Rejoice Anyway

Open your Bibles to John chapter 16. Meet me at verse 31 and we'll read through to verse 33.

John 16 · chapter mention

John chapter 16, 31 through 33.

John 16 · chapter mention

Jesus answered them and said, do you now believe?

Indeed, the hour is coming. Yes, and has now come that you will be scattered

each to his own and will leave me alone.

Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

Verse 33, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer,

I have overcome the world.

What we understand here is Jesus is sharing with his disciples his traumatic departure.

He is headed towards his death, burial, and resurrection.

And he is letting them know before his impending departure that they are going

to scatter once he has been struck. When the shepherd is struck, the sheep will scatter.

And he says, and you're going to leave me alone. But guess what?

I am not alone. Somebody say, I am not alone.

Say it one more time. I am not alone.

You are not alone. The Holy Spirit is with you. Jesus is with you. The father is with you.

Emmanuel, the Lord is with you. You are not alone. And Jesus is telling his

disciples, I am not alone because the Father is with me.

And in verse 33, he says, in this world, you will have tribulations.

Put it on the screen, guys, one more time. John 16, 33. I want to make sure

I read it correctly. John 16, 33.

It says, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world.

What I want you to notice that in Christ you will have peace,

undisturbed composure.

Peace is not the absence of conflict.

Peace is the presence of Jesus in the midst of the conflict.

Peace is not the absence of obstacles and hindrances and trials.

They're going to happen, but in Christ, in Jesus, you will have peace.

You'll have me, and you'll be undisturbed in your composure because I'm with

you throughout anything you may go through. And then he says,

in the world, you will have tribulation.

I want you to understand that when you reference in the world,

you ever see that in the Bible, it could mean one of two things.

And you have to determine which one it means.

On one side, in the world could mean in the philosophy of ungodly men and women,

in their way of thinking.

Have you ever heard of that's worldly thinking? Or you're acting like the world.

That is one way to comprehend the phrase in the world. It could be a philosophy,

a way of thinking that is anti-God.

And a lot of the media and a lot of the music that is played today is worldly.

It's anti-God. It is unchristian. It is against the anointing and it is worldly.

But another definition of the word world is the word earth.

So in the world or in the earth, and you have to determine which definition

in the passage of scripture it's talking about.

Because in this passage, he's talking about the world being the earth.

He's saying in the earth, you will have tribulation.

So you are in Christ, but you are also in the earth. Right?

Right? You're seated with him in heavenly places, but you are currently physically in the earth.

Simultaneously, you are in him and you're in the earth. And he says that when

you're in the earth, you're going to have tribulation.

You're going to have pressure. You're going to have stress.

You're going to have hindrances. You're going to have obstacles.

You're going to experience pain. You're going to have heartbreak.

You may be stabbed in the back.

Somebody may talk about you. You're going to go through some persecution.

You might have a difficult time. You're in the earth.

You might go through, matter of fact, not that you might, he says there that

you will experience tribulation.

Anybody that ever preaches the gospel that everything is good and everything

is going to be, is perfect.

And all you need to do is kick your legs up and eat some cotton candy and sip on some sweet tea.

That is not real life.

Life can be hard. Life can be difficult on your heart.

Life can be very, very challenging. But Jesus says, in me, you have peace.

Even though life is hard, you can have undisturbed composure when you're in me.

In the world, you're going to have some terrible things happen to you.

Everybody's not going to like you.

Something in your body may hurt But

Jesus said I love the end of verse 33 He says in

the world you will have tribulation But somebody shot the word But anytime you

hear The word but it's almost like Disregard anything that was Said ahead of

time If my wife asked me how did this look And she tries on a new dress Devon

how does this look and I say It looks good but.

She ain't heard nothing else She didn't hear it didn't look good. That's all gone, right?

Now she's waiting on what I'm about to say.

And I can say, oh, baby, it looks perfect on you, and it's elegant,

and it fits your body perfectly, and it's the right length, it's the right color

for your skin, but I really don't like the color. Oh, I don't like the dress.

I don't like the dress anymore. Why?

Because but eliminated everything I said ahead of time. Jesus says in the world

you will have tribulation but disregard all of that be of good cheer be confident have joy.

Because I have overcome the world.

