Defiant Joy

What is the difference between fleeting emotional happiness and the unshakable, defiant joy offered in Scripture?

In this Advent sermon on Nehemiah 8:1–12, we look at the gathering of God's people as Ezra reads the Law and the priests help the crowd understand its meaning. The message explores how true biblical joy is a state of being rooted in God's mercy, faithfulness, and historical promises—completely independent of our immediate circumstances. Discover how gaining a true understanding of God's Word transforms our posture, frees us from being ruled by our feelings, and leads to authentic celebration.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Goodness of God's Law: Why Scripture restores whatever it convicts us of and why it deserves a prominent place in our lives.
• Understanding Increases Capacity: How gaining clarity on God's Word expands our responsibility and spiritual capacity.
• Not Ruled by Feelings: Moving past expressive individualism to acknowledge our emotions without allowing them to dictate our reality.
• The Necessity of Celebration: Why God calls His people to step out of self-pity and step into the strength found in His joy.

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This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

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I thank you for a picture uh so beautifully uh demonstrated in Monica and Yusuf's story. Uh and now, God, let us see it in your word and uh uh kind of uh burn it into our souls so that when it gets hard and everything's a mess and nothing is fixed, that at the center of that we're living out this biblical understanding of joy. Not happiness, the emotion, but joy, the understanding. So, Holy Spirit, illuminate the scriptures today uh and give your people understanding, and the rest will sort itself out. This is our prayer we pray in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it over up to Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah is a book of the Old Testament, uh, kind of towards the front, about 400 or so pages in. Don't quote me on that. But I want to talk to you on this third Sunday of Advent where the theme is joy. I want to talk to you about defiant joy. Defiant joy. What do I mean by that? I mean we live in between the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ, which means the foundation of our faith is the historical fact of his coming, and the fuel of our faith as we look forward into the future is the fact that he's going to come again. So let me say that again. The foundation of our faith, we believe, as a church, we believe this, as Christians, we believe this, that God took on flesh in the form of his son Jesus, that he he left heaven, he came to earth, he was born in through the womb of a virgin. That's right. Uh Isaiah chapter 9 talks about that, but Isaiah chapter 7, two chapters before, God said to his people, God was telling them what he's gonna do, and they said, We don't believe you. And God said, Well, ask me for a sign. In other words, ask me to do something. It's a down payment, that is a deposit that kind of promises you that persuades you, I'm gonna do what I said I'm gonna do. And they're like, hey, we don't we love you, God, and we we stand in awe of you. We're not gonna ask you for that. And God said, I'll tell you what, I'll give you a sign. He says, This will be a sign to you. A virgin will conceive and give birth, and you shall call his name Emmanuel for save his people from their sins. And so they wouldn't ask for a sign, but God obligated himself and accommodated and said, I'll give you a sign. So we believe in the incarnation. We believe that Jesus Christ was born through the womb of the virgin Mary. We do not venerate or worship Mary, we worship God and God alone. That is the foundation of our fact, the historical fact of his coming. That is the foundation of our faith. Now we look forward to the future that he's gonna come again, and all the injustices of this world are gonna be made right. Otherwise, you should join some militia group and take matters into your own hands. Some of you are like, too late. Anyway, and so uh uh uh because in the meantime, you're gonna find yourself in circumstances where you have to choose joy as an act of defiance, otherwise, you begin to doubt the certainty of his first coming and you begin to lose hope in the reality of his second coming. And so I want you to see uh in in the book of Nehemiah what defiant joy looks like. And before I do that, let me give you a definition uh of this kind of joy. Uh it says this biblical joy is not just a happy emotion that we either feel or don't feel, it is a state of being that finds its source in God. This joy comes from God, and our joy is a product of what God has done and continues to do. It is gladness and contentedness flowing out of a wellspring of God's faithfulness and mercy, quite independent of our circumstances. Hear that last part. Quite independent of our circumstances. If it depends on your circumstances, that's happiness. But but but if it but if it comes from this understanding of God and his ways, then that's what the Bible talks about is joy, what I describe as defiant joy that allows me to live above my circumstances, not at the mercy of them. I want to read from God's word, Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 1. And this gives us a picture of defiant joy. