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

0:00all right before we get into the message i have something really exciting to share

0:04elevation nights is back and we're coming to eight incredible cities this october from the

0:1021st through the 30th we're coming to st paul omaha st louis louisville duth tampa miami and

0:18orlando and we're bringing the full experience to you elevation worship live and a powerful message

0:24from my husband pastor steven i cannot wait to see what god is going to do in these cities so

0:31don't wait i don't want you to miss out on this head to elevation.com if you live near any of

0:36those cities grab your tickets and get ready to meet with god and leave feeling inspired

0:42and encouraged we cannot wait to worship with you So grateful to be here with you all today,

0:52preaching to what feels to me to be family. I get so excited anytime I get

0:58to share space with you. And, uh, if you're not familiar with who I am, that's okay. I'm

1:05just your crazy beige little nephew from Austin, Texas that pulled up on you today.

1:13Just khaki, just out here praising God. Congratulations to Elevation Rhythm on the

1:22release, Victory Lap. I was encouraging Davide, and, um, depending on how you take it, encouraging

1:36or discouraging Chris. 'Cause I said my 12-year-old son was riding in the car with me the

1:44other day, and he said, "Dad, why does Elevation Rhythm have more bangers than Elevation Worship?"

1:52My, how the turns have tabled. Ah. But seriously celebrating you, and what a,

1:59a testimony of this house, always being about the next generation,

2:06building for the future, uh, not just saying it but investing time, resources, platform,

2:13influence. And it just flows from a generous house, which is the culmination of generous

2:22leadership. And I'm so grateful for your pastor, Pastor Steven Furtick,

2:28Holly. I love you guys. So grateful for your kindness, for your friendship, for your support.

2:37Shout out to Chunks, wherever he's bench-pressing something today. Just so grateful. Chunks has been

2:45the secret weapon of Church of Whitestone in Austin. I've called him countless times,

2:50and he just makes room for us, and I'm so grateful. And ultimately I'm grateful for

2:55you all, because generosity doesn't just flow to this church, it flows through this church,

3:01and it flowed right into Austin to Whitestone to help us plant our church 15 months ago. And I just

3:11wanna let you know that God's doing something with the seed that you've sown, that over the last 15

3:19months we've baptized 507 people. We've seen 630 people say yes to Jesus for the very first time.

3:33So amazing to be a footnote in God's great story, and I'm just so grateful for the ways

3:39that you have partnered with us. We're gonna go quickly to the scripture, Matthew 5:1. Grab your

3:46Bibles. If you don't have it, this is Elevation, you'll be able to read it somewhere. It'll be on

3:52the screens. Um, Matthew 5:1. When you got it, say, "I got it." A singing church, I love it. Ah.

4:08Matthew 5:1. "Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His

4:17disciples came to Him and He began to teach them. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the

4:28kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek,

4:41for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

4:50for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

5:01Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,

5:11for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are

5:17persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'"

5:25Today, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I'll be drawing this title, Allow Joy to

5:32Reintroduce Himself. Allow Joy to Reintroduce Himself. Would you pray with me? Jesus, thank

5:40You so much for Your Word. I pray that You would warm our hearts today to receive what it is that

5:50You have to speak to us. God, I pray that there would be a supernatural impartation of Your joy,

6:00that it would flow from the pages of these scriptures, from the heart of Your presence,

6:04into the lives of Your people. We ask it in Jesus' name. And the church said?

6:13Amen. You can go ahead and take your seat. Allow Joy to Reintroduce Himself.

6:22I wanna ask you a question today. Who in human history taught the

6:31most important message on joy? Who in human history taught the most important

6:39message on joy? Now, I know we got a lotta church folk up in here today.

6:45I know there are a lot of people who have been following Jesus for a long time in the

6:49room and watching online today.And so, I don't just wanna assume that we're all just drawing

6:57the same conclusions about joy and the origins of the message of joy, and who articulated the power

7:08of joy most perfectly. Some of you may point to someone like Buddha, and say that Buddha

7:17taught the most important message on happiness and joy. He seems like a pretty happy guy.

7:25And, uh, he said this phrase, that "Happiness, it,

7:31that there is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path." Not bad.

7:38I can tell I'm already losing the church with just mentioning Buddha in this sacred space.

