Aren't you glad He's always Almighty? Isn't that wonderful? Turn in your Bibles, if you would, please, to the Gospel of Luke. We have spent months and months, probably over a year, in the Gospel of Mark as we've been preaching through the Gospel of Mark and then Sunday nights in I John. And I believe that as good as I was praying and seeking the Lord that we're going to take a little break and I'm going to preach a series of messages entitled Christmas Blessings. Now aren't you glad that God wants to bless us? Isn't that a blessing? I'm just blessed by the thought of it. God wants to bless you. And we need His blessings more than we can ever imagine. And as I began to think about the goodness of God, and I began to think about the season, and the birth of the Lord Jesus, there was just some blessings that I began to jot down. And over the next several weeks, I want to share them with you. It's going to be a little more topically. in preaching and I believe the Lord has something He wants to say to us. Luke chapter number 2 and find if you would please verse number 10. If you do not have a Bible, the text verse will be on the screen. Luke chapter number 2 and find if you would please verse number 10. Leave your Bible open. We're going to look at a couple passages together. Luke 2 and verse number 10. Notice the Bible says, Luke 2 verse 10, And the angels said unto them, Now we know this is a group of shepherds. And the angels said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. which shall be to all people." Well, I just want to tell you in these verses, God's just shared with me a couple thoughts. First of all, we see a couple thoughts here. Number one, we're going to understand who God blesses. If you look at the end of our verse in verse 10, it's to all people. Aren't you glad that God doesn't just bless some people or a few people or maybe most people? Aren't you glad that He blesses all people? Isn't that good? And if you'll notice, it's going to be evidenced by the fact that the first group of people the angel makes this announcement to and shares this blessing with are the most unlikeliest of people. You're going to find it's a group of shepherds. They're on the Judean hillsides on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Now when you study the Bible, you're going to find that there are a lot of great shepherds that are mentioned. I think of Abel. He was the very first shepherd mentioned in the Bible. He's a keeper of sheep. Cain was a tiller of the ground. Jacob and his twelve sons were famous shepherds, and of course they took their flocks and herds into Egypt. Moses, the Bible said he followed the herds in the wilderness, and there, you remember the burning bush, and God called him to be the deliverer and the emancipator of the nation of Israel out of Egypt. And so Moses was a great shepherd. But probably the most well-known shepherd is that of David, King David, a young man. who was out there on these same Judean hillsides overlooking and watching his sheep and caring and guarding for them. And so there's a lot of great shepherds in the Bible. I think of the shepherd ministry of the Lord Jesus as the great shepherd and the chief shepherd. But yet by the time of our Lord's day, shepherds and shepherding wasn't really a great vocation. It wasn't thought highly of. By this time, shepherds were looked down upon and they were sort of social outcasts. What they did was look down upon by the more refined of the Judean society. And it was considered dirty work. They were insignificant. And really, they weren't highly valued. They were defiled in some ways from attending certain temple proceedings and the washings of the Pharisees. They just didn't fit the bill of the upper crust of society. And you know what? These were the very first people that God says or that God wanted to bless or that God blesses with the announcement of the birth of His Son. And you know what? I learned from that that there's nobody that God does not want to bless. Did you know that? There's nobody that's too small, so insignificant or unimportant that God does not want to bless them. That means God wants to bless me. He wants to bless you. There's nobody that God does not want to bless. That ought to bless you. Amen? But then we find not only who God blesses, but this is going to draw us to the first blessing I want to see. We're going to see how God blesses. Look if you would please in verse 10 again. The angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great Joy. There it is. I underlined it in my Bible. Joy. It was an announcement of joy which shall be to all people. God wants to bless you with joy. The first Christmas blessing I believe that God wants to bless us with is His joy. And have you ever noticed something? That when God blesses us, He supersizes it. You ever notice that? That's sort of the way I was when Lori and I first met. I had this bottomless pit. I mean, I had this hunger you couldn't satisfy. I'd eat a couple. I mean, a Happy Meal wasn't going to get it. I had to have a couple of the large meals. And when they'd say, what size did you want? I didn't want any of that medium stuff. Super-sized. How many of you know what I'm talking about? You wanted the largest French fry, the largest drink, you wanted all of that to satisfy. Well, when God blesses you, He doesn't just bless you, He super-sizes the blessing. Look again in our verse. He says, great, not just joy, but He said, I've got good tidings of great joy. Joy. Great joy. Aren't you glad that God wants us to experience great joy? The wise men, when they saw the star in Matthew chapter 2 in verse number 10, the Bible said they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. It's not just great joy. It's