Joy: Nehemiah

Sermon Summary:

This powerful exploration of joy takes us deep into Nehemiah chapter 8, where we witness a remarkable moment in Israel’s history. After years of exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls, the people gather to hear God’s Word read aloud. What begins as weeping transforms into celebration when the leaders declare that the joy of the Lord is their strength. This ancient truth speaks directly to our modern struggle with happiness and contentment. We live in a culture desperately pursuing happiness in the next achievement, relationship, or circumstance, yet often coming up empty. The biblical concept of joy is fundamentally different—it’s not fleeting happiness tied to circumstances, but a settled state of well-being rooted in intimacy with God. Through examples like Amy Carmichael, who ministered joyfully from a sickbed for twenty years, and Jane Marczewski, who reminded us we cannot wait until life isn’t hard to decide to be happy, we see that joy is both a choice and a gift. It’s something we actively cultivate through spiritual discipline while simultaneously receiving it as fruit of the Spirit. The challenge before us is profound: will we allow circumstances, other people, or the enemy to steal our joy, or will we choose to abide so closely to the joy-giver that His presence saturates our lives? When we understand that joy is our strength, we discover the resilience to face any trial with hope.

Watch The Service Here

Sermon Points:

1. Overall, how satisfied are you with life as a whole these days?
2. In general, how happy or unhappy do you usually feel?

Key Takeaways:

• Joy is a fruit of the Spirit that demonstrates we are difference makers and intentional disciples following Jesus
• Biblical joy is deep, rich, and resilient—different from cultural understandings of happiness
• The joy of the Lord is our strength, providing resilience in difficult circumstances
• Joy is both a choice requiring spiritual discipline and a gift from the Holy Spirit
• Satan seeks to rob believers of their joy, making them vulnerable to temptation
• We must abide in Christ to experience His joy and have our joy made complete
• Joy can coexist with sorrow, as Paul wrote: “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”
• Believers are called to be joy spreaders in a culture desperate for authentic happiness
• Joy is cultivated through intimacy with God, not through circumstances or achievements
• We cannot wait until life is easy to decide to be happy

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Scripture References:

• Nehemiah 8:1-12 (primary passage)
• John 15:1-8 (abiding in the vine)
• Philippians 4:4 (rejoice in the Lord always)
• 1 Peter 1:8 (inexpressible and glorious joy)
• Habakkuk 3:17-18 (rejoicing despite circumstances)
• 2 Corinthians 6:10 (sorrowful yet always rejoicing)
• Hebrews 12:2 (Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him)

Stories:

• The revival at the Water Gate in Jerusalem where Ezra read the law and the people wept, but were instructed not to grieve because “the joy of the Lord is your strength”
• Jane Marczewski (Nightbirdie) from America’s Got Talent who said, “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy” while battling terminal cancer
• Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India who spent 55 years there without furlough and the last 20 years bedridden, yet wrote 35 books and continued leading ministry to rescue children, declaring life is “meant to be continually joyful”
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) who maintained joy and faith even facing the fiery furnace
• The boodle fight tradition from children’s camp and learning new vocabulary words as a teaching illustration
• C.S. Lewis’s metaphor of the fountain—getting close to the source of joy to be “wet” with its spray

Sermon Transcript:

Well, amen. Thank you, choir and orchestra, for leading worship. Well, this morning we’re going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. So when you came in, you should have gotten the elements of the Lord’s Supper, the little disposable cups. If you didn’t get one, you’re a church member or you want to celebrate with us.

You don’t have to be a church member, but if you want to do that, would you just raise your hand? And we have deacons who have the elements, and they’ll make their way to you, but keep your hand up so we can see you right here in the middle. Ron? Yeah. Thank you.

So, while they’re making their way to do that, let me just remind you that the way this will work for you, you’ll notice when you get the cup, on the bottom of the cup, there’s where the bread is. So you’ll remove that here in a moment, and we’ll take the bread together. And then on the other side is the juice, and you’ll remove that little tab and you can take the juice with us as well. But I’ll guide you through that. But in John 15, Jesus said, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be more fruitful. You are already clean because the word I’ve spoken to you remain in me as I remain in you. And no branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

And then Jesus says, this is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Well, this summer we are learning more together about the fruit of God’s spirit. And what does it mean to be shaped by his spirit, and how do we experience that in relationship with him so that we can make a difference in our world. And our desire is for all of us to learn more about what it means to be a difference maker. And as the fruit of the spirit is cultivated in our lives, we then can be used by God to make a difference in our world.