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate, from the 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, and Ezra the scribes stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood Manatiah, Shema, Anaya, Uriah, Hilkiah, Masaiah on his right hand, and Padiah, Mishel, uh Malkaijah, Hashem, Hashabadnana, uh Zachariah, and Mushalem on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And as he stood on it, the people stood. Excuse me. As he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, amen. And lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And also Jeshua, Bani, Sherobiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbatiah, Odiah, uh Messiah, Khalidah, Azariah, Jezebel, Hanan, Peliah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And this is how they responded. So far, all that's happened is that God got up on a wooden platform and read from the law of God, the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, for half a day from early in the morning to midday. As best we can tell, it's anywhere from four to six hours. How'd you like to set through that sermon? And this is what happens. Verse 9, and Nehemiah, who is the governor and Ezra, the priest and the scribe, and all 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 as they heard the words of the law. And then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet. This day is holy. Do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. Now, people of this defiant joy, they grasped five things from the text. The first one is simply this is that the law of God is a good thing. The law of God. That's the first four verses where now, by the way, it's a big deal because the Bible, the Old Testament, was written in Hebrew. These people spoke uh Aramaic. And so while they're reconstructing the wall around Jerusalem, which is what the book of Nehemiah is about, God tells Nehemiah, go back to your home, to your hometown, and I want you to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem because it lies in ruins. So while they're doing that, they discover the book of the law, the Bible, the first five books of the Old Testament. And the people just lived in ignorance their whole life. And they just think, hey, I'm good, I'm good. I'm as good as my friends over here. And they begin to read the Bible and realize, oh my gosh, we are far from the way God created us to be. And we're not living the way God created us to live. And so they wanted everyone to hear it. So they build a wooden platform, and the guy named Ezra gets up on it and just starts reading the Bible. And the people are cut to the quick. I mean, when's the last time you were so convicted you couldn't talk? You just grieved over the state of your life. This is how convicted they were. There's a sharpness and the sense of capacity that comes from the Bible. And these people just kind of realize, hey, the law of God is a good thing. Here's why. Because the Bible restores to us whatever it convicts you of. Let me say that again. The Bible restores to you whatever it convicts you of. So when the Bible convicts you of something, you shouldn't sneak off and be kind of low-grade angry, like, well, I don't know about that. I mean, I just doesn't mind. You should, oh my gosh, thank you. Oh, because God wants to restore you to something. This is the way they approached it. The Bible, the law of God is a good thing. It's a it deserves a place of prominence and priority in their lives. Now, we live in a day and age, I'm not naive, where a lot of people do not give the Bible that kind of prominence. Heck, we live in a day and age where a lot of preachers don't give the Bible that kind of prominence. I meet people consistently come to the church and I say, hey, what how what dream to Grand Park was? And they said, My friend told me you preach the Bible. And we don't take comfort from that. We're not like, yay, us. We're like, now the church you come from. No, they start talking about critical race theory. I'm like, what? Oh, they start talking about the culture and talking about this, and I'm like, ah, yeah, that's not the deal. That doesn't have it. So the culture, preachers look around and they figure out what the culture is, and then they join the culture there. For example, this is a quote from one of the most popular preachers in America today. And it's not anybody in our city. After the first hours, people are like, Oh, I guess who that was. I said, No, it's not. Lives in another state. He said this, listen to this. He said, the common man doesn't believe in the Bible to be authoritative, so I don't reference it much in my preaching. Yes. And by the way, he's very popular. You all know him. You probably watched him. And you're like, why didn't you tell us who it is? Because I would enjoy that too much. But anyway, that would be my own sin. But but let me just say this, okay? If you're not using the Bible, then it's not preaching. It's it's Jew philosophizing or doing self-help, pop psychology or whatever, but you kind of lose sight of that. There's this that guy over there, and then there's a guy named Kevin DeYoung that most of you have never heard of. Kevin DeYoung is a short, nerdy little guy. He's got glasses. No, I