Joy | Fruit of the Spirit Week 3

And as we're continuing it, we're in Galatians chapter five. And the fruit of the spirit right now in Galatians five is this, it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And as we lean in to the fruit of the spirit, we're actually seeing it being developed in our life. I wanna give you a cool announcement last Sunday. We talked about this idea of love, of really operating in God's agape love, His supernatural love for our lives and through our lives. And I wanna make an announcement that as of two days ago, on Friday, we were able to close on a brand new piece of property in South Tampa, right next to our South Tampa new broadcast location that's under construction right now. And this will be the home of the future, Tampa Bay Outreach Center that I am so excited about. So it's about a three and a half acre piece of property. It's a 62,000 square foot building, about 40,000 will be torn down. And then the rest of it will be made into an outreach center that will be used for weekly food distribution to the Tampa Bay area, hurricane supplies, disaster relief, care for our widows and orphans in our community, GED programs, all kinds of stuff. We've been praying for this for a long time. And it was really crazy because we needed additional parking. So we found this three and a half acres that we're able to buy that also gives us about 250 parking spaces on a Sunday for South Tampa.

So it helps us with additional parking. So all their overflow parking for our new South Tampa location. But as we were praying, like what do we do with this building? I mean, it just dropped our heart. This is supposed to be the outreach center for the entire Tampa Bay area. So we'll distribute through this building, care for the entire region. And then eventually, as God provides, we'll do this kind of building in every county. So one in Pinellas County, one in Hernando County in Pasco. And so I'm excited to start it here in South Tampa. It's under construction. And what we just started, we just closed on it on Friday. And then we'll go under construction. And my dream is that it opens by Easter. And then you'll be able to sign up as a family to a different times of the week to start serving and care for the area. And this is all part of the mesh really more. To just be the hands and feet of Jesus. Aren't you grateful for a church that makes this happen? Oh, let me just make one more thing. And we pay for it all in cash, debt free. To the glory of God. Come on church, give God some praise for that. So excited. And it couldn't have happened on a more perfect week as we talked about love and walking in Christ's love as we're displaying the fruit of the Spirit.

So what is the fruit of the Spirit? Write it down in your notes. It's the character of Christ being made visible in us as we walk by the Spirit. This is the whole goal of the series is that we develop the character of Christ. It's made visible, meaning the world notices. And as we walk by the Spirit, we're not making it happen on our own. So we said this statement in week one. I want you to get it one more time that we don't change by trying harder. We've all tried that. We've all tried our best to like, we're gonna make it happen. That's not how real change happens. We change by submitting to the Spirit. And this whole series is about submitting our life to the Spirit of God to do that internal work in us. That's why I don't want you to rush off at the end of the messages. That's last couple of minutes of the message are the most important parts of the message where the Holy Spirit does a deep work. And today at the end of the message, we're gonna let the Holy Spirit do a deep work and we're gonna take communion together. So don't rush off, it will be a special time together. We're gonna be in week three today, page 44 of your book as we talk about the subject of joy.

Experiencing true and lasting joy. I grew up in a church where we would sing in Sunday school, I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy. Come on, help me if you know it, down in my heart. Where, down in my heart. And then we go, down in my heart. Okay, okay, okay. So some of y'all grew up in churchless like me. And here's the reality is we'd say we have this joy down in our heart and then some kid in Sunday school would steal my GI Joe and we were gonna fight. The joy was gone. We all have those moments where you're say, "Man, nothing is gonna bother me today." And then you get that one text message that one situation happens with the neighbor, that one thing comes up in your life and it messes you up. I had it happen a couple months ago. I was going to Hyde Park to go pick something up and they're waiting patiently. Like I do as a good Christian for a parking spot. It's always a little chaos there and this car was gonna back out of this parallel spot and I was gonna get in there and I'm waiting there patiently and as the car backs out and takes off some kid, pulls into the spot before I do. And I had a moment where I'm like, we're gonna fight in the middle of this place.

