Living Hope Fellowship Church

GET BACK YOUR JOY

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

GET BACK YOUR JOY

Preface

(joy of the Lord)

          The devil has all kinds of “fun”, but he can't have joy.   He knows his end is close, so he has exceeding wrath!

          The joy of the Lord is your strength.  If you and God aren’t on good speaking terms, everything else is vanity.  “Things” are temporary and disappointing.

          When you lose your joy, you start talking mean about people.  Without joy people are miserable, and miserable people are mean!

          If you've got the Lord, but you don't have joy, you can still be miserable, if you are reliant upon emotion.  Instead, rely on FAITH, and let the joy of the Lord which only God can give you, move and manifest in you!  It’ll make you happy!

   GET BACK YOUR JOY

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          Psalm 51:10‑13 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” 

          Nehemiah 8:10 tells us, “. . . the joy of the LORD is your strength.” 

          A lot of people are not happy; they’ve got just enough of God to be miserable!  They have too much of God to go back in the world but not enough of God to get on into God.  There they sit in limbo ‑ they call that lukewarm in the Bible.  Revelations 3:16 says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

          God wishes you were hot or cold.  We wrestle with keeping our joy.  We wrestle with losing it at the drop of a hat; our joy is entirely too fragile! 

          The constitution of our nation mentions “the pursuit of happiness”.  I believe that’s what everyone is after ‑ happiness.  Some have confused temporary fun with happiness.  The devil can be fun for a while, but he won't make you happy.  The reason for living for God after you get saved is the joy of your salvation. 

          Every one of us has lost our joy at one time or another.  When you get joyful God will move on you.  When you are thankful you are joyful, and when you’re joyful you are thankful.  When you lose your joy you get grouchy, and you act just like the devil.

          The joy of the Lord (not something else) is your strength.  There are other joys in life, but if you and God aren’t on good speaking terms, everything else is vanity.  “Things” are temporary, short lived, and disappointing.  If you put your dependence on your latest joy fix, it’ll fall flat.  David said in Psalm 51:12, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. . . .”

          If you are born again there ought to be some joy.  If you are filled with the Holy Ghost, there ought to be joy pressed down, shaken together, and running all over the place!  Rivers of living water should flow out of your belly and from your mouth!  God loves you.  Jesus is your Lord.  You are going to heaven soon, and the devil can’t have you!

          Have you ever been around somebody that’s joyful?  Go down the street or appear someplace in public with a grin on your face, and people think you are hiding something. They think something’s wrong with you, and they’ll ask what you are so happy about.

          Don’t backslide and lose your joy, because you’ll become weak, beggarly, and sickly.  You could lose God’s Spirit as well. 

          There is a dreadful chapter that people don’t want to read in the Bible where God talks about blessing and cursing!  Deuteronomy 28:47 says, “Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;”  Verse 48 says, “Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies. . . .”

          If you don’t serve the Lord in joy, you are going to serve the devil in something.  The only thing that makes some people happy is to gossip, or having money, or obtaining lustful things.  If the LORD is not your focal point of joy, then you need to re‑examine your salvation!

          As far as the good things of Almighty God are concerned, Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

          If you don’t have a tightly fastened connection with God, and His joy, all these other things will fail!  People say, Lord let me get this, this, and this lined up, and then I’m going to seek your face.  Then I’m going to get my joy back.  God says for you to get your joy back, and you’ll be surprised what stuff will be ushered in. 

          Some can’t get their family in, because all they’ve heard and seen is the miserable side of Christianity!  Until we got the joy of the Lord back we aren’t going to win anybody to God. 

          Did you know that miracles don’t always win people to God?  If it would have won people to God 100% of the time all the Pharisees and Sadducees would have gotten saved!  At the Coliseum in Rome it wasn’t the miracles!  In the early church Christians were dying by gladiators, and lions, and burning at the stake. Onlookers could not understand.  The thing that won the crowd was the joy the Christians had in the midst of tribulation! 

          Joy is really a win/win situation!  The Bible says in Romans 5:3, “. . . tribulation worketh patience.”  James 1:4 tells us:  “. . . let patience have her perfect work. . . .”  We ought to get a kick out of tribulation; instead we get kicked, because we don’t have our joy!

          You know when you have joy you get along with everybody!  People are oversensitive when they lose their joy, and the Bible says anger resteth in the bosom of fools!  (See Ecclesiastes 7:9.)

