Joy - Introduction

Hello Go Church family, I'm Lara. I'm here with Pastor Matt Hataba. Hey everybody. And Gilbert.

Hello everyone and we have a special guest with us today. Hey everyone, Pastor Julie here. So

excited to be with you. This is gonna be a special time that we're celebrating the Christmas season

and who better to have on the Go Church podcast than my wife Julie who loves Christmas. We've had

Christmas trees in our house this year since... August. The able message probably. Exactly.

We were able to put up our Christmas trees. So someone asked us, they said, do you have

your Christmas tree up already? I said, we have four Christmas trees in our house. So

Merry Christmas everybody. Merry Christmas. You know what they say? They say the more than merrier.

That's right. And it's applicable because actually we're talking about joy this Christmas season.

Yeah. And we're aware that it is Christmas so we're not gonna do what we usually do which is

very long podcasts. We're gonna try to keep it as concise as possible. We're gonna keep our

announcements over the course of this month to a bare minimum. And we're just gonna spend some time

talking about the joy of the Lord and why we want to talk about the joy of the Lord during this

Christmas season. So before I do that, I do want to say if this is your first time listening to a

podcast, you're new to Go Church, you've never heard of Go Church before. First of all, welcome.

We're so glad to have you here on our podcast at Go Church Beirut. Ahlan was Ahlan. That's right.

Go Church is your place to love, grow and go. We want everyone to experience the unconditional

love of God, to grow in His love and to go out to your world with His love. We are a Bible-based,

Spirit-filled and group-centered church. And we say that we are group-centered. That is a little

different to what you might see if you're used to a traditional church setting. But we go back to the

earliest traditions of church settings, which is, you know, since the very beginning, most of the

meetings in churches happened in small groups. And those tend to happen across a town, across a city,

in homes, in public areas where groups, smaller groups of people would meet and would have a

chance not only to listen to one person with a microphone, but be able to share in the experiences

that we get to grow in as believers in the Lord. So that is something that we do in most of our

meetings look like that. So if you haven't been to a grow group, you haven't been to go church.

So most of our meetings are in what we would identify as small groups that happen literally

everywhere now, all over Lebanon. And I'm thankful that that's the case. We're opening new groups.

We're going to open some new groups in January. One of the ways we open new groups is we're going

to start an Alpha in January. But we also gather all these groups together in our Big Sunday.

So Gilbert, talk a little bit about the Big Sunday. Yeah, absolutely. So a Big Sunday is maybe what a

lot of us will be familiar with as a more traditional service that you would see at a church.

And what it is really is not what we feel is traditional. We feel it's a celebration. So once

a month we all come together. So all the groups come together in one place. And it's an opportunity

to get to see each other, enjoy each other's company. And we celebrate. So we worship together.

There's always a time where we get to worship the Lord together. And then what we do is we take

communion together and we hear the message, which is really in line, most of the time is in line

with the series that we are digging deeper on for the whole month. So in this month of December,

we are digging into the series of joy. So you can expect to hear a message around that. Of course,

this month specifically is the Christmas month. So we're going to celebrate Christmas all together

and we're going to have extra fun. It's going to be a time of extra joy. Exciting. It is exciting.

Very much. Christmas is always a great time. Yes. The last announcement I want to make,

and I don't want to miss this, is Alpha. So we have an Alpha starting on Jan 11. So that's in

the new year, on the second week of the new year, and that will be on a Thursday night. So if you're

part of the team, we're so excited to have you as part of the team. If you're not part of the team

yet but you're interested to serve on an Alpha, please reach out to us. We want to make this the

biggest Alpha that Go Church has ever done and we need your help. If you don't feel like you're able

to be part of a team but you still want to join, or you have friends who you think would benefit

from Alpha, please make sure that you put them in contact with us and we would love to have them

there. If you've never heard of Alpha or what Alpha is, we're about to tell you about it.

Alpha, one of the ways that you describe it is a themed dinner party. And you just made that

comment about who could benefit from Alpha. I don't know anyone that can't benefit from Alpha.

If you're an established believer, Alpha opens up a way for you to share your faith with people that

think different, have a different background. If you certainly, if you have questions about

the faith or the Bible, Alpha could benefit you because it's a place to bring those questions

and address them specifically to find answers and answers that are based in the Bible.

And then ultimately, it's a great place to make connections. And in life, what we find,

and the farther you go in life, I've seen this more and more relationships matter.