And we’ll talk about that a little bit more here in the sermon. But Jesus said the only way for that to happen is for you to abide in him. And so this morning, as we celebrate communion, we are reminded of our deep connection that we have with Jesus. We are drawn around this table, but we’re drawn around it together. So communion is not just a reminder of the deep relationship we have with Jesus and what he’s done for us.

It’s also a reminder of the deep relationship we share with one another, that we do life in communion with each other. We abide in Jesus Christ individually, but we also abide in him collectively as a church family. And so we invite you to this table this morning. As I said, you don’t have to be a member of our church. You’re welcome.

If you know Jesus, you’ve been baptized, you’re a part of a church somewhere. We invite you to participate today. We believe that this bread symbolizes the body of Jesus. We believe that this juice symbolizes the blood of Jesus. So let’s pray together and ask God’s blessing upon this bread and upon this juice.

So, Lord, today we are grateful for this opportunity to be around this table, and we’re drawn into community and fellowship with you. We thank you for the example of Jesus and Lord, today. We pray your blessings now upon this bread which to us points us to a greater reality. And that is the very body of our Lord. This juice which points us to a greater reality, that is the very blood of our Lord.

And so now, Lord, we pray your blessings on this bread and on this juice as we’ll receive it. We ask God your blessings upon us as we partake of it. And we pray that in Jesus name, Amen. Well, if you’ll take your cup and turn to the bottom of the cup and open it and retrieve the bread. You know, the Bible tells us that tonight that Jesus was betrayed.

He took bread, he broke it, he gave thanks, he blessed it, and he said to his disciples, this is my body, so take and eat.

The Bible says on that same night, he also took the cup and he told the disciples, this is the new covenant in my blood. So if you’ll turn your cup over and peel back that lid and let’s take this juice reminds us of the very blood of Jesus.

And all God’s people said, amen. Amen. You know, as Aaron said a moment ago, he was teaching our South Korean brothers and sisters some new words, Texas words. Y’ all know that we’ve developed a tradition at children’s camp of learning new words. Y’ all remember I shared that with y’ all last Sunday, and I went back Sunday evening and we continued our Greek lesson.

So I just want y’ all to know I was true to my word, just to humble these children. That was really the point of it. But we did learn some new words every year. What we do is we take the New Oxford Dictionary and look at the newest words in that dictionary and see if we know the meaning of them. But here’s what’s interesting.

Sometimes the New Oxford Dictionary will take a word you already know and apply a different meaning to it that’s now being used in the common vernacular. Sometimes the meaning of words changes over time. For example, you all know in the old King James, the Bible says in the book of Genesis that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they’ll become one flesh. That word cleave means to be united to. Isn’t it interesting, though, over time, that word cleave has changed.

A cleaver does the very opposite. Isn’t that fascinating how I’ve always been interested in etymology? And so we have a couple of words for y’ all this morning from children’s camp just to see how smart you are. The children will be in the next service, so they would already know the meanings of these, but we’ll just see. Let me put the first one on the screen for you.

Charismatic. Anybody know what that word means? I’m talking about the new. The new meaning. Anybody know the newest definition of charismatic?

It’s interesting. Well, let me just give it to you. Here is the new meaning of the word charismatic. It’s an animal or species that is particularly appealing or compelling to humans because of its appearance, symbolic significance. It’s therefore used to gain support for conservation causes.

So if there’s a certain animal that demonstrates conservation, that animal is now called charismatic. Well, let me give you an easy one.

Here’s a really easy one for y’. All. See if y’ all know what this one means.

Bootle fight. Anybody know that meaning? We had one person at camp that knew the meaning. Anybody think. Anybody venture a guess?

It’s not two boodles fighting. That’s not what it is.

In fact, one of our former missionaries knew the meaning of this word, and you’ll see why. It is a Philippine, a word out of the Philippine language. It’s a communal meal at which different kinds of food are laid out now, typically on banana leaves, and eaten with the hands. So y’ all feel smarter now, okay? And I will challenge you to use that little phrase in a sentence this week, just normally and casually.

You might say something like this. You know what this reminds me of? A really good boodle fight. And let’s see how your friends respond. Well, we had lots of fun with these children and then absolutely had fun with the youth as well.

