If you guys have your Bibles, I encourage you to turn them to Philippians chapter 4. We're going to be… and keep them open to Philippians 4. We're going to be looking at that passage intensely today. So turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4. And I think it's up behind… Yeah, there we go.

But I encourage you actually to follow along in your personal Bibles if you can. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

The things you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would feed your sheep today, that we being fed will live lives that reflect your kindness and your goodness.

And Father, that the world will know that you indeed are a good and faithful God. And we pray that our lives will be characterized by what we learn. And we thank you, Father, for just your kindness that calls us here and I pray for just us all to leave here having understood what you desire for our… just our lives and our worship.

Thank you and in Jesus' name we pray. This is a passage that many of you guys, especially if you've grown up in church, you're familiar with. A bunch of these verses are hanging on people's walls. And as a kid, you know, you end up memorizing some of these passages.

And rightfully so, these verses are powerful and uplifting. But just a background to the letter to Philippi and to the church there. The Philippian… the letter to the Philippian church is one of Paul's prison epistles, one of the letters written toward the end of his life. The chief purpose of this letter is to encourage the people in that church.

And so Paul wants to encourage the Philippian church to be steadfast and joy-filled, to serve God, to serve others. He desires that they conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, which is our theme for this year at Berean, and to live in a manner befitting of the gospel message that they have received.

They are to follow Christ's humble example and to live in proper response to the gospel that has been proclaimed in their midst. So I'm going to just kind of go through these passages… through these verses and just to show you what Paul is pushing us toward. So the first verse, verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Again I will say, "Rejoice." The Philippians and all who are to read this letter are commanded to live joyfully as kingdom citizens.

And in this book, you will see the word "joy" repeated again and again all throughout the just chapters 1 through 4. And in chapter 4, Paul gives some exhortation on how to do that. So in verse 4 it reads, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Again I will say, "Rejoice." And this is the only place in the book of Philippians where Paul repeats himself.

And actually this is the third time he said this. Okay, so in chapter 3, verse 1, Paul has said, "Rejoice, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." When we repeat ourselves, it is usually to emphasize something we believe to be very important. We do not repeat something that is of insignificance.

So if I said, "Good morning, everybody," I will say it again. "Good morning." It's just awkward, right? But if I say, "Hey, our SEEDS meeting is at 1.30 p.m." Let me repeat. "Our SEEDS meeting starts at 1.30 p.m." There is an expectation that I'm communicating to you that you guys come on time.

So when Paul is saying, "Rejoice in the Lord always," let me repeat this, "Rejoice," he means it. So this is not an uncommon theme. Joy is not an uncommon theme in Paul's writing. And I do want to pause and have us reflect on this. How do we just apply chapter 4, verse 4 in our lives?

Is this possible to rejoice always? Think about it. Because when a command of Scripture, when we read it, it looks impossible or impractical, what we usually end up doing is we just gloss over it, don't think to apply it, and we move on. Right? How many of you guys don't...

You don't need to raise your hand... Are guilty of reading this passage and not thinking about it? Okay, "Rejoice in the Lord always," I'll say it again, "Rejoice." Okay, give me something more meaty, something more applicable. We move on like that. Is it possible for you and me to be joyful always?

And one of the greatest consequences of the fall is that you and I have a hard time enjoying something at all times. We get tired of things. You and I have emotional and spiritual ADD, and we're unable to enjoy something for an extended period of time. Just let me illustrate.

The first time I ever heard about Poke Bowl was June 2017. I was late to the game because I haven't been in the country for nine years. So that was the best thing I've ever eaten at that moment. I was like, "Whoa, this yellowtail and the salmon with the sriracha with this crab and the avocado and the seaweed with the sesame seeds and the oil." I thought it was like food from heaven.

And then I ate it again like a couple days later, and then I flew to Korea. And from June to March, I was preaching how good Poke Bowl was to all of my friends who are living abroad, who are going to visit the States. And I was like fantasizing about it.

And I was like just excited to eat Poke Bowl when I got back here in March. And I had it three times that first week. And I started getting sick of it really quick. Because even if something is very good, you get tired of it. Things. My first Apple product was a graduation gift given to me in 2009.

