What's the Greatest Enemy of Your Joy?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

♪ The newborn King ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ ♪ Oh, glory in the highest ♪ Yeah! We are celebrating the third week of Advent this week, and we're gonna be lighting the candle of joy in just a little bit, but to continue our worship time together, let's read some scripture. We're gonna put Psalm 85 on the screen, and let's say this out loud. Lord, you were favorable to your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin. Selah. You withdrew all your wrath. You turned from your hot anger. Restore us again, oh God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, oh Lord,

and grant us your salvation. This is the word of the Lord, and we all say. Amen. ♪ To the one who loved ♪ ♪ A crown of thorns to the one who took ♪ ♪ The lash and the scars for the hands and feet ♪ ♪ That were pierced by nails for the sacrifice ♪ ♪ That has torn no veil ♪ ♪ We crown you, we fall face down and we worship ♪ ♪ We all cry out, you are worthy of our praise ♪ ♪ You are worthy, God, you are worthy, God ♪ ♪ We crown you, we fall face down and we worship ♪ ♪ We all cry out, you are worthy, God, you are worthy, God ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ To the one who gave his very life away ♪ ♪ His very life away took upon himself ♪ ♪ All our guilt and shame hanging on a cross ♪ ♪ For the world he loved with his precious love ♪ ♪ Purchased dead for God ♪ ♪ So we crown you with all face down ♪ ♪ And we worship, we all cry out ♪ ♪ You are worthy God ♪ ♪ You are worthy God ♪ ♪ So we crown you with all face down ♪ ♪ And we worship ♪ We all cry out. You are worthy God. You are worthy God. We worship you. We worship you. To the one who endured all the shame of the curse. To the lamb who was slain as atonement for us.

To the son who overcame all the power of death, we pray. For the stripes, for the wounds, for the beatings you bore. For the tears, for the blood that was willingly poured. For the merciful, wonderful majesty of your love. To the one who endured all the shame of the cross. To the lamb who was slain as atonement for us. To the son who overcame all the power of death, we pray. For the stripes, for the wounds, for the beatings you bore. For the tears, for the blood that was willingly poured. For the merciful, wonderful majesty of your love. We crown you. We fall face down and we worship. We all cry out. You are worthy God. You are worthy God. We crown you. We fall face down and we worship. We all cry out. You are worthy God. You are worthy God. To the one who endured all the shame of the cross. To the lamb who was slain as atonement for us. To the son who overcame all the power of death, we pray. For the stripes, for the wounds, for the beatings you bore. For the tears, for the blood that was willingly poured. For the merciful, wonderful majesty of your love. We crown you. We fall face down and we worship. We all cry out. You are worthy God. Yes, we crown you. We fall face down and we worship. We all cry out. You are worthy God. You are worthy God. Angels we have heard on high. Sweetly singing o'er the plains. And the mountains in reply.

Echoing their joyous strains. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? Could the gladsome tidings be Which inspire your heavenly song? Gloria In excelsis Deo Sing Gloria In excelsis Deo Good morning, church family. My name is Julie Edwards. I visited this church for over 20 years on Saturday nights and special services. But about six months ago, I followed my daughter, my son-in-law, and of course the Holy Spirit right here and officially made Church on the Move my home church. It makes me, it fills me with joy just to finally be able to say it's my home and I'm here and to be able to worship and serve alongside you guys too, my church family. Today, I'll be lighting the candle representing joy as we continue our journey into the Advent season celebrating the arrival of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I'll be reading from Isaiah chapter 12. You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you are angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. This is the word of the Lord.

O come, O ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him, born the King of angels. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Adore You, Sweet Adore You Let's sing that chorus together this morning O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord Alleluia Jesus For He alone is worthy For He alone is worthy The Lord, sing it again today For He alone is worthy Yes you are, yes you are Jesus For He alone is worthy O Christ the Lord Alleluia How can we just fill this room today With thanksgiving and adoration for Jesus For the King of Kings And the Lord of Lords The wonderful Counselor Our Prince of Peace Our Mighty God Our Wonderful Saviour You are mine, You are mine, You are mine Jesus Come on church let's praise His name We'll give You all the glory

Christ the Lord Glory to You Christ the Lord O Christ the Lord We will praise Your name forever We will praise Your name forever We will praise Your name forever We will praise Your name forever O Christ the Lord Church family, I've been praying something this whole weekend And my prayer has been that as we sing together During this time of worship That joy would just be rising That joy would be rising in this place That joy would be rising in our hearts This season and here's why Because I think at this time of the year The enemy comes to steal our joy To rob it away from us us as we reflect on maybe things that we've lost this year, people that we've lost, circumstances that aren't the way we would like them to be. Shannon and I were just reflecting this week about a memory that we have when our son Ethan was four years old. Christmas morning, we can hear him running down the hall into our bedroom, flying through the air, landing on our bed, shaking us both. Santa came! Santa came! Come on, we gotta get down there! This beautiful, fun memory that always makes us laugh. This Christmas, for the first time in 20 years, our little family of four won't all be together Christmas morning. Now I can let that make me feel like it's such a loss. I can let it break my heart or I can be filled with gratitude that I have so many memories like that. The beauty of family and of Christmas that we're not going to be together because he's serving another church out of state, helping them with Christmas Eve services, and he'll be along later. You see, gratitude is directly connected to our joy. And so here's what I want to invite you to do before we close out worship. Bow your heads right now and ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, bring a memory

