How is Everyone Doing? | Special Guest, Brian McCormack

I mean, I can I kinda I kind of feel like we can wrap it up and go home.

I mean, we just had church with baptisms and we're we're not.

I mean, I'm gonna preach, but we could hypothetically.

Um, can we give it up one more time for all these people getting baptized, especially these young folks?

We just want to show honor to all of y'all.

Um, and uh everyone got baptized, equally incredible.

Can you just identify yourself if you're part of Oliver's fan club?

Like, this is absolutely insane.

Like, well, welcome.

Oliver, there's something special on you, brother.

Just praying that God would bring people around you for the rest of your life and give you a chance to give a glimpse of his glory, man.

That's just really cool.

That goes for all of y'all, but man, my wife's gonna be like, hey, how did church go?

I was like, man, there's a kid named Oliver.

He like tripled the size of the church by getting baptized.

I don't know what happened.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Uh, let me give you a glimpse of my life.

It's really, really wild.

Uh, I have five kids, first of all.

That's kind of crazy.

Big families in the house.

Anyone come from a big family or have a big family?

I grew up an only child, so pray for your boy.

I don't know what's going on ever.

But I want to speak specifically to what I get to be a part of.

And Pastor Chris gave you a glimpse of it.

It's called Breakaway.

It is a Bible study.

So I tell my friends now, because I was a church planner for over a decade in Seattle, and they have a category for like a lead pastor.

But then when somebody leaves like their thriving church to go lead a Bible study on a college campus, if that's all you hear, you're just kind of like, what happened, bro?

Like, why are you why are you doing that?

And then like, well, this is the Bible study, so let me give you a glimpse.

It's kind of crazy.

So that is Reed Arena on the campus of Texas AM.

And let me clarify, I didn't do that.

I it's 35 years old.

It has been this incredible legacy ministry for years.

Uh, it is proof that the rumors of Gen Z's hopelessness are completely overrated and exaggerated and not true.

Is that good news to you?

Um, but I just love bragging on it because I didn't build it.

Um and it's just absolutely incredible.

Anywhere from like 2,000 to 8 or 9,000 students are gathering in a basketball arena every Tuesday night at 9 p.m.

And you're invited.

Come check it out if you just need a dose of hope.

It is truly incredible to behold, and I can't believe I get to be a part of it.

So, breakaway.org if you want to follow uh the story, it's been pretty amazing to be a part of.

Please be praying for us.

God is moving.

And if you're curious, I believe in people who have similar Gen Z outposts to mine.

I uh I really believe we might be on the cusp of like another great awakening.

Like I just believe that.

What I'm seeing around the country and the world.

And I just I think that I think United City is posturing itself to be a part of that.

And I hope that that excites you, y'all.

I think that you are signing up to be a part of something incredible just by following Jesus, but especially so at this church.

So if you've been checking this place out, man, go for it.

Just everything points to what an incredible family.

So uh I'm gonna have you do this.

I'm gonna have you stand if you're able.

I know you just sat and you were getting comfortable, but we're gonna stand for the reading of God's word.

This is something we do on Tuesdays.

I tell our students that the purpose is twofold.

Uh, first of all, it is to just show our reverence that we don't just think this is a book.

It is not just a historical document.

Uh, we believe that God uses this stuff, uh, the scriptures that is, not this stuff, uh, to change our lives in ways that we can't even imagine, right?

And so uh that's one reason is reverence.

The second one is it's a posture of readiness.

It's a posture of God, whatever you hand us in the next half hour, we're gonna carry out of here.

Can we commit to doing that together?

Is that okay?

All right.

So two scriptures for you that I think are going to serve as anchor points.

I don't know if we have any rock climbers in the house, but anchor points, foot footholds, if you will, to kind of climb up to the prize that God has for us uh this morning.

And that's what we're gonna do.

So the first one is Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

This starts in verse 22.

It says, But the fruit of the spirit, this is fruits of the spirit the week after election season.

I think this is appropriate.

The fruits of the spirit is love, joy.

Pause for foreshadowing.

Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

And now Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.

I probably preach this more than any other verse in the New Testament.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and every sin that clings so closely.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, say joy, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

United City family, this is the word of God for us, the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

And everybody said together, Amen.

