DEC 16 2018 | Joy to the World S1E2 | Happiness vs. Joy

Sea Change Church · Joy to the World · "Happiness vs. Joy" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · December 16, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning, church. My name is Tony. And today I am going to be reading from Proverbs 13, 12, and 19. Not 12 through 19, so don't worry. Don't worry, it's not going to be very long. Yeah, don't worry. Thanks for doing this reading today, Tony. Oh, wait, no, that's Chris. Okay, that goes to me. Okay, here we go. Sorry. Sorry. Let me get back on track here. Proverbs 13, 12, and 19. 12, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13, 19. A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fool's deed is turning from evil. The word of the Lord.

Good morning, church. Full day today, running around, putting the shorts on, jumping into the pool, getting back out. I had a bow tie. Did any, okay, just be honest. Did anybody else change at least two times, and they still weren't happy with their third outfit today? Anyone? No one. Just me. All right. Nonetheless. Today's a rough one. Today's a rough one. We're talking about joy. That's not rough. It is rough for some people, and we're going to talk about that today and hope deferred.

It's rough because it's the church Christmas staff and elders Christmas party is today. And I read an article today that one out of three people detest the office Christmas party. Now, you don't have to raise your hand. I don't know if you're one of them. Not our, I'm not pointing at you particularly, but one out of three people don't like to go to their office Christmas parties. And I don't know if that's you. That is definitely me, okay? I really don't like going to the office Christmas party.

The problem with the office Christmas party, I'm just going to talk to you, Chris, because they're just looking at me like, where are you going with this? Is that I'm in charge of planning it, and that's an issue. And so, and let me just say, I have some emotional scars from the church. Because the church office Christmas parties are tough, because unless you're Episcopal or Catholic, there's no alcohol, so no one's loosened up.

The problem is, if you go to an office party and there is alcohol, that has problems too, and I've seen that as well. In other settings, there was a time at the church where we got a comedian at this church I was at, but it wasn't going well. And I don't know if you've ever seen a Christian, you know, professional comedian come in. I haven't had great experience. Sherry did a great job this summer. She was probably the funniest one I've ever seen. I don't even know if she's professional.

And he wasn't going well, so it was like the let's insult the audience time. You ever see when they go into that? But that's not great at a church, right? Especially when you start picking on a kid in the front who's on the autistic scale and agoraphobic, which happened. So he's leaning into this kid, and it just went sideways from there. Or the secret Santa, when somebody brought probably the most extreme, inappropriate gift I've ever seen, and the person that they gave it to probably could run the committee for legalistic people in the church.

Right? So the day after, on Monday, literally the day after the party, the weekend party, we got all emails, Secret Santa is canceled for next year. Like a year in advance, the Secret Santa. You know? Besides me, we are actually going to have a good time today. My idea for the Christmas, I had some other ideas of the Christmas party. One was like cancel it, give everybody a Target card, we'll meet the Target. And we take all the money from the party and just get to run into Target and you have to buy something.

So I thought that's a good idea. Or I just have a plate of cookies and we divvy up the money from the Christmas party. And I just hand a cookie and money, right? Right? It's not working today. You guys are just looking at me. It's not too late. No, it is. We got a great party. We're going to Woodstock Pizza. I am really, really excited about being with everybody today. With that said, we are talking about joy. And then the series of joy.

And what it's about, what I realize is that joy, I believe, is one of the emotional commodities most endangered today in our society. And I think Christmas is very difficult for many people. I actually know, I was actually contacted this week. Somebody said, hey, I'm not going to be at church. I just don't want to be around people during Christmas. And maybe you get that. And the problem, I think, oftentimes with joy and Christmas is we put a label of joy on a season that is supposed to be festive when our eye really isn't on the ball in regard to what is supposed to make us joyful.

And so one of the questions I'll ask later on as we go through this is, when was the last time you experienced joy? And as I'll say in a little bit, I've just recently begun to experience joy, I think, again. And it feels so different than happiness. Because I've looked back and I think, I'm not sure I've experienced it for about 10 years. And I mean this. As I've been doing this series and as I've been trying to set the table, because joy is something that is bestowed upon you.

