Take Joy: From Practice to Promise | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning, guys.

If we haven't met, my name is Nassi.

I'm one of our pastors here on staff.

It's so good to see you.

Welcome to church.

We are finishing our Advent series this morning.

I can't believe it's Christmas in a few days.

Crazy.

So we're finishing our series.

And if you've been with us the last three weeks, we've been camping out in this very powerful passage in the book of Philippians, chapter four.

And we had these cards going around this last month where we encourage you to memorize the scripture with us.

I'm just curious, anyone else have you been memorizing?

Raise your hand.

I won't call on you, I promise.

Okay?

Cool, good.

How are we doing with that?

Huh?

Good?

Okay, okay, got there.

Okay, so in case you weren't here, I want to recap a little bit this powerful scripture as we dive into part four and we close out our series.

So take a look with me at Philippians 4, starting in verse 4.

Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.

Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now look at verse 8.

I'm not going to read it fully, but this was the verse that Ryan preached out of last week, talking about our mindset and what we focus on if you were here last week, right?

And so for this Sunday, we are going to be working on verse 9.

Paul says, Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.

I don't know about you guys, but I've grown up in church, so I've read this scripture a lot growing up.

I kind of tend to gloss over verse nine.

Anyone else?

I don't, it's not really one that like shines, like that kind of stands out to me.

The rest of it, yes, but verse nine, I believe, has so much power for us this morning.

Paul is saying, whatever you've learned from me, whatever you've received from me, put it into practice.

And so this morning, no pun intended, our sermon will be practical.

It's gonna be practical.

I want us to look at what we can learn from Paul and put into practice.

And I wish I could tell you this morning that it's like do X, Y, Z and you have all your prayers answered, or you know, you have a perfect life with no suffering.

I wish I could give you that.

That's not possible.

But what I believe Paul promises is even more hopefully.

He's saying the God of peace will be with us, and that is cause for rejoicing.

Amen.

Amen.

So let's pray.

God, we just thank you.

We thank you in gratitude for your goodness.

We thank you that we're here.

And God, I just pray, Lord, that there would be a spirit of receiving from your Holy Spirit this morning.

God, whatever people walked in with, Lord, I pray that they would just put that aside mentally, emotionally.

And Lord, we just wanna experience you.

We want to hear from you this morning.

And God, I yeah, I just pray that this would honor you and make your name known and loud.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So let me set the scene a little bit for you.

We're gonna be in the book of Philippians.

I want to set some context in what is happening in Philippians.

Why was Philippians written?

The book of Philippians was written by Paul, and he was in prison during this time.

And I think that we kind of know this by if you've grown up in church, like, yeah, Paul was in prison, but I really want to start with understanding what that must have been like for Paul being in prison at the time, right?

Probably chained, shackled to something in that in that room that he was in, probably a very dark room, not a lot of clothing, not a lot of food.

And so picture with me probably the mental and emotional state and the exhaustion he must have been experiencing, right?

And with that, the book of Philippians is this beautiful thank you letter to the church of Philippi for how they've surrounded Paul.

And we'll talk about that a little bit later in the message, but it's also this amazing encouragement for us today as Christians to take from Paul and again put things into practice that we've learned from him, right?

And so when we see Paul saying in verse 9, take what you've learned, take what you've heard, put it into practice, that should be a cause for us to pause and be like, well, what have I learned, right?

What do I know?

What has Paul taught me?

And so we're gonna be looking at that this morning to be able to fully experience joy and peace in a new way.

And so I wanna set some context, I wanna throw it back a little bit.

If I may, can I take you back with me to April of 2020?

Is that okay?

Might be triggering for some.

You're like, no, yep, I know.

Something happened in our society, right?

In our world.

So April of 2020, I'm not gonna, obviously, the pandemic happened.

During the beginning of the pandemic, I, like probably many of you, decided to reorganize and redo my bedroom.

Anyone else?

Just like the cleaning and reorganizing, the shuffling about, yeah.

And I love my room.

I love my room.

It's like a safe haven for me.

