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Dear Father, again, we're so
thankful to be here and thankful for those you've brought here,
Lord. And we pray for those that aren't
here, those that are not feeling well. There seems to be so many
at this time. God, that you would give them a healing hand, Lord,
that they may get well soon and come back and be a part of the
fellowship and worship and hear your word. and enjoy your grace. And Lord, help me with this message
this morning. Lord, it's an important message.
Every message that anyone says up here is important. And dear
Lord, that this would be an encouragement to us in these times. And Lord,
that you would be with me. Lord, that I may speak clearly.
Lord, what I intend for them to hear, Lord, is what they will
hear. And Lord, if I do make any errors or mistakes, Lord,
Lord, that would not be put in their mind, Lord. They would
hear the truth of your word. In Christ's name, amen. All right,
dear brother Byrne, you are reading? Jeremiah 8, verses 9 to 12. The Nehemiah, who was the governor,
and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who taught the
people, said to all the people, This day is holy for the Lord
your God. Do not mourn or weep for all
the people who were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
And he said to them, go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet,
and send fortunes to him who has nothing prepared. For this
day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved. For the joy
of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites come to all the
people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be greedy. All the people went away to eat,
to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate a great festival,
because they understood the words which had been made. Amen. Amen. Dear Lord, please bless
us this morning. It's been a while since I've
been up here, so I had to shake the mothballs off, so to speak.
But seriously, it is a privilege to be here in front of you and
to do this. It's something I've needed to
do for a while. And I know I've said this before
as people who are visiting, but it makes me wonder if brother
Chris or Simeon snuck into my house and look over my shoulder
while I'm preparing a sermon, because a lot of what is said
is what I'm going to talk about today, and almost some of the
same verses. You're right, it's no accident.
It is amazing how that happens, and it always comforts me to
know that that it must be God's will for what I'm gonna say because
it's been already started this morning before we even got here.
So we're already in the same mind, in the same mindset. So
it's already a cause for joy, isn't it? So the joy of the Lord
is our strength. Now, when I say that, what comes
to mind when I say the word strength? Does physical strength come to
mind? like an athlete or a large animal or a machine? Or how about
mental strength or mental toughness? After all, strength is an attribute
we all admire for ourselves, and no one in their right mind
wants to be weak in anything. We all want to be part of a strong
nation, have a strong military, a strong economy, a strong family
unit, among other things. And most people equate strength
with peace, safety, and prosperity. So you would think one can't
seem to get very far in this life being weak, because after
all, the people who are most successful appear to be either
mentally strong or physically strong, or both. Sports stars,
business moguls, so-called world leaders, megachurch pastors. Yeah, I meant to do that. And
the like, they're powerful, influential people, aren't they? So I'm certainly
not saying that being mentally or physically strong is something
negative, I'm not. On the contrary, it's a wonderful
attributes to have, and I think we should all work toward having
those, if we can, as much as God allows. But, what if you
have some of them, or none of them, right? Because we have
all seen those countless stories of feats of ability and accomplishments
and endurance, physically, of people that are saved and not
even saved. We've seen things that have an impact on the world,
things that even, you can say, change the course of history,
so to speak. But what if you don't have any of them or either
of them? And even if you have them, what happens if they begin
to fade away? Is that a hindrance? Well, as far as the world is
concerned, it is. Your future's not going to be
very bright, they say. Don't expect too much. Just sit
back and everything will be OK. But God is not impressed with
your natural abilities, nor does He need them from you. If you're
in Christ, you will succeed with them or without them. So, Jeff,
you're saying that we as Christians need to strive to be weak? No,
no, that's not what I'm saying at all. That's not what I'm saying
at all. It's on the contrary. Like I said before, I think we
should strive for these things as much as God allows. Now, there
is a strength that can help you succeed in the world and a strength
that helps you overcome it. And that's the strength we're
going to talk about today. So my goal is not to bash natural
strength or abilities by any means, but is to look at the
other kind of strength and how it relates to joy. So speaking
of joy, what comes to mind when I say the word joy? A night out
with friends? Exhilaration of achievement or
particular circumstance? How about when we're recognized
for something, or a wedding, or the birth of a child? We all
love to look forward to those moments in this life, don't we?
