Joy Under Pressure | JOY UP | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

To bring them on downstairs.

There's check-ins at the bottom of the stairs, so we'd love for you to be able to bring them down and have a great time this morning.

So this morning, before we get going, I just want to pray and we're going to get moving right into some worship this morning.

Lord, thank you for what you're going to do in this house.

Thank you for the opportunity we have to come worship you this morning, Lord.

We want to raise our hands, give you all the glory as we worship, Lord.

In Jesus' name, everyone said, Amen.

He has a great beat.

We have another cup.

He has a great thing.

He has a great day.

Oh heroes of heaven.

You conquer the grave.

You free every captive.

Break every chain, oh God.

You have done great things.

We just need your freedom, no way can fly.

Oh Jesus, our vision, your leg lifted high, oh God.

You have done great things You've been free for through every stone.

You'll be freeful forever more.

You have done great things.

And I know you will do it again.

For your promises, yes and amen.

You will do great things.

God, you do great things.

Oh hero of heaven, you conquered the grave.

You freed every captive, break every chain, oh God.

You have done great things.

We danced in your freedom, awakened alive.

Oh Jesus, our savior, your name lifted high, oh God.

You have done great things, Aluia God.

Above it all, hallelujah, God, and shake up all Iluya Have done great things.

Above it all, how ball, and shake up all, yeah, I knew I've done great things.

Above it all, I've been God, and shake up all I've done great thing.

Oh heaven, of heaven, you conquered the cream, you freed every captive and break everything, oh God.

You have done great things, we kept your freedom away and divine.

Oh Jesus, I did your name lifted high, oh God.

You have done great things, oh hum, you conquered the grief, you free every captive and break every dream, oh God.

You have done great things, we can do your free, we can deny, oh Jesus must take you, you may lift it high, oh God, you have done great thing, hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus Thank you, Jesus Thank you, Jesus.

All right, ready, let's sing out.

Jesus our redemption, our salvation, and Jesus, light of heaven, when you're don't let your hobby trouble hold your head up.

I don't feel no evil.

Take out this one.

Strange steepers, but it's why generations of every nation, of course.

Our salvation is in his blood, Jesus, the light of heaven, friend forever, his kingdom.

You kingdom, you will be able to fail.

He's working all things out.

You're working all things out, and yes I will lift you high in the lowest valley.

Yes, I will bless your name.

And yes, I will sing for joy.

Oh, when my heart is heavy in all my teeth.

Oh yes, I will choose your joy.

I count all one thing.

The same God that never fails will not fail me now.

You won't fail me now in the way.

The same God who's never faint, is working all things out.

Working all things out any yeah, down, lift you high in the lowest belly, yes, that wimp, the yes, I wish my joy with the heart is happy and oh my day.

Oh yes, I wish oh my day, oh yes, I will I did, oh yes, I do not just get it, and I just do it for the fire, fall as far as nothing can stand again, and I can do it by Nothing can again Canny yes, I will too highly I will deal Any Yes, I will sing for joy when my heart is heavy, oh my takes Yes I will be able to do it.

All your promises.

All your promises are yes and amen.

All your promises are yes and amen, and faithful, you all forever you will be faithful, you know, yes, I guess we're your promises, oh yesterday.

Oh your promises, oh yesterday.

Oh my promises, my yesterday, I will rest in your promises, my confidence is your faithfulness, and I will rest in your promises, my confidence is your faithfulness.

Jesus, you would own me anything more than anything that Jesus can do.

I just want you.

And I'm sorry.

When I just gone through the motions, I'm sorry.

When I just sing another song to be back to where we start, I open up my heart.

And I'm sorry.

When I've come with my agenda, I'm sorry.

When I forgot the or enough take me back to where we start.

I open up my heart.

Cut up in the smallest.

Cut up in this holy never wanted.

No, I'm not here for seats.

You don't hold me anything.

For anything that you do.

I just want you.

I just want you.

Just one.

Nothing else.

Nothing else.

Nothing else.

Well I just want.

Maybe for some whatever reason.

The Bible says that we're all one family.

And the greatest reminder of that is the fact of communion today.

