Holiness & Joy-The Powerful Connection Between Holiness & Divine Happiness (Biblical Joy) - Tyler Behel

The joy of the Lord is something very different from human happiness. As Christians, we have the ability to move past being tossed by every circumstance that comes our way and replace it with the Joy of the Lord.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):

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​Thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to talk. So to get started this morning, I want to talk to you about this. This guy that I've been looking into lately, he lived a really long time ago. And most everyone that knew the guy thought he was a little bit off his rocker. He was pretty intense. You know, he was this religious zealot. He was one of those those religious types that they just can't figure out how to coexist with everybody. And he was always getting in trouble because of it. You know, everything within with was black and white. Everything was polarizing. And often the things he said they they provoked a violent response from from those around him and made everybody mad. In fact, he wrote down that, that five times he got 40 lashes last one, which I guess 39 lashes five times. That's that's pretty, pretty intense, right? And then there was this other time, he said three times he was beaten with rods, he was stoned. And then three times he was shipwrecked. And then he was always moving around. And he was always in danger. He never had enough food, he never had enough water. He was always in these really bad situations, his friends backstabbed them and and then eventually he was killed. See, the life of these zealot types is super depressing. It's super depressing. I don't understand. You mean, life's hard enough as it is without subjecting yourself to that sort of abuse, you know? So why act that way? So what's even more crazy about this dude, is that during one of his really lengthy prison sentences, he wrote a letter to encourage some of his other fellow religious types. And he sounded so happy. Like, what in the world man, he he had so much peace about him. And he even kind of sounded joyful. Like what in the world man? So listen to this, I got a copy of one of his letters right here, I just want to read it to you. So you see what I'm talking about. It's nuts. So I think my God, and all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the Gospel, from the first day until now, and I'm sure this, that He who began a good work and you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It's right for me to feel this way about you, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment, and my defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with affection of Jesus Christ. And in my prayer, that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent. And so be pure and blameless for the day of the Lord, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. I mean, I read that, and then I look at the things he said, he's going through, and I looked at him being in prison, and it just doesn't add up to me. His outlook on life is baffling. I don't I don't understand. How can you be so joyful, so hopeful, and so thankful, in the midst of all of those crazy circumstances? So am I am I kind of poorly constructed monologue? I'm not real good at those, but I thought I'd give it a shot. So I was describing Paul, in case any of you didn't, didn't recognize him. But do you know, do you know anybody like that? It doesn't matter what the circumstances are, it doesn't matter. They could be going up, they could be going down. They could be in the middle of a war. Miss best point over that direction over there. Gentleman's probably getting some water right now. That it doesn't matter what's going on around them. They're joyful. They're joyful, and they have this joy about them that that just doesn't seem to make sense. And then on the other side, I want you to think about do you know anyone that it doesn't matter how good or bad the circumstances are? They're just never good enough. They're just never happy. They just can't feel anything good. They can't let themselves experience joy. And I know probably all of us have been there at some point or another. I know Marina thinks I'm an ER sometimes. And she accuses me of that. Which is probably true. So I'm sure Paul was not happy with any of these circumstances. And happiness is not the same thing. No one enjoys enduring hardship. Especially not the level that he had to deal with it. But joy is something very different. At least biblical joy is something very different. The dictionary didn't Really do me any favors. Whenever I looked up this word, I was hoping, you know, it would give me some sort of profound truth, but Oxford actually just calls it what is it, just kind of call it like a feeling, you know, it's like a feeling of happiness and, and pleasure. Yeah, euphoria, it had a bunch of words like that. But like most emotions, all of those things sounded really temporary to me, and really fleeting. And that's not what I read about when I read in Scripture, especially not the concept of the joy of the Lord. That's not the same thing. That's something completely different, completely different. That transcends our circumstances. So it's above our circumstances, and then it permeates our beings, you know, it gets inside our bones, it gets inside our inside our spirits, and then it pushes out everything else that would give us any sort of negative, lasting emotion. Now, I'm not saying that you won't have sad times, and you won't feel pain and mourning, but it doesn't last long. It doesn't last forever, because that's not the reality that we get to live in. And the joy of the Lord is something different. And as Christians, we have the ability to move past being tossed by