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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
The Passion Project - Joy Filled Living
What if your joy could be heard far away? That’s exactly what happened in Nehemiah 12, where the people of God celebrated with such exuberance that their joy echoed beyond the city walls. In this message, Joy Filled Living, Pastor Tyler Lynde walks us through what true, contagious joy looks like—and how we can live it out today.
Tyler begins by unpacking the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial; it fades as quickly as it comes. But joy is enduring—it takes root in our relationship with God and grows through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In Nehemiah 12, we don’t just see a community celebrating a successful construction project—we see a people restored by God, rejoicing with a depth that external circumstances can’t touch.
Tyler identifies three essential elements that shaped this joy-filled celebration: an attitude of gratitude, a heart of worship, and a firm understanding that joy comes from God.
The first is gratitude. The Israelites gave thanks not just because the walls were finished, but because their hearts were full. Tyler reminded us how easy it is to slip into negativity, but how Scripture calls us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18). Gratitude transforms our perspective and aligns us with the joy God wants to give.
Next is worship. Nehemiah 12 describes music, singing, and processions around the city. Worship wasn’t a side note—it was the center of the celebration. Tyler emphasized that when we choose worship—even in hard seasons—God meets us there. Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy.”
Finally, Tyler reminds us that joy is a gift. Nehemiah 12:43 says, “God had made them rejoice with great joy.” This wasn’t manufactured; it was God-given. And it wasn’t limited to leaders or men—it included women and children, showing us God’s joy is for everyone.
Jesus Himself endured the cross “for the joy set before Him” (Heb. 12:2). That joy? Us. Through Him, we’re offered not just salvation, but joy that strengthens us, sustains us, and overflows to others.
Whether you’re celebrating or struggling, this message is a call to reclaim the joy that’s already yours in Christ.
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All right, are you ready for the Bible this morning? Are you ready to talk about Jesus in the scriptures? Let's look at Nehemiah, chapter 12. That's where we're going to start. This morning we're winding down our series on the book of Nehemiah called the Passion Project. We believe that God wants to restore passion to his church and he wanted to do that with the nation of Israel, and that's what the book of Nehemiah really is about.
Tyler Lynde:And last week we looked at the fact that the people of God are called to live holy lives. Anybody have a chance this week to practice holiness in your walk? Yeah, absolutely. When we hear a message like that, or when I we hear a message like that, or when I prepare for a message like that, I can almost guarantee that there's going to be opportunity that's going to come my way to either have a pass or a fail moment in that right, either to yield to holiness or to reject it for whatever reason. So it's important for us to know that we have been given the gift of holiness by Jesus Christ and he enables us, by his spirit, to walk in it as we follow after him, and that causes the whole world to know that Jesus Christ is alive and well and that he is very real Amen.
Tyler Lynde:So this week we're going to look at the celebration that surrounded the dedication of the wall in Jerusalem and we're going to take away some lessons on how to live joy-filled lives. Anybody want a message on joy this morning? Well, if you do, you came to the right place, because that's what we're going to be talking about. The title of this message is Joy-Filled Living. Let's look at Nehemiah 12. We're going to read two verses verse 27 and also verse 43. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings, with singing, with cymbals, harps and lyres, and they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and children also rejoiced and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
Tyler Lynde:Let's pray this morning, father. We thank you. We thank you so much, father, for your goodness to us. This service started with us talking about the goodness of God and Lord. We continue that same thought as we look into your word and, father, we ask that you would help us in areas in our lives where we have, where joy is dormant, where joy is not evident. We pray that you would stir in us a refreshing, a refueling, a rekindling of the joy of the Lord, which is our strength and Father. For those who might be here, who are listening via the internet, who do not yet know you and have never experienced the joy that comes from you, we pray, lord, god, that you would move by your spirit today and that you would cause lives to be awakened to the truth of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and that people would acknowledge him, believe on him, repent and confess him as their Savior In Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Tyler Lynde:So somebody asked you the question what are the most joy-filled experiences that you've had in your lifetime? How would you answer that question? There's probably a lot of different things that might come to your mind at first. Right, for some of us, it's a wedding. Right, it was a joy-filled experience. For others, maybe the birth of children.