7:42What in the world? Been in Austin, and all of a sudden, you just... You gonna be all right.

7:51Maybe some of you would point to a more stoic philosopher, like Marcus Aurelius,

7:59an emperor. He said that, "Joy is the product of self-discipline.

8:06Taking life as it comes to you." Not a bad swing at joy. Maybe more of you

8:15philosophical individuals would say someone like Aristotle gave us the most profound ideas that

8:25we have about joy and happiness. He said that, "Happiness depends on ourselves."

8:36None of those are really bad swings at the idea, but I had to go to the

8:41authority of all authorities. I- I- I had to go to the resource, huh,

8:47of all resources... I had to go to ChatGPT. Some of y'all were ready to shout. Oh no. Not AI.

9:02I just wanted to test it, see how it was feeling. I don't know if ChatGPT got saved,

9:07sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost or what, but ChatGPT preached back to your

9:11boy. ChatGPT said, "Jesus Christ-" "... preached the most important message on

9:19joy." There's the church. All right. I got y'all. Okay. If ChatGPT said it, then...

9:29Now, ChatGPT only has a 80 to 95% accuracy rate,

9:34so you gotta fact-check ChatGPT. But in this case, I think that it was 1000% right.

9:43Jesus taught the most important message on joy in human history. But I wonder if we

9:55have stopped long enough in our lives to analyze exactly how Jesus introduced the message of joy.

10:08That's why I chose this framework of Matthew 5, because Jesus actually resets the lens

10:19through which we identify happiness and joy in the world and in our lives. Now,

10:30I'm gonna test your religious reflex here. Don't at me, but the next phrase that I'm

10:37about to say is going to trigger you. Are you ready? Your happiness matters to God.

10:49I know. Maybe some of you were raised in environments adjacent to the environment I was

10:56raised in, where you were taught to believe, "God doesn't care if you're happy, do what he says."

11:06Maybe some of you, you don't even realize it,

11:10but you have bought into the idea that the more miserable you are,

11:17the more you're honoring God. "I don't serve Him 'cause I want to. I serve Him 'cause I have to."

11:26I grew up hearing this preached in church, "God doesn't care about your happiness,

11:32He cares about your holiness." And it's so funny in church, people will say stuff

11:40all the time that's not in the Bible, and then they'll run out to some print store

11:47and put it on a T-shirt and sell it out of the trunk of their car as if it was Bible truth.

11:56But this idea does not exist in the Scriptures. In fact, in order to understand the idea of joy,

12:04to understand the heart of God, we don't go to our feelings,

12:08we don't go to church culture, we don't go to secular culture, we go to the Word of God.

12:16The Scriptures. And when I look at the Word, it's so important how you look at the Word. You don't

12:22just look at it, you look around it. And you understanding the Word of God is so important,

12:29because how you view the Word, the Scriptures, determines how you view God. And how you view

12:37God determines how you interpret the events of your life. And so if I'm going

12:43to buy into a premise that God only wants mean Christians and God only makes miserable people,

12:53then I have gone outside of the very character and nature of God that the Bible teaches.When

13:01I look at scripture, I see verses like, "In His presence is the fullness of joy."

13:11Well, if joy is in his presence, how could he produce what he does not possess? And so,

13:19he must possess joy to produce joy. I'm coming after this whole, God only wants mean Christians

13:27thing. And- and- and- and if- if- if you can't smile in church, I'd hate to tell you,

13:32you're the problem. Can't nobody be more saved and more mean-looking than a Christian. Wild.

13:48But even when you look at God and you see that the angels are gathered around His throne,

13:53declaring, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God Almighty, and the earth is

13:59filled with His glory," they're beholding His holiness, but they're not just saying,

14:07"Holy, holy, holy." The scripture indicates that they're singing, "Holy, holy, holy."

14:14Well, singing is a product of joy. So something that heaven is experiencing

14:22in God's presence is provoking a praise from a source of worship.

14:30Why this is so important for you to understand today is because some of

14:36you have been living your lives believing that God is withholding a certain aspect of

14:45His nature from you. That He's keeping a dimension of His character from you.

14:57Because we've been convinced that our happiness is dependent on something that we go into the world

15:07and get. But it's not going out into the world that allows us to possess happiness and joy.