exceeding great joy. And then God said, I don't want to bless you with exceeding great joy, but in 2 Corinthians 8, He talks about abundant joy. You talk about supersized. That means overflowing joy. God, now watch this, wants your life, even in a difficult time, to overflow with His joy. Hey, we're not preaching theoretically this morning. We're preaching personally and practically that God wants you to experience and know His joy in your life. But then he goes a step further in I Peter 1 verse 8 where he says it's joy unspeakable and full of glory. It's indescribable. And it's beyond anything that you and I can ever imagine. It's unspeakable and full of glory. And the joy that God blesses us with is far different from the hollow happiness this world has to offer. Matter of fact, this word joy has the idea of delight. It speaks of gladness of heart, but yet it's deeper than that. You know, as I begin to think about the joy of the Lord and the joy that God gives us, you really can't define it. You really can't. You really can't explain it. It's not really something that you can begin to really define and explain. It's something that you experience and express. That's what I found. It's indescribable and you can't fully explain what it is. Now, happiness is outward. It's fleeting, fickle, fluctuating. It's temporary. You find it in the happenings of life. Circumstances is good, we're happy. Circumstances is not so good, we're sad. And you notice that here lately circumstances across nationally haven't been so good. Isn't that right? And so people find themselves in a dark place. They find themselves dismal, depressed, discouraged, people on the edge of despair. Matter of fact, I just read an article before in between services that in Japan last month more people committed suicide in Japan than died of COVID. That's amazing. You see, we're just living in a difficult time and people are looking to be made happy. And you know what? A season like Christmas comes around and people get a little bit of cheer. By the way, you know what? There's not anything wrong with that. I'm not a Christmas hater. Or if you're married to my wife, you better love it or you're going to suffer for a long time. Because you experience it a lot, okay? And so anyway, there's nothing wrong with decorations and fun and enjoying family and friends and all of those things that relates to the season. And we hear songs like, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Have a holly, jolly Christmas. We hear songs like that and statements like that. And there's nothing wrong with that. But here's the problem with it. There's a problem. You say, preacher, what is it? You find that the happiness runs out for many people when the season runs out. And you know what? People find themselves hollow and empty again, and they're waiting on something else good to happen so they can have a season of happiness in their life. Did you notice? It's temporary. It doesn't last. But yet joy, on the other hand, is totally different. It is inward. It's something on the inside that works its way out. It's constant. It's abiding. It's permanent. And you don't find it in a season. You don't find it in people. People cannot make you happy. Places cannot make you out of God. A preacher friend, Tony Facendo on the coast, has a counseling ministry there on the coast. I remember talking to him one time and he said, you know, I never run out of people to counsel here. He said, I was amazed when I came. I thought that I was coming to a small town, small area, not have a whole lot of issues to deal with. And then I found that everybody that comes to the coast to live there are depressed and dismal and downcast. You'd think it was otherwise. And he said the reason was is that wherever they're at, they're having problems, but the last happy time they can remember was at the beach or the coast with their family. But yet when they come there and they live there, you know what they find? Their problems travel there with them. And you know what? Nothing really changed because places can't make you happy. You'll never get enough stuff to make you happy. Never have enough pleasure to make you perpetually happy. It runs out. But God's joy never runs out. You find it in a person and that person is embodied in the announcement of the angel. It's Jesus Christ. You see, the reality of Christmas offers us more than just the fleeting feelings of holiday happiness. The reality of Christmas offers us an endless blessing of joy. God wants you to experience the blessing of His joy. Let's pray together and learn how to do that this morning. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We thank You, Lord, for the goodness of God in our lives, and I thank You for joy. Lord, the joy of forgiveness of sins, the joy, Lord, of being saved, the joy of Your blessing on my life. And Lord, there's times that I don't let Your joy out. There's times, Lord, that I smother it out, or I let things rob me of that joy. And Lord, teach us this morning about how we can be a joyous people no matter the circumstance of life. And Lord, there's some here that are looking for joy. Lord, they need You today. And I pray they'd come to know Christ as their Savior. And I'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, let's look into our text this morning. Let's learn some lessons about this blessing of joy. Number one, if you're going to know the blessing of the Lord's joy, then you need to know the bringer of joy. You need to know the bringer of joy. You know, we talked about places, people, stuff can't bring you joy, but there's One who can. And you realize He was incarnated. He came into this world. That's what this announcement is all about. Look if you would, as we see