Jesus Christ has to do with joy. Good news. Glad tidings. I bring to you tidings of great
joy. And John said, I'm writing these
things to you because some of you don't have complete joy.
Some of you are kind of miserable. It is not God's intent For his
kids to be lacking in joy Jesus before he went away in that great
17th chapter of the gospel of John the 13th verse said but
now I'm coming to you and These things I speak in the world that
they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves The joy of the
Lord is our strength and If you go to church and are bored,
there's something wrong with that. What ought to happen in
God's house as we hear the gospel, there ought to be a hallelujah.
The old preachers used to say a deep down hallelujah in my
soul. It's been a long time. I used
to hear that as a boy when my dad was preaching. Someone in
the church would scream out, hallelujah. It's okay if you
do that. I mean if it's real I Mean if
you just can't help it Not hold my baby while I shout hallelujah,
but it just kind of happens hallelujah The Apostle Paul said in the
Philippian letter Rejoice and again, I say unto you rejoice
and What a great and gracious God
we serve, who makes delight or joy actually a duty. In fact,
it's a commandment. He didn't say, please rejoice,
he said, rejoice! It's a commandment, rejoice! Some of you are looking like
the mule looking out the barn door. Rejoice! Yesterday I got on the plane
and there was a beautiful young lady sitting next to the seat
that I was to sit in, but she spoiled her beauty. So I
figured it was time to minister. Hi! How are you? Fine, sir, thank you. So as we
were flying along, I noticed she was like this. I said, would
you like me to ask the stewardess for a blanket? Are you cold? I wanted to know I was happy. People ought to want to be around
you because you're happy People ought to be saying I'll
take two doses of whatever he has Amen Should never be this way. You
don't want to be a Christian. Do you? Rejoice Rejoice So, God intends
for His kids to be happy. We are to joy, and I like the
way the Apostle Paul says, Rejoice! And again, I say, Rejoice! Rejoy! So, joy, and then, hey,
rejoy! Step it up a notch. Eventually, you're gonna crack
your face today. Eventually. I'm working on it
if you're a Christian The joy of the Lord is our strength
Joy will not drown you or Intoxicate your heart. It will do you good. It's good medicine Joy is good
medicine all the days of your life rejoice In fact, joy proclaims
itself in our work, on the airplane, in our talk, in our smile. Joy is a speaking thing. Joy speaks! And in this dark
world, it's nice to be around people who are smiling, who have
some joy. Joy is a demonstrative thing. The way some Christians talk,
you would think they were ruined and bankrupt. True joy of the
Lord cannot hold its tongue. I can tell you this, if you get
filled with the joy of the Lord, it's going to leak out on you.
You just can't help it. Somebody said to me Sunday before
last, I just felt like running. I said, well, let it rip. I mean,
just don't, you know, don't make too much racket, but if you must,
you must. You do crazier things in ball
games over a little football or somebody hits a baseball 300
and something feet. And I started to say, you throw
your beer up in the air, but you're not supposed to be drinking
beer. Whatever you throw up in the air, You act crazy at sports
places, but when it comes to the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ,
that he arose from the dead, that he paid our sin debt, that
he set us free, that there's no condemnation, no judgment,
that he's working everything for our good, we seemingly hold
our tongue. I hope this church gets to the
place where you can't help it. You have to praise the Lord.
You have to. The grace of joy is contagious.
It is. The person next to you needs
a smile. I made it a rule a long time
ago, never come into the pulpit with a long face. You're not
going to catch me. No, because I'm your pastor and
I'm here to minister to you. When we got to Florida and got
to the place where we're staying the next morning, I woke up and
I heard a morning bird. Oh, it was loud. And it was just
singing and singing. And I laid there and listened
to that bird. I was like, what a happy little bird. And before
I knew it, there was 10 others that joined in and they started
whistling. And then I laid there and I started
whistling. Joy is contagious. I said, this
is a day the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and be glad in it.
