SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: You always have and you always will.
SPEAKER_01: You said I'll not leave you as orphans.
SPEAKER_01: An advent is a time when we commemorate.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that there was a time of sadness, silence, and darkness was over the land.
SPEAKER_01: And then those who dwelt in deep darkness, a light shone on them.
SPEAKER_01: God kept his promise because you always do.
SPEAKER_01: And we slow down and we go down during Advent and we think deeply about our lives and how they're lived.
SPEAKER_01: Not self-hatred.
SPEAKER_01: We're not looking for new levels of self-hatred.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking for new levels of understanding that inform the way we live in this culture and in this time.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God, for the Bible that it's the truth that sets us free.
SPEAKER_01: It's not come today to jam us up.
SPEAKER_01: It's come to liberate us.
SPEAKER_01: It's come to restore your creative purpose that you said to Adam and Eve when you said, You are free to eat of any tree in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: But of this one tree, don't eat.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus, that you came to give us back that freedom.
SPEAKER_01: I pray we'd live in that.
SPEAKER_01: We'd frolic wildly in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for children that remind us that we've sinned and grown old and made life about things it never should be about.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, let us just be recapture the wonder and the joy today.
SPEAKER_01: Infuse us, remind us that this is in there, God.
SPEAKER_01: For all those who know Jesus, it's in there.
SPEAKER_01: Buried underneath fear and determination and guilt and manipulation.
SPEAKER_01: There's this vibrant joy that's longing to get out.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, lead us into this today.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat if you have a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it and open up to Hebrews chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, relax.
SPEAKER_01: Everything I say will come up on the screen if you're our guest today, or if you're visiting for this is your third or fourth or fifth time, whatever, and you've never been a part of a service called Advent.
SPEAKER_01: Advent is the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this because I talked to the guy last week and he goes, I what's that table down there?
SPEAKER_01: I said, actually, a guy in our church built this for me.
SPEAKER_01: Just because you don't understand what's going on doesn't mean that you're dumb because he said, I don't know if I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, dude, uh, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, and each Sunday has a theme.
SPEAKER_01: We started off a couple weeks ago, hope.
SPEAKER_01: Last Sunday was peace.
SPEAKER_01: This Sunday is joy, uh, and next Sunday will be love.
SPEAKER_01: And so today I want to talk to you about the power of love.
SPEAKER_01: Each Sunday is intentional, it's intended to kind of slow us down and make us think about uh our life and how it's lived.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say I want to talk about the power of joy, let me also say this.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a self-help pop psychology motivational talk.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the kind of joy that I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the distinction: Joy, when I talk about joy from the Bible, it's an understanding.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an emotion or a feeling.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Joy, as I talk about from the Bible, it's an understanding.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a motivation or a feeling or a desire, even.
SPEAKER_01: And so, therefore, I can feel a lot of things that don't feel joyful.
SPEAKER_01: Like you can be sitting in this room right now, you can be very sad, you can be very concerned, you can be very tired, you can be very concerned about your marriage, you can be very concerned about your children, you can be sitting here thinking, I've got adult children that are off the reservation, and look at me, you can still be very joyful.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean by it's an understanding, not a feeling.
SPEAKER_01: And this joy doesn't go away.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, I want to make three uh statements by way of introduction, uh, because the this all these feelings, deep sadness, concern, flatness, whatever, none of that is a rival to or a refusal of the kind of joy that I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to make three statements by way of introduction, kind of as a foundation for us to stand on this morning and just look at two verses in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the three introductory statements that I want to give us.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is simply this if you believe the gospel, then this joy is already in you.
SPEAKER_01: This joy is already in you.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe the gospel, if you're a Christian, you you you're not here trying to acquire something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to arouse what's already in you.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, that life is designed to help you access this joy.
SPEAKER_01: Life is designed to help you and I access this joy because life by nature can be difficult, not all the time, but there'll be difficult periods.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and what will happen in a difficult period is that you'll see that all the things that you look to for happiness don't help in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: It's in those moments that you discover your joy.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean when I say life is designed to help you access this joy.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, this joy is what distinguishes Christians from those who don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: This is why Jesus, he's getting ready to go to the cross and die in John 17.
