APR 26 2015 | John 16

Sea Change Church · "John 16" · Adam Stadtmiller · April 26, 2015
John 16
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

You have your Bibles. They're already open probably to John 16. Before we start, I want to say I want to get a little closer to you guys. I feel a little far away today. I want to say a couple things. One, if you have a family, come on Tuesday night. We have family night, and it is awesome. We have a few more this year. I'm going through my first book, Give Your Kids the Keys, which is about discipling your own children and how to be more than just a parent.

You can be a great parent and still miss the mark on discipling your children. And you can come in. These are interactive. You can come in any part. So even if you come, we're about six or seven weeks into it. Everyone stands alone on its own. We have a meal for the kids, and we go all the way through junior high. So that is going on, and we're excited about that. Also, we have a surf ministry here for young people, junior high and senior high, and it is really blossoming.

I had about 20 kids on Thursday nights. Come be a part of that. It's called Surf Church, and it is exciting. So that's happened. So if you know any young surfers, come be a part of Surf Church. And I had one more announcement. All the other is to reaffirm what Jim said. We have a newcomer's night coming up. Hey, if you are brand new and you like what we're cooking, come on newcomer's night, and we're going to talk about this church, the history of the church.

We're going to talk about the future of the church, where we're going. Also about things like membership, why we have membership at a church like this, and what God is doing in our congregation. Plus, we have a lot of great desserts, so come check that out. So, well, hey, we are going to be talking today about the disciples' grief being turned to joy.

And I want to say, if there is a world that needs some joy, it's the one we live in, right? The world's not doing so well today. I checked the newspaper this morning, right? Not doing so well. You've got wars going on all over the world. You've got natural disasters happening all over the world. Countries, ideological beliefs, people fighting and warring, and the world needs a father.

And that's what I just keep seeing. That's what John is saying. In this book of John, you might think over the last few weeks that Adam is kind of like on his father thing now. That's all he's going to talk about is the father. But I want to say, I feel like I'm being really truthful to John's understanding, John the Apostle's understanding of God.

That God came to be known as a loving father. Matter of fact, he sent Jesus as a son. He could have sent Jesus as anything he chose, but he sent Jesus because Jesus is the son. And he did so in a way to represent the kind of relationship he wants to have with us. Now, it was funny. This week, I was listening to someone else preach this text. And they're a really well-known speaker.

They could tweet that they had a headache, and they'd have 4,000 retweets. I mean, anything that they tweet just goes out, you know. Thank you, Evita. I'll be here all week. Try the veal parmesan. It's phenomenal. And I was listening to him, and he began to talk about why we have joy and saying, you know, I really, I don't struggle with this idea.

I don't, he didn't say I didn't struggle. He says, I struggle with this idea of the completeness of joy. Now, that's one of the powerful things that Kai read in this scripture. Down at the bottom of the scripture, and I made my verses so small, I can't even tell what verse it is. But where Jesus comes, and he says, verses 23 and 24, he says, in that day you ask in my name.

I'm not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Above that, because I read the wrong verse, in verse 24, he says basically the same thing. But he says, your joy will be what? Complete. I'm going to say, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but when was the last time that you experienced a completeness, a completing of your joy?

That's a really intriguing statement. And as I listened to this pastor speak, he began to say why we should have complete joy. And he took it to Romans 8, 28 and 29. Now, if anybody knows Romans 8 and 28 and 29, what does it say? All things do what? Work together for good. For those that love God and are called according to his purpose. We're getting a little bit of ringing in here, Chris.

I don't know if you have it up too loud or what it is. Maybe I need to put it closer to my mouth. And I think as I listened to it, it completely missed the point of why we have joy. Because joy is something that goes beyond our current situation and circumstances. So basing joy on the fact that your circumstances are going to end up in a good place felt like you missed the mark.

Because basically it's saying that joy is based on circumstance. And what he was saying is because God has promised, which is true, that our circumstances will always work together for good. Although God has a funny way of determining what good is sometimes, right? Like something happens in your life and it's like that is a really good thing, God's thinking.

