Have you ever done something that you were scared to do, you didn't wanna do it at first, but after you did it, you said,"That was a good idea."I'm glad I did that. "That was fun, that was awesome." Now, this happened to me this past summer. This past summer, my family and I, we went down to Florida and we went to Blizzard Beach Waterpark in Disney. And so me and water, we don't get along very well. I can barely swim, I can't swim. I'm gonna be honest, I can't swim, okay? I can maybe survive if I fall out of a boat or something, but I don't even think I can. Anyways, me and water parks are not the best of friends. However, my wife and my kids love water parks, so guess what I'm doing? Going to a water park, okay? And so we go to this park, it's awesome, and now there's a slide there called Summit Plummet. All right, so Summit Plummet is 120 feet tall. It's one of the tallest water slides in North America. and my beautiful eight-year-old daughter says, "Dad, can we do that?" And I say to her, I look at her beautiful little face, and I see her, and she's so precious, and I say, "Heck no, we ain't doing that thing!" I say, "Life is dangerous enough!"Why do I need to add on a water slide to it?" And so, throughout the whole, she keeps asking, "Dad, please, can we do it?" And me being a softie, I give in to it, and I say, "Okay, we can do it." And so, here you go, we start to climb up the stairs to get to Summit Plummet, and it is a climb after climb after climb after climb. I was feeling like Miley Cyrus. It's the climb. Gonna be an uphill battle Sorry, and so we get to the top of Summit Plummet, and we make it, and I cannot make this part up. We get to the top, and there's a person ahead of us who sits down on the slide, and then the lifeguard opens the gate, And it looks like this man falls off a cliff. I'm like, oh my gosh, why am I doing this? I have no idea, this is horrible. I don't want to do this at all. And Kingsley, my daughter, she's so excited. She's like, it's our turn next. I'm like, oh my gosh, okay, you have fun. And so she goes and she sits down. The gates are in front of her. And right before the lifeguard opens the gate, he says, wait, stop. And I was like, praise God. You know, it's like, okay. And so he says, "You gotta stand up." And then he looks at us and says, "She can't go down the slide "because she has a zipper on her swimsuit, "on the back of her swimsuit." And so Kingsley is devastated, and I am so grateful inside. On the outside, I'm like, "Oh, poor baby, I know."It just is what it is, that's your favorite swimsuit."It is what it is." And then we go to walk out and the lifeguard says, "Well, wait a second, she can do it. "Just go grab a t-shirt and come back up." And I'm like, oh no. So we walk all the way down, we come all the way back up, and I'm thinking, well, I can't believe this is happening. She sits down, they open the gate, and she just falls off the cliff, I guess. And she does, here's a picture of Kingsley on it. You can see her. She's so brave. That picture doesn't even do it justice'cause that slide is like way longer than that. There's her. now it's my turn because my kids at the bottom of the slide I can't I can't give up now and so there you go I sit down the lifeguard looks at me I look at him he gives me a thumbs up and I give him a yeah he opens the thing and I pushed off and there's a speed thing a speed tracker on it it legit says I go 50 miles per hour and so I am flying down it is so fun it is so awesome and it was the biggest wedgie I ever got in my life but it was awesome there's a picture of me there I am look at me that's me that's me out there that inside I'm like okay but it was one of those things it was so scary to do at at first, but after I did it, man, I'm so glad I did it. I'm so glad, I'm so glad I did it. Then Kingsley was like, can we do it again? I said, your mom will do it with you this time. But for real, isn't that in life though? There's so many things that we're afraid of, there's so many things that come up, and we're like, can we do this? I can't do this, I'm not sure if I can. Isn't it interesting that the slide lasted only a few seconds, and I spent all that time worrying about it, resisting it, thinking about how everything could go wrong. See, the hardest part wasn't going down the slide, the hardest part was choosing to let go. And I wonder if joy can be like that too. Because sometimes we think joy is something that happens to us when everything finally goes the way we want it to go, when the situation changes, when the relationship gets better, when the anxiety stops, when the problem is solved, when life finally goes the way we want, but what if joy isn't something you have to wait for? What if joy is something that Jesus teaches us to choose? To choose, to say I want it, and what if there is actually a relief when you finally stop waiting for your circumstances to give you permission to have joy? Like I mentioned, we're in a series called An Invitation to Joy, where we've been looking at the book of Philippians going chapter by verse by verse, which is known as the joy letter of the Bible. And the apostle Paul, he is sitting in this Roman prison cell and he writes to the church in Philippi and he says, while he's unjustly in prison, he tells them, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near. Notice Paul doesn't say rejoice when life gets easier. Paul doesn't say rejoice when the problems go away. He doesn't say rejoice when you feel like rejoicing. He says rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice and I'll say it again, do it again. Because there is a kind of joy available to you that circumstances can't give you. And if circumstances can't give it to you, therefore that means circumstances can't take it away from you. So there's a joy I can choose that comes beyond my problems and challenges in life. There's something that God can do on the inside of me, no matter what's going on all around me. And so I wanna give us three reasons why we can choose joy and three ways how we can choose it, okay? And LVC, I just really