Heart of the Homily

Episode 034 - Podcast | Even In Prison, Paul Says Rejoice: Advent

• St Augustine Catholic Parish

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We return from Rome with fresh eyes for Advent and a bold claim from St. Paul: rejoice always, not when life improves but because the Lord is near. Joy becomes a steady anchor when it’s rooted in Christ’s victory, practiced through waiting, and lived in daily prayer and community.

• pilgrimage to Rome reawakening wonder through beauty and history
• difference between tourism and pilgrimage mindset
• Gaudete Sunday and the entrance antiphon as a command to rejoice
• Paul’s prison context and the meaning of Christian joy
• victory language and sharing in Christ’s triumph through baptism
• joy versus circumstantial happiness and why it lasts
• Advent as holy interruption that retrains desire
• waiting well as formation and trust in God’s timing
• practical markers to ask why joy is missing
• daily practices that anchor life in Christ’s nearness

Share with someone that might need this word of encouragement to rejoice always in the Lord


Thank you for listening! Visit us at www.saintaugustinechurch.org

Back In Studio From Rome

SPEAKER_01

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast. My name is Michelle Lopez. I'm one of your hosts. I'm here with Father Vagova, our pastor at St. Augustine Church in Croal Gables, Florida. And we're delighted to be back in studio. So uh back in studio. We're back, which is beautiful in Miami.

SPEAKER_00

It's good to be with you, Michelle.

SPEAKER_01

You too. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Are you still jet lagged?

SPEAKER_01

Uh I I feel like today is the first day where I'm feeling a little normal and not about to sleep around this time of the day. So hopefully.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's uh I went I the first night I was back, I went to sleep at six and got up at four and ready to go.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh, it's so wild. It's so wild. It takes a couple days.

SPEAKER_00

It takes a couple days, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's amazing how you get back into the swing of things.

SPEAKER_00

So um but pilgrimage was good, don't you think?

Why Pilgrimage Is Not Tourism

SPEAKER_01

It was pilgrimage was awesome. And it's just, I mean, it's such a blessing to be able to take uh time aside from just the busyness of life and and go on pilgrimage. So it's not like a vacay, although it has some elements that are similar. But um we were on a pilgrimage, so it was a a trip to really visit holy sites to um remind ourselves of the beauty of our faith and its great history, and also um with that expectation of the Lord speaking to us personally and then through all the things of the trip.

SPEAKER_00

So to do it in Rome, right? Yes, the center of our faith, the center of Catholicism. I was talking to somebody uh earlier today at the end of the noon mass, and they were asking about how did it go? I would love to hear about it. And there is just like what you said, there's something about pilgrimage that's different than being a tourist or going on vacation. I was really impressed by the tour guides that we had.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, they're they just break open.

SPEAKER_00

They do these basilicas, these places, the catacombs.

SPEAKER_01

And they make it like they get the layers. They give you all like 12 layers to go through, and you're like, I would have not known that without you.

SPEAKER_00

How great was that priest that gave us a tour at the catacombs?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, amazing. Amazing, amazing.

SPEAKER_00

It's just like an encyclopedia of knowledge. It was so impressive. Anyway, it was a really great trip. I was happy to do that with you. And uh, we did a little podcast there and everything. Yeah, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_01

New location, beautiful background, and um, there's just so many graces. And I think that's the cool thing of pilgrimage is the mindset's different. You know, like the mindset, the awareness and the intensiveness to God at work is so different when you go on pilgrimage versus a vacation.

SPEAKER_00

And the expectation too, right?

St. Peter’s And Feeling Small Yet Significant

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And then for me, people have been like, you know, what are your favorite parts and stuff? And I have a few favorite parts, but I'm also like, ask me in two weeks and I'll have more. You know, well, what was your favorite part?

SPEAKER_00

Gosh, I think well don't pick two, pick one. Like it sticks out for you.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think I'm always amazed at going to St. Peter's Basilica, like how things are so like massive and beautiful and and thoughtful. Like it you I look around and the faith is spoken through all the art and all of the beauty of the place. And at the same time, um, like I know I'm a part of this story. And I'm always amazed that like, like this is mine as well. You know, like so I'm coming not as a tourist, but as like a pilgrim, as a like, I'm I'm part of the story. That's so grand. And it makes me feel um, which our tour guy was talking about, small but not insignificant.

