“The Prosperity of the Wicked” – Psalm 73

SEASON'S BEATINGS!
KENTUCKY MALL BRAWL KICKS OFF VIOLENCE...
BRUTAL FIGHTS ACROSS AMERICA...
WOMAN STEALS VEGGIE STEAMER FROM CHILD, WRESTLES MOTHER...
SANTA STAMPEDE...
Swarms raid discount TV display; Cop punched...
Man caught trying to snatch shopper's child at WALMART...
Top day for theft...

Those are the top headlines I woke up to Friday morning.  Yes, the day after we all sit around and tell all our family and friends what makes us thankful…this happens.  Black Friday!  How many of you dared to venture out to go shopping Friday morning?  How many cops did you punch?  No?  Not everybody does that, huh?

It’s no wonder that 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”  Now, I know that some people just like the activity; the sport, if you will, of shopping.  I can’t understand that.  It’s sort of like how I know some people like jazz music.  I don’t want any part of either one.  I go to Walmart when I think the fewest people will be there.  I go in and get what I need and get out.

But while some people like to shop and some don’t, we all feel that urge sometimes that we need some more, newer, better stuff, right?  There is something in all of us that makes us want a bigger, better TV or a newer car or nicer clothes or the latest purse and why is it that your neighbor, you know, that guy that never goes to church and has such a foul mouth and is just flat mean…how is it that he can afford all the cool, latest stuff?

Has anybody ever noticed that?  Why does it seem like the vilest people all have nice stuff?  You know what I’m talking about.  The drug dealer down the street that got that new Starcraft Deckboat?  That’s not fair.  Your heathen uncle who cheats on his taxes just got a Patek Philippe watch that tells time in 7 time zones and he never leaves Wise County.  That’s just not right.

You work hard.  You’re a good person.  You’re a Christian and you can’t afford a Timex.  You give to the church.  You donate to the food pantry.  You packed a couple of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and yet you struggle with your finances.  You struggle physically.  You struggle with relationships.  You struggle mentally and sometimes you just want something new and nice like other people have.  Is that so wrong?

Don’t respond out loud but do you ever feel that way?  Do you ever feel like this world is upside down and that all the people who are the least deserving seem to have the best stuff?  I mean, who are the Kardashians and what have they ever done to benefit society?  I don’t know but evidently they are crazy rich.  That doesn’t seem to be very fair, does it?  I know that if you were God, you would do things differently, wouldn’t you?

Well, you are not the first one to feel that way.  I don’t know how Asaph would have felt about the Kardashians necessarily but he definitely had a problem with how the least deserving always seemed to have the best stuff and the least problems.  You know, sort of like how you feel sometimes.  Asaph wrote Psalm 73 to address this problem he had and how he came to look differently at it.

Asaph was a musician and author and a contemporary to King David in the Old Testament.  You might say that Asaph was the music minister while David was the preacher in the temple of Jerusalem.  Poor Asaph didn’t get what he deserved back then and probably still doesn’t.  Most people know David wrote most of the psalms in the Bible and I have told you before that when I’m just reading through the Psalms for fun that when I see on that says, “A Psalm of Asaph” I usually just skip it and go find one written by David because I know David.  I grew up reading David.  David is a friend of mine.

But I don’t know much about Asaph.  I do know that the poor guy is having a bad day and that I’m glad he wrote about it because it helps me when I sometimes feel the same way he was feeling.  I appreciate his honesty and candor in writing a song about it so thousands of years later a little church in Lake Bridgeport can see and understand truth from it.

Turn to Psalm 73 if you haven’t already.  It’s on page 414 of most of the Bibles in the pews.  Psalm 73 starts the third book or section of the book of Psalms and I would love to be able to hear Asaph sing and play this song one day in Heaven.  Can you imagine that?  David will play the harp.  Moses and Abraham will sing a verse or two.  Peter, Paul and Mary will join in and I don’t mean the folk singers from the ‘60’s.  Then we will all be able to sing along with them at the end.  I can’t wait.