It's the same blood that saved us.

How many of you were lost at one point and needed the redemption?

Need the blood to redeem us?

How many of you were broken at one point and needed his body to repair us?

We've just come across uh this last week was the beginning of 40 days of Lent, and it's the reminder of the countdown to the crucifixion, the countdown to uh the and a reminder of the day that Jesus was crucified.

And on Wednesday I was out with my wife, and we were out for coffee in the morning after dropping the kids off at school, and and we were watching as people were walking around with ash, ash Wednesday.

They were walking around with ash on their foreheads, marked as a reminder.

And as much as we are reminded of the passion of the Christ, the passion that he went through, we're also reminded of the celebration of the feast at the end of the journey.

Amen.

And what we look forward to is one day, as Jesus reminded us, we will sit together and we will drink together and we will eat together.

And can you imagine the size of that table?

It's gonna be incredible.

The table is gonna be full of people you may have expected to see there, and maybe people you never expected to be there.

But it's because of his grace and his life that we're saved.

Amen.

And this is our great reminder today.

Would you just share with us this first verse?

Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it.

He gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Would you take the bread?

Father, we give thanks for all that you've done.

We thank you for your body that was broken.

And how finally it was it was it was broken for us so that we could have communication, we could have that connection with you.

Lord, we thank you for a new body, we thank you for a new health, we thank you for uh restoring us fully, body, soul, spirit, mind.

You renewed us from the inside out.

Father, we thank you for sending your son Jesus to endure the pain on the cross for our benefit today.

Amen.

Would you take the bread with me?

I'll give you a moment to finish the bread before you read the second verse.

I know how this goes.

Your mouth is to try.

In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup saying, This is this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Would you all say new covenant?

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Father.

Would you just just begin to worship him right now?

Thank you for this new covenant.

The old is passed away, the new is come.

Our old person is buried and dead and gone.

But Father, because of you and because of your blood today, we have a new life and a new name and a new future and a new hope.

In Jesus' name.

Thank you for the blood.

Thank you for the life.

We celebrate you today.

Amen.

Will you take the cup with me?

Amen.

And as many people take this meal, and yes, it is a solemn meal.

I believe we just need to celebrate the Lord because for what he's done for us.

Would you just clap your hands and give him thanks this morning?

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Evangeline.

Thank you for being with us.

Um, would you just take a few moments and just greet, stand up, move around a little bit, and greet a few of the people that are around you, welcome them to church this morning, and just uh make them feel welcome.

You've uh probably seen some of the advertisements that are on your seats here.

We've got a drama happening in a short little while.

Uh it's uh a drama on Joseph, hosted by uh Heritage Christian School, and it's gonna be an excellent drama.

So start putting these notes on page.

This is what the stage is for.

It's uh it's gonna look a lot different in the next few weeks, and we're really excited um for when it when it actually happens to production week.

This is their tech week this week, and then production is the week following.

If you're new to KCC, uh we're glad you're here today.

We believe uh God wants to take everyone of us on a very specific, clearly defined spiritual journey.

Um, how many of you are on a spiritual journey?

You're still on it, yeah?

You are still going.

And if you don't know where you are uh going next spiritually, we provide uh next steps and we just want to take each person on this journey.

And the first being the importance of knowing God.

We believe it's so important that you actually have a relationship with God that's personal to yourself.

Personal, it's not based on the religion of your parents or the relationship of to God with your parents or your or your history or your culture that you're living in.

You're not just Christian because you live in Canada.

The heart of the Christian is based on the the individual's own heart, their the their consecration, their desire to follow God for themselves, and to follow Jesus and to make that decision to follow Him.

And so after you come to know God and come to realize all that uh Jesus did for us, we believe that the next step on that journey is to find freedom.

And when you know your sins are forgiven, but all of us have uh can look back and we go, yeah, our sins are forgiven, but I've still got issues.

Those issues are still evident.

If you don't know you have them, just talk to your spouse.

You've got them, I'm sure of it.

Okay, and you're trying to work them out, you're trying to iron it out, you're trying to uh get free from the past, and we call this step finding freedom.

