In the sermon titled 'Joy! Joy! Joy!' by Peter Allison, the concept of joy is explored through the lens of Proverbs 15:13-17. Joy is distinguished from mere happiness, as it persists even in the face of affliction, unlike happiness which is often tied to favorable circumstances. The sermon emphasizes that joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, enabling believers to experience God's love and acceptance, thus providing strength and comfort in trials. A joyful heart radiates cheerfulness and aligns one's purpose with glorifying God. On the contrary, those without understanding seek foolishness and cannot attain true joy. The sermon warns against counterfeit joys that offer temporary satisfaction but lead to despair. True joy, rooted in the peace and salvation provided by God, is everlasting and transformative, uplifting believers even through the darkest times. The sermon concludes by urging believers to seek joy through prayer and reliance on God's promises, rather than external circumstances.

Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 15 this morning for our Scripture reading. I'd like to read verses 13 through 17. Through 17. Hear God's word. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of Fools feeds on foolishness. All the days of the afflicted are evil. But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred." May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word, a word that endures forever.

Heavenly Father, we look now to Your Word that You have preserved, that you have written down and given to us, as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And we ask that you give us ears to hear, and hearts to understand what has been written here. And a will, to do your will, to do as you have taught us. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Joy, joy, joy.

You all know what it is, I'm sure. And yet, if somebody were to ask you to define it, it might be kind of difficult. It's one of those things that we know intuitively what it is, but to define it, that's another thing. If we just say, well, it's happiness or it's being glad, then how do we explain all the examples of joy in the middle of great affliction? It's hard to define.

It's hard to define. And yet it's a word that is throughout the Scriptures, Christians, saints, people are called to rejoice. They are described as those who rejoice, who have joy. What is it? How do we get it?

How can we have it in the middle of affliction? And how is it different than simple happiness? Or the happiness that one might have with a good meal or a fine wine. What is it? Well, the text opens this morning by giving us the underlying effect, the underlying effect of joy, what it produces.

Now We know that joy itself is a fruit, but this text opens with what joy does in us. What effect it has in us. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. Now that word for merry is the word for joy. It's used many, many times in the Bible.

In most of the times it's translated as joy or joyful. In this case, in a couple of other cases, it's almost 1% of the cases it's translated Mary as it's translated here. But the word is joy, a joyful heart. This isn't just speaking about somebody who is drunk with wine and and carousing. This is speaking of a joyful heart.

A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance. A joyful heart heart makes a joyful countenance. Now the form of this word makes a cheerful, And that's all, that's just one verb in the Hebrew. What is three words in our translation in English is just one word. And in the form of that word, the significance of that verb is that, is to make something appropriate for the purpose for which it was designed.

To make something appropriate to its situation, to make something appropriate to its being, to its purpose, to its nature. It means to make something good or to make it right. A little earlier in the chapter, verse 2, we saw this same word where it's used with respect to knowledge. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly. In other words, Wisdom makes the knowledge that comes off of the tongue appropriate.

It makes it beautiful. It makes it healing. It makes it restorative. It's not just knowledge, but wisdom makes this knowledge, makes it beautiful, makes it appropriate. Now, sometimes healing and Restoration require the removal of what is rotting and dead and in a physician may have to remove and cut away Flesh that is infected or that is Injured or damaged they have to or it Rotten They have to cut that away to allow healing to occur.

Likewise sin needs to be removed to make us fruitful. And so this making appropriate isn't always saying that one's words are always what the world would call positive. Sometimes making something appropriate is a hard thing to do. But that's the word here. Joy, a joyful heart makes the face, that's what the word countenance is, it's the word for face, it makes the face to be appropriate for the purpose for which it was designed.

And what is the purpose for which we were designed? We were created to worship God, We were created to reflect the glory of God. We were created to have joy and to express that joy in praise and worship. And having a joyful heart makes our face Able and appropriate to fulfill that calling it makes our face have cheer and joy You all probably can recognize immediately when you see somebody whose face radiates a joy. It is a beautiful thing.

