Joy Like Jesus - Today

All right, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for today.

Thank you for this morning, this busy, uh busy time to bring us all together where we can just take a deep breath and uh think about you and experience you and be with you, and we praise you for that.

Uh we praise you for adopting us as your very own children.

And Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our teacher, and we just ask you to teach us this morning that each of us would come away with something that we know was directly from you.

And Jesus, we praise you.

Um you are such a gift.

We thank you for being our Savior, for reconnecting us with our Father.

And it's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

And so we are taking a few weeks and we're talking about joy.

You know, what is it?

Can we really have it?

And our goal is not to learn stuff, to follow away in our head.

Our goal is to uh experience it, you know, and enjoy life.

And by Christmas Eve, we are believing that uh we're gonna be experiencing more joy, living more joy in a very tangible way.

The word joy just means a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.

You know, sometimes I think as Christians we feel guilty.

You know, it's like for some reason that that that uh joy or happiness isn't something that we should be uh um looking for in our lives.

And it's so untrue.

It's not it's not God wants us to have great joy, God wants us to enjoy our lives.

You know, the mistake often is how we go about finding it or where we uh where we um look for it.

But but joy is just an important thing to God.

God's a God of joy.

Jesus lived a life of joy.

Christmas has always been associated with joy.

And we've talked about the night that Jesus was born, and in Luke 2, it says, That night there were shepherds standing in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.

Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them.

They were terrified, but the angel reassured them.

The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David.

And that was just the start.

That was the start of Jesus' life on earth.

If there were two words that characterizes, characterize Jesus' life on earth, it was love and it was joy.

You know, I've talked about how I haven't always thought about Jesus that that way.

I've probably spent more time thinking about uh his sacrifice and his suffering, which is important because it's such a demonstration of his love for us and how he would do anything for us.

And when we're suffering and when we're grieving, as I'm sure some of us are this morning, we know that he gets it, that we know that he understands it.

And when Isaiah prophesied in chapter three that Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, it was true that he did have sorrow and he did have grief, and he understands all that, and he went through that for us.

But his life was not a life of sorrow, his life was a life of joy.

He lived a life of more joy than anyone ever.

In Hebrews 1 and 8, 9, but to the Son He says, Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.

You rule with the scepter of justice, you love justice and hate evil.

Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.

That's Jesus, more joy than anyone else.

He said to his followers, I've told you these things for a purpose, that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.

And so we've talked about how Jesus was not like a solemn, you know, taskmaster that came down to earth to straighten everybody out, but he was a young man.

He was energetic, he was full of life.

You know, he was daring and fun and and you know, older people wanted to be around him.

Young people ran to him.

He would just meet someone for the first time and say, follow me, and they would.

They would.

It's because he radiated love, and he radiated joy, and anybody that was around him, anybody that came in contact with him, wanted some of whatever it was that he had.

And what he had was love and joy.

And of course, he wants us to experience joy in our lives.

In John 17, he said, I told them many things while I was with them in this world, so they would be filled with my joy.

So, how can we experience it?

How can we uh live a life of joy?

Like Jesus lived a life of joy.

I mentioned last week that one of my uh goals this year in 2010 was to enjoy my life.

You know, and how a lot of us hit that point in life where we're like, you know, I'm just not really enjoying my life.

And so we think about dramatic changes, you know, and we and uh we think about new careers and we think about new spouses and we think about new motorcycles and motorcycles help a little.

They do.

Um but the the dramatic change is not any of those outside stuff, it's just in our hearts, it's the way we think, it's the way we perceive joy, it's the way we we we come to understand what joy is and and how we experience it.

So we talked the last two weeks.

It's just kind of a recap.

We'll get everybody um back on the same page.

But the last two weeks, um, first about how uh we can ask God, our Father, for supernatural joy.

And so it's something we've been doing every single week.

As we finish, we're just gonna ask God to supernaturally give us joy and and and he gives us things in different ways.

You know, sometimes he zaps us a little bit, which is one of the things that we're uh we're wanting, but often he teaches us.

