SPEAKER_00: This morning, so what we're talking about is how to find joy.
SPEAKER_00: How to find joy.
SPEAKER_00: And that that can be a dangerous statement, right?
SPEAKER_00: How do we discover joy?
SPEAKER_00: Because if we're honest with ourselves, there's probably a lot of our Christian life and the experiences of our life where joy seems absent.
SPEAKER_00: Joy seems fleeting.
SPEAKER_00: Joy seems just out of reach.
SPEAKER_00: But it's something that the Bible promises to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So then we run into an issue.
SPEAKER_00: There's a conflict, right?
SPEAKER_00: Either God's a liar, or there's something wrong with our hearts that makes joy seemingly unattainable.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go for the latter.
SPEAKER_00: If you know me at all, I'm not going to take the first position ever.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: God does not lie.
SPEAKER_00: He is truth.
SPEAKER_00: He is authoritative truth.
SPEAKER_00: He proclaims only what is true so that life might be given to his people.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to believe, I want to start with the premise that God's word is true and that the promises of joy to his people are real.
SPEAKER_00: Now we got to discover how do we get it, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so Nehemiah actually helps us to understand this very clearly.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to dive in, we're going to look at really this heart of the text that we read on the screens, but there's but there's part of the chapter that's beforehand, we'll kind of walk through, part of the chapter at the end, we'll walk through as well.
SPEAKER_00: But let's start where Nehemiah starts, chapter 11, verses 1 through 26.
SPEAKER_00: What we see here is a record of spiritual leadership.
SPEAKER_00: A record of spiritual leadership.
SPEAKER_00: So last week, Nehemiah 11, we saw all the people who had come in to live into Jerusalem, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that was a record of all these people who came to live within the city.
SPEAKER_00: In Nehemiah 12, it starts with another record, but it's of spiritual leadership.
SPEAKER_00: We see in verses 1 through 7 the priests who first returned.
SPEAKER_00: These are came back, these priests came back with Zerubbabel.
SPEAKER_00: So if we look in the book of Ezra, which precedes Nehemiah, we'll see this dude named Zerubbabel.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of said in a previous sermon, where there's rubble, there's Zerubbabel, right?
SPEAKER_00: So where the temple had been broken down into rubble, Zerubbabel led the charge of these exiles who returned to rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And this verses one through seven is a record of the priests who came back with him for the reconstruction of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: In verses eight through nine, we see the Levites who first returned.
SPEAKER_00: The Levites came with Zerubbabel and the priests to be able to reconstruct the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now some of you might be thinking, well, I thought all Levites were priests.
SPEAKER_00: No, Levites are kind of like lagoons, right?
SPEAKER_00: All beans are lagoons, but not all lagoons are beans.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody follow that?
SPEAKER_00: A peanut is a lagoon, but it's not a bean.
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, all priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests.
SPEAKER_00: That's all you need to know.
SPEAKER_00: We're done.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 10 and 11, we see the line of high priests.
SPEAKER_00: The high priests, these are the supreme religious leaders of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this genealogy, this lineage of high priests, and we see that in 10 and 11.
SPEAKER_00: And then 12 through 21, we see the priests that were under the high priest Joachim leadership.
SPEAKER_00: That's 12 through 21.
SPEAKER_00: Then 22 through 26, we see Levites during the reign of Darius the Persian king.
SPEAKER_00: King Darius I, he was the one who permitted the temple to continue being rebuilt because they had found the original decree of Cyrus the Great.
SPEAKER_00: So if we remember all the way back to Nehemiah chapter 1, as they came in to reconstruct the temple, they got stopped because some lies were told about them.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, had said they can build the temple, they got stopped.
SPEAKER_00: A couple kings later, Darius finds that original decree and they get to continue the reconstruction effort of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: So all we need to know is that here in verses 1 through 26, uh, we see this record of spiritual leadership.
SPEAKER_00: And then in 27 through 41, we really get to the meat of the text.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see in 27 through 41 is that the wall is dedicated to God.
SPEAKER_00: The wall that has been reconstructed is dedicated to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the culmination of the work that has been done, right?
