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#20240424 - God’s Will Right Now - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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  Welcome to the Study of God's Word, recorded live at Calvary
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  Church in Aurora, Co To learn more about the many resources
• 0:13
  available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our
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  live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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  or download our free Calvary Church app.
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  Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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  Amen. So tonight we're going to be
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  talking about knowing God's will.
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  So let's start with a little participation.
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  OK, A little participation. How many of you tonight would
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  say, have you ever sought to know God's will, or in the
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  process of knowing God's will? Or you would want to know God's
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  will in the future? Raise up your hand.
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  All right. A lot of people.
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  Good. I'm glad.
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  If you're a Christian tonight, I think it's only a matter of time
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  that you have to learn how to hear from the Lord to know what
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  the will of God is for you. And I believe that knowing the
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  will of God is one of the most important aspects in a Christian
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  life. What's God's will for me right
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  now? What's God's will for me
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  tomorrow? What's God's will for me a year
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  from now? We need to seek the will of God
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  in between now and heaven now in all eternity, it it might seem
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  or feel as if trying to learn the will of God can be somewhat
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  mysterious, right? Yeah.
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  Anybody ever felt that way? It's like, oh, I don't know
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  God's, what's so hard? I'm wrestling with this
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  something that finding the will of God is some type of mystical,
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  esoteric, very difficult thing. And let me just share.
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  With you tonight that it doesn't need to be that way.
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  Knowing the will of God ought not to be difficult, but rather
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  a normal aspect in the life of a Christian and a relational
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  relationship with Christ. Knowing God's will, you know, I
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  think. Of it this way, I think of it
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  like the aspect of relationship. You know, in all relationship,
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  there's communication. You talk.
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  You build connection. You begin to know one another.
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  I know. With my wife and I, as we began
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  to court and pray about marriage, we began to know and
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  share our hopes, our dreams, our desires.
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  And as as we're married now for 28 years, there's some
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  communication that doesn't even need to happen.
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  We just know. And if you've been married for a
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  while, you know what I'm saying, right?
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  I can look at my wife and I just know by her eyes what she's
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  doing. She'll kind of look at me.
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  I'd be like, oh wow, it's time to go, right?
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  I I, I have to be a little bit more obvious.
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  You know, with my wife, I got to kind of like, hey babe, come on,
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  it's time. But man, you learn these things.
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  And it's same way with the Lord. There's aspects in which
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  communication with him and knowing what he wants should be
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  very plain and simple. Other times it might require
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  more time or consideration. Again, sometimes when it comes
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  to the will of God, it's somewhat like a sign in the sky.
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  You know, you want, like it to be written out in in the sky.
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  For God's sake, open that door close.
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  Yes or no. There was a farmer who became an
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  evangelist, and this is kind of interesting story.
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  He was working his farm one day and it was hot.
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  It was exhausting and turning the ground and doing all the
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  things that farmers do. And so he went into a tree to
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  just just take a break. And he gets out his hanky and
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  wipes his head and he's sitting there and he begins looking up
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  in the sky and in the sky through the clouds.
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  He noticed that the clouds formed 2 letters, the letter P
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  and the letter C And he thinks God's speaking to me.
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  God wants me to go on the road and preach Christ.
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  PC, preach Christ. So he sells everything that he
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  has and he goes on the road and the guy just struggles
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  miserably. It's like no one gets saved.
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  He's struggling, no finances are coming in and at one point in
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  time he ends up in his own hometown and after a night of
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  preaching his friend comes up to him and says hey, have you ever
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  considered the words in the sky just meant to plant corn PC
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  plant corn. Sometimes we think or feel or
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  believe that we need a sign in the sky, but Paul says here in
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  First Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 16/17/18.
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  As he writes to the church in Thessalonica, he gives us 3
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  short one line verses. And from these short verses they
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  come in a form of a command, if you will.
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  And these one line verses, they encompass God's will for daily
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  living. In other words, what God wants
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  from you tonight. You can know God's word, right,
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  God's will right now. And not only did these apply to
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  the church in Thessalonica, it applies to Calvary Church here
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  and Aurora applies to you. So if you raised your hand
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  earlier about knowing God's will, wanting to know God's will
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  want to know what he has. For you then tonight we need to
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  give careful consideration, a listening ear, and hear what the
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  Spirit might say to us. So what did Paul say to the
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  church in Thessalonica? Well, look what it says.
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  Verse 1617 and 18. Paul says rejoice, always pray
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  without ceasing and everything give thanks, for this is the
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  will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
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  Now Paul continues with this idea and this thought in verse
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  19. So let's just read a couple more
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  verses. Don't quench the Spirit.
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  Don't despise prophecy. Test all things.
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  Hold fast to what's good. Abstain from every form of evil.
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  Now, these verses that we read, we're only going to look at the
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  first three that that we read. These are all present active
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  imperatives, Present active imperatives.
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  In other words, what they are is that they are commands that Paul
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  is giving the church, commands that we are called to follow,
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  believe and live out. And so.
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  We're going to look at these first three commands tonight,
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  and these three. Focus on the will of God for
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  daily living in. Other words, what?
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  God wants to be doing each day as we seek to live for Him.
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  And so these three commands that they can and they will greatly
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  bless your life if you seek to hear the word and apply.
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  It to your life. So what are the three commands?
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  Number one is to rejoice always, #2 is to pray without ceasing.
