Morning, Nehemiah chapter eight. George Mueller once said a very profound statement, a quote that I've read recently that probably changed my life. He said this. I saw more clear than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. To have my soul happy in the Lord. As we look into Nehemiah chapter 8 this morning, there in verse 10, I want to introduce you to the theme, the focus that we want to kind of set ourselves as a Capital City Baptist Church family for this next year, for 2024. And I've named it simply, Happy in Jesus. Happy in Jesus. And I do wanna explain this a little bit. My prayer this morning here is that you would be encouraged through this message. That it would change, it would transform your life, just like it did mine. This may be, possibly, one of the most important messages I've ever preached. And my desire is for God to truly help each and every one of us here this morning in our lives, in our homes. In Nehemiah 8, in verse 10, the Bible says this, Then he said unto them, go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be you sorry. Notice the phrase at the end of the verse. For the joy of the Lord is your strength. For the joy of the Lord. is your strength. Let's bow in prayer. Dear Father in heaven, you know exactly, Lord, that without you we are nothing. Lord, without your help and your spirit and your word, Lord, I'm completely incapable of preaching what your message is today. Father, I beg for your help. Lord, we pray for your help for each and every one of us, Lord, that listens to your word, that it would fall on fruitful ground in our hearts, that we would give attention to it, that we would allow its conviction, we would allow its instruction, we would allow its healing touch in our souls, and Lord, we would yield to it in obedience this morning. Father, I pray if there's anyone here that is not saved, does not have peace with God in heaven, Lord, that this morning they would turn to you in repentance and receive your Savior. Lord, I pray for every single Christian here this morning. that you would change, that you would truly revive our lives here today, Father. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. There's been so many times where I've met up with somebody in my office or church or wherever it may have been, and they were seeking help. They were looking for counsel and As they were opening up the heart, as they were describing their pain, their misery, their difficulties in their life, what I could clearly observe what was going on in so many Christians' lives and hearts these days is an ongoing destruction, an ongoing misery in their life. And I think Proverbs chapter 13, in verse 13, has quite a bit of insight for us what part of that reason may be. Proverbs chapter 13, in verse 13, the fact of the matter is we always look so quickly for outward factors that cause our problems. But we don't always have authority or capability to change all of those. We certainly have control, though, over a lot of the factors that pertain to ourselves, don't we? And it could just be, I'm not saying always, by no means, but it could just be that some of the spiritual struggles you and I are facing on a daily basis could be due to our lack of a true, a genuine, a passionate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God. Let me show you what I mean in Proverbs 13, verse 13. The Bible says, Now you won't hear that kind of preaching very often in very many churches these days and it's probably not meant to make you feel all happy and warm about yourself and leave you on your merry way. Because the word of God is actually meant to change us this morning. And to be quite honest with you, my dear friend, this morning, if you came here with the intention of leaving exactly the same way you came, you not just wasted your time, you've also come to the wrong place. Because as you and I, by faith, receive the Word of God this morning, it will and it does change us without fault. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces even the hardest of hearts like a hammer does the rock. And it transforms us because it is alive. And it's more up-to-date than tomorrow's newspaper, amen. And the Bible warns us, all of us this morning, whoso despises the Word, the Word of God here, shall be destroyed. The word despises, here in this context, really refers to someone who does not give proper attention to it. Someone who does not give proper attention to it. happy in Jesus, our theme for 2024. And I thought it was so profound, the statement that George Mueller of old made, that he realized his greatest priority, his first thing each and every day, was to ensure to find his soul happy in the Lord. Now that was much more than just a feeling, or just an emotional state of being or relationship and we'll get into that here in a little bit. But we see there that indeed in the book of Nehemiah the Bible teaches us that the joy of the Lord is your strength. And we want to break down that truth a little bit this morning. Because first and foremost we see there where that joy comes from. It's the joy of The Lord. Amen. The joy of the Lord. It's not the joy of Timothy Jansen. It's not the joy of the Jansen home or Canada or anything. It is the joy of the Lord. That's where it's coming from. That's its source. That's also its anchor point. You say, how do I get that joy? My life doesn't always feel very joyful. How can I get that? Well, first and foremost starts with salvation. You see, if you are not actually saved and born again, you cannot enjoy the joy of the Lord because it comes from Him. You cannot have the joy of the Lord if you've never had that relationship with God. That relationship starts with salvation in Jesus Christ. In Psalm 51 verse 12, King David of old already mentions in his prayer, the joy of thy salvation. There's a joy that only those know whose sins have been forgiven, who've been transferred from the road to hell to the road to heaven through the