every circumstance that comes our way, and replace that with the joy of the Lord. And this doesn't mean it's wrong to feel sad or down. I mean, Jesus himself mourned. You know, he mourned when his friend passed away. He sweated blood, you know, he, he felt things deeply. And he also was able to display this transcendent joy in the midst of all of it. You know, that's the way he was, he was able to be on the cross, you know, and grant, the guy sitting next to him salvation. That's the way he was able to be on the cross and take care of his mother, you know, and that's the way that he was able to say, you know, forgive them. It's because he experienced that transcending joy of the Lord that I'm talking about. So is anyone in here heard of the phrase, the joy of the Lord? Or should maybe I should say this a different way? Has anyone not heard of the phrase, the joy of the Lord? Okay, that's good. I didn't get any hands. So the joy of so there are a bunch of worship songs about the joy of the Lord. So as I was, you know, mulling this over the last couple of days, this word joy came out of a prayer Council, Jennifer talked about it the other day, and I started looking up all these worship songs about the joy of the Lord, you know, the joy of the Lord will be my strength. I will not falter walking by faith. So I started thinking about that. I'm like, There's got to be more like, yeah, I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Yeah, there we go. Someone's heard that before. I'm not the only one that does these. These crazy acapella worship songs. Every Christmas song, yeah, Joy to the world. But you know, I'm looking at it. And it still wasn't given me a real clear picture about what that actually meant, you know, does the joy of the Lord mean anything? Or is it just the church cliche that we use? And in our Christian circles, you know, because there are a lot of those, you could probably say, you know, hey, those have kind of lost their meaning to us because they've become too familiar. But the joy of the Lord, it has a deep meaning. And I think we need to look into that too, to understand what it is. So if you got your Bibles with you, and I hope most of you do, let's turn in Nehemiah eight. Okay, so before I start reading this verse, I kind of want to give you a little bit of the context or the backstory to where we are in Nehemiah eight. So Israel has returned from exile, exile in Babylon. And they were beginning to reestablish their community in Jerusalem. But most of the folks had been focusing on their, their personal dwellings and all of these things. So they hadn't really built the city defences, yet. They hadn't really dealt with, with putting together the community and taking care of the community in a material way. So Ezra, if those of you have heard of Ezra, I'm not talking about my son. He had, he had returned from exile 13 years prior to this, to the, to the events that were taking place in the book of Nehemiah. And the city hadn't been rebuilt yet. And the people had not fully turned their hearts back to God yet. Now as we brought the law back to them, and reintroduce them to it because they had completely forgotten it, but they still weren't there yet. So when the chapters prior to chapter eight, were all this is starting, Nehemiah leads the city to rebuild the physical defenses to rebuild the wall. They're starting to reconstruct the community. And in reconstructing the material community, the people started to realize we need to construct our spiritual community again. So the people asked Ezra, who's this really skilled scribe and priest to read to them and explain to them what the law actually said. So that's where we're going to start Nehemiah eight, and I'm not going to apologize for this, but there's going to be some big chunks scripture, I believe it's important for us to get the full context of what's going on in Scripture. So, so I'm gonna go ahead and read the whole thing, and we'll discuss it as we go through. So starting in verse one in Nehemiah eight, all the people came together as one in the square before the Watergate, not to be confused with Nixon. And they told Ezra, the teacher of the law, to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra, the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women of all who were able to understand. He read it out loud from Daybreak until noon, as he faced the square before the Watergate in the presence of the men, the women and others who could understand and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law. Okay, so a little point I want to bring out there. It's discussing here that there's a, there's a distinction between the people who could understand and those who couldn't understand the law. Now, that's not because some people were smart, and they could tell what was going on in Scripture. These people had been in Babylon. And a lot of them could not speak the language of the law anymore. They no longer could read and write or speak Hebrew. So that's what this is talking about. So they're here in the law, but they don't understand it. It's all the people that can understand it or listening to it attentively. So as we're the teacher last stood on a wooden platform built for the occasion and beside him at the right is did Matthew, Aya Shama. And Anya, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Massiah. And on his left, we're Padilla, Misha, Al Mulki, Jaya Hashizume. Hush, Madonna, Zechariah and Meshullam. sorry if I butchered some of those names. So all in all, there's, there's, there's Ezra there. And then there's 13 Other people standing with him up there on the platform. And then as he opens the book, and all the people could see him because he was standing above them, and he opened it, and the people all stood up. So the people are all in reverence to