mean, they're like rectangular, like 1977 chess team glasses, okay? Uh little nerdy guy's got like nine kids and just preaches the Bible, okay? It just, I mean, gets up every Sunday and shucks the corn. And this is what he said. And by the way, he's gonna, he's kind of popular in some areas that people love the Bible, but as our culture goes, none of most people have never heard of him. But he's gonna walk into heaven one day and God's gonna say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Kevin DeYoung said this. He says the goal of revelation is not information only, but affection, worship, and obedience. Christ in us will be realized only as we drink deeply of the Bible, which is God's word outside of us. This is why people show up at his church to see a nerdy man in a suit preach sometimes for an hour. Y'all are getting off easy. The American church tries to produce with its program and what can only be produced by the word of God being read and preached. But people of defiant joy, they understand that the Bible, the word of God, the law of God, is a good thing. Let me ask you today, how do you think about the Bible? Secondly, people of Defiant Joy, their posture changes in the presence of authority. It's verse five and six. Their posture changes in the presence of authority. It's at the end, he says, for uh Ezra, uh verse five, and Ezra opened the books in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and he opened it. Now look at me. He was above the people, not because he was better than them, and look at me, but he was above the people because he was holding the Bible in his hands, and the Bible has authority over people. When the Bible stops having authority over you, you are not free, you're in bondage. Now, our culture says, Oh, throw off all restraint and you'll be free. No, you will destroy yourself, and so he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood. No one had to say anything. Hey, get to your feet, we're gonna read the Bible. They just stood. Why? Because their posture changes in the presence of authority. By the way, your posture and my posture changes in the presence of authority. I will go home this afternoon after I have lunch with a friend, and I will turn on the golf tournament, and I will turn it down real low, and my posture will change. Because that has authority over me. I will take a nap for which my wife will wake me up and say, it's supper time. So it's not always bad, but sometimes it can be bad. You say, What do you mean? Whatever changes your posture has authority over you. For some of you, it's food. For some of you, it's weed, marijuana. Yeah, it's kind of the cool thing nowadays. We got adults like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't drink, I smoke marijuana because it's medicimal. Thank you, Dr. Dr. Freud. Uh, here's the thing that no one's telling you. And research is now just starting to come out, and the media is trying to suppress it and say, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But what we're seeing now is that early and consistent marijuana use leads to schizophrenia later in life. So if you want to be a millionaire, go to college, boys and girls who sit over here, go to college and major in psychology and then open a practice. There will be an endless line of people at your door to the day you die. Yes, because we're in a mental health crisis in America. We'll get to that in just a minute. But when I say posture changes in the presence of authority, I mean the things that you that have authority over you, you kind of bow down to. You would never say it. Some people it's food, some people it's weed, some people it's alcohol, some people it's money, some people it's shopping, some people it's your next vacation. Nothing moves your heart like planning your next escape. Now, am I saying anything that vacation is bad? No. I'm just saying be careful. What will you give the authority to change your posture? Now, to these people right here in Nehemiah 8, two things held authority over them. Number one, the word of God. When the word of God was open, the people stood, their posture changed. And then secondly, the worship of God. Verse 6, Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen and Amen, lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Again, anytime they're in the presence of things that have authority over them, or someone who has authority or something, their posture changes. People that understand defiant joy, their posture changes. It just does. It's a weird sentence, but put it in your pocket and take it with you and just look around this week. People's posture changes. Someone said to me, It's already started. Someone said to me, Happy holidays. And I said, What a holiday is it? It's Christmas. Then say Merry Christmas. Well, that's we're not we're not allowed to. Well, I tell you what, my posture is gonna change. I don't want to shop at your store. I don't want to support nonsense. Say Merry Christmas, or I'm not coming in. Well, what are you gonna buy? A lot of stuff. And the guy goes, Merry Christmas. Now look at me. What that means is his posture changes around money. Yeah. The world figures out what'll move your posture, and then they use it against you. Here's the third thing that the Bible uh tells us about defiant joy. That you people of defiant