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  And lastly it is to give always give thanks in the Lord.
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  Now let me just say a few things before we jump into our text.
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  One of the things that you'll notice with these
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  characteristics that Paul gives the church in Thessalonica.
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  Is that they all predominantly take place inside one's mind and
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  one inside one's heart. They're internal, you see long
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  before these are actionable actions to do.
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  God desires right attitude in the inward parts 1st and that's
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  important. It's important for you to hear
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  this tonight, and let me explain this a little bit further,
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  because Jesus talked about this, this idea of the inward parts,
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  the mind and the heart being set right before the Lord.
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  One of the things that Jesus taught was a distinction between
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  the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
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  Have you guys ever? Heard that before?
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  The letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
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  Anybody. Few people.
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  OK, so some tonight. This might be new.
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  And he makes a distinction between the two.
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  What's the letter of the law and the spirit of the law?
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  You know, we're told in the Old Testament, when you go back and
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  you read the Mosaic commands, the Mosaic law from Moses, you
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  think of, like Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the
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  commands, right? One of those commands is thou
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  shalt not commit adultery, right?
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  We know that. But Jesus goes on further to
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  explain not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the
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  law. OK, let me give you an example.
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  Jesus talks about this in Matthew 5 verse 27 through 28.
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  Jesus says this. He says.
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  You have heard that it was said to those of old Thou shalt not
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  commit adultery. Pause.
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  We know this, right? How many guys ever heard that
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  command? All right, Some of you guys are
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  with me tonight. Good.
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  If we know that command. I mean, every good Jew knew
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  that. Don't touch another woman.
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  That's not yours. Wrong.
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  Bad. Especially if you're married.
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  Or if they're married. It's wrong.
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  And it's very simple to say, OK, I'm not going to go do that and
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  we know the. Consequences.
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  That was very great. So it very it was very minimized
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  that sin. But Jesus says this next in
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  verse 28. But I say to you that whoever
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  looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery
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  with her in his hearts. You see, what begins in the
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  mind, in the heart, is what becomes actionable through our
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  lives, the fruit that comes out of our lives.
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  It always starts with an inward attitude before we take
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  substantial action. So as we look at these verses
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  and we talk about them, as we seek what God's will for us
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  right now, realize that it's the attitude of the mind and heart
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  that God wants to apprehend it from us tonight.
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  OK, so let's look at these commands that Paul gives
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  starting in verse 16. Paul says rejoice always in the
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  Lord. Rejoice always in the Lord.
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  This is a wonderful word from God for us today to be those
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  that rejoice always in the Lord. If anyone here has an old
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  school, King James 1000, the thieves and those right, it
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  says, rejoice evermore, rejoice evermore.
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  The literal translation is to to be one that always is rejoicing
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  continually tonight. It is the will of God for you to
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  rejoice always in the Lord. I find it interesting because
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  joy is something that we and the world have always longed for.
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  And yet it seems so difficult to attain, so hard to apprehend
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  this idea of of happiness. And you got to.
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  Ask Well, why? You know, we're told to have to
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  have joy all the time. And yet when we look at the
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  world, it seems like they struggle with that so often.
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  And I believe it's this. I believe that mankind from the
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  very beginning has always lived with the pursuit of trying to to
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  seek happiness, of finding contentment with this world.
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  All people want this. All people seek this.
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  I I would say more now than ever, people want to be happy.
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  They want to be happy in life. You see it throughout the world.
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  People do that. You look, just look at the
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  cartoons. If you watch any of the
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  cartoons, movies with the kids, all of them have the storyline
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  where they live happily, ever what after.
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  Even movies are like that. Even like revenge movies where
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  you know they did this to me and I'm going to go back after them.
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  The idea is at the end of the movie that justice is served.
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  The wrongs have been made right. We see this in our country.
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  We see this in the American dream of prosperity and success.
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  It's even written in our very constitution in our country.
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  It goes like this. We hold these truths to be
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  self-evident, that all men are created equal and they are
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  endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
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  among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
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  Again, in our culture, man seeks Happiness through many
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  different. Ways, beauty or.
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  Fame or position or possessions. And yet so many come up short.
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  Empty. Unfulfilled, dissatisfied,
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  disillusioned, even when some of these things seem to be
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  attained. Take for example a guy by the
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  name of Marcus persons. Anybody here know who Marcus
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  persons? Is anybody not one person,
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  Marcus persons. You may not know him by name,
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  but you'll know him by his creation.
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  Something he made, he created. If you're a parent of a kid
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  anywhere from 7:00 to like 20/23/24, you'll know this
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  because Marcus Person was the creator of this game called
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  Minecraft. Anybody heard that game?
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  That game, Minecraft. It's a fun game I played with my
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  kids. I mean, hours.
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  I'm like making things like, no, the zombie's going to get you
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  and you're like using these swords you create.
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  And it's a fun game. It was released in 2011 within
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  four years time. By 2014 it was a world
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  phenomenon of a game because in 2014 Microsoft decided to buy
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  that game for Marcus for 2 1/2 billion dollars. 2 1/2 billion
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  dollars. Instantly, Marcus Persons became
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  a billionaire overnight and you can imagine what you do with
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  billions of dollars. He bought homes that were over
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  $70 million, travelled to exotic locations, spent millions on
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  cars and as you listen to his expression of his wealth, he
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  says this and I quote the problem with getting everything
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  is you wanna. Run out of reasons to keep
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  trying and human interaction becomes impossible due to
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  imbalance. I can hang out with my friends
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  and I be to Spain. I party with famous people.