You're like, God, not so good. Okay? Not so good. And I thought to myself, you know, because he self-admittedly said he really struggles with understanding a completeness of joy. And the more he preached, the more I realized because you're focusing joy on your circumstance. Now, I'm not saying that I have the secret key of joy, okay? Or that if you just listen to me, I've got the magic, you know, bullet or the, you know, the snake oil.

But I do say this. I'm not joyful. And I don't see, when John speaks about joy, he's not speaking about being joy because his situations have changed or because God will make his situations better. When John speaks about joy, it's coming from that place of intimacy that you see in the Last Supper where he's resting his head where? On the breast of Jesus.

And he understands that he has a loving father who cares for him. That his joy is coming from a sense of belonging. That no matter what happens, whether my situation is turned from bad to good, whether God enters in in a tangible way that makes me feel like God really, you know, is doing something powerful, doesn't matter. What matters is this.

Is that I have a deep sense that God cares for me. That I'm his favorite. And I want to say you're God's favorite. Do you know that? Do you live in the reality that you are God's favorite? And when he gets up in the morning, he smiles when he thinks about you. God doesn't really get up in the morning. But if he did get up in the morning, I saw him at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday.

He was getting all new sheets. I did go to Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday. You know, it's worth investing in a good place to sleep. That is not an advertisement for them. But nonetheless, as we talk about joy, we see this idea. And I want to show you what John is talking about because he's talking about the core of the gospel, which is the great exchange.

Now, we had a garage sale last week, okay? And I hate doing garage sales, okay? I just, if you say 8 o'clock, they show up at 6.30, right? Like, you know. And so I start mine at 8 late. We did pretty well, okay? And I can't believe what some people will give me for stuff that I consider junk, right? They say one man's trash is another man's what?

You know, God loves taking our trash and giving you his treasure. That is the core of the gospel. I put verses here, just a whole bunch. Because in verse 20, it's so intriguing when he says, hey, give me your grief. And I want to turn it into something. I want to turn your grief into joy. And we're going to see in the scripture that Jesus was able to have joy even as he headed to the cross.

It says that he despised the shame for what was set before him. The joy that was set before him. Because when he went to the cross, he never lost sight that somebody was going to be with him. And he mentioned it at the end of the scripture. He says, you're going to be alone. You're all going to desert me. And we live in a world of desertion. We live in a world of abandonment.

It breaks homes. It breaks souls. It breaks families. But he says, somebody will be with me. Who will be with me? My father. It's interesting that on the cross that Jesus says, my God, my God, why are you forsaking me? But he never said, my father, why have you forsaken me? And before he goes to the scripture, here in this scripture, when he speaks at the bond, you'll see it underlined in your notes.

In verse 32, he says, you leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone for who is with me. My father is with me. You see, the father is the source of Jesus' joy. In Matthew 3, 17, when Jesus is baptized, the father says to him, this is my whom? Son, whom I love. And I am what? Well, please. Do people not need to hear that today? Where God says to you, you know what?

You are my beloved. You are my beloved. You know what? The enemy wants so badly for you to feel like an orphan, a black sheep, a cast off, someone who, that you're not loved. You'll never figure it out. You'll never get it right. And Jesus says, and he says that we have the same love in the father and the love that was in him will also be in us.

So we get to get Jesus' resume. And so God says to you this. And do you believe it? Do you wake up in the morning with this? I am the beloved of God. I am a child of God. And he's pleased with me. You know, the voice comes out of my head and says, I didn't tell Jesus this because he needed to hear it. Why? Because Jesus got it. He lived in that reality.

And I want to say, build a stronghold in that reality. You know, it's interesting. I've always seen how strongholds of depression or strongholds of anxiety can start small, but they can start building. Strongholds of hatred. Strongholds of unforgiveness. Strongholds of addiction. But rarely had I thought before, and I heard someone say it this week as I was listening to the Daily Audio Bible, he began to speak, Brian Harden began to speak, why can't we develop strongholds of joy?

