Fullness of Joy to Give You Strength

This episode contains portions from the following program: "Consumed with Joy in the Lord."

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Dannah Gresh: Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wulga . . . I mean, here’s Nancy DeMoss Woogla . . . no, that’s not it. Here’s Mancy DeNoss Wafflemouth! That’s definitely not it. Well, Nancy DeMoss Wol . . . uh . . . Nancy says, “God never gets confused!” 

Hey, did you think I forgot that this is the weekend program? Well, I didn’t, and yes, I know how to pronounce that name—most of the time. 🙂

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend! I’m Dannah Gresh.

Last week we talked about the freedom that we have in Christ. Next week we’ll talk about the fruitfulness He blesses us with. And that leaves us with the topic of experiencing fullness. Let’s dive in! 

In a few moments, Nancy DeMoss WOLgemuth will share how we can have fullness of joy in Christ.

But before we listen to that, our team compiled some of the funny moments that we’ve recorded over the years here at Revive Our Hearts. Because, hey, it’s for your enJOYment!

I think we are going to have some good laughs. Ya know, it’s no fun to have to giggle by myself. So Erin Davis is here in the studio with me. Erin, are you ready to laugh?

Erin Davis: I’m here. I’ve got my giggle-box all warmed up. Let’s laugh! Yours is all warmed up too.

Dannah: I’m all warmed up. You’ve most likely heard Erin on the Revive Our Hearts daily program and this weekend program. And of course, we’re both cohosts on the Grounded videocast. So, Erin, you’re pretty familiar with Revive Our Hearts, right?

Erin: Pretty familiar, yes.

Dannah: I want to know if you have a funny memory of Nancy or one of her recordings.

Erin: Oh no, a funny memory of Nancy. This is what comes to mind. I don’t know how funny it is. 

I was recording in the Revive Our Hearts studio a series for The Deep Well. Nancy was kind of my hair and makeup person. So she would come in the bathroom with me. She would smooth my flyaways and adjust me. It felt kind of surreal to have Nancy as my behind-the-scenes person.

She was so gracious, and I was so grateful she was there.

Dannah: Aww, she’s such a good behind-the-scenes helper.

I don’t know why this is coming to mind, but once I got a very cheerful text from Nancy at 4:00 a.m.!

She did not realize that she was in a different time zone. I mean, she realized she was in a different time zone, but she didn’t think about it, and she really wanted me to respond back to her.

So, we had a conversation at 4 a.m. and she didn’t figure out for two days that she had awakened me in the middle of the night.

Erin: You didn’t tell her?

Dannah: I didn’t until I got to South Africa where she was waiting for me, and I said, “By the way, it was 4 a.m.”

Erin: I don’t know why we do that. People will call when we are asleep and we’ll always say, “Nope! I was wide awake.”

Dannah: We don’t say that. We go (hushed), “No, I was waiting for your call.” 

Okay, well, let’s get started with this audio that the team found! What do we have first?

Erin: Well, we already heard you completely butcher Nancy’s name . . .

Dannah: Let me clarify! That one was actually scripted, and I sounded like I was reading it. I don’t think I’ve ever butchered it that badly. But I have messed it up plenty. I mean, WOLGEMUTH? Who has a name like that?

Erin: It’s tough. I mean, part of my role at Revive Our Hearts is serving on the content team. I’ll tell you, it keeps us up at night: “Did we misspell Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth!”

Here’s a little insider scoop. When I’m editing, I actually Google my boss, Nancy’s, name—just to be sure! Because the more you look at it, the more you think you might not have it right. So I’m Googling Wolgemuth all the time.

Dannah: That’s funny!

Erin: Well, Dannah, I actually have a clip of you saying it wrong for real.

Dannah: Do I want to hear this?

Erin: I don’t know, but we are going to. 

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth . . . (multiple times)

Revive Our Hearts is also a mouthful! Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. Could we add something else in there that makes it complicated?

(I thought is was “wool” for a long time, but I had to learn “wall.”)

I’m so glad she got rid of “Leigh.”

(many other tries:) )

I’ve only said it 5,000 times yesterday!

You’ll want to be sure to get a copy of “Rogert . . . Rogert Wallbermouth.”

Erin: I feel like that was a remix, like you were at your DJ station. I like it!

“Rogert” probably liked it too.