But today, you’ll have to settle for me just reading it and I know that there are parts that are lost in translation but it is still a beautiful and yet practical piece of literature.  Read along with me as I read Psalm 73. 

Surely God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
    I had nearly lost my foothold. ³ For I envied the arrogant
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ They have no struggles;
    their bodies are healthy and strong. ⁵ They are free from common human burdens;
    they are not plagued by human ills. ⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
    they clothe themselves with violence. ⁷ From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
    their evil imaginations have no limits. ⁸ They scoff, and speak with malice;
    with arrogance they threaten oppression. ⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
    and their tongues take possession of the earth. ¹⁰ Therefore their people turn to them
    and drink up waters in abundance. ¹¹ They say, “How would God know?
    Does the Most High know anything?”

¹² This is what the wicked are like—
    always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
    and have washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted,
    and every morning brings new punishments.

¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that,
    I would have betrayed your children. ¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,
    it troubled me deeply ¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;
    then I understood their final destiny.

¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground;
    you cast them down to ruin. ¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed,
    completely swept away by terrors! ²⁰ They are like a dream when one awakes;
    when you arise, Lord,
    you will despise them as fantasies.

²¹ When my heart was grieved
    and my spirit embittered, ²² I was senseless and ignorant;
    I was a brute beast before you.

²³ Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory. ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.

²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;
    you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. ²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
    I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
    I will tell of all your deeds.

The problem with Asaph is he had bad eyesight.  Not his physical eyes but his spiritual eyes were distorted.  He was looking in the wrong direction for the wrong reason and so I want us to see this morning the way that Asaph was looking and where he should have been looking and the outcome of looking correctly.  In your bulletin insert you will see that Asaph was looking outward when he should have been looking upward and it would have changed how he looked inward.

I love how Asaph starts this prayer.  The word “surely” or “truly” can also be translated “nevertheless”.  Asaph has these doubts and fears that are making him miserable and so he goes to God to ask Him about them and starts out by saying, “Nevertheless” or “No matter what answer you give or don’t give, I know that God is good.  I don’t understand you but I know that you are good.  Now here is my problem.”

We have talked before about the kind of prayer that God wants to answer and I just picture God hearing Asaph start like this and God leans out to the edge of His royal throne and says, “I’m listening, dear one.  I’m listening.”  I don’t know about you but I would give anything in the world to know that I have the undivided attention of the Creator of the universe for even just one minute and that is exactly what happens when we approach God in the right way.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  It’s one thing to go to God like Job did and demand a hearing and to demand answers and say, “I don’t know Who you think You are!”  It’s something else entirely to say, “God, I don’t understand.  I have questions.  But even if you don’t answer them I know you are good.”

In the next verse, though, Asaph shows that he was looking outward.  He says in verses 2 and 3, “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.  ³ For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

I often make mention of how this church looks outwardly and not inwardly.  You have shown that you are not as concerned about yourselves as you are other people and that is the way we are supposed to be but the problem comes when you look at other people and start comparing your life to theirs.  When you start seeing all the ways it looks like they are blessed compared with how you are blessed it is easy to think that God is unfair and that is like walking on a sheet of ice.  Asaph says his feet had almost slipped.

I think it is important for us to consider what Asaph really means when he says his feet had almost slipped.  What does it mean when any Christian slips and falls like he is talking about here?  He is talking about slipping into sin by envying the wicked.  When we slip and fall into sin do we lose our salvation?  No, of course not.  The Bible says in several places that nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand once we are there.

The problem is that most of us take it to the other extreme.  We don’t really worry about a little slip and fall into sin most of the time but Asaph seemed to understand what it meant to slip out of God’s favor and out of God’s will and out of God’s fellowship.  He understood the consequences not only to himself but to others around him if he were to be found slipped away and so he goes to God with this prayer and with this song, praying that God would help him not to fall just like Jesus taught us to pray by saying, “Lord, lead me not into temptation.”

Historian Shelby Foote tells of a soldier who was wounded at the battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War and was ordered to go to the back. The fighting was fierce and within minutes he returned to his commanding officer. "Captain, give me a gun!" he shouted. "This fight ain't got any back!"   Daily Walk, July 10, 1993.  That’s how we should be when it comes to temptation.  There ain’t no back.  There ain’t no safe place.  God please keep me from it and give me the strength in your name to resist it.