I painted all my walls, this beautiful oatmeal-colored shade, got some new, you know, furniture, and I made a little reading nook in the corner.

And I above it, I made a little gallery wall of different prints.

One of those prints that I got, the biggest one of all, is this simple black and white print that says joy is here.

Joy is here.

And that's been hanging in my room now for almost three years.

Let's throw it back to present day.

And in the last several months, I have just gone through a series of a lot of discouragements.

And it's not one thing I can attribute it to necessarily.

I think what I've kind of summed it up with is just simply this adulting is hard.

Anyone else?

Can I get an amen?

Yep, okay.

And I think being in my early 30s now, I'm like, no one really prepared me for this.

Like, mom, dad, why didn't you really prepare me?

But it's hard, right?

And so I'm wondering for you two sitting here today, I hear this resounding yes, you get it, right?

It's just the roller coaster of unpredictable ups and downs that we go through in life, right?

And so I remember this one day, I think it was August or September, walking into my room, and it's the first thing that you see when you walk, open my door, and I had this animalistic instinct come over me where I just wanted to go up to the wall and just rip the frame off the wall.

And I'm not an aggressive person by any means, if you know me, it's really not my vibe.

But there was something that I was just so frustrated, and I was like, God, joy is here.

Like, I'm not, I don't feel any joy.

Like, I don't know what that means right now.

What?

And like I look at the word, and Paul is saying rejoice in the Lord always.

Like, I can't really do this verb or this action that God is calling me to do, because I don't even think I'm understanding joy anymore, to be honest.

Like, what does this mean, right?

And God's word says, you know, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

I was like, I don't feel strong, I don't feel joy.

Like, how, you know, anyone else been there?

You can feel me?

Yeah, okay.

Total side note, I'm a pretty call and response kind of gal.

So if you're with me and you want to be like yes and amen, and you're here and awake, I love that, and I'm here for that, okay?

Just gonna throw that out there.

Okay.

And so maybe you've been here before and it sounds like you have.

And so I want to invite you now to take that and geek out with me on a little brain science, shall we?

Okay, let's do it.

I am extremely, thank you, Jay.

Glad someone's here.

I am extremely passionate about psychology.

I was a psychology and communications undergrad.

And after college, I also decided for fun to take some psychology graduate courses.

I'm very interested in how our minds work, how we process relationships, emotions, all of the above.

And so a month ago in preparation for this sermon, Dave, our new executive pastor, he didn't even know this about me, but he suggested this book.

It's called The Other Half of Church.

And it is co-authored by two people.

One is a biblical theologian, and the other is a PhD clinical psychologist.

Yeah.

And the premise of the book is how our brain development correlates to our discipleship to Jesus, to us following Jesus.

And so one of my best friends was like, Nassim, this book was like made for you.

What?

It's like literally like with my exact bread and butter.

And so this morning, for setting the foundation for this sermon, I want to talk to you a bit about the section on joy in this book.

The authors interview this neuroscientist.

His name is Dr.

Alan Shore.

And for the sake of his studies and in this book, he defines joy relationally this way.

He says, Joy is what you feel when you see the sparkle in someone else's eye that conveys, I'm happy to be hanging out here with you.

Isn't that so beautiful?

I wonder, have you felt that before?

Maybe it's with a friend that you reunite with after a really long time.

Maybe it's with someone you see a lot, but when you're with them, you kind of just feel like I don't have to be on, right?

I can just be myself.

And when you're with each other, you're just basking in each other's presence and you're like, you know that we're happy to be here together, right?

I feel that with many of you sitting here today.

It is so beautiful.

And so the premise of what their study held is that our brains look specifically to the face of another person to find joy.

Our brains look to the face to find joy, and that God's face is connected to joy in the Bible.

So let's look at this scripture.

In Psalm 21, 6, the psalmist says, You make him most blessed forever.

You make him glad with the joy of your presence.

Now, the Hebrew word for word original translation for that is actually this.

It's you, God, make him happy with joy with your face, with God's face.

And so I think that's one of the coolest things about studying God's word and being able to look at commentaries or the original translation.

