Advent 2020: Joy

Hi family. How are you? Thanks for joining us this morning, either in the room or online. I have some announcements for you. I get to do it now. It's just today. So check in, cause these are fun. The first one is probably the funnest for me. So this is normally the time in the service where we talk about our offering and our tithes. And, if you're watching online, you can jump on the app or on the website. You can give online and do that. That would be super helpful. If you're here in the room, there's black boxes that are at every exit on the wall out of here, you can drop your tithe in there and it'll get where it needs to go. And that being said, I do want to talk for a little bit about the chest of Joash, Remember about a month ago, we threw out this idea of paying down our church's debt so that we can begin to reallocate those resources into ministry. And we talked a little bit about some of the things that we can do. Let me just give you an update. A lot of people have been asking like my, you know, my kids bring their change and all that stuff. And, and I, and I'm so grateful for that. It's been incredible. We have, we made a payment this week on our debt, $210,000 and change -- almost $211,000. Here's the deal. That's awesome. But here's what it does for us. That's double huge. It's double awesome. It's awesome. Awesome. That saves us over $830,000 in interest over the term of our loan. So just that little bit of money has saved us a million dollars that would go towards debt that can now go somewhere else, which is pretty awesome. That's well done. That's well done. And so we're going to continue to have the chest of Joash available. If you have change in your car and your pocket, you got some dollars bills on in your wallet, throw that in there as you go out today and all that money -- 100% of the money that goes into the chest of Joash, will go directly towards being applied towards our debt. Now that doesn't include, what's been given in December so far. Tthat's just November. So we've got lots and lots of, of, exciting things coming as far as paying down that debt goes on Saturday. This week is men's breakfast. If you're a man, you should come. I don't have a whole lot more to say about that. If you're a woman, probably don't, but encourage your men to come. Tomorrow night, Monday night, Young Adults are having a Christmas party and I'm told that you are supposed to wear a sweater. I'm not specifically going to tell you what kind of sweater that you are to wear, but it is to be a sweater that draws people's attention and probably not for its attractiveness. This is how we say that. 
Okay. So big news, we added two more Christmas Eve services. That's the good news. We did it on the 23rd, five and seven. Here's the bad news. They're full. I mean, it's not bad news, but for those of you that have been like, I'm just going to wait and see what they do. There are 53 seats left at the 7:00 PM service. That's the truth. That's what's left for me. And I love, love, love, love. Uh, let me back up and say this for those of you that went back after last Sunday and released your ticket for the services that were there. Thank you so much for doing that. Thank you for doing that. That's awesome. We're for all full up again, which is okay. That's okay. I know that for a lot of us, Christmas Eve is one of those things, and I know some, some people have been really upset about “your, your Taking Christmas Eve away from me.” Well, no, we're not. But it just, it's just, it is what it is. It's this it's, this, this year is different, so let's just embrace it for what it is and we're going to make the best of it. And then next December, next Christmas Eve, I can't even begin to tell you what is going to happen, elephants and giraffes. We're going to have cuddle time with baby elephants. I don't know it's going to be awesome. It's going to be awesome. Like we're going to -- thank you for those of you that went ahead and chose to stay at home. Um, that again is still my heart, but I also know that for many of us, this is one of those times where we just really are in a space, an emotional space where we need the Christmas Eve. And so, if you can jump on and get those last 53 seats there, it is for you. If you're going to watch online, just want you to know that this Saturday, the 19th, this Saturday will be from nine to three, when you need to come to the church parking lot. If you're local, you need to come to the church parking lot and pick up your box that we'll send home with you. And it's the same box that everybody in the room is going to get. It's got everything in it. Like if you're going to watch online, you will not miss any of the experience. And so that's there, but you need to come pick up that box between nine and three, this Saturday that some of the staff will be out there to hand that out for you. The rumor is there may be costumes involved. Even if you're like, I didn't want a box, I just wanted to see the costumes. I think it will be worth  coming through for that. If you don't live locally and you want to participate with us in Christmas Eve, that is awesome. If you're online, we need you to get online by the end of today and let us know that you need a box so that we can make sure that we get that to you with enough time for you to be able to get it before Christmas Eve service, because it will do you no good on the 25th or the 26th. We want to make sure that you have it by Christmas Eve. Last thing I want to talk about, and then we'll get into the sermon, told you there was a lot of announcements today. That's why they made me do it. We have this really cool thing that's been going on in our church. And I want you guys to know this is part of your money that you give to this church. You know, that COVID cases are rising. Hospitalizations are rising. A lot of our frontline medical workers are, they're busy. And so our church has developed a really cool partnership with Parker Adventist hospital. We are buying 1200 meal cards so that they can get a meal card and then go buy food. And the cool part about that is it's a super blessing to them, to the nurses and doctors there to the hospital staff there as well. But the other cool part about it is we're buying those from all local restaurants. Which the great thing about that is we're supporting our community on a couple of levels so that we can say, “Hey, community, we know, we know that this has been difficult. We know, and we're going to do our best to do something about it.” Like people can talk about what they think should be happening all the time, but I think it's time for us to start taking action on some of those things. And so for us, we're going to literally put our money where our mouth is and try to invest in our community as best as we can. So that's something that's been really cool. The other thing that's been cool out of that process is developing the relationship with the hospital has opened up opportunities for us to actually do some legitimate ministry and prayer and those kinds of things there at the hospital as well. And that's just really, really awesome. It's really awesome.

