Allow Joy To Reintroduce Himself | Pastor Tauren Wells | Elevation Church

all right before we get into the message  i have something really exciting to share elevation nights is back and we're coming to  eight incredible cities this october from the 21st through the 30th we're coming to st paul  omaha st louis louisville duth tampa miami and orlando and we're bringing the full experience to  you elevation worship live and a powerful message from my husband pastor steven i cannot wait to  see what god is going to do in these cities so don't wait i don't want you to miss out on this  head to elevation. com if you live near any of those cities grab your tickets and get ready  to meet with god and leave feeling inspired and encouraged we cannot wait to worship with  you So grateful to be here with you all today, preaching to what feels to me to be  family. I get so excited anytime I get to share space with you.

And, uh, if you're  not familiar with who I am, that's okay. I'm just your crazy beige little nephew from  Austin, Texas that pulled up on you today. Just khaki, just out here praising God. 

Congratulations to Elevation Rhythm on the release, Victory Lap. I was encouraging Davide,  and, um, depending on how you take it, encouraging or discouraging Chris. 'Cause I said my  12-year-old son was riding in the car with me the other day, and he said, "Dad, why does Elevation  Rhythm have more bangers than Elevation Worship?

" My, how the turns have tabled. Ah. But  seriously celebrating you, and what a, a testimony of this house, always  being about the next generation, building for the future, uh, not just saying  it but investing time, resources, platform, influence.

And it just flows from a generous  house, which is the culmination of generous leadership. And I'm so grateful for  your pastor, Pastor Steven Furtick, Holly. I love you guys.

So grateful for your  kindness, for your friendship, for your support. Shout out to Chunks, wherever he's bench-pressing  something today. Just so grateful.

Chunks has been the secret weapon of Church of Whitestone  in Austin. I've called him countless times, and he just makes room for us, and I'm so  grateful. And ultimately I'm grateful for you all, because generosity doesn't just flow  to this church, it flows through this church, and it flowed right into Austin to Whitestone to  help us plant our church 15 months ago.

And I just wanna let you know that God's doing something with  the seed that you've sown, that over the last 15 months we've baptized 507 people. We've seen 630  people say yes to Jesus for the very first time. So amazing to be a footnote in God's great  story, and I'm just so grateful for the ways that you have partnered with us.

We're gonna go  quickly to the scripture, Matthew 5:1. Grab your Bibles. If you don't have it, this is Elevation,  you'll be able to read it somewhere.

It'll be on the screens. Um, Matthew 5:1. When you got it,  say, "I got it.

" A singing church, I love it. Ah. Matthew 5:1.

"Now when Jesus saw the crowds,  He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them.  'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,  for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are  those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the  merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they  will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children  of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. '" Today, with the help of the Holy Spirit,  I'll be drawing this title, Allow Joy to Reintroduce Himself. Allow Joy to Reintroduce  Himself.

Would you pray with me? Jesus, thank You so much for Your Word. I pray that You would  warm our hearts today to receive what it is that You have to speak to us.

God, I pray that there  would be a supernatural impartation of Your joy, that it would flow from the pages of these  scriptures, from the heart of Your presence, into the lives of Your people. We ask  it in Jesus' name. And the church said?

Amen. You can go ahead and take your  seat. Allow Joy to Reintroduce Himself.

I wanna ask you a question today.  Who in human history taught the most important message on joy? Who in  human history taught the most important message on joy?

Now, I know we got a  lotta church folk up in here today. I know there are a lot of people who have  been following Jesus for a long time in the room and watching online today. And so, I don't  just wanna assume that we're all just drawing the same conclusions about joy and the origins of  the message of joy, and who articulated the power of joy most perfectly.

Some of you may point  to someone like Buddha, and say that Buddha taught the most important message on happiness  and joy. He seems like a pretty happy guy. And, uh, he said this phrase, that "Happiness, it, that there is no path to happiness. 

Happiness is the path. " Not bad. I can tell I'm already losing the church with  just mentioning Buddha in this sacred space.