You can't create joy. Scripture's clear on that. God gives you joy. It is a spiritual component that is bestowed upon you. Unlike happiness. You can create happiness, but you cannot create joy. And as I began to look at the difference between joy and happiness, and so like happiness would be you get a, you know, you win the church Christmas party raffle and you get a new Land Rover. And like you are happy. You know what I'm saying?

Right? I'm just preaching to you all day right here. Let's just turn the pulpit to Chris, because you're giving me everything I need in this sermon right now. Like laughter. Joy. And I mean, I thought about this analogy a lot. Joy is your child drowns and the lifeguard brings them back on the beach and they're completely fine. There is a big difference between happiness and joy. And I believe that we are living in a world, and the use of joy is in books since 1880 was, I think it peaked in 1880, it was in 1%.

The word joy was in 1% of all books. Now it's down to 0.4% of books. Words come in and out. But it seems to come around every season where we're telling everyone to be joyful, but I'm not sure people really know what joy is. And so they look around and they see, I'm supposed to have this Christmas feeling that comes with this season, but for very many people, and I would say getting close probably to half of our population, there is some feeling of discontent.

This isn't everything it was cracked up to be. And I would say this is especially true for people that have experienced loss. And I would especially say the loss of a child. Now I've mentioned it before, my wife's parents lost their son, Carrie's brother. I bring that up. I haven't lost a brother, but because it has affected our family, and I know it's affected multiple families here. I do not think that there is anything in life that I can think of.

It could be a cancer diagnosis, loss of everything you own, your house burns down, whatever negative bad thing you can think about that would be worse than losing a child. And I think God knew this when he had a redemption plan that allowed him to lose his son. I think he found something, and he's an infinite God, so he could have found multiple ways to figure out how to save us, I imagine. But he chose the one that would be the most difficult.

Or perhaps somebody has had a divorce, and the kids are now splitting time, and we see more of that. I'm not trying to bring up emotions, but those emotions are already there. And I guess the question is, where am I supposed to find joy in the midst of that? And as believers, I want to make sure that we're not giving you a bunch of bumper stickers. I really struggle, and you'll see in just a moment in the notes, I really struggle with glib, offhanded comments from people that aren't really going through anything in the moment to someone who actually is for long years of suffering.

And it tells them, you know, just some bumper sticker Christian verse, or we slap a verse on them, and we walk away. The Bible has to have something more. And I guess the idea, or the question is, is it possible to have joy in the midst of suffering? And one of the things, through studying the scriptures, I wasn't able to preach all this today, is I do believe that there are seasons where you will not experience joy.

You will not have the capacity to experience joy. And if some believer tells you, or some pastor tells you, that if you could just whip up some algorithm of joy from the Bible that is a poultice of scriptures, and a little bit of prayer, and a few pats on the back from an elder at the church, I want to tell you that that that is far insufficient to what people need that are suffering. Because the Bible is clear that joy sometimes will come in the morning.

It says joy will come in the morning. Which shows that the Bible very much understands, like with the book of Job, that sometimes there are prolonged seasons. And I don't think that that scripture means that, hey, tomorrow morning, nine hours from now, that you're going to have joy. There is a prolonged season where you are going to have to hold on to something other than joy in order to survive. And the Bible says that that is hope.

We'll talk in a minute as we go through this, but I want to say a few things as we start hammering our way down through the notes. Is it possible to be joyful in the midst of sorrow? I believe it is possible. And I've met people in much sorrow. I have a new friend named Rose. She lives in St. Ives, England. I don't know if we'll ever meet again. But it was a beautiful day, one of the few days it didn't rain. And we were sitting on this beautiful little coastal village, if you ever get a chance to go there.

And this woman walks down the street, and she was probably in her late 80s, and she was dressed immaculately. She had the little leather gloves on. I mean, your classic British, you know, 1950s, like something like Audrey Hepburn would wear. And she was stunningly gorgeous. And I have to say that ageless beauty, in my opinion, is much more attractive than youthful beauty. I don't know if you've ever seen like a Jessica Tandy, but this kind of beauty has to come from within.

And it isn't just what you put on your face. It is an ageless beauty. And as she walked down the street, I was struck, not only by the way she was put together with her little coat and the whole thing and the leather gloves and the hat. And as she walked by, she said hello. And I said hello. And for some reason, I said, what's your name? She says, my name's Rose. I said, it's a lovely day, isn't it? She goes, it's a beautiful day.

