Isaiah 12:1-6 – In that day you will sing: “I will praise you, O Lord! You were angry with me, but not any more. Now you comfort me. 2 See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” 3 With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation! 4 In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is! Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things.   6 Make known his praise around the world. Let all the people of Jerusalem[a] shout his praise with joy!  For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.”

Today if you need a reason to rejoice then listen to the words of Isaiah. This is a song of praise for the captives coming home, a song for the sinner who finds salvation, and a song for the backsliding believer who is comes back to Christ. God saved us for a purpose and that purpose is praise, it’s a word that’s mentioned over 200 times in the bible. Here Isaiah says that we should praise Him for He is our:

• Salvation

Isaiah mentions salvation here three times, and reveals one of the most amazing truths, that God’s righteous anger against our sin is turned away from us. David paints this picture of peace in Psalm 103:8-12: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 9  He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. 10 He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. 11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. 12 He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Part of the sweetness of salvation is seeing and admitting the truth that God has a right to be angry with me but isn’t. In Romans 3:23 Paul points out how short we are because of sin:  “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God has a right to be angry with me over my sin but instead His anger was turned to His Son. Isaiah 53:4-6 says: “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”  When was the last time you really stopped to let the coast of your salvation really soak in, and consider what your Savior really did for you on the cross? Jesus didn’t just take my physical death, He took my spiritual death, an eternal death. Without Jesus death on the tree I was heading for an everlasting torment in Hell. This is the greatest exchange of all time, I got God He got my guilt, I got God’s promises He got my pain, I got pardoned He my punishment. He took the death I deserved so I could have His life I didn’t deserve. In Romans 5:6-9 we are reminded that the gift of grace is not because we are good but because He is God: “6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.”  Salvation gives us a reason to shout, so what about you are you experiencing Jesus joy in your life? If not it might be because you have wondered away from the well of your salvation. Thirst always comes when we trade trusting for trying. I think our problem today is that we have become content to sip from the supply when we could be slurping, “With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!” Are you drinking deeply from the source? In John 4:4-12 Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman about salvation and the real well water of life: 4 “Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus is the well and He offered this woman the water she needed. At first this woman chose to argue with wisdom, what a waste of the well. Yet how often do we argue with the Almighty instead of drinking from the well of His Word? Today what are you drinking deeply from, is it the fountain of life or lies? This woman was caught up in the carnal but after Christ she chose life. Only truth can quench your thirst. Maybe today you’re not feeling the joy, maybe someone has hurt you or betrayed you. Maybe a loved one is going through a terrible illness, or dying from a deadly disease. The truth is that no matter your situation you can always drink deeply from the fountain of salvation. Hurt does not hinder hope. Salvation is not just our help it is our healing, it brings us peace in the panic and comfort in the chaos. Are you rejoicing in your rescue, are you praising in His provision? It feels good to be forgiven, yet far too many of us are sipping from the free fountain of forgiveness. Today is it time for you to stop sipping and start slurping?

Psalms 30:5 – “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning”

