Source of Joy

No, hey, seriously, it’s good to see everybody. Happy Sunday to y’all and Merry Christmas. As you could tell, man, there are so many great things going on right now. I was reflecting on some of the opportunities that our church has had to bless others, both locally and internationally this past week. And this is cool how God keeps bringing things to us. Matt, you can go ahead and join me now.

So a couple of weeks ago, we had some time to be able to pack a bunch of boxes and send them off with Operation Christmas Child. That’s a way for us to be able to share the hope and the gift of Jesus with kids and families around the world, most of which we probably will never get to meet. We’re in a season of giving right now called the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which that is directly funding the overseas missions work of the Southern Baptist Convention. And that’s awesome, too. We’re going to keep gathering funds for that.

And then on Monday morning, the women’s ministry was up here and we were packing fruit bags to be able to bless some of the folks of our community here locally around Sauldam. And also Monday morning, we were presented with another opportunity to partner with Maddie and her organization, the Ronald McDonald House. So if you guys will, can you all give a warm welcome to Maddie? She explains a little bit about who they are.

Everyone, first off, thank you for having me. Basically, I was just here to say thank you all for not only your monetary donation, but for collecting gifts for the kids staying at our house. Basically, what we do at the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Charleston is we offer a home away from home for families who have children who are staying in the hospital and receiving critical care. So we house 32 families at a home for families who are staying in the hospital and receiving critical care of the kids. So basically, what we want to do is take care of everything we can for them. Housing, food, laundry, gifts for Christmas so that they can focus on their child getting better and they can focus on their family. So y’all are helping us with that. For some reason this year, we didn’t get many donations for toys. So I know someone from our house reached out to you all and said, hey, we’re really struggling. And then y’all are automatically on the ball and just really, really nice and helping us. And not only will y’all be serving 32 families in our house, but you’ll be serving all of the families on our wait list and all of the families who don’t qualify to stay in our house. We still have children at MUSC and are trying to go through the holidays with a difficult time. So thank y’all so much.

All understands. We all understand what it’s like to go through the holidays and not know exactly how you’re going to make it happen. Whether it’s gifts for your family or taking care of bills. And, you know, there’s some folks in our community, particularly those downtown at the Ronald McDonald House. They’re trying to weave their way and wade through some very difficult decisions. And what we get to do is we get to bless them by taking a huge burden off their shoulders.

So you have until Wednesday to continue either bringing gifts from a list of toys. And I think Amy, she still has a bunch of those flyers. We can get that up on the Facebook page and on the website later today to make sure you all see that. There’s the ages. There’s, you know, you’re not having to figure out at Walmart walking up the toy aisle. We already got stuff figured out for you. So you have until Wednesday to go purchase those things and bring them here. Or if you’d like, you can make a monetary donation to the Ronald McDonald House.

I was talking with Lee. He’s going to have a separate giving plate that’s going to be in the back. I guess the front over in the vestibule over there. So at the end of our service, if you have regular giving to do, you could do that in the just the four corners of our sanctuary and the offering plates. And if you’d like to give a little extra either to the Ronald McDonald House or to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, then make that note or just take the Ronald McDonald contribution to the offering plate.

Caroline, how clear was that? Was that OK? You understood. OK, very good. Well, that’s right.

There we go. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. So if it’s yeah, there you go. All right. So what I would like to do, Maddie, if you wouldn’t mind, just take a few moments and and just pray and thank the Lord for that and ask that God would use that blessing.

Thank you for gathering all of us here today. And thank you for bringing us together to support our community and each other. Thank you for blessing the families at the Ronald McDonald House with an amazing community. And please let them feel your loving embrace around them during this time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

And I keep praying for you. Maddie, you take a seat.

Father, thank you so much. God, thank you for the Ronald McDonald House. Thank You, Lord, for what they represent to some families that are going through an incredibly bewildering and acute experience. God, by Your grace, I’ve never been in a position to need the care of something like the Ronald McDonald House. Thank You for that, Lord. There’s 32 families downtown that can’t say that right now. So God, thank You that we get to come alongside them and just provide a little something for them. Lord, I pray that You would please, Father, use our gifts and our monetary donation, Lord, just to be a blessing to them.

