Take Joy: Birthright | Part 1

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.

Amen.

Amen.

Good morning, Awakening.

Good Yeah, what is up?

Awakening showing up this Thanksgiving.

Great to be with you.

On your chairs, you have this card.

Pull it out or hold it up with me.

We're starting a new series called Take Joy.

Go ahead and say that with me.

Take Joy.

And we'll be diving in into this incredible book called Philippians.

That's actually a book really rightly called of joy.

And so we're going to be talking and teaching through Philippians 4, 4 through 9.

And what you'll see is it's the passage that we're going to be studying for the next four weeks, right here.

Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to take this card.

We made it nice, right?

Isn't that nice?

Ooh.

Ooh, ooh.

That's the proper response.

Ooh, yeah, isn't that nice?

We made it nice.

Here's the reason why.

I want you to take it.

I want you to put it maybe on your bathroom mirror, maybe at your desk at home or at work or in your car.

What we want to do is we want to meditate and memorize God's word.

It's a powerful thing, what we put in our minds.

In fact, it's one of the most important decisions you make every day.

We'll talk more about that in week three.

But together, your Christmas season, I believe, will be powerfully transformed as you put God's word into your mind.

So would you memorize this with us?

We're just going to take a couple verses each week, and you're going to take this with you?

This means yes, right?

We're not doing this.

Okay.

All right, there we go.

Take joy, take joy.

Um, uh, by the way, I I love, I love what C.S.

Lewis said.

He said this, that joy is the serious business of heaven.

Isn't that good?

Joy is the serious business of heaven.

Um, you know, Christmas season, one, I just wanted to let you know something.

Uh you probably didn't know I had the power to say this, but I do.

Um it's now okay to listen to Christmas music.

It's now the official time.

If you're doing it before, we forgive you.

Uh we do.

It's now the appropriate time to put up your tree.

We got our tree yesterday.

We went up into the mountains of Las Gatas and we got our tree cut it down.

In fact, I'm wearing the exact same clothes.

That's too much information as I did that.

And here's what's interesting about this season is we kind of think this should be the most joy-filled season or time, right?

It's like this is the most merry time of all.

We should have the most joys filled with family and friends, and you know, sometimes just to get through Thanksgiving, you have a friends giving, right?

To be with you, you're like, okay, we're gonna, this is the most joy-filled time.

And yet, isn't it true?

All the hurry and the hustle creates more stress and anxiety than joy.

And then something happens around this season where actually heartache and pain are magnified, they're not diminished.

And so, how do you experience deep true lasting joy?

Like, can you experience joy in the midst of struggle and confusion and pain this Christmas season?

Over the next several weeks, we're gonna discover and learn that you don't have to just find joy, hope for joy, wish for joy.

But we're actually gonna learn and discover how do we take joy.

That we don't just have it happen to us, but we can actually take joy this season.

Uh, in Philippians 4, if you got your Bibles 4-4, the Apostle Paul begins the conversation this way with three sentences that um I think if we're really honest, we're gonna read these, and it would be easy to pass by.

Easy to just go, those are nice words, or you know, things that you go like, oh that that that's lovely, or no, that's impossible.

And we just move on, and yet these are so powerful and life-changing truths.

He says this, uh, rejoice.

Actually, no, no, no.

Would you read this with me?

All right, out loud.

Can you do this?

All right, rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, rejoice.

Yeah, because of the exclamation point, right?

You had to you had to go up.

All right, let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.

Rejoice in the Lord always, not some of the time, not when you feel like it, all the time.

And then if you missed it, in case you didn't hear it, um, I know you're reading it.

I wrote it, so obviously you saw it, but I'll say it again.

Rejoice! And then let your gentleness, not your judgmentleness, be evident to everyone.

People that you agree with and disagree with, people that are, you know, you like, and maybe some of the people around the table that you didn't like this last Thanksgiving.

People that you are in your political party, and people who aren't in your political party, let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.

Now, we want to talk about how do you experience true, deep, lasting joy?

How do you take joy?

But before we dive into this scripture and unpack it, we first have to ask and answer the question: what is joy to begin with?

Because I think there's a lot of confusion of like, what exactly is joy?

Dallas Willard gives us a great definition of joy in it.

He says this joy is not a passing sensation of pleasure, but a pervasive sense of well-being that's infused with hope because of the goodness of God.