You know, it's a process and he changes us from the inside out.

And so that's our uh that's our request, kind of a Christmas gift from our Father to us, that we would uh enjoy our lives more, that we would experience um more joy.

Last week we saw that that joy is not some rare resource, you know, like gold or diamonds, where we're hunting for it or we're searching for it, and it and and you know, we when we get it, we just try to hold on to it because there's not that much out there of it.

Joy is more like an abundant resource, like like sunshine or like rain.

You know, we just have to kind of slow down and bask in it, appreciate it.

It's an abundant thing.

Good times and even good things, doing good things, don't create joy.

You know, they give it a boost.

We get a joy rush, if you will, um, during good times and when we and when we do good things.

Um but it doesn't create it.

Just like bad times doesn't destroy it.

Because the source of our joy is something else.

The source of our joy isn't giving, the source of our joy is receiving.

It's receiving the gift that Jesus gave us, an absolute ironclad guarantee that by trusting Him, we really, I mean, in truth, we really are never going to die.

I mean, we'll for a moment, we'll close our eyes and then open them again, but we'll live forever.

It's an absolute ironclad, um, ironclad promise.

We're gonna have a whole new life with whole new bodies and a whole new renewed world, the way God originally intended it.

And we'll have forever to spend with uh with our God and with our loved ones.

Last Sunday we looked at how Jesus just pulls out all the stops to save our loved ones.

And he's gonna do that for us.

And so we can look forward.

We don't have to fear death, we don't have to fear health, we can look forward to uh living forever with God, with each other, with those we love.

It's an absolute ironclad promise guarantee from a God who can't lie.

And that's the source of our joy.

That's why things aren't such a big deal.

That's why we can slow down and relax and enjoy life a little bit.

It's an abundant thing.

We always have it.

It's all around us.

It's the gift that Jesus is.

So this morning we're gonna talk about a simple thought about experiencing more joy.

And then we're gonna see three practical things that hopefully we can apply even today.

And I should say about joy, you know, and I this is really good to remind us in general, is that I, you know, I don't know everything.

You know, I'm not up here as some guru sharing how great my life is, and if you copy me, then you can you know have a great life too.

It's just not the way it is.

The truth is that we're learning together from God.

You know, and and uh last year when I kind of cried out and said, God, you know, I need to understand, I need your help, I need more joy.

Well, he has taught me some things, and and I'm gonna share some of those things, but just even thinking about it this month, even thinking about this morning is a reminder that I'm in that process.

I'm just learning.

You know, I'm just learning how to experience more and more joy.

So it's something that God can teach us all together.

The simple thought is that joy can only be experienced today.

We can only experience joy today.

It's not that we haven't had joy in the past, because we all have.

It's not that we won't have joy in the future, because we all will.

But we're talking about really experiencing joy, having more joy in each of our lives, and joy in our lives.

And we only experience joy as it happens, and it only happens every day today.

Joy only happens each day.

It's so easy to live in the past.

You know, it's good to have uh memories, it's good even to remember mistakes.

You know, we can learn from them, maybe not repeat them, but we can't spend too much time in the past thinking about the past.

Because we're not experiencing joy today.

You know, in Isaiah 43, God says, forget the former things, do not dwell on the past.

He goes on to say, Don't you see it?

Can't you perceive it?

I am doing something new.

So they couldn't see it.

They couldn't perceive it because they were dwelling on the past.

It's the same with us.

If we spend too much time thinking about the past, if we live in the past, if we hate ourselves for things we've done in the past, if we wish the things were like they were in the past, we're not gonna have joy because joy happens today.

It happens today.

Psalms 118 24 says, This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Today.

You know, the word rejoice means to be joyful.

But this is the day the Lord has made.

We will be joyful and we'll be glad in it.

And so we can't dwell on the past, and we can't spend too much time thinking about our future.

But it's obviously a good thing to think about our future, you know, to plan for our future, prepare for our future.

But it's not good to constantly worry about our future and problems that might lie ahead.

