Blessed are the people who know
the joyful sound, the sound of the gospel, the joyful sound. Amazing grace. She just had to say that. She
just had to say that. That's all right here. We're
all right. When you think about God, how do you picture God? What
are your thoughts about God? Revelation 1, that's a good thought. Our God is a happy God. Did you know that? He's a happy
God. I don't think most people, when
they think about God, think about him in that light. Because either
it has not been revealed to them as yet, the gospel, because the
gospel is glad tidings. It's good news. You know, I was
thinking coming over, I said to Ms. Pim, I'm going to talk
about joy. And I've been thinking about
a story in the book of Numbers about Balaam and the ass. And
she said, well, what does that have to do with joy? I said,
because it makes me laugh. And God put it in the Bible.
You know, Balaam was on his way to prophesy against God's people,
which God had told him absolutely do not do. and he was riding
an ass in a clifty place, and God went out to stop him. Actually,
the angel of the Lord, who is Jesus Christ in the Old Testament,
the angel of the Lord stood in the way, and the preacher didn't
see the ass, but the ass saw the angel. I thought that was
pretty funny. You've heard about the dumb ass. This was a pretty smart one,
smarter than the preacher. Saw what the preacher didn't
see. And you remember the ass when he saw the angel, he stopped.
Because had he not stopped, God said, I would have killed you,
the preacher, and saved the ass. And then what is hilariously
funny to me is, that the ass says to the preacher, why did
you hit me? And what's even funnier is when
the ass says, because you balked. Now that's a very unusual story,
I think, and pretty funny. You got the preacher talking
to the ass and the ass talking to the preacher. I'm glad God
put that in there. Yeah, I know my sense of humor
is a little different, but when you read the Word of God, do
you see God as a God who is a far-off or a wrathful God or a legalistic
God? How do you see God? That's my
question today. You probably haven't given it
much thought, but you will leave here thinking about it a bit. Now some of you are going to
judge me a bit and say, I don't think he was right about that.
But our God is a smiley face. Our God smiles a lot. You know
why? Because he's in charge and everything's
all right and right on time. Some of you have probably studied
the great attributes of God, but not this one. The joy of
the Lord. The joy of the Lord. Not necessarily talking about
your joy altogether, but talking about the Lord's joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Most people think of God in terms
of frowning, and he's angry, and he's going to get you if
you don't keep the commandments. But seldom, I think, do people
think about God as the happy God. Think about it. The joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy that God possesses and
experiences himself gives us joy. If you'll think about that
a little bit, you ever seen anybody just hilariously happy? He said,
well, pastor, I don't think, I really don't think God is into
that happening stuff. He's a happy God. Yes, he is. Because in 1 Timothy, Paul says
to young preacher Timothy, your God is a happy God. He says that
in 1 Timothy 1 11. A happy God, blessed or happy. He's the blessed God. He's the
happy God. Does that give you joy? Are you
glad to have a happy God? How would you like to have a
sourpuss God, an angry God, a frowning God? The scripture says this,
that you and I may come boldly to God, to the throne of grace,
because he's gracious, he's merciful. What an awesome God we have.
Think about how good he's been to you, a happy God. Don't you
like to see people laughing? I do. In fact, their happiness
kind of rubs off on me. That's why all of us who are
saved ought to smile a lot. I don't like to be around people
who aren't happy. And the Christian has every reason
to rejoice. In fact, the apostle Paul in
the Philippian letter, chapter three said, rejoice. And again,
I say rejoice. Really the Christian life is
to be a continual life of happiness. Here where Greg read today, Just
an awesome passage of scripture in Nehemiah 8 you remember if
you've read Nehemiah They had returned from captivity rebuilding
the wall and God was doing great things there and Ezra the Prophet
opened the book and in the sight of all the people the Word of
God he opened it and all the people stood up that's where
we get standing up for the hearing of God's Word from the book of
Nehemiah when they heard the word of God they all stood up
with reverence and Ezra blessed the Lord the great God and all
the people said amen amen lifting up their hands and Bowing their
heads they worshiped the Lord with faces to the ground They
worshiped the Lord Verse 8 of the 8th chapter says, So they
read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense
and caused them to understand the reading of the word of God. Now what should it produce? Well,
here's what the Bible says, and Nehemiah Ezra the priest the
scribe and the Levites that taught the people said unto all the
people this day is holy unto the Lord your God Mourn not nor
weep That's why when I come in here and preach the gospel you
ought to not be mourning There ought to be smiles on your face.