Tyler Lynde:How about, for those of us who find ourselves in a different stage of life now, the birth of children? How about, for those of us who find ourselves in a different stage of life now, the birth of grandchildren and the fact that we can bring them into our homes and celebrate them and sugar them up and send them home. And God said it is good, right, I love my. I want to. I don't want my children to get to get any kind of complex. I love you as well and I would love you even if you didn't have children, but I am so thankful for the fact that you have given us. Those of you who have given us, and the others are not yet in a stage of life where they're ready to do that. So Levi's asking me to move on. So we're moving on, experiencing gratitude. How about buying your first home, buying your first?
Tyler Lynde:All of these things might come to your mind when it comes to something that's joy-filled, right, something that gives you joy. And while those things are extremely important and valid in a conversation about joy, how many of you know there's much more that the Bible has to say about joy than those things that we just talked about, those things that we experience in this life that do bring us joy. There's much more. There's much more. There's greater joy than we can imagine or think or comprehend, that is available to us because of Jesus Christ and having a right relationship with God, and that's what we want to focus on this morning. Now, there's a major difference, because a lot of times we get two things confused. We think about happiness and joy as being equal with each other.
Tyler Lynde:What is happiness? What's the difference between happiness and joy? Happiness is based on, typically is based on a circumstance, something going right, something going well, and all of a sudden you feel happy. Right, you get an unexpected check in the mail. What do you feel? Happy? You get an unexpected bill in the mail. What do you feel? You should feel joyful. But we'll get to that, let's not rush it, but anyway. So happiness is like that. It's something, it's a feeling that we have, it's an experience, it's an emotion, a rising emotion, that happens based on a temporary condition, something that happens in a moment in time. And what is joy? How does it differ from happiness moment in time? And what is joy? How does it differ from happiness?
Tyler Lynde:Joy, especially the joy that comes from God, is steady. It's steady, it's rooted, it's long-lasting, it's the steady, settled bent of the Christian nature. It's who we are as believers in Jesus Christ, at least who we should be right. And it is not based solely upon our situation or based on our circumstance. It's based upon, it's not based on our external things. It's based on something that's happening on the inside. There's an internal joy that comes from knowing Jesus and walking with him, amen. So I want to challenge us this morning to ask ourselves the questions are we living lives that are characterized by joy? And if you want to know the real answer, look to your husband or your wife or your children right now and ask them, and they'll be able to help us with that answer. I know that sounds a little, that may sound, you know, a little off, but it's true. A lot of times we don't even recognize within ourselves whether or not we're experiencing and living out, living from a place of this steady condition or situation of joy in our lives.
Tyler Lynde:So in our passage today, the work is finally completed in Jerusalem. The work is done. Remember, just a short time ago, the walls of the city laid in ruins and in 52 days, under Nehemiah's leadership, the walls were put back together and the gates were hung in place. Remember, this is a two mile circumference of the city. This is not a small project, this is a large project and it was done not just by professional people. It was done by everyone giving a hand, everyone doing their part and it was finished. And then, not only that, but there were homes that were in disrepair, bad disrepair within the walls of Jerusalem, and so the work needed to be done to those, and that work was ongoing. And then also, there needed to be a repopulation in Jerusalem, and so we had the first wave of that, and mostly leaders moved into Jerusalem to fulfill their duties amongst the nation of Israel.
Tyler Lynde:And then last week we talked about the choosing of 10% of the remaining people of Israel to come and to be a part of living inside the walls of Jerusalem. And so now all of these people are coming together on one day, on one occasion, in one moment in time, to celebrate what has happened. Remember, they not only had all of these things happen naturally. There wasn't a natural happening that caused all of this disrepair and disruption and destruction. Remember, the nation of Israel had disobeyed God and walked in idolatry, serving other gods instead of the real God. And so, through that, because of their rebellion and because of their idolatry, god punished them. And the way that he punished them is by sending other nations in to conquer them, to destroy a lot of what had been built and to take with them exiles back to their homelands and to cause those people to be servants, to be servants within those places.
