Joy

Join us as we discuss the power of authentic community and how God imparts "Joy" into his church daily. Have you heard of the "Joy Jam"? 

#faith#family#relationships

@puzzleisreal

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Puzzle is Real podcast where we will be discussing faith, family, and Relationships hosted by Matt and Melissa Pisani . This is The Puzzle is Real podcast when you know, you know.

Speaker 2 0:14

All right . Welcome back. We are the podcast building.

Speaker 3 0:21

We are here y'all. Yep , I said it y'all. And , uh, it's been quite some time, but we are back and excited and just ready to jump into the topic of the day and we hope that you all will be blessed by what we want to share , um, with you guys.

Speaker 2 0:40

So we are really excited with what's going on in , in God's family within the church, which in our, our mind has been outside of the building and, and physically we've been outside the building. We've been outside of the building since the pandemic five years ago. But we're still accountable to the body of Christ and the building, so don't get it twisted. A lot of times we have people that are separate from the body and um, that can be dangerous. So we've been doing outreach, it's called the Joy Jam here in Charleston. It's been powerful. It's pretty prophetic on how it all came about and yeah, just be encouraged about what you're about to hear.

Speaker 3 1:16

So when Matt and I first moved to South Carolina, didn't really know anybody, but we did move into a new neighborhood where we were kind of all on the same playing field. And so we said, Hey, why don't we start a men's and women's prayer group? Matt actually started first with the men 'cause we had just had Magnolia and I just wasn't quite ready <laugh> to dive into that yet 'cause I was still in the newborn phase. But we, I eventually had gotten there, but we had started this prayer group. Awesome. We have had many different neighbors join and we had been meeting for over a year and then one of the gentlemen who's part of Matt's group said, Hey, I think I really feel led that we should be reaching out to the community. And you know, that kind of sparked our interest 'cause we're like, yeah, this is something we've been praying about and this is kind of where our wheelhouse is, is you know, when the pandemic hit in 2020, we opened up our front lawn in New York and said, we're just gonna have church on the lawn and this is what we're gonna do. And that we saw amazing things happen during that time just from our , our obedience. And when we were like, yeah, let's do it here. That's really how the Joy Jam was birthed, was from our prayer groups being obedient with starting that and then saying, yeah, let's reach out to the community. Let's reach out to those who won't go to a prayer meeting, who won't go to a church building, but they'll come to an outside green space where there's live worship and there's a message, there's activities for the kids and it's really non-threatening. So it's like, even if you're not a believer , um, you would come and still feel the love of God and you hopefully would hear the love of, you know, would hear it from other people and just see how believers are living their lives together. That this is not this fake , um, manufactured relationship, but this is authentic and we have a heart for the one to go after the one that's our heart. And we've just seen so many amazing things already and just how even our local church here, Seaco has gotten behind us and said, Hey, will you do a joy jam? We had just did , did one the month prior and they said, why don't you do another Joy jam and model to volunteers, how, how you guys are doing this and then maybe that'll spark their interest to want to do it in their community because it's nothing. The formula is very simple, you know, you just get other like-minded believers and reach out to your community in whatever gifts and talents you have and people will come. Oh yeah . So I just think it's just a really powerful testimony and um, encouragement to the church to say, Hey, let's reach out to those who won't go into the building and we're called to love God and to make him known. Right. And this is our way of making him known and going after the people who wouldn't go into church settings.

Speaker 2 4:02

Yeah. It's been really amazing to see how many people have found purpose in serving the community that we live in and serving as the church people from different churches, different denominations coming together as one church to point people to Jesus and to point people to the love of Jesus. So the verse that I wanted to share with you quick, and if you have a moment and you're not driving or you're not running and you're just sitting, you're actually waiting with bated breath to hear this. It's uh , Galatians five. And it's, it's really , um, it's important to um, really tie this in, but it's life by the spirit is midway through Galatians five, right? If you look down to verses 13 through 15, or actually 13 to 14, it's you, my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love. So that's important right there serving one another. And recently on our serve day with our church, we were serving the community and serving one another in love. And as you go to verse 14 says, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. So that's been our heart. How can we love our neighbors as ourself ? And that's not just the people on our block, but throughout the holy city of Charleston and wherever we go, wherever we travel. And I think that that's applicable to all of our lives to just keep loving people. And it comes from not only intimacy with God, but it's usually innately in us. And, and joy is something that comes from God as well where we are able to impart that in other people and it's contagious. So we've seen the movement of this, we're excited to share it and I think that this was just the beginning of us scratching the surface of what God wants to do with the revival over our country.