You see what was originally written and you see, wow, God's face was shining down on us with joy.

And so our brains, when we read when we read this, when we see, wow, it's God's face shining down on me with joy, our brains process that a whole different way than if we were to have not read it that way, right?

And it makes me think of this um really awesome worship song that we sing here a lot.

It's called The Blessing.

It's actually my parents' favorite worship song.

And it's taken out of number six, and there's a line in there that says, The Lord makes his face shine upon you.

The Lord makes his face shine upon you.

And so, where I want us to start with this foundation this morning is in order for us to know and to experience true joy, we have to start with first seeking the face of joy, and that is in Jesus Christ.

Seek the face of joy in Jesus Christ.

Throughout this letter to the Philippians, Paul urges them, he says, hold firmly to the word of life.

Hold firmly to the word of life.

And we know that the word became flesh, right, in Jesus.

And so we are called to seek him.

And as we studied in this book, right, joy is relationally shared through experiencing someone's face.

While we can't experience the face of God physically, maybe some of you can.

I don't want to knock that.

Maybe you do see his face.

That's awesome.

But another way that we actually can seek his face is through God's word.

It's through scripture, it's through the Bible.

In Jeremiah 15, 6, it's one of my 15, 16s, one of my favorite verses, it says, When your words came, I ate them.

They were my joy and my heart's delight.

I want that.

When I read the Bible, I want that.

I want to eat it with joy and delight in it.

Amen.

And so when Paul is talking to the Philippians, he tells them, I'm praying that your love would abound in more knowledge and in more insight.

Friends, this happens as we study this.

As we take this and as we study it, we get to know God's face more and more.

I think of this analogy of a forensic sketch artist, right?

When a crime happens, when the detective is describing to the forensic sketch artist what the victim looks like.

You know, more often than not, you put the pictures together, it almost looks identical to the suspect.

And it's because they're so good at their job.

And how much more powerful is it for us today that we have not just a different, you know, not just the detective trying to think of, here's what I think I saw, we have the exact God-inspired word from eyewitnesses, the actual word of God.

We have that as that as our access point, right?

And so the more and more that we get to know God's word through scripture, the clearer God's face becomes to us.

If you don't think you know really who God is or his character, look into his word.

Look at his word, get to know his face, the clearer his face will become.

And Paul says in Philippians 2, he says, as you hold firmly to the word of life, you will shine like stars.

Isn't that so beautiful?

You will shine like stars.

And so I want to encourage us to start there.

And you know, in verse 9, when Paul says put into practice, put into practice sounds nice, doesn't it?

We read it, yeah, that sounds cool.

You heard it in a sermon here this morning, but let's be real, you might go and forget this sermon.

I mean, I'm hoping you'll never forget it, right?

But you know, you might.

But really, when you look at the word practice in the New Testament, that original verb means an ongoing, daily effort.

An ongoing daily effort.

Put into practice these things that I've taught you.

So, friends, it is hard, but it is so worth it.

Put into practice creating this regimen of getting to know God.

Get to know who he is, get to know what you can bank on and what it what are things that might be untrue and what is true.

Get to know him.

And then we'll then we begin to start to experience what true joy is and who true joy is through the face of Jesus.

Another way that we seek God's face is through the church body.

It's here and now in this moment, it's right here around you.

And I want to encourage you with this second posture that Paul invites us into to surround yourself with the church body.

Specifically those who are in pain or suffering.

Now, I know you might be thinking, Nassim, this is a sermon on joy.

Like surround yourself with happy people, right?

And their happiness will rub off on you.

No, maybe, but no.

I don't think that always works.

No, if we look at what Paul is teaching us, he's actually encouraging us to do exactly this.

Chapter 4, verse 15 of Philippians, he says, It was kind of you to share in my trouble.

He's telling the church of Philippi this, right?

It's like a thank you note to them.

A footnote in my Bible under share, it says to have fellowship with.

It was kind of you to have fellowship in my trouble.

Paul is affirming the community, hey, you did exactly this.

You came alongside me in my time of trouble, and he's thanking them.

