Choose Joy // Built Different : Colossians Week 4

Well, I wanna say welcome to everyone that has joined us again as a guest today. You picked a great Sunday to be in church. And I wanna give a big now special welcome to the men and women watching at a correctional facility via Pando. Hey, Calvary Church, let's welcome them today. Guys, you're not a project to us, you are family. We're so glad that you've joined us for week four of our series through the book of Colossians. We're reviewing our values and also studying through the book of Colossians. All right, so we've got four values here at Calvary Church. We love God, we love people, we pursue excellence, we choose joy. For this message, I've asked my good friend, Pastor Jeremy Yancey. He came all the way from Timber Creek Church in Texas. We've connected about a year and a half ago. He's been a great, great friend, also just a coach to me in this season. I've learned so, so much from him. He's an incredible leader. Calvary Church, can we stand on our feet and welcome him as he comes to bring the word this morning? Pastor Jeremy Yancey. Love you, Pastor Dan. Hey, look to the person next to you and say, have you lost weight? Now also, no, no, no, stay standing, stay standing,

stay standing. Say to him, say to him, I'm so glad to see you in church today. Now look to the other person on your other side and say, you look like you could use some church today. I'm just saying, okay. All right, you can be seated. My goodness, it is an absolute thrill to be here at Calvary Church. I'm gonna tell you something. It's only the last few years that I've had the privilege of spending some time up here in the Northeast. I love Jersey. I love Jersey people. I love Jersey food. I love the Jersey shore. I love your pastors, Pastor Dan and Kyla. I love the people in this church walking through these hallways and getting to meet new people. Got to meet a new friend, Jordan, who's her second time here. And just, you know, she just saying how much like this is just like bringing something to her life. It is such a thrill to be able to share this moment. Do not let it get lost on you that your pastor just said, we're gonna have to have seven services. Are you kidding me?

That is crazy. That is nuts. What an incredible, awesome problem to have to keep reaching more people. No one without Jesus. Thrilled to be a part of this series as we unpack some values and given an assignment on this particular value. I've never preached from this passage. So I don't know what the 8.30 service is gonna get. The 10's gonna be better. I'm sorry, but come back. Anyway, let me introduce, I think this is custom. This is like pastoral custom to like introduce your family. So this is a picture of my wife and she's older now. She's older. That's a picture. And then at some point in her life, she got attracted to this boy right here. And that was my wrestling days. Couple of things about this picture. Number one, I'm like two foot eight. And number two, I'm not for sure why my mom dressed me in an Easter outfit to wrestle. But that's what happens when you grow up in a pastor's home. Everything is, you know, Easter. I don't know how that kid got the girl that you just saw. And then a few years later produced this, but it's pretty amazing the goodness of God. I tell you a part of choosing joy

is choosing the right wife. Oh, can I get a good amen? We're gonna jump into Colossians and we're gonna kind of rewind into, yes, thank you. Thank you. I got some. Choose joy. Anyway. Hey, you may not get anything else out of this, but I'm gonna get a lot off my chest and I'm gonna have a good time, okay? I'm gonna choose joy today. We're going to Colossians chapter one, the apostle Paul in prison, in chains, house arrest in Rome, writes these words. Verse nine, now for this reason, since the day we heard about you, and he's talking about him and his protege Timothy. Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. Now we continually ask God, continually, to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. Pause. If you ever wanna learn whether you are a senior saint or you're dipping your toe in what it means to follow Jesus, if you really wanna learn how to pray over your family, men, you wanna pray over your spouse, pray over your kids, a great way to start praying

is simply pray the prayers of the Bible. And so Paul is saying. I ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives When you just simply take this verse and say God I just pray that you would fill my wife with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives That my kiddos my junior in high school boy my my 22 year old newly married Daughter that they would have all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives and here's the purpose of it Paul is saying these things because he's getting warmed up because he's about ready to give some information to the to the church at Colossae He says so that You may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in how many ways and in every way Culture has got this backwards Culture wants a God of their own Understanding and a God that pleases us in every way We don't understand that God would allow this or that to happen Because why because we get it turned upside down inside out that God is there to make me happy Versus I'm actually empowered by the Spirit to honor him Truth be told Jesus didn't die to make us happy He died to make us holy and even in that we can't be holy in ourselves. It's his holiness It's his righteousness that covers us. Okay, so when we are doing these that pleasing him in every way Here's what it looks like you see in the next verse bearing fruit in every good work Growing in the knowledge of God until you're face to face with Jesus. You never stop growing senior saint being strengthened being strengthened not just strong being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and here we are and giving joyful Thanks, not just thanks giving joyful Thanks to the father pastor Dan mentioned the values already, but here they are again love God