SPEAKER_00

Like I loved when Hannah said that. It's so true. And how she was explaining just how huge and grand everything is. But you, this is your story, and you are not significant. And this beautiful temple, this beautiful basilica t says that story.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I also think about I'm so grateful for the church in her wisdom of appreciating these things and like safeguarding them for the sake of like me, you know, like they probably didn't think of me personally, but like they thought of like the future of like how to uh parts, you know, really like safeguard these beautiful parts of our faith to be able to give them as a gift to generations, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and how beauty helps us understand our relationship with the Lord. Yeah. Just in that whole how she explained everything. Yeah. I have been to St. Peter's Basilica many times. I was blessed to have been there. But the way she explained those small details, wow. You could write a homily, you could do a reflection. It was just very powerful.

SPEAKER_01

And it's a it's an insight into our faith where it should never get boring. There's so much, there's always new eyes to see things. And so I've been to St. Peter's Basilica before, but every time I go, I'm new. I'm different. I'm in a different place in my life journey. And so things stick out to me differently. And I I there's just so much to like the wisdom of the spiritual life. Like that is it. It's like we are at different places every time we re- revisit different things of our faith to go deeper and deeper. And should I agree?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I lived uh I lived in Rome for the last two years I was while I was studying. And seeing Rome through our pilgrim's eyes or through our experiences was something beautiful. It was a whole like you said, uh even I I just got back end of June, but it's I'm living a different reality, a different time in my life, and and going back and and being able to share it with parishioners was incredible. It was a great experience.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure that was cool too, because it is home for you in a different way since you live there. And so you brought like your home here to your home there. Right.

Advent As Holy Interruption

SPEAKER_00

I'm sure that was especially the first opening mass that we did at the casa in the chapel was just awesome. Full circle was actually very beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

But man, the universal chap church, the universality of our faith is just it's taken for granted, but we are part of something so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00

So beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I I think it that leads us to this beautiful season that we're in right now.

SPEAKER_01

Of Advent, which is the the story. It's retelling the story of where we came from and where we are and and how Christ came to save and and restore us and make a beautiful story. Um, so Father, let's dive in because your homily yesterday was so good and so impactful because it really focused more on the the entrance antiph antiphon than the reading. So I'm sure you know that by heart if you don't mind. Maybe you can.

Gaudete: Rejoice Because The Lord Is Near

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the entrance antiphon is rejoice in the Lord always. Gaudete is uh the word that is used, and uh that's where Gaudete Sunday, and we use rose vestments and gaudete indominum sempre, rejoice in the Lord always. I say rejoice, uh, for the Lord is near. And it comes from uh Philippians, which is funny. I was listening to the homily uh on Spotify, and I said, I don't know in the middle of Homily, I'm talking about how Paul's writing to the Philippines. But then I was talking about Philippi, and I was like, I hope people don't think I was talking about the Philippines.

SPEAKER_01

No, but in some way he is too. So, you know, too, right?

Paul’s Prison And The Meaning Of Joy

SPEAKER_00

Um but powerful. Yeah, that's and you know, if you read, if you listen to all the readings and and you study some of the readings, you see how that theme of rejoices in all of them. It's in the first reading, it's in the responsorial psalm, it's in the second reading, and of course it's in the in the gospel. But um rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. Um for me, it's fascinating how you're able to break it open because where do these words come from? And that's what I was trying to communicate to people. Paul sitting in a prison cell, probably attached or chained to a Roman soldier and isolated, hungry, maybe, uh, not knowing if this is the end, if you're gonna be released or executed. And that was part of the Roman world. It was, I'm going to imprison you, but I want to slowly strip you of your dignity. Right? And so that that's and and you can only imagine what a prison cell looks like in the first century, right? Gosh, awful. Awful. And um, and here Paul's writing to this community that he knows very well, a community that he loves, and he's saying to them, rejoice. Not when things get better, not when your life is all resolved, when no, no, right now, I want you to rejoice. I say again, rejoice. The Lord is near, near to near to the brokenhearted, near to those who are being persecuted, near to uh us in the word, near to us in the Eucharist, when you you all get together as a community and break bread. There's something powerful of how Paul, in those simple words, is teaching this community about estatological joy. Um, where it's it's just more than circumstantial happiness or circumstantial joy. Um, because I think that happiness can be circumstantial. Right now we're having a good time, we're having a nice talk, and I can be happy. But I get into my car and I don't know, something happens or road rage, or uh you're thinking about this or your situation, and then that happiness goes away. Christian joy is different. Christian joy should be something that permeates, that it's always there. It's underlying no matter what you're going through, no matter what state of life, that you understand the relationship that you have with Christ and the promises that he's made to you, and therefore you live differently.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And St. Paul, I mean, like you like you said, him writing this is in the midst of being in in the place where you think there's no way you can be joyful there.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

But um yeah, that's so amazing.