Dannah: “Rogert” probably did!

Next up, here are some moments over the years that didn’t make it onto the air—funny mistakes I’ve made and mistakes Nancy’s said. You’ll hear Bob Lepine and Juli Slattery in there too.

Nancy: If I could borrow your iPhone

Do you say it the same way on a iPhone that you do on other phones?

Bob: Yeah, you do. But there is a little bit more coolness in your voice.

Nancy: Oh . . .

Bob: Uh huh.

Nancy: My voice is already cool, isn’t it?

Bob: Yes, it is. (laughter)

Dannah: I’m not prone to extreme emotional maturity, but I have my moments.

Juli: What? You’ve never tasted coffee? So, Nancy, you just told me something I didn’t know about you. You never . . . ? 

Phil (producer): I’m sorry, something’s not right

Juli: Something is not right with this woman if she’s never tasted coffee!

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Nancy: Dannah, there are a group of listeners who make this happen in a special way, and we call them our Monthly Partner Team. I’ve often called this team the lifeblood of our ministry. That’s because, they are. (laughter)

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Phil (producer): You’re fifteen years older than you were.

Nancy: So you want me to sound young? (giggle) I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

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Dannah: You see, I’ve never had road rage before or since then . . . but I’m going to have some now, some road rage. There’s a road out there somewhere.

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Erin: Dannah, that reminds me of something else. It’s no secret that as technology progresses our recording processes have changed a bit. And most of the time these days, when you hear us talking with someone, we’re probably not in the same room together.

Dannah: Yeah, like right now. You’re in Missouri, I’m in Pennsylvania.

Erin: That’s true. We’re hearing each other over a video call. Most of the time, that works pretty well. It sure does save on travel costs! But sometimes it has its own issues. Like this one from a recording of The Deep Well podcast.

I think every woman can probably relate.

Judy: Yes. 

Together: You can probably relate . . . go ahead . . .

Erin: No, you go Judy.

Together: Yeah, I think something . . .

Judy: Okay, Stacy, you go . . . 

Stacy: No, you go Judy.

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Dannah: I’ll go. (laughter)

Yeah, there can be some insanity. And that leads to another post-Covid challenge: recording at home. You know that we record the Grounded videocast at home . . . sometimes by ourselves . . . with everything contained in our home . . . including the dogs! 

Dannah: World events don’t . . . Moose! (barking)

I don’t know what . . . (walking) Oh, my ears. I just pulled one of them out. Moosey, come here! Moosey, Moosey, move! Come here! Move! Move! Move! Sit down! You’re being bad together. Go under there.

It’s called “When Words Matter Most.”

Erin: Dannah, you’ve got to have some gracious words for your puppy, Moosey, because I hear him barking.

Dannah: I’m so sorry.

Erin: You’re calling him “bad dog.”

Dannah: Here’s the thing: Dannah Gresh is getting on an airplane the second I get finished with this. There’s a suitcase out there, and Moose is in mourning, and you all get to participate in his sadness today. I’m sorry.

Erin: Go give him some wise, hope-filled words.

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Dannah: And here’s our dear Erin to drive that point home.

Erin: And my puppy, Moses, who was being so good until it was time for me to be on, and now he’s barking. (barking)

Dannah: He’s decided to join the party.

Erin: Joining the Grounded chorus. Just ignore his barking. We’re going to just roll.

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Erin: So I tracked down another cohost. Hang on. Here she is.

Portia: That is the cutest.

Erin: Look, he doesn’t want to be separated from his mama. 

Oh, you’ve got Moosey.

Dannah: He snuck in. He broke through the door.

Erin: Things have gone to the dogs, y’all.

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Erin: Portia, I’m going to talk to you. (barking) And . . . your dog.

Portia: Amen. (laughter)

Erin: I think he was amen-ing.

Portia: Clearly, clearly. Now, he was quiet the whole time and now we get to the end and he wanted to let out a bark.

Erin: He wanted to participate. (laughter)

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Dannah: We sound like crazy women!

Erin: There was something about when the dogs came out. You both have a special voice for that.

Dannah: Yeah, we grit our teeth. 

Okay, Erin, I don’t think you’re ready for this next one.

Erin: Really?

Dannah: You’re going to hear a side of Nancy that you probably didn’t know existed!