righteousness and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, I didn't ask you whether you're a Christian. There's millions of, if not billions, of religious people these days that unfortunately are on the broad way that leads straight into the lake of fire. It's not about being religious. It's not about attending church or having been baptized or having prayed a prayer at some point. Do you know that time in your life where you've realized that you're sinful before God and you turn to God with a repentant heart? Do you depend upon Jesus Christ alone to save you from eternal death and from the judgment of hell? Did you sincerely ask Jesus to forgive your sins and have you put your faith in Him to save you? See, nothing else could be more important and nothing else could matter this morning if that isn't settled in your heart. Now, based upon what you do or could do or have done, but based upon what Jesus did for you, more than anything else this morning, as far as the source of your joy is concerned, You need to recognize that God in heaven loves you. The Bible says that God amazingly loves sinners. He even loves those who hate Him. And He calls all men everywhere to repentance. And He has made it very clear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. None of us measures up to God's standard. So thankfully Jesus Christ came and did it for us. He died the death that you and I should have paid. He was buried but He rose again the third day back to life. Now He says that whosoever, that means anybody, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So the question is very simple. Are you saved this morning? If not, you can come to Jesus Christ right now. Right here this morning. But you see, that's first and foremost the most important part of as far as where your joy can come from. The joy of the Lord starts by starting that relationship with God in salvation. But then if you're a Savior this morning, if you're truly a Christian, let me ask you this. How many times have you maybe read a chapter in your Bible And then you got to the end of it and you didn't even know what you read. So many of us, myself included many times, we really try hard, we make many efforts to read through the Bible, or at least read a portion of scripture each day. But how often do we actually get anything out of that? The Apostle Paul says in the New Testament that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. That means it benefits us. So the problem is not with the Scripture. The problem is not with your King James Bible at all, my friend. God's worth prophets, without question. So then, at least you can only be with one reading in him. Are you receiving that prophet? We may sit in church, half paying attention. We may have grown up in a Christian home. We may have gone to a Christian school or being homeschooled or being raised in Sunday school all our lives. We may have heard thousands of sermons. That doesn't make us spiritual at all. So many Christians today have a huge amount of information about God, but there's no developing of a real personal relationship with their Savior. And I'm really afraid this is probably the greatest tragedy that any Christian, any Christian family, or any Christian church could ever experience. I know Christians who have more scripture memorized than you or I, and yet they live like the devil. Oh, well, then they must not be saved, right? That may be the case at times. It was certainly for me. For seven years of my life, I was religious, but lost. I never repented and threw myself by faith fully upon the mercy of Christ for salvation. That's why 2 Corinthians 3, verse 5 says, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith But the Bible does also make it very clear, friends, that even a generally born-again believer in Jesus Christ can still struggle with sin. Amen? And we can still struggle with that relationship with Jesus on a daily basis. Especially if we've never been taught how. Amen? The Apostle Paul refers to that in Romans chapter 6 down to chapter 8. And the fact of the matter is, many of the most of us have maybe never been taught, we have never learned how to communicate with God, we've never learned how to live out a relationship with Jesus Christ as we see, for example, described in 1 John chapter 1. I believe that the Bible does teach us how to have a really intimate, personal, passionate relationship with God and makes it very clear that that is very possible for every Christian. The most important thing for a Christian outside of salvation, do you know what it is? It is to be controlled, to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Most Christians, unfortunately, today have really no clue what that means neither practically. Because we do not walk with the Lord, we do not walk under the control of the Holy Spirit, we walk in the flesh, and grief, destruction, and misery, and spiritual defeat or weakness is the rule of the day for most Christians. But it doesn't have to be like that. Do you hear what I just said? It doesn't have to be like that. No Christian today has to live continually defeated. Let's turn to Galatians chapter 5 verse 16. Galatians 5, verse 16. We'll return to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah in a little bit, but first I want to look at a few verses of Scripture here in Galatians 5, verse 16. The Bible says there, This I say then, walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Did you just notice that there is a way to not fulfill the lusts of the flesh? To be controlled by sin? That's what he's saying here. Walk in the Spirit. You say, what in the world does that mean? Well, we'll examine that here in just a little bit. And we'll examine that in more greater detail, Ed, throughout this upcoming year, if the Lord carries this coming. Drop down to verse 25. Galatians 5, verse 25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. So there, we see that practically connected. Walking in the