15:20It's going to what Dallas Willard called The Great Beyond Within,

15:26where the character of Christ is being formed in your heart.

15:32So my happiness doesn't flow from my dreams, doesn't flow from my plans, doesn't flow from

15:39whatever season of life I'm in. It flows from the character of Jesus being formed in my heart. But

15:50you first have to buy into the premise that God is uniquely invested in your happiness.

16:02When I looked at Matthew 5, I was shooketh. When I realized that Matthew 5 records what

16:18theologians and scholars all agree on is Jesus' inaugural sermon. His very first message that

16:27someone wrote down, and the first word that Jesus says is, "Blessed." Have you considered that?

16:44That Jesus stepped into time and space, split history in half with his mere existence, and He

16:52goes with his disciples, sits down on a hillside on an ordinary day, and the first word that He

16:59declares that He knows would be echoed throughout human history is the word, "Blessed." Wow.

17:07You know, we give a lot of credence to famous last words. Famous last words.

17:18Words that are powerful because they seal a moment or a season. Famous last words like,

17:24"Ain't gonna be no rematch." Apollo Creed. Rocky IV. Famous last words like,

17:37"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." Pancho Villa.

17:48Famous last words like, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Nathan Hale.

17:57Famous last words like, "You must do me this honor. Promise me you'll survive,

18:05that you won't give up no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose."

18:16"And never let go of that promise." "I'll never let go." "Let's go." Why'd

18:26I have to do Leo like that, y'all? We all know there was room on the thing,

18:33on the floaty thing. There was room. Rose, you're selfish. They stole Titanic 2 from us, y'all. I'm

18:46not okay. Famous last words. But shouldn't there be something said about famous first words?

19:01Not because of their finality, but because of their primacy?Their priority,

19:07the fact that they were spoken first, famous first words like,

19:10"Four score and seven years ago." Happy Memorial Day. Famous first words,

19:19"I have a dream." Ooh. "That little Black boys and little White girls will make little khaki kids."

19:29Praise Go- Ooh, speak in tongue. I'm living the dream, Martin! I'm living it! Martin Luther King.

19:50Famous first words in a galaxy far... Oh, y'all some nerds. Y'all... Elevation got a reputation

20:00for being so cool. Star Wars nerds. Famous first words. Last words, first words. Last words,

20:15first words. Last words, first words. The last word of the Old Testament is curse. The

20:27first word Jesus says in the first book of your New Testament in his first sermon is blessed.

20:39Jesus, the embodiment of all of the law prophecies. Jesus, the one who did not abolish the

20:52law, but fulfilled it to the finest detail while ironically crushing the spirit of religion. In one

21:05word, reverses every reality that people living through that Old Testament era had experienced.

21:18All they were left with was a curse. Because of the stringent rules and their traditions,

21:27all that they had was the curse. Even the law, the Bible says, "The letter brings death,

21:31but the spirit is life?" And yet, the Spirit was not given until Acts 2. And so these people were

21:38living under the reality of the curse until grace and truth sat down on a hillside and

21:45started to reorient the heart of humanity back to God's original intention and design for humanity.

21:54Because the first interaction God ever had with people was not to rebuke them.

22:03It was not to correct them. Although he does this in his loving-kindness,

22:09this was not his original intention. Genesis 1:28 records the first action of God toward humanity.

22:19And the scripture says, "And God blessed them and told them to be fruitful, multiply,

22:28fill the earth and subdue it." And so Jesus turns the heart of a religiously cold people,

22:38one who only knew a god from the distance, back to the original heart of blessing of God's people.

22:51Now, when they heard the word blessed, they did not hear what we hear. It was not, come on, 2014,

23:01#blessed. They did not think car, they did not think house, they did not think stuff, they did

23:09not think oceanside villa, they didn't think any of those things. The word in the original language

23:16means happy. Thi- thi- this is what, this is what got me, y'all. This is why I wrote a book about

23:26this. I couldn't get away from it. You mean to tell me that the first word God said when

23:36he is speaking to people that will reverberate through generations, he chooses the word happy?

23:47It made me ask, "How important must your happiness be to the heart of God if it's

23:56the first thing he points us toward?" God wants you to be happy. Huh. Wild. I, um, had an idea

24:18that was floated to me by someone that this church has a great history with. I wasn't gonna out him,

24:24but I decided to. Wade Joy gave me this advice. He said, "It'd be a great idea if you do a five-year

24:36trip with all your kids. Every five years, take 'em on something, just them, you and Lorna."