And that's what this series, uh, this month is all about in joy up, joy under pressure, is finding freedom uh in those moments.

All of us need to move forward.

The next step is discovering your purpose.

The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born, why you're here.

Discovering purpose makes a difference so that you can begin to live your life on purpose, making a difference wherever you go.

And so today we're going to be sharing on this joy, this the spirit of joy, and uh what it's like to have joy under pressure.

And we're gonna be studying from the book of Philippians in the lobby.

You're gonna see a journal there in the lobby called our soap journal.

The soap actually is an acronym for scripture, reading a scripture every day, making an observation, putting down a piece of application so it becomes uh practical day to day, and then move into prayer.

So we're moving us this month into studying the book of Philippians.

So we're gonna move uh right into that today, but you're gonna hear me use a little bit of language, and probably the language that not bad language, like language, like a vocabulary that's gonna be happening throughout this series.

And I'm I'm gonna be talking about joy up, and joy up, and it's gonna be like a little bit of a handle that I'm I'm wanting us all to kind of take on, maybe move into our own lives, uh, into our own relationships, into our own vocabulary, where we talk about joy up.

Would you all say that with me?

Joy up, and what it means is to have joy under pressure, UP, that uh the under pressure.

When you're under pressure, you can look at someone and you can say you can look in the mirror if you need to.

You have to say, Joy up, Brody, joy up, come on.

Or I can look at my spouse and go, Natalie, yeah.

Joy up, Natalie, amen.

Love you so much.

Joy up, Natalie, and it's gonna be wonderful.

I can see it already.

We're gonna have to, some of you are gonna have to find freedom after this, um, after you do that once or twice.

But there's a truth in this message where we can encourage each other to keep our joy, to hold on to our joy, not lose the joy that is in our heart by keeping our perspectives, uh perspectives right in times of pressure.

And so uh this handle actually comes out of Philippians.

So I'm gonna give you a little bit of an overview on Philippians before we go into this message here.

Uh, the book of Philippians is written to the church in Philippi, and it's written by the Apostle Paul.

And if you haven't got your Bible here today, you're welcome to download a Bible, but I'm gonna encourage you throughout this whole uh series just to have a Bible on hand.

And if you have to download it on your iPhone or your Android or your iPad or whatever it is that you decide to use, um, just have it available.

I know you can download the KCC app, and there's a Bible available on it, and you can just make notes and and study along the way as well.

But the Apostle Paul is reading, uh writing this letter to the church and Philippi.

It's about four chapters in length and it's in the New Testament.

It's about 90.

If you go all the way to the back and then come back about 10%, that's about where Philippi uh Philippians is.

And he's talking about the pressures of life.

And it's similar to a lot of the pressures he's talking about are similar to the pressures that Jesus actually encountered.

And what makes this book so real is that it talks about authentic joy.

And it the hook is so relevant in here is that the fact that he's writing from a place of imprisonment, he's not writing from the beaches on Waikiki, like he's not writing from you know an all-inclusive resort.

He's writing from a place of prison, and he's speaking on joy.

In fact, in this four chapters, he speaks uh 16 times.

He mentions joy, be joyful, rejoice, have gladness, um, rejoice, like to renew it back in your heart, be thankful.

And so we want to continue to carry that spirit.

Now he's in prison, but he was a man on a mission.

And if you know anyone who's like that eight-type personality who's wanting to make sure, get things done, Paul is like church planting, he's moving, he's on missions trips, he's he's doing what he needs to do, and he finds himself handcuffed in prison, slowed right down, ministry, mission came to a stall, and he's still being able to stop and and and find that place of joy in that moment to be able to move forward.

Oftentimes in our lives, I feel like we come to a place where we feel delayed in our mission, and that kind of brings us down, and it's it's a great reminder in Philippians where Paul says, even though you found yourself delayed, like in between, still manage to look up and have joy in those places where you're under pressure.

So starting in Philippians chapter one, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 3.

I thank my God every time I remember you, in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with what?

Joy.

Have you ever prayed without joy before?

Yes.

I pray with joy thinking about you.

Like when you you're thinking when he's thinking about the people in his life, he's praying with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Amen.