Joy is not this passing sense of pleasure, it's not just this emotional roller coaster highs and lows and good and bad.

It's actually this pervasive sense of well-being that's infused with hope because of the goodness of God, this sense of all is right in me deeply.

Not because of circumstances are right, because of the goodness and the nature and the character of God.

Now, I think one of the things that we do is we begin to kind of pit joy with happiness, right?

You have the joyful light, a happy life, and I actually don't want to do that.

In fact, so much that you'll see even through scripture, there's times that God's word uses joy and happiness interchangeably.

You know, like Jesus said, blessed are the pure, you know, in heart, for they'll see God.

Literally, happy are those.

Now, here's the reason why is we tend to do this is about 50 years ago or so, we shifted the definition of happiness.

And so because we changed it, then now our definition of happiness no longer fits, you know, every situation.

And uh the definition of happiness used to be that I am living a life I'm happy with.

That was the definition of happiness, that I'm actually living a life I'm happy with.

And we shifted it over the last several decades to now I'm living to be happy.

That life and all that I have is to exist for this sensation of pleasure.

And so, joy, this deep joy.

In fact, I like the way he continues on and says and writes about it.

It's pervasive, it's constant, an unending sense of well-being that though that flows from a vision, peace, righteousness, and hope.

True joy is robust, even including outright hilarity.

We can experience the joy of being in God's kingdom even in the midst of suffering and loss.

Joy doesn't arrive on the scene in good times and flee in bad times.

It is a companion through all times.

Kay Warren in her book Choose Joy writes this about it, her definition.

Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be all right, the determined choice to praise God in all things.

So, how do you experience that?

How do you experience true, deep, lasting joy?

Paul gives us three sentences that are so powerful.

And the first thing that he's gonna say that's completely counterintuitive to the way we think about joy, and it's so important that we understand it.

He's gonna say that joy is fundamentally a choice.

Joy is fundamentally a choice.

We think of it as a response and a reaction, and he says, no, no, no, it is a decision of the will, it is a choice, not a reaction of the heart.

In fact, he says it, remember, we just read it, rejoice in the Lord always.

I'll say it again, rejoice.

Both of those words, rejoice, there are present active commands or imperatives.

He's commanding the Philippians to rejoice.

He's saying it's not optional.

In fact, you can't live without it, you can't navigate life without it.

I'm commanding you, and so you have a choice to either do it or not do it.

Now notice what the apostle Paul didn't say.

Rejoice in your circumstances always.

I'll say it again.

Rejoice.

Because I think that's where we land often with rejoicing, right?

And choosing to, I'll choose to have joy when life goes X, Y, and Z.

And honestly, Ryan, the Apostle Paul doesn't know what I'm going through.

And my life is so painful and so hard, and I can't choose joy in this season.

I I just I would caution you with the Apostle Paul and his life and his circumstances.

He was pinning this book while being in chains in prison in Rome, facing imminent execution, writing to the Philippian church that are undergoing current and present suffering for their faith.

He is one familiar with pain and circumstances that are unfavorable.

Not because circumstances are favorable.

Not because you have the American dream, because everything worked out right, because your five-year plan came to fruition, or at least you're on pace.

Notice what he didn't say either.

He says, Rejoice in your possessions always.

I'll say it again, rejoice.

He didn't say, you know what, when your 401k is healthy, when your you know net worth is strong, uh, when when when you're able to go on the vacations that you always dreamed of and travel all the world when when you have the right fit, when you have the right car, when you look the part.

He didn't say rejoice in your personality always.

Because I think some of us are a little bit like that, like, well, Ryan, I just don't have the personality for joy, frankly, right?

I just I don't.

And there is a little bit of truth to this.

So hang on.

Um uh Dr.

Henry Cloud in his book, The Law of Happiness, fantastic book, does a ton of research on this.

And he says about 50% of the happiness we experience is genetic.

We don't talk about this enough in church world.

It's genetic, your makeup of who you are, and there are some real reasons for many of us, or not many of us, or some of us, to get help if we're having some genetic issues.

We need whether we need, if we had a sickness physical, we'd go to the doctor, and if we have some emotional or or psychological things, we need a psychologist or a um a therapist.

Okay?

10% is circumstantial, 40% is by how you live your life.

