What does First B Jackson teach about finding joy?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on finding joy starts not with a feeling to chase but with a Person to know. When Scott Eichen preached from Psalm 34:8, he made the point plainly: God is the author of joy, and it is found in Christ and nowhere else. Jesus told His disciples these things so that they would be filled with His joy and that it would overflow. Scott drew on John 15:11 and John 17:13 to show that this is not occasional encouragement tucked into Scripture; it is a consistent promise. The invitation of Psalm 34:8 is to move past a secondhand, distant knowledge of God into actual experience of His goodness, the way standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon is entirely different from seeing a photograph of it.
Pastor Ray's teaching from Psalm 92 pressed in the same direction from a different angle. The psalm opens by declaring it is good to give thanks to the Lord, and Ray said that is not an accidental starting point. Devoting even a little time to God in the morning and evening does something real in a person. He acknowledged that February and March fill up the counseling room with seasonal heaviness, and he did not pretend otherwise. But the psalm's closing image, the righteous person still yielding fruit in old age, full of sap and very green, points to an unending vitality that the circumstances of a hard season cannot take away. The worship and gratitude the psalm calls for are not things you add on top of life once life gets easier; they are the thing that sustains you while it is still hard.
Both messages agree that this kind of joy is inseparable from where you are planted. Scott's point about David is worth sitting with: being delivered from danger was a blessing, being protected afterward was a greater blessing, but drawing near to God and enjoying His presence rather than just His gifts was the greatest blessing of all. That progression, from relief to relationship, is where joy takes root and holds.
Taught from Psalm 34:1-8 · Psalm 92 · John 15:11 · John 17:13 · Ephesians 2:4-6
The passage taught · Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- February 25, 2024 It Is Good to Give Thanks to the Lord Pastor Ray walks through Psalm 92, calling the church to tireless praise, honest humility before God, and the unending vitality promised to those rooted in Him.
- February 17, 2019 Taste and See That the Lord Is Good Psalm 34:8 calls us to personally taste and see that God is good. Pastor Scott Eichen explores what that means and how prayer, Scripture, and trust in Jesus make it real.
Mentioned along the way
- March 15, 2022 Faith and Endurance James 1:1-12 shows that trials build endurance and maturity in believers. Pastor Carl walks through faith in action, God's wisdom, and the promise of the crown of life.