SPEAKER_01: And if we multiply, and if we be an influence, that we be living in a world that needs to be lived in.
SPEAKER_01: And if that is gonna happen, we just we have got to be actually wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ because anything less than that, you will be a casualty.
SPEAKER_00: At the road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_01: Happiness is never the goal in the Christian faith because it's purely circumstantial.
SPEAKER_01: Here today, gone tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: But what the scripture does promise is joy.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a definition of the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I really thought about this hard.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord is gladness of heart coming from a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and the unbroken fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Unlike happiness, joy is not environmental.
SPEAKER_01: It is supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 61 in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garment of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord is not about worship.
SPEAKER_01: Don't confuse worship with the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I love to worship.
SPEAKER_01: I try to start every day with a good amount of worship first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: And there are many people that come to church and they get all excited.
SPEAKER_01: We had an awesome worship service, but they do not walk in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord is relational.
SPEAKER_01: It's relational.
SPEAKER_01: If you spent an hour and a half a week with your spouse, what would your relationship with her or him look like?
SPEAKER_01: She's shaking her head, she's saying it wouldn't be good at all.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of Christians, a lot of Christians will come to service and they'll get all pumped up.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of reminds me of the high school pep rallies.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody ever attended high school pep rally?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: We go to the gymnasium, you know, the rah-rah, Siskamba, beat the team, beat the team, we go out.
SPEAKER_01: Sunday morning services, Saturday evening services are important.
SPEAKER_01: We need the pep rally.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not trying to minimize what God does in a service like this.
SPEAKER_01: But you can come to a service like this and get really excited, and then Monday morning not be walking in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand what I'm coming, where I'm coming from?
SPEAKER_01: Luke 1, 46 and 47.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.
SPEAKER_01: She is the mother of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and recognizes that there is a relationship that is supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Isaiah understood the importance of the relationship with a sovereign God.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord is relational.
SPEAKER_01: And to have a great relationship, you have to be prepared to invest heavily sowing and reaping.
SPEAKER_01: If you take a kernel of corn and you plant it, a single stock will emerge.
SPEAKER_01: And upon that stock will be multiple ears, and on those ears, multiple kernels.
SPEAKER_01: You get what you sow, you get more than you sow, and it comes in time.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us are really seeking the deep, intimate relationship?
SPEAKER_01: How many of us are walking in the joy of the Lord, in unbroken fellowship with the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: That is the call.
SPEAKER_01: That's the call.
SPEAKER_01: That is the goal.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: Though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and you rejoice with joy.
SPEAKER_01: That is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
SPEAKER_01: When you read throughout the scriptures, Old and New Testament, when you read about joy, you're reading about relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Linda and I have been married for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: Yay, amen.
SPEAKER_01: She is incredibly patient and forgiving.
SPEAKER_01: And we have invested so heavily in each other.
SPEAKER_01: There have been times when we've experienced happiness, and there have been times when we've experienced tragedy, but we walk in joy, relational joy with each other.
SPEAKER_01: In the good times and the bad times.
SPEAKER_01: What we share as husband and wife is sweet.
SPEAKER_01: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: But we're not always happy.
SPEAKER_01: Can you relate to that?
SPEAKER_01: So why is the joy of the Lord important?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it important?
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8, verses 1 through 2 in the New Living Translation, I love the way it reads here.
SPEAKER_01: There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
SPEAKER_01: Why is the joy of the Lord so important?
SPEAKER_01: Because I remember how dead I was in my sins.
SPEAKER_01: I remember, I remember the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: I remember hating who I was as a human being.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember the day, I remember the moment when I accepted Christ, and I was transformed from death to life.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a joy that filled me.
SPEAKER_01: There was a joy that overcame every negative thing in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I've endeavored to walk in that joy every day as a believer in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the reason the joy of the Lord is important.
SPEAKER_01: It's the doorway.
SPEAKER_01: It is the doorway to the mighty stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not walk in the joy of the Lord, you are standing outside.
SPEAKER_01: You're standing outside.
SPEAKER_01: And I hear, but George, I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: How can I be standing outside if I'm a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: It's a good question.
SPEAKER_01: When I use the term stronghold, your first thought would probably be a negative, like demonic strongholds, you know, strongholds of addiction and things of that nature.
SPEAKER_01: The word strength, literally in the Hebrew, a place of safety, protection, refuge, a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: In today's vernacular, we would call it a fortress.
SPEAKER_01: We'd call it a fortress.
SPEAKER_01: When you're in trouble, when you're weary, you need a place of safety.
SPEAKER_01: You need a place of protection.
SPEAKER_01: You need a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: You need a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: How do we get from the battlefield that is raging round about us?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get to that place where we are so incredibly vulnerable?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get to that place where we can be refreshed, where our wounds can be bandaged, where we can be resupplied?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get to the stronghold?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get there?
SPEAKER_01: It isn't by worship, with all due respect.