Tyler Lynde:And we saw the example of Zerubbabel Hopefully that's the right pronunciation, but Zerubbabel was given the opportunity to come back and to begin repairing Jerusalem, and so he actually laid the foundation for the temple. And so, by the time Nehemiah had come along, the temple had been rebuilt, but the walls were still in disarray and many of the other places within Jerusalem were still torn down. And so Nehemiah had this heart to return, and so he stepped up and talked to the king Artataxerxes and asked for permission, and the king granted him his permission and even funded the trip, funded the rebuilding of the wall, sent him with all the materials that he would need and treasures that he could use to purchase anything else or to build anything else that would need to be done, and so he had accomplished what God has sent him to do. And, how many of you know, nehemiah's job was much more than just rebuilding a wall, because his heart was much more about the heart of the people, and so God used him, and Ezra as well, the scribe of the word of God, who read the word of God, and the people repented of their sin, read the word of God and the people repented of their sin and there was a new covenant that was cut between God and the nation of Israel. And so now they're well on their way into getting reestablished as the people of God, as the nation of God, in service to God and worshiping God Right. And so that's kind of where we find ourselves in this day of celebration. They're celebrating the redemptive work of God.
Tyler Lynde:So today we're going to look at some key components of joy-filled living and we're going to pull these out of these verses that we read from the beginning. So the first key to living joy-filled lives, in my opinion and from these scriptures, is having an attitude of gratitude. Having an attitude of gratitude that's an old cliche, right, but it is true, it is absolutely true. It's hard not to be joyful if you have an attitude of gratitude, if you walk through this life filled with thanksgiving. Filled with thanksgiving, it says in the passage. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites, who were those who were involved in the religious service of the temple and all of their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication. With what? With gladness and with thanksgivings, with gladness, and with thanksgivings, with gladness and with thanksgivings. We'll see next week and I don't want to give too much about next week, but unfortunately we're going to see that this sentiment did not last very long and you'll see a reversion in some ways back to an old way of thinking, an old mindset, and unfortunately things go from there and we'll talk about that next week. I don't want to spoil it too much.
Tyler Lynde:How many of you know, in our culture it tends to be very easy to be negative, am I right? How many of us love to be critics? Not of ourselves, of course, because we judge ourselves most based on our motivations or what we wanted to do, but we judge everybody else based on what we think they did or what we think their motivations. We judge them differently than we judge ourselves. Right, the person that pulls over quickly in front of us in an automobile? The person that pulls over quickly in front of us in an automobile, maybe pregnant, on the way to the hospital, but as far as we're concerned, they're part of the Taliban or something like that and they need to be removed from this earth. Why is that? Why is it that we are so? We tend to be so critical. We tend to look at things in a way that's honestly. Can I be real with you? It's very unhealthy. It's very unhealthy. It's very unhealthy, even in your body. It's unhealthy to live this way. Let me give you an example.
Tyler Lynde:How many of you know that there are people who go to a restaurant a thousand times and love it Literally love it? They tell all of their friends about it, all of their family members about it. They invite people to go to dinner with them, to join them at this place. They tell them their favorite thing to order. They know the waiter, the waitress, the manager, but, god forbid, they go one time and have one bad meal. And guess what happens? Before they leave the restaurant, their phones are out and they're typing out a review. And what does that review say? Don't ever come to this place. I didn't mention the thousand times that they came before and the one off time that they came right.
Tyler Lynde:Why is that? What is that about humanity and about us that tends to look at things that way? I'm telling you this right now. That's not God. Can you imagine if God felt that way about us? Well, tyler was doing really well. He had a seven-day streak, seven-day streak, and man, I was enjoying him being around, but boy, he messed up today. Let's see what are we going to do to him. We don't want God to be like that, do we? But how many of you know, we tend to be that way. We tend to be that way, and it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be In the life of a believer.
Tyler Lynde:Thanksgiving should be much more than a day on the calendar. It should be a way of life. If you want to live a joy-filled life, guess what? We need to have an attitude of gratitude. 1 Thessalonians 5.18 says this Give thanks in all circumstances. Don't you wish that? That said, in all good circumstances, in all things that are going the way that we want them to go. It's easy to give thanks, then right, but give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Tyler Lynde:This is not just an idea, this is not just the writer's opinion. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us. We, as the body of Christ, ought to be the most thankful people on the planet. If nothing else, we should be able to enjoy every single day in this life, understanding that Jesus made a way for us. An attitude of gratitude should permeate every aspect of our lives, regardless of what we are experiencing. You know where I have experienced an attitude of gratitude the most. Can I be real with you for a moment? In places where they have nothing. Just came back from Cuba in March and I know in Tanzania as well, and other places where people have struggles, what we would consider to be very, very difficult lives yeah, those that don't have places to live, living on the streets, things like that. A lot of times there's an attitude of gratitude that's found with those people.