Spirit is connected to living in the Spirit. In other words, folks, we have to have a real relationship, a friendship, if you will, a communication with our Savior, with our God, and we need to walk under the control of the Holy Spirit of God in order to not live in the flesh. If we aren't under the control of the Spirit of God, if we're not walking in God's Spirit, sin can control our life and our walk. I want to illustrate this a little bit, and it's a bit of a silly illustration, but hopefully you'll bear with me. You know, I was thinking of a child that needs to or wants to learn how to ride a bicycle. to a degree it would be somewhat natural for a healthy child that is alive to have the desire to want to ride a bike, right, as it sees other kids ride a bike. But unless someone shows them and teaches them how to ride a bike, you know, they may run around for a while falling off of bikes, but eventually they'll get discouraged and may even stay away from bikes. Or maybe They have somebody trying to teach them but they weren't really willing to watch. They weren't really willing to learn and to listen and those who've been trying to instruct them. Maybe they've been never willing to step out and start driving the bike by themselves even though others try to teach them. And they're just relying that, you know, others will ride them around on their bikes. Either way, the fact of the matter is we need to be taught how to live under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. And here's why. Here's why. Happy in Jesus. If you look in verse 22 in Galatians chapter 5, you see why. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, and then what's the second thing? Joy. You see that there? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, excuse me, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. You cannot have joy. I'm not talking about happiness. I'm not talking about, you know, getting a gift and being excited or, you know, enjoying a piece of chocolate or ice cream. That's not joy. That may be happiness or whatever, but joy can only come under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. It's part of the fruit of the Spirit. And that's where I've been wanting to lead up to. Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit. There cannot be any joy, any fulfillment, really any motivation to live the Christian life, any passion, any genuine daily relationship with God, unless I'm under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. It's really that simple. You know, in John chapter 15, verse 5, the Lord makes it very clear, right? When He says, For without me ye can do, how much? Nothing. Amen? For without me ye can do nothing. Let's be honest for a second here. You're not trying to impress anybody. I'm not trying to impress anybody. The Lord knows everything about you anyway, so there's no point in impressing Him. Amen? How many times do we get up on our day, go through our day, maybe even end our day without ever having invested a single minute into the Word of God, into our prayer life, into not just religious rituals, but into a genuine relationship, a love relationship, a friendship, a communication with God, with the Holy Spirit of God through His Word? It's probably impossible to exaggerate how dependent we are on God's Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We depend upon Him for everything in the Christian life. If we're filled with the Spirit, He works His fruit through us. But if we're not filled with the Holy Spirit, we're unproductive. And great tragedy is the result. We're miserable, we're grieved, we live carnally and fleshly and sinful lives as Christians. And we may know nothing or very little of that spiritual intimacy, that great joy that comes with a genuine walk with the Lord, folks. It's so important that when we look at the Word of God, that we look at it not just as a book of information. Christians probably have more Bible knowledge than ever before in human history, but that hasn't made us any more spiritual, has it? Maybe full of pride, but that's about it. No, this book is a book of transformation. It seeks to change us. Do we ever approach the Word of God even in that way? With a submissive heart, feeling the need and being willing to change. Most times we just look for it for a little emotional kick, right? Or some, you know, a little bit of inspiration or wisdom here or there. No. Where's that submission to the Word of God and to the Spirit of God who teaches us through the Word of God? Where's that A daily, real, intimate, personal, passionate time with God and communication with Him. Romans chapter 12 verse 2 makes it very clear that we need to be transformed, that we need to be changed by the renewing of your mind. That happens only through the Word of God. You have to be willing to be changed for God to change you. And that's where we get back to Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10. For the joy of the Lord is your strength. I find this interesting there when we look a little bit into the context there in Nehemiah chapter 8. We won't go into all the verses there for the sake of time. I just want to read Nehemiah 8 verse 5. Nehemiah 8 verse 5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. For he was above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. That may be a good habit to have, Amen? Out of respect for the Word of God. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. It means he praised them. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. In verse 8, So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. So the reading and preaching of the word of God is the context there. In verse 9 we see that they were mourning and weeping as they were being convicted as their sin was exposed by the law of God. And yet Ezra and Nehemiah encouraged the people to stop weeping. Verse 12, instead they were supposed to have a celebration as revival broke out, as God was touching their lives through the Word of God. It says there, "...and all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them." What do we see here? We see here that the hearing and the understanding of the Word of God resulted in Great joy. For the joy of the Lord is your strength. What does joy mean? Joy is a feeling of delight and blessedness and thankfulness regardless of the circumstances. Joy is a feeling of delight and blessedness and thankfulness regardless of the circumstances. That's why it's so different than happiness. Joy is not just feeling happy. In Acts chapter 20 verse 24 we see the Apostle Paul filled with joy even though his circumstances were anything but enjoyable. He was about to be martyred and was looking towards a possible death sentence. And yet He says, The Lord Jesus Christ did the same thing in Hebrews 12, verse 2. We read that as He went to the cross, He had in mind, He had in focus the joy that was set before Him. The joy that was the result of obedience to His Father in heaven, by the way. Joy means an expectation, a hope, a looking forward towards good. The joy of the Lord, regardless of the circumstances, is your strength. The word strength here in this context of Nehemiah chapter 8 means the ability given by God to continue moving forward for His glory, regardless of the circumstances. Strength is the ability given by God to continue moving forward for His glory, regardless of the circumstances. Ephesians 3, verse 16, Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers that they would be strengthened with his might by his Spirit in the inner man. Paul also prayed in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, that though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. A strength inwardly that is unaffected by the outward circumstances. That is what only the joy of the Lord can give. And folks, I really truly believe if you and I can get a hold of that this morning, just like George Muller of old got a hold of that, that he realized his first and foremost duty is to make us all happy in Jesus. In other words, to get on the same frequency with the Lord. to humble himself before the Lord, to make sure he's right, he has a clean relationship between the Lord. All sin is confessed. To make sure that his eyes and his focus is on the Lord, because what? The joy of the Lord is your strength, right? Not the joy of how my body feels, not the joy of how people react around me, not the joy of how my day at work went. No, no, no, the joy of the Lord. I have to look at Him to get that joy, amen? That's what George Mueller meant. And I believe if you and I could get a hold of learning how to be happy in Jesus or joyful in Jesus, how to make the joy of the Lord our strength, revival will break out to this church family, folks. I really truly do believe that. And then no matter what 2024 may throw at us, good or bad, It'll be a good year because we have the joy of the Lord with us. Amen? Now, let me clarify. I'm not talking about some sort of Christian hedonism there as false teachers like John Piper teach. No, rather, I believe we need to be reminded that every morning, every day, Until and unless our soul has found fellowship with the Savior each day, there will be no joy. There will be no motivation. There will be no power to live a God and Christian life. Joy is the result of being filled or being controlled by the Holy Spirit of God, as we just saw in Galatians 5. Joy is the result of fellowship, of an act of friendship, an act of communication, a love relationship with my Savior. I believe we see that in 1 John chapter 1. In 1 John chapter 1 and verse 4, God says, "...there are these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full." These things write be unto you that your joy may be full. God's a good God. But something needs to be first taken care of. The whole chapter there talks about our fellowship with the Lord and of course how that affects our fellowship with one with another, but there's one crux of the matter that either makes or breaks this whole deal of fellowship with the Lord, of that joy being full. And that's having a clean channel for the joy, for the blessing to flow. In verse 9, He makes it very clear what we need to do in order to receive that joy. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Jesus wants to fellowship with you if you want to fellowship with Him. But light cannot dwell with darkness. So first, we need to ask the Lord, Lord, search me, search my heart. Or try my way, see if there be any wicked way in me. And we first have to be willing to confess any known sin to the Lord and get that cleaned out. And then if we sweet fellowship, then the joy can flow again. Joy is the result of submitting to God's will. Joy is the result of obedience to God. You see, so many times we want to put the cart before the horse, right? Lord, once you give me joy, once you give me fulfillment, oh, then I'll be motivated to serve you more and do everything you say. But it's the exact opposite. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. The old song says, amen? I think we need to be reminded of that sometimes. I want to turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to look at these verses of Scripture in much greater detail, Lord willing, at some other point. But I just want to put them into this context here. Ephesians chapter 5, we want to begin at verse 18. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Now how does being filled with the Spirit look like? What does it result in? That's what we see in the following verses. Giving thanks, always for all things. unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Do you see how everything aligns itself once we get the priority right? We're communicating, we're fellowshipping with the Lord? You say, how do I do that? How do I get filled with the Spirit? Is that some kind of magical boom that I get? And then I got it and I'm a special Christian? Not at all. It's actually much simpler than you would think. In Colossians 3, verses 16 and 17, interestingly enough, we find the very same results described that we see of being filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5, when a Christian lets the word of Christ dwell in him richly. In other words, being spirit-filled means being Bible-filled. It's that simple. Being spiritual means that I'm fellowshiping with Christ and I'm submitting to His will. Let me read to you once again from George Mueller. If you get a hold of that concept this morning, I'll be an anchor in your relationship with the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord or how much I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man may be nourished. I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it. That's basically the conclusion from Colossians chapter 3 in Ephesians 5. He moves on to say, But in what way shall we attain this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? How obtain such an all-sufficient, soul-satisfying portion in Him that shall enable us to let go of the things of this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I answer, this happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. Through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has then revealed Himself unto us in the face of Jesus Christ. There's much more that we could say about that communion, that communication with the Lord on a daily basis. But let me just practically, in closing, encourage you this morning. Set a time. Have a time set. Have a time set. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ, we find, often have in the habit of rising up early in the morning to spend time with his Father. We find Daniel, or even David, praying mornings, at noontime, and in evenings. Whenever it is, set a time. Set a place. Have a place where that's where you always go to spend time with the Lord. Whether it's your car, whether it's your living room chair, or your kitchen table, whatever it may be, your bedroom. Have a special place where that's where you're always going to be when you spend time with the Lord. Of course, you can do that throughout the whole day, don't get me wrong, but I'm reminded of Moses, who always had that special place where he met with the Lord on Mount Sinai that he kept returning to again and again. Not have a plan. Have a time, have a place, have a plan. We've talked about that in Sunday school already. Organize your reading, organize your studying and meditating. You know, in your schedule, set this time as busy. You're not available during that time for nothing because you're spending time with the Lord. Get yourself whatever helps you need, whether it's a devotional book, a study help, a dictionary, a Bible reading plan, whatever it may be. You may get some help in church, amen? Did you know that the Lord chose through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe? That's what the Apostle Paul said. Folks, that's not my idea, that's not anybody else's idea, that's the Lord's idea. I don't get it, but I trust the Holy Spirit knows what He's doing. I mentioned before Christmas, I think we need to mention it again, folks. Whenever there's anything else more important, even if it's family, whatever it may be, then the assembling of ourselves together as a church family, that is in essence an idol. that the Lord calls us to repent of. When we come to the Lord, we need to first ask Him, Lord, is there any sin that I need to confess? Is there anything between you and me? And secondly, we need to ask the Lord to fill us, to control us with His Holy Spirit as we submit to Him, as Romans chapter 6 teaches us. Then I need to pray and ask the Lord, Lord, teach me from your word. Guide me, feed my soul. I want to listen to what your love letter has to say to me. Lord, I believe you have a message for me today. Then as you pray to Him, you listen to His voice and He wants to listen to yours. That's communication. That's how relationships work, amen? It's not religion! It's relationship. Before you pray, ask the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to pray about today? That's what Romans chapter 8 teaches us we ought to do. Maybe, Lord, who do you want me to pray for today? Ask the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to thank you for today? What do you want me to praise you today? Remember in Ephesians chapter 5, one of the results of being filled with the Holy Spirit was joy, was giving thanks to the Lord. Because that joy is not rooted in my circumstances, it's rooted in Him. Maybe ask the Lord as well, Lord, who do you want me to encourage today? Lord, who do you want me to witness to today? Do you see how this communication works? As we listen to the Lord, to the voice of the Holy Spirit through His Word, and as we come and we communicate back to Him, we pray to Him. We're not talking about some kind of mystical nonsense here, or any of that sort, folks. We're talking just simply having a relationship with a real person. God is not just a concept, or force, or idea. He's a person. That's a new idea to most Christians, sadly. The primary business I must attend to every day is to fellowship with the Lord. First and foremost thing I need to do each and every day is to get my soul happy in Jesus. In other words, to put my focus upon Him. and to live and to walk in the joy of the Lord, to be yielded to the control of His Holy Spirit. That's the only way to live the Christian life, folks. The only way. And I have no idea where you are at this morning with your walk with the Lord, but I know that the Holy Spirit of God, as we are about to enter this new year, wants each and every one of us to determine this morning to make that our first and utmost priority. To learn how to have a real, a passionate relationship, a friendship, if you will, with our Savior. Through prayer, through His Word, and through yielding to Him. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Is it?