to me of your goodness. Despite what you're facing right now, despite your circumstances, there's a memory of Christmas, a memory of someone in your life that made all the difference and let gratitude rise up in you. For joy will be close behind it. Heavenly Father, let your joy be rising in this room. Let your joy be rising in our hearts. For the message of Christmas is that while we were in darkness, a great light has come. A great light has shown and it's hope for us no matter our circumstances. And so we come to you with great gratitude and with great praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's do what Julie read in Isaiah and give a shout and sing for joy for what God has done. He's a good God. He's a good Father. Listen, do this before you sit down. Turn around, wish somebody a Merry Christmas, shake a hand, hug a neck, and then you can go ahead and have a seat. It's so great to see everybody this morning. Just a warm Merry Christmas from Church on the Move to your family. We're so glad that you're here. My name's Lee. I'm one of the pastors around here, and I just want to say a very special welcome to those of you who may be new. We always have new people. Maybe you're here for the very first time. We've got a little stocking stuffer for you if you're new. Just text us. Our number's 23101. Text us the word new. We're going to send you a little Chick-fil-A gift card. Go get a peppermint shake or something on us this week. Just our way of saying we're really glad that you showed up at Church on the Move this weekend. We believe this place is a family where you're meant to belong and that there's a place for you here. And some of you have been coming. You like the service. You kind of like what you've seen, but you're like, all right, I'd like to know what are the benefits of being in this family and how can I contribute to this family? Best thing for you to do is to go to a gathering that we do every month called The Next Move. It's where we talk a little bit about who we are as a church, where we're headed, and we get a chance to meet you, enjoy a meal together. In fact, I got really good news, double good news, and that is, first of all, our last Next Move of the year is right after our 1130 service today, and it's going to be in one of our new spaces. This is like where the baptism room used to be. We got a brand new meeting space in there, and that's where Next Move is going to be. And what I told all the other services is that it was full, but I found out right before the service we've got a few spots that have opened up. So if you want to finish out the year going to Next Move today after the 1130 service, you can do that by just texting the word NEXT to 23101. We'd love to see you over there here in just a couple of hours. But there's something else that

we want to talk about, and that is our Christmas services that are coming up next weekend. These are our concert services. They're a warm worship service for the whole family, beautiful music, the Christmas story read by our founding pastor, Willie George. Just a real meaningful tradition around here and a great opportunity for you to invite people in your life. Invite co-workers and neighbors and, you know, families on the kids' sports teams to come. It's a time when people are open to come into church, and it's a service that everyone will enjoy. There's invites at all of the exits. You could grab and hand those to somebody. We've got eight identical services. So listen to me closely here. Eight identical services next Saturday, 4 p.m., 6 p.m. Next Sunday morning, 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. A little different than normal. Skip a day. Nothing on Monday. Nothing on Monday. Skip a day. Tuesday, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday, Christmas Eve, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. All the same. Christmas Eve service is not different than all the others. All the same. And this is what I want to say to those of you who consider church on the move home. I just want to give you this information, and that is that on those evening services, the 4 p.m. and the 6 p.m., the 4 p.m. is always much more heavily attended than the six. So if it doesn't matter to you and your family, we would invite you to come to the six so that frees up more spaces for those who might be coming for the first time for guests. If that doesn't work with your schedule, that's okay. We just want you to be aware of that, that the four o'clock will be much more crowded in here. The six o'clock, you'll be pretty much assured to get a space in this room. So we just want you to be aware of that. And one more thing I wanna say, I don't know if you've looked out here, but next weekend we are gonna be able to go behind the auditorium all the way across and this external door is going to be open next weekend.

Yeah, that's something to celebrate. If you haven't looked, you need to look. Whit's gonna talk about that here in just a second, but it's really coming together. We're so excited about that. If you forget the things that I said, which I'm sure you will, you can go to cotm.info and the very first tab there is about our Christmas concert services, the times, where to park, which doors will be open, all that kind of stuff. And so be sure to go to cotm.info and get all the information you need about Christmas. We can't wait to be together to celebrate Christmas together. But before Whit comes out here and continues in our series, we're gonna take time to honor God with our giving. It's pretty easy how we do it around here. You can just text the word give to 23101. You can give electronically in that way. There's a black card in the seat back in front of you that talks about a couple of other ways that we give, expansion campaign and our compassion offering if you wanna give to either of those. And if you can't prepare to give cash or check in the room, there's drop boxes at all of the exits. You're more than welcome to give in that way. Thank you for those of you who give around here. Let's bow our heads together. Let's prepare our hearts to hear from the word of God