And I’m so grateful I’ll join Brian in thanking all of our volunteers and staff who worked so hard to make it a reality. Casey Fagan is our interim children’s minister. So her first camp did a wonderful job. I was telling David Butts this morning, David’s right here. David laid a great foundation for us, though, and we, we took full advantage of it and lots of really good experiences.

Youth camp was the same way with Chelsea and Tanner. We just had a great time. And Brian, of course, and Brad Echols. This whole team had a wonderful, wonderful time together. So with that said, let’s look at our sermon today.

Our theme, you know, for this year’s flourishing together and being transformed along the Jesus way, is our focus for 2026. Our summer theme is Making a Difference. And as I’ve shared with y’ all last Sunday morning, and just a brief reminder at the Lord’s supper table this morning, if you want to make a difference, you have to be a difference maker. And difference makers, to me, are the kind of people that God is producing. And that’s really what we’re about here at First Baptist.

We’re wanting to help produce, facilitate the production of the development of intentional disciples, difference makers. Difference makers are intentional discipline disciples that follow Jesus in every area of their lives. These are disciples who are being shaped by the Spirit in us now. The character of Christ is being formed and through whom fruit is being born. These are the people that God uses to make a difference in the world.

People that are saved, people that are then shepherded into the family of God, people that are shaped by the Spirit and the truths of God, who are being sent into this world to engage in real ministry. And so with that said, what we’re doing this summer is we are looking at each one of the fruit of the Spirit. Last week we looked at love. Today we’ll talk about joy. So if you have your copy of the Old Testament, let’s look at the book of Nehemiah.

We studied Nehemiah a couple years ago in the fall, and let’s just revisit Nehemiah 8. Joy as expressed the experience of Ezra and Nehemiah. You remember that Nehemiah has rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, and the people of God have resettled in the promised land after the years of exile in Babylon. And so it’s a time of great joy. So Nehemiah 8, verse 1 says, all the people came together as one in the square before the water gate.

They told Ezra, a teacher of the law, to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which The Lord had commanded for Israel on the first day of the seventh month. Ezra the priest, brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. Now, that means these were people who could speak and read Hebrew. Because some of these folks had been in Babylon so long. There were some of them, we believe, who had lost that ability.

Verse 3. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Watergate in the presence of men and women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the book of the Law. Ezra, the teacher of the law, stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. And beside him on his right stood Mattathiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Messiah.

And on his left were Padaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashem, Hard Name, Zechariah, and Meshullam. Verse 5. Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them. As he opened it, the people all stood up.

Ezra praised the Lord, the great God. And all the people lifted their hands and they responded, amen. Amen. And then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. The Levites, another whole group of hard names, instructed the people in the law.

While the people were standing there, we’ll just keep going. They read from the book of the Law of God, making it clear, giving the meaning, so the people understood what was being read, once again reading it, interpreting it, proclaiming it, people understanding the Hebrew. Verse 9. Nehemiah, the governor, Ezra, the priest and teacher of the law, and all the Levites who were instructing the people said to them, all this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law.

Nehemiah said, go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The Levites calmed all the people, saying, be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.

Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and celebrate with great joy, because now they understood the words that had been made known to them. So we intersect this story after the temple has been rebuilt and now the wall has been reconstructed around the city. So the context is Nehemiah and Ezra led Israel in this great revival service. It’s recorded here for us in Nehemiah 8. But at first, as we just read, when the.

When the people were. They were convicted, when they heard God’s word, Word explained, they then began to weep. And so Ezra and Nehemiah led them to a time of celebration, a time of worship, a time of remembrance, in fact, a time of joy. Charles Swindoll has a wonderful chapter on Nehemiah 8. He calls it Revival at Watergate.

For those of you that are old enough to even know what that is, it has a little meaning. In the next worship service, we’ll encourage some of them to Google that and find out what Watergate was. But it’s actually the name of a gate there in Jerusalem. But Israel’s home from the exile, the temple is now rebuilt. Nehemiah’s completed the construction of the wall around Jerusalem.

The people feel secure, they feel safe. They feel like they have a future. And so they gather together for a great celebration just to commemorate beauty of what’s already happened. And in order to do that, Ezra and Nehemiah felt led to reconnect them to the teachings of God, to once again intersect with the law of God. And they began to read it and explain it, reading it in Hebrew, probably explaining it some in Hebrew and in other languages so these people could truly understand what God was saying to them.