the Word of God. They're all standing up there. They're changing their posture as he opens up the book of the law. And then as we praise the Lord, the great God and all the people lifted their hands and responded, amen, amen. And then they bow down and worship the Lord to the ground with their faces. So they're in reverence, standing up before the word of the Lord. And then they're humbling themselves before the Lord and praise as they're listening to the words of God. And then it talks about the Levites. So the Levites Yeshua, Barney, sure a BIA jahmene A QUB Shabbetai Hadia Messiah, Kalitta as Araya, Joseph bad Hannah. And pelea instructed the people in the law while the people were standing. They read from the book of the law making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read. Okay, so there's 13 of these guys to not to be confused with the 13. Guys on the platform. These guys are down among the people who do not understand the language of the law. And they are speaking the law. They're speaking the Word of God to the people in the language that they're understanding that they can understand in their own language. They're translating what's being said, so that all the people can benefit from the Word of God. The Nehemiah, the governor, as are the priest and the teacher, the law and the Levites, who were instructing the people said to them, This day is holy to the Lord your God, do not mourn or weep. For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law. So all these people who couldn't understand the law before who had forgotten the law, who are hungry for God, who humbled themselves before God, they're struck. They're cut to the heart, because they realize that they're failing God. They haven't been keeping the law. And the reaction is they start to weep. But that's not what Ezra tells them to do. He said, Don't weep. He said, Do not weep because this is holy. So I want you to think about those concepts for a minute Do not weep because this day is holy to the Lord. And Nehemiah said, Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the joy of the Lord, this concept comes up here, as the people have got this whole repentance, hearing the law, being cut to the heart being convicted, the holiness brings joy brings a joyous occasion, and that joy of the Lord is their strength. Okay, so the Levites common all the people saying these still, for this is a holy day, do not grieve. Then all the people went out to eat and drink, and then to send portions of food and celebrate with great joy. There it is again, and because they now understood the words that had been made known to them, and then the next verses that go on, I won't go into all of them. It starts talking about the feast of tabernacles of Sukkot. So you get this narrative where you have these people as they are hearing the law for the first time, it's being translated to them into their own languages. It's affecting change on them, because the word of the Lord is powerful and convicting them. And then it brings joy. And then they get to go celebrate as a community, commemorating that time that the Lord actually came down and dwelt among his people. So I want you to follow this narrative, and follow it through the Exodus. And we're going to bring up an example, later in Scripture that this mirror is pretty, pretty. Exactly. And I think you're gonna see that the joy of the Lord is something very special. It's very special. So the whole community in 17, the whole community had returned from exile and built temporary shelters and lived with them. From the days of Joshua, son of noon, until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated like this. And their joy was great. Joy was great. It brought them back to that experience of God dwelling there among his people. And day after day, from the first day to the last, as we read from the Book of the Law of God, and they celebrated the festival for seven days and on the eighth day in accordance with regulation, there was an assembly. Okay, so a couple things I wanted to point out. So if you're, if you're looking at verses nine through 12, is called the festivity three times in this short little paragraph, it's pointed out that holiness and gloom do not coexist well together. They don't coexist well together. And the holiness of God drives out darkness. It drives out gloom, it drives out sadness, it drives out depression. So while the the Day of Atonement, does talk about afflicting oneself, and that feast happens right before Sukkot, that's for the purpose of bringing people into repentance. But God provides the atonement, which brings the joy and the Jubilee and the celebration. It's an all together, joyous event. So I want to discuss that concept for a minute, because I believe it's key to tapping into the joy of the Lord. The people were convicted that the reading of the law, they were weeping, probably because they realized that they hadn't done what God wanted them to do. And this conviction led them to repentance. It led them to humbling themselves before the Lord, and committing themselves to following the law and reestablishing the covenant with God, which brought them great joy is they put themselves they align themselves with God's holiness. And that's Ezras response celebrate. Let's discuss the celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. So God, so I talked about this a little bit earlier, God came down and actually dwelt among his people, while they were out in the wilderness, and that's what this feast points to. But this feast also foreshadows the coming of Jesus. This feast also foreshadows the coming of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, this feast also looks forward to the second coming of Christ, where in the same dramatic fashion, Christ is going to come down at the trumpet blast. The