I had an iPod Touch, and I thought this was the coolest thing ever. I carried it around everywhere. I even downloaded like a lemonade game on it. And I was like, "Yes, there's a calculator and everything in one." And then I went to China, and one of the brothers that were there had an iPhone 3.

I was like, "Ooh, there's a calculator and a game player and a music thing and a phone." So then there's a desire in me to have one of those. And you guys know where this is going. Then came the 4 and the 5 and the 6 and the 6+, 7, 7+, 8, 8.

So I have an 8+. And when something new comes out, the thing that we enjoyed, it loses its luster. Same goes with clothes, shoes, cars, homes. You start seeing the blemishes in the home that you craved to have. Experiences. The first time I went on business class on a plane, I did what my wife did the first time she went on business class.

I saw her just do this. And then she was taking pictures of all the food that came out, even the silverware. I was like, "Dude, what are you doing?" I did the same thing. And now I go on business... I've gone enough where now I'm on business class, I don't think about all the amenities that I could enjoy.

But occasionally I think of, "What would it be like to be on first class?" That's just the human heart. Do you remember your first time at Berean? Do you still feel this way? Do you still feel that pull, that excitement to come worship? People too, right? I've been married 11 and a half years.

Do you guys remember the first time that girl you liked or the guy you liked, they called you on your phone, it rang, and it read their name, and you're like, "Hello?" Eleven and a half years later, I do love my wife a lot more than I did then.

But sometimes when she calls, I don't have that same... Okay, I'm going to just stop there. I might get in trouble. She's right there. But you guys get my point. One of the tragedies of the fall is that our enjoyment of things is tainted, it's broken. We get tired of things.

We get tired of our relationship, even with God. When someone asks you, "How are you doing spiritually?" You usually will answer depending on how you feel, whether you feel close to the Lord, whether you feel distant from the Lord, whether you feel guilty before the Lord because you haven't done your quiet time, whether you've prayed enough or a little.

You will answer with how you feel. And after you've been a Christian for a while, there are seasons where prayer is hard, worship is routine, serving the church is a struggle. And even though we love God more deeply than we did before, we can't help but feel a distance, sometimes a vast chasm between me and God.

So when we read a passage like, "Rejoice always," Thessalonians 5:16, and we find out that that's God's will for our lives, we actually just kind of tend to gloss over it, don't think much of it because it seems too ideal, too impractical, impossible to follow. Because in our brokenness, in our broken ability to enjoy things fully, being joyful always seems too ridiculous of a command, so we actually don't think about it.

Even if it was just spiritual ADD that we struggle with, it'd be hard to enjoy. But add in sickness, tragedy, persecution, and death, we look at commands like, "Be joyful always," and we basically ignore them. Why? Because in a broken and fallen world full of vanity, pain, sorrow, and strife, this does not seem realistic.

But this is a command. This is God's will that you and I be unceasingly joyful, and it's all over Scripture. But is this possible? And I emphasize this because this is a super important question. Is this possible? Can you and I in our spiritual ADD with all of our tainted emotions obey this command?

And I'll say yes. And I'm going to show you why in verse 5. Let's look at verse 5. It reads, "Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is near." If you read through Philippians 4, 4 through 9, that verse seems and feels so awkward and out of place.

I've seen verse 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 on a frame or shared on a Facebook. I've seen all of those. I've never seen 5. But verse 5 is the most important verse in this whole section. And so we're going to spend a little bit of time looking over this.

Be joyful always. Again I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. What does that mean? So yeah, you could flip it. In the Greek, the word is, well, if you look up there, I put the word gentle spirit in bolded and yellow font.

Depending on the translation you use, you will get a slightly different take on this word. The Greek root word is epiakia. Can you repeat after me? Epiakia. E. B. A. K. A. Epiakia. Epiakia. This is an important word and we're going to come back to this multiple times. In this form, it's here in the nominative, neuter, singular, adjectival form of epiakis for you nerds out there.

But this is a very difficult word from the Greek to translate into English. So in every single one of your Bibles, there is an interpretation included in this translation. So if you look at this, in the King James Version, it says, "Let your moderation be known." ESV, "Let your reasonableness be known." NIV, "Let your gentleness be known.

Let your graciousness be known." And the Living Bible says, "Let your unselfish and considerate spirit be evident to all." So every, if you try to apply this, depending on what version you use, you will get a slightly different picture. This is what the word epiakia means. Can you flip to the next part?

