Jesus speaks to put His joy in you. This remains in us. Branch in the Vine must bear fruit. Let His peace reign. Set the Lord before your face and be immoveable. John 15:11; Psalm 16:5-10

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12515
7:00 PM on 5/24/2023

P. Schaller –

Thank you. That was sweet, wasn’t it? Beautiful. Hello. Good evening. Praise the Lord. Let’s do it. Praise the
Lord! Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank you,
Jesus. Praise the Lord. (Prayer).

Tonight, I’d like to speak about joy. We have joy. Do we? We have joy. Where does it come
from? How does joy work? Where does it come from? How is it we have joy? Okay. You’re
talkative. Turn to your neighbor and tell them. Go ahead. Richard, good to see you. How about,
do we need it? Yeah. Like where did my joy go? Where did it go? How do I have it? What is it
and I want to say a couple things just for a few minutes, and then we’ll do the announcements
and the offering. Thank you to the Body. Thank you individually for your hunger and your desire
for God. In the world they don’t have God, so they can’t praise God. They cannot be thankful to
God, you know.

The secular world if you ask them, do you have God? No, I don’t believe in God. All the time on
our television it’s all information but never are they talking about God for a purpose or suffering
with purpose. There’s a lot that is communicated to us all the time about the natural life. But we
are blessed because we have God. A relationship with God. Seth in his song, in his prayer, “I
am yours; you are mine” from Song of Solomon, and Song of Solomon is a book about a
person, about love between two people. And she has found him and he has found her, and they
are very much in love. They are constantly occupied with each other.

I love this book because it’s like us. We are occupied constantly with God. And we know what it
means to have God in life. Because all human beings have like parameters, a garden. We all
have limits. We have a boundary. We have a garden. We have a life. Some live one year. Some
live a hundred years. Some have many opportunities. Some have few. Some have many gifts.
Some have few gifts. Some have a lot of skill and education and training. Some have very little.
We all have our life and then the psalmist said in Psalm 16, “my lot has fallen out to me in pleasant
places.” And then he explains it. We’ll look at that later.

When you start to relate to God in life, then you have a new life. And your garden, it doesn’t
matter what God gave you in this natural way. It does, but actually you have a joy that
transcends. You have a purpose. You have a person.

So, one of our faith heroes, A. B. Simpson, wrote a poem entitled, “Himself.” I’ll read part of it to
you. I think all of it. “Once it was a blessing. Now it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling, now it is
his word. Once his gifts I wanted, now the Giver own. Once I sought for healing, now himself a
lone. Once was painful trying, now tis perfect trust. Once to have salvation, now the uttermost.
Once it was ceaseless holding, now he holds me fast. Once it was constant drifting, now my
anchors cast. Once was busy planting, now it’s trustful prayer. Once it was anxious caring, now
he has the care. Once it was what I wanted, now what Jesus says. Once it was constant asking,
now tis ceaseless praise. Once it was my working, his it hence shall be. Once I tried to use him,
now he uses me.

Once the power I wanted, now the mighty one. Once for self I labored, now
for him alone. Once I hoped in Jesus, now I know he’s mine. Once my lamps were dying, now
they brightly shine. Once for death I waited, now his coming hail, and my hopes are anchored
safe within the veil.”

You know when we find Christ, he finds us. He becomes precious to us and we find out that he
has joy. He has joy. Jesus tonight is joyful. What’s he joyful about? About you. Really. You kind
of look at yourself. Me? Yeah. He’s joyful about you. He rejoices in you. He paid a high price to
purchase you. He indwells you. Jesus is joyful and rejoicing in us. We are his bride. We are
going to meet him. He is very happy about us. What he has done for us. The guarantee that we
have. What me? Yes.

Where does your joy come from? Listen. This is it in a nutshell. When you have a lot of respect
for somebody like your father, and your father says to you as a young man, you’ve done a good job. And you go really? You did a good job. Son, you’ve done a good job. What happens? How
about your teacher at school or a pastor maybe that you love and trust and have a lot of
respect. Wherever you go. Your wife or your husband, when they are satisfied with you and
they’re able to say to you these things, that is where our joy comes from. But it wasn’t my
teacher or my pastor or my wife that said it. I hope they do but it’s God that says it. It’s God that
rejoices over us. It’s God that communicates to us.