And we started talking. And she says, you have a lovely family. I said, thank you. And she says, I just, I lost my husband last year. We moved here in 1969. Now, this is a small village. It would be like La Jolla, but like with nothing within like 40 miles of here. Like half the size of La Jolla. So everybody knows everybody. And I realized that she's walking down a street that she's been walking down hand in hand with this beautiful marriage that she began to unfold and tell me about since I was born, 1969.

And now it's been a year and a half and she's walking down the same street now. But the partner, the love of her life that she says is no longer with her. And she says, I have to force myself to get out twice a week. And for those couple hours I'm out, I can forget about my sorrow. And it got a little too emotional for her because she's British and she's old school British. And I grabbed her hand and they were the softest leather gloves, just beautiful leather gloves, like the ones you would get your mom on Christmas, you know.

And I grabbed her hand and I said, Rose, I just want to pray for you. And she got a tear in her eyes and she said, you do that. Don't forget me. And she walked down the street. She goes, I have to go home and sulk now. That's what she said. And it wasn't a joke. I mean, it sounds funny, but she says, I'm going to, and she meant it. And the whole time I'm gone, I'm thinking about this idea of joy. And I'd have to say that there was a moment of realness, of human relationships that went, my wife was there.

It was one of the most beautiful moments that I've had. I don't want to use hyperbole in a long time. And a joy of human connection leapt up in my spirit that we just had to have a moment. And for a moment she was able to escape. And I don't know, you know, with, with her, I don't know where the road will end. And I didn't want to give her an answer, but for a moment we connected. And what I will say, sometimes just hope, just the ability to get out to say, I need to distract myself is all we can offer.

Because in the midst of a lack of joy or the inability to have joy, we need to hold on to hope. And so perhaps you're in a place where you say, I just don't want joy. I need to feel this. I need to go through this. Then I want to say, hold on to hope. The problem is, as we see in Proverbs 19, and the Bible is so real, and that's why I love it. It says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. And so when it gets put off and put off and put off, it makes the heart sick.

And so as believers, what answer do we have? We must understand, as you'll see in your notes, that hope is the long road that often, that joy often treads upon before reaching its home. Let me say this. We must understand that hope is the long road that joy often needs to tread upon before reaching its home. To not lose hope. And some of our favorite stories, right? If you watch movies, the stories of long-awaited hope, when hope comes.

And the entire message of the Bible is, there's a lot of things in life that you can hope for. But if you are putting your emotional well-being in something that this world offers to give you hope, it will often fall far short of what the Bible is offering. You see, the Bible doesn't always promise happiness in your life. We live in a world right now where the message is, everyone should have a happy ending. I don't know if you know that.

That everyone deserves a happy ending. But I got to say, I've been around long enough to see that not everybody gets a happy ending. But many people hold on to hope. And they take their eye off of perhaps self-focus or some other thing they want. And they put their eyes, as it said last week in the scripture, Jesus endured the cross, scorning the shame and believing in hope of that which was ahead, endured the shame.

And it says, for the joy that was set before him. And I guess this is the deal. Are you even focusing on the things that will make you joyful? Because human connection, where you get to bless somebody, will oftentimes give you a sense of joy that you can't get by focusing on yourself. I firmly believe, as I've been looking at these scriptures, and I've been looking, I mean, I've been doing a deep dive into joy, that I have not found anything yet that says, when you focus on yourself, the result will be joy.

But I have found that if even in the midst of, and I've met people that are going through cancer, divorce, that become outward focused, and they have moments where they experience joy, they can conjure up joy by focusing on something other than themselves. You know, it's interesting, we get so discouraged when we weren't, you know, I had, I told my daughter this week, I had five people in the last two weeks come to me, or in discussion, not come to me in discussion, wrestling with grief, sorrow, depression, whatever you want to call it, angst about their purpose in life.

The central question we all ask is, what is my purpose? Where do I get to be on the stage of God's grand narrative, on God's grand play? When will my song be sung, my dance be danced, my book be read? When will I get to experience everything that life is supposed to be? And the more I see people ask that question of what my purpose is, the more I see people oftentimes in bondage, as opposed to asking yourself this, what is my purpose in this person's life today?