joy, their understanding increases their capacity. Their understanding increases their capacity. What do you mean? It's verse seven and eight. You got those names, Joshua, Banny, Sherubiah, all the homeschoolers get together in the homeschool co-op. And then it says they help the people to understand the law. Look at me. It is my job every Sunday when I stand up here to help you to understand the law. This is not a platform for me bringing you myself, it is to help you understand the law. Because there's a crazy thing, and I keep using the word law because I want you to understand the authoritative nature in it. We live in a country where policemen can no longer enforce the laws. In California, you can shoplift up to $900 worth of stuff and they won't prosecute you. Are we really that goofy? You see, there's no authority. When you remove authority from the culture, you have lawlessness. And then you can't complain about it. It's how Democrats get voters, but it's how America goes to hell in a handbasket. Oh, Pastor, now the children's choir is saying, Be positive. Yeah, understanding increases their capacity. Look what happens. They helped the people to understand the law. And while the people remained in other places, they read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that people understood the reading. I'm harping on this because we're going to end on this. I don't want you to, I don't want you to miss it. Understanding increases their capacity. What does that mean? To increase your understanding means more responsibility as well as more capacity. Think of it like the two wings of a plane. To increase your understanding. Every Sunday you come, you should be, you should get more understanding about the word of God, the people of God, the nature of God. And so you're responsible for that. But also you have you're capable of more. And if you're wondering, why do I just kind of bump along? My life never seems to get off of the ground. It's because you don't embrace the responsibility that comes with capacity, with being able to do more and more. This is why the priests labor to give the sense of the passage, because to understand means I'm responsible for more, but I'm capable of more. And so I don't mind that at all. Now, allow me to demonstrate what I mean about the powerful role of understanding. Back during COVID, about halfway through COVID, three-quarters away. Some people will tell you if you turn on your TV, we're still in it. But anyway, uh a guy reaches out to me and says, Hey, I need to come see you. And I said, Okay, is anything particular? He goes, Yeah, I think I'm drinking too much. Uh and I said, You and most of America right now, uh, which should concern you that not only that people became functioning alcoholics during COVID, but they were also homeschooling their kids at the same time. Which means in 20 years our country will be led by people who were educated by day drinkers. No? Okay, so the guy comes and he said, This is the power of understanding. I said, What do you, what do you, what do you mean? You he said, Yeah, I was kind of concerned, and my wife got kind of concerned, and she's been on me about the past two months. And I just, and I said, and then he said, and I got, I was working from home and then I got furloughed. And I was like, furloughed? What does that mean? He goes, Well, basically, I didn't get laid off. They just told me, stay at home and we'll keep paying you. And so I said, Hang on a sec. I took a pen and wrote down furloughed. Put that in my pocket and took it to the next elder meeting. And I said, Hey, um, is there a chance I could get furloughed where I just stay at home and get paid? And they just guff out in my face. And I was like, okay, plan B. Uh, apparently we'll have a furlough program here. Uh, and so he said, Yeah, but this was the phrase where I was just like, ding, hold your calls, we have a winner. Uh, he said, for the first time in my life, I've slowed down enough to think about some things from my childhood that I hadn't thought about in forever. And I was like, hmm. So I just asked a simple question. I said, anything from your childhood feels consequential but unmanageable? He said, Excuse me. I said, anything from your childhood feel consequential? Like, hey, that was kind of big, but but it's unmanageable. I don't know. It's like picking up a wall. I don't know how to get my hands, there's no handles on it. And he said, Yeah, yeah. Why are you asking that? I'm here because I drink too much. I said, You're not here because you drink too much. I said, let's just plunge on this just for a minute. I said, My concern is you have some childhood trauma, some trauma from your childhood. And the three three typical responses to trauma are fragmentation, isolation, and consumption. And he said, What? And I said, I know it sounds all nerdy, but let me just put it down here where we can all understand. He goes, Okay. I said, first of all, fragmentation. Things happen in childhood and in adulthood, but especially in childhood, and you don't deal with it. And but your psyche, your body, your emotions can't process it all. And so instead of a loaf of bread, boom, here you go, you break, you slice it up, and you know, it's it's it's a loaf of bread, but you just take a slice at a time. And you just think about this