True Joy with Pastor Andrew Richardson

Welcome to the MetaCurch podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor at MetaCurch, and I hope that today's message is inspiring and enlightening and really builds you up wherever you're at in life.

MetaCurch, I'm so glad that you showed up for service today.

Man, we have a really special treat for you.

Every once in a while, we call in some ringers to just bring absolute fire from the stage.

Our boy Andrew Richardson, he is a regular here at MetaCurch.

He comes through, he brings the word so passionately.

I cannot wait for you.

I'm gonna ask you to lean in.

MetaCurch, come on.

I'm gonna ask you to be responsive.

I ask you every week, man.

If you've got an amen in your heart, say it out of your mouth, okay?

If he makes a fire point, man, help him preach.

I know you're gonna do that.

And man, when lights come up on him, I hope you will welcome Andrew Richardson, MetaCurch style.

I love you guys.

I'll see you very soon.

Well, Metachurch, good to be with you today.

Good morning.

I want to welcome in our friends watching online and those in Holotus as well.

How are we doing today?

We feeling good?

What an amazing time to gather together.

Uh I want to say this because it's such an honor every time I'm able to be here, but I just want to want to share this with you.

Do you know how lucky y'all are to be able to be at a church like Metachurch?

Like God is moving.

Your pastors love you, care for you, and truly want to see you grow.

Uh, come to know Jesus and to grow in your faith.

So uh it's an honor being here, and I can't wait to see uh what God continues to do through MetaCurch.

Want to start today with a question.

So, when was the last time that you were truly joyful?

And when I say that, I mean true joy.

Not just kind of happy because of what's going on in life.

But if if we're honest, a lot of us, what happens is we we we begin to develop a mentality of I'll be happy when.

Like I'll be happy when I get the promotion, I'll be happy when I get married, I'll be happy when I buy the house, I'll be happy when the kids grow up and move out of the house, right?

Like I'll be happy when my health gets better, I'll be happy when I finally settle down, I'll be happy when the Spurs finally win the championship again.

Come on, somebody.

Y'all cheered really loud for that.

That was awesome.

But it's always the I'll be happy when.

I will come to Metachurch and see if you're really speaking, if you're really moving, because it's a burden that you've been carrying for so long.

No matter who you are, no matter what you walked in here today, the question that we will wrestle with is how do we experience true joy?

And today, my hope and my goal is to be so clear on getting a biblical view of true joy.

Not just happiness, not just pretending that everything is okay.

You know, when you put on that the moments where you're like, I can be happy, I can be joyful for a season, then you get back in the car and you're a completely different person, you know?

I'm not talking about that kind of joy, I'm talking about a joy that is lasting.

I'm talking about a joy that does not leave when life does not go as planned.

I'm talking about a joy that is possible, that we see throughout scripture.

So today we're gonna take a journey through a couple different passages.

And in these passages, we're gonna learn what a biblical view of true joy is and how we experience that.

So we're gonna start in the book of Habakkuk.

You're probably like, bless you.

Did you just cough or sneeze?

Did you mean to say that?

Yes.

The book of Habakkuk, and that is a really powerful book that we see in the Old Testament.

So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there, or we will read on the screen as well.

But but to understand what's happening, we first have to have some context of what's going on in the book of Habakkuk.

Maybe you're familiar with it, maybe you are not, but what's happening here is Habakkuk was a prophet.

And a prophet is someone who would hear from God and then speak to the people on behalf of God.

But this book is a little bit different, a little bit different than some of the other prophets that we see, because instead of God just speaking through Habakkuk straight to the people, it is a conversation between Habakkuk and God.

If you're to look at these three books, it has three chapters in the book of Habakkuk, you would see it kind of structured like Habakkuk's prayer and then God's response to the various prayers.

So Habakkuk is looking around the world that he lives in.

And as he's looking around the world, it just devastates him and breaks his heart.

Because his own nation, the people who were supposed to follow God, the people who were supposed to know God, his own nation had been become filled with violence, with injustice.

And he's looking around, and maybe we feel like that today, where we look around at the world we live in and we're like, how did we get here?

So Habakkuk does what many of us do, and he cries out to God and he answers, God, why aren't you doing something?

And then God responds and makes clear that he is doing something.

So what he tells Habakkuk is very interesting and not what he was expecting.

He tells Habakkuk that another powerful nation was going to come and was going to bring judgment on his people.

You ever prayed out to God and then get an answer from God that you don't like?

It's kind of what happens here.