          God invented laughter!  The devil thinks he knows how to use everything that God created in a better way, but the devil is a liar and a loser.  How can a loser help you get more joy? 

          The joy of the Lord is your strength.  We need to be a happy people, not faking it, not sicky sweeting it.  I’m talking about praying through until the devil leaves, the burden lifts, and God comes down in power and the joy of the Lord!

          The greatest witnessing tool that has ever been is still the joy of the Lord.  If you’re happy, they want what you’re drinking.  A backslider will come home and realize he’s not been happy since he left.  The prodigal son remembered that at home he had plenty to eat and drink.  His father’s servants had plenty, and he had nothing.  He came to himself and went back home, because the joy of the Lord was there. 

          What about the first love you had when you got saved?  When a Christian starts seeking things of the world to give them joy ‑ their joy in God is low.  Sinners and transgressors are looking for the latest “high”. 

          When the first church was filled with the Holy Ghost, people said that they were drunk, because they acted like it.  When you have God’s joy you don’t care about what the neighbor thinks. 

          We live in the most powerful nation with the greatest economy in the world.  Despite its trouble, it is still one of the best places to live on the planet.  I thank God I am an American.  America was dearly paid for by the lives of men and women in days gone by.  Over and over again revival came and God has preserved and kept this land.  As long as we seek the face of the Lord, He will bless our nation.  The problem is that many have gone after His blessings instead of Him!

          If you’ve got Jesus, everything else is just an additive, but those things won’t hold by themselves.  I’ve got to have Jesus, and I’ve got to have something fresh with Him, or I don’t have the joy that I used to have! 

          I remember when I first came back to the Lord in March 1984, and on July 24 at 11:55 p.m. I got filled with the Holy Ghost, and I got the joy.  I had never had joy like that before!  I mean ‑ I was excited ‑ I was believing God’s word.  It was the greatest thing I had experienced in my entire life!  I have never felt anything like that. 

          I’ve received some great gifts in my life, and as a kid I would jump up and down and think they were great.  People have said nice things to me or done nice things for me, but no one has ever blessed me like Jesus has.  

          It’s not practical for you to be grinning whenever things are falling to pieces all around you, but the joy of the Lord will do that, because He gives you peace that passes understanding.  People don’t understand where you get your peace and joy.  They don’t understand what you are so happy about.  You want revival?  Get your joy back!  That’s how sinners get converted, and transgressors come back to the Lord.  People are drawn by the Spirit of God in you. 

          The Bible says in the book of Acts that when Phillip entered in one of the cities, they had a great revival, and there was great joy.  It actually took a city for God.  Joy is a contagious thing.          

          Isaiah 12:3 says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”!!  We need to rejoice in the Lord God of our salvation! 

          Psalm 103:1‑3 says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”

          I’m free, and no devil owns me; there’s no devil that can control me or that can tell me what to do!  Thank God!  I’m out of debt as far as the devil is concerned!  Jesus bought and paid for me Himself in such a way that I’m washed, I’m cleansed, I’m free, and whom the Son sets free is free indeed!  I’m not going to hell!  I’m going to heaven!  Folks, I’m going to take as many with me as I can.

          When you got your first love, it’s like you got your focus and your joy.  Nothing can divert you or distract you.  When you let life’s distractions pull you down, you start getting heavy, you lose joy and then it runs out.  Pretty soon you’re walking around all bent over and you don’t know what’s going on.  

          With that “first love” nothing else mattered.  It was fresh, hot, and invigorating.  It was like you were just dazzled with what He was doing, and you could believe Him for anything.  You just knew He was going to save everybody walking, and you knew He was going to perform signs and wonders at your hands!  You knew God had a great call on your life!  You knew He had a purpose for you, because you were very joyful in the Lord.  God spoke to you personally!  He picked you out from among the millions and told you He was going to use you for His glory.  Your joy amplified.

          When you’ve got joy, it’s not hard to pray for your enemies and believe for them.  Faith and joy are kin.

          When you’ve got that joy and first love of the Lord, your faith rises to the greatest of heights.  No wonder God says to keep your joy!  As you rise in faith in God the joy increases, and it just keeps bubbling over till pretty soon people don’t know what to do with you!

          When you lose your joy, you start talking mean about people.  When you’ve got your joy you hardly notice their meanness.  Without joy people are miserable, and miserable people are mean people!  If you’ve got the Lord, but you don’t have joy, you are still miserable, because you are reliant upon emotion.