What a great verse.

Father, we thank you for your word today.

We ask that you'd open up our hearts to receive from you.

We believe this word is living and active, it has power to change, power to adjust lives.

And so, Father, today we are we submit to your Holy Spirit and to your word.

Amen.

The first thing I want to make clear today, I want to create a clear distinction between joy and happiness.

Joy and happiness, these two words are not synonymous with each other.

Happiness is based on happenings.

It's very circumstantial.

It's uh it actually comes from the word root word, means to be lucky.

For example, I I thought of this illustration, it's like when you wake up and your stocks are up and your weight is down, you're happy.

Some of you are happy when you looked outside and you saw blue skies.

How many of you were happy this morning when you saw it?

You're like, spring is coming.

We're gonna hit double digits, amen.

This week.

And happiness is is driven by the happenings in our life.

But joy differs in that it's an intentional focus and decision, and it leads us towards right feelings.

It's intentional, it's a focus, it's a fruit of the spirit.

It's actually a courageous choice in the face of other feelings, and you can feel despair, discouraged, you can feel down, you can feel defeated, but to choose joy and to make joy a choice is this attitude of a heart that overcomes an obstacle where everything else should be saying, you should be looking down, you decide to joy up and find freedom in that place.

Joy is uh is something that if you go on Google or you look up a podcast, hey, finding joy.

Everyone's got an answer for the word joy.

You've got it from Christians, non-Christians, believers, unbelievers.

All people are on this search for joy.

But we believe that it only is found in Christ Jesus.

It is only found as a fruit of having the Spirit of God in your life.

But it's still just like all the fruits of the Spirit, it requires your submission to the Holy Spirit to actually choose joy in that moment.

As someone who's in prison, Paul's purposefully redirecting his thoughts towards something that brings him joy.

He positions himself.

In another kingdom.

He positions himself with a different spirit in that moment.

The Bible says this for the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and a joy in the Holy Spirit.

It's the kingdom of God.

And when you embrace the kingdom of God, you're embracing that spirit of joy.

That joy that was on Jesus.

He was anointed with the oil of joy that was beyond all his brothers, beyond everyone else.

He carried a spirit of joy with him.

No matter what his circumstance was, he walked in the kingdom, he walked in joy, and he looked at life through that position.

Without Christ, it's impossible to find this joy.

Without Christ, it's impossible to find this position.

So rather than turning on sad music, you know, I think of Adele, you know, that hello?

You know, like, is anyone there on the other side?

It's like Paul's kind of in prison before going all emo, emotional, and into himself, he stops and he brings joy into his moment.

In prison, I can't imagine that.

Really, it's a a third world challenge.

We we lose our joy on things that are really simple.

Someone never liked my picture on Instagram, you know, someone started to unfollow me.

Uh, you know, we lose our joy, you know, our coffee got cold, or whatever it may be.

It's like, oh, my life is ruined, my day is ruined.

But we've got this joy in the moment where you can actually come to come to a place where you actually look up and joy up and use these words that are up: thanksgiving, thankfulness, joy.

Words like that that kind of you choose in order to change your position.

So he makes a decision to choose joy in the middle of the prison cell.

Joy is this choice, this language is referenced over and over.

So the pressure that he's feeling is good, it's from God, and sometimes we want to just avoid pressure, but pressure is good.

People go to the gym for the pressure.

Why?

Because it builds muscle.

How many of you hate the gym?

Yeah, it's like some of you may, but the pressure is good.

But pressure is is essential for change.

Pressure is there.

The myth of our faith, and the myth is that if God loves you, he won't put you in positions of pressure, he won't put you in places of trouble, he won't put you in places of pain.

If God loves you, you won't be there.

But the reality is this: the Bible says, in life you will have what?

Trouble.

It's a guarantee, it's not if you'll have it, it's when you'll have it.

And what you'll do when you encounter this trouble.

But the Bible says, but take heart, find joy, because I have overcome the world.

In other words, don't let the trouble overtake you.

You step up and you find that joy to push through because you found it in Christ.

Joy is something that's I've heard people say, well, I'm just not a naturally joyful person.