Asaph goes on to say how the wicked seem to not have any struggles.  They are healthy and strong and because of it they get proud and they wear their pride like a necklace. (Verse 6)  Asaph doesn’t seem to understand that what he is seeing is part of the answer to his prayer.  God despises pride so much that He won’t tolerate it in His children so often times He allows us to struggle to keep us from being proud.  But because Asaph is looking outward all he sees are people that are proud of themselves for what they have and he admits to being envious.


In verses 8 and 9 Asaph relates that the wicked “scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.  ⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.”  Dr. Carl Sagan was a scientist, astronomer, astrobiologist and astrophysicist.  In other words, he was a pretty smart guy.  You know, I started to do some of that myself when I finally got out of Junior College but I decided not to. 


Anyway, Sagan was known for his brilliance and intelligence especially in relating to the cosmos.  He published more than 600 scientific articles and authored nearly 20 books and in his words, “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, remembering, feeling part of me will continue.  But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”  That is laying claim to heaven with tongues taking possession of the earth and people all over the world hear that and think that if Carl Sagan said it, it must be true.


When Asaph was looking outward he saw and heard the wicked and he had to admit that their lifestyle and their philosophy were starting to look pretty good.  In verses 13 and 14 he says, “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure.  ¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted.”  All day long I suffer while the wicked are having a good time!  You can just almost see his feet start to slip.  He is tottering and about to fall trying to figure out why it is that while he is trying to do the right thing it seems like he is being punished and the wicked people thrive and prosper.


Then we get to verse 17.  Verse 17 is the hinge on which all of this turns.  It is the verse that sheds light on the darkness of Asaph’s thinking; it is the key that unlocks the door.  He was confused, oppressed and feeling punished until that moment he started to look upward - “till I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny.”


The question is, “Where is the sanctuary of God?”  I need to know because, like Asaph, I sometimes have doubts and fears and I don’t always understand why things are happening.  Where do I need to go to understand?  Is it this sanctuary?  We call this room the sanctuary of God but honestly just being in this room, while I know it is holy and special, it does not always give me understand just being here.  Do I have to go the sanctuary in Jerusalem where Asaph worshiped?  If so, I’ll buy my plane ticket today.  Let’s go!  I have questions.


Actually, this word “sanctuary” here means a consecrated holy place set apart for God and while it is sometimes used as the name of the place of the temple, here it is used not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense.  1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple?”  It is a spiritual place in our heart where God abides and when our heart is pure and our hands are clean we can go there and have an audience with the King.


Charles Spurgeon said that Asaph stood where the thrice holy God stands and he gazed within the veil.  Asaph came before God.  He didn’t go to a place.  He humbly brought all of his concerns and doubts before the great I AM and left them at His feet with a new understanding of Who God is and who he was with his eyes focused upward and everything started to make sense.


What was unfair to Asaph, he now understood to be the will and work of the sovereign Creator.  What was tempting before now he saw as futile and ridiculous.  What was inviting was now disgusting and horrible all because he looked upward.  You see, when we look outward, it changes and distorts how we look upward but when our look upward is clear and pure it changes how we look inward.


Now, looking inward, Asaph saw himself and the wicked as God saw them.  He saw that the wicked were the ones on slick ice.  In verse 18 he says, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.”  He sees that God purposefully put these people in prosperous but treacherous positions, not to bless them but just the opposite.  Their position was dangerous and so God did not put his friends their…but His enemies.


I love the word picture that Asaph draws in verse 20.  “They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.”  In a dream your circumstances seem so real and so important sometimes to the point of scaring you but how many times have you thought that dream was so real and now that you are awake you can’t even remember what it was about?  That’s the way the wicked are to God.  They won’t even be remembered.


Continuing to look inward, Asaph says in verses 21 and 22 that when he was grieved and bitter it was like being a senseless animal; like a cow whose eyes only see the grass and never the sunshine.  Before God, Asaph felt like a fool for feeling the way he had.

