Flipside Christian Church

thank you for being here.

Family.
That was fantastic, man. The little.

Anytime you get kids up front, too, it
just makes people go, oh, it a great job.

Great job.

In this in the series that we're in, I'm

introducing you every week
to some of our church planters

and network leaders who plant in churches
all around the world and locally in.

And this week, I want to introduce you
to Pastor Freddy and Nancy.

We got a picture of them.

Pastor Freddy and Nancy,
you are leading the very first church

that our church started
when we were only three years old.

We started a church in the lucky 13 bar,

which was over on Ashland in 99.

And one of our staff members,
John Brian Koski, and his wife,

Charity, helped lead that pastor Freddy
and his wife became a part of that church.

John was called to other things.

And so, Pastor
Freddy became the pastor of that church

and kind of took over,
has been leading ever since.

And doing a great, great, great job.

Pastor
Freddy and Nancy are dear to our hearts.

We have a long relationship with them.

And as we take this offering where
I'm asking you

to give over and above your regular tithes
and offering to,

by Christmas Eve, we're going to split
that amongst these six

church planters and network of leaders
that I've been introducing you to,

Pastor Freddy and Nancy are the ones
that have been with us the longest.

And so they will be part
of the recipients of that.

I'm really proud of these two.

God has delivered them.

And Freddy from, incredible,

difficulty in his life.

At every level you can imagine and done
an incredible work

of rejuvenation and restoration

and renewal and giving him new life.

And he's given his life to Christ
as a result of it, in the work of Christ

there in a very underserved,

part of

Fresno, deals with a lot of addiction,
a lot of unhoused people,

a lot of turmoil.

And, and they just continue
to be faithful to the call

to the what God's called him to
in that area.

They've opened up a new outreach center
that deals with, people

going through addiction and homelessness
to serve them well.

All the while, Pastor

Freddie is going through his own health
difficulties.

He's been on dialysis for,

a year now, and he needs a kidney

transplant, and he's just got approved
to be on the list.

But that approval
can take about three years.

And so in the midst of all of that

and all of the health struggles
and the unknown future,

they have said, we're not backing off
on the call in the work one bit.

And so he goes, he does his ministry,
and then it goes to dialysis,

and then he gets back to work.

And that's just the type of man he is.

It's the type of couple they are,
the type of faith that they have.

And it's tireless
and it is strong and it is valiant.

And we want to bless them,

at the
end of this year with that offering.

So thank you in advance for your over
and above generosity.

These are some of those that is going to

pray with me.

Father,
thank you for Pastor Freddie and Nancy.

Thank you for, pursuing him
when he was running away from you.

And thank you
that he turned his life to you and Nancy.

Thank you for delivering them.

From addiction, from violence,
from homelessness, from all the things

that you were so good
at to deliver them from.

And thank you for their response
out of gratitude

that they've given you their lives
and their future.

Thank you for their work.

Thank you for your provision
for them in their call.

Thank you that they have not allowed,

difficulty to be an excuse to back off
and and not

thank you that they have seen difficulty
as a reason to press in harder.

Father, we collectively pray
for Pastor Freddy's health,

as he

serves your kingdom as he and as serve
your kingdom.

I pray that you grant health so
they can continue to serve your kingdom.

And however

you work it, by your providence
and your sovereignty.

I pray, protection over Pastor
Fred as he goes through dialysis

and all these things as he waits
and ultimately for a kidney,

for your glory, for your kingdom sake.

You know, he has said

that he wants nothing from another life.

If that life isn't first attached to you,
he'd rather go be in heaven,

than for someone who doesn't know you
to give him what he needs

and so honor his request. God.

And somehow, by your sovereignty

in your providence, work
this together for your glory.

We love you. We trust you.

Thank you for Freddie and Nancy.

In your name I pray. Amen.

We're in this series where

we're looking at different characteristics
of the Christmas story.

And we've looked at, Joy.

I know we looked at peace and

and today we're going to look at joy
through the context of Mary.

