The Joy of the Lord is Your StrengthNehemiah 8:9-18

Maud church of Christby Jim Bradshaw

Sunday Evening, March 10, 2013

The Joy of the Lord is Your StrengthChristians should have Joy; Hebrew 12:2

2Co 12:9-10 NKJV And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (10) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

1. When the Jews heard the word of the Lord, they wept, why?

2. Sins of Omissiona) What is sin?b) 1Jn 3:4 NKJV Whoever commits sin also commits

lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.c) Jas 4:17 NKJV Therefore, to him who knows to do good

and does not do it, to him it is sin.d) John 14:15

3. A Hearing of Faitha) Our faith grows from hearing the word; Romans 10:14-17b) A hearing of faith produces obedience; Mark 16:15-16

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength1. God’s Joy should strengthen us

a) HIS expectation of good will happen!!!b) Heb 6:17-19 NKJV Thus God, determining to show more

abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, (18) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. (19) This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,

2. We need the strength of Goda) Luk 1:37 NKJV For with God nothing will be impossible."b) Philippians 4:13

3. No sadness when we receive God’s Joy; Philippians 4:4-8

The Joy of the Lord is Your StrengthFinding What is written in the Law

1. To Understand God’s worda) Neh 8:13 NKJV Now on the second day the heads of the fathers'

houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law.

b) 2 Timothy 2:15-172. The Jews did according to Neh. 8:15, “As it is written.”

a) Matthew 7:21-23b) Jas 1:25 NKJV But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty

and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

The Joy of the Lord is Your StrengthFinding What is written in the Law

1. Reading and Studying Everyday;a) Neh 8:18 NKJV Also day by day, from the first day until the last

day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner.

b) Act 17:11 NKJV These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

c) 2 Timothy 2:15-16

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

Have You done what God’s Word Says?