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  UNDERSTANDING THE JOY OF THE LORD (VIDEO)
  by Carter Conlon
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Summary: This sermon focuses on the incredible understanding of the joy
of the Lord, emphasizing God's joy in restoring, empowering, and
celebrating His children. Using the parable of the prodigal son, it
illustrates how God's joy becomes our strength, covering our failures,
empowering us to represent Him, and bringing us into a place of
celebration and restoration.

Topics: "Joy of the Lord", "Restoration and Empowerment"
Scripture References: Luke 15:11, Hebrews 12:2, Nehemiah 8:10, Zephaniah 3:17, Psalm 30:11

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on the incredible understanding of the joy of the
Lord, emphasizing God's joy in restoring, empowering, and celebrating
His children. Using the parable of the prodigal son, it illustrates how
God's joy becomes our strength, covering our failures, empowering us to
represent Him, and bringing us into a place of celebration and
restoration.

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CONTENT
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I can almost promise you before this night is out, you're gonna get up
and dance in your living room or your kitchen or if you're sitting in
your car, you'll have to get outside of your car if you're gonna dance
or whatever it is you're gonna do. I think God's gonna bring you into an
incredible understanding tonight of what the joy of the Lord is, what
the joy of the Lord is. A lot of people don't understand the joy of the
Lord, but I hope tonight I can make it very, very clear to you from the
word of God.

Now remember, we're going to have communion at the end of this service,
so if you have a chance at home to get some bread and some juice and to
prepare to celebrate the victory of Christ that we've been singing about
all night with us at the end of the service. Pastor Tim Delina, the
senior pastor of Times Square Church preached a message on Sunday
morning that you really need to hear. Everybody needs to hear it.

It's called Land Lessons, and if you haven't heard it yet, I really,
I've heard it twice and I'm gonna listen to it again in the morning
because it just stirs my heart to the core. Wonderful, wonderful message
from the presence of God and from the word of God. I was speaking in
Virginia a couple of weeks ago for the Family Research Council for their
Pray, Vote, Stand conference, and I had the privilege of meeting a young
lady called Monica who was online.

She might be online with us tonight. She works for the Family Research
Council and she's been in a wheelchair for, had been in a wheelchair for
two years because of Lyme's disease. She was paralyzed.

She heard Sarah Kibudo's testimony from this meeting and she said, well,
God, if you can do that for Sarah, you can do that for me, and she got
up out of the wheelchair. She's walking, she's healthy. God touched her.

Hallelujah. We serve a God of miracles, and so I gave Monica's cell
number to Sarah. They're roughly the same age, same personality type
even, both bubbly and alive, and they're gonna get in touch with each
other, and I'm sure that this is the beginning of a longstanding
friendship, and I hope maybe one day I can get Monica here to testify
that she just was on this prayer meeting and she said, God, you can do
that for me too, and by faith got out of a wheelchair and she's been
completely healed, so we just thank God, just thank God for that with
all of our heart.

I'm gonna be sharing from the book of Nehemiah, chapter eight tonight,
then I'm gonna go into the New Testament after that to Luke chapter 15.
If anybody out there wants to follow along in your Bible or related
device, you're more than welcome to do so. So Father tonight, God, in
Jesus' name, I thank you, Lord.

God, I thank you that you still choose the foolish to confound the wise.
You said in the New Testament it's through the foolishness of preaching
the gospel that people are saved. So Father, thank you, God, for using
this foolish vessel one more time, anointing me with your Holy Spirit,
taking my thought process far beyond what I naturally have and speaking
through me, God, to the hearts of the people that are gathered in this
auditorium and those that are with us online and those who will be
watching in the future in their own time zones.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Lord, as the world is on a downward
spiral, your church is rising.

God, thank you for what you're doing, Lord. My heart is glad. I don't
understand it all, but God, I feel it in my spirit.