SPEAKER_00: We saw the reconstruction effort in the first part of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: As they came back into Israel, they led the charge to reconstruct the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Then we saw the rededication of the people as they discovered God's word.
SPEAKER_00: They lived a life of repentance and conformity to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: They submitted themselves to it so that they would be in line with the truth of God and what he expects out of his people.
SPEAKER_00: And then we saw the repopulation.
SPEAKER_00: We saw the repopulation of Jerusalem as they cast lots.
SPEAKER_00: Families were starting to build in towns and villages in Israel around Jerusalem, but they cast lots for one out of every ten families to repopulate the city proper of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So reconstruction, rededication, repopulation.
SPEAKER_00: This dedication is the culmination, you got that, of all of their effort.
SPEAKER_00: A city that holds its primary purpose in the worship of God will dedicate these reconstructed walls with the worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: So what's the purpose of Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem's primary purpose is for the worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the temple is, that's where sacrifices are made.
SPEAKER_00: That's where God's spirit and presence dwells within the Holy of Holies, seated on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: The place of Jerusalem was for the worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: And they're going to dedicate in 27 through 41, they're going to dedicate the wall with the worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: They dedicate it with gladness, thanksgiving, and singing.
SPEAKER_00: They have a full-fledged worship night, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where they have uh harps and cymbals, trumpets and lyres.
SPEAKER_00: That's like a guitar type thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so they have this huge worship service to dedicate God.
SPEAKER_00: And it and it's loud and it's expressive and it's joyous.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see in this text is that the scattered people of God gather together for the worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: If we look at verses 28 on through 29, it says, And the sons of singers gathered together from the districts surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Nataphathites, also from Beth Gilgal, and from the region of Giba and Asmavath, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine you have Jerusalem, you have all these villages around it, and they gather the singers from those villages to come together.
SPEAKER_00: So the church scattered becomes the church gathered for the worship of God to dedicate these walls.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah brought up onto the walls the leaders of Judah and these two great choirs.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is Nehemiah invites the leaders of Judah up onto the wall, and then he invites all these singers and musicians, and he makes these two great choirs, and they start on the wall, and then they walk in different directions, and there's this kind of call and response happening where they're singing to one another and they're responding to one another's song as they march around the wall of Jerusalem and they meet at the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you remember, this wall, their enemies had said that even if it was so feeble, so delicate, that even if a fox came up and sat his paw and it would crumble to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: But what they have now is this huge presence of godly men who surround the city singing and worshiping God on top of this wall.
SPEAKER_00: It's now being dedicated with these two great choirs, all the leaders of Judah worshiping God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, so that they heard the worship of God far away.
SPEAKER_00: The joy of Israel was heard far away.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 31, it says, Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks.
SPEAKER_00: One went to the south on the wall to the dung gate.
SPEAKER_00: The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north.
SPEAKER_00: And I followed them with half of the people on the wall above the tower of the ovens to the broad wall.
SPEAKER_00: So, so you can get a picture of this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at a graphic of what Jerusalem looked like in Nehemiah's day.
SPEAKER_00: So you see here in the top left, that's the temple.
SPEAKER_00: All right, and then the wall is a two-mile wall that surrounded Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: On average, uh eight feet uh uh tall, forty feet thick.
SPEAKER_00: It was a huge wall.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so you see here they would get up on that wall and march around it and meet at the temple there in the top right.
SPEAKER_00: And so this huge presence of worship and gladness, rejoicing, thanksgiving was happening here.
SPEAKER_00: They were dedicating the wall.
SPEAKER_00: But what is dedication, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we ask that question, okay, the purpose, what they're doing, is they're dedicating the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is dedication?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, dedication is almost synonymous with the word consecration.
SPEAKER_00: Dedication is almost synonymous with the word consecration.
SPEAKER_00: Consecration fundamentally means set apart.
SPEAKER_00: Something that you set apart for a specific purpose, designated for specific reason.