Have a seat, let's get to work.

Let's get to work.

In January of this year, somebody broke the internet.

You know what that means when the kids say they broke the internet?

It means like something so compelling happens that it took so much attention on the internet that it was like breaking servers and distracting everybody from everything else.

Who do you think broke the internet in January of this year?

I need a name and I need someone to be stupid, brave, and yell it out.

Who is it in January that broke the internet?

Taylor Swift was the first guest in the last service, also.

That's incredible.

And you're not wrong.

Uh, you are absolutely wrong in this instance, but she she didn't do that.

Who else might it have been?

Elon.

Elon, no, wasn't Elon.

Wasn't Donald Trump or any politician.

Okay, the participation's over, y'all.

We had our chance.

Okay.

Y'all good job for participating.

The answer is Elmo.

Elmo broke the internet in January.

He jumped on Twitter, because Elmo is a social media addict.

Who knew?

Things have been rough in Elmo's world.

Uh but uh he jumped on.

A social media intern needed filler and did the following.

Elmo is just checking in.

How is everybody doing?

My friends, in the 36 hours that followed, a quarter billion people viewed this thread.

That is astronomical.

Astronomical.

People recognize the opportunity to participate, and the first people to jump on, of course, were corporations.

Dunkin Donuts said, I could honestly use an iced coffee, Elmo.

It's like that's some dynamite marketing there.

Um Chipotle craving a burrito, Elmo.

What's Elmo's Chipotle order?

The interns are making their money.

Dr.

Phil said, We've got issues, Elmo.

Smiley face.

Things pivot a little bit with Rain Wilson.

That's the actor who played Dwight Schroute.

Any office fans in the house right here?

A handful, okay.

Uh Dwight Schroute uh says the following.

He's actually a very thoughtful uh intellectual man.

He said, I'm kind of at a crossroads and frankly could use a little support.

And things just kind of shift.

People kind of simultaneously realize, oh, this is an opportunity for vulnerability and to actually engage.

I wonder what will happen next.

Someone said, hanging in there, Elmo, a hug would be amazing.

And then someone said, I'm at my lowest.

Thanks for asking.

And it's like these aren't all chronological, they're all branching off of the main thread, but the bottom just drops out.

And it's crazy where this goes.

Someone says, every day I wake up and I know it's not going to get any better till I go back to sleep.

Someone said, It's all good, it's all good.

I just keep repeating it until it's true.

Somebody said, I want to be enough, Elmo.

I was it was easier when I was human garbage because everything I've excuse me, because I could blame myself.

But now that I have everything I've ever wanted, it's painful.

Being the man I've always wanted to be still isn't enough for other people.

I'm tired.

I just want family.

Somebody said, I feel like we all died in 2020.

And then lastly, someone said, in the grand scheme of the universe, our existence is merely a blink, devoid of inherent meaning or purpose.

We are fleeting shadows in an indifferent cosmos.

All from how's everybody doing?

So no one could have seen the 250 million impressions coming.

No one could have seen it.

It would strike that kind of nerve.

But what does this reveal?

I would say it reveals a crisis level scarcity of joy.

And you hold that up to what we see with mental health statistics and what I see on the front lines of Gen Z trying to reach a generation, right?

And I think that that holds true.

A crisis level scarcity of joy.

And friends, that's what we're leaning into.

That's why we read two anchor point verses about joy.

The first one that we're compelled to bear the fruit of joy through the Holy Spirit.

And then the second one that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy before him.

We'll need to come back to that.

How might we address the scarcity of joy in the world?

And how might we address the scarcity of joy in our lives?

And this is where I have to dip into the fact I used to be a lead pastor.

This is where I have to shepherd the room a little bit in this way.

I cannot sidestep the fact that some of you have never known true enduring joy in your life.

And some of you, even those of you who follow Jesus, have given up on the possibility of ever feeling joy again.

Have given up on the possibility of a season of life where joy would even be in your top three responses when somebody asked you, How you doing?

Because hope is a dangerous thing and hope for joy is just too costly.

So you have accepted a reality, listen to me, that God does not want you to expect, to reject, to accept.