Tyler Lynde:I'll never forget the first time I went to Haiti and I think I don't know if Neil was on that trip, it was Pete back for sure and they asked me to teach on faithfulness to the leaders, and I had never been to Haiti, didn't understand anything about it. I got there and as soon as we walked out of the airplane there was a smell that hit me, that made me recognize we're not in Kansas anymore. And then we're walking through the airport and everybody's reaching out for our bags so that they can carry our bags to the car, so that we can give them something. Levels of desperation, right, but you know, when we got to the churches and began to encounter the people and the leaders. You know, the leaders that I spoke to about faithfulness had traveled, some of them for two days on foot or donkeys, whatever they could get on, to get to bicycles to get where we're at. I didn't know what to do when I was to stand up in front of them. I had this great message prepared on faithfulness and I just looked at them and I said I've never been in a room filled with such faithful people as I am right now, and I passed my Bible around and I asked all of them to sign my Bible as heroes of the faith. And then I talked about faithfulness Because, how many of you know, the word of God is real and active and alive and it transcends cultures and it transcends language and all of those things.
Tyler Lynde:An attitude of gratitude it shouldn't be determined based on our checking account, our health score, the way that we're experiencing life. In this time and in this day, I have been practicing. Since we had this 21 days of fasting. I've been practicing every day, just taking time to give thanks, and I've always tried to be a thankful person. But when you do it intentionally, it's like you kind of have to dig a little bit. I'll tell you how I do it and you can do it however you want. But I pick a word like grateful, gracias I've tried to find all kinds of words that are similar to thankful but that are synonyms and then I take each letter of that word and I try to think of three things from that letter that I'm thankful for. So, if I'm doing thanks, three T words that I'm thankful for, right, h-a-n, on and on. You can do it however you want to, but that's just a way that I've been systematically trying to approach this and I have to say that my general attitude and I'll have to ask my wife and my children about this, but I think my general attitude has gotten quite a bit better, but I think my general attitude has gotten quite a bit better and I want it to continue to do so. So we live joy-filled lives when we have an attitude of gratitude.
Tyler Lynde:Another component of joy-filled living is a heart of worship. A heart of worship you might say well, those are similar. They are similar, but they're different as well. It says that they dedicated this time and celebrated with singing, with cymbals, harps and lyres. Those are instrumentation. They didn't have people running through the streets telling lies. That was an instrument of some kind. Yeah, I think it was like a guitar maybe. Yeah, anyway, cymbals.
Tyler Lynde:I was just thinking last week about Miss Patricia Nooner, and we were talking about her gift of worship. She was such a worshiper and to see her bring that tambourine out as off-putting as it could have been because it could not find any of the right beats still she was all in. She was like all in. She'd lay prostrate on the floor before Jesus and this is a woman with a bad scoliosis issue. She laid it all on the line for Jesus. She was a true, what I would consider to be a true worshiper. Right, lord, make me more like.
Tyler Lynde:Nehemiah assembled many of the singers and musicians of Israel and they divided into two groups and they climbed up on the wall and they began to walk in different directions. Ezra led one group and Nehemiah led the other, interesting the Word and the Spirit, ezra representing the Word, nehemiah representing the Spirit, both of those things in conjunction. And they walked along the circumference of the wall, praising God and worshiping him. The walls didn't come tumbling down like in Jericho, but you can imagine, don't you wish you could have had a bird's eye view of that. I wish the Lord would just open it up right now and just give us a vision where we could see this happening. But imagine hundreds of people, probably thousands of people, climbing up on the wall and walking around that two mile wall until they came back together and guess where? They met up In front of the temple and they came down the steps off of the wall and they began to offer sacrifices and to worship God. What a powerful thought, what a powerful scene.