And we're going to be in Luke chapter one.

And so if you have the Bible
and you brought with you,

if you go to Luke chapter one,

we're going to look at the story of Mary,
the mother of Jesus.

And, what the news of,

of the pregnancy by the Holy Spirit
must have sounded like to her

what she went through

and what she committed to.

But before we get there,
I want to share a little bit of background

culturally, politically, spiritually,

as far as what Mary was or what
the culture of the time

and what Mary and Joseph
were living in culturally.

And there in a place called Nazareth

and Nazareth was a

very, very,
very small, unimpressive village,

probably total population,
a few hundred people.

So it was just this out of the way place
that nobody thought about it.

Nobody cared about.
You didn't go to Nazareth.

Nazareth?

You were always from Nazareth.

It was under Roman and Herod
rule King Herod.

So God's people were were in,

a socio economically,

dilapidated place.

They were under foreign rule by people
who didn't care about them.

They were taxed heavily.

The, the

the means just weren't enough.

There was always there was always
more month at the end of the money.

You know how that goes.

And there was incredible
political tension.

Taxes were exorbitantly high.

The political groups were fighting with
each other and fighting with God's people.

It was a it was a time of unrest.

Spiritually, the climate, spiritually.

This is what we call the 400 silent years,
where for the last 400 years,

God had no prophetic voice

amongst his people, like the Old Testament
prophets that were calling God's people

back to the revelation of God
and commitment to God and and holiness

for 400 years, it seems as though
God was silent prophetically and

so they're in this time

where
they're feeling incredibly forgotten.

They're feeling that God is, is is,
is not paying attention to them anymore,

that God is disinterested and distant.

There's a time of spiritual dryness.

They're living in complete obscurity.

And if you've ever lived in the shadows,
both social.

So in, in, in society and culture

and spiritually,
you know how depressing that can be.

And this was a time where joy

would not be something
that they would say, hey,

that's one of the characteristics
that exemplifies my life

is very difficult,

personally for Mary.

She's a very young girl,

and she is completely vulnerable
and expendable

and completely
at the mercy of men in her life.

Now she's betrothed to a man named Joseph.

And in their culture,
there were three elements of a wedding.

Betrothal was the middle element.

Betrothal was a legal contract,
as if they were married.

But they're living together.

There was no intimacy
or sexual contact between them.

This was just the stage before

the final consummation of the contract
that had been established.

But to get out of betrothal.

Betrothal was illegal act of divorce.

And so this was a very permanent
situation.

She was in.

She was young, she was poor.

She was from nowhere.

She had no power whatsoever.

And to be found pregnant
in the middle of betrothal

was a very, very serious offense.

There was a legal issue involved,
according to the Jewish

religion and Deuteronomy 22.

There was it was meant social disaster
for she and her family to be found

pregnant during betrothal
before the actual marriage consummation

was grounds for divorce by Joseph

because he knew it wasn't hers.

And in the unashamed culture
in which they lived,

her pregnancy looked like moral failure.

There was nobody

that would look at her pregnancy
of this young teenage woman and think,

oh, obviously it's a virgin birth, that
that's not where they would have gone.

They would have immediately
gone to sexual sin.

And so to be Mary, in this culture,
in this environment,

this was a tough order from God.

And it's into this person in this place
that God announces

this rule changing joy into a life
that was about to look completely ruined.

And in
order for her to navigate this well,

she had to be convinced
of a greater reality behind her situation.

And I would say for every one of us,

in order to navigate the situations
and circumstances of life

that come out of nowhere,

that hit like a ton of bricks,

where everything is uncertain and unsure

to navigate that world
with any semblance of joy.

There has to be this conviction

of a greater reality behind the situation.

And so in talking about,
you know, actually,

I just joy's a big deal at Christmas
time is supposed to be a time of joy.

Like everybody's like,
oh, it's the most joyful time of the year.

And everybody assumes
that joy means a smile.