Can you click on it? "Steadfastness, grace, and calmness that comes with experience, involvement, and age." "Steadfastness, grace, and calmness that comes with experience, involvement, and age." That's a mouthful. Now, what does that look like? In any sport, let's say the finals or a championship game in the playoffs, there's a lot of pressure.

So if you have a team full of rookies, if you have a team full of young people, a lot of times they cave under the pressure. But if you have someone who's an experienced veteran, usually they stay calm and poised no matter how behind they are in the game.

Players can easily get caught up in the moment. That's why highly competitive teams fill their rosters with veteran players, people who've been there, who can remain calm in crunch time. Experience doesn't lie. The experience to people, they don't get rattled. In fact, there's a steadiness, composure, and grace about them.

So if you're a rookie, you want to be like that championship-tested player. I also think about the elderly. The elderly handle disease and death with much more dignity, poise, and grace than a young person does. Right? Why is that? Because they've been around it more. They've embraced it as a natural part of life.

So they're not rattled when friends pass away, when someone gets sick. They take it with a graciousness and a calm. That's this word, apakea. I like to call it battle-tested Christian common sense, Christian wisdom. So rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Let your battle-tested Christian common sense be made clear to everybody around you.

That's the reason for your joy. The Lord is near. Can we go to the next slide? There's two Greek words here, kyrios, which means Lord, and engos, which is near. And this near is not the near as in physical closeness. This near is in reference to it's coming soon.

So it's actually should be translated, the Lord is soon. But that's kind of awkward English, so you won't see that in your translations. Why do we rejoice? Because we've been battle-tested, we know and we have a grace and a calmness that God is good and He is sovereign and that He is coming soon.

So why is this so central to the passage? Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I'll say rejoice. Let your battle-tested Christian wisdom be known to all men. The Lord is soon and all the tainted, ugly, corrupted things are going to quickly pass. So be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God.

There's a flow here. Do you guys see why verse five is so central to this whole section? In short, verse five is suggesting to us that believable joy, more than an emotion, it's an attitude of the heart. So I'm going to show you some other passages so you're not – I'm not like talking out my armpit, okay?

So let's look at some of another passages. James chapter one verse two says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." Only a crazy person would react like this. "I just lost my job. I can't pay my bills. I'm so happy." If someone did that, I would slap them in the head.

"What's wrong with you?" Or I would assume they're being super sarcastic because that's not an appropriate response. First Peter one, three to six, or and six, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials." First Peter is wrought with cases of abuse, oppression, suffering, persecution. People are being beheaded. People are being tortured because of their faith. And he is saying, "Rejoice. For it has been granted to you," earlier it says in Philippians, "for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." So Paul is saying, "You are going to suffer.

Be joyful." Is he a sick man? So what does joy look like? So biblical joy is more of an attitude of the heart than an emotional response. So sometimes in joy, I will have a delighted, happy emotion. Sometimes in my joy, I will grieve. Biblical joy is more an attitude of the heart than an emotion.

So what does it look like? "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." And the word joy is not explicitly written in Job chapter 1, but there is joy there.

And Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head, fell to the ground, and worshipped and demonstrated his joy before his almighty creator. Matthew 13, 44, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again. And from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." So what is joy?

It's an attitude of the heart found only in kingdom citizens that delights in and willingly submits to the goodness and the sovereignty of God. The attitude of the heart found only in kingdom citizens that delights in and willingly submits to the goodness and the sovereignty of God. So you can be joyful while you weep.

You can be joyful while you mourn. You can be joyful when you're under heavy stress or persecution. You can be joyful in the face of tragedy while living in a very fallen world. You can be joyful when someone you love goes through tragedy. You can be joy-filled in any and every circumstance.

So joy is characteristic of the children of God. It is actual proof of your kingdom citizenship. It's evidence. If you look at Galatians 5, you guys know the fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is love, and then what? Joy. That is evidence of the Holy Spirit living in you.

And joy again and again in Scripture, it's commanded. So if you are a Christian and you don't have joy in your life, this is disobedience. You are in sin if your life is not characterized by joy. Do you see why you can't just gloss over rejoicing the Lord always, I'll say it again, rejoice, and not think about it, not think to apply it?