I believe He has joy for us in the moments that we have together.

So if you feel hopeless when it comes to joy, I'm telling you, there is hope in the room because the God who's in the room.

Okay.

And then also, if you are a Christian and you're like, yeah, joy's not that big of a priority to me, because I've kind of given up on it, or this kind of sounds elementary.

Are you like a college pastor that just kind of dumbs things down and talks about simple concepts?

No, no, no.

Joy is a ferociously theological and biblical concept, and we're gonna look at that in the next few moments.

I want you to open up the book every day, and I want joy to be jumping off the pages because you understand the theology of it, the centrality of it to the story.

And I think that that might change some lives in here.

That's what we're gonna do.

And also, Christians, please hear me.

If you don't think joy is that big of a problem in your life or big priority, we just saw proof that people are starving for the fruit of the spirit you appear to not be committed to bearing right now.

What if we were to bear that fruit of joy in our lives in a way that would cause people to come and eat and see and experience joy themselves?

So here's the plan for the time that we got.

We're gonna talk about what joy is and what joy is not.

We're gonna do that briefly.

We're gonna talk about where joy is and is not found.

We're gonna try to do that briefly as well.

Then I wanna highlight the story of Scripture as a story about joy attached to one specific theme.

And then we're gonna finish with the four unexpected places.

I said unexpected places where I think your joy might be waiting for you if you have eyes to see it.

That is the plan.

You with me?

All right, let's go for it.

Call in my shot.

Let's see if I can follow through.

Let's talk about what joy is not.

Because there are lies about joy that many of us are believing.

Some of them are this that joy is synonymous to your personal felt happiness.

Joy is just being happy.

I would say that is not accurate, not complete.

Some say that joy is all about satisfaction, contentment, enoughness, and that that's all that joy is really about.

Some of us are believing right now that joy is determined solely by the presence of pleasure in our lives.

And I want you to know that true biblical joy is not contrary to those things at all, but there's something else.

A lot of us believe that joy is dictated by our circumstances.

Whether I'm joyful in a moment or a season is contingent upon the circumstances I am experiencing.

Allah.

Allah.

And here's the one you really need to not believe.

Some of you think joy is just not for you.

You think it's not possible, you think it's too late, you think you don't deserve it.

Allah.

There's joy to be had.

So listen to me.

We also have to understand it's not true joy.

The joy you might be settling for is not true joy if any of the following things are possible.

If you feel like you have to mine it from the cave of your own heart, scrape the bottom of the barrel and like experience it through your own effort, that's not it.

If the joy you're currently settling for immediately yields to difficult emotions and situations, that can't be supernatural joy.

And my friends, if your joy is as fleeting as a solar eclipse and just as infrequent as one, that ain't it either.

There's more.

There is a divine joy waiting for you.

Uh, what if a different, deeper divine joy is real and available?

I saw this definition online uh for joy, uh theological dictionary.

It said, What if joy is the good pleasure and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us?

We're getting somewhere.

We're getting somewhere right off the bat.

My friends, a joy like that would be transformative, it would be durable, it would be steadfast, and you have to go this far with me.

Even if you're like, I don't even know if I understand what you're talking about, I don't know if I'm interested, but I have to admit I would want that joy.

Can we at least be unified on that?

If you're kicking the tires on Jesus and on church, I have to admit that's compelling and attractive.

That's good enough.

Now let's talk about where joy is and is not found.

Can we start with where it's not found?

There's one place joy is definitely not found.

And that's Golden Corral.

Who's been to Golden Corral?

Anybody?

Anybody?

Anybody own Golden Corral?

Anybody's like parents?

No?

Okay.

Uh if you don't know, all right, Golden Corral is a buffet.

It is an all-you-can eat buffet.

It is the most American mentality eating establishment imaginable.

What kind of food do they have at Golden Corral?

All the kinds.

They have all the kinds, which is immediately like a red flag for an eatery.

I'll look, I'm looking for the best Korean barbecue place in town.

I'm looking for the best Texas barbecue place in town.

Apparently, I really like barbecue in my examples.

I'm looking for the best Tex Mex.

Like, you want to go to the place that specializes, and you just ask, like, what kind of food do you have?

