This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome back for day two of our week four look through the book
of Nehemiah. We're talking about the principle of celebration. Celebration of
what God is doing is one of the keys to rebuilding in your life.

If you can't celebrate it, then you're doomed to repeat the trouble, the
struggle, the decisions that cause you to have to rebuild in the first place.
Yesterday we talked about the fact that celebration grows out of worship. Today
I want to focus on the fact that it takes a change in mindset to truly
celebrate.

And the change is this, it's recognizing that enjoyment is not your idea,
celebration is not your idea, it's God's idea. God's the one who made all of
this. So enjoyment and celebration and joy, they're all things that God wants
for your life because they're his idea for your life.

Christians sometimes think they can have joy without enjoying anything. Isn't
that crazy? But there are Christians out there who think they can have joy
without enjoying anything.

Sacred does not mean you have to be sad all the time. Nehemiah talks to the
people about that in chapter eight. Chapter eight, verse nine, Nehemiah the
governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who were instructing
the people said to them all, this day is sacred to the Lord your God.

Do not mourn or weep, for all the people have been weeping as they listen to the
words of the law. Nehemiah tells them the fact that this day is sacred doesn't
mean you have to mourn, it means you should instead celebrate. Now you can mourn
in the presence of God, obviously.

Sometimes we have grief in our lives, we need to mourn some things, we need to
weep before the Lord and that is sacred as well. But the idea that the only way
to express a sacred heart is in a mournful heart, is in a downcast look, is
totally opposite to the Bible. Enjoyment is God's idea.

He gave you that capacity, he gave you those emotions. And I love in this
chapter the three specific directions for celebration which are given to the
people. They include things which you might not expect to find in God's word.

This is how God tells them to celebrate, to enjoy what he has done. First he
says, I want you to feast. Feasting is a part of celebrating.

Eating is a part of celebrating. Verses 10 to 12 in chapter eight. Nehemiah
said, go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have
nothing prepared.

This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your
strength. The Levites calmed all the people saying, be still for this is a
sacred day, do not grieve.

And then all the people went away to eat and drink and to send portions of food
and to celebrate with great joy because they now understood the words that had
been made known to them. Nehemiah said, as part of your celebration, I want you
to feast. God gave you your taste buds and they're a great gift for celebrating.

Now listen, it is a sin to worship food, but it's also a sin not to celebrate
with food because God commands us throughout the scripture to celebrate with
everything that he has made. That includes the food that he has made. First
Timothy 6, 17 says, command those who are rich in this present world not to be
arrogant or to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their
hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

So not to celebrate with something that God has provided for your enjoyment is
also a sin. And we're reminded here that a feast is an excellent tool for
celebration. God absolutely feels that way.

You can read it in all the feasts of the Old Testament. You can see it in
Jesus's first miracle being done at a wedding feast, at the celebrations that
Jesus had, his Passover feasts that he had with his disciples, out of which the
Lord's Supper comes. You can see it in the fact that when we get to heaven,
we're going to have a great wedding feast of the lamb and celebrate forever who God
is.

Now eating unhealthy food is obviously wrong, but so is thinking that denying
yourself good tasting food somehow makes you more spiritual. You can have a
Daniel planned feast. You can have a feast with healthy food.

And feasting is one of the ways of celebrating who God is. I want you to feast,
Nehemiah says. And the second thing he says is I want you to send.

Sharing is an important part of celebrating. Look back at verse 10 we just read.
Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have
nothing prepared.

This day is sacred to our Lord. Nothing can cut into your joy quite so quickly
as selfishness. So many of us were surrounded by things and were overwhelmed by
blessings and yet they no longer seem to bring us joy.

They no longer seem to make us happy. Why is that? Well the first place to look
is am I sending?

Am I sharing with somebody else? The greatest joy in life comes not from what
you have but from what you give. And if you're just holding onto it obviously
it's going to eventually sour in your hands like manna soured out in the
wilderness.

You gotta look for somebody to share with. Sharing is an important part of
celebrating. Who do you need to share God's blessings that he's put into your
life?

Who do you need to share those with right now? That's one of the keys to you
celebrating. You feast, Nehemiah said.

You send. But then he says also you be still. You be still.

Verse 11, the Levites calmed all the people saying be still for this is a sacred
day. Do not grieve. And then they went off to celebrate, the Bible says.

Listen, an expression of celebration is not always found in the shouting. It's
often found in being still. It's this off-filled moment of celebration.

It's the celebration of being caught up in a moment of beauty or in the love of
those around you or in a spirit of gratitude. Sometimes you need to be still in
the presence of the Lord with this great appreciation of who he is. That's a
celebration as well.

You feast, you send, but you also be still sometimes. And through celebration,
through being still in celebration, you often will find yourself doing an
exchange of emotions. In the stillness of sitting before God, appreciating who
he is, you find yourself exchanging your anxiety for a sense of trust in God.

Exchanging your guilt for a depth of gratitude for God's forgiveness. Exchanging
your fear for a decision, a moment of faith in your life. Exchanging your grief
for genuine joy.

These three that we've just talked about, feasting and sending and being still.
Verse 10, right in the middle of these three, reminds us of the purpose of doing
all these three things. Verse 10 says, "Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord
"is your strength.

" When you celebrate in worship, when you celebrate in an understanding that God
wants you to celebrate, enjoyment is God's idea, you discover the joy of the
Lord that is your strength. If you're going to rebuild your life, you need strength
for rebuilding. If you're going to re-energize your life, you need strength for
re-energizing.

And the Bible says that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, notice a
couple things here. First, it's the joy of the Lord.

He's not talking about joy that you somehow try to manufacture from within. He's
talking about the joy that the Lord gives. If you want to do a study on this,
study John 15 to 17 as Jesus talks about joy.

You'll hear Jesus teaching about the joy of the Lord that flows from your
obedience, flows from your prayers. In John 16, 20, Jesus says, "I tell you the
truth. "You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.

"You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. " That's real world joy. The
joy of the Lord is not always painting a happy smile on your face and thinking
everything's okay.

Jesus says you're going to grieve. You're going to face difficulties in your life. But
your grief can be turned to joy when it's the joy of the Lord.

Because his joy, it surpasses any grief that you could face in this life. And I
know you might be facing one of the greatest griefs you've ever faced right now.
So don't minimize your grief in saying that.

I'm maximizing the joy of the Lord. It's eternal. It covers every grief that
we're going to have to face.

The joy of the Lord, he says. And then the second thing to notice is what he
says this joy does. The joy of the Lord is your strength.

If your strength for rebuilding is failing, don't try to become more determined.
Look to have greater joy. This is the secret that a lot of people never learn.

And so they keep failing again and again 'cause they try to become more
determined and they don't feel like being more determined or even as determined
as they are, it's not working. Because that's not where your real strength is.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.

So if your strength is failing, don't look to become more determined. Look to
have greater joy. You cannot do the work of the Lord without the joy of the
Lord.

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Let's pray together. Our Father, I pray
you'd remind me, remind us of this this week.

I can't do the work of the Lord without the joy of the Lord. And so I pray for
your joy in my life, the joy that flows from me following you, obeying you,
talking to you about what's happening in my life, trusting you in life. Lord,
I'm tired of trying to do it on my own strength.

I need your strength. And I recognize in this simple verse from Nehemiah that I
need your joy in order to have your strength in my life. So I pray for that joy
as I depend on you.

I ask for it in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to take up the last
principle from the book of Nehemiah, the principle of dedication.