SPEAKER_00

Well, also too, because Roman society believed that joy flowed from the strong, the powerful, the success. That's where you're gonna have joy. Um and the weak, well, they they they endured but quietly. It was almost like this insignificant. Um that's how the weak endured. But Paul inverts this worldview, right? And he is saying to them, No, no, let me let me give you um words uh to help you through your daily life where you don't you Paul's not saying, okay, have to rejoice when Rome loosens its grip, or Rome is no more, or rejoice when justice finally prevails, um, or even rejoice when your suffering ends. That's not what Paul's saying.

SPEAKER_01

Why do you why does the church have it right now? In the Advent season, that's four weeks. This third one is coming upon, like why now in this season?

Victory Language And Belonging To Christ

SPEAKER_00

Well, I think it's it's part of that antiphon where rejoice that the Lord is near. And there have there's there and something that I said that is from the theme, I think we talked about uh the first Sunday of Advent, where the church interrupts, right? In her wisdom, she interrupts us, and and she does that because we are sometimes we're not good at staying the course. And so we allow the busyness, we allow the distractions, we allow the world to get in there. And and the church in her wisdom says, wait, wait, wait, I'm gonna interrupt you. I want to remind you that in all your craziness and in your anxiety and your being feeling overwhelmed and frustrations and disappointments, I want you to rejoice. And that's where you take a step back in that interruption and say, wait, what? Rejoice? I don't have time to rejoice, or I don't feel like rejoicing, I don't have anything to rejoice about. Well, if you don't have anything to rejoice about, then you got to ask yourself, why not?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Do you believe in the promises of Christ? Do you do you have this real relationship with the Lord? Or is it just I have it when it's convenient, or I have it when I need it, or it's not really a faith that is uh indwelling. Um and so that's where you gotta ask those important questions. Where am I? And I think that joy is a great indicator if you're living the faith.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, as far as like even in this season right now of Advent, um, since we're almost to Christmas, it's it's kind of like that wake up call of um like, why are we doing all this? You know, like remembering that the Lord is near and to reorient yourself. It's kind of like a gentle warning of like uh checking in, like we're rejoicing because of what lay, what lays ahead that is ours already, but not yet. It's kind of like that remembering where we are in the journey of Advent. Um so, Father, you also kind of mentioned a lot about this language of victory that St. Paul uses.

SPEAKER_00

Could you share a little more of a uses a lot of that, and you see that also in Romans. Uh and and he he tries to explain it in a way where people can apply it to their life. They know what victory means, they know what being uh taken over, they know what uh persecution means. And so this victory language is very important for the early Christians. And so he's saying to them, Christ won for you. That that is something that because he won, and he won the victory, the victory is also yours. And and that language was easy to understand.

SPEAKER_01

It made sense with Paul being in prison, right? He could be like joyful because he knew the victory was already won.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I actually I personally I love that his language of victory because it's like, you know, God is victorious, like we're on the victory team. So like if we're on the victory team, there's nothing to be afraid of. There's like we like the war has been won, the battle is still underway. But to really, I love it because it it says like place your confidence in the victory that has been won already.

SPEAKER_00

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01

And like that, that is yours.

