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Hello and welcome to Trinity Sermons.

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We are a church in Mississauga, Ontario, and together we are learning to love Jesus, live

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like Jesus, and lead others to Jesus.

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Today we are continuing our sermon series, Fruit of the Spirit, and today Rob will be

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talking to us about Cultivating Joy.

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I hope that you enjoy today's message, and God bless.

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Reading from Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 11.

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Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with

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God because of what Jesus Christ, our Lord, has done for us.

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Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where

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we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

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We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us

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develop endurance.

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God's endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope

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of salvation.

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And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because

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He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

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When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

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Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might

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perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.

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But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

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And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly

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save us from God's condemnation.

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For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son, while we were still

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His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.

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So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus

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Christ has made us friends of God, the Word of the Lord.

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Well, if you have ever found yourself in a situation where you're saying to yourself,

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man, I wish I could be more kind, I wish I could be more gentle, I wish I could be more

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patient or more loving, then I've got some amazing news for you.

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We picked a great Sunday to come to church because we are talking about this very subject

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here about how we can become exactly those kind of people.

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And we're talking about it this Sunday and for the next several weeks as we go through

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this teaching series we're calling Organic.

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You see, because in the Bible we read that the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and

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peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.

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Now the Christian faith makes this pretty bold claim.

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The bold claim is this, that if you want to become more like this kind of person, if you

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want to become more kind and joyful and loving, then the way you do that is not by trying

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really, really hard.

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The way you do that is not by getting a life coach to kind of help you do that or by reading

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a book on the subject.

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Now the way you become more loving and kind and joyful is that the Holy Spirit comes into

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your life, takes up residence there, and then this grows in your life and eventually you

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start bearing this kind of fruit in your life.

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And actually I would say that if you missed last week, we kind of talked about how to

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cultivate your life in order to grow this kind of fruit of the Spirit.

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Now here is the thing, many people object to this whole line of thinking, the whole

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line of thinking that says, oh it's only by the Holy Spirit that you can become a loving

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person, it's only through the Holy Spirit that you can become more patient.

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Even people online, even people online were complaining a bit about this past week.

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They said this whole idea is bull, but they actually used another word, they said they

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called it the longer word for bull, because they didn't actually believe, and I'm sure

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it was none of you that did this.

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Although the username was at Rob Wormald, 1946, so I don't know, but I don't know who

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that is.

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But actually the truth is I get it.

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The truth is that you don't need the Holy Spirit to be these kind of people in the world,

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we don't.

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Because you have neighbors and you have friends and coworkers or family members and they're

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kind and they're loving and they're patient people, they're wonderful people.

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And yet they don't believe in God, they don't believe in the Holy Spirit and they certainly,

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you know, they don't go to church and they don't believe in this whole idea of the fruit

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of the Spirit.

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And so how do you explain that?

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Help me.

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How do you explain the fact that there are people who don't even believe in the Holy

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Spirit who are demonstrating in their lives the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

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And I think the answer is it turns out that there is more than one way to become a gentle,

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kind, and loving person.

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It can happen through the Holy Spirit working in your life, but it can also happen through

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other ways.

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So maybe, for example, you are a more peaceful person today because of the work that God's

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Spirit has been doing in your heart.

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Or it could be that you're a more peaceful person today because you have an amazing therapist

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and she's been doing some mindfulness exercises with you and they're really helping and you

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feel more peaceful, right?

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That's fantastic.

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Or maybe you are a more patient person today because you really have come to know God's

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love and God's great patience for you and it's growing the spiritual fruit of patience

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in your life.

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Or maybe you are a more patient person today because the last time you lost your temper,

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you were sleeping on the couch for a week and you're just like, I'm not going to do

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that anymore.

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I'm going to try my hardest to be more, more patient.

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So I guess what I'm saying is when we see changes in our life, it might be helpful to

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ask the question, is what I'm seeing behavior modification or is it spiritual transformation?

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Is this something that is happening that I'm kind of doing on the outside or is it something

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that is bubbling up from the inside?

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I've often wondered this when I've looked at my own life and I see some changes and I

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think, man, now the question is, is that really, is that my doing?

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Am I doing that?

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Am I making those changes?

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Or is that God's doing?