Erin: Well, I have seen her behind the scenes a few times, but now I’m curious! Let’s listen to it!

Dannah: This was almost ten years ago, when Mary Kassian and Nancy filmed the videos to go with the True Woman 201 study. And they did it at a different studio in town, not at our offices.

Erin: I feel like we’re about to hear some dirt. I can’t wait to hear it.

Dannah: Yeah. Here we go.

Mary: We may need a flyswatter. There’s a fly buzzing around.

Nancy: If one of us swallows it, are we allowed to stop? (laughter) Yeah, that fly needs to go.

Got it!

Mary: Nancy killed the fly! We got it on video! She killed it, look. (laughter)

Nancy: The great fly killer.

Mary: Seven in one blow!

I can’t believe you got that with your bare hand!

Nancy: There’s another one.

Mary: I just don’t want fly guts on me.

Nancy: You’re one for zero.

Mary: Well, I did hit him. I just didn’t hit him hard enough.

Producer: There are no flies on us.

Mary: There may be flies on some of you guys. But there ain’t no flies on us.

Nancy: We can’t sing that over here.

Mary: We can’t sing either.

Nancy: We can sing campfire songs.

Mary, there’s a fly. Get it!

Mary: Oh! (laugher)

Come on fly. I dare you. I dare you.

Nancy: It can be the littlest thing . . . 

Mary: I was just going to get that guy. (smack) I was going to let you finish your sentence, and then I was going to . . . We’re collecting carcasses. How many do we have now?

I told you, what I want to start is a viral video and just have you grab one and eat it. (laughter) It’s good protein.

Nancy: If I got one in my hand, I just might do that! (laughter)

Mary: I can hardly believe that we are already on element number eight (buzzing) or that there is a fly on you!

Oh, oh, oh, oh (papers rattling) I missed!

Nancy: Okay, do you care now Paula that you got her blouse now off center?

Mary: I’ve got to give up this aggressive tendency for flies!

There is a fly that has come back to life.

Nancy: Where?

Mary: There. See?

We threw it in there dead, and now it is alive.

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, the fly killer. I guess that’s how I’ll start introducing her. Well, Erin, do you think you can top that one?

Erin: Well, I don’t know that I can top the fly killing, but I’m gonna read you something—this isn’t actually an audio clip—I’m just going to read some lists.

Dannah: Okay.

Erin: They were written for the tenth anniversary celebration of Revive Our Hearts and shared with our staff. Let me warn you—don’t take these too seriously!

Dannah: I think I’ve figured out that I shouldn’t take anything too seriously today.

Erin: Ok. So, these are “top 10” lists about things that Revive Our Hearts and Nancy won’t do. Are you ready for the top ten resources Revive Our Hearts should never create?

Dannah: Yeah, I want to hear them.

Erin: Number ten: Choosing Bitterness: A Pathway to . . .

Dannah: No, we should not create that.

Erin: How about number six: The 30-Day Husband Makeover. Why do you think that one’s not such a good idea?

Dannah: I think that one would sell.

Erin: Well . . . it would sell, but we want God to make over women’s hearts.

Dannah: Exactly right.

Erin: How about number four, a dating service called: ConnectOurHearts.com.

Number two, I can see this in a hospital near you: a Revive Our Hearts defibrillator.

The number one resource we should never create is a Nancy bobblehead doll. (laughter)

Dannah: I would actually like to see that!

Erin: I would too!

Dannah: Do you think they make any one-offs of those things?

Erin: I don’t know. A limited edition. 

How about this? Top ten books that Nancy will not be writing.

Number ten: Dog Training: The Complete Manual

Dannah: That will be me.

Erin: Yeah, that would be you. Little tidbit, Nancy’s not the dog lover that Dannah and I am.

Number four, I could never imagine Nancy saying or writing this: Living without Electricity . . . and Loving It.

Dannah: Homesteading the Revive Our Hearts way. (laughter)

Erin: Number two, this could be a hit: Jazzercise with Nancy (laughter)

Probably not coming to a bookstore near you.

Dannah: I really do want to see the jazzercise.

Erin: I do too. I can picture the cover of that book, can’t you?

Dannah: Yeah.

Erin: Are you ready for one more list, Dannah? Top ten radio series you’ll never hear on Revive Our Hearts.

