JOY - FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT - CHARLOTTE GAMBILL

Charlotte Gambill: Well, how are you church? Are you good? That was pathetic!

How are you church? Are you good? Welcome to all campuses that are joining us this morning on every location.

We're so glad you are in the house of God. It is a good place to be. We've had an incredible weekend thus far.

It's been amazing to be with the women. We had such a great time in the presence of God. You should be feeling the benefit if your wife, or daughter, or someone in your family came to the Women's Conference because the presence of God transformed and changed lives this weekend, and this morning, the same presence of God is in the house.

God's moving, and God's gonna speak to us. And I don't know, I'm just--I mean, I get to speak on a subject today that I feel like I'm so overflowing in, but I guess I’m just wanna say at the beginning of my message today, this is a really special day for the Gambill family, okay? I just want to take a moment and say, you know, as a family, you've been aware.

I've been here many, many times now, part of this team for a long time, but I--we just fell in love with you all so much, so much that we have now woke up this morning for the first time as a full family that are in my house. My kids here. My hubby's here.

We woke up this morning as official residents of Alabama. We moved here, y'all! We loved you so much, we moved nations to be part of this house and to be under the leadership of Pastor Chris.

And you know, Pastor Chris is our pastor and has been that for a long time in our family's life, and we just wanted to be fully here, not just partially here, but fully here. And so, I am so thankful this morning for what this even represents for us as a family to be part of this family. But I get to speak in week two of this series on "The Fruit of the Spirit.

" I'm holding this up. Maybe you've not picked up yours yet, but the team here did an incredible job, and they provided for us during this series a booklet that you can use to follow along, make notes in. I mean, this is old school, people.

This is old school, and I'm an old-school girl. I would rather write my notes down than type my notes. So if you didn't get one of these, pick one up on the way out so you can journal and take notes of what God's speaking to you in this series.

And last Sunday, Pastor Chris did such an incredible job of setting up why we are doing this series. It's always good to know why, as a church, we're focusing on a passage of Scripture for an intense period of time, and the why is because the world are desperately seeking the fruits of the Spirit. They just don't know that it's the fruit of the Spirit, but they're desperately seeking all of the things that we read about in Galatians 5:22.

They're looking for the fruit of the Spirit of love. They're looking for joy. They're looking for peace.

They're looking for patience. They're looking for kindness. They're looking for goodness.

They're looking for faithfulness. It's just that they're looking in all the wrong places. They're looking for gentleness, and they're looking for self-control.

And this series is to remind us that these are not things that we go out and attain, these are things that we actually grow, that the fruits of the Spirit are things that we grow internally because Christ resides in us, and as we remain in him, these are the fruits that we produce as a byproduct of a life that is in him. And so, last week, as we set this series up, we looked at the first fruit, the fruit of love. And I hope this week, because of a result of that message, you have been more lovely.

I hope you have loved better. I hope you have spoken with love more. I hope you've articulated love more.

But this Sunday, I get fruit number two. I get joy! Well, that needs some work.

Clearly, we need this message. I get joy! All right, that's better.

You can't say that word and have a weak response, okay? I get joy, and the crazy thing is, as I began to think about this week and preparing of this message, I began to think to myself, man, in all my years of preaching, in over 28 years of communicating the gospel, I don't recall ever taking a Sunday and speaking about joy. I mean, I can remember multiple messages that I have spoken on peace, multiple messages on patience, lots of messages on faithfulness, but I feel like joy is like the fruit that we forget about.

It's like the one that we almost feel like, well, it's kind of an extra. It's like--you know, it's like an exotic fruit. It's not your apples, or your pears, or your bananas.

It's like a dragon fruit. It's somewhere in the fruit bowl, and you might occasionally taste of it. And today, I want to let you know, no, joy is essential.

It's not an extra. It is essential. It is vital today, and many of us, we don't grow this fruit because we're so aware of the other fruits that we may feel that we need more than this fruit.

But today, I want to remind you what it says in the book of Nehemiah. It's in your notebook, Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that Nehemiah's speaking to God's people and he says, "Do not grieve," why? "For the joy of the LORD is your strength.

" You know, the enemy does not want you producing the fruit called joy because he knows without joy, you're weak. When you don't have joy, it's a lot harder to cope with pressure. When you don't have joy, it's a lot harder to cope with pressure.