And when there’s something to say that’s tough, there’s something to say that’s true, there’s
something to say that might hurt me, cut me and say it, Lord, because you love me. You are for
me. And my little plot of land that you gave me at birth is not going to define for me my life. Our
life is defined by bigger ground. Our life is defined by something beyond us. It’s Christ. This is
where our joy is coming from. So that’s all. Amen. (Song). Hey, hey, Rachel. Hey, Rachel. Do
you mind, would you do that again? Alright. So, this is like a meditation for us and a praise and
worship. Just think of Convention coming up. God, turn it around. God, turn it around, right?
God, heal somebody. And then worldwide. Where ever you can think of maybe. Maybe, you
know. Or our family or some one is sick. God, turn it around. God, turn it around. A friend of
yours or a need or something. A family member. You know. Let’s worship the Lord and pray the
prayer with her as she sings. Okay. Let’s go. Thank you so much. (Song).

Okay. Would you turn with me to Psalm 16. I asked Pirjo to write up some testimonies of
miracles that have happened from newsletters. She’s done that for me, and I just am amazed at
what God is doing in the Sudan. Also, in Azerbaijan. The newsletters from our missionaries. The
salvation. Healing. The evidence in the heart of God working, and we anticipate missionaries
and folks coming from different countries to be with us during Convention. It’s our joy to host
them and with them and hear from them what God is doing.

Turn to Psalm 16, and we’ll share some of those stories in the coming weeks. Psalm 16, if we
were to make a little diagram here of the secular world, the secular ideology and then the
Christian view; if we were to kind of analyze what the differences are, the world does not talk
about God. So, I’ll put here no God. They may be atheists or agnostics, but there’s not the
personal God or the god they know. They may be deists or agnostics or atheists. There’s no
absolute purpose, absolute purpose in life.

In a word, you could say a billion years from today the sun is burned out. The scientists might
tell us this. The solar system has collapsed. The graves and cemeteries of human beings are
gone. Your name is forgotten, never known by anybody. Wherever. There is no real meaning in
life. If you think about that and talk about it like that, you just think, wow! What’s the purpose of
my life now? Well, just enjoy it. That’s all. But there’s no real absolute purpose in your life. And
so, that’s what they think, what they teach, what they believe. There is no resurrection of the
dead then, therefore. No resurrection. You will not see your mother again or child again or
people. You will not. It’s over. Done. There’s nothing.

Then regarding the supernatural world, the supply, the supply that is needed in suffering. We’ll
put here the word “suffering.” What do they think about suffering? It’s to be avoided. It has no
purpose. There is nothing for it. Just simply stay away from it as much as possible. Like us. But
suffering like we agree with that in one sense, but suffering is inevitable in life. You will die one
day. Your loved ones will die. You will get a disease perhaps or other forms of suffering. Broken
heart. Alienation. Loneliness. What about suffering? We have no real resource or provision for
suffering. There’s only life as we know it. And so, then there is therefore no meaning in suffering,
right?

So, when Jesus said in John 15:11 – let’s put that up on the screen. I pray that some of my
words would minister to you, and that the Spirit would say something to you to bless you and
comfort you and teach you. John 15:11, what things? The things at the Last Supper. What did he
say? “I go to prepare a place for you. If it was not so, I would tell you.” What things? I will send
the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He will guide you in truth. What things has he spoken to the
disciples at the Last Supper totally contradicts the list here on the left side. They totally contradict it. There is no God. I go to my Father. He will send you the Comforter. I go to prepare
a place for you. If it wasn’t so, I would tell you.

These words – how about suffering. They will drag you before the magistrates. But in that hour,
my Father will give you the words to say. There is the Comforter who is not a drug or medication
or good circumstances. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit, God himself to comfort us. That’s why I
am happy to make the point here that our life has other elements, another dimension, and that
is the source of our joy. Because it’s written here in John 15:11. Read it with me. What things was
he saying? He was saying the opposite of these things, right? And then he’s saying these
words. My joy. My joy. Jesus are you joyful? Yes, in my Father. In my friendship with my Father.
In my relationship with my Father. It’s full of joy. We are in truth. We are in holiness. We are
without sin. My joy I give to you. vs. 11.