and out of the love of God, we then learn how to love people and If we're really going to be the kind of carriers of that love we are going to pursue That excellence pursue it. It's a pursuit. We don't arrive we pursue it And with all this I believe the catalyst behind it all the activator the nitrous oxide The rubber band that you put the the the string that's in the the bow and arrow Okay is to choose Joy, let's have a prayer together father the next few moments Some of us have already walked in with a skip in our step and a smile on our face And we're so grateful And there are others that felt like they had to drag themselves into this room by their fingernails God how are you gonna speak to the one that's skipping and smiling and the one that Feels like everything's falling apart Thank you, Holy Spirit You're gonna speak individually and yet also Together today, I Pray that we would so open our eyes and open our ears and open our hearts that we would receive everything The Spirit wants to give that the same prayer that Paul prayed to be filled with the knowledge of his will Through all the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives that that would be our prayer today and we would leave this house Saying one to another today. I've heard from God We ask it in the name of Jesus the strong Son of God Everybody said amen So let's go back to that very first verse Verse 9 Paul says for this reason Since the day we heard about you. We've not stopped praying for you I don't know about you, but when I say I'm praying for y'all I don't know if you guys put y'all in there a lot up in here in the north But in the south and whatnot and everything we pray for y'all We're praying for y'all Okay, when I say oh, I'm praying for my kids for this reason What is those reasons because they about to drive me crazy cuz I'm all kill them

For this reason since the day we heard about you we've not stopped pray So what could it be because Paul's seen a lot Paul is like farmers insurance he knows a thing or two because he's seen a thing or two and The previous letters that he's written to these different churches He has had to like, you know for this reason I tell you for that reason I tell you and some of the stuff that Paul's writing. It ain't all PG Like it's some stuff Some like wink wink nod nod stuff So he's writing in other letters like to the Corinthian Church. Whoo easy He's saying guys. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa, you got to stop suing each other To others he says guys. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa, you got to stop Stop getting drunk on the communion. He says to another guy, you gotta stop sleeping with your stepmom. Now that's big. He also says, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, you're saved by grace, nothing else. Because one of the churches, they were trying to add in circumcision to everything. Could you imagine having to add that to the partnership class? Welcome to Calvary Church. Know God, find freedom, discover purpose, make a difference. One more thing for partnership though, if all the guys could just join us in the youth room for just a minute. Yeah, thank you, ouch. But the Colossian Church, if you read those first few verses,

it's not you put a wheel in the ditch, Colossae, it's you are full of life, you're sharing hope, God is good, you're being used. We're hearing incredible reports. And so why would he pray for this reason, that they would be filled with all, because it sounds like they're there. Because Paul knows something because of his experience, and we know something from our experience too, if you're taking notes, jot this down today, every Christ follower carries the capacity to drift. No matter how strong you are, no matter your experiences in life, no matter how the Holy Ghost moved in that moment or in that church service, we all are like sheep, we go astray. I mean, just sheep, and then like, oh, butterfly. Into the deep woods, into the deep weeds, into the mud. We can start strong and we drift. Just like the first of the year, gonna get those goals, baby, gonna get those new habits. I'm gonna lose that weight. I'm gonna hit that goal. I'm gonna save a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. All these things we set up. And then like, you know, Super Bowl Sunday, it's like, ah, whatever, pass me a cookie, okay? But as the Christ follower, here's where we drift. Many times when we receive that freshness of Jesus

and that salvation and rescuing, compassion gets really, really high. We're compassionate for other people. But over time, our compassion drifts to criticism. Our worship feels so fresh and so surrendered in our first times, on our first love with Jesus, and worship can drift because of life into worry. Do you know that worry is actually the underbelly of pride? Here's how. The upper side of pride is arrogance. They're so prideful. They look down their nose at people that look down their nose at people. They think they're all, they know how it should be. But you know what worry is? Worry is you saying, I know how it should be. And it's not that way. It's the hidden pride of worry. And worship is trusting in God. Worry is counterfeit faith in what you can control. Every Christ follower carries the capacity to drift. Now, drifting doesn't make you horrible. Drifting makes you human. Drifting makes you normal. The job is never to not drift. The job is to address it and bring it back to where Jesus wants us to be. Paul knows that these people are starting strong, but life's gonna happen. They might find themselves in house arrest.