The problem is the nation that God was going to bring to bring judgment was the nation that was more evil than their people.

So now Habakkuk is sitting there and he's he's there and he's confused because he's basically saying, God, I don't get it, I don't understand how could you use people more wicked to bring everything and to accomplish your plan.

And maybe we find ourselves in a situation where you know about God's goodness, you know about God's faithfulness, you come into church, you read the scriptures, you sing the songs, but yet you don't understand what God is doing.

That's where he spends most of the time, and then we find ourselves getting to chapter three.

And what's happening here in chapter three is that he still doesn't have all of the answers.

He still, his circumstances haven't changed, and the difficult days are still ahead, but his perspective has changed.

This is where we find ourselves now at the end of the book of Habakkuk.

This is verses chapter three, verses 17 and 19.

Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation, the Lord, my strength the Lord, my Lord, is my strength.

So he starts here in verse 17.

Remember, he's had a long conversation with God throughout this book, but he still starts here at the end of this part, making very clear that things happening around him are not going well.

Says the fig tree doesn't bud, there are no grapes on the vine, the olive crop has failed, the fields produce no food, the flocks are gone, there are no herds in the stables.

He's listing everything, and maybe as you listen to this and as you read it, you're like, what kind of grocery list is this, Habakkuk, right?

But if we were to kind of put it in understanding what this really means, we would know that the fig trees represented their food.

The vineyards represented more than that, they represented celebration, the olive trees represented income, the flocks and the herds represented security and their future.

So it's more than just food, it's more than just crops.

It is speaking to everything that could be going wrong was going wrong.

Think about it in today's terms, it'd be like saying, though I lose my job, though my savings account and my checkings account runs dry, though my diagnosis comes back, though my marriage is struggling, though my future looks nothing like I imagined, he's describing the worst case scenario and he starts there, but then he says, yet.

And this is what I want us to see is that so often in life we end it right there, and God is saying, I'm calling you not to just end right there with your circumstances, to just put a period and say it's over.

I'm calling you to say, yet.

Yet I will rejoice.

This is the turning point.

Because if you read the book of Habakkuk, you know that it didn't start there.

He was wrestling with God.

He looked around and he was asking God, why would you do this?

But then he gets to the point of saying, Yet I will rejoice.

I want to pause and say this is that there's something that we have to understand.

So often we think that God doesn't want us to ask questions.

But the truth and the reality is, is that part of growing in your faith is getting real with God and asking those tough questions.

I know that to be true because we see it all throughout scripture.

David did it, Jeremiah did, Job, and even Jesus, who said while hanging on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So we need to know that following Jesus is not just coming in here and acting like everything is okay.

Following Jesus is saying, though everything might be going wrong, yet I will still rejoice.

And I found personally in my life is that the more I bring the tough questions to God, the closer I get.

It's like in a relationship, whenever you have the hard conversations, a lot of times after you have those conversations and you have that moment, you actually grow closer.

The trust actually grows.

Yet I will celebrate in the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The Lord, my Lord, is my strength.

He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights.

See, notice that he says here where his joy is found.

He says, I will rejoice in the Lord, the God of my salvation.

See, joy isn't rooted in circumstance, it's rooted in the unchanging character of God.

And here's something we have to know about the characteristics of God is that they are not something that God sometimes does.

God is not sometimes faithful, he is not sometimes good, he is not sometimes holy, he is not sometimes loving, it is unchanging, it is who he is, it does not change.

If we wake up and wonder, is God still faithful?

The answer is yes.

Is God still good?

The answer is yes.

Is God still there?

The answer is yet.

And when we have joy, we look into the unchanging character of God because it's not what is around us, it is who He is.

And joy is built on what you know about God, not what you see around you.

That's where our joy is found.

What you know about God, not what you see around you.

And that's the thing with happiness.

Happiness is so dependent on what is happening around.

When life is good, we're happy.

When life falls apart, we're now unhappy.

Happiness goes with the circumstances, but biblical joy is anchored not in the circumstances, it's anchored in our Savior.

So if we know that joy is built on what we know about God, then the question is, what do we know about God?

Verse 19 says, The Lord, my Lord is my strength.

First of all, our God is a personal God.

Yes, he is our God, but sometimes in our prayers we need to say, My Lord, my Lord that knows me, my Lord that sees me, that is here.

He says, The Lord, my Lord is my strength.

And notice he doesn't say the Lord just gives me strength.

He says, the Lord is my strength.

He's not placing his hope in something that God might give him.

He's placing his hope in who God is.