I have to tell you, I will never forget Rose. I've been praying for Rose. And I still am feeding off a joy from that interaction with Rose. I spoke about the homeless gentleman who had lost his son to suicide last week. And when I was in front of the YMCA and I turned around and it said the world's first YMCA, and I thought it was very significant and not a coincidence. And I turned around and in that moment, I laid my hands on his head and I prayed for him in the street.

And we had this human connection. And there was a joy that I still feel. And I got to say, it feels different than all the happiness I've been looking for for a long time. I got to say, when our eyes are on the right thing, and I'm pre-preaching the notes, so if you wonder why I'm not getting down the notes, we're going to get there in a second. And I'll just scrap these points. But as you get and you look out from where you are and you ask yourself the question, what purpose might I have in that person's purpose or in the world's purpose when it's not all about us, we begin to allow ourselves to be filled with joy.

And so the great question is, especially if you're in the midst of sorrow, what are you casting your eyes and your hope upon? I got to say, there was a long time where I did, I mean, I've done, I would say thousands of baptisms. And the reason I say that is because I was at a very large church and every Easter we would baptize and there'd be a line of like 200 people. And people come to me, remember when you baptized me?

I'd be like, no! Oh, but you know, and then, is it okay to lie? And that's, you know what I mean? Like I was there, you know, I've done thousands of baptisms. And I just got to say for a long time, it was just a machine. It's just a lot of people. I pulled my hamstring one time out in Carlsbad, you know what I mean? I got to say, when I did that baptism today, like I realized you ended like this beautiful sanctity moment.

I'm like, what's up church? You know what I mean? Like that was just such a bad transition, you know? Like if in class, I'm preaching to you again. It's a bad transition. But I got to tell you, when you get your eye on the ball and what matters, I'm pumped. Pumped you got baptized today. And Mike, wherever Mike is, I'm stoked. People got saved. And you know what? Here's what I realized. I just feel like for the first time, when you get your priorities right again, you start experiencing joy.

And this isn't... If you watch that baptism and like it didn't hit your grid, like it was just like... Like rethink faith again. Rethink what this is all about. Because I just want to say, I just personally went through that journey. And I got to say, all of a sudden, I'm getting hit with joy in places I've never expected. And I'm realizing I don't want to trade happiness for joy. As we move on, C.S. Lewis has a quote.

And for those of you that mourn, because C.S. Lewis lost his wife joy, and he wrote a book called The Grief Observed. And if you are in a difficult place, it is a great book to read. And another book with it called Surprised by Joy. Those are two books you can read in tandem. We were promised sufferings, he says. They're part of the program. We were even told, blessed are they that mourn. And I can accept it. I've got nothing that I haven't bargained for.

Of course it's different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others. And in reality, and not imagination. And that is so, so true. The ability to step out of ourselves and to identify with other people's brokenness, I have to say, is one of the greatest strengths the church should wield. One of the greatest weapons, if I may say. To change a culture that the church should wield is having soft hearts that have the ability to stop and to enter into someone else's grief and to sit with them as Job's friends at first sat with him.

And if we can go into a world that is broken because the world is broke, it doesn't take my, I don't think I have to convince anybody of that. I don't need like nine points on that. The world's broke. And if we want to change the world to be able to go into a broken world and have those moments, which I would say in July, that moment with Rose, I'm not sure I was emotionally or spiritually available to have that moment.

That's why it's good to get away. Right? It's good to get away and to sit with Jesus and to let your heart get soft. We had an elder meeting. This is off the cuff. We had an elder meeting this week and we were asking, and I asked the elders, what is the most important thing I do here? And like six of them are, you know, we had all of them there. Like four or five said preach. A couple said vision. One said leadership.

And Don Baker, and they're all great answers. I actually didn't say this, but Don Baker said, listen. Listen. It's your number one thing you do. And I thought, you know what? He is right. Listen to God. Listen to others. I got nothing to say preaching. I can put on a good show. Look, I know I can do it. I can be funny. Well, I wasn't that funny today. Trust me. But a lot of times I can be funny. Entertain. Might as well go comedy club if I don't listen.