They might find themselves with some issues. So even though every Christ follower carries the capacity to drift, I want you to write this down. This is my claim today that I want us to challenge with scripture. The greatest defense against drift is choosing joy. Choosing joy. Now, in order to do that, we gotta like define what joy is, what joy is and what joy isn't. To know what it is, let's first talk about what it isn't. Some people think joy is like, if you're happy and you know it, say amen. Oh, we got some VBS people in the house. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet. Okay, we're getting there. Some of you are like, what is he talking about? The idea of happiness is really based on happenings. That's not joy. As a matter of fact, you can write down the definition of what happiness is. Joy is not happiness. Here's happiness. It's the confidence I experience from gaining control of my life to keep my circumstances favorable. I have confidence because things are in control and the circumstances are favorable. Read an article in the New York Times years ago,

surefire components of happiness. If you wanna have happiness, here are the five things. You gotta possess the basics, food, water and shelter. You gotta get enough sleep. Oh, Lord help us young moms. You gotta have relationships that matter. You gotta have care for others and also people that care for you. And you gotta have work that excites you. and engages you. Here's the problem, half of the world doesn't have half of those. And all of those can be gone in a second. Happenings producing happiness, the happenings can change. And what happens when we lose our happiness? What happens when we lose control? What happens when our circumstances aren't as favorable as we want them to be? Well, that's what suffering is. Now suffering is on all kinds of layers. You can be suffering because bless God, you went on your all-inclusive trip to Cancun and you reserved a king-size suite with a king bed and you got a queen. And I mean, you are with management and say, no, I bought queen. And all of a sudden you're suffering in paradise. I mean, don't, you know, people get malaria from mosquitoes,

but bless God, you ought to get your king-size bed. Now, suffering is in layers though. And suffering happens. Here's what suffering is, write it down. Suffering is the chaos. When I experience, when I what? When I lose control and favorable circumstances disappear, you and I are addicted to control. We see it show up at the Garden of Eden. We're addicted to control. And when I lose control, it feels like chaos. Chaos isn't a bad thing. It's just things are moving in a pattern that I can't quite tell. So when suffering hits, usually suffering in the little bitty things and in the major things. Suffering in the frustrations of life when kids just won't learn the first time to suffering when your child has spent the last 200 out of the 365 days at the Texas Children's Hospital. And you don't know if she's gonna make it to her next birthday. And she's eight years old and her name is Kinley. And her mom's name's Nikki. And we're texting back and forth between me and Nikki and my wife, Janet. And we're talking about yesterday. And you know what happens when we have those sufferings?

No matter big or small, usually those things cause us to drift. Because we get worried. We wanna control what we can't control. And the chaos can overwhelm us. But let me give you now what joy is in the middle of all that. Here's joy. Write it down. It is the anchored assurance from knowing, loving, and trusting God regardless of my circumstances. Now it's easier to preach than it is to live. It's why it's not a feeling, it's a choice. It's why we gotta figure out how to choose joy. Now in the middle of all that, you got some common kill joys. You can write these down. Some common kill joys. You want a joy ride? This is like a flat tire on your joy ride. You ready? Happiness that's unreliable. We already talked about it. Happiness that's unreliable. Trouble that's unpredictable. Jesus said it rains on the holy people and the unholy people. It's gonna rain. Trouble that's unpredictable.

People, people that are unmanageable. You just wanna manage them and they can't be managed. That's your wife, dude. She's not your employee. People that are unmanageable. And you know what? When it comes to happiness that's unreliable and circumstances that are uncontrollable and trouble that's unpredictable and people that you can't manage, here's what we tend to do. We tend to drift away from the anchored assurance of joy and we get into these things. We get into cursing it. Oh, bless God, that jerk boss. Oh, man, you don't even know what I'm going through. You don't even know. You curse it. Or you know what else? You rehearse it. I'm gonna tell you what. They said this and I'm gonna tell them this. And you're just, and then you see them in HR, you're like, hey. And then you walk into the bathroom, you're like, jerk, Becky. You rehearse it, rehearse it, rehearse it, rehearse it. You curse it, you rehearse it. You know what else you do? Some of us, when it comes to suffering, we nurse it.