wanna encourage you today. Is that okay? Can I encourage us today? because there's a lot of stuff that wants to steal your joy in this world. And my hope is that you can lean into Jesus and find joy. Jesus tells us this in John 15, nine. He says, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you."Now remain in my love. "If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love." Just as I have kept my Father's command, so I'm remaining in His love. Check this part out. "I have told you this, so that my joy will be in you "and that your joy may be complete." What a beautiful promise from Jesus. Jesus says that his joy, the joy of Jesus can be in you, and once you receive it, all your joy will be complete. Okay, so here you go, and what a relief that is. The first one is this. The first reason why we can choose joy is this. choose joy as resistance. Choose joy as resistance. Joy is an action word. Now, I like the way Eugene Peterson puts this in the message paraphrase of the Bible. Philippians 4, four in the message says,"Celebrate God all day, every day." Celebrate God all day, every day. And again, Paul, he's writing this letter in a Roman prison. He's chained up to a bodyguard named Bubba. And he's awaiting possible execution. Any day, he doesn't know. Any day, they can call him up. It's time to go to the chopping block, literally. And so in this moment of any day can be his last day, Paul says, "Celebrate God all day." And then any moment that this could be his last day, he says, "Choose and rejoice in the Lord, celebrate Jesus." And Paul is clearly saying to you and saying to me, saying to us today, "Joy is strength in our uncertainty." Joy is the strength we need in our uncertainty. And normally, normally when we think of the word joy, what do we think? We don't really think of it as a battle word, as an action word. But friends, in our world today, we have so many things that discourage us. So many things that put us down. We have all the technology. We have the rampant growth of AI. We have information and advantages that we have in our Western world. Yet, even though with all those things, anxiety rates are at its highest. We are the most connected generation in history, yet reports say that people are lonelier than ever. So that tells us something. This tells us something that we need to listen to. That tells us that joy cannot be connected to stuff. Joy is not connected to stuff and things and a bigger house and a nicer car. And when I'm with that person, or when I'm with that person, or I have that thing, or that thing, Joy is not connected to stuff. See, but I wanna say this. This is such a relief. It's a relief that joy isn't connected to the material world. Like I don't have to muster up joy. I don't have to do a bunch of stuff and have the right things at the right time in order to have joy. My joy is not connected to my circumstances. And this is the thing about Christian joy. Christian joy is not fake happiness. It's not fake happy, it's not fake it 'til you make it. No, it is deep-rooted relief and confidence in a loving savior who was and who is and who is to come. And so how do we choose joy as a resistance? Well, I've been saying it during this series, it depends on how we frame our circumstances. It depends on how we frame the life circumstances that we're going through, okay? so we have to reframe it. Psychology, they call this reframing, okay? Same situation, different frame. Now, this is how it can go. This is how it can happen. If you look at the life through one frame, you can say, you can wake up and say, I got so much to do. I'm exhausted. Work is frustrating. My kids are driving me crazy, and somehow they get every single holiday off now. Nothing is going right, woe to me that's one frame or you can reframe it now you can look at the same exact day the same exact thing and say I got a lot to do today but God's with me I you know work isn't perfect but then God I got a job and I can provide for my family my kids are wearing me out but they're a gift and in eight years they're all moving out I don't have everything figured out but Jesus you take hold of me you take hold of me the circumstances then it changed but the frame in which you view your life did and Paul demonstrated this to the church earlier when he said this in Philippians 1 he says, "Now I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ and because of my chains most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear." See Paul easily could have been in jail writing this letter and saying I was preaching the gospel and it led me to jail don't know why I did it it was bad you know I'm just trying to help people out look what that got me you know back in the day I used to be the top Pharisee now look at me woe to me now he could have done that but he chose a different frame he's like no I'm up in here but I'm gonna rejoice in the Lord and since they had me tied to Bubba for eight hours, Bubba gonna know all about Jesus today. And because I'm in here, even though I don't want to be in here, even this isn't where I saw my life going, my God is still good, I'm gonna rejoice in the Lord always, I'm gonna say it again, I'm gonna keep telling myself and I'm gonna reframe my life differently. For some of us, for some of us, your circumstance ain't changing. for some of us those problematic people aren't going anywhere for some of us there's still some health issues that we got to keep working through and keep keep praying about and keep going to doctors work but I'm gonna choose the frame differently I'm gonna choose my friend I may not be where I want to be but thank God I'm not where I could be and I'm gonna keep moving forward I'm gonna change my frame and here here you go "Changing the frame is not a denial of reality." Like sometimes Christians, can we be honest, Christians, we be doing the most. We be doing the most, we be over saved sometimes. Like for example, your dog Skippy can get hit by a car, and you say to a Christian like, "Oh no, your poor dog Skippy." And the dog replies and says, and the guy replies and says, "Yeah, he