It doesn't.

Biblical joy doesn't mean a smile.

Biblical joy means literally,

a calmness,

a certainty, a calm cheerfulness in God.

That's what joy is. It's not a smile.

It's not energy.

It might manifest it that that way.

It's,
it may manifest itself that way sometimes.

But biblical joy is a calm cheerfulness
in God.

It doesn't look like tinsel

and Christmas lights.

I just saw something on the news,
and I wrote it down

because it struck me some other news
a couple days ago.

Did you know that nationwide there is

there's a great, lack of the giant Santas,

like the inflatable Santas and the big
Santa decorations for a front yard.

Did you know that nationally,
those can't be found anymore?

Were you aware of this?

Well, good, because, I mean, you're not
putting up these big Santas in your yard.

That's great. But.
But nationally, there's this huge,

vacuum of those,

and and I was I was listening
to this news report report on this.

And this is what was said

about chasing after these Santas.

They said people aren't
just chasing decor, they're chasing joy.

And so the idea is, in order to get joy,

they want to go back to the nostalgia
of Santa.

Joy is not found in giant inflatable
Santas.

Joy is in the smiles.

Joy is in the energy.

There's
there's some biblical joy is different.

Joy is not the denial of reality.

You just don't put on a smile and say,
no, I'm fine.

It's all good. It's
all man. It's all good.

Joy comes from a confidence
in a deeper reality.

And so as we talk about joy, please,
I do not want you to hear me say,

just put on a smile
and act like it's not okay.

Joy doesn't say it's all okay.

Joy says,
I am confident in a deeper reality behind

underneath my situation.

Please don't think it's either
joy or sorrow.

They're not mutually exclusive.

The Bible is full of people who love God

and yet who say, tears are my food day

and night.

Tears and joy

can live in the same heart
at the same time.

Limit and sorrow can be a pathway to joy.

Psalm 13, Psalm 42 and others.

Biblically, joy is not permanent.

Height and a big smile.

It's a deep, settled confidence

in the God who is beneath

your waves of emotion.

So today is not this.

If you're in a season of feeling low,
if you're in a silly season

of feeling numb,
if you're in a season of depression,

it's not

that you're failing Jesus nor failing
faith.

Please understand that.

Joy in Jesus is not.

It does not come that.

There should be a slide
before that because.

And I don't want to miss this joy.

And Jesus is not the refusal to feel.

I don't think that being joyful means
you got to,

you know, get get rid of all those
those feelings of difficulty and sorrow.

And that's not what joy is.

We can experience despair
and still belong to Jesus.

You have to. You have to hear that.

You have to understand that.

Joy is not at all

always a feeling.

It's found in the foundation,
underneath the feeling.

And every one of us needs joy in life.

Every one of us does.
But every one of us needs joy

for a different reason
and in a different season.

Joy for a 58 year old man is

I need something different
than a 20 year old man.

We both need joy.

But where there's different seasons

for John, for for people in their 20s
and 30s, they need joy

when the relationships disappoint.

They need joy
when the career is uncertain.

For those in their 40s and 50s,

they need joy
because parenting gets heavy.

And in your 40s and 50s, you need joy

because the marriage is strained.

And the joy because that's the time

when the body starts changing.

In your 50s,

60s and 70s, you need joy
because you realize maybe life

didn't pan out like you'd hoped it would
when you were in your 20s and 30s.

You need joy
because that's the that's the time in life

when you start caring
for your own aging parents.

And so we all need joy.

We need it for different reasons
in different seasons.

But the commodity of joy is something
that's got to be present.

And it's not the denial of how I feel.

It's not the refusal to feel.

It's a firm conviction

of the God underneath the feeling.

So joyful in Jesus.

If you're in that season of of sadness
and grief and depression,

joy doesn't mean throwing away

the meds and counseling the counsel,
the counselor and therapist.

It doesn't mean
that God can use those things,

but it means a certainty that underneath

everything is the Christ
who holds everything

to understand.