What in the world? Been in Austin, and all of  a sudden, you just. .

. You gonna be all right. Maybe some of you would point to a more  stoic philosopher, like Marcus Aurelius, an emperor.

He said that, "Joy is  the product of self-discipline. Taking life as it comes to you. " Not  a bad swing at joy.

Maybe more of you philosophical individuals would say someone like  Aristotle gave us the most profound ideas that we have about joy and happiness. He said  that, "Happiness depends on ourselves. " None of those are really bad swings  at the idea, but I had to go to the authority of all authorities.

I- I-  I had to go to the resource, huh, of all resources. . .

I had to go to ChatGPT. Some  of y'all were ready to shout. Oh no.

Not AI. I just wanted to test it, see how it was  feeling. I don't know if ChatGPT got saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost  or what, but ChatGPT preached back to your boy.

ChatGPT said, "Jesus Christ-" ". . . 

preached the most important message on joy. " There's the church. All right.

I got  y'all. Okay. If ChatGPT said it, then.

. . Now, ChatGPT only has a 80 to 95% accuracy rate, so you gotta fact-check ChatGPT.

But in  this case, I think that it was 1000% right. Jesus taught the most important message on  joy in human history. But I wonder if we have stopped long enough in our lives to analyze  exactly how Jesus introduced the message of joy.

That's why I chose this framework of Matthew  5, because Jesus actually resets the lens through which we identify happiness and  joy in the world and in our lives. Now, I'm gonna test your religious reflex here.  Don't at me, but the next phrase that I'm about to say is going to trigger you.

Are  you ready? Your happiness matters to God. I know.

Maybe some of you were raised in  environments adjacent to the environment I was raised in, where you were taught to believe, "God  doesn't care if you're happy, do what he says. " Maybe some of you, you don't even realize it, but you have bought into the idea  that the more miserable you are, the more you're honoring God. "I don't serve Him  'cause I want to.

I serve Him 'cause I have to. " I grew up hearing this preached in church,  "God doesn't care about your happiness, He cares about your holiness. " And it's  so funny in church, people will say stuff all the time that's not in the Bible, and  then they'll run out to some print store and put it on a T-shirt and sell it out of the  trunk of their car as if it was Bible truth.

But this idea does not exist in the Scriptures.  In fact, in order to understand the idea of joy, to understand the heart of God,  we don't go to our feelings, we don't go to church culture, we don't go  to secular culture, we go to the Word of God. The Scriptures.

And when I look at the Word, it's  so important how you look at the Word. You don't just look at it, you look around it. And you  understanding the Word of God is so important, because how you view the Word, the Scriptures,  determines how you view God.

And how you view God determines how you interpret the  events of your life. And so if I'm going to buy into a premise that God only wants mean  Christians and God only makes miserable people, then I have gone outside of the very character  and nature of God that the Bible teaches. When I look at scripture, I see verses like,  "In His presence is the fullness of joy.

" Well, if joy is in his presence, how could  he produce what he does not possess? And so, he must possess joy to produce joy. I'm coming  after this whole, God only wants mean Christians thing.

And- and- and- and if- if- if you  can't smile in church, I'd hate to tell you, you're the problem. Can't nobody be more saved  and more mean-looking than a Christian. Wild.

But even when you look at God and you see that  the angels are gathered around His throne, declaring, "Holy, holy, holy is the  Lord, God Almighty, and the earth is filled with His glory," they're beholding  His holiness, but they're not just saying, "Holy, holy, holy. " The scripture indicates  that they're singing, "Holy, holy, holy. " Well, singing is a product of joy.

So  something that heaven is experiencing in God's presence is provoking a  praise from a source of worship. Why this is so important for you to  understand today is because some of you have been living your lives believing  that God is withholding a certain aspect of His nature from you. That He's keeping  a dimension of His character from you.

Because we've been convinced that our happiness is  dependent on something that we go into the world and get. But it's not going out into the world  that allows us to possess happiness and joy. It's going to what Dallas Willard  called The Great Beyond Within, where the character of Christ  is being formed in your heart.