got hit, but God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. Yes, God is good all the time, it's a poor dog. Feel free to grieve, it's okay, it's okay. See, see, we don't have to fake it, we can be honest with God. And this is what I want us to know, this is what I want you to know today. You can be honest before God. You can tell God, God, this is frustrating me, God, this hurts, God, this is painful, God, I don't like this. And in that conversation, in union with God, you begin to see supernatural joy come out, Not faking it, but God, you're giving me strength to endure this, to go through this. And I'm not going through this alone because my love and savior is with me. And so I'm gonna choose my frame differently. Joy as resistance is being completely aware of the hardship, but refusing to allow that to be the frame in which I live my life. gonna choose a different frame second thing once we when we develop the resistance it allows us to choose joy as survival now this is my favorite point of the day joy is my first aid kit now now here you go my daughter and my middle son Jameson they wanted to take their bikes around the neighborhood with some kids from the neighborhood without mom and dad just you know kids going around the neighborhood and they were so excited to be independent and Kingsley my daughter she's and she's a natural leader that's how she got me to go on summit plummet you know and she likes to take care of her brother she's she's a she's a mama bear for sure and and so here you go I'm outside getting the bikes ready and Kingsley comes out of the house with band-aids paper towels applesauce pouches and some floss she puts it in her little basket as she has on her on her handlebars I'm like what's all that stuff for and she says just in case something happens we are ready just in case something happens we are she so so she's excited for the adventure but she's also ready for the danger like like she's excited for this adventure but she but she's ready for the danger and choosing joy is being excited for the adventure but also ready for the danger I think I just want to preach a little bit today I cannot can I preach a a little bit LVC. So you see, we can be excited for what God is doing and prepare for the obstacles that are coming. We can be excited saying,"God, I'm going all in."God, I'm gonna go before I know every detail, "but I'm prepared too, God."I'm gonna be prepared." And see, so you see, Jesus said, this is what Jesus said. Jesus says, "In this life, you will have trouble." Jesus said that. So any Christianity that's teaching you that if you follow Jesus, you won't have problems and challenges, ain't Christianity. It ain't Christianity that Jesus taught anyways. Jesus said there is a real spiritual enemy and he's out there stealing your joy, kill your purpose and destroy your legacy. But Jesus always throws those big buts in, come on. But take heart. Joy is our survival. Joy is our first aid kit. So what is, I got all the illustrations today, guys. So what's in our first aid kit? What's in our first aid kit? Let's see, let's check this out. We got some Band-Aids, yeah, that's good. You know, every year I get at least one corny Christian thing to do, and this is it, I'm cashing out today.'Cause the first thing in our kit is the Holy Bible. It's the Holy Bible. It's the word of God. Like the first thing that we need in our survival kit is God's word. And we need to build our lives on God's word. See, that's why spending daily time with God is so important for your survival, for you to thrive in this world. We can't be like, oh, I just got so many problems, I got so many issues, I got so many things. I don't know what to do. And then you say, how you spending any time with God? Not really. Now we gotta get all up in God's word and get God's word up in our hearts and in our heads and in our actions. And that's why I will always say, spend daily time with God. Because, and it's not out of rule or regulation, but it's out of nourishment. He is our daily bread. And so we gotta get all up. in it so and when we do when we choose to do that His voice will become easier to hear. His voice will become easier to hear. The second thing we need to do the second thing we need to do is get a speaker which represents play some worship music get some praise in your life get some praise you know one thing that Erin and I have done in our family we used to be like those people that always had the TV on in the background like we used to, ESPN, whatever, for the past couple years now we've been doing less screen time in our house but what we replaced it with was actually having a Bluetooth speaker that plays worship music. And so we always have like some light worship music or instrumental worship music in the background. And the reason why, and the thing that we have noticed is when we add worship into our atmosphere, it changes the atmosphere. It changes the atmosphere. And what you need in your survival kit is to continue to praise God no matter what's going on in your life. See, there's problems in our lives. And these problems will try to attack us, take us down, But what we need to get good at LVC is this, is giving our problems a problem. And the problem we need to give our problems is a problem called praise. And we need to praise God through our problems no matter what's going on. Okay, so we gotta get God's word in us. We gotta get some praise in us. And the last one we need, the last thing we need in our survival kit is not some scissors. You don't need to be shanking nobody. is some trusted, super friends. We need community. We need community. That's what we need. We need to be in God's word. We need to be praising God, and we need to get good people around us.'Cause show me your five best friends, and I'll show you where you'll be in five years. So we need to get community around us. And here's the beautiful part about getting community around us. The fun part is this, when we're connected with other people, we begin to see, well, I'm not the only one that's struggling. See, we got one rule in