Joy Versus Circumstantial Happiness

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and joy does not come from Rome, doesn't come from Caesar, doesn't come from safety, it doesn't come from success, comes from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my savior, Jesus Christ is my redeemer, and that's radical. And we gotta look at it in that radical way. And and am I living that counter-cultural, that radical way? Because um I think we're stuck and we get stuck with the worldview and what the world considers success, what the world considers joy, what uh you'll be happy if you have this. If you can only accomplish this, or if you have this, then you'll experience real joy. That's what that means. Uh where the world wants to say it's not about faith. Yeah, Jesus, what what has Jesus done for you? Come on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because there is that understanding. I'm going to mass, I'm saying my prayers, but I I still am having hardships in my life. Right? I I we were talking about recently about a couple that we're gonna start praying for. I think you're gonna be involved with this couple, and we see people with real, real hardships, but they're still joyful. They're still joyful. Why? Because they understand uh the incarnation of Christ, where Christ is born into our human history. Christ understands our suffering, our weaknesses. Christ takes on on the cross, he takes on sin and death onto himself. And then the resurrection, what happens there is something that's never happened before, right? And it's it breaks open and and it's there for us. It's again that victory that is won for us. Christ already done Christ already won the victory. You don't have to do that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And then through our baptism, we share in that victory. And so we have to claim it though for ourselves. I think that's the the mystery of it, right? Like we might have it, but we have to actually like claim it for ourselves.

SPEAKER_00

And that's where you start to live it when you claim it. And and then when you claim it, do you understand what you're claiming and do you apply it to your life and incorporate it into this daily minute-to-minute kind of way of being.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And some of it what comes to mind too is even like a change, a shift of attitude from kind of like um like entitlement to like gratitude, even of like that joy comes from this great knowledge of like Allah's gift and that I share the victory of Christ. And so I can be fearless against anything that comes. Right. But not on my own strength, but because like Christ is the one that is bringing all things to himself.

If Joy Is Absent, Ask Why

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Because something that we've talked about even in past podcasts is that something that modern psychology will tell people that joy and happiness is when you're able to control things, when there's predictability, when there's comfort, there's success. That's what the world is is training us to believe. And so when now we start to know Christ and we have an encounter of Christ and we begin to see these radical teachings, it takes some time to incorporate. It's not going to be overnight. It's, oh, but I still feel the pull of this. And so maybe I'm not as close to the faith, or maybe I'm not as close to the Lord. No, stick with it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because unfortunately, the world is trying to distract you from that. Because Christian joy doesn't depend on any of those things. What it does is Christian joy comes from belonging, from meaning, from trust, um, hope beyond death, right? Because not even death can do away with that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And that joy that gets you through any trial or circumstance. And I think um St. Paul's a great witness to that of even in prison, like he can experience this joy of knowing that like nothing can like that's the one thing no one can touch. Right. And that the the Romans can't touch, you know, like is the joy that comes from knowing Christ and being a part of his victory that he's been he's won for us.

SPEAKER_00

And how Paul knew that that joy lies outside of himself. It's outside of myself.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah. And I think that's that's the the the catch I think that people get into is like you were saying, is like once these things fall into place and everything's perfect, then I'll be happy. You know, where it's like, that's not life. That's not real. And part of what you talked about actually in your homily was um that advent's not about pretending that the world is perfect or that like things are, and I think we kind of get into those traps of thinking, like, okay, I'll find joy once everything is in its right place. Or like when this thing is not in my life anymore, or when my this is better, you know, like we kind of like are um we're searching for it instead of allowing Christ to be the one that um gives it to us, that we receive it from him.

Waiting Well: Advent’s Training Ground

SPEAKER_00

That's so true. And and sadly, a lot of people live a life where it's this constant, if only I have this, or if only I can have this, or whatever it is, but um it they're they're not living in the here and now. And so it's it's this constant, if only this can happen, or if only I can have this, or I can accomplish this, then I'll be happy. And that's not a way to live. That's not what Christ is saying, that's not how He wants you to live. It's just passing time, right? It's just passing time, and and we weren't born just to die one day, right? And so, um, and and what you were saying is that whole victory language again reminds us that it Christ has the final word in all of this. It's not anxiety, it's not your mistakes that you made, it's not um even death itself. It's it's Christ is the one that has the final word. And we have to do the hard work in saying our prayers, celebrating the sacraments, but having that relationship with Christ that reminds me every day that this is my my meaning in life. This is where I gain all of my strength and and and it comes from Christ so that I can live joy. Because if my my whole way of living and my whole expectation is what's to come or what could come or What I can make happen, you're going to be miserable. You're going to live from moment to moment. And so my happiness is only circumstantial. I'm happy now, but I won't be happy later. I'll go to a gathering and we'll have a good time. So I'll be happy there. But then I'll go home and then I'll feel miserable and I'll feel empty and lonely and a void. And so then I'm not happy anymore. Well, that that's not what God wants for us. And then I think that that's where Paul is saying, rejoice in the Lord always. But I'm saying right now, really understand who you are, that you belong to Christ, that you've been won, that the victory was won for you, and that you are grafted onto the body of Christ. You are different. Um, because that's not how the Roman world thought. And so all of this, we we we may be listening to this, and maybe we've heard this uh on Advent at a different time. But when the first Christians were listening to this for the first time, they're saying, What? How do you do this? This is amazing. And this is why the faith grew so fast and it just caught fire because people wanted to live differently. They wanted a direction, they wanted to have peace in their life, and then that's what Christ came to do. He came to give peace, to give direction, to give meaning and fulfillment. But if you live in Christ, if you completely give your life to Christ, and it's something that we've talked about many times, it can't, Christ can't be one among the many things that the world is offering to us. Yeah, the world is beautiful, wonderful. God created this beautiful world for us. But if that's what we're putting all of our, our, our, our, the eggs in the basket is in what the world can provide and some sort of knowledge or um I go to mass and say some prayers, but God is one thing among these many beautiful things that I have in my life. I don't know.