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  I do whatever I want whenever I want, buy whatever I want.
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  I found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my lifestyle
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  and went with a normal person instead.
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  Unfulfilled, dissatisfied, empty.
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  He has more wealth and finances than everybody in this room or
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  this city combined. And we asked the question, why
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  is that the case? It's the case because there's a
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  distinction that has to be made between happiness and joy, and
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  mankind has been pursuing happiness.
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  And comes up empty. Happiness, by definition is.
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  This is defined by man as an attitude of satisfaction and
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  delight based on present circumstance.
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  It's emotionally based and driven on the happenings and the
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  happenstances of life. In other words, when things go
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  your way and in your favour, your happiness is then
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  experienced. However, when the tides turns,
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  the difficulties come, the trials, hardship, suffering,
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  your happiness quickly fades away and.
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  It's gone. Let me make it clear.
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  Happiness in and of itself is not sinful or wrong or
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  unbiblical. In fact, God created us with the
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  ability to experience happiness, the emotion of happiness.
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  In fact, there's some scriptures that backed us up.
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  Let me just give you a couple very quickly.
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  OK? The 1st is Psalms 144, verse 15.
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  It says it's the famous Psalm. You know this happy are the
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  people who are in such state. Happy are the people whose God
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  is their Lord. Guys heard that before John
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  1317. This is Jesus speaking.
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  He says if you know these things, all the things that he
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  was teaching and saying, if you know these things, happy are
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  you. If you do them again, that word
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  happy, whether it's in the Hebrew in the Old Testament or
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  Greek in the New Testament, it's just the word that we use today
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  as blessed, you know someone. Says, How's your day going, man?
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  I'm blessed. I'm just happy today.
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  I'm blessed today. And it communicates this idea of
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  happiness and thankfulness now, joy and the ability to rejoice,
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  because the word joy and rejoice are the same.
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  Word joy is much different than happiness.
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  And it's vital that we as Christians, as believers, grasp
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  and understand what biblical spiritual joy is and where this
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  joy comes from. Now, if you were to pull out
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  your phone or you were to flip out into a dictionary, flip into
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  a dictionary, and you look up the word joy, unfortunately, the
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  definition that you're going to read or find will leave you
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  dissatisfied. OK, I looked it up in the
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  American Webster's dictionary, and this is the definition of
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  joy from the dictionary. It says this the emotion invoked
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  by well-being success or good fortune, by the prospect of
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  possession, possessing what one might desire or delight.
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  It is the expression or exhibition of such emotion.
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  It's gayety. It's the state of happiness or
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  Felicity or bliss, a source or cause of delight.
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  It just comes up short. From what a true and biblical
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  and spiritual joy is, why does it come up short?
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  Because it's man's attempt to describe what it can only be
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  given by God. Joy.
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  True joy is something that can only be experienced in the Lord.
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  So what is that? What is biblical joy for us to
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  be the people that rejoice always?
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  Well, let me give you my definition that I wrote out, my
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  explanation of what biblical spiritual joy is.
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  It's this Spiritual joy is the settled conviction that God is
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  in control. Spiritual joy is not an attitude
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  dependent on chance or circumstance, but rather a deep
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  and abiding confidence, hope and faith that regardless of the
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  circumstance in life, that all is well between the believer in
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  God. Yes, the emotion of happiness at
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  times can be experienced in this joy, but true biblical and
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  spiritual joy supersedes based on the nature and the character
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  of God and the sure promise found in His word.
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  That's what is what biblical joy is.
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  And let me tell you tonight that this joy ought to be the
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  defining character in the life of the Christian in your life
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  and in my life, Jesus taught us, Jesus said to us in John 1511
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  that these things I've spoken to you, his words that you have in
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  your Bible, these things he has given to us, that his joy may
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  remain in US and that that joy may be full in US.
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  Jesus tells us and calls us not just to have joy, but for that
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  joy to be overflowing in our life.
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  So here's the question. Why does it seem or feel that so
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  many in the church they wrestle with the lack of joy?
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  Why do we lack in this area of our lives?
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  Again, again, if if we think that joy is brought through hap,
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  our our joy is brought through happiness, we're mistaken and we
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  will always come up empty. So we're commanded to have this
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  joy right? Rejoice always in the Lord.
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  And some Christians might say, well, how do I do that?
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  Because it's the command. Paul's commanding the church in
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  Thessalonica. The Christians there that the
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  church that he planted. Guys, walk in joy.
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  You're going through persecution.
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  Walk in joy always. He also gives that command of
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  the church in Philippi, another church he planted to the church
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  in the the letter to the Philippians, he writes in
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  chapter 4, verse four. He says rejoice always, again.
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  I say rejoice again. That word, rejoice is the same
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  word as joy. So how do we get this Christian
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  biblical joy? How do we live this out?
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  How do we grasp this and understand this?
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  Let me give you 4 practical truths really quick.
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  OK, if you're taking notes, you can write these down.
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  Four important truths as it relates to joy.
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  Number one, it's to know that joy is more than a feeling.
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  Joy is more than a feeling. Christian joy can be experienced
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  through emotion, but not always. That's important.