Tyler Lynde:What is the song that's most often on your heart? Gloom, despair and agony on me. Deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me. I know, for everybody under 40, you're like what in the world? It was real, it happened. What is the song that's on our heart most often? Do we live lives that are dedicated to worship? Are we worshipers? Are we true worshipers? Do we look for opportunities to worship God? Jesus said to the woman at the well that the heavenly father was seeking those who would worship him in spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth kind of interesting, ezra, nehemiah. Spirit and truth.
Tyler Lynde:Worship, like thankfulness, shouldn't be expressed only during times when we feel like it. Worship is not reserved just for the great moments of life. Worship should be a part of the battle as well. I loved what Catherine said last week about the fact that we can war with worship. We can do that. We can enter into his presence. Worship is. The priority of our worship should be to praise him at all times and always, because he's worthy.
Tyler Lynde:My dad used to always say to people being thankful will keep your tank full, and one of the things that he would do and I'll never forget this and it kind of bothered me, to be honest as a teenager he would fill up the tank with gasoline and every time he'd get back in the car I'd say thank you, jesus, for that tank of gas. I just thought it was being religious. I just thought it was being religious. But then I remembered back to a day when I was five years old and we were driving down the road and we ran out of gas and we waited and we waited and we waited and finally somebody pulled over and took us and got us a gallon of gasoline and put it in the car. And we didn't have any money to buy gasoline, but they gave it to us and I got to school late, and so, from that point in time, every time my dad put gasoline in the car, I never forget. I can't recount a time where he didn't say thank you, jesus, for the tank of gas.
Tyler Lynde:We should praise him at all times, in all ways, because he's worthy, shouldn't be something we have to work up or something that we have to be convinced of. He is worthy, he is worthy, he's worthy of our praise. This concept is so important to God that there's an entire book, the book of Psalm, written with examples of worship throughout it. Let's look at a few of these and look at a progression of worship here. Psalm 100, verses 1 through 5.
Tyler Lynde:Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. This should be the song that's on our hearts. Did you notice that this song that was written for us as an example is not about me, it's about him. It's about how his relationship with me affects things and changes me, but it's about the fact that I am his. I belong to him and that's why I bring praise and honor and glory to the one who is worthy.
Tyler Lynde:Doesn't seem optional to me here, does it? It doesn't say if you feel like it, make a joyful noise. It doesn't say when things are going really well, make a joyful noise. It just says make a joyful noise. I wish that I could have been there when Mr Jack Wright was leading worship on the stage at Dedrick Avenue, because you know what they called him, smiling Jack. And that smile wasn't artificial, it wasn't based on the way he was feeling or how he was experiencing life in the moment. That smile was real and authentic because God had done something in his life and he was experiencing, and he wanted everyone else to experience the joy of God. It's not an option, it's a command.
Tyler Lynde:And then we read on in Psalm 22, 3, yet you are holy, enthroned. On the praises of Israel Enthroned. Another translation says that God inhabits the praises of his people. He shows up, god shows up. He shows up with his presence when we praise and worship him. Psalm 16, verse 11,. You make known to me the path of life In your presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So not only does he show up, but when he shows up, what does he bring with him? Joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Having a heart of worship introduces us to the presence of God, which brings to our lives the joy of the Lord. Nehemiah 8.10,. Reverting back to what we've already read, then he said to them go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So you see the progression. We're commanded to praise him, we're commanded to enter into his gates, and when we do that, he says that he will show up with his presence, and in his presence there's fullness of joy, and the joy of the Lord is your strength. Are you lacking strength today? Enter into his presence, have a heart that's a heart of worship.
Tyler Lynde:In my own life, I have experienced the reality that worship brings joy and it is an anxiety buster. At the times in my life when I have been most anxious, the one thing that I could count on was exalting the name of Jesus. I have a playlist called Tyler's Chill. When I play that playlist, when I'm starting to feel anxious or nervous or depressed, whatever it is, and by about the third song my attitude begins to change. I begin to lift up the name of Jesus instead of focusing on my problems. My whole demeanor, my whole, everything that I'm experiencing begins to shift. There's power in worshiping Jesus. You see, we live joy-filled lives when we have a heart of worship. And finally, another component of joy-filled living is understanding that God is the true source of joy. God is the true source of joy, it says.