"I'm a pastor, Christian. "I gotta be nice." So I let it go externally, but internally, I'm mad. And I see this kid get out of his nice little car and he's walking in the Hyde Park with daddy's money. You know, I'm like, "Ah, man." And I'm all frustrated. And it is one of those scenarios that over the next hour as I'm there, I keep seeing him in different spots, you know? And every time I just like respect your elders, you know, I'm just thinking. But it was bizarre to me how quickly it made me lose my joy. And how much it happens to all of our lives that you get that one bill in the mail or that one health diagnosis or that one issue in your joy tanks, you get in that deep pit of despair. And I wanna help you today to get your joy back, to get the true lasting joy that's available with Christ. Because here's what I've realized. When we say a joyful season in our life, we usually mean that was a season that nothing was hard. Isn't that how we connect it? We connect joyful with easy. My kids are in a good spot. I'm healthy. I've got some money in the account. I'm not stressed. So that's a joyful season.

So we connect joy with easy. But when I look at the New Testament authors, people like Paul, James, Peter, the three great New Testament authors, they always connect joy with not easy seasons, but tough seasons. It's counter-cultural to what the world has to offer where they show us you can have joy no matter how painful this situation is right now. Let's look at it. James, the brother of Jesus, says it this way. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. When you face trials of many kinds. And how about you? When trials of many kinds come my way, I'm not sitting there going, what a joy it is. It's frustrating, but James knew something that you need to know that you can have joy. Look at Paul says, Romans chapter five, we rejoice in our sufferings. Paul sells us because we know that suffering produces endurance and endurance character and character produces hope. Paul showed us, hey, there's a joy you can have even in a season where you're suffering. First Thessalonians 5, 16, rejoice always. That word always means at all times in all situations. Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. What is he saying? No matter what comes your way, you can rejoice.

Now, I know with the room this size, there's a lot of people, a lot of people watching this online and you're in a painful, painful season. Paul would say, you know what you do in that season? You rejoice. What does Peter say about it? First Peter 1, 6, in all of this, you greatly rejoice. He adds the word greatly to it. Like with abundance, you rejoice. Though now for a little while, you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. What an intense phrase, you're suffering grief. It's painful in this trial. He goes, you can greatly rejoice. As a Christian, joy is available in all seasons. Now there's two words for joy in the New Testament. I wanna show it to you because I think it's helpful. I told you every week I'd give you the background of the original language of each of these words. So the word for joy is used 59 times the first one is this word chara, C-H-A-R-A. It means a calm delight. Now there's a reason I'm having you write this down because there's two different words and I wanna connect them to your life. Calm delight. The second word is this word chiro, which is this idea of to rejoice or to be well. So one is the state that you're in and the other is the response to rejoice, to be well.

All right, so look at the words again, chara, chiro. All right, one is for a boy, one's for a girl, a little Spanish joke for you. All right, right there, okay. Nailed it, all right, I put that on my note and I actually wrote ha ha, I thought it was funny. (audience laughing) Didn't work earlier services, but worked here. All right, ready? (audience laughing) What is interesting is the first one is mentioned 59 times in the gospels and it's talking about who Jesus was. It's talking about this state. He's got a calm delight about him. The second one is mentioned 74 times and it's by the apostles and it's talking about our response to Jesus. So one is who Jesus is, the other is our response because of Jesus. You see the connection? This is why Jesus said this phrase, look at John 15. I told you these things and what he told you, I told you these things so that in me, so that your joy, I'm sorry, let me say this again. I have told you these things so that my joy, this is Jesus's joy, maybe in you, and your joy may be full. Look at this breakdown. God's joy in us and now our joy full.

You want your joy full. It starts with Jesus's joy being in you, in your life, not leaning on your own circumstances or what's going on around you, but really leaning on the fact of, I have the calm delight of God in my life, and through it, I can rejoice and make things well, even if life is not well. Know with me today, church. Because write it on your notes, because joy is not a result of my circumstances, but it's an overflow of my connection to Christ. It's the connection with Christ that because I'm connected with the calm delight, with who Jesus is, I can now have an overflow of that in my life at all times, no matter my circumstance. And I've seen this with Christians in operation in this, that as a Christian, we're built different. We're not built like the world where a situation dictates our joy. So I've seen the church. I've walked with you guys through some of the most painful situations. I know people who are watching this right now, even families in the church. You were texting me earlier tonight. You're in Tampa General, or at St. Joe's, and you're there, and it's in a horrific season of your life, but you can walk with supernatural joy,