about joy today. Heavenly Father, it's already been so good to be together, to worship together, to hear the word spoken, but now we wanna be taught by you. Through our pastor, we want the Holy Spirit to speak to us what we could learn and know today that would give us great joy. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, good morning and Merry Christmas Church on the Move. Good to see everybody this weekend. If you're new around here, my name is Whit and I am the pastor here and we're glad that you would spend part of your weekend worshiping with us. I wanna welcome anybody that maybe couldn't be here this weekend that happens to be joining online. Maybe you're traveling, maybe you're just home sick, couldn't make it this weekend for whatever reason. And then let me also welcome those that are joining us at Dick Conner and Eddie Warrior. We have two churches in prisons, a men's prison and a women's prison. We like to welcome them every week. So can we put our hands together and say welcome to everybody? Glad to have you this weekend. It's a special weekend around here. If you didn't notice our lobby, at least a lot of the walls that have been kind of keeping you out of there

from seeing what's been going on for safety reasons are now down and you can see this beautiful new lobby that we've been building for the last several months. It looks amazing and if you haven't gone out there to see it for yourself yet, I would encourage you after the service just stop by out there. You won't be able to walk all the way through it. That's next week you'll be able to walk through but you can see just how much space it's gonna add and it is gonna make a massive difference to how we're able to host people at Church on the Move, how we're able to serve you and your family. And so to those of you who have given to this project, you've given faithfully over the last couple of years, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. And to those of you who haven't jumped in yet, don't let the kind of nearly complete construction fool you into thinking that we're there because there's still a little bit of a gap to go before we reach our goal and we really still do need your help. We have a $12.5 million goal that includes more than just this lobby project but it includes several things and we would love to have your support and participating in this, especially if you call Church on the Move your home church. If you feel like you belong here and this is your church, I would love it if you would consider giving to this project to help us reach this goal. We think it's gonna make a huge difference

in how we're able to serve our community and love on you, our families and our people here at Church on the Move. So really, really, really exciting times though it won't be fully complete by our Christmas concert, it will be shortly after the beginning of the year and then they'll move to that end of the building and begin the process of remodeling that side and by Easter it all ought to be complete and finished and we'll have kind of a whole new face to the church, pretty exciting stuff. Thank you so much in advance for your generosity and your consideration of giving to this project. Well, we're in week three of our Advent series and if you have a Bible, I would invite you to go ahead and open it to Luke chapter two and while you're getting ready and turning there, let me just tell you that at the beginning of the year, we're starting a new series and really, the reason that I'm mentioning it today is because what I'm gonna talk about today is kind of a precursor to where we're gonna go at the beginning of the year. We're starting a series in January, we're just calling Breakthrough. And it's the idea that a lot of God's people are sort of living beneath what's possible for them. I think there's too many people that call themselves Christians that are not experiencing the capital L life, as Pastor Lee likes to say in the phrase

that I've adopted. God has for you, that there is more for you. Too many of us, our lives look just like our unbelieving neighbors. We're not experiencing the real life of Christ. We believe in Jesus, oh yeah, we believe, but it's not really producing the kind of life change, transformation, new life that's possible, and what was intended by Christ's death and resurrection. And so we're gonna talk about how you get there. That's why we're calling the series Breakthrough. Maybe it feels like you've been stuck in a rut for some time, just kind of circling the same mountain over and over and over again. How do I find breakthrough? We're gonna talk about that at the beginning of the year in depth, but I wanna give you a little bit of a preview of that message today because what we're talking about in this season is really part of where we're gonna go in the beginning of the year, and I'll explain all of that as we dive in together today. So if you have your Bible open to Luke 2, we're gonna take verses eight through 10, a familiar Christmas passage, as our text today, and then I'll really kind of be jumping all around the scripture as we talk about the theme of joy. Verse eight begins in this way. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. This is the word of the Lord, and we all said, thanks be to God. True confession, I love the Advent season. I love this time of year. We have families over at our house every Sunday night. We'll have three families at our house this Sunday night. We'll have a meal together. Heather prepares a meal. We'll gather around kind of our living room, and we'll get on our Advent guides, and we'll read scripture together, and we'll sing carols together. And it's just, I love this time of year. I love the Advent gatherings. But true confession, I don't really, I haven't really, at least in the past, loved teaching through the themes of Advent. If you didn't know, there are four themes of Advent, hope, peace, joy, love. And the reason why I don't really love teaching these themes is they feel kind of abstract. They feel sort of immaterial, ethereal. I've had a hard time kind of wrapping my arms around it.

