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Episode 18 - The Joy That Remains · Women At The Well: REJOICE

• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Women at the Well Rejoice.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's a beautiful day.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Rose, your host, and thank you for joining me today.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is so good to be with you for episode 18, Joy That Remains.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: In the month of April, we've talked about finding joy in the morning, talked about finding joy in hard times, finding joy in Christ, and keeping your joy despite life.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: But today we're going to talk about the joy that remains.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's about longevity.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So grab your coffee, your tea, our lemon water, and don't forget your Bible.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's learn how to keep the pilot light of our souls lit when those storm clouds come in, when things don't go like we want them to go.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We want that joy to remain.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we come before you with hearts open wide.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're sitting at the edge of the well, and Lord, we're thirsty for your truth.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you for the gift of this day.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And Father, I thank you for the sisters gathered here in spirit.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, as we dive into your word, let the scales fall from our eyes.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Please help us to move beyond the temporary happiness, the one that shifts when the wind and with the wind, um, and it leads us into deeper bodied joy that only comes from you.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be pleasing to you, our rock and our redeemer.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: In John 15, 11, Jesus says, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Remember last week we read from John 15, we read 9 through 11.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I'm gonna read that again.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 9 says, As the Father loved me, I also have loved you.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Abide in my love.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 10 says, If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandment and abide in his love.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus tells us he loves us as the Father loved him.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: He also tells us, if we keep the commandments, we abide in that love.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So in verse 11, he says, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the sequence there.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: It starts with his joy being in us first.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: You see, we aren't out here trying to manufacture our joy from our own recycled emotions.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: We just can't do it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: We are plugging into the source.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: When we abide in him, staying connected like a branch to a vine, his joy naturally flows into our system.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: It becomes full.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: And some people I've heard some people say his joy is complete.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it becomes complete, lacking nothing.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: But how do we stay in that place when life gets heavy?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's where Psalms 121 comes in.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's our anthem for today, and maybe for the rest of your life.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: In Psalms 21, we see many reasons why our joy can remain.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let's read it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: He shall preserve thy soul.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: From this time forth and forevermore.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: So when we look up, we see that God is the provider.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: We see that our help comes from him.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: It says, I lift up my eyes to the hills.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: From where does my help come from?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: My help comes from the Lord who made who?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Both heaven and earth.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Furthermore, it tells us he will not allow our foot to be moved.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: When the psalmist says he will not allow your foot to be moved, that carries three deep layers of meaning for us today.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, to have your foot moved means to be shaken or to lose your grip on pizza.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you know sometimes things come into our life and they shake us to our core.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: This promise means that while the ground beneath you might be shaken, your position in God is fixed.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: He provides the track, the traction.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: We need to stand firm when life tries to push us over.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, notice the very next line.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: It says, He who keeps you will not slumber.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the reason your foot won't slip is that the one God in you never takes his eyes off our path.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Look, unlike a human God who might get tired or distracted, God is intimately aware of every loose rock or slippery slope in our day, in our evening, in our week, every minute, every hour.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: He sees the trip wire before we even get to it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: He's also the unslumbering watchman.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's number three.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: We can have remaining joy because guess what?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: We aren't the ones responsible for holding the world together.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: You see, the one who's responsible for holding the world together and keeping us, he does not slumber nor sleep.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not telling you what Rose is saying.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Rose is telling you what the scripture is saying.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And all this makes me just, it gets my joy going again.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we feel like we're walking on ice, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this just happens.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes things in life, we like, okay, this happened on Monday.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now this has happened on Tuesday.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: What's coming on Wednesday?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: But verse 3 is God's guarantee of stability.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: He isn't just watching from a distance.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: He is steadying our ankles.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: He is making sure that even when the wind blows hard, your foundation, my foundation, your joy, my joy, and your soul, my soul, stays exactly where he placed it on the rock, the south rock.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the shade at our right hand.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Says the Lord is your keeper.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Says the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: He guards your going out and you're coming in.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want your joy to stay put, you have to change your perspective on security.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Joy remains when we realize that our safety is not in our hands.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not about us.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't found in the absence of trouble, but it is in the presence of our keeper.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And our keeper is the Lord God Almighty.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: He is our personal bodyguard.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: In the original language, keeper, Shema, means to head about with thorns, to guard and to protect.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's an active military style word.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: He isn't just watching you, he is standing guard over you.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: He is the right hand position.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: In ancient times, the right hand was the side where a soldier held his sword.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Leaving that side exposed and vulnerable because the shield was in the left hand.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: By being the shade at your right hand, God is saying, I am covering your most valuable spot, toe coverage.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Mentioning the sun by day and moon by night is a way of saying there isn't a single hour of our 24-hour cycle where we are left uncovered.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, whether it's the burning heat of a visible crisis, which we can say is the sun, or the cold, creeping anxieties that come in in the dark, our moon, God is our climate.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: He is our climate control.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when we look at verse 7 and 8, he is the preservationist of our soul.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: It says, the Lord shall preserve you from all evil.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: He shall preserve your soul.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Them mighty words.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's the mighty powerful word.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we break that down, he's our internal protection.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Notice it says he preserves your soul.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's your inner man, your inner woman.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: The world might bruise our bodies, our bank accounts, but this promise is about the real you, that inner you, the one that no one can see but him.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: See your joy remains because the core of who you are is tucked away in his safety deposit box.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now let's look at the words our coming and going.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: This covers the rhythm of our life.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're going out, it's like uh we're going to work, you're going to your ministry, your podcast, your dreams, your family vacation, and whatever else you may be doing outside your home.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Your coming in is your rest, your home, your private life, your internal time.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: He's preserving that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: The forever clause is all powerful.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Not just, he didn't say I'll just protect you on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we're gonna see what's gonna happen.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Then I'll come back on Thursday.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: He gave you a forever clause.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: The joy remains because the contract has no expiration date.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: No expiration date.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's from this time forward, that's today.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: In this very moment, and even forevermore.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a good contract.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best type of contract.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And can't nobody do that for us but God.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sisters verse 5 to 8 are our insurance policies.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: We serve a God who doesn't just give us a map and wish us good luck.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: He walks this trail with us daily.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: He is our shade when the world gets too hot to handle.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: He is our gatekeeper when we tuck ourselves in at night.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Sisters, we must have a faithful realization that our joy is guaranteed by the one who never sleeps.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: He is the God who keeps us.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: You can rejoice today, not because your life is perfect, but because your keeper, our God, is perfect.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: You see, your soul is preserved, your exit is cut, and your interest is secure.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you for being our shade and our shield.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you that our joy doesn't have to depend on our own strength, but on your faithfulness.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: As we leave this world today, we ask that you would settle these truths deep in our spirits.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: When the hills look too high, remind us to look up to you.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: When our feet feel like they're slipping, steady us with your hands.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Father God, thank you for being the God who never sleeps, who never slumbers.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for watching over our going outs and our coming ins.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, we choose to rejoice today knowing that our souls are preserved in your love forever.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for keeping us.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being our keeper.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for preserving us.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' precious name we pray.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sisters, this is the last session for joy.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray that God has blessed you with this session and that it helps you to keep your joy no matter what comes your way.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be the first to tell you that things can come my come my way and make me feel like I'm falling off the mountaintop.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to keep my joy.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I want to keep my joy so I can spread it to another system.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So keep your joy in spite of everything that comes our way throughout the day, throughout the month, throughout the years.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep your joy.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us this morning at the well.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I want to leave you with a small challenge for the rest of the week.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I want to give you a tip of a challenge.