SPEAKER_01: He prays to his father and he says, Let my joy be in them and let it be in them to the full.
SPEAKER_01: Because he understands this is the thing that's going to distinguish them from everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're here today and you're like, Really?
SPEAKER_01: You're kidding me, dude?
SPEAKER_01: At the end of 2020, you have the audacity to talk about joy.
SPEAKER_01: Please do not hit the mute button and just work on your Christmas list.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, scratch off Pastor Neil, he's a moron.
SPEAKER_01: Go to the next person.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, good because this is this is what Jesus prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he prayed would be in us, and this is what the culture longs to see around us, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I want to read from Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, the power of joy.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, uh the power of joy.
SPEAKER_01: There's five things I want to say from the Bible about joy this morning, this powerful understanding that's that's embedded in each of us that are believers.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing is simply this that joy reminds us that we're not the first people to suffer hardship.
SPEAKER_01: Joy reminds us that we're not the first people to suffer hardship.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, what is he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Bible was originally recorded, the Bible was inspired by God, recorded by men, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Big difference in those two.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you get that order right.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you think, well, the Bible's just a history book, it's just a book.
SPEAKER_01: Some guys wrote down some rules trying to jam you up.
SPEAKER_01: No, they didn't.
SPEAKER_01: God, but God inspired the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It was recorded by men.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he says, but but but when it's originally recorded, it wasn't broken into chapters and verses.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we didn't have the numbers.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was a letter.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Hebrews is a letter that was written to a group of people.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he says, therefore, in verse one, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, you should naturally think, what's he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about they put the numbers in the chapters in there to break it up so we can kind of get our head around it and know where to find certain things.
SPEAKER_01: And so in chapter 12, verse one, when he says, Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, he's talking about the previous chapter, chapter 11, which is known as the hall of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's just this list and litany.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not gonna read the whole chapter, but I do want to start reading in verse 32 of Hebrews chapter 11, because I want you to see this, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, in other words, the first thing that joy does is it reminds us we're not the first people to suffer hardship.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's why this is a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just use myself.
SPEAKER_01: If I begin to think that my situation is unique, that somehow this is really hard, this is unfair, then I give myself permission that the gospel never does.
SPEAKER_01: And so since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, who's he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading verse 32 of chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: And what more shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
SPEAKER_01: Women received back their dead by resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
SPEAKER_01: Others suffered mocking and flogging, even chains and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_01: They were stoned, they were sawn in two, uh, they were killed with the sword, they were brought, they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And all these, though the though the commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
SPEAKER_01: So when it says, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, this is what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't even read half the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: There's other uh men and women listed in there who accomplish great things.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I want to I want to point to.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that the cloud is great, but the witnesses aren't great.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean you say that the cloud is great?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, there's many, there's a lot of them, but they aren't considered great.
SPEAKER_01: They're just considered witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: These are men and women who lived the Christian life long before we got here, and we're surrounded by these people as a reminder that we're not alone.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what we try to do currently in the West, especially.
SPEAKER_01: We try to make great people who simply live out the gospel because we want there to be this second level of Christianity, like, oh man, this is for the people that really are Uber into it, like they're in the class all by themselves, and the rest of us are down here just on this level one.
SPEAKER_01: And what applies to them doesn't apply to us.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say, beloved, there is no levels of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: You're either a Christian or you're not.
SPEAKER_01: You believe the gospel and you live by the gospel, or you're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I I tried that for a while and that didn't really appeal to me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I walked away from that.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say to all of us that joy is the thing that reminds us that we're not the first people to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: We're not the first people to look around and kind of go, you know what?
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about it as I read starting in Hebrews chapter 11, ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the reasons I know the Bible is inspired by God and recorded by men.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because if you were writing the Bible, would you not leave parts like this out of it?
SPEAKER_01: If you wanted people to read the Bible and go, man, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: I want to believe in this God.
SPEAKER_01: Would you talk about people walking around destitute, getting stoned, getting sawn in half?
SPEAKER_01: Every once in a while, my wife will tell me, I'll come in and she'll say, How was your day?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get sawn in half today.