For me, a sermon is more than just kind of a nice word. It's more than just sort of a nice encouragement, just a few nice thoughts for your day. Like, I want a sermon to hurt me. I want it to cut me a little bit. Like, preaching hasn't happened unless I've been confronted in some way. And I'm always looking for like, where does this confront me? And I've really struggled with that in the past as I've taught through these themes of Advent. But for this year, the Lord has been gracious. I've had kind of a new revelation, if you will, of what these themes mean, and how relevant and practical they are. And so that's kind of what I want to try to unpack for us today as we consider the idea or this theme of joy. Three big ideas I want to leave with you today. The first is this, that joy is vital to the Christian life. Joy is vital. Now, let's define our terms. What do we mean by vital? Well, that word is defined in this way. Absolutely necessary, important, or essential. Joy is essential. I think we could go further and say really, all these themes of Advent, hope, peace, joy, love, these are more than just nice ideas. And I think a lot of Christians,

we kind of take some of the stuff that we talk about in church, and we sort of make them nice things to attain to. Hopefully, you know, there'll be hope, peace, joy. Of course, who wouldn't want those things in their life? They're nice ideas to attain to, but practically, they're not really an integral part of our lives. And this is the problem. I want to submit to you that Christian living was made to be joyful living. Joy is meant to be a central, essential part of the Christian life. And I want to show this to you from the Scriptures. Let's go back to the Old Testament. Let me show you Numbers 10.10. This is a command. Also, at your times of rejoicing, the Lord is commanding them. There's to be times of rejoicing built into your calendar. These are appointed feasts, new moon feasts. So what was happening is that God gave his people a calendar by which there were certain times of year they were to gather together in communal rejoicing and celebration. In other words, joy and rejoicing was meant to be built into the rhythm of their lives or their year. There's to be certain times set aside where you're gonna rejoice. You're gonna come together and celebrate

and remember what God has done, but also look forward to what God is going to do. So joy is built into their calendar. You could say it was scheduled joy. But then there's commanded joy throughout the Old Testament. In Psalm 95, for instance, we find it here. Oh, come. Let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Verse two, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. Psalm 100 puts it like this. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Psalm 47.1, clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with loud songs of joy. And then in 1 Samuel 18.6, when David is returning home after defeating Goliath and the Philistines, look what happens. The women begin to come out and celebrate with songs of joy, singing songs, playing tambourines, and other musical instruments. In 1 Chronicles 15.16, when the ark had come back to Israel after having been captured by the Philistines, notice what happens. David commands. This is not just a suggestion, it is a command. This is how we're gonna do things, Israel, going forward. He commands the Levites.

This is the priestly class of the nation of Israel. He commands these priests to appoint some of their brothers as singers who should play loudly on musical instruments and harps and lyres and cymbals to raise sounds of joy. So joy is to be built into the culture. There are a lot more verses. These are just a few. Let's look at the New Testament because it gets even more explicit there. Philippians 4.4. Pastor Britton preached this last weekend, but let's look at it again. Rejoice in the Lord always. Paul is so committed to this, so serious about this, he repeats himself. Again, I will say, rejoice. It's a command. Rejoice. It's a choice. Rejoice. You find the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 5. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God. God wills this for you in Christ Jesus. So rejoicing is part of God's will. Joy is part of God's will. Now we see this in Romans 12.12. Rejoice in hope.

Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. And then of course, if you were with us this last fall as we studied through the book of James, you'll no doubt remember James 1.2. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, you're to take a perspective of joy. He goes on to unpack why, because you know that the character of God's steadfastness is being produced in you. So here we are commanded again and again and again to be joyful, to rejoice, to rejoice always in all circumstances. Then it starts to get more to the point in John 15 where the Lord Jesus himself says this. These things I have said to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. The greatest reason for joy in the life of a Christian is not just what quality or how it benefits your life, but that it speaks to the very character of God whose image you bear. I wonder, have you ever considered that God is joyful? How do you view God the Father? How do you think about him? Do you see God as powerful? Maybe you see God ruling over all creation, but maybe you see a God with a little bit of a stern look on his face.

Maybe God to you is always a little bit perpetually disappointed, sort of frustrated at sinful humanity, or maybe your own stupid decisions, just kind of arms folded, a little bit of a scowl on his face. He has forgiven you, but he really struggles to like you. How do you think about God the Father? Can I submit to you that God the Father is the source of all joy? That in the Godhead himself, this is where joy originates. Joy comes from God and spills over into creation. God is therefore the most joyful being in all of creation. There is no other being that is more filled with joy than God himself. I wonder if you actually believe that. The Old Testament depicts God as being joyful in several places. Psalm 147, 11, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love. Psalm 104, 31, may the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works. Deuteronomy 30, verse nine, the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your ground.

For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers. Over and over again. The Lord is described as rejoicing, taking delight in, having pleasure in his people. This is the description of our God as a joy-filled God. Then it is no wonder that Paul would write in Galatians chapter five that the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of this kind of character is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are, of course, the fruit of the Spirit. Now, I want you to think about this. If you bear the image of the one who created you, and by the way, that's what it is, to be born again, we all, by virtue of the fact of being human beings, bear the image of God, but when we are born again, we are said to take on his new nature. The very life of God is formed in us. There ought to be, according to the New Testament, what is called fruit. In other words, if you plant an apple tree, we planted some fruit trees in our backyard earlier this year. We planted, I think, an apple tree, a pear tree. Heather was the one doing the planting. I just dug the holes, right? But the trees are out there. We've planted fruit trees, and let me ask you. If we planted an apple tree, and yet that apple tree