Number ten, this is a no-brainer: “Ten Ways to Avoid Your Husband’s Authority.” Dannah, if we ever record that series, they need to pull the plug.

Number eight: “Just Believe”

Dannah: It sounds a little Christmas-y. Like those Christmas-y signs.

Erin: Number two: “Go Skydiving with Nancy”

Dannah: Really, the jazzercise video and that . . . I just want to see the pictures.

Erin: I think we could do a combination there. We could jazzercise from the plane, then skydive. Then we could homestead. Then Jesus will come back.

Dannah: We need the 1990s hair for the jazzercise.

Erin: You’re so right!

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Erin: Oh boy, that was fun! Why haven’t we done this before?

Dannah: Because we may lose our jobs, Erin. This may be the end of Erin and Dannah for Revive Our Hearts.

Erin: Surely not. Well, we could pick up a career doing jazzercise, I suppose.

Dannah: I’m going to write that dog book.

Well, you know, being silly isn’t exactly the main focus of this program or any of our other ones.

Erin: Yeah, you’re right.

Dannah: And so far today we haven’t talked about anything really profound. That is an understatement.

Erin: Well, I don’t know. I now know that it might be a good idea to hang up fly paper before you do a video shoot in an unfamiliar studio. I think that’s pretty wise advice.

And you know, Proverbs 17:22 does say that “a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

I was just talking today to Ezzy, my five year old, about how much fun God is. I think He likes it when we enjoy our lives.

Dannah: So true. You know, our goal here at Revive Our Hearts is to provide solid biblical teaching. And it’s okay to just have fun sometimes—I sure have had fun doing this! But we want to leave you with something you can think about, hold on to, as you go about your day.

Because true joy is about more than laughing and having fun. Maybe as we’ve had fun today you thought, I wish I could laugh, but I’m hurting too much. It’s hard to laugh when someone you love passes away or you have a prodigal. But when you can’t laugh, you can still have joy. How? Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth talked about that in a series on Psalm 92. She’s talking about verses 2 and 4. Let’s listen.

Nancy: The joy we’re talking about is not rooted or grounded in what’s going on around us which may be painful, grievous, hard. That’s not the source of our joy. What is the source of our rejoicing and our joy?

The source of our joy is in who God is—His faithful love, His steadfast love, His loving kindness, and His faithfulness. That word in the Hebrew means, literally, “firmness.” We waffle. We waiver. We shift. We go up and down sometimes with our emotions or with how we’re feeling. But God is firm. The word “faithfulness” means “security, stability.” He is a steady, faithful God. When we’re up and down, He is steady. He is faithful.

So who God is, this is a reason for joy, for rejoicing, and for celebrating the goodness of God.

So in verse 2 we see a source of joy is who God is, but then we come to verse 4, and we find another source of our joy. “You have made me rejoice, LORD, by what You have done.”

Verse 2: Who You are causes me to have joy and rejoicing. Verse 4: What You have done makes me rejoice.

I will shout for joy [Why?]
because of the works of your hands. (v. 4)

What You have done.

First, who You are, and then what You have done—the works of Your hands.

Our God is a God who works. He worked from the very first pages of Scripture. Before there was time and heaven and earth, He was working. He is still working. He will be working for all of eternity. The works of God should make us glad. They should be a cause for joy and rejoicing.

Now, I just want to read here a string of verses—we’ll put the references in the transcript to today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com—but I want you to get a sense of how God works and what He does in His work because this is supposed to make us joyful. This is supposed to make us rejoice.

So, we see in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God was creating. I think, in the true sense of the word, we wouldn’t use that word for anybody other than God because He made it ex nihilo—out of nothing, God worked. He made everything that is out of nothing. Anything we make just takes things God has made and makes something more out of them, brings them together, arranges them. But God is the One who created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. He was working in Genesis 1.

Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7) 

God formed the man. God was working. He was shaping the man, body and soul, making the man until he became a living being with the very breath of God in him. God was at work.

And then going back to the last verse of Genesis, chapter 1, 

God saw all that he had made, [the work that He had done, He looked it over, examined it] and it was very good indeed. (Gen.1:31)

The work of God is good. God works, and what He makes is good.

We see this theme running through all of Scripture. Job 5:9–10 says that, 

God does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number. 

Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works:
Which You have done; 

[This is supposed to bring us joy, to make us rejoice.]