Okay. Here we go. You guys ready to go to work? That was a lot of announcements. I'm so sorry. We're in a bust a move. We are in week three of advent and we are going to talk this week about joy and I love this sermon for this week. I gotta be honest with you. Monday morning, I came to work and I was like, I don't know how I'm going to preach this sermon because I don't feel very much joy right now. Like I don't, I don't feel joy. I don't feel joy. It was where I was at and I think it's been a battle all this week. I love the Lord's faithfulness in preparing me for what he wants to say each week to our people. And, and I pray every week like, Lord, take me out of the way. And you know, what I know is there's, I'm going to speak a lot of words off the front of this stage, but only the Holy spirit can make it live in your heart. Right, tthat's not, I don't, I'm not that gifted. And uh, so I love, I love when God just goes, yeah, I'm going to make you sit right in this mess of joy and, and wrestle with like, what do you mean joy? What do you mean joy? I don't feel joyful right now. 

We've been going through advent week one. We talked about hope and how hope is in a person it's in the light. The light has come and hope shows us the light --Jesus. And then we talked last week about peace. Peace is this thing that only comes through Jesus and only comes -- we only gain access to it by living the life that Jesus wants us to live. We can't make up our own life and experience the peace of God that doesn't work. And so we talked about peace this week.

This week we're going to talk about joy. Like that? It's a smiley face. I dunno. Can you see it? Probably not. It's a smiley face. We're gonna talk about joy this week. And, I find it appropriate again. It's almost like God is faithful to talk about joy in the midst of the World that we're in because it doesn't feel very joyful. And yeah, we're supposed to have joy. We're supposed to have peace. And I'm like, really Lord, like, if you want us to have joy and peace,  -- this is a conversation that God and I had this week. So I'm just sharing with you my heart. Like, if you want us to have joy and peace, then why don't you deal with this stuff so that we don't have to feel the constant pressure? Like I'm tired, I'm tired of the tension. I'm tired of it. It doesn't matter what decision you make in your life or for our church or for the community, or what do to keep your business open or close, keep your restaurant open or closed -- you know, it doesn't matter what decision you make. It's going to tick off 50% of the population. How is that supposed to – yay! Half of everyone I know is mad at me. I'm, I'm thrilled with that. 

And then God pulled me back into the Christmas story and says, “Hey, why don't you just read this”—“in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” We talked some about this last week, that's a blood bath. This is a mess. This is tension. This is insecurity at every level. “This was the first registration when Quinirius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” If you remember our message last year, we talked about this. That word inn is a terrible translation. It's not like they had a Motel 6 in Bethlehem.
The word there is the word kataluma, it means guest room. There's no room for them in the guest room. So, you go to your family's house and there's no room for you in your family's guest room, why not? For the pregnant lady, who's about to give birth to her first child. You don't have room for her? You know this to be true. If your house was jam packed with people and some of your families showed up, guess what you would do. You would make room, even for family that you didn't like. You know why? Because they're family, that's what you do, but they didn't do that. Why not? 

Here's my theory. I have a 15 year old daughter, which is real similar to the age of Mary. I have a 15 year old daughter. She's incredible. She just got her driver's permit this last week. So stay off the sidewalk. She doesn't want to be driving where all those other cars are. If she came to me one day and she said, dad, I'm pregnant, but don't worry about it, it was God.Right? Why don't you bring God in here and let me have a conversation with him, right? They're not any different than we are. They're not any different than we are that like Joseph and Mary have something going on below the surface here, that isn't talked about a lot. And that is the fact that is in an honor/shame culture for him to stay with her, that this is shameful. They brought shame to their entire family by this illegitimate child. And because of that, there's no place for them in their family's guest room. Oh, but we're supposed to have joy. 