and the world will look at you and go, how is that possible? And it's because I'm connected with God. And by the way, where there's a lack of connection with God, there's always a lack of joy. So if there's a lack of joy in your marriage, it's because God's not in the middle of it. Because where Jesus is, that's where joy is at. That's where the calm delight shows up in our situation. So how do we have joy? Let me show you three things. I think they'll help you today. Number one, to experience joy, you gotta realize that joy comes from Jesus. Joy comes from Jesus. He is the source of who, of what joy truly is, and how you're supposed to operate as a Christian. All right, I know you're writing it down, and then I want you to put your books down on what you look up here. 'Cause I wanna give you a visual, 'cause I wanna help you overcome a big issue that we have in our life. Here's the lie we believe. The lie that's been taught to us is that I will experience joy when I get there. All right, so I don't know where there is, but everybody has a there. Okay, so some of you, you're there is I got married. You're there is I'm gonna have kids.

You're there is my kids are gonna follow the Lord. You're there is that I'm gonna stay healthy. You're there is that I'm gonna have that promotion, and you're always looking for there. I'll have joy there, but here's what we realize when Jesus is with Jesus, we have to realize that we don't have to wait for there to have joy because we have Jesus here. And wherever Jesus is here, I can have joy, even if here is not there. Because what I've realized in my life is that I've gotten here, and I still didn't have joy because here does not fulfill you. I don't care how good here you think is, it still does not fulfill our life, we enjoy. I remember all the things I used to chase growing up, and the things that I'd go, if I just got this, I remember I was looking back at some of my old stuff. I was like old pitchers and stuff. I remember when I got a car, you know, you think, you're like, man, if I get a car, I got my freedom. I'm gonna be all, it's gonna be awesome. And then you have to get like, pay for it. You know what I'm talking about? I remember I had a summer job with my parents at a car business, so I had clean cars during the summer, and I saved up 'cause I was like, if I could get my car, and if I could get a set of 15s in the back of that car, now, some of y'all don't even know what that is. All right, so that's our big old speakers.

Took up my entire trunk of my little infinity that I had, and I remember driving around Pensacola, and I mean, I would drive up, and the whole block would boom. I was that kid, and I'm just kind of like leaning back, playing the worst Christian rap music you can imagine. Just riding around. I got there, and it's still unsatisfied. I don't know what there is for you, but I just want you to lean into that, that Jesus is with you here. He's with you here, and if Jesus is with you here, even if here is a painful season, a waiting season, a struggling season, And why do we know that? Because Jesus was full of joy. And where Jesus, his joy is that. Look at the Bible says, Luke chapter 10. At that time, Jesus, full of what? Oh come on, started out at every campus, full of what? Joy, through the Holy Spirit. He showed us the model, through the spirit of God, we have joy in our life. He was filled with joy. Now here's the problem with our perspective of Jesus. It's because when many of you get a visual picture of Jesus in your mind, you don't think joy. You know why? Because the artists for 2,000 years have not showed us a joyful Jesus. For instance, here's some of the most famous pictures

of Jesus. Here they are right here. And when you look at these pictures of Jesus, you think, man, he's a sad guy. Like, look, I mean, this one right here, he's like, I'm going to bless you, but I'm not happy about it. Over there, the far left, he's just like, I'm really, I know what you did last night. That's not good. The guy on the bottom left is like, my hair looks so good. And I'm so much better than you. You know what I mean? But we get this weird picture of Jesus. So when we go through frustrating or depressing seasons, we don't run to him because we think Jesus is sad all the time. He wants us sad. And the reality is, is Jesus is filled with joy. Let me give you, if we could have a better picture of Jesus, let me tell you what it would look like. This would be the better picture of Jesus right there. That's Jesus right there. That's who he is. When you think of Jesus, I want you to take your phone, I want you to take a little picture of this, and I want you to know, that's the Jesus we follow right there. Because some of y'all just thinking like sad Jesus, I mean, not really, a lot of people take a picture of Jesus. We're for you, OK? Me and Jesus, we got your back.

I love this right there. Look, look at that smile. He's just like, I'm really happy. Look at that. We ain't got over there. He's good. AI is so stupid, ain't it? I think it's so funny. Here's, here me out. We see this throughout the scripture. Jesus laughed. He celebrated. He went to weddings. Kids ran to him. Kids don't run to some grumpy old adult. Kids ran to Jesus. Ran to Jesus. Tax collectors invited him to parties. Religious people called him a gluttony drunkard because he was always at the table with sinners. They accused Jesus of having too much fun. And Jesus showed us that you don't have to wait for perfect circumstances to have joy. Because wherever Jesus went, there was joy, even when the situation wasn't good around him. Here's what it means to your life. Because happiness is based on your happiness. Happiness. But joy is based on Jesus. Say it again.

