Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Meditation
Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Opening Hymn #182
“For the Beauty of the Earth”
Welcome & Announcements
Morning Prayer [See Insert]
*Hymn #541
“The Joy of the Lord”
*Responsive Lesson [See Right]
*Hymn #270
“Joy to the World”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
*Scripture Nehemiah 8:9-12
Sermon
“The Wait of Glory”
Invitation Hymn #774
“When the Roll is Called up Yonder”
*Benediction
*Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ our Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE LESSON
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
Though you have not seen him, you love him.
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Php 4:4;Ps 32:11-33:1;1 Pe 1:8-9;Job 20:4-5;Ec 8:15;
1 Ch 16:26-27;1 Ch 16:29-33;Jn 15:11;Ro 15:13
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Free Church Homecoming is Father’s Day, June 17th.
If you are interested in seeing Jesus Christ Superstar at Wolf Trap this Saturday, contact the Crosses.
PRAYER LIST
Debbie Flickinger
Warren Lee
Debbie Grigsby
Martha Puryear
Susan Schulz
Jim Schulz
Irene Griffith
The Missionaries in Central Asia
TEXT: NEHEMIAH 8:9-12
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 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.” 11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Title: The Wait of Glory
Text: Nehemiah 8:10
MP: God has nothing against pleasure – he’d just rather give you joy.
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The story goes that an older man and his wife decided they were going to get fit. They exercised; they stopped eating deserts, and changed their diet to be only that which was required for optimal nutrition and health. Sure enough, their bodies responded positively, and as the aged they found themselves able to travel. But sadly, crossing a busy street in one of these cities, they were both struck by a bus and killed.
As they passed through the pearly gates, with Peter giving them tour of the ultimate heavenly city, they gawked at the splendor of the streets paved with gold, the cherubim sing praises to God, and generally marveled at all the joys around them. Swept up the emotion of the place, the man turned to his wife and said, “See Edna: If you hadn’t put us on that stupid diet, we would have been here five years ago!”
In our text this morning, the Word of God has some advice for us that runs just a little bit contrary to what your average nutrionist will tell you. But that’s okay, because the whole tone has something that runs contrary to what most people think about God.
I want to be looking at Nehemiah 8: 9 – 12 this morning, and my first impulse is to jump headlong into the statement “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” And, it is. But I noticed that before the joy is pleasure. And I realized, too many of us labor under the impression that God is somehow opposed to our pleasure. Even if we can answer a multiple choice question about the goodness of God and the goodness of grace, we live as thought God’s pleasure is something to be avoided at all costs.
I’d be willing to bet that if you asked the average what following Christ is all about, they’d say something to the effect of it being about making yourself miserable so that somehow God will think you’re pretty special. George Bush the Elder once described a Puritan someone who “lives in fear that somebody somewhere is happy.” Well, this morning I just want to convince you of one thing: that’s the furthest from the truth you can possibly get.
But you see, not only does God not want you to be miserable, he is most pleased when we are taking pleasure in him. After all, what else is worship, but the act of taking pleasure in coming before the throne of God?
Pleasure is good
Contrary to expectations, the Bible is full of places where God wants our pleasure.
Think about this: what was Jesus’ first miracle? He turned water into wine at a wedding. I would have guessed it was healing somebody or otherwise attending to a sick person being made whole. But no – Jesus is at a party. The great problem comes when his mother realizes that they’re out of wine, and the guests are going to have to do without. You remember the story – Jesus tells the servants to gather some water in jugs and taste it. Lo and behold, it has become wine – and not just any wine – it’s the best wine they’ve had. It’s so good, in fact that the chief steward chides the groom for holding the good stuff until the end. Why is it that Jesus would do his first miracle at a party? Could it be that Jesus is thinking about a better party to come?
If you love the story of David, you might remember a story about the time the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines and then returned because the Philistines start noticing weird things, like their idols crashing themselves down before the ark. Anyway, when the ark is returned, David is so happy he starts dancing in front of it so hard that his clothes fall off! His wife gets so angry with David because she thinks that David has made a fool of himself. David was just having too much pleasure, too much fun, she thought. But you know what? God seemed to think it was perfectly okay that David was, as Paul would later call it, a “fool for Christ.” It was perfectly okay for David to be delightfully happy. God loves our pleasure.