the Son that was born. Look at verse number 10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. It's for everybody. Verse 11, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And so we find that when you come down in verse number 12, the angel talks about a babe. And we know that babe to be the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the bringer of joy. You know what I found amazing as I began to think about this series of messages? That God's blessings are bound up in a baby. Now the good news is He didn't stay a baby. You know, a lot of people want to leave Jesus in the manger. Others want to leave Him on the cross. Others want to leave Him in a tomb. I'm glad He's not in a manger, on a cross, or in a tomb. I'm glad He's enshrined yonder in glory, aren't you? I'm glad He's alive and He can work in my life. He can work in your life. He can make a difference. He can bring us joy in this day and this hour. When it comes to the blessings of Christmas, all the other blessings are going to flow out of this one blessing, the gift of God's Son. This baby was no ordinary baby. This baby was Christ the Lord. And we're going to talk about the significance of that in just a moment. The joy of Christmas is that God became man. And the angel is announcing the fact that the Messiah has come, that God has become man, that God has sent His Son, a Savior is born, and then begins to tell them how they're going to recognize Him. Look at verse 12. And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. You know what's interesting? The angel didn't tell them to look for a king on a throne, but a baby in a manger. They were not told to go to a palace or to a mansion, but to a stable. He would not be surrounded by servants, and he wouldn't be wrapped in velvet clothing and royal robes, but would be surrounded by barn animals and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Here's where you're going to find him. Here's how you're going to find him. You know, we think about the births of babies, and I'm so thankful for the many babies and children in our church. I'm blessed by that, thankful for it. I've told people many times you can grow a church two ways and we want to do both from without and from within. I'm thankful for all the young families all the way. Many expectant mothers in our church right now. But outside of a family or maybe a church that rejoices in the birth, there's little thought given to the millions of babies that are born. I thought it was interesting. I ran across this tidbit of information here a couple years ago. It was the year 1809. Two babies were born. One of them's name was Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was born in England. He's a man who would grow up and he would be known for... I don't want to use the word famous because I don't want to give him any credit. He would be known for as the father or the originator of the theory of evolution that we're just a cosmic accident. Do you know much of the problems in our modern society find its roots in a man by the name of Charles Darwin? Boys and girls, don't ever let anybody tell you you're an accident. You're the special creation of God. But you know in that same year there was another baby born in a log cabin out in sort of the American wilderness in Hardin County, Kentucky. His name was Abraham Lincoln. Isn't that interesting? Both of them born in the same year. Do you realize the history of the two of the greatest nations in the world at that time, England and America, were right then being shaped in tiny cradles. Those two men would go on to impact their generation like no other people would impact their generation during that time. But I thought about that. There's one greater. You say, preacher, what is it? You realize over 2,000 years ago one baby was born that He wouldn't shape the destiny of a nation or several nations. He would shape the destiny of the world forever and for all time. And His name is Jesus Christ. We can rejoice today in the fact that a Son, the Son of God, was born into humanity. Isn't that a blessing? But then notice the Savior that was given. Notice what He says. Verse 11, For a Jew is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Immediately they said, He's your Messiah. He's the one you've been waiting for, looking for, longing for, praying for, yearning for. He's arrived. He's born. And He's the Lord. He's not just a man. He's the God-man. He's the Lord who's been born. Isn't that powerful? He's a Savior. I thought about that. Do you know that the three words Savior, Christ, and Lord, all are coupled, come together in the word babe in verse number 12? All of them fit that one individual. The word Savior speaks of deliver. It's an Old Testament term. It refers to God. It always refers to God. It never refers to man. The Scriptures are clear that the title belongs to God and to God alone. Isaiah 43 verse 11, I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. God alone is the Savior of men. Man's not going to save himself. Man's not going to fix himself. We need a Savior and God is that Savior. Isaiah 49 verse 26, And all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. And so we find that we see this idea that God and God alone is Savior. And so immediately we see the deity of the Lord in the fact that He's Savior, He's Christ, and He's Lord. That's powerful. That's powerful. It's interesting, someone noted that the word Savior, the noun salvation, and the verb save are found in every book of the New Testament. That's the mission of the Lord Jesus. That's what He came to do. I John 4.14, And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Luke 19.10, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Listen, aren't you glad? He came