24:48When we had two kids, this was a great idea.

24:53We got four of them things. But we started it, and now we can't retract it. So I went to my oldest

25:04son, he was turning five at the time, I said, "Hey, bro, your five-year trip's coming up. Where,

25:08where you wanna go?"So, I thought... We live in Texas, y'all, so I thought he would wanna go to

25:13the Alamo. You know, down to the, the, the, the Mexico border. That would be interesting.

25:19Um... No. My boy said, "Dad, I wanna go to Disney World." The trip of all trips.

25:37Now, I had a thing that I was doing for work, so we actually got to make it happen

25:41and we went to Disney World. But I realized I immediately set a very high precedent. And so,

25:48here comes his little brother, Lawson. He's five years old. "Dad, it's time

25:55for my five-year trip." "And I know where I wanna go." "Where we going, boss?" "Japan."

26:07I said, "Japan? What?" "My fault. My fault, little brother. My fault. Anywhere in the

26:15continental United States of America, where would you like to..." "I wanna go to Japan.

26:28Doitashimashite." "Boy, you can't even speak English. What are you doing?" "Uh, uh, uh, we're

26:36not going to Japan." "Fine." He wipes his last tear. "I'll go to Disney World." What? Spoiled.

26:49We went to Disney World, then Navy. He was three and a half talking about, "Disney Word,

26:57Disney Word, Disney Word." And if history repeats itself, we got a fifth birthday coming up. God

27:05help, uh... You see why I wrote a book? Help me. Help. This was ter- Wade, I blame you.

27:11I'm sending you an invoice. Disney is known as the happiest place on Earth.

27:23You don't have to be there more than five minutes- ... to realize, what do you mean happy? You got

27:32people stomping their feet, throwing fits, rolling on the ground, whining, complaining,

27:37and the kids are misbehaving too. You go to Disney World, you either getting a picture

27:44with Mickey Mouse or a divorce. It's one- It's, it's crazy to me. The happiest place on Earth.

27:57I found that Disney World isn't just the home of Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell,

28:00it's the home of meltdowns. Trauma. "What are you in counseling here today for?" "Well,

28:07my dad took me on five-year trips and..." It's interesting

28:15that we have certain expectations connected to certain locations.

28:23Certain locations in our lives. And I'm not talking about Disney World,

28:28obviously. Some of you, you're graduating. Yeah, let's go. Congratulations.

28:40But if you're honest, you're like, "Thank God I'm done with high school." Being done with

28:45high school will be the happiest place on Earth. Then you go to college. "Once I get this degree,

29:01I'm gonna be in the happiest place on Earth." But once you leave college,

29:05guess where you get to go? To work.

29:11And you're not gonna make enough money to pay for the college. The

29:19happiest place on Earth. "If he would just propose to me." "Don't you want

29:28me to be happy?" "This is not gonna work. I need a ring in three weeks."

29:35Happiest place on Earth. And then we keep pushing it off. "Well, once we have the kid and, and once

29:40we move from this apartment into the house. And once I redesign the kitchen. And once I do this,"

29:45and then finally always pushing our happiness up ahead somewhere, robbing ourselves of what God

29:52wants to do right here. I promise you, these two words will rob you of more joy in your life than

30:01any other two words you can put together, and those two words are, "What's next?" What's next

30:07will cripple your life. What's next will shipwreck your faith. What's next will destroy your sense

30:15of contentment and fulfillment. We have to ask a better question if we wanna get better answers.

30:22The better question is not, "What's next?" The better question is, "What's here?"

30:29What's here? What's, what's in these kids? What's in this marriage? What's

30:35in this job? What's in this season? What's in this church? I think this

30:44is why Jesus chose the location from which he delivered his message very

30:51intentionally. Because he didn't go to Mount Sinai to give a masterclass on joy.

31:02He didn't go to Mount Zion with all of the prestige that it carries in Scripture to

31:08deliver a masterclass on joy. No, he went-... to what we believe to be is a mountain,

31:15but when you write a book, you actually have to do research to make sure it's

31:18kinda true. And so I looked it up. It's not a mountain. It's a hill.