You can't just treat it like an impossibility, an impracticality, something just left in theory. Joylessness is disobedience. A joyless Christian is an oxymoron. The terms are mutually exclusive. Joyless and Christian should never be used together except in a sermon. But you know, so many church people are mired in joyless routine.

Serving Christ, it feels like a duty. It's a responsibility. It's a burden. Yes, Jesus died for my sins, so I have to serve Him and obey Him. I have to go abroad and share the gospel because He died for my sins. Why? Because if I don't, He's going to throw me in hell.

We won't ever verbalize that. A lot of times, joylessness in your life and mine looks like that, religious routine. I have to do my quiet time. Otherwise, my accountability partners are going to, like, discipline me or rebuke me. The world is confused. This world is decaying. It's supposed to be in worship and in awe of God.

It's what we were created to give glory to God. But a lot of times, our evangelistic messages start with, "When you die, are you going to heaven or hell?" Evangelistic messages need to start with, "You were created for a relationship with God, to know God and to enjoy God forever." That's how the gospel really should start.

This is battle-tested wisdom. This apakea, you and I need to make known to all men. So verse 5 is not out of place here. Verse 5 is central. Why rejoice? Our joy points to God's redemptive work. So Christians are going to, non-Christians are going to be looking at your life, if you have no joy, if you have no zeal, they don't see any desire to know this God that you profess to believe.

So please remember this. Can you click on this? A joyless church will do a horrible job at being salt and light to a decaying and darkened world. Churchianity breeds joyless Christianity. Churchianity breeds joyless Christianity. A joyless church will do a horrible job at being salt and light to a decaying and darkened world.

So what – how do we maintain our joy? Let's look at verse 6 and 7. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There's a logical flow to this passage. There is, be joyful always, I will say it again, rejoice. Let your apakea be known to all men. The Lord is soon near. So here, this is how you maintain your joy, pray. That's the first application. And verse 6 is an often memorized, frequently quoted verse of the Bible, but this is coming in context of letting our apakea be known.

So we are exhorted to pray, to lift up everything with gratitude to the Lord. All of our burdens, all of our anxieties, all of the prayer requests that we have, to lift them up. And we're going to go into this more on Friday night when we have our All Church Praise and Prayer.

Okay, so that's a plug. So come. We are exhorted to pray. And then what happens? The peace of God, which is a mystery beyond all human understanding, will come and guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. The Greek word here is a word, phruresai. It's a military word.

It means the military guard, the sentry, will come and protect like they come and protect the king. So it's like the secret service of God. So if a king is standing there, his soldiers will surround him. If he's in danger, they will surround him with their shields, with their spears, and they will make an impenetrable wall of defense around the king.

That's what the peace of God will do as we lift up our prayers to him. And those who have walked with the Lord, they can have their hearts filled with peace no matter what the circumstance. The first application that we read is to pray. The second one, verse 8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." You know, whenever – early on when I first studied this passage many years ago, I always thought of like raindrops and roses and whiskers on kids.

You guys – when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad. Is that what it's talking about? No. It's talking about make an obsession of something. What are the things that we are called to dwell and obsess over?

Over the Word of God. The first application really that we see here is to pray. The second one is to obsess over His Word. Now some of you guys, if you're like me, you're tripping over this Word finally. Like, "Wait a minute. Hey, you're milking it here." Be joyful always, that's the what.

Let your epiakia be known to all men, that's the why. And then you're coming up with three howls, but there's a finally in the middle of this. As I was – whenever I do sermon prep, I actually memorize the passage I'm going to preach on and I go over it again and again and again.

But this section I started maybe three months ago, two, three months ago, just memorizing every day about two, three times, just going over this. And every time I go over this, there is this logical flow, but then I get to this finally and it annoyed me. So I looked at the Word, it was loipan, which is actually better translated, "Furthermore, moreover, in addition to." And you see that actually in chapter three, verse one.

And then he goes on to – finally – and then he goes on to write another half of the book. This is a second application to dwell over and obsess with the Word of God. So verse eight is pointing us to eating the Word. And here's what I mean by eating the Word.

Reflecting on the centrality of Christ through the intake of the Word of God. Is God's Word important? You guys will all probably nod yes. How important is the Word of God? And you guys will all probably give me textbook answers from your head. After all, our church's second vision is equipping every saint with God's inerrant Word.