little part here, this little part here, but you never do anything with the whole loaf. You're it's like taking a slice of bread and the whole loaf, taking different pieces of bread and hide them in your house to where they're none of them are in the same place, but they're all in the same house. He said, Yeah, yeah. I said, That's fragmentation. People smarter than me give you a much better definition, but I like to be accessible. And then the second one is isolation. He says, What do you mean? I said, You feel such a deep sense of shame when you think about that stuff that you don't tell. He said, My wife didn't even know some things. I said, You married a woman and you never just bore your soul. He goes, Heck no. And I said, The way you said that says, I because if I did, she she would have never married me. He goes, You're exactly right. And I said, now we get to where you are. Consumption. You have to, when you let yourself feel what your life feels like, you have to consume something to keep that emotional tile away from overwhelming you. It's like what you feel is like this mic stand right here. And so you build this liquid wall between you and that, so that doesn't get you. You don't have a drinking problem, you have a trauma problem. And he said, What do I do? And I said, Hey, let's just go on this journey together. And by the way, can you feel what's happening in this room right now? Talk to somebody. God never intended that to have power over you, He never intended you to be like the people Nehemiah 8, where you're just like, oh my god, this is terrible. I'm a bad person. No, you're not. Some of you are sinned against, and some of you sinned against others. And you can consume all the weed you want, all the gym beam you want. It's not gonna go away. Two months we met every two weeks, and two months in the meeting, he said to me, I said, So tell me what you've noticed about yourself since the last time we met. He goes, My wife said to me, You don't drink like you used to. He said, I may have one or two drinks in a week. A couple weeks I didn't have any. And I said, Your problem is not consumption, you consume as an unconscious effort to insulate yourself from the trauma of your childhood. He's like, Oh my gosh. We met a few more times. He looked at me and he said, I don't think I need to meet anymore. I said, I agree. I'm not here to To make you dependent on me. I'm here to help you get free. And he's like, okay, can I come in every six months for a checkup? Yes, if you'll buy me lunch somewhere so I can get something out of this. He goes, Absolutely. And I said, Great. So every six months, he'll call me and we'll meet somewhere. Why do I tell you that? Because understanding increases your capacity. And this is what you see right here in the Bible in Nehemiah chapter 8. It's what you see in real life. You say, Why is that such a big deal? Understanding in the Bible? Because God gives revelation. He pulls back the curtain and lets you understand some things because what he's really saying is, I want you to experience this. I want you to live in this. I trust you with this. Steward this well. Billy Graham said it like this. He said, if you're ignorant of God's word, you'll always be ignorant of God's will. And a lot of people, you're not dumb. It's just no one's ever just kind of explained clearly the Bible and helped it make sense to you. This explains why they responded like they did. They didn't know God's word, so they related to God out of their feelings instead of his truth. Which is the fourth thing. People of defiant joy understand I cannot be ruled by my feelings. I cannot be ruled by my feelings. What does that mean? Listen carefully. This doesn't mean we don't have feelings or we suppress those feelings. Not at all. Defiant joy breaks us out of the captivity of what we feel, of being ruled by our emotions. You say, I don't know what you mean. There's a Canadian philosopher, his name's Charles Taylor, wrote a couple of really good books. And in one of them, he coins the phrase that has taken our country by storm. You may not have heard about this, but you've seen this. Here's the phrase: expressive individualism. Expressive individualism, which basically means this: that we find our meaning by giving expression to our own feelings and desires. Let me say that again. We find, because this is what from grade school to middle school to high school, your kids are indoctrinated with college, it's off the chain, it's so bad. We find expressive individualism is a school of thought that says we find our meaning by giving expression to our own feelings and desires. You're not the boss of me. I identify as this and this. So therefore, this is true. This is my truth. You have your truth. Who are you to tell me? I am an expressive individual. I saw a young lady on a college campus the other day. They said, What would be uh what would failure be like for you? And she said, Oh, failure would be me not being true to myself. See, a long time ago, people wanted to be true to an external standard, an objective truth. Now they just want to be faithful to their subjective truth themselves. This is why no one can tell anybody else they're wrong anymore. Have you noticed that? That's expressive individualism. And your kids are being brainwashed with it right now in a public