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  Christian joy can be experienced through emotion, but not always.
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  It's very similar to Biblical love.
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  See, Biblical love can be expressed through emotion, but
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  it's not dependent on emotion. It is rather becomes a choice, a
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  conscious and intentional decision to love to walk.
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  And joy and joy is experienced in the soul of the believer in.
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  Christ. Joy becomes something we choose
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  to pursue, a decision to follow after a choice of obedience
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  through faith, hope and love. So joy, Biblical joy.
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  Again, it's more than emotion of the feeling.
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  Secondly, biblical joy is produced by the Holy Spirit.
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  This is key. Biblical joy is produced by the
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  Holy Spirit. It's not something that I can
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  just make happen. I can just.
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  I'm going to squeeze it out. There it is.
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  I got joy. It doesn't happen that way, OK?
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  It's not something you can manufacture in the flesh.
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  No, it is a byproduct of a life that is surrendered and
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  submitted to the Holy Spirit. Did you catch that?
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  Biblical joy is a byproduct of your life, my life being
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  surrendered and submitted to the Holy Spirit.
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  You see, if we're not submitted and and surrendered, maybe that
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  might be the area of why some Christians are not experienced
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  the joy they they should be experiencing.
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  You see, Paul gives this a little bit further in the book
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  of Galatians. He talks about this in
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  Galatians, and in Galatians chapter five he tells the
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  Christians there about the distinction between walking in
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  the Spirit and walking in the flesh.
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  You guys familiar with that? He tells us, walk in the Spirit
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  and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
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  And then what He does? It said, he gives us the
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  instructions on the distinction between the flesh and the
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  Spirit, and he gives us the list of the things of the flesh.
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  Don't do that, but do this. Don't walk in your nature.
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  Walk in the Spirit and remember what he says there.
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  The fruit of the Spirit is love. And the second one is what joy?
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  Don't do this, Do this. Don't live in this way.
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  Live in this. Way.
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  Joy is a fruit in the byproduct. As we choose to walk in the
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  Spirit, choose to walk in obedience, it's there.
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  As we walk in the Spirit, we encounter the byproduct.
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  As a life is surrendered and submitted to the Holy Spirit,
• 22:47
  joy begins to come out of our life.
• 22:50
  See, God doesn't just give this to you as you pray it.
• 22:54
  It works in concession with your willingness to surrender and
• 22:57
  yield. And as you surrender and yield,
• 23:00
  it comes. So joy more than feeling, joy
• 23:03
  the byproduct of the Holy Spirit.
• 23:04
  Thirdly, joy comes from gaining and maintaining perspective.
• 23:08
  This is huge joy, biblical joy, the ability for us to rejoice
• 23:12
  always. It comes from gaining and
• 23:14
  maintaining right perspective. Specifically these perspectives
• 23:19
  knowing and gaining a right perspective on who God is, who
• 23:24
  Jesus is, what he has done for us, what He is doing for us,
• 23:27
  what he will do for us. And all of that comes from a
• 23:30
  greater understanding of the Word of God, the more of the.
• 23:33
  Word of God, you grasp, you read, you study.
• 23:37
  The more that you're going to gain the right perspective as
• 23:40
  God works in and through your life again.
• 23:43
  The more we know of His nature, His love, His heart, his plans,
• 23:47
  the more joy we can experience in Him.
• 23:52
  How often are you in the word? How much are you learning about
• 23:56
  who Jesus is? His promises, His blessings, the
• 24:01
  areas of warning. Again, this is a game changer
• 24:05
  for some of us. Are you struggling with joy
• 24:08
  tonight in the Lord? Are you struggling with the joy
• 24:10
  of the Lord being your strength? Could it be, could it be that we
• 24:15
  just don't really, truly know the Lord as well as we think we
• 24:18
  do? You know, the Bible talks about
• 24:21
  us going through trials, right? What's the purpose of trials?
• 24:24
  That the testing of your faith might be revealed, right?
• 24:28
  And sometimes, as we go through the Christian life, we realize,
• 24:32
  man, I am not so much. I'm not so joyful as I should be
• 24:35
  because I'm really not living a life as surrendered and
• 24:38
  submitted to the Spirit as God would ask of me to be.
• 24:44
  Again, joy is more than a feeling.
• 24:45
  It's it's a biblical joy as a product and byproduct of the
• 24:48
  Holy Spirit working in through my life.
• 24:50
  Joy comes from gaining and maintaining right perspective.
• 24:52
  Here's the last one really quick.
• 24:54
  OK, I'm spending a lot of time on joy, so we have to be quicker
• 24:56
  on the others. OK, the last truth about joy is
• 24:59
  that joy is the bottom line. It's gained through obedience.
• 25:03
  Joy is gained through obedience. It's more than a feeling, it's
• 25:07
  more we know that it's a byproduct, the Holy Spirit.
• 25:10
  It comes through gaining, maintaining perspective.
• 25:12
  But lastly it becomes a choice of obedience.
• 25:16
  How is joy founder? Obedience?
• 25:18
  Because it comes to the discipline, the spiritual
• 25:20
  discipline of reading the word and believing the word over my
• 25:23
  emotion, over my feeling. Paul writes in in Romans to the
• 25:29
  church in Rome to encourage them.
• 25:32
  He says you guys want to grow in faith.