You know, as many of you know, it's been raining here a lot this last month or so.

Uh, and I'm gonna just be open and honest with you.

Um, I do not like driving in heavy rain.

Anyone in the room?

Wow, a lot of you are just so bold.

Okay, everyone just loves driving in the heavy rain.

I don't mind rain, but like heavy rain, I'm like, okay.

So I'm the crazy guy that pulls up like five weather apps before I get in the car.

Anyone else?

Okay, cool.

I like check one and I'm like, I don't trust it.

Check the other one, okay.

Maybe I trust it, right?

I tell you that because it's been a lot of me recently with the rain, trying to see different routes and all the different things.

And and I started thinking, you know, back to when I was younger.

Back to when I would get in the car with my parents when I was in elementary school, and they would say, Hey, we're gonna go to the movies, we're gonna go to the restaurant, wherever we're going.

I would never go, is it gonna rain today?

Because if it's gonna rain, maybe you should check the map before we go, right?

Are we sure the road conditions are okay, Dad?

Are we all right?

I remember never caring, caring about what was going on outside of the car, hear me, because I knew the one who is driving.

And that is what biblical joy is.

It's not looking outside to circumstances, outside of the car, trying to see, is it okay if I do this today?

Is it okay if I go and I act bold like this in this conversation I know I'm supposed to have?

Is it okay that I do whatever God has called me to do?

Biblical joy is saying, I know the one who is behind the wheel.

And I'm trusting, not with what's going on around, I'm trusting that my God, my Lord, my strength, my salvation is the one driving because He is the one in control, He is the one who works all things together.

And maybe you have questions and you still don't know how you feel about who God is.

I just want to say one more time, and I really want you to hear me that these are not just my words, but these are truths found in Scripture, is that He is faithful, He is good, He is in control, He is near to the brokenhearted, and He does keep His promises.

He does not go back on His word.

These truths are truths that we can hold on to that allow us to say, though my situation yet, I will rejoice.

Not because the circumstances have changed, but because God, the God that we trust, is present.

And I love how he closes this section in Habakkuk.

He says, He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights.

You realize he doesn't say God removed the mountain.

He says, He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables us to walk on mountains.

And hear me, I believe in praying bold prayers.

I believe in praying that God can move the mountain.

But what we have to recognize is God doesn't always remove the mountain, but he always gives strength in the journey.

He does not always remove the difficulties, but he gives strength.

So to be like Habakkuk, to say, yet I will rejoice, because he makes my feet like those of deer and enables me to walk on the mountain.

What if we recognize that we've been praying to God for years to remove the mountain?

And yes, we can keep praying for that, but pause and recognize that he's given you strength to walk on the mountain heights, to find joy in that.

And throughout walking through the story of Habakkuk in these couple verses, hopefully what we have seen is that he's calling us, that God is calling us and using this as an illustration to point us to deeper trust in God.

And trust in God is the root.

What happens from that is joy, then becomes the fruit.

It's hard to be people that experience this true biblical joy if we are not people who are rooted in trusting in God to get to the point where you can look around and say, Yet, I will rejoice.

And I want to encourage you that it is not over, that God is still working, that God is still moving.

So then the question becomes how do we cultivate that kind of trust?

And I want to be honest with y'all.

I've been in church for a while now, and I've been to a lot of services and camps and sermons and all that, and a lot of times I see people who just experience a lot of joy, and their life feels like it's changed, and then the next day they wake up and are just right back to how they were the day before.

So, how do we become people that are intentional?

People that say, I don't just want to experience true biblical joy on a Sunday or whenever I'm at church.

I want to experience that, and I want to cultivate that kind of trust and joy.

We're gonna look at another passage.

This is in the New Testament, this is 1 Thessalonians, and I believe now as we have an understanding that we can find joy despite our circumstances, I want to see how we cultivate that joy to grow to be people that continue to walk in that.

So, this is gonna be found in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 to 18.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

These are short verses, so if you ever want to impress someone and memorize a couple verses, here you go, right?

You can start today.

I'm sure you can do it.

I believe in you.

Let's now look at 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 to 18.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything.

Thing for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

So again, context is important.

Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica.

This is a young church filled with young believers, and they're facing already in their faith journey, they're facing persecution for following Jesus.

So he is encouraging them to stay faithful.

He's encouraging them to keep their eyes on Christ.

He's encouraging them that their persecution is not the end of the story.

And as he closes this, he does what he so often does in his letters, where he goes from theology to then practical application.

And how many of you know that it's one thing to know about God and know the theology, but we're called to live that out.