You think of a bride walking down the aisle on the arm of her father. This is one of the most joyful faces. It radiates beauty. That is joy. And a joyful heart, joy in the heart, makes a face to be cheerful.

Joy in our heart enables us to ride above trials just like a boat can ride on the crest of a wave. Nehemiah told the people of Israel that the joy of the Lord was their strength. So the effect of joy is to make us, make our face to reflect joy and cheer. It's to make our face to reflect the glory of the Lord. It's to give us strength so that we are able to ride over the afflictions like a boat on the crest of a wave.

David in Psalm 16, because he had this joy in his heart, could say that the lines had fallen to him in pleasant places. That his life had been a life where the lines had fallen to him in pleasant places. Now think about David's life. The wife that he betrothed for 104 skins, I mean he risked his life here, killed a hundred Philistines, was given to another man. He was chased like a dog throughout the desert.

And you think, well, if somebody's after me, I'll call the police. Well, it was the police that were chasing him. It was Saul's army that was going after him. By the thousands, here he is, one guy. And Saul's bringing 3, 000 people after him through the desert, chasing him, as David says, like a dog.

One of his sons raped one of his daughters. One son killed another son. Two of his sons, at two different times, tried a coup. In one case, forcing him to flee for his life from his own house. He was chased by his enemies.

He had to flee to the Philistines and feign madness in order to be safe there because they said, well isn't this man the one that the women of Israel said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? Why are you taking them in? He had to pretend madness. This David is the one who could say, The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places because He had the joy of the Lord in His heart. What is the source of this joy?

Where did David get this joy? Where do we get this joy? A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance. It makes the face fit for the purpose for which God created it, which is to reflect the glory of God. But in the next verse is, is, the heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

There are two cases that are being contrasted here. The joyful heart is an understanding heart. And an understanding heart takes in knowledge. The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge. In other words, it listens.

It seeks to understand. So what this is saying is that those who understand, seek to understand more and are able to understand more and more. Those who understand seek to understand more and are able to understand more and more. Those with understanding seek to have the truth that they know reduced to experience and to practice. Those with understanding Seek to have that knowledge translated into their experience and their practice.

On the other hand, verse 14 contrasts to the other side, another case, those who lack understanding don't even know what they should be eating. They feed on folly. So without understanding, they are not able to get understanding. It's impossible for them to even learn what they ought to be feeding on. The mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

So they lack understanding and therefore they lack the ability to get understanding. Sort of a vicious circle, isn't it? How did those who have understanding ever get it in the first place? If verse 14 is true, That the heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools simply feeds on more foolishness. Well how did the heart that has understanding get it in the first place?

Well we're not born with it. Proverbs says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. We are conceived in iniquity and born in sin. We are not born with this understanding that would cause us to seek knowledge and to seek to have what we know translated and reduced into practice in our experience. So how do we get this understanding?

How do we get a joyful heart? Well Joy you all as you all know Paul told the Galatians is The fruit of the Spirit Joy is that sweet and delightful effect of the Holy Spirit acting upon us, enabling us to apprehend the goodness of God to us, such that our soul is supported, it's encouraged, and it's comforted under present affliction, and such that we are guarded, we are preserved against future fear. Joy is the sweet and delightful effect of the Holy Spirit acting upon us, acting in us, to enable us to apprehend, to enable us to comprehend, to grab hold of, to see and to realize and to experience the goodness of God to us, to recognize the goodness of God to us, such that in recognition of God's goodness to us, in recognition of His blessings that He has both given to us and promises to give to us in the fullness of our salvation. The Holy Spirit enables us to apprehend, to lay hold of, to realize these promises and these blessings and this goodness of God, such that our soul is supported, it is encouraged, it is comforted in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

You see, joy eases our mind, it comforts our spirit, it exhilarates. This is not an imagined or virtual condition. Joy is not just saying, well, I'm going to pretend that I have wonderful blessings. I'm going to pretend. I'm going to imagine that I'm not sitting here in chains with a back torn open from a whip.