SPEAKER_01: I love worship.
SPEAKER_01: Worship is an important part of the relationship.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm going to get from the outside to the inside, I have got to be in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I have got to be walking in step with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what you know.
SPEAKER_01: Because we've all been there.
SPEAKER_01: As believers, is there anyone here that is without sin?
SPEAKER_01: I see that hand.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, just kidding, just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: When I am tempted and I cross the line, something happens to my relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't lose it, not suggesting that I lose the relationship.
SPEAKER_01: But I have wounded his heart.
SPEAKER_01: I have grieved the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And it does something to the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It does something.
SPEAKER_01: For who is God but the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And who is a rock except our God?
SPEAKER_01: This God is my strong refuge.
SPEAKER_01: He is my strong refuge.
SPEAKER_01: And he has made my way blameless.
SPEAKER_01: I need a strong refuge, people.
SPEAKER_01: I need that strong refuge every single day.
SPEAKER_01: Every day.
SPEAKER_01: I think of a co-worker.
SPEAKER_01: I've known her now for 14 years.
SPEAKER_01: And for 14 years, she has lived with chronic pain.
SPEAKER_01: Chronic pain.
SPEAKER_01: I do not know another person in that condition that walks in the joy of the Lord the way this woman walks.
SPEAKER_01: She, I mean, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: She has found a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: She has found a mighty stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: She has found a place of safety that exceeds the physical limitations of her flesh.
SPEAKER_01: She lives a life that is incredibly full, incredibly rich.
SPEAKER_01: Her circumstance, her circumstance does not determine her relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, she's inside the walls.
SPEAKER_01: A secure stronghold is a place of safety, providing, again, rest and protection from the battle.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone enduring spiritual warfare right now?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, several?
SPEAKER_01: You feel a little bit wrung out, a little worn out?
SPEAKER_01: You need to come inside.
SPEAKER_01: It provides a place of refreshing for the weary and the worn.
SPEAKER_01: Just weary and worn.
SPEAKER_01: Tired.
SPEAKER_01: I've been there.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, God, I'm serving you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing everything you've asked me to do.
SPEAKER_01: Why is this happening?
SPEAKER_01: And it's as though the heavens are brass and there's no answer coming back, and you just get tired.
SPEAKER_01: You need to come inside.
SPEAKER_01: Hope and healing for the wounded.
SPEAKER_01: We have ex-servicemen and servicewomen here and some active.
SPEAKER_01: If you're injured on the field, you know, they do what they can in the midst of a situation, but you know, the goal is to get you off the battlefield to a place of safety, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: They need to get you out of the fray to a place that's sanitary, to a place where they can do the things that need to be done so that your life can be spared.
SPEAKER_01: You need to come inside.
SPEAKER_01: You can't come inside if you're not in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place of equipping and resupply.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I am so grateful for prayer, Bible, and journal, PBJ.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that works best for me, I wake up, go downstairs, do my PBJ, and then I go upstairs and I worship while I'm getting dressed and while I'm shaving.
SPEAKER_01: I need to be resupplied.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not because the battle is so fierce, it's just walking through the day, just a normal day.
SPEAKER_01: Rubbing shoulders with normal people that have problems and have issues, and I have problems and I have issues, and goodness gracious, just walking through the day can just flat wear you out.
SPEAKER_01: Is that not true?
SPEAKER_01: We need to come inside.
SPEAKER_01: We need a place of refreshment.
SPEAKER_01: We need a place of resupply.
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, it's a strategic warfare for advantage.
SPEAKER_01: If you're up on the wall and your enemy is beneath you, you do have the strategic advantage, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who the author is.
SPEAKER_01: It says, he that rejoices in Jehovah has a strong fortress from which he can repel all adversaries.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's nice to be in a tank instead of behind a bayonet.
SPEAKER_01: For you Air Force guys, it's nice to be in a B-1B bomber.
SPEAKER_01: I know they don't, I don't know if they even use those anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Better that than in a foxhole someplace.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's nice to have a strategic advantage over the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord, the relationship that you have with the Lord Jesus Christ opens the door so that you can get inside, so you can have the advantage over the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: As we worship, and worship is important, as we worship, as we rejoice in the Lord, it's as though the Holy Spirit gently puts his hand under our chin and lifts our gaze so that we can see beyond the immediacy of our situation to the eternal hope that we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Worship is an important part of walking in the joy of the Lord, but it's not the only part.
SPEAKER_01: I've had the privilege of being in a few countries, and I remember one of my trips to the Ukraine, we flew into Kiev.
SPEAKER_01: It was like stepping back in time, 60 years.
SPEAKER_01: It was uh I mean it was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: And then they put us in a car and we drove for hours, drove for hours, on the worst roads I can imagine, to a little place in the country, little hamlet in the country.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing they did is they drove me to a little house.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted me to meet the first Christian of their village.
