Some years ago, a wise man said the following words, and I quote literally, he said,

the best argument for Christianity is Christians.

They joy, their certainty, and their completeness.

But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians.

When they are somber and joyless, when they are

self-righteous, when they are smug and complacent consecration, when they are narrow and

repressive. And then he went on to say, when that happened, Christianity dies a thousand death.

You know, just in case you don't think that it matters to the outside world, whether we are loving, joyful people or not,

one of the most extensive survey ever conducted across the nation and was conducted by one of the

most respected pollster. And the key question that was asked was this, what are you looking for

most in life? When the results were tabulated, the analysts were really surprised, we're genuinely surprised,

because they thought most people would answer would be on the top, would be financial security, success in business, success in life, whatever.

But to their surprise, the top three things that people want most in life were in this order love, joy,

peace, the first three of the fruit of the spirit. Please listen to what I'm going to tell you.

What the world is desperate for, whether they know it or not, whether they're able to verbalize it or not,

what the world is desperately looking for, not for more sermons, not for more exhortations,

but what the world is desperately looking for is to see the quality of our love and the quality

of our joy.

And that is and was the very marked that distinguished the believers,

the first church from the rest of the world in the Roman Empire.

Although the word joy is mentioned in the New Testament 70 times, 70 times, 7-0,

is mentioned 70 times in the New Testament 70 times, 70 times. 7.0 is mentioned 70 times in the New Testament alone.

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