SPEAKER_00: A biblical meaning of dedication or consecration would be to devote wholly to the worship and service of God and to be undefiled by the ways of sin.
SPEAKER_00: So, what were the people doing on the walls when they were dedicating?
SPEAKER_00: They were saying, everything that is in these walls is wholly dedicated to the service and worship of God, and it will remain undefiled by the sins of this world.
SPEAKER_00: They were making a stand.
SPEAKER_00: They were making a claim about what this city would be, and it would be holy for the worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jerusalem had been a city distinctly for the people of God to live, serve, and worship for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: But they allowed sin, idolatry, and disobedience to come in and corrupt themselves and their purpose.
SPEAKER_00: You see, instead of remaining a city set apart and consecrated from the world, they invited the world in.
SPEAKER_00: That's how they got to the place where they had to reconstruct in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: God's judgment upon Israel was you have let the world in to what the world should have stayed out of, because this was mine.
SPEAKER_00: You were my people, my city, my worship, and you allowed the world to come in and defile that.
SPEAKER_00: That's where God's judgment came into play.
SPEAKER_00: That constituted the destruction of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And so this reconstruction effort was to reestablish this purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We will be holy gods, and the world will not defile us again.
SPEAKER_00: Now that both the temple and the wall have been rebuilt and the people have been rededicated in their identity, they were once again establishing Jerusalem's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: It was for the glory of God to worship him alone, to serve him alone, to trust him alone, to be obedient to him alone.
SPEAKER_00: The ceremony of dedication was a response to the reality that they were God's people, who alone could be in covenant with him and worship him in a joyous response.
SPEAKER_00: I love verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy.
SPEAKER_00: The women and children also rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
SPEAKER_00: So what is the response of their discovery that their salvation is in God alone?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That their covenant with him is exclusively theirs as his people.
SPEAKER_00: Their response is great joy.
SPEAKER_00: Great joy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the word joy itself is used over 170 times in the ESV translation of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is riddled throughout the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But this phrase, great joy, is found nine times in the ESV.
SPEAKER_00: Four times it's describing either Jesus' incarnation, his birth, his resurrection, he came back from life from the dead, or his ascension, where he went seated to be seated at the Father's right hand.
SPEAKER_00: So four out of the nine times describes some aspect of Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: Here in Nehemiah, great joy, great joy is given to the people because God had made them be filled with it.
SPEAKER_00: What they had discovered the salvation of God once again.
SPEAKER_00: They had discovered the covenant that He would make with them.
SPEAKER_00: So the wall was dedicated to God, but it was so much more than the wall itself.
SPEAKER_00: It was declaring that the wall in all of Israel would be for the glory of God alone.
SPEAKER_00: And this truth, this reality, brought the people great joy.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at the close of this chapter in summary of verses 44 through 47, we see God's people take ownership.
SPEAKER_00: God's people take ownership.
SPEAKER_00: In this last portion of the chapter, we see how Israel took ownership of the service and worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they had been worshiping previously on the bankroll of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: Persia funded kind of their worship, their religious practice.
SPEAKER_00: But what we see here in this last section is that actually Israel starts to produce autonomy by fulfilling what the Word of God calls them to, to provide for the religious leaders, so that worship could be done on the account of Israel alone.
SPEAKER_00: They were going to bring their own possessions to supply what was required by the Lord to support those who were the spiritual leaders of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 starts to say, On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes to gather into them the portions required by the law for who?
SPEAKER_00: The priests and the Levites, according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't simply enjoying the benefits of being God's people, right?
SPEAKER_00: They weren't just simply enjoying participating in what God was doing through them.
SPEAKER_00: No, they were taking ownership of being God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a big difference, right?
SPEAKER_00: How much skin do we have in the game?
SPEAKER_00: Are we just participating in being God's people?
SPEAKER_00: Are we just enjoying the benefits of being God's people?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we taking ownership of the joy of being God's people?
SPEAKER_00: It helped create independence, ownership, and place where the people contributed toward its health and flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look at the main idea of this text, what I want us to see this morning is that the worship of God produces great joy.