But the examples I just gave could be more in line with happiness
rather than joy. Joy, on the other hand, is something,
it's a state, it's a long-lasting attitude, a state of being. And
it's an attitude regardless of our circumstances. And the world
wants joy in their lives. They just look for it in all
the wrong places, like that song from the 80s, looking for love
in all the wrong places. Some of us probably remember
that. It's kind of what they do with joy. They believe they
will find it in living a life of selfless sacrifice to others
or through philanthropy. And that's not a bad way to live.
I mean, some people can actually say they have joy in their life
doing those things. And I'd rather have somebody
live like that than something else, wouldn't you? but they will never
experience the joy that comes from being in Christ, because
that is a joy that comes from their own strength. It has to do, the Christian joy,
with who God is and what has been done for us. It's something
promised to us by God, believe it or not, and something our
Lord even has. So, we look back at our key verse. I'll read it again. Then Nehemiah,
who was a governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the
Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this
day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep, for
all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
Then he said to them, go eat the festival foods, drink the
sweet wines, or sweet drinks, and send portions to him who
has nothing prepared. For this day is holy to the Lord.
Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Or some say refuge or stronghold, same thing. So the Levites silenced
all the people saying, be still, says it again, for the day is
holy, do not be grieved. then all the people went away
to drink, eat, to send portions, and to celebrate a great feast,
because they understood the words which had been made known to
them." So, is that not interesting there? That we have, in that
passage, you have joy and strength, all in the same sentence. And
why were they weeping? They were weeping because they
just got out of the captivity. They had the words of the law
spoke to them, and they understood they'd sinned grievously against
the Lord, and they deserved everything they got. And they might even
be afraid that God was going to burn them up right where they
stood, because they knew they didn't deserve to even be there.
But He was merciful. He brought them back, didn't
He? So they said, do not be greed. This is a holy day. Why? Because
God granted them repentance, allowed them to worship him.
So they were supposed to have joy in that. And that was going
to be their strength. So again, we could sum this up
to say, in the world, strength can bring you joy, but in Christ,
joy brings you strength. It's different, isn't it? It's
different, isn't it? So again, what God had done for them was
what he does for us now, doesn't he? He received the words of
the law, the gospel, right? grieve over your sin, right? But then what does he do? He
grants you the repentance. He allows you to worship him,
which does what? Fills you with joy, and then
you get strengthened, do you see? So that was going on there
in the Old Testament. Now we can look at another verse
in the Old Testament, a couple verses, that look at the same
thing but from a little bit different angle, and this is in Ezra. Not
very far away, is it? Ezra chapter 7, verse 27. It
says, blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put
such a thing as this in the king's heart to glorify the house of
the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, and has exalted favor to me before
the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty
officials. I was strengthened according to the hand of the
Lord my God that was upon me, and I gathered leading men from
Israel to go up with me. So if you notice something, that
he didn't say he strengthened himself. It wasn't something
from himself. Did he already possess this and
just had to learn how to tap into it like some of the self-help
gurus of today claim? No, not at all. This means he
didn't possess it, it had to be given to him. Meaning it came
to him from someplace else and from someone else. If you look
back at verse 27, that's actually a statement of joy. Is it not? He's glorifying God out of joy. He's saying, blessed be the Lord,
the God of our fathers who had put such a thing in this king's
heart to glorify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
He says that full of joy, doesn't he? Because unlike the previous
passage where God used conviction and the words of God to move
people, what did He do here? He actually blessed someone else
to bless Him. And that's happened in our life
as well, hasn't it? So sometimes God will move on the heart sovereignly
of someone else, and that'll bless us. So that fills us with
joy, and that gives us strength, doesn't it? So there's a couple
of ways we see already that God can instill that joy in you and
strengthen you. through his word and through
his works, right? Those two things. Now, is that
a theme we can pick up, or is that just something I happened
to find while I was going through the Bible? Well, no, it's a theme
we can pick up. In fact, it's in the Psalms,
not very far from what Brother Chris read. In fact, there was
a couple verses in Chris's psalm he read that would work. But
I went to Psalm 119. We can start in verse 27. We're
going to read 27-28, then jump down to 33-35. So Psalm 119,
verse 27. It says, "'Cause me to understand
the ways of your precepts, that I may meditate on your wonderful
deeds. My soul is weary with sorrow. Strengthen me according
to your word. So look at that. 27. "...cause
me to understand the ways of your precepts, that may meditate