Speaker 3 5:55

Yeah. And I just wanna give a quick , uh, testimony of just how the joy jam and just us living the way that we are living, how it's ministering to those who have never experienced that before. And so my brother had moved here in October of last year and he moved with my cousin Matt, who um, was an addict for most of his life. And he was finally clean. He had been clean for about a year and a half and he was living in a sober house in Asheville. And unfortunately because of that insane hurricane, hurricane Helene , he got displaced. So now he wasn't there. He went back home to North Carolina to his parents and my brother now is moving, okay, go ahead. So he is moving to Charleston and my cousin Matt decided to come with him. And at first we were not happy at all just because of his history and just who he was. And I just felt very angry and you know, I didn't want, I didn't want my brother to relapse or to be surrounded near people, you know, who could be a bad influence. 'cause I haven't seen my cousin in, you know, a long time and I haven't, the last time I saw him, I mean he's, he's not been sober. So anyway, so he had moved here and I was very hesitant to even see him. And then I remember we saw him for the first time and there was just this urgency that Matt and I both had, my husband Matt , um, to minister to him and to just share about Jesus. 'cause he had never truly heard the gospel before. And after the first meeting I remember the Lord just speaking to me and just a soft still voice and said, love him. Like I love him. And I just kind of broke down 'cause I was very like, ah , I don't really want to. And it's like, we're called to love our neighbor. They're literally living up the block from us and they're truly our neighbors. And now God's telling me to love him as he loves him. And so I remember just hearing that small still voice and saying, okay, we're just gonna love him and you know, we got to spend Thanksgiving with him. And you know, we took them sightseeing and just really brought them into our life. And I saw the transformation that was happening right before my eyes with my cousin and just how he was open to the gospel. He had a lot of questions. Um, he was excited about it and unfortunately he went back home around Christmas time and relapsed and unfortunately passed away. And it was very sudden it was horrific. But before that, he got to experience the Joy Jam and he came to the Joy Jam and he helped us set up. Him and my brother Doug were just, you know, amazing at doing all the background stuff. And I just remember him saying like, wow, you guys are doing life with your neighbors. You're opening this up to other people. His mind was literally blown and 'cause he had never experienced that. So I look at that, and this is just one story that I know of because it was, you know, my family of just how us living in community and reaching out to those impacts people I think eternally. And although he passed away and we know we didn't know where he was at spiritually, but we did find a journal that he had left. And basically he had said he surrendered his life to God and that he finally has put his faith in God. Um, I don't know where he was at with Jesus, but he , he did say God. And so I believe that the Lord sent him here for us to just minister to him and to give him an opportunity to be saved before he took him , um, before it was his time, really. 'cause we have free will. But that's just one story. And I just hold onto the promise of just who God is and his character and what he's done for us personally and what he can do for so many and for us to just be the vessels that he wants to use to bring people to eternity with him. That's the goal. It's like we're saving souls. It's not just this fellowship and yeah, that's great, but we want a soul transformation. And for people to truly give their life to, to Jesus and for us to be disobedient to what God wants to do, I think is just the most important thing. And that's what I wanna encourage you guys to do is how can you reach out to those? And just as we have been really focusing on the fruits of the spirit at our church lately , um, you know, unfortunately our head pastor, founding pastor, his brother passed away suddenly at a very young age and reminded him and reminded us that we don't have a second, we're not promised, we're not promised a second at at this life, right? So when we go, where are we going? And those people that you love and that are in your life, where are they going? And I feel like I, I know me personally, I've had this urgency to just share with people and I don't care if I'm rejected. I don't care if they look at me like I'm crazy 'cause I care so much about them that I want them to be able to spend eternity with Jesus. And that's my encouragement for you guys is to who in your life, whether it a family, friend, coworker , stranger, neighbor, can you reach out to, to show the love of Christ too. And you could do it in simple ways. And we've done that in simple ways, and I think we've shared that in the past of just, you know, making cookies for neighbors or inviting them to the playground or whatever that may look like. But life is short. How are we impacting our communities? How are we loving our neighbor? And what can you do in a tangible way to reach out to the lost ?

Speaker 1 11:32

Hey guys, thanks

Speaker 3 11:33

So much for listening to the Puzzle is

Speaker 1 11:34

Real podcast. Please subscribe today and share with a friend. See you soon.