It's not a smile,

it's a gentle cheerfulness in God.

And I also want to acknowledge in this,

well,
we're just talking generally about joy,

the role of community in experiencing joy.

It's hard to experience
continual joy in a vacuum

when you're all alone.

And it's not meant to be that way.

It's interesting.

When Mary got the news
that would change her life,

she immediately went to her
relative, Elizabeth,

to encourage one
another to share the news with each other.

There are times
that the only way you can keep joy

is to borrow it
from somebody else for a season.

And that's a special role of dear friends.

It's a special role of family.

When your family knows you,
they know your present.

They have faith for your future
when you don't.

To borrow their joy for a moment,
to get around people

that remind you of God's
Word and the joy of the Lord.

This element
of community is very important

when we talk about this commodity of joy.

Most people live

with what I call seasonal joy
or situational joy.

And seasonal joy. Looks like this.

When the paycheck comes in, it's
bigger than you thought it would be.

Then that's a good time for.

That's good stuff right there. Right?

When you realize it's two weeks
before Christmas

and you got to go into River
Park for some shopping,

you need to get a really good
parking space right up front.

That's the time for joy.

And so most of us live

to our detriment with what I call

seasonal joy or situational joy.

And in Luke one, Mary is in the season

that is potentially devastating.

But for Mary,

Mary's joy did not come from her perfect
situation.

Mary's joy came from her
trust in a perfect Savior.

Some of us are waiting, praying

and begging for God
to change the situation.

Where God says,
I want your joy to be found in me

because I'm your perfect Savior.

So how to live with joy?

That is not situational.

Let me read for you verses
26 through 38 of Luke chapter one.

In the sixth month,
the angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
the sixth month of what?

The sixth month of Mary's relative
Elizabeth being pregnant

miraculously as an old lady.

So Elizabeth is pregnant six months,
and then Gabriel

comes to Mary in Nazareth, to a virgin

betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph,
of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

And he came to her and said, greetings,
O favored one, the Lord is with you.

That's not a bad greeting.

There's a lot of joy in that.

But she was greatly troubled
at the saying, and tried to discern

what sort of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her,
do not be afraid, Mary, for

you have found favor with God.

And behold,
you will conceive in your womb,

and bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great, and will be called
the son of the Most High.

And the Lord God will give to him
the throne of his father David,

and he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and his kingdom

and of his kingdom. There will be no end.

And Mary said to the angel,
how will this be, since I'm a virgin?

And the angel said to her,
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth,
in her old age has also conceived a son.

And this is the sixth month with her
who was called barren.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

And Mary said,

behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her.

It is true that when we talk about joy
and talk about Mary,

that Mary's story is very different
than ours.

This little girl gets a visit,
a personal visit

from the angel of God, Gabriel

is told that she will

experience a virgin.

Birth never happened before or since,

and that she will give birth
to the Savior of the world.

That's
not a typical Tuesday morning for us.

Yeah,

and so it's easy to look at that and say,
okay, I get it, Mary.

She can be joyful.

Look at this.

It doesn't compare to my world.

I didn't get some visit by an angel.

I'm not raising the savior of the world
who's going to sit on this king

throne forever. They're just different.

And while the situation is different,
I agree.

Mary's call is different.

We're not raising the Messiah.

Mary's call is different for sure,
but the pattern is the same.

The pattern is this

God speaks His Word into ordinary lives,

and God calls normal people

into impossible things.

And God gives His Holy Spirit to empower
what God has commanded.

And so, regardless of the situation,
the way God works is this God

gives and up for us to obey,
but not everything

we want want to know.

He gives us enough.

This is what I'm going to do.

But he doesn't give us so much
that we have all the answers.

And when we don't have the answers
and life is uncertain and unsure,

we tend to be robbed of joy.

And what's replaced is anxiety
and concern.

Let's walk through this passage
verses 26 and 27.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's
pregnancy, the angel Gabriel sent

from God to a city of Galilee
named Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name
was Joseph, of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

Here's what I want us to understand.