And the people were convicted because some of them realized, we haven’t been actually living up to this. Or some of them were so overjoyed to know that God had dealt so directly with them that he’d given them personal instructions about who they were to become. And so Nehemiah and Ezra and the priests, once they saw the reaction of the people, they said, now wait, don’t weep. This is not a time to grieve. We’re here to celebrate what the Lord has done.

This is a holy moment. Let’s be joyful. Because the joy of the Lord is our strength. That sense of deep contentment, happiness, if you will. Joy is what Nehemiah called for the people to experience and express.

So I want us to think a little bit together about joy this morning, okay? Let’s connect it to our bigger journey. Y’ all know that in our flourishing journey, we have been studying these flourishing domains. Y’ all remember that. There’s six of them.

I preached through them last year. And they are part of the survey, if you remember, that is being conducted in the Global Flourishing Study. And the very first one is Happiness and Life Satisfaction. And y’ all remember, we’ve taken two surveys for the Flourishing Study. The first one was just a list of 12 questions.

Y’ all remember that. Just a little brief synopsis. Each one of those six domains had two questions. Here were the two questions for the Happiness and Life Satisfaction Survey. Overall, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?

Now, January, a year ago, you answered that question if you participate in it. But then the second question, in general, how happy or unhappy do you usually feel? It’s a self assessment of your sense of joy or happiness or contentment. And so let me connect those Biblically, because we tried to do this as we walked through that study of that particular domain. But let me just remind you, they’re not only flourishing domains.

When you study the Scripture, theologians or Biblical scholars, they use the phrase semantic domains. It’s a very common word in Biblical study. So for the word joy, the cluster of Biblical words for joy in our Bibles, it includes words like happiness, gladness, pleasure, celebration, cheer, delight, jubilation, laughter, exaltation, blessing. That’s not an exhaustive list. There are many more words that communicate the very same thing in both Greek and Hebrew.

But if you put all of those words together, they appear in right around 2,000 different passages in our Bibles. As a matter of fact, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. And if you’ve studied Hebrew, you know, typically Hebrew words have three consonants as a root. So it’s somewhat of a limited language. But believe it or not, it can be very full and expressive.

As a matter of fact, there are 18 different Hebrew roots in the Old Testament to connect to happiness or joy or gladness or cheerfulness. In other words, the flourishing domain concerns an overall perspective of life. Well, this semantic domain of joy, it paints a picture for us the kind of person that God is producing. And he’s weaving things into your life as a follower of Jesus threads, if you will, pleasure and happiness and gladness and cheerfulness and joy and blessing. And what God is doing is he’s weaving a tapestry of a settled life, a person who grows in their contentment, a person who’s experiencing the very presence of God.

There’s this abiding sense of well being. That’s what joy really is. It’s a settled state. The joy that we find taught to us in the Scripture, it’s rooted in, it’s related to an intimacy with our Lord Jesus. Put it bluntly, abide in me, the joy of the Lord, it’s in him, it’s through him, it’s for him, it’s because of Him.

And what I’ve learned about Joy, y’, all, is that it’s deep. It takes a while to learn what it really is, but it’s rich, it’s resilient, and it’s. Sometimes it’s a little challenging because it can feel contradictory. Because, for example, Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 6, verse 10, he says, we’re sorrowful, but always rejoicing.

That gives you a little clue about the resiliency of joy. We’re sorrowful, but we’re always rejoicing. And so this experience of joy that’s available to us, the scripture, and in our relationship with God is something I want to encourage you to cultivate and come to a deeper understanding of. So here’s my question for you this morning. Where do you find your joy?

Because there are so many ways to experience happiness. And I get that. And I know, you know, we’re getting ready to celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation, and we say in our core founding documents that the pursuit of happiness is something we want everyone to experience. Well, I’m okay with that, I think, but I’m afraid that our culture’s understanding of happiness is too flimsy. The Biblical concept of happiness is actually rooted in joy, and it’s connected into something deep and profound.

But I’m watching my culture, and it appears to me that my culture looks for happiness, searches for happiness, I would say is desperate for happiness, but so often they tie it to things that are just as flimsy as the happiness they experienced. Does that make sense? For some people, it’s always just around the next curve.

For some people, experience of happiness, it’s in the next thing. It’s not in this thing. It’s in that next job, it’s in that next neighborhood, it’s in that next relationship. And if we’re not careful, we can put all of our joy eggs in somebody else’s basket. And my joy depends upon accolades, that next set of congratulations, or maybe that next level of achievement, and somehow miss out on the true joy of my current reality.