And I think that we really need to model this more in the church today.

We really need to be coming alongside and befriending those who are in pain and in suffering.

You know, in the last year or two of being in pastoral ministry, I have walked alongside people in our church through very extreme, long-term pain.

And I want to say two things with that.

The first is that my faith has been deeply challenged.

Being very raw here, I've questioned, can I even be a pastor?

Like, what did I just sign up for?

My empathy has been through the roof, sometimes to an unhealthy degree.

I've had to fight not wanting to numb out, or knowing what can I take home with me and what do I need to leave?

How much do I show up for someone?

How little?

And then on a grander scheme, I have questioned my own theology.

God, where are you in this, right?

What do I tell the person who just lost someone?

God, where are you in all this, right?

What does suffering mean in light of who God is?

All of the above, my faith has been challenged.

The second thing I want to say is again, my faith has been challenged.

What I mean by that is as I have walked with these people through their pain, through their suffering, because there's a mutual trust there, because there's a friendship that's been developed and a bond over time, there are very real conversations that we're able to have.

There's an openness there.

And I've been able to ask these friends, what does joy look like for you?

Do you do you even experience joy right now in this?

Where is God here for you?

Right?

Real questions that we should be asking each other.

And for the sake of this message, I want to share one of those stories with you this morning.

This is a story of a dear friend of mine.

Her name is Haley Bowers.

And she has been so gracious to allow me to share her story.

I think she's live streaming this service too.

Hi, Haley.

And she's been praying for you guys.

Haley is a true awakening OG.

She actually got here before I was ever here.

She joined Awakening in um when she was 21 years old.

She's currently 29.

And she was in college at the time.

So if you were around then, you know her.

She is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful inside and out.

And Haley grew up for, you know, very normal life, healthy.

And when she turned 21, right before she was about to graduate from San Jose State, she got really sick.

She started getting very sick.

And over the course of the last decade, Haley has gone through the ringer to figure out what is wrong with her body.

And in the last 10 years, she has been diagnosed with close to 20 different diagnoses.

She is very, very immunocompromised.

And for the sake of, I know not men, not all of us are in the medical world here, I tried to ask her, Haley, tell me as lame in terms as you can get.

She has unfortunately three rare diseases that are called motility disorders.

These are disorders that cause a paralysis of the GI tract, obstruction of the intestines, and her stomach.

So she has to use a feeding tube to get her nutrients.

She has to get blood plasma infusions every Friday in order to support basic automatic body functioning, like her blood sugar, her breathing, her heart rate.

And I want you to think about this for someone like Haley, who has been so immunocompromised for almost a decade now, what COVID must have been like for her.

You know, we were quarantined somewhat, but for someone like Haley, her quarantine looked a little like this.

Haley has not eaten food for three years, the way you and I ingest food.

She's not been to a restaurant, she hasn't hugged a friend in three years.

I've seen her twice through a window.

She has missed the normalcy of being in your 20s.

Dating, seeing your friends get married, friends having children, building your career, et cetera.

And yet, for Haley, being the Enneagram three that she is, she has worked so hard in the face of adversity.

She graduated college, she got her master's degree in one year instead of three.

Yes.

And she currently runs advocacy groups all over the world to support people with rare disease.

She meets with members of our government, Congress, legislature to pass acts and to really just raise awareness for the rare disease community that exists.

She's amazing.

And so Haley and I got close actually during COVID.

We met in 2019, for like we had met a few times, but in 2019 we really met and then COVID happened.

So we got close through voice memos.

And I like to take credit for voice memos here at Awakening.

If you know me, maybe I've sent you one.

They're kind of, you know, this like, you know, if I've sent you one, we're close.

I like you.

And so we have only communicated through voice memos.

In that time, she has told me things that have challenged and rocked my faith in a new way because of her perspective.

And I want to share a few of those things with you this morning.

She told me, Nassim, I see God the most when I'm suffering the most because I'm so desperate for him.

I only have God left.

And then she said, maybe those who are in suffering are more prone to experiencing and witnessing joy because we're more open to looking for it.

How powerful is that?