Your church is rising. Just as Sarah rose from a wheelchair and Monica
rose out of a wheelchair, your church is getting up. Your church is
going to have a testimony of the miraculous, and God, we're going to
understand some basic truths that maybe we just lost along the way.

In our desire to please you, we forgot that this whole kingdom is about
grace and mercy. So, Father, help me to convey this truth tonight and
help us all, anew and afresh, to understand what the joy of the Lord
really is. In Jesus' name, amen.

So, Nehemiah chapter eight. Now, the background, the children of Israel
have been taken into captivity because they dealt carelessly, really,
with the presence of God. They dealt carelessly with their purpose on
the earth, and they started to take a lot of things for granted, and
maybe in great measure, as we're all prone to do, they got bored with
the things of God.

They drifted away from God, and the end result was a foreign nation came
in, took all of the people captive for 70 years into a nation at that
time initially called Babylon and eventually belonged to the Medo-
Persians. Then, in three separate stages, the miraculous opened and the
people were given a way to go back home and to begin to rebuild their
testimony. And one of these, the last, actually, group of people was
under the leadership of a man called Nehemiah.

And Nehemiah was really just a butler in the Medo-Persian king's court.
And from his own brothers, he heard a report of what was going on in
Jerusalem, how that the people had gone back, they were trying to
rebuild, but they were discouraged, and there was a bit of reproach
concerning them. In other words, there was a lot of mockery about the
people of God.

And when he heard the report, it broke his heart. And he began to pray.
He was a man given to prayer, and he began to pray, and God began to
lead him, gave him incredible favor to go back to Jerusalem and to
rebuild the wall around the perimeters, as it was, around the city of
God that had been broken down because of the previous neglect.

And then the wall, in 52 days, was accomplished. It was really a
miracle. He just encouraged everybody to start building in the vicinity
of your own house.

Men and their wives, men and their sons, men and women and their
daughters, they all began to build together. And everybody in the
vicinity of their home began to build, and in just 52 days, which even
the enemies of the people of God had to acknowledge this was a miracle,
that God was with these people. You see, when we start to obey God,
things begin to be done that we normally couldn't do in times that we
couldn't do the man and with skills that none of us naturally have.

And so when it was all done, under Ezra the priest and Nehemiah and
others, they gathered all the people together to, again, open the words
of God's book and to read them to the people. They hadn't really been
serious about the word of God. It was because of their lack of
seriousness of God's word that they got into captivity and trouble in
the first place.

They didn't really take God at his word. There were warnings. You go to
the book of Deuteronomy, for example, chapter 28, the warnings are very,
very clearly there of what would happen to them if they neglected this
great relationship that God was bringing them into.

Of course, they neglected it, and everything that was warned happened to
them. So now they're coming back and they're trying to rebuild. Now, you
have to picture the scene now.

They're rebuilding a testimony out of the rubble. And when the priests
opened the word of God, the scripture says in Nehemiah chapter eight,
let's start at verse six. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.

All the people answered amen and amen while lifting up their hands. And
they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the
ground. And then it lists a whole bunch of people who were helping the
people to understand the law and the people stood in their place.

In verse eight says, so they read distinctly from the book in the law of
God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading.
So now they're opening the words of God. Remember, I talked to you about
Deuteronomy.

Who knows what it was that they began to read. And Nehemiah, who was the
governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the
people said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do
not mourn nor weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of
the law.

Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and
send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is
holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength. So the Levites quieted the people saying, be still for the day
is holy, do not be grieved.

And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and
rejoice greatly because they understood the words that were declared to
them. Now obviously everything that was declared is not written down
here. But when the words of God were opened, all they could see was
failure.

Have you ever been that way? Have you ever been in a season in your life
where you open the Bible and the Bible talks about issues of the heart
and character and you look and it's almost like this, meh, meh, this red
light keeps going off every verse that you read. You know, fail, fail,
fail, fail, fail, fail. And that's the way these people would have felt.