So my happiness doesn't flow from my dreams,  doesn't flow from my plans, doesn't flow from whatever season of life I'm in. It flows from the  character of Jesus being formed in my heart. But you first have to buy into the premise that  God is uniquely invested in your happiness.

When I looked at Matthew 5, I was shooketh.  When I realized that Matthew 5 records what theologians and scholars all agree on is Jesus'  inaugural sermon. His very first message that someone wrote down, and the first word that Jesus  says is, "Blessed.

" Have you considered that? That Jesus stepped into time and space, split  history in half with his mere existence, and He goes with his disciples, sits down on a hillside  on an ordinary day, and the first word that He declares that He knows would be echoed throughout  human history is the word, "Blessed. " Wow.

You know, we give a lot of credence to  famous last words. Famous last words. Words that are powerful because they seal a  moment or a season.

Famous last words like, "Ain't gonna be no rematch. " Apollo  Creed. Rocky IV.

Famous last words like, "Don't let it end like this. Tell  them I said something. " Pancho Villa.

Famous last words like, "I only regret that I have  but one life to lose for my country. " Nathan Hale. Famous last words like, "You must do me  this honor.

Promise me you'll survive, that you won't give up no matter what happens,  no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose. " "And never let go of that promise.

"  "I'll never let go. " "Let's go. " Why'd I have to do Leo like that, y'all?

We  all know there was room on the thing, on the floaty thing. There was room. Rose, you're  selfish.

They stole Titanic 2 from us, y'all. I'm not okay. Famous last words.

But shouldn't there  be something said about famous first words? Not because of their finality, but  because of their primacy? Their priority, the fact that they were spoken  first, famous first words like, "Four score and seven years ago.

"  Happy Memorial Day. Famous first words, "I have a dream. " Ooh.

"That little Black boys and  little White girls will make little khaki kids. " Praise Go- Ooh, speak in tongue. I'm living the  dream, Martin!

I'm living it! Martin Luther King. Famous first words in a galaxy far.

. . Oh, y'all  some nerds.

Y'all. . .

Elevation got a reputation for being so cool. Star Wars nerds. Famous first  words.

Last words, first words. Last words, first words. Last words, first words.

The  last word of the Old Testament is curse. The first word Jesus says in the first book of your  New Testament in his first sermon is blessed. Jesus, the embodiment of all of the law  prophecies.

Jesus, the one who did not abolish the law, but fulfilled it to the finest detail while  ironically crushing the spirit of religion. In one word, reverses every reality that people living  through that Old Testament era had experienced. All they were left with was a curse.

Because  of the stringent rules and their traditions, all that they had was the curse. Even the  law, the Bible says, "The letter brings death, but the spirit is life? " And yet, the Spirit was  not given until Acts 2.

And so these people were living under the reality of the curse until  grace and truth sat down on a hillside and started to reorient the heart of humanity back to  God's original intention and design for humanity. Because the first interaction God ever  had with people was not to rebuke them. It was not to correct them.

Although  he does this in his loving-kindness, this was not his original intention. Genesis 1:28  records the first action of God toward humanity. And the scripture says, "And God blessed  them and told them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

" And so Jesus  turns the heart of a religiously cold people, one who only knew a god from the distance, back  to the original heart of blessing of God's people. Now, when they heard the word blessed, they did  not hear what we hear. It was not, come on, 2014, #blessed.

They did not think car, they did not  think house, they did not think stuff, they did not think oceanside villa, they didn't think any  of those things. The word in the original language means happy. Thi- thi- this is what, this is what  got me, y'all.

This is why I wrote a book about this. I couldn't get away from it. You mean  to tell me that the first word God said when he is speaking to people that will reverberate  through generations, he chooses the word happy?

It made me ask, "How important must your  happiness be to the heart of God if it's the first thing he points us toward? " God wants  you to be happy. Huh.