SPEAKER_01: Good day.
SPEAKER_01: So if I was writing the Bible, if the Bible was written by men, men would leave this part out.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't say, Oh, this is exactly what it's like.
SPEAKER_01: Some days it's incredibly difficult.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the Bible does.
SPEAKER_01: It's full of this rigorous, textured authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Two reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, number one, it encourages modern-day Christians like you and me to hold fast during times of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Because you look at the Bible and you realize, hey, I'm not the first person to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it keeps our own sufferings in perspective.
SPEAKER_01: It keeps our own sufferings in perspective.
SPEAKER_01: My mom used to say this when I was a kid, and we were suffering, and she would say, Now, boys, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: There's other people in the world who have it harder than we do.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, I don't know any of those people.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know one of those people.
SPEAKER_01: But there's not a time that I open the Bible and read it, I don't see somebody, I'm like, oh, yep, there's one.
SPEAKER_01: See, second thing about joy, this is why there's a power to joy that we don't find anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01: Joy says that we're capable of what we're responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: Listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_01: I want us uh carefully, I want us to think this a little bit, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Joy says we're capable of what we are responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the Bible, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, there's a lot of these people who've gone before us who have suffered and suffered well, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so we're capable of this.
SPEAKER_01: And then notice this, he says, Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely and run with perseverance or endurance the race that is set before us.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also, let us also, therefore, let us also.
SPEAKER_01: Joy says we're capable of what we're responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible never uh asks us to do things we're not capable of.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since let us also, what the writer is telling us is that this is what people did to prepare to run with endurance, this race called Christianity that was kind of marked out for them.
SPEAKER_01: We don't establish it, we don't mark out the the the the course for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: It has long been established.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, let us also, and what does he tell us to do?
SPEAKER_01: What's it also?
SPEAKER_01: Let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds like no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Uh until you think about it, let us also lay aside the weight and the sin.
SPEAKER_01: So when the Bible talks about laid aside the weight, or some translation says the burden, that's not sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good thing that keeps you from the great thing or the best thing.
SPEAKER_01: So ask yourself today, if you had to just, do you have anything in your life?
SPEAKER_01: It's not necessarily bad, but it is a burden.
SPEAKER_01: It is a weight, it takes up time.
SPEAKER_01: What would your life, what would you be capable of if you just laid aside the weight?
SPEAKER_01: If you just said, you know what, I don't think I need that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's as necessary as I act like it is.
SPEAKER_01: Like one of the things that I'm just really asking myself, stay with me, especially you men, uh, my friend Drake in North Carolina, don't check, don't, don't, don't turn it off right now.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have friends that watch in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, don't turn off the TV.
SPEAKER_01: Men, if you're watching at home, don't want, ah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: We're finding another online church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I'm really, because I'm starting to think, is this a weight?
SPEAKER_01: Is this a not a bad thing, but it's just not necessary?
SPEAKER_01: Is television.
SPEAKER_01: It's television.
SPEAKER_01: Like other day I'm sitting there, and my wife and kid are watching the uh the Christmas baking competition or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, really?
SPEAKER_01: There's a competition where people bake.
SPEAKER_01: And I think think shows like that are lame.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what I'm supposed to do when I walk through the living room and they're sitting there watching that is, I think I'm supposed to sit on the on the couch and give editorial feedback.
SPEAKER_01: But apparently that doesn't make it enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because after about 30 seconds, my wife pauses the TV and says, Really?
SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna do this the whole time?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I thought this is what made it enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: No, what makes it enjoyable is your silence.
SPEAKER_01: And then I say, because I can't help myself, is there's nothing enjoyable about watching people bake.
SPEAKER_01: And then my wife says, To you.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, to nobody in the Western Hemisphere.
SPEAKER_01: And then my wife says, Are you done?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, now here's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's a bad thing you watch TV.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you ladies are like, I'm glad I'm not married to you.
SPEAKER_01: I like to watch baking shows.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, we live in a country where we watch people decorate houses, remodel houses, bake, dance, sing.
SPEAKER_01: Is there any limit?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I it's it's just like what if we did this?