It's just not natural to me.

Well, nothing is.

And again, it's like literally again and again and again.

I say, rejoice, find joy.

Ha ha ha.

Find it.

When people are looking at you strange, find joy.

When you're preaching a message and people are quiet, find joy.

Amen.

In fact, we consider it, the Bible says this in James, to consider it pure joy, my brethren, when you encounter every kind of tribulation.

Pure joy.

Oh, isn't that wonderful?

In the face of tribulation and trouble, that's where we find joy.

It's the environment of pressure, is where diamonds are made, babies are born, it's like pressure is important for change.

So the first step or the first point I'd like to make today is that there's always a reason for joy.

There is always a reason for the for joy.

Philippians 4:4 is the basis of that song I just sung.

Philippians 4:4

It says, rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, rejoice.

How would you be able to rejoice in the Lord always if there was an opportunity always to find something to find joy in?

You need to have joy.

You God wouldn't instruct you, find joy always.

If there wasn't always an opportunity to find joy.

And we like kind of sitting for a moment in our misery.

You have to create a meme on that.

We're gonna have to create one.

Every time we go online, we see, oh my life, I have the sniffles.

Joy up! I'm not gonna sit with you and go into despair over your sniffles.

It's joy up.

Find joy in the moment.

How can you be instructed to rejoice always if there isn't always opportunity for joy?

There is always a reason for joy.

So I want you to take 15 seconds, turn to your neighbor, find someone who you just maybe haven't like, don't worry about being uncomfortable or anything.

Everyone's gonna do this, and just tell someone something you're joyful for this morning.

Go ahead, turn to someone and and just share that with them this morning.

Come on, dig deep a little.

Dig the air I breathe.

We find joy.

Finding joy.

Amen.

There is something about sharing your place of joy.

When you share something that is in your heart where you're joyful, then it becomes contagious to the environment around you.

And you begin to to, it begins to carry with the people around you the joy that is in the hearts in your heart.

So some of you might be in your own prison.

And this is our whole find freedom uh series right now.

But uh I believe that um that some of you have been in a place where you're actually in your own prison.

And it doesn't have to be a physical prison, it can just be a metaphorical prison that's robbing you of the freedom in order that allows you to be able to enjoy life, find joy in life.

The prison's telling you all the reasons why you can't be happy, and all the reasons why you can't sing, and all the reasons that you get reminded when you come to church and you're like, oh, the sound's too loud, or the drummer's too loud, or this song isn't my song, or it's in the wrong key, or the coffee wasn't to my taste, and it might be all those things that you're just carrying with you, and it becomes critical, and you become nitpicky in nature, instead of moving into a place of saying, Where is the joy in this moment?

And actually walking every step in joy, intentional in a place of joy.

I'm I'm here to encourage someone the only way to find freedom, the only path to freedom, and the only path to joy that God has planned for you is to lift your perspective up out of your current position, looking to God and away from your current problems.

It won't change your problem, but it'll change the perspective you have while in the pressure.

That you'll be able to face the pressure with a head up and eyes up.

There's always reason for joy, and it doesn't mean the pressure goes away.

It just means you're able to deal with the pressure when it comes.

Choosing joy, it's better than choosing the alternative.

It's a better way.

All of us will have pressure.

The choice is how are you going to face it?

Are you gonna choose to face it with a head up, with a language that's up, with a head, with a with uh a vocabulary that is up, and walking in a place of thanksgiving, walking in a place of praise, walking in a place of rejoicing.

The word rejoice actually means to re-refind joy, like to to recover joy.

That means you have it, and if you lose it, get it back.

Rejoice, find joy again in that moment.

Number two, God never stops working towards something good in your life.

Would you say this?

God has something good for me in my life.

Amen.

The verse six says this, he's confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God has good works planned for you.

And sometimes where we see a negative in our life is a place of defeat, God sees a negative as an opportunity to make a positive.

And what God, what we see as a negative in our life, God can actually turn to make it a positive.

And I know it's hard to see in the moment, but it's important that we see it, and we can look at our bad days as a negative, and we can say, Oh man, I've got a bad day, or we can look at it as an opportunity for God to do something positive in that moment.

