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You don’t need to wait until you have an experience of disaster before you pursue

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this joy. This joy is not just for the barren woman, the deserted wife and

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the person who is in the afflicted city and has lost their home.

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Joy in Jesus Christ will free you to savour all other joys in your life and

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will strengthen you to face all other sorrows in your life.

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and Colin it sounds as

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if you’re saying that this joy comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ

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and the Bible makes it clear that this joy helps us as we face the difficulties

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and the reality of life. Yeah I love this about the Scriptures. Some people have

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the idea that the Bible is some kind of council of perfection, you know that it

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describes an ideal people in an ideal world. No it’s the Word of God into our

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world in all of its desperate need and pain as we experience it and we’re going

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to look at a part of the scripture today where God speaks into some of the

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greatest pains of life. He speaks about the woman who longs for a child and

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cannot have one. He speaks about someone who loves in marriage and then is

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rejected, the love is just thrown back in their face and they’re completely

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rejected. Speaks about situations of being broken and devastated and then

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speaks of how joy could come into these lives. Now that’s something remarkable

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that can only come from God himself. But this is the Bible, it’s not speaking to

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some ideal world it’s speaking to the real world in which we live, the world

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into which Jesus Christ has come. So we’re going to open up the Bible and see

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about this if you can join us in Isaiah chapter 54 as we begin the message

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called Restore Joy, here’s Colin. We’re continuing our series Restore My Soul

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Nine Heart Cries, Nine Prayers for Revival and our aim is that you will

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experience the Gospel more fully in your life and that we would narrow the gap

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between the faith we profess and the life that we experience. We began last

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week by asking God or to restore faith. Now here’s the second cry today and it

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is this cry Lord restore joy, restore joy. The desire for joy is universal, one

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thing that unites every person here, whatever our circumstance in life, is we

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all deeply want to be happy. Blaise Pascal, the great mathematician and

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Christian philosopher put it this way. He said, all men seek happiness, this is

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without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this

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end. The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it, is the same desire

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in both, attended by different views. The will never takes the least step but to

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this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even those

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who hang themselves. And you see, Lois Pascal is saying,

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we are driven by this passion for what we most deeply believe will make us happy,

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even the person who takes their life, something you should never do.

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But those who do are driven by a sense of pain being so great that I would be

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better off out of it.

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The passion, the drive for happiness is universal.

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And therefore, it is never more intense than when we experience sorrow.

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So, as I’ve tried to meditate and pray about the scripture throughout these

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last days, I’ve just thought about across the congregation and situations that I

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know of, and there are so many more that I don’t, but some of you who are carrying

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heavy burdens, and absorbing great pressures, and enduring big

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disappointments, and experiencing great struggles, or living with great sorrows.

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And you know that over time that fatigues the body and it drains the soul,

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and when you experience that kind of sorrow, especially over a prolonged period

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of time, you desperately need to know that God is for your joy.

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And your immediate reaction might be to say, well, now, if you want me to believe

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that God is for my joy, you need to give me a jolly good reason when I look at

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what’s going on in my life. Well, the reason was last week.

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You look at the cross. You believe that. If you’ve come to that

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place of faith, you will be saying, God is totally for me in Christ.

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The cross demonstrates that. And if that is true and if you

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deeply believe that, you have to draw the conclusion, therefore,

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that God is for your joy. In fact, C.S. Lewis puts it this way.

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He says, God is more for your joy than you are. Here’s what Lewis says.

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He says, our Lord finds our desires for joy not too strong but too weak.

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We are like half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and

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ambition when infinite joy is offered to us. We’re like an ignorant child who wants

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to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by

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the offer of a holiday at the seaside. We are, says Lewis,

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far too easily pleased. Now, here we are trying to find a way to

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make our lives happier and Lewis says God has a happiness in view for you that is

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so much greater and so much bigger. It’s just like a child playing with mud

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because he’s never imagined what a day at the seaside would actually look like.

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Now, I want you to turn with me, please, to Isaiah chapter 54 and to see there

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that throughout this chapter, Isaiah finds joy in the most unlikely places.