Why do we always have to be worried about these strongholds of negativity? But rarely do we see that we try to build a stronghold of the things God had for us. You know, it's easy to build a stronghold of addiction. It's easy to build a stronghold of unforgiveness. But what if we said, hey, God has better things in exchange, that the things of God are actually more powerful, that you develop a stronghold of belonging.

Why not? Why can't we develop a stronghold of belonging? Where we say to ourselves, I belong to the Father God, where it becomes a stronghold in your life, that you just do it over and over again, and belonging to God becomes an addiction. Where you develop a stronghold of kindness, where you say, hey, you know, I'm just going to be more kind.

God, I'm not going to feel this unforgiveness. I am going to rebuke this unforgiveness, and I am going to walk in blessing, a stronghold of blessing, a stronghold of joy. You see, if the enemy can build strongholds in our life because we give him a foothold, why can we not give God a foothold and let him build a stronghold? What stronghold do you want?

Do you want peace? Begin to build it. You know, you give God an inch, he'll take an eternity. You give God an inch, he'll take an eternity. Tweet that. That was good. Just, you don't have to give me credit. Where are you, who are you giving footholds to? Do you, what do you want? I want to say, about six months ago, I decided on an October three-day retreat, when I heard someone give their testimony and said, I decided I was going to live as a son, and I was going to live in delight in my life.

And he said, for 25, 30 years, I've been doing it. And I thought, man, I want that. I can get up and look at the newspaper and see all the things going on. I can get so upset with every negative thing, and I can begin to build a stronghold of depression or a stronghold of doubt or insecurity. But why can we not do the opposite? And John was building a stronghold of belonging to a father who loved him.

I want to say, you can have that. You can have that. You can walk down the street, thanksgiving, thank you, Father. I take a walk out of here once or twice a day just to go clear my head and get a cup of coffee, get Carol a magic bar up the street, you know. I'll get you a few magic bars here and there, right? About every couple of weeks I get those, bring those back to you.

Right, right, I'm fattening you up. I walk by and I see flowers now, and I just stop. I had to build, you know, I wasn't doing that when I was 29, okay? I've built that into my life. I've built it in to stop. I've built in when somebody walks into the office or when I head down to Bird Rock to have a coffee to actually stop thinking about what I've been thinking about.

Look into their eyes and listen and think, thank God I have someone to talk to. Isn't this awesome to have relationships and friendships? Building, what do you want? Build it into your relationships, stronghold. Build a stronghold in your marriage. You can have what you want. Ask me for whatever in my name, and I will give it unto you, Jesus says.

Give God a foothold. Begin to build that. There's a little extra thing I thought about on the way here today, but I wanted to add it in. And so we see this great exchange. In verse 20, it says, your grief will be turned to joy. Look at these other verses here that I have, and you'll see the verses next to them. Jesus wants to take your sin, okay?

Because Jesus likes touching dirty. I don't know if he likes it, but he's willing to touch dirty stuff, okay? Lepers comes, and what does he do? He puts his hands on the leper and touches their wounds. He exchanges your wounds for his, and by his wounds, we are what the scripture says? Heal. Give him your wounds. Take your dirtiest, nastiest stuff, and show up to prayer, and show up to God unashamed.

Don't hide naked in the bushes like Adam and Eve, and say, God, I give you all this. Touch it. Because he's not afraid to touch dirty stuff. He takes your sin, and he turns it into righteousness. And your greatest sin, God, can turn that into righteousness. He takes sorrow, and he turns it into joy. As Victoria was getting baptized here, she said, for the last two years since her son passed away, Adam was his name, and that's why she came to the church.

She saw the name Adam. She said, well, it might be a sign, and maybe it was. But all I know is the fruit of it, and you can know a root by the fruit. And so she's come, and she said, hey, you know what? May used to be this discouraging month for me. But she said, I'll make it a stand. I'm going to build a stronghold. Maybe you were here last week.