And it made me think of this conversation that we had.

I remember when she was able to have bone broth for the first time and how that was this exciting moment for us to celebrate.

That was like the filet mignon, going to the Michelin starred restaurant.

She was able to have bone broth and not have to have just the feeding tube for a moment in time.

Or when she was able to go for a walk around her block and had energy to go for a 10-minute walk.

She's also told me, Nassim, this is my ministry.

This is my mission field now.

I really believe that God has placed me here to advocate for this community.

It's a new people for me to love.

And I wonder for us today, church, might some of our suffering be an opportunity for the body of Christ to come together, to be Jesus to one another, to offer hope and to offer presence of the Lord to one another.

And I want to be really clear that this is not in any way to make someone the hero and someone the victim.

I think we can get into that mentality, right?

Like I'm here to save you or something.

No, because all of our pain is valid.

It's one of the most beautiful and humbling things Halia has taught me.

She always asks about my pain.

She always says, Nassim, don't compare pain.

Your pain matters just as much as mine.

It is so beautiful and so humbling.

It reminds me of this quote in the book I just mentioned earlier.

The authors say this joy does not remove our pain, but it gives us strength to endure.

Joy has this relational component to it.

So joy and suffering means God and our community are glad to be with us in our distress.

They don't allow us to suffer alone.

We are able to bear our suffering like Jesus.

Joy and suffering, being glad to be with us in our distress.

And you know, I would be remiss without mentioning this.

I've been deeply, deeply affected this past week, as I'm sure many of you have, by the sudden, tragic suicide of a celebrity dancer Twitch.

And what I keep saying.

Seeing is this, he was always happy.

He was always so happy.

It's always the people who are the happiest.

And I just want to say this you know, Haley, her pain and her suffering is more overt, right?

It's visible.

She's shared it, it's seen.

I wonder who in your life, as I'm talking about, might have that overt pain?

Who in your life has undiscovered, unshared pain, the covert pain?

Who in your life seems the happiest that you need to check in on?

It's often those people that need to be checked in on the most.

I know even for myself, when there's certain people I feel like safe with and trusted awakening, when they're like, How are you?

No, how are you actually doing?

It means so much.

I just feel like I'm like a human being and somebody cares.

Like, how are you actually doing?

And church, I wonder who you can do that for this morning?

If somebody comes to mind right now, would you write their name down?

Would you ponder it?

Would you think of it?

Who in your life does God want you to show up for who is in pain and suffering every day that might be covert or overt?

And I want to say this that joy can coexist with pain.

It can coexist with sorrow.

There's this term in psychology, it's called a supra emotion.

Supra is a prefix, it means to sit atop of.

And joy can sit on top of any other emotion we're feeling, and both can be true at the same time.

This beautiful example Haley gave me illustrates this perfectly.

She told me, Nassim, when I get my blood plasma infusions every Friday, I am so deeply thankful.

I have gratitude for the people who've donated, for my insurance that covers this, and for the fact that this is a lifeline for me.

It's a survival mechanism for me, right?

At the same time, I cry through every single infusion because of how much it hurts and how angry I am that this is my reality, right?

Both can be true at the same time.

I think about that in my own life right now, with what is happening in Iran.

I'm Iranian American and I feel so blessed that this morning many of my Iranian family is here.

And what is happening in Iran right now is nothing short of brutal mass murders that are taking place every single day.

It is devastating.

And especially for people who were born in Iran, like my parents and my aunts who are here today, there is a deep depression and a devastation that has taken place in their hearts.

This is their hometown, their homeland.

And every single day you're seeing women, men, and children, even now these days, athletes and celebrities who are being executed and brutally murdered and arrested for standing up for basic human rights.

This has been happening since October, and there's really no end in sight.

With that, with that anger, with I don't even think I have a word to describe the emotion anymore, as you'll ask many of us, there's just an exhaustion and such a pit of sadness.

If you ask any Iranian, how do you really feel though?

There seems to be one small shred of this hopeful joy deep down burning inside, where you're like, maybe, just maybe, this female-run revolution, this courage you're seeing, this resilience you're seeing in these women, their bravery, maybe this could be the end.