When you don't have joy, it's a lot harder to face trials and challenge. When you don't have joy, there's no ease or anesthetic of the Holy Spirit in your life to deal with the things that come at you in life, and so, we've gotta get our joy back because by getting our joy back, we get our strength back, and joy is who God is. Aren’t you glad we serve a joyful God?

I mean, religion and legalism has done a bad job. We have portrayed God as some stern God in heaven that's with a stick ready to beat us if we step out of line. That is not the God that I serve.

That is not the God that you serve. We serve a God who is filled with joy. He is a God that wants you to have a joy-filled life.

He wants you not to just have life but life in abundance. And the Bible tells us in John 15, that when we remain in him, which we heard about last week, John 15, verse 10, "If you keep my commands, and you remain in my love," which we talked about last week, "just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this," why?

"So that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. " I think there is some work to do, church! I think we have some missing joy, and it's time that you get your joy back.

And everybody said "listen. " If you could get some joy back in your life, your life will be entirely different, I promise you. It will look different.

It will sound different because joy changes things. And so, I want us today not to have a joy that is fragile, not to have a joy that is occasional, not to have a joy that is fleeting or a joy that is fake, but a joy that is deeply rooted in the fact that we have in us a living God, and when we are in him, his joy is made complete in us. So I want to take you to a story, just for the next few moments, in the Bible that you might not associate with joy, but really it is the journey of--of discovering what joy really is and where joy really is.

It's a book in Luke 15. There's a story that plays out. There's three actual stories that play out that Jesus tells, three parables, you may be familiar.

There is the parable of the lost sheep. There is a parable about a lost coin. And then, finally, there is a parable about a lost son.

And I wanna focus in on that final parable about the lost son because not only is it the journey of someone that was lost, but it's also the journey of a lost joy in the entire household. And today, I want to speak to any that are the younger brother, as it were, in the house. But I also want to speak to the older brother that is also in the house.

And remind you both that while you're in the house, the father is right there in the house, and if the father is in the house, then the joy is in the house. So let's look at this story that is in Luke 15 that may be familiar to you, but let's revisit it again. In Luke 15, verse 12, we read that this younger son--and maybe this is an issue to do with immaturity.

I think sometimes, when we're younger, when we're immature, we can have this attitude. “But the younger son says to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate. ’ So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. " You say, "Charlotte, what's that to do with joy? " Well, number one, I want you to see this today.

Joy isn't out there somewhere. It's right here. This younger son had this concept.

He had this faulty thinking that if I can somehow take what I have here, and go out there, and purchase certain things, buy certain things, do certain things, then I will feel fulfilled. I will have joy. And I'm here to let you know that still happens on a daily basis in our mindset when we're not walking by the Spirit, but we're letting the flesh lead us.

The flesh tells you, "Joy is out there somewhere. It's in your next vacation. It's in your golf trip.

It's in the new car. It's in the new relationship. It's in the promotion.

It's when you get the big money. It's somewhere out there. " And if we live a life like this young, immature man, where we always think joy is something to find and discover, we will lose sight of everything we have right now.

I want to remind you of what you have right now. It goes on in the story to say this. It says, "When," verse 17, "When this young man came to his senses," guess what he did?

He went home. And here's how I've been praying. All the last few weeks, as I've thought about communicating this message to you guys, I prayed this way: God, I pray today, if it's just one, if it's--if it's a hundred, I don't know how many it is, God, but I pray today that your children would come to their senses, would wake up to the fact that joy is not out there and go home.

Go home to the Father, go home to the house, go home and realize man, everything I was looking for was right here all along. Some of you have spent a lotta money trying to buy joy. Some of you spent a lot of energy chasing joy.

Some of you right now have got an idea that there's this thing that you've invested in or this thing that you're going to get a part of, and when that happens, man, I'm going to have joy. And I'm just here to burst the bubble before it bursts and let you know, that's not how this works. Any joy that you purchase is temporary!

It's like when you buy your kids a brand-new toy, and they're so excited, and this is the best thing ever, and a month later, it's relegated to the bottom of the toy basket because they're over it, and there's another toy now that their friend at school has that they want. That's how we can be. And in our older years, we can still remain immature as believers in the way that we approach this subject of joy.

It tells us in the Word of God, in the Amplified of Psalm 16 verse 9, it says, "In Your presence is fullness of joy," not in the "presents" it's fullness of joy, hello, "In Your presence," where's his presence? It's right where you are because he is in you, "Remain in me, I'll remain in you. " In his presence is fullness, not partial joy, not a little joy, but the fullness of joy.