our LVC small groups, no perfect people allowed. And if you're perfect, run away from our church 'cause we don't wanna contaminate you. But when you get around other people, you begin to see that other people are going through, and this is what happens, this is what we notice, Isolation is the birthplace of negativity. Community is the comfort of I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one. This is our first aid kit. This is what we need. When we're on this journey, we can be excited for the adventure because we're ready. I'm excited for what God has for me because I'm spending daily time with Him. I'm praising Him no matter what's going on. And I got good people around me to do life together. And friends, that's our heart at LVC. That's our heart here. To make a space for you to come and to learn how to be with God, to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus and to do the stuff that Jesus did. That's our heartbeat here. And so, notice again, the verse says this. Rejoice in the Lord. I will say it again. Rejoice. Paul isn't saying be happy about everything that happens to you. He's saying there is a source of joy deeper than whatever is happening around you. The repetition gives the command force. Joy isn't merely something that Paul hopes you'll occasionally feel. It's becoming a habitual posture. of the follower of Jesus. I'm choosing it. We choose it as resistance. We choose it as survival. And lastly, my third and my final point today is this, choose joy as evidence of a bigger story. Joy is the pathway of purpose. Joy is the pathway to purpose. And this part is kinda like so weird to me. Sometimes when you read Paul, Paul all of a sudden goes out of left field with something, 'cause he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, "I will say it again, rejoice." And then all of a sudden he flips through this in verse five, "Let your gentleness be evident to all."The Lord is near." Like, what does that got to do with anything? Like, what does that have to do with anything? Like, when we're just talking about joy, now we're talking about how I treat people, but I think Paul is showing us something really important about biblical joy. Real joy eventually turns outward. It eventually turns outward. Joy isn't something that God gives you to make you feel better about your life. joy changes the kind of person you become and the lives of other people around you. And that word gentleness is very difficult to translate that word. It can mean reasonable, considerate, forbearing, not always insistent on your own way. One translation puts it like this that I love. It translates it as gracious strength. Gracious strength. I love that. Because gentleness doesn't mean you're weak. It doesn't mean you're passive. It doesn't mean you let people walk all over you. It's strength that doesn't need to prove itself. It's strength that says, "I'm confident in who I am in the Lord." And I love that. I love this. It's gracious strength. So Paul says, "Let your gracious strength be evident to everyone." In other words, people should be able to experience what God is doing in you. If you've been receiving the grace of Jesus, people ought to experience grace through you. If Jesus has been patient with you, maybe you're becoming a more patient people with those difficult people around you. If Jesus has forgiven you much, maybe you're becoming someone who can forgive much as well. If the joy of Jesus is growing inside of you, eventually it should change the atmosphere all around you. you because true joy moves us from inward focus to outward purpose that God you have something for my life that is more than just a circumstance I'm going through God you're actually doing something in this circumstance that's building me to become the person that you're calling me to be and I'm gonna look outwards I'm gonna look outwards towards the people around me figure out I can be a blessing. And that's such a big deal because when life gets hard, everything inside of us wants to turn inward. What about me? What am I going through? Why is this happening to me? When is my situation going to change? And listen, those are good questions. Those are great questions to ask God. You should ask them. But if we're not careful, pain can make our whole world feel a lot smaller and suddenly the only story that we can see is our story but Paul sitting in prison was able to see there's still a bigger story happening around me there's still people around me that need what I can give them and Paul says to them I love you here's grace here's encouragement there's still people that need to see what Jesus looks like. And your difficult season does not cancel your purpose. That's why choosing joy matters because joy lifts our eyes enough to realize that God is doing something in me that's bigger than circumstances trying to convince me of. That God is still doing something in my life and it's beautiful. You can walk into your house with gracious strength. You can go to work with gracious strength. You can respond to that difficult person with gracious strength you can parent with gracious strength you can disagree with someone with somebody without destroying them you can be disappointed without becoming bitter you can be hurt without becoming hateful you can go through something hard and still become a source of life for somebody else and then Paul goes on and this is the best part I love this he goes on and he gives us the reason the reason why we can do it the reason why we can rejoice always the the reason why we can live with gracious strength. And then here's the reason why it's so good. It's so good. He says, you want to know why you can do all this? Because the Lord, well, He's near. He's near. And what relief that is to our souls. That I don't have to have it all figured out. That I don't have to muster up everything. But God is near. He is Emmanuel, God with us. And that I can lean into Him, that I can tap into His heart, that I can take His joy and He will make my joy complete, that if I remain in Him, He remains in me. And so if I get my