In this, the world, he's talking about the obstacles and the hindrances and

the ungodly ways that attack you.

Be of good cheer. Be full of joy.

I've overcome the world. I was listening to a man recently on TV,

and they asked him, does he go to church?

And he says, I don't go to church often. And he said, well, why don't you go

to church? He said, because the preacher is only teaching me how to cope in

my situation and not how to overcome my situation.

And I thought, man, in wherever he's going, that might be the case.

There's a lot of preaching out there that's simply about coping.

Just deal with it. Just kind of go through it. This is what's going to happen.

It is what it is. Right. And you're just going to go through it.

I'm not preaching that I'm preaching that you can overcome it.

You can advance. You can thrive. You can succeed.

You can excel. You can go forward. You can break limitations.

You can do it in Christ because he's overcome the world and you are more than

a conqueror because he overcame the world. Come on. Say amen to that.

Somebody shout hallelujah. Now, we are overcomers, and Jesus said here, be of good cheer.

Be full of joy because I overcame.

In the Amplified Classic translation, it says, I have deprived the world of its power to harm you.

Glory to God. Have faith in God.

Have joy in him because he has

deprived the world of its power to overcome you. Say, I am an overcomer.

The key that I want you to see today is I want you to see be of good cheer.

Be of good cheer. Be full of joy.

Whatever you're going through, whatever is happening in your life,

whatever's not working or it appears that it's not working,

whatever you're standing on and you believe in God for the promise to come to

pass and it seems like it's lingering or that it will never come to pass,

I want you to be of good cheer.

I want you to be full of joy because Jesus is an overcomer and so are you.

You are in him. He is in you. You are not alone.

He is with you. He overcame the world and you overcome the world because greater

is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

Somebody shout, I'm an overcomer.

Philippians chapter four, verse four. Go there. Philippians chapter 4 verse 4.

Philippians 4:4

Paul tells us in this passage of scripture, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again, I say rejoice. Glory to God.

In the Bible, in the scriptures, rejoicing doesn't just mean be happy or get excited.

It's deeper than an emotion.

To rejoice in scripture, I believe is threefold threefold when we talk about

be of good cheer or to rejoice number one I believe it's a choice.

Rejoicing is a choice. Rejoicing is a quality decision that we make.

We have a tendency to complain. We have a tendency to be sad.

We have a propensity to be overwhelmed.

We love to be catered to, and we love sympathy, and we love someone to feel

sad about our situation, and we love for agreement to take place in our situation.

But rejoicing says, I'm going to choose to be excited.

I'm going to choose in the midst of whatever I'm going through to celebrate.

I'm going to choose in the midst of all the chaos that's coming my way,

I'm going to choose to be of good cheer because Jesus is an overcomer and I'm an overcomer as well.

So number one, choosing to rejoice is the first step we can do.

We're not talking about a feeling.

I'm not saying wait till you feel like rejoicing.

I'm saying choose to rejoice.

When you come to church, I want you to choose to rejoice. Well, I don't like Sierra.

That doesn't matter. I want you to choose to rejoice. Well, I don't like that

song. That doesn't matter.

I'm going to lift my hands and I'm going to choose to rejoice.

When I'm at home, I don't like my boss. That don't matter either.

I'm going to choose to rejoice.

I don't like my spouse. That doesn't matter. I'm going to choose to rejoice.

Come on, somebody, and rejoice right now. Give the Lord some praise. Somebody shout.

Somebody say amen and give him some praise.

Whatever circumstance and situation you're in, you got to choose to rejoice

because number two, rejoicing is an act of faith.

You got to have your faith in God and rejoicing tells you and the enemy where

your faith lies, it's in him.

And so it's an act of faith.

It's responding to what you believe.

I'm choosing to rejoice because I believe better days are ahead.

I'm choosing to rejoice because I believe I'm an overcomer.

I'm choosing to rejoice because my dreams are coming to pass.

I'm choosing to rejoice because my son and daughter's behavior is improving.

I'm choosing to rejoice because my relationships are being established in him

and they're getting better.

I'm choosing to rejoice as an act of faith, even when you don't see it.

And that's what faith is. I don't see it happening. I don't know how it's going

to happen, but I believe anyway.

That's that's faith right there. The opposite of faith is seeing something.