31:28You got Sinai, seven-s seven thousand five hundred feet in elevation. You got Zion,

31:35two thousand five hundred feet in elevation. You got this hill that you wanna know the name of,

31:40except I'm gonna tell you right now, the Bible doesn't record it. It's not even a footnote in

31:44the Scripture. Four hundred feet in elevation. It's a hill. And Jesus doesn't stand and declare

31:57some great teaching... "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." No.

32:11He just sits down on an ordinary day, in an ordinary place, and He uses the topography to

32:26illustrate the theology of joy. Because the name of that hill is Aremes, and Aremes means

32:37desolate and isolated. And so Jesus chooses a desolate, isolated place to teach us about joy.

32:55If I'm running this show, we pulling up somewhere sweet. We going to Disney

33:04World. But Jesus is in this space that looks like nothing, and communicates the heart of joy. Why?

33:21Because a l- lot of life is not lived on Sinai or Zion.

33:30Most of life is lived in Aremes. You will spend more time in traffic than

33:36on vacation. You will spend more time getting crushed by life than crushing it.

33:49And Jesus wanted to show us joy works here. Joy lives here. There was nothing

33:58to be seen. Those people seated on that hillside, all they could see was Jesus.

34:10And maybe the reason why we cannot experience joy in our lives is 'cause we're constantly

34:18looking around Jesus, not at Him. An author and pastor named David Murray gaves- uh, gave us seven

34:33categories for happiness: social happiness, vocational happiness, intellectual happiness,

34:45physical happiness, like through exercise and things like that, humor happiness,

34:52creation happiness for all of you outdoors people It's so weird to me, but why be outside

34:59when there's a perfectly air-conditioned room somewhere close, running water and everything?

35:08And the last one is spiritual happiness. Now, because God is so good in His common grace,

35:14He allows all people to experience six of those seven categories. You can be outside

35:22of relationship with Jesus and still experience a partial fulfillment that friendship brings,

35:30that work brings, that things bring into your life. But what we do is we try to take all six

35:39of those categories and use them to fill the void that is created when we don't have the seventh,

35:48spiritual happiness. Spiritual happiness is a seal around the human soul. If you don't have spiritual

35:59happiness, you can swallow the world whole and still be empty because your soul is leaking.

36:11But if you allow the presence of God, the ways of God, the will of God to seal your heart,

36:20it amplifies the joy and happiness you receive from every other category.

36:27So I get more joy out of my friendships because I'm not there to always air my problems to them.

36:34I'm there to take the way of Jesus and listen more than I speak. What a thought.

36:46When I have the spiritual seal of happiness around my soul, I go to work. And although the

36:54environment is toxic, it doesn't influence me. I influence it. Because even though my

37:02boss is hard to work with, I'm not working for him. I'm working unto the Lord. And so

37:11every menial task that I perform is done in service of the King.... not in an effort to

37:18be promoted. And when I take my eyes off of everyone having to have their eyes on me,

37:25and I put my eyes on other people, I am greatly fulfilled in other areas of my life.

37:33The joy is amplified when Jesus is the center and the seal. This is what Jesus was communicating

37:43through these words. Now, obviously, I could literally sit here and talk to you guys for

37:50hours about this. That's why I had to write about it. Because we cannot even withhold...

37:57The- the Beatitudes have become, like, wallpaper in Christian gatherings. We know 'em, but we don't

38:03even understand 'em. Isn't that crazy? Guys, this is the first thing Jesus talked about.

38:12How important must it be? And yeah, He gets to your holiness, and He gets to the ways of

38:20your life, but not before He introduces us to these ideas. But this is, th- th- this, this,

38:26this, it hasn't let me go yet, y'all. When Jesus is speaking through these,

38:35"Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn,"

38:41He's not just giving us good ideas. He's not just showing us ideals to

38:47live up to. He's revealing Himself. He was the one who became poor in spirit.

39:01He had the treasures of glory in his hands, and He traded it in for the dust of the earth.

39:12Although He was equal with God, He didn't see his equality with God as something to

39:17be grasped. But He emptied Himself, came to the lowest form, a human,

39:23a servant, obedient to death, even death on the cross. He knows what it's like to

39:29be spiritually bankrupt. He knows what it's like to ask God, "Why?"