We nurse it. And what we do is we take that wound and we choose to nurse that suffering and it almost becomes a mission to us. Nursing is an incredible mission, but nursing your wounds that need to be given to the feet of the cross becomes a counterfeit mission for your life. How many of us know we're living life off mission when our mission is to just remind people just how bad that person was, to remember just how crazy that spouse was, to remember just how much they hurt me and we nurse it. You can curse it, you can rehearse it, you can nurse it, but you know what we gotta do? doing all these things, we've got to choose to reverse it. Curse it, nurse it, rehearse it, but you've got to reverse it. Reverse it. Reverse it. Alright, I've got to keep going. Now here's what's crazy, here's what's crazy about all this. When I talk about suffering, it's the chaos in life, it's not about getting around it. It's about going through it. And here's what is nuts. Here's what's crazy about the Kingdom of God. It is all upside down. Blessed are the persecuted. Blessed are the humble. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those that, when people talk bad about you, it's upside down. The Savior of the cosmos, heaven, in heaven, comes down into a barn with animals? Upside down. He, instead of receiving a love offering from his disciples on the night he's betrayed, he goes into the kitchen and grabs a towel and a basin and he washes their feet? What? It's upside down. The king of this earth, Pontius Pilate, or

at least the viceroy of the king, Pontius, gives the people the chance and he, the king of the earth, actually kills the king of the galaxies? It's upside down. The king of the galaxies becomes the chief servant? His kingdom's upside down. So suffering, suffering is actually a catalyst for joy. It's a paradox. When you start suffering, it's a trigger for a lot of things. What if, what if the moment you started suffering, you would trip wire, not a landmine, and explode and get all down and whatever? What if the trip wire of a suffering would say, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, choose joy. Choose joy. Because Paul says in Romans 5, we rejoice, we re-joy in our suffering. Because through that it produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope. And when you got hope, guess what? You get joy. So what does choosing joy look like? First of all, you got to decide. Everybody say decide. Decide. You know what decide means? Okay, let me give you the root of it. Pesticide means you kill what? Pest. It's not a trick question. Insecticide, you kill insects. Pesticide is the killing of a person, self-killing. Here's what decide is. Kill your options. No more options. You cannot keep your options open. Christ follower, you cannot keep your options open whether or not the joy of the Lord is going to be your strength. You got to kill your options and choose joy. Maybe some of you can help me with another BBS. I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. You say where? I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Okay, okay, okay. And if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack. I know, I know. It's like the PG rated version of your children's ministry. Sit on a tack. No, punch him in the face. No devil on a tack, bazooka that dude. Here's the deal.

Many times joy, joy, joy, joy is down in our heart, way, way down. Like so deep down nobody ever knows you got it. It's time to let the joy, joy, joy be on your face, bro. You got to choose it, girl. Choose joy. So here's what, here's the hidden key that Paul gives us that unlocks it. Here it is. And giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Whoa. So let me take you on a joy ride now. We get the hidden key that unlocks all of the rest of it right here. Here it is, write it down. I am a child of God. He says, give joyful thanks to your cosmic God. Give joyful thanks to the heavenly being. Give joyful thanks to who? Father. When Jesus shows us how to pray, he doesn't say pray dear God. He says, pray our father. When you discover who he is and who he wants you to know he is, you discover who you are. One of the key fundamental issues. of losing our joy is we get all the way down, way beyond suffering, way beyond the circumstances of life, and we get into the identity of who we are. If you don't understand that you are a child of the living God, a child in the kingdom of God, you are an heir to the throne of the king of the galaxies. That identity and inheritance changes everything. Think for a second, think for a second. If you lost $100 in Walmart, $100 bill in Walmart today, for some of you, that would be devastating. Others of you, you'd be blaming it on your husband. You'd lose it. But if you're the child of Jeff Bezos, if you're the child of Jeff Bezos,

and you lose $100 in Walmart, number one, I don't know why you're at Walmart, but secondly, you lose 100 bucks, you're like, I know who my dad is. Let me take it deeper. Your kid gets sick. And the treatment is very expensive. But your dad is Jeff Bezos. How would that affect you, friends? Amen. Jeff Bezos is a speck of sand on a shore that God created. God lives in a house that's driveway is made of gold. You are heir to an inheritance. So it starts with my identity. If I can really remember that my dad is so good. My dad's got what I need. I'm a child of God. That's how I first start to choose joy is I choose the right identity. It cannot be in your circumstances. It cannot be in your happenings. It cannot be on how someone treat you, on the relationships that matter, or the basics that you have, or the care that you give, or work that engages or excites. Those are surefire components to happiness. But that is not, that is surefire components. If you build your life on that, your identity is gonna be screwed up.