And Alpha is a place to have relationships. I know some of you might be thinking, what is the age

range? What age group is the Alpha targeted towards? And you know, Trenton and Caitlin,

they're going to be there serving at Alpha. They're going to be helping their teenagers.

And so, Gilbert, what do you think would be a good age group if you were inviting someone

to come to the Alpha? Well, I think any age group is possible. I mean, anywhere from early teens on,

you know, it would be fun. All the way up to, you know, as long as you're alive, you know,

pretty much. It's a great time. I mean, what's amazing to me is the connections that you make.

And you know, those connections go well beyond age or, you know, certain backgrounds. It's a time

where we all get together. And what we do is we deliberately just create a space in an environment

where we can ask the big questions about life. So if you have kind of questions that you've had in

your head or in your, you know, in your heart, in your feelings for years, and you've never

asked those questions and you don't know who to ask those questions, just that's easy. Bring them

to Alpha. And we're creating room for you to ask those questions in a safe and respectable environment.

And we all want to get to know each other and grow together. That's the point of Alpha. And that's

the goal of Alpha. So with that, I want to get into the introduction of our series, which is what

we're going to do today. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. We might start shouting because we're joyful.

I like the, and I didn't come up with this phrase, but I like this quote,

Joy is the serious business of heaven. Yeah, that's nice. That's good. That's amazing. So before we get

into Joy, I want to go back and talk about what we were talking about last month, because we never

disconnect from the series that we've been doing. Our goal is to introduce a series to you, get you

thinking in a certain way, get you applying things in your life in a different way. But we don't want

to disconnect from that. So last month we were talking about prayer. We were talking about

pray like a champion. And there's so much to that. I mean, our, the success of our lives as believers

really is determined by our prayer life. And that is such a key component of us being able to do

what we're doing, because we can't, we can't do anything when we are disconnected from the Lord.

But so, so basically this month we want to add to that. We want to go further in that. We don't

want to disconnect from that because we were talking last month that prayer brings results.

And we pray according to the word of God. We pray according to the Bible and we pray according to

our faith. You know, we don't just say things and don't believe them. We might as well not do that.

But if we say things because we believe them, then we would respond to that situation with a certain

degree of expectation. And if I'm believing that something that really means a lot to me, it really

means a lot to the Lord is actually going to happen in my life. I would respond with joy, right? I

wouldn't respond with heaviness or with a certain degree of concern. If I'm worried, I'm not really

believing that the thing that I asked for I already have. So that, you know, this month we're really

going to talk about the nature, the character of a person who is in faith and the person who really

believes what they prayed for, you know. And another thing you might notice if you've been around

for a while is that joy is a series that we did two years ago. You're going to hear a lot of the

things that you already heard two years ago. That doesn't matter. I encourage you to go back to the

recording two years ago and watch that. Which is on YouTube. Which is on YouTube. Go church favorite

YouTube channel. Yeah, that's right. And so I want to ask why are we doing this again? You know,

I was when we were looking at the calendar, joy is often associated with Christmas. And in the

Western world, if you ask someone, why is that? They'll probably say, well, because it's a time of

celebration. It's a time of gift giving. But they're really mixing that answer mixes up

the difference of the different words, joy and happiness. And happiness is an emotional response,

whereas joy is part of the fruit or one of the fruit of the Spirit or one of the results

of the Spirit of God at work in the inside of us. The message that we did two years ago, I felt like

did a great job of bringing up that difference. And it's something that I want us to revisit and

then apply more practically in this time. Because really, the reason joy is associated with the

Christmas season is because it is when we rejoice that God made a plan for all of us. And to bring

that plan to completion, He gave the ultimate gift, Jesus, His Son, for us. The celebration of

Christmas is because Jesus is God's gift to me and to you. The reason there's joy in the Christmas

season is because Jesus has been given. He is God's gift to me. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God.

Praise God. Now, since you started talking about this, Pastor Matt, let's talk a little bit more

about Christmas and the Christmas story and the reason for our celebration. And I'm going to

introduce this, but I'm going to invite Lara as well to add to this. And we want to talk about

what Christmas really means to us as believers. So the first thing I want to say is that we were

never created to be separated from God. We were never created to be far from God. God actually

designed us and created us in His likeness and His image. And we were positioned in a certain

place. I'm talking in the book of Genesis, you see that naturally, but you also see that spiritually.