39:39Hanging on the cross was the first time He felt a total depravity, our depravity,

39:48our sin. And he asked God, "Why have you forsaken me?" If He asked God why,

39:55stop beating yourself up because you have. You get to ask God questions. He was the one who mourned.

40:10Can you hold the implications that God cried? Why do you have to show up so

40:18strong all the time? Never a crack in the armor. Got all these churchy phrases that

40:26don't mean nothing. How you doing? "Blessed and highly favored." Breaking on the inside. "How

40:35you doing?" "Well, he's been better than me than I've been to myself, praise God."

40:42"If I was any better, I'd be dead." "What?" Tss. No. My boy's favorite Bible verse to quote right

40:56now, they feel so studious, "Dad, I memorized part of the Bible." "Really, bud? I didn't

41:02know you had a Bible." "What did you memorize?" "Jesus wept." But we cannot really understand

41:15the weight of the implications that those two words hold, if Jesus cried, if Jesus felt.

41:25You have permission to feel. I love something that your pastor said,

41:31"The presence of God is not the place that you go to bypass your emotions." "The presence of

41:38God is the place that you go to process them." You have permission to feel however you feel,

41:48and then allow the Gospel into those feelings, to transform them.

41:57God does not want you burying your feelings. The problem with buried feelings is we bury them

42:04alive. And then at some point, unprocessed pain finds its way into our lives in symptoms we feel

42:14like we have no control over because we never gave ourselves permission to come into a room and feel.

42:24Do you know that's why you cry in God's presence? That it is a physical response

42:32to a spiritual transformation taking place? When you're in worship and listening to music,

42:39the disintegrated part of your brain, when you cry, your brain is reintegrated. So there is

42:48a literal biological, neurological aspect to worship. That's why we say you're not wasting

42:56time when you're praising God. You're literally allowing him to heal your heart your mind,

43:06your will your emotions. And if you don't allow God to heal you there, you won't ever be happy.He

43:27was the one crowned with meekness.

43:31He was the one, oh my goodness, who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. So much so

43:40that when they tried to quench his thirst on the cross, he refused to drink because

43:44the only thing that would satisfy him was your righteousness being fulfilled.

43:53In order to reintroduce you to joy, I have to allow Joy to reintroduce himself. Because joy

44:08is not a thing, it's not a feeling, it's not an emotion, it's a person.

44:24You spell joy, J-E-S-U-S. And I know it's the simplest thing in the world, but the hardest

44:38thing for us to wrestle down in our spirit, is that there's only one doorway into the joy

44:46of the Lord. And it's Jesus himself. And I know we're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right,

44:55now tell me something that actually helps me." We- we- we- we- we believe that, but we

45:08also expect joy to walk through the door with our kids. "If you did a little bit better in school,

45:15I would feel a little less like a failure. My joy is connected to your achievement, so go achieve."

45:27We expect joy to walk through the door with our spouse, and unless her name is Joy,

45:34that's not happening. That's... W- we- we see our spouse as an access point to joy. Empty.

45:54The most beautiful thing about this scripture is in the first line. Jesus

46:03went and sat down on a hillside. It tells me you can have joy in a posture of rest.

46:16We think we gotta work for joy, work for joy. I gotta work for joy. And yeah, you have to

46:21participate, but he's seated. And then it says the crowd gathers around him. If we're honest,

46:34we need to evaluate our lives. What are we really gathering around? I know for me,

46:44I love to gather around work. Work doesn't feel like work to me. I love to work. It's a problem.

46:52Uh, I'm in counseling. Talking to my therapist, like, "Brother,

46:58you- you- you gotta help me." He said, "What's your prayer life look like?" I described it to

47:03him. He said, "That sounds like work, too." He said, "Have you just thought

47:07about delighting in the Lord?" I said, "That sounds great. How do you do that?"

47:12He said, "Well, what if you just showed up and just sat down with the Lord?" I said,

47:16"That's perfect. When I was writing my book, I rented an Airbnb. It's 25 minutes from my

47:20house. I'll just go be with the Lord. Delight in the Lord, three to four hours, once- once

47:25a week. I'll just go up and do that." And he just, he just smirked at me like, "Bro.