I'm going to imagine instead that I'm at a wonderful feast. No, it's not an imaginary or virtual condition. An imaginary or virtual condition. Joy arises from the very real experience and sense of God's love and Acceptance. Joy arises from the very real experience and knowledge of God's love and acceptance.

Joy arises from knowing the Holy Spirit testifying with us that we are the children of God. Joy flows from the fact that we are at peace with God and are no longer under condemnation. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Romans 5 opens, Romans 5 opens, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of justification we are at peace with God through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

That's not an imagination. That's not just something that we have to pretend. We have to fake it. That's a reality that the Holy Spirit enables us to apprehend by His testimony with us, by His dwelling with us, brings the knowledge that we are at peace with God and we have access and therefore we stand in that grace in the hope of the glory of God and we stand and we rejoice. See that that joy that Paul speaks about here flows directly from the work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to apprehend and they hold of the fact that we are at peace with God.

Or we can look in I guess I could have looked in Isaiah 52 the same gospel is proclaimed by God's servant Isaiah 52 in verse 7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. What's the result of that message? What's the result of that reality? Break forth into joy. Verse 8, 9, Sing together you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Joy follows the proclamation that we are at peace with God because we have been justified. The wrath of God has been satisfied, there is therefore peace. And the Holy Spirit gives to us and enables us to apprehend, to lay hold of that knowledge and to truly and really know that fact and to experience it. Great joy flows from the preaching of the Gospel as the Holy Spirit brings new life and the other fruits that flow from the new birth.

In Acts 8, 8, when Philip preached the Gospel in Samaria, it says that there was great joy in that city. The summation of all of That evangelistic work and the new birth that was wrought by the Holy Spirit in that city through the preaching of the Gospel by Philip was this one sentence. There was great joy in that city. Nothing else had changed. Whatever their circumstances and trials before Philip came and preached the Gospel were the same.

But the knowledge that they were at peace with God through faith. Brought great joy to that city. The same in Acts chapter 13, in Paul's, the result of Paul's preaching in Antioch. He contends with the Jews, he proclaims the Gospel. And the summation of that whole chapter is that the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

The disciples, not just the apostles, but all to whom they preached, all the disciples of Christ were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. That's the source of joy and that's how the understanding can get joy, because the Holy Spirit brings it, is the work of the new birth, the fruit of the new birth. And it's not dependent upon external circumstances. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast. That's not contrasting people who are afflicted with people who have a continual feast.

That is saying that people who have a joyful heart Have a continual feast even through the days of evil affliction. Do you see that contrast? Or the force of what that's saying? He that has a joyful heart has a continual feast despite affliction and through their affliction. Now a joyful heart is connected many times in the scripture with feasting.

In fact, Actually, this exact construct that we have in this verse here, a merry heart and a continual feast, is found only a couple other places in Scripture. In 1 Kings 8, 66, which recounts the dedication of the temple that chapter does that verse doesn't but that chapter recounts the dedication of the temple and the bringing of the altar in to the temple and it you know it's Solomon's prayer is well-known prayer there. And then after that seven days of the dedication, Solomon had seven days of feasting. And all Israel was there. It Tells you something of the wealth of this man that he could throw a feast for all Israel.

And the people blessed him. They blessed their king. When was the last time you saw anybody in this country bless their rulers? Tolerate maybe, but bless a few times. The people blessed after seven days of feasting.

They blessed Solomon and they went to their homes with joyful and glad hearts. Same word here, exact same phrase. They went with joyful and glad hearts because of the Lord's goodness to them through David and Solomon. Joyful heart through feasting and a recognition of the Lord's provision and blessing. In Ruth, third chapter, remember that Boaz is shearing sheep and in that evening he has a feast commensurate with sheep shearing.

That was a common thing. Remember, Nabal was having a feast at the time of shearing sheep as well. And the Bible says that Boaz had a joyful and a glad heart after he had eaten of the harvest. He was rejoicing in the richness of the Lord's blessing during that harvest and during the shearing of the sheep. Ecclesiastes 9 speaks of a workman who eats and drinks with a joyful heart, a merry heart, because God has accepted his work.