never produces apples, what are we to think? How should we respond? Would not the response be, what's wrong with the tree? Because that's what an apple tree does. At least a healthy apple tree will bear fruit. So too will a healthy Christian bear fruit. I wanna point you, and just help you understand. Notice what Paul writes here. He doesn't call them the fruits of the spirit. These are not nine different fruits. This is one fruit growing together. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self-control. This is one fruit, the character of Christ being formed in you. In other words, if these things are not increasing in your life, then are you bearing fruit as a Christian? Are you really what you say you are? Let me point you to a parable that the Lord Jesus himself told in Luke chapter 13. This is Jesus speaking. He says this. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on this tree, but he found none. Look what happens. He says to the vine dresser. Now let's just kind of back up here for a second and think about other things that Jesus said in John 15. Do you remember what Jesus said?

He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. My father is the vine dresser. So let's kind of think about who's who here in this parable. He says to the vine dresser, look, for three years now I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, who? The vine dresser. Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put manure on it. In other words, the vine dresser's saying, hang on a second. Let's be patient here. This is God the Father. He's patient with us. No fruit yet? Hang on a second. Let me just, let's see what I can do. Let me see if I can provoke this tree to begin to bear fruit. But notice how it concludes. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down. In other words, God is patient. He's patiently waiting for the fruit of the Spirit to be produced in your life. It should be produced in your life

if the life of God is really in you. But if your life is not producing these things, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness. If those things are not being produced, it ought to be like a big flashing light on your spiritual dashboard. Something is wrong. I want you to notice how Martin Lloyd-Jones, who by the way, this is from a book called Spiritual Depression. And much of what we want to talk about in the beginning of the year, this series called Breakthrough, is gonna come from this book, Spiritual Depression. We love, I love Martin Lloyd-Jones. And I love how he puts things. So this is very helpful. I want to share, I'm gonna quote him a lot today. Here's what he says. He says, in a sense, this is fascinating, a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms. In other words, it's like saying this is a zebra without stripes. Wait, what? How is that possible? It's an apple tree that doesn't bear apples. It's a car that has no engine. It's a contradiction in terms. Calling yourself a Christian and yet you have no joy,

no peace, you're depressed. You're anxious all the time. Your life looks very much like the lives of the unbelieving neighbors around you. Lloyd-Jones says, I think rightly so. Your very life is a contradiction in terms. It should not be that way. And then notice what he says. He says, and he is a very poor recommendation for the gospel. And that hits pretty hard. It ought to convict us a little bit. Did you realize that your life is a sales pitch for the gospel? That the greatest reason that the life of God should be produced in you, that your life should produce the fruit of the spirit. Can I tell you the greatest reason is not that it will benefit you, though it will. And pastorally, I want that for you. Lloyd-Jones wants that for you. Like we want you to experience this new kind of life. Yes, but that's not the best reason. It's not the highest reason, not the deepest reason that your life should produce spiritual fruit. You know what the greatest reason is? The glory of God and the sake of the gospel. Because you bear the image of Almighty God. So what does it say to your kids, to the people around you, that you say,

oh, I'm a Christian, but there is no love, and there is no joy, and there is no peace, and there is no patience, and there's very little self-control. What does it say? You're a very poor sales pitch for the God that you claim to serve. So there's a lot at stake here. Our lives are meant to be living testimonies or to bear witness to the God who we say lives on the inside of us. Lloyd-Jones continues. He says, nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people looking at us the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, or fearful, or anxious, or depressed. Now let me just pause here for a second, and let's acknowledge, yes, there are certain medical, biological conditions that produce depression, clinical depression. I recognize and acknowledge that these are real things, and that maybe perhaps because of biology, or maybe perhaps because of a diet, whatever, that certain kind of ways of life, patterns of living and thinking are produced in us. I'm not trying to paint everyone with the same prescription, but here, let me just say this. I think we as a culture are looking far too much

to a pill and a therapist to be our savior, and that there is more available to us in the life of God and the word of God than what we've dared to imagine so far. And so what I want to do is kind of point us to a way of living and being that deals with and addresses these things. Here's what he says. To be sad, to be morbid, and that to be a Christian is just one who scorns delights and lives in laborious days. We're very poor recommendations for the gospel when the people around us can't see any difference in our lives from theirs. And it should be that our unbelieving neighbors ought to look at us and say, you know, I'm not sure what I think about that whole Christianity thing. Not sure I'm ready to believe in Jesus yet, but I would to God I had the joy that they had, the kind of peace that they have, the kind of stability they have, the kind of confidence they had. I wish I had that in my life. Their kind of marriage. I wish I had that in my life. When we don't produce the fruit of the spirit, we're very poor recommendations for the gospel itself and for the God that we say we belong to. Joy then is not some optional like wheel and tire package

on your new truck that if you have the extra money you ought to go for. It is an essential component, product of the Christian life. It ought to be present in every Christian because this is what the spirit produces in the lives of one in whom he is working. So if we don't have joy, then the question we have to ask is why? If I don't see the fruit of the spirit present or manifest in my life, why? Why not? Why is it not there? Why am I anxious? Why am I fearful? What's the problem? Second big idea I wanna put forward and it's this. Unbelief is the enemy of joy. Why do I not have joy? This is the problem. Unbelief, let me unpack it for you. Lloyd-Jones again, he says this. The ultimate cause of all spiritual depression is unbelief. I'll go a step further and say underneath every sin and struggle in your life is unbelief. Do you wanna know why you're prideful? Do you wanna know why you're greedy? Do you wanna know why you get angry? Do you wanna know why there's lust in your life? Do you wanna know why there's any sin in your life? This is why.