And as I read my Bible, I find people joyful in the most amazing places. And that should teach me something. And not only that, y’, all, here’s the challenge. Satan desires to rob you of your joy. Martin Luther said, the devil can’t stand gaiety.

Thomas Aquinas said, no one can live without delight. And that’s why a man deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures. Because, you see, here’s what happens when Satan can rob you of your joy. You become vulnerable to him. You become susceptible to temptation because you are so desperate to experience something that is eluding you.

And you find yourself being tempted to walk down the wrong paths and pursue the wrong things, thinking it’s going to answer something deep inside of you, when they’re mostly dead end streets. And history is riddled with people who tried to find happiness and joy in the wrong things. So I want to encourage all of us this morning approach joy Biblically and not allow ourselves to have our joy stolen from us by the devil, because that’s what he wants to do. And when that happens, as I said, you become susceptible, and then you can justify any kind of behavior. John Milton in Paradise Lost said, the mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven.

You get so far off base, in other words, and joy stealers are everywhere. What steals your joy? What are the things that rob you of your joy? Well, my goodness, they’re everywhere. Circumstances in life, other people’s actions, giving in to temptation, being guided by our own sinfulness.

All of those are joy stealers. So here’s what I want to say this morning about joy. Two things. First, I believe joy is a choice. I think there’s something active that I must participate in for me to truly experience joy.

I just believe God has created me such a way that I’ve got to participate somehow in this experience of joy. Bono says joy is an act of defiance. I think joy is a celebration of discipline. I think that I’ve got to somehow discipline myself to remind myself of the things that are true. And once again, once my joy is stolen from me, I become susceptible to wrong thinking.

That’s why we’ve got to discipline our minds spiritually so that we can find our way to joy. Joy is available for us, but we’ve got to somehow participate in it. You know, last week I gave you another word from our children’s camp. Y’ all remember doom? Scrolling.

Y’ all remember that word, just scrolling through all the bad news and letting our minds be filled with gloom and doom. Do you know that the amygdala in your brain that registers your first emotional reaction to anything. Do you know what neuroscientists tell us? It has a negativity bias. It generally leans toward negative emotions.

We have to train ourselves to move beyond our propensity for negative emotions. That, to me, is where discipline comes in, where devotion comes in, where making decisive, positive decisions, it’s hard to do. I get it. Because life is hard. Your joy can Be stolen.

You know, okay, I’m not a huge TV watcher. I like golf and baseball and then documentaries. I’m kind of leaning that way. But there is one show that I will watch on occasion just because I think it’s funny, and that’s America’s Got Talent. I don’t know why I watch that show sometimes, but I do.

You know, one of the more famous episodes of America’s Got Talent was Jane Marzewski. I want to show you a photo of her. You may not be familiar with her. Her nickname is Night Birdie. She got the golden buzzer from Simon.

You talking about a joy stealer? Simon has that written on his head. He’s a.

But when they asked her about her life, she was standing there before them. This photo is from June of 2021. How are you doing? And she said, well, honestly, I have cancer. And y’ all know, if y’ all have ever seen that show, there are not a lot of serious things said on the front end.

It’s usually very jovial. Well, that basically just set the tone. And then they said, well, you mean, did you have cancer? Yes, but I have cancer right now. And she said, it’s active again and not really sure what’s going to happen to me.

Well, unfortunately, eight months later, she died. But she said something to Simon and let me give you this quote. She said, you can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.

Some of us would have to wait a long time.

We don’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore. You know, there are some very. Just some incredible Christians who’ve demonstrated resilient joy. One of my favorites is Amy Carmichael. Let me show you Amy Carmichael.

Are you familiar with her story? There she is ministering to these little kids in India. She was born in Ireland, 1867. Her daddy died when she was 18 years old. She was the oldest kid, so she had to help take care of her family.

But she felt a call to missions and she ended up going to Japan. Her health was terrible. She had a very specific disease. It was very difficult. So finally she decided maybe it’d be easier to live in India.

So she went to India as a missionary from England. She lived 55 years in India, never took a furlough, never went back home. The last 20 years of her ministry and mission life in India, her disease was so bad. She was completely bedridden and she was isolated to one room for 20 years. And she still led the ministry to these children, children that were sold to the temples there in that community to be used as prostitutes in worship.