joy of the Lord correlates very closely to the Salvation narrative. The joy is hope. The joy is assurance. And the joy is being one with God, being in His holiness, being made holy. And I know that that may sound like a theological stretch to you, because the verse closely aligns holiness and joy. And then it tells people not to mourn. And that's what explicitly what it says. But I ask you to consider consider when it takes place, when it was written, ask you to consider the feast that it directly precedes and what that might point to. And then I also asked you to look at the response of the people in this whole episode, it really closely embodies, you know, Second Chronicles 714, that says, If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then ye hear from heaven and forgive their sin, and I'll heal their land. Their land was being healed, these people turned away from their wicked ways. And they started focusing on the community and establishing holiness in the community that God had established for them. And then God provided that joy, that fulfillment of His law and of His covenant that he had with them. And this is the response of the people. It looks very similar to another episode in Scripture. And I'm so thankful that everyone's been bringing up acts one today. I'm so thankful because as I was praying about this joy of the Lord, and read in a Nehemiah, I was taken to x to x one and x two specifically. And I want you to think about the narrative we just heard in Nehemiah. And then think about what we've got when we look at Peter and the apostles on Pentecost. So, so Peter, sermon on Pentecost, Peter, standing up with the 11 lifted his voice and address them saying Men of Judea and all that dwell in Jerusalem, let it be known to you and give your time words for these people are not drunk. Does anyone remember why they thought they were drunk? They felt like there was another big reason. They were speaking in other languages speaking the Word of God and the language is that the people could understand in their own language is sort of like back in Nehemiah, where they couldn't understand the word of God without having a translator to speak the word of God in their language that they could understand. Now at Pentecost, they didn't get it. They're like, man, these guys are drunk. But that wasn't what was going on. God was showing him like, Hey, this is this is one of those. One of those times in Scripture where we get this harmonics, you know, that that reverberate multiple times we get multiple fulfillments. This is what's happening here. But this is what was uttered to the prophet Joel. At the last days, it should be that God declares I will pour my spirit out on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. And your young men shall see visions and your old man dream dreams. Even my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below. blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes the great, magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up losing the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says, concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, that he was at my right hand and I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad that my tongue rejoiced. There's that gladness, there's that joy. My flesh will also dwell and hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades and let the Holy One see corruption. For you have made known the paths of life and you will make me full of gladness with Your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he lived and died and was buried in his tomb is with us to this day, being there for profit knowing God and sworn with an oath to him that he would not set or that he would set one of his descendants on the throne. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up and of that we're all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit, He's poured out this, that you yourselves are seeing and hearing for David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand and make your enemies a footstool. So, here's what's going on. Peter, and the apostles are doing exactly what the Levites and Ezra did in Nehemiah eight. They have, they have given the word of the Lord back to the people, and they've given it to the people in a language that they can understand. So let's see what happens with it. In verse 37, it says, Now when I heard this, they were cut to the heart, just like the people in Nehemiah, they were cut to the heart. And Nehemiah says they wept, and Acts it says, There were cuts to the heart, and said to Peter, and the rest of the apostles, brother, what should we do? And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you, and in the name of Jesus Christ, for your forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promises for you, and for your children, and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself, and with many other words, he bore witness and to exhort them saying, Save yourselves from this cricket generation. For those who received the word were baptized, and therefore added to the number about 3000 souls, the response is exactly the same as in Nehemiah. And instead of celebrating Sukkot, after they finished the, the period of conviction, they experienced what Sukkot was representing the coming of God, and that coming of God that indwelling of the Spirit in that hole in his drives out fear drives out sadness, it brings the joy of the Lord. And it continues and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to breaking bread and prayers, and all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done to the apostles, and all who lived together had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any head need, and day by day attending the temple together and by raking bread in their