We have all the kinds.

We'll have them all.

So you go in, you go in the Golden Corral, and it's like you can get prime rib, and then like soft serve ice cream, and then like mac and cheese, and then like it's just like it has it, there's it's all over the place.

The point I'm trying to make here is that you can go to Golden Corral and you can stay as long as you want.

You basically pay for admission more than you pay for food.

And you can hear me, you can spend hours, hours grazing at an infinite number of options.

Has anybody left Golden Corral feeling like that was a good idea and I'm a better person than I was before?

Okay.

Here's the pivot.

American culture in 2024 is a never-ending buffet line of death.

Okay.

Here's the point.

You can go vice to vice, addiction to addiction, goal to goal, swipe left, swipe right.

You you you can for decades and never reach the end.

I I don't know if this was necessarily the case.

I don't think it was.

Pre-screens, pre-technology, pre-culture that we live in.

I I feel like you would reach the end.

I've tried power, I've tried pleasure, I've tried influence, whatever, and I'm at the end of the, and I don't have the joy that I'm looking for.

I have to stand in front of thousands of college students, and I'll stand in front of you today and say, you've got to step away from the buffet.

You have to do it.

You have to.

The joy you're looking for is not there.

It's not in the pleasure, it's not in the power, it's not in the influence, it's just not.

That's why people like Jim Carrey and Tom Brady give you crazy quotes.

Like Jim Carrey uh once said, uh, once the highest paid actor in Hollywood said, I wish everyone could get rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of so they would know that it is not the answer.

Tom Brady once gave an interview.

This is like he had just married a super supermodel, had three Super Bowl wins already, and was like the most, I don't know, envied person in America.

And he's almost in tears in this interview because I go to bed at night and I just feel like, is this it?

And the interviewer was like, Tom, what do you think the answer is?

And his exact words are, I wish I knew, I wish I knew.

People are lacking joy, they want to know where the joy comes from, and a bunch of you in the room know.

You know the joy.

Please tell your face so it becomes obvious to the people around you that you know the joy.

Please tell your calendar.

Please tell your budget.

Please tell the way you interact with your neighbors that I know where the joy is.

You you can step away from the buffet line.

And we just need the hope.

We need hope that for that joy is real.

And my friends, it's not found at the buffet line of American culture, no matter how many upgrades it provides to the operating system.

Here we go.

Where does the joy come from, Brian?

Here's where it is.

Please repeat after me.

His nearness is our joy.

Again, his nearness is my joy.

Do you believe that yet?

Good answer.

Can I tell?

Can the people around you tell that you ferociously believe that the nearness of God is your joy?

Oh, where's God?

I just heard some great answers.

I heard everywhere.

I heard here.

I heard my heart.

So if his nearness is our joy, when do we have access to joy?

Preach, somebody.

Okay.

That sounds so simple.

Right?

So simple, almost cheese ball.

Don't care.

Because listen, some of us come to church believing that we need deeper truths to believe.

Most of the time, we need to believe simple truths more deeply.

And his nearness is my joy is a simple truth that many of us don't live in the reality of.

And we're like, oh, give me the Greek, Pastor, give me the Hebrew.

Like, give me that obscure pass that obscure passage in Malachi or whatever.

I'm like, can we just talk about the fact that his nearness is your joy?

And that the whole gospel, the whole Bible story, is about God trying to get and stay near to you.

For his glory, yes, and for your joy.

And this is the thing that's kind of messed me up the last couple years is this realization.

I think the whole story, I think the cross itself, I think the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the end goal of all of it was nearness to us.

It kind of feels like heresy for a second, right?

Like, it kind of feels like, hold on.

Like I thought the whole point of the of the cross was like the sinful people needed to be forgiven.

Yeah.

But why does God want you forgiven?

Not because he's disgusted by you, and you need to get your stuff together.

Like he's a dad who wants to be close to his kids.

The point of the cross, the point of the gospel, the point of the whole book is God wants to be near to you.

No amens.

All right, let me show you something.

Let me show you something.

Okay.

Let's do it this way.

How about the moment you open the Bible?

All right?

The moment you open the Bible, it is immediately evident you were created for nearness to God.

