Adrian Warnock has a very interesting quote from the great Bible expositor Martin Lloyd-Jones at Martyn Lloyd-Jones Monday - A Shortage of Joy. Dr. Lloyd-Jones had been preaching for a long time through the Epistle to the Romans. After an illness he stopped in the middle of Romans 14:17 - and never continued the series. He later said:“I was at Romans 14:17. I had dealt with 'righteousness', with 'peace' on March 1st, and there I was stopped. I was not allowed to deal with 'joy in the Holy Ghost'. I have the feeling that this was not accidental. God intervened and I could suggest a reason why. I was able to deal with righteousness and peace (I had fleeting experiences of it), but the third thing is the profoundest of all. Why was I not allowed to deal with it? Because I knew something, but not enough about it. 'I want you to speak with greater authority on this,' God said . . .If the Kingdom of Heaven is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, I want the whole package! I want any church where I am a leader to get the whole package. I want my children to have the whole package. To be filled with the Spirit should result in joy- not necessarily happiness - but joy as a chosen response to all that God has done for us. Thank God I serve and worship in a church noted for joy.
Here is what I would put before you. For six months, until September, I did not preach at all. For four months I have had the most valuable experience of being a listener. My general impression is that most of our services are terribly depressing! I am amazed people still go to church; most who go are female and over the age of forty. The note missing is 'joy in the Holy Ghost'. There is nothing in these services to make a stranger feel that he is missing something by not being there.”
The Spirit is a well spring of living water spouting forth from our inmost being; how can we not be wet with joy?
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