The word of God that they had at that time is being read and all they
see is failure. Oh God, you warned us, we didn't listen. You told us we
didn't take it seriously.

You told us what would happen to our children. We didn't listen and we
ended up in captivity and we brought your name into reproach. That would
be another thing that would grieve their hearts.

Oh Lord, we were, as they would be reading the words of God, they would
recognize again the calling on their lives. Abraham was their father and
through them, there was supposed to be a blessing that would come and
touch the whole known world. And they felt like such abject failures.

I don't know if you've ever felt like that. I've been there once or
twice in my lifetime where you just feel like God, I just, every, I'm
reading it and it's not producing any joy. I'm reading your word and
it's just simply producing a sorrow because all I see is failure upon
failure upon failure upon failure.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. I remember when I
was a young Christian, I remember blurting out loud, oh, that's easy for
you to say. Paul, you weren't even married and you're writing all these
words and telling us how to live.

God told me, he says, I'll show you how to do this. You don't have to
worry about that. You let me do in your life what only I can do for you.

And I'm talking about the early, early years when you're reading the
word and you're just, God, I'm such a failure. I see what I should be,
but I see also what I'm not. Remember, Paul says it in the book of
Romans, the things I know in my heart, what's right to do, and I delight
in my mind.

But God, I don't know how to perform this. I don't know how to do what
I'm supposed to do. For the things I know I should do, I'm not doing.

And the things I don't want to do, I find myself doing. And he says, who
will deliver me from the body of this death? But now, the people wept
when they heard the words. There's just ruin everywhere.

I don't know if you've ever felt like that. I'm speaking to people
online tonight. Your whole life is a mess and you know it.

I mean, I don't even have to prove it to you, and you know that. You
feel like you've blown your life. And you were, maybe some of you
actually were raised in the church, or you had some exposure to the
things of God, and some even thought you had a great relationship, a
saving relationship with God, but something happened along the way.

You lost it. Maybe you didn't deal carefully with your relationship, or
maybe you never fully understood some things about the kingdom of God.
And it caused you to drift away, and now your life is a mess, and you
look around like these people, and there's just ruin everywhere.

And every time you open the Bible, it's just like it reminds you of what
you didn't do. Maybe you lost your family. Maybe your marriage broke
apart.

Maybe you're sick in your body because of addictions that got ahold of
you, or you're troubled in your mind, and you don't know how you're ever
gonna go forward. You feel like such a total failure. But then something
strange is said in the midst of it all.

He said, don't be sorrowful. The joy of the Lord is your strength. You
know, and the people would have thought initially, as many do, am I
supposed to just walk around pretending I'm happy when I'm not? Do I put
a plastic smile on my face and walk around just saying the joy of the
Lord is my strength, but I don't feel any of it inside? Some people feel
that way, I'm sure.

But the people understood, not only did they say the joy of the Lord is
your strength, they said go and eat the fat, drink the sweet, and you're
gonna have so much that you can give portions to those that don't have
anything, for this day is holy. And so the Levites quieted the people,
say, do not be grieved, and everyone went their way to eat and drink and
to send portions and to rejoice greatly. So the point is, what did they
hear? The scripture says they understood the words that were declared to
them, so what were those words that were declared to them, and what is
this joy of the Lord that is supposed to be my strength? It's gotta be
more than just me being happy looking at the mess that's all around me,
and it had to be more than just saying go home and be happy, because
that certainly wouldn't do it in those circumstances.

Now, in order to understand this principle of the joy of the Lord being
our strength, we go to Luke chapter 15, and it's the story, in chapter
15 and verse 11, Jesus talked about a certain man that had two sons, and
his younger son said to his father, give me the portion of goods that
falls unto me, and so he divided to them his livelihood. And not many
days after, the younger son gathered everything together and journeyed
to a far country, and wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
Really, it means self-consumption, just he wasted it on himself, so he's
given, he has this relationship with his father, as the children of
Israel did with God in the Old Testament, but he doesn't appreciate it.