That's what you see at the beginning, right?

He creates humanity to be close to him.

He creates the earth as the place that is perfect for being close to him.

Sin enters the world, and what does it cost us?

Nearness.

We choose autonomy over trusting his authority, and it costs us our nearness.

That's the story in Genesis 1, and that's the story in our life every day, is it not?

We choose autonomy over trusting his authority, and it costs us our felt relational nearness and intimacy.

Right?

Not our standing, but our nearness and our intimacy.

And then what happens?

This God who's been betrayed by those who were near to him could have made war, and instead, he makes promises.

What a God.

He says, Oh no, no, no.

You've completely trashed the nearness.

I'm heartbroken.

You deserve death, you deserve distance, and instead I'm gonna make a promise.

A promise to what?

A promise to fix the nearness problem.

And then the rest, he's I'm one day I'm going to send him, I'm going to send the he.

I'm going to send the he of Genesis 3.15.

He's talking to the serpent, to the enemy, to Satan, who has just brought distance where there used to be nearness, and he's saying, Cursed are you, you will crawl on your belly all the days of your life.

And then he says, One day you will strike his heel, and he will crush your head.

And when you're reading it, you're like, Who's the he?

Like, who are we talking about?

But apparently, some rescue figure, some hero figure is going to come and fix the distance problem by restoring the nearness by crushing evil with some incredible triumphant thing.

So that's like the nearness that's going to be restored one day.

Listen, the rest of the Old Testament, if you're new to Scripture or if you've just forgotten, the whole thing is God trying to maximize nearness in the meantime, y'all.

He gives us the law so that we can know how to live near to him.

He gives the sacrificial system so we can have some kind of nearness in the meantime.

In the Exodus, rescuing God's people out of Egypt, there's a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, both proof of his nearness.

He starts a tent of meeting, which is like a portable nearness area.

Um, he takes people into the promised land, which is going to be a new place for nearness.

Eventually they build the temple.

Guess what that's for?

Nearness.

I want you close to me.

And it's like in this process, the psalmist, the great psalmist David, steps into the gap and he says things of his overflow of longing.

And he says, You make known to me, God, you make known to me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand, there's pleasure forevermore.

And then and then Jesus.

Jesus comes.

And if you're like, is God really committed to nearness?

Jesus, second member of the Trinity, puts on skin and says, Yeah, I agree, Father.

I agree, Spirit.

I'm going down to get them.

I'm going down to get them.

Because the things that we've put up as like a stopgap and a foretelling of the nearness to come, that's not good enough.

Temple's not good enough.

Promised land's not good enough.

Law's not good enough.

I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go fulfill all those promises.

I'm gonna go get them.

And he comes scandalously near to us.

He lives the perfect life we could never live.

He steps into temptation so that he knows how to be near us in temptation.

He steps into suffering so he knows how to be near you in your seasons of suffering.

He lives the perfect life we could never live.

He dies the death we deserve in our place for our sin because he loves us.

He rises to new life so we can have a new life marked by nearness to him.

It's all means to the end of nearness.

And if you're like, well, that was the beginning and the middle, what about the end?

You go to the end and you have Revelation 21, 3.

What is the end of God's story that we've all been invited into?

What is the hope of every Christian who puts their faith in this Jesus?

Revelation 21.3.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men.

The dwelling place of God is with men.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Your great hope is in a forever reality where you will be impossibly near to God forever.

And the result will be supernatural, inconceivable, foreverlasting joy.

That's it.

That's the that's the book.

And friends, do I have time for this?

Tell me I have time for the next part.

Okay.

If you listen to this, if you accept this as a lens, if you adopt what's called this biblical theology, which means like uh theology that follows the narrative of the Bible, if you come to believe that the whole story is about God wanting nearness to you and your joy being found in nearness to him, it will invade every time of reading you ever have for the rest of time.

Question.

What Bible passage do you think is the most referenced in the history of American film?

Go.

John 3 16 is a phenomenal guess.

I think it's second.

It's not Genesis 1-1.

It's a Psalm.

Psalm 23.

Someone just said it.

I gave a pretty good hint, but you filled in the gap, you know.

Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Okay, so we know this one, right?