Because to God, it doesn't matter what your day looks like, it's He doesn't change in that moment.

So you can be going through your day, and it doesn't matter what the day looks like, God has something good planned for you in that day.

He who began a good work in you will complete a good work in you.

He who started a good work in you will finish a good work in you.

His plan is to make it good.

Even uh, even uh Paul, when he was writing here, in verse 12, he says, Now I want you to know, now remember, he's in prison.

And he had a perspective.

You know, you're in prison, and you're like, oh man, I'm handcuffed.

How am I gonna extend the mission of the gospel while in prison?

Well, here's the point verse 12 this is what he says.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

What's he saying?

Don't think of this as a negative.

God has used this as a positive.

As a result, it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I'm in chains for Christ.

And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

He's saying, even though it looks like a negative, God is using it as a positive.

And so these moments in our life are really important.

And sometimes when you're feeling defeated and you're feeling insecure, we have to look at it.

And I like the prayer David Brainerd prayed.

He said this, God, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am.

Let me make a difference for you.

And it's disproportionate.

I don't have the ability, but you can do it.

I don't have the strength and the know-how, but you can do it.

And in other words, all these minuses that I'm so aware of, all of these inadequacies that I know I have, I know you can do something and make something beautiful out of it.

Out of my ashes, you can give me some joy.

David Brainerd was uh an interesting individual in the early 1700s.

He was orphaned at age 14.

And uh he came to know Christ at 21 years of age.

He enrolled at Yale University at 21 for a major in theology.

Uh, but he was he was expelled after his first year.

He had a disagreement with one of his professioners, professors, he was really passionate, and at the end of one of his conversations with his per professor, he told him that he had as much grace as that chair he was sitting on.

It was just not a very good thing to say to your professor.

And afterwards, he rall people rallied around him and said, Boy, you've got this such a call on your life, and I know you're passionate and you're so extreme.

What can we do with that?

And he ended up going to become a missionary uh to to in Southern America, and he died at age 29, but he was the only individual that who Yale, after kicking him out as a student, now named a hall after him called the Brainerd Hall.

He had a heart that believed God could do something beyond his insufficiencies, beyond his inadequacies.

He can turn any negative into a positive.

So no matter where Paul was, no matter where you are, it doesn't change who God is.

And wherever He is, it doesn't change the opportunity and the optimism that we can carry in our heart for joy.

Point three, our last point this morning.

Let us not be brought down or feel defeated by the pressure we get from an unbelieving culture.

Uh in our culture today, you're not gonna have naturally people who are gonna rally around you and challenge you to greater joy.

You're not gonna have people naturally rally to your side and say, Come on, pick joy up.

Come on, you can do it.

Come on, God is able.

Come on, it's gonna be okay.

You're not gonna have people naturally there to do that.

But what you're gonna have are people who are gonna try and pull you down.

They're gonna say, Oh, you know what, you should probably, you've been going to church and you still feel down, you should really just give up.

Church.

You should give up.

You go every week, you you really don't have to, maybe once a month.

That's probably all you need.

And this challenge is gonna be there for you to continue to keep in joy and to to be to recognize the culture that you're living in and realize I'm not gonna be pulled down from the people around me who are gonna want to pull me down.

I'm gonna keep my eyes on Jesus and keep my eyes on the faith that we have, that his joy is there for me in every situation, in every circumstance, and is there for me to be complete and to become fully mature.

That this pressure that I'm in gives me great opportunity to find joy in the moment.

Joy in the moment.

Because the power is in that moment of pressure.

So even though Paul in verse 18 he says that he's he's in this prison cell, he's in this prison, and he's he's thinking about all these other people who are out there preaching the gospel, and some of them are doing it out of their own ambition.

They're look they're using the opportunity of Paul being in prison so that they could actually find fame themselves.

And Paul is he he's looking at the church and he's looking at the people that are rallying around the gospel, and he's and not everyone's perfect.

And he says this in verse 18 what does it matter?

It's gonna be okay.