• 25:34
  Well, in Romans 10/17, Paul says that faith comes by hearing and
• 25:37
  hearing the word, the word of God.
• 25:40
  It takes discipline to hear the word of God on a regular basis.
• 25:44
  It's not an easy thing. It's not a tomorrow.
• 25:47
  We all have work. We got to get up early.
• 25:49
  We have to get there on time. But for you to get up an hour
• 25:52
  early, 30 minutes early, to spend time in the word, to spend
• 25:55
  a good amount at that requires A discipline.
• 25:59
  But I guarantee as you do, you will increase in faith.
• 26:03
  In the Lord. And through that act of
• 26:05
  obedience, what happens is you gain perspective.
• 26:08
  You're walking in the Spirit. You realize all of a sudden man,
• 26:12
  there is supernatural faith that God begins to give you.
• 26:15
  You begin to experience joy in the Lord.
• 26:19
  So faith abounds. So does our confidence in the
• 26:22
  living God who's actively working and moving in us.
• 26:26
  So Paul commands the church in Thessalonica.
• 26:29
  This is God's will for you right now to rejoice always.
• 26:34
  Are you doing that diligently, faithfully, consistently.
• 26:39
  Now Paul gives us a couple more commands, right?
• 26:42
  The second command that Paul gives in verse 17 of First
• 26:45
  Thessalonians chapter 5. And there he says to pray
• 26:49
  without what your Bible say. Ceasing.
• 26:52
  I remember as a young Christian when I was a sophomore in high
• 26:55
  school, I read, I read this verse or it was taught.
• 26:59
  I don't remember. But I remember thinking, well,
• 27:01
  how do I pray without ceasing? Like that's crazy.
• 27:04
  Like I'm going to be on my hands and he's walking to the first
• 27:06
  period, second period on my knees, like, Lord, just Lord
• 27:08
  pray for me. And I.
• 27:09
  And I began thinking, what's that like?
• 27:11
  And I remember talking to my youth pastor about this, and
• 27:13
  he's like just always talking to God.
• 27:16
  And I remember going to school today and actually do that.
• 27:19
  I was going from one period to the next.
• 27:21
  I'm like, God help me with this class.
• 27:22
  I hate this teacher. God, give me strength, Help me
• 27:25
  not to walk in the flesh and let me know.
• 27:27
  Walk in the Spirit. And I just began connecting with
• 27:30
  the Lord and I. It became a pattern in my life
• 27:33
  of learning to always consistently be in prayer with
• 27:36
  the Lord. Now here's the thing that's
• 27:38
  interesting. This is key.
• 27:40
  It's not an accident that rejoice always and pray always
• 27:47
  are linked together. They are linked together with
• 27:50
  intention. And why is that the case?
• 27:53
  Because our uplook towards heaven will always change our
• 27:57
  outlook on earth. Always.
• 28:02
  The more that you get your eyes upon the Lord, the more you're
• 28:04
  going to see everything around you.
• 28:06
  Clearly, our uplook towards heaven will always change our
• 28:10
  outlook here on earth. If we always seek God first in
• 28:14
  prayer, our outlook on God in the circumstance will turn out
• 28:17
  much different than when we don't always.
• 28:21
  And the only way to pray is to rejoice.
• 28:23
  Always is to pray, always be Getting bright perspective,
• 28:27
  keeping my eyes upon the Lord. The only way to live this
• 28:30
  Christian life, the only way through our struggles,
• 28:33
  temptation, hardships, failures, successes, is by by consistently
• 28:38
  practing the idea of casting. We have to continually be
• 28:42
  casting, casting all the time. Are you good at casting today?
• 28:46
  I know what you're thinking. This.
• 28:48
  Guy, what are you talking about casting?
• 28:50
  Talk about casting anybody here like to to fish.
• 28:52
  Any Fisher men, Fisher women in the room.
• 28:55
  Thank you. God bless you.
• 28:56
  Yeah, I got some people I knew when I made eye contact with
• 28:58
  somebody. I'm like, yes, yes, I love to
• 29:01
  fish. And I fished for many years.
• 29:04
  I fished when I lived in California, when I moved out
• 29:06
  here. And Pastor Ed always has given
• 29:08
  me a hard time about fishing. I'll take a, you know, I'll go
• 29:10
  fishing. I'd catch a fish.
• 29:11
  I'd be like, look my fish. And then I would throw it back.
• 29:14
  And Pastor Ed would always troll me.
• 29:16
  He's like, it's the same fish, bro.
• 29:17
  Every time you put that on social media, you know your
• 29:20
  Twitter, your ex, your Facebook, it's the same fish, Louie.
• 29:23
  I know it. And why do you throw them back?
• 29:26
  I mean, he's like that you don't throw that, you eat them.
• 29:28
  And so he always gave me a hard time.
• 29:30
  But I love to fly fish here in Colorado.
• 29:33
  Casting makes all the difference in the world.
• 29:37
  Your ability cast. So when you're walking the river
• 29:40
  and you're in your waders, you have your fly rod and you're
• 29:42
  walking the stretch of river. What you learn to do is you
• 29:45
  learn to grid the water. You learn to break the water
• 29:48
  down by gridding it. And as you read the water, there
• 29:51
  are seams and there are little ripples and there is foam and
• 29:55
  there's all these different aspects.