In verses 24 and 25 he spells out the benefits both here and now and in heaven later on.  He says that earth has nothing I desire except You.  When we meet with God and do business with Him we realize how foolish it is to chase after worldly things; how foolish it is to want more and more stuff, bigger TV’s and newer cars.  None of that matters in light of Who God is and just being in His presence.


He says in verse 28, “But as for me, it is good to be near God.”  Can you say that?  Does the thought of being near God scare you or fill you with dread?  Yes, we are told to fear Him and that it is true but when we come to God with our doubts and fears and problems and lay them before Him we have nothing to fear.  David said in Psalm 51, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God You will not despise.”

It is time this morning to come to God with a broken and contrite heart and lay down your doubts, confessing your sins and repenting of those sins and coming before Him with clean hands and a pure heart and when all of that has been done, as Asaph says in the very last sentence, then “I will tell of all your deeds.”  Let me end with one last quote from Spurgeon.  “He who is willing to declare the works of God shall never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.”

“How to Find Joy” – Nehemiah 8:1-12

Well, we are officially kicking off the holiday season today with our Thanksgiving meal.  How do you feel about that?  It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were just doing the same thing, doesn’t it?  That means, of course, that Christmas will be here in like 30 minutes and I know that through every bit of it you will be singing “Joy To The World”, aren’t you?

As you wait in line to buy those presents you’ll be singing “Joy To The World”.  As you swipe your smoking credit card or filling out that check you will be singing “Joy To The World”.  Paying those bills and singing “Joy To The World”.  Fighting traffic and singing “Joy To The World”.  You will be singing that because since it is the holiday season we don’t have anything to worry about, do we?

We don’t have to worry about bills as we go shopping.  We don’t have to worry about our friends and family that are sick.  We don’t have to worry about what is happing in Syria or Paris or Washington D.C. or anywhere else.  “Joy To The World”!  We don’t have to worry about the poor, the addicted or the incarcerated.  All is well.  “Joy To The World”, right?  Not so much.

There are plenty of things that we could worry about.  We know we shouldn’t worry and that it kills our joy but there is so much that we could choose to worry about.  Did you know that Jesus tells us in John 15 that He loves us and because He loves us He wants us to have joy and that He wants our joy to be complete; mature; perfect?  Sometimes during this time of year that is hard to do.  So, how do we find joy?

First, it is vitally important to realize that there is a difference between joy and happiness.  You will probably be happy on Christmas morning, at least for a little while, when you open up your Christmas gifts.  Happiness depends of your circumstances.  We are never commanded by God to be happy.  In fact, not a whole lot is even said about our happiness.  God will always be more concerned with your holiness than your happiness.

But we are commanded to have joy.  James 1 says to consider all things as pure joy.  Well, how is that even remotely possible in this nasty, cruel world in which we live?  How can we find joy?  Well, while happiness is based on your circumstances, joy comes from your outlook; your vision; what you see in spite of the circumstances.  You might say that joy comes from having good vision.

As your outline says, joy comes from seeing Who God is, seeing who you really are and from helping others.  Why do I say that?  I say that because I read that in Nehemiah chapter 8.  Yes, we are going back to Nehemiah just briefly.  We just finished looking specifically at the prayers of Nehemiah and we saw that through prayer we can expect God to give us everything we need to do what He has called us to do.

I love the book of Nehemiah.  It is just so practical and applicable to us at Christ Fellowship today.  I get so much out of it and I was not terribly surprised to read that W.A. Criswell said Nehemiah chapter 8 was his favorite chapter in the whole Bible.  It’s in the 8^th chapter that the focus of the book begins to change from wall-building to life-building.

It’s easy for us to forget that these were real people and that this is a real story not a fairy tale.  They had real lives with real jobs.  They had financial and physical problems just like some of us do.  They had newborn babies with colic.  They had teenagers with bad attitudes.  Their roofs leaked and their backs hurt.  So, you can imagine that it was hard for these people to find joy sometimes.