homes, they receive the food with glad and generous hearts, Praising God and having favor with the people. All the Lord added to their number day by day, and those who would be saved. So it's the exact same formula. It's the exact same formula, the alert, the word of the Lord brought the conviction. The conviction initially brought sadness, through repentance. But then they were made holy by the covenant of God. They were made holy by the covenant of God, and the people were able to receive the joy of the Lord. And the joy wasn't temporary happiness. And our shouldn't be temporary happiness either. So how do we tap into the joy? How do we tap into joy? I believe most people in this room are safe, right? So the initial salvation experience is probably not our experience anymore. So we have to tap into it differently. So I think the key to receiving this type of joy is maintaining a close relationship with the Lord. Because as we pointed out earlier, holiness drives out sadness, and holiness invites joy. So living a life that's holy, is what we have to do in order to receive that joy of the Lord. And that may sound vague, but I believe there's something to it. Notice in both verses, the joy of the Lord came from the Word of God. The Word of God is holy, and it's powerful. The first thing that we need to do to tap into the joy of the Lord is we need to spend time in His Word, we need to spend time listening to His Word, His written in his spoken word. I know throughout the seven pillars, discussions, we've been talking about the importance of spiritual arts and disciplines, but I'm gonna mention it here again, because they provide the perfect vehicle for us to tap into the joy of the Lord. Because they bring us into a closeness with God, they bring us into that relationship with God. And whenever you're close to God, that holiness drives out anything that's not joyous. The joy is the joy of the Lord comes from God's holiness. It comes from the hope we have in Him. And it comes by way of His Word. The joy comes from spending time with him, as we saw in Nehemiah, morning and sadness do not coexist with His Holiness. That doesn't mean we're not going to have times we're down and the holiness of God, but the holiness of God will eventually dry that sadness away if we're abiding in it. And so the sadness, rather than the gladness is going to be fleeting. That joy gives us strength, because it derives from God's holiness, the measure of it that we receive comes from receiving His Holiness as well. And it's a byproduct of holiness. The more we abide in holiness, the more joyful we will become. If you don't believe it, don't do this. If you're gonna say, if you don't believe it, you know, try to live outside of holiness. And you'll see that it's, it's not the right way to be joyous. But then I stopped myself, because I don't want anyone to actually do that. Let's do the other. Let's live in holiness, and see if you don't feel sorry about that. So it's sort of so let's think about it like exercise, let's think about it. Like exercise, I was gonna say, go into the gym. But that's not the same thing. You can go to the gym and not exercise a whole lot, not get anything out of it. The more you exercise, the more you eat a healthy diet, the more physically fit you become, which has second and third order benefits to you, not just fitting in your pants better, you know, you start to actually feel better, you start to have better restful sleep, you know, you start to fight off and prevent illnesses. That's the way abiding and holiness is. That's what it does for you sort of like exercise. At the same time, you're receiving joy, through this, this life of holiness, you're also receiving the other benefits of it, which, which come from living a life that's close with God. We're also receiving hope. We're also receiving faith and strength that empowers us to stand firm. And what's really cool about all of those things is out one of them increases, the other ones want to increase as well. At the same time. It's sort of like when you bought power on on satellite communication signal, you know, the entire noise floor raises along with it. And that's the same way with all of these different attributes. You know, when our joy increases, our faith increases when our faith increases, our hope increases. And then we're empowered for ministry, and all these things come from the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit's holy. That's how in James, so remember, in James, this is how he could say, counted all his joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and then the steadfastness will have its full effect and that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. All of these things incrementally increase one another that builds us up into the person that God is wanting us to be. That is sanctifying us to be it's making us into that person where gonna be on the other side in heaven, where he's moving us in that direction he's growing us. The other point I would like to make. So before I get into that, the joy that we get from God, it changes our perspective on things, it changes our perspective on the way that we, we deal with trials, the way that we deal with things that are hard, we can we can look at it through a different lens, and it doesn't become something that's detrimental to us anymore. And it can actually be something that boosts our faith and our confidence. Okay, so the other thing I'd like to say, x and Nehemiah, the joy is celebrated in the context of community. It's celebrated in the constant and in the context of community, and it's cultivated in the context of community. So let's take again, look at Acts two, it said, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, and all came upon every soul in the signs and wonders of the apostles. And those