She says, I want to live now in a resurrection month. From now on, this is going to be a resurrection month for me, and I'm going to get baptized. Right? Right? Sorrow to joy. Lost to being found, the prodigal son. From being rejected to belonging. I'll tell you, the enemy loves rejection. And he loves the breakup of the family. He loves anything he can do to get us to live rejected.

Because if you can take on an identity of rejection, you will never take on an identity of belonging. You get that? If you take on an identity of rejection, you will never be able to take on an identity of belonging. And what the enemy wants to do is live in a world of rejection. You look what we do with our celebrities. Oh, we love you. We love you until you do one thing wrong, and then we reject you.

Live in a world of rejection. Jesus is a world of belonging. We go from worthless to being precious. I love that. Look up that Jeremiah 5 when you get a chance. From shame to glory. From shame to glory. Man, shame. Shame will bind you up like shackles. I want to say, God wants your shame. How about we begin to build a stronghold of righteousness and his glory?

It doesn't have to be your glory, but his glory. You've turned in your shame. Turn it in. Cast it away. Next page of your notes. I want to look at this. Understanding a completeness of joy. Now, this really stuck out to me this week. I had never seen this before. If you're going to get the verse up there, the next verse, I think it's 26 and 27. One of the things that I see in this, and you'll see it in your notes as well, is this verse tells us two things.

Look at what it says. And once again, this is about asking anything in my name. I did the book, Praying for your elephant, based on this idea. Now, it's over a dozen times in the New Testament. I think God meant something by it. Ask whatever you want, and I'll give it to you. I don't understand what it means, but I'm not going to worry about understanding it.

I'm just going to do what he told me to do. Okay? I'm going to ask. I'm going to ask big. I'm going to pray bigger prayers. I want to show you what it says. And this verse, I think, shows why we can have complete joy. It says, In that day you will ask anything in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. Can you go to the next verse?

No, the Father himself. Now, this is key. Okay? No. The Father himself loves you. Bingo. Why? Because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. The love that God has for Jesus, the Father has for Jesus, the Son, he now has for you. It's equal. Okay? The eternal love of God, because you can't measure eternality. You get that, right? So it's equal.

Receive that. That the love that God has, the Father has for the Son, he has exactly for you. It's powerful. And to live in that. Imagine if you lived in that reality, that every day you woke up and said, I'm going to build a stronghold on this fact, that God loves me as much as he loves Jesus. Thank you. Yeah. Amen. I say. No, the Father himself loves you.

Now, let's go to the next one. Verse 28. I came from the Father and I'm entering the world. Now I'm leaving to go back to the world and going back to the Father. Keep going. I'm sorry. I'm going to go back up to verse 24. Sorry I got lost here because I can't see my notes. Verse 24. I gave her the wrong verse. Sorry about that, Wendy. Verse 23. Now read from verse 23 in the notes, if you would.

It's highlighted. It's bolded. In that day, you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly, I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Asking you will receive and your joy will be made complete. Now, I know I got a little confusing there. Let me start again. There's two things that are constant in that.

The first is this. The Father loves you and you can ask the Father. Okay? The Father loves you and when you have an issue, okay, and your joy is not complete, you go to the Father. The next thing that it says is ask for what? Anything. Whatever you want. Okay? And the next thing that is constant says, and what will happen? Your joy will be made complete.

Now, here's what's interesting. There's two things that are constant. There's three things that are happening there. First, it says you have a loving Father that you can go to. That is a constant. The next is ask for anything. What I think is so interesting here is that it doesn't matter what you ask for. And he'll still make your joy complete. Which means the reason your joy is complete has nothing to do with what you're asking for.

You get that. You can ask for anything. You can ask for Disneyland tickets. You can ask for the salvation of your next door neighbor. You can ask for the end of the drought. You can ask for anything you want. It has nothing to do with joy being complete. Because that changes. Do you see that? You can ask for anything. But what is constant? The fact is that you have a Father you can go to no matter what's going on in your life.