Father, I pray for the missionaries that we get to support through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. God, thank You for the work that they do. God, whether it be in closed countries that I’m not supposed to say out loud or other places, Father, where it’s totally fine to be a Christian, let alone a missionary. God, I pray that You would bless them. I pray that as they go through the Christmas season away from family, God, that You would wrap Your arms around them. They would know a special touch from You right now.

God, I pray for our service. I pray for the next few moments as I open Your Word, asking, Lord, that You would bless this time, that we would all walk away from this feeling a deeper connection with You and with the joy that You offer. God, it’s in Your great name that we pray. Amen.

Awesome. Well, you go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 65. Isaiah chapter 65. And I’ll meet you there here in a moment.

This week of Advent, we are reflecting on joy. So like what Claudia read this morning, we started with hope and how the promises of God offer a hope to us. And then we moved to peace and how what Jesus came to do is not just rule the world with this iron scepter of righteousness, but He came to actually give us peace. And this morning, we’re going to look at another thing that Jesus does and has done for us. We’re going to look at joy.

I heard this quote from a missionary. He is often called the father of modern missions. His name is William Carey. He was kind of the first of his kind. He was captivated by two things. The stories, these fiction novels of a pirate ship sailing the world. And he was captivated by a deep love of God for all the nations. And one day, God gives him this call to go sail the world like those pirates. But instead of pillaging and instead of hurting, he wanted to bless and he wanted to take the gospel. His name is William Carey. William Carey would spend about 40 years on the mission fields laboring in what we now call India. William Carey would experience some extreme hardships over that time. William Carey would experience some extreme things. And he would experience some extreme things.

“They will not build and others live in them. “They will not plant and others eat. “For my people’s lives will be like the lifetime of a tree. “My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. “They will not labor without success “or bear children destined for disaster. “No, but for the Lord will be a people blessed, “or sorry, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord “along with their descendants.”

Verse 24, “Even before they call, I will answer.” And while they’re still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb, they will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the cattle, but the serpent’s food will be dust. They will not do what is evil or destroy on my entire holy mountain, says the Lord.

Isaiah 65:17-25 is God’s Word for us this morning as we are reflecting on the joy that we can have because of Jesus.

Isaiah 65:17-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:18-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:19-25, God generates our joy. God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:19-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:20-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:23-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:25-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:27-25, God generates our joy. Isaiah 65:30-25, God generates our joy.

that He rejoices over them. Look at verse 19 with me again. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and I will be glad in my people. I wanna ask you another question. Do you believe that God delights in you? Do you believe that God is wild about you? ’Cause He is and He does delight in you. If God didn’t love you to this infinite capacity, He wouldn’t have sent His Son for you. If God didn’t love you, then He wouldn’t be giving you second chance after second chance, after second chance. If God didn’t love you, you would not be here right now, but He does love you. He is wild about you. He delights in you. Zephaniah chapter three says that God actually sings over you. God is not like a distant dad sitting in the lazy boy and he only ever speaks to you through grunts and commands. God is a dad that is on the floor playing with His kids, rejoicing in them. That is who God is. And that’s who God wants you to know He is for you. He delights in you. God delights in you.

This passage describes a home that God is making for His people, a place of joy. This is how it is described. Verse 19. These are all listed or you’re about to make the list in the bulletin. Verse 19, it says that sadness will be silenced. Sadness will be silenced. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her. God’s joy becomes ours. As He rejoices, we begin rejoicing. God sings over us. So we get to start singing. The sounds of silence, the sounds of sadness will be silenced. And I believe that means the causes of sadness will be done away with. There’s no way in the world that God, who gets to have everything His way, would make a new heaven and a new earth that is perfect. And He would allow bad things into it. You cannot get me to believe that we’ll be sad in heaven for a second. All sadness will be eradicated. Sadness will be silenced. When we are before God face to face and we are whole and we are made right. And we are with the cloud of witnesses that Hebrews 12 says is right now cheering us on to run our race. We will be joyful there forever. Silence will be no more.