But here's how you can really answer the question, how important is it the Word of God? How desperate are you each and every day to feed off His Word? How much or how little time do you invest to the study of His Word each day? How much or how little of His Word did you eat this week?

There's your answer. And there is a correlation between our intake of God's Word and our joy. And allow me to illustrate with this story. There should be a picture that comes up. Clearly. I took this picture December 3rd, 2016. This is a village sitting on a stone quarry just outside of Kampala, Uganda.

Next picture. Children as far as little as four years old, they break rocks all day. And when these little children break enough rocks into little smithereens and they collect a two-gallon bucket of these rocks, they'll get 90 cents. And they get injured in the process. Next picture. And one of those little girls that we met was a little girl in green shorts.

Her name is Angela. And she's one of the kids who breaks these rocks all day. Two weeks prior to our visit, her father was beaten to death. They went to the police. They did nothing. Because there's nothing in it for the police to help a little child living in these quarters.

So we felt so bad that we went to pray for her and her family. And we met her mom. Angela's mother was suffering from AIDS. And when we met her, she was listless, ill. She was bone thin and weighed about 80 pounds. In Uganda, there are many people who are suffering from AIDS.

And the government of Uganda actually supplies AIDS patients with free AIDS medicine, which is an amazing thing in and of itself. So Angela's mom took the AIDS medicine regularly every day. But the problem was that she was eating one small meal every two to three days. So we prayed for Angela.

We prayed for her mom. We enrolled her into the Compassion Program. And we sent $200 of groceries to be sent to her family. And I took this picture December 3, 2016. Seventeen days later, I got an email informing me that Angela's mother had passed away. Within a month, Angela lost mom and dad.

The cause of death was not AIDS. The cause of death was malnourishment. Within AIDS medicine, Angela's mom had needed food. So for AIDS patients, medical treatment is absolutely essential for those who are sick. But of greater importance for these patients is a regular intake of food. So when a person is actually fed and healthy, you know your bodies are attacked by viruses and germs all the time?

Nod your heads if you already knew this. But most of the time, we don't -- it doesn't feel like anything because it just passes away because our bodies just defend. But if our immune systems are down and our bodies are weak, the tiniest germ can have devastating effects. Medicine is good.

But without food, even good medicine -- actually, what happens? It has side effects. You're not supposed to eat medicine without food. And why do I share this? Everything that is good that comes with church life -- participation in small groups, meeting up with brothers and sisters in Christ, serving the church, preparing the snacks, reading theology books, coming to praise nights, giving to missions, going on a short-term trip -- these are all good things, but they are supplemental.

They are medicinal. They are good things, but none of these things can take the place of a steady diet of the Word of God. Joylessness and spiritual malnourishment go hand in hand. You know what causes burnout in people? They're serving the church with a passion, but the Word of God is not their fuel.

Maybe their guilt, their obligation, their desire to get recognized -- that's the fuel. And what happens? They burn out. But worse than that, they explode like poison, and then they leave the church. Malnourishment is a dangerous, dangerous thing. I've been a pastor for 18 years. This is my 18th year.

And I think just a little more than half of it I've done ministry out of the U.S. So most of my ministry -- more than half of my ministry has been away from Orange County. And I'm not exaggerating when I say this. I feel a greater spiritual warfare here in Orange County than anywhere else I've visited.

There are more spiritual landmines, more spiritual booby traps, and spiritual explosives here that are out to maim you than in most parts of the world. The enemy is actively, hungrily prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for souls to devour as is the first Peter. But here, he is wearing Orange County upper-middle-class material and comfort-based happy clothes.

So you just don't know he's there. You know, there was a survey taken in 1988 on Navy SEALs. And this is 30 years out of date, but I felt like, well, this is the only thing I could find. But 1988 survey taken of 267 Navy SEALs, the average Navy SEAL consumed 3,887 calories a day.

An average male who is 6 feet 185 pounds needs 1,728 calories a day. So an average Navy SEAL consumes more than double that of a 6 foot 185 pound man's necessary requirements. And during hell week training, these Navy SEALs consume 7,000 calories a day. And they all lose weight.