And because of that relationship, no matter how he defines whatever you ask him for, your joy is going to be complete. Because God's going to step in and enter the picture with you. And that is so powerful. When I looked at that and I realized it has nothing to do with circumstance. So why is joy? Why is joy something that cannot be changed by our circumstances?

Because it's not based on something that's changing like our wants and our desires and the things that we ask for. It's based on who we go to and what he's going to do about it. You see what I'm saying? No matter where you are, what situation you have in your life, you go to God. And it really isn't even about what you're asking for. Because in five years, you probably won't even be asking for the same thing.

But something's not going to change. And that's that you have the same loving Father you can go to. And that's why it is so important to go to God in prayer. Because this is where our joy comes from. I want to say once again in this scripture, he's saying it doesn't matter what you ask for. It matters who you're asking to. And that is the key in prayer.

When you start in prayer every day, go to the constant that is God the Father. And bask in his love. And say, God, now you're going to do whatever you're going to do with this. Here's what I want to ask right now. And then he will begin to take that and work it out to a completion of your joy. Whose job is it to give you joy? It's God's. And look at the definition of joy that I have here.

If you go back to the first page here, I put understanding joy. This is the definition I wrote. I put joy as a supernatural exuberance or a presence that can neither be harvested nor affected through circumstance. I want to say joy is supernatural. It's not happiness, right? Yeah. Happiness is a cheap substitute for joy. I want to say I've had a lot of happiness in my life.

I'm not going for happiness anymore. Happiness is based on what's happening. Happenings. Happiness. But joy is based on something beyond that that can never be changed. It's supernatural. It can only be harvested from God. It can only be harvested from God the Father. And I want to say that is where we start. Before we ever pray and ask anything in his name.

Before we take any action in the day. Before we start anything. The starting point is this. I have a father who loves me. And that would send his son to do the work of salvation in my life. And then it says last week we read in John 15 that he sends the Holy Spirit from whom? Who will be our what? Our advocate. And our comforter. God loves you so much.

God loves you. And that is the starting point. And I want to see joy. I'm praying that joy will be released on this congregation. That we can get our hearts and minds in the right place. The heart and mind in the right place is knowing how much God cares for you. He loves you so much. He's desperate. Desperate to collaborate with you. Now ask whatever you want.

It doesn't matter. Just know who you're going to. And build a stronghold of joy in your life. See that's where it begins. Every minute. If you have this much joy right now. I want to tell you you can make it that much. By continuing to press in to knowing God the Father. And asking in his name. And getting your identity right. And I want to say we can get to the point.

I have a friend today. She was on Facebook. I almost put her picture up. Chronically depressed five years ago. She was 100 pounds. She's usually about 140, 150. Her name's Emma. She put a picture on Facebook today. And she said five years ago she was losing her hair. Chronically depressed. Just a shell of herself. And then she put where she is now. And she says it's because I've learned the love of God the Father.

She goes down to Hollywood. Like shares Christ all over. She's just an amazing woman of God. I wish I would have had the picture. It was a transformation from someone that found out who their dad was. I said the world needs a father. I will not stop fighting to give that message. That the world needs a father. And the Father God is here to save the world.

Through his son Jesus Christ. And let's harvest that joy. I want to look at a couple obstacles before we come in for a landing here. To complete joy. Because I want to say Jesus at the end of this text says you will always have what? What does it say there at the bottom? It says in the very, very last sentence there. I have told you these things so that in you you may have peace.

In this world you will have what? Trouble. Right? Trouble isn't going away. I think for a long time when trouble would come. I'd begin to think oh I've lost my joy. I'm doing something wrong. Oh why am I upset right now? Why do I have this negative thought? Trouble will come. Trouble is part of it. But when we have trouble we know where to go. And when we go whatever the trouble is.

Ask anything. You just insert the trouble there. Right? You take the trouble that you have and you insert it. It is the changing thing. It is not the constant. The trouble will change. Okay? It seems like you get two weeks. Every two weeks a new trouble comes. I had someone say that. I'm in ministry man. It's like we get you know two good weeks and then a new trouble comes.