Tyler Lynde:They offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and children also rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. Notice that this joy isn't something that had to be worked up, wasn't based only on emotion or their current circumstance. All of them catch this. All of them, including women and children. Do you know how rare it is for a book of antiquity like the Bible to speak highly of women. So many times we read through the Old Testament, we ask where are the women? They're there. I think about Rahab and Esther and Ruth and all of the different examples that we see in the Old Testament. Of course, in the New Testament as well, we know that the genealogy was carried forward through the male line, and so the majority of what's talked about because of genealogy in the life of Jesus to come is represented in that way.
Tyler Lynde:But please don't miss the mark. Women and children are important to God. These men, who had been a part of rebuilding these walls, along with their wives and children, were not the only ones who celebrated. They celebrated as families. They partook of the joy of God together, and I just want to reiterate how thankful I am to have a mom who was a spiritual influence in my life, who taught my brother and I the scriptures and helped us to understand that God is real and that we could put our trust in him.
Tyler Lynde:And I also want to say that I'm so thankful for my wife, amy, because she has been the best mom that my children could have ever hoped for or desired. She is such an example. In fact, her nickname is Pro 3-1 for Proverbs 31 because she's such an example to myself and to all of us of what it means to be a Christ follower. I also thank God for my daughters, who also have children of their own and are generationally pouring into them the truth of Jesus Christ, loving them, honoring them, teaching them what it means to worship. There's some dance parties that go on in our living rooms with our grandchildren dancing around and glorifying and praising Jesus. I did accidentally play Baby Shark last week and I apologize for that. My daughter was trying to figure out who did it and I have to confess it was me. So if you don't know what Baby Shark is, don't listen to it please. It will get in you.
Tyler Lynde:I also thank god for my mother-in-law, kathy, who was the closest thing. She was she, they, her and gary moved with us wherever moved. They gave us a little bit of time to make sure we got settled. They moved with us and man, they were such an extension of our family and loved us and our children so very well. We miss her dearly. She's doing really well today. She really is in heaven.
Tyler Lynde:So the result of this experience that they had this joy-filled moment in Jerusalem was so great that somehow the winds themselves carried the joy outside of the city and even distant lands and people surrounding Jerusalem heard the cries of adoration and joy and praise and worship and took a moment to be still. What does our praise sound like? Does it reverberate in the nations? Are we people who are characterized by God's gift of joy? We can't muster up lasting joy on our own. If it could be bottled up and sold, someone would have figured out by now how to do that and would have done it. God alone is the giver of joy, and guess what? He gives it liberally. He gives it liberally. He's not stingy, he's generous. He is a generous God that wants to pour out his joy in our lives continuously.
Tyler Lynde:The truth is that our lives were filled with sorrow because of our sin, shame and guilt. We didn't just have a broken relationship with God, but we were born dead to him. There was no hope for us to save ourselves because we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If we were to get what we deserve from God, all of us, all of us, every one of us would be separated from him forever. This is the condition that we found ourselves in without Jesus. But how many of you know there's a but God.
Tyler Lynde:But God, in his goodness and mercy, provided a way for us to be made right in our relationship with them. He sent his one and only son, jesus Christ, to this earth to live a perfect life, the life that you and I could not live, so that he could die a substitutionary death by taking our sins upon himself and giving his life on the cross. And how many of you know he didn't just give his life on the cross, but he took those sins with him and they were buried in a borrowed tomb. And why would God do this? Why would God do this? Why would Jesus die in such a humiliating way? Because that was the very thing that brought him the greatest joy. What made Jesus joyful? Spreading out his arms, giving his life?
Tyler Lynde:Hebrews 12 says looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus went to the cross with us on his mind, with us on his mind, and that's what gave him, along with, obviously, the heaviest dose of God's grace, but that's what gave him the impetus, the reason to remain there. This same Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, just as he said that he would, and he also ascended into heaven and was given the name above every other name, and he poured out the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. And how many of you know what the Holy Spirit does? He grows the fruit of joy in our lives. He lives in us, and one of the fruits that he produces is joy. And he, jesus Christ and this should bring us joy, if nothing else will be returning to this planet very soon. And when he returns, he will not return as a suffering servant, he will not return as a baby in a manger. He will return as King of kings and Lord of lords, and he will rule and reign forever and ever and ever. So how should we respond to these things?