seeking and I'm glad for the day He found me. Matthew 1.21, and she shall bring forth a son. This is the angel to Joseph, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now that word Savior not only implies the fact of who the Lord is, but also helps us to understand what we are and what our need is. Because you see, if we need a Savior, that means we're sinners because the only people that need saviors are sinners. And the greatest need of man was to be forgiven. You know there's joy in forgiveness. Now I don't want to get ahead of myself on the next one, but I'm going to get there just a minute. I'm reminded of a man that needed to be healed and the Lord looked at him and He said, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven. You know what's more important than somebody's body being healed? It's their soul being saved. Better than their wounds being fixed is their sins being forgiven. The greatest need anyone in this room and all over the world has today is to know that your sins are forgiven you. to know that heaven's your home. Friend, if you don't know that, that's something you need to know today. There is joy in knowing that your sins are forgiven. And you can find happiness in a season. You can. But friend, you find joy in a Savior. We need to know the bringer of joy. You cannot have His joy until you know the One who can bring joy into your life. And His name is Jesus Christ. And you can only enter into a relationship with Him by faith through His death, His burial, His resurrection, His payment for your sins, my sins, and receive Him by faith as Savior and trust Him as Savior. And you can know the bringer of joy. So that's step number one. If I want the blessing of joy, I need to know the bringer of joy. But then after I come to know the bringer of joy, I need to live in the blessing of joy. I need to live in the blessing of joy. Now let's talk about that for a minute because as I said earlier, this thing of joy is not theoretical. We're not talking about something out here that some nebulous we're trying to reach for. No, it's real. It's personal. You can have it. That's what we don't understand. There's joy in salvation. We've learned that. Let's notice how the shepherds experienced that. Look at verse 15. And it came to pass the angels were going away into heaven. The shepherds said one to another. They received a message and they acted on it. Do you know that's exactly what happens anytime somebody gets saved? They receive a message, the good news of the gospel, and they by faith act on it. They receive the Savior. It's not what they do. It's what Jesus did and they receive it. They believe it. So these men act on the message. They by faith act on the message. They're going to find the Savior. He said, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. Verse 16, They came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Now there's two different words for found and find in our verses. Verse 16, the word found. Verse 12, ye shall find. Two different words. The word find in verse number 12 speaks of the reward or the blessing to be found. And so we have the idea that there's a reward or blessing that you can find. But when you come to this word found in verse 16, that implies after a diligent search they found the blessing. They received it. Alright? They got it. Here's what Jeremiah 29.13 says, And you shall seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Do you know that nobody ever set out in search of the Lord that didn't find Him. Can I tell you Jesus didn't find Him playing hide and seek. He wants you to know Him. God wants to be found. Isn't that a blessing? And notice the Bible says, verse number 17, and when they had seen it. That word seen means to take it all in. In that moment, faith became sight. They had searched diligently, stable to stable by stable by stable. And finally, they were looking for the babe that the angel had told them about. Last they entered a stable, their eyes were drawn to a young father and mother, huddled close together, peering at a baby in a manger. And immediately, the shepherds, that's it, they seen. Faith became sight. They took it in. And the shepherds stared in awe as they looked down at the newborn babe as they take in the sight. Realization dawns in their heart. That's Him. There's the Messiah. He's the Savior. And the child for in that it occupied the throne of heaven. now occupied the hearts of those men. And you know what? I'm thankful today everybody else that's seen and believed and received Him, not seen physically, but with the eye of faith they've received the Savior. They've trusted Christ. Friend, He occupies your heart this morning and you ought to rejoice in that. They didn't just experience His joy you're going to find. They expressed it. Look what happens down in verse number 20. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God. That looks like a scene of joy to me. What about you? I can see the frantic search in the opening part of our verses. I see now the return of relief and joy and blessing and praise in these men's life. It is a scene of joy to God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. I tell you what, when God blesses you, He supersizes. They received great joy, didn't they? And you know what? That's true of anybody who comes to Christ. Habakkuk 3.18, Yep, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Isaiah 12.3, Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. And salvation is a well of joy that never dries up. See, there's joy when a person first gets saved. But that joy continues on in their lives. Listen, you'll never exhaust the storehouse of God's grace. You'll never exhaust His mercy. You'll never exhaust His faithfulness. You'll never