You know what I mean? Enemy is there to create trouble. Do you get that? Resist the devil and he will what? How do we resist him? By going to the Father. Say trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble. I don't know why I opened the LA Times this morning but I did. It just reminded me on the computer. The world is full of trouble. Full of trouble. He says you're going to have it but Jesus says what?

Overcome the world. Overcome the world. Do you live in that reality? You want to build that stronghold? Build it. Build it. What stronghold do you want? I would say go home and figure out the strongholds you want and fight them. And I want to say that the enemy will do everything in his power to take that territory back. Back. I believe we can be healed from depression.

I believe we can be healed from anxiety. I believe we can be healed from suicidal thoughts. I believe we can be healed from everything that ails us. Because in this world you will have trouble. But the scripture says I have overcome the trouble. And John understood that. I have overcome the world. Obstacles. Let's look at a couple of obstacles. The first was this.

Obstacles to joy. If there's anything that gets in the way of joy. I think often times we'll have trouble. But we won't understand the root. You know everything that troubles us has a root. And it troubles us for a reason. And if we were secure. In understanding that my dad's got this. We wouldn't be troubled. You get that. That every trouble you have.

You might not know it. But if you can trace it back to the root. What am I feeling? What is it coming down to? And I want to say. I name some that John mentions in this scripture. The first is in John 16 too. And it is one of the things that steals our joy. It's rejection. The sense of rejection. No one's going to like me. Or if I do that. I won't be accepted.

John says in John 16. Jesus says in John 16 too. They will put you out of the synagogue. Now understand. This is a big deal back then. This is a theocracy. Now if you know what a theocracy is. It means it is a state. Now they were under Roman rule. But the Jews living in the Old Testament. Lived under a religious theocracy. A religious government. And the synagogue was the place that you wanted to be.

It was church. And if you were not allowed into the synagogue. You were an outcast. And so lepers were not allowed into the synagogue. And they would have to scream. You know yell unclean unclean. And they would not be allowed in. They would be rejected. I want to say at the core of our being. We are nothing strikes as much fear as being rejected. I believe.

I believe that's why the enemy wants so hard to break up the family. To remove dads from a family. To remove moms from a family. And to have children. And trust me I know it because I grew up under it. Okay. To feel rejected. You know. You can give me all the reasons as a three-year-old. Like my dad did. Of why it was right for him. And why they needed to split up in this whole thing that happened.

But in the end the three-year-old only feels one thing. Rejection. And I came to my mom. She said to me. And I came to her when I was three or four years old. And we've worked this out. You know. And I came to her and I said. Hey you know. Is it my fault that dad's leaving? That's what a three-year-old, four-year-old hears. Now that isn't to put shame on you.

But it's to see. You know. If you've had that because we live in a broken society. But it is the enemy's plan to break up the family. To remove mothers and to remove fathers from a family. From both of those elements of his personality. Nothing replaces a mother's love. Nothing. And nothing can come in and take the place of a father's love. They are unique.

They are unique. And I say a family needs both of those. So rejection is one. The next is abandonment. John 16, 17. He says in a little while longer you will see. In a little while you will see me no longer. Verse 20. I would say that rejection and abandonment lead to grief. Why? Because he says to me. Your grief will be turned to joy. Does it feel like this world's living in grief?

A constant state of mourning. A constant state of sorrow. I mean what is the world happy about right now? Vacation? Like go look at the sorrow. Okay? Open up the newspaper and look at the sorrow. And then look at where we're harvesting joy from. There's no fields of joy that are harvesting anything that I can see that has value. Open up. I mean is it a better vacation?

A new car? Like what are they offering me in replacement for the grief they're selling? Look at it. I mean they show me a celebrity. They show me a new house. Buy something. It doesn't matter. And then look at the grief they're selling. But Jesus says I will give you inescapable joy. He says I will give you a sense of belonging and power and love that will strike you to your core.