At the root is unbelief. For if it were not for unbelief, even the devil could do nothing. It is because we listen to the devil instead of listening to God that we go down before him and fall. all before his attacks. Now let's define our terms. I want to unpack this for you, help you understand this clearly. What does unbelief mean? Logos defines it in this way. The trait of not trusting in and relying on someone or something. Especially used of not trusting in or relying on the God of Israel and Jesus as his Messiah. Now let me just break this down for you. At the root of all unbelief is not just the absence of belief. As if I could believe or just not believe. And to not believe would just sort of be like a negative, like subtracting belief out of my life. It's impossible, you can't do it. To not believe in God is to believe in something else. I would call it a counterfeit truth or a lie. And these are the options, there are only two. There is to believe the truth or there is to believe the lie. And this is at the root of every sin. I could prove it to you by taking you all the way back

to the original sin in Genesis three. Do you remember what happened there? God had put two trees in the center of the garden. One was the tree of life. Adam and Eve were allowed to eat from that tree but there was a second tree. It's called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said don't eat of that tree. If you eat of it, you will surely die. Of course we know the story, they ate of it. But before they did so, what happened? They were told a lie. What was the lie? You won't die if you eat the fruit from this tree. In fact, far from it. You will become like God. That is unbelief. Unbelief is not just to not believe God, it is to believe a lie. You're moving from one belief to another. By the way, this is what James calls doubt in James chapter one. When he calls it doubt, he doesn't mean having questions. He means trying to wrestle or hold two things as true in your mind that can't both be true. Let me give you an example of this. Your worries. For those of you who are worrying, I'm amazed at how many Christians are just so open about the fact that they worry,

even though more than once we are commanded not to worry. We're commanded not to be anxious. Yet we do all the time and we think nothing of it. I was recently with a Christian who said, oh, I'm a worrier. I'm just a worrier by nature. I worry about everything. And right now, I have nothing to worry about, which makes me worry. Maybe I should. Really? Really? Would you say the same thing about the sin of adultery? Would you go around, would any of us go around and say, I'm just a habitual adulterer. It's just what I do. I can't seem to shake it. I'm just constantly committing adultery. We would be horrified to just tolerate such sin in our lives, yet we do so with worry all the time. We think nothing of it. Being fearful, being anxious. You're literally commanded, do not be anxious. You don't, do you take that command as seriously as do not murder? Do not lie? We tolerate it. I'm just worried. I'm just anxious. Can I tell you why?

It's because you have believed a lie. God's not with me. God doesn't go before me. Even though I walk through the shadow of death, I don't believe that he will be with me. Therefore, I have to fear evil. What's happened is you're afraid because you don't really believe. Here's the root of all unbelief. You don't really believe what you say you believe. And this is the trouble with Christians. We speak things, we say we believe things, but when it comes down to it and you examine your actions, you don't really believe it. You wanna know why you get angry? Because you don't believe James 1, 20, which says the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. We get angry because we believe that anger will give us exactly what we're looking for. So we lash out in anger, failing to believe that the scripture is true. At the heart of every single sin you commit is a unbelief or a misbelief. You have put your hope and confidence in a lie. That is the problem. Now, this is huge because now we start to get an idea of how to deal with it. If I'm anxious, if I'm worried all the time, if I'm fearful, if I'm not filled with joy,

ah, the cause is I have somewhere down inside believed a lie. Now, let me show you how to deal with this. This is where it's gonna get practical, and if you're paying attention, this can change the course of your life. So hang with me here. Look what it says, Psalm 42, five. This is a psalmist. Look at what he says. It's so fascinating. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why, so disturbed within me? Let's first talk about what he's doing here. Notice he's acknowledging the problem. This is self-awareness. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why, so disturbed within me? Notice he's not trying to ignore what he feels. Sometimes Christians get into this ditch of thinking that faith means ignoring what I feel, ignoring the circumstances, that if I just act like none of this is going on, if I don't speak about it, then doubt won't come out of my mouth. It is not a sin, it is not wrong, to acknowledge that something's going on on the inside of you. It's not wrong to acknowledge a diagnosis that's been given to you.

