A WEEKEND OF REJOICING

             REJOICE IN THE LORD           

Rejoicing is not a feeling it’s an action and it is a command we are to rejoice and rejoice again.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord Always and again I say Rejoice

Rejoicing is what you do at a hockey game when your team scores a goal. It what people do when they win the lottery, it’s what parents do when they have a baby, it’s what they do when their child survives a dangerous even deadly crisis. It’s what the father did when the prodigal son returned. Rejoicing is what children do on their birthday and Christmas.

The most important thing we can rejoice in is the Blood of Christ our salvation and we are to do it always.

God says that rejoicing is so important that we should have a 7 day feast for it.

Leviticus 23

40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

7th day 7th month

The number 7 in the Bible is the number of Completion

So this feast of rejoicing starts in the 1^st day (the beginning) until completion on the 7 day.  It is about creation about God’s completion and rest

It often talks about rejoicing and the beginning and the completion of challenges in the Bible

Numbers 10: 10

10 Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month to rejoice over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind the LORD your God of his covenant with you. I am the LORD your God."

In the following verses we see that rejoicing in the Lord is what we need to do after taken over the territories that we win from the enemy.

Deuteronomy 12:7 (NLT)

"These are the laws and regulations you must obey as long as you live in the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 "When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods -- high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree. 3 Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Erase the names of their gods from those places! 4 "Do not worship the LORD your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods. 5 Rather, you must seek the LORD your God at the place he himself will choose from among all the tribes for his name to be honored. 6 There you will bring to the LORD your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your special gifts, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your freewill offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your flocks and herds.

7 There you and your families will feast in the presence of the LORD your God, and you will rejoice in all you have accomplished because the LORD your God has blessed you.

After having sinned and repented we need to rejoice again.

The story of David and Bathsheba is a great example King David didn’t go to war when he should have he committed adultery with the wife of one of the soldiers out to war. He then had her husband killed because He found out she was pregnant. But here was his cry out to God.

Psalm 51

1 For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my shameful deeds -- they haunt me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner -- yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But you desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being. 7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me -- now let me rejoice. 9 Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

Psalm 68

3 But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God's presence. Let them be filled with joy. 4 Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD -- rejoice in his presence!

God wants us to rejoice

Psalms 98 

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
² The Lord has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.
³ He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
⁵ Sing to the Lord with the harp,
With the harp and the sound of a psalm,
⁶ With trumpets and the sound of a horn;
Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King.

What’s more is He wants us to rejoice as a service to the Lord

Psalm 2:11

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

He is a parent and when His children are grumpy, complaining like our children do, He wants them to stop and rejoice. So this weekend my goal is to Rejoice in the Lord and find all the things I have to rejoice in no matter what.