That gets to the source of joy, that we are accepted with God. So we can easily relate to a joyful heart in the context of feasting like that. That's natural to us. Even those in the world, outside of Christ, outside of His people, can appreciate and recognize joy or gladness in a time of feasting, in a time of plenty, in a time of harvest. But verse 15 is really very foreign to our thinking.

That we can have joy in the days of evil affliction. The affliction is undeniably and unquestionably evil. All the days of the afflicted are evil. This isn't talking about some affliction that only seems to be evil, but isn't. This is truly being acknowledged as affliction that is evil, affliction that is hard, affliction that is humbling, lowly.

But this verse is saying that throughout all the days of that evil affliction, the joyful heart is feasting. That's kind of exactly backwards, isn't it? The feast is not the source of the joyful heart. The feast is the result of the joyful heart. This verse is saying just the opposite of what we might expect.

The feast is not the source of the joyful heart. The joyful heart is the source of a continual feast. See, if you're looking to find joy in simply the things that God gives to you, the economic blessings and so forth, the fulfillment of your dreams. If you're looking to find joy and fulfillment and contentment by accomplishing the dreams of your heart, you're going to be disappointed. But if you are in fellowship with God, the God of all joy, if you are united to Christ in the new birth, Then you will have joy and that joyful heart will give to you a continual feast even in the midst of evil affliction.

Not just occasionally, This doesn't say all the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who has a merry heart has a feast once in a while, can have a breakthrough joy. No, it says All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who has a joyful heart has a continual feast. Every day that he is afflicted. Isn't this what David says in Psalm 23? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You give me a feast. I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, the affliction of the severest sort. What can be worse affliction than to be in the valley of the shadow of death, to be facing death, the end of our earthly life?

Now even as saints we know that that stain has been removed. But also as saints that's still an affliction. But David says, in the valley of the shadow of death, you prepare a feast before me. In the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over. Those are the words of a joyful heart.

Seeing that God is giving him a feast in the midst of his affliction. You see, joy is independent, not dependent on external and earthly things. Solomon gives us sort of a couple examples of this in verses 16 and 17. Better, I should explain here how this text is related because what's obvious in Hebrew is not quite as obvious in our English. But verses 13, 14, and 15 all speak of what?

That we can get, right? Because they all speak of the heart. Every one of those verses says something about the heart. So we can see that those three verses go together. What's a little bit harder to see is how the next two verses go together.

They're tied. So verse 15 is sort of the verse that looks back and looks forward and ties these five verses together. And they are tied together because the word in verse 15 for a merry heart, the word 16 better and the word 17 better are all the same word. So what we see in English very easily about verses 13, 14 and 15, they all speaking about the heart, is also easily seen in the Hebrew that verses 15, 16, and 17 are all speaking about this joy, or in the case of 16 and 17 it's comparatively better. The word literally in verse 15, the merry heart, the word literally is good, but it's a very broad word.

So It does have the context of joy in it, a merriment. And verse 16 is the context of better joy, better goodness, if you will. It's not good English, but better. It's comparative. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble.

Better is the heart, the good heart that has the fear of the Lord, but not a lot of wealth. It's sufficient, so this is not nothing, this is not destitution, it's just little. It's just a modest amount. It's a modest blessing. It's better to have just a little with the fear of the Lord.

In other words, to have the Holy Spirit than to have great wealth but to have that wealth with trouble, with sorrow, with confusion, with apprehension, with anxiety, with embarrassment, with destruction and loss, distress and worry. See, wealth can be a great blessing, but it's better to have a little, just a little bit, with the joy of the Lord, than to have great treasure without the joy of the Lord and instead having these troubles. Better is a dinner of verbs. A vegetarian meal. It's a modest, a simple, and cheap, but sufficient meal.