For whatever reason, maybe it's just never sunk down deep. He just
doesn't get who his father is yet, maybe. He doesn't fully understand
what it means to be related to his father, I don't know why, but
something got into his heart, and he said, I'm done with this place,
it's too narrow for me, I just don't like all the rules that are in this
place, and for whatever reason, he just said, there's gotta be more to
life than this.

It's the kind of a person that says, I find the church too narrow, I
find the call of God too small, there's gotta be something other than
this out there, and so he just says, give me what is mine. You know,
it's interesting, the father doesn't even resist, he doesn't even
seemingly try to talk him out of it. Give me, in a sense, it's a kind of
a person that says, God, give me the salvation you gave me, give me the
life you gave me, give me the promise and provision you gave me, give me
the future, maybe, that you promised was gonna be mine, but I'm gonna go
and find it myself.

I find this place too narrow. So he went out from his father's house,
took what his father had given him, he actually got his inheritance, but
he took it, and he went far, far away from the heart of his father, and
kind of wasted it all on himself. It's the type of a Christian person
who never finds their purpose in life.

They fail to understand that we are called to be ambassadors of an
incredible kingdom, but rather than, in a sense, live for the benefit of
others, he chooses to live for himself. He says, I wanna find joy more
than I've known in the relationship I've had with my father. Now, he
went and he spent everything on himself, but when he had spent
everything, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be
in want.

And I'm telling you, there's a famine in America today, there's a famine
in Canada, there's a famine all over the world. God is producing the
famine. I'm telling you straight out right now.

God is setting the condition to bring his people home. The father was
not willing to have his son captivated in this place forever, and so you
have to believe that the father's got some influence and ability, in a
sense, to at least be a voice at that time. And he went and joined
himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him in his fields to
feed swine.

There would be nothing worse for a Jewish boy than feeding pigs, it's as
low as you can go. Pigs are the most unclean thing, it's a pig that, in
a sense, the day that Antiochus went in and offered a pig upon the
altar, that's the absolute abomination, in a sense, in the presence of
God. And it's the type of a Christian person who ends up doing things he
never believed they were ever capable of doing.

Walking away, in a sense, from the call of God, walking away from the
house of the father and ending up in the place, I never thought I would
go here. I never thought I would ever do something like this. I thought
I was beyond this.

I had enough culture, I had enough training, I knew enough about my
father's house. How in the world did I ever end up in a field feeding
that which is as unclean, according to my religion and according to my
culture? It's like a Christian person ends up hooked on pornography,
feeding the unclean thing. If nobody watched pornography, by the way,
there would be no pornography, because you have to have an audience, or
there would be no point in producing this stuff.

And so here's a Christian boy, he's out in a place he shouldn't be, and
he was so hungry, and he couldn't find anything that would satisfy, but
the society around him was so selfish, nobody would give him anything to
eat. And I thank God when the world rejects you as a Christian. I thank
God.

There's no worse place to be than know whose son you are, whose daughter
you are, and you're in the world, and the world starts to reject you,
and you don't know if you can even go back home to your father, but the
world is rejecting you. And this is what happened to this boy. Nobody
would give him anything.

The scripture said he came to himself, and he said, how many of my
father's hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I'm perishing
with hunger? I'm gonna rise and go to my father, and he would be
thinking now, what's the formula now? How do I come back to my father?
Like, what is it that I was told? What was I taught? Oh yeah, I remember
now. I gotta go and say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and
before you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like
one of your hired servants.

This was the prayer, and I could just see him as he's going down the
road, he's just repeating this prayer, I'm no longer worthy. It's plan B
now for my life, or plan Z, actually, for my life. Plan A is forfeited.