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Or is it like some combination of the two?

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Or put another way, is what I'm seeing in my life a result of willpower or a result of

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God's power, the Spirit's power?

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I seem to be more kind.

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I seem to be more gentle, but is that just because I'm trying a lot harder or is it because

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the Spirit is actually making changes in my life?

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I want you to take this mango tree as an example.

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Now there are two ways you could get mango growing on this tree.

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The first way is that you could get a mango seed and you could plant it and you could

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water it until it sprouts and you could transplant it and you could care for it and you could

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tend it and you could weed it and you could feed it.

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And as it grows and grows and grows, it'll produce branches and then buds and then blossoms

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and eventually mango will grow on that tree.

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And that is one way to get fruit on that tree.

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There's another way to get fruit on that tree and that is you could just go down to no frills

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and you could buy some mangoes and then you could come back and find a tree and you could

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get some electrical tape and you could wrap that electrical tape around the mangoes and

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attach them to the tree that way.

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Now I'll let you decide which option I went for this morning, but my point is this.

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There's two ways to get the fruit on the tree.

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One is happening organically, the other is happening from the outside, but the mangoes,

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you know, they still taste good, you know, either way.

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So here's another way of asking the same question.

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When we see change and fruit in our life, is that change coming from what you might call

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a restrained heart?

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Like I'm trying to be more patient.

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I'm trying to be more kind.

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I'm trying to like tape these mangoes onto my life.

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Or is it coming from an actual changed heart?

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Like God's love is the thing that is making me more patient.

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I want to say I've done a really crude job here, but it's actually really hard to tell

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in human beings.

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You could be sitting by two people this morning and they both appear to be very patient.

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But one is doing it out of a restrained heart like, gosh, when's this guy going to be done?

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I got to be patient, got to be patient.

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And the other person is doing it from a changed heart that God is growing that patience with

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in them from the inside.

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So as I'm saying, there's kind of two ways to get it onto the tree, but there is one

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fruit of the spirit though.

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But I would say it's really hard just to take onto your life.

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It's really hard to force this fruit of the spirit I'm talking about.

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And I'm talking today, of course, as you know by now, we're talking about the fruit of the

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spirit that is joy.

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Joy.

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Joy has always been one of the distinguishing marks of a person who has genuinely encountered

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the love of God and the Holy Spirit is working in their life.

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Now again, everybody can experience joy from time to time.

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The birth of a child, a graduation, a promotion, you win the lottery.

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These are all occasions for joy.

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Christianity does not hold the copyright on joy like that.

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There's lots of different ways you can be joyful.

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But I will say this, Christian joy is very, very different.

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And let me explain what I mean.

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You see, in most religions, most religions I think operate on this principle.

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If you are a good enough person, if you believe all the right things and behave in all the

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right ways, then maybe, maybe God will love you.

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You know, if you were good enough, if you really gave enough, if you really did enough,

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if you really served enough, then maybe God will extend his favor to you.

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Maybe God will bless you.

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Maybe God will actually accept you and welcome you into whatever that religion's idea of

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heaven might be.

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That's how many, many religions operate.

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But that is not, I would say, a recipe for joy, because it's hard to live joyfully when

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there's always this overlying anxiety like, am I doing enough?

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Am I accomplishing enough?

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Am I being the right kind of person?

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Will God come through for me?

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In the end, it's anxiety-provoking and not necessarily joy-growing.

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But the Christian faith operates in a completely different way.

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Christianity says, God loves you.

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God loves you before you ever did one good thing.

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God loved you.

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Before you ever believed one true thing, God had already given his life for you.

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He loved you that much.

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God's love is not based on anything you could do or have done or will do or have said or

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it is a completely, completely free gift.

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You don't need to live a perfect life.

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You don't need to live a perfect life.

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Jesus already lived that perfect life and he has given that life to you.

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Now that, that can make you really, really joyful.

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Religion says, live a certain way and maybe one day you will get a chance to experience

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joy.

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Maybe, maybe, we'll see.

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Christianity says, God loves you.

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Now go and live in that joy.

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And that is a big, big difference.

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And for that reason, Christians have always been some of the most joyful people who ever

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walked this birth.