Because those things will fail you. But a child of God in his kingdom, what can earth really do to me? And because of that, this is the joy ride. Because I am a child of God. Secondly, I give thanks to God. I give thanks to the father. Why? Because he's a good dad. I can trust him. I grew up with an incredible dad. He was like right here. Some of you grew up with a dad like this. Some of you grew up with a dad down here. Some of you didn't grow up with a dad. As good as my dad was, I'm telling you, you can't even understand how good our God is. And I give thanks to him. And so if I'm a child of God and I give thanks to God, third, I trust in God. Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, some trust in the king size bed and. But we're gonna trust in God. You know what trust is? It's saying, am I safe? So when suffering happens, I'm safe, I'm okay, I'm safe. Is it okay to get shaken? Yeah.

Is it okay to wonder, huh? Yeah. Even John the Baptist who baptized Jesus, when he was in prison, he had to send a text message over, the Facebook messenger over saying, are you really the one? So it's okay to have those struggles. That makes you human. It doesn't make you horrible. But you gotta understand that then I step back and I choose. I decide. I kill my options. The joy of the Lord, I'm gonna trust in him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your understanding and all your ways acknowledge him. Here's how I, like peace that passes understanding. I've never quite, you know, how do you understand that? Let me give you an illustration for your kids. Think of like a NASCAR race and there is a leader in the race and every single person on the face of the planet wants the lead car to be understanding. They want understanding to win the race every time. I wanna understand it. I wanna see it. I wanna understand it. I want the checkered flag to fly on understanding. As Christ followers,

we pull back the throttle of understanding and we let peace pass understanding. We let peace win the race. We let joy win the race. I delight in God. Because of these things, I start delighting. Listen to me. Some of the ways that you could begin to shift your joy. Some of you have made reading the Bible a duty. I gotta get through the Bible. No, you need to let the Bible get through you. Trying to get through the Bible in a year, let the Bible just get through you. And here's the deal. When it's not a duty and it's a delight, it's very hard to drift from what you delight in. Listen to me, men of God, that I believe are the heads of the house. I believe that women are to help the men. And you know what the word in the original language of helper to him, strength. The same word that says, the Lord is my refuge. My help comes from him, means strength. Women, you're not designed to be a helper. You're designed to be strength. and then there's an irresponsibility. Start delighting in the Lord, delight in your wife. You don't drift from what you delight in. Delight in your work, pursue excellence, delight in your work.

You don't drift from what you delight in. I draw all of these things and you know what that does? That becomes the catalyst to loving Him more and loving people and pursuing excellence. Two people that walk into the room, every single room you're in, even people in this room, here they are, you ready? Two people that walk in the room. Those that walk in and you are glad they're there. And those that walk out of the room and you are glad they're gone. Here's the big difference, here's the big difference. Be a there you are person instead of a here I am person. Walk into a room and be a there you are person, not a here I am person. So as we conclude today, if you wanna deal with the suffering, you wanna go through the chaos, come out the other side choosing joy, the question is how do you find it if you may have lost it? And how do you rejoice it if you find that it's running on low? Three quick ways and we see it right here at the end of this passage in Colossians. We give thanks to the Father who's qualified you to share in the inheritance. And then He says this, for He's rescued us from the dominion of darkness. He's brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Three ways quickly. You wanna choose joy, here's what you do. Edson, come help me out Edson. There he is, embrace number one. I embrace the magnitude of my debt. Now that sounds crazy. Debt is bananas these days, isn't it? When you have a lot of debt, it's crazy. Up to your eyes, nobody's like, ha ha ha ha ha, maxed out my credit cards, yay. Debt drowns you. But you gotta embrace the magnitude of your debt friends. You on your very best day could never save yourself. You needed someone to rescue you. You had a debt you could not pay. So someone had to pay it for you because you were drowning in that debt. Now listen close, I'm gonna finish up. A few months ago, Jane and I were driving by one of our locations at our church and it's on the highway. And somehow somebody's trash had fallen out of the back of their truck and trash was scattered all over the front of the church. And I'm like, oh, are you kidding? It was actually during Christmas vacation, Christmas time. Are you kidding me? So I looked at Janet, she looked at me. We said, let's someone else deal with that. No, no, no, no, no.