It's not wrong to do that. It's what's wrong is when we get myopic about it. Notice here, he's addressing himself, but he's doing so quickly. He's not gonna park here. There is a difference between self-awareness and self-consciousness. And we live in a world that is hyperfixated on self, obsessed with self-consciousness. We're talking about ourselves all the time, and in so doing, we've become myopic. We're constantly navel-gazing, thinking about ourselves, examining our feelings, trying to look inside of ourselves. And I wanna be really clear here. I am not against having a therapist or a counselor in your life, but I am against you looking to that person as your savior more than you look to Christ himself. Psychology has not somehow come along and solved all of mankind's problems in the last 50 years. No, we serve a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. A counselor, a therapist can be helpful, but living in perpetual therapy for the rest of your life because this is just how I am is not the capital L life that Jesus came to offer you. There is more and there is better. And so what I wanna call you to, invite you to, is a kind of way of life,

a self-awareness that does not fall into self-consciousness, obsession with the self. It is acknowledging your thoughts and feelings, but not obsessing over them, not taking them all as true. Notice how the psalmist addresses himself. Why? He's searching for the motive. And you could, by the way, replace some of what he's talking about here. Instead of why are you so downcast, you could put in there, let's say, why are you so afraid? Oh my soul, what are you afraid of? What do I fear? Why do I feel so unworthy? Oh my soul, examine yourself before God, but notice he doesn't stop there. He asks the question, then he quickly pivots to preaching to himself. Notice how he talks to himself. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God. Friends, this is the secret to the life of God being produced in your life. The New Testament calls it renewing your mind. Paul describes it as putting off one kind of set of behaviors and thoughts and ideas and putting on a new life and mind of Christ. And to do that, what you have to do

is to confront the lies in your heart and head with the truth. Do you realize that you don't have to let every stupid feeling that passes between your ears or in your heart, every stupid thought that goes through there, you don't have to give it a home? You don't have to treat it as valid, real, worthy of dwelling on? There are thoughts and ideas that go through your brain that need to be immediately rejected. This is what it is to be a Christian. It is to bring those thoughts, even your thoughts and feelings before the Lord, and let them be confronted with the truth of scripture. Oh, but I feel so unworthy. I don't feel worthy to step into God's presence. You know what you have to do? You have to preach to yourself. You have to address yourself. You have to turn to yourself and say, hush, be quiet. Stop thinking like that. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Whatever I may feel is irrelevant. What God has said about me is most true. I'm taking that as true today. You have to address your fears. Stop it. I will not be ruled by irrational fear,

for God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. You have to preach to yourself. You have to confront the lies in your head and heart with the truth of scripture. Let God be true, and every man a liar. What I feel does not matter. It's what God said about me that matters most. This is how we talk to ourselves. You can't just let all of these thoughts run rampant free in your mind. Look at what Lloyd-Jones says. I love this. The main art, pause and take this in for a minute. If you need to take a picture of it, take a picture of it. The main art, the main thing, and the main thing is love. Matter of spiritual discipline. The main point in being a Christian is to know how to handle yourself. You have to handle yourself. What does that mean? You have to take yourself under control. You can't let your desires and your thoughts and your feelings rule you. Some of you are dominated by your own thoughts and feelings. And it's why you have no joy, no peace, no self-control, no kindness, no goodness, ultimately no love. Very little of the fruit of the Spirit is produced in you because you're allowing your flesh, your thoughts, your desires to rule.

You have to take control of yourself. You have to take yourself in hand. You have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul, why art thou cast down? What business have you to be so disquieted? If God be for me, who can be against me? If he would not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not along with him, graciously give us all things? I do not have to fear the future. I do not have to fear tomorrow. If Jesus defeated death, what can touch me? I am in Christ, I am a new creation. That's called preaching to yourself. Some of you, the only time you hear preaching is when you listen to me. You need to be preaching to yourself daily. And it's not just, you're so beautiful, oh, you're amazing, I love who you are. You're perfect just the way you are. That is taking a message from the spirit of the age and trying to apply it to yourself. My question for you is, how's that working out for you? You take the word of God. Do you know it doesn't matter what you say about yourself? I'm having trouble forgiving myself. Really? If God could forgive you of your sins,

who are you to hold yourself higher to a higher standard than what God holds you? Do you realize that underneath your, oh, woe is me, I just can't forgive myself is actually a spiritual pride? You're saying that you're greater than God himself, that God was wrong to forgive me. He doesn't know what he's doing. I know what I've done. God has no idea who I am or what I did or what I'm capable of. He doesn't know. I know, I know who I am. You're exalting your word above God's. Do you understand? You're with Satan. This is what he does. He exalts himself above God. We don't like to think of sin like this. The sooner you do, the more you'll treat it like the evil, insidious disease that it is. You'll address it. You'll cut it out of your life. You'll get rid of it. Lloyd-Jones continues, you must turn on yourself. How many of you have been Christians long enough, and I say this in love to you, but you've been Christians long enough to come to realize that deep down, you're really an idiot? Honestly, show of hands, how many of you know, I'm a moron.

