The Gospel of Joy

The gospel of joy, the gospel of joy. I'm using the King James Version tonight on the gospel of John chapter 15. We'll read one verse here and then we'll come back to it later.

These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. Now go with me to Ezra.

You'll find that by turning to Psalms and going left. And you'll come after, you'll come to Esther and Nehemiah and then Ezra. Ezra chapter 6, Ezra chapter 6, picking up at verse 19.

And the children of the captivity kept the Passover upon the 14th day of the first month. For the priest and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure. And killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity and for their brother and the priest and for themselves.

And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel, they did eat the Passover. They did eat. And in addition, verse 22, they kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy.

For the Lord had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. And then I'll read to you also Nehemiah, the 8th chapter and the 10th verse. Then he said unto them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.

For this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Hallelujah. The gospel of joy.

Shall we pray? Our Father, tonight we pray that you would again take the word of God and pierce our hearts. Hallelujah. Lord, accomplish what you want tonight in this meeting.

Once again, Lord, be faithful unto us. Anoint thy servant, anoint thy people. Draw us close to you, Lord, tonight.

Give us an understanding of this truth, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of joy.

Listen, as I read Psalms 511, you don't need to turn to it, but listen. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them even shout for joy because thou defendest them.

Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. Now, this book is full of joy. Joy is the privilege, it's the characteristic of every forgiven, blood-bought, sanctified child of God.

If you don't have joy in your life, something is wrong with you. And if you have Jesus, you have joy. Now, if you have true joy, the source of it will be from Jesus, or else you have what you think is joy, but in fact is just some fleeting emotion.

It's just some joy-pop religion. Galatians 5.22 says, but the fruit of the Spirit is what? It's love, it's joy, it's peace, it's long-suffering, it's gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance. Now, joy is not just an emotion, although at times when you have joy, you will get emotional, some of us or some of you more than other people.

But joy is not just an emotion, joy is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a characteristic, a fruit of walking in the Spirit. Now, you'll note from Galatians that it says that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and in fact all nine of them are referred singularly.

It's not fruits of the Spirit, but it's singular. It's fruit, which means that if we are walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, then we will have the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit manifested in nine different ways, one of which is joy, hallelujah. And let me ask you tonight, do you have the fruit of joy in your life? Is the joy of the Lord your strength tonight? You know, the Lord has given me a fresh and a new understanding of joy like I've never experienced it before.

Our solution is not to vote the right man into the White House. We've got to get the right man and woman in the pulpit and the pew whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night because God said, that is the man who prospers. He, and whatever he does, whatever that man does, he prospers.

God always calls the church and the ministry to account first before the rest of the nation. How often we quote 2 Chronicles 6, 24 and 25, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, shall confess my name and pray and make supplication before me in heaven, then I will hear in heaven and forgive the sin of thy people. And how many times I've seen that taken to apply to the nation or to the government, to the White House.

David received an invitation from a pastor, a pastor of one of the largest churches in America, asking if he would be on a committee to rally together people to go to Washington and call the nation to repentance. And David wrote back and he said, no I won't do it until first of all we gather the church and the pastors together and call pastors to repentance. And what Chronicles says, first of all, this is misquoted, it's applied to the nation, it's applied to the sinner, and God applied it to the church.

He said, if thy people Israel will humble themselves and call upon me and ask forgiveness for their sin, then I will hear from heaven. So confession must begin in the church and particularly in the pulpit. And if there's any one primary reason for famine today in all segments of our society is because there is an absence of the word of God in the church.

That's one of the reasons, another reason among others, to get rid of your sin and get rid of unrighteousness so that God can put in its place the joy of your salvation. Hallelujah. You see, when you break God's laws, you rob yourself of joy among other things.

You remember that when God gave Moses, had Moses institute the Ten Commandments, he said to his people, he said, obey these and no harm will come to you. Obey these and you'll be a happy people. Now God did not institute his commandments because he wants to be a killjoy.

In fact, he said in the keeping of these is great reward. Now let me say something, and if you don't get anything else tonight, please get this. If you go away with nothing else, please at least go away with this.

God's laws, God's word, God's laws are not only good because God gave them, God gave them because they are good for us. Let me say that again. Sometimes we hear preachers preach and we say, well God said it, that settles it, you better believe it.

As if it's some arbitrary thing that he just wants to come down and he wants to, you know, we had a man in our church one time, my father pastored, and he was rebelling against the Lord and he would, the enemy had gotten a hold of him and he would be demonstrative in the meeting. It was an evil spirit that was on him and he was disrupting the service. And one day my father saw it and came back and asked for some of the deacons to come and help and nobody moved.

The only one that moved was an unsaved man in the service to come and help my dad. And he prayed for him and rebuked the spirit and tried to get the man to cooperate, but he wouldn't. And finally they ushered him out of the meeting and a dear old sister came over, had a great big black Bible, never forget it as long as I live.

She came over and she hit him right over the top of the head. She said, believe the word brother, believe the word. You see God has not given us his word to hit us over the head and say you got to obey this as if he wants to take joy out of your life.

No, listen to what Psalms 19, 7 and 8 says. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony or scriptures of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. You see God had our protection and our best interest in mind when he gave us the law and the testimony and the statutes and the commandments.

And he says that they're not only good because he gave them, he gave them because they're good for us, because when you obey them you rejoice in your heart and the keeping of them is great reward. Hallelujah. Let me give you a simple illustration.

You may not believe this or not, but the traffic lights in New York are there for your protection. Now I realize that for most of the cab drivers and some other people they're only suggestions as is the word of God to a lot of people. But you know why those traffic lights are there? For our protection.

Go ahead and break the law. Go ahead and take your independence. Go ahead and rebel.

And say, okay, I'll drive. I don't feel like driving on the road. They were desperately hungry, starving men who decided it was about time to make a move.

Why sit we here till we die, they said. Now asking that question changed their lives and saved their lives. They decided to make a move in faith.

Now you see some people have only themselves to blame for their hunger and their lack. They sit till they die. They get accustomed to a dying situation.

And I've seen people who will hold on and will hold on and will hold on and I can never understand it. They go to church. Who likes to go to a funeral every Sunday? And if it's not a funeral, it's a three ring circus.

One of the sisters that's in our church, and I shared this testimony and I asked her permission to share it. She said, you know, before, she's known us and known our family for many years and knew that we were coming to Times Square. And she began to pray about whether she should join us or not.

And she's been here from day one, but before we came, she prayed about it. And I appreciate it. We have people who come and say, look, I've been coming, but I'm praying that God will direct me.

And so she did because she had been in her church for many, many years, faithful to her church. And as she was contemplating this decision, she started to read this. And she came to these four leprous men and God spoke to her and said to her heart, why sit you here till you die? And she said, amen.

And she said, that does it. I've made my decision. Now we've said this before.

We're not trying to steal sheep away from other churches. If you have a good church and you're being fed there and you're coming here to a visit occasionally, we're not trying to pray.