SPEAKER_00: The worship of God produces great joy.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is, you and I were created for worship.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of our design, it's part of our purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Created for worship.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a question about us as human beings, image bears, do we worship?
SPEAKER_00: That's not the question.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, what or who do we worship?
SPEAKER_00: Because all of us were designed to lavish worship on something.
SPEAKER_00: You see, coupled then with this innate design factor that we were created to worship is this self-seated heart reality that we all understand that the world is not as it should be.
SPEAKER_00: We long for redemption.
SPEAKER_00: We yearn for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: As a people, you can see this all throughout culture.
SPEAKER_00: We strive to discover redemption because there's something in all of us that understands the world isn't as it should be.
SPEAKER_00: And so every effort of culture, whether it aligns with your worldview and ideology or not, every effort of culture is a striving for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You even hear it in the language when we were talking about a huge subject right now hitting our Supreme Court, right, with the Roe v.
SPEAKER_00: Wade trial.
SPEAKER_00: When you hear the language of people that are pro the choice of murdering a child in the womb, they're seeking salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Now we might not agree with the ways that they're going about it, but that is what they think that they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: In the climate conversation, they're seeking salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to education reform, they're seeking salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We understand in our heart the world is not as it should be, and we need redemption.
SPEAKER_00: You couple that with the reality that we were designed to worship, you get a wild array of idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: All of this striving for salvation, all of this striving for redemption drives us to one thing.
SPEAKER_00: It drives us to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, you and I, we will worship what we really believe will save us.
SPEAKER_00: We will worship what we really believe will save us.
SPEAKER_00: What is worship?
SPEAKER_00: Let's answer that question.
SPEAKER_00: To answer that question, let's go to the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11 36 starts off with this.
SPEAKER_00: For from him and through him and to him are all things.
SPEAKER_00: To him be glory.
SPEAKER_00: Get that word in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Glory forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: 12.1.
SPEAKER_00: I appeal to you therefore.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he deserves glory.
SPEAKER_00: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present.
SPEAKER_00: Get that word in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Present, dedicate, consecrate your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable God, which is your what?
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual worship.
SPEAKER_00: Worship.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the formula for worship.
SPEAKER_00: Worship equals glory plus dedication.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to walk through this.
SPEAKER_00: What is glory?
SPEAKER_00: Right in 1136 of Romans, Paul says, to him be glory forever.
SPEAKER_00: This word glory is the word doxa.
SPEAKER_00: Doxa.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a breakdown of what that word could understood to mean for us.
SPEAKER_00: Doxa means the external elegance of the internal excellencies of God.
SPEAKER_00: What does glory mean?
SPEAKER_00: The external elegance, the outward radiant shining of the internal excellencies of God.
SPEAKER_00: Fundamentally, glory means wait.
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: W-E-I-G-H-T.
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: Why does God deserve glory?
SPEAKER_00: Because of the weight that he holds, of his internal excellencies, the nature of his being, that he is perfect and righteous in all his ways, that he is full of wisdom and knowledge, that he is perfect and holy.
SPEAKER_00: He alone deserves the weight of glory.
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: He shines in external radiance because of the value and weight of his being.
SPEAKER_00: That's glory.
SPEAKER_00: The radiant shining of a thing's substance.
SPEAKER_00: Idols have a perceived glory.
SPEAKER_00: They have a radiant shining, but they are empty in their substance.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they don't actually have glory.
SPEAKER_00: But if they didn't have a perception, if they didn't have a temptation of glory, we would not be attracted to them.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they have an outward shining, but they have an internal darkness.
SPEAKER_00: But because they shine, we're gravitated toward them in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We see glory in them.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see this dedication.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present, to dedicate your bodies as a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: It's a dedication or a consecration of oneself wholly to something or someone.
SPEAKER_00: This is worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is worship when the radiant beauty of something, when the radiant beauty of someone causes us to give ourselves wholly to it.
SPEAKER_00: Now hopefully you can see why we would worship what we think will save us.
SPEAKER_00: Because we see glory in it.
SPEAKER_00: And then we apply dedication to it, and it gets our worship.