Happiness is based on your happenings. If things are good, if life is good, if there's money in the bank account, I could be happy. But you're not going for happiness. You're going for joy. Joy is based on Jesus. It's sustainable. It'll pull you through. It'll help you in every situation to go, you know what? I have a bigger perspective than my current pain right now. And I can have joy. Because Jesus is with me. I love this passage in the book of Psalms. David says it this way. You make known to me the path of life. And you will fill me with joy in your presence. I love that. We can have joy in his presence. This is where it's found. So because joy is based on Jesus, no matter what is going on in your life, whether it's a good day or a bad day, if the presence of Jesus is with you, you can be filled with joy. So let me just say it right away. Let me look right at the camera. Your situation might be bad, but you can be filled with joy. Your bank account can be empty, but you can be filled with joy. Your relationship status can be single, and you can still be filled with joy.

Your kids can be acting crazy, but you can still be filled with joy. Your health can be failing, and you can still be filled with joy. Because joy is not a product of what you're going through. Joy is a product of the presence of Jesus that lives within us. And as long as we have his presence, we have access to joy. Can you give him better praise than that today, church? Aren't you grateful for joy? Number two, it's his joy that brings us strength. So it comes from Jesus, and then it's through that joy that you're given strength to actually walk out the life that God wants you to walk out. Let me get your attention. Everybody's tired. Have you realized this about life? You talk to everybody, you're like, how are you doing? You're like, I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I meet people all the time and it's like eight in the morning and they're like, "Why are you drinking that?" It's like walking around with a Celsius and they're like, "This is my third one today." I'm just, "Some of y'all, that's you right now." You know, you're actually slowly putting it down your third cup of coffee. Because we live in this craving culture of like, we're just exhausted. And you know why we're exhausted? Because life is exhausting. Kids, have you been around them recently? They're exhausting.

Work is exhausting. Politics, have you read the news recently? It's exhausting. Checking your bank account, it's exhausting. So in a world that is exhausting, you have to go to something to find strength. That's why we're over caffeinated, but we're still exhausted. Why? Because we're looking for strength in all the wrong places. So I'm not saying don't drink coffee, please. You're nicer when you do. But you need to find a strength that's greater than that. And that's what happened with Nehemiah. Nehemiah, as he gathered the people to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem. And he gathered them to do something in 52 days, but for decades, nobody else could do. And he gathers them around this mission and they have the enemy against them. And they have so much work to do. And Nehemiah challenges them and says, "Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength." It's not the circumstances you're in. It's not the community that's around you. It's sometimes you need to tap into the joy of the Lord. You know what's gonna get you through this tough season? The joy of the Lord. You know what's gonna help you complete the task that God has for your life? The joy of the Lord.

You know what's gonna give you strength to raise those kids in a godly way? The joy of the Lord. You know what's gonna help you walk in purity even in a world that is overwhelmingly tempting? You know why? You're gonna have the joy of the Lord. And the joy of the Lord is your strength. And as we tap into God's joy, we're giving supernatural strength to get through every hard season. Aren't we grateful for His joy? Paul wrote it this way in Philippians chapter four verse four. He said, "Rejoice in the Lord always." I will say it again. Rejoice. I love this. He's writing it to the church. And he's saying, you know what you need to do? Rejoice in the Lord. And it's almost like one of them is for him and one for the church and one for him. He goes, "Rejoice in the Lord." And then I say it again, you know what I need? I need to rejoice. And I love this passage. By the way, you have a memory verse every week and your memory verse this week is Philippian chapter four verse four. So if you're doing your memory verses every week,

which you should be, your kids should be too, it's helpful. This is your verse. It's easy to remember. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. And your reason you need to memorize this verse is because Paul did not write this from a beach while he was on vacation. He wrote it in prison. Now, I think it's one of the most underrated places in Rome because it's one of the most impactful ones that Katie and I have been to. If you've been to Rome before, you don't miss this, okay? So you can actually go, I got a little video of it. This is going down. It's a little place right in Rome where you go down into this little jail cell and you go down to this hole in the ground. This is the hole hole and they know for a fact this is where Paul was at in prison. And he stood in this little prison cell. You see little hole that's up in there? That's where the jailer would have been. And he would have been stuck down here at the bottom, chained up and it was in this prison that he wrote Philippians, Galatians, 2 Timothy. He wrote some of the last books that he would ever write. So you gotta think while he's in this cell, he's like, what am I gonna tell the church in Philippi? I've rejoiced in the Lord always.

