May 11, 2025 • 44 mins
What if your joy could be heard far away? That’s exactly what happened in Nehemiah 12, where the people of God celebrated with such exuberance that their joy echoed beyond the city walls. In this message, Joy Filled Living, Pastor Tyler Lynde walks us through what true, contagious joy looks like—and how we can live it out today.
Tyler begins by unpacking the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial; it fades as quickly as it comes. But joy is enduring—it takes root in our relationship with God and grows through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In Nehemiah 12, we don’t just see a community celebrating a successful construction project—we see a people restored by God, rejoicing with a depth that external circumstances can’t touch.
Tyler identifies three essential elements that shaped this joy-filled celebration: an attitude of gratitude, a heart of worship, and a firm understanding that joy comes from God.
The first is gratitude. The Israelites gave thanks not just because the walls were finished, but because their hearts were full. Tyler reminded us how easy it is to slip into negativity, but how Scripture calls us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18). Gratitude transforms our perspective and aligns us with the joy God wants to give.
Next is worship. Nehemiah 12 describes music, singing, and processions around the city. Worship wasn’t a side note—it was the center of the celebration. Tyler emphasized that when we choose worship—even in hard seasons—God meets us there. Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy.”
Finally, Tyler reminds us that joy is a gift. Nehemiah 12:43 says, “God had made them rejoice with great joy.” This wasn’t manufactured; it was God-given. And it wasn’t limited to leaders or men—it included women and children, showing us God’s joy is for everyone.
Jesus Himself endured the cross “for the joy set before Him” (Heb. 12:2). That joy? Us. Through Him, we’re offered not just salvation, but joy that strengthens us, sustains us, and overflows to others.
Whether you’re celebrating or struggling, this message is a call to reclaim the joy that’s already yours in Christ.
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Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:03):
All right, are you ready for the Bible this morning
?
Are you ready to talk aboutJesus in the scriptures?
Let's look at Nehemiah, chapter12.
That's where we're going tostart.
This morning we're winding downour series on the book of
Nehemiah called the PassionProject.
We believe that God wants torestore passion to his church
(00:24):
and he wanted to do that withthe nation of Israel, and that's
what the book of Nehemiahreally is about.
And last week we looked at thefact that the people of God are
called to live holy lives.
Anybody have a chance this weekto practice holiness in your
walk?
Yeah, absolutely.
When we hear a message likethat, or when I we hear a
message like that, or when Iprepare for a message like that,
(00:46):
I can almost guarantee thatthere's going to be opportunity
that's going to come my way toeither have a pass or a fail
moment in that right, either toyield to holiness or to reject
it for whatever reason.
So it's important for us toknow that we have been given the
gift of holiness by JesusChrist and he enables us, by his
(01:08):
spirit, to walk in it as wefollow after him, and that
causes the whole world to knowthat Jesus Christ is alive and
well and that he is very realAmen.
So this week we're going to lookat the celebration that
surrounded the dedication of thewall in Jerusalem and we're
going to take away some lessonson how to live joy-filled lives.
(01:30):
Anybody want a message on joythis morning?
Well, if you do, you came tothe right place, because that's
what we're going to be talkingabout.
The title of this message isJoy-Filled Living.
Let's look at Nehemiah 12.
We're going to read two versesverse 27 and also verse 43.
And at the dedication of thewall of Jerusalem, they sought
(01:50):
the Levites in all their placesto bring them to Jerusalem to
celebrate the dedication withgladness, with thanksgivings,
with singing, with cymbals,harps and lyres, and they
offered great sacrifices thatday and rejoiced, for God had
made them rejoice with great joy.
(02:10):
The women and children alsorejoiced and the joy of
Jerusalem was heard far away.
Let's pray this morning, father.
We thank you.
We thank you so much, father,for your goodness to us.
This service started with ustalking about the goodness of
God and Lord.
(02:33):
We continue that same thoughtas we look into your word and,
father, we ask that you wouldhelp us in areas in our lives
where we have, where joy isdormant, where joy is not
evident.
We pray that you would stir inus a refreshing, a refueling, a
rekindling of the joy of theLord, which is our strength and
Father.
For those who might be here,who are listening via the
(02:54):
internet, who do not yet knowyou and have never experienced
the joy that comes from you, wepray, lord, god, that you would
move by your spirit today andthat you would cause lives to be
awakened to the truth of JesusChrist as Savior and Lord, and
that people would acknowledgehim, believe on him, repent and
(03:14):
confess him as their Savior InJesus' name, amen, amen.
So somebody asked you thequestion what are the most
joy-filled experiences thatyou've had in your lifetime?
How would you answer thatquestion?
There's probably a lot ofdifferent things that might come
to your mind at first.
Right, for some of us, it's awedding.
(03:36):
Right, it was a joy-filledexperience.
For others, maybe the birth ofchildren.
How about, for those of us whofind ourselves in a different
stage of life now, the birth ofchildren?
How about, for those of us whofind ourselves in a different
stage of life now, the birth ofgrandchildren and the fact that
we can bring them into our homesand celebrate them and sugar
them up and send them home.
And God said it is good, right,I love my.
(04:03):
I want to.
I don't want my children to getto get any kind of complex.
I love you as well and I wouldlove you even if you didn't have
children, but I am so thankfulfor the fact that you have given
us.
Those of you who have given us,and the others are not yet in a
stage of life where they'reready to do that.
So Levi's asking me to move on.
(04:25):
So we're moving on,experiencing gratitude.
How about buying your firsthome, buying your first?
All of these things might cometo your mind when it comes to
something that's joy-filled,right, something that gives you
joy.
And while those things areextremely important and valid in
a conversation about joy, howmany of you know there's much
more that the Bible has to sayabout joy than those things that
(04:50):
we just talked about, thosethings that we experience in
this life that do bring us joy.
There's much more.
There's much more.
There's greater joy than we canimagine or think or comprehend,
that is available to us becauseof Jesus Christ and having a
right relationship with God, andthat's what we want to focus on
(05:11):
this morning.
Now, there's a major difference, because a lot of times we get
two things confused.
We think about happiness andjoy as being equal with each
other.
What is happiness?
What's the difference betweenhappiness and joy?
Happiness is based on,typically is based on a
circumstance, something goingright, something going well, and
(05:32):
all of a sudden you feel happy.
Right, you get an unexpectedcheck in the mail.
What do you feel?
Happy?
You get an unexpected bill inthe mail.
What do you feel?
You should feel joyful.
But we'll get to that, let'snot rush it, but anyway.
So happiness is like that.
It's something, it's a feelingthat we have, it's an experience
(05:52):
, it's an emotion, a risingemotion, that happens based on a
temporary condition, somethingthat happens in a moment in time
.
And what is joy?
How does it differ fromhappiness moment in time?
And what is joy?
How does it differ fromhappiness?
Joy, especially the joy thatcomes from God, is steady.
It's steady, it's rooted, it'slong-lasting, it's the steady,
(06:17):
settled bent of the Christiannature.
It's who we are as believers inJesus Christ, at least who we
should be right.
And it is not based solely uponour situation or based on our
circumstance.
It's based upon, it's not basedon our external things.
It's based on something that'shappening on the inside.
(06:37):
There's an internal joy thatcomes from knowing Jesus and
walking with him, amen.
So I want to challenge us thismorning to ask ourselves the
questions are we living livesthat are characterized by joy?
And if you want to know thereal answer, look to your
husband or your wife or yourchildren right now and ask them,
(06:59):
and they'll be able to help uswith that answer.
I know that sounds a little,that may sound, you know, a
little off, but it's true.
A lot of times we don't evenrecognize within ourselves
whether or not we'reexperiencing and living out,
living from a place of thissteady condition or situation of
joy in our lives.
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So in our passage today, thework is finally completed in
Jerusalem.
The work is done.
Remember, just a short time ago, the walls of the city laid in
ruins and in 52 days, underNehemiah's leadership, the walls
were put back together and thegates were hung in place.
Remember, this is a two milecircumference of the city.
This is not a small project,this is a large project and it
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was done not just byprofessional people.
It was done by everyone givinga hand, everyone doing their
part and it was finished.
And then, not only that, butthere were homes that were in
disrepair, bad disrepair withinthe walls of Jerusalem, and so
the work needed to be done tothose, and that work was ongoing
.