Man, whew, some of you need a big dose of joy today. I'm working hard to try and get you to be joyful today, but the truth is you've got to decide. You gotta make a decision.

You've got to come to your senses and come home to the fact that joy was always in the house. I remember a season where I transferred my joy to a circumstance. Many of you know 'cause I've shared my story with you, but we were told we would never have children.

Five years of infertility, and in that season, I just got more and more sad. My heart began to ache more and more because I was like, "Well, when I have children, I'll have joy. When I--when I finally get this miracle, then I'll have joy.

" And you know, there's only so long that you can go with that understanding and that concept before it begins to eat you up because delayed joy is denied strength. And so, I was getting weaker in my faith and weaker in my walk because I was delaying what I should have been receiving and understanding, and God took me to the Word. Do you know there's a verse for everything?

It's really annoying, really annoying. Like, "Really, Lord? There's a verse for that?

" Yes, there is. God took me to Isaiah 54, and in verse 1, it says this: "Sing, O barren woman, you have never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy. " And I remember reading that and thinking, "God, you mean now?

Before I have the child? You mean now where I'm being told all this negativity? You mean now when I don't even see that there's a possibility, I'm supposed to sing?

I'm supposed to shout for joy? " And I felt God say, "Absolutely you are. The joy of the Lord is your strength.

My presence is in you. Therefore, the fullness of joy is available to you. " And let me tell you, I was like, "Okay.

" I received the challenge, and I decided, okay, I'm gonna change my confession. I'm gonna change my perspective. Like--like, I feel like today, some of you need to put your telescope down, searching on the horizon for joy, and get your magnifying glass out.

Start magnifying the Lord, oh my soul. So, I began to magnify God, and I began to not focus on the doctor's report, and I began not to think and talk all the time about what couldn't happen and they said was impossible. I changed the conversation in our home.

Me and my husband, instead of sitting around and being depressed about what was happened, we'd go out on dates, and we'd enjoy our life and realize, man, we've got to get the joy now. I started throwing baby shower parties for people I didn't even know. Like, I looked like a cray-cray person.

I'd walk up to someone and go, "Are you pregnant? " They'd go, "Yes, I am, ma'am. " I go, "Awesome, I'm throwing you a shower party.

" Like, "I don't know you. " I'm like, "I know, but I'm gonna throw you a shower party. " 'Cause I realize I need to access the joy that is all the way inside of me, and you know what the Bible says?

The Bible says in Proverbs 17:22 that when you do that, "It's the joyful heart that is like good medicine. " I didn't realize I was medicating myself every day with the joy of the Lord, and I was healing my own barrenness by tapping into the we--the wealth of joy that was down inside of me. And I'm just saying, you know, there's two miracles sat on the front row over here that were called impossibilities.

But I didn't wait until the miracle to have the joy that was available. Stop delaying your joy! Maybe you're not barren today, but maybe you're in a season of need.

Financially, maybe you're lacking. Relationally, maybe you feel that you're empty. Well, let me give you a verse for that 'cause there is one!

Habakkuk 3, verse 17 to 19 in The Message Bible, listen to this: "Though the cherry trees don't blossom and strawberries don't ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns are empty, I am singing joyful praise to GOD. I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior GOD. " I need some of you this week to do a cartwheel.

I just need you to do something that lets yourself know, I am-- I know that the sheep pen is empty, I know that the barn right now doesn't look full, but I am understanding my joy does not come from somewhere out there. It comes from here. If you need stuff to make you joyful, how are you different from the world?

How can we offer the world joy if our joy, like their joy, is dependent on accumulating stuff? No, we need to have joy that pops out, like Pastor Chris said last week. It just pops out of us, why?

Because we've come to our senses. Like, this week, come to your senses. Go home like that young man did.

Go home and realize joy was always in the house because the Father was always in the house. Some of your homes need a good dose of joy, just saying. What would it look like if you came to your sense that I'm not anymore waiting?

I'm not anymore. Who did you give your joy to? Whose hands is your joy in?

Your employers? Politicians? The stock market?

The news? A relationship? Who did you give your joy to?

No, your joy is internal. It is not external, so stop going out there for something that is right in here. James 1, verse 2 says, "Count it all joy when you meet any trials of various kinds.

" How can I count it joy when I'm in a time of testing? Because my joy is not robbed from me from the testing, my joy remains in me in the testing. Man, some of you need to sing in your cell like Paul and Silas.