It's when you don't see it with your natural eyes and you believe it in your

heart with the eyes of your faith in your heart that you begin to rejoice.

Why are you rejoicing? Because I see something on the inside that I don't see on the outside.

Why are you rejoicing? Because I believe the word of God. Why are you rejoicing?

Because these things are going to change.

Why are you rejoicing? Because this too shall pass. Why are you rejoicing?

Because I am more than a conqueror.

It's by faith that you rejoice. And there is a connection between rejoicing and faith.

You cannot be full of faith and sad.

You cannot be full of faith and oppressed.

You cannot be full of faith and ready to take your life and quit and give up.

No, that's the opposite of faith.

Faith says, I'm going to keep going just a little while longer.

I'm not going to consider what's taking so long.

I love in Romans chapter four, it talks about Abraham, how he waited for a child he didn't consider.

He was full of faith and he waited and waited, but he was full of faith rejoicing

because he knew the promise of a son is on the way. Come on,

somebody, say amen to that.

So rejoicing is not only a choice, and Paul tells us we're to rejoice always. What does that mean?

We're to always rejoice.

No secret there. We're to always find some way to give God some praise,

and we're to do it by faith and number three is rejoicing is always expressive.

Oh, it's always expressive. It's outward.

And you may have some inner gratitude, but rejoicing expressed outwardly.

Something's got to come out your mouth that you're rejoicing.

Maybe you're going to do a little dance. Maybe you're going to do a little twirl.

Maybe you jump up and down. But somebody should be able to look at you and say,

that person is rejoicing.

What are they so excited about? I'm excited about what's about to happen.

What do you mean it's about to happen? I believe, God, this is about to happen.

Well, how is it going to happen? That's between God, how it's going to happen.

But I know it's going to happen, and I'm rejoicing over it. Come on, say amen to that.

I'm rejoicing because it's going to happen.

The other day, that old dirty devil tried to jump on me, Adrian,

tried to give me some thoughts that things weren't going to work out for us,

and it wasn't going to happen for us, and things were just going to fall through,

and nothing was going to happen.

I was sitting on the couch. I said, no, I know what to do. I'm going to start rejoicing.

So I started writing down all the good things.

You know there's more good things happening than bad things in your life.

I started writing down all the good things happening.

And I said, I want to get very specific. Not just I woke up this morning.

God, that's easy for God to get you up. Listen, I got money in the bank.

Glory to God. That's a good thing.

Most of the world lives off one to two dollars a day.

If you got more than that you are thriving Say amen to that,

And so I started writing out Oh and I got a church that loves me It's my birthday

on Tuesday and y'all celebrate I wrote that down A church that loves me Amen

I started writing I had about 29 things written down And I started to get happy,

When I read it I started to get happy Like look at all the good that's happened

And that old dirty devil told me nothing's happening.

But look at all the 29 things that's happening in my life. And if I had more

time, I could have wrote another 29.

But I started reading and I got happy and I started rejoicing.

Then I got expressive. I was sitting in the couch.

I said, glory to God. My kids, I'm like, oh, they used to that.

They used to glory to God. Yes, dad, glory to God. Glory to God.

Now Zage walks around the house. Glory to God.

I said, Zage, what are you doing? I'm rejoicing. I said, yes.

Hallelujah. And I'm getting excited and I'm getting thrilled because the joy

of the Lord is my strength.

Stop being so sad all the time.

The joy of the Lord is going to give you strength to overcome,

to endure, and stamina to continue to succeed in whatever God's called you to

do. Somebody say rejoice.

And so those three things, you got to do it. It's a choice.

You got to do it by faith and it's expressive. I love this. I wrote this out

in the New Testament rejoicing should just.

That rejoicing should flow out of God's grace.

And so when you think about his grace on your life and giving you what you don't

deserve, which is grace, you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it.

You don't deserve it. But he gave it to you anyway.

That's that's an opportunity to rejoice.

Listen, if you've earned it, then you just, you know, you work for it.

And that's what's supposed to happen.

You get your paycheck, you don't be rejoicing when you get your paycheck.

Why? Because you earned it.

But when somebody gives you something you didn't earn because they just love

you, that's an opportunity to rejoice. And I saw that.