All we have is today.

All of us, any of us, all we're guaranteed is today.

If we're going to experience Jesus' joy in our lives, we can only experience it today.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, he said, Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

In James 4, he says, How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog.

It's here a little while, then it's gone.

I mean, we really only have today.

Enjoying today makes me think about uh my children.

One thing that I wish is that I had enjoyed them more.

You know, now I look back and I just appreciate uh them as little kids.

And uh and I wish I had enjoyed them more.

And I did enjoy them, and I spent a lot of time with them.

You know, I coached Little League uh with with Andrews teams, I coached girls' softball with uh Paige's team, we did a lot of things together as a family, um, but I also traveled quite a bit on business.

And the thing is that when we were together so many times my mind was on something else.

You know, I was with them, but I was, you know, when I worked for Dunham Brass Street, I was thinking about things at at work.

After we started the business, there was always something, some some issue I was uh I was thinking about.

But the best times I had with my children when they were younger were those times when I was really engaged with them.

You know, really focused on them.

Since Paige was a little girl, um, she and I have had dates, you know, uh date night.

It might be a movie, it might be someplace that she likes uh for dinner.

Six or seven years in a row, we went to a father-daughter uh Valentine's uh day dance, um, which was so great.

It was about the only time in my life I haven't felt like a total dork dancing, um, because uh pretty much all the dads were total dorks dancing.

And so um, and the daughters didn't really care, so I we weren't embarrassing them too much.

But those times are so memorable because I was just focused on her, um, really savoring those moments, you know, and those moments happened that day.

And now I can't spend much time regretting, you know, uh not doing that more because I can still do it now.

You know, and make more of those times now.

And Paige and I, she's almost 23, we still have uh date nights.

Our last date was to um Toy Story Disney on Ice.

Um it was uh a bunch of parents with their kids and then us two adults.

And uh but it was such it kind of got me thinking about this because it was such a illustration to me.

Because uh, you know, we did things like that, you know, we go as a family, we go to the circus, or we'd go uh um to whatever, but so much of the time I'm sitting there thinking, oh man, I can't believe this uh you know, this show is so lame, or uh, you know, I'm uh I don't know if I was checking emails back then.

But um but I was thinking about stuff and my to-do list and and and problems I had to solve and that type of stuff.

And so here we are, grown adults, just the two of us, and we had a blast.

I mean, just a blast.

We enjoyed every minute of it.

Because the point was we were really there.

It wasn't to see, you know, Buzz Lightyear, you know, doing triple axles.

It was uh it was an excuse for us to be together and just uh um enjoy each other.

And that is the point is that we can have so much joy in our families, but we've got to truly be together when we're together, you know, and and and savor those moments, enjoy those moments today.

You know, it's true with God, this is a small aside, but uh we can look forward to heaven when we get to spend forever with God physically.

But each day we can spend a little bit of time just enjoying Him.

You know, thanks, Father, for all this.

What a cool creation this is, what a neat tree you made.

Thanks for taking care of me.

You know, I wish you wouldn't wait till the last minute.

You know, those types of things, but uh just uh enjoying God a little bit each day.

Living a life of joy.

Joy is not something that we go faster and faster and harder and harder to grab it and obtain it.

Joy is just the opposite.

We've got to slow down, it's all around us, but we've got to slow down to experience it, to feel it, to bask in it, to enjoy it.

This is our uh remote control for home um from home.

Now don't tell Susan I have it because uh she thinks it's hers.

But um but this is a cool device, you know, because it works the uh it works the DVR.

Um you know being able to record shows has has revolutionized the television industry.

I remember when I we first got at TiVo and how good it was, because you know I wasn't gonna miss the game.

I could uh um record it.

Uh but now it's not just not missing something.

It's uh it's so nice to record almost anything and you can just buzz right through the commercials, you know, and you can get to the part that uh that you really enjoy.

And so when the Falcons game comes on, like uh today at four, I will uh I'll start the game and then I'll pause it and I'll do something else for maybe five or ten minutes, and then I can just buzz through the timeouts, you know.