school. Now, my kids went to public school. We sat down every night and had dinner. Yes, I ate with my kids. Crazy. And I would say, What nonsense did you hear this week at the idiot factory? Your dad needs to correct. They'd be like, Come on, dad. And I'm like, I'm being serious. And every once in a while they'd say something. They're good kids. They had a worldview. They understood the truth. They're like, man, my English teacher, blah, blah, blah. Well, your English teacher doesn't have a biblical worldview. But see, a person of defiant joy understands that I cannot be ruled by my feelings. Now, uh, expressive individualism is so rampant. I want you to listen carefully to what I'm fixing to say. Because what I'm fixing to say is true, and it's going to sound edgy. I'm not saying it because I want it to sound edgy. Uh I think there's now a thin line between mental health and narcissism in America. Mental health is real, medication is good. Take medication, but look at me. We are such a therapeutic culture, not a theological culture, that people with mental health issues get to tell everybody else how to live. You all you got to make room for me, you've got to agree with me. The expressive individual thinks that their feelings create everybody else's reality. And this is the conflict we're headed for. Because people are getting fed up. Again, nothing wrong with mental health. I think mental health is an incredible thing. I think medication is an incredible thing. But there are people who figured out how to leverage the culture to where, hey, we get to be in charge, you have to agree with us, or else you're filling the blank. Misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's a mental health crisis. What do you mean I can't be ruled by my feelings? Our days, what they say to them when they they correct them in verse 9, they said, Hey, Ezra and Nehemiah the governor, and Ezra the priest and the scribe, the Levites, who taught the people, they said, Hey, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not weep or mourn. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Our days, beloved, are shaped by the lens through which we see them. The text is clear that this day is holy unto the Lord, and so it is a sin to consume it upon your emotions and insist and expect everybody, including God, to join you there. No, what God does is God says, I want you to leave your emotions, you're feeling bad. If you've never been to church or you don't go to church much at all, let me just tell you this: God does not convict you. He doesn't create you to go around feeling bad. God says, I want to set you free. I want to forgive you. I want to right all the wrongs that you've experienced. I want to so forgive you that you're empowered to forgive people who have sinned against you so you can live in gospel joy, not personal fear. So, what do you mean? Acknowledge your emotions. Let me say it like this: Acknowledge your emotions. By the way, not this next semester, but probably in the fall, Blake, who's of our spiritual formation, we're gonna have a class on Wednesday night just on untangling your emotions. Because we need to become emotionally more self-aware people. You know what just happened? Some of you men just got signed up for that by your wife. She's typing in her phone right now. Yes. Let me now when I say look at me, does it make sense when I say acknowledge your emotions? But don't give authority to your emotions. Don't let them have authority over you. Let me give you a biblical example, Psalm 13. I'll I'll read it, it'll come up on the screen. This is a great example of acknowledging. This is how it feels. Psalm 13, verse 1. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day long? That means I've got emotions that are so deep and dark. I got nobody to talk to about it because I fear their rejection. I just talk to myself. How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me. Oh Lord my God, light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaking. That's acknowledging your emotions. Look at me. Verse 5 and 6 is not letting them have authority over you. Look at verse 5. But I trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. Let me give you three practical questions to ask yourself when your emotions are getting the better of you. And they're simply this Who or what am I trusting in? Who or what am I trusting in? So the psalmist David says, I've trusted in your steadfast love. I'm not trusted in the way I loved you, I'm trusting in the way you love me. Secondly, what am I rejoicing over? What am I rejoicing over? He says, My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. And finally, what am I singing about? What am I singing about? Uh you can ask anybody that works here at the church, just ask them after this. You're gonna be done here in two minutes. You can ask them, hey, how often does Neil walk around singing and doesn't know he's singing? And they'll go, all the time. Yeah, here's and I use these, I I gospel myself with these questions. I use these questions just to diagnose when I meet with people just to kind of diagnose where they are. I ask questions like, hey, what are you singing about? When I'm when I find myself just with unconsciously yet consistently singing sad country songs, yes, like George Jones. Anybody got anything