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Because as Paul wrote in Romans, God showed his great love for us already by sending Christ

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to die for us.

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While we were still sinners, we didn't do anything to deserve it.

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You know, God took the initiative so now we can have joy.

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Now we can rejoice.

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Why?

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Because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends with God.

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If this is true, do you see how Christians should be the most joyful people in the world?

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In fact, in a commentary on this, John Stott says, he says, the major mark of a justified

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believer, which is just a fancy way of saying, a follower of Jesus who has come to realize

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that everything has been done.

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God's love is there for them.

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The major mark of that person is joy.

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Really joy in God himself.

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We should be the most positive people in the world, John Stott says.

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And if you think about it, wasn't Jesus one of the most joyful people you'd ever come

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across?

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I remember Jesus' very first miracle.

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And you know, your first miracle is the one you want everyone to remember and the one

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that kind of says, this is what I'm about.

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And Jesus' very first miracle, he went to a wedding, great big party, they ran out of

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wine.

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So Jesus, he makes some of the greatest wine in the world has ever seen.

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So why?

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Because the party can keep on going.

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So the joy can keep on flowing.

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Jesus was just a fountain of joy.

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And so too, have Christians been?

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Stephen Neal says it's because they were a joyful people that the early Christians were

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able to conquer the world.

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Christianity didn't conquer the world because of violence or because of power.

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They didn't have any power.

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They had joy.

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And their joy was absolutely contagious.

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And so since the very, very, very beginning, joy has been a major mark of someone who's

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been truly touched by the Holy Spirit.

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But there's a problem.

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Why are there so many joyless Christians out there in the world?

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A lot of people following Jesus, a lot of people who've been going to church their whole life,

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they don't seem to have a lot of joy.

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They're bitter.

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They're angry.

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They're constantly frustrated.

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They have this low grade kind of anger about them right there.

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Why is that?

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It's a problem because a joyless Christian is one of the worst advertisements we can

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show the world.

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If we are who we are supposed to be, we should be positive and full of joy.

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But why is there sometimes so little joy?

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There's a few possible answers for this.

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But I'll give you three.

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One possible answer is just that we don't actually believe that God loves us.

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Yeah, yeah, we've been coming to church and we've been hearing it every single week.

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You've been coming to this table and experiencing it every single week.

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And yet still you treat Christianity like every other religion.

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I've got to work hard.

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I've got to do things.

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I've got to say things.

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I've got to give things.

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I've got to, if I want to earn God's love, I've got to be a good person.

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There's no joy in that, right?

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People go to church the whole life and they're miserable because they actually don't believe

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the gospel.

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Gospel means good news.

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They actually don't believe the good news.

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They're being told every single week.

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So there's a disbelief there.

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Secondly, it could just be a disappointment, right?

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Throughout their life at some point, you pin your joy to something and it really let you

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down.

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You pin your joy perhaps to a career.

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You said, if I could just really get a career and get a great job, then that would give

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me the joy I'm looking for.

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And you did that and the joy never followed or it evaporated pretty quickly.

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And then you tried the next thing.

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And the next thing you said, well, maybe I had a girlfriend.

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Maybe if I had a boyfriend, that would give me the joy I'm longing for.

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And it didn't satisfy.

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You know, and you kept on going.

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Maybe if I got married or maybe if I went on that great big trip or maybe if we had

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kids or we got the house or got the car and you did all these things and the joy just

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never lasted.

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You always let you down.

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And so now you kind of walk around chronically disappointed, right?

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You have a resting sad face because you've always been let down, but your joy never came

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through.

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And that can lead to this third thing that some people, they ultimately then say, I've

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been disappointed too many times that I don't believe there is any joy out there in any person

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or anything.

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And so you start building a wall and you just say, you know what?

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I am going to just not look out there for joy anymore.

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I guess I'll just look inside myself.

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This is what a lot of Eastern religions would say is they say, detach yourself, detach yourself

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from other people.

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They will let you down.

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Detach yourself from the things of the world.

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They will never satisfy you.

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Detach, detach, detach, and then you will find your joy.

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So if you feel like you do not have the joy of God, the fruit of the spirit of joy growing

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in your life, you might ask yourself, you might just look at that list and say, why is that?

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Why is it not growing there in abundance?