And then at halftime I'll do the I'll do the same thing.

You know, I'll pause it, and I can just uh um because I can get to the parts that I really enjoy.

You know, and I go, I mean, I'm five arrows to the right, you know what I'm saying?

We're going going fast.

But the problem is the thing gets stuck.

And I'm sure you've experienced that where you're buzzing through a commercial, but you keep on going right through the parts that you wanted to enjoy.

Now it's not a big deal with a game or a TV show because you can just stop it eventually and you can back it up, and sometimes I have to try two or three times to get it to the point that I wanted to get it to.

But life is like that.

You know, we hit the fast forward button on the remote because we're wanting to get to the good part sooner.

We're wanting to get to the part we're going to enjoy faster, but it gets stuck.

Somehow the thing just gets stuck.

And so one day it's Thanksgiving, and then the next thing you know, it's the Sunday before Christmas.

It just goes so fast, it just flies right by.

And the thing is that if we're going to enjoy life somehow, we gotta hit the play button.

We gotta get everything back down to the right speed where it's not flying by.

And that's where the joy is.

That's where the joy is.

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of year.

I've always loved it, ever since I was a uh a little kid.

And uh I don't know why.

I'm just this is you know, I'm just off the top of my head because we didn't really do too much.

My parents didn't decorate the house, you know.

I mean we had a tree that we didn't ever do lights on the outside.

You know, uh everybody in the neighborhood thought we were the Jewish family because uh we didn't uh we didn't uh we didn't do too much, but uh but I just loved it, you know, just looking forward to to the whole thing, and I still love everything about it.

Last year we had a great Christmas, I think.

I think I don't remember too much about it.

You know, it was only twelve months ago.

But honestly, it's kind of a blur.

You know, it was really busy.

I remember Christmas Angels Delivery Sunday, that was a great day.

It was pouring down rain, and then we prayed and we got this you know, this hole in the rain, and we're able to do the gifts.

I remember Christmas Eve, which was just awesome.

I remember it here and I remember it at home because we do a lot of our Christmas on Christmas Eve, and then um I remember uh Christmas morning.

And it's not that I can't, you know.

I mean, if I sat down with a calendar, I could probably go back and reconstruct most of last December.

But I'm saying when I just think about it, it was pretty much a blur.

I just remember a few things.

Um, my most vivid memory of Christmas time last year was the evening that Susan and I went to Starbucks and And then we drove around, listened to Christmas music, and looked at Christmas lights.

We just had a blast.

And I remember all about it.

I remember what neighborhoods we went to.

You know, I remember what we talked about.

We were having such a good time.

We decided, well, let's just go on over to Life College and we'll drive through the lights there, and we got done there, and we were still having a good time.

So we went back to a house we'd already been to where the lights are all synchronized to music, which is kind of, you know, kind of uh kind of cool.

And the point of all that, knowing what I know now, is the reason that that was so memorable and such a vivid memory is because it was the one evening that we slowed down to the right speed.

It was the one evening we got back to play on the remote control of our lives.

And we just enjoyed each other.

We enjoyed the season, we enjoyed the lights, we enjoyed the music, we enjoyed each other, and it was enjoyable.

But we had to slow down to do it.

And we had to enjoy that day, that time.

Now I think we all sort of know that.

You know, I don't know that that's a big revelatory thing.

It's it's it's we know that, and it's a reminder to us to slow down and and really appreciate moments and time and and each other.

The problem last year is I didn't know how to do it.

It's one thing to know I should do something, it's another thing to know how to do something.

And I just really didn't know how to do it.

So when it happened, it happened by accident.

You know, and every now and then it would happen, it would be such a uh a great time.

And so it was about a week after last Christmas, like I said, where I really asked God to help me.

Show me how.

How is it that I can enjoy my life, have more joy in my life.

And so he's teaching me how.

Um I've shared two of the more spiritual things that he taught me.

One was just to simply ask.

We can ask God for anything.

We should ask God for everything.