But you know what? One downer can bring many happy
Christians down. You're not going to catch me
on a down slope. In fact, I'm going to try to lift you. And
that's what we all ought to be doing. Not a phony joy. I'm talking
about a real joy. Our God is a happy God. Did you
know that? He's a happy God. He's happy. His joy is holy. It's a holy joy. And He is a happy God. And I would just encourage those
of you who are visiting with us, find a happy pastor. And,
of course, you're welcome. In fact, the scripture says,
put on the oil of joy for mourning. Sing with the prophet, I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
that covereth me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. Note, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice
and delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires
of your heart. God has done so much for us here,
it's unbelievable. Dwayne and Phil picked me up
at the airport last night, and we stopped at Burger King to
get a hamburger, and we were sitting there laughing and talking,
and this guy sitting over there eating a hamburger, he goes,
are you guys from that place in Pontiac? And then he goes like this to
Dwayne, how'd you get all that money? And Dwayne went like this. He smiled and the guy said, I'm
Jewish. That's all right. My savior was
too. Rejoice in the Lord when you
can't do anything else. Oh, I have nothing to rejoice
in. Oh yes you do. You got up this
morning. Your Lord and Savior and Redeemer
sits on the throne of this universe. He's king of kings and Lord of
lords and Everything is working out for your good and for his
glory All right. Now I'm going to take a little
dive and I won't stay here too long, but stay with me Complete
joy. Do you have it? Well, John wrote
these things that you might have it and I might have a complete
joy But now I'm coming to you and these things I speak in the
world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves Sin is
such an ugly word It really is in Scripture. It is referred
to as darkness Sin is like a Six-foot rattlesnake in the baby's crib. Just let that sink in a little
bit. The Apostle Paul cried out in Romans 7. Now, he's been a
Christian for 30 years, but in Romans 7, he cries out this way,
after using all kinds of descriptive adjectives to describe sin. This is what he cries out. Oh,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin! Well, that doesn't make any sense. Except sin is something awful
and I can tell you this Sin will take every ounce of joy from
you Just for a moment. Think about your sins They in
the final analysis total and completely are Self-centered
they're all about you Sin is all about you. Whatever sin you're
committing, sins plural, it's all about you. It's totally,
completely self-centeredness. The lust of the flesh. In Romans
1, the apostle gives us the blacklist. I would turn over there and read
it, but you can read it for yourself. Read the blacklist. You'll find
all kinds of things in that blacklist. You fit right in to the mold,
and I do too. they're all self-centered things
and I want to tell you Christian whatever has and is or Robbing
you of joy It is the dark creature of enmity
against God called the flesh Sin is against God. It is not a toy sin is rebellion
against God This man will not rule over me. I will do what
I please, when I please, how I please. It's self-centeredness. Our God is holy. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. He is light and life, and in
Him is no darkness at all. Our God is joy personified because
He's without sin. If you could be without sin,
you'd be full of joy. His message to us is one of good
news and glad tidings of great joy. In the midnight darkness
of sin, there rose the star of Bethlehem, the joy of the Lord,
our strength. How miserable and weak we are
when we lose the joy of salvation. And by the way, it's not your
salvation. David didn't say, restore unto
me the joy of my salvation. He said, restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Salvation is God's thing. I want
that joy back that I once had. Are you sitting here today as
a Christian, are you happy? You should be, you're commanded
to be, and you have every reason to be so, except there might
be a worm in the apple. Sin in your life as a Christian. You carrying something around?
I want to talk about it. David, after he relapsed, you
do know that David relapsed. I mean, he had a big relapse,
too. He had a A big relapse with Bathsheba, committed adultery,
turned around and committed murder. Man after God's own heart. Lost the joy of salvation. Oh, it can happen. Restoring
to me the joy. I'm asking you as a Christian,
you know, Pastor, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. The Christian who finds himself
or herself in the darkness of lost joy and light and fellowship
is of all men most miserable. Some of you are miserable today
because you've lost the joy. You've lost the joy. Psalm 139,
search me, O God. We sang it, didn't we? And know
my heart today. Try me and know my thoughts and
see if there be some wicked way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting. There's so much about the Christian
life that most churches and most pastors seem to just skip over
and our churches are filled with hypocrisy and we're not a mercy
hospital. You can't confess anything. You
have to live like a hypocrite acting like you have no problems.