We're called to live that out.

And he gives practical instructions.

And right in the middle of these practical instructions, he gives these commands.

He says to rejoice, to pray, and to give thanks.

And I want us to look at them not just as commands, which they are, but I want us to look at them as daily practices, as daily habits, which means that we should practice them every day.

Because joy doesn't grow by accident, joy grows by continuing to practice these rhythms each and every day.

So he begins here saying, Rejoice always.

And you know, as I was digging into studying for this sermon, I started thinking, I wonder what the what the Greek word and what it actually means.

So I got in there because as many of you know, it's written, the New Testament is written in Greek.

So I was like, I wonder what the word always means.

I was hoping for some for some really interesting thing, and I get to it, and I get the books out, and I pull everything up and I look at it, and you know what it means?

Always.

I was like, no, there's gotta be something deeper.

So I looked at another one and it said, at all times.

It's like trying to explain something to a little kid, right?

Say it five different times, the same thing.

And why do I tell you that?

Because it is so clear that to rejoice is something that we are called to do at all times.

This is something that we can practice every single day, because biblical joy is not based on what is happening around us.

Biblical joy is a settled confidence that God is who he says he is, that he is faithful to his promises, and that he is working even when we can't see it.

Say that one more time.

Biblical joy is a settled confidence that God is who he says he is, that he is faithful to his promises, and that he is working even when we can't see it.

See, that is why we can rejoice.

Now I love the idea of this settled confidence.

Have you ever walked through life just with an unsettled feeling?

Just kind of nervous about how to go in a conversation.

And what this is telling us, and what we're seeing, is to experience biblical joy, is to wake up and to have a settled confidence, a settled understanding that God is who he says he is, that he is faithful to his promises, and that he is working even if we can't see it.

That is the truth, and that is what he calls us to rejoice.

Next, he says, pray constantly.

Other translations say, pray continually.

It's always interesting to me that after Paul tells us to rejoice, he tells us to pray constantly.

And I don't know if you've been around those people.

Maybe they do, or maybe they just like to act like they do, or constantly always praying and have like the really big fancy words.

They're like, I pray before I decide what food I'm gonna eat, right?

You're like, just get a sandwich, bro.

Like it's not just stay away from the lettuce, right?

We're still, anyways, yeah.

So what does it mean?

Because if the Bible says, if God's word, which we believe to be true, we believe to be important, and we want to apply to our life, if if God's word says to pray constantly, to pray continually, does it mean we're we're always talking and praying?

Does it mean we're always saying words of prayer?

What I believe that Paul is teaching us is it's pointing us to something deeper than just words.

So, yes, pray continually.

Pray as much as you can, but it's really deeper.

What he's trying to get to us is to live with an ongoing awareness of God's presence.

Because when you are a people that are continually praying, it is then continually getting your mindset off of what's happening in life and giving it to God.

It's a relationship where you invite God into every part of your day, not just the big moments, but the ordinary moments too.

It's not just something we do when life falls apart.

Prayer is something that we should go to God with every single day.

And I say that to you not to make you feel ashamed, but I say that to you to let you know that the God we serve, that the relationship we have, He wants to hear from you.

Because prayer shifts our dependence off of ourself and gives it to God.

I don't know about y'all, but I can't carry that weight on my own.

Can't carry the weight of the circumstances going on in life on my own.

So being commanded to pray constantly is being commanded to remember and to be reminded that God is with you.

Think about just relationships you have, right?

They're not just built on one conversation.

Maybe that's where it starts, but you continually text or or talk on the phone, or at least keep in touch as much as you can.

Why?

Because that is the way that your relationship grows.

And also, in a relationship, you don't just talk, you also listen.

In a healthy relationship, at least, right?

Which is the same in our relationship with God.

Praying isn't just saying words, it's pausing enough to listen to God's response.

And maybe that's one reason why we miss the fact that God is moving and working, because we don't pause enough to recognize that he's speaking to us, that he's with us, that he's there.

And the more that we bring what we have to him, the more we learn to depend on him instead of ourselves.

And then it ties into the trust because when we do that, the deeper trust that we have, because it's not only with the big moments in life, but it's built on the daily conversations with our heavenly father.

So we can learn, instead of carrying every burden, we can bring it to God.

So, yes, before the meeting that you have, pray.

Before the doctor's appointment, pray.

Before you respond, it's in that text, please pray, right?

Before you make that decision, pray.

See, the more you bring your life before God, the more you will learn to trust Him.