Well, wait a minute. How that my joy would be full or to say it another way. My joy would be derived from something else other than just my life. My life. My finances. My children. My career. My job. My lack of job. My housing. My relationship with people. All of these things that people find their happiness in. Yeah. They come and go and they
change, and so does our happiness.

But what if Jesus is telling us something that is extraordinary and beyond us. And he’s saying
therefore, my joy remains in you. Does it remain in us? It’s kind of like it might get dusty. It might
be a little bit overshadowed by the pain and suffering of life, but it’s there. And that joy is a full
joy. When we are tapping in or actually we are realizing what it is that we have or I have a quote
here. I used it in the graduation the other day.

You know, this idea of the two worlds and a thin membrane being between them. Remember?
And I had it copied. And I think I’ve lost it. I don’t know if we did that. Is that folder empty? There
it is. Oh, thanks. This is interesting. This is about – I could read it to you. Wow. There’s a lot of
stuff here! Wow. Okay. Between them, in a metaphysical sense between this world and the next
world, the Irish have a term thin places. We have P. Aedan and Bernadette over here. Maybe
they can verify. I don’t know. It sounds a little funny to me.

“The Irish have a term ‘thin places’ which they use to describe places of experiences where the
membrane between the seen and the unseen, the natural and the supernatural is barely there
and easily penetrated. Heaven and earth are only a few feet apart. The Celts say but in thin
places there are even closer experiencing a signal of transcendence is like having a knife thrust
through the membrane in thin places.” I just like the wording of that, and I think the idea is
something we’ve communicated a lot in our church. That we believe that this world is more than
what we can see. And joy comes. It’s from Christ having joy in us.

What Christ has in the Father. Imagine. And by the way, when Jesus was here, he was a man of sorrows. When Jesus was here, he was moved by the fact that we suffer so much. He was moved at Lazarus’ grave when
he cried out. He was moved by the disciples struggling to believe. How long must I be with you?
You could see how Christ has this amazing relationship with the Father that he longed that we
would also enter into the same relationship, and this is where our joy is coming from. It’s from
him.

So, this the prophet said beauty for ashes, correct? “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to
give unto them beauty for ashes.” But we are so human like Jesus was so human. And that he
was a man of sorrow and we also. But why did the Apostle Paul say always as sorrowful but
always rejoicing? Because of what we’re saying here. To give beauty for ashes. The oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. For confusion, they shall rejoice in
their portion, Isaiah 61:7, 10. Now, that’s just to introduce to us Psalm 16 and then we will finish here. I
pray this will bless us.

Psalm 16:5, Now, when I think about a man or woman, a girl, boy born into this world, they are
given a portion in life. We said there are things that are different about all of us. We can say time
– I’ll put down here a little list. Opportunities. Skills. You can say many things. Family. Were you
orphaned? We met a little orphan boy in Nepal. His mother – his father had died. His mother
wanted to remarry. The new guy that she was marrying didn’t want the kids, so she brought them to the woods and abandoned them in the woods. P. Rajan went to the woods and picked
them up and brought them to the orphanage that he has.

That boy has a garden or a life that he’s living. And we don’t know all the details about it, but it’s on a natural – it’s a natural life. And this is what I want to say. When the Lord maintains our lot and he gives us something, we
usually focus on that solid line in the picture. We usually focus on our life and how do we
navigate, how do we improve our life. How do we get an education? How do we find a family?
How do we get settled or anchored? And of course this is only normal, but the sad news is that
that’s all that people live in. that’s all that they have. That’s how they relate to life. I talked to a
man recently. He doesn’t really need God. He’s fine. He just lives his life and that’s all there is.
I kind of think that yes, there’s a lot of people that think like that.

There’s a lot of people. I don’t need God. I’m fine. I got a good life. I’m living my life. I enjoy it. That’s what, what’s the point of life? It’s just to enjoy it. Relax. It’s just to enjoy life. That’s all. Yeah. Like dogs do that, too. And
animals and insects, but are you made, are you made, really. Come on. Are you made for
something more? Is this psalm that we read here, these following verses, 6-8, is this the
message for us? And when you become a believer and the Spirit of God comes into your heart
and the Spirit enlightens your mind, Psalm 119:133; when you start to live by the words of God
and Jesus Christ says that these words have I spoken unto you that your joy would be full; then
is that real or not? And what is it that he’s giving us.