I want to hear from God and give you something that's legit. And I want to say, if you're suffering in this time of Christmas, I want to give you hope. And I prayed earnestly this week, by the time we're done here in a few minutes, that you can walk out with something. Because I want to give you something today that you can walk out and say that. C.S. Lewis. I want to say joy is not a bumper sticker, like I already said.

And few actions have a more devastating impact upon a broken spirit than a well-intentioned yet misplaced words of encouragement. Let me say that again. Realizing that for your own personal joy and the ability to heal the world, to actually make a difference out there on the street, the ability to listen, to be in tune, to be able to enter into other people's brokenness and their happiness and their joy, and actually feel it because you are no longer just focusing on what you don't have.

A self-focused faith is one of the greatest weapons, ointments, whatever word you want to have, to heal this world and your own personal heart. Because the domain of joy, as we saw last week, was the heart. Few actions have a more devastating impact upon a broken spirit than a well-intentioned yet misplaced of words of encouragement. Heard recently, somebody in the congregation said they had heard a story of a woman whose husband had died, and at the funeral, somebody walked up and said, you'll find another husband.

Meant to be encouraging. I honestly think they're just emotionally deaf. I don't think they meant it to be mean. I don't think they meant it to be rude. But that's a bumper sticker. I've got to say, we have to. I'm desperate. I'm desperate about this. We have to be able to offer something more than a bumper sticker. We have to be able to change the world and get our eyes off ourself. I guess this whole idea for myself, I don't really care about my personal purpose anymore.

I don't have time. I don't have more time to waste on it. I want to step into other people's lives. I want to change other people's hearts. I want to know the word of God. I want to listen to the word of God. I've spent too much time wondering about what I'm supposed to do. I've got to tell you, all it does for me is make me think, what's the next hurdle I've got to jump? Joy is not a bumper sticker. Let us not diminish someone's pain.

But let us also not lose hold of hope and joy. And sometimes that means knowing when to stay silent, but saying, if you need me, I am here. You don't always have to come up with an answer for everyone's questions. But a great thing to say is, if you need me, I am here. I had a friend this week who has something very difficult to go to. And I had just read an article about being someone's buddy. And I like that term, buddy.

I call my wife and I our buddies. We always say, hey, buddy. How you doing, buddy? And I just texted him. And I said, because I was trying to figure out, I texted, I was trying to figure out like some cool Christian rapport. I don't know. I was trying to be pastory, you know what I mean? And I just erased it. And I wrote, because I have a schedule. I have things I want to do. I just thought, you know, if you need a buddy to go with you, just let me know.

I'll be your buddy. That's kind of weird, antiquated language. But it worked. And it got through. And I guess sometimes, team, like someone just needs a buddy. Someone just needs a buddy. And that will help them hold on to hope. And you can say, hey, just don't let go. Let me pull on the rope beside you. Let me put an arm around you. Let me be there for you. That's what it's all about at Christmas. And I say, you know, this Christmas, if we can just get our eyes back on the focus of giving our lives away to other people, it'll make a difference.

There's a few things I'll be done in just a couple minutes. Last week in review, I said the heart is the domain of joy, which is true. Google verses on joy. And you will see verses on joy often talk about the heart and the soul. I still have not been able to find a verse. I spent another week looking that equates our mind with joy. I was able to find that the mouth speaks joy, but the overflow of the heart, God's spirit gives joy, the joy of the Lord, the strength of joy comes from the strength of the Lord.

I've seen these things. But the domain of joy that I can find in scripture seems to be the heart and the soul, as it says. I talked last week and I said sin entangles the heart. It's in Hebrews 12. And leads to growing weary and loss of hope and loss of heart. It says do not grow weary and lose heart or lose hope. And I say if you're having a problem with hope and you're having a problem with joy, take a look at your sin.

Because when, I've got to say a free heart. Have you ever met a person that really, or maybe you remember when you did it, like really like repents of their sin? Do you remember perhaps when you repented of your sin and what that feels like? Like that's actually joy. Because I recently just sat with the Lord and all the guys in the Joshua project, we have this thing and we're like, okay, let's get to the nitty gritty, you know.