This is not starvation here, it's saying a simple, modest, vegetarian meal with a heart of love is better than a feast of meat, the fatted calf, the fatted ox, where hatred is. Now this is not saying that a vegetarian meal is better than steak. If that's what it was saying, the proverb would fall apart. The proverb only works if we recognize that a steak dinner with wine and everything that goes with it is better than a vegetarian dinner. But it's saying it's better to have that vegetarian dinner and have love than it is to have the otherwise better feast but not to have love.

See, life without joy, life without the Holy Spirit is sorrow of heart. Verse 13 tells us about that kind of life. The absence of joy. Mary Heart makes a cheerful countenance. It makes the face suited for the purpose that God created it.

But by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. Without joy, there is no desire to live. Breaks the spirit. It crushes a person. You see, just as a joyful heart is not the result of a life of ease, a life of pleasure and the absence of trials, so the absence of joy is not the result of many trials and afflictions.

The absence of joy indicates the absence of the Holy Spirit, the absence of the oil by which our fire burns. David speaks about this in Psalm 51, connecting the absence of joy with the taking away of the Holy Spirit. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. David writes in verse 51, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit, before there was the broken spirit, the crushed spirit. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me, restore to me the joy of your salvation." the absence of joy indicates an absence of the Spirit's fellowship dwelling with us. It could be, as in David's case, the result of grieving the Holy Spirit through our sin. Results in diminished fellowship of the Holy Spirit and can reduce or inhibit or diminish the joy that we have.

But if we find ourselves in that condition, we can pray to the Lord and ask Him to restore the joy of His salvation. To not take His Holy Spirit from us, but to give us repentance and to create in us a clean heart and renew that right spirit within us and to take away and lift us up from the broken crushed spirit to the spirit that enables us to ride upon the afflictions that we are in. Those who are rejected by God are sorrowful and broken. But the sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. Saul is a classic picture of someone who is forsaken by the Holy Spirit, who is a broken and a crushed man.

He became so desperate Because he prayed to the Lord and the Lord wouldn't listen. The Lord rejected him. He had rejected God and God rejected him. And Saul sought out the witch at Endor. He was desperate.

And Saul, when he was talking with Samuel, said, I am deeply distressed. God has departed from me. He doesn't answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I'm calling out to you, What should I do? And Samuel tells him that he didn't obey the Lord.

The Lord had rejected him. That his wrath would fall upon him. And that he and his sons would die. And Saul falls full length on the ground. Saul, remember when he came, hadn't even eaten anything.

He was a broken man. He fell full length on the ground, dreadfully afraid. There was no strength in Him. He hadn't eaten all day. That's the life without the joy of the Lord.

Oh, there are counterfeit joys. There are people without the joy of the Lord that can put on a mask. That's not the same. Counterfeit joy can imitate the joy of the Lord in some superficial ways, but it doesn't provide a continual feast through affliction. Nabal is said to have had joy at the shearing of his sheep, just like Boaz.

Amnon, when Habsulam gave instructions for when he was to be killed, when Amnon was to be killed. It was after he had joy, a merry heart, through the feasting at sheep shearing again. Ahab, Haman is said to have had joy after he had a feast with Queen Esther and the king, the Hashuerus. And the king, the hashueros. These are all people who have a counterfeit joy.

Counterfeit joy can have the appearance of joy. But the difference is that counterfeit joy comes from without and is pressed upon the face. The joy of the Lord comes from within and is infused from inside through the face. You see, because counterfeit joy is pressed from without upon the face, it is powerless to remove what is already being put there by the heart. If there is a cup that is full, You can't put more into it.

Counterfeit joy from a temporal pleasure like eating and drinking, mere eating and drinking, is like a coat of paint on top of the mildew. It can cover things up for a little while, but the black stain that's in the wall is going to eventually break through again. See, on the other hand, the joy of the Lord comes from within. It arises from the deepest recesses of our heart and it therefore pushes away the fears because it's coming from within the work of the Holy Spirit. And so it pushes out the things that are coming in.

If you can imagine a cup, instead of being pouring into it from the top, it has something coming into it from the bottom. Now, if you have something coming into a cup from the bottom, now it's going to push out whatever was already in there. Counterfeit joy causes the very ills that it seeks to cure. Counterfeit joy brings despair. Counterfeit joy in that sense is like a sugar fix.