And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered. (Psalm 40:5 NKJV)

The works of God. You may see God doing a few little things in your life, and you think, But there’s so much else going on here. There’s so many problems I’m facing.

But the Scripture says the works of God are numerous. They are wonderful. They are without number. You can’t count if you tried all the things that God is doing in this world and on behalf of His people and for the salvation, redemption of this planet. You can’t count how many works He is doing.

God sent His precious Son Jesus to this earth to do His works here on earth, the miracles, the healings, the words He spoke, the messages He gave. These are the works of God that Jesus came to bring to us in such a way that we could see the works of God in a new way and then to bring about here through His crucifixion and His resurrection the ultimate, redeeming, saving works of God.

God continues to work now that Jesus has ascended into heaven. He is praying for us. We are down here on earth, and the Scripture says in Philippians chapter 2: 

It is God who is today till continuing to work in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. (Phil. 2:13 paraphrased)

God is still working. He’s working in us so that we want to love Him, to praise Him, to follow Him, to serve Him, and to enable us to do His work according to His purpose for His glory in this world that He has created. That’s Philippians 2:13.

This is the wellspring of true and lasting joy—to focus not on my works, but His, not on what I have done, but on what He has done.

How much do we often focus our attention, our affections, our thinking on what others have done? The things that have blessed us? The things that have hurt us or harmed us or annoyed us? Or on what we have done—our achievements, our accomplishments, or our failures? We get so wrapped up in what others have done and what we have done, and we forget to think about, to meditate on, to reflect on what God has done.

I want to encourage you to be alert, to be tuned today to what God has done, to what God is doing all around you, to the works of His hands. Notice them. Think about them. Point them out to others.

Are our thoughts trivial? Are they petty? Or are they profound and pure and rich and deep like God’s thoughts?

Do you want to have God’s thoughts? Open His Book. You read it. You meditate on it. You live in it. You soak in it. You steep in it, like I put my tea bag in my cup in the morning, and I let it steep. I let it soak in the hot water until what’s in that tea bag gets infused into the water. That’s what we want God’s Word to be doing in our hearts so that we will have His thoughts filling our minds.

Our prayer is that our thoughts would align with His thoughts: that we would ponder His thoughts and His works; that we would be shaped by them, formed by them, sanctified by them because we become what we think about. So if that’s true, what are you becoming?

What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about His magnificent works? His profound thoughts? And do those thoughts and those works of the Lord inspire you to worship? to wonder? to awe? to joy?

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been reminding us that who God is and what He’s done should fill us with a joy that goes beyond funny moments and happy memories. I have to confess that I sometimes start to lose my focus on God and focus instead on my hard circumstances. And when I do, I lose my joy in Him. Have you experienced that?

The solution isn’t distraction with movies, food, or friends, and it’s not more busyness. It’s simply to get in the Word, spend time with God, and meditate on who He is. Maybe go on a walk and enjoy His beautiful creation. Thank Him for what He’s done. You will start to see your trials in a new light. They may not go away, but you can have joy in the midst of them.

Sometimes I need a reminder, like Nancy gave today, to look to Christ. You probably do too. And our goal here at Revive Our Hearts is to point women all over the world to who God is and what He’s done. 

If you needed that reminder today, would you pray about helping us spread the message to even more women? Thanks to listeners like you, we’re able to produce biblical content in fourteen languages—and that number is always growing.

If you want to help, get in touch with us at ReviveOurHearts.com, or if you’d rather, you can call 1-800-569-5959. And when you give a gift of any amount, we’d love to send you a booklet. It’s a 30-day devotional called Living Out the One Anothers of Scripture. So when you give, you’re helping us serve others, and you will be equipped to better serve the people you interact with face to face! 

Again, go to ReviveOurHearts.com to donate, and when you do, be sure to ask for your copy of Living Out the One Anothers of Scripture.

Oh, and Erin, you know more about Revive Our Hearts products than I do. While I’m at the website, can I order one of those bobblehead Nancys?

Erin: Uh, no. You forgot, those were things we’re not going to do.

Dannah: Oh, right. Too bad.

Okay, so maybe you can’t get that, but come back next week, because we have something way better! Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Hunter Beless, Laura Wifler, and I will talk about what it means to be fruitful. I’ll give you a hint—it’s more than just worldly success.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time, for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

Dannah: This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.