Right off the bat,
there's all kinds of stuff

that was going on behind the scenes.

Mary had no idea that one day
the father said to Gabriel,

the angel, Gabe, come here,
I got a job for you.

I'm going to deploy you
to this little girl named Mary.

She has no idea what's happening,
is just going to rock her world.

But you're going to bring the news.

And this is what I want you to tell her.

I've lined all of this up in my plan
on my sovereignty.

This is what I want you to.

Mary has no idea what's going down.

But God was at work.

Even though she didn't know.

Let me just tell you this, friends.

Some of you, some of us,
some of you are about to go

into a situation that you're
not going to go into the situation.

The situation is going to happen to you.

There's
going to be something that happens.

You're not going to see it coming.

You're not going to be able
to get ready for it.

You're not going to be prepared

and it's going to shock you and rock you.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking
that God hasn't

been orchestrating behind the scenes.

To understand this.

That's
why biblical joy is a gentle cheerfulness

in God.

God was at work

since time began.

Mary had no idea the same God,

same us.

Verses 28 and 29

and he came to her and said, greetings,
O favored one, the Lord is with you.

But she is greatly troubled at the saying,
try to discern

what kind of greeting this might be. Now.

Greetings, O favored one.

Joy begins with God's Word.

That's a pretty good word, O favored one.

Let me tell you a little bit about this
word favored one.

It's the first time in all of Bible
this word is used.

It comes from the Greek word chorus.

I've talked about this
a few different times.

I want to remind you if you've forgotten
or tell you for the first time.

If you've never heard me talk about this,

that word favored ones.

It's never been used by God
in all of Scripture up to this point,

and it literally means O favorite one.

Mary just got the word
that's never been used

of any human before,
that she is God's favorite.

What happens to your

quotient level at this point?

Hey there Mary.

Guess what?

I came from God's very throne

and I'm here to tell you
you are God's favorite

in all the earth.

What happens to your joy level
at that moment?

You're like, well, this is good.

That's a good day.

That's a pretty good day.

Going through the roof,

I want to tell you something.

That word's never been used until,
by God of any person, until this moment.

Mary,

it's not used again
until the book of Ephesians.

And in the book of Ephesians
it says, because of the death of Christ

and His resurrection,
those who believe in him

have become God's favorite same word.

For any of us who are in Christ,

God has now come to us as he did.

Mary, and he has declared over me.

Get it?

I am God's favorite.

You need to know that

I am,

and I expect you to treat me as such.

And you?

Say you're God's favorite.

That's good news.

That should make your joy
go through the roof.

Same word, same God,

same favor.

And at the same time,

she was greatly troubled.

That's the Greek word
for fear and dread and anxiety.

You see, there are times
when God's mission for his favorite kids

causes initial anxiety.

What are you asking me to do?

What are you asking me to live through?

What is the plan?

Let me just tell you this

personally.

As your pastor, I am praying that
God raises up young men and women

in this church because old men and women
don't typically respond.

Who will be

radical in their pursuit

of God's missional work in the world?

Just like Mary was.

Who will say,

let it be to me as you have said.

Though it will be scary,

though it will be unknown and uncertain.

Radical young men and women.

Who are so bold and courageous

that write a blank check of their lives

to the mission of God in this world.

Unfortunately, when people get older,
they have already set

the course of their life and they refuse
to make course corrections.

Young people have not.

In verses 30 through 33.

And the angel said to her,

don't be afraid, Mary.

You've found favor with with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son,

and you shall call his name Jesus.

And he will be great, and will be called
the son of the Most High.

And the Lord God will give to him
the throne of his father David.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and his kingdom of his kingdom

there will be no man. So all of a sudden
you're like, okay, wait, wait.

I'm God's favorite.

Don't really understand what that means.

It's kind of weird, but
my baby is going to have a throne forever.

My kids are going to be great.