on your wonderful deeds." That's what He has done, right? Which
can bring you joy when you think about what He has done. And my
soul is weary with sorrow. Weak. He said, strengthen me
according to what? Your word. So we have God's word
and His deeds doing what? Bringing joy and strength to
His people. We start to see a theme here,
these things go together. Now, 33 through 35. Teach me, Lord, the way of your
decrees, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding,
so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct
me in the path of your commands, for there I find a light. 33,
teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees that I might follow it
to the end. What's that? Perseverance. Give me understanding
that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. What's
that? Worship. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there
I find delight. What's that? Joy. So we see joy, worship,
and perseverance, which take strength, working all together
at the same time. You see that? So this is something
that's... These go together. They're not
separate little things. I have my strength over here,
my joy over here. No. It's one thing. It's part of
our new nature in our heart, right? And these verses, and
many, many others, are a beautiful picture of what His works and
His Word produce in the life of a believer. So his word is
there to remind us of his works that he did, and then we live
and we watch him work in our lives. So it's an ongoing thing,
which means you can have joy ongoing and strength ongoing,
right? So God's command should bring
us joy, which leads us to worship, which gives us strength, which
causes us to persevere, which is what we just read about in
Psalm 19, isn't it? So now, leaving the Old Testament
for a bit, let's go to the new and see if this is carried over
and to what degree and what it accomplishes for us. So, Matthew
25. Simeon beat me to it already
this morning. Verse 21, the parable of talents. He says, master said to him,
well done and good and faithful slave. You were faithful with
a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter
the joy of your master. So if he was well done, and he
was faithful, it means he persevered, which means he had to have strength,
and he had to have joy to even want to do these things in the
first place. So we can go to Colossians chapter
1, and we can look at this further.
I'm going to be in verse 9. And he said other things in 1
through 8 getting to this, but verse 9, he says, to please Him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious
might, for the attaining of all perseverance and patience, joyously
giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in
the adherence of His saints." There's worship, there's joy,
there's perseverance, just like the Psalms. It's all over the
place, isn't it? And they always go together.
They always go together. And that's what was going on
in our key passage at that time. They didn't have what we have.
They looked forward to things, but now we have that thing. We
have Christ. So we can understand this to
a greater degree and a fuller measure than they did, even though
God was saying the same thing, treating them the same way they
were His people, granted repentance. They realized that He was still
with them, right? Which brings joy. That's a joy
that transcends anything else that we're going through here.
Now, I would argue that our strength is proportional to our joy. The
more joyful we are, the stronger we are. the more equipped we
are to be Christ-like in our daily lives and how we handle
sufferings and even our blessings. Because our blessings sometimes
can get us off track, too. We have to be very careful of
this, because God's blessing doesn't mean you can't get off
base or forget about Him. You can still lose your joy in
certain aspects of that. So we need to be careful with
that as well, that we always stay grounded and focused on
this one thing that doesn't take our focus off of Christ when
we're blessed or when we're suffering. So we should be able to find
ways to be more joyful in the scriptures if all this is true.
God didn't leave us hanging, did he? So does the word of God
actually help us with that? Of course it does, of course
it does. And we can find that in one of, among other places,
in Philippians chapter four, verse eight, we can go there.
He says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and
if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As
for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen
in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be
with you. So here we go again. All of verse eight is what? Those
are joyful things to think about, are they not? That's the exude
joy, that you get us back in a joyful state of being with
the Lord. And then what does that produce
after you do that? After you have learned and received and
heard and seen from me, practice these things. So put these things
into practice that you've learned and seen. After what? After you've
done that. joyful exercise of thinking on
these things about God. So you're thinking about His
works and who He is, and that gives you joy, and then you're
going to be led to worship, which is practice these things out.
So you see that's working right there. So He gives us these recipes,
if you will. I watch a lot of cooking shows,
so I figured I'd throw that in there, to doing these things
for the Lord. So it's all here. Everything
we need is in His Word. And as I've done this, now every
time I'm reading, that's all I see. Joint strength, joint
strength everywhere, right? Because it's always been there. You just notice it more when
you study something sometimes. And then we have where God can
give provision. We go to verse 10, same chapter.