who believe were together and had all things in common. They had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the protein to the proceeds to all the head need. And day by day, they were attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes and receiving the food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having favor with all the people and that increase their numbers. So when you look back at Nehemiah, it was the same thing. When he was he was telling them to celebrate these festivals, and to have joy, he was telling them also to prepare for those that didn't have anything, and to spread their provision throughout the community so that everyone could experience the joy of the Lord. It's the same thing we see here in Acts. It's it's this communal nature of experiencing gladness, and sharing in relationship that provides the context of happiness that we can feel in our Christian walk. When we look at Philippians one, you see here that Paul has experienced joy in the constant and the context of community as well. You see this through his interaction with the Philippian church, when he when he says, I thank God and my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the Gospel, from the first day until now. And he talks about how their partnership with him in ministry, and their, their their service with him. And their brotherhood that they shared gave him joy. And it gave him joy to see them growing in their faith. Because there's a minister, or anyone that invests in other people, when you see those people thriving, and you see those people growing, it gives you joy, it shows you the fruits of what God's called you to do, and it increases your faith. So the community as a whole experiences the joy of God. And, and that's what it was joyous for him to watch them advance the gospel, even though he couldn't be there while he was in prison. And he rejoice with them because of their prayers and the way that they took care of him while he was in prison. It's just amazing how how the whole context of community allows us to experience the joy of the Lord and then help other people experience the joy of the Lord as well. Just think about that for a minute. You know, like many of the things that Paul was talking about that actually brought him joy, and the celebrations in Nehemiah, and an axe would like think about how many opportunities for experiencing the joy of the Lord would be lost without the community. They weren't sharing one, like everything in common if they weren't in the community, and weren't able to spread the joy of the Lord to others. Paul was unable to invest in people if you didn't have the community and wasn't able to see the fruits of the gospel and the work that he was doing for the Lord. It would be like working in a vacuum without a relationship. So in order for us to experience the joy, we need to cultivate it and others. So I want to give this family thanks. So our family has been sick the last few weeks and thank the Lord, we're better. But we were able to experience the joy of the Lord and feel the Lord's love. Because people in this spiritual family and community blessed us you know, you guys brought us food. You guys brought us food you guys brought us food a bunch of people have brought us food. You know and medicine and and words of encouragement. You know those things bring us joy. And I pray that it brings you joy to to be able to partner with God and help out other people in the community. I mean, it brings us joy to be able to do that. Without that community, we would lose the opportunity to experience that. So that's why, you know, as we were talking week by week about staying in close spiritual community together, there are a lot of tangible benefits for that, because we get to experience Christ's love and his body here on Earth. We get to experience it, we get to partner with it, and that builds us up. So there are going to be times and situations Where you are not going to be able to feel joy on your own, there are going to be times where you feel like you're being overcome by your circumstances, there are going to be times where things become overwhelming for you. And in isolation, you may not be able to feel any joy at all, from the Lord and you may be praying about it, you may be contending for it, you may not be able to get there. It's those times that we have to depend on the spiritual community, to help us feel that joy, it's those times that we come around each other and partner with one another so that we can experience that joy in those in that community. Because a lot of times our circumstances and situations can blind us from we function better, and we fight better when we're not fighting alone. When when we're fighting as an entire body with many parts, working in unison together, you know, we're more effective. So I think that's where I kind of want to leave it with that for today. I know I read a whole bunch of Scripture. And I know that probably was not enough time for you to digest that. But I encourage you to go back after this is over with and look at Nehemiah eight, and then read Acts one and two. And I want you to compare how the community experience joy, and what that joy actually meant. And then also look at Paul's example to in Philippians is a great book for that. Because he talks I think he mentioned 16 or 17 times the joy of the Lord in some way or another in the context of work in the spiritual community. Thank you, Tyler. We'll have we can have some sharing here in a moment. But I wanted to share just a couple things that this was a great word. And there's, you know, in the church, there's not a lot of teaching on the connection to holiness. And what we what the Scriptures call the joy the Lord. And I say this a lot. But it's important, I think, to say here, holiness, if you just