So, before we read chapter 8, verses 1-12, I want you to picture what is going on and I think you will really be able to relate to what is going on.  In the fall of the year all the people gathered together for a Bible study.  Most of them probably couldn’t read and if they could they would have been able to read and understand only Aramaic.  So, Ezra, the spiritual leader of the nation, brought out what had been written so far of the Bible.  This would have been the first five books of what we call the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  They call this the Pentateuch.  It was all written by their forefather Moses and it would have been written in Hebrew.

Chapter 7 tells us there were 40 thousand-something people at this Bible study.  You know, sort of like how it is at Christ Fellowship on Easter.  J  Let me just say real quickly that while this is a beautiful passage of scripture there are long lists of names that I can’t pronounce and I was torn between trying to read them because it is scripture but I’m afraid it would be too distracting from what the passage is trying to say so I will reverently just call them “these men” if you don’t mind.

Let’s read it.  Nehemiah 8:1-12.  It’s on page 347 in most of the Bibles in the pews.

All the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. ² 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 and all who were able to understand. ³ He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. ⁴ Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam. ⁵ Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. ⁶ Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. ⁷ The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. ⁸ They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read. ⁹ Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “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. ¹⁰ 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.” ¹¹ The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.” ¹² Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.


The last time I preached at the biker church I heard two ladies talking as they were walking out the door.  The first one said, “That guy sure does preach a long time.”  The other one said, “No he doesn’t.  It just seems like it!”  Well, if you think I preach a long time you wouldn’t have liked Ezra.  It says in verse 3 that he read from daybreak to noon.  The thing is most of these people had probably never heard any of this.  They had been slaves and prisoners and had just recently gotten back to their homeland and this was the first time they had ever heard scripture read.


If you notice, that second long list of names were the guys who were explaining what was being said.  Evidently they were translating it from Hebrew to Aramaic and also explaining the meaning of it.  I’m sure Ezra had to stop reading pretty often and let everybody catch up and understand and the beautiful thing is when they did understand…it was life-changing. 


Truth has that effect on people.  I say often that truth is enough.  Truth is enough to bring joy, which the very last verse says they had.  Truth is enough to save you.  It is enough to change you and when you hear truth it will open your eyes to see Who God is, who you are and how we get joy from helping others.


Verse 8 says, “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”  We don’t know what passages exactly were read.  I don’t know if 6 hours is even enough to read the whole Pentateuch when it is also explained to a crowd like this but I’m sure they got through most of it.


I have an idea that they definitely hit the high spots in Genesis and Exodus.  Can you imagine adults hearing for the first time about the power of God in the creation story in Genesis 1?  They had always wondered how things were created.  They must have known that there was a Creator just by seeing what was created.  Now they know the truth of God’s awesome power.  They begin to see Who that Creator is.  They begin to see Who God is.


Then they hear about the sovereignty of God as the story of Adam and Eve is read and explained to them.  Then the story of Noah reveals how God could grieve over the sins of man and will eventually punish that sin.  The story of Abraham must have been fascinating to them.  They had grown up hearing some stories about him but now they see that the stories are not as much about Abraham as they are about the love of God for His chosen people Israel and how God made a promise that His people would always be blessed and that anybody who did not stand with Israel would not be blessed.


They started to develop a vision of Who God is and it must have been eye-opening.  They get to the end of Genesis and into Exodus and they hear those incredible stories about their ancestors being in slavery in Egypt and they hear how God’s power brought plague after plague until finally Pharaoh let the people go.  They see that only God is sovereign and no earthly king can stand up to Him in any way.


God loved His chosen people so much that He went to great lengths to protect and provide for them as they left Egypt and wandered in the desert.  Ezra and the others explained how creative God is and how loving and merciful and generous the King of Kings is and it had to have opened their eyes to see God in a new and life-changing way.  What joy it must have given them to hear and understand that the All-Mighty, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Seeing Creator of the universe was not just powerful but also that He loved them so much that He had provided a way out of their worst trouble.


Verse 6 says they praised the Lord, the great God.  They all agreed by saying “Amen!” and they all worshiped.