You have way more agency over your joy than you realize.

You have a choice.

It's not just your personality.

Well, I'm an Enneagram 4, and so I'm really deep and moody and emotional, and I'm an Enneagram 2, or I'm an extrovert, and so I'm the life of the party.

This isn't a personality thing of like I'm just bubbly all the time, and well, I'm kind of an Eeyore, and I I love, you know, like sad movies.

I don't.

I hate sad movies.

Anyways, that's you didn't call for that.

Okay, rejoice in your career always.

He didn't say rejoice in your career, that you're upwardly mobile, that you now have your dream job, that you have life working out the way you thought it would work out, that you, you know, have a great boss or good coworkers.

He didn't say rejoice in your relationships always.

Isn't that where we often try to find or draw joy from, right?

It's in our relationships, and he he he didn't say that.

And it's like not just rejoice.

I mean, we joked a little bit earlier, but some of you literally did have a friends giving just to get through your Thanksgiving because of the few people that are around the table at Thanksgiving that you see once a year, and that's about all you can handle, and yet they're blood.

Right?

Rejoice in your friends, rejoice in your marriage, rejoice in your kids.

And there's so many places we seek and we're looking to find joy.

And here we have to wrestle with this question.

Come on, we have to wrestle with this question.

What if the things we think will give you joy, give us joy really won't?

Have you thought about that?

Have you at least wrestled with that?

What if this thing that you're going, no, I filled in the blank here, rejoice in always.

I thought that would give me joy.

What if it actually won't?

Where you're going, like, huh?

You know what?

I thought it would.

I've been running after it, I've been hoping for it, but it certainly hasn't.

You see, the source of your joy will determine the sturdiness of your joy.

The source, like the object where you place it, this is the reason Paul says, rejoice in the Lord, not in circumstances, not in a better life, not in the American dream.

He says, rejoice in the Lord, because the source of your joy will determine the sturdiness, the strength, the ability to weather the storms of life, to navigate through the dark times of life.

Where is your joy found?

Is a fundamental question you need to answer.

The source of your joy will determine the sturdiness of your joy.

He says, rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice.

Think about this in the God of all grace, grace, God's unmerited favor poured out onto you.

The God who says his throne is a throne of grace, so you can approach it with confidence in your time of need, that you receive mercy and help.

Like he says, I'm pouring out my grace towards you.

Think about this.

Rejoice in the Lord, the God of all goodness, whose goodness and mercy follows you all the days of your life.

Like you woke up this morning, and today is a gift, by the way.

We weren't guaranteed today.

We woke up with breath in our lungs and a new day.

And he says, His mercy is new every single morning.

You woke up to new mercy.

You're like, hello, I didn't even recognize it.

I didn't even thank him for it.

But I woke up and his mercy is brand spanking new to me today.

Woo! That is amazing.

Great is his faithfulness.

And then we get, and then sometimes you're going like, Preacher Ryan, because I don't ever call myself, that was weird.

Let's never, let's, let's not do, let's not do that.

But I was getting in preacher mode, you know, and like, and and we talked about all those good things.

And here's what happens is we put those as the source instead of something got supplied.

See, it's radically different.

Whether it's your job or your career or your house or your mate or your kids or your friendship.

Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like a shifting shadow.

So every good thing you have is supplied by God Himself.

And so certainly it is enjoyable, and He's given you to enjoy.

But it is not the source of your joy, it is the gift.

The giver is the source.

Shift.

See, God is the only true source of joy.

The giver of all good in our lives.

I like how C.S.

Lewis says it.

He says, if you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire.

If you want to get wet, you must get into the water.

If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to or even into the thing that has them.

They're not a sort of prize which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone.

This is why the psalmist says this you make known to me the path of life in your presence.

In your presence, there is fullness of joy.

You make known to me the path of life.

We don't think about this.

In the presence of God is absolute fullness of joy.

We don't preach that enough.

We understand that he's holy.

We understand that he's righteous.

We understand that he's high and lifted up.

But did you know that in the very presence of God is the absolute fullness of joy, that he's the God of all joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

C.S.

Lewis in another excerpt would write this.

It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily, quickly.

Joy fundamentally is a choice.

The source of your joy will determine the sturdiness of your joy.

He says, Rejoice in the Lord.

And then he's going to say this that it's not only a choice, but it's also a path.