Maybe this could be the end.

Maybe this could be the start of a brand new revolution that overthrows this evil regime.

It's amen.

Both, yeah.

Both can be true and it's okay.

It reminds me so much of Paul in 2 Corinthians.

He said this, he says this phrase, he says, I'm both sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

I love that.

I'm both sorrowful yet also always rejoicing.

It's both and and it's okay.

And so who are you thinking of as I share?

Who in your life can you show up for who's in pain every day, whether it's covert or overt?

And I want to encourage you, if you're not part of a church body, if you're sitting here now and you've been maybe detached from church, I want to encourage you to get back into community.

Get back into investing in church in people.

That's what we're made to do.

Paul says in chapter one, he says, I will remain with you and I will continue with you for your progress and for your joy in the faith.

Let's do exactly that.

Let's remain with people.

Let's fight for their joy in their faith.

Be open to asking people how might joy coexist for you.

I know in my own life, especially, I think, like, you know, for Haley, she'd say, like, my presence has helped her in her life in any way.

But besides that, she's helped me so much.

I have a more accurate picture of the gospel because of the cross-shaped life that my friend Haley lives.

I have a more accurate view of who Jesus is because of my friendship with Haley.

And so to recap thus far, friends, these rhythms, these regimens that I think Paul really encourages us with to experience more joy is first seek the face of joy, seek the face of joy in Jesus, and surround yourself with the church body.

And finally, surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Surrender to the Holy Spirit in you.

You know, when Paul tells us to rejoice earlier in this scripture, I don't know about you guys, but we just talked about suffering.

And I'm sure for many of you, your mind went to like a really somber place.

That was intentional.

I want us to go there.

But when I think about rejoicing, we're not robots, right?

We can't just do that.

And so when I read Philippians 4, I'm like, that's hard, God.

Like I don't know how to do that.

And so there's this component of surrender that I believe needs to take place that's out of our free will, it's out of our action in order to fully experience the peace of God guarding our hearts and our minds, right?

When Paul says the peace of God will guard your heart and mind, we have to let him penetrate our hearts and our minds first.

That's an act of free will on our part.

And so let's look at Paul one last time, Philippians 1.19.

Here's what he says.

He says, I know that through your prayers, right?

The community, through your prayers, and God's provision of the spirit, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

Through God's provision of the Spirit.

I want to tell you something about the Holy Spirit, his character as our advocate.

These are from the mouth of Jesus.

In John 16, here's what Jesus says about Holy Spirit.

He says, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and he will declare it to you.

All the Father has is mine.

Therefore, I said, He will take what is mine and he will declare it to you.

Friends, Bible reading tip.

When you see something repeated three times, that is cause for pause, that is cause for reflection.

There is power in this repetition.

Jesus says three times, Holy Spirit will take what is mine and he will declare it to you.

Some of your translations might say, disclose or show it to you.

I love this.

There is so much hope here.

Once we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we have this promise that he will speak to us, that whatever is true of Jesus will be disclosed to you and I as we surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

There's so much power in that.

And the beauty is one of the things the Holy Spirit deposits in us is joy.

That's a fruit of his spirit.

We have access to his joy.

And I want to remind you of this when it comes to joy, this attribute of joy, I think we often overlook.

Joy has grit.

There is a grittiness to joy.

Pastor Matt Summers, he's also the editor at the Gospel Coalition, he says this joy is tenacious.

It fights, it grips the promises of God and it won't let go.

Joy is not a mere good mood.

It is the anchor in our storms, the immovable rock to stand on when the waves of life threaten to flatten us.

So, friends, allow the Holy Spirit to help you fight for joy.

It's so much easier to just say choose joy to people.

I think that can be so trite.

It can even be disempowering to people.

And yet, you and I have the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and I, enabling us to fight for joy, to take joy, right?

To take it.

And so once we do that, once we practice these postures, as we seek the face of joy, as we surround ourselves with the church body and surrender to Holy Spirit, we then are able to experience the promise, the crux of it all.

