Category: Jesus’ Happiness

Psalm 25:4-5 (NRSVUE)
4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.

Psalm 40:8 (NRSVUE)
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”

John 6:40 (NRSVUE)
40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”

We were encouraged this Sunday about Jesus‘ happiness. May we ask ourselves again today, “What makes Jesus happy?” Jesus is happy when we are rescued and healed. Like the psalmist, we can proclaim “You are the God of my salvation.” In our daily lives, we can experience even greater joy as we delight in doing the will of God. In our churches, campus ministries, and missional groups, at school or work, may we participate in what makes Jesus happy, seeing people rescued and healed.

Prayer: Father, how great you are. May my thoughts throughout today be shaped by your truth. Help me to walk not in my own path, but according to your ways. May I delight in your will and be “all in” to see people rescued and saved. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “How great thou art (Until that day)” by Matt Redman (click here).

-MR

 

Luke 15:3-7 (NRSVUE)
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

“This is a perfect picture of the work of redemption: God not only seeks the lost but also brings them back to the flock.” (Grant Osborne, Luke Verse by Verse)

Jesus chooses the imagery of a shepherd to speak of God’s great love and rejoicing over bringing sinners to himself. The emphasis is on the total concern for the one that is missing and that there would have been no hope for this lost sheep without the careful search of the shepherd. Today, let’s be renewed in the truth that once we had no hope, but God has rescued and healed us.

Prayer: Lord, I confess that I was once lost, but you restored me. I am grateful that you would rejoice over me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “He has done great things” by Bethel (click here).

-MR

 

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NRSVUE)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

“He kept his eye on the joy that was waiting for him—the joy of doing his father’s will, of bringing his saving purpose to fulfilment—and he put up with the foul torture of crucifixion, a degrading and disgusting as well as excruciating and agonizing death. Now, as a result, he is in the key position of honour at God’s right hand…Hebrews is keenly aware that the readers are in danger of being weary with all that they are facing, day after day…This is like the long, hard haul up a steep and muddy hill in the middle of a long-distance race. They must keep going; they must remind themselves continually of the one who blazed this trail in the first place.”  (Tom Wright, Hebrews for Everyone)

Prayer: Lord, I lay every distraction aside and I fix my eyes on you today. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who lives in me, empowering and renewing me to run with perseverance. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “Help us see Christ” by Sovereign Grace Music (click here).

-MR

1 Peter 2:10, 24-25 (NRSVUE)
10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.  25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Hebrews 4:16 (NRSVUE)
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

“He does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness. That’s the whole point. It’s what he came to heal. He went down into the horror of death and plunged out through the other side in order to provide a limitless supply of mercy and grace to his people… He wants us to draw on his grace and mercy because it is who he is.” (Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers)

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you are filled with joy when we come to you as your people. May we come to you again today to receive mercy and grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “I believe” by Charity Gayle (click here).

-MR

Let’s read aloud together the following passage, confession, and prayer:

John 15:11-16 NIV
¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

Capetown commitment: We love the living God
We love God with passion for his glory. The greatest motivation for our mission is the same as that which drives the mission of God himself – that the one true living God should be known and glorified throughout his whole creation. That is God’s ultimate goal and should be our greatest joy.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you call us friends and include us in your mission. May our joy be found in participating in your work. May our passion and motivation be that the one true living God be known and glorified. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “Known by you” by Gateway Worship (click here).

-MR