Command To Rejoice And Daily Practice

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I think even from what you're sharing, I think it's the church is asking us, like you were saying, to rejoice and to kind of stop us in our tracks right now, to ask, like, if we're not able to rejoice where we find ourselves in our life, we have to ask why. Yeah. And we have to ask Christ to help us. And I think that's um what I love about this is a moment to pause and to say, like, if I, if I'm not experiencing that joy, then like, then why? And maybe it is because I'm misplacing my hope in other, in smaller things, but to be able to actually like be like, okay, well, no, like Jesus, I want to find my joy in you. Like, I don't want to find my joy in like um if this happens and all, like to start actually like, what are our thoughts? What are our like what are we, what's going on in inside of us? Um, and how to like re-uproot some of those attitudes or um some of those false beliefs and begin to like really root them in the truth of the matter, which is like, Jesus, I don't understand, but like you are my joy. I want that.

SPEAKER_00

And I like what you just said. I you you saying that okay, if I don't have that joy, why? Do the hard search.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because I think you said it earlier is that I don't have to pretend that everything is perfectly fine, that the world is great. And no, no, if if if things are rough and you're going through some hardships, you're going through financial difficulties, uh, maybe a diagnosis or even the grief of a loss of a loved one, live it. Go through the pain, but is Christ part of that pain? Where he, Christ is near to the brokenhearted, Christ is near to those who are suffering. Do I understand that? And that he desires to walk with us, that he desires the good for me. Because that's what he desires. He, we don't have to convince him of anything. I don't have to convince Christ. Can you be with me? Can you walk with me? Um, can you can help me share with this? No, he's saying, please involve me. I want to be there, every step of your whatever it is that you're going through. And you're not defined by your hardships, by your anxiety, by being feeling overwhelmed, or you're not even defined by your mistakes. Why? Because I already won.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Beautiful. And so whatever it is that you're dealing with that you think is the hardest thing right now, know that that's just temporary. Right? That that's just right now. And and it's not gonna always be that way.

SPEAKER_01

Father, one of the things that you connected in your homily about all this is um having this kind of perspective shift. It changes how we wait.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Can you maybe share a little bit more of like what that means? Like how do we how we endure weight? Um and how I I think, you know, that's part of the season of Advent is um is waiting and learning to wait well, which is very countercultural. We want everything like right away, but the we chan we are changed in the wait. And it's waiting on God who's always faithful and promise in his promises.

Guarding Joy And Living Differently

SPEAKER_00

I think that's the biggest takeaway from Advent is how do we wait? How do we make the time for the Lord? Um, we're not good about waiting at all. I'm not good at it, right? Um the second reading from this weekend was be patient. Just like a farmer is patient. He knows that there will be a harvest. And I think that in that waiting really is the purification. It's the the training ground for holiness. Um because when we get into this way of I want what I want, when I want it, how I want it, and I can grab it and take it just because it's there, or I can wish it, or I can desire it, then why don't I have it? And so now I'm miserable because either one, I I did take and it's not what I should be taking, or it's this idea that, well, um I I why not? I can do it. And the season of Advent is saying, take a pause, wait.