Um, but we can ask God, and he will give us more joy.

And the second is that it it starts with receiving, understanding just how amazingly saved we are, and how great God is to do it.

But he also taught me some practical kind of everyday thing.

And I want to share three things that he taught me that helped me with the how.

How can I actually go from knowing I should slow down and enjoy my life to how to do it.

Um, the first is to do one thing at a time, is to do one thing at a time.

And this you're gonna have to bear with me.

Um I'll try for this to make sense.

But so many things that we do that we enjoy, we do together, and then we don't enjoy any of them.

So, for instance, if I get up first thing in the morning, I like to get up early, I like to get a cup of coffee, make something to eat, usually toast or something like that.

And um I'm very spiritual, so I take a couple minutes and I ask God to uh um to fill me with him, and uh then I get on to Sports Center, and so um and so that's the thing coffee, something to eat, and uh Sports Center, after I spent just a few minutes uh uh talking with God.

And the thing is I enjoy all those things.

I really like coffee.

It's one of the few vices I have left.

And uh, you know, I really enjoy coffee.

You know what I enjoy something good to eat, and I enjoy watching Sports Center.

So many times I sit down and and I start thinking about what I gotta do that day.

And so now I'm thinking, now I'm having coffee, toast, sports center, preparing for the day.

And about 15 minutes later, the coffee's gone, I don't even remember drinking it.

Breakfast is gone, I don't even really remember eating it.

Sports Center is gone, I don't really even remember watching it.

Maybe a couple highlights.

You know, and I'm stressed out thinking about how much I have to do that day.

And one of the things that has really helped me is to try to do one thing at a time.

And it's not that I'm gonna sit down for 20 minutes and drink a cup of coffee, I don't have that much time.

Then I'm gonna 20 minutes have breakfast, then 20 minutes watch sports.

The point is for 10 seconds, I can enjoy my coffee.

I can say, man, that tastes really good.

You know, that's really hot.

I really enjoy that.

I can I can remember with every meal to slow down and enjoy the meal.

Thank God for having something to eat.

I can enjoy something that's that's trivial but interesting, like sports.

You know, but just doing one thing at a time, chores.

I mean, chores around the house that can be a drag.

If we just do that one thing, it can actually be enjoyable.

You know, I remember I used to work as a framing carpenter, you know, and I enjoy driving a nail.

You know, my thing is I want to do it in two swings, one to set it hard, the next one to uh to drive it straight.

But it's enjoyable.

If I'm enjoying that thing, you know, playing with the dog.

Just thinking about how cool the dog is and how happy the dog is and how God created the dog.

You know, playing with the cat, trying not to resent him.

Um the uh actually I don't have a cat, but if I did, that's what I would be doing.

Um but it's a just enjoying one thing at a time.

And uh I'm not sure how to explain this, even as you can tell, but it it works.

It works to say, you know what, I'm not gonna do two things at once constantly because we are a multitasking world and we take pride in how many things we can do at once, and what happens is we end up not enjoying any of them.

And it's especially true with people, especially true with conversations with people.

Man, when we're interacting with someone else, if we can just do that one thing, you know, so often we're talking to somebody and then we're thinking about something else we have to do.

We might be talking to somebody, having a text conversation, you know, with uh with somebody else.

We've got so many things going at once that can just kind of suck the joy out of our life.

And so that's kind of a a simple thing.

But if we can try and do one thing at a time, you know, if uh if you play golf, that's one of the keys to playing golf well, is you play one shot at a time.

Is you don't worry about that last shot that you just messed up, and you're not thinking about the next shot, you're just enjoying playing that one shot at a time.

And it's true, it's it's true with life.

If we can slow down, multitask a little bit less, and even in increments of seconds, enjoy one thing at a time.

Doing one thing at a time, it helps us enjoy the day, it helps us enjoy those things.

Um but it also slows down time.

It actually slows down time.

Remember when we were kids, it seemed to take forever for Christmas to get here?

I mean, it took forever.

Every day I'd ask my parents, you know, when's it would just it would take forever.

