by Berni Dymet The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength So many people are struggling to find happiness, when what they re really looking for, is joy.

by Berni Dymet The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength So many people are struggling to find happiness, when what they re really looking for, is joy.

the joy of the Lord is your strength by berni dymet

Published by Christianityworks Berni Dymet 1st edition - Published 2015 Except where otherwise indicated in the text, the scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover design: Mariah Reilly Design, Sydney Australia We gratefully acknowledge the creative contribution of Mariah Reilly in the cover design of this book. Printed by: Creative Visions Print & Design, Warrawong, NSW, Australia No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without prior written permission. Christianityworks Australia: PO Box 1729 BONDI JUNCTION NSW 1355 p: 1300 722 415 United Kingdom: PO Box 201 CHESSINGTON KT9 9BX p: 0800 078 6565 India: PO Box 1602 SECUNDERABAD - 500 003 Andhra Pradesh p: 91-9866239170 e: ekommu@christianityworks.com w: christianityworks.com e: info@christianityworks.com

CONTENTS 1. Why are people leading joyless lives 1 2. What exactly is joy? 9 3. The joy of the Lord 17 4. The word of God 25 5. Celebration as a way of life 33

CHAPTER 1 WHY ARE PEOPLE LEADING JOYLESS LIVES? On a scale of zero to ten, how much are you enjoying your life? No, really I m serious! How much are YOU enjoying YOUR life from zero to ten? I ve just come back from a couple of weeks of vacation. As much as I love doing what I do, man it s nice to get away and just rest and sleep and enjoy some time with my wife. We travelled to one of my favourite countries in the world New Zealand (as an Aussie, I don t like telling the Kiwis that too often, but what an amazing place!!!) It was just so special to be able to relax you know what I mean? I have to tell you though that getting back into the harness of work, well, 1

it wasn t easy the first few days. My body was kind of objecting to this notion of having to get up early again and stump up to work. No doubt you ve been there too, those first few days back at work no matter how much you happen to enjoy your job they re not easy. It s like a severe dose of Mondayitis. It s funny, isn t it, how our feelings and our responses to our environment go up and down; how much we re influenced by the externalities of what s going on in our lives. It s pretty easy to enjoy life when you re kicking back and taking a break. But when the pressures of life come crowding back into your life, well, it gets harder and harder. We all have pressures. I do and you do. They come in all different shapes and sizes. Of course there s always some amount of pressure associated with work. Relationships are a big source of pressure I was just praying with a man on the phone the other day for healing in his relationships with his wife and daughter. Our own perceptions of things, the way we see things that in itself can cause pressure a sense of insecurity, or inadequacy. Perhaps someone s marriage isn t going particularly well, or they re feeling as though no one needs them, or people need them too much it s a pretty long list. 2

And in the middle of all that, many people end up feeling like battery hens, just churning it out, grinding it out, day after day, without much of a sense of meaning or purpose or achievement. I m not saying that everyone s life is like that, but there s something about the modern-day human condition, the pace of life, the demands of life, the pressures of life, that drains the joy out of life. And that, I think, is why so many people are living joyless lives. I wonder if I were able to get a show of hands from all the people around the world who are reading this booklet, how many would consider their lives, their hearts, to be full of joy; overflowing with joy? I wonder how many people would put their hands up in the air to that one. You know what I suspect? A few hands would go up a few but not all that many. The words joy and rejoice and all their various derivatives, together appear around 370 times in the Bible. That s rather a lot. That makes it rather an important subject. And as I read my Bible, what I discover that is joy is something that God wants us to have. Not just in those happy times in life, but during the difficult times of life as well. 3

i The words joy and rejoice and all their various derivatives, together appear around 370 times in the Bible. That s rather a lot. That makes it rather an important subject the joy of the Lord is your strength 4