I say it again, rejoice. Can I present to you a little theory? You know why Paul said that? Because you know what he would need in this season? Joy. Because even though his season was dark, his mission wasn't over, he did not let the prison dictate his ultimate purpose. Because Paul would end up writing about a third of our New Testament, many of it from that very prison, which showed us he had strength to keep going even in a dark season. So where did he find that strength? The joy of the Lord. Paul, that's why he writes the book of Philippians. The whole book can be summed up in joy, joy, joy. How can he write about that? 'Cause he knew the importance. It's almost like he's telling himself in this dark place. I will have joy and it's through the joy. He's like, okay, now I can complete the mission. Can I just be really blunt with you? I mean, I'm gonna be your pastor for a second, okay? Some of you have let your dark season dictate your purpose. And you go, I just can't do anything for God right now because it's a tough season. And it's a season I just gotta pull back. Paul would say, no, get the joy of the Lord in this season. I know you might not feel healthy, but God can use your life.

You get the joy of the Lord. Some of my greatest messages, some of the greatest things God's ever done in my life, were through painful, dark seasons that I had the joy of the Lord when I didn't even deserve it or earn it. God gave me His joy and it gave me strength to minister even out of my pain. Because here's me out. Hear me out. Because with God's joy as your strength, the trials won't break you, they'll actually build you. And your greatest ministry could be the very thing that God wants to do through the seasons of trial, just like He did in Paul's life. He could do it through your life. Y'all would be today church. It's His joy that brings us strength. Number three, and we'll close with this one. How do we experience joy? It comes from Jesus, so it starts with Him. He is joy. It's in His presence. It's fullness of joy. It's what brings us strength, so it drives us forward. And number three, and this last one's tough because nobody likes this, but joy is actually a decision. It's a decision. If you have access to the God of the universe, then as a Christian, joy is a decision. That when you go through a tough season, a hard season, you have access to God to go even if life is not good, I'm going to have the joy of the Lord of my life. And I've seen it. I've seen people walk through crippling diagnosis, horrific betrayal, and I go, "How have you kept it all together?"

The joy of the Lord. He keeps me. He wakes me up in the morning. He gives me hope every single day. It's the joy of the Lord. And that's a choice you have to make. We see Jesus making this very choice. He was chapter 12 for the joy set before Him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus is on the way to the cross, and you know what He does? He's like, "I'm going to have joy." And you know what the joy was for Jesus? He saw through the cross, and He saw you and me. He saw you and me. And by the way, He teaches us that how do you have joy in tough season? You see through the pain, and you see the purpose on the other side. In every part of your life, you have to choose joy. I tell you, these two words, they're not in your notes, but if you were going to write down something, you're going to post something on social media, this is what I would choose. Put down there. Just choose joy. Every day, just choose joy. I'm going to wake up. I'm going to be joyful today. Hey, my kids are acting a little crazy. I'm going to be joyful. I'm going to choose joy. You get a bad email. You know what?

I'm going to choose joy in this moment. Someone steals your parking spot. That's okay. Choose a joy in this moment. I'm choosing joy because joy is my decision because I'm connected with the God of the universe. I'm not going to let my circumstances dictate how I respond. I'm going to walk in the joy of the Lord. Joy of the Lord. I had this vivid memory about six years ago. My oldest daughter, she was about eight. My second daughter was about six, and I came home from work one day, and this is right during like COVID days, and came home from work, and I just had it in my mind. I'm a dad that builds up unrealistic memories that are going to happen. You know, she's like, "We're going to have so much fun." So, I go home and pick them up, and I say, "We're going to go to Disney, just us three." And we had passes back then. It was during COVID, so like nobody was there, and so I was like, "We're going to have so much fun." So, this is like a crazy memory. We drive over. We get there. We don't do this all the time. I mean, this is a long time ago. We get there, and we're going to Hollywood Studios, and we're going to the rise. And as soon as we start going on these rides, the heavens open, and it starts pouring down rain. And I remember my little girls were so sad. They're just like, "We can't ride the ride, this is going to be crazy." And then I'm sitting there, and I'm frustrated.