Why do they train so rigorously? Why do they eat so much? Because they're in the first in combat. They go to where the fighting is heavy, so they need to eat. So common sense will tell you that they need to eat a lot because they're going to go fight.

The closer you are to war, the more you need to eat. First Peter 211 reads, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." I found that in Orange County, there are more things that are waging war against the soul than in any part of the rest of the world.

So you tell me how much Bible intake is enough each day. I'll tell you this, you cannot spiritually survive with one sermon a week. You cannot survive on doing two or three cute little quiet times over the course of the week. You can take in all the spiritual medicine that you want, but if you don't take a steady diet of God's Word, you're going to have a hard time fighting.

You cannot survive without the Word of God. So how do we take in God's Word? In short, and you've heard this before, preach the gospel to yourself every day. And I agree with that 100%. I just don't like how it's become trendy and how that gospel starts with, "Jesus died for your sins." That's not the best place to start the gospel message.

The gospel message does not start with, "Jesus died for your sins." Yes, preach the gospel to yourself daily, but the gospel starts with, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created it good. He created it to be enjoyed. He created man. Man was created in the image of the triune God and was also therefore good.

God and man had a perfect fellowship in sin and to the world, but God had a plan. And I'm part of that plan, and He will return and redeem fully one day." Preaching a biblical gospel to myself does not start with, "Jesus died for my sins." It starts with, "God had a purpose and a design in creating man, and He is sovereign, and He is good, and He is all-powerful.

And God still has a purpose and plan for the redemption of mankind." That's epi-achaea. I've been doing a one-year Bible plan this year, and I haven't missed a day. And it's almost September, and I'm only in Ezekiel. According to my plan, I won't get to Matthew until October 5th.

And as of today, I'm still 40 days and 174 pages in my Bible from getting to the birth of Jesus Christ. So remember that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, correction, reproof, and training in righteousness. And he's talking about the Old Testament, actually. These are the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, excellent, and of good repute that you find in Scripture.

How do you let your joy be sustained? You pray, and you feast off of God's Word. And lastly, the things, verse 9, "You have learned and received and heard in me. Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Love the Word, live the Word, eat the Word, practice the Word.

So my question is, are you living in obedience to this command to be joyful always? Have you been fueling your joy in the redemption that has come through Jesus Christ by feeding daily and often through His Word? If you haven't, the point of this is not to drive you to feel guilty or to grieve, okay?

It's not to feel like, "Hey, you're not being joyful? Hey, you're a joyless Christian. Like, wake up." That's not the point of this message. I want to look at Nehemiah 8, 8 through 12, and we're going to close with this. They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.

Then 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 were weeping when they heard the words of the law.

Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy.

Do not be grieved." All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate a great festival because they understood the words which had been made known to them. In Nehemiah 8, 8, a revival is in progress. Ezra and some scribes are reading God's word to the people from dawn until noon for like six, seven, eight hours.

They're reading the word of God. The people responded by weeping in repentance as they realized how badly they had failed the Lord. But Nehemiah and Ezra and the other leaders tell the people not to mourn or weep on this day but to party it up. Why? God has deemed this day holy, and the joy of the Lord is to be what fuels them, what drives them.

And I want to close with just us looking at Philippians 4, 4 through 9 again. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice. Let your battle-tested Christian wisdom be made known to all men for the Lord is near and soon. And be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

The peace of God which is beyond, surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus like a fortress. And brothers, finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise that you find in the truth of the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you obsess yourself over these things.

And the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in the likes of Paul and other heroes of faith in the scripture, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. My prayer is that the joy of the Lord fuels everything in this church.

Amen? May the joy of the Lord be your strength. May the joy of the Lord be my strength. Not the burden, not the guilt, not the call, but may His joy be the strength of all that we do. Amen? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that our salvation is not based on how faithful we are, that eternal life was not a payment but it was a gift.

And Lord, we all have spiritual ADD, all of us have hearts that are prone to wander, but we thank you that you saw this, loved us anyway, and opened up an invitation that we come. Lord, I pray that you would renew our strength, that you would give us joy.

And Lord, I pray that as we feast on the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the world around us will know that you indeed are good, worthy of trust, worthy of worship. We love you, Lord. Thank you for giving us a reason to be joyful, to be hopeful, and to persevere in this walk.

In Jesus' name we pray. Bye.