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. ( James 1:24) Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4 written by the Apostle Paul on death row, in a Roman dungeon, chained to his guard) If I were to give you a choice between a life that is full to overflowing with joy, and one that isn t, it s pretty obvious which one you d choose, right? And so you have to ask yourself, given that joy in our lives, yours and mine, is such an incredibly high priority for God, given all that He s put about the subject in His Living Word, the Bible why is it that so many people, people who believe in Jesus with all their hearts, are living such joyless lives? Hmm? Why is that? Is it because God s joy isn t available to us? No, that s not it. Because the Bible says: That the kingdom of God isn t a matter of food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17) 5

So it can t be that. Clearly, God wants us to experience His Joy in an abundant measure, when we enter in and live in the Kingdom of God. In fact one of the equal shortest verses in the whole Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 says this: Rejoice always! You know, I travel a lot around the world in my role, meeting with church leaders, visiting churches, speaking at churches, participating in worship services. So, as far as having a representative cross section of God s kingdom (a statistically valid sample size if you will), I have a pretty good one. And even taking into account the enormous cultural differences in the expressions of worship in different countries from say a Ghanaian service where they were dancing in conga lines down the aisle of the church, to a much more conservative service in say, a place like India, where in many churches, men sit on one side of the church and women on the other taking all that into account, I am so struck by the absence of joy in so many places; in so many churches; in so many of the Christians that I have met and with whom I have interacted. I remember, just recently, being asked to speak at rather a large church, at an important occasion for that church, and sitting on the platform waiting to 6

get up to speak, watching the leaders, and the bishops, all dressed in their finery, sitting across from me during the time of worship with the look of abject boredom on their faces. What s the matter with us people? Why are we living such joyless lives? What s going on in the Kingdom of God? Hmm? The joy of the Lord is your strength. It s a quote from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. Let s just consider that scripture at face value. The joy of the Lord is your strength. So many people who love Jesus feel helpless and weak in situations of temptation and in the middle of the pressures of life. You can feel like you re being blown to and fro, like a tiny boat on an angry ocean. Ever felt that? And you wonder, where am I going to get the strength to make it through this, right? The answer is that you get your strength from the joy of the Lord. From God s very own joy. Because when you re enjoying God when you re really, really enjoying your relationship with Jesus you know, He fills you with such incredible strength. With such amazing power, that you wonder wow, where did that come from? Clearly, the Bible teaches that strength is a byproduct of joy. And if that s true, if that s really the 7

case, then having the joy of the Lord happening in you, isn t just some optional extra. It s not the icing on the cake not at all. It s the foundation of your whole life in the kingdom of God. So if maybe you re not one of the people who s able to stick their hand in the air in response to the question, Is the joy of the Lord filling you to overflowing?, if you, right now, can t answer a resounding yes to that question, then stick with me throughout this booklet The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength as we discover how to remove the roadblocks to joy and how to be filled to overflowing, with the joy of the Lord. 8

CHAPTER 2 WHAT EXACTLY IS JOY? When we think of joy, you and I, we think of happiness, of fun and of pleasure. We imagine that joy is something that happens when all the pressures, all the cares of this world are lifted off our shoulders. Then, finally, we can enjoy life. But what if I told you that s not it at all. One of the things that I love doing, is to watch advertisements on TV and analyse what it is that they re actually selling, and what it is that they re actually promising. One of the big new trends in holiday travel is cruising on big, opulent ocean liners. Of course there s nothing new in that. Cruising has been around for a long time. But it s had resurgence, and there are so many advertisements on TV, on Facebook, in the print media, about cruising. 9

There s nothing wrong with that, but I m interested in the advertisements that depict happy couples enjoying each other s company on a beautiful ocean liner. Cruise with this line, and you ll experience romance and intimacy. Or they show kids having fun, while the parents relax by the pool, or go out for a sophisticated dining experience. As I ve analysed these ads, it seems to me that what they re promising, is happiness. That s the end product. The ship, the relaxation, the rest, the exotic experiences, the entertainment are all steppingstones to the final brand promise of happiness. Smiling faces. Fun. Enjoyment. In fact, that s the case with most of the advertisements for most of the products that you see or hear. Not all of them mind you, but most of them. The end product, the commodity that they re peddling isn t the product or the service that they re advertising. What they re actually selling, most of them, is happiness. So I went to my dictionary to check out the meaning of these three words: happiness, fun, and joy. This is what I found. The dictionary explanation of happiness is this: the state of being happy. Okay, what does it mean to be happy? It is apparently a feeling of pleasure or 10

