The Life You've Always Wanted: Part 2
February 12, 2023Pastor Josh Starnes presented "Joy" as the second Fruit of the Spirit in our current series, "The Life You've Always Wanted." A video of the message is here. Our Conversation Starter for this week is here.
Much as in Greek, there are several words for "joy" in Biblical Hebrew. The most often used (about 93 times) is sim-khaw'. Torah examples include "Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps?" (Genesis 31:27); "Also at your times of rejoicing - your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts - you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the Lord your God." (Numbers 10:10); and "Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity..." (Deuteronomy 28:47). By the way, it's the same word used in modern Hebrew in the phrase Happy (as in Joyful) Birthday.
Here are some of the other ways sim-khaw' is translated: delight (1), exceeding joy (1), extremely (1), festival (1), gladness (34), happiness (1), joy (38), mirth (1), pleasure (6), rejoice (1), rejoiced (1), rejoicing (6). (From Strong's Concordance.)
It's also interesting to note that joy is often associated with, and/or means, the sounding of a trumpet.
In the Deuteronomy citation above, the point being made is in the negative: "if you do not serve the Lord in joy and gladness..." bad things will befall you (hunger, thirst, lacking all, iron yoke, enemies let loose against you, etc.). This harkens back to all the complaining (grumbling, as Josh put it) the Israelites did in the wilderness. Put in the positive, this is a commandment to serve the Lord in joy and happiness.
Speaking of happiness... And please understand, this is an add to Josh's discussion of happiness, not a contradiction, exactly. I've been very influenced by Prager's book, Happiness is a Serious Problem. He makes the point that gratitude is a key to happiness, and that only happy people do good. Unhappy people tend to do bad. He goes as far as to say each of us has a moral obligation to be happy, comparing bad moods to bad breath, neither of which should be inflicted upon others. Act happy and you might even become happy. Note the focus on others. It's not so much about your happiness, it's about that of others.
Josh mentioned a passage in Philippians that talks about a warped and crooked world and saying "you will shine." Here's the reference, Philippians 2:14-16, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, 'children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.' Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain."
In closing, Josh mentioned "all begins with fear of God." The Torah would say "Amen!" The ONLY entity to have at the peak of your value pyramid, who you're most worried about how they think of you, is God; not co-workers, not the public, not "religious people," not environmentalists, not artists, not professors or teachers, not the famous, not naturalists, not bureaucrats or politicians, not journalists or bloggers - nothing and no one else.
Special Guest This Wednesday!
A good friend of ours, Nathan Phillips, happens to be in town and has graciously accepted an invitation to be our Guest Speaker, as it were, this Wednesday evening. We knew him in California for decades, but he gave up that life last year, moved to Poland, and has been helping with the wave of incoming Ukrainian refugees ever since. We'll chat with him about that world from his perspective.
Commercial Interruption:
Have you noticed the paint scheme developing on the surface of the platform in our "sanctuary"? You can see it in the video as well as in person. They're painting a gym floor, mainly a portion of a basketball floor, on the platform surface in preparation for the "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" playing in the DCC Theater March 8-11, 2023. Serafina is playing Schwartzy! Her full name is Logainne "Schwartzy" Schwartzandgrubenierre: "Logainne is the youngest and most politically aware speller, often making comments about current political figures and her mature world views. She has two overbearing gay dads who have turned her neurotic and self-conscious. She speaks with a lisp though has a real confidence about her at times. She has proposed a constitutional amendment lowering the voting age to ten. She doesn't spell well when her blood sugar is low."
Wanna make this show our March 8th meeting?
Bonus
What are Judeo-Christian Values?
We often use the term Judeo-Christian values. But what do we mean by that? Can you list these values? Dennis Prager took a shot at those questions: here.