And even the folks that are like checking out church or not really following Jesus yet, right?

You're familiar with this one.

I'm gonna read this.

You tell me if you see anything that has to do with nearness in this psalm that you know so well.

You've never thought about it this way, but watch this.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Is shepherd a long distance activity enroll or a pretty close up, intimate one?

Pretty close, right?

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

Uh to make someone lie down, parents, can you do that from can you do that with a phone call?

No, bedtime is a nightmare.

It requires being pretty close up.

He leads me beside still waters.

That sound like far away or close up?

Close up.

He restores my soul.

So this is kind of tricky.

We got to pause for a moment.

Restores my soul.

Okay, what does that even mean?

This is poetry, this is a song.

So we get to think about it a little bit.

It kind of sounds like a heart procedure, doesn't it?

Sounds like a heart procedure.

I actually was outside the door for a heart transplant from one of my church members in Seattle, just so I could pray through the night while it was going on.

It was a desperate situation.

And I heard the updates and I saw the glimpses of what was happening on the other side of that door.

And I will tell you this.

Oh boy.

It is all about nearness.

It is a violent, terrifying process where the hands of the surgeon are inside the body of the patient, interacting intimately with the heart itself.

Long distance or up close?

Restores my soul.

He is near to me.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

If you're a good leader, leading the hike, are you close to the people following you or far away from them?

You get far away, you're not leading them anymore.

Right?

It's a close-up thing.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Unless that's a very long rod or staff.

I think your shepherd is right next to you.

You prepare, yeah, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

This is imagery of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Being filled.

Is there anything closer, more near, than being filled with something?

When you drink water, how close is the water to you?

Very close.

All the way close.

Zero feet, zero inches.

When you're filled with the Spirit, it's the same way.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

It's f the goodness and mercy who is found in a person isn't just available, it's following you.

It's committed to the closeness in the nearness.

It's chasing you, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Do you see any nearness in Psalm 23?

I think that this might be the point.

Our joy is found in his nearness.

Nearness equals joy.

Distance equals death.

Nearness equals joy.

Distance equals discouragement.

Nearness equals joy.

Distance equals depression.

Nearness equals joy.

His nearness is our good, my friends.

So quickly, I promised you four unexpected places where your joy might be waiting for you.

Four unexpected places where your joy might be waiting.

If you're a no-taker, the four words are cross, throne, service, and pain.

So let's do this.

My friends, the joy you are looking for is at the cross of Jesus.

And that's a weird thing to say.

The joy.

So like I if I imagine, if I'm not really familiar with the intricacies of the cross of Jesus, I'm like, okay, I do know this, just as someone who lives in this culture.

The cross is where Jesus Christ died.

Where nails were put through the most sensitive nerve endings, nerve centers in the human body, his wrists and his ankles.

You probably know that he was brutally tortured to the point of not being recognizable as a human, according to Isaiah 53.

Right?

Like he is mocked, he is spat upon, his beard is pulled out, he is it is the most horrific death we can imagine.

And I'm saying that your joy is found at the cross of Jesus.

What am I talking about?

Friends, the great Tim Keller, incredible pastor we lost a couple years ago, used to consistently say the following that when we come to the cross of Jesus and we see it for what it truly is, two things become clear.

The first is that we are more broken and sinful than we ever could have feared.

Because apparently the cross is what it took to cover that sin.

That we are broken, sinful people by our what by our nature and by our actions.

That we do violence to the hearts of other people and to the hearts of God all the time in ways that we're aware of and ways we're not aware of.

And it makes us deserving of distance from Him.

Distance now and like distance forever.

That's our problem.

And the cross shows us, man, my problem must have been way worse than I thought, because that on the cross is what it took to remedy the problem.

God Himself, God's Son, coming to take the punishment I deserved.

Like, that's the first thing we realize when we look at the cross.

And the second one is this.

Yes, I'm more sinful than I ever could have feared, but I am more loved than I ever could have hoped.

Because look what he did.

More loved than I ever could have hoped.

Not just that he did it, because Hebrews 12 said that it was for the what before him that he went to the cross?

For the joy.