Like, she gets confirmation

that every mom believes
when they have a baby.

And you know what it's like when you first
have a key, especially the first one.

After the second or third, you're like,
oh no, I know how this goes.

I'm not so excited about them.

But like the first one, you're like,
oh man, this is going to be fantastic.

You all you see in them is potential.

Are you seeing them as greatness?

Are you seeing them as goodness?

And then they get older
and prove you're wrong.

But initially you're like, man,
this is this good.

And this is what she gets confirmation
from God himself.

Can you imagine?

She's like, well, yeah, I mean, her joy,

her joy.

It's like, this is everything
a mom could ever dream of, right?

My kids going to be great.

And then it clicks.

Verse 34, how?

Because I'm a I'm a virgin.

So are you talking about, like, later
after Joseph and I are actually married?

Like you're talking down the road?

She's thinking, but the language makes

it sound like right now
I don't like these things.

Don't compute. God,

like what I hear you say?

But what I see in my life,
it just seems they're incongruent.

They've ever been.

They're like, well,
I know what God has said,

but my experience tells me something
different.

Anybody?

Yeah, that's where Mary is.

And so then the gut punch.

Here it is,

the angel answered,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you

in the power of the Most High
will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy. The Son of God.

Behold, your relative Elizabeth, in

her old age is conceived a son,
and she's in her sixth month.

She was once called barren.

Nothing is impossible with God.

That's the gut punch.

Okay, wait,

so you say I'm your favorite,

and you say the result of
this is going to be good.

But what this means for me right now,

this is the worst possible news.

So before we're married
in this consummated, I'm

going to show up pregnant.

Do you know what that means for me?

Who breaks the law?

Stated
that an engaged couple, betrothed couple.

If they had consensual relations
with each other.

And she showed up pregnant,
that the law required stoning.

So that's on the table.

Now the result.

What created this baby?

Wasn't she and Joseph?

It was the Holy Spirit. Her.
But nobody was going to believe that

those stoning was on the books.

It was very, very, very rare.

And she was actually
and I don't know if you've ever heard

that she was in danger of being stoned.

She was never really in danger
of being stoned.

There is no way that they would have ever
enacted that law.

And here's why.

Because for Jews to enact
any sort of capital punishment,

they had to get permission
from Rome first,

and Rome
would never have approved of that.

And so it never happened.

It may have been on the books,
but they were under Roman

rule and law,
and so she was never in danger of stoning.

Matter of fact,

if you you know, if you know,
you know your Bible, you think, well,

what about the woman
who was caught in adultery

that the Pharisees brought to Jesus and
were going to stone and all that stuff?

The issue behind
that was never the law of stoning.

The issue behind that was trying to trick
Jesus into and to trip him up to

expose him as a fraud.

She was never in danger of stoning either,

because they didn't have permission
from Rome.

The first stoning that we read of
in the Scripture from the by the church

on the religiously and the New Testament,
is of Stephen the Martyr.

And most people would suggest
that the reason why they carried that out,

they still didn't

have permission from Rome,
but there was a vacancy in the kingship

for a time, and there was no king
to get authority from.

And the fact that Stephen
was a little known somebody

that nobody, nobody cared about,
it wasn't Jesus.

And if you remember, in order
to avoid that capital punishment

against Jesus,
they had to get Rome's authority.

And so Mary was probably never in danger
of being so matter of fact.

The rabbis even said of their own
the religious court,

that if a religious court ever enacted
this law, even one time in seven years,

it was a destructive court, so
she was probably never in danger of death.

But here's what she was still in severe

danger of severe consequences,
because here's what it meant for her.

Not that she would die,

but that she would have to live

as a public outcast
and a little tiny community

where everybody knows your stuff.

She would be financially ruined,
not able to ever have a job.

She would be condemned as a beggar
for the rest of her life.

And this little baby,

she would live forever in shame,
completely

cut off from her family, completely
cut off from any religious support.

She would have,
no financial or societal support.