And she was rescuing children, thousands of children. Well, while she was debilitated, she wrote 35 books and continued to run this incredible ministry. Let me read to you one of her quotes. She says, there’s nothing dreary and doubtful about life.

It is meant, it should say meant, to be continually joyful. We’re called to a settled happiness in the Lord, whose joy is our strength. She wrote that from a bedridden state she found joy. Well, what does Paul say? Philippians 4.

Rejoice in the Lord when things are well.

What does it say? Rejoice in the Lord always. And then Paul said, I’m sorry. I’ll just say it again. That’s Paul’s way of saying, are y’ all still with me?

He’ll just say it again. Rejoice, Aaron, you read this passage a moment ago. Though you’ve not seen him, you love him. Even though you’ve not seen him, now you believe in him. You’re filled with an inexplicable, inexpressible, and glorious joy.

Simon Peter. How about Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah? If we’re thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. And he will deliver us from your majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty, we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you’ve set up.

Probably one of the most profound expressions of joy in the Old Testament is found in Habakkuk 3. Let me read that one to you. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls. Now, y’, all, does it get much worse yet? I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will be joyful in God, my savior. You see, that’s joy. And what I’ve learned about it is it’s not just a choice. It’s a gift. It’s a gift from the Spirit of God.

Aren’t we glad? The joy is something that the Spirit of God gives us because we need it. We need to experience this joy. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life makes joy a reality. It is a fruit of God’s presence.

It is a fruit he’s cultivating in you with your cooperation. You are with him. You’re a partner with him. It’s like a farmer. You can have all the seed in the world in the barn.

God’s not going to take that seed out of that barn and put it in the field. The farmer’s got to cooperate. That’s how it works. And so you cooperate with God in living this life of joy. You can do it.

Jesus is our example. Jesus said this in John 15. I’ve told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. Does Jesus know anything about joy? Come on, y’.

All. You remember what Jesus said one time he told the Pharisees. He said, you know, John the Baptist came singing a funeral dirge. In other words, he came with a prophecy that was hard to hear. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, talking about himself.

And you don’t like either one of us. Isn’t that interesting, the way he describes himself? Son of man came eating and drinking. Remember what he told the woman at the well? He said, I tell you what, I’m going to give you something to drink.

And when you drink what I give you, you’re going to have a wellspring inside of you that’s going to flow, overflow in your life. Remember that girl? She said, give me that kind of water. Well, that’s what the Lord does. Jesus brings joy into our lives.

As a matter of fact, the writer of Hebrews says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame. And so joy was a part of who Jesus is. Well, he gives us his joy. His joy completes our joy. It’s a gift from him.

As a matter of fact, the teaching of Nehemiah and I believe the testimony of our lives is the joy of the Lord is our strength. It builds resiliency into your life. Something beautiful about joy. Like I said, it’s sturdy and it takes a while. You know, when you first get involved in this Christianity thing, you’ve got to develop some disciplines, because you’re just learning.

You’re developing your chops. You’re learning some things, and you need to do those to carry you over into those days of incredible experiences of joy in the face of uncertainty and suffering, brokenness and victimization. That’s why the Bible tells us to rejoice in the Lord in the future. We know the writer of the book of Revelation, the Apostle John, says, our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad.

Let me read you this quote from C.S. lewis. He says this. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire.

If you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to or even into the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prizes which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone. They’re a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you’re close to it, the spray will wet you.

If you’re not, you’ll remain dry. I would say this. If you want joy, then nestle up against the joy giver. That’d be the Lord himself, and he’s made himself known in you through the presence of his spirit. And then here’s what I’d say about me and you.

If we can live close enough to the joy giver, what if you and I become joy spreaders? Wouldn’t that be awesome? If we ever. If there’s ever been a time in our culture where people need real joy, surely this is it. They can discover it in Jesus.

Let’s abide in him and let his joy be in us so that our joy can be complete. May it be so. Let’s pray together.

Well, Lord, we love you. We’re grateful today for your presence in our lives, for the joy that you bring. And Lord, we realize that life can be challenging and that our joy can be stolen from us in so many ways. We can lose sight of what you’ve done. We can be so overwhelmed by what others have done, what’s happened to me and what life has brought me.

Lord, I want to thank you that we can learn from Jesus for the joy set before him. Continue to do your will. I just ask you, Lord, to cultivate the fruit of joy in the hearts and lives and souls of these dear people that will know as First Baptist Arlington. And may we spread that joy to our world and we pray it in Jesus name, Amen.