boil it down, holiness is the culture of God. So God is not American. He's not European. He's not Asian. He's not African. He's not any person, of any nation on the earth. He created us. He has his own culture. That's right. He's his buddies, his own culture he is, and heaven is permeated by the culture of God. And the people of God, as we grow like you're teaching us into his culture. You know, have you ever noticed that when you hang out with someone, you start acting like them, you start, you start, you ever meet, somebody has been married, like 50 years, they do so many things that are alike, they even look like I don't know how that happens. little older, but they look like they do. They act, they act alike. And they're, it's you know, they speak alike. They use a lot of the same terminology. And they become one family culture when they're married. And then they live together. And they're together and that togetherness, you're teaching us about being with God. And the different ways we are with him, not just in his Omni presence, but with him. relationally we come into that culture. And there's a false teaching. And this is there's a lot of people that will get shocked when they hear it on the on the on the teaching library that are listening in different places, but for many years are not many. But I'd say for about 10 years, I was under this teaching, that God teaches us that the scriptures say that we can be joyful, but that's not happy. That's not happiness. And I've heard this teaching over and over and over a good friend of mine is a New Testament scholar. I'll never forget one time about 15 years ago, I'm sitting there and he's teaching. And it was in one of our you know, chapels. We were pastoring. And I had to point aside brother afterwards, I said, Brother, you're a New Testament scholar. I know that many streams teach this. But I'd like to just let's open the lexicon together. And let's see what the Greek definition is of the word joy in the Greek. Now, if you look up a few lexicons, you're going to see different words. But amazingly, in some of those lexicons, the word happy appears. Normally, it doesn't mean happy, like the world's happy, it means extremely happy. It means extremely joyful. It means extremely glad. So you'll see this word in the English gladness. Yeah, they never translate happiness because we've had this teaching for so many years. It's not the happiness from the world, like the world gets real happy if they get a new car, or they get and I'm not saying don't be happy if you get a new car. I'm just saying that that's not our source. This is a divine source from the presence of God. And so when you spoke up and you said that, that's really true in Acts chapter two CEHS because what happens is when the Holy Spirit shows up, all of a sudden, there's this extraordinary happiness that you feel like, I don't know about you. But many times when the Holy Spirit comes in great power and presence, relational presence, I feel like my feet are about several inches off the ground, you know, and that is a supernatural happiness, what the Scripture calls extreme joy, if it's translated that way, that comes it is divine. And it's amazing because I've been with Christians in many places in the world, you have to, some of them are dirt poor, some of them are persecuted. We're in tough times, even in our own times and our own experiences. Many of you in this room, we've been in terrible places and terrible times, and the supernatural presence of God. I'm like, Man, I felt guilty being happy, especially when people were being killed around me. And I felt guilty because I was like, why am I so happy? And Lord says, This is my presence with you. Yes, I was sad. Yes. I cried. Yes, I went through the sadness part. But it didn't steal that core joy that comes from that supernatural presence that Tyler's teaching us about. And so I just want to say this is my way of saying amen to it. And also just to expound on a couple things. Hebrews chapter one, the writer of Hebrews quotes, the Psalmist. In Psalm, I believe that Psalm 45. This is in Hebrews, chapter one. He is he's prophesy and he's speaking about Jesus. And he says in verse eight, that your throne Oh, God is forever he's quoting from Psalms. Let me check here now tell ya Psalm 45, verse six, and seven, he's quoting the psalmist, literally quoting him, Your throne, oh, God is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. Here it is, you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, Your God, has anointed you with the, what is it? oil of gladness more than your companions. Now this was not saying the psalmist and the Hebrews writer, we're not saying, God anointed you just with his big happy pill. Right? Are you tracking with me? Who is he talking about? In the Scriptures, the oil of gladness, this is agreed upon across streams and denominations and Christian sects, that this is talking about the Holy Spirit of God. And he says, You have anointed him with let's let's do a translation. Now with the study we just did. From the lexicon, you have anointed him with the oil, of extraordinary happiness, extraordinary extreme gladness, extreme joy. That's supernatural. That is supernatural. And so here we see, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit is called the oil of extreme joy, the oil of extreme happiness, the oil of extreme fulfillment. Now, you won't fit in very well, when you operate this way. I remember a several years back, I don't know, maybe 20 years ago, I can't remember now. But I just was overwhelmed with eternal life. I'd been a Christian for a long time by then. And I just became overwhelmed. I was like, God, I'm like, I'm never gonna die. That's what Jesus says that you will live forever. And though he dies, yes, shall we live? And literally, God says, You're