Paul says, we have access to the God of peace.

The God of peace is with you.

Notice the focus is on God's character.

It's not like here's what you do and here's what you get, like all your prayers answered, perfect life.

It's here's what you do and here's who you get, here's who you get.

You have access to the God of peace who is near, who is here with you, who helps me weather every storm and uncertainty.

He is near to me.

And so as we get ready to close, I want to land the plane where we started.

I want to take you back to the joy is here picture frame in my room.

In present day, you know, none of my circumstances have necessarily changed.

And as we talked about earlier, we can all relate.

The roller coaster will come and go, right?

Paul says to expect suffering in this life.

Life is unpredictable.

But I've had this aha moment with the Lord that has allowed truth to take root in my life.

And I want to share that with you.

See, friends, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you know him, thanks to his death, thanks to his resurrection, Jesus Christ is presently interceding for you and I.

He is constantly, currently praying for you and I.

And one of the things that he's praying, he's praying that your joy would be full.

He says in John 17, he says, Would you have the full measure of my joy?

Isn't that wild?

The God of the universe whose face shines on you and I is praying for your joy to be full.

And I had this aha moment where I realized, oh my gosh, maybe joy is here is not this like feeling I need to experience when I walk into a room that exists in the four corners of a wall, right?

Maybe joy is here is more personification.

Maybe joy is here, is here and now, knowing that the God of the universe who is dwelling within you and I is interceding for my joy, that the very essence of joy is fighting for my joy and enabling me to experience joy.

And that causes me to have hope.

Amen.

And so I want to leave you with this.

The beauty of Advent season, the beauty of this Christmas season is Jesus has arrived to you and I.

After all, he's Emmanuel, right?

God with us.

He's come.

We have his nearness.

We have this God of peace.

And yet, I want to speak to the person in the room where you might feel like your pain will never end.

I pray for Haley as often as I can.

I can't promise or guarantee that her pain will be healed this side of eternity.

My friend who just lost her mom a few weeks ago, her pain is not gonna go away anytime soon.

The family in our church who lost their son last year, that pain is still very real.

And for many of you here today, whether it's overt or covert pain, that pain is real.

And so, as we close, I want to leave you with probably my favorite words that Jesus has spoken in the Bible.

Jesus says this in John 17, 13.

So you have pain now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

No one will take your joy from you.

And so, friends, you have access to the God of the universe whose face shines on you with joy, who is constantly interceding for you, and this is not the end.

This is not the end.

No matter what you're going through, no matter pain that exists now and might never be done this side of eternity, when he returns, our hearts will be in full rejoicement.

Rejoicing.

No one will take your joy from you.

So will you pray with me?

Will you close your eyes?

And will you take a breath?

And if you want, maybe even open up your hands in a posture of surrender.

And God, we just take a breath.

And Lord, we say that life is hard.

Every person in here, Lord, walked in here with their own unique story, with their own pain, with their own joy.

And God, I just pray, Lord, that for my brothers and sisters in this space, especially for the person where it might feel like joy is impossible or where is joy, Lord, I pray that right now in this very moment, Holy Spirit, that you would move mightily in the lives of my brothers and sisters who are seeking you and that you would show up.

That you would show up because we have access to the God who is near.

We have access to the God of peace.

And so, God, I just pray, Lord, that we would learn from Paul, that we would learn from Paul, that we would seek the face of joy in you, Jesus.

And God, I pray for the person in the room who might have trouble opening up about their pain.

And I pray, Lord Jesus, for the person who is in that situation, God, that you would give them people, give them community.

Lord, I pray that you would help them to feel safe to open up.

And in turn, for others, Lord, that we would show up, that we would show up and make space.

No need to have a solution or a fix, but just hold space for people in their pain.

And God, finally, Lord, we just ask that by the presence of your Holy Spirit, that by Jesus Emmanuel, you are here with us, that we'd be able to take joy, that we would take joy at your nearness.

Would your peace guard our hearts and our minds in this very moment and as we leave this place, God?

And we pray all this in faith and in hope in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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