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived
your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before,
but you lacked an opportunity to act. Not that I speak from
need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances
I am. I know how to get along with
little, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and
every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and
going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well
to share with me in my difficulty." So, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly,
joy, and then you were strengthened, joy and strength. Wow, there
it is again, joy and strength. So we've got to have those two
working together, not separately, but one and the other at the
same time, right? Now in Acts 14, I'm not going
to read it, it was verse 19 through 23, but he talks about strengthening
the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue
in the faith, saying it is through many tribulations that we must
enter the kingdom of God. So we need strength. to worship
God. We need strength to go against
our own flesh and the world, right? And just the outright
sin everywhere. We have to have strength, and
that comes from joy. We cannot be strong without being
joyful in what we're even doing. You can't work like that. Now
the world, again, they can conjure up on their own natural strength,
and they can find something in their life they want to do that's
selfless to them, and that's fine. But they're not going to
heaven like that, and they're not experiencing the Christian
joy. It's a temporal joy, but it is a joy for them nonetheless.
So they have a little bit of light there when they realize
that that's a better way to live, they have a more fulfilled life
like that, but they're not in Christ. So they're coming up
short, big short, right? Big short. So I'm not knocking
people who don't see that. Now, Hebrews 10. This is getting
good here. Hebrews 10, chapter 32. This
is going to be the attitude that I'm talking about. And we've
all read this many times before. Hebrews 10, verse 32. But remember
the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great
conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle
through insults and distress, and partly by becoming companions
with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the
prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property,
knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession. That is why they could accept
that joyfully, because they had a better and lasting possession. So we have to understand that
the things here that we have, or strive to have, they're not
lasting. And we cannot and must not find
our joy in that. We can be happy about some of
these things, yes, but we cannot find our joy in that. And that
seems almost crazy or impossible that they could accept it joyfully. They accepted it joyfully. They
didn't just accept it, they accepted it joyfully. Because they truly
believed, without a doubt, that they had a better and more lasting
possession. So that belief did what? Gave
them the ability to accept that joyfully. So they had to truly
believe and understand who God is and what he did to even go
there in the first place. They were not weak, were they?
They were very strong. It takes a lot of strength to do that,
to truly believe that and truly accept that. 35, therefore, do
not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. They
believe that too. Do we believe that our confidence
has great reward? We have to truly believe that,
and I'll talk about that a little bit later. How do we get there
again if we're not there right now? 36, for you have need of
endurance, strength, joyfully, joy and strength, joy and strength,
there it is again, so that when you have done the will of God,
you may receive what was promised. So we do have need of endurance.
We can't just Believe something once and pitter around here or
there. It's an endurance, meaning it's constant. Not constantly
bad, it's just a constant thing. Like Paul talks about the race.
When you're racing, you don't just stop. It's a race. You keep going, right? You run
until it's done. That's what he's talking about.
Sometimes you run fast, sometimes you run slow, sometimes you might
be walking, sometimes you might be crawling. but you're still
never not moving. Right? Amen. Even if you fall,
fall forward, so at least you'll fall five feet or six feet forward,
not back. Right? And that takes strength.
It takes strength to fall forward. So this, you could almost say,
Hebrews 10, is a Christian life in a nutshell. Right? Because
you're going to have the persecutions of varying degrees at varying
times. And you have to joyfully accept those things, whatever
they might be. Whether they're an emotional
thing, a physical thing, financial thing, you name it. They're going
to come if you live long enough. So we need to be able to do that
joyfully. and you know as well as I do,
that's very difficult, especially here in America. Very difficult. I heard Paul Washer say one time
that when he came back from doing some missionary work, and he
came back to America after a few years, and he saw the malls and
all the clothes and all the stuff, it was disgusting to him. He
said it was harder to serve God in America than it is anywhere
else. And I can believe that from his perspective. So it's
an amazing thing to have the prosperity and the things that
God has given us, at the same time, they go too far, they begin
to work against our own walk with him. It's just a strange
thing that goes on. So again, about the blessings,
I've talked about that before, we have to recognize Who gave
it to us? What are they really here for? And what are we really here for?