I one time was in your house, and I one time walked with you, and I one
time understood you, but I blew it all, and I went out and I made a
mess, and I dishonored your name, and my life will never be the same
again, so I'm on to plan B or plan C for my life. I'm not worthy now to
be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.

In other words, I'll come back to your house, and I'll just, I'll grab a
broom. There's nothing wrong with grabbing a broom, by the way. I'll
grab a broom, and I'll just go out, and I'll clean corridors, and I'll
grab a rake, and I'll rake gardens, and I'll paint posts, and all those
things are good, but you see, the boy had a much higher calling on his
life, but he thought for sure I have forfeited.

I'm on to plan B if my father will even accept me, and he rose and came
to his father, and you can just see him. He's so far down the road, and
he's trying to remember what I'm supposed to say, and he feels so
unworthy, and he smells like a pigsty because he's been with pigs in the
field. Do you understand? He smells unclean, and he's coming down the
road, and he's repeating his mantra, Father, I'm not worthy.

How many people come to church like that trying to get right with God?
They sit there, Father, I'm not worthy. Oh, God, make me like one of
your hired servants, and I'll never be worthy again, and I'm so sorry
for what I've done, and I'll just snivel and snot the rest of my
Christian life, and I'll come to the altar, and I'll cry, and I'll
repent, and that'll be my whole testimony of what great a mess I made in
my life, and you allowed me to come home. The Scripture says, but when
he was still a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion,
and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

I can just imagine this boy's coming down the road, and he stinks, and
he's made a mess, and he's broke, and he's done things that have brought
his own father's name into disgrace, like he's not lived right, and he's
coming down the road, and he's reciting his mantra, and suddenly he
looks, and there's this old man come running down the road. His robes
are flowing, his white hair is blowing in the wind, and he's running
down the road to his son. Praise be to God.

I can imagine the servants in the house, they said, where's he going,
where's he going? He saw the son far, you see, because he'd been waiting
for him to come home. That's who God is. That's what God thinks like.

That's what the purpose and mission of God has been in this world all
along. He didn't come to save the righteous, he came to save sinners. He
didn't come because we had it all together.

He didn't come because we were righteous, or noble, or wise, or strong.
He came to us because we're weak, and we're foolish, and we make
mistakes, every last one of us. He came to us because only he could
bridge the great divide that was between us and the kingdom of God.

And I don't know what was in the heart of the son, but have you ever
been in a church service, and you feel like God's calling you, but
you're not quite sure what his response to you is going to be? And how
surprised he must have been when his father ran, was his father gonna
slap his face? Was he gonna stop 14 feet short and say, don't you dare
think about coming home after the mess you made in the family name. He
wasn't sure what the father was going to do. And how surprised he must
have been when the father embraced him, and kissed him.

You know, under the religious rules of that time, when you embrace
somebody, you took their smell upon yourself. When the father embraced
his son, he took the smell of the pigs upon himself. When Jesus Christ
went to the cross, and spread his arms open wide, and those nails were
driven through, he took your smell, he took my smell, he took our stain,
he took our shame.

He took all the foolish, stupid things that you and I have done, even as
believers in Jesus Christ. He took it all upon himself, all upon
himself. How strange that must have seemed to that son when his father
embraced him.

His father puts his arm around his son, and starts walking back home
with his son in his arm. And the boy starts repeating his mantra,
father, I've sinned, I'm not worthy any longer. Make me as one of your
hard servants.

The father's not even talking to him. The father doesn't even
acknowledge him. The first thing out of the father's mouth, he says to
his servants, bring the best robe in the house, and put it on my son.

The robe that is reserved for royalty, the robe that is reserved for,
it's as if the president came to your house. The robe that is reserved
for the finest of the finest of the finest of guests come to your house,
put that robe on my son. And that robe, when it was put on his son, it
covered the smell of his shame.

It covered the places he had been. He was now being received as royalty,
not as a slave, not as plan B, but as royalty coming into his father's
house. How stunned the servants must have been.