• 29:56
  And as you read the water you know where to put the line to,
• 30:00
  where to put the fly to get the best drift, to give, to increase
• 30:04
  the chance of getting a hook up and landing a fish.
• 30:09
  It's very important. Your ability at casting tonight
• 30:14
  makes all the difference in the world.
• 30:16
  Let me explain what I mean by casting First Peter 5 seven
• 30:20
  Peter Wright for the Church. He says, casting all your cares
• 30:24
  on him, for he cares for you. How consistent, how faithful,
• 30:31
  how diligent are we with the Lord at casting our lives at the
• 30:35
  feet of Jesus? Because that's what he wants us
• 30:38
  to do on a consistent 24 hours, seven days a week, period.
• 30:42
  Casting our lives at His feet, our past, our present, our
• 30:46
  future and everything. Laying it down at the feet of
• 30:48
  Jesus because he cares desperately for us and your life
• 30:52
  and every part of your life. That you live.
• 30:55
  He cares about all of it, and he wants us on a regular basis.
• 30:58
  That that idea of praying without ceasing, laying it
• 31:01
  before his feet. Our lives.
• 31:04
  And as we do that, our prayers become to God like the burning
• 31:07
  of incest as it rises to God and he breathes them in.
• 31:12
  That's the poetic aspect that we read in Scripture of what our
• 31:15
  prayers are like before God. It's just burning up before him,
• 31:18
  and he he receives that it's going, oh, it is so good for me
• 31:22
  to receive their prayers. We are to pray without ceasing,
• 31:27
  always. How are we tonight?
• 31:31
  With casting our burdens faithfully before the Lord, you
• 31:35
  know, sometimes this is where, at least for me, where the
• 31:39
  problem lies. In my own walk with the Lord, we
• 31:42
  can go through the motion of prayer.
• 31:44
  We go through the ritual of prayer.
• 31:46
  But we're not truly laying the burden at the feet of Jesus or
• 31:51
  trusting him with it. There's that old hymn.
• 31:55
  What a friend we have in Jesus. You guys know that him?
• 31:58
  That old school hymn. We just sang it a few weeks back
• 32:01
  at our church. What a friend we have in Jesus.
• 32:03
  One of the lines goes like this. Oh what peace.
• 32:07
  We often forfeit. Oh what?
• 32:09
  Needless. Pain we bear all because we do
• 32:13
  not carry everything to God in prayer.
• 32:18
  He ought to be the first one we run to in all things.
• 32:21
  So what's it mean to pray without ceasing?
• 32:23
  He tells us there in verse 17, Church, the church in
• 32:26
  Thessalonica, the church here at Aurora, he says to pray without
• 32:30
  ceasing. Is it just this idea of 24 hour
• 32:33
  non-stop mumbling underneath our breath?
• 32:35
  No, that's not what it is. The thought and idea is that
• 32:39
  prayer is meant to be recurring, not just occurring.
• 32:44
  It's not something that we just do every now and then, but
• 32:48
  becomes a normal practice in the everyday life of the Christian.
• 32:53
  It's meant to be repeated. Throughout our day, between US
• 32:56
  and the Lord, it's not the idea of constantly speaking, but
• 33:01
  rather listen to this. It's not the idea of constantly
• 33:04
  speaking, but a consistent reminder in consciousness of
• 33:10
  God's presence, God's will, God's way, God's Word, God's
• 33:14
  plan, and God Himself. In my life, He's on my mind.
• 33:19
  All the time. Lord, what are you going to do
• 33:22
  today? How can I serve you?
• 33:25
  Who are you going to bring my way?
• 33:27
  What? What?
• 33:28
  What do I need to see for you to use my life?
• 33:31
  Oh Lord, I pray for this Co worker God.
• 33:33
  I pray for my drive in. Lord help me just to worship you
• 33:36
  right now. Lord, I give you this.
• 33:37
  I give you that. Lord, thank you for your
• 33:39
  goodness and I can't believe I've been saved for this amount
• 33:42
  of time. And the idea is I'm having this
• 33:44
  constant communion, coining me a fellowship with the Lord that is
• 33:51
  God's will for you tonight, to be a church, to be a believer,
• 33:56
  to be a Christian, in which you walk with him and you're just,
• 33:59
  you're always. Thinking and considering.
• 34:01
  Of who God is in your life at every moment of the day.
• 34:06
  I love that we pray without ceasing.
• 34:08
  OK, we got to wrap up. OK, I don't want to go long.
• 34:11
  I've got like 40 minutes and the timer is going to start going
• 34:13
  off. OK, here we go.
• 34:15
  The last command that he gives us this evening, he says in
• 34:18
  everything. In verse 18 he says in
• 34:21
  everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
• 34:24
  Jesus for you, this is the will of God for you.
• 34:27
  It's for you to be a Christian that continually is thankful
• 34:31
  before the Lord. This is the will of God to
• 34:33
  rejoice. Always pray without ceasing and
• 34:36
  in everything of your life you give thanks.
• 34:39
  You know, so often when we talk about prayer, we often think of
• 34:44
  majority of the time. The majority of the if you think
• 34:46
  of like. A pie chart, like 90% of the pie
• 34:48
  chart is like petition. What we need, what we want, what
• 34:53
  we hope for, what we dream for. It's all the requests that we
• 34:56
  have and a small fraction of that pie chart, It's
• 35:01
  Thanksgiving. I believe life would change
• 35:04
  greatly in our walk with the Lord if we reverse that that 90%
• 35:08
  of it is praise and Thanksgiving and a small fraction becomes
• 35:12
  petition again. I believe, I believe that we
• 35:18
  must learn to walk with great contentment in the grace of God
• 35:23
  through Thanksgiving and rejoicing in the Lord.