“And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks at night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was an eight with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts.” I don't know what that even means. The assumption is that there's a lot of more angels that show up, but that's not what it says. There's a group of heavenly hosts. I wonder what that even looked like. “Praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” I got to be thinking that in the midst of all of this chaos, in the midst of all of this mess, all of the, the soldiers forcing people and the -- by the way, when they thought you should be able to give more, whether they could validate it or not, they would just make you register to be wealthier than you are so that you've got taxed at a higher rate. How do you feel about that? Like you say, you only make $20,000 a year, but we think you make $70,000 a year. So you're going to get taxed at that rate, but I only make 20. Right, right, right. But we're Rome. Like, how do you feel about that? That was going on. There's no Peace. There's no joy. This is miserable. This is the worst of the worst. Everything about their context is bad. Mary and Joseph were rejected. The shepherds are worthless in their society. They can't even hold testimony in court. They're looked down on so much. And this is the moment where we're supposed to have joy. Um, no, no, I don't. I don't have joy right now. 
I don't have it. In fact, God, what the heck? What is going on here? Why, like really? Totally different than the conversations you and I have had over the last 11 months. We're sitting in, in the space where it feels so unsettled. Where does joy come from? Because that's the space into which we're supposed to be calling joy. 

Where does it come from? Well, a couple things that I would like to share with us: number one, Eastern mind -- so the, the Jewish mind thinks about God differently than you and I think about God. So like, for example, when, when I ask you to fill or finish the statement and I say, God is blank. What you will often say is something like this. God is all-knowing. God is all powerful. God is all present. He's omnipresent. God is grace. God is faith. God is truth. God is love. God is all those things. And all those things are true. They're all true. And you should believe every one of them, right? The problem is they're abstract. As soon as we start thinking about God, we abstract God to an idea or a concept that we have to wrestle with. In the Jewish mind, they think about God very differently. If I ask a Jew to say, to finish this statement, God is blank. They would say something like this. God is a rock. God is Eagles wings. God is living water. God is this concrete word picture that anchors into something real. And here's why it matters. Because when I say that God is all powerful and all knowing, and yet in the world, there are people who can't have kids that would be great parents and people who are terrible parents that can have more kids than they know what to do with. I have to figure out how an all-knowing all-powerful God fits into that equation. Does that make sense? Why is it that there are people who are starving in this world while there are other people who are so corrupted, they're hoarding. Like, what we know to be true in this world is that there is enough food. The isn't hunger, the problem is distribution. And somewhere in there, there's all this corruption and mess. And it's not like we're not trying to do some of that food distribution. It's not like, well, you're American so you overeat so you should feel bad. It's not even that it's that. Even if we send the money or the food to those governments, to those nations, it's the government that keeps it locked up in the harbor and uses it for all these other things other than its intended purpose. Why? Because the government's bankrupt morally. How do you fit an all-knowing, all powerful God into that? What I love about thinking about God from a Jewish perspective is this. If God is a rock, then when I'm in the circumstances that we're all in -- these unsettled insecure spaces, when I'm in an unsure place, not if. When I'm in an unsure place, God is still a rock. And I press into my relationship with God rather than stepping back and being critical of it. Does that make sense? It's really significant that when we look at a biblical God, that we look at it from a biblical perspective. Now, all those things, all powerful, all-knowing or whatever, those are all true. But at the end of the day, God, isn't an abstract being or idea. God is concrete. God is real. God is close. God is present with us in these messes. God, isn't standing back going, man, let's see how they deal with this. Like, he's put a bunch of rats in amaze, hoping that we can solve the puzzle. That's not who God is.