It feels good for a while, it gives a lot of energy and it tastes wonderful. But then the crash comes. And then you're far worse off than before. You're far worse off than if you had never eaten the sugar. See, the joy of the Lord on the other hand it restores, it heals, and it leaves us stronger.

Remember the joy of the Lord is our strength. It leaves us stronger and healthier, not sicker. Counterfeit joy is also contaminated by guilt and accompanied by fear. It might look like water, it might taste like water, but to the person who drinks it, it brings disaster. In that sense we could say it's like the radioactive water from the Fukushima reactor.

If you just look at it in a, assuming it doesn't have a blue glow to it, but If you just look at it, the Cherenkov radiation, radioactive water can look just fine. You can't see the radiation, you can't see the contamination. But if you drink it, your body knows the difference. It can make you sick. Counterfeit joy is like that.

It may have the appearance, you just look at somebody that's having a good time and you think, well, they're really happy, but they're drinking radioactive water that will destroy their body and their organs, bring disaster and trouble. Whereas the joy of the Lord is pure, it's enriching, it's life giving. Counterfeit joys are temporary. Job says the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. Then it's gone and It leaves behind ashes.

Whereas the joy of the Lord endures. It abides forever. It is our heavenly hope. When Jesus told the parable of the servants that He gave talents to, you remember the one servant that got five talents, multiplied them into ten talents, and the Lord said to him, well done, enter into my joy. Enter into my joy.

The joy the Lord endures is everlasting. It never leaves. It's our heavenly hope. And no one can take it from us. Take it from us.

Do you have, do you live in that joy, in the joy of the Lord? Is that joy of the Lord written upon your face? Not painted there by muscles that are creating a counterfeit joy. But is it there because it's in the heart? We can have joy in our afflictions Because we know that Christ is afflicted with us.

He is bearing those burdens with us. We can have joy in our afflictions because we know that in them, even in them, we are accepted by God. That our sins are forgiven. David wrote in Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

The result, verse 11, be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy you upright in heart. The righteous, those who are accepted by God, those whose sins are forgiven, those in whom the Spirit dwells have no excuse for not having joy. Imagine somebody a very wealthy person Having a very beautiful luxury car. Maybe like a Rolls Royce. Some people might say that is the epitome, that is the greatest, the most luxurious car that money could buy.

I don't know, I've never had one, never been in one, only seen them, but they're a million dollar car. Imagine somebody having one of these cars. It has every possible creature comfort, every possible gadget and technology, everything to pamper to your every need as you have somebody drive you down the road a massive engine that can accelerate up the side of a mountain. Imagine somebody having a car like this, and then pushing it everywhere they go. That's like a Christian without joy.

Christ has promised to us every spiritual blessing in the heavens. If we lack anything, it's because we haven't asked. Jesus in that night, in his last night with his disciples, said to them that while they were rejoicing that night, because he would be crucified, He said, Their sorrow would be turned to joy. A woman when she is in labor has sorrow because her hour has come, but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for the joy that her human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name, but ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full." Are you pushing your Rolls Royce? Or are you asking of the Father in Christ's name for those things that you have need of, for the joy of the Lord? Is your joy being made complete?

It is, it will be, to those who ask the Father in Jesus' name. That is our privilege. And that is our even right as sons of the Living God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, who owns the gold in all the earth, and who is the source of our strength and the source of our joy. Almighty Heavenly Father, we ask that you would forgive us where we have not lived in the joy of the Lord. We pray that our joy might be complete.

We thank you for that joy. We thank you for your promises that are abundant, that are true, that are real. And for your Holy Spirit who gives to us the ability to apprehend them, to lay hold of them. We ask that we might be vessels whose face shine with joy, the joy of the Lord, because of the peace that we have with you, because of your redemption, of your salvation. May we be those of whom people ask the source of our joy and the source of our hope.

Even as the Philippian jailer asked of Paul, the source of his joy while he sat in that jail. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.