SPEAKER_01

And I think too, with the waiting, is we're remembering that what we have at our like our the baptism, like all that we have in our faith has been long awaited. Exactly right for and like we have and we take it for granted. But like this is what the Israelites, like all of salvation history has been waiting and longing for, has been like the coming of a Messiah. And like that's the gift that we remember at Christmas. Um, and then also I think in waiting, um, that God never wastes our time. And I think that's a big thing is uh Avent teaches us to wait well, which means to trust that our time is never wasted with God. Um and so sometimes when we don't get things right away or we're we feel like we're in a season of waiting for the Lord to answer our prayers or waiting for things, um, that it's like you were saying, like a training ground. It's not a wasted time. And I think when we try to apply that to small things of like, you know, if we're at a if we're at a restaurant, waiting for our food to come, or like waiting in the car, waiting for like to practice like that virtue of knowing like our time is never wasted and to just be where we are and to trust the Lord.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And to ask ourselves that hard question, am I able to wait? Am I able to sit and do my prayers and have that holy hour or that communion with the Lord or that conversation with the Lord? Because I can tell you this, even in this instant gratification world that we live in, we don't give enough time for prayer. It's rushed because even in our minds, I I should be doing something else, or I could be doing something else. Or yeah, prayer is important, but I also have this that's important, or I want to be able to do this. And this waiting time is that training field saying, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, slow down, take it in. Um, and I think that that's what Advent does. So something too that I wanted just to mention. Um rejoicing Lord always, I I wanted I in the homily, I wanted to say something that I it was in my heart, where it's not this suggestion or a gentle reminder. No, Paul's saying it as a command, and I think the church is saying that to us. Almost of this, are you waiting? Are you being interrupted? Are you rejoicing right now? No matter what situation you're in or what you're going through, are you rejoicing? Because if you could say, I have this joy in my heart that just overflows, then you know that things that you're moving in the right direction. And if you don't, ask yourself why.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Which it's so it's it's a gift that the church is calling us out in some way, you know, of like that the joy of the Christian life is that joy is at the heart of it. And if that's not something we experience, we shouldn't settle for anything less. We shouldn't settle for like this miserable Christian life of like, well, I do my stuff and like God never really listens, or I don't know, that we can do that.

SPEAKER_00

One day bleeds into the next.

SPEAKER_01

And yeah, but we should be living with great joy and and purpose and and living into the liturgical liturgical seasons as are given to us to be able to experience the great joy and mysteries of Christ throughout the year.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And I I think this command to rejoice is to anchor your life somewhere deeper than your fears, your struggles, your anxieties, your nervousness, whatever it is. And that's what Paul was saying. Chained, the chains didn't have the chains that I am uh shackled to um do not have the final word. Jesus Christ has a final word. And that's what I want everyone to take away from this weekend is Christ has the final word. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put everything into that belief, into that understanding, into that teaching. And then see if you can live differently, see if you can respond differently, see if you can act differently. That has to be your number one, that has to be your go-to, um, the training field where you really understand who is Jesus, what are the prints, because one of the things that Paul, Paul for him was all of this, the the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection of Jesus, these were not abstract ideas. This is something that he really truly lived in his flesh and blood. And so he was communicating that that which I live with such conviction, I want to give to you because this can also be yours. Live differently. Don't live like the Romans do or how the pagans do. And I think that that what it applied in the beginning of our church applies to us today because our challenges may not be the challenges of first century Christians, but they are there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And they want to pull us away.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely. And it's a great moment to be able to kind of ask, like, what is sucking out my joy? You know, and like at the end of the day, nothing should be able to take it. Like if it's rooted, if our joy is rooted in Christ, then it shouldn't be able to be taken away.

SPEAKER_03

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01

It's a great time to examine like what are the things that are sucking out my joy? And maybe I need to really like reclaim that joy being in Christ alone. That's the source of it.

SPEAKER_00

That's exactly right. Being able to have that good self-awareness and then to go back to basics and say, you know what, I'm gonna take a break. I'm gonna slow down. I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna listen, and I'm gonna put into practice what I'm learning. And that should hopefully give me the joy.

Wrap Up And Invitation To Share

SPEAKER_01

Wonderful. Well, thank you, Father, for this great conversation. Um, we are wrapping up. So have a great, joyful week, everyone. Um, thank you for listening. Share with someone that might need um this word of encouragement to rejoice always in the Lord. And we will see you next week.

SPEAKER_00

Great to be with you, Michelle. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Take care.