How can the angels say ‘glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased on whom his favor rests.’ Because the world that they're stepping into right now, doesn't feel like favor. By the way, neither does our world. It just doesn't feel like favor right now. Feels like a lot of things. It feels like maybe judgment. It feels like a test. It feels like wrath. It feels like a lot of different things, but it doesn't feel like favor. And yet, if we can learn to see God from a biblical perspective, this is actually going to be one of those moments where we can, in our joy, put God on display in a way that the world is craving. 
Do you remember the book of job? It's always dangerous to bring up the book of Job. I'm sure that for many of us over the last few months, we've read it a time or two. Job is doing well and Satan comes to God and God says, ‘Hey, consider my servant Job.  And Satan goes, well, sure, like you've put a hedge of protection.’ And this is one of the most overusesd Christian phrases in the history of Christian phrases. Right? Hedge of protection. We even pray that stuff for, so the Lord put a hedge of protection, put a hedge of protection around him so nothing can happen to. And so God's like, okay, you can do whatever you want to to him, but don't touch him. So he loses all of his money and he loses his children, 10 children all at once. A strong wind blows the supports out from the house and the roof collapses on them. They're all together eating and they die. And then, that doesn't change anything. His perspective was so cool. He said, naked I came into this world naked I will leave. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I mean, that's pretty much what would happen to me if I was in that position. Man, I don't even like it when my car doesn’t start. The tests of the Lord. And then, Satan comes back later and inflicts him with boils all over his body, boils all over his body. I don't know if you've ever had a boil, but they're miserable. They're miserable. One is miserable, boils all over your body. And then the, his wife says just curse God and die. Which if there's ever somebody that you're like, man, just stand in my corner. I can do anything. I can endure anything if you'll just stand in my corner. And she says, curse God and die and his friends, you know, his friends, doggone it. They were so awesome at the beginning of things, they came and sat with him for a week and they didn't say anything. They just sat with him. And then they were so awesome right up to the point where they started talking, which is typically the case for us, right? Like when we're with somebody who's hurting, we're so awesome. Right up to the point where we start saying stuff. Like, and then they start talking and it just is more discouraging. More like they start blaming job. Like obviously Job, somebody's mad that God's mad at you for some reason. And finally, Job breaks and questions God. And then God answers him. And the answer is actually really important for you and I, if we're going to find joy. In Job 38, it begins with this. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.” That's a tornado. Remember the bomb cyclone last year, remember how we were scared to go outside? That's what we're talking about here. That's what God answers Job out of. I would just submit, you know, you're in trouble when God answers you out of that. I want God to answer me out of the gentle breeze and the butterflies. That's how I want. -- I don't want God to answer me out of the bomb cyclone. By the way, I was here for that. That was the first, my first interview was, it was an omen. I should've paid attention. I should've paid attention, but I'm not that bright. My, my first interview was the day of the bomb cyclone. It was awesome. I woke up this morning. I was driving to church. I was like, man, look at all the snow. Well, at least it wasn't a bomb cyclone. You know, you're in trouble when God answers you out of a tornado, He says, “who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; and I'll question you, and you make known to me.” 

What I love about this is --It's like Job was trying to chest up to God and God's like, Oh, okay, let's go. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurement -- surely you know! Or who stretched out the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made it clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said ‘thus far shall you come, and no further, and here your proud waves be stayed’?  Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and they're uplifted arm is broken.” Here's what God says. Job's like, God, why are you letting this happen to me? And you can't possibly care about me. Why are you letting this go on in the world? God, you can't possibly be concerned about this situation. And it looks like this and God goes, really? Brace yourself like a man and I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. Where were you when I started things? Now he's going to go on for two more chapters after this, just asking questions. Like, where were you when I decided the birth cycle of the mountain goat? I don't know why he throws that one in there, but he's God, I'm not. He gets to say whatever he wants. Where were you Job? Surely, surely, you know, for you to ask me this question, obviously you've got something figured out that I've missed as God. And it goes on and on and on. And Job goes, maybe I lost my perspective. Because here's the fundamental question that we have to ask ourselves, especially in seasons like this, where we don't know how to find joy in any of it. Here's the fundamental question that we have to ask ourselves.