Verse 20 says this, that death itself will die. If no sad thing will be in God’s creation, that means the saddest thing, death itself will die. In God’s new creation, life will abound. That’s a radical promise for somebody in Isaiah’s day that would have been hearing or reading this for themselves. You see, life in the ancient Near East, Israel at this time was not medically aided the way we are in 21st century America. You see, routine complications of giving birth that could have left a child orphaned. A small hiccup in the birth process could have been a death sentence for a baby. Broken bones and infected cuts could have ended strong men’s lives. For someone who’s so much more in touch with the fragility of life, knowing that a nursing infant will no longer only live a few days, knowing that old men will live out their days, that was good news of great joy. That means that the greatest threats to their life and their vitality are done away with. These were radical promises, but we had to interpret them. And it’s a little funny. I’ll be honest. Read it with me again. At least the second half of verse 20. Indeed, the one who dies at 100 years old will be mourned as a young man. The one who misses 100 years will be considered cursed. But Jeremy, you just said that we won’t die in heaven. What gives? Here’s my best take at the interpretation of this. We already know that no sound of weeping and crying will be a new creation, nor the causes. So sin and death will be no more in new creation. This verse helps us understand who will be in the new creation home with us. Those whose sins are dealt with by God’s promised Savior, Jesus Christ. Those are the ones who will enjoy these promises.

For those of us, our family members, our community members, and the 4 billion people in this world who’ve never even heard the name of Jesus, their sin is still over them. And when they take their final breath in this life and they go before God, they will still be under the curse of their sin. The one who has not been forgiven in the name of Jesus will not experience the joy of new creation with us. They will still be under the curse of their sin. If the blessings of new creation can be described as an end of death, then the one who is still impacted by death will not be there with us.

The question in all of this is, is Jesus really your Savior? It’s so easy for us to come to church and to hear well-meaning guys like me share well-meaning messages from this book that promises some radical things. And we never do the work of examining which category I might actually be in. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that at the end of this life, there will be many that come to Him and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not do this?” And He’s going to say, “I never knew you.” And I’m not saying that I’m doing the best I can to lean on His strength and enjoy Him and live a life for Him. And I’m not saying that I’m not saying that I’m not saying that I’m doing the best I can to do this. And I’m not saying that I’m doing the best I can to do this. And I’m saying that I’m doing the best I can to do this.

And that you would give yourself to Him. And you would ask Him to forgive you. I can’t do that for you. Your spouse can’t do that for you. Your friend that brought you can’t do that for you. That’s a you thing with the Lord. And I would encourage you to tune me out right now. And ask for forgiveness in the name of Jesus. I want you to be at a place where death will be dead one day.

So we get back to the passage right here in verses 21 and 22. We see another aspect of how God describes new creation. It’s that satisfaction is secured. Verses 21 and 22 talks about building houses and planting vineyards. And getting to live in those houses and eat from those vineyards. Again, kind of odd for us in 21st century America. Some of us have HOAs that handle some of this stuff. Others of us have different security systems that may or may not be under a lock at your home. Or on your ankle right now. I don’t know. We are not accustomed to building houses and not getting to live in them. We’re not accustomed to planting gardens and not getting to eat from the plants. However, again, ancient Near East didn’t exactly work that way. There is a legitimate fear. There is a lot of fear that the house you begin building today, some invader or oppressor is going to take from you tomorrow. Or the garden that you plant today, some invader or some oppressor is going to rob tomorrow. We are just not in tune with this.

God is sitting here saying, hey, the place I am making for you is so secure, you will have a home that will never be dismantled. It’ll never be messed up by a storm. It can never be taken from you by a bank. It will be yours forever. You will have a garden that you get to eat from forever. Here’s the deal. I’m not sitting here talking about some heavenly diet that we will eat in heaven. Are we going to eat meat? Are we going to all eat plants? That doesn’t matter. What you need to know is that in heaven, you will be fully satisfied. You will be fully secure. In God’s creation, nothing that is supposed to be yours can ever be taken from you. And your security can never be messed with.