What are we really here for? So we must remember, like in
Hebrews, that this place is not our home, as difficult as it
gets sometimes, and not make what we do or what we have, our
own personal goals, be above what we have in Christ. So we
need to put these things, the things I just spoke about, under
our feet, And if they go over our head, what are we going to
do? What's going to happen? We're going to drown in it. So we've got to keep those
things under our feet, and sometimes that is the hardest battle, isn't
it? It's the hardest battle. It's
amazingly hard. We don't realize it, because
we're already, you know, our nose sometimes is like that,
and we don't even realize it until we're drowning in it. So
we need to be like the saints in Hebrews we just read about,
and Paul, and learn to be content with whatever the Lord gives
us in this life, because happiness may come from our possessions,
but joy comes from the Lord, and it's a gift, like everything
else. And to show that, we can go to
James, James 1, verse 17. I'll read it, if you all can't
flip that fast. Every good thing given and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. So is joy
a good thing? Is strength a good thing? Mercy
a good thing? Patience a good thing? The fruit
of the Spirit's a good thing, isn't it? So all that, all those
good things that have to do with us being joyful and having the
strength to serve God, to worship Him, come from God. None of this
stuff we're doing in our Christian life that actually pleases God
and actually does His will comes from us naturally. None of it
does. It can't, it's impossible, because
it's not our joy, not our strength that's making these things happen.
So who do we look to for this? What's our best example of joy
and strength? None other than Christ Himself,
right? So we can go to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 12, says, therefore, since we also
have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid ourselves
of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us
and let's run with endurance strength, the race that is set
before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter
of the faith, who for the what? Joy set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured
such hostility by sinners against himself, so what? That you will
not grow weary and lose heart. In other words, so you will be
strong. Run with endurance, take strength. Christ did this for
what? For the joy set before Him. He
endures. For the sake of joy, He endured.
For the sake of joy, we need to endure. Okay? Now you can say, you can even
say that joy is the very foundation that strength rests upon. you
have your joy, and then you have your strength, and then you have
your worship, and then you have your perseverance, and then you
have your promise at the end of that, right? It has to build
on something. And what was the joy that was
set before Christ? Was it not that He was going
back to the Father and unveil glory, and to receive the reward
for which He died, the church, His bride, us? So for that joy
He endured. Okay? That joy he endured. So, is anybody here suffering
or dealing with a sickness? How about trouble in a marriage
or personal troubles? Anybody? Nobody? Nobody? Right? So he needs to be the
one we look to first. It says, looking only at Jesus.
You're running the race looking only at Him. So when things look bleak, and
there appears to be no end to what you're going through, and
it appears you have no joy anymore, and you're out of energy, and
you can't go another day, look to the originator and the perfecter
of the faith. And remember that he who began
a good work among you will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus. So you don't need to look necessarily
at your favorite internet pastor, or a book, or even church fathers. That's fine. They give you a
lot of encouragement. But it says look to Jesus, right? Because what? His joy is our
joy, and His strength is our strength, not somebody else's.
So, how do we take hold of that joy, Jeff? I'm glad you asked. One, we know that God accomplishes
whatever He desires, He's sovereign. Number two, Christ endured for
the joy set before Him. And number three, His joy is
tied in to the saving of all those the Father gave Him, not
losing any, and presenting them to Himself as a bride by enduring
the cross and thus being fully glorified. Therefore, how do
we do this? We have to go back to the basics,
to the first thing. So when we're caught up in all
these things, and these things are real to a lot of us. I'm
not discounting what people go through. I go through like it's
no big deal. It's a very big deal to each one of us. It hurts. It's hard sometimes, OK? But,
what do we do? Where do we go when all these
things happen around us and we seem like we're just drowning
in it? We do the same thing that David did and the prophets did,
right? In our key text, you go back
to who God is and what God did. You have to go back there. Being
a high and mighty theologian and knowing all this other stuff,
That's no good if you can't get back to the basics, because that's
not where your joy is, not in all that stuff. That stuff is
necessary, but that's not where your joy is at. If you hang around
there and try to read all this and do all this thing, you're
going to find joy. You're never going to find it there. You've got to find
it in a place where even a child can understand the basics, right? His plan of redemption. So what
is the first thing? We were once enemies of God under
His deserved wrath. Right? But while we were yet
sinners, what did He do? He died for us. And He made Him
who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him. That's what we have to go back
to. We have to be reminded that we are wretched, undeserving
sinners. and you got to see that He has
actually changed us. He did more than just change
the heart of Artaxerxes to bless Ezra. He did more than change
our heart. He gave us a new one. That's
much better than changing somebody else's heart and blessing us. He's changed our heart. All the
more joyful we should be of Him doing that to us than watching
Him do that to somebody else to bless us. We can't get blessed
any more than that in this earth by being changed and forgiven.