Now it's just like boom, it's here.

You know, and honestly, I feel like part of that is that when I was a kid, I didn't have that much to think about.

I mean, I I thought about one thing at a time.

When I was playing, I was thinking about playing.

When I was eating, I was thinking about eating.

You know, but when we're thinking about ten things at once, time just flies by.

And then the days gone and we didn't enjoy it.

And joy only happens today.

It only happens today.

Another thing is to try and appreciate each moment.

You know, life is not somewhere down the road when we achieve something or have money or solve whatever big problem we're facing.

Life is now.

We have to appreciate the moments now.

Alan Saunders famously said, Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans.

And it's true.

Somebody even wiser, Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 6, said, Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have.

Let me say that again.

Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have.

Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless, like chasing the wind.

Enjoying what we have, appreciating each moment.

You know, whether it's people, whether it's nature, whether it's music or art or our jobs, our hobbies, you know, our kids, God, enjoying what we have, appreciating each moment.

And then finally, and and quickly, if I'm feeling stressed and rushed, I have to reprioritize.

See, we get this is maybe this is a big change in my mindset from this time last year, is I felt like I just had a stressful life.

You know, and I actually have thought that way for a long time.

Well, I've always had a lot to do, I've always had a busy schedule, I've always had a lot of responsibility, so of course I'm kind of stressed.

You know, it's just a stressful life.

But now, man, when I'm feeling that way, it's a uh it's a red flag that I'm not thinking right.

That I've got to reprioritize how I'm thinking.

I'm just not gonna accept the fact that I'm gonna rush through the day on a losing uh battle to get everything done.

Um that's how my days used to be.

I'd get up in the morning, that cup of coffee, sports center, and then I'd kind of do a to-do list.

Okay, what do I really need to get done done today?

And, you know, honestly, and some of you can relate to this, we're all wired very differently, but but honestly, many days there's just no way.

And so I would start the day stressed out and kind of frantic, you know, and so I'm getting in the car and I'm going to the first meeting, and I'm making a phone call while I'm you know on the way to the meeting, I'm having a meeting, I'm texting somebody at the same time, and I'm doing this, and at the end of the day, it just is just a crappy day.

It was just a rushed, um, stressed out day.

You know, and it's a little panicky and it just a little unsettling.

And I would not experience much joy that day.

How can you?

Do you know Jesus had too much to do almost every day?

Jesus had too much to do almost every day.

And so he would prioritize.

In Mark 1, verse 35, it says, Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.

Mark 1:35

Later, Simon and others went out to find him.

When they found him, they said, Everyone is looking for you.

But Jesus replied, We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them too.

That is why I came.

So he traveled throughout the rel throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.

Okay, so they come and say, Hey, Jesus, there's a bunch of people.

And you know what these people needed?

They wanted to see Jesus, and and they probably some of them wanted to be healed, and they had all these different things, and it's like that every day for Jesus.

And he would say, You know what?

Today, this is what I've got to do.

And so even Jesus would re-prioritize his day.

He couldn't do everything people wanted him to do every day.

And Luke 5 says, But despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases.

But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

He had to prioritize when he was on earth.

He would spend time with God, and he would spend time to the people that are closest to him.

And he could help, and he would help as many people as he possibly could.

But when he was on earth, he couldn't do everything.

There were so many hours in his day.

And so he would prioritize and he would do what he could, and he lived a life that was full of joy.

Full of joy.

More than anyone else.

And so every day we just have to slow down a little bit, make make good choices.

And this is something I found is that when I feel myself getting that way, like I just got too much to do, if I just stop and instead of that being my norm, I say, okay, something's wrong.

I need to take a deep breath.

What is it I really need to do?

What is it that's most important?

What don't I need to do at all?

What can wait?

You know, it's like hitting the play button on the remote.

I can slow back down, you know, and I can control the things, the things I can control.

It's like driving in traffic.

To me, getting stuck in traffic is one of the most frustrating things because I'm it's just the way I am.