Again, put yourself in Isaiah’s shoes. Isaiah was a prophet to the people of Israel while they were being deported from their home. These were people literally who built houses that oppressors and invaders were squatting in and taking from them. They literally had planted vineyards and gardens that others were taking their food as they were being exiled and deported from their home because they were breaking God’s covenants. Imagine being on some march out of town and all you have is a few things you could gather before the Babylonian army kicks you out and they are prodding you with spears. And you’re looking back at that house that you built with your grandpa. You’re looking at those vineyards covering the hills that you didn’t ever get to harvest from. And hearing some crazy prophet named Isaiah saying, “Hey, people will build houses and they’ll live in them.” And you say, “Nah, man. People will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” And you’ll say, “Then what gives now?” Imagine living through that.

We may not totally be in touch with some of these dynamics, but we know what it’s like to not actually be satisfied. We sure well know what it’s like to feel our security being threatened here. It might be a family member, be a boss. It might be the bank. Not sure what exactly it is for you. For all those who place their trust in Jesus, though, they are God’s chosen ones. And they will dwell in security and satisfaction in the home that God is making for them.

It gets better, though. Verse 23, “They will not labor without success or bear children destined for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord along with their descendants.”

This next component is this: the curse is reversed. Put on your Bible goggles again for a moment. Put on your Bible hat and think back to pages one and two of your Bible, Genesis 1, 2, and 3. You see, in God’s original creation, He made man and woman to live in perfect harmony with Him. And I’ll get more to that harmony in a moment. But He created woman with a core component of womanhood. That would be childbirth or motherhood. And a core component of manhood would be work.

That’s not to say that you don’t have really good dads that are really engaged with their families. That’s not to say that you don’t have some women, even in this room, who can work circles around some of the men. But core to identity and core to personhood is labor and childbirth and motherhood and work and labor in a different sense over here.

Now, when Adam and Eve chose against God’s way and when sin came into this world, both of those good gifts were damaged. Both of those good gifts, instead of being blessed, which would mean able to reproduce and able to produce with great effectiveness, they were made painful and difficult. But in the new creation, the curse of sin is reversed.

Again, I’m talking about something that may or may not actually happen in heaven. Because in Matthew 22:30, Jesus says, in the life to come, there will not be marriage. And if there’s not going to be marriage, I’m assuming there’s not going to be childbirth. Right? Okay. Because death is no more in the new heaven, the marks of death are also gone. Your identity and your personhood will be totally restored when you are before God in a new heaven and a new earth. When you are in a place that has never been touched by sin and it is perfect, then every aspect of how God has made you will be redeemed and it will be made whole.

Because death is no more, the marks of death are gone. The new creation will be totally free of death. It will be totally free of the curse of sin. And it will be only occupied by life and by blessing.

The Bible does not actually offer a whole lot of detail on how we’re going to spend every waking moment of the life to come. What the Bible is extremely clear about is that this universe is the Lord’s and He is making a really, really good place for you. A place where He wants you to be. A place that is filled with blessing. A place that is filled with life. And there is one way to get there: Jesus Christ. In John 14:6, He said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. You get to the Father through me. And no one gets to the Father outside of me.” Jesus is the way that you get to the life that you crave. He is the way that you have the joy that you need.

In the new heavens to come, verse 24 says this, this next component, it just gets better and better. Spirituality becomes vitalized. Spirituality is vitalized. One of the other impacts of sin is that our harmony with God was disrupted. Talking with the Creator is difficult. Anybody else in the room ever prayed and you’re just not confident your prayers are going past the ceiling? Anybody ever, anybody else in the room just crave a type of relationship with God where it feels like He’s Actually talking with you? Am I the only one? In the new heavens, in the new earth, in the life to come, your relationship with God will be fully harmonized. Picture it. Adam and Eve, they used to walk with God in the garden. They talked with Him as if face to face. They freely talked with the Creator of the universe. Now, because of sin, we pray to God and we’re just not quite confident He’s listening to us. We may not even be sure that He’s there. Following God is hard, if not impossible. Trying to actually obey this thing is painful.