We pulled off into the church parking lot and took about 20 minutes. We started picking up, thank God, it wasn't like wet Chick-fil-A sauce packets. It was just dry, it was kind of dry trash. As I started picking it up, I noticed, I kid you not, I probably picked up 30 envelopes that had yet to be opened and you could see like a pink in it, okay? So I started opening them all and reading them. No, I kid, I kid you not, I didn't do that. If you've ever had one of those, it means like you're late on a payment, right? I want you to think about if you left your house and someone sat your house, a neighbor took care of your house and got your mail. And when you got home from your trip that you only got a queen size bed in Cancun and you show up and your neighbor says, hey, I noticed you had a late payment and I just want you to know I paid it for you. Now, it depends on what the payment is. If it was 32 cents because you didn't put a stamp, thanks dude, but like that's creepy. But your bill for your kid at the Texas Children's Hospital came in and it's $147,000 and your neighbor says, I want you to know I paid that for you. Friend, if you don't fall to your knees and hang on to that person's feet and worship them for a moment,

I don't know what world you're living in. And I just want you to know as big as that would be, your sin separates you, it's your debt and you can't pay it off with good stuff. You do, going to church, smiling, even having stuff that's happy down in your heart. Friends, that doesn't do it. Jesus had to take your debt. And when you embrace the magnitude, when you remember just how big your debt is, and number two, you embrace the magnitude of his pain, what he went through to pay for your. debt, he could have left through the back door of the Garden of Gethsemane. His closest friends couldn't even stay awake, and he is sweating droplets of blood. He has such a heaviness on his body, and yet he takes the cross for you. When you embrace the magnitude of his pain, then you start understanding the magnitude of his plan, because years earlier, before the cross, angels would show up to shepherds, the lowest of the low, that had their own sufferings, and they would say, we bring you good news that will cause great joy, because a Savior is born to you, and this will be a sign to you. It's not the cross that brings joy, it's what the cross is a signal to, it's to the sacrifice, it's to the debt that was paid. Would you close your eyes and bow your heads with me? Some of us need to get our joy back, it's time to choose it, it's time to choose it today. With heads bowed and eyes closed, can I tell you, friend, if you're in the room, and you feel like you've drifted, maybe you've never invited Jesus to be the center of your life, or maybe you have, but truth be told, life has happened, circumstances, things, and you've drifted away. Today is your day.

It can change in a moment. Jesus meets us right where you are, right in this second. And whether it's your first time, saying, I need Jesus to be the center of my life, I want to choose joy, but I need, you got to choose Jesus before you can choose joy. If you're ready to choose Jesus today, first time, or maybe the first time in a long time, I'm not going to embarrass you, but with no hesitation, you know, like, it's time to decide. Kill your options. Say, I need Jesus in the middle of my life. I need Jesus on the throne of my heart. I want to be a child of God. Put your hand up right now, in the air, put it up quickly, and then you can put it all over. Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you. Jesus sees you. If I don't see you, Jesus sees you. You can put your hands down. Now listen, in your own words, you simply say, Jesus, thank you. As a matter of fact, let's all just pray this out loud. Say, Jesus, thank you for not being mad at me, but loving me so much, you would give me this moment to make things right with you. Thank you for dying for me, paying my debt, my sin, which is my way over your way, and I don't want that. I want your way. I want to trust in you. Anchor me to you. Forgive me of my sin. Thank you, Jesus. Heads bowed, eyes closed. You love Jesus, but you've drifted, and you need your joy back, and you want to choose

it today. Would you just put one hand up, and then the other hand on your heart, and I want to pray over you. Because friends, I know, I know. Jesus, thank you that it's normal to drift, but it's terrible to stay there, and so we choose today in Jesus' mighty name. As a matter of fact, I'm going to invite us to stand up, and I want to pray over you. Every person in the room, would you just stand with me? We're going to choose joy. When you get bad news, Jesus, I know the end from the beginning, because I'm a child of God. When my plans fall apart, even when I don't see Him, He is working. When I'm criticized, or marginalized, or misunderstood, I choose joy, because He loves me. He has a plan for my life. When finances tighten up, I'm a child of the king of the galaxies. He uses that gold for pavement, and I may not always have what I want. I sometimes might have what I don't want, but I will always have what I need, because my Father takes good care of me, and today, I choose joy. I don't have to pretend. I know God is with me. He's bigger than whatever I'm facing. It makes me want to smile. It makes me want to encourage. It makes me want to skip. It makes me want to say, thank you, Jesus, because I'm choosing joy. I'm going to choose to get my joy back today. Come on, let's celebrate a joy-giving God today.