It's a way of being, a way of life, a way that you are.

He says, Let your gentleness be evident to all.

It's actually gentleness, the gentleness of your life.

Let it be on display for everyone around you.

Like when they interact with you, when they see you, when they come around you, like your gentleness just oozes.

Like, like how other people should experience the joy that are in Christians is gentleness.

Not judgmental criticism.

Not critical quickness.

Not passive aggressive.

And it's this way of going about life that is evident to everyone in their life.

This word gentle actually is really difficult to translate into English.

We don't have one word uh that can you know equate to it.

And so gentleness literally means um not insisting on every right of letter, of law, or custom, yielding, gentle, kind, courteous, and tolerant.

Some of your translations may say reasonableness.

Let your reasonableness be evident, considerate, kindness, unselfishness, graciousness, patience, humility.

Aristotle described gentleness here.

The gentle person is the one who by choice and habit does what is equitable, and who does not stand on his right unduly, but is content to receive a smaller share, although he has the law on his side, doesn't enforce his way.

The Greeks themselves explain the word as justice.

And something better than justice.

This word has justice at its core and it goes beyond justice.

Theologian William Barclay says people have the quality of gentleness if they know when not to apply the strict letter of the law.

When to relax justice and introduce mercy.

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

Like that is the joy-filled life.

That is the path of a joy-filled person.

The best like illustration of this word gentleness that I could think of comes from the life of Jesus, obviously.

But in John chapter 8, in the woman caught in adultery.

John 8 · chapter mention

And this idea of justice and beyond justice that leads to gentleness and mercy, not exacting the very letter of the law, but bringing mercy.

This woman, she was ripped out of a moment, it literally says, caught in the act of adultery, most likely not clothed or barely clothed, by a couple of Pharisees who were trying to catch Jesus and trying to trap Jesus.

And so they bring this woman, humiliated.

Think about this.

Her greatest shame is now on public display, and she is humiliated, thrown into the middle.

And the Pharisee says, Jesus, the law of Moses, the law, are you gonna abide by the law?

The law says anyone who's committed an act of adultery is to be stoned.

Different kind of stone for some of you with a rock.

Okay, you're like, some of you, I lost you.

I was like, to be stoned.

And um Jesus did something so fascinating.

He bent down, he didn't respond, and he began to draw in the sand.

We have no idea what he drew, and many people have tried to speculate.

But here's what I know at least happened in this moment.

All of the eyes were on the woman humiliated, and all of a sudden Jesus just begins to bend down and kneel and write in the sand, and now all eyes are on Jesus.

Instead of their eyes being on her, he then began to shift their eyes onto him and take her shame.

And he stands up and he says, You who have no sin cast the first stone.

And the text says, One by one they left, beginning with the older ones.

And then Jesus looks at the woman and says, Woman, where are your accusers?

And she says, They're not here.

And he says, This powerful line, this is grace, this is mercy, this is the God of all grace in our lives, in a response to who we are in our brokenness and our shame.

And he says, Neither do I accuse you.

And here's what's so beautiful about the gentle life is it leads with mercy, but then he doesn't leave her in that state.

He says, Now go and sin no more.

Now go and live a new life.

Go and live out a radical new way of being.

Where the evidence of others' experience of us is a gentleness, justice that moves and goes beyond it to mercy.

In fact, C.

S.

Lewis said it this way: yes, I'm in a C.

S.

Lewis state of mind.

Joy burst in our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.

Joy burst in our lives when we go about doing good.

When we go about our day and asking this question, what is the good and gentle response to my boss?

What is the good and gentle response to my spouse?

What is the good and gentle response to my kids?

What is the good and gentle response before I post?

It says that is the pathway.

It burst onto our life.

Here's what's amazing: the research that we have today corroborates that.

In fact, again, uh, Dr.

Henry Cloud in the Law of Happiness, he says this happiness fundamentally comes as a byproduct of the life well lived.

What research revealed was that happiness comes largely from how we live our lives and in to which activities we decide to invest our hearts, minds, souls, and strengths.

It's a pathway.

And so, this is an important delineation because we think of our emotions and we're wrestling with this.

You cannot choose your emotions, but you can choose your actions.

And you cannot feel your way into actions, but you can act your way into feelings.