• 35:27
  How do we 'cause this to happen? It happens when we get our eyes
• 35:30
  off of ourselves and onto our great God, and so we think of
• 35:34
  Him more than ourselves. What we think of as goodness, as
• 35:37
  magnificent, all the blessings of your life.
• 35:40
  I mean, just like last night I woke up like at 2:00 in the
• 35:41
  morning and and I was thinking about this and I was like, Lord,
• 35:44
  thank you for my pillow. Like, I my pillow is so nice
• 35:47
  right now. I just, I'm just hugging my
• 35:49
  pillow. I'm just like, snuggling.
• 35:50
  I'm like this is a good. Pillow and no joke.
• 35:53
  No joke. I was for that split second at
• 35:55
  2:00 in the morning. I was like, Lord, thank you for
• 35:58
  my. Pillow.
• 35:59
  I mean, I mean, it sounds silly, but I was enjoying that pillow
• 36:03
  at that moment. I was like, it was like.
• 36:05
  We had a connection, even the small things.
• 36:09
  So often we think of the great things that God does.
• 36:11
  But even the small things that we would be thankful for all
• 36:14
  that God has and is doing in our life.
• 36:18
  Often times the Christian approach to God as as if he were
• 36:22
  a genie in a bottle. As if he were Santa Claus, and
• 36:26
  we have to to mark our all the things that we do right then God
• 36:30
  owes us and must give to us. But rather, when we come with an
• 36:35
  attitude of rejoicing, of consistent prayer and consistent
• 36:39
  Thanksgiving, it changes our relationship with God.
• 36:45
  The purpose of giving thanks to God regularly gives us proper
• 36:50
  perspective. To an unknowing, all powerful,
• 36:52
  all loving, all capable, sovereign God.
• 36:55
  When we learn to give thanks to God first, it allows you to pray
• 36:58
  according to His will, to the nature of God and the
• 37:01
  faithfulness of God over that petition, request, or need.
• 37:04
  We are reminded of God's faithfulness and Thanksgiving.
• 37:07
  We're reminded of God's sovereignty and Thanksgiving.
• 37:09
  We are reminded of God's love and Thanksgiving.
• 37:11
  We are reminded of God's will in Thanksgiving.
• 37:14
  We are reminded of God's nature in Thanksgiving.
• 37:18
  Again, one of the ways Thanksgiving experience is
• 37:20
  through praise. We learned to praise.
• 37:23
  In fact, that word Thanksgiving in the Greek is the word
• 37:26
  Eucharista. How many guys have ever gone to
• 37:29
  a church where they talk about the Eucharist?
• 37:31
  Right. The Eucharist is the word
• 37:33
  Thanks, Thanksgiving. That's all that that is.
• 37:36
  And the idea is praise. With Thanksgiving, Ioffer God my
• 37:39
  praise. One of the ways that we
• 37:41
  experience Thanksgiving is through praise, praising God no
• 37:44
  matter the circumstance of life. Now let me make it really clear.
• 37:49
  We will all experience pain and suffering.
• 37:53
  We will all experience hardships and trials.
• 37:56
  We don't rejoice in the trial and the pain that we're
• 37:58
  experiencing. We rejoice in the God who's
• 38:00
  going to lift us up out of it. We rejoice in the God that
• 38:04
  though we suffer pain and death and loss and difficulty, that
• 38:08
  one day I will shed this body and I will forever be in His
• 38:11
  presence. I am thankful for that.
• 38:13
  Well, he will wipe every tear and pain that I've ever had, and
• 38:17
  it will be replaced with confidence and peace and hope
• 38:20
  and joy forever with the sovereign God.
• 38:22
  That is what we look to in a moment of great pain again.
• 38:27
  Knowing the will of God is one of the most important aspects in
• 38:32
  the Christian life. You don't have to search far and
• 38:35
  wide to know what God wills for you tonight.
• 38:38
  It's simple. Last 40 minutes we've been
• 38:40
  talking about what God wants for you tonight and tomorrow and the
• 38:44
  next day. Again.
• 38:46
  It starts right here in the Word.
• 38:48
  Well, Paul instructed the church in Thessalonica.
• 38:50
  Now he instructs us, he instructs you to live this way
• 38:55
  again. What's he say?
• 38:56
  Rejoice. Always praying without ceasing
• 38:58
  and everything. Give thanks for this is the will
• 39:00
  of God guys. It's not some weird mystical
• 39:03
  Eastern esoteric thing to know God's will.
• 39:06
  It's not some secret or hard to find thing.
• 39:08
  It's simple. Just look in the Word and then
• 39:11
  we say, OK, God. That's what the word.
• 39:13
  Says, Let me now go out and live it and do it.
• 39:17
  Let me end with a quick story. There was a guy who was on this
• 39:20
  diet, a really strict diet, serious diet, and one day he
• 39:24
  decided to that he would drive to work and he'd drive around
• 39:29
  this area, take his time where the local donut shop was, but he
• 39:33
  wouldn't get too close, if you will.