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Is it because I actually don't believe God loves me?

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Is it because of that thing that happened and someone really let me down and now I don't

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have that joy?

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Or have you kind of walled yourself off from the possibility of joy, from the very sources

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of joy?

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Jesus is the one thing you can attach to and won't let you down.

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It's the one thing you can pin your joy to and not be disappointed.

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Again as Paul writes, the hope we're talking about will not lead to disappointment.

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For we know how dearly God loves us.

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Do you know how dearly God loves you?

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Because he's given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

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So the good news is that today there is a possibility for joy in your life.

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Even in my life, not a forced joy, not a pretend kind of joy, not a tape a mango to a tree

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kind of joy, but a joy that is actually growing in your life that is rooted deeply in the

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good news of Jesus Christ.

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And this joy, I want to say, kind of comes to us in two ways.

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On the one hand, it can come to us as what you might call a future, a future joy.

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When you know that something good is going to happen to you in the future, it can give

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you all sorts of joy in the present moment too.

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When I was a kid and I knew my birthday was coming, you know, I wouldn't just be joyful

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on my birthday, I would be joyful in the week or two leading up to my birthday.

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The anticipation gives you joy.

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Or Christmas, for many of us that's the story of Christmas.

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It's not just about Christmas Day, it's about all the lead up and all the joy and all the

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excitement that comes as you get ready for that wonderful thing.

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Because you know it's coming, you know it's coming, you know it's coming.

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And in the Christian faith, we know something really, really good is coming.

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Right?

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Yes, the world may be screwed up in countless ways and your life may be screwed up in a

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whole bunch of different ways, but we know that there is a glorious future that awaits

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us.

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And if you can lock into that future hope, that will somehow even bring joy into your

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present life right now.

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Now I'm saying not all, again, not all religions operate that way.

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For many religions, the future is a great big maybe.

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It's a great big question mark, right?

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If I live this way, maybe there'll be something for me at the end.

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Christianity says no, that's not joy.

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And no, that's not true.

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You can be certain.

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You've already got a great future waiting for you because one day you're going to find

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yourself in God's presence.

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See all the stuff going on in this world.

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One day you're going to find yourself in God's presence and you will run to Him and He will

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embrace you and you can pin your hopes on that.

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That is guaranteed.

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Why is it guaranteed?

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Because Jesus' death and resurrection has guaranteed it.

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That's why we're joyful.

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Partly because we have this certainty about the future that gives us a joy in the present

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moment.

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Look what Paul writes.

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Tell me, isn't Paul thinking about the future here?

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We confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

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And this hope, he's thinking so futuristically, will not lead to our disappointment.

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His joy comes from a futuristic looking forward kind of faith when you have that certainty

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about the future.

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It gives you joy even in the present.

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But secondly, and this is really important.

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You can have joy not based on just what God will do for you in the future or what will

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happen in the future, but based on what is happening to you right now.

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Now, many of you will say, well, Rob, this is where we part ways because I can understand

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the whole future joy thing.

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The one day there will be this great thing that happens down the line.

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But Rob, if you knew my life, if you knew what I was going through right now, you would

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know that in the present, joy is impossible.

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Rob, if you knew what he said to me, if you knew, Rob, what she did to me, if you knew

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how they hurt me, if you knew what I had been through, if you knew what the doctor said,

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right, then you would know joy in the present is not a possibility for me.

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The present life circumstances have kind of stolen that away.

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But again, a key feature of Christian joy is that Christian joy does not depend on circumstances.

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Now that is a crazy bold statement, and many of you will be saying like, how can joy not

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depend on circumstances?

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And this is where some people, they start to make a really big distinction between happiness

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on the one hand and joy on the other.

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It's actually helpful sometimes to think about those two things differently.

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Because happiness definitely does depend on your circumstances.

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Happiness happens when you've got everything lined up in your favor, in your life is going

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pretty much the way you want it to go.

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That's happiness.

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That's happiness.

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I came across this website and it talked about what are the key ingredients for a happy

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life.

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And it mentioned these things.

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You've got to have food, you've got to have shelter, safety, sleep, good relationships,

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and meaningful work.

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That's the recipe to happiness.

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But people, listen, think about it.