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah - all the books are consistent – there’s nothing wrong with a good time.
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. [Isa 55.1]
Shout for joy, o you righteous [Ps 33.1]
take joy in the wife of your youth! [Prov 5.8]
Eat, drink, and be merry! [Ecc]
And don’t even get me started on the Song of Solomon!
The Bible has a lot to say about enjoying the pleasures that God has given to us. Indeed, if God has given us all this abundance, who are we to turn up our noses and refuse the gifts that God has bestowed on us. Doesn’t that seem the slightest bit ungrateful?
Presbyterians even say in their confession that the chief end of man is to “enjoy God forever.” There’s nothing wrong with a good time.
Joy is better than Pleasure
The only problem comes when we settle for momentary pleasure over the eternal joy of knowing God. C.S. Lewis has an address called The Weight of Glory that’s definitely worth the 20 minutes or so that it takes to read. He starts off with what I think is a pretty bold claim. We’re conditioned to think that our purpose is just to beat down all our desires and just become feeling-less robots – but Lewis says that’s just totally the wrong direction. Listen to what he writes:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Indeed, God is so concerned about our joy that he doesn’t want us to settle for lesser joys.
Around Christmas, there was a really obnoxious commercial on TV. It looked like some home video of kids opening a present. The kids tear into the package and get so excited that they’re literally screaming with joy. And then, they show you the car they’re selling – and no I don’t remember which one it was – and they simply say, “Yeah, it’s that good.”
Did you see the move they made? They said if you just keep getting the right things, you’ll be happy. Inadvertently, however, they just proved the point. Think about the difference. A game package might suffice for a kid, but now that you’re a grown up, the price just went up.
It reminds me of a song by Rich Mullins. He says, “Everybody I know says they need just one thing. But what they really mean is that they need just one thing more.”
Paul wrote the book of Philippians and to this day it remains the seminal text on joy. Over and over again, he says things like, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say Rejoice! “In all circumstances, whether high or low,” he says, “I have learned to be content. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And you know what? He was writing that book while he was sitting in jail.
Pleasure is dependent on circumstances, Joy never is. Joy is deeper than that. Joy comes from knowing not our “now” but our “what will be.” I’ve told you before that the Bible doesn’t spend a lot of time telling us about the physical nature of heaven – and that’s true. But it does tell us just one thing – We’ll be with God directly. There’s a reason for that.
I guarantee you that somebody would say “oh, the gold in the streets isn’t quite shiny enough!” If our joy were dictated by what we had, we’d find a way to be miserable. But if our joy is predicated strictly and solely in being with the One for whom we were created to give pleasure – well, that can never be taken away.
Joy is shared
Look here in this text again. Did you notice that everybody is weeping, because they figuring out what the law really requires? We’re going to say a lot more about that next week – but notice what the priest tells them. He says, Go out, and have a party.
He says, “Eat the fat!” Now, if you’re having trouble following that, just ask yourself do you really the lean steak or the nice, fat, juicy sizzler on the grill? The word “fat” in this context doesn’t mean the gristle – it means the choicest cuts on the cow. Eat the good stuff. And, just in case you didn’t get it, he says, “Drink the sweet drinks.” Don’t skimp here. This is the Word of God. It’s a good reason to party.
But it doesn’t stop there. He says, “Send portions to those who have none.”
See, now that’s where you need to stop and ask: how does that follow? It actually follows pretty naturally. You see, consumption is only going to give you a certain amount of pleasure.
I know, for instance, that my absolute favorite restaurant right now is this little Italian place up in Ashburn. Susan & I can get a fabulous meal for about $30. I remember once for our anniversary, my parents give us a $100 meal at Chez Francois. And you know what? It was good – but frankly I couldn’t tell the difference. Indeed, I felt so bad about spending $100 that I couldn’t really enjoy the food.
Sensual pleasures will only get you so far. That’s why God sort of does a little poke in the ribs here. Don’t forget your neighbor. I suspect that I would get a lot more joy out adding two friends to my meal for another $30 than I would by going to one of those $300 a plate deals.
It’s a line that’s really only worthy of a hallmark card, but I think it’s right: “A sorrow shared is but half a trouble; A joy that’s shared is a joy made double.”