And then also, there needed tobe a repopulation in Jerusalem,
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and so we had the first wave ofthat, and mostly leaders moved
into Jerusalem to fulfill theirduties amongst the nation of
Israel.
And then last week we talkedabout the choosing of 10% of the
remaining people of Israel tocome and to be a part of living
inside the walls of Jerusalem.
And so now all of these peopleare coming together on one day,
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on one occasion, in one momentin time, to celebrate what has
happened.
Remember, they not only had allof these things happen
naturally.
There wasn't a naturalhappening that caused all of
this disrepair and disruptionand destruction.
Remember, the nation of Israelhad disobeyed God and walked in
idolatry, serving other godsinstead of the real God.
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And so, through that, becauseof their rebellion and because
of their idolatry, god punishedthem.
And the way that he punishedthem is by sending other nations
in to conquer them, to destroya lot of what had been built and
to take with them exiles backto their homelands and to cause
those people to be servants, tobe servants within those places.
(09:16):
And we saw the example ofZerubbabel Hopefully that's the
right pronunciation, butZerubbabel was given the
opportunity to come back and tobegin repairing Jerusalem, and
so he actually laid thefoundation for the temple.
And so, by the time Nehemiahhad come along, the temple had
been rebuilt, but the walls werestill in disarray and many of
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the other places withinJerusalem were still torn down.
And so Nehemiah had this heartto return, and so he stepped up
and talked to the kingArtataxerxes and asked for
permission, and the king grantedhim his permission and even
funded the trip, funded therebuilding of the wall, sent him
with all the materials that hewould need and treasures that he
(09:57):
could use to purchase anythingelse or to build anything else
that would need to be done, andso he had accomplished what God
has sent him to do.
And, how many of you know,nehemiah's job was much more
than just rebuilding a wall,because his heart was much more
about the heart of the people,and so God used him, and Ezra as
well, the scribe of the word ofGod, who read the word of God,
(10:22):
and the people repented of theirsin, read the word of God and
the people repented of their sinand there was a new covenant
that was cut between God and thenation of Israel.
And so now they're well ontheir way into getting
reestablished as the people ofGod, as the nation of God, in
service to God and worshipingGod Right.
And so that's kind of where wefind ourselves in this day of
(10:44):
celebration.
They're celebrating theredemptive work of God.
So today we're going to look atsome key components of
joy-filled living and we'regoing to pull these out of these
verses that we read from thebeginning.
So the first key to livingjoy-filled lives, in my opinion
and from these scriptures, ishaving an attitude of gratitude.
(11:05):
Having an attitude of gratitudethat's an old cliche, right,
but it is true, it is absolutelytrue.
It's hard not to be joyful ifyou have an attitude of
gratitude, if you walk throughthis life filled with
thanksgiving.
Filled with thanksgiving, itsays in the passage.
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And at the dedication of thewall of Jerusalem, they sought
the Levites, who were those whowere involved in the religious
service of the temple and all oftheir places, to bring them to
Jerusalem to celebrate thededication.
With what?
With gladness and withthanksgivings, with gladness,
and with thanksgivings, withgladness and with thanksgivings.
We'll see next week and I don'twant to give too much about
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next week, but unfortunatelywe're going to see that this
sentiment did not last very longand you'll see a reversion in
some ways back to an old way ofthinking, an old mindset, and
unfortunately things go fromthere and we'll talk about that
next week.
I don't want to spoil it toomuch.
How many of you know, in ourculture it tends to be very easy
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to be negative, am I right?
How many of us love to becritics?
Not of ourselves, of course,because we judge ourselves most
based on our motivations or whatwe wanted to do, but we judge
everybody else based on what wethink they did or what we think
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their motivations.
We judge them differently thanwe judge ourselves.
Right, the person that pullsover quickly in front of us in
an automobile?
The person that pulls overquickly in front of us in an
automobile, maybe pregnant, onthe way to the hospital, but as
far as we're concerned, they'repart of the Taliban or something
like that and they need to beremoved from this earth.
Why is that?
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Why is it that we are so?
We tend to be so critical.
We tend to look at things in away that's honestly.
Can I be real with you?
It's very unhealthy.
It's very unhealthy.
It's very unhealthy, even inyour body.
It's unhealthy to live this way.
Let me give you an example.
How many of you know that thereare people who go to a
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restaurant a thousand times andlove it Literally love it?
They tell all of their friendsabout it, all of their family
members about it.
They invite people to go todinner with them, to join them
at this place.
They tell them their favoritething to order.
They know the waiter, thewaitress, the manager, but, god
forbid, they go one time andhave one bad meal.
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And guess what happens?
Before they leave therestaurant, their phones are out
and they're typing out a review.
And what does that review say?
Don't ever come to this place.
I didn't mention the thousandtimes that they came before and
the one off time that they cameright.
Why is that?
What is that about humanity andabout us that tends to look at
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things that way?
I'm telling you this right now.
That's not God.
Can you imagine if God feltthat way about us?
Well, tyler was doing reallywell.
He had a seven-day streak,seven-day streak, and man, I was
enjoying him being around, butboy, he messed up today.
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Let's see what are we going todo to him.
We don't want God to be likethat, do we?
But how many of you know, wetend to be that way.
We tend to be that way, and itshouldn't be.
It shouldn't be In the life ofa believer.
Thanksgiving should be much morethan a day on the calendar.
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It should be a way of life.
If you want to live ajoy-filled life, guess what?
We need to have an attitude ofgratitude.
1 Thessalonians 5.18 says thisGive thanks in all circumstances
.
Don't you wish that?
That said, in all goodcircumstances, in all things
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that are going the way that wewant them to go.
It's easy to give thanks, thenright, but give thanks in all
circumstances, for this is thewill of God in Christ Jesus for
you.
This is not just an idea, thisis not just the writer's opinion
.
This is the will of God inChrist Jesus for us.
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We, as the body of Christ,ought to be the most thankful
people on the planet.
If nothing else, we should beable to enjoy every single day
in this life, understanding thatJesus made a way for us.
An attitude of gratitude shouldpermeate every aspect of our
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lives, regardless of what we areexperiencing.
You know where I haveexperienced an attitude of
gratitude the most.
Can I be real with you for amoment?
In places where they havenothing.
Just came back from Cuba inMarch and I know in Tanzania as
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well, and other places wherepeople have struggles, what we
would consider to be very, verydifficult lives yeah, those that
don't have places to live,living on the streets, things
like that.
A lot of times there's anattitude of gratitude that's
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found with those people.
I'll never forget the first timeI went to Haiti and I think I
don't know if Neil was on thattrip, it was Pete back for sure
and they asked me to teach onfaithfulness to the leaders, and
I had never been to Haiti,didn't understand anything about
it.
I got there and as soon as wewalked out of the airplane there
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was a smell that hit me, thatmade me recognize we're not in
Kansas anymore.
And then we're walking throughthe airport and everybody's
reaching out for our bags sothat they can carry our bags to
the car, so that we can givethem something.
Levels of desperation, right,but you know, when we got to the
churches and began to encounterthe people and the leaders.
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You know, the leaders that Ispoke to about faithfulness had
traveled, some of them for twodays on foot or donkeys,
whatever they could get on, toget to bicycles to get where
we're at.
I didn't know what to do when Iwas to stand up in front of
them.
I had this great messageprepared on faithfulness and I
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just looked at them and I saidI've never been in a room filled
with such faithful people as Iam right now, and I passed my
Bible around and I asked all ofthem to sign my Bible as heroes
of the faith.
And then I talked aboutfaithfulness Because, how many
of you know, the word of God isreal and active and alive and it
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transcends cultures and ittranscends language and all of
those things.
An attitude of gratitude itshouldn't be determined based on
our checking account, ourhealth score, the way that we're
experiencing life.
In this time and in this day, Ihave been practicing.
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Since we had this 21 days offasting.
I've been practicing every day,just taking time to give thanks
, and I've always tried to be athankful person.
But when you do itintentionally, it's like you
kind of have to dig a little bit.
I'll tell you how I do it andyou can do it however you want.
But I pick a word like grateful, gracias I've tried to find all
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kinds of words that are similarto thankful but that are
synonyms and then I take eachletter of that word and I try to
think of three things from thatletter that I'm thankful for.