SPEAKER_01: What if we set all that aside watching people do things and did things ourselves?
SPEAKER_01: What would we be capable of then?
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, I'm not don't come up, don't run up on me and saying, Hey, have you shot your TV yet, Elvis?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying I don't find a whole lot that comes out of that thing really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say, hey, let us lay aside the weight and the sin, oh, again, the weight is not sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, it's typically a good thing, but it's the good thing that keeps you from the best thing.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, and the sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, Joy says we're capable of what we're responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: And the sin.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, here's one of the things I pray for our church is that when it comes to sin, that we would learn to think about sin's nature instead of its consequence.
SPEAKER_01: We would learn to think about sin's nature instead of its consequence.
SPEAKER_01: And you said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Here's how we think about sin.
SPEAKER_01: We think about sin, and you said, uh, I let me ask this question.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, can you tell when you're sinning, when you're doing something you shouldn't be doing?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't hear you.
SPEAKER_01: One person, when can you tell, like, oh, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: My insides are kind of tightening up.
SPEAKER_01: This must not be what I'm supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: This is sin.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel that?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that is mercy.
SPEAKER_01: That's the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_01: And what you have to do is, because what we do naturally, what the natural man does is the natural man thinks about sin in terms of its consequence.
SPEAKER_01: The natural man sins and looks around and says, Well, nobody knows.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not hurting anybody because there is no consequence, we continue in sin.
SPEAKER_01: What you should do starting today, I strongly encourage you, is start thinking about sin in terms of its nature.
SPEAKER_01: That it is by nature destructive.
SPEAKER_01: The wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: And so sin was, is, and will always be radically destructive by nature.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's not about consequence.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I might get caught, or I might lose my job, or I might wreck my marriage, or I might ruin this relationship, or this friend may never speak to me again.
SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't be motivated by consequence.
SPEAKER_01: You should be motivated by understanding.
SPEAKER_01: And that I just gonna understand that sin by nature is deeply destructive.
SPEAKER_01: It's a switch that you have to make in the Christian life and the way you think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because Joy says we're capable of what we're responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also, translation, the people that went before us, they did this.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, this past week I just kind of plunged.
SPEAKER_01: I got interested and started just pursuing these two little thoughts right here.
SPEAKER_01: Lay aside the weight and the sin.
SPEAKER_01: And in about seven minutes, I was led to the Welsh Revival of 1904, which broke out in the in the Welsh community through a man named Evan Roberts.
SPEAKER_01: When he was 13, he quit school and went to work with his father in the in the coal mines in his little town.
SPEAKER_01: And he was a nobody.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have a podcast, he didn't know how to preach, he was not down with anything.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have followers, he didn't have a YouTube channel, he didn't have a church that he used to kind of get popular and then switch it and make it about himself with his name.com at it.
SPEAKER_01: This guy was nobody, and he preached these four, he had four points, he preached everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And God sent revival to this part of the uh of the country.
SPEAKER_01: And here were the first two.
SPEAKER_01: He would say to coal miners, you must put away any unconfessed sin.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, you must put away any doubtful habit.
SPEAKER_01: You must put away any unconfessed sin.
SPEAKER_01: You must also put away any doubtful habit.
SPEAKER_01: What is a doubtful habit?
SPEAKER_01: It's what Hebrews 12 says is a weight.
SPEAKER_01: It's not not necessarily bad, it's just unnecessary.
SPEAKER_01: It is not going to prepare you to run with endurance the course that is marked out for you, because it is unnecessary baggage weighing you down.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, uh the other, he had four points he would preach.
SPEAKER_01: The other two was you must immediately obey the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then the fourth one was you must profess Christ publicly.
SPEAKER_01: And so he would go to the coal mines and preach this.
SPEAKER_01: These coal miners and these hardened men would come to faith, and a revival broke out.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the hymn of the Welsh Revival, we still sing today.
SPEAKER_01: What God did in 1904, we still sing uh the hymn called Here Is Love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness like a flood.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that the the the that the Prince of Life, our ransom, shed for us his precious blood.
SPEAKER_01: Who his love would not remember.
SPEAKER_01: That was written as a response to what was happening.