Tyler Lynde:The Bible tells us that we must repent. If you don't yet know Jesus and you've never experienced joy, my hope for you, my greatest hope for you, is that today would be your day. The Bible says that we can repent, that we can turn away from following our own direction, from living a life filled with sin. We can turn away from that. You can decide today, by God's grace, to change your direction. And then it says that we must believe, believe what? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on all of the things that I just said to you about who Jesus is and what Jesus did and how that applies to you personally.
Tyler Lynde:And then we must confess, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must acknowledge him, we must ask him to save us. And then, finally, the scripture tells us to be baptized. And we know that baptism isn't salvation, it doesn't cause salvation, but it should be a direct result of salvation. And again, we're having a class this Wednesday to talk more about that. So I just want to implore you, I want to encourage you this morning. If you don't yet know Jesus, turn your heart to him. Put your faith, hope and trust in him. Aren't you tired of living life with no joy? How many of you know that these same steps apply to us who have been in the Lord for 45 years or 60 years, when we find ourselves waning in joy, when we find ourselves not having an attitude of gratitude. When we find ourselves waning in joy, when we find ourselves not having an attitude of gratitude, when we find ourselves not understanding that God is the true source of joy, not having a heart of worship. Repent, put your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ and confess to him that he is the source, the only source, of true joy. You see, we can live joy-filled lives when we have an attitude of gratitude, a heart of worship and understand that God is the true source of joy. Amen, would you stand with me?
Tyler Lynde:There's a couple of things that are going to happen here. In just a minute, we'll have a prayer team that will come down here, and if you have personal requests, prayer requests, please come and be a part of that. The other thing that's going to happen is Yuri and Olga are going to be traveling to Siberia, which is where they're from. They're going on a missions trip for five weeks, and they're going to be traveling a lot, visiting a lot of churches that are very. A lot of them are a long ways away from main cities. They're going to be traveling on very difficult roads. Yours is going to be driving a lot. There's going to be a lot going on during that time, and so we're going to pray over them. So, if you can remain those of you who can remain and pray with them. They're going to come down front and we'll spend some time praying with them as well. Okay, and then also, Pastor Limo and Miss Esther will be out in the lobby. If you'd like to talk to them some more at the end of the service, let out in the lobby if you'd like to talk to them some more at the end of the service.
Tyler Lynde:Let's close with prayer and let's turn our focus on him, and my hope for you today is that you begin again to experience the joy of your salvation. Remember David's prayer restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Father, we ask for that today. We ask for a restoration of joy, lord, we confess that in some ways in our lives it has filled like the walls have tumbled down and our house is in disrepair.
Tyler Lynde:Father, we thank you that you've reminded us through your word today that, no matter what our circumstance is, no matter what our circumstance is, no matter what our situation is, lord, we can look to you. We can look to you just as you looked to saving us, as you were on the cross. We can look to you and our joy can be filled as we look to you. Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. As we look to you, jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, father, we do pray, even now.
Tyler Lynde:For those who don't yet know Jesus Christ, we ask that you would grant them the gift of forgiveness and repentance, lord, that they would acknowledge today their need and that they would be accepted among the believers and that they would experience, for their first time, joy in their lives.
Tyler Lynde:And for the rest of us, lord, we do repent today.
Tyler Lynde:We ask that you would forgive us and cleanse us for times when we have not been filled with thankfulness and we have not had a heart of worship and we have looked for joy in other things outside of you.
Tyler Lynde:Father, would you cause us to walk again on that narrow road, on the right path? Would you lead us in paths of righteousness? For your name's sake, would you deliver us from lies that we have believed, that have become strongholds in our lives? Would you cause us to walk in freedom that brings joy? Father, I pray that this church would be recognized as a place where, of course, where love is, where peace is found, and also where joy is evident, and also where joy is evident so that distant lands can hear the cries of our hearts lifted to you, and that they might recognize that Jesus is Lord. We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, we pray that the Lord would bless you and keep you, that he would cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, that he would lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace in Jesus' name, amen.