She would live the rest of her days,

stigmatized

and completely alone

in abject poverty, and probably die early.

It was a death sentence
of destitute poverty

and never being accepted by anybody.

And if Mary only looked
at her circumstances,

she would have fallen
into great and grave despair.

See, joy starts.

When I let God's word frame

my situation
more than my circumstances do.

And most of us let our circumstances

frame our reality.

And we languish for joy

rather than letting God's Word frame
my situation.

God, you have said that
I am your favorite.

You've said you're with me.

You said this is from you.

And so I'm going to let your word frame
my understanding

of this situation.

And because I have that gentle,

quiet confidence and cheerfulness in you.

Even in the unknown,
I can be a person of joy.

Do you understand this?

You understand this.

But she's got to imagine.

I mean, how would you. What
would you think of yourself right now?

If this is all what you're
looking for, your future

and you're trying to reckon with.

Okay, but what is.

So I'm God's favor.

But this is my future.

So let me let me just ask,

can you.

And I believe that we're God's favorite
before those circumstances change.

That's where joy is found.

C.S. Lewis said that joy
is the serious business of heaven.

What he meant is this
that God is not casual about joy, but

he's more interested in our eternal joy
than our temporary comfort.

So the key to joy is
when you ask the questions of God.

The key to joy is where you land
on the backside of those questions,

not the answer to the question,

but where you and I land on the backside
of the question and where we have to land.

On the backside of the question
is land on his character, not my clarity?

And most of us think

we derive joy
from clarity and understanding.

That's not where joy is found.

Joy is found when I land on the backside
of my question on the character of God.

Even without the clarity of understanding,
you understand.

She for joy to last,

I need God's voice to cut in,

not life to calm down.

For joy last.

We have to learn to interpret
our word world through God's Word.

Habakkuk three verses 17 through 18.

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit beyond the vines,

the produce of the olive fell,
and the fields yield no food.

The flock be cut off from the fold,
and there be no herd in the stalls.

Though everything falls apart,

though everything is destroyed, though
everything comes tumbling down.

Yet I will what?

Rejoice in what?

Not the situation and not the circumstance
and not the change.

I'll rejoice in what?

In the Lord and I will take.

What joy and the God of my salvation.

What's important for lasting joy is where
I land on the backside of the situation,

on the character of God.

The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary

and brought Christ in her,

and the same Holy Spirit brings
Christ in us.

Galatians five.

The fruit of the spirit is love.

Then joy

and joy is not something
that I manufacture.

I'm not something that you manufacture.

Joy grows in me. Joy.

Joy grows in you as we walk with him.

And as I look through my losses,
through the character of God,

through the lens of the character of God.

We bring this to a close with these verses
38, 46

and 47 Mary said, behold,
I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word.

And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

The key to joy.

Let me tell you, my dear friends,
the key to joy comes from surrender.

Not in a not from understanding.

Joy doesn't come
from a change of situation.

Joy comes from surrendering the situation.

Before Mary could say,
May it be to me, as you have said,

God promise to be with her.

And we have to learn to look at our gains
and our losses through the lens

of the God who is with us.

Mary got a word from God

regarding his presence and his plan.

She didn't get a blueprint from him.

Some of us want a blueprint.

God says,
I'm not going to give you a blueprint.

I'm going to give you my word
about my presence.

The most important thing I will say

today, please understand this
the doorway to non

situational joy is radical surrender.

The doorway to nonsense.

The joy that is present
regardless of the situation, regardless

of the circumstance,
is a radical surrender.

May be to me,
as you have said, radical surrender.

The way God works,
as I see in Scripture, is this

he gives us enough revelation
to invite us to surrender,

but not so much detail that he gives us

control.

God will give you.

He will give me enough information

to invite, surrender, but not so much.

That we think we can control.

And so the question,

what is it
you need to surrender radically?

Do you need to surrender

the outcome that you're still waiting on?

Do you need to surrender the timeline

that you think God should work in?