The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, that Christ is preached, and because of this, what I rejoice, I rejoice, yes, and I will continue to rejoice, I will continue to carry joy, for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will return, will turn out for my deliverance.

In other words, he's saying this.

I'm confident that I won't be in prison too much longer.

I'm not gonna be here for too much longer.

I'm confident that God's gonna find a way for me to get out.

And so it doesn't matter if other people are out there preaching, other people out there with a message, it's okay.

Christ is being preached, and it's okay.

I rejoice in it.

I still gonna keep my joy in the middle of the pressure.

So would you turn to your neighbor and say, Joy up today?

Joy up today.

Come on, you can find joy, you can find joy.

Would you stand with me for a moment?

Amen.

I just want you to take it personal this week.

Freedom isn't gonna come from my 30-minute message particularly, but the seed is there, and the seed I want you to take into this week, and my challenge to you this week is that if you're feeling down and you're feeling uh like you're losing your strength, I'm gonna ask you to remember that in the place of stress and in and in the place of ease, God is still there, and in the place, wherever, whatever place you're in, there's joy available for you.

God is in there, and there's a reason for joy.

God's got good works in place for you, and there's a purpose for the joy in your life to help mature, help you mature and help you grow and help others around you grow.

So if you're feeling pressure, celebrate in the pressure.

Take a moment to just say, Yes, Lord, that's for me.

I'm gonna choose joy today.

I'm gonna choose a joy up, a joy under pressure today.

Would you bow your heads with me today?

Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the message.

We thank you for that.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, it's our portion today, it's part of the kingdom of God.

And he says, it's in our hearts.

The kingdom of God is in our hearts.

It's righteousness, it's peace, and it's this joy unspeakable, full of glory.

It's a joy that the world didn't give, and it's a joy that the world can't take away.

It's that fruit of the spirit, and may it be so real in our lives.

The others who are watching on who are saying, Man, they should be down at this moment, and they can't understand how you can find joy in your prison, how can you find joy in this moment?

And Lord, would you be glorified in that moment that people would see you in that moment shining through us in our weakness, Father?

We know that we are weak, but in this moment, Lord, you are strong, and we choose joy, and we choose to joy up today, to joy of joy today under pressure.

In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.

If you're looking for joy today, would you just raise your hand and just say, Lord, fill my heart with joy?

Fill my heart with your the joy of the Lord, let it be my strength, let it be my portion today.

Let it be able to experience the full pure joy in Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

God bless you.

Would you just give the Lord a round of applause today?

Amen.

Joy, Brian.

Joy up.

We're having joy this morning.

Well, we're gonna move on to our tithes and offerings.

So I just uh welcome you to have a seat as we move forward into what we're doing.

Um, if this is your first time and you've really enjoyed your your uh message this morning, we want to get to know who you are, and so please take an opportunity in your seats to fill one of these out and let us know just a bit about who you are, have the opportunity to maybe have a chance to connect over coffee through an email.

We'd love the opportunity to be able to get to know you.

Um there are multiple ways that you can give, and so there's a multiple ways you can give online, give through the app, give through uh various ways, just as the baskets are going to be coming around here in a moment.

So there is opportunity for you to give.

And as I was thinking about it this morning, I just want to talk about the perspective of Jesus in the giving, and this is what uh I came up with.

So Jesus is an awesome example, he gave it all in heaven, and then he gave it to us.

He made himself poor so that we could be rich.

He gave up everything so that we could be called his sons and daughters.

Did he have to do that?

No, he didn't.

Did he want to do that?

Did he did he have someone twist his arm to be able to for him to go to the cross for us?

So the opposite, Jesus purposes purposed in his heart to become that sacrifice for us.

He was determined to do that, he was determined to go to the cross for us, and as as followers of Christ, let's follow that example today, even as we think about our giving and the opportunity that we have to be joyful givers, to be cheerful givers this morning.

So there's Pastor Brody always says us, we're never gonna tell you how much to give.

But as you're preparing this morning, ask the Lord what he's saying to give this morning.

But if you want to give, there's an opportunity that's coming up.

Do this.

So here's what Corinthians says about being generous it says, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

So let each of us, as he purposes in heart, not grudgingly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And one of the translations says, God loves a joyful giver.