And I truly believe that when we do that, God does a work in our life that fixes and starts to change and transform the way that we view things, the way that we go about things, because prayer shifts our perspective to God.

Last thing we see from Paul is to give thanks in all circumstances.

So he says to give thanks, but we know that there are things in life that are painful.

There's brokenness, loss, disease, grief.

And I want you to hear me.

To give thanks is to not call those things good, but it's even in those moments, it's to recognize that God is good.

Doesn't mean we need to go around saying all of the bad things happening.

That's good, that's good.

That's not what I'm telling you to do.

What we are seeing here, what we're commanded to do, is to recognize that while these things are happening, God is good.

And that's what gratitude does.

Gratitude allows for us to shift our focus off of all of the negative and understand that God is actually using it.

Had instance with someone I know that was in the hospital, and they were able to share Jesus in the hospital.

It was a horrible situation, and uh praying for recovery and all that, but yet God still used, because that person was able to pause and recognize that I can still thank God that even while I am here in the middle of a difficult situation, God's not done.

He has not given up, he is still with us.

Man, out of the three of these, this one really stands out to me.

Because recently, these last four to five months, if I'm honest, have been one of the craziest but also best seasons of life.

You know what I'm talking about?

Where it's like so many amazing things, but also like, whoa, there's a lot that I gotta process, right?

The reason I share that is because as I've been thinking through, I started realizing as I was in a couple months ago, a season of like Habakkuk questioning God, why is this happening?

Why are you doing that?

Why does it have to happen like that?

I remember just pausing and realizing and recognizing that I was standing in situations that I had prayed for years ago.

And I wasn't able to recognize that until I paused and then could give thanks.

And maybe that some of us today, maybe we're so we're so caught up with the circumstances of our new job or the relationship, but it's what we prayed to God for years ago.

And if we're not able to pause and to thank God, then we miss out on the blessings that is currently happening.

And in that moment, I was able to step back and realize that God was moving in ways that I couldn't even understand, that He was putting me in spots and positions to be able to preach Jesus and to have conversations that I had wanted to do for years.

And I share that with you because maybe if we stop comparing and looking around outside at the circumstances like the rain outside of the car, and we recognize that the journey that God has us on, we can thank him because he has us here for a reason.

He is the one controlling, he is the one guiding, he is the one leading.

And I think we owe it to him to just pause and go, thank you.

Thank you, God, for everything you have done.

Because I'll tell you this much, guys.

If it wasn't for God, I would not be here today.

If it wasn't for God, many of us would not be at church today.

Because God is faithful.

Notice how he ends this verse.

He says, For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

In other words, rejoicing and praying and giving thanks, they aren't just good ideas, they are God's desire for every believer.

And this tells us something about the God that we serve.

That He's a God that doesn't just want us to just survive in life, but He wants us to truly begin to thrive, to not just go day to day just trying to get to the next day.

He He desires that in Christ Jesus we experience joy.

Which means I want to speak to the people here that you feel like it is too far for you to experience joy.

Hey, if if people knew what I did, maybe you're saying if people knew what I did, then they knew I couldn't experience joy.

But if we look at these words, if we look at God's scriptures, we see that it's God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

So no matter what you walked in here today, carrying the anxiety, carrying the grief, carrying the disappointment, you do not have to wait until you clean up and everything is better.

You do not have to wait.

You can experience true biblical joy today because the God that we find that joy in is the God that is with us and is present and has not moved and has not changed and will not change.

That's the joy that we can find.

You can rejoice when life is not easy because Jesus is enough.

Yet I will rejoice.

You know, my first year of Bible college, I remember uh experiencing a season, uh, which is kind of weird because it was Bible college, but it was a season where I experienced a lot of doubt.

I want to get real with y'all.

My main question in doubt was, is the Bible real?

And you're like, Andrew, weren't you going to a Bible school?

Yes.

Which is why that question was so real to me.

Because my my thought process was, I'm learning about the Bible, I'm going into ministry, and what if it's not even real?

Can I still trust God?

And God put amazing people in my life that walked me through that journey, and that was almost 10 years ago today.

Now I've been teaching God's word for a while.

And I share that with you because I remember at a moment, some friends invited me to a concert, and we went to a worship concert, and you just had those moments where you're just on fire.

It's like you forget about everything else that's happening, and you're just on fire.

So I was on fire.

But something about me is as passionate as I am and on fire for just as I am, I still like bedtime.

All right.

I still like, I still like going to bed kind of early.

I'm wondering if I can be in bed by eight tonight.