But I know you do because I know you're just like me. I always laugh when somebody says
to me, I have issues. I go, me too. And the Apostle
Paul had issues in Romans 7. What I want to do, I don't do,
and what I hate, that do I. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God Jesus
Christ has already delivered me. There is therefore now no
condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. The truth is that sin, and John
says this in the verses that Greg read to us this morning,
he says this, our fellowship is with God the Father and with
one another. You know when Pam and I are most
in love and things are going great? When we're in fellowship
with Jesus Christ and God the Father. I'm telling you, what messes
up husband-wife relationships, not speaking for days, not talking, there's a worm in the apple.
There's sin in your life. You've got to have this fellowship. You've got to have this joy.
It not only messes things up with God the Father, but it messes
us up with one another. I gotta keep you loving me as
your pastor. So I want you to be full of joy
and fellowship. The fall in the Garden of Eden
not only put man out of fellowship with God, but also out of fellowship
with his fellow man. That's why I can get on an airplane
and say to a stranger, hi, And just a big smile, and her
reply, kinda, eh. My fellowship is with God. Hey,
you can't take my joy away. I can mess up by dabbling and
doing things I shouldn't be doing, and then that fellowship is broken
because my God is holy. Holy and happy and then I messed
up in some word or deed and then that fellowship is broken There's
nothing worse to me Than looking for the Lord and not being able
to find him It's like a kid in a department store gets lost
from mama I'm really quick about I don't sense you're here. I
don't sense you're here Are you you should be? You should be. Tinley, by the way. Nothing between my soul and my
Savior. Tinley pastored First Baptist Church. He was African
American. I think it was in Philadelphia. For 20 some years, nearly 30
years, he was the church custodian. And when their pastor died, they
called the custodian as their pastor. And he wrote all kinds
of hymns, like nothing between. You never know what God's going
to do. You may be a custodian today. You may be the pastor
tomorrow. Because our God is a great God! Let's just quickly go through
three things here. The fact of sin and sinnership.
It's just a fact. David said, I acknowledge my
sin to you, O Lord, and I did not cover my iniquity. Don't
try to cover your mess. The best thing to do is uncover
it and confess it as a Christian. I will confess my transgression
to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." Isn't that
something? And by the way, it's so important
you're in a church that knows something about forgiveness. We are noted to be a messed up
bunch here. These guys say, oh, you're working
with, you're working with, yeah. Sinners saved by the grace of
God. Proverbs 28, 13 says, whoever
conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses
and forsakes them will obtain mercy. That's a great thing. There are two kinds of sinners,
saved sinners and lost sinners. The lost sinner is deceived.
He who says, I have no sin, you're not only a liar, you're deceived. I didn't call you a liar. Years
ago, I was pastoring Brinesville Baptist Church, and I went to
visit one of our members in the hospital, and I was talking to
her. There was a lady in the other bed and her pastor came
in and he got to talking with me, found out I was pastor too,
and he goes, well, I see you have on a watch and a colored
shirt. So I kind of looked to make sure
I did. He said, I haven't sinned in
15 years. I said to him, and you are a
liar, sir. And guess what the pastor did?