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And he paints, in this chapter, three scenes of intense human sorrow.

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Now, immediately, there will be some of us in this congregation who identify

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with one, or perhaps more, of these. And you will say,

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That is exactly speaking to me.

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The first scene of human sorrow that Isaiah identifies is the barren woman

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in verse one, the woman who has never had any children.

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Sing, O Barren Woman, you who never bore a child.

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Now, for many women and a number who are in the congregation this morning,

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this may be a source of great pain and of sensitivity.

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It’s worth remembering that in the ancient world, the emotions associated

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with this were really intensified by some very practical considerations.

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See, in the ancient world, family was the key to survival.

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In ancient Israel, one thing you had was land.

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Remember, in the time of Joshua, they divided the land between the 12 tribes

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so that each family had land.

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So you were able to support yourself with the land so long as you had someone to work it.

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In fact, a team of people to work your land.

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How are you going to get a team of people to work your land over time?

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The extended family.

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So the key to survival in the long term, and especially into old age, is

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have lots of children, indeed lots of children

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because some of them won’t live for very long in the ancient world

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so in the ancient world, the barren woman, think about it, had a very bleak future.

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She would be destitute, she would be hungry, she would be poor.

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So that’s Isaiah’s first picture of intense sorrow.

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The woman who never had any children.

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Here’s the second.

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It’s in verse 6.

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The deserted wife.

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Now again, there are folks in our congregation who know what this is like.

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You married young.

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Some guy told you that he loved you.

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And you felt things for him and you married and it seemed that things would work out very

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well.

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But it wasn’t long after you were married before you became aware that he was fast losing

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interest in you.

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And over time, all your dreams of joy seemed shattered.

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You were, to use Isaiah’s words, distressed in spirit.

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You lost confidence in yourself.

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Felt humiliated.

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You felt that your life was adrift.

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And there are folks perhaps who are right there in the middle of that even today.

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Then Isaiah pictures a third scene of intense human sorrow.

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And it’s in verse 11.

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And it’s extraordinary that this passage should have been the passage chosen for us today.

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Because in verse 11, he talks about the afflicted city and why is the city afflicted in verse

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Because it is lashed by storms.

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Extraordinary!

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Isaiah chapter 54 in verse 11.

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And we think about that today, with some of us have water in our homes.

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And I don’t want to minimize that but we think of others whose homes are just devastated.

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We think of the scale of devastation of Katrina and now Ike.

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And the pain and the energy needed just for folks to try and rebuild life after in cases

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a total loss.

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And then if we think more widely about some of the scenes of flooding in India and people

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dragging carts and just a few possessions, miles and miles.

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And this is the picture that Isaiah paints for us.

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The city lashed by storms.

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Can you picture that?

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The devastation of ruined homes, the torn up buildings.

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I think there’s more here actually in what Isaiah is saying than the storms of violent

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weather.

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One writer translates Isaiah’s words as a tempest driven city.

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That’s a helpful picture.

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Think of all of us in the congregation who regularly drive into the city to make a living.

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You take the train into the city every day and you live in, what might be described as

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you think about the business world, you live in a tempest driven city.

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You work in a cut throat business environment and it brings relentless pressure on you and

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it drains the soul.

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Because the city with all its excitement is a relentlessly demanding place for you to

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spend your working life.

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The choice of these three scenes, I think is very, very significant, because the natural

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inclination of the human heart is that we are inclined to seek our happiness in three

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places.

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One is children, another is marriage, and the third is money.

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Our pride, our joy, our sense of dignity and worth and value and happiness and security

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and all of that, naturally tend to get wrapped up in the children you raise, the person to

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whom you are married, the possessions that you have.

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Which is why when someone’s child goes off the rails, your son or daughter goes off the

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rails, or your marriage is on the rocks, or your career suddenly hits the skids and is

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in ruins, many people feel that this now is a total loss, my life is not worth anything

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anymore.

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Therefore, you would expect the most unhappy people in the world to be the barren woman,

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the deserted wife, or the people who live in the ruined city.