That's my goal.

Yeah, come on.

And we cheer for that.

That's what I was talking about.

And I remember my friends, they were like, Andrew, let's go to IHOP.

It's like, dude, it's 11:30.

They're like, they got coffee, and I was like, okay, fine, that's all it took.

So we went to IHOP.

There's about five to eight of us.

And I'll tell you, y'all, the joy, the Lord was just with us.

We were laughing, hanging out.

We started having some really good conversations about Jesus.

I opened up to them about some of my struggles, and it was just a really good time.

And what ended up happening is the waitress kept coming back to the table.

I was like, my water's good, it's okay, right?

Like she just like kept coming back, and finally she asked us, she said, Why are y'all so happy?

And I was like, Oh, take a seat, like, and we were able to share why we were happy, share about the joy that comes from Jesus, and and she started opening up about uh some situations going on in her life and with her son, and she was in a really dark spot, and one of my friends, who's more bold than me, asked if we could pray for her.

So it was almost like 1 a.m.

in the middle of an IHOP, and we were praying for this waitress.

And I remember, no one else probably does this because y'all are more spiritual than me, but I remember during prayers looking up at my friends, right?

In the middle of the prayer.

And I was looking up at them, and I feel like God started reminding me because I knew a lot of what they were going through.

I knew a lot of their fears, their doubts.

Then I started thinking about myself.

And while we were in the middle of an IHOP at 1 a.m., praying over our waitress, my situation didn't get better overnight.

But I'll tell you what, meta church, I experienced joy.

I experienced a true joy that is found in the unchanging character of God.

That it did not matter what we were going through, because the God that we serve and the God that we worship is the God that could meet us at 1 a.m.

in an IHOP.

And let me tell you, your joy impacts other people.

Your joy doesn't just affect you, but affects other people.

So imagine, meta church, if you continue to be people that didn't just leave here with a joy that was cool and fun, but left here with the joy that could impact so many different people.

Because if the good news is good, it's too good to just stay here.

For us to be people like Habakkuk, for us to be people that say, even though yet I will rejoice.

And when we become people that say, yet I will rejoice, we become people that have an impact with so many others that you never would even think you could.

Just imagine the life change.

Imagine the impact.

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks and all circumstances because yet I will rejoice.

And maybe here you're listening, and I want you to know this is that true joy is very hard to find outside of the person of Jesus.

And if you're here and you don't have that relationship with Jesus, I want you to know this.

And maybe you're struggling with why you can trust in him, you're struggling with why you could start that relationship and be able to have faith and believe in him.

I want you to know that over 2,000 years ago, Jesus came to this earth, that while we were still sinners, he died on the cross for me and for you.

Which means that our joy is found because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

And if we're here today and we're struggling to believe in that and you're wrestling with that, I want you to know that he offers that gift to you today, to put your faith and belief and trust in him, because the work is finished.

The work was done on the cross, and he calls us to believe in him.

So as we close service, uh if you would bow your heads and close your eyes across all venues, before we leave today, I want to give you an opportunity.

If you've never come to a place where you've put your faith in Jesus, where you've trusted Him alone as your savor, our savior, I want to invite you to make that decision today.

If that's you, if you are ready to put your belief in Jesus to make that decision today, if that's you, if you could simply just raise your hand.

And for those that have raised a hand, we believe that God sees you and accepts your faith, that he forgives you of your sins, that he's given you an eternal relationship with him.

And all I want us to do now is to simply just acknowledge that decision through a prayer.

So if you would pray this with me, and then all the believers as well can say this.

Say, Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God.

That you came to this earth, that you died for my sins.

I believe you rose again.

Thank you for loving me.

Forgiving my sins.

Now let me pray over you, God.

As we've talked about what true biblical joy looks like, I pray in this moment, God, that we become people that can leave here truly changed and transformed by the good news of you, Jesus.

Whatever's been weighing us down, whatever's been causing the fears or doubts, I pray against that in the name of Jesus that joy would fill our lives, that joy would fill our hearts, and that we would be people that can say, Yet, I will celebrate, yet I rejoice because you are good.

And we give this to you in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So glad you joined us for today's message.

If you want to help get the word out about this podcast, the first thing you can do is subscribe.

You can also rate and review this on whatever platform you like to listen on, and you can share it with your friends.

If you want to know more about MetaCurch, go to our website, metachurch.tv, where you can find out about all things MetaCurch.

And if you feel led, you can contribute to help push this movement forward.

We hope that you'll join us next week on the MetaCurch podcast.