exhaust His goodness. You never will. And friend, you will never drain the wells of His joy dry. You never will. It's always there. John 7, 38, "'He that believeth on me,' the Lord said, as the Scripture said, "'out of his belly, his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'" God wants to fill you full of His joy so that you can fill the lives of other people with His joy. There's joy in salvation. Somebody asked, I think it was Gypsy Smith, why he was so excited about being saved. And he said, it's because I never lost the wonder of it all. Listen to me, Christian. Never lose the wonder of what God's done in your life. Never lose the wonder of that. I'll tell you it'll bring you joy. Then notice there's joy in sorrow. Let me give you a verse here. Psalm 30 verse 5, Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. We talk about seasons of happiness, but there's also seasons of sadness that comes into our life and sadness drowns out happiness. Somebody has a hard time or they go through a time of adversity and they're not very happy. You ask them, I'm not happy. You're sad. You're sad. The gladness turns to sadness, but that's not true of joy. Let me give you the paradox of the Christian life. God never promised us joy without tears. Never did. He never said we would be perpetually happy, but He did promise us endless joy. He did. Let me give you some verses. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Romans 5.3, we glory. That word glory has to do with rejoicing. We glory in tribulation also. James 1.2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diver temptation, trials, difficulty, hardship, temptation that comes our way. God said there's some joy in that. Our problem is we're not looking for joy, are we? But yet what we need to do is look for joy. I Peter 4, if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. Happy are ye. God said that when you're reproached for My name, there's some joy in that. There's some heavenly happiness there. Because He was reproached for us. I don't know what our future holds. You don't know what our future holds in America, what our liberties are going to look like as Christians. But we're not going to stop being Christians. Somebody said, well, what if they tell us not to meet preacher? What are you going to do? We'll find a barn somewhere. We might find a dozen barns, but we'll meet. We'll have church. That's what God commanded us to do. God didn't command us to perpetually watch church. He didn't. Now, right now we have to do some of those things. There comes a point when we have to have church. We have to meet and worship and be a part of things. And that doesn't change. And we have to remember that and keep that in mind. And when this thing's over, we don't want perpetual ongoing watching, I'll get my church at home, type stuff. No, that's not what God desired. There's not going to be any joy in that. There's joy in gathering together as the people of God. And there may be some reproach that comes at times as Christians. And when we do, do you know when that happened in the New Testament, they didn't walk around and grumble and gripe and complain and say, Oh me, oh my. Boy, this thing of being a Christian is tough. No, they counted it a blessing and a joy to suffer for His name. I sure hope I can be that way. You know, I hear a lot of boast, and when I tell you what I'm going to be like, Peter, you don't have any idea what you'll be like when that comes. But I sure hope that I do right. I sure hope I stand right. That's what I want in my heart. It is. But you know what? God said, don't contemplate it right now. When that time comes, I'll give you what you need to say and what you need to do. You just trust Me. That's what He said. So it's not something to worry and fret over at this point. Acts 16, Paul and Silas have been thrown in prison. Their backs are beaten bloody. Their arms and legs are in shackles. And the Bible said at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. You know what? They saw there was something different. Philippians jailer. Philippians, it affected him so much he sprang in and said, Sir, what must I do? What do I have to do to have what you have? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Somebody said, Joy is the seasoning that tickles the taste buds of the unsaved. Let me just tell you, the people you work with, your neighbors, people around us are watching how we handle all this. And when we handle it like they do, it's not making any impact. But when we're different, it makes an impact. You know what? Every executive order I'm not praying and singing praises all the time. Sometimes I'm stressing. But what I need to do is be finding some joy. The hymn writer said, there's never a day so dreary, there's never a night so long, but the soul that is trusting Jesus will somewhere find a song. Somebody said joy can swim in the stormy waters of suffering long after happiness has drowned. Job said he'd give the songs in the night. I love Nehemiah 18. Many times I pray this to the Lord and I ask Him to this be true in my own life. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Christian, let me tell you what will keep you going when times are tough and difficult and you hit the rough patches of life. It is the joy of the Lord that will make you strong and enable you to endure and go on and go forward in your life. The joy of the Lord is your strength. They were building in Nehemiah's day and they were battling. It wasn't easy. It was tough. It was hard. It was difficult. It was dangerous. And Nehemiah said, listen, you rejoice in the Lord and it will give you strength. You know, I thought about the daily grind. Listen, some of us were already dreading Monday because of the daily grind. When you say, Preacher, you don't have to go to work like I do in the secular world. And you know what? You're right. And I haven't done that in many, many years. And my heart goes out and I pray for our people. And I don't live in that environment anymore. I did. I was in construction and did other things. And I at times was in that environment and experienced that environment. But that doesn't mean that all of us don't have grinds in our life. Now, you know what the good news is? My grind didn't people. I've been here 15 years and I've never been mistreated. I'm not saying everybody's always agreed with every decision I've made or everything I've said or done, but nobody's ever been unkind or mistreated me or my family. And I want to thank you for that. I was blessed by that. I rejoiced in that. Not every pastor can say that, but I've been blessed. I've been blessed. But that doesn't mean that with the ministries that we have that there's not grinds and decisions and things we have to do. We all have grinds. It's just a different grind. And I'll tell you what, during the grind, we need the joy of the Lord to give us the strength to get through the daily grind of life. You know, a lot of people are looking for some kind of artificial stimulant. And that stimulant will never solve your problems. It'll never fix what's wrong in your life. It'll never be the answer. All it is is a crutch to get you through life. And Jesus says, what I want you to do is I want you to more than just survive. I don't want you to just endure life. I want you to thrive and my joy is your strength when we plug into Him. Let me give you the last thing and I'm done. I must hasten. There's joy in the Spirit. You say, Preacher, how does that fit? Well, let me explain it to you because here's where it's going to get real practical. This is where it's going to get real personal. Preacher, I'm saved. I know the Lord. I know I'm going to go to heaven, but I just don't have joy. Can I say something to you this morning? I want you to understand this. God's not going to one day wave some kind of magic wand over you and you wake up one morning jumping up out of bed happy and joyful. It doesn't work that way. Now some days we do. Now my wife does that probably 364 out of 365 days of the year and it will drive you insane. She wakes up singing. I wake up with a headache. How many know what I'm talking about? Not always a headache. I'm just kidding. It takes me a while. I don't drink any caffeine. So I drink a whole lot of coffee. It has zero caffeine in it. Somebody says, what's the point? I imagine there's caffeine in it. It helps me. I don't drink caffeine because I'm a Mormon. I'm a Christian. I don't drink caffeine because it makes my heart pound. Joy is a choice. We'll either choose to be joyful or we won't choose to be joyful. You see, the Bible says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. The reason people don't have joy is because they're not rejoicing. You say, now wait a minute, I thought you're talking about the joy of the Lord. It is. Now, wait a minute. You can't manufacture it. You can't conjure it up. But it is produced. When you and I make a conscious decision as Christians to rejoice in the Lord, guess what God does? And we don't even realize it. He supernaturally... It's not like I get a jolt. It's not like grabbing a 110 or a 220. Okay? It's not that at all. But stay with me. When I make the conscious choice to rejoice in the Lord, the Lord releases His joy within me. The same is true of you. It's something that God does. It's His joy in us. Now, we're going to move on to John 15. Now, we've been here before, but we're going to go here again. Look at John 15, and I want you to find verse 11. I'm going to talk about the context a little bit, and then I'm going to give you some practical stuff, and we're going to go to the house. God wants you to respond. God wants you to be blessed with His joy. He wants to release His joy in you. I can't manufacture it, but God can produce it in my life as a believer. And it becomes a reality in my life. Not just once in a while, but it can be the character, the tenor of my life. At all times, in every circumstance. Look at John 15 verse 11. Jesus is speaking to some men on the last night of His life. They're going to face one of the most difficult times of their life. Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross. They're going to go to the Garden of Gethsemane after this. He's making His way through the Kidron Valley. They're near the vines and the vineyard areas of that place. And He begins to talk to them about joy in the midst of all of that before He goes to the cross. It's sort of preemptive, so to speak. And He said, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Notice the connection between His joy and our joy. Did you see that? And so now, let's look at the greater context here, because now watch it, the Lord's promise of joy falls in the greater promise of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, He's a comforter. He's going to talk about the Holy Spirit in chapter 14, chapter 15, and chapter 16. And here's what I want you to get. It's not like these guys didn't know who the Holy Spirit was. They did. But he's getting ready to enter into a new ministry. The Lord's going back to heaven. The Holy Spirit's going to come in a new ministry in the lives of believers. And the Lord is going to make His abode in us. And He's going to commune with us and work in us through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Thank God for the Divine Comforter. He's the Spirit of Christ in us. And so we find that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It's part of the cluster of the Spirit's fruit that is produced in our lives as we yield to Him. Do you realize that yielding to the Holy Spirit and abiding in the Lord Jesus is the same exact truth? It is. As I abide in the Lord, I experience the filling of the Spirit. They go together. You can't have one without the other. So, there's the parable of the vine and branches that's right in front of this, okay? Now let me talk to you. You're going to make a big blunder if you spend chapter 15 in these verses divining branches on salvation. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about fruitfulness. Fruitfulness. That'll keep you in line biblically when you understand the context and the point that the Lord's making. He's talking about how to have His fruit in our lives and you can't do it on your own. You can't work up joy. You can work up some happiness every once in a while, but you can't work up joy. That's an inside matter. Okay? So he talks about a connection. Look at verse 2. Every branch. Now watch these next two words. In me. In me. You can't be in Him and not of Him. I believe that beareth not fruit taken away doesn't have anything to do with a person that's almost saved. I don't believe that. Or professes to be saved that's not. I don't believe that. I don't believe that somebody lost their salvation. I believe that's a person who's an unfruitful Christian that's taken to heaven early. Because God can't trust them on earth. and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth, he prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit." So we see a connection here. There is a living union in this verse. Christian, when you trusted the Lord as Savior, you entered into a life-giving union with the Lord Jesus, but it wasn't just a one-time moment. Now salvation's a one-time thing, but this matter of being in Him is an ongoing, that's perpetual. I'm in Him. Therefore, watch this, just as the sap It flows up through the vine into the branches. Hey, the branches don't bear the fruit. The vine bears the fruit. It empowers the branches. The fruit comes naturally. And Christian, watch this. Through our connection with the Lord Jesus Christ, His joy becomes our joy. It flows from the vine into our lives as branches and the fruit of joy flows out into our lives. That's what He's talking about. It's a connection. A living union. It's not our joy. It's His joy that becomes ours. And then there's a continuance. Look at verse number 4. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. That word abide means to remain. It means to continue. It suggests intimacy, oneness, closeness of relationship. You can't know the joy of the Lord if you don't walk with the Lord. Andrew Murray in his book Absolute Surrender, I'm not going to go in depth about everything he's written because he's written some really good stuff. Here's what he wrote about this abiding relationship. He said, it is a life of absolute dependence. It's in his book Absolute Surrender. I recommend it. He said it is a life of absolute dependence, deep restfulness, much fruitfulness, and absolute surrender. To abide in Christ is to have a close personal relationship with Him. You see, to abide in the Lord is to develop a growing intimacy, oneness, with the Lord to live in light of that relationship. It's practicing the presence of God in our daily lives. This abiding is mutual. Jesus said, if you abide in Me, I abide in you. It's not salvation. This is fellowship. It's abiding in Him. As we abide in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, He abides in fellowship with us. As we commune with Him, He communes with us through the Holy Spirit, the Word of God. As we walk with Him, He walks with us. He leads us. to His joy being produced in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit? Preacher, how does abiding in the Lord and spending time in His presence and being filled with the Holy Spirit produce His joy in my heart? How does that happen? Now understand, this abiding life, when you read it, has to do with keeping His commandments, loving Him. You don't keep His commandments to be saved, but you do keep His commandments to walk with Him. It has the idea of enjoying Him, of spending time in His presence. Prayer. All of that is bound up in these verses. About joy. You see, it's walking with the Lord that produces His joy in our lives and the Spirit's filling that enable us to enjoy that fruit in our lives. How does it happen? I want to give you one more verse and we're going to finish. Look at verse 26. Jesus said this, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, watch this next phrase, He, talking about the Holy Spirit, shall testify of Me. Do you know what the Holy Spirit does when you read the Bible? He makes the things of Christ real to you. I'm not talking about when I'm just trying to get my verse a day to keep the devil away. But I'm actually going to the Bible. I'm not talking about the length of how much I read or all that. But I'm going to the Bible because I want to get something. When's the last time you went to the Bible because you wanted to get something and not just check it off for your to-do list today? God, I want something from Your Word. Speak to me from Your Word. Help me. Alright? You're looking. Alright? He then takes those matters, those truths, and He glorifies or He magnifies the Lord in our lives. Now, let me tell you what magnification does. Alright? I was mentioning 830 service. Mainly grandparents in there. There's a few parents. There were some younger families in there as well. That's our 65 and over service for those that want to come early. And so we was having that service. And I mentioned to them, I said, you know, kids today, they don't enjoy some of the stuff that we got to enjoy, the