Find a song in that season of containment. Find a joy that comes in that season where you feel it's not how you want it to be. The ol--the younger son had to realize joy is not out there somewhere, it is right here.

But the older son, he also had a problem. The older son had a different problem. And sometimes, in the church, I think we have dealt with the younger son more than the older son, but can I say there's a lot of older sons in the house?

Hardworking, diligent, persevering, producing, but not partaking. The oldest son, he was in the house, hard worker, diligent, showed up on time, did the job, plowed the field, worked for the father, but he was not in any part of his daily experience in the father's house ever enjoying what he was toiling. And I wanna say to you today, are you enjoying?

Are you partaking? Because joy is to be released, not reserved? What are you saving your joy for?

When we emigrated, we didn't bring anything with us. You know, the electrical voltage is different, and, you know, shipping furniture is expensive and storage. So we were like, "You know what?

We're just gonna start all over again. " So pray for us, y'all. We don't even have a cup or a plate.

We’re--but we're in Alabama. So if you've seen me in a store, like, buying stuff like, you know, paper towel holder, yes that was me 'cause I'm trying to, you know, buy the stuff that now we don't even ha--own anymore. But when we were about to emigrate, I was clearing out different cupboards in the house, and I have one cupboard in our house in England where when anybody bought me or gifted me for a birthday, or Christmas, or anniversary gifted me a really nice candle--you know, like--you know what I'm talking about?

Like a nice candle that clearly was expensive, and really nice smell, and looked really pretty, you know what I would say? "Yeah, I'm not lighting that for the kids. " Sorry, kids.

"You know, it's just too good. It's too nice, so I'm just gonna save it for, you know, later because I don't wanna waste it. I'll just burn the cheap one.

" Well, when we went to emigrate, I opened this cupboard, and I had like 50 candles that had never once been lit. But the problem was we only had one more day left in England. So on our final night in England, you should have seen our living room.

There was candles everywhere. Like, we were a fire hazard big style, 'cause I'm, like, lighting all the candles. Because I realised, man, what a waste.

And I want to say to some of you today, light the candle! What are you waiting for? "Well I'll enjoy it when I retire.

" Wow, you don't have the same energy when you retire, so enjoy it now! "Well, you know, I feel like there'll be a season when I enjoy. " No, the season is now.

Joy has to be released. Light the candle. Because when I lit the candle, the aroma of a house changed.

And here's what I want to say by the Spirit of God. Some of your homes, the aroma needs to change. The aroma is not joy.

The aroma is not thanksgiving. The aroma is tension. The aroma is complaining.

The aroma is maybe arguing. The aroma is maybe an area of criticism. But if we have joy on the inside, it needs to get on the outside because it changes the aroma.

Philippians 4, verse 4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord," sometimes. No, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say: Rejoice! " It's like the Bible's letting us know, I'm gonna have to say this twice 'cause they're not gonna get it till I say it twice.

Like, "I need you to rejoice, and again, I say, I need you to rejoice! " And this morning, I want to challenge you. Are you holding back your joy?

This older brother in this story in Luke 15, when the younger brother came home and he sees the joy in the house and the celebration, it says in verse 28, the older brother was angry, and he refused to go in, "And his father went out and pleaded with him. And he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never even gave me a young goat so I could celebrate my friends. But when this son of yours,’" which by the way, is his brother. Watch--watch how when we don't celebrate others, we start distancing from others, criticizing others, because comparison is the thief of joy.

"When this son of yours who squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him! " Verse 31: "My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. " In other words, you could have lit the candle whenever you wanted.

You could have celebrated whenever you wanted. You could have partaked in the joy of the house whenever you wanted. This is not on me, son.

This is on you. You chose not to choose joy, and because you reserve joy, now you resent joy. When we release joy, it changes things.

Psalm 34, verse 8 says this: "Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! " If I was to take a taste of your life, would I see that the Lord's good?

If I was to take a taste, as it were, of your home and your life, would I see that there's the joy of the Lord? Because joy changes your flavor. Joy changes your aroma.

And so, here's my challenge church. Psalm 100 says this: "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are His people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations. " That is a lotta noise. That is a lotta noise!

Joy is not quiet! It shouts for joy! It enters with thanksgiving!

This is my challenge. What if this week, just try it for one week, that you get up every morning and when you make yourself your cup of coffee, you also have a cup of joy? And before you say a word, this week, ask yourself, "Is this coming from the joy of the Lord that is my strength?