So, if I'm doing thanks, threeT words that I'm thankful for,
right, h-a-n, on and on.
You can do it however you wantto, but that's just a way that
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I've been systematically tryingto approach this and I have to
say that my general attitude andI'll have to ask my wife and my
children about this, but Ithink my general attitude has
gotten quite a bit better, but Ithink my general attitude has
gotten quite a bit better and Iwant it to continue to do so.
So we live joy-filled liveswhen we have an attitude of
gratitude.
Another component of joy-filledliving is a heart of worship.
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A heart of worship you mightsay well, those are similar.
They are similar, but they'redifferent as well.
It says that they dedicatedthis time and celebrated with
singing, with cymbals, harps andlyres.
Those are instrumentation.
They didn't have people runningthrough the streets telling
lies.
That was an instrument of somekind.
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Yeah, I think it was like aguitar maybe.
Yeah, anyway, cymbals.
I was just thinking last weekabout Miss Patricia Nooner, and
we were talking about her giftof worship.
She was such a worshiper and tosee her bring that tambourine
out as off-putting as it couldhave been because it could not
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find any of the right beatsstill she was all in.
She was like all in.
She'd lay prostrate on thefloor before Jesus and this is a
woman with a bad scoliosisissue.
She laid it all on the line forJesus.
She was a true, what I wouldconsider to be a true worshiper.
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Right, lord, make me more like.
Nehemiah assembled many of thesingers and musicians of Israel
and they divided into two groupsand they climbed up on the wall
and they began to walk indifferent directions.
Ezra led one group and Nehemiahled the other, interesting the
Word and the Spirit, ezrarepresenting the Word, nehemiah
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representing the Spirit, both ofthose things in conjunction.
And they walked along thecircumference of the wall,
praising God and worshiping him.
The walls didn't come tumblingdown like in Jericho, but you
can imagine, don't you wish youcould have had a bird's eye view
of that.
I wish the Lord would just openit up right now and just give
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us a vision where we could seethis happening.
But imagine hundreds of people,probably thousands of people,
climbing up on the wall andwalking around that two mile
wall until they came backtogether and guess where?
They met up In front of thetemple and they came down the
steps off of the wall and theybegan to offer sacrifices and to
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worship God.
What a powerful thought, what apowerful scene.
What is the song that's mostoften on your heart?
Gloom, despair and agony on me.
Deep, dark depression,excessive misery.
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If it weren't for bad luck, I'dhave no luck at all.
Gloom, despair and agony on me.
I know, for everybody under 40,you're like what in the world?
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It was real, it happened.
What is the song that's on ourheart most often?
Do we live lives that arededicated to worship?
Are we worshipers?
Are we true worshipers?
Do we look for opportunities toworship God?
Jesus said to the woman at thewell that the heavenly father
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was seeking those who wouldworship him in spirit and in
truth.
In spirit and in truth kind ofinteresting, ezra, nehemiah.
Spirit and truth.
Worship, like thankfulness,shouldn't be expressed only
during times when we feel likeit.
Worship is not reserved justfor the great moments of life.
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Worship should be a part of thebattle as well.
I loved what Catherine saidlast week about the fact that we
can war with worship.
We can do that.
We can enter into his presence.
Worship is.
The priority of our worshipshould be to praise him at all
times and always, because he'sworthy.
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My dad used to always say topeople being thankful will keep
your tank full, and one of thethings that he would do and I'll
never forget this and it kindof bothered me, to be honest as
a teenager he would fill up thetank with gasoline and every
time he'd get back in the carI'd say thank you, jesus, for
that tank of gas.
I just thought it was beingreligious.
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I just thought it was beingreligious.
But then I remembered back to aday when I was five years old
and we were driving down theroad and we ran out of gas and
we waited and we waited and wewaited and finally somebody
pulled over and took us and gotus a gallon of gasoline and put
it in the car.
And we didn't have any money tobuy gasoline, but they gave it
to us and I got to school late,and so, from that point in time,
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every time my dad put gasolinein the car, I never forget.
I can't recount a time where hedidn't say thank you, jesus,
for the tank of gas.
We should praise him at alltimes, in all ways, because he's
worthy, shouldn't be somethingwe have to work up or something
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that we have to be convinced of.
He is worthy, he is worthy,he's worthy of our praise.
This concept is so important toGod that there's an entire book
, the book of Psalm, writtenwith examples of worship
throughout it.
Let's look at a few of theseand look at a progression of
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worship here.
Psalm 100, verses 1 through 5.
Make a joyful noise to the Lordall the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into his presence withsinging.
Know that the Lord all theearth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into his presence withsinging.
Know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who made us and we arehis.
We are his people and the sheepof his pasture.
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Enter his gates withthanksgiving and his courts with
praise.
Give thanks to him.
Bless his name, for the Lord isgood.
His steadfast love enduresforever and his faithfulness to
all generations.
This should be the song that'son our hearts.
Did you notice that this songthat was written for us as an
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example is not about me, it'sabout him.
It's about how his relationshipwith me affects things and
changes me, but it's about thefact that I am his.
I belong to him and that's whyI bring praise and honor and
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glory to the one who is worthy.
Doesn't seem optional to me here, does it?
It doesn't say if you feel likeit, make a joyful noise.
It doesn't say when things aregoing really well, make a joyful
noise.
It just says make a joyfulnoise.
I wish that I could have beenthere when Mr Jack Wright was
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leading worship on the stage atDedrick Avenue, because you know
what they called him, smilingJack.
And that smile wasn'tartificial, it wasn't based on
the way he was feeling or how hewas experiencing life in the
moment.
That smile was real andauthentic because God had done
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something in his life and he wasexperiencing, and he wanted
everyone else to experience thejoy of God.
It's not an option, it's acommand.
And then we read on in Psalm 22,3, yet you are holy, enthroned.
On the praises of IsraelEnthroned.
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Another translation says thatGod inhabits the praises of his
people.
He shows up, god shows up.
He shows up with his presencewhen we praise and worship him.
Psalm 16, verse 11,.
You make known to me the pathof life In your presence there
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is fullness of joy, and at yourright hand are pleasures
forevermore.
So not only does he show up,but when he shows up, what does
he bring with him?
Joy, joy unspeakable and fullof glory.
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Having a heart of worshipintroduces us to the presence of
God, which brings to our livesthe joy of the Lord.
Nehemiah 8.10,.
Reverting back to what we'vealready read, then he said to
them go your way, eat the fatand drink sweet wine and send
portions to anyone who hasnothing ready, for this day is
holy to our Lord, and do not begrieved, for the joy of the Lord
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is your strength.
So you see the progression.
We're commanded to praise him,we're commanded to enter into
his gates, and when we do that,he says that he will show up
with his presence, and in hispresence there's fullness of joy
, and the joy of the Lord isyour strength.
Are you lacking strength today?
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Enter into his presence, have aheart that's a heart of worship
.
In my own life, I haveexperienced the reality that
worship brings joy and it is ananxiety buster.
At the times in my life when Ihave been most anxious, the one
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thing that I could count on wasexalting the name of Jesus.
I have a playlist calledTyler's Chill.
When I play that playlist, whenI'm starting to feel anxious or
nervous or depressed, whateverit is, and by about the third
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song my attitude begins tochange.
I begin to lift up the name ofJesus instead of focusing on my
problems.
My whole demeanor, my whole,everything that I'm experiencing
begins to shift.
There's power in worshipingJesus.
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You see, we live joy-filledlives when we have a heart of
worship.
And finally, another componentof joy-filled living is
understanding that God is thetrue source of joy.
God is the true source of joy,it says.
They offered great sacrificesthat day and rejoiced, for God
had made them rejoice with greatjoy.
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The women and children alsorejoiced, and the joy of
Jerusalem was heard far away.
Notice that this joy isn'tsomething that had to be worked
up, wasn't based only on emotionor their current circumstance.
All of them catch this.
All of them, including womenand children.
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Do you know how rare it is fora book of antiquity like the
Bible to speak highly of women.
So many times we read throughthe Old Testament, we ask where
are the women?
They're there.
I think about Rahab and Estherand Ruth and all of the
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different examples that we seein the Old Testament.