In rejoicing always, Paul's telling us because God's grace is always on us,

because his favor is on you.

And that's an opportunity to rejoice always. And if you forgot what I said,

he said, and again, I say rejoice.

And so he's telling us we ought to rejoice because there's grace and there's favor on our life.

And we're to be excited about God's grace and favor.

And we ought to rejoice and celebrate.

Glory to God. That's the word I want you to get is celebrate.

Look for areas in your life to celebrate. Look for conversations to celebrate.

Look for things in your life to celebrate. Just that's what rejoicing is we're

celebrating something and and scripture tells us we are to always celebrate at the end of the day.

The worst thing that can happen to a believer.

The worst is you die early and you go to heaven.

That is the absolute worst thing that can happen to you. And Paul said, that's the best thing.

He was like, listen, I'm deciding, do I want to stay or do I want to go?

I'm ready to get up on out of here, right? But it's best for you that I stay.

So he stayed a little while longer. But think about this. For a believer,

the worst thing is you left here a little early and you went directly to heaven.

Glory to God. So if that's the worst thing that happened, I mean,

anything in this life is not as bad as departing here earlier and going to heaven.

Amen. We have opportunities to rejoice and faith will rejoice in the midst of difficulty.

That's what James says in verse 1, or chapter 1, he says, count it all joy.

When you go through testing and trials. Why? He's saying rejoice in the midst of that. That's faith.

I'm rejoicing in the midst of it.

Psalms 118.24. Take a look here. Psalms 118.24.

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Somebody rejoice right now. Hallelujah.

Glory to God. I like this verse because before you even know what the day holds.

Before you even know what's going to happen today, you've already set your mind

and your attitude that I'm going to rejoice.

Glory to God. I'm going to rejoice. You wake up in the morning,

this is the day the Lord has made, and I choose to rejoice, and I'll be glad.

You don't even know what the day holds, but you've already set the parameters of your day.

I am going to rejoice, and I'm going to be glad.

When you get this negative text message. Nope, nope, nope.

I rejoice and I'm glad. Somebody cut you off the road. You want to say some

choice words to them. Nope.

I rejoice and I am glad. Somebody actually hit you while you're driving.

You know what? I'm still alive. Praise God. We can replace these cars.

They can get fixed. Amen.

I remember a friend of mine, she got, she hit a deer and, I mean,

she like, and her car was totaled.

I mean, the deer jumped out in front of her car was totaled and she was,

she was devastated by it.

And she, she said to me, she said, oh my gosh, my car's messed up and I'm shook up by it.

And I said to her, just out of my spirit, I said to her, I said,

we can replace vehicles.

We can't replace Priscilla. And that was her name.

And she said, oh, my gosh, that did something to me.

A few years ago, I ran into her. She goes, I still remember when I hit that

deer and you said, we can replace vehicles, but we can't replace Priscilla.

She says, I still think about that.

Rejoicing in you can't be replaced. Amen. We get another car.

You get the den out the car.

All that is just stuff. It's a distraction.

I'm going to rejoice that I'm still here, praise God. I'm still alive.

There was a lady in our church that told me a story that she got wrong.

Somebody tried to snatch her purse. I was like, oh, my gosh.

And she said they snatched her. They were fighting over the purse.

And finally she said, Jesus.

And the man took off running with her. I said, praise God.

I said, I'm so sad that happened to you.

She said, well, I'm not. I said, you're not? She said, no, because it could have been worse.

I said, you're right. She said, I'm rejoicing that I said Jesus and he took

off and he didn't get my purse and he didn't take my life. Hallelujah.

We can find some things to rejoice about.

Biblical rejoicing chooses to rejoice regardless of what life looks like. Amen.

Before you even know what's going to happen today, you just rejoice.

We should be some of the most celebrating people. We should always be celebrating. What you celebrate?

Something Whatever it is I told Stacy going forward I'm going to write down

short term goals So that when we hit them That just gives us another reason

to celebrate See a lot of times we're not celebrating Because we're not tracking progress.

We're not writing anything down. We're not looking at opportunities and creating

opportunities to celebrate.

Every year around December, Stacy and I will go to a very nice restaurant.

And the sole purpose is to celebrate the year.

That's it. We eat some good food and we sit and we talk about the year and each

other and our marriage and the church and the children, et cetera, personal things.