I had this whole plan. I built it up in my mind. I want to be this great dad and have all these memories and these pictures, and then I had to make a decision. I was like, "Were we getting the car? Do we head home?" Or, "Do I just make the most of the rain?" And I did something. I've never done it since, but I did something in that moment that if you ask my girls, they were in the earlier services today, they'd both say, "It's one of the most vivid, early memories of life, where we took about two hours, and we ran from ride to ride soaking in rain." I mean, lightning and thunder. I mean, probably not appropriate to run with kids through, but—and I just—I was preparing this message. I just thought, "How many people?" They've put this visual of what life needs to be like, and then the rain happens. And you've tried to retreat back, and God would speak to you today as like, "Hey, sometimes you've just got to run and play in the rain." And sometimes life throws the worst at you, and it's maybe even in the rain that you're going to create the greatest memory of God's blessing and God's favor in your life, because here's what you have to understand. The rain falls on all of us. You're a Christian. You have access to the joy of the Lord. Can I just say it one more way? And the world is watching how you respond. And one of the worst advertisements for Christ is a joyless Christian. Someone that has the presence of God yet acts as just a bitter, disgruntled person. Now, if people ask you, "Do you have the joy of the Lord?"

You go, "Yeah, I do." But we say, "Hey, if you're happy and you know it, tell your face." The world's watching. The world's watching. And by the way, they're going to watch you walk through the fire and watch you walk through the rain. And they're going to see something different about them. And here's what's different about you, that you have God's joy on the inside of you. And it's not because of who you are, it's because of who he is, because that calm delight that Jesus carried now comes into our life. And we're able to rejoice and the Lord always. We're able to say, "It is well with my soul. It might not be well with my bank account. It might not be well with my job. It might not be well with my relationship. But it's well with my soul." Guess what? Because it's not based on what's happening around me. It's based on Jesus that's within me. I've got joy in my life, no matter what's going on, because I'm connected with joy himself. So what we're going to do is we're going to take communion together. And as we take and we pause, we've got to make sure that we are right with God because one of the greatest deterrents for your joy, the thing that swashes your joy more than anything is sin in our life. When we allow sin in and we allow that sin in to really crowd out the joy of the Lord in our life. It is impossible, can I just say it this way? To be living in sin and filled with the joy of the Lord. Because that path, it's not the path towards life, the path of this world. And David experienced that.

You know David in the Bible, the great king, the great giant slayer. He was living at the prime of his life. And during the prime of his life, he sees this girl that's not his wife. He sleeps with her. He tries to cover up the sin by killing her husband. And as he does this horrific sin, he's called out by the prophet. And as he's called out by the prophet, David responds in Psalm 51 with repentance. This is by the way, if you've lost your joy, this is the first step to getting back. Is repent and say, "God, I've allowed some stuff into my life that I shouldn't be there. I've gone back to that drinking, I've gone back to that website, I've gone back to that lifestyle and it's crowded out my joy." You can tell when you've allowed that stuff back in. And David wrote in Psalm 51, we'll close with this, verse 12, he says, "God restored to me the joy of your salvation." Notice David did not pray. God restored my marriage, restore my kingdom, restore my position, David didn't pray that. He said, "God, restore the joy, the strength from your salvation." Because David knew if I could get my joy back, then it got through that joy. He'll give me strength to, and like everything else be restored. It starts with you getting your joy back for what God has done in your life and who He is. And this is our time before we take communion together, that God will restore to you the joy of your salvation. Can I just remind you, you're saved? Life might not be good, but you're going to heaven. Praise God. Have that joy of your salvation that will get through you through the even the hardest times. Just close your eyes all over Tampa Bay, all those online, just have a moment to ask the Lord, restore to me now the joy of salvation.

Your joy, your joy despite my circumstances, come on, just open your hands even right there in your seats, just ask them, "God, I need your joy. I need your joy to help me get through this hard season. I need your joy even when life is not good, help me have that calm delight that only comes from you in every season." Jesus name. Well, thank you so much for watching Radian Church YouTube channel. Don't forget if you haven't already done so, subscribe to this channel. Right now you can click the button so you don't miss anything. You can support the ministry by sharing this message with a friend or by clicking the give now button that you see on your screen so that we can continue to see lives changed for Jesus. Thanks for watching. The best is yet to come. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]