That can replace anything the world has to offer. Because I have overcome the world. The world has nothing to offer me. Our TV broke down for a week. I didn't even care. You know? I'm trying to not live with the internet either. I don't. I just. It's not. Other than communication with you guys. It's just not offering me anything. More and more I just want to sit with my father and just rest and feel peace and security.

Because he has something to offer. I want to say the world offers grief. But Jesus says your grief is going to turn to joy. You can exchange it. Next is what is our response to that? What do we usually do? We use control. Say when we feel abandoned. When we feel rejected. The cycle goes. The next stage that we usually do is we move into control. Adam and Eve.

They felt rejected. They felt shame. They went and hid in the bushes. And what did they do? They created coverings for themselves. They took control of themselves. As opposed to going to their father. Because they felt rejected. Although God hadn't rejected them. Say the coverings that we create for ourselves. Once again open the Google news. Or whatever you look at.

The news. It's just a world of fig leaves. It's just coverings. It's how well an athlete did. It's power. It's money. It's just a covering. Where is their authenticity? Find me. Find. Just find me authenticity. In Colt. Just find it for me. Please email me. I found some authenticity here. It is so hard to find. The thing that was so amazing about Jesus is his authenticity.

To say I want to be with you. I want to spend time to you. I want you to be known. And so we move in. It says like I put in there. Like Adam and Eve. We hide in fear and create coverings to hide our shame. I want to say when we don't feel shame anymore. And I want to say when we don't feel shame at our core. Then we can begin to live in authentic hope.

We can begin to live in a way that makes a difference in this world. I want to tell you. If you can live without shame. With a sense of belonging. And a sense of security that comes from knowing the Father. A revelation of the Father's love. People will know. It will shine so brightly. Build a stronghold. Build a stronghold of the Father's love deep within your heart.

No matter what the changing circumstances of what you will ask him about are. Go to your Father and he will sort it out. And in the sorting out, your joy will be made complete. It is amazing. That word complete means it will continue to be made complete. Because we won't have complete joy until when? Until heaven. Until we go home. I heard somebody say on their gravestone.

They wanted to write when they passed away. Gone home. Love it. Put that on mine. Just gone home. That's all you need to put. We're going to go home one day. And God is going to meet us. But until then, we can continue to build a beachhead. If you have no joy, cross over the ford of a river of the sorrow in your life. And the shallow spot. And build a beachhead.

And begin to build joy into your life. Begin to build God's word into your life. Why can we not do it? Why can we not? Finally, the key to complete joy is to receive God's belonging. It says your joy will be complete. And the final thing it says in verse 22 is this. That no one can take your joy. You ever thought that? That's powerful. Verse 22. So with you, now is your time of grief.

But I will see you again. And you will rejoice. And no one can take away your joy. People steal your joy. I'm going to tell you. You can give your joy away. You can forfeit it. No one can take it. Jesus says no one can take your joy. Why? Because they can't change God's love for you. Why can it not be taken? Because it's constant. Your joy exists. Now whether you harvest it or not.

And I understand there are many obstacles to harvesting it. We have deep sorrow in our lives. We have very difficult things. I get that. I've gone through hard things. People in this congregation have gone through very difficult things. That stand in the way. It's like yesterday when it was cloudy. It was funny because there was a hole in the clouds.

And I could see the sunset behind the clouds. Only a little hole. And sometimes that's all we have. It's just a little hole in the dark clouds. But you can see the sunset behind it. I want to say believe in that sunset. Believe in the hope of God. Believe in the joy of God for your life. Because the reason our joy cannot change is because God's love for you does not change.

It is constant. And it says nothing can take it away. And don't forfeit your joy. Don't give it away cheaply. We can give it away. Somebody upsets you. Somebody does something you want to get them back. You're just throwing your joy away. Say, who is the keeper of your joy? God is it. But who harvests it? Who can forfeit it? Say, don't give your joy away.