Don’t forget your friends. Don’t even forget people who aren’t your friends – look out for your joy. You see, pleasures will only get you so far. Joy is supposed to do a lot more than that.
Joy is supposed to remind you about the author and creator of joy. Joy is notice of the God-shaped hole in you which will be filled. Joy is a little post-it note that God sends you say to say: “Hey, remember – heaven is a lot better than this.” Listen again to what C.S. Lewis writes:
The books or the music [you could add the food, the movies] in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
We are all destined for glory. We are all children of the King. We have set before us a table the likes of which no eye has yet seen, no ear has yet heard. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. [1 Pet 1:8-9]
My joy comes knowing this: I’m going to be with him. It is going to be a joy, inexpressible. I just know that when the trumpet of the Lord sounds, and time shall be no more – when the roll is called up yonder, He’ll be there.
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It isn’t in the slightest bit true, but I’d be willing to bet that you know someone out there who thinks that the God’s goal is to take away every bit of happiness you can eek out in this miserable world.
Oh, sure, we can say that God is good, and we even say that he gives us good things. But the question I have for you is: do you really believe it? Do you really believe that God wants you to be happy?
- The Edna joke as an intro…
2Cor 2:1-11 – restoring someone into fellowship. Church discipline causes sorrow b/c it is a break with the fellowship – but it was there to bring him to happier life…
- Remember that annoying commercial of the obnoxious kid getting a Christmas present, then it turns to the car they’re selling, and just the line “Yeah, it’s that good.” That’s an obnoxious commercial, b/c it says that things make you happy. They neglect to tell that the price tag keeps going up. (Rich Mullins, everybody I know says they need just one thing, but what they really mean is they need just one thing more.)
- Satan (The Accuser) is the one who wants to tell you that you should settle for the lower pleasures. The New Ager would say “look for joy within yourself,” God says, “look for joy in my Word.” Which one will you choose? If it was already in you, don’t you think you would have found it already?
- Robert Louis Stevenson once entered in his diary what he considered to be an extraordinary thing. He said, "I have been to Church today, and (Surprisingly) I am not depressed."
There is joy in the house of Lord (the booths in 14-)
There is joy in the word of the Lord (9-12)
There is joy in the presence of Lord (Neh 8:1-4) (building the pulpit…)
Realizing that he was on the wrong road, a man driving in West Virginia stopped in a small town to ask for help. He saw an old man sitting in front of a store. “Can you help me?” he said. “I’m lost” The old West Virginian he was speaking to said, “Do you know where you are?” “Sure,” the man said. “I saw the name of your town when I drove in here.” “Do you know where you came from?” inquired the man. “Well, of course,” said the driver. “Do you know where you want to go?” asked the stranger. “Yes,” replied the man in the car, and he named his destination. The old man leaned forward and said, “Well then, you aren’t lost. You just need directions.” The people in this culture have taken every short cut and side road they could take trying to reach their destination. They have gone every way but God’s way. It seems like they have lost their way in life, but all they need is directions.
There is an ancient Jewish custom that when a young boy begins his first lesson in Torah (the Law of Moses), that a golden drop of honey is dripped onto the first page of the Torah reminding the student of the sweetness of God’s Word.
The schoolboy beginning Greek grammar cannot look forward to his adult
enjoyment of Sophocles as a lover looks forward to marriage or a general to victory. He has to begin by working for marks, or to escape punishment, or to please his parents, or, at best, in the hope of a future good which he cannot at present imagine or desire. His position, therefore, bears a
certain resemblance to that of the mercenary; the reward he is going to get
will, in actual fact, be a natural or proper reward, but he will not know that till he has got it. Of course, he gets it gradually; enjoyment creeps in upon the mere drudgery, and nobody could point to a day or an hour when the one ceased and the other began. But it is just in so far as he approaches the reward that be becomes able to desire it for its own sake; indeed,
the power of so desiring it is itself a preliminary reward. The Christian, in relation to heaven, is in much the same position as this schoolboy. Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly
discipleship; but we who have not yet attained it cannot know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know it at all except by continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward. Just in proportion as the desire grows, our fear lest it should be a mercenary desire will die away and finally be recognized as an absurdity. But probably this will not, for most of us, happen in a day; poetry replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience, as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship.