Wild. I, um, had an idea that was floated to me by someone that this church  has a great history with. I wasn't gonna out him, but I decided to.

Wade Joy gave me this advice. He  said, "It'd be a great idea if you do a five-year trip with all your kids. Every five years, take  'em on something, just them, you and Lorna.

" When we had two kids, this was a great idea. We got four of them things. But we started it, and  now we can't retract it.

So I went to my oldest son, he was turning five at the time, I said,  "Hey, bro, your five-year trip's coming up. Where, where you wanna go? "So, I thought.

. . We live in  Texas, y'all, so I thought he would wanna go to the Alamo.

You know, down to the, the, the,  the Mexico border. That would be interesting. Um.

. . No.

My boy said, "Dad, I wanna go  to Disney World. " The trip of all trips. Now, I had a thing that I was doing for  work, so we actually got to make it happen and we went to Disney World.

But I realized I  immediately set a very high precedent. And so, here comes his little brother, Lawson.  He's five years old.

"Dad, it's time for my five-year trip. " "And I know where I  wanna go. " "Where we going, boss?

" "Japan. " I said, "Japan? What?

" "My fault. My fault,  little brother. My fault.

Anywhere in the continental United States of America, where  would you like to. . .

" "I wanna go to Japan. Doitashimashite. " "Boy, you can't even speak  English.

What are you doing? " "Uh, uh, uh, we're not going to Japan. " "Fine.

" He wipes his last  tear. "I'll go to Disney World. " What?

Spoiled. We went to Disney World, then Navy. He was  three and a half talking about, "Disney Word, Disney Word, Disney Word.

" And if history repeats  itself, we got a fifth birthday coming up. God help, uh. .

. You see why I wrote a book? Help  me.

Help. This was ter- Wade, I blame you. I'm sending you an invoice.

Disney is  known as the happiest place on Earth. You don't have to be there more than five minutes-  . .

. to realize, what do you mean happy? You got people stomping their feet, throwing fits,  rolling on the ground, whining, complaining, and the kids are misbehaving too.

You go to  Disney World, you either getting a picture with Mickey Mouse or a divorce. It's one- It's,  it's crazy to me. The happiest place on Earth.

I found that Disney World isn't just  the home of Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell, it's the home of meltdowns. Trauma. "What  are you in counseling here today for?

" "Well, my dad took me on five-year  trips and. . .

" It's interesting that we have certain expectations  connected to certain locations. Certain locations in our lives. And  I'm not talking about Disney World, obviously.

Some of you, you're graduating.  Yeah, let's go. Congratulations.

But if you're honest, you're like, "Thank God  I'm done with high school. " Being done with high school will be the happiest place on Earth.  Then you go to college.

"Once I get this degree, I'm gonna be in the happiest place on  Earth. " But once you leave college, guess where you get to go? To work.

And you're not gonna make enough  money to pay for the college. The happiest place on Earth. "If he would  just propose to me.

" "Don't you want me to be happy? " "This is not gonna  work. I need a ring in three weeks.

" Happiest place on Earth. And then we keep pushing  it off. "Well, once we have the kid and, and once we move from this apartment into the house.

And  once I redesign the kitchen. And once I do this," and then finally always pushing our happiness up  ahead somewhere, robbing ourselves of what God wants to do right here. I promise you, these two  words will rob you of more joy in your life than any other two words you can put together, and  those two words are, "What's next?

" What's next will cripple your life. What's next will shipwreck  your faith. What's next will destroy your sense of contentment and fulfillment.

We have to ask a  better question if we wanna get better answers. The better question is not, "What's next? "  The better question is, "What's here?

" What's here? What's, what's in these  kids? What's in this marriage?

What's in this job? What's in this season?  What's in this church?

I think this is why Jesus chose the location from  which he delivered his message very intentionally. Because he didn't go to  Mount Sinai to give a masterclass on joy. He didn't go to Mount Zion with all of the  prestige that it carries in Scripture to deliver a masterclass on joy.