gonna live forever. And I was overtaken by this joy of revelation of I'm going to live forever. And I thought, You know what, when people ask me how I'm doing, I'm gonna say, I'm doing great. I'm gonna live forever. And so I start doing it. And it didn't work out. So I could not believe the response. I was shocked. I was not expecting this. People, I would just meet this at work. People say, Hey, how are you? I'm doing great. And they go, Yeah, and I'm gonna live forever, and their face would just fall. You see what's happening? Because there's a conviction. Some, they know what, wait a minute, you know, and there's a conviction that happened. So I continued to do it for quite a while, but man, I, I kind of stopped after a while. Because I was so I was like, Man, I don't want to make people sick. But it really was maybe I shouldn't have, but I saw the contrast. Have you ever been around somebody who's bitter or angry and you're real happy? And they look at you and they're like, Well, why are you so happy sunshine or maybe they throw a few cuss words in there when they do it. I've had that happen quite a few times. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I will tell you this, I, some of you, I don't know if y'all know this, but when I was in grad school, I worked in a counseling center, we, we would counsel and pray with people who come into the ministry, and then some people would call in. And there was a Chinese woman named Faye from Sanford, Cisco. And the first time she called me, I thought she was crazy. Because I answered the phone. And she didn't introduce herself. She didn't tell me what she wanted counseling about. She just said, You are so beautiful. And she was probably 75 years old. And I was in my mid 20s. And she said, You are so beautiful. And I thought, Who is this? And then she told me, I won't say her last name, because we're broadcasting everywhere. But all of Heaven knows who she is probably with the Lord. Now, that was a long time ago. But she started just speaking words over me. And she says, Your God says you're beautiful. He loves you. He loves your family. He has good plant, and she would just go on and on and on. And I thought, well, I thought this lady wanted counseling. Guys, listen, I'm telling you, this would go on for 10 or 15 minutes. And Beth knows, I would come home and tell her about I was just so overtaken. So the first time this happened, she just kept going and after a while, so I feel 100 pounds lighter. And then pretty soon I just like spiritually, something was transmitted, there was something happening spiritually, there, you know, words carry something. And it was something from her spirit into my spirit. And I, I literally could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the oil of gladness coming upon me, that anointing from her to me. And it was profound. So I worked there for two, two and a half years. And about every month or two, she would just call me and do that. I mean, she wasn't calling for counseling. She's just calling to minister to me. And I thought this is incredible. And every single time, that was the experience, don't underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to speak a word. I didn't know Faye, the first time she called me. It didn't matter that I didn't know her. I thought she's crazy for about two minutes. And then all of a sudden, I was the one that was crazy. I was like, Man, this is incredible. And it was so powerful. It was supernatural, it was not normal. Now in my life, in that time, we had two little kids. We didn't know where our next meal was coming from a lot of times, listen, when you have two little kids and you're trying to feed them. You guys know, there were times when all we had in the cupboard was beans and peanut butter. And our bills were 50% higher than our income every single month. You're very tender in those times. Have you ever been there? You're the tenderness you? You're so tender. That's a humbling thing. And every bit of encouragement, gift, anything that someone would give you just soak it up, because you need it. And I'm like god, how am I gonna feed my children? How am I going to do this? And then Faye would call in like, whoa, and this this faith would come upon me but this joy, you're talking about Tyler, this happiness this extreme? Like, I don't know where my next meal is coming from, but God, you know, I'm so happy. I can't explain it. It felt like Christmas time every day as a kid. And this is the joy of the Lord. How about an amen on that? This is right in line with this word that's been spoken from Romans, chapter 14, verse 17, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. Its righteousness, its peace, and its joy in the Holy Spirit, not joy. Joy in the Holy Spirit. By the way that write that the way it's written in the Greek it means righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Peace in the Holy Spirit, Joy. Those are three dimensions. two dimensions is not enough. You want to live in all three dimensions. And then you're living the supernatural lifestyle. Thank you, Tyler. Lord, we pray right now. Thank you. For this word that Tyler shared with us. We receive this word from you. And we receive the supernatural righteousness, the supernatural peace and the supernatural, extreme joy of the Holy Spirit. And, Lord, we give you thanks. We are so grateful to you that we can live this way not because we have some special ability on our own, but because of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives. We love you Holy Spirit. We love you, Jesus. We love you, father, and we give Jesus all the praise and all the glory, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Jesus name, Amen and Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. 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