Look at 16:6. The lines, now these are like boundary lines like you know boundary lines in a
land like a real estate, a piece of real estate. The lines, the parameters of the territory. The 100-
acre farm. The 10,000-acre farm in Texas and the 15-acre farm in Vermont. The parameters, the
lines are different. But here it reads the Lord said the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.
Really? Yeah. Ask Joseph. Ask Noah. Ask Solomon and David. Ask Timothy and Paul. Ask Mary
and Elizabeth. Ask John the Baptist. Ask the people in the book of Acts. Ask the people in the
Sudan who are coming to Christ. Ask the people in the mountains of Nepal that are coming to
Christ and you see a huge smile and a lot of joy in a family. And they are so happy.

They can give a message of hope to their children. Give a message. Give the gospel about forgiveness.
About how you can suffer but your suffering is a plan of God.
This is something we have to learn about as Americans, because when we buy it from the
secular world that suffering is bad. That suffering is to be avoided, and suffering is not good.
And suffering is not a good thing. And why would God have me suffer? But actually, this is like
the solid line. We are told these “words have I spoken unto you that in me you might have
peace. In the world tribulation but be of good cheer.” That’s the dotted line. Be of good cheer.
How do you get that? That is ours by the words that you’ve spoken unto us.

Now, I want to like maybe make – I hope this doesn’t get really weird in my picture, and I want to
finish not too late here. He said I am the vine. I am the vine and you are the branches. And
when a branch doesn’t bear fruit, I cut it off. How? With a knife. With clippers. I prune it. I notice
in my life I put my peace in my natural life. I got my peace. Everything maintaining. Everything is
peaceful. So, I have peace in my natural life. Maybe you get a paycheck. Maybe your car is
running good. You have a place to live and you got peace. You got real peace, because
circumstances say everything’s okay. And so a branch grows and it’s peace from the world. It
doesn’t bear fruit. A branch goes – it kind of contradicts a little bit, but I want you to get the idea
cause I really believe we do that.

We start to go to our bank account or we go to our relationships or we find our happiness or we go to the stability of the time or we go to – but those are branches that don’t bear fruit and also are cut off by the knife. What’s the knife? The
Word of God.
What do you mean? The Lord says get before me. I am God. And your peace is not as the world
gives. I give unto you not as the world gives. I give you peace not as the world gives you. The
bank account isn’t the basis of your peace. My lines are falling out for you in good places, and
this is for all of us. We all have parameters given to us by the life of Christ, the work of Christ,
the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, the throne of Christ. All of us.

You might say, no, pastor. Not me. Yes, you. You are a child of God. And you’ve been
guaranteed these words have I spoken unto you that your joy might be full. This is where our joy
is coming from for how many years, how many decades, how may circumstances. Most of them.
Not all of them, because my branch grows out of – my branch grows out of here. Look up at the
screen. My branch grows out of my natural life and the Lord goes your branch is growing out of
your natural life. You put your heart and eyes on the things that I have given to you temporarily,
but I want to tell you there’s no guarantee – I want you to know that I am for you and I want your
peace and your joy to be rooted in this what I am saying to you. In me, himself, once it was a
blessing. Now the giver own. Right. Isn’t him. And this is amazing, isn’t it? Okay. I’m going to rap
it up. Look at vs. 7.