Am I filling the house with thanksgiving and gratitude? " I promise you, if you wake up every morning--because the Bible says in Psalm 30 that his anger lasts a moment, but joy comes in the morning. Now, I'm not a morning person, so this is a challenge on many levels, but joy comes.

In other words, every day joy is available. Every day, this joy that is in you wants to get out. What would it look like?

How different would you sound? Some of you would not need cosmetic surgery. You’d get a facelift all for free if you let the joy of the Lord out.

This thing that's down would suddenly turn up. This posture that's crowded over would suddenly stand up. I want to say to you parents in here, your kids need you to model this fruit of the Spirit, because if you don't model that they can have joy in the hardest times, that joy is available, that joy can fill the house, then they're gonna, like the prodigal, go search for it.

And so joy is not out there somewhere, and joy is not to be contained. It's to be released. It's to be heard.

It's to be embraced. It's to be celebrated. But finally, this story teaches us one last thing.

Never lose sight of the fact that you are found. At the end of this story, as this older son is resenting the party, the father says to him, "Are you crazy? This brother of yours, he was lost, but now he's found.

He was wayward, but now he's home. " And I want to remind you today, if you can't find anything in the natural right now to give thanks about, let me give you something before we close this message. If you are saved, if you are forgiven, if you can call him your Father, if you've received his grace and mercy, man, it tells us in the Bible in Psalm 51, it says, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

" So we need to remember, restore back the joy of your salvation, 'cause Romans 6:22 tells us, "You are now free from the power of sin. Now you do these things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

" Church, when did we forget the joy of our salvation? I was lost, but now I'm found. I was a sinner, but now I'm a son and a daughter of the most high God.

I was a wretch that didn't deserve anything, but his grace was amazing in my life. I was someone that spoke ill of God, and yet, he received me, and he owned me, and he adopted me as his own. Man, when did we forget?

If you just contemplated your salvation for the rest of this week, I tell you, the joy will come back. The gratefulness will come back. Stop giving God your list.

If he did not one more thing for you or for me, he's done everything we would ever need, and I know we say it, but do we believe it? Man, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. That was you and that was me.

Just close your eyes all across the house. God, I thank you today that we don't have to go search for joy. We don't have to think that there is no joy until we get something or attain something.

But God, you tell us that when we remain in you, that your joy is in us, and that joy is not missing anything. God, I sense today, for many, they need this fruit. Many are weary, but God, joy is their strength.

Mary--many feel overwhelmed, but joy is the lifter of our heads. And I pray today that we would recall and recount your goodness, and in recalling and recounting your goodness, I pray that we would access and let that joy that is in us pour out and through us. For we are in a world that is desperately searching joy in all the wrong places.

But God, we are yours, and you are ours, and that means that the joy of you is in us, so let it flow through us. Remind those today who have forgotten the joy of their salvation, and let it cause rivers of joy to flow out of us and through us. I pray for households, the aroma to change this week.

I pray that joy would come in the morning for those that are broken. I pray that joy would be healing for those that feel they need. I pray that joy would bring fruitfulness out of barrenness.

Oh, let your joy overwhelm us, God. And as eyes are closed, if you're in the house today on any campus and you're like, "Man, I don't have the joy of salvation. God is not my Savior.

I've never asked him to be that in my life. " Or maybe you're a prodigal son, and you're wandered out there looking for joy, and today, you're gonna come to your senses and come home. Today, salvation is in the house, and it tells us that heaven rejoices even over one sinner that would say, "God, I need you.

" Today, I know there's more than one. So if you, today, need salvation, if you need to come home, just put your hand on your heart right now, and I'm going to pray a prayer, and I want you to agree this prayer in your heart. God, I thank you today that you see me and that you receive me.

And God, today, I ask for your forgiveness, and I come home to you today, God. God, take my life and God help me. God, walk my rest of my days your way, not my way.

God, I thank you today that there is a coming home, and in the coming home, there is a celebration and the joy of salvation. God, I thank you today. You are saving me from the tangle of sin, and you are liberating and freeing me to a life with you.

So God, I thank you today for your amazing grace. Thank you today for your saving mercy. God, we give you all the thanks, and all the honor, and all the glory, in Jesus’s name, amen.

Now, listen to me church. The Bible says when one sinner repents, God help us. In moments where salvation was just achieved for someone, where forgiveness was just someone's portion that we were like, "no big deal," heaven's rejoicing.

So for everyone that just responded, we are gonna rejoice that they just made the best decision of their life.