We just celebrate, taking opportunities to rejoice in the Lord always.

And again, I say, rejoice, celebrate, celebrate the goodness that's happening in your life.

There is more good than there is bad.

I want you to realize that there's more good happening in your life than there's

bad. But we have a tendency to gravitate towards the bad.

I'll receive, full disclosure, I'll receive good emails. People will send emails

to me that are really good.

Man, I love that. Continue to send those emails to me. They encourage me. But I'll get a bad email.

And I'll spend more time on the bad email.

I'll sit there and think about that bad email. I could receive three good ones that day.

But I'm on that bad one. Oh, this bad one. I'm on that. I said,

no, I'm not doing that anymore.

I'm going to spend more ample time on the good ones.

And the bad one, it's just bad. Just let it be. Amen.

I mean, we need to focus our paradigm and our attention to things that are celebratory.

We need to look and find what can I celebrate?

I know it's hard right now, but what can I celebrate and begin to celebrate

that? Somebody say amen to that.

Habakkuk chapter 3. Habakkuk chapter 3, we'll look at verse 17,

Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention

watch this Though the fig tree may not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vine, though the labor of the olive may fail,

and the fields yield no food.

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stall,

yet, come on, somebody say yet, I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation. Come on, take about 10 seconds and rejoice

in the Lord right now. Hallelujah.

Come on, we give you praise.

Glory to God. Hallelujah.

Rejoicing isn't pretending that everything's fine.

That's not rejoicing. It's choosing to see God above all of the problems.

We're not being phony and trying to act like everything's all right.

No, we're choosing to invite God in the scene when everything is going on.

We're choosing to rejoice regardless of what life looks like.

I love that. You see how bad that was in Habakkuk? It was terrible.

No fruit on the vine, no stalls, no herd. There's a mission sheet.

Terrible. But I'm going to rejoice.

I'm going to rejoice. Despite all of this negativity, I am going to rejoice.

Are you letting your circumstances dictate your joy?

It's a question I want you to ask. Are you letting your circumstances dictate

your joy, dictate your mood, dictate your response, dictate how you feel?

Are you letting your circumstances do that?

Or are you choosing joy because God is the source? God is on the throne.

God is the one. El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Shammah.

He's here, he's there.

And he's the one that's everywhere. And I'm going to rejoice because God is everywhere. Amen.

Amen. There was a particular job I was going for as a young man.

I really felt like that was my job.

I really felt like the Lord wanted me to have it. That was the job for me.

I went for it, and they ended up hiring some other guy. It wasn't me.

Man, I was hurt. I was devastated. I was close to being depressed.

I really felt like that was it until I started thinking, wait a minute.

I got so much other good stuff going on for me right now.

He's been good to me, and I went from feeling depressed to rejoicing.

And I look back at it now, and I'm glad I didn't get that job.

It's actually what led me to Charlotte. And I moved to Charlotte,

and I meet Stacy, and the rest is history, right?

If I had kept and got that job, I would have stayed there and married somebody

else. That wasn't Stacy.

But Stacy was the one, amen. And so I started to rejoice that there's some other

things that are happening in my life.

And I look back now, I'm like, I'm so glad I didn't get that job.

You're going to look back at some things in your life right now and say,

I'm so glad that didn't work out. Or you might say, I'm glad I went through that.

I had to go through that. I had to get through that because I learned a lot

about myself that I didn't know by going through that.

You even can learn more about God that you didn't know by going through circumstances.

And you say, I'm glad it happened because now I'm tougher now.

I'm stronger now. I got more fight. I got more fire. I got more vision.

I got more wisdom because I went through that bad thing.

When you rejoice through the process, you'll look back at it and say,

look what the Lord has done.

Now, God may not have authored it, but he used it to perfect you,

to cultivate you, to develop you into the man or woman that you need to be in

order to go to other levels that he needs you to go to.

Somebody say amen. He's got to do this because he's got to get you to the point

that you're not moved so much about circumstances.

Are you understanding what I'm saying to you today? That you got to get to the

point that you are stronger now than the opposition.

And the only way to do that is you're going to go through some things,

But you got to start rejoicing as you go through it, knowing that at the end, you're stronger now.