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What I want us to grasp from Isaiah 54 is that Isaiah sees joy, joy in these most unlikely

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places.

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Chapter 54, verse 1, the barren woman, what is she doing?

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She is singing, she is bursting into song, she is shouting for joy.

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Verse 6, what’s happening to her?

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She has found security, she knows she is loved.

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What’s happening with the ruined city in verse 11 and 12?

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It’s being rebuilt.

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Only, it’s not being rebuilt with bricks and mortar, it is being rebuilt with rubies

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and sapphires and precious stones.

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And if you follow the story through – because Isaiah 54 and 55 really is kind of a unit

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together, so that’s why we’re looking at them together.

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If you follow it through to chapter 55 and verse 12, you have this marvelous promise

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that is given to the people who have experienced such intense sorrow.

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God says to the barren woman, the deserted wife, and the people of the ruined city, you

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will go out in joy and you will be led forth in peace, and the mountains and the hills

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will burst into song before you, and all of the trees will clap their hands.

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Now you say, how in all the world can that happen?

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How can the people who have known the greatest sorrows end up finding this greatest joy?

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You are listening to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith in our message today called Restore

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Joy. It’s part of a series originally called Restore My Soul and it’s one of the most popular

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messages of the past twelve months. This month we’ll be broadcasting many of the most popular

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messages under the title, Listeners’ Favorites, and if you’ve missed any of the series so

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far, or if you want to listen again, or go back you can do that by coming online to our

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website www.openthebible.org.uk or you can find us as a podcast if that’s a more convenient

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way for your to hear Pastor Colin’s teaching, and those are available on all the regular

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podcasting sites, search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to receive regular updates.

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Back to the message now, we are now in Isaiah and chapter 54, here’s Colin.

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How can the people who’ve known the greatest sorrows end up finding this greatest joy?

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Now, let’s answer that question by looking more closely at what happens in this chapter.

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Verse one, the barren woman is singing, why?

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Because she is surrounded by a community of people who love her like their own mother,

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and she finds joy in them as if they were her own children.

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Sing o barren woman, you who never bore a child.

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Burst into song and shout for joy, you who never were in labor.

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Why?

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Because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband, says

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the Lord.’

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So the joy of this woman is that although she has no children of her own, she finds

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herself in a community of God’s redeemed people who love her as if she were their own mother,

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and she has come to love these people as if they were her own children.

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So the barren woman has found joy in God’s people.

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That’s Isaiah chapter 54 in verse 1, joy in God’s people.

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What’s it mean for the deserted wife?

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What’s happened in her life?

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Well, she has gone through such emotional trauma, but now she has become a woman of

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confidence, she has dignity, she is not ashamed, and she knows that she is loved.

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Verse 4, ”Do not be afraid,” God says to her, ”you will not suffer shame.

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Do not fear disgrace.

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”You will not be humiliated.

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”And remember no more the reproach of your widowed.”

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So this remarkable healing is going to take place in this woman’s life, and now God tells

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us why in verse 5.

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”For,” here is the reason, ”your maker is your husband,” wow, ”the Lord Almighty

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is His name.

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”The Holy one of Israel is Your Redeemer.

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He is called the God of all the earth.”

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So just as the barren woman has found joy in God’s people, this deserted wife is finding

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joy in God’s love.

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”Your maker is your husband,” 54 in verse 5.

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Let’s look at the ruined city.

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It’s being rebuilt, only it’s being rebuilt infinitely better.

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Guys in construction, you have never seen anything like this building project.

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Look at it with me.

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”Oh, afflicted city lashed by storms and not comforted…”

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God says, ”I will build you with”, what?

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”with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires, your battlements of rubies,

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your gates of sparkling jewels and all your walls of precious stones.”

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And where in the world could you see a city built of that stuff?

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Well, John in the New Testament takes up these very words from Isaiah in Revelation in chapter

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21, and makes it very clear that what Isaiah is describing here is the New Jerusalem that

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comes down out of heaven that will be the everlasting home filled with joy for all the

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people of God.