contentment. Fair enough, so what then is the definition of fun something that we associate with happiness? It s enjoyment, amusement, light-hearted pleasure. So far, so good. Then finally I decided to check out my dictionary for a definition of joy. Joy, we re told, is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. And you know, that fits pretty well with our understanding that happiness, fun and joy, are all pretty much the same thing, or if not exactly the same, then very closely related. In fact, in our language we often use happiness and joy interchangeably. When something makes us happy, we would say that we enjoyed it, right? That s the common understanding. That s the world s understanding. But what if I told you that that s an understanding that is diametrically opposed 180 degrees the opposite to what God tells us about joy. Firstly, the word joy and its various derivatives, appears around 370 times in the Bible. On the other hand, happy and its various derivatives appear only 26 times in the Bible. Big difference. Empirically what that tells me is that God isn t interested so much in my happiness, what He wants for me is His joy. Interestingly in one verse, the two words appear together: 11

For the Jews, it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honour (Esther 8:16) So clearly, the two words have different meanings, otherwise there d be no need to put them both in the one sentence. Now you and I know what happiness is. Sometimes we re happy, sometimes we re sad. When are we happy? When things are going our way. When we have a good experience. When we re praised or promoted. When we re involved in something that s fun. When we have something good to look forward to, like a holiday on one of those cruise ships. Happiness, by and large, is a response to our circumstances. We re sad when bad things happen. When we lose a loved one, when someone tramples on our emotions and so on, right? There s happy and there s sad totally! But if that s our understanding of joy; the joy that God promises us; the joy of the Lord that the Bible talks about, then we re completely missing the point. If that s our understanding of what joy is, then this Scripture simply doesn t make sense: My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have 12

its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. ( James 1:2-4) It doesn t make sense, because you can t be happy whenever your facing a trial, right? When things are tough, it s impossible to be happy, and yet God here, is telling us to consider a trial as nothing but joy. The New Testament Greek word that most often we tend to translate into the word joy, the one used here in this passage, comes from the same root word as grace. That word is chara from which we get the word charismatic, for instance. In other words, the concepts of grace and joy are fundamentally linked. Grace is a free gift from God. And joy is one of the most powerful expressions, manifestations and results of God s grace. So in sharp contrast to our worldly understanding of joy being synonymous with happiness, what God means when He promises us His joy is a free gift from Him. Let s get this straight. Happiness is a reflection of, and our response to, what s going on around us. Happiness comes from the world. Joy on the other hand is a free gift from God. And that is why you can have joy, even when circumstances are against you. The joy of the Lord and the happiness of this world are profoundly different things. 13

i Let s get this straight. Happiness is a reflection of, and our response to, what s going on around us. Happiness comes from the world. Joy on the other hand is a free gift from God the joy of the Lord is your strength 14

God s joy is born out of His love for us. And as a Father who loves you, His compassion for you, when you re hurting, when the pressures of this world are seemingly going to crush you, is unbelievable. And that s why, right in those difficult times, He will give you the gift of His joy at the very time that the happiness of this world deserts you. That s why the joy of the Lord truly is your strength. It s amazing actually, how often (in the Bible) joy is spoken about in times of suffering. You see, in our human understanding, suffering and joy don t go together, because after all, we use joy and happiness interchangeably and it simply doesn t make sense that you could possibly be happy while you re suffering and you can t! But joy that s a whole different thing. Have a read of these scriptures: Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. (Romans 12:12) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be 15

revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:3-7) God s joy is different from the world s happiness. God s joy is profoundly and infinitely better than the world s happiness because it comes from Him and not the world. And so the joy of the Lord is reliable, it is powerful and it is freely available, irrespective of the circumstances that we re immersed in. That s why the joy of the Lord is your strength. 16

