Wisdom & Emotion: Joy

Christ Restoration Church Sermons

Selections from Proverbs
November 24, 2024
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Man’s happiness was never meant to be determined by his circumstances, and that is the fatal blunder that we all tend to make… We must come back to the soul and to God who made it. We were made for Him, we are meant for Him, we have a correspondence with Him, and we will never come to rest until, like that needle on the compass, we strike that northern point, and there we come to rest – nowhere else.”

~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), Welsh minister and medical doctor

“The reason why many poor souls have so little heat of joy in their hearts is that they have so little light of Gospel knowledge in their mind. The further a soul stands from the light of truth, the further he must be from the heat of comfort.”

“Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath…”

~ William Gurnall (1616-1679), English Anglican minister and author

“Gratitude has a big job to do in us and our hearts. It is one of the chief ways that God infuses joy and resilience into the daily struggle of life.”

~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss (1958-present), contemporary speaker, author

“Gratitude in its deepest sense means to live life as a gift to be received thankfully. And true gratitude embraces all of life: the good and the bad, the joyful and the painful, the holy and the not-so-holy. We do this because we become aware of God’s life, God’s presence in the middle of all that happens.”

~ Henri Nouwen (1932–1996), Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer

“When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves – that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.”

~ N.T. Wright (1948-present), British N.T. scholar & retired Anglican bishop

Sermon Passage

Selections from Proverbs

Proverbs 3 (NKJV)

¹³ Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
and the man who gains understanding;
¹⁴ For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver,
and her gain than fine gold.
¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies,
and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her…

¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all
who retain her.

Proverbs 4 (ESV)

²⁰ My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹ Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
²² For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
²³ Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 12:25 (ESV)

²⁵ Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.

Proverbs 13:12 (ESV)

¹² Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 14:30 (ESV)

³⁰ A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh,
but envy makes the bones rot.

Proverbs 15 (ESV)

¹³ A glad heart makes a cheerful face,
but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed…
³⁰ The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,
and good news refreshes the bones.

Proverbs 17 (ESV)

²² A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.