SPEAKER_00: We fundamentally worship these things because we believe they'll save us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we cannot simply abdicate the fact that we are worshipers.
SPEAKER_00: We can't get around that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a part of how God designed us, He designed us to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Him in all of his glory and all of his weight, he has designed us to lavish dedication of our lives onto him fully and wholly in every aspect of who we are, because that is our reasonable worship.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he alone has the weight within him to save us.
SPEAKER_00: It's an intrinsic part of our identity.
SPEAKER_00: We were created, though, to worship him.
SPEAKER_00: But in our sin, we have corrupted worship to be taken from God and put onto idols, false saviors.
SPEAKER_00: We pervert worship and we lavish it upon created things rather than the creator himself.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 1 helps us understand this.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, for although they knew God, Romans 1, 21 through 23, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
SPEAKER_00: That's an active response of God upon man because of their idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: He darkened the foolishness of their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
SPEAKER_00: Claiming to be wise and their idolatry, they became fools, and exchanged what?
SPEAKER_00: The glory, the weight of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
SPEAKER_00: This is the problem of our worship.
SPEAKER_00: We exchanged true glory for false glory.
SPEAKER_00: We chased after that which shines, but we found it to be empty.
SPEAKER_00: This was our problem.
SPEAKER_00: As a part of our futile thinking and darkened hearts, we both do not desire to, nor are we able to worship God as we've been designed to be.
SPEAKER_00: In our depraved state, we roam through our lives, seeking our salvation, and hope to find it in extravagantly lesser things, created things, rather than the Creator.
SPEAKER_00: But in our foolishness, we lavish worship on them with the hope that they'll give us and gain for us the redemption that we long for.
SPEAKER_00: We exchange glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is the heart of all idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: If we think idolatry is like wooden statues that we go and bow down to or burn incense to, or these things created that we kind of create some mantle or altar for.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart is an altar for false gods and idols, and we see it in that we chase after, dedicate ourselves to the very things of this world that we believe will save us because they have a resemblance of weight.
SPEAKER_00: They shine but have nothing in them.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to understand something fundamental.
SPEAKER_00: Our pursuit of salvation leads us to great sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: It's the reality of our existence to search for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, our hearts realize the world is not as it should be.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pursue redemption and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But it leads us to great sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we cannot discover it in anything other than God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of all idolatry is sorrow, not joy.
SPEAKER_00: Sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: False gods and idols cannot accomplish for us what we seek out of them.
SPEAKER_00: They're false saviors that we approach believing that they will be able to actually serve us in our pursuit of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But over time, what happens evidently is that when we think they will serve us in the pursuit of salvation, they become wicked masters and we serve them in response.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we keep going back to them over and over, believing within the deception of our own minds and hearts that they'll one day actually give us what we seek after, but they can't.
SPEAKER_00: They're empty.
SPEAKER_00: That outward radiance shining has a hollow center.
SPEAKER_00: And so we keep going back and keep going back and keep going back as fools with darkened hearts that believe at this time they're gonna give me what I really want.
SPEAKER_00: We lavish worship on them.
SPEAKER_00: All false saviors shine with a light of hope, this external radiance of perceived internal value.
SPEAKER_00: If they didn't, we wouldn't pursue them.
SPEAKER_00: But they're all deception, empty promises, having no real power.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we worship what we believe will save us.
SPEAKER_00: And in that pursuit of salvation, we're filled with sorrow because only true salvation through Jesus can produce joy.
SPEAKER_00: Joy.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the the I can show you, your idol, in four easy metrics.
SPEAKER_00: What does your bank account look like?
SPEAKER_00: Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
SPEAKER_00: What does your calendar look like?
SPEAKER_00: How busy are you with all these things that we fill our lives with?
SPEAKER_00: What does your media intake look like?
SPEAKER_00: And what does your language look like?
SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about constantly?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of language are you using?
SPEAKER_00: So through just the simple observation of your bank account, your calendar, your media intake, and your language, there we discover what?
SPEAKER_00: What we really hope will save us.