I said, gotcha! Be angry and sin not. That's
when I was a young smart aleck. The lost sinner is deceived and
says he has no sin and deceives himself. Therefore the truth
is not in him verse 8 says the lost person is a stranger to
their own heart. You're delusional You don't even
know your own heart When you say I haven't sinned You're blind
to your own conduct every day. I want to tell you You are either
a saved sinner or you are a deceived sinner One or the other you are
altogether deceived And by the way, this deceiving of self,
it takes a great deal of persuading on your part. You have ingenuity
and trickery. It takes a satanic shrewdness
and self-deception to say you're not a sinner. Boy, how deceived
are you? I don't like the way you're putting
this. Talk to God about it. You are a lying, deceptive sinner
if you say you have no sin. And it's not an easy thing. It's not an easy thing to be
a sinless imposter. It's not easy. Because your masquerade
is always getting messed up and somebody's always catching you
You like the ostrich buries its head in the sand and suppose
it everything's okay And remember this to my friend while you deceive
yourself you haven't deceived the Lord An empty hole of unhappiness
You get up every day and miserable couldn't live like that. I couldn't live the way some
of you live with your partners in life. I could not live if
Miss Pam and I were every single day fussing and fighting and
not getting along. Oh, I had the hardest time leaving
her. Amen. We're in fellowship with one
another. Don't agree, and she's wrong lots of times, but. All right, there's a lost sinner.
She's probably watching. Love you. Then there's a safe center. It's
so important that you who are saved I wish to God I'd had a
pastor like myself who would taught me the truth about this
Because about half the time in my young life. I thought for
sure I was going to hell I just thought I could not be saved
and think some of the things that I was thinking and then
here in first John John goes like this. Hey you Christians
if you have no sin, you're liars too and You're liars too. Now it is true
that the Christian, this is absolutely true, and you read this in Ephesians
2, the Christian cannot continually walk in sin. You may relapse,
Christian, have a relapse of some kind, but I can tell you
for sure, if you relapse to the crack house, you're coming out.
If you go back to the hood, you're coming out. If you have a relapse, you can't
stay there. Because greater is he that's
in you than he that's in the world You've been regenerated
That's for sure I wish somebody would have told me that as a
15 year old kid Trying to figure out I love the Lord. I think
I know the Lord but oh There's so many things that go through
my head and my mind and I don't get it. I'm telling you this
I You've been regenerated quicken made alive by the Spirit of God
and where you used to walk according to Ephesians 2 According to the
course of this world now, you can't continue in that kind of
life. You just cannot you cannot Well, oh what joy complete joy
do you want it I hope you do Hope you're not living a miserable
life. Those of you couples here married, you know after the honeymoon's
over and Living gets tough together You know those honeymoons do
come to an end Then you have to live together And I'm telling
you this without the Lord, you're not gonna have much Do you ever
do this Do you ever weep as a Christian? I think this way. I wish I could
love Miss Pam more free from self-centeredness. I wish our
relationship could be greater because she's a sinner and I'm
a sinner. We're both safe sinners. And
when self-centeredness comes in, there is a lack of fellowship. When that fellowship with the
Lord is restored, there is fellowship one with another. You're headed
for divorce. You're headed for mess in your
marriage if Christ is not the center I can just I can tell
you that 100% sure and this old man's been preaching for 50 years
and I've I've seen a lot of divorces a lot and It always starts with
this a lack of fellowship with Jesus Christ Amen All right, I want to quickly
close here. If we confess our sin, so we've
established the fact we're sinners. So what does the Christian do?
What does the Christian do? And what, pastor, why the little
piece of paper? Because you, Christian, have
been carrying something around that you haven't upchucked yet.