CHAPTER 3 THE JOY OF THE LORD Where do you get your joy from? Where do you get your strength from? How do you get what you need to cope with the challenges and the pressures of life? It seems to me that there are two possible answers to those questions. We can either go to the world, or we can go to God. I wonder, which one of these is likely to have what you re looking for? The joy of the Lord isn t an idea that I ve come up with, it s something that the Bible talks about. And that phrase, the joy of the Lord, is a phrase that appears only once in the Bible. It s in the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah, Chapter 8, so we re going to take a look at that in much more detail right now. Because it s one thing to talk 17

about it, but it s another thing altogether to experience it day to day in our lives. But before we go there, let s just recap on the important, the profound difference between happiness and joy. Because unless we get that difference, the rest of our discussion about the joy of the Lord, will, I suspect, miss the mark. Remember that happiness is our response to our circumstances. We re happy when our circumstances please us, when things are going our way. We re happy when we feel blessed, when we feel loved, when we feel valued, when we have enough to eat and enough to drink. Happiness is our emotional reflection of positive circumstances, and so happiness is of this world. It s not a bad thing, don t get me wrong, but it s a fleeting thing. Because our circumstances aren t always in our favour, are they? So happiness deserts us when we need it most, when the going gets tough. Joy, on the other hand, is a gift from God. The Bible talks a lot about joy, and remember, the Greek words for joy and for grace, are almost identical. They come from the same root word, meaning that joy is the free gift of God. And the reason that the Bible can so often talk about joy in the context of suffering is that joy doesn t desert you, when the 18

going gets tough. On the contrary, the joy of the Lord is actually your strength. That s an important difference and that brings me to Chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah, where we are introduced to this concept of the joy of the Lord being our strength. So here s the situation. Israel has not long returned to Jerusalem following a 70 year exile in Babylon as slaves. When they get back, by God s grace they discover (not surprisingly) that Jerusalem has been destroyed, it s been 70 years after all. The most important thing is to rebuild the wall that surrounds the city to protect it from attack. That s where Nehemiah comes in, God anointed him to lead that massive effort and they ve just finished. Now this wall was about 4 km or 2 ½ miles long, not so bad you think but wait for it, it was over 10 metres or 40 feet high, and thick enough not to be destroyed by enemies who would come against the city with gates and watch towers and battlements built into it. For over three years, the Israelites had been slaving to build this wall by hand, moving massive stones remember, there were no cranes, or trucks, or power tools. These people had been slogging their guts out for God and for the city. And the easiest thing in the world is to lose your joy when 19

you re doing that. So, let s pick up the story: All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash- baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. 20

Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:1-10) That s a pretty amazing story from a number of perspectives and it s a story that we re going to unpack because there are some powerful truths in there about how to lay hold of the joy of the Lord. 21

The first, and most amazing thing is that the people stood there in the square for several hours, to listen to the Word of God being read or preached. Man, I know churches, these days, where if the preacher goes over his allotted 25 minutes, everyone starts getting twitchy. So, they got everyone together, the whole city and they listened to the Torah, the law of God, being proclaimed and explained and it cut them so deeply to the heart, that they wept. It moved them so deeply that it cut them to the quick. I wonder how many of us have ever linked a real heart for God s Word with deep joy in our lives. I wonder. So now, let me ask you, how much of God s joy do you experience on a day-to-day basis in your life? Would you describe yourself as someone who is overflowing with the joy of the Lord, or, at the other end of the scale, as someone for whom the joy of the Lord seems to elude you? On a scale of zero to ten, how much of the joy of the Lord do you actually experience for real in your life? That s the first question. The second one is this. How often do you read your Bible and engage with God s Word, think about it, pray about it, ponder it, set about living it? Again on a scale of zero to ten zero is almost never, ten is every day. 22

i Right, so you ve scored your level of joy and you ve scored your Bible reading patterns. And if I were a betting man, which I m not, but if I were, I d be prepared to bet that there s a very close correlation between the two. Am I right? the joy of the Lord is your strength 23