Do you believe that God is holding out on you or has God given us everything that we need to succeed? And by the way, this is the fundamental question in the garden. The fundamental question in the garden with Eve is, is God holding out on me? When the snake comes and says, you won't surely die, but God knows that when you eat the fruit, you'll be like him knowing good from evil, which by the way is the truth. The snake didn't lie there, but it wasn't better for her. And that's the problem. Do we believe that God is holding out on us or has he given us everything that we need to succeed? And for many of us, we sit in these hard spaces going, God, why do you keep holding out on us? And God's like, that's not my nature. My nature isn't to hold out on you. So in the midst of these difficult circumstances, you can be secure in who God is and the fact that he's still calling the shots. See, here's the thing about the book of Job. People wrestle with the book of Job under this guise. And that is, why do bad things happen to good people? That is not the point of the book of Job. It's not the point of book of Job. The point of the book of Job is this. When everything gets taken away from you is God enough. And if you can answer that question, yes, then you will never lack for joy. As soon as I start believing that I need God and something else in my life, my joy gets diminished, diminished, diminished. We want to make all kinds of plans for how we can make happiness come to our life. Happiness will be when I make this many dollars, happiness will be – you know, when I was a kid, a little kid, we used to go watch the, the high school kids played basketball at the high school. I mean, I, as in small town, social is a big deal. Like the whole community came out and everybody was cheering on. And I was like, man, I can't wait to be them. Right. And then I was them and I was like, I can't wait to get out of my house. Right? Because my parents they're controlling me. They're so harsh. I can't wait to get out of my house. And then, then when I got out of my house and went to college, I was like, man, I can't wait to get through college and get my career. And then I got into my career and I was like, man, I can't wait to make enough money to actually buy groceries and live. And you know, all that. And then I was like, I started making enough money. I was like, man, I can't wait to have kids. And then I had kids and I was like, put ‘em back. And I know my kids are awesome. Um, but they're hard, you know? And I kept like one book and then I need this and then I need this. And now that I'm at this stage of life, all, I want us to go back and be a kid again. Like we keep thinking that we're going to have a plan if we add a thing to our life that will bring us joy. And I can just tell you plainly, if you can't find your joy in your relationship with the Lord, in his plans for you exclusively, then your joy will never be sustained. You'll have moments of it, but you'll never have seasons. It's just the reality of the world we're in. Not because the world is hard, but because God created it.

And so consequently, the only way for us to have actual joy isn't for our circumstances to work out well. The only way for us to have actual joy is to make sure that we're lined up with God's agenda for our life, which leads me to all kinds of implications. But I want to focus on four.

Number one is this: joy comes when we truly understand our role in the world. Joy comes when we truly understand our role in the world. I don't want you to think, or me to think, more of our role in the world, but also don't think less of it. Like we, we fall on both sides of that road, right? Like on one side of the road, we're like, man, I'm way more important to myself that I should be. But on the other side of it, we keep diminishing our own role in the world. Like, no, no, no, you have a purpose like God made you and you're amazing. You have a purpose to fill. But the only way to find joy in it is to line up with how God chooses for us to express it. Joy comes when we truly understand our role in the world.

Second implication is this: understanding our role in the world. Isn't self-deprecation, it's freedom. Let me say this to you. There's this thing going around in our culture. And it came with participation trophies. So, you know, I'm going to disagree with it. You can become anything you want to be. That's a lie. You can't become anything you want to be. And by the way, you shouldn't feel bad about that. That's not self-deprecation to say I'm limited. And the problem for our kids in this world right now is that we're like, I'm going to open the whole world. The whole world is yours. Become whatever you want. The problem is you don't give them that. There's too many decisions, narrow their focus. Like you can't become this or this or this, but you can do this. And you'd be amazing at it. Train a child in the way that they should go and when they're old, they won't depart from it. Understanding that isn't self-deprecation, it's not making myself less. It's freedom. It's me becoming what God intended me to be. So as parents, as teachers, as influencers, our role is to then help kids discover how they're supposed to function in this world as an individual, not as a massive conglomerate, but as an individual, God made you to function this way. And we don't have that conversation we’re like, if you believe you can achieve. Just to be clear, I doesn't matter how much I believe that I could play in the NBA. I can't jump. I never could. I have slow feet. Now I can work out and lift weights and do all that stuff and I can get better at it, but I'm never going to be Kyrie Irving. I'm never going to be that. I'm never going to play in the NBA. I don't have the athletic talent to do it. Doesn't matter how much I want to do it. And I could work and work and work and work and work. And I could play in college. I could play in college and work and work at work, but I'm never gonna play in the NBA no matter how much I want it. God didn't make me to play in the NBA. That's not a slam on me. I think I'm pretty incredible. Just ask me, like, it's not a slam on me. That's me narrowing my focus so that I can actually become what God intended for me to be. Does that make sense? Understanding how God has created you to function in this world leads to joy, regardless of your circumstances. It's the not being able to find a place to fit in that leads -- It's like a kid, you, you know that security for toddlers for little kids comes when they have boundaries. Not when you go, I just kind of let them parent themselves. I can tell. The kids miserable. They're angry, they're selfish. They're, they're unkind to everyone around them. How was that going to go better? Boundaries are important for us to function.
Understanding our role in this world isn't self-deprecation it's freedom. 