So we get an opportunity in our giving to joy up, to be joy under pressure, and you're feeling in your finances that there's something going on, let's have an opportunity to give.

Turn to your neighbor high five and say joy up.

And I love what Pastor Brody said.

This is a moment in our giving that he said pressure is essential for change.

So if you're looking in your finances and maybe you're feeling a little bit of pressure, this is an opportunity for you to give and say, God, I'm gonna put my trust in you and see what he's gonna do.

Amen.

I'm gonna call the team forward.

We're just gonna pray.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity we have to be able to give to your house this morning.

Lord, we are uh gonna be a joyful giver.

We're gonna have faith and stand in trust, Lord, that you are gonna do something with the pressure that we are under.

No matter what that pressure is, Lord, we're gonna have joy.

We're gonna choose joy this morning.

Lord, we know that you're gonna do something big with these resources, something big as we extend our faith, something big as we give sacrificially into your kingdom, Lord, knowing that you can do something that we disproportionately in our own cannot do.

Lord, so we're extending our faith as we give this morning, that you're gonna do something amazing, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Everyone said as the team uh takes care of the the uh the tithes and offerings, we're gonna just move into a few different uh announcements.

Uh Kevin Penner, how many of you know Kevin Penner?

He's one of our missionaries.

He recently has finished the Genesis 1 to 11 in the Mixtech language, and they're about to have a party.

So if you ever if you have connection with them, send him an email, say congratulations, and just say they're just excited.

And he says thank you to the church.

He wanted us to make sure that we say thank you to the church for all of your giving, all of the support you've had over the years to be able to take care of his ability to be able to do this.

Um, you may have seen these things sitting on your chairs.

If you had one, I would make you hold up.

This is Joseph and the Tecticolor Dream Code that's coming up in two weeks.

We have an opportunity as a church to support the HCS drama and on the campus, and we are super excited.

It's gonna be just fantastic this year.

So, on here has all the information you knew for purchasing tickets, and we love for you to have the opportunity to come out and do that.

And just so you know, oh, it says Joyce.

Joycef.

Thanks, uh, Principal Paul.

We appreciate it.

It's Joycef uh coming up.

Now we completely lost my train of thought.

Thanks, Principal.

Appreciate it.

Uh, and just so you know, daylight savings time is coming up next week.

We jump ahead, right?

So just make we'll we'll remind you, but next week is daylight savings time.

Uh just a reminder that next steps is in fact starting uh today at 11 o'clock with Carolyn the Red, wherever she is in this room, she's gonna be teaching it.

This is an opportunity for you to know God, to find freedom, to discover your purpose, and to make a difference.

So if you in fact have never taken it or you have taken it and you want to know a little bit more about Jesus, this is the perfect opportunity for you to come in and spend some time with a really great teacher, ask some questions and get to know God and get to know the church just a little bit today at 11 o'clock, second service.

And one more thing is we have connect groups.

So if you are not in a connect group, we believe in big church and small church.

Amen.

Big church and small church.

This is big church, small churches and connect groups.

So if you're not part of a connect group, please take an opportunity to go to our connection table, and they will, in fact, have an opportunity for you to look at all that we have to offer.

And just before, as Pastor Brody comes up here, just to want to let you know there is prayer here available if you happen to need any prayer after the service.

Amen.

All right, while you all stand with me, I can't wait for those doors to open, the sun to shine in.

Not because I'm happy, because the joy, eh?

There's joy.

So let me bless you this morning.

May the Lord bless you.

May you experience his abundant blessings flowing towards you.

May the Lord keep you, may you know that you are safe in his loving arms.

You're hid in the cleft of the rock.

May he cause his face to shine on you.

May you realize that you have his attention, you've got his desire, and that he loves you.

May he be gracious to you, may you enjoy his abundant grace, his abundant mercy, new every morning.

And may he lift his countenance upon you, allowing his character to grow in you daily until you've run the race and completed it fully.

And may he give you the peace, the shalom of God, ministering to you fully, body, soul, and spirit.

Amen.

God bless you, enjoy your week.