Apostolic Life Cathedral | July 28, 2024 | 6:30 PM
Text: Psalms 89:15-17, “(15) Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. (16) In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. (17) For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.”
Psalms 1:1-6, “(1) Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (3) And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (4) The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. (5) Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. (6) For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
Blessed = “Happy”[1] is the condition.[2]
Go deeper = “to be straight, level, right, to go forward, be honest, prosper.”[3]
The joyful sound is the call to celebrate, to rejoice, to continually delight in:
- The Name of the Lord
- The Righteousness of the Lord
Tonight, the Holy Ghost is calling you to respond with a joyful sound for all that Jesus did for you and all that His name brings to bear in your life.
Rejoice in all that God did for you to walk a straight, level, righteousness path of prosperity and purpose.
The Samaritans knew about that joy: “(5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. (6) And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7) For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. (8) And there was great joy in that city.”
“There was great joy in that city.”
How many here tonight want to see that same great joy in Huntington and the Tri-State Region?
It is God’s Will for the The Joyful Sound to echo along the riverbanks, valleys, and hillsides of our community:
We have heard the joyful sound:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to ev’ry land,
Climb the steeps and cross the waves;
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves![4]
The Joyful Sound – Jesus Saves!
Every day, Jesus Saves!
God is calling for repentance…to be part of the joyful sound.
Paul was in Athens on Mars’ hill when he saw the altar written TO THE UNKNOWN GOD and he began to tell them of the one that they, in their superstition, were ignorantly worshipping.
Saying, “that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”
Repentance, led by true godly sorrow, will bring the joyful sound.
The fruit of mercy is restoration. The fruit of grace is maturity.
Unfortunately, life has a way of causing you to lose sight of what originally created the happy condition…the joyful sound.
What was once exciting and revealing, full of life and rewarding, has now become mundane and lost its vitality.
The daily life is at war with the joyful sound: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah” (Psalms 68:19).
We should come daily to His storehouse of blessing.
The problem is we have become so busy doing the work we forget the relationship with the God of the work.
Oftentimes, people fail because they have their spiritual life, their prayer life, their relationship with Jesus on autopilot.
Like a pilot in a plane, or a driver in a car, you are content to sit disengaged and apathetic.
What once drove your passion has now become drudgery.
The work that inspired is now nothing more than perspiration.
The hope that enlarged your heart and gave you faith is now a vague memory, like the beauty of nature you miss will cruising by unbothered by what is just outside your window.
You have become trapped with the thought that you just need to get the job done.
You have stopped hearing the joyful sound.
This is why you are to become renewed daily in the spirit of your mind.
Turn off the of auto pilot, disengage the cruise control,
Look around you and see all the beauty, blessing, and opportunity!
The need and possibility around you
Paul wrote, “I have fought a good fight…I have kept the faith,” but he did not stop fighting.
It is time to recapture that joy that originally caught you:
- Is. 12:3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
- Is. 55:12, “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
- 1 Peter 1:7-9, “(7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: (8) Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (9) Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
- Is. 9:3, “…they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.”
- Acts2:1-4
You are going to have to press into it. To reach for it. To recapture the joyful sound: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
To press means you will have to disengage the cruise control.
Revelation 19:6-7, “(6) And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (7) Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
[1] Strong’s. H835.
[2] Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible. Psalm 89:15.
[3] Strong’s. H833.
[4] Priscilla J. Owens. (1882). We Have Heard the Joyful Sound.
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