And so often we allow our feelings to be in the driver's seat, and we wait until we feel like it, and yet what we need to do is begin to act joyfully, act good, act gentle, and then we'll begin to be experience the fruit of that and the emotion of that.

In fact, Dr.

Henry Crow Henry Cloud talks about it this way uh just as nutrition is for the body, there is practices we need to do for the soul that we put into place.

Eugene Peterson says it this way.

He says, Joy is not a requirement for Christian discipleship, it is a consequence.

It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ, it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.

We don't say this enough.

The most joy-filled way to live is to follow Jesus.

And since he's the author of life, then he knows how we should go about life.

And it's a consequence of, and as we follow him, we experience deep meaning, lasting joy.

How do we experience it?

Well, first it's a choice, it's a path, and then finally, we've been dancing around this our entire time together.

Joy is a person.

Joy is a person.

He closes, rejoice in the Lord always.

I'll say it again, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to every single person, and then the Lord is near.

The Lord is near.

Jesus is near.

If Jesus is near, joy is near.

The Lord is near.

Now, when we think about this, when we read it, our first glance, we just think about the promise of his presence, which is so good and so true.

You know, Jesus said, I'll never leave you and never forsake you.

That I'm always with you.

And this reality, and this is an amazing reality.

Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord.

In Colossians 1:27, he says, It's Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:27

So not only am I rejoicing in the Lord, but then the Lord Jesus Christ is in me.

And so I have the Holy Spirit indwelling in me.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, like joy in me, the supernatural power of the presence of Jesus in me.

The Apostle Paul actually uh was had a little different intending, though.

This was a phrase that the early Christians would use to encourage one another, to speak life and hope, to remind themselves of the promise that Jesus made.

The Lord is near.

Meaning that Jesus will return.

See, we actually need a promise that has the power to give us enough hope to drive out fear.

That promise can only come by someone who defeated the greatest kill joy of all time: sin, death, and Satan.

Not only did he defeat it, he rose again on the third day, and he said, I'm coming again.

We sit between the Advents.

Today is the first day of Advent where we are celebrating the first arrival of the Messiah, where people for centuries longed and waited, when will the Messiah, the anointed one, come?

And Jesus arrives on the planet, joy in flesh, to take on the kill joy of humanity.

And then he said, and I am returning, I am coming back, and it matters, and I'm gonna restore and I'm gonna renew and make all things right.

I'm going to mend the broken places in you and in this world.

Louis Smead in his great little book, it's a great title, by the way.

How can it be all right when everything's all wrong?

Writes this.

You were created for joy.

And if you miss it, we miss the reason for our existence.

The reason Jesus Christ lived and died on earth was to restore us to the joy we have lost.

His Spirit comes to us with the power to believe that joy is our birthright.

Who?

Because the Lord has made this day for us.

Joy isn't something that you hope to attain one day.

You wish for.

Maybe you level up in the Christian life, you know, you know, some of those really godly saints.

No, no, no.

It's your birthright that Jesus paid for, that he accomplished on the cross, and he says, This is the reason I came for you.

In fact, to his disciples, he said this on the night he was betrayed, John 15, when he's talking about abiding in him, he said this.

He said, I've told you this, that my joy will be in you, and that your joy would be complete.

My joy, the joy, the God of all joy, would be in you, and your joy would be complete.

And John 10, 10, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Jesus said, But I've come to give you life with joy in abundance.

That's my purpose of the reason I came.

I like how the author of Hebrews said it.

As he was talking about our journey and our path and the work that Jesus accomplished.

He said, And let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, fixing our eyes on the person of joy, Jesus, who accomplished the work that we might have joy, that joy actually is our foundation and our birthright because we are adopted into the family of God.

The pioneer, the perfecter, the author of our faith.

Then he said this: this is great.

Who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

The Greek word uh keros is the word for joy.

It's used um, I believe, 74 times, 76 times, somewhere in there.

In the New Testament.

Most of the times it's used uh for joy, rejoice, glad.

Eight times it's used for a greeting.

It was actually a common greeting in the ancient day.

Um, like, and wouldn't that be a great way we start, you know, maybe this holiday season.

Rejoice, you know, and you're like, nobody knows what that means.

Okay, you know, but in here you would know what that means.

You'd be like, rejoice, and that's just how you'd greet one another.