SPEAKER_01: She was a short, elderly woman.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you talk about the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We went to worship.
SPEAKER_01: I have never been in such intense worship in all of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was full on.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't have to say, come on, people, let's worship the Lord now.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, from the first note, from the first song, it was 100%.
SPEAKER_01: They were walking in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: These, and they were telling stories about family members, immediate family members that they haven't seen in years.
SPEAKER_01: Because the communists would come in and they would round up the Christian men, and they would take them if they didn't kill them, and they never saw them again.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord was a fortress for them that enabled them not just to hang on by the skin of their teeth.
SPEAKER_01: These Christians were thriving, thriving, excited about the Lord, unashamed of the gospel, regardless of the price that they might pay.
SPEAKER_01: They found a mighty stronghold that anchored them through the worst of times.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians 8, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.
SPEAKER_01: They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor.
SPEAKER_01: But they also have filled, are filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
SPEAKER_01: The abundant joy that he is speaking of is the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In spite of their poverty, in spite of their difficult circumstances, these were people rich in relationship, not heads bowed down, rich in relationship.
SPEAKER_01: They were inside.
SPEAKER_01: They were being refreshed.
SPEAKER_01: Their wounds were being tended.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I went to India, the brother that was my host told me about the martyrdom of his father.
SPEAKER_01: He had received death threats for many, many months.
SPEAKER_01: But you don't allow a threat of death to turn you from the thing God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And his father was brutally killed.
SPEAKER_01: And he was telling me at the time that there was an American missionary, no, no, he was Australian.
SPEAKER_01: It was an Australian missionary married with a child.
SPEAKER_01: They were burned to death in their car.
SPEAKER_01: And it was such a humbling thing, just incredibly humbling to be with these simple people who had so very, very little and yet were so incredibly rich.
SPEAKER_01: They were rich in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They were residing in this mighty stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: There was a pastor that Linda and I were supporting.
SPEAKER_01: His church, oh, it might have filled this corner here with just a small little church, which is typical of the Indian churches.
SPEAKER_01: They had a wonderful service.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's gone home.
SPEAKER_01: He's locking up the door.
SPEAKER_01: And some radical Buddhists beat him, poured gas all over him, and set him on fire.
SPEAKER_01: And he died.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't die outside of the gate.
SPEAKER_01: He died in the stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: That church never stopped meeting.
SPEAKER_01: Someone else stepped up.
SPEAKER_01: We live in desperate times.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures teach us that it's going to get so much worse.
SPEAKER_01: How will we survive?
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever had the privilege of getting outside of the United States and seeing how the rest of the world lives, count yourselves extraordinarily fortunate for the way that you do live.
SPEAKER_01: While we are having our service tonight, statistically, there will be a Christian who will lay down his life for the cause of Christ while we are here in this service with all kinds of safety.
SPEAKER_01: But I guarantee you this.
SPEAKER_01: They will die in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They will not be shaken.
SPEAKER_01: They will not be moved.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel will continue to move forward.
SPEAKER_01: It will continue to move forward.
SPEAKER_01: What about us in America?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm older than I've ever been in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I never thought I would see what I'm seeing today.
SPEAKER_01: I never thought I'd see it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I never thought I'd see it, because the Bible says you will see it, but I just never thought I would live to see it.
SPEAKER_01: And most of the Christians that I know are praying, Jesus, come quickly, come quickly take us out of here.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, I don't think he's going to take us out of here anytime soon, and I think it's going to get worse.
SPEAKER_01: And how will you survive?
SPEAKER_01: How will you survive outside the stronghold?
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, a Saturday night service, a Sunday morning service just isn't quite going to be enough.
SPEAKER_01: For those of you who have a casual relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you, dig deep.
SPEAKER_01: And if there's anyone here that does not know Jesus Christ, you may have been in church all your life.
SPEAKER_01: You may know more of the scriptures than I do, but you've never made a profession of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It is time for you to come inside the walls.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, we need a mighty stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Every day, every day we need that stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: God's will and God's desire for us is that we be fruitful and that we multiply and that we be an influence, that we be leaven in a world that needs to be leavened.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: And if that is going to happen, then we just, we have got to be passionate, whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ, because anything less than that, you will be a casualty.
SPEAKER_01: We will be bringing you inside the gate, picking you up in hopes that we can still save your life.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you glad you came tonight?
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege of being able to stand here in front of my brothers and sisters in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I know that when you look across this auditorium, you see people that you are passionately in love with.
SPEAKER_01: You see people that you earnestly desire to have an intimate relationship with.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I pray that your spirit would touch our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, for those that may be just weary, is it really worth it?
SPEAKER_01: God, that this would be the turning point for them, that they would cling to you, that they would find the joy of relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, if there's anyone here again, if there's anyone here that does not yell you, that this would be the night that they would come inside the gates.
SPEAKER_01: Bless our worship time.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the road.org, click on the ministry tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.