We know that darkness comes before the dawn but sometimes the darkness is so deep that we lose sight of the coming light. Have you ever been bound by the blinding darkness, the darkness that debilitates and discourages? This is where we find the disciples after the death of Jesus, they went from triumph to tragedy in one week. Mary had anointing the feet of the One they followed. They had entered Jerusalem in a triumphant procession, the disciples proudly marching with the Messiah, for in their minds it was a parade of power. Christ had cleansed the Temple turning over tables, revealing religion for the con-artist and crook it was. Jesus observed the Passover and Judas made his pact with the priests. In the Garden of Gethsemane the place of pain and prayer they slept through His suffering. Then came the kiss of betrayal, the beatings and the trial, as they tried and tortured Truth.  There was the mocking of the mob, the pounding of the nails, the crucifixion of the creator, the ridicule and rejection, the tree and the tomb. Jesus was dead and while the demons danced and the devil delighted, the disciples sank into the deepest depths of despair. Mary, the mother of Jesus mourned. Darkness descended, all nature was numb, and there was sadness and weeping for the world that had killed the Word. It always appears darkest before the dawn, and for the disciples it appeared that their dream had died. They were looking for the long awaited Messiah, Luke 24:13 tells us that they “were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”  They were looking for the conquering king who would replace the Romans and set up His rule, so they could take their place of power. Like the Mother of James and John who came to Jesus in Matthew 20:21 and said “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom” they had such hopes and dreams. But now their dreams had dissipated into the dark, as their leader lay dead in the tomb. Their dreams were replaced by disappointment, depression, despondency and despair. Like the disciples sometimes we experience the darkness that comes with the death of a dream. We watch and weep as life slams into and shatters the dreams we held so dear. Today you may find yourself like the disciples, dejected and dismayed by dreams that have been destroyed. To the disciples it appeared that truth had been trumped by the tomb. A great stone had been rolled across the entrance to the tomb, a stone of separation between the living and the dead. To them death looked like defeat, it appeared like the devil had won. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb in tears, and when the angels ask her in John 20:13 “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” The death of a dream brings the sting of separation and a lingering loneliness, the kind of loneliness that breads despair, where you feel alone even in a crowd. Like Mary many of you have or are experienced the sadness of separation, and the lingering loneliness and agony of alienation. You may be walking through the valley of the shadow of death through the loss of a loved one, the death of a marriage, financial failure or a falling out with a friend, maybe it’s a devastating diagnosis. When we descend into the darkness we often feel like no one understands what we are going through, so we listen to the lie that we need to carry the load alone. In our alienation we become angry, yet we still stay alone in the breeding ground of bitterness. Alienation doesn’t sooth the agony it often just magnifies our misery. The problem is that in the pain we forget His promises; instead of drawing closer we close out Christ. Jesus had given His followers several precious promises concerning His crucifixion and death, promises they had forgotten. He told the disciples that

• He would rise again – Luke 18:31-33 “Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. 32 He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. 33 They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.”
• When He would rise again – Matthew 12:38-40 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
• Death would not defeat Him and would hold no power over Him – John 10:17-18 17 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
• He is the Source of Life – John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die”
• He would not abandon and leave them alone – John 14:18-19 “18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.”

Many of us say we are following the Savior but are we walking in His provision along the pathway of His promises? What a mess we get in when we walk away from the Word, focusing on our troubles instead of His truth. He promises to never leave you Hebrews 13:5, to meet your needs Philippians 4:19, to comfort and protect John 14:16-17. Today are you focusing on your worry or His Word? Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning. As the darkness gave way to the dawn on that resurrection morning the devil and his demons who thought that they had destroyed the King of kings became the downcast ones. Their dancing was replaced by defeat, their delight dissipated as they understood their total downfall. Many times we get overwhelmed by the weeping and weariness of the night that we forget to focus on the coming light. Often there is a battle before the breakthrough and we have to remember the power of His promises. Being a follower of Christ means coming back to the truth of His teaching. In 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 Paul reminds us of the results if Christ had not risen “if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” Without His promises we would lead pathetic powerless lives. If Christ had remained in the grave we would be stuck in our guilt, and we would have good reason for our tears. But truth trumps our tears, we are not hopeless because the grave could not hold Him.  Death was destroyed, sin was silenced, the devil was defeated and our depression was turned to dancing. Night time can seem like an eternity when the enemy appears to be winning the war, but if we wait on the Word what seems like defeat will turn to delight.  As Mary and the other women traveled to the tomb in a trail of tears, they were focused on the barrier blocking their way that they couldn’t see the big picture. Sometimes we can’t see the Savior because we are so focused on the stone that seems to separate. Mark 16:2-7 reminds us not to focus on the conditions but on Christ: “Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3 On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. 5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, 6 but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!” Why do we center our focus on our circumstances instead of our conquering Christ? Why do we stress over the stones when we have a Savior? To you who have had dreams shattered, and those stuck in the depths of despair remember the enemy has been defeated, the victory has been won. Romans 8:37 reminds us that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” You see the death of a dream does not mean you have to be held hostage to hopelessness, you maybe moaning right now but the morning is coming.