Of course, in the New Testamentas well, we know that the
genealogy was carried forwardthrough the male line, and so
the majority of what's talkedabout because of genealogy in
the life of Jesus to come isrepresented in that way.
But please don't miss the mark.
Women and children areimportant to God.
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These men, who had been a partof rebuilding these walls, along
with their wives and children,were not the only ones who
celebrated.
They celebrated as families.
They partook of the joy of Godtogether, and I just want to
reiterate how thankful I am tohave a mom who was a spiritual
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influence in my life, who taughtmy brother and I the scriptures
and helped us to understandthat God is real and that we
could put our trust in him.
And I also want to say that I'mso thankful for my wife, amy,
because she has been the bestmom that my children could have
ever hoped for or desired.
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She is such an example.
In fact, her nickname is Pro3-1 for Proverbs 31 because
she's such an example to myselfand to all of us of what it
means to be a Christ follower.
I also thank God for mydaughters, who also have
children of their own and aregenerationally pouring into them
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the truth of Jesus Christ,loving them, honoring them,
teaching them what it means toworship.
There's some dance parties thatgo on in our living rooms with
our grandchildren dancing aroundand glorifying and praising
Jesus.
I did accidentally play BabyShark last week and I apologize
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for that.
My daughter was trying tofigure out who did it and I have
to confess it was me.
So if you don't know what BabyShark is, don't listen to it
please.
It will get in you.
I also thank god for mymother-in-law, kathy, who was
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the closest thing.
She was she, they, her and garymoved with us wherever moved.
They gave us a little bit oftime to make sure we got settled
.
They moved with us and man,they were such an extension of
our family and loved us and ourchildren so very well.
We miss her dearly.
She's doing really well today.
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She really is in heaven.
So the result of this experiencethat they had this joy-filled
moment in Jerusalem was so greatthat somehow the winds
themselves carried the joyoutside of the city and even
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distant lands and peoplesurrounding Jerusalem heard the
cries of adoration and joy andpraise and worship and took a
moment to be still.
What does our praise sound like?
Does it reverberate in thenations?
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Are we people who arecharacterized by God's gift of
joy?
We can't muster up lasting joyon our own.
If it could be bottled up andsold, someone would have figured
out by now how to do that andwould have done it.
God alone is the giver of joy,and guess what?
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He gives it liberally.
He gives it liberally.
He's not stingy, he's generous.
He is a generous God that wantsto pour out his joy in our
lives continuously.
The truth is that our lives werefilled with sorrow because of
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our sin, shame and guilt.
We didn't just have a brokenrelationship with God, but we
were born dead to him.
There was no hope for us tosave ourselves because we all
have sinned and fallen short ofthe glory of God.
If we were to get what wedeserve from God, all of us, all
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of us, every one of us would beseparated from him forever.
This is the condition that wefound ourselves in without Jesus
.
But how many of you knowthere's a but God.
But God, in his goodness andmercy, provided a way for us to
be made right in ourrelationship with them.
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He sent his one and only son,jesus Christ, to this earth to
live a perfect life, the lifethat you and I could not live,
so that he could die asubstitutionary death by taking
our sins upon himself and givinghis life on the cross.
And how many of you know hedidn't just give his life on the
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cross, but he took those sinswith him and they were buried in
a borrowed tomb.
And why would God do this?
Why would God do this?
Why would Jesus die in such ahumiliating way?
Because that was the very thingthat brought him the greatest
joy.
What made Jesus joyful?
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Spreading out his arms, givinghis life?
Hebrews 12 says looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of
our faith, who, for the joy thatwas set before him, endured the
cross, despising the shame, andis seated at the right hand of
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the throne of God.
Jesus went to the cross with uson his mind, with us on his
mind, and that's what gave him,along with, obviously, the
heaviest dose of God's grace,but that's what gave him the
impetus, the reason to remainthere.
This same Jesus rose from thedead on the third day, just as
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he said that he would, and healso ascended into heaven and
was given the name above everyother name, and he poured out
the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
And how many of you know whatthe Holy Spirit does?
He grows the fruit of joy inour lives.
He lives in us, and one of thefruits that he produces is joy.
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And he, jesus Christ and thisshould bring us joy, if nothing
else will be returning to thisplanet very soon.
And when he returns, he willnot return as a suffering
servant, he will not return as ababy in a manger.
He will return as King of kingsand Lord of lords, and he will
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rule and reign forever and everand ever.
So how should we respond tothese things?
The Bible tells us that we mustrepent.
If you don't yet know Jesus andyou've never experienced joy,
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my hope for you, my greatesthope for you, is that today
would be your day.
The Bible says that we canrepent, that we can turn away
from following our own direction, from living a life filled with
sin.
We can turn away from that.
You can decide today, by God'sgrace, to change your direction.
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And then it says that we mustbelieve, believe what?
Believe on the Lord JesusChrist, believe on all of the
things that I just said to youabout who Jesus is and what
Jesus did and how that appliesto you personally.
And then we must confess,confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord.
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We must acknowledge him, wemust ask him to save us.
And then, finally, thescripture tells us to be
baptized.
And we know that baptism isn'tsalvation, it doesn't cause
salvation, but it should be adirect result of salvation.
And again, we're having a classthis Wednesday to talk more
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about that.
So I just want to implore you,I want to encourage you this
morning.
If you don't yet know Jesus,turn your heart to him.
Put your faith, hope and trustin him.
Aren't you tired of living lifewith no joy?
How many of you know that thesesame steps apply to us who have
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been in the Lord for 45 yearsor 60 years, when we find
ourselves waning in joy, when wefind ourselves not having an
attitude of gratitude.
When we find ourselves waningin joy, when we find ourselves
not having an attitude ofgratitude, when we find
ourselves not understanding thatGod is the true source of joy,
not having a heart of worship.
Repent, put your faith in thefinished work of Jesus Christ
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and confess to him that he isthe source, the only source, of
true joy.
You see, we can live joy-filledlives when we have an attitude
of gratitude, a heart of worshipand understand that God is the
true source of joy.
Amen, would you stand with me?
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There's a couple of things thatare going to happen here.
In just a minute, we'll have aprayer team that will come down
here, and if you have personalrequests, prayer requests,
please come and be a part ofthat.
The other thing that's going tohappen is Yuri and Olga are
going to be traveling to Siberia, which is where they're from.
They're going on a missionstrip for five weeks, and they're
going to be traveling a lot,visiting a lot of churches that
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are very.
A lot of them are a long waysaway from main cities.
They're going to be travelingon very difficult roads.
Yours is going to be driving alot.
There's going to be a lot goingon during that time, and so
we're going to pray over them.
So, if you can remain those ofyou who can remain and pray with
them.
They're going to come downfront and we'll spend some time
praying with them as well.
Okay, and then also, PastorLimo and Miss Esther will be out
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in the lobby.
If you'd like to talk to themsome more at the end of the
service, let out in the lobby ifyou'd like to talk to them some
more at the end of the service.
Let's close with prayer andlet's turn our focus on him, and
my hope for you today is thatyou begin again to experience
the joy of your salvation.
Remember David's prayer restoreunto me the joy of thy
salvation.
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Father, we ask for that today.
We ask for a restoration of joy, lord, we confess that in some
ways in our lives it has filledlike the walls have tumbled down
and our house is in disrepair.
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Father, we thank you that you'vereminded us through your word
today that, no matter what ourcircumstance is, no matter what
our circumstance is, no matterwhat our situation is, lord, we
can look to you.
We can look to you just as youlooked to saving us, as you were
on the cross.
We can look to you and our joycan be filled as we look to you.
Jesus, the author and thefinisher of our faith.
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As we look to you, jesus, theauthor and the finisher of our
faith, father, we do pray, evennow.
For those who don't yet knowJesus Christ, we ask that you
would grant them the gift offorgiveness and repentance, lord
, that they would acknowledgetoday their need and that they
would be accepted among thebelievers and that they would
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experience, for their first time, joy in their lives.
And for the rest of us, lord, wedo repent today.
We ask that you would forgive usand cleanse us for times when
we have not been filled withthankfulness and we have not had
a heart of worship and we havelooked for joy in other things
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outside of you.
Father, would you cause us towalk again on that narrow road,
on the right path?
Would you lead us in paths ofrighteousness?
For your name's sake, would youdeliver us from lies that we
have believed, that have becomestrongholds in our lives?
Would you cause us to walk infreedom that brings joy?
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Father, I pray that this churchwould be recognized as a place
where, of course, where love is,where peace is found, and also
where joy is evident, and alsowhere joy is evident so that
distant lands can hear the criesof our hearts lifted to you,
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and that they might recognizethat Jesus is Lord.
We thank you for it.
In Jesus' name, we pray thatthe Lord would bless you and
keep you, that he would causehis face to shine upon you and
be gracious to you, that hewould lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace inJesus' name, amen.
All right, are you ready for the Bible this morning
?
Are you ready to talk aboutJesus in the scriptures?
Let's look at Nehemiah, chapter12.
That's where we're going tostart.
This morning we're winding downour series on the book of
Nehemiah called the PassionProject.
We believe that God wants torestore passion to his church
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and he wanted to do that withthe nation of Israel, and that's
what the book of Nehemiahreally is about.
And last week we looked at thefact that the people of God are
called to live holy lives.
Anybody have a chance this weekto practice holiness in your
walk?
Yeah, absolutely.
When we hear a message likethat, or when I we hear a
message like that, or when Iprepare for a message like that,
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I can almost guarantee thatthere's going to be opportunity
that's going to come my way toeither have a pass or a fail
moment in that right, either toyield to holiness or to reject
it for whatever reason.
So it's important for us toknow that we have been given the
gift of holiness by JesusChrist and he enables us, by his
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spirit, to walk in it as wefollow after him, and that
causes the whole world to knowthat Jesus Christ is alive and
well and that he is very realAmen.
So this week we're going to lookat the celebration that
surrounded the dedication of thewall in Jerusalem and we're
going to take away some lessonson how to live joy-filled lives.
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Anybody want a message on joythis morning?
Well, if you do, you came tothe right place, because that's
what we're going to be talkingabout.
The title of this message isJoy-Filled Living.
Let's look at Nehemiah 12.
We're going to read two versesverse 27 and also verse 43.
And at the dedication of thewall of Jerusalem, they sought
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the Levites in all their placesto bring them to Jerusalem to
celebrate the dedication withgladness, with thanksgivings,
with singing, with cymbals,harps and lyres, and they
offered great sacrifices thatday and rejoiced, for God had
made them rejoice with great joy.
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The women and children alsorejoiced and the joy of
Jerusalem was heard far away.
Let's pray this morning, father.
We thank you.
We thank you so much, father,for your goodness to us.
This service started with ustalking about the goodness of
God and Lord.
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We continue that same thoughtas we look into your word and,
father, we ask that you wouldhelp us in areas in our lives
where we have, where joy isdormant, where joy is not
evident.
We pray that you would stir inus a refreshing, a refueling, a
rekindling of the joy of theLord, which is our strength and
Father.
For those who might be here,who are listening via the
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internet, who do not yet knowyou and have never experienced
the joy that comes from you, wepray, lord, god, that you would
move by your spirit today andthat you would cause lives to be
awakened to the truth of JesusChrist as Savior and Lord, and
that people would acknowledgehim, believe on him, repent and
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confess him as their Savior InJesus' name, amen, amen.
So somebody asked you thequestion what are the most
joy-filled experiences thatyou've had in your lifetime?
How would you answer thatquestion?
There's probably a lot ofdifferent things that might come
to your mind at first.
Right, for some of us, it's awedding.
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Right, it was a joy-filledexperience.
For others, maybe the birth ofchildren.
How about, for those of us whofind ourselves in a different
stage of life now, the birth ofchildren?
How about, for those of us whofind ourselves in a different
stage of life now, the birth ofgrandchildren and the fact that
we can bring them into our homesand celebrate them and sugar
them up and send them home.
And God said it is good, right,I love my.
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I want to.
I don't want my children to getto get any kind of complex.
I love you as well and I wouldlove you even if you didn't have
children, but I am so thankfulfor the fact that you have given
us.
Those of you who have given us,and the others are not yet in a
stage of life where they'reready to do that.
So Levi's asking me to move on.
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So we're moving on,experiencing gratitude.
How about buying your firsthome, buying your first?
All of these things might cometo your mind when it comes to
something that's joy-filled,right, something that gives you
joy.
And while those things areextremely important and valid in
a conversation about joy, howmany of you know there's much
more that the Bible has to sayabout joy than those things that
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we just talked about, thosethings that we experience in
this life that do bring us joy.
There's much more.
There's much more.
There's greater joy than we canimagine or think or comprehend,
that is available to us becauseof Jesus Christ and having a
right relationship with God, andthat's what we want to focus on
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this morning.
Now, there's a major difference, because a lot of times we get
two things confused.
We think about happiness andjoy as being equal with each
other.
What is happiness?
What's the difference betweenhappiness and joy?
Happiness is based on,typically is based on a
circumstance, something goingright, something going well, and
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all of a sudden you feel happy.
Right, you get an unexpectedcheck in the mail.
What do you feel?
Happy?
You get an unexpected bill inthe mail.
What do you feel?
You should feel joyful.
But we'll get to that, let'snot rush it, but anyway.
So happiness is like that.
It's something, it's a feelingthat we have, it's an experience
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, it's an emotion, a risingemotion, that happens based on a
temporary condition, somethingthat happens in a moment in time
.
And what is joy?
How does it differ fromhappiness moment in time?
And what is joy?
How does it differ fromhappiness?
Joy, especially the joy thatcomes from God, is steady.
It's steady, it's rooted, it'slong-lasting, it's the steady,
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settled bent of the Christiannature.
It's who we are as believers inJesus Christ, at least who we
should be right.
And it is not based solely uponour situation or based on our
circumstance.
It's based upon, it's not basedon our external things.
It's based on something that'shappening on the inside.
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There's an internal joy thatcomes from knowing Jesus and
walking with him, amen.
So I want to challenge us thismorning to ask ourselves the
questions are we living livesthat are characterized by joy?
And if you want to know thereal answer, look to your
husband or your wife or yourchildren right now and ask them,
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and they'll be able to help uswith that answer.
I know that sounds a little,that may sound, you know, a
little off, but it's true.
A lot of times we don't evenrecognize within ourselves
whether or not we'reexperiencing and living out,
living from a place of thissteady condition or situation of
joy in our lives.
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So in our passage today, thework is finally completed in
Jerusalem.
The work is done.
Remember, just a short time ago, the walls of the city laid in
ruins and in 52 days, underNehemiah's leadership, the walls
were put back together and thegates were hung in place.
Remember, this is a two milecircumference of the city.
This is not a small project,this is a large project and it
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was done not just byprofessional people.
It was done by everyone givinga hand, everyone doing their
part and it was finished.
And then, not only that, butthere were homes that were in
disrepair, bad disrepair withinthe walls of Jerusalem, and so
the work needed to be done tothose, and that work was ongoing
.
And then also, there needed tobe a repopulation in Jerusalem,
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and so we had the first wave ofthat, and mostly leaders moved
into Jerusalem to fulfill theirduties amongst the nation of
Israel.
And then last week we talkedabout the choosing of 10% of the
remaining people of Israel tocome and to be a part of living
inside the walls of Jerusalem.
And so now all of these peopleare coming together on one day,
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on one occasion, in one momentin time, to celebrate what has
happened.
Remember, they not only had allof these things happen
naturally.
There wasn't a naturalhappening that caused all of
this disrepair and disruptionand destruction.
Remember, the nation of Israelhad disobeyed God and walked in
idolatry, serving other godsinstead of the real God.
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And so, through that, becauseof their rebellion and because
of their idolatry, god punishedthem.
And the way that he punishedthem is by sending other nations
in to conquer them, to destroya lot of what had been built and
to take with them exiles backto their homelands and to cause
those people to be servants, tobe servants within those places.
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And we saw the example ofZerubbabel Hopefully that's the
right pronunciation, butZerubbabel was given the
opportunity to come back and tobegin repairing Jerusalem, and
so he actually laid thefoundation for the temple.
And so, by the time Nehemiahhad come along, the temple had
been rebuilt, but the walls werestill in disarray and many of
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the other places withinJerusalem were still torn down.