No, he went-. . . 

to what we believe to be is a mountain, but when you write a book, you actually  have to do research to make sure it's kinda true. And so I looked it up.  It's not a mountain.

It's a hill. You got Sinai, seven-s seven thousand five  hundred feet in elevation. You got Zion, two thousand five hundred feet in elevation.

You  got this hill that you wanna know the name of, except I'm gonna tell you right now, the Bible  doesn't record it. It's not even a footnote in the Scripture. Four hundred feet in elevation. 

It's a hill. And Jesus doesn't stand and declare some great teaching. .

. "Blessed are the poor in  spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. " No.

He just sits down on an ordinary day, in an  ordinary place, and He uses the topography to illustrate the theology of joy. Because the  name of that hill is Aremes, and Aremes means desolate and isolated. And so Jesus chooses a  desolate, isolated place to teach us about joy.

If I'm running this show, we pulling  up somewhere sweet. We going to Disney World. But Jesus is in this space that looks like  nothing, and communicates the heart of joy.

Why? Because a l- lot of life is  not lived on Sinai or Zion. Most of life is lived in Aremes.

You  will spend more time in traffic than on vacation. You will spend more time  getting crushed by life than crushing it. And Jesus wanted to show us joy works  here.

Joy lives here. There was nothing to be seen. Those people seated on that  hillside, all they could see was Jesus.

And maybe the reason why we cannot experience  joy in our lives is 'cause we're constantly looking around Jesus, not at Him. An author and  pastor named David Murray gaves- uh, gave us seven categories for happiness: social happiness,  vocational happiness, intellectual happiness, physical happiness, like through exercise  and things like that, humor happiness, creation happiness for all of you outdoors  people It's so weird to me, but why be outside when there's a perfectly air-conditioned room  somewhere close, running water and everything? And the last one is spiritual happiness.

Now,  because God is so good in His common grace, He allows all people to experience six of  those seven categories. You can be outside of relationship with Jesus and still experience  a partial fulfillment that friendship brings, that work brings, that things bring into your  life. But what we do is we try to take all six of those categories and use them to fill the void  that is created when we don't have the seventh, spiritual happiness.

Spiritual happiness is a seal  around the human soul. If you don't have spiritual happiness, you can swallow the world whole and  still be empty because your soul is leaking. But if you allow the presence of God, the ways  of God, the will of God to seal your heart, it amplifies the joy and happiness  you receive from every other category.

So I get more joy out of my friendships because  I'm not there to always air my problems to them. I'm there to take the way of Jesus and  listen more than I speak. What a thought.

When I have the spiritual seal of happiness  around my soul, I go to work. And although the environment is toxic, it doesn't influence  me. I influence it.

Because even though my boss is hard to work with, I'm not working  for him. I'm working unto the Lord. And so every menial task that I perform is done in  service of the King.

. . .

not in an effort to be promoted. And when I take my eyes off of  everyone having to have their eyes on me, and I put my eyes on other people, I am  greatly fulfilled in other areas of my life. The joy is amplified when Jesus is the center and  the seal.

This is what Jesus was communicating through these words. Now, obviously, I could  literally sit here and talk to you guys for hours about this. That's why I had to write  about it.

Because we cannot even withhold. . .

The- the Beatitudes have become, like, wallpaper  in Christian gatherings. We know 'em, but we don't even understand 'em. Isn't that crazy?

Guys,  this is the first thing Jesus talked about. How important must it be? And yeah, He gets  to your holiness, and He gets to the ways of your life, but not before He introduces us to  these ideas.

But this is, th- th- this, this, this, it hasn't let me go yet, y'all.  When Jesus is speaking through these, "Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are those who mourn," He's not just giving us good ideas. 

He's not just showing us ideals to live up to. He's revealing Himself. He  was the one who became poor in spirit.

He had the treasures of glory in his hands,  and He traded it in for the dust of the earth. Although He was equal with God, He didn't  see his equality with God as something to be grasped. But He emptied Himself,  came to the lowest form, a human, a servant, obedient to death, even death  on the cross.