You haven't confessed it. And so you just have this suitcase
full of stuff that you're hauling around. By the way, confession
of sins is not so God will know what you've done. I gotta tell you something, Lord. No, no, no, no. He knows every thought you've
ever had and everything you've ever done. Confession of sin
what a blessing confession of sin. It's for you That your joy
might be complete you can't carry that around forever and by the
way, have you noticed how lying Lying goes along with this whole
thing of losing fellowship If we say we have no sin we lie
and Confession of sin is to give you relief and may release. If we come to God and we confess
it, he's just to forgive us. See, the teaching of the Scripture
is this, that the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing, because
He wants your joy to be complete. So, you need to know this. Okay,
you've sinned, but the blood never loses its power. It just
keeps on cleansing. Even when you haven't up chucked
it yet, even when you haven't Confessed it yet. There's no
condemnation because the blood of Christ speaketh better things
than that of Abel There is an intercessor. You have a lawyer
at the right hand of God. You have an intercessor You have
a mediator at the right hand of God who's never lost a case
You're not going to go to hell You're not going to come into
judgment, but I'm telling you this sin in your life as a Christian
can make life miserable So confess it. Amen. If it's public sin, confess it
publicly. Now what the piece of paper is
for is, I want you to confess it. I want you to leave here
happy. You know what the waste masks
are for? So when you, that's exactly right. I want you to
put the piece of paper in here. And I promise you, it'll go to
the dumpster or somewhere. We'll get rid of it. Let me say
this to you. I thought about this a little
bit just kind of let's say we have magic ink in here today
Don't put anything on the paper But pretend like you are You
know what? I mean, I mean, you know in your
head you can't go like this guy. I can't remember what I've done
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you need a
real commitment. That's why I'm gonna ask you
to come put it in the basket. I You don't have to write anything
on the paper. Just, you know, do like this. You know what it is. I just want
to help you get rid of it. I just want you to leave here
happy. You carrying around some masks? You say, well, if I walk
forward and put it in a basket, they're all gonna know. Yeah,
yeah. We already know. You look at the Christian next
to you, they don't trust you. They don't believe that you've
never sinned. They don't believe that you've
got some things you haven't confessed. They don't believe that. They
know better than that, don't you church? You know better than
that. So what are you carrying around?
In fact, many, many times the lack of joy leads to relapse,
big relapse. You are so miserable, especially
I think I see this in addiction. You are so miserable that you
just cannot stand your present state of life. So you go out
and get low again. And you're worse off now than
you were before because you're carrying all the guilt. I'll
tell you this, what this pastor will do, every person that, and
maybe nobody, maybe, You know, maybe nobody... You have two? And I have a big
one here. You know what? We're going to
stand and sing. Cleanse me, oh Lord. And then
you can just put your piece of paper in here. I was waiting
for you, Dwayne. I trust that you'll leave here
lighter. with more joy in your heart. We've all confessed. Say, well,
pastor, what if I get home and it, you know, I have a relapse. Confess it wherever you are. I almost live in a state of confession. I do. And I'll let you go home with
this. John later on in the book of first John says this That
you might have boldness in the day of judgment The guy down
on the dock I was talking to Said to me, you know pastor said
one of the things I worry about as a Christian is When I have
to stand before God and be judged I said I would worry about that
too if I was going to be judged I But God already judged Christ
in my place. And John says this, I want you
to have confidence in the day of judgment. I want you to boldly
come to the throne of grace. Boldly, how come? Because Jesus
paid it all. because the price of sin has
been paid. Rejoice. Yeah, you're a mess
up. Your pastor's a mess up. We're all mess ups. We confess
it and we go on knowing that all things work together for
good to them that love the Lord. This is a day the Lord's made.
I'll rejoice and be glad in it. I'll tell you this, and then
I promise you can go. I like to tell on myself. I believe that things happen
to me so I can tell you, and when things happen to you, you
can use these things. After a wonderful dinner, went
out to the car, got in the car, and I'm driving along, and my
forefront teeth fell out. I've had a bridge there for nearly
40 years. So I'm eating my teeth, right? And I looked over at Miss Pam
and she goes, honey, what's wrong? Is it your heart or something
like that? I said, no, it's my teeth. All things work together for
good. I thought to myself, I came down here to rest. I'm going
to rest even if I have to twist like this. So I do, in the months ahead,
have to have some extensive oral surgery take place. But you know what? God has a
purpose in those things. Learn to love life because God's
in your life. And there are no accidents with
God. He's in control. And give Him praise and glory.
You ever looked at yourself with your front teeth out It's not
a pretty picture. All right, Greg, you can dismiss
this.