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And so what Isaiah is speaking about here is that there will be joy for those who have

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experienced such devastation in their city, in the city who’s builder and maker is God.

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To quote the Book of Hebrews, and they’re finding joy in God’s city.

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Now, let’s put these three together because they’re giving us the key to how folks who

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have experienced great sorrow in life may hope to enter into an even greater joy.

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Those who have experienced this sorrow are finding joy in God’s people, joy in God’s

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love, and joy in God’s city.

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And the fullness of this joy, of course, awaits the day when our Lord Jesus Christ

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will come back in power and in glory.

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But in Jesus Christ, the beginning of that joy is ours already, so that when Jesus Christ

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comes again, you see, the little family, nuclear family thing won’t be anymore.

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That’s why there’s no more marriage in heaven.

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There will be an extension of community so that the love of the one who is lonely will

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be as if this one was my own mother, and I was her son, and this experience of love and

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joy that is shared by all in the presence of God will be complete.

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But it is begun even now, so that by the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ we are brought

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together into a community where what really matters is not so much that we’re married

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or we’re single, or we’re rich, or we’re poor, but we come to find joy in one another in

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Jesus Christ, and to build one another up in the body of Christ. That’s what the church

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is all about and we … On that day we will know God’s love as we have never known it

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in this life, yet already we taste the joy of the love of God. And although we’ve not

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yet seen the city that lies ahead of us, already we have come to know the one who is building

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us and he says to us, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against

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him.

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You’ve been listening to Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Restore Joy. It’s been

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a message which many people have requested so we’ve included it on our list of listener’s

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favorites. I hope you found it helpful to hear how people who experience great sadness

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and difficulty in life can also find great joy in Jesus Christ. Next time we’re going

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to look at how we can cultivate that joy. So I hope you’ll join us for that broadcast.

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If you ever miss one of the messages, why don’t you come online. There you can go back

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and listen again or catch up with ones you might have missed. Our website address is

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www.openthebible.org.uk. Also on our website, and available as a podcast, is Open The Bible

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Daily, and that’s a series of short two to three minute daily reflections based on Pastor

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Colin Smith’s teaching and read in the UK by Sue MacLeish. You can find that on our

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website, openthebible.org.uk, and again as a podcast.

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At Open the Bible we welcome contact with our listeners. If you’ve been blessed by

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Pastor Colin Smith’s teaching and you’d like to reach out to us, there are several

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ways you can do that. You can write to us at Open the Bible PO Box 1420 Cheltenham

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GL50 9PG or you can phone us on 0330 335 8089. If we’re not available when you call,

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leave a message for us and we’ll return your call. All of these contact details are

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available on our website, openthebible.org.uk.

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Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners, that’s people just like you.

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And if supporting Open the Bible is something you’ve been considering doing, this month

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we have an offer for you which I hope you’ll like. If you’re able to set up a new donation

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to the work of Open the Bible, in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to thank

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you by sending you a copy of Pastor Colin’s new book Flying Through the Bible. And Colin,

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I think you’re keen for us not to just read this book ourselves, but to pass it on to

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someone else.

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What I’m hoping is that folks will ask the question, who is there in my life who really

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needs to know the God of the Bible? Someone’s who’s not yet a believer, but just might be

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open to discover what God’s Word actually says. What I’ve found over the years is that

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the best way to introduce someone who does not yet believe to the truth, is to start

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with an overview of the Bible. The Bible actually is God’s way of disclosing the building blocks

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that we need in order to understand who Jesus is, what he’s accomplished and what he’s able

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to offer to us. So this is a very simple introduction to the Bible that you could give to someone

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who does not yet believe or to someone who’s a new believer and really needs to be discipled

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and established in the faith.

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Well we’d love to send you a copy of Colin’s book, Flying Through the Bible, if you’re

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able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per

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month or more this month.

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You can give online and there are full details of this offer on our website, OpentheBible.org.uk.

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For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I hope you’ll be able

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to join us again next time.

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Many people feel that life’s too short for sorrow.

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What good can come out of it?

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Discover the value of sorrow next time on Open the Bible.