Do you need to surrender

the need to understand before you obey?

Do you need a surrender?

The dream?

Do you need to surrender the hope
that you had, that it would go this way?

Not that.

Radical surrender.

Radical surrender.

It was like signing the contract
without reading the fine print.

Because you trust
the one who wrote the contract.

You don't have to read it.

Some people

have tried to manufacture joy
without surrender.

First.

And that's why it's eluded you.

It's got to be surrender

before the joy.

You see, joy

that is not situational requires a yes.

That is not situational.

It sounds like this.

Yes, Lord.

Even if the diagnosis doesn't change. Yes.

Or even if the difficulty isn't resolved
as quickly as I wanted.

Yes, Lord.

Even if I don't get the answer,

even if I don't get the relationship,

even if I don't get the future, I want it.

Yes, Lord.

Radical surrender

me. It be to me.

As you've said.

Friends, I do not want you to hear me

say today that if you had more faith,
you had fear, more joy.

That's not what I'm saying.

But I want you to hear me say.

This.

Even when I don't feel better,
I'll still say yes.

Because in the
yes is where joy begins to grow.

Joy often grows slowly.

It's not microwaved,

and some of us are in

that seed in the soil stage of joy,

not the harvest stage.

Yet I know my God

and He is still working,

and I have a cheerful confidence in him,

which is joy.

The only reason we can talk about joy

that is not situational,
is because something in history happened.

King Jesus was born.

We call it Christmas,

and he brought great joy.

We call it salvation

to all who would believe.

In a follow.

He died and he was raised
and he defeated sin and death.

And now he lives in his people
by the Holy Spirit.

Joy is not optimism.

Joy is not positivity.

It's not simply putting on a smile.

Joy is rooted in a
manger and in an empty tomb.

In this time, for

God's people to be people of joy.

A quiet, gentle confidence

in God.

So as we close,

the question is
what do you need to surrender?

How would you do that? Now?

I want you to pray with me.

Some of you have not just surrendered
your life yet.

You're sure you're trying
hard to manufacture joy,

but you don't have it.

It's not lasting

if you're not surrendered
your life to Jesus yet.

And I invite you in this moment

to confess with your mouth
and believe in your heart

that Jesus died
and God raised him from the grave

to pay the sin penalty
that you cannot pay on your own.

I invite you to surrender your life
right now

in prayer to the father.

Say, father,
I accept your son and the word.

Jesus died on the cross

to pay my sin penalty.

That I don't want to even try to pay.

Some of you need to surrender
life right now and say, Jesus,

I accept you as a leader of my life
and I give myself to you.

Thank you for forgiveness.

I accept it and I receive it today.

Make me a new person.

Others of you have done that,

but there's that thing
that you still have not surrendered

and joy eludes you.

Is it the dream?

Is it the agenda?

Is it the timeline?

It's.

Is this the desire to control?

Is it the hurt?

Is it the grudge?

It's just the double mindedness.

Joy comes when you say, father,

I surrender all of that.

I get my hands off it.

Whatever you've determined,
my response is.

May it be to me. As you have said,

I know your character

and I trust it.

Oh my God,
may it be to me, as you've said,

father, for those who will say that,
for those of us who.

Father, may it be to me, as you said,
would you give us

that quiet, gentle cheerfulness in you?

Would you give us joy?

You're a good God.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Friends, I'm proud of you.

I love you as we go through these next
two times together.

Next Sunday,
I think we're talking about love

and Christmas Eve the 24th.

I think we're probably going
to talk about Jesus.

Someone asked me just this week.

They said, hey, what are you talking about
on Christmas Eve?

And I said, I think I'm going
to go with Jesus this year.

But, you know, people who don't know joy

and, you know, people
who haven't experienced radical,

transformative love and,
you know, people that don't know Jesus,

you got two services left to invite them
next Sunday and Christmas Eve,

invite them.

You got it.

Proud of you I love you.

You got one more song. Let's sing it.