SPEAKER_00: Well we really it's like CrossFit people.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know a person does CrossFit because they can't stop talking about CrossFit.
SPEAKER_00: And some of them do create these idols of like health where they will just continually prolong and save their physical lives if they can just do enough pull-ups or row for long enough.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And they become obsessed with it.
SPEAKER_00: They buy all the clothes, they they talk about it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Their bank account is drained with rogue uh uh weight plates and and they're over here, their calendar, it's like I gotta go here three times a day, I gotta do this, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: Look, where's their devotion?
SPEAKER_00: That's an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, our media intake is not the scriptures, it's the daily wire.
SPEAKER_00: And we're and we're constantly going after this to fill our hearts and minds with information.
SPEAKER_00: That becomes so much of our language, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we come talk about our savior of politics, if we can just get another uh uh wave of red through this nation, then we'll be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And it's constantly in your language, it's in your bank account, it's in the way that you ascribe your calendar, it's all of these things, right?
SPEAKER_00: Many of us, instead of mourning over our own tears because of the sin in our life that's that quenches the spirit, we pursue the accumulation of leftist tears by destroying their arguments.
SPEAKER_00: That's trash, it's idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to be honest about it.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be honest about it.
SPEAKER_00: What's your language full of?
SPEAKER_00: What's your media intake full of?
SPEAKER_00: You might not notice this, but I'm trying to raise a flag of awareness to myself and to you.
SPEAKER_00: This is your warning.
SPEAKER_00: It's an idol.
SPEAKER_00: What are your idols?
SPEAKER_00: What holds the weight of glory in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Where's your dedication?
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, church, what has your worship?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's why we struggle with a stronger presence of sorrow in our life than we do with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Why would the Christian church be known and categorized as sorrowful?
SPEAKER_00: That's not how the Bible ever, ever communicates the characteristics of the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's joy.
SPEAKER_00: It is joy, and maybe we have so much sorrow in our life because we don't even realize the thickness of idols that rests within our chests.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we struggle with dedicating our lives for his glory?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe because we don't really understand what we need to be saved from?
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand the consequences of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand the wrath of God's judgment, the righteous standard of which he establishes in his holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't understand the conscious, eternal torment of hell.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't understand or believe the second coming of Christ in all of his glory that is imminent upon us, that will establish a new heavens and new earth where those who are his will be with him forever, and those who are not will be cast out from him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't understand what we need saved from.
SPEAKER_00: So if we don't even understand that, or we don't really believe it, then why would we ever see Jesus as a sufficient savior?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why we don't have joy.
SPEAKER_00: If we saw Jesus as a truly sufficient savior, because we truly understood and were convicted to the core of our being of what life without him means, maybe dedication would be a lot easier.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe worshiping him would be a lot easier.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe joy would be easier.
SPEAKER_00: But we have hope, church.
SPEAKER_00: I always try to leave you with feeling good when you come in here.
SPEAKER_00: That's my number one goal.
SPEAKER_00: Idol.
SPEAKER_00: The hope of the gospel for us is Jesus fills us with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus fills us with joy.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to show you this truth and promise this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus fills you with joy because he is the only Savior sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: He alone holds the weight of glory.
SPEAKER_00: He alone deserves our dedication because he holds that weight, because he alone has the power to save us.
SPEAKER_00: If the pursuit of salvation and false gods leads us to great sorrow, then how much more will the discovery of the true salvation of Jesus fill us with great joy?
SPEAKER_00: Only the redemption work of Jesus can make us the true worshipers that we're actually created to be.
SPEAKER_00: He alone carries the weight of glory.
SPEAKER_00: He alone is worthy of all our dedication, so he alone should receive all our worship.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the discovery of true salvation through a true Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We're filled with great joy.
SPEAKER_00: John 15, 8 through 11, Jesus is talking to his disciples at the end of his earthly ministry, and he talks about the joy that he gives them.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, but this is this my father, by this, my father is glorified.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: That you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Catch this abide in my love.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
SPEAKER_00: These things I have spoken to you, what?