That's why I brought our brother up here. You know, we have different
ways of showing joy Right Sometimes we smile sometimes we laugh sometimes
and especially in the house of God. It's very biblical to lift
your hands and When you can't help it even Wanda You know and just for those of
you that this makes nervous first of all if I discern something
is not of the Spirit of God I'm the kind of pastor that will
say sit down and And I'm very careful about not
grieving the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God works in different
ways with different people and uses our personalities and our
backgrounds and especially where He's brought us from. I mean,
if He's brought you out of darkness and now you're walking in the
light, hallelujah, right? There's a joy in your soul. Rejoice in the Lord and and there
in the book of Nehemiah chapter 8 it says and there was very
great gladness. I Hope that you leave here today
that way That nothing stops you from being
glad and happy there is no reason for any of you who have been
brought to the feet of Jesus Christ to leave here sad and
You're on your way to heaven. You're heaven-bound. Nothing
can stop you. Not crack, not heroin. Nothing
can stop you. You're heaven-bound. Not relapse,
not falling off the wagon. God's going to take you all the
way. And he's working everything for your good. Do you have any
reason to be sad? Even your bad stuff, God is at
work in your life. Why are you all looking so sad
today? Don't make me call our brother back up here. He's been ministering to me every
Sunday. He had no idea. I just watch him. And our sound
guy back there, I watch you too. It's all right to be happy in
the Lord. Well, here's what the scripture
says. And the singers sang loud. We sang loud today. It's all
right to sing loud. Praise the Lord. What does that
do for you? Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. You know, it's kind of weird
what we get excited about. We go to a Tigers game. By the
way, they can't beat Cleveland, can they? They just can't beat
Cleveland. But anyway, we go to a Tigers game. We go to a
Lions game occasionally. They win. We get excited. We come to the house of God and
act like somebody died. Well, somebody did die, but he
got up the third day and arose from the grave. It says, also that day they offered
great sacrifices and rejoiced. Joy brings great sacrifices and
great offerings. We've had some great offerings
here on Sunday morning. Thousands of dollars coming in
here on Sunday morning. You know why? People are happy.
People have the happiness of God in them and they give and
it says for God had made them to rejoice with great joy I don't
want to just have Joy, I want to have great joy and I want
you to have great joy And he said the wives also and the children
rejoiced Wouldn't that be something? even the children rejoiced and
I thought about our chimes here, so that the joy of Jerusalem
was heard even afar off. People over in Auburn Hills and
Waterford are going to eventually be, what are those chimes? Ah,
that's that Clark bunch over at Grace Gospel. They're just
always rejoicing. The joy of our God. Say, well,
pastor, I'd like for you to show me some passages. Some of us
have been in church where there wasn't a lot of joy. We were
raised in churches where there wasn't a lot of joy. Occasionally
there was a breakout. I can remember honestly going
to church and in my heart I was praying, I hope this is a happy
day. I used to say this to myself,
I hope dad gets carried away, because my dad was the pastor.
I can remember him preaching on Jubilee. Ooh, he preached
on Jubilee from the Old Testament. I have that somewhere at home.
And there was such happiness and such joy in that church house.
That's what ought to happen when we come into the house of God.
We have enough misery out there, right? We want to hear some good
news, some glad tidings. Well, if you have a magic marker
and you have your own Bible, you ought to highlight this verse. Let's go to the book of Zephaniah. Oh, you haven't been there for
a while, have you? That's page 1163 in my Bible. And here's what this passage
says, talking about the joy of God. The Lord thy God in the
midst of thee." Well, that's something to rejoice about. There's
no need for us to be here if God's not here. God in the midst
of us. Zephaniah 3, 17. God is in the
midst of us. Do you believe it? Do you believe
God's here today? Do you have a sense of the presence
of God in this place? That's a great thing because
there's no need of any of us being here if He's not here.
Nothing's going to happen unless God's here. But think what could
happen if God Almighty filled this place. Think about the men
and women that could come to Christ. Think about your children
that would come to know the Lord. Think about what a happy day.
Think about awakening and revitalization and revival. Think about your
own heart that maybe has slumbered for so long and you've lost the
joy of his salvation and it's been restored. Be a happy day,
wouldn't it? Be a happy day. The Lord thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. That's my message. That's the message of the Bible.