• 39:35
  And so he shows up to work that day and guess what he has with
• 39:37
  him? He has like this giant massive
• 39:40
  donut and all the Co workers are there looking at him with their
• 39:43
  arms folded and like, OK, Billy. OK, Bobby.
• 39:45
  Hey, I know that you're cheating on your diet, bro.
• 39:47
  Like what are you doing? Got the giant donut in front of
• 39:50
  you. He looks at them.
• 39:52
  He says, Guys, I know what you're thinking.
• 39:54
  I know it. But it's not.
• 39:55
  It's not what you're thinking. This is a very special doughnut.
• 39:59
  You see, I was driving around the area past the doughnut shop
• 40:04
  and I noticed this huge doughnut in the window.
• 40:07
  And there, you know, I was wondering as I saw that
• 40:09
  doughnut, it wasn't by chance. I saw that doughnut, and I began
• 40:14
  to wonder if it was the will of God for me.
• 40:16
  To have that huge doughnut. And so I prayed God, if it is
• 40:21
  your will for me to buy that huge doughnut, give me a sign
• 40:25
  and open a parking spot right there in the front.
• 40:31
  Sure enough, after the eighth time around the block, there it
• 40:33
  was, The spot was open. Love that doughnut.
• 40:40
  You know it's interesting, but you'll be surprised at the
• 40:43
  conclusion of some Christian's day trying to figure out the
• 40:46
  will of God. It doesn't need to be that hard
• 40:48
  or that difficult. God's will today is that we
• 40:52
  would rejoice, always walking in the joy of the Lord today, that
• 40:56
  we would pray without ceasing, that we would have a continual
• 41:00
  consciousness of God. And his presence.
• 41:02
  In our lives. And lastly that we would be
• 41:05
  those that give thanks for he is good and gracious and is an all
• 41:09
  loving God. Amen.
• 41:12
  You pray with me. God is our expectation to walk
• 41:23
  in you, that we would be yours. We know God.
• 41:29
  You know all things. Things that we need, things that
• 41:32
  we want, the things that we hope for and desire.
• 41:33
  And we ask today, tonight, that you would teach us again your
• 41:39
  will for our inner man or woman to be those that rejoice in all
• 41:43
  things, to be those that communicate with you and pray
• 41:46
  without ceasing. And in all things, Lord, to give
• 41:49
  thanks, help us to know this, help us to practice this in our
• 41:53
  life today. God, I pray for those tonight
• 41:57
  that might be trying to find happiness.
• 42:00
  I pray for those that are trying to experience true contentment
• 42:03
  in this world, and they might be trying to find it in a job, they
• 42:06
  might be trying to find it in money, they might be find it
• 42:09
  with hobbies or sports. And yet they are coming up short
• 42:14
  and they are discontented in this life.
• 42:17
  God, I pray that we would look to you and that you would fill
• 42:20
  the void in our heart in our life through a relationship with
• 42:24
  Jesus Christ. God tonight wants you to
• 42:28
  experience a true and relate true and real relationship with
• 42:33
  Him. And it's not found in religion.
• 42:37
  It's found by way of relationship.
• 42:39
  And tonight, God wants you to give you His heart, fresh and
• 42:43
  new. He wants you to experience the
• 42:46
  joy that only He provides through relationship with Jesus
• 42:49
  Christ. That's it.
• 42:52
  And you have to choose that to say, yes, I'll receive it, yes,
• 42:55
  I'll take that. Because God can give you
• 42:58
  incredible peace, hope, and joy, but it's found in Jesus.
• 43:04
  If that's you tonight, whether you're here in person or whether
• 43:08
  you're listening on the radio or whether you are watching online,
• 43:11
  you can cry out to God and he can say God tonight.
• 43:15
  I want to give you my life. I want that joy.
• 43:20
  I want that peace. I want that hope that's found in
• 43:24
  and through a relationship with Jesus and he can cry out to him,
• 43:28
  say God changed me, God save me, God heal me, God fill me.
• 43:37
  And as you pray that by faith the Bible says that he will
• 43:40
  forgive you and save you and radically change you, just like
• 43:46
  he did in my life, just like he did to Pastor Ed.
• 43:51
  He, that same spirit that worked in US, desires to work in you
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  tonight. But you have to ask for it.
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  You have to receive it as the gift of God that's found in
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  Jesus. So God, right now, I just pray
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  for those that are listening. That you might work by your
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  spirits and that you might bring people into this joyous
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  relationship in Jesus. That you would bring a cleansing
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  and a renewal in their heart. That you would remove the burden
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  of sin even right now as they pray to you.
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  God. That you would work and move by
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  your spirits, those that are listening online, watching God,
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  that you would speak to them where they're at right now,
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  their life might be changed. God, we thank you for working in
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  us in spite of us. Your word says even when we are
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  unfaithful, you remain faithful. So work and move and may we take
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  the things taught tonight, things that we heard and that we
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  would put faith to our feet and now go out and live it and do it
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  with great joy in you. That's our prayer we ask and we
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  prayed in Jesus name together we say Amen.
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  Praise the Lord. We pray that you've been
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  encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
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  sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer.
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  Call us at 87730 Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
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  To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
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  live stream services, visit us online at Calvary, Co dot Church
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  or download our free Calvary Church app, Be Blessed as You
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  Worship Jesus this week.