47:32Or, you could close the door to the room you're sitting in, shut off your phone,

47:39put your Bible aside, 'cause you cannot help but writing some message down,

47:45and just close your eyes and be with God for 10 minutes." I just laughed. I went

47:52into the living room. I said, "Lorna, babe, why am I like this?" Why, when someone says,

47:58"You need to spend time with God," do I immediately think Zion? Airbnb, three, four hours.

48:10God's in Aramis. God's in the simple. And when I sat there and I just thought about God,

48:22something filled my soul up. An energy, a vitality. And when I went back and talked

48:33to my counselor again, he said, "How'd it go?" I said, "It was amazing. It was so easy." He said,

48:40"How did you see God in that moment?" I was like, "Well, I've got two answers.

48:48I've got what I experienced, and then how I relabeled what I experienced."

48:54What I experienced was like, when I'm sitting across the table from one of my boys,

49:00just looking into their eyes. "Creepy dad." I know, I just love you. I just love you. I love

49:09everything about you. I- I love those freckles on your face. I l- I love those curls on your

49:16head. I- I- I love the dreams I see in your eyes. I- I love that... you're my son. I said,

49:23"I felt like God was looking at me like that."And then when I went and I thought about it again,

49:33I was like, "Well, there's another version of this story in my mind, too."

49:39It was like God had his sleeve rolled up and he was just pacing back and forth with his hand

49:44tucked under his chin in a furrowed brow like he was solving a problem.

49:50And when he recognized I was there, he kinda side-eyed glanced at me and said, "Glad you're

49:55finally here." Because all that I've known is a God who wanted to use me to accomplish something.

50:11I thought that was the greatest touch of God, was to be used by him.

50:21I've realized it's a far greater treasure to be loved by him. And when you receive the love of

50:30God, He pours His joy into your heart. And it's produced from His Spirit in you. When you're

50:43filled with the Spirit, you get the features of the Spirit. The evidence of God in a person

50:49is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. But I wonder

51:01if what you've been searching the world for has been inside of the universe and you all along.

51:11But you gotta come through the doorway of Jesus to get to it, if you would stand today. Thank

51:17you for letting me share my heart today. I was disappointed Pastor Steven wasn't here, too,

51:29so we're all in that boat together. He'll be back, it's his church. But I wanna invite you today

51:41to experience the joy of the Lord.

51:47Hebrews says of the Son of God that God poured the oil of joy on Him, so that He would have more

51:56joy than anyone else. This is available to you, but it comes through a relationship with Jesus.

52:09Some of you today need to take the first step toward allowing

52:12joy to reintroduce himself by putting your faith in Jesus once and for all.

52:21Would you pray with me? Lord, I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your joy,

52:30the joy of salvation. Lord, we turn our eyes away from everything else in this world. And

52:42for just a moment, we wanna capture heaven's gaze. Lord, there are so many deep wounds,

52:52traumas, difficulties, struggles that we have felt are in opposition to us experiencing your joy.

53:03But you actually use the mechanism of mourning to deliver us from the grip of grief. That happiness

53:11is not waiting on the other side of something for us, it's happening inside. I pray that we

53:19would allow you in today. Come into our lives, come into our hearts, come into our dreams.

53:31If you're in this room today and you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ,

53:35on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. I'm gonna lead you in a prayer that will

53:41change the trajectory of not only, only your life, but eternity. If God's pulling on your

53:48heart right now to follow Him, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. One,

53:55two, three. Don't hesitate. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Now listen, we're gonna pray a prayer.

54:06You have to pray this prayer for yourself, but you don't pray this prayer by yourself.

54:12This whole church family is gonna pray with you today. Would you just say this

54:15with me? Jesus come into my life, make me new. I realize I'm lost without you

54:24Thank you that you have more grace than I have sin. I believe You are the Son of God,

54:33The resurrected King, And you're resurrecting me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

54:39Can you put your hands together for what God is doing in this church? Elevation,

54:46I love you so much. God bless you. We'll see you next time.

54:52hey thank you for watching the elevation church youtube i want you to subscribe that way you

54:57can know when we go live and post new content make sure to leave me a comment let me know

55:02what spoke to you today where you're watching from and what we can pray for you about and if

55:06you'd like to support the ministry financially you can click the give button now and help us

55:11continue reaching people around the world for jesus christ thanks again i'll see you next time