SPEAKER_01: Who his love would not remember?
SPEAKER_01: Because Evan Roberts went to the coal mines and told these men, God has remembered you.
SPEAKER_01: You're not forgotten people down in the belly of the earth doing dirty work that no one wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: You are God's beloved and God sacrificed his son for you.
SPEAKER_01: And this they asked him, How do you know you're getting through?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, These men's their faces were stained black by the coal dust.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, he said, You would see clear tracks where tears were washing the dust off their face.
SPEAKER_01: Men responded to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is a random uh indication of how how deep the revival went in 1904 in the Welsh community.
SPEAKER_01: They had little horses called pit ponies, uh, little Shetland ponies in the coal mine that would haul out these wagons full of coal.
SPEAKER_01: And the miners, they usually cussed at them to motivate them to get them to do stuff.
SPEAKER_01: They called the horses' names.
SPEAKER_01: The revival was so intense, so life-altering that the men no longer cursed the pit ponies and that they couldn't get the pit ponies to move because they didn't understand what the miners were saying to them.
SPEAKER_01: They had to go back and teach them something else because their entire lives, all they would ever heard was these hardened men speak harshly and profanely to these animals.
SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of what Abraham Lincoln said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I care not one dither for any man's religion that doesn't change the way he treats his dog.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you dog lovers love that.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, that's right, honey, we're getting another one.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying revival, spiritual awakening, change is not always profound.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's simple as lay aside the weight and the sin.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, joy is informed by where you look.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is informed by where you look.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: He says lay aside the weight and the sin.
SPEAKER_01: Which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
SPEAKER_01: Verse two, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to look to the person in times of crisis and need, who we believe is responsible for our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And the problem with many people is that they think they're responsible, that their faith was their idea.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand that your faith was God's idea.
SPEAKER_01: And so looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, joy is informed by where you look.
SPEAKER_01: And this looking involves turning from and turning to.
SPEAKER_01: If you were gonna ask yourself this question today, if you were gonna turn to Jesus and look to Jesus, what would you have to turn from and stop looking at?
SPEAKER_01: Is there anything that just you think, man, I that probably gets too much of my time, attention, and affection?
SPEAKER_01: I need to turn from that and turn to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Looking to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the problem with we as a people that don't look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Then when people look at us, they don't see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If we're not looking to Jesus, then when people look at us, they don't see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They see good people, they see moderately moral people.
SPEAKER_01: But when people look at you, do they see Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Do they think, man, there's something about that woman?
SPEAKER_01: She's got kids crawling all over her.
SPEAKER_01: Her minivan smells like McDonald's french fries and apple juice, but she's the most joyful woman on our cul-de-sac.
SPEAKER_01: We get together for play dates, and I'm just like, man, I envy the way you live your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's a woman that looks to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth thing about joy.
SPEAKER_01: The power of joy is that joy is fuel for the journey.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is fuel for the journey.
SPEAKER_01: He says, looking at Jesus, uh, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him.
SPEAKER_01: Who for the joy that was set before him?
SPEAKER_01: Just hear those three little words for the joy.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy.
SPEAKER_01: Who?
SPEAKER_01: For the joy.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna get your wife a tattoo for Christmas men, there's your idea right there.
SPEAKER_01: For the joy.
SPEAKER_01: Who?
SPEAKER_01: For the joy.
SPEAKER_01: Why does the Bible say for the joy?
SPEAKER_01: Because most things in the Christian life require more joy than determination, or sucking it up and trying harder.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have enough joy to do what the Bible calls and commands you to do?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you find yourself being offended consistently?
SPEAKER_01: Like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: You want me to what?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, who for the joy that was set before him?
SPEAKER_01: Endured the cross, despising its shame.
SPEAKER_01: What is the joy that Jesus sets before him that allows him to go to the cross, not sweat it, feel every ounce of it, endured the cross, despising its shame, and is sat down, is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: This joy is the fuel for the journey.
SPEAKER_01: I love what Tim Keller, the writer and pastor, says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life's joys, for seeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world sorrows, tasting the coming joy.
SPEAKER_01: To set in this world sorrows and tasting the coming joy.