Right, so you ve scored your level of joy and you ve scored your Bible reading patterns. And if I were a betting man, which I m not, but if I were, I d be prepared to bet that there s a very close correlation between the two. Am I right? And the reason for that is that God speaks to us primarily through His Word, the Bible the living Word of God. It s not the only way, by the way, that He speaks to us. The Bible itself tells us about the many ways that God speaks to His people. But it s the main way, the most important way. And if the joy of the Lord comes from, well the Lord, from God Himself, and you and I aren t listening to Him speak to His Word then why are we at all surprised that we don t experience His joy, hmm? 24

CHAPTER 4 THE WORD OF GOD Joy is such a precious commodity I m not talking about the fleeting emotion of happiness, I m talking about the abiding gift of God s joy to carry you through the tough times too. And there is one place, more than any other that you ll find it. Are you ready? In the previous chapter, we joined the nation of Israel, at a time in their history when joy was, apparently, in short supply. And understandably so. The rejoicing that they d experienced on returning to Jerusalem after 70 years in slavery and exile in Babylon, had probably worn off a little, because they d spent several years building a massive 40 foot high, thick defensive wall around the city. 25

Hard work, exhausting work, as they laboured by hand, day after day for years, to build their defences. So their leader in this venture, a man by the name of Nehemiah, called everyone together, and under the Scribe Ezra had them engage with God s Word, not just a little, but a lot. Let s quickly recap on part of the story. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. (Nehemiah 8:3) Early in the morning, let s be kind and say that that was around 8 am (although it was probably earlier even than that). So these people, men, women and teenagers (those who could understand) stood there for at least 4 hours listening to God s Word being proclaimed in their midst. Now, in some parts of the world that s hardly remarkable. I ve been to plenty of 5-hour church services in India. But in other parts of the world, comfortable western countries in particular, that s unbelievable. What was Nehemiah thinking? What was Ezra doing? 26

Well, as a leader, Nehemiah had the wisdom to know that the people had been slaving away, day after day, in hard labour to build this massive structure. And when you re working that hard for that long, the joy, the peace, the life drains out of you. You ve been there, right? You re doing good things, but they re draining you and you turn around, only to discover that there s no joy left inside you. And when you re joyless, you become weak. I mean, it s easy to keep on keeping on at something that you really enjoy. But something that you don t enjoy, it s amazing how the strength, the resolve drains out of you, isn t it? My wife recently decided that for health reasons she would start drinking dandelion tea. Not sure what it s supposed to do for you, not sure how much scientific evidence there is that it s good for you, but that s what she decided. Now, have you ever tasted or smelled dandelion tea? Well, I did, just once. It s disgusting!!! Really. Whenever she drinks it, she screws her whole face up. I can guarantee you one thing it s not going to last long. You can t keep on drinking something that tastes disgusting, no matter how good it s supposed to be for you. And in the same way, you can t go on doing something diligently, over and over again, that you don t enjoy. 27

i...you can t keep on honouring God, unless you re enjoying it. And that s what Nehemiah understood. That s why he brought God s people back to God s Word the joy of the Lord is your strength 28

I, by and large don t enjoy exercise. Some people do, I don t. But I ve found a few forms of exercise that I do enjoy. I love interval training on an exercise bike, I love getting out there and walking and I enjoy weight training. So those are the forms of exercise I do. In the same way, you can t keep on honouring God, unless you re enjoying it. And that s what Nehemiah understood. That s why he brought God s people back to God s Word. That s why he organised Ezra and the other Levites to get out there and teach and explain God s Word to the people. The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and a whole bunch of guys with hard to pronounce names. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, and a whole bunch of other guys with hard to pronounce names, 29