Here's the third implication. The world belongs to God. I don't know if you know that, but it's his world. We are partners with him and carrying out his desire for it. I don't get to pick how I think it should go. Well, but God, I don't like the way you're doing it. And he's like, Oh, well tell me something that I didn't think about. When we partner with him, our joy is secure. The old hymn, you know, it's weird. I grew up singing hymns in church and I know some of you are like, yes, Lord. Some of you were like, what's a hymn. And then they switched to worship choruses As a member of the eighties, there was wars about choruses versus hymns and all that stuff. I was on the chorus side of that. I believe that we should do choruses He had, um, The funny thing is oftentimes I'll be thinking about kind of my own personal relationship with the Lord. And even before the Bible comes into my mind, old hymn lyrics will come to my mind and I'm like, dang it, they were good. Like, this world belongs to God. We're partners with him and carrying out his desire for it. Right? Because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that, which I've committed, unto him against that day. Remember that? You're like, that's the Bible too. I know, but I remember it. And I know whom I have believed. And now, you know, why I don't sing on the worship that, um, but because I know who he is, he has, I know that this world is secure because it's his world. It's not mine. That way, if I partner with him, I'm never outside of where his plans are going.

Implication number four. And this is important. Every time we overestimate our own importance, God has a way of reminding us of how the universe actually functions. Have you ever had a plan? I'll just leave that. wWere you like, God look at my plan. And he's like, aww… your plan. Right? And how we treat your plan. Why? Because your plane's insufficient. God's plan is not just right, it's better. And when we try to work plans that are against God's plan, he has this incredible way of bringing us back around to his plan. And just about the time for me, I know this is true in my life, maybe it's true for your life, just about the time that I feel like I'm like, God, I kind of have this figured out, like, I'm, I'm good. I'm doing good. I can just kind of relax and coast into the next phase of my job or my family or, and he's, and God's like, here's the thing. And you don't even see it. Right? And then all of a sudden it forces me back to this place of going, okay, God, I need you so much right now. I need you so much right now. 

Listen to me, joy doesn't come because the context that you're living in is easy. Joy comes, because I'm squarely and firmly in the presence of God all the time. Joy comes because I know who God is. And because of that, as I press into my relationship with him, I'm secure because I, I serve a God who is not holding out on me. He has given me more than enough to succeed. I just need to stay in his hip pocket. It's his world, it's his plan. It's his agenda. And my job is to jump on board with that. And the more that I can do that in my life, the more joy I will be able to have. So as we think about struggling with joy this morning, I would just invite you to consider the possibility that part of the problem with us finding joy is that we're really trying hard to hold on to things in our life that God wants us to let go of.

Which is the perfect segue into communion because the path to finding joy in God begins with the laying down of our life. And Jesus modeled that for you and I. So, as we talked last week about peace, what are you holding on to that's taking your peace. I would ask you to wrestle with God in this moment, as we prepare our hearts for communion, what are you holding on to that's actually stealing your joy and you keep thinking that if you'll hold onto it, it'll bring joy around eventually, but it's actually taking your joy. Let's spend a minute with the Lord with that as we prepare our hearts for communion.

On the night, Jesus was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. It's given for you whenever you eat this bread, do it in remembrance of me. Let's remember him this morning. And then he took the cup and he said, this cup's new covenant, my blood, which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the model of laying our lives down. Thank you for the promise of joy in your presence, not in our circumstances, but in your presence. And Lord, I pray that you would convict us to look for your presence in our world rather than to look for all the pitfalls and fears and tragedies and stuff that's going on. Lord, help us to find you. Reveal yourself to us so that we can draw close to you and have peace and joy and hope. And thank you that you're always right there. And that all we have to do is let go of the things that stand between you and us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Let’s stand and sing one more song. So, I know we live in a world that doesn't have a lot of joy to offer us. I have great news for you. It never did. This world never did have joy to offer us. Our source of joy is God. And so, this morning, if you find yourself discouraged and you need some prayer there’ll be some people up here in the front to pray with you. Please, please come up and pray with them about that. But this week, and as we move into our last couple of weeks of the Christmas season, some of you are like, yes, only two more weeks. And some of you are like, I really want this to be special. I want this Christmas season to be special. May you and I have an understanding of the perspective that God, and God alone, is our source of joy. And the only way to tap into it is by allowing him to be the one who calls the shots in our life. Thanks for coming. Thanks for watching online. Have a great week.