SPEAKER_01: Not longing to taste it, but sit in this world sorrow, kind of going, and tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: Tasting the coming joy.
SPEAKER_01: I've told you this before, and I try not to do it, but I do it every year.
SPEAKER_01: It comes on about February.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I've got a reminder in my phone to start scanning my cable provider, looking for it.
SPEAKER_01: It always comes on NBC, and what comes on is a summary recap of the Iron Man triathlon.
SPEAKER_01: And I watch it every year, and every year I sob like a kitty.
SPEAKER_01: I try not to, I tell myself, it's not that big of a deal.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you crying?
SPEAKER_01: But they got the dude narrating, and it's just like, ha, as I sit on my couch and eat cookies, mmm, diggy ginkgy.
SPEAKER_01: And the last time I saw it, the thing that jumped off the page to me is that there's some dudes, they do the Iron Man triathlon.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of hours, bing, bang, boom.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've had lunches that last longer and they are done.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a cutoff to the Iron Man triathlon.
SPEAKER_01: And the last time I watched the little highlight show, uh, it's like 38 minutes to the cutoff.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a 66-year-old man who is just, I mean, he's breaking down.
SPEAKER_01: Brother, he has, he swam, he biked, and he's running.
SPEAKER_01: And they talk to him, and he's like, you know, about mile 24, uh, my my my body just quit working.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, I what am I going to do?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how I'm going to get there.
SPEAKER_01: But then I tell myself, I've run 24 miles, I've only got two miles to go.
SPEAKER_01: I can do this.
SPEAKER_01: And so he gets up off all fours and he's bleeding from his knees and his elbows, where he just keeps falling and catching himself.
SPEAKER_01: And if people touch him, he's disqualified.
SPEAKER_01: He he's got to just get there his own.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's the part that I was just like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: He's 66, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the part that I was just like, oh my gosh, here's the part that killed me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I was a hundred yards from the finish line, and I had three minutes to go.
SPEAKER_01: And I couldn't even get my bearings.
SPEAKER_01: And then I looked up, and the winner, the guy that won, was standing there clapping for me, going, Come on, you got it, you got it, come on, keep going.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I just thought that guy's wearing the little lathe, get the little leaf thing.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Hey, the winner is at the finish line cheering for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just eating cookies until that little voice says, I'm gonna be at the finish line cheering for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I reached over.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been to my house, you know we have like 88 pillows.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Because I lose the argument, that's why.
SPEAKER_01: And I was so glad we had them because I just took one of the bigger ones and just put my face in it and made noise.
SPEAKER_01: And I was glad no one was there.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and daughter gone somewhere, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And I made noise for about three minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And I would try to, I'd pause the TV, and I would try, I'd get composed, and I'd unpause the TV, and the guy would be talking.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was wobbling, I was dehydrated, I couldn't keep anything down, couldn't keep anything in, but just the sight of the winner plodding for me and cheering me on, and I made it to the finish line.
SPEAKER_01: And since last February, when I saw that, I never read Hebrews 12, and I think about joy as the fuel for the journey, and I just think that, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know how much joy you have left as you kind of pull you around the corner of 2020 and head into 2021, and you realize, oh, they got a vaccine.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is not gonna be forever.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get through this.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, how much joy do you have left?
SPEAKER_01: Because joy is what keeps a year like this one from eroding into this God-doubting fatalism of just like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: The world, there's no meaning, it's every man for himself.
SPEAKER_01: You do not want to live in a world where it's every man for himself.
SPEAKER_01: You want to live in a world where the one who endured the cross, scorning its shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, the winner is at the finish line, and he's just waving, he's like the third base coach.
SPEAKER_01: He's just waving his big windmill, arms of grace, going, Come on, come on, and you're like over there puking on the side of the road.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, I hadn't been to church in 14 Sundays, and he's like, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, come on, you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Then you get up, and the guy's like, I said, I there's a part.
SPEAKER_01: I recovered.
SPEAKER_01: I went in the bathroom, washed my face, and came back and sat back down on the couch and unpaused it.
SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_01: This guy said he stumbles through, and the guy and the winner standing there catches him and just lays him down and just kneels over him, and all he says the whole time is, you did it, you did it, you did it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I hate the Iron Man.
SPEAKER_01: I hate TV.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is why you should give up your TV.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I just laid there, and the champion just spoke over me, just applauded my accomplishments.
SPEAKER_01: And I know this, I know this for sure.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you came into this room, I don't know how you're coming to the end of 2020, I don't know how much joy you got left in the tank, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: The winner, the first one to finish, is gonna be at the finish line.
SPEAKER_01: And he's gonna be applauding you, and he's gonna be saying, Come on, you're gonna be like, I can't even, I can't even follow the right direction.
SPEAKER_01: I'm such a screw up.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, No, no.
SPEAKER_01: And when you get there, he's gonna be the person that kneels over your your ravaged body and says, You did it.
SPEAKER_01: You did it, you did it.
SPEAKER_01: I was the founder and perfecter of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: This all didn't depend on you.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you finish.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you have joy.
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, joy sees the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: Joy sees the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He says, who for the joy sat before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot that happens between uh uh endured the cross and seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: The big picture, by the way, the thing that motivates Jesus to the cross is seated, taking his rightful place at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is not you and me, which I hear preachers say all the time, oh, the thing that motivated you, motivate Jesus to go to the cross was his love for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's terrible.
SPEAKER_01: That feels good in the moment, but will not fuel you for the journey.
SPEAKER_01: And the problem with most of American Christianity, the way we think, is that you we're trying to motivate people for this eternal journey with temporary trinkets and advice.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of saying, no, the big picture is what motivated Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, the big picture?
SPEAKER_01: The big picture.
SPEAKER_01: He sees the cross against the backdrop of a throne.
SPEAKER_01: And you got to ask yourself, can I still see the big picture?
SPEAKER_01: When I just look at everything, can I still see the big picture?
SPEAKER_01: Or is it just the moment?
SPEAKER_01: You just maximize the moment, and this is the oh boy, this is I mean, what about this?
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't make sense until you hold it up against that, and then it all comes into focus, and it's like, hello.
SPEAKER_01: I mean the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: A lot happened between the cross and sitting down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: His friends betrayed him.
SPEAKER_01: One of them denied he ever knew him.
SPEAKER_01: His mom watched him die publicly.
SPEAKER_01: They plucked out his beard, they beat him beyond recognition.
SPEAKER_01: He got mocked by a bunch of people.
SPEAKER_01: He could have easily called down legions of angels and just wiped them out.
SPEAKER_01: He dies.
SPEAKER_01: And after he dies, two marginal followers come and get him and lay him in a borrowed tomb.
SPEAKER_01: After that, he rises from the dead, he appears to his disciples, and they're surprised.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What?
SPEAKER_01: Have I been with you this long and you still do not know who I am?
SPEAKER_01: He appears to other people, validates everything he ever said and did, and then he ascends back into the heavens and sits down at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the big picture that Jesus saw.
SPEAKER_01: This is the thing that fuels him.
SPEAKER_01: You're saying, uh, I I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: And Joy sees the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring it down to where we live, and I'll be dumb this morning.
SPEAKER_01: A couple two or three weeks ago, I'm in the lobby just pestering kids, and this little 14-year-old girl comes up to me and she says, Um, uh, uh, I say, Hey, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01: We're just chatting.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Well, I'm just kind of bummed.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What are you kind of bummed about?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Well, I don't have a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: And I just wanted to say, You're 14.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need a boyfriend, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Save yourself a lot of drama.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't because when you're 14, that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: She said, All my friends have boyfriends.
SPEAKER_01: I need a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, all your friends have boyfriends, you need a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I she goes, So I said, Well, I'll be praying about that.
SPEAKER_01: How do you want me to pray?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I just want a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, here's the problem with this situation.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're asking the wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: She said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Maybe you're asking the wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: Why you're asking, why do I not have a boyfriend?
SPEAKER_01: Why don't I have a boyfriend?
SPEAKER_01: You should be asking, what am I earning the right to say right now?
SPEAKER_01: See, this is the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: The little picture is, oh, I want a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: The big picture is, what am I earning the right to say?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You don't understand what I said?
