Wellspring Of Joy Part 2 by Pastor Philip Olubakin: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Habakkuk 3:17-18 — "although the fig tree shall not blossom... yet I will rejoice." The true test of commitment is not when things are fine — it's what you do when they're not. "I will" is a decision, not a feeling.

Jesus gave thanks over five loaves and two fish before they multiplied — thanks given over what wasn't enough. He wept at Lazarus's tomb, and nothing happened; only after giving thanks did Lazarus come out. Proverbs 17:22 — "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Psalm 67:3-7 — when the people praise God with gladness, the earth yields its increase.

Seven Springs of Joy

1. The joy of your salvation

Psalm 51:12 — "restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." 1 Peter 1:8-9 — "whom having not seen, ye love... ye rejoice with joy unspeakable." This joy rests on identity, not circumstance — knowing whose you are, not what you currently have. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood on the same footing: "our God is able to deliver us... but if not, we will not bow."

2. The joy of the Holy Spirit

Romans 14:17 — "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." A personal testimony: raised around a stepmother's occult practices, converted on a university campus, and baptized in the Holy Spirit — joy that held steady through mockery for tying an old, un-ironed necktie to church, through a relative pulling him out of church into a chemist shop (which became an unplanned mission field), through a car accident and a child's injury on the same day. Joy that isn't attached to things doesn't collapse when things go wrong.

3. The joy of his presence

Psalm 16:11 — "in thy presence is fulness of joy." Coming into worship with a burden and leaving with it still intact is not how it's meant to work — his presence is meant to lift what's been carried in, the way people mistakenly look for that same relief in shortcuts that never actually deliver it.