SPEAKER_00: That my joy might be in you, so that your joy might be full.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is showing his disciples, if you abide in me, if you if you stay in me, I'm going to give you my joy.
SPEAKER_00: And why am I going to give you my joy?
SPEAKER_00: Because my joy is so eternally full that yours might be filled up also.
SPEAKER_00: It is in the reconciliation of God through Jesus that we discover and are filled with the joy.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus never got out of relationship with the Father in his perfect obedience until it came to the cross where he was the Father turned his back on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What does Christ do?
SPEAKER_00: My Father, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: He was forsaken on the cross so that we as his children might understand and know and live in the eternal joy of being in communion, fellowship, relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: It's abiding in Christ that his joy is given to us, that our joy might be full.
SPEAKER_00: We get to have his happiness, his rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: We get to have all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' joy is given to us fully in the reality of reconciliation, salvation that produces the evidence of fruitful obedience.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus' joy abiding in the Father's love that fills us as we abide in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan, pastor, and theologian inciting John 15, 11, says this the happiness Christ gives to his people is a participation of his own happiness.
SPEAKER_00: Happiness.
SPEAKER_00: Randy Alcorn recently wrote a book that starts to combat the idea that joy and happiness are two different things.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the gospel shows us.
SPEAKER_00: That the joy of Christ is synonymous with the happiness of Christ, the pleasure of Christ, the feeling of rejoicing from the heart because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's in him that we know and obtain the salvation our hearts truly need and have been striving for.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord's joy that is given to us.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we know it's rooted in salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you something from Psalm 51, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: David speaking to the Lord, praying and weeping because he's repenting of his sin.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, he pleads with God, restore to me what?
SPEAKER_00: The joy of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Where is joy?
SPEAKER_00: Where is great joy?
SPEAKER_00: It's in the salvation of our God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the strength of Israel was not in their walls, but in the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: A people who obeyed, served, and worshiped God, a people who had discovered the weight of his glory and dedicated their lives to him would be a people who expressed it in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Because the sound of great joy that could be heard far away, it says.
SPEAKER_00: Will it be seen by the world around us?
SPEAKER_00: Will they look on us as a people of great joy?
SPEAKER_00: Because why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have idols abolished in our heart by the power of the Spirit, and we're able to truly know the salvation of God, who holds the weight of glory, who deserves wholly our dedication, that we might worship lavishly the greatness of his name.
SPEAKER_00: In the Westminster shorter catechism, question one is this What is the chief end of man?
SPEAKER_00: Do not take lightly the language they use.
SPEAKER_00: Man's chief end is to glorify God and what?
unknown: Enjoy him.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy Him.
SPEAKER_00: That isn't this like frumpy face joy that we say we have as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I got joy.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't.
SPEAKER_00: You look you look like you just ate something, like an atomic warhead or something.
SPEAKER_00: You look horrible.
SPEAKER_00: Have joy.
SPEAKER_00: Joy that's seen in the radiance of your own face.
SPEAKER_00: Joy that's seen in the expression of your worship.
SPEAKER_00: Joy that's seen as you enter every circumstance of life.
SPEAKER_00: Joy when it doesn't make sense to have joy to enjoy him.
SPEAKER_00: Pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Satisfaction and happiness and delight.
SPEAKER_00: The joy of Israel was heard far away.
SPEAKER_00: Are we an radiant anthem of joy that this city hears?
SPEAKER_00: In your own life and testimony at work, are you filled with rejoicing and pleasure and happiness?
SPEAKER_00: Do you walk in with a smile when everyone else begrudgingly?
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: You get to go to work for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Your work doesn't define you.
SPEAKER_00: It is the salvation of God that brings you pleasure and happiness.
SPEAKER_00: So you walk in with a smile.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to do this for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: What are you working for?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you're sad.
SPEAKER_00: I'm working for God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm parenting for God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out here doing these things in my life for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So let us rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Church, I pray that we relentlessly fight against idols in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And by the power of the Spirit, they continually be put to death.
SPEAKER_00: And that we are known and characterized as a people of great joy because we know the salvation of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.