Light & Joy

Good morning and greetings to each and every one of you in Jesus’ precious name! Wherever you are tuned in from this morning, let me remind you that you are precious, you are valuable! The very fact that you have been identified as a child of God, as a friend of God, as a servant of God has given you extraordinary value. When Jesus would teach His disciples, He would tell them, “You guys, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.” There is a certain flavor that you bring in the world around us. There is a darkness that you have the power to quench and dispel. This morning, I want you to remember the power that you carry on the inside of you, the power that you carry in your identity, the power that you carry in your revelation of who the Lord has made you. The more that you see the Lord, the more you get to see who you are and today the Lord wants you to remember. Let me read Psalm 97:11-12, “Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right. May all who are godly rejoice in the LORD and praise his holy name!”

One of the things that drive us away from God, drive us away from worshipping Him, communing with Him is this constant guilt where we continue to question ourselves to wonder are we truly Godly? Am I truly righteous? Am I truly worthy? Do I qualify to serve God? And that constant questioning and pestering that goes on within ourselves, disqualifies us from praying, discourages us from praying, in fact, it drains out all the confidence that we have in our relationship with God. Today you need to remember your godliness is not a result of the good things that you have done, it is not a result of your purity, it is not a result of the character that you have built over 30, 40 or 80 years of living on this earth. Your godliness is a result of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. His righteousness has been imputed into yours. His grace has made a way for you to be now called a clean person. Now, I am not saying that you can continue to live however you want to live. I am saying, you are godly not because of your life, you are godly not because of your actions. You are godly because your identity has been transformed the moment you put your faith in Jesus. Now that we have understood that, let me read that scripture one more time. It says that “Light shines on the godly”. Now if you are a godly man, if you are somebody who has had an encounter with the God of the Bible, and you have been transformed into a godly man or a godly woman, the Bible says that now light shines on you, light shines on your face, light shines on your marriage, light shines on your health, light shines on your relationships. This light even shines on your career, it shines on your choices, on your investments, on your finances, everything that you touch, and everything that you own is now being shone upon by the light of God and what does it result into, it says, “and Joy on those whose hearts are right”. Is your heart right? What qualifies your heart to be right? See, the promise of the new covenant was that God will take the heart of stone that we have and give us a heart of flesh and He will write His commandments on the inside of our hearts. No longer on tablets of stone, but on our heart. Now you and I have got a new heart from God, you and I now have a new perspective inside of us, a new revelation, a new light on the inside of us which will eventually cause joy to be attracted to us. It says, “Light will shine on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right” Because you heart is right in Jesus this morning, there is joy coming into your home, unprecedented joy, you may not even need a reason to be happy today, but you are going to be extremely, abundantly joyful. May there be joy in your children, may there be joy in your relationships, may there be joy in the way that you do ministry, in the way that you serve the Lord, in the way that you work for that particular company or that business that you run, let there be joy, an abundance of joy because your heart is right because the Lord has set your heart in the right place.

Verse 12, “May all who are godly rejoice in the LORD and praise his holy name!”. Now it is one thing for God to give you joy, and it is another thing for you to respond and rejoice in Him, rejoice and boast in His presence, rejoice and boast in His provision, rejoice and glory in His goodness in your life. While many Christians, many believers are silent receivers of the light and joy in their life, I am inviting you my dear friend to a place where you will now respond in joy, where you will rejoice in the Lord, and where you will praise His holy name, where you will celebrate His presence in your life, where you will give back to God, where you will respond back to God with everything on the inside of you. I hope the Lord is going to strengthen you through the course of this day, as you continue to receive this light and joy, that He will strengthen you to now rejoice in Him, to now praise His holy name!

Let’s pray, “Abba Father, we don’t want to just ignore the blessings that you are giving us, we don’t want to just be receiving this light that you are giving us, this joy that you are releasing in us and not let it change us. Help us Lord to respond by rejoicing in You. Help us, Lord, by responding in worship, help us, Lord, to respond in sacrificial giving, help us today to give ourselves as a thanksgiving offering unto Your name, unto Your Holy Name, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen”