THE SECRET OF JOY
Neh. 8:10
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Fishing Tourney Coming Up Saturday
1. What do you get when you cross a banker with a fish? A loan shark!
2. What do monsters eat? Fish & ships!
3. Why do fish always know how much they weigh? Because they have their own scales.
4. Who cleans the bottom of the ocean? A mer-maid.
5. Did you hear about the crab that went to the seafood disco? He pulled a muscle!
6. Why are fish such intelligent creatures? Because they swim in schools.
7. Men are like fish; neither would get in trouble if they kept their mouths shut.
B. TEXT
10 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.
C. THESIS
1. How long do you believe you could smile and keep on smiling without stopping? How long could you hold a smile on your face? Do you know what the Guinness World Book of Records is? 10 hours and 5 minutes. Lisa Lester, a little girl, smiled for 10 hours and 5 minutes without breaking that smile. The previous record was 7 hours and 32 minutes. And then she had to stop smiling.
2. And that is illustrative of what I'm talking about, today. I'm talking to you about joy that goes far beyond a smile.
3. A smile is outward. Joy is inward. A smile at its best can last a few hours. Joy is eternal.
4. Do you know what the shortest verse in the Bible is? You say, “Oh, I know that. It's ‘Jesus wept.’” You're wrong. Jesus wept is the shortest verse in English, but not in Greek. In Greek, the shortest verse is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 16, which says, “Rejoice evermore.”
5. Not 10 hours. Rejoice, rejoice evermore. We live in a generation that's seeking happiness.
I. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAPPINESS & JOY
A. WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
1. “Don't worry, Be happy.” Everybody thinks that's good advice. That's terrible advice. Friend, you're not going to be happy all of the time.
2. Happiness depends upon what happens. That’s why we call it “happiness,” because it depends on what “happens.” 3. If your day is good, you're happy. If your day is bad, you're unhappy. But if you put your trust in happiness, then you're going to be a victim of circumstances, because they will change.
4. But you see, God never changes. The Bible doesn't tell us to rejoice in circumstances. The Bible says, Rejoice in the Lord. And therefore, since he never changes, the Bible says, Rejoice evermore.
B. CONTRAST BTW HAPPINESS & JOY
1. Happiness is like cosmetics; Joy is like character.
2. Happiness comes from outside circumstances; Joy comes from within.
3. Happiness meets surface needs. Joy meets your deepest needs.
4. Happiness is like a thermometer; It registers conditions. Joy is like a thermostat. It regulates conditions. 5. Happiness may evaporate in times of suffering; but joy frequently intensifies in times of suffering.
6. Now, happiness always functions best when it’s rooted in joy. Joy is not dependent on happiness and may function better without when happiness is taken away.
7. So it’s cruel to say to people in suffering, “Smile & be happy.” There’s no way people can be smiling all the time – a saccharin grin. You’re not expected to.
8. The Bible says of the Lord Jesus (Isa. 53), that He was a “Man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief,” yet the Bible spoke of Him having the joy of the Lord. He was “anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows.”
9. It’s a mockery and lie to sing, “I’m in-right, outright, upright, downright happy all the time.”
10. This is a life of tragedy and sorrow and heartache and pain and woe. Yet in sorrow, and heartache and trouble, you still can have joy.
II. WHY IS JOY SO IMPORTANT?
A. FOR WINNING PEOPLE TO CHRIST
1. Nothing is more attractive to lost people than the joy of the Lord! A cold, dry faith has no appeal. David, a man who wrote many of the Psalms, got out of fellowship with God. When he did, he lost his joy and stopped being a soul-winner.
2. He repented and wrote Psalm 51:12-13 NKJV, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” When I get my joy back, I’ll be a soul-winner!
3. Joy is the proof that what we have is real and is satisfying. Joy is necessary to bringing unsaved people to Jesus.
B. FOR LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
1. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” Neh. 8:10. Mt. 25:21,23 says, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” GOD IS A JOYFUL GOD! “In His presence is fullness of joy” Ps. 16:11. Get into His presence and you too will be filled with joy!
2. It’s God’s joy that lubricates life and lifts the burdens. It’s joy that takes the weariness and the dreariness out of life.
3. There are times when I’m weary, exhausted, and spiritually drained, but when I begin to praise the Lord, my strength and vitality are renewed.
III. 4 BASIC INGREDIENTS THAT BRING YOU JOY
A. A CLEANSED LIFE
1. Joy comes by peace with God and peace with God comes by the Grace of God. The Grace of God brings justification and justification brings joy.
2. What is justification? It’s a legal term. The Bible says that because we have faith in Jesus, righteousness is “credited” to us. It’s a book-keeping term.
a. Imagine that your life & everything you’ve done is recorded in God’s Book. Every idle word, every vain or evil thought, every lie we ever told, every time we stole something, our cursing, our hate, our jealousy, our envy, our lust – it’s all there in the ledger, on one side – YOUR SIDE!
b. In justification, God takes all the things you did off your side of the ledger and puts them on Jesus’ side of the ledger. And Jesus writes across all those sins, “Paid in Full!” with the crimson blood of Calvary. But justification isn’t finished yet.
c. Then God takes all the righteousness, holiness, and purity of Jesus’ side of the ledger and puts it on your side. And He imputes to you righteousness. All that is called justification.
3. When that happens, we are clean, and that brings great joy! When the 70 disciples returned with joy, Jesus told them, “Don’t rejoice that the demons are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven!”
4. What takes the joy out of your life after being justified? SIN! Sin destroys the relationship/ joy. That’s why David prayed, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation!” Ps. 51:12.
5. No earthly event can take this joy out of your heart. Only sin can. We plan our actions, but our reactions betray the real you. If someone spits in my face for being a Christian, I may be disappointed with them, but if I think of what Jesus told me – “Blessed are you when you are persecuted” – my joy should increase.
6. But if my reaction is bad – I’ll lose my joy. So I control my joy. Only sin can take it away. If there’s nothing between my soul and my Savior, there I’ll have joy.
7. The most miserable man on earth is not the unsaved man. It’s the saved man who is out of fellowship with God, who’s lost the joy of his salvation!
B. CONFIDENCE
1. “Rejoice in hope” means confidence based upon the Word of God. Not MAYBE so, not I HOPE SO, but “I KNOW SO:” a rock-ribbed confidence in the Word of God.
2. A Christian knows that no matter what happens, God is “working all things together for good for them that love God.”
3. Do you know what the saddest word in the English language is? Hopeless! “The situation is hopeless.” If you’re a child of God, there is no hopeless situation. That’s the reason you have joy. You name the worst thing that can happen: God is greater! Our fabulous future is unstoppable!
4. Joy in tribulation. A little lady said, “If God gives us tribulation, He expects us to “tribulate!” No – to rejoice! Heb. 10:34, “You joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property.”
5. If your house was robbed or burned up, would you still have joy? Well, if you got your joy from your house you wouldn’t. But if your joy is from God you would!
6. The Bible never says, “Rejoice in your house, car, jewelry, your looks, a person”, it says “Rejoice in the Lord.”
C. COMMITMENT
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” Rom. 5:1-2.
1. “Thru our Lord Jesus Christ.” ‘Lord’ means “authoritative, sovereign, boss.” Paul had made Jesus Lord and that was his source of joy.
2. F. B. MEYER’S TESTIMONY
a. Joy began in my life one solemn night when I knelt before Christ and I had the holy light of His Spirit turned on one thing in my life that was filthy.
b. F.B. had heard a speaker said he’d discovered the secret of joy. F. B. thought, “I am unhappy; my heart seems full of evil.”
c. F. B. told the speaker his problem. The man responded, “Have you given yourself entirely to Jesus Christ?” F. B. went home, locked the door of his room, and resolved not to come out again until he had given himself entirely to Jesus.
d. He surrendered to Christ all but one key. Jesus said to him, “My child, if you can’t trust me with everything, then you can’t trust Me with anything!” “Yes, Lord. Come and take the key.”
e. Jesus opened and cleansed that area and took the desire away. F. B. had given himself entirely. He had a new sense of belonging to Christ. “I am His!” Is there one small thing that is hindering your joy?
D. COMMUNION
1. “And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” Rom. 5:11.
2. Phip. 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
3. When you commune with the Lord Jesus Christ, His joy comes into you. It’s not an imitation joy, but “His joy.”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Malcolm Muggeridge was a Marxist before he found Christ. His journalistic talent eventually led him to write some masterpieces for Christ, but he first wrote for Stalin.
2. During the Cold War he went to Russia to do a story on the Communist Party and the dying of religion in that atheistic empire. After completing his interviews with people in the Kremlin, he went to a Russian orthodox service on Easter.
3. The church was packed. At the end of the service a priest shouted, "Christ is risen!" The people yelled back, "He is risen indeed!"
4. Muggeridge looked into their faces and instantly realized that they were right and Stalin was wrong. He said it was the reality of their joy that tipped the scales of his soul toward Christ. The reality of Christian joy is most compelling!
B. THE CALL
1. I don’t care how much you own, how handsome you are, how beautiful you are, or how so-called ‘happy’ you are. I don’t care what your family is like. If you don’t have joy – for you, life is meaningless.
2. To “rejoice is a choice.” It’s not automatic, it’s a choice. That choice begins with choosing Jesus. “No Jesus, no joy. Know Jesus, know joy.”
[This is a rewrite of Adrian Rogers' message "Joy is an Inside Job"]