So the love of God towards you and his desire to please the Father and his desire to have nearness with you, motivated, motivated by the love he has for you, was so great that he was able to look to and through the cross, all its brutality, and see joy.

Because on the other side he saw you, nearness with you.

He's like, I want nearness with you, first name, last name.

I want nearness with you so much.

What's the cost of that?

The cross.

I'm in.

Take it.

We that do you feel that?

That's joy.

It might not be happiness, but that's joy as that realization of God's love through the cross of Jesus and the gospel of Jesus Christ comes into view.

That's what that is.

There's joy at the cross if you have not found it.

And listen, you've been a Christian for decades.

You still need to come back to the cross and remember your joy.

God restore to me the joy of my salvation.

We come back to the cross for that.

We come back to the cross and remember the cost that was paid.

And we remember that he's not on the cross anymore and he's not in the tomb anymore because he's alive.

You know Jesus is alive, right?

It's kind of a big deal.

We're not here to like for like a historical lesson about a historical figure only.

We're here to interact with like a living God.

Joy should be the result.

The nearness is available.

So at the cross, the second place is by the throne.

The unexpected place your joy is waiting for you is by the throne of King Jesus.

I would say that without exception, the parts of your life where joy is most lacking are the areas that have been the least surrendered to the king.

Let me say that again.

The parts of your life where joy is most lacking are the parts of your life that are the least surrendered to the king.

This is because we don't understand the difference between a conditional and an unconditional surrender.

There might be some military people in here, and you know the difference.

A conditional surrender is when two generals, two kings, where the war has run its course, or the battle has run its course, there's a clear victor, come together.

A conditional surrender is like, hey, I'm the defeated king or the defeated general, and you are the king, you are the victor, the general of victory, and you get everything except I'm gonna keep my title and I'm gonna keep my officers and I'm gonna keep my lands, I'm gonna keep my nobility, keep my dignity, but you can claim the victory.

We often live under the terms of a conditional surrender that was never offered to us.

He is the king.

And he gets everything because he's like the king of all kings.

He gets everything just by who he is and what he's earned, right?

But here's the other thing.

It's not him saying, Give me everything, I'm the king.

He he can do that.

He loves you too much to keep the hard stuff behind him and away from him.

He's coming close to what you're holding behind your back, and he's like, Oh daughter, oh son, will you give me that?

Will you stop holding holding the grief of the lost child back here?

Will you stop leaving like the putting back there the things that were done to you when you were a kid?

Will you the finances you're scared to trust me with, your sexuality, your dating life, what the fear, the anxiety, like what will you just will you just put all of that at the foot of the throne of the king?

Will you just bring that from the darkness into the life, into the light?

Friends, there's joy just in bringing it to him.

Even if he doesn't immediately fix it all, just to like stop holding on to it and to bring it to him.

Just that has joy.

And my friends, I'm I serve a God of miracles.

You don't know what he's gonna do with that stuff, but it will be redemptive and it will be an increase in joy.

I'm telling you that.

There's joy waiting for you there.

Thirdly, there is joy on your knees.

And I'm not talking about the needs of prayer, that's true.

I'm talking about the needs of service.

The needs of service.

Joy is deepened by serving the king.

So serve with him.

Serve with him.

I tell you what, when I was a youth pastor in the woodlands for four or five years, I would see uh a bunch of well provided for, safe, largely apathetic students.

Um I would see their hearts melt the moment they got to serve people on a summer mission trip.

For a couple reasons.

Yes, to have perspective, but also it's almost like God is with the people in lack.

It's almost like God is already going to be with the people who feel lost, who feel unprovided for, who feel forgotten.

And it's almost like going into those spaces with him is not just doing something noble for the good of our brother and sister.

It's like we're going with dad to work.

And we're getting to see a side of him and experience a side of him that we haven't experienced before.

The call to serve is a call to nearness.

And many of us opt out of a call to serve because we've bought the American lie that life is all about acquiring servants instead of serving others.

There is joy to be had if you lean into serving, so do it.

Lastly, my friends, there is this, and this is what I close with.

Oh, and I feel the weight of it every time I say it.

There is unexpected joy in your pain.

There is unexpected joy in your suffering.