We have to go back to that. That helps us take our eyes off
of what we're going through. It doesn't eliminate it, but
it brings you back to that fact that, I said it before, that
we need to be acquainted with the God who is acquainted with
us. He cares for us. He'll never leave us. So our
joy is not found in our own strength or deeds, but our joy and strength
is found in Christ and what He's done. So if we're in Christ,
then what? His joy is our joy. His strength
is our strength. And He cannot fail, so we cannot
fail. You see? So rejoice in the mercy and the
grace of God and His salvation and be strengthened. They may
take away your possessions and your lives, but they can't take
away what God has promised you. And we have to look at that.
And my God, I know it's hard to look at that. But we have
to go back to the basics and realize why we're here and who
we're here for and what we're really supposed to do here. and
thank God when we do get these things that we really need and
really want and we can enjoy and be happy in the circumstances
and some possessions and we have to enjoy it for what it is for
the time God gives it to us. Because if we don't enjoy that,
then it makes the struggles even harder. So you're making it worse
for yourself and me if we're groveling and not enjoying the
things that God gives us to enjoy, whether it's five minutes with
our wife and two years with the little one I have, or you get
a vacation to Europe for two weeks. We've got to learn in our mind
to put that aside and look at Him and be thankful for that
time we have for whatever we're doing. We have to. That helps
us keep centered and focused on Christ for that particular
time. And that strengthens us in knowing
that whatever we're going through, at best, it'll last till we die,
or even better than that, it's just temporary anyway. And that's
just not flawed. Of course that's easier said
than done. I understand that. I understand that. But he's given
us the means, he's given us his worries, he's given us the works
that he's done, that he's doing now, and he will do, to look
at. We can't do any better than the
Old Testament saints did and people in our contemporaries
are doing. All through the scriptures and the psalms, what did David
and the other psalms do? When they went and felt really
bad, things were going awful for them, they felt abandoned,
they went back to the basics. Who God is, what he did, his
word and his works. And they got their joy again.
Not that they ever lost it, it gets veiled and all this other
stuff. But they saw it again. They experienced it again. And
they were strengthened, and they kept going. And God will give
you times of refreshing. He will. Sometimes they might
not last as long as you want, but He'll give you a time of
refreshing. We're not machines. He knows that. He knows that. So, we're going to make it, we're
going to persevere to the end, and we're going to be victorious.
So, brothers and sisters, strengthen the hands that are weak and the
knees that are feeble by putting to remembrance who and what we
are and who we live for. And this place here, Covenant
Peace, will be filled with more joy and will be stronger Right? And we can say along with the
saints of old, now, and the ones that will come, that the joy
of the Lord is our strength. Amen? Amen. We're going to make
it. We're going to make it. Amen.
Dear Lord, thank you so much for this morning and this word.
Lord, I pray that we can look to you, the originator and the
finisher of our faith. And Lord, that you had joy set
before you and you endured. And Lord, you said that these
things are done, that our joy may be, that your joy may be
in us and our joy will be full. And that's a promise, Lord. So,
Lord, your joy is our joy and your strength is our strength.
And with that, Lord, we cannot fail. We will make it, Lord. and we'll be encouraged. And
we can shout with praise and glory when we get there, Lord,
that all the good things you have done and promised, they're
true, and they're real, and they're coming. Let us rejoice in that,
in Jesus' name, amen.
The Joy of the Lord is Our Strength
| Sermon ID | 11122168421052 |
| Duration | 38:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Nehemiah 8:9-12 |
| Language | English |