And so Nehemiah had this heartto return, and so he stepped up
and talked to the kingArtataxerxes and asked for
permission, and the king grantedhim his permission and even
funded the trip, funded therebuilding of the wall, sent him
with all the materials that hewould need and treasures that he
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could use to purchase anythingelse or to build anything else
that would need to be done, andso he had accomplished what God
has sent him to do.
And, how many of you know,nehemiah's job was much more
than just rebuilding a wall,because his heart was much more
about the heart of the people,and so God used him, and Ezra as
well, the scribe of the word ofGod, who read the word of God,
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and the people repented of theirsin, read the word of God and
the people repented of their sinand there was a new covenant
that was cut between God and thenation of Israel.
And so now they're well ontheir way into getting
reestablished as the people ofGod, as the nation of God, in
service to God and worshipingGod Right.
And so that's kind of where wefind ourselves in this day of
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celebration.
They're celebrating theredemptive work of God.
So today we're going to look atsome key components of
joy-filled living and we'regoing to pull these out of these
verses that we read from thebeginning.
So the first key to livingjoy-filled lives, in my opinion
and from these scriptures, ishaving an attitude of gratitude.
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Having an attitude of gratitudethat's an old cliche, right,
but it is true, it is absolutelytrue.
It's hard not to be joyful ifyou have an attitude of
gratitude, if you walk throughthis life filled with
thanksgiving.
Filled with thanksgiving, itsays in the passage.
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And at the dedication of thewall of Jerusalem, they sought
the Levites, who were those whowere involved in the religious
service of the temple and all oftheir places, to bring them to
Jerusalem to celebrate thededication.
With what?
With gladness and withthanksgivings, with gladness,
and with thanksgivings, withgladness and with thanksgivings.
We'll see next week and I don'twant to give too much about
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next week, but unfortunatelywe're going to see that this
sentiment did not last very longand you'll see a reversion in
some ways back to an old way ofthinking, an old mindset, and
unfortunately things go fromthere and we'll talk about that
next week.
I don't want to spoil it toomuch.
How many of you know, in ourculture it tends to be very easy
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to be negative, am I right?
How many of us love to becritics?
Not of ourselves, of course,because we judge ourselves most
based on our motivations or whatwe wanted to do, but we judge
everybody else based on what wethink they did or what we think
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their motivations.
We judge them differently thanwe judge ourselves.
Right, the person that pullsover quickly in front of us in
an automobile?
The person that pulls overquickly in front of us in an
automobile, maybe pregnant, onthe way to the hospital, but as
far as we're concerned, they'repart of the Taliban or something
like that and they need to beremoved from this earth.
Why is that?
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Why is it that we are so?
We tend to be so critical.
We tend to look at things in away that's honestly.
Can I be real with you?
It's very unhealthy.
It's very unhealthy.
It's very unhealthy, even inyour body.
It's unhealthy to live this way.
Let me give you an example.
How many of you know that thereare people who go to a
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restaurant a thousand times andlove it Literally love it?
They tell all of their friendsabout it, all of their family
members about it.
They invite people to go todinner with them, to join them
at this place.
They tell them their favoritething to order.
They know the waiter, thewaitress, the manager, but, god
forbid, they go one time andhave one bad meal.
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And guess what happens?
Before they leave therestaurant, their phones are out
and they're typing out a review.
And what does that review say?
Don't ever come to this place.
I didn't mention the thousandtimes that they came before and
the one off time that they cameright.
Why is that?
What is that about humanity andabout us that tends to look at
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things that way?
I'm telling you this right now.
That's not God.
Can you imagine if God feltthat way about us?
Well, tyler was doing reallywell.
He had a seven-day streak,seven-day streak, and man, I was
enjoying him being around, butboy, he messed up today.
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Let's see what are we going todo to him.
We don't want God to be likethat, do we?
But how many of you know, wetend to be that way.
We tend to be that way, and itshouldn't be.
It shouldn't be In the life ofa believer.
Thanksgiving should be much morethan a day on the calendar.
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It should be a way of life.
If you want to live ajoy-filled life, guess what?
We need to have an attitude ofgratitude.
1 Thessalonians 5.18 says thisGive thanks in all circumstances
.
Don't you wish that?
That said, in all goodcircumstances, in all things
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that are going the way that wewant them to go.
It's easy to give thanks, thenright, but give thanks in all
circumstances, for this is thewill of God in Christ Jesus for
you.
This is not just an idea, thisis not just the writer's opinion
.
This is the will of God inChrist Jesus for us.
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We, as the body of Christ,ought to be the most thankful
people on the planet.
If nothing else, we should beable to enjoy every single day
in this life, understanding thatJesus made a way for us.
An attitude of gratitude shouldpermeate every aspect of our
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lives, regardless of what we areexperiencing.
You know where I haveexperienced an attitude of
gratitude the most.
Can I be real with you for amoment?
In places where they havenothing.
Just came back from Cuba inMarch and I know in Tanzania as
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well, and other places wherepeople have struggles, what we
would consider to be very, verydifficult lives yeah, those that
don't have places to live,living on the streets, things
like that.
A lot of times there's anattitude of gratitude that's
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found with those people.
I'll never forget the first timeI went to Haiti and I think I
don't know if Neil was on thattrip, it was Pete back for sure
and they asked me to teach onfaithfulness to the leaders, and
I had never been to Haiti,didn't understand anything about
it.
I got there and as soon as wewalked out of the airplane there
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was a smell that hit me, thatmade me recognize we're not in
Kansas anymore.
And then we're walking throughthe airport and everybody's
reaching out for our bags sothat they can carry our bags to
the car, so that we can givethem something.
Levels of desperation, right,but you know, when we got to the
churches and began to encounterthe people and the leaders.
(17:22):
You know, the leaders that Ispoke to about faithfulness had
traveled, some of them for twodays on foot or donkeys,
whatever they could get on, toget to bicycles to get where
we're at.
I didn't know what to do when Iwas to stand up in front of
them.
I had this great messageprepared on faithfulness and I
(17:45):
just looked at them and I saidI've never been in a room filled
with such faithful people as Iam right now, and I passed my
Bible around and I asked all ofthem to sign my Bible as heroes
of the faith.
And then I talked aboutfaithfulness Because, how many
of you know, the word of God isreal and active and alive and it
(18:07):
transcends cultures and ittranscends language and all of
those things.
An attitude of gratitude itshouldn't be determined based on
our checking account, ourhealth score, the way that we're
experiencing life.
In this time and in this day, Ihave been practicing.
(18:28):
Since we had this 21 days offasting.
I've been practicing every day,just taking time to give thanks
, and I've always tried to be athankful person.
But when you do itintentionally, it's like you
kind of have to dig a little bit.
I'll tell you how I do it andyou can do it however you want.
But I pick a word like grateful, gracias I've tried to find all
(18:51):
kinds of words that are similarto thankful but that are
synonyms and then I take eachletter of that word and I try to
think of three things from thatletter that I'm thankful for.
So, if I'm doing thanks, threeT words that I'm thankful for,
right, h-a-n, on and on.
You can do it however you wantto, but that's just a way that
(19:14):
I've been systematically tryingto approach this and I have to
say that my general attitude andI'll have to ask my wife and my
children about this, but Ithink my general attitude has
gotten quite a bit better, but Ithink my general attitude has
gotten quite a bit better and Iwant it to continue to do so.
So we live joy-filled liveswhen we have an attitude of
gratitude.
Another component of joy-filledliving is a heart of worship.
(19:37):
A heart of worship you mightsay well, those are similar.
They are similar, but they'redifferent as well.
It says that they dedicatedthis time and celebrated with
singing, with cymbals, harps andlyres.
Those are instrumentation.
They didn't have people runningthrough the streets telling
lies.
That was an instrument of somekind.
(19:58):
Yeah, I think it was like aguitar maybe.
Yeah, anyway, cymbals.
I was just thinking last weekabout Miss Patricia Nooner, and
we were talking about her giftof worship.
She was such a worshiper and tosee her bring that tambourine
out as off-putting as it couldhave been because it could not
(20:18):
find any of the right beatsstill she was all in.
She was like all in.
She'd lay prostrate on thefloor before Jesus and this is a
woman with a bad scoliosisissue.
She laid it all on the line forJesus.
She was a true, what I wouldconsider to be a true worshiper.
(20:40):
Right, lord, make me more like.
Nehemiah assembled many of thesingers and musicians of Israel
and they divided into two groupsand they climbed up on the wall
and they began to walk indifferent directions.
Ezra led one group and Nehemiahled the other, interesting the
Word and the Spirit, ezrarepresenting the Word, nehemiah
(21:04):
representing the Spirit, both ofthose things in conjunction.
And they walked along thecircumference of the wall,
praising God and worshiping him.
The walls didn't come tumblingdown like in Jericho, but you
can imagine, don't you wish youcould have had a bird's eye view
of that.
I wish the Lord would just openit up right now and just give
(21:25):
us a vision where we could seethis happening.
But imagine hundreds of people,probably thousands of people,
climbing up on the wall andwalking around that two mile
wall until they came backtogether and guess where?
They met up In front of thetemple and they came down the
steps off of the wall and theybegan to offer sacrifices and to
(21:47):
worship God.
What a powerful thought, what apowerful scene.
What is the song that's mostoften on your heart?
Gloom, despair and agony on me.
Deep, dark depression,excessive misery.
(22:07):
If it weren't for bad luck, I'dhave no luck at all.
Gloom, despair and agony on me.
I know, for everybody under 40,you're like what in the world?
(22:31):
It was real, it happened.
What is the song that's on ourheart most often?
Do we live lives that arededicated to worship?
Are we worshipers?
Are we true worshipers?
Do we look for opportunities toworship God?
Jesus said to the woman at thewell that the heavenly father
(22:57):
was seeking those who wouldworship him in spirit and in
truth.
In spirit and in truth kind ofinteresting, ezra, nehemiah.
Spirit and truth.
Worship, like thankfulness,shouldn't be expressed only
during times when we feel likeit.
Worship is not reserved justfor the great moments of life.
(23:18):
Worship should be a part of thebattle as well.
I loved what Catherine saidlast week about the fact that we
can war with worship.
We can do that.
We can enter into his presence.
Worship is.
The priority of our worshipshould be to praise him at all
times and always, because he'sworthy.
(23:42):
My dad used to always say topeople being thankful will keep
your tank full, and one of thethings that he would do and I'll
never forget this and it kindof bothered me, to be honest as
a teenager he would fill up thetank with gasoline and every
time he'd get back in the carI'd say thank you, jesus, for
that tank of gas.
I just thought it was beingreligious.
(24:05):
I just thought it was beingreligious.
But then I remembered back to aday when I was five years old
and we were driving down theroad and we ran out of gas and
we waited and we waited and wewaited and finally somebody
pulled over and took us and gotus a gallon of gasoline and put
it in the car.
And we didn't have any money tobuy gasoline, but they gave it
to us and I got to school late,and so, from that point in time,
(24:30):
every time my dad put gasolinein the car, I never forget.
I can't recount a time where hedidn't say thank you, jesus,
for the tank of gas.
We should praise him at alltimes, in all ways, because he's
worthy, shouldn't be somethingwe have to work up or something
(24:53):
that we have to be convinced of.
He is worthy, he is worthy,he's worthy of our praise.
This concept is so important toGod that there's an entire book
, the book of Psalm, writtenwith examples of worship
throughout it.
Let's look at a few of theseand look at a progression of
(25:16):
worship here.
Psalm 100, verses 1 through 5.
Make a joyful noise to the Lordall the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into his presence withsinging.
Know that the Lord all theearth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into his presence withsinging.
Know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who made us and we arehis.
We are his people and the sheepof his pasture.
(25:36):
Enter his gates withthanksgiving and his courts with
praise.
Give thanks to him.
Bless his name, for the Lord isgood.
His steadfast love enduresforever and his faithfulness to
all generations.
This should be the song that'son our hearts.
Did you notice that this songthat was written for us as an
(26:01):
example is not about me, it'sabout him.
It's about how his relationshipwith me affects things and
changes me, but it's about thefact that I am his.
I belong to him and that's whyI bring praise and honor and
(26:21):
glory to the one who is worthy.
Doesn't seem optional to me here, does it?
It doesn't say if you feel likeit, make a joyful noise.
It doesn't say when things aregoing really well, make a joyful
noise.
It just says make a joyfulnoise.
I wish that I could have beenthere when Mr Jack Wright was
(26:47):
leading worship on the stage atDedrick Avenue, because you know
what they called him, smilingJack.
And that smile wasn'tartificial, it wasn't based on
the way he was feeling or how hewas experiencing life in the
moment.
That smile was real andauthentic because God had done
(27:08):
something in his life and he wasexperiencing, and he wanted
everyone else to experience thejoy of God.
It's not an option, it's acommand.
And then we read on in Psalm 22,3, yet you are holy, enthroned.
On the praises of IsraelEnthroned.
(27:30):
Another translation says thatGod inhabits the praises of his
people.
He shows up, god shows up.
He shows up with his presencewhen we praise and worship him.
Psalm 16, verse 11,.
You make known to me the pathof life In your presence there
(27:52):
is fullness of joy, and at yourright hand are pleasures
forevermore.
So not only does he show up,but when he shows up, what does
he bring with him?
Joy, joy unspeakable and fullof glory.
(28:12):
Having a heart of worshipintroduces us to the presence of
God, which brings to our livesthe joy of the Lord.
Nehemiah 8.10,.
Reverting back to what we'vealready read, then he said to
them go your way, eat the fatand drink sweet wine and send
portions to anyone who hasnothing ready, for this day is
holy to our Lord, and do not begrieved, for the joy of the Lord
(28:33):
is your strength.
So you see the progression.
We're commanded to praise him,we're commanded to enter into
his gates, and when we do that,he says that he will show up
with his presence, and in hispresence there's fullness of joy
, and the joy of the Lord isyour strength.
Are you lacking strength today?
(28:54):
Enter into his presence, have aheart that's a heart of worship
.
In my own life, I haveexperienced the reality that
worship brings joy and it is ananxiety buster.
At the times in my life when Ihave been most anxious, the one
(29:16):
thing that I could count on wasexalting the name of Jesus.
I have a playlist calledTyler's Chill.
When I play that playlist, whenI'm starting to feel anxious or
nervous or depressed, whateverit is, and by about the third
(29:37):
song my attitude begins tochange.
I begin to lift up the name ofJesus instead of focusing on my
problems.
My whole demeanor, my whole,everything that I'm experiencing
begins to shift.
There's power in worshipingJesus.
(29:58):
You see, we live joy-filledlives when we have a heart of
worship.
And finally, another componentof joy-filled living is
understanding that God is thetrue source of joy.
God is the true source of joy,it says.
They offered great sacrificesthat day and rejoiced, for God
had made them rejoice with greatjoy.
(30:20):
The women and children alsorejoiced, and the joy of
Jerusalem was heard far away.
Notice that this joy isn'tsomething that had to be worked
up, wasn't based only on emotionor their current circumstance.
All of them catch this.
All of them, including womenand children.
(30:42):
Do you know how rare it is fora book of antiquity like the
Bible to speak highly of women.
So many times we read throughthe Old Testament, we ask where
are the women?
They're there.
I think about Rahab and Estherand Ruth and all of the
(31:02):
different examples that we seein the Old Testament.
Of course, in the New Testamentas well, we know that the
genealogy was carried forwardthrough the male line, and so
the majority of what's talkedabout because of genealogy in
the life of Jesus to come isrepresented in that way.
But please don't miss the mark.
Women and children areimportant to God.
(31:24):
These men, who had been a partof rebuilding these walls, along
with their wives and children,were not the only ones who
celebrated.
They celebrated as families.
They partook of the joy of Godtogether, and I just want to
reiterate how thankful I am tohave a mom who was a spiritual
(31:47):
influence in my life, who taughtmy brother and I the scriptures
and helped us to understandthat God is real and that we
could put our trust in him.
And I also want to say that I'mso thankful for my wife, amy,
because she has been the bestmom that my children could have
ever hoped for or desired.
(32:08):
She is such an example.
In fact, her nickname is Pro3-1 for Proverbs 31 because
she's such an example to myselfand to all of us of what it
means to be a Christ follower.
I also thank God for mydaughters, who also have
children of their own and aregenerationally pouring into them
(32:30):
the truth of Jesus Christ,loving them, honoring them,
teaching them what it means toworship.