Joy is completed by suffering with the king, and this is just wild.

And friends, this is a strange place to end when you're pleading for people's souls, but I need you to know that the way of Jesus is the only philosophical worldview, is the only religious way of life, is the only thing that offers you this.

Not just joy that can get you through the suffering or joy that might be on the other side of suffering, but joy in the suffering.

Not happiness, but a bulletproof durable joy that even now in the medical crisis, even now in the loneliness, even now in the grief, I have this bulletproof joy because God is near me and with me and in me.

And it's one of those things that you can try to explain on a stage with words as best as you can.

And all you can do is just plead for people to give that God a chance to prove Himself more than enough in the midst of the suffering.

There's joy in your suffering, the God who comes close, Emmanuel, God who is with us.

And a lot of you, there's joy to be had in this space because you don't feel like God could ever be there in your hardship or your suffering.

And you're wrong.

I read the book and I see a God who comes even closer in the times of suffering and takes the suffering that he's not the author of, but he is the redeemer of, and he repurposes it for more nearness to himself and more joy for you.

Take hold of that in these moments.

My friends, the joy is real, the joy is real, and it's in Jesus Christ who for the joy before him laid down his life on the cross.

So, one more time, let's let Elmo ask his question.

How's everybody doing?

How's everybody doing with that hope put before you?

This is my prayer for United City.

This is my prayer for our guests who are here for baptisms.

This is our prayer for people from out of town, found a church pretty close to the airport.

This is my prayer for people who've been here for decades that you would say something like this.

Oh, I've been going through it.

But he's right here, and a lot of things have been taken from me, but nobody, I said, nobody can touch my joy.

Let's stand up and let's pray together.

Let's stand up and respond.

Would you just close your eyes for a quick moment?

And I just start our time of prayer and response by saying, Holy Spirit, would you come?

Would you bring the fruit of the spirit of joy to bear on every heart in this place here and now?

Holy Spirit, just come.

Would you just bring the presence of God even more so, God?

Reassure minds, warm hearts, strengthen spirits, God.

And friends, your call to response in this moment is to come and get your joy.

First, I want to give you the opportunity.

Come find your joy at the cross of Jesus.

Friends, if you have never known true joy because you've never put your faith in Christ and the life he lived for you and the death he died for you, like we've discussed, and you want to do that right now.

I'm gonna give you the opportunity by saying, Yeah, God, I recognize I'm broken and I'm sinful, but also you have died and you have risen, and that's where my hope is, and that's where my joy is.

If you just want to put your faith in that, I'm gonna give you a chance to raise your hand.

I'm gonna count back from three, and in a sign of boldness and faith, I ask you to raise a hand joyfully.

Three, two, one, if that's you, raise your hand.

I want to say yes to Jesus.

Incredible.

Amazing, do it boldly.

Put your hand up.

There's joy available tonight.

I see you.

I see you guys.

Amazing.

Put those hands down.

Put those hands down.

If you felt like, man, I need to find joy at the throne of my king.

There's things I've been holding back, and I want to hold them out to him, believing that there will be joy in doing so.

I'm done holding this part of my life back.

I want to give it to him.

If that's you, I'm gonna count down.

Three, two, one, put them up.

That's me.

Specific part of my life I need to give to Jesus today.

Amazing.

Put your hand down, that's incredible.

Thirdly, it's the service part.

There's joy in serving others, and I have not been giving that enough thought, and the Holy Spirit is convicting me in a beautiful way to want to serve more, and this is my commitment to find joy doing that.

Three, two, one, put a hand up.

I want to serve others more intentionally.

Let's go.

Amazing.

And then lastly, and most gently, if this is a season of suffering for you, a season of hardship, and you want to experience joy in the midst of the suffering by knowing God is with you.

He knows what that specific thing is.

But if it's coming to clarity, yeah, that's me, that's my season, and I want to know that joy, and I want to ask him to bring that joy to bear in my life, in my suffering.

321, would you raise a hand?

It's been that kind of season.

Yeah.

He sees you.

Incredible, incredible.

Friends, receive this blessing.

Romans 15 13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that the power of the Holy Spirit, in that power, you may abound in hope.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Everybody sit together.

Amen.