          Heaven and earth will pass away; miracles will pass away; tongues will pass away, but the joy of the Lord remains forever for them that enter in!

          Many things in life we miss, because we don’t have enough joy to savor it; we just endure to the end.  I believe the Lord smiles and laughs, because He invented joy!  Yet many people are bored till they scream.  They are aching till they can’t stand any more.  They are using all of their money, energies, time, effort, and education to get something with meaning, and purpose, and joy out of life.  They don’t know that Jesus Christ always will be the answer. 

          Sinners look at Christians and churches, but they rarely see people with genuine joy ‑ people who keep their smile, and keep their tone right, and who keep their attitude right ‑ even in the midst of trouble.

          Matthew 5:39 says, “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”  You’ve got to have joy in the Lord to do that!

          There is a joy from God that will override all sadness, disappointment, and frustration.  There’s a joy that will override anything that keeps you from being happy!

          David asked God to restore unto him the joy.  What happened?  When you sin through commission (doing) or omission (not doing), the first thing to go is your joy.  It is replaced either by fear, rebellion, aggravation or frustration, and soon you can’t get happy over anything! 

          Have you ever known someone you couldn’t please, even if you died for them?  The Lord did die for them, and He still can’t please them, because they’re miserable.  They don’t have any joy; they don’t even know what it is, because they’ve looked for it in all the wrong places.  It flees from them though they’ve tried to chase it down. 

          People desperately need to see someone who has the joy of the Lord.  That doesn’t mean you’re going to walk around with a grin on your face all the time, but it does mean they can’t take away your joy and your salvation; they can’t affect your faith.  Romans 3:3 says, “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”

          David prayed through and got his joy back.  He said in Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.”  He wanted to be in the services in God’s house.  If you come to the house of God with the joy of the Lord, there will be an expectancy and a faith that will actually kindle miracles!  It will quicken the curiosity of the unbeliever!  He will want to know what you’ve got, where you’re getting it, and if he can have some!

          Revelations 2:4 says, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”  Verse 5 says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. . . .”

          Whenever you pray for people now does it seem to have the same effect it had when you were first saved?  If not, I believe it is directly connected with the amount of joy you possess now in connection with what you had then. 

          Every one of us has to grow up.  Many have had unbelief, depression, and impossibility preached to them.  You couldn’t get a grin on some people if you put a  2 x 4 in their mouth and stretched it out!  They’ve lost their joy, and more importantly, they’ve lost the source of their joy.  We need something bubbling up in us all over! 

          When I got filled with the Holy Ghost God told me, “Now you know Who I am and that I am real.”  I began to praise the Lord out loud, but I couldn’t do it in English; it was the funniest thing I had ever heard.  When God has control of the situation it’s the best blessing you ever had.  If you are saved you are going to miss hell, and you are going to make heaven your home!

          God says in Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” 

          Mark 16:17‑18 says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

          We need to start getting happy about that, because He said it, and He will bring it to pass.  We’re missing out on the joy.  It’s a strange thing that when your kids aren’t happy, you’re not happy.  The joy of the Lord is your answer.  There is no joy in drinking, lust, or other sins.  The world will never be able to give you joy.  You may have fun for a little while, but it’ll wear out your body and your brain. 

          God’s joy is a restorer of our health.  It shall spring forth speedily, and the Lord will quicken our minds, giving us the mind of Christ.  He said the works that He did we will do also.  That’s something we need to get happy about! 

          We need to advertise to the sinner and transgressor that the joy of the Lord is in the house of God, and they can have it too.  If you’ve got Jesus Christ, that’s all the reason you need to be happy.  If everything else is going to hell around you and the most precious thing you know is fading away, we’ve got to understand that the joy of the Lord will always be our strength. 

          Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

          Jesus was in great agony, and He prayed until sweat came out of Him like blood.  Yet, when our Lord was going to the cross of Calvary, He had the joy in front of Him. 

          When God sent the Holy Ghost the disciples had great joy.  God was with them, God was in them, and the power of God was available for them to overcome any situation in their life.  That’s something to be happy about! 

          Seek the Lord again, and pray through until you get the joy back.  If you need a healing, or a deliverance, or your family saved – get your joy back!  We need revival in the church, so let’s get the joy back and go forward for God!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghope@hughes.net

www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.