Not he's trying to save. His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save. I love the shalls of God, don't
you? Jesus is not a defeated, depressed savior. He's a winner. Always. He always wins. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and I give unto them eternal life And they shall never
perish and because of his joy and his success. You're a winner
Amen Now I got into this verse this
week he will rejoice over thee with joy And well, I thought
well, what does that mean? It's a double something He will
rejoice over thee with joy. It's kind of like the apostle
Paul in Romans 7, when he said, oh, the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. What does that mean? Oh, the
exceeding sinfulness of sin. But here it's, he will rejoice
over thee with joy. It's like saying it twice, joy. So I looked up this word rejoice
in the Hebrew, and guess what it means? Dancing properly to
spin around under the influence of any violent emotion. Violent emotion. God is dancing. Well, where I come from, in the
Baptist church. You're going straight to hell.
No dancing. But God is dancing. Because of a violent emotion,
you say. Well, I didn't know God had emotion.
I don't know about all that. Maybe you know more about God
than me. But here he's doing the Yahweh. I thought about that last night.
God's doing the Yahweh. Because of violent emotion, violent
love, violent joy, violent happiness, he expresses it this way. Yahweh. I know now some of you are going
to come up and say, I was doing the Yahweh this week. Be imitators of God. He's a happy
God. I know you haven't heard this
kind of preaching. I know that. And I missed out
on it too. Now I'm not talking about where
people go all crazy over there. There's no orderliness. And listen,
our God is a God of order, but he's also a God of joy. And don't
ever forget that. I mean, we have enough to be
unhappy about as we go out into the world tomorrow, you're going
to hear and see all kinds of things. The British people decided
they want to be British again and things are changing over
there. All kinds of things are happening. But our God is in charge and
he's a happy God. Now, what would he sing over
us? I mean, I really, do you ever
question these things? He will joy over thee with singing. When he sees Dave here, who is
a complete mess, like me, He looks at us and God
breaks out in song. Well, what's he going to sing?
How great Dave is. He's not going to sing how great
he is, but he's going to sing because of the joy of his own
soul and his own heart. He knows he's God almighty. He
knows he's sovereign. He knows he reigns. He knows
he's going to save his children. He's a happy God. So many questions. I do want
to know him. Boy, to know him is to love him. And to know him is to have joy
yourself. Think about this. Oh, how he
joys in his elective purpose, in the reality of his people,
having been elected, redeemed, called, justified, glorified. The Scripture says that He even
went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He endured
the cross, the sufferings of the cross. And you know what
that passage in Hebrews means? It has the connotation of like
a mother who travails in birth, the great agony and pain of giving
birth. And I've seen that transformation
where it's It's the closest to death a woman ever comes to without
dying. And then she gives birth and
suddenly that slimy little thing is put on her belly and she's
going like, isn't she beautiful? And I'm going, yuck. You know
what I mean? For the joy that was set before
him. He endured the cross. You know, he went to the cross
willingly for you. It was a joyous thing. He was
about to save his people from their sins. Can you imagine what
he felt when he cried, it's finished, it's done, it's accomplished? That was a cry of joy. I don't
know how it, I mean, to break it down, I guess you could say
he was saying, I did it, I bought them, I paid for them, there's
no condemnation for them, no judgment for them, they're mine
and I'm theirs. Think about what he's done for
you. And he's happy about it. You ever do things for your children
and you're happy because you were able to do it? Think about
this. He brought you from darkness
to light, from death to life, from the grave to glory, from
hell to heaven, from Lodibar to the new Jerusalem, from sinking
sands to the solid rock. It's very good, this thing that
God has done for you. You should have been dead sleeping
in your grave. Some of you have OD'd four times,
and here you are in the house of God, saved, born of the Spirit
of God. And those of us who have not
relapsed into drugs, oh, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it, prone
to leave the God I love. You could have deserted the ship
a long time ago, except He persevered in you, and you could not leave. Think about how excited he is
about his gospel. It's the joyful sound. It's good
news. It's glad tidings. It's a completed
work. It's finished, accomplished.
It's a done deal. You ought to be happy about that
too. You see, propitiation has been
made. Satisfaction has been rendered. Justice has been satisfied. And
happy are those who recognize the good news. Let me tell you
this. If you're trusting Jesus Christ
as your Lord and your Savior today, flesh and blood has not
revealed it unto you, but the Father which is in heaven. You
have eyes to see. You see the beauty of Christ.