on the possum? Anybody? Yeah, a long time ago, uh boys and girls, before auto tune, people could play and sing. They weren't just pretty. I know it's crazy, but when I find myself just kind of stuck on sad, I'm just like, oh man, something's going on in here. So I acknowledge my emotions, but I don't let them have authority over me. And one of the way I take back that authority is by asking myself real practical questions like these right up here on the screen. Who or what am I trusted in? What can I rejoice over? What am I singing about? Sometimes it's just, hey, what can I rejoice over? Because if I'm not careful, look at me. If I'm not careful, you get mired down in self-pity, and then you start giving yourself permission. The gospel never does. Oh, these people don't know what it's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they do. Here's the last thing the text says people of defiant joy understand that celebration is essential. Celebration is essential. That's the last uh part of verses 10 to 12. Look what they said. Then he said to them, after he tells them, don't cry. Stop. Just this is like the last night of youth camp. You ain't gotta cry. What are you doing? Knock it off. People, oh well, you know, you cry. Why? Where's that in the Bible? No, God says right here. Look at him, verse 10. Then he said to them, Go your way and eat the fat and drink sweet wine. If you're in this room and you don't know Jesus, that should make you want to know Jesus right there. Because these people hear the Bible and they're like, oh, we just think. And God's like, I don't want to hear this. This is my day. It's not your day. It's my day. This is holy to me. And you know what you should do? You should celebrate me with fatness and sweet wine. Don't you want to get that invitation before the end of the year? Hey, we're having a party and we're gonna celebrate with fatness and sweet wine. Oh, just write back. Are shirts required? Wouldn't you like to gather? There's a man after the first service, he said, I've been coming for a year. We want to join your church. I said, Please do. Best part is it. He said, Hey, by the way, I smoke meat. I was like, Oh, smug me. He goes, I can do six briskets, 30 chickens. So I built this during COVID. See, some people drink, some people build stuff. He said, I like to smoke meat. You gotta get together with other men, just take your shirts off and just eat meat. Have fatness and sweet wine. I'm not kidding. What are you laughing about? You should be nudging your neighbor, going, Hey, when are we gonna have fatness and sweet wine? This is the God of the Bible. Look at me. This is the God of the Bible. You're pathetic, getting together, smoking pot with your loser friends. Look at me. That's bondage, that's not freedom. God says right here in verse 10, hey, go your way and eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing. Not only do you get to do this, but make sure everybody has some fatness and sweet wine so they can celebrate too. And do not be grieved. Why? For the joy of the Lord is your strength. You should ask yourself before you go to bed tonight, what do I really think my strength is? Some of you think your strength is self-hatred. I'm gonna hate myself enough to make God love me. I'm just gonna look at Instagram and just compare myself to all these midriff girls. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And my fear, beloved, is that in the American church, that is not where we find our joy. That is not where we find our strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet. This day is holy, do not be grieved. And the people went their way to eat and drink, and it's in portions, and to make great rejoicing. Put that on your invitation. We're gonna gather to make great rejoicing. Why? This is the last half of the sentence, and I'm done. Because they had understood the words that were declared to them. If you're here today and you understood something for the first time that you never understood before, say amen. And you should go somewhere for lunch and just feast. And you should just look at the people at your table and just kind of going, oh man, is God good or what? This is we're celebrating today. Why? Because we understood the words that were declared to us. Is God good or what? Bring on more fajitas. But instead, some of you stingy Baptists are gonna go home and make your kids eat leftovers. Boys and girls, that's because your parents don't have faith. They're gonna make you eat leftovers, and when you go to bed tonight, they're gonna get out the fatness and sweet wine. Yes. Or if you're bringing Wildes in the good cheese. Yeah. So why does God insist on celebrating? Let me give you these four things and I'm done. Why does God insist I celebrate instead of just feel bad? Just swallowing self-pity. Oh, we stink, God, we stink. Doesn't this make us attractive to you? No, it doesn't. You're like fat people selling slim fast. No one wants what you're selling. It clearly hasn't affected your life. So why does God insist on celebration? Four reasons, and I'm done. Number one, you find a capacity and joy that you never find in grieving. There's a capacity in joy, a power in joy that you never find in grieving. Secondly, conviction is an invitation back to our identity. When God convicts you, it's to pick