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I don't understand most things you say.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01: Just to be 14 and just pop off.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, oh, this is great.
SPEAKER_01: This is good for my flesh.
SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because I foresee a day when you're gonna have a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, really?
SPEAKER_01: Like, calm down.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you're gonna have a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Not only that, you're gonna have a husband.
SPEAKER_01: And then I foresee a day, I'm trying to just pan out the big picture for my 14-year-old friend here.
SPEAKER_01: And then I see a day when not only you can have a boyfriend, but you're gonna have a husband, but also you're gonna have kids and you're gonna have a daughter, and that daughter's gonna be 14.
SPEAKER_01: And now that you're 14, what are you earning the right to say to your 14-year-old daughter?
SPEAKER_01: Because she's gonna get lonely and sad and think, I wish I had a boyfriend, and you're gonna push the bedroom door open because you hear her kind of sniffling in there, and you go, What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I'm just lonely, mom.
SPEAKER_01: All my friends have boyfriends, they got cool friends, they all get invited to everything, and I'm just kind of here doing my own thing in my room, and you and dad tell me I'm great and I'm awesome, but I just want to have a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna sit on the edge of her bed and you're gonna speak words that alter the way she thinks about herself because you received them right now when you were 14.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's more of an answer than I wanted.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's my job as your pastor, is not to come running every time you get squeaky and put a little grease on the wheel.
SPEAKER_01: It's sometimes it's just pan the camera back and say, Hey, do you see the big picture?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus sees the big picture because joy sees the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of a throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Can you still see the big picture?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you just obsessing on some little Polaroid of injustice that you're just holding up to God, waving like it's not quite developed, and God's like, I see it very clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, you're staring at that and you're missing this huge picture that God is painting and saying, Hey, Joy sees the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: And so again, I just ask you, can you see the big picture?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll voice a prayer and then Clyde will come and just kind of play.
SPEAKER_01: And we just encourage you to just take maybe a minute and just ask yourself, hey, ask God, God, what had my name on it today?
SPEAKER_01: What is it that I heard today that you want me to think about on Tuesday when I'm driving to work or when I'm making supper?
SPEAKER_01: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: God, thanks for the truth of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks that joy is not a feeling, it's an understanding.
SPEAKER_01: So we can be very melancholy, very wintry, deeply joyful people, thinking that joy is fuel.
SPEAKER_01: Because the winner is gonna be at the finish line, just applauding, just saying, Come on, you got this.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us are just gonna fall across the finish line with skinned knees and a broken heart.
SPEAKER_01: Like the third place dreamer on a second place team.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna clap and go, I knew you would.
SPEAKER_01: I knew, I knew you'd make it.
SPEAKER_01: Because your faith was my idea.
SPEAKER_01: I founded it.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, would you just put us in touch with the joy that is ours in God because of the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: So we think about these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you that it defies logic that the winner would wait for all the people that feel like losers.
SPEAKER_01: And would see us all across the finish line.
SPEAKER_01: Just applauding, just rejoicing over us.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the Bible says that's what you that's who you are, and that's what you're like, and that's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, we'll because of that, we want to dig down and find the joy.
SPEAKER_01: Our family is tired of us being angry all the time, living in fear of our next eruption.
SPEAKER_01: Our kids want to be able to say, Yeah, my dad's the most joyful person I know.
SPEAKER_01: Man, my mom is full of joy.
SPEAKER_01: My mom whipped my sister the other day and then said, Ah, I feel so much joy.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not this heavy religious burden that we're taking on today, it is this liberating understanding that always keeps perspective on gospel joy.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God, that this is ours in God because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: We say thanks in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Hope you've had an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: There's a guest card in the seatback pocket in your row.
SPEAKER_01: Hope you had an opportunity to pull one of those and fill it out.
SPEAKER_01: If not, would you make that opportunity before you leave?
SPEAKER_01: And as you leave this morning, just drop it in the wooden box by the doors on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: That's all we ask of you.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of us, if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, uh, that's where you take care of that as well, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you would stand to your feet and hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
SPEAKER_01: So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.