You're leaning on Christ. You're trusting Christ alone.
God has opened your eyes. Isn't that something? He rejoices
over conversion. You see that throughout the scripture.
He's a joyful God. He even tells us about this boy
who took all his inheritance and ran off to a city and spent
it in riotous living and ended up in the hog pen. Ooh. You ever been behind in traffic
a truckload of hogs? Think about where that boy had
been. And one day he came to himself and he didn't come to
himself by himself. He was drawn there by the Holy
Spirit of God, where he saw himself and he said, I know what I'll
do. I'll go back home. I love this. And when he was
a great way off, it's as if the father has been watching. and
looking for him. First, it's a speck, just a dot.
And as he gets closer, he sees it's the prodigal son. And he
runs out. And the verb form here in the
Greek is he threw his arms around him. And here's what the Bible
says, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed
him, and he kissed him. He did the Yahweh. because his son that was lost
had come home. The Bible says there's rejoicing
in heaven when one sinner repents. Heaven is a happy place. He's a happy God. The lost sheep. The stories in the Bible are
happy stories. There were 99 safe in the foal,
but there was one missing. He tracked that lost sheep down
over the mountains of vanity and through the slew of humanity.
And he lay hold on that lost sheep and brought that lost sheep
home. And the Bible says there was
great rejoicing because he had found his sheep. Do you know
that a happy God is on your trail? I know I'm speaking to some in
here. You're as lost as a goose. You find your joy in the streets,
in the crack house, using drugs. Some of you just in the bottle
trying to find your joy. It's not there. It's not there. And you're lost. But there is
a seeking happy God who's on your trail. He's got his eye on you. His
eye is on the sparrow and he watches over you. He's the hound
of heaven, even speaking to you today. I didn't know God was
a happy God. I thought he was out to get me.
I thought he was going to slap me. I thought he was going to
send me to hell. I deserve to go to hell. We know all that.
But the good news is where sin did abound, grace did much more
abound. He's able to deliver you and
save you. Now, what does Nehemiah mean
when he says, the joy of the Lord is our strength? Well, twofold,
God's joy and our joy. We have a happy God, that's our
strength. I guarantee you, if you're not happy today, you're
pretty weak. You're pretty weak. You don't
have a reason to get up in the morning, you're pretty weak.
If you're living another day, another dollar, you're pretty
weak. You're a life sucks person. You're depressed. Another day,
another dollar. Good Lord, it's morning. I wish
I could go back to sleep. No, good morning, Lord. This
is a day the Lord's made. I will rejoice and be glad in
it. I'm talking to somebody today.
His joy rubs off on you. I was thinking this week about
the scripture says, Enoch, walk with God. I thought, I want to
walk too. I want to walk with God. And
I get to. Sometimes, you know, he's not
a God who's a far off to me. It's not like I haven't had past
times like that, but not anymore. He's a present God. He walks
with me and talks with me a long life's narrow way. I serve a
risen Savior. Enoch walked with God and walked
right out of this world. Wouldn't it be something? You're
walking along, you're so happy you can't stand it. Next thing
you know, you look down and you're on streets of gold. You're looking
at pearly gates. Enoch walked right out of here,
right out of this Lodibart, right out of this slough with Jesus
walking with them, right into the presence of glory. That's
the way I want to leave here. That's the way I want to leave
here. Have you ever thought about this? Mary sat at Jesus' feet. What was that like? You know, with Jesus and sitting
at his feet comes revelation. You don't know how much God loves
you. Not yet. And you won't. Because it's going
to take any... I'm about to get happy now. It's
going to take an eternity for God to show you how good He's
been to you. While the ages pile themselves
one on top of another, Wanda, God is going to say, I loved
you then, I loved you then, I was there, I was taking care of you,
I brought you all this way, taking you all the way to heaven, and
now revealing. Some of you say things like this
in your town. You know, I almost died. You didn't almost die because
He was there. Prevenient grace that's grace
before grace. That's grace on top of grace
That's what God does Acts 13 52 says this and the disciples
were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit Huh? The fruit of the Spirit is joy
What's wrong? You don't have joy What's wrong? There's no reason for us not
to be full of joy. I except we think wrong, we look
wrong, and we're not having fellowship with our Lord. The closer you
get to Him, the happier you are. I just promise you, the happier
you are. You ever been in church? Maybe
when you was a child, you're just so bored with church. Church
shouldn't be a boring place. It ought to be a happy place,
a place you want to come to and you want to be. You know, this
is a scripture too. The apostle Paul talked about
being filled with the fullness of God. That's what Paul talked
about. Do you want that? To be filled
with the fullness of God? If you're filled with the fullness
of God, who is joy, you'll be full of joy. He said, well, pastor,
you know, I don't have a job and I don't have money and I
don't have a house and I don't have a car. I don't have that.