you up and say, hello, that's not our native environment. We're living out of our identity right over here. It's not to rub your nose in it, bad kid, you're being bad. Feel bad. Write some angsty post on Instagram and see who likes it. Please, we've we've got that message. Thirdly, celebration reorients our attention and affection around God and what he's doing instead of us and what we've done. Your attention and your affection ought to be on what God is doing instead of what you've done. And then finally, understanding is a powerful thing. It is powerful. Understanding God's word is a powerful thing. Why? Because it increases your capacity. Yes, you're responsible, but you're also capable. Yeah. Absolutely. It's so good that it requires fatness and sweet wine. I'm gonna keep saying that because it bugs some of you, and I'm not trying to be awkward and bug you. I'm just saying that we try to find in our self-hatred what God says can only be found in our joy. And the joy of the Lord is your strength. Let's pray together. Lord, we are grateful. If you're our guest, just relax. Some questions come on the screen. Uh, and we'll give we like to think about things we've heard. We'll give you about a minute uh just to think. Just to say, hey, some questions come up. You can take a picture of them if you want, or you can just pick out one, think about it. Maybe today you could just resign from self-hatred. Some of you always bring people your weakness, and they bring you their strength, and you get exploited all the time. You need to start bringing people your strength, and other people bring you their weakness, and you can be helpful to them. So, Lord, we just uh read what the Bible says the joy of the Lord is our strength. So we're gonna celebrate, we're gonna make great rejoicings because we've understood some things today we've never understood before, and our lives could be different, and if they aren't, it's not your fault, it's our fault. We didn't implement what we know, and so brood over us, God, with the weight of implementation in mind, and Father, because that's true, we're going to resign from all these other joyless endeavors that we've attempted to make work for us. They don't because nothing has the power, the explosive capacity of joy. That's why watching those kids sing earlier was like a lyrical power washer full of our tears, just scrubbing all the jaded cynicism off of us. Little kid up in the front row with his pants inside his boots, just singing his heart out. One of them just kept going. He just said, I'm so enjoying this, everyone stops. I just keep singing. We want to be that kid in the choir that sings after everyone else is done because the joy of the Lord is our strength. It just got the better of us. And so, Lord, I pray you'd loose your joy on these people for your glory and for their satisfaction. And I pray this in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being here. You are always welcome, okay? If you have any questions about anything you saw or you heard, uh, uh then some of our pastors be available down front. We would love to answer any questions you have uh about God, the Bible, our church, or anything. Basically, we want to help you take your next step in your spiritual journey, all right? Uh uh So if today's the day you're visiting today, uh there's a number up on the screen. You can text, just text welcome to that number. We'd love to have a record of your visit. Also, if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, you can take care of that at the wooden boxes by the doors on your way out, or you can take care of it online. I've got a brief one-minute video. I want to show you two important things in the life of our church. So give your attention to the screens.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Thank you for joining us today. Here's a few things we want you to know. If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707. This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church. Ray Ortland is the president of Renewal Ministries and founder of Emanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has authored a number of books, including The Gospel, How the Church Betrays the Beauty of Christ. Dr. Ortland will be joining us in our services on January 8th, preaching on learning your true identity in Christ. Starting point is our class for people interested in joining our church. Our next starting point is January 15th. Register at grandparkoy.org. If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage after the service.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

If you've got a phone, I seriously encourage you to check it out right now. Punch in January the 8th. Ray Orton has forgotten more about God than I'll ever know. He's a gracious, brilliant man. Uh and you talk about identity in Christ. Remember when I moved the thing over here? Uh he helps you to understand your identity. And some of your sinful habits lose their power over you. Do not miss an opportunity to hear this man, okay? We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing. So stand to your feet if you would. Hold your hands out. The salty tears of your sadness are no match for fatness and sweet wine. So depart now and fill up on the right thing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.