I can admit, this is what the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, that
this salvation of God is something the angels desire to look into. That
his heart is so towards us. He so loves us.

He is so taken with us. The angels don't understand it, that God,
almighty God, God who lives in perfection has set his heart and desire
on you and me. Praise be to God.

We are his trophies forever. And the best robe, the best robe in the
house of God is the blood of Jesus Christ. The covering of Christ takes
away the smell of where we've been and the stain and the reproach of
what we've done.

Even those who may have known him in some degree but walked away from
him. The next thing he says is if that's not good enough, he says bring
the ring and put it on his finger. The ring is the signet of the
father's authority.

In other words, you're not coming in as plan B and you're not coming in
my house as a gardener. You're coming in as a son. You're coming in with
the full authority of my house.

The signet ring on the son's finger meant when he sealed a document with
that ring, he carried the authority of his father. Behold, I give you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. The ring of authority,
not a slave, not second class, not plan B, not plan C, not plan D, plan
A for his son.

You are my son, hallelujah. Hallelujah. And then, and then he says bring
shoes and put them on my son's feet.

In other words, son, you're gonna take a journey. See, you're gonna
represent me now. I'm gonna send you places, son, and you're gonna talk
about me, hallelujah.

I get shivers when I preach this message because my son, you're gonna
tell, what do you think the boy's message was from that point onward?
The seven steps to this, the 14 steps to that, obey this, do that,
listen to the rules. No, he says, you gotta meet my dad. You've got to
know my father.

My life was a mess. I was living in a pigsty and I came down the road
and he embraced me and covered me and empowered me and invited me to
represent his house and go on a journey and tell others about him. Now,
he brings him in the house.

This is where it gets really interesting. The scripture says, he brought
him in, killed the fatted calf, arranged a celebration, called for the
musicians because in verse 25, it said, when the older son came, he drew
near to the house and there was music and dancing. So he brings his son,
and I've been at a Jewish wedding in Jerusalem and I've seen this kind
of a celebration.

He brings his son into the house, strikes up the band, now the son, you
can just picture the son, his life has been a mess. He's standing in the
corner of the room and he's got the robe, he's got the ring, he's got
the shoes, he's now the center of attention of this entire gathering.
The feast is in his honor.

The musicians are gathered and they begin to play and the Bible does say
there's dancing. And so suddenly, he looks and his father, I've been at
a Jewish wedding and I've watched the older Jewish men dance. It's
amazing how they dance in a circle and they raise their hands and he
looks at his father dancing and suddenly it hits him.

It is my father's joy to bring me home. It is my father's joy to cover
my failure. It is my father's joy to empower me over my enemies.

It is my father's joy to call me to represent him in his kingdom. And he
looks and it's not his joy, it's his father's joy that becomes his
strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength.

That's what Nehemiah and Ezra and the others were telling the people of
God. It is God's joy to bring you home. It is God's joy to restore you.

It is God's joy to give you the power to rebuild what was lost. It is
the joy of the Lord to do this for you. That is the source of your
strength.

Hallelujah, it becomes my joy, yes, but it's his joy first, not mine.
It's his joy to restore me, hallelujah. Glory to God.

That's why Nehemiah and the others in Ezra, they said to the people,
they said go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions
to those for whom nothing is prepared. In other words, feast on this
incredible joy of the Lord and let it spill over through your life to
people that don't have any of it or they don't know the reason why they
should have the strength that God's joy brings. Have you ever seen,
doesn't he say in the Bible, I will rejoice over you with singing?
Doesn't he say the angels in heaven rejoice over even one sinner that
gets saved? You see, this party that we're reading about in Luke 15 goes
on all the time in heaven because the created beings there know the
heart of God.

Praise be to God. And send some to people for whom nothing is prepared
and do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is your
strength. Hallelujah.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/ZUvPRSkKvfs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/carter-conlon/understanding-the-joy-of-the-lord-video/
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