He knows what it's like to be spiritually bankrupt. He knows  what it's like to ask God, "Why? " Hanging on the cross was the first time  He felt a total depravity, our depravity, our sin.

And he asked God, "Why have  you forsaken me? " If He asked God why, stop beating yourself up because you have. You get  to ask God questions.

He was the one who mourned. Can you hold the implications that God  cried? Why do you have to show up so strong all the time?

Never a crack in the  armor. Got all these churchy phrases that don't mean nothing. How you doing?

"Blessed and  highly favored. " Breaking on the inside. "How you doing?

" "Well, he's been better than  me than I've been to myself, praise God. " "If I was any better, I'd be dead. " "What?

" Tss.  No. My boy's favorite Bible verse to quote right now, they feel so studious, "Dad, I memorized  part of the Bible.

" "Really, bud? I didn't know you had a Bible. " "What did you memorize?

"  "Jesus wept. " But we cannot really understand the weight of the implications that those two  words hold, if Jesus cried, if Jesus felt. You have permission to feel.

I love  something that your pastor said, "The presence of God is not the place that you  go to bypass your emotions. " "The presence of God is the place that you go to process them. "  You have permission to feel however you feel, and then allow the Gospel into  those feelings, to transform them.

God does not want you burying your feelings.  The problem with buried feelings is we bury them alive. And then at some point, unprocessed pain  finds its way into our lives in symptoms we feel like we have no control over because we never gave  ourselves permission to come into a room and feel.

Do you know that's why you cry in God's  presence? That it is a physical response to a spiritual transformation taking place?  When you're in worship and listening to music, the disintegrated part of your brain, when you  cry, your brain is reintegrated.

So there is a literal biological, neurological aspect to  worship. That's why we say you're not wasting time when you're praising God. You're literally  allowing him to heal your heart your mind, your will your emotions.

And if you don't allow  God to heal you there, you won't ever be happy. He was the one crowned with meekness. He was the one, oh my goodness, who hungered  and thirsted after righteousness.

So much so that when they tried to quench his thirst  on the cross, he refused to drink because the only thing that would satisfy him  was your righteousness being fulfilled. In order to reintroduce you to joy, I have to  allow Joy to reintroduce himself. Because joy is not a thing, it's not a feeling,  it's not an emotion, it's a person.

You spell joy, J-E-S-U-S. And I know it's the  simplest thing in the world, but the hardest thing for us to wrestle down in our spirit,  is that there's only one doorway into the joy of the Lord. And it's Jesus himself.

And I know  we're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, now tell me something that actually helps  me. " We- we- we- we- we believe that, but we also expect joy to walk through the door with our  kids.

"If you did a little bit better in school, I would feel a little less like a failure. My joy  is connected to your achievement, so go achieve. " We expect joy to walk through the door with  our spouse, and unless her name is Joy, that's not happening.

That's. . .

W- we- we see  our spouse as an access point to joy. Empty. The most beautiful thing about this  scripture is in the first line.

Jesus went and sat down on a hillside. It tells  me you can have joy in a posture of rest. We think we gotta work for joy, work for joy. 

I gotta work for joy. And yeah, you have to participate, but he's seated. And then it says  the crowd gathers around him.

If we're honest, we need to evaluate our lives. What are  we really gathering around? I know for me, I love to gather around work.

Work doesn't feel  like work to me. I love to work. It's a problem.

Uh, I'm in counseling. Talking  to my therapist, like, "Brother, you- you- you gotta help me. " He said, "What's  your prayer life look like?

" I described it to him. He said, "That sounds like work,  too. " He said, "Have you just thought about delighting in the Lord?

" I said,  "That sounds great. How do you do that? " He said, "Well, what if you just showed up  and just sat down with the Lord?

" I said, "That's perfect. When I was writing my book,  I rented an Airbnb. It's 25 minutes from my house.

I'll just go be with the Lord. Delight  in the Lord, three to four hours, once- once a week. I'll just go up and do that.