When I go work out in those classes or I do my own workout, in the middle of

it, I ain't rejoicing. I'm hurting.

I'm tired. I want to sit down. I don't want to do any more squats,

no more pushups, no more jumping and lunges.

I don't want to do none of that in the process. But when I get done,

I feel great knowing that I got stronger.

And one of the reasons I want to do it because I want to throw my grandkids around,

amen I'm not there yet and take as long as possible and Zavon for sure and Zarek

and Zavon take as long as you need to have it but when the time comes I want

to be strong to throw them around amen.

There's motivation behind the

process and I'm rejoicing through it because the Lord gives me strength.

When life is bad, let me tell you what rejoicing looks like when life is bad. You want to hear?

Lifting your hands. No, no, no, no, excuse me.

When life is bad, rejoicing looks like thanking God in prayer for what he's already done.

It looks like singing worship even when you don't feel like it.

It looks like speaking faith. Lord, I trust you will bring me through.

When life is bad, rejoicing looks like finding joy in his presence,

not your circumstances.

Let me say it again. When life is bad, it looks like thanking God in prayer.

Singing worship even when you don't feel like it.

Speaking faith. Lord, I trust you to bring me through and finding joy in his

presence, not in your circumstances.

And when life is good, this is what rejoicing looks like.

Lifting your hands, dancing, clapping, and shouting thanks. Glory to God.

Sharing testimonies of his goodness with other people, with me.

We want your testimonies.

Send in your testimonies. TrueLifeFC.org testimony. Send them in.

We want to, when life is good, rejoice. It looks like being generous with your resources.

It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.

So when life is good, you're being generous with your resources.

When life is good, rejoice.

It looks like smiling, laughing, enjoying the blessings with a thankful heart.

So when it's bad, you're persevering. Life is bad, but I'm persevering to rejoice

because I know joy is going to give me strength.

And when it's good, it's just a flow from his goodness that I'm sharing on everybody

else because I am rejoicing.

1 Thessalonians 5.16. 3 Thessalonians 5.16.

Read that with me. Ready? Read. Rejoice always. Well, I mean, that's it right there.

That's the only thing that verse says.

Rejoice always. Paul tells us, Philippians 4, rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I'll say rejoice. He tells us again, rejoice always.

Always rejoice. Not for what's happening to you, but because you are an overcomer.

Jesus overcame it already, and you're just celebrating because in just a matter

of time, this will all be over.

Glory to God. You know what you're going through right now? It's temporary,

and it's subject to change.

And anything you can see with your eyes is temporary and subject to change.

When you begin to rejoice, it's giving you the strength to get through whatever

it is you're going through because sadness will make you and pull you down.

But joy and rejoicing will lift you up and lift up your spirits.

Rejoicing is not just tied to feelings, it's tied to your faith.

In hard times, rejoicing is an act of trust. In good times, it's an act of thanksgiving.

Either way, rejoicing always points back to God as the source of your joy.

Rejoice always. Always rejoice.

Now, there are two practical steps I want to give you before I dismiss you.

Two practical steps that I want to give you to rejoice daily. Are you ready?

All right. Number one, begin each day thanking God for something.

Find something to thank God for. And I want you to get a little deeper than

I just woke up this morning. That's great, okay?

But God, that's one of the easiest things God does for you is to get you to

wake up in the morning. Amen?

That's wonderful. But I want you to find something very specific,

okay, that you can begin to thank God for. Amen?

And number two, I want you to encourage others. on a daily basis.

Begin each day thanking God for something and then encourage others.

Rejoicing multiplies joy.

Rejoicing multiplies joy. So you find something to be thankful for and then you encourage others.

Part of your responsibility as you live your life throughout the week is to encourage others.

It's to find people that look down, sad, despondent, beat up,

busted, and disgusted, and encourage them.

Encourage them. Give them some joy. Encourage means to infuse courage.

Infuse courage into them. They are discouraged, and they need to be encouraged.

So you infuse courage. How do you do that by the words of your mouth. You give them joy.

You give them excitement. You celebrate. You ask them, here's one question I

want to ask you as well. What are you excited about?

That gives you the opportunity to think, what is it I am excited about that

will give you an opportunity to celebrate?

Because it's the joy of Lord that is your strength.

This is how you experience true life.