Don't give it away quickly. Let things go. Keep short accounts. Fight for unity. Fight for forgiveness. Forgiveness feels really good. You know, forgiveness is so much more powerful than any transgression. I want to say, no matter what happens, when a person stands up and you've seen it in the courtroom before and says, I forgive you. It is always more powerful than whatever happened.

Always. Always. Always. Always. Always. So as a church, let's pray for joy. And at the end of this service, I want to bless you. We're going to have a time to receive joy. I want to ask the worship team to come forward. Right now, I just want to, as they're coming forward, let me just, just bow your heads. Let's just pray. Lord God, I believe that God wants to maybe give some of you guys and gals thoughts on how to begin to plant seeds of joy, God.

Seeds of joy in your life. It might be a garden, it might be a relationship, whatever it is, that begin to plant seeds. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would plant seeds of joy now in the hearts of those that are here. Then the Father's love, the revelation of the Father's love, God, would be made known in this congregation. That they would say something is happening there.

That they would see the people who are here and we have an intense joy, God. We want an exuberant, supernatural joy, God. So God, as we sing this song, we want to begin to sing it to a Father who loves us. And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand. It's just done so profoundly in my life. It's given me peace with my ancestry. Meaning, all the stuff that happened.

I just, I never feel the ping of that rejection anymore from as a kid. It's just gone. God just healed it. It's just gone. And it ran my life. Probably until eight months ago. God finally just did a work. He says, you're my son. I just have this complete understanding that I'm a beloved son of God. It's made all the difference. Like I said a few weeks ago, you know, you can, Jesus can be a lifeguard.

Or he can lead you to a loving father. And he came to be way more than a lifeguard. I'm going to say, as a congregation, I felt like the Lord this week, as I was working on my tomato garden, one of my tomatoes fell over. This is going to make sense. Fell over. And I felt like there was all this fruit on it. And I felt like the Lord said, hey, it needs a support.

It needs a trellis. I want to say a word for this congregation. I felt like the Lord said from that when he spoke to me from it was, build a trellis to support your joy. Find friends. Find worship. When you're going to listen to worship, first thing in the morning, put it on. Read the word of God. Build a trellis for whatever stronghold you want. Because the fruit of it can become so heavy sometimes.

It needs to be supported and to continue to support it to give more fruit. So I want to pray that that would happen. I want to bless you. And then we'll take off. We have a prayer team for it. If you need prayer today, come forward to get some prayer. Build the beachhead here. These people will pray for you. We'll anoint you with oil. Pray for health, sickness.

Ask anything in his name. But we know where we're coming. Because you're going to go to the Father with them. So Lord God, now I bless. It's our congregation, but it's my congregation as a shepherd of this, God. And I love these people, God. I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing with these people. Love what you're cooking in their hearts, God.

Dick Cotton, a 90-year-old, continues to tell me, I've never seen God do this before. Over and over again, God's doing a fresh thing. God bless him. Bless the children of our congregation. God bless you. I pray for God those that are struggling with doubt and fear, and that have dealt with rejection their whole life. God, bring a wave of your love and your consolation over this place, God.

In this place, God, we build a beachhead of joy in this sanctuary, on this corner, in this people, in our hearts, in our marriages, in our children. We're not going to have the lives of the world anymore. God, I pray that we exchange it. Whatever you've been chewing on, exchange it. Exchange the filth of this world, whether it be your wounds, your sin.

Now we exchange it. Just give it to him. Say, God, touch it. I exchange it, God, for joy, peace. And tell him what you want. Ask for anything right now. It's just in your own heart. That thing that you most want, ask for anything. And he'll make your joy complete. So, God, we bless you. Bless these people, God. Keep, you're doing so many good things.

We love you, Father. We just bless and shroud us with your love, Father. We give you praise. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. The worship's going to continue. You need to come hang out with God. Do that. You hungry? You're hungry? You want to go eat? We got food next door. I love you. Thank you for being here. We'll see you next week.

Thank you.