" And  he just, he just smirked at me like, "Bro. Or, you could close the door to the room  you're sitting in, shut off your phone, put your Bible aside, 'cause you cannot  help but writing some message down, and just close your eyes and be with God  for 10 minutes. " I just laughed.

I went into the living room. I said, "Lorna, babe,  why am I like this? " Why, when someone says, "You need to spend time with God," do I  immediately think Zion?

Airbnb, three, four hours. God's in Aramis. God's in the simple.

And  when I sat there and I just thought about God, something filled my soul up. An energy, a  vitality. And when I went back and talked to my counselor again, he said, "How'd it go?

" I  said, "It was amazing. It was so easy. " He said, "How did you see God in that moment?

" I  was like, "Well, I've got two answers. I've got what I experienced, and then  how I relabeled what I experienced. " What I experienced was like, when I'm  sitting across the table from one of my boys, just looking into their eyes.

"Creepy dad. " I  know, I just love you. I just love you.

I love everything about you. I- I love those freckles  on your face. I l- I love those curls on your head.

I- I- I love the dreams I see in your  eyes. I- I love that. .

. you're my son. I said, "I felt like God was looking at me like that.

"And  then when I went and I thought about it again, I was like, "Well, there's another  version of this story in my mind, too. " It was like God had his sleeve rolled up and  he was just pacing back and forth with his hand tucked under his chin in a furrowed  brow like he was solving a problem. And when he recognized I was there, he kinda  side-eyed glanced at me and said, "Glad you're finally here.

" Because all that I've known is a  God who wanted to use me to accomplish something. I thought that was the greatest  touch of God, was to be used by him. I've realized it's a far greater treasure to be  loved by him.

And when you receive the love of God, He pours His joy into your heart. And it's  produced from His Spirit in you. When you're filled with the Spirit, you get the features  of the Spirit.

The evidence of God in a person is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,  faithfulness, meekness, self-control. But I wonder if what you've been searching the world for has  been inside of the universe and you all along. But you gotta come through the doorway of Jesus  to get to it, if you would stand today.

Thank you for letting me share my heart today. I was  disappointed Pastor Steven wasn't here, too, so we're all in that boat together. He'll be back,  it's his church.

But I wanna invite you today to experience the joy of the Lord. Hebrews says of the Son of God that God poured  the oil of joy on Him, so that He would have more joy than anyone else. This is available to you,  but it comes through a relationship with Jesus.

Some of you today need to take  the first step toward allowing joy to reintroduce himself by putting  your faith in Jesus once and for all. Would you pray with me? Lord, I pray that you  would open our hearts to receive your joy, the joy of salvation.

Lord, we turn our eyes  away from everything else in this world. And for just a moment, we wanna capture heaven's  gaze. Lord, there are so many deep wounds, traumas, difficulties, struggles that we have felt  are in opposition to us experiencing your joy.

But you actually use the mechanism of mourning to  deliver us from the grip of grief. That happiness is not waiting on the other side of something  for us, it's happening inside. I pray that we would allow you in today.

Come into our lives,  come into our hearts, come into our dreams. If you're in this room today and you've  never put your faith in Jesus Christ, on the count of three, I want you to raise your  hand. I'm gonna lead you in a prayer that will change the trajectory of not only, only your  life, but eternity.

If God's pulling on your heart right now to follow Him, on the count  of three, I want you to raise your hand. One, two, three. Don't hesitate.

Beautiful. Beautiful.  Beautiful.

Now listen, we're gonna pray a prayer. You have to pray this prayer for yourself,  but you don't pray this prayer by yourself. This whole church family is gonna pray  with you today.

Would you just say this with me? Jesus come into my life, make  me new. I realize I'm lost without you Thank you that you have more grace than I  have sin.

I believe You are the Son of God, The resurrected King, And you're  resurrecting me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Can you put your hands together for what  God is doing in this church? Elevation, I love you so much. God bless  you.

We'll see you next time.