You know what the problem is? Get close to him. That joy will
be there. You know, a joyous man is a strong
man. A joyous man. You think about
what, I come up those steps today and I thought to myself, you're
about to change. I mean, I was talking to the
steps. I do that, you're about to change.
I saw a few of you snuck into the parking lot. Pretty soon,
all of you will be able to park in the parking lot. because our
God is changing things here and in this city. You know what joy leads to? Great
praise. You can't praise God if you're
not happy. You're sitting around complaining, but it's when you
get in this mode. I was half devil and half beast,
and he came to me. When I would not come to him,
he came to me. He sought me out of my lodibar. He brought me as a lost sheep
back to the fold. He washed me in his precious
blood. He redeemed me. He called me
irresistible to himself. He granted me faith when I had
no faith. Oh, he's a great God. I'm heaven
bound, nothing can separate me from his love. And then all kinds
of things began to happen. Joy always leads to sacrifice,
always. Nearly $400,000 was given to
the Art Van Challenge on our behalf. I'm not talking about
the 100,000 we won, I'm talking about the 400,000 that caused
us to win. $400,000. That doesn't happen without joy. Somebody saw God at work in Grace
Centers and it caused them to give. All of you takers who are
here and all of you who are on entitlement and all of that thing
you think you've lost something there. Joy. You're always complaining. Always something wrong there.
No Christian ought to be complaining. Amen. We ought to be rejoicing. You can be as poor as Job's turkey. And say this, I know my Redeemer
liveth, though the skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God. I shall see God for myself and
not another. Yeah, but mama said curse God
and die. Makes no difference. Yeah, but
all your children are gone. Your camels, your asses, your
land, your health is gone. I know my Redeemer liveth. Amen. Joy of the Lord is our strength. You're gonna go through some
things. but if Jesus goes with me, I'll go. Amen. And I can go with a smile on
my face, knowing that he's working everything out. I see it. I'm so glad I see it. I'm so
glad he's revealed it to me. Some of you so down. Let me tell
you this. Some of you not married. You're
happy. I mean, some of you are not married. We're gonna have a wedding here
pretty soon today. After service, we're gonna have a wedding. But
some of you truly, honestly, you're thinking like this, you're
so lonely. You're not alone. And God gives the desires of
our heart. Ask God for a mate, a good one,
a Christian, a saved person. Have you given up on tomorrow?
I'm excited about tomorrow. I'm excited about tomorrow because
I know God is going to do something new and fresh and wonderful tomorrow. I know He is. You say, well,
how do you know? Well, look what He's already
done. And then I think about this.
You know, this is really no big deal for God. So we'll look at
that. We bought, you know, we bought
the saloon and you know, it's paid for and look at all clutch
cargo and look at, you know, parking lot, women and children's
center. And look at everything that's,
you know, look at that. Wow. Wait a minute. Think about it this way. Don't
ever get to the place where you think God's at the end of the
road and there's no more miracles and no more great things. He's the one that stepped out
of eternity and said, let there be light. And there was, and
it was so, and it was very good. He's a happy God. He's a victorious
God. I want to say to you today, little
old nobody you, little alley rat, who've lived with poking
needles in your arm, sniffing stuff up your nose, pouring things
down your throat, trying to find joy, you'll never find it there.
But I want to tell you where there is joy unspeakable and
full of glory. It's at the feet of Jesus Christ,
entrusting him as your Lord and Savior. I want you to trust him
today. Say, well, pastor, can I venture
on what you say? Venture. I encourage you to,
I double dog dare you to venture on Jesus Christ, to trust Him,
to believe on Him, to receive Him as Lord and Savior, and thou
shalt be saved, I promise you. Let's stand together and praise
our God.