Levites, helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:4-8) So this wasn t just reading, it was understanding. And the impact on the people was truly amazing And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. (Nehemiah 8:9) They wept. It cut them to the quick. God s Word penetrated their hearts. And that right there is the place where you discover joy. That right there, when your heart softens and you hear the amazing things that God has done for you and they reach you deep inside, and your heart wants to burst, it brings tears to your eyes. When I m preaching and I start talking about Jesus on that Cross, I almost always choke up, because that s what the amazing love and the amazing grace of God does for you. And when you get that 30

love and that grace inside you, bang! You get GOD inside you and when you get GOD inside you, His joy comes with Him! Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10) And when you get the joy of the Lord into you, it becomes your strength it s easier, much easier to honour God, to obey God, to follow His call on your life, because you re filled with His joy. Obedience is no longer like dandelion tea it s like the sweetest nectar you ve ever tasted. That s how it works. Isn t that just a beautiful thing? For some reason, churches are filled with Christians who don t take the Word of God seriously. The Bible Engagement Centre in the US did some serious research. They wanted to know what, if anything, a Christian could do to experience victory in their lives, to win the day as it were. They surveyed tens of thousands of people and asked them all the things they do as an expression 31

of their faith. Pray, go to church, sing worship songs, attend small groups, on and on, including reading the Bible. Several dozen different things. And here s what they discovered: the one thing THE ONE THING more than any other, that gives people the victory they re looking for, is engaging with God s Word four times a week or more. The head researcher said this: The statistical correlation between reading your Bible four times a week or more, and living in victory, is stronger than the statistical correlation between smoking and lung cancer. Nothing else even came close. Go figure. And you want to know WHY that is? Because in order to have victory, you need to have strength. And where do you get the strength that you need to overcome temptation, to defeat Satan, to persevere through trials, where? The joy of the Lord is your strength and the place you get that is the living WORD of the living God. Just like these people of God, under the leadership of Nehemiah and the tutelage of Ezra. Are you getting this? Do you see why God s Word is so important? Do you see why the joy of the Lord is absolutely vital in your Christian walk? So what are you waiting for? 32

CHAPTER 5 CELEBRATION AS A WAY OF LIFE There s not a one of us who doesn t like a good party. And as things turn out, God is rather partial to a party as well. So why is it that we don t do more celebrating than we actually do in this life? When you think about it, no matter what happens to be going on in your life just at the moment, you actually have rather a lot of things worth celebrating. So we ve been looking at the time in Israel s history when they had just returned from 70 years of slavery in exile in Babylon, and they had done probably the most important thing they needed to do in re-establishing Jerusalem. They had built the massive protective wall around the 33

city that they needed in order to be able to defend it against invasion. But they were tired; they were exhausted and so a lot of the joy had gone out of their lives. That s why their leader, Nehemiah, brought them back to God s Word, because, as we saw, hearing God speak when we let the Word of God really touch us deep inside fills our hearts with joy. I m not just talking here about sitting through some boring sermon and letting your mind wander we ve all been there, right? I m talking here, or in fact, God is talking here in the book of Nehemiah Chapter 8, back in the Old Testament, about letting His Word penetrate our hearts. That s what, as we saw, happened to the Israelites as they gathered to hear the Scribe Ezra and his helpers preach God s Word. They were moved to tears. Have you ever had someone say something so kind, so generous, so loving to you that you were just moved to tears? Well, that s what was going on when the Israelites were so deeply moved by God s Word. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not 34

mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. (Nehemiah 8:9) And that s the sort of preaching that you and I need to hear, that s the sort that we need to listen to, the sort that s anointed by God, the sort that is clearly God speaking to us through the preacher, not the dead, boring words that some people preach, but words of power. Many years later the Apostle Paul put it like this: When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-4) Powerful, anointed, Spirit-filled proclamation of God s Word, that s what you and I need. So they were deeply moved moved to tears, and yet the next thing that they were told by the Levites is pretty surprising. Let s take another look: 35

i Celebration of God s goodness and love and provision is so important. As you read the Old Testament, you discover that the Jewish calendar is full of celebrations and remembrances the joy of the Lord is your strength 36

Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10) Go and celebrate what God has done for you. Go and celebrate the fact that He s brought us back out of exile and slavery and helped us to build this amazing defensive wall against all the opposition that we were confronted by. Go and celebrate the Word of God that you ve just heard, His power and majesty and grace and mercy. Go on, eat good food, drink good wine, share it with the poor, celebrate this day, for God is our God and we are His people. Celebrate!!! Celebration of God s goodness and love and provision is so important. As you read the Old Testament, you discover that the Jewish calendar is full of celebrations and remembrances. And today, we continue with that theme, every time we participate in communion, remembering what Jesus did for us. One of the reasons I think that there is so little joy in people s lives well, two of the reasons really are these: 37