In the life to come, your relationship with God will feel natural. Your spirituality will be vitalized, which means the greatest moments of spiritual energy and mountaintop experiences here can’t hold a candle to what you’ll have as a daily norm there. One day, the difficulty of you relating with God will be done away with and you will freely converse with Him. Even before we speak, God will answer. Imagine that. We won’t pray and wait for God to get back to us. No, it’s like we can’t even get it out of our mouths and God’s already speaking to us. While we are still speaking, God’s listening. Man, we know that God’s listening to us right now, but I yearn for a day. I long for this. I want this. Where even before I call on God, He’s already talking to me. “Jeremy, I already know, buddy. I’ve already got that taken care of. We’re going to walk and we’re going to talk about that later, man. Don’t you worry about that. But hey, what’s going on today?” That’s how it’s going to be with the Lord. You have harmony with Him, vitality with Him.

And it’s not just our vitality with God. It’s not just our harmony with God. Final aspect of the new creation is that nature itself is harmonized. The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like cattle. The serpent’s food, an obvious reference to Satan, though, it will be dust. He will have been dealt away with. They will not do what’s evil. They will not destroy on my entire holy mountain. Amen. Even the natural world to come will be in a perfect state of peace. No more natural disasters, no more hurricanes, no more tornadoes that destroy, no more animals killing each other, eating each other, which for you may be on some varying spectrum of beauty or devastation, I don’t know. But what I do know is that all destruction, all evil will be absent from the new heavens and the new earth.

If you ever just look around at this world and you wonder, does it get any better than this? Or if you ever look around at this world and you wonder what in the world is wrong with this world? What’s going on here? Why are families broken? Why am I having such a hard time? Why is our community struggling? Have you ever wondered those things? You ever look at someone just like this, like ridiculous, senseless violence that happens in this world? You ever look at that and you say, where in the world does that come from? When will this stuff ever stop? It comes from sin. And one day it will stop because sin will be done away with. And we will get to live in a place that God intended for us to live in.

That will come later. This passage ends with these three important words. All these promises, all these bold declarations, this description of a new heaven, this joy-inducing promise. And it ends with, “says the Lord.” Man, don’t skip that in your Bible. “Says the Lord.” Man, if a 10-year-old kid calls you a name, it shouldn’t bother you too much. Young spouse says something hurtful to you, that man, that really would hurt. High up boss at work says something about your performance, that man, that’d sting. President, perhaps regardless of your feelings of the current one or the incoming one, he says something that carries some weight. None of those, none of those is the voice of God. And when He says, “says the Lord,” He’s saying, you could take this to the bank. This is a sure promise. This is not a passing wish of God. This is not an empty offer of God. This is a secure promise that God will fulfill.

You see, God has the last word on this world. He has the last word on your life. And He has the last word on joy. When it says, “says the Lord,” that is an echo for you to listen to and Say, okay, God, let it be. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen. I don’t know how it’s all going to take place, but I believe You. I believe that what You say is real. And I’m gonna take You at Your word. William Carey said, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.” This is a really bright future. So I ask again, where is your joy? Or to put it this way, who has the final word on your circumstances? The doctor? The economy perhaps? A family member? Or is the final word on your joy the rock-solid promises of God, kept by Jesus Christ, who when He was born, that was good news of great joy for all people? An offer of joy from God Almighty to every single person in this world, including you. God wants you to have joy. Make no bones about it. God wants you to have joy. And it is through Jesus. You go through Him and you get to walk into this life. Please join me there. Pray with me now. Lord, Father, thank You for today. God, these were not empty words from You through Isaiah to Your people thousands of years ago. They’re not empty words to us right now. I pray that no matter what would come, we would all enjoy. God, I pray that the song of my life would be rejoice. The song of my life would be giving thanks. The song of my life would be talking about how good You are. Please, God, when it’s not, will You please convict me? Help all of us to walk out of here, Father, with a deep joy in You. Just share that joy with somebody this week. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.