Let's look at all every sin and let's repent of it. And to write down every single sin that you can think of and then actually literally repent of it. Even if they're little ones that you've just been letting be, you know, a little hanging on our sins. I have to say that there's a joy that comes with that that is so powerful. I mean, have you ever seen a person really, I mean, led them to Christ and see them repent of their sin?

If you want to have joy in your heart, one of the things you have to do is untangle the domain of the heart. Which is joy. The domain of joy. Excuse me. The domain of joy. Which is your heart. And the third thing is that joy is not a result of self-focus like I said. Here's a question. Is joy the least felt emotion on the planet? And if so, why? I thought about this a lot. Is joy the least felt emotion on the planet?

I know anger isn't. Rage. Everyone's raged, you know. I know, you know, I think there's a lot of happiness. I think you can make happiness. The Bible talks about that. You can buy yourself a six-pack of happiness. Find a new relationship. Whatever. But joy. I think it is. I think love's growing cold. I think there's less love, but I still think there's more love than there is actual joy. And so the question then is, if it is in a world that is becoming increasingly hopeless, the joy is often the result of hope.

And people have lost hope. We need to give them something to hope on. And so what are you hoping in? That's a really good question. And if you're a believer, here's the deal. Behind whatever you're hoping for needs to be this massive statue of Christ in his kingdom in return in heaven. Because the scripture says that that ultimately is what our eyes need to be focused on. So this is this massive statue. And in front of it can be all these little things that you're hoping for.

But ultimately, we have to be looking beyond that, or you will never experience true joy. That's what the scripture says. Proverbs 13, 12 says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. What are you hoping for? Now I have two verses, three verses that I'm going to close. And I think that they're really powerful, and I would go back and look into these in regard to hope. 1 Peter 1, 8 and 9 says this, Though you have not seen him, right?

So this is faith. You love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end result. You see what I just said? You're receiving the end result. So there's an end result, but actually you can take a loan on it today. Okay? We do that, right? On the equity. Basically, there is an equity in your faith. It is an eternal equity.

And the scripture says that if we get our eyes set on Christ, on the right things, that there is a hope that is there that you can draw upon today, and you can have the kingdom joy today. Let me read this again. Again, though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, which means you're looking, right? There we are. Back to this idea. If you have not seen him, and you have not seen him yet, it means you're looking.

You're looking at something. And you're looking outward. You're not looking inward. You're looking outward, but you haven't seen him yet. But you believe in him. That's faith. And are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. I just, I literally think, I just make these things up, but I think about them a lot. I would doubt 20% of Christians have ever experienced that. Maybe you've seen it. I've only met a handful of Christians that I can point to that walk around regularly with a spirit of joy.

One of them is Orville Stanton. He's a pastor at North Coast Calvary Chapel. He just has this, like, you're just, and I'm just like, I just want to be that guy. Like, why can't I be that guy? It has to be there. And one of the things I know about Orville is his whole life is focused on caring for others. And that's one of the ways that we set the table. Do you want that? And I guess the question is, is are you willing to trade in everything for it?

For equity. Job, when it says to losing his hope, had so much hope in God, and this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, that even though he slay me, I will hope in him. If God cuts me down, if God takes everything I have, I will hope in him. That is so hardcore. Romans 15, 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy. Once again, joy is something you are filled with, that you are bestowed, that is bestowed upon you.

You can't make joy. You can only set the table for it. By not looking inward, by disentangling, I think that's not a word, your heart from sin. By caring about others. Now that the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Once again, that's faith, that's hope. That ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. And like I said in the summer, hope will not exist in heaven. Because there's no need for it.

Hope will not. That's why it says the greatest of these is love. You will not have faith in heaven. You won't need it. Because your hope will be fulfilled. And so for you that are longing in this Christmas season, this word joy has been so besmirched to mean gifts and parties and stuff and feel good and Hallmark movies and all this other stuff. But what it actually is, is that God sent his son that you may spend eternity with his son.

And as Christians, we have to say this is the only place joy comes from. And if you are one of that percentage who have thought, you think to yourself, I've never experienced that. I don't know what the heck Adam's talking about. I want to say that there is a journey that is not self-focused, that begins to set our eyes on those things, to give our lives away and to care that the joy of the Lord might fill you. Amen?

Amen?