Sermon Notes for Daniel 1
Failed Authors
Sermon notes on John 4.
Deepest Suffering for Highest Glory
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Pain can be so deep and so long that we lose heart. We give up and give in. “I just can’t go on. I can’t live another day like this,” we groan. How do we regain heart? How can we get up and get going again?
When the Corinthian Christians hit rock-bottom, the Apostle Paul raised their hearts by raising their eyes: So we do not lose heart…For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:16-17). He reinflated their empty and sagging hearts with this pump: The deeper the earthly suffering, the higher the heavenly glory.
Contagious Joy
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Neuroscientists at University College London have found that laughter is contagious. Using MRI scanners, researchers found that the brain responds to the sound of laughter by telling our face muscles to join in the joy. When we see someone laughing, chances are we also will smile, even though we don’t realize it.
Can we use that research to ‘catch’ spiritual joy? Can we increase the joy of salvation by ‘catching’ it from someone else? Yes, as Psalm 21 demonstrates, King David ‘catches’ the joy of salvation by seeing and hearing King Jesus’s joy in salvation. And he turns to us and says: Enjoy more joy in your salvation by enjoying the king’s joy in your salvation.
Total Trust for Real Rest
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Enjoy real rest in your soul by total trust in Christ.
God’s Solution for God’s Silence
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When suffering pain or loss, we may feel God has abandoned us. Questions like “Why is God absent? Why is God silent?” add to our agony. “If ever I needed God’s voice and God’s presence, it’s now. Instead, nothing.”
David understood this, and, in Psalm 19, opens two books God wrote to to fill our void with his voice, and our hole with his holiness. The books of God’s world and God’s Word bring God to us in a world- and word-transforming way.