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Most people in most parts of the world, in most centuries of human existence have not

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had all these things.

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Some of you, even this morning, I didn't get a very good sleep last night, I hate my job,

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my relationships are falling apart, and rent is too high.

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So what does that mean?

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Does this mean that actually nobody can be happy?

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Does it mean we're all consigned to a life of unhappiness because we cannot get these

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things?

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Well, actually, according to the world's definition, that may be true.

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You're doomed to live an unhappy life if you define happiness this way.

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But joy?

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Joy is still an option.

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Because joy does not depend on your circumstances.

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Jesus actually says, these are the great lines.

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Maybe you should just remember this one.

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He says, no one can steal your joy away from you.

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In John 16, no one can steal it away from you.

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Look what Paul writes.

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Paul says, we can rejoice even when we run into problems and trials.

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Now, he doesn't say, I rejoice for my problems and trials.

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That would be kind of a sick thing to do.

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But he says, even in my suffering, I have joy.

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Even when everything is stripped away, even when the house is gone, the car is gone, or

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he is gone, and she is gone, or all those favorable circumstances that I had created

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for my life, even when they are all stripped away.

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In that moment, you will realize there is one thing that cannot be taken away from you.

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In that moment, you will cling to God's love like never before.

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You will cling to the promise of Jesus like you never have.

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In that moment, you will realize and you will have found your true, true joy.

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So, actually, that's why some people say suffering can be the thing that leads us into true and

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lasting joy.

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Because it's only when we hit bottom that we look and see there's one thing we still

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have, God's love, God's love.

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So joy, there's a way to have joy.

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It can be joy about our glorious future that even bleeds into the present, or it can be

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joy in the present, despite our circumstances.

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Even suffering can have joy, Paul says.

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So there we go.

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We've talked about the problem, and we've talked about this.

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There's this possibility of having joy.

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Let's just end quickly here by talking about how do we get there?

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What is the pathway to this joy?

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Well, what I would say to you is, and I've kind of already said this, so I will be quick,

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but the way to access this joy is simply this.

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You need to know what you've been given, and you need to know what it costs.

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You know what God has given you, and you know what it costs God to give it to you.

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I guarantee you you will have joy.

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Let me give you an example.

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Say for example, I went away on a vacation and I asked someone to host it for me.

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And while I was away, well, when I got back, I checked in with them and they said, okay,

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everything's fine.

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And they said, oh, by the way, while you were gone, a bill came in the mail, but don't worry,

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I paid it.

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I looked after it.

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How should I react to that statement?

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It's actually really hard to know how to react, because I actually don't know what the bill

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was.

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I don't know.

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If it was just like, oh, a 75-cent bill that came from the library because I have an overdue

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book, then I might say, oh, yeah, thanks.

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Appreciate it.

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That was really good of you.

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But let's say instead, a Canada Revenue Agency had finally caught up with me and finally

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realized my real name and where I live.

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And they now know that I haven't paid taxes in like 15 years.

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00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:50,320
And they finally set me the bill, and it's $45,000, and I have no ability to pay this

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bill.

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00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:57,360
And if my friend said, oh, I paid that bill for you, well, that's totally different.

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That wouldn't be just like an, oh, thanks.

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That would be like, get down on your hands and knees.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you, filled with joy and gratitude for what this person has

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done.

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So the question is, do you know what it is you've been given?

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And do you know what it cost?

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When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time, and He died for us

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sinners.

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And so now, now what?

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Now we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

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That's what you've been given, and that's what it cost, cost Jesus's life.

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Jesus had to lose all his joy so that you could find your joy.

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Pope Francis said, the joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter

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Jesus.

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It's a fruit of the spirit.

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Why tie mangoes on your tree?

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Why take them on there?

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00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:08,000
And you can grow it organically, it's the fruit of the spirit of Jesus Christ.

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So thanks be to God for giving us this joy, not just some fleeting happiness, but a greater

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joy than anything we could ever imagine.

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Amen.

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Thank you for joining us today for our sermon, and make sure to come back again for our next

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sermons as we continue to work through the other fruits of the spirit.

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Today's sermon was taken from the May 26, 2024 service at Trinity Church Streetsville

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in Mississauga, Ontario.