simple things of life. You know, a telephone is still complicated to me. And I see two-year-olds. I'm afraid I'm going to break the crazy thing. You know? But anyway, they live that. But I thought about the simple side of life. I thought about, boy, just having a magnifying glass. Wasn't that a neat thing? Boy, having a magnifying glass, you just do all kinds of stuff with that thing. Let me tell you what a magnifying glass does. It brings something closer and makes it larger so you can see it better and more clearly. As we surrender our lives to the Spirit of God, we abide in the Lord by taking time in His presence, walking with Him throughout the day. Are you following me? We have His song in our heart. I'm going to talk about that in just a moment. We're abiding in Him. The Holy Spirit magnifies the Lord. He brings Him closer, makes Him larger in our lives so that we see the Lord and we realize His constant concern and care and control in our lives in every aspect of it. We see how He works in our lives and how He loves us. And then what happens as we respond to that is He begins to produce His joy in our hearts. He's not going to leave us. He's always going to care for us. He's in complete control of our lives. Listen, when you begin to meditate and you begin to draw close to the Lord through these wonderful truths, joy begins to well up in your heart. He said, Bridget, what do I do when I'm sad? Well, the Bible said make a joyful... See, sometimes just walking with the Lord has to do with this thing of singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Okay? Now, the Bible didn't say it had to be an enjoyable noise. It just was a joyful noise. There's a difference. My noise is not always enjoyable when I sing, but it is joyful at times. And there's nothing wrong with singing. Now let me tell you something. I'm not trying to drag the service out, but I want you to get this. I was thinking about preaching a message out of Psalm 40. I ran across this title. I thought it was great. Praise from a Pit. You see, the psalmist was in a pit. It was called at Miry Clay. And he lifted me up out of a horrible pit. Have you ever been in a horrible pit in life? And he set my feet upon a rock, established my goings, and put a new song in my heart, even praise unto our God. That's a scene of joy, isn't it? Are you following me? Okay, now get this. You cannot make melody in your heart to the Lord with the world's song. People get upset because the preacher is harping on my music. Your music will not give you joy. Your music will depress you. It might give you a jolt for the moment, but it's not going to guide you through life. As a matter of fact, you're singing about sin, and people say, I had a guy tell me one time, so I listen to Western music, it makes me feel closer to God. I said, it does. He said, yeah. I said, so singing about your wife leaving you? and being in low places and burying all your problems in beer makes you feel close to God. Just asking. Where's joy? No, that's depressing. There's no joy in that. I don't want to live in low places. I want to live in high places. That's what I want. I don't want to sing about bad things. I want to sing about depressing. It's no wonder the world's so depressed. Oh no, you get the new song. And you start letting the new song build in your heart. I'm telling you what, it'll change you. It will. I promise you that. I'm not beating you up today. I'm trying to help you. You've got to make the choice of what song you have. But I can tell you what God put in you when He saved you. He put a new song in your heart even. Praise unto our God. That's what He put. You have God's joy, Christian. Don't smother it out and stop it up through disobedience or sin or wrong focus or the wrong song. Sometimes the wrong song's not music. It's just the, oh, woe is me song. Oh, my, my, my song. It's so terrible song. Rather than focusing, on the well of salvation and the goodness of God and His work in your life and who He is and what He's doing and singing a song to Him as we go through life. And it's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing how the blessing of joy will suddenly become yours. It is. Aren't you glad for the blessing of joy? God's joy is indescribable. You can't explain it. As I said, you can only experience it. That's why the psalmist said this in Psalm 34 verse 8, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Now we use that for salvation and say, Boy, if you'll just taste of the Lord, you'll see He's good. But I thought about this. The psalmist was already a saved man when he wrote that. Wouldn't we all agree with that? And was he not inviting people to taste? But I believe he was talking about how the Lord's still good to taste. See, the good thing about this matter of knowing the Lord is you don't just taste Him one time. You can taste again and again and again and again, and you'll see that He is good. Christian, when was the last time you tasted the goodness of God? When was the last time you really went into His presence and you said, God, I want more of You? When was the last time you asked the Holy Spirit to make Him real in your life? You see, that might give you an indicator of your joy meter. And the reason it might not be topping out is because you're not making the right choices as a Christian. And it's smothering the joy of the Lord in your life. So maybe you just need to decide today what you want. Do you want some fickle, fleeting, temporary happiness? Or do you want the abiding blessing of endless joy that God can bring into your life even as a child of God? And friend, if you're not saved today, you can find the greatest joy of your life in knowing that your sins are forgiven. Let's bow our heads in prayer.