There are many reasons for joy. Sunday’s sermon was another example. I want to explore a few ways to apply that sermon in this post. Why is the joy of the Lord our strength? Nehemiah 8:10 makes this case. In that text, the people of God were under duress while reconstructing the walls, and Ezra reads from the…
One of the challenges for me in preaching on the theme of “Joy” is the amount of time that I’ve heard sermons on this subject attempt to define the difference between joy and happiness. Most of the time, this is done because of statements like “I don’t care what I believe, as long as I’m happy;” or “It doesn’t matter how I live, as long as I’m happy.” So, to be fair, preachers attempt to redefine an unwise humanistic use of the word ‘happy’ and then contrast happiness with biblical joy.