They began to see Who God was and it brought great joy.  The early church leader Augustine was once accosted by a heathen who showed him his idol and said, "Here is my god; where is thine?" Augustine replied, "I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him."  These early Bible students were developing their vision of God based on the truth of scripture and it brought great joy.


But then they moved into the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; those books most of us dread reading through because there are so many lists and names and laws that we can’t relate to but can you imagine hearing this with the ears of somebody who had never heard it before and had never known what God expected of them?  Can you imagine always wondering what was right and what was wrong?  How would you know without scripture?  How would we know even today if we didn’t have the Bible?  That is what the Law was for.  The Law, as found in those books, would have shown the people how to please God, much less how to get along with other people.  That had to bring joy!


But can you imagine?  For the first time in your life you have seen Who God is and now, through the Law, you start to see who you really are and how far the gap is between you.  No wonder verse 9 says they were all weeping as they listened to the words of the Law!  No wonder they had fallen on their faces and were crying, mourning and worshiping.  When you see the truth of Who God is and who you are, you will be changed. 


You cannot be proud when you see that.  You can’t be hard-hearted and stiff-necked.  When you see Who God is and what He expects and then you see who you are, it will bring tears but it will also bring joy.  He ought to scare you because of His power and sovereignty but He will also bring great joy because you know that when God gives a law it is because He wants to protect you, not hinder you.


It should bring you joy to know that when God tells you to do something, even when it seems like it will be uncomfortable or even painful, that He gives the power to do what He has told you to do.  It should bring you joy to know what God expects and when He says we are to be holy, we should do what Nike says:  Just do it!  Be holy.  Be different.  Be peculiar and set apart.


Nehemiah left his comfortable position in the king’s palace to go thousands of miles to build a wall – because God told him to – and God provided everything he needed the whole time.  Ephesians 3:20 says that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”  I don’t know about you but I believe that and it brings me great joy!  It brings me great joy even in the midst of my greatest problems.


I can have joy when our leaders in Washington stray away from what is biblical and condone homosexuality and abortion because I know that Romans 13:1 says that the authorities that exist have been established by God.  That doesn’t mean that He is pleased with them or that I should vote for them but I can have peace and joy because I know God is in control even when I don’t understand how.


I can have joy in ministering to the poor, addicted and incarcerated because I know that God has called this church to do that just like He called Nehemiah back to Jerusalem and I know that God will provide.  Why should we worry?  This church, like that bunch of Bible students so many years ago in front of the Water Gate, sees Who God is and who we are and we have joy.


Now, real briefly, let me point out one more thing that will bring you joy.  Look again at verses 9 and 10.  Tell me this doesn’t apply to us today.  Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “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. ¹⁰ 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.”


Woohoo!  Time to eat, right?  Food brings us joy too, doesn’t it?  Yes, it does but do you know what is even better?  Some of you can relate to this better than others.  Some of you know the cure for depression and the cure for the holiday blues.  You know the joy that comes from giving to somebody that doesn’t have anything.  When God gives you something and you are able to turn around and give it to somebody in need, that’s a great feeling!


We are going to do just that today.  We are going to go eat our Thanksgiving meal right after this.  Not much longer, I promise.  I hope you will eat all the choice food you want.  Notice that nothing is said of vegetables there.  We’re talking about joy after all.  And I don’t know if they had tea back then but it says to drink the sweet drinks so they must have.  So, eat all you want and drink all the sweet tea you want and then we are going to take whatever leftovers we have to some of the people here in our community who may not have as much as we do.


So remember that this day is holy and sacred.  It is a different day and we are a different people.  We have a vision; we see some of Who God is and who we are and we have great joy just like those people in Nehemiah’s day.  We as believers in Jesus have great joy because we see the truth in the book of Romans that says we are all sinners and we all deserve hell because of it and yet we see that God has provided a way out of our worst trouble just like He did for the Hebrews.


That way out is a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and if you don’t have that way out; if you don’t have that relationship with God through His Son Jesus then I need to talk with you and pray with you right now.  Ask God to be Lord of your life.  Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and then repent of those sins and the Bible says that all who confess God as their Lord will be saved.  Do that today and know great joy!