When we have a good congregation of a lot of Christians that are veterans in the battlefield.
Many people here that have gone through things, and they have found Jesus again and again.
They have found this. Tears? Yes. But in our suffering, we believe there is a reason in it. And I
don’t know why God has us suffer. I honestly don’t. I mean we can say bear more fruit and it’s
his sovereign will, and there’s things that he’s doing. On the other hand, nobody likes it. And I do
not know why, but I believe it doesn’t happen to me because he doesn’t love me as Timothy
Keller said. It’s happening to me. Even though I suffer, he loves me. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t
love me. It means that he has a plan that I cannot, I cannot understand.

vs. 8. I’ve set the Lord always before me. I want to emphasize that. Set the Lord in the morning
when you wake up. Set the Lord before your face. Unload. Unload before him and pray these
prayers for what we’re saying. And say to him, I have been blessed in so many ways. May I not
– if riches increase, then set not your heart upon them. If everything is going so good, then just
enjoy it. Enjoy it. Enjoy it as much as we can. It’s all great. It’s beautiful. But have a deeper life.
That’s why I think we should go to church three times a week. I think it’s a great model for the
rest of the world that we do that in Baltimore. I think it’s a place where we get instructed and
corrected. I receive a word of wisdom. I get a lot of comfort.

I’m in a room of love. I’m in a room of fellowship, of love. We are in the presence of God. It might be that he gives us long life. I don’t know. I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of God. I believe when I
put myself under the scalpel or the knife or the clippers that kind of trim that off and say you
have strayed or wandered off. You set your heart on the things of the world and you’re following
a secular world. And I want to teach you doctrine. I want to teach you that your suffering is not in
vain. I want to tell you something in your heart. I want to lead you in prayer. I want to inspire
your heart in faith. I want to prepare you for the future. I want to prepare you for reigning with
me. Wow! What a big deal that is. Imagine that.

So, vs. 9. We don’t have a lot of time to go over that, but you take that apart there’s three parts
there. My heart is glad. That’s what that means. My heart is glad. I’m glad hearted. I have a
peace and I go to sleep with a little bit of a smile on my face. Not a big smile. Little bit. I’m okay.
Thank you, God. My heart is glad. When I see my brother or sister, my heart is glad. Remember
Aaron, God said to Aaron when he went – he said to Moses, when your brother Aaron sees you,
he will be glad. And he will see you as God. Wow. It’s like relationship.

My glory rejoices. This is your internal sense of self-worth. You actually have a deep seated
sense of value. Your glory rejoices. The third one is my flesh. My flesh. Of course, my flesh will
deteriorate and go into the grave. My flesh shall rest in hope. What is that? I know that though
the worms will eat my body in my flesh I will stand before my God. I will stand in the flesh.
Though worms eat my body, Job 19, he said that. And so we know it, also.

Yeah, Tom, Debbie, Nancy, Ed, Will, they will be those people. Their bodies – those people will
be with God in heaven. Look at vs. 10. Hallelujah! No, we are not going to hell. Christ is not
going to hell. This is about Christ. Christ is not going to hell. His flesh will not deteriorate in the
grave. No, Christ is being raised. This is what we have. vs. 10. He will not see it. He will not see
it. He will not see it.

What does the secular world say? Nothing about this. They have no gospel. They have no
message. We have a message. We have not only a message. We have THE message. The
reality that God is telling us here. vs. 11. At the right hand is Christ, pleasures forever more at
his right hand. I just want to say as I said it I think clearly enough tonight, that this is, these two
are real. This one and this one. They are real. Both of them. They are real. If you have only this
solid line life, I am sorry for you. And as I pity the people that live in this life with only – their lives
are so fragile. Their lives can collapse with a phone call. Their lives are on slippery ground.
Their lives are built on sand. I am so sorry for them. I am so sorry for them. I am. I am so sorry
for them. I’m angry with the world that could care less. It’s all a mirage. It’s all a game. It’s all a
joke.

Don’t you see it on the news? This is a joke. The world is laughing at us. Mocking. Laughing at
themselves. It’s all a big joke. It’s games. It’s playing. It’s foolishness. It’s damnable foolishness.
It takes people to hell, and it’s foolish. We are serious. Because we got serious with God, God
got serious with us. He did. Cause we said Jesus, come on. I want you all the time. I want you in
the morning. I want you in the day time. I want you in the good times. I want you in the bad
times. I want you in my heart all the time. And I know that that’s what life is about. And I believe
you. You will help us live like this. We’ll have our ups and downs. We’ll get confused. But I’ll
show up by God’s grace. I want to come before God by faith and I want to ask him to help me.
He will say, yep. These words have I spoken unto you so that your joy would be full, and it would
be my joy that I give you. It would be my joy that I give you. That’s what we have. Okay. Amen.
Pray with me.

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