But but particularly if I've got something, someplace to go.

You know, and so now I'm stuck in traffic and now I'm late and I and it's very stressful to me.

But if I can just say, you know, what can I do?

Is there anything I can do?

Can I call somebody and tell them I'm gonna be late?

Well, beyond that, I might as well just turn on the radio and listen to the song.

I might as well just spend a little time with God.

I might as well just enjoy being stuck in traffic.

Slow down to the speed I'm driving, which is stopped.

But that's the way life is, that if we can just uh slow down, not accept frantic, not accept constantly stressed.

You know, just do one thing at a time.

Appreciate each of the moments that we have, appreciate each other.

We can enjoy each day.

And before long, we're enjoying our life.

That's how we enjoy our lives, is we string together a bunch of enjoyable days.

And we only can experience joy today.

Does that make sense?

That if we're gonna have joy, it has to be today.

We can't wait for tomorrow.

And there's so much to be joyful for.

It's all around us.

God's given us uh friends and loved ones.

He's saved us, he's blessed us so much in this country.

There's so many things that we can slow down and appreciate.

Do one thing at a time, appreciate the moments, reprioritize if we have to, but enjoy our life.

And before long, we'll be living a life of joy.

Another way to say it is before long we'll be following Jesus.

Because that's what he did.

That's what he did.

He lived a life of joy.

So if the worship team comes up, we'll stop right there.

I uh I hope that it's helpful.

It's uh it's kind of weird for a uh for a message, but those three things, those are three things that that uh one big thought and then three practical things.

Maybe you can try one of those today.

Maybe you'll catch yourself doing four things at once, and you can say, okay, I'm just gonna do one thing at a time.

You know, maybe I'll actually enjoy this text conversation.

Maybe I'll actually enjoy talking to someone in the car.

Maybe I'll enjoy listening to the song, but doing one thing at a time, appreciating each moment we have with each other and reprioritizing if we have to.

Well, if you'll stand, we're gonna get ready, we're gonna sing one last uh song together.

We've already talked about it, we've talked about it every uh every time that the foundation of our joy is Jesus.

That's the foundation.

So the we've got to get connected with him, or perhaps even reconnected with him.

And it's such a simple thing to do.

I mean, we need him.

I need him.

I don't haven't done so good living life my way.

But man, when I can trust him and follow him and live life his way.

And we can just tell him in our own words, you know, I need you.

I'm gonna follow you, I'm gonna trust you.

Please help me.

And he does, and he comes in and he fills us with his spirit, he saves us, he strengthens us, he teaches us, he teaches us so many ways through his word, he gives us people, he gives us friends, he gives us experiences.

The Holy Spirit teaches us, and he changes us from the inside out.

You know, and our lives start changing, we start changing.

And ultimately, we can experience joy.

We shouldn't feel guilty about it, we should embrace it.

God wants us to enjoy our life, God wants you to enjoy your life.

It's not something you have to hunt down and go faster and harder to try to find.

It's something that you can slow down and bask in.

Enjoy God, enjoy each other, enjoy our lives.

First Peter 1:8.

1 Peter 1:8

You love him even though you have never seen him.

Though you do not see him now, you trust him, and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

On Friday night, Christmas Eve, we're going to talk about one kind of cool thing that Jesus did that kind of started his life off as a life of joy.

It's something he tells us to do.

And so we'll talk about that on Christmas Eve, and we'll have a great time together.

Let's pray.

Father, thanks for being so good to us.

Thanks for being such a great God.

We have so many things, each of us.

There's so many things going on in our lives, and we just need your help so much.

And we just ask you to help us, whatever that is, whether it's health or whether it's family or whether it's financial, we just ask you to meet each of our needs.

But God, mostly right now, or maybe even in addition, but right now we do ask you, God, to give us joy supernaturally, that you would fill us with joy, that you would change us from the inside out, so that we would live lives that would have so much joy and so much love that other people would say, I want what you have.

I want that too.

God, please give us your joy.

And Jesus, we thank you, we trust you, we love you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.