Firstly, we don t take God s Word to heart, we don t listen to the amazing, powerful, loving Words that He is speaking to us. That s the first one. The second one is, that we simply don t celebrate enough the goodness of God in our lives. Not just at church on a Sunday, not just at Easter and Christmas they re great celebrations to be sure but each and every day of our lives. There s a choice I made a long time ago. I decided to live my whole life as a celebration of what God has done for me. That doesn t mean that every day is a fantastic, wonderful day, where the sun s shining and the birds are singing. No, some days are dark and stormy and uncomfortable and hard and challenging, right? But when we celebrate God and all that He s done for us, when we remember the goodness of God, on the good days and the bad ones, life changes. That happiness that s deserted us in the dark times is replaced by a joy that never leaves us, no matter how bad things get. Our problem is that we stick all that spiritual, God stuff over here in this box, a box that we open perhaps on Sundays, or every now and then when we pray or read our Bible, but a box that remains closed for much of the rest of the week. Have a listen to this Scripture: 38

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31) Everything about life can be a celebration. And when we celebrate the good things that God has done for us through Jesus in our lives for real, that joy that we so desperately need, comes flooding back. And with the joy, comes the strength that we need to make it through. Compare that, to how you feel when you re grumbling and complaining. Come on, the joy of the Lord IS your strength! A good friend of mine, Paul Bartlett has recently published a book called Thank God It s Monday. What a great title. Now Paul is the pastor of a large and, in the eyes of many, successful church I ve put inverted commas around that word successful, because it s more of a worldly judgement than a godly one. But you get my drift. And one of the strong themes of his ministry is this: Church is not all about Sunday. So many people and so many churches and so many pastors work their way up to that big Sunday church event, as though it s the main thing. And what Paul is saying in this book, is NO! Actually, Sunday is all about preparing you for Monday and the rest of the 39

week. The main part of being a Christian is the rest of the week, not that one event on Sunday. I love that, because in a very real sense, that s what the Bible teaches. Following Jesus is an every day thing, not just a Sabbath thing. Just think about that book title again: Thank God it s Monday! It speaks of a great anticipation of what s in store, of what s next, of what God is bringing into our lives. When we kick off each new week, we have no idea what s coming the good, the bad, the ugly. No idea. But here s something that we can do. We can choose to live this next week, and the one after that, and the one after that, with that sense of anticipation and celebration in our hearts. I saw something recently that I really liked. A quote that goes like this: A bad attitude is like a flat tyre. You can t move on until you change it. So, imagine how different our attitude towards life becomes when we choose to live every moment of every day as a celebration of what God has done for us. Now all of a sudden, it all makes sense. The joy of the Lord really is our strength. 40

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i ABOUT THE AUTHOR Berni Dymet is a contemporary Christian communicator with a passion for sharing the Good News of Jesus right into the middle of life. He comes from the perspective that this Christianity thing - it isn t just a faith that lives in our heads or even our hearts, but that it actually works right here in the middle of our lives. Christianity actually works when we dare to accept Jesus Christ into our lives!! Not just as Saviour, but also as Lord. Millions of people around the globe tune into Berni s radio programs each week. The Lord has given him a special gift for sharing the Gospel in a truly practical way. In a way that really connects into the hearts and lives of real people in real places, transforming their lives. That s what the ministry of Christianityworks is all about. Leading people into a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. But Berni s passion, his enthusiasm and his insights into the day to day realities of life are simply tools in God s hands. The real change agent is God Himself. And to Him - and Him alone - be all the glory.

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Berni Dymet The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength The big mistake we make in this life is that we think that happiness and joy are the same thing. They simply aren t. Happiness relies on our circumstances, and they can change, from good to bad, in an instant. Joy on the other hand comes from God, and He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. So join Berni Dymet in this latest story, as he opens God s Word to discover that the joy of the Lord really is your strength!