus of family said it right. God loves you no you matter to him. That is a fact stated a proposition. Why then aren't we the happiest people on earth and he got it right. He hasn't reached our hearts. So when you read something like John 3:16 we say God so loved the world he gave his one and only son that whoever believes him shall not perish. It doesn't hit our heart. The journey hasn't gotten from the head to the heart. God so loved you me he loved me and that from that wellspring comes obedience and lordship and to go through difficult times I I I'll put in a diagram for you okay and this is from a great book from Peter Scazaru great book try to read it called emotionally healthy spirituality let me suggest to you every Christian every serious disciple of Jesus goes through this phase. It goes like this. You first become a Christian. You have a life-changing awareness of God. You accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. You begin your Christian life. And wonderfully in Alpha, we have a few who started that way and we have seen this happen in many years. Then you go to disciplehip. You start to learn what it means to follow Jesus. You begin Bible study. You begin to pray. You begin to ask questions. Why is this? I don't understand that. You get involved. You start your journey. And then it goes well. You are joyful in your Christian life. You're actively serving. You're involved. You are now full-fledged Christian. Now I want to say if you're a disciple of Jesus, everyone here goes through this. But here's where the rubber hits the road. At one point, bam, you hit a wall. What's at that wall? Any one of this. Anyone. If you're really a Christian, you tell me if this is not true. I challenge you, everyone here, if you're a disciple of Jesus, you go through this. A crisis happens. Things don't go well. Problems at home, church people just give you a terrible thing. You get discouraged, you lose your faith, something happen. And the first service we had this and I believe the second we have this, something happens. It can be anything but it happens. Now, this is why Simeon gives it. Simon has the joy. The second part of it is so critical because the journey doesn't end there. What happens at the wall and why Simeon's waiting is so important because it allows you first to inwardly reflect. Inward reflection. Why? Because we all need time to grief, to scream, to shout, to be as a psalmist, to say, "Lord, why have you forsaken me?" to be as Job, to sit down and scrape yourself, to be as Elijah and run away and hide and break. And through all of that, God doesn't condemn anyone who does this because we are human. Scripture allows us to scream and shout and say, "God, I feel alone." It's biblical. That's what the psalmist is. That's what all the Psalms do. But during this time of waiting, what happens? You know, things happen. Your faith is in a crisis stage. It does two things. The evil reflection either makes you bitter as a Christian or I tell you, it makes you better. Doesn't go any other way. Doesn't go into neutral. And what the wall does, it moves you to an outward journey. You redirect God's profound love. You begin to rediscover God's salvation. and you start to heal. You begin to understand that God loves you. This this is what Simeon is saying. Your soul will be pierced, but remember the salvation. That's the glory of Israel. This is the glory of Israel. He you will be pierced, but the glory of Israel will be there and he will reach out to the Gentiles. That's the promise. And you're transformed with true joy. You realize God will complete the work he began in you. And you begin to surrender yourself more to God. Now, here's the thing. What I'm trying to say is not linear. No, it's circular. I think we really got to grab this. It's circular. Meaning it happens again and again and again. Classic example, Peter. I'm going to follow you Lord go so good. Jesus says, you know what, Peter, unto you I will build a rock. The gates of hell will not prevail. He's really for the Lord. What does he do after that? He denies God three times. So God restores him. Restores him on fire again. Book of Acts goes out, does a lot of things. What does he do in Galatian? He becomes a racist. God restores him again. Same pattern with Abraham. Same pattern with Paul. Same pattern with so many of us. So many you read missionaries, stories of people, all of us. Here's what I want to tell you. If you're going through a difficult time, you hit the wall at the end of this service. Let me pray for you. Because in the first service we had a lot of people hit the wall and at that wall you either reflect and you grow better for the Lord or you go bitter. So a soul your thought will pierce your soul but hang on because God is true a light for revelation Gentiles. Glory to the people Israel. So let me end with this that true joy has a divine purpose. After you have that foundation as Jesus and you learn to take every unhappiness and anchor it in in Christ, you begin to understand the purpose of life. You see, Iranius first century Christians say this, the glory of God is man fully alive. What's happening with a lot of people go to church, they are half dead. They walk around with no fire, no passion. They're bogged down with the insecurities. But when Jesus say that you he will give you life to the fullest, this is what he meant. You will have life to the fullest. And God is glorified when people are fully alive. That's why when you when some people become Christian this way, I had a friend who became Christian because a family member had cancer and he saw how a Christian member handled it because she was anchored in peace. Some people become Christians because they go to Christian funerals. You go to another funeral, people are just completely everywhere. By the Christian funeral, you you see peace. People see that that people have a joy that's so deep, it cannot be taken away. And again, Martin Lloyd Jones says this, the greatest need of the hour is to revive and joyful church. There can be little doubt that the exuberant joy of the early Christians was one of the most potent factors in the spread of Christianity. And the early church was persecuted. Every suffering you have, they had it and much more. But they were joyful because the salvation that they had enveloped them. And the purpose of joy is to be truly alive to display the glory of God. And what do people do when they are truly alive? They sing for joy. You know what they call this now after the Paris attack? It's a new term. It's called the new normal. Welcome to World War II where you can be attacked anywhere and everywhere. And depression and sadness and pain and suffering can be anywhere. Throughout this, this young man decided to sing in the way Simeon sang. And this young man in a competition called the voice in Canada after the Paris attack decided to sing great is thy faithfulness and he sang and the song went viral and for a short while he dislodged Adele all you fans hollow from the other side went to number two that's saying a lot now you You should go back YouTube this hero because you should see some of the remarks. In the same way, Simeon's only contribution was he sang as scripture records him. Old man about to die sang and his words become immortalized. This young man sang and some of the hits I saw were there. There was one hit on YouTube. I'm an atheist but after hearing this singing, I think I should search out God. You see your how alive you are is your testimony. And a sign of you being alive, you sing for joy. You speak your life. People look at you. They see victory. They see joy. They see peace despite your circumstances. They see a rock. And they then see God Almighty. And God is glorified. Young men, old men. Well, what are they? They are the voice of God. And this morning, God is challenging you to be that voice. We're going to sing two songs and I want to challenge you that joy is your Christian right. Can we bring up the song? Claim it back. And as we sing this song, if you if you feel the Lord, if you have burdens in your heart, there's one part. We're not going to do an alter call, but doing a musical interlude. If you are burdened, I want you to just take a moment to wait upon the Lord the way Simeon did. And just to do a prayer in your heart, we will sing this song and the reason for our joy and during the interlude, maybe a moment of silence, wait upon the Lord as Simeon did and let God heal you. Can we raise to sing this song? This is the reason the reason that Christians should be the happiest people on the face of earth.