I can't trust myself. Good. That's step one in becoming a Christian. You gotta turn, so you can't trust every thought that goes through your head, every feeling and every desire. Abrade yourself, Lloyd-Jones says. Condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself, hope thou in God. Instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way, can I just tell you, when you're like this, not only are you no fun for yourself, you're no fun for the people around you. You're very little use to God or to anybody around you. It's a very self-absorbed, myopic point of view. But God's given us tools to deal with this. So instead of muttering in this depressed and unhappy way, you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and what God is, and what God has done, and what God has pledged himself to do, and I love this. Then, having done that, end on this great note. Remember what the psalmist said? I shall yet again praise him. Notice what he says, he says, defy yourself. I love that, defy yourself. Defy those feelings of fear. Defy those feelings of anxiety. Defy those feelings of depression. I defy you in the name of the living God. I defy other people and what they've said about me.

I defy the devil and the whole world, and I say with this man who wrote the psalm, I shall yet again praise him. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! It's what it is to preach to yourself. It's what I've been talking about, and that's my final point, really, it's very simple. That the gospel produces joy. You have to preach the gospel to yourself. We just read it, Luke chapter two, verse 10. Let me read it to us again. And the angel said to them, look at this. Fear not. Why shouldn't I be afraid? For behold, I bring you good news of great joy. Do you realize what good news has been delivered to you? Do you realize you have? The good news that death cannot take away, that no suffering in this life can touch. Oh, we may be afflicted in the here and now, Paul says, but these light momentary sufferings are not even worth comparing with the eternal weight of glory that is to come. I have a hope that can't be touched.

I have a future that is secure. I have a God who goes before me. I have been made righteous in his sight. You gotta really believe that. And hopefully you're realizing this morning that there's some places in your life where you don't. Does that make me not a Christian? No, it just means that there's some sanctification that needs to happen in your life. And the sooner you recognize this and begin to address yourself, preach to yourself, speak the word over yourself, it's not magic words. You're reminding yourself of what is most true. Do you know what you're doing? You're coming into agreement, that's what confession is. Confession means to say the same thing. I'm saying what God has said. My word is irrelevant. My feelings are irrelevant in this matter. What matters is what God has said. And when I say these things to myself, I address these things to myself, I do it continually. Psalm one says that this man is blessed who meditates on your word day and night. Notice the product of that kind of meditation, that kind of muttering, speaking to yourself quietly the word of God over and over and over. What will be the product? He'll be like a tree. He'll be like a tree that is planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. Whatever life may bring your way, whatever the enemy may try to bring, it does not matter. Wherever you are, God can prosper you there. In all that he does, he prospers. That's how you get joy. That's how you get peace. That's how you get hope. This is how Advent becomes real for you is that you bring it into your heart and you preach it to yourself again and again and again. And then the fruit of the Spirit, there's no choice. It just begins to be made manifest. Fruit begins to be produced in your life because that's what the Spirit does. Would you bow your heads? Close your eyes, let me pray for us. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for your word that confronts us in the most loving way. I pray, Lord, that where we have believed lies, where there has been unbelief, as there has been in my life, we repent of believing those lies. We choose right here, right now, to believe the truth. Help us, Lord.

Help us in our unbelief. Lord, would you guide your people this week to verses that they can take and quote to begin to fill their minds with the truth. Lord, help us remove from us distraction. Help us to set aside things, images, stories, narratives that are feeding us a false idea of what it is to be human, what it is to be made in your image, what it is to be male, what it is to be female, what it is to be a child of God, to put all of that aside and to trust in your word above all else. We set aside our thoughts and feelings. We acknowledge them that they're there, but we don't take them as authoritative, not completely. They may tell us something, but they don't tell us the whole story. You have the perspective. You see all. You know us better than we know ourselves, so we choose to accept what you say about us above all other words. Let your word be elevated to the highest place. Now, Lord, I pray we will be filled with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of you, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in our knowledge of you.

In Jesus' mighty name, all God's people said, amen. As we close today, if you have a prayer need, maybe something's going on in your life. I don't know what it might be. You're struggling with something. You'd like to talk to somebody about it and receive prayer for it. We have a prayer team. They're down front every week. They line the front of the stage, standing on the floor just below where I'm at right now. We would love the opportunity to pray with you, to minister to you. If you're in a place where you know you're not right with God, or perhaps you've been coming here for a few weeks, maybe a few months, and you've come to kind of realize, I think I might be a Christian. I think I might believe all of this, or I'd like to become a Christian, but I don't know how. Our prayer team has a. book, a guide, that we would love to give you. Literally, it's called How Do I Know I'm a Christian? And it will walk you through what it means to be a real Christ follower. If that's you and you feel like, I am curious about the Christian faith, I think I have become a Christian, come step down forward, grab that guide, and let us resource you with that,

and then help you take a next step. We would love to be able to do that. As you step into a new year, what better time to kind of get this started than right now? Stand to your feet. We're gonna close with this blessing out of Numbers, chapter six. And we like to say it out loud together at Church on the Move, so the words are on the screen, and you can join along with me. Here we go. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you, I love you, you're dismissed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.