There's some dance parties thatgo on in our living rooms with
our grandchildren dancing aroundand glorifying and praising
Jesus.
I did accidentally play BabyShark last week and I apologize
(32:53):
for that.
My daughter was trying tofigure out who did it and I have
to confess it was me.
So if you don't know what BabyShark is, don't listen to it
please.
It will get in you.
I also thank god for mymother-in-law, kathy, who was
(33:15):
the closest thing.
She was she, they, her and garymoved with us wherever moved.
They gave us a little bit oftime to make sure we got settled
.
They moved with us and man,they were such an extension of
our family and loved us and ourchildren so very well.
We miss her dearly.
She's doing really well today.
(33:37):
She really is in heaven.
So the result of this experiencethat they had this joy-filled
moment in Jerusalem was so greatthat somehow the winds
themselves carried the joyoutside of the city and even
(33:58):
distant lands and peoplesurrounding Jerusalem heard the
cries of adoration and joy andpraise and worship and took a
moment to be still.
What does our praise sound like?
Does it reverberate in thenations?
(34:19):
Are we people who arecharacterized by God's gift of
joy?
We can't muster up lasting joyon our own.
If it could be bottled up andsold, someone would have figured
out by now how to do that andwould have done it.
God alone is the giver of joy,and guess what?
(34:42):
He gives it liberally.
He gives it liberally.
He's not stingy, he's generous.
He is a generous God that wantsto pour out his joy in our
lives continuously.
The truth is that our lives werefilled with sorrow because of
(35:03):
our sin, shame and guilt.
We didn't just have a brokenrelationship with God, but we
were born dead to him.
There was no hope for us tosave ourselves because we all
have sinned and fallen short ofthe glory of God.
If we were to get what wedeserve from God, all of us, all
(35:23):
of us, every one of us would beseparated from him forever.
This is the condition that wefound ourselves in without Jesus
.
But how many of you knowthere's a but God.
But God, in his goodness andmercy, provided a way for us to
be made right in ourrelationship with them.
(35:46):
He sent his one and only son,jesus Christ, to this earth to
live a perfect life, the lifethat you and I could not live,
so that he could die asubstitutionary death by taking
our sins upon himself and givinghis life on the cross.
And how many of you know hedidn't just give his life on the
(36:07):
cross, but he took those sinswith him and they were buried in
a borrowed tomb.
And why would God do this?
Why would God do this?
Why would Jesus die in such ahumiliating way?
Because that was the very thingthat brought him the greatest
joy.
What made Jesus joyful?
(36:29):
Spreading out his arms, givinghis life?
Hebrews 12 says looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of
our faith, who, for the joy thatwas set before him, endured the
cross, despising the shame, andis seated at the right hand of
(36:51):
the throne of God.
Jesus went to the cross with uson his mind, with us on his
mind, and that's what gave him,along with, obviously, the
heaviest dose of God's grace,but that's what gave him the
impetus, the reason to remainthere.
This same Jesus rose from thedead on the third day, just as
(37:15):
he said that he would, and healso ascended into heaven and
was given the name above everyother name, and he poured out
the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
And how many of you know whatthe Holy Spirit does?
He grows the fruit of joy inour lives.
He lives in us, and one of thefruits that he produces is joy.
(37:36):
And he, jesus Christ and thisshould bring us joy, if nothing
else will be returning to thisplanet very soon.
And when he returns, he willnot return as a suffering
servant, he will not return as ababy in a manger.
He will return as King of kingsand Lord of lords, and he will
(38:01):
rule and reign forever and everand ever.
So how should we respond tothese things?
The Bible tells us that we mustrepent.
If you don't yet know Jesus andyou've never experienced joy,
(38:24):
my hope for you, my greatesthope for you, is that today
would be your day.
The Bible says that we canrepent, that we can turn away
from following our own direction, from living a life filled with
sin.
We can turn away from that.
You can decide today, by God'sgrace, to change your direction.
(38:46):
And then it says that we mustbelieve, believe what?
Believe on the Lord JesusChrist, believe on all of the
things that I just said to youabout who Jesus is and what
Jesus did and how that appliesto you personally.
And then we must confess,confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord.
(39:06):
We must acknowledge him, wemust ask him to save us.
And then, finally, thescripture tells us to be
baptized.
And we know that baptism isn'tsalvation, it doesn't cause
salvation, but it should be adirect result of salvation.
And again, we're having a classthis Wednesday to talk more
(39:27):
about that.
So I just want to implore you,I want to encourage you this
morning.
If you don't yet know Jesus,turn your heart to him.
Put your faith, hope and trustin him.
Aren't you tired of living lifewith no joy?
How many of you know that thesesame steps apply to us who have
(39:53):
been in the Lord for 45 yearsor 60 years, when we find
ourselves waning in joy, when wefind ourselves not having an
attitude of gratitude.
When we find ourselves waningin joy, when we find ourselves
not having an attitude ofgratitude, when we find
ourselves not understanding thatGod is the true source of joy,
not having a heart of worship.
Repent, put your faith in thefinished work of Jesus Christ
(40:21):
and confess to him that he isthe source, the only source, of
true joy.
You see, we can live joy-filledlives when we have an attitude
of gratitude, a heart of worshipand understand that God is the
true source of joy.
Amen, would you stand with me?
(40:51):
There's a couple of things thatare going to happen here.
In just a minute, we'll have aprayer team that will come down
here, and if you have personalrequests, prayer requests,
please come and be a part ofthat.
The other thing that's going tohappen is Yuri and Olga are
going to be traveling to Siberia, which is where they're from.
They're going on a missionstrip for five weeks, and they're
going to be traveling a lot,visiting a lot of churches that
(41:14):
are very.
A lot of them are a long waysaway from main cities.
They're going to be travelingon very difficult roads.
Yours is going to be driving alot.
There's going to be a lot goingon during that time, and so
we're going to pray over them.
So, if you can remain those ofyou who can remain and pray with
them.
They're going to come downfront and we'll spend some time
praying with them as well.
Okay, and then also, PastorLimo and Miss Esther will be out
(41:38):
in the lobby.
If you'd like to talk to themsome more at the end of the
service, let out in the lobby ifyou'd like to talk to them some
more at the end of the service.
Let's close with prayer andlet's turn our focus on him, and
my hope for you today is thatyou begin again to experience
the joy of your salvation.
Remember David's prayer restoreunto me the joy of thy
salvation.
(41:58):
Father, we ask for that today.
We ask for a restoration of joy, lord, we confess that in some
ways in our lives it has filledlike the walls have tumbled down
and our house is in disrepair.
(42:19):
Father, we thank you that you'vereminded us through your word
today that, no matter what ourcircumstance is, no matter what
our circumstance is, no matterwhat our situation is, lord, we
can look to you.
We can look to you just as youlooked to saving us, as you were
on the cross.
We can look to you and our joycan be filled as we look to you.
Jesus, the author and thefinisher of our faith.
(42:41):
As we look to you, jesus, theauthor and the finisher of our
faith, father, we do pray, evennow.
For those who don't yet knowJesus Christ, we ask that you
would grant them the gift offorgiveness and repentance, lord
, that they would acknowledgetoday their need and that they
would be accepted among thebelievers and that they would
(43:02):
experience, for their first time, joy in their lives.
And for the rest of us, lord, wedo repent today.
We ask that you would forgive usand cleanse us for times when
we have not been filled withthankfulness and we have not had
a heart of worship and we havelooked for joy in other things
(43:22):
outside of you.
Father, would you cause us towalk again on that narrow road,
on the right path?
Would you lead us in paths ofrighteousness?
For your name's sake, would youdeliver us from lies that we
have believed, that have becomestrongholds in our lives?
Would you cause us to walk infreedom that brings joy?
(43:46):
Father, I pray that this churchwould be recognized as a place
where, of course, where love is,where peace is found, and also
where joy is evident, and alsowhere joy is evident so that
distant lands can hear the criesof our hearts lifted to you,
(44:12):
and that they might recognizethat Jesus is Lord.
We thank you for it.
In Jesus' name, we pray thatthe Lord would bless you and
keep you, that he would causehis face to shine upon you and
be gracious to you, that hewould lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace inJesus' name, amen.
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