Three times it's used as the word hail, H-A-I-L.

It's the way you would welcome or greet royalty, an emperor, a king.

Of those three times, it's used of Jesus.

It was what the soldiers wrote, and then nailed onto the cross.

Hail, the king of the Jews.

Rejoice, the king of the Jews.

They had no idea how profound what they had just written was, or how prophetic what they had just written was.

Rejoice because the king, eternal, has taken on your kill joy and my kill joy, and has brought you eternal, infinite joy on the cross.

Rejoice because Jesus has paid it all.

Rejoice because joy has stepped into humanity and he came for you, and he came for me, and he made a way for you, and he made a way for me.

Rejoice because you know what kept him on the cross was not the nails in his hand.

This is amazing.

Before the joy set before him, the joy of welcoming you into his family is what kept him on the cross, scorning at shame, sitting down at the right hand at the throne of God.

How do we experience true lasting, enduring joy?

Fundamentally, it's a choice.

It's a path.

Ultimately, it's the person of Jesus.

When I was a kid, uh we'd go to my Uncle Mark and Aunt Punky's house every so often.

Um, hi, Uncle Mark and Aunt Punky, if you're watching.

Um we loved going to our our Uncle and Aunt's house.

Uh one, they had this basement.

Uh, it was amazing.

There's in Kentucky, uh, and they had this basement.

And uh down there, Uncle Mark had every um every movie of James Bond.

Uh yeah, it was amazing.

Uh we were not allowed to watch it as kids, and so we would sneak it late at night uh and watch stay up late and watch James Bond.

It's just confessing to your mom right now.

Um and they also had an Atari, and this was amazing.

I was like, yeah, we didn't have one growing up.

I know, I was deprived, I get it.

Uh you can feel bad for me.

We they they they had an Atari, it was awesome.

So I'd be like, playing Atari.

I remember one night uh everyone was gonna go out for the night, and they're like, oh, it's gonna be fun.

We're gonna do I I don't, I wasn't even really listening because I was playing Atari, and you know, you're just sitting there, and I was just like, no, no, go.

And so they left for hours.

I have no idea because why?

I was playing Atari, I'm on my little joystick, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

They come back, they went to the carnival.

And I was like, oh, my joystick wasn't so joyful anymore.

They went to the carnival.

I think my dad like won one of those basketball shooting things because someone came in with a huge, you know, stuffed animals.

They're they went telling me about these rides and like the all these different prizes and food, and I'm just going, like, oh my goodness, I missed out on it because I was so stuck on this is the greatest thing ever, and I couldn't imagine anything else.

And so I was holding on tightly to my joystick.

The reality is, is what you do this.

You have something that you're holding on to tightly that you think is gonna bring and produce joy, and Jesus says, I'm your joy.

Would you let go of that?

Would you respond to me?

I'm your joy.

Maybe C.S.

Lewis was right that we're so easily pleased, and we're missing out on infinite joy because we're just thinking this is all that there is.

You know, for some, you've never started a relationship with Jesus because you've been holding something so dearly.

You're like, I have this and I I want to keep this.

And Jesus says, I'm your joy.

Say yes to me.

And today you can say yes to him.

Would you come into my life and make me new?

I long to experience your joy and your peace and your presence.

Come into my life, and he does every single time.

For others, you've just been doing your own thing.

Where you say, no, no, today I choose to rejoice in the Lord.

Infinite.

And I recognize I've been settling for lesser things.

And I want you.

No, no, no, I need you.

We're gonna close with communion, and I want to invite you to take communion.

It's a time where we remember Jesus, his body, which is the bread broken for us, his blood poured out for us, that he took on our ultimate kill joy.

That we might experience our the birthright, what he paid for, what is ours in him, deep, profound, pervasive joy.

If you're a follower of Jesus, or maybe you're for the very first time saying yes to Jesus, we practice an open table, all are welcome.

So during worship, we're gonna invite you to come forward and partake.

But I encourage you before you do, what's your joystick?

What's the thing that you're holding on to that you think is your ultimate?

Could it be the very thing you think is gonna bring you joy?

Jesus, thank you so much for this time.

Thank you for your grace, thank you that you came for us, you love us in this moment.

May we respond to you and release the things that we hold so tightly, we call so precious, but actually have a tight grip on us.

May we experience you, joy, peace, and life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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