We're positioned in the same place because He created us as He looks like so that we would be

given a certain measure of dominion over His creation. And we would work with Him to accomplish

the things that He wants to do. And we would have relationship with Him and we would enjoy

that fellowship with Him. Not only in a kind of business way, which is working, but in a

relationship, in an intimate union between God and man. And that was His intention. That's, you

know, we were created with love for love. And unfortunately, a series of events occurred whereby

man separated himself from God because man sinned. And what does sin mean? Sin means missing the

mark of God. It means not being according to God or not doing according to God. And in doing that,

when man took the decision to step away or sin or turn himself away from God, then there was a

separation that was created between God and man. And that separation exists, you know, it existed

before, let's say, I was born. So even before I had this relationship with God, I was born into

the world in separation away from God. That separation was not determined necessarily by

my actions. Now, I'm not saying that my actions have been perfect, but that separation existed

before I ever had or made an imperfect action. And God is love. And His nature is love. And love

never fails. Love never gives up. Love never, you know, just clicks its fingers and, you know,

we start over. The love of God is patient and enduring and is always running after

the thing that, you know, the Lord purposes to do. And God always wanted to bring us back home.

And the story of Christmas to me is the story of the hope of reconciliation. So it is the story

where we see that God had a solution. And the solution that God had was bringing his only son

into the world to live as a man, to die without sin, but to carry the sin of the world onto himself

and be judged. And in that judgment, be found blameless and be resurrected from the dead.

And because of that victory, I can live in him by faith with that victory. So in his son,

I can now have complete access, reconciliation. That separation no longer exists. And the Christmas

story is the start of that story. So when we see Jesus born in the world, we see the hope of God's

reconciliation manifest before our eyes. And that is a celebration of the love of God towards me.

I love that. Yes, it's a Christmas story, but for us, it's a reality.

We were created to be in fellowship with the Lord always. So His gift to us, our Lord Jesus,

we're connected to Him again. And when we think about Christmas, it's no longer a story. It's not

something we celebrate just in December. It's every day. We're connected again, and this

fellowship will never be broken no matter what. And that makes me really, really happy. And I have

joy for that. And that joy will never be taken away. Praise God. Amen. What's amazing to me is

we see in, for example, Proverbs chapter eight, also in John chapter one, the, what people that

studied the Bible describe as the, as, as we see Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and He received that

name Jesus, but as a member of the Godhead, the Word of God, He existed from the beginning.

Proverbs chapter eight describes Him as the architect of creation.

So the Father has the vision and the desire to be the Father. And so,

He has the vision and the desire to create. But the, the action of creation is

through the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit, the three in one working together.

But He loved us so much, He became like us. I was just reading Hebrews this morning.

He became like us, not, not for 30 years, not for 33 years, not just for this short period of time.

Jesus is forever in a human body. Wow. That, that's the level of identification

and demonstration of His love for us. God's Christmas gift is not an event that happened

in one day, 2000 years ago. He forever became like us so that we could forever be like Him.

Wow. Wow. Praise God. Yeah, it's amazing. It gives a whole new meaning to, to,

to what Isaiah said when he said, God with us, you know, in man. Yes, yes. Because He's forever

with us, right? Yes. Yeah, it's so big. Let's, let's ask, what's the meaning of the word

of God? Let's, let's actually, let's read that. Julie, will you read this from Isaiah?

Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. It says, For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's armies will make this happen. Glory to God.

Praise God. Yeah. Praise God. I love that passage.

There's so much truth there. His name is wonderful. Yes. Yeah. This, by the way,

is the introduction to next year's Christmas message. But we can have joy in this Christmas

season. But outside of this Christmas season, we're called to demonstrate joy because

all that he's done for us, we can't, we can't put it in, we can't put it in words,

but we can live it out in our life. And in living it out in our life,

we can take what we have been given and give it away to the world around us.

Why are we talking about joy? Because that, that's the only thing that makes sense

for someone that has received so much to act like, to exhibit, and to demonstrate.

Act like, to exhibit, and to demonstrate. Yes. Yeah. So to me, joy is always connected to hope.

And there was, you know, the, the, the birth of hope was Christmas. Yeah. And then that's not like

Pastor Matt said, that's not something that just happened and finished. That's something that

was born and now is given to us as believers forever. So we forever have that hope because

Jesus is not, you know, he didn't change form. He didn't, he didn't change at all. You know,

he never changes. God's the same, you know, yesterday, today, and forever. But Jesus embodied

humanity so that we can embody godliness. And it's just super powerful. And it's, it's kind of, you

know, you're reading that passage and, and one of, one of the, the names are, you know, one of the,

yeah, one of the names is Prince of Peace. And I just always sense that overwhelming peace during

this season. It's just a demonstration of, of a fulfilled promise. And to me, you know, a while

back, the Lord kind of presented what peace means. Peace is not just a feeling. Like, like we see

joy, joy is a fruit of the spirit, so is peace. And he, he told me peace is the place of covenant

fulfillment. Yeah. Or the fulfillment of a promise. So we get to relive the birth of that

fulfillment of promise every single year. And that's what we're celebrating at this point this year.

And it's, it's always a constant reminder that God extended a gift to us, you know. And that's why we

celebrate Christmas by giving gifts. You know, we shouldn't, we shouldn't look further than that.

You know, it's, this is the reason. The reason is that God gave us a precious gift and God so loved

the world that he gave. And it's really an opportunity. Say that again. God so loved the

world that he gave us his only begotten son. That whoever would believe in him would not perish,

but would have everlasting life. And we can demonstrate love to others by giving them a gift.

But we don't always have to give them the physical gift, right? We can,

we can show them what the Lord has done for them. We can help them see that gift. And, you know,

we, we always try to be very practical. What, what I'm so happy about revisiting this joy message two

years later is that, you know, we're not necessarily doing this through COVID season, where we're

on lockdowns, but we get to meet all month now in grow groups. And we want to take this subject,

this revelation of joy, this nature that lives in us. And we want to start pulling it out of us.

But we also want to learn how to apply it in our lives on a regular basis and really go further

in our walk. Because like we said, Go Church is your place to love, grow, go. It ends with go.

We always want to go. We always want to do something with what we're hearing. You know,

this is, this is not a podcast where we're just wanting to throw information at you. This is a

podcast where we want you to get something new from the word of God so that you can apply it

in your life so that you can change the world around you. We don't have much time. We're not

here forever in this world. You know, there are eternal things which we do not, we're not able

to see with our natural eyes, but we have to stay focused on. And those things last forever. And

many of the things around us that we see with our natural eyes, well, not many, everything that we

see with our natural eyes is going to end at some point. And so we want you to, you know, we want,

I say you, we want us to take this series and we want us to take this revelation and go further

with it. And this is why we picked out this key scripture in, in First Thessalonians chapter 5

1 Thessalonians 5:16

verses 16 through to 18. Number one is because we don't want to disconnect from what we were talking

about last month. And number two is because we want to make it simple and applicable. So this is

it. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 16 through to 18. Rejoice always. That's one verse, by the way.

1 Thessalonians 5:16

That's a whole verse. Rejoice always. Verse 17, pray without ceasing. Verse 18, in everything give

thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You see, we're connecting last month's

message on our last month's study series on prayer to this month's subject on joy. And we want to go

further into the will of God, because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us. We want to

learn to be thankful. We want to learn to exercise our joy so that we can go further.

So in closing this podcast, I want to read out the purpose of the series and what we're going to be

talking about over this month. So the purpose of the series is this. We want the Go Church family

to actively participate in the joy of the Lord during the Christmas season. Well, I want to add

and beyond the Christmas season. This month, we will be looking at joy by nature. So our joy

in Christ, which is really a subject about love. And next week, we're going to talk about joy in

faith, which is our series or our subject really about grow. So how does joy connect to faith?

And week three, we're going to talk about joy in action, which is go, because we want to activate

joy so that we can do something with it. Joy is not a feeling, but it is the outworking of the

nature of Christ, which we are called to live by. A walk in joy is a walk in victory. So I'm very

excited about the discussions we're going to have both on the podcast and also in our grow groups.

And I'm really expecting this not only to be a discussion, but to be a an outworking manifestation

of joy that we could practice joy altogether in our groups. You know, we can what's to stop us from

lifting up our hands, lifting up our voices and worshiping the Lord. We don't need music to do

that. Music is nice, but we can we can just enjoy the revelation of Christmas and do that all

together. Praise God. Well, if you've made it through this far in your day and no one's told

you yet, we want to tell you that we love you and we're praying for you. God bless you. Thank you for

listening. Go Church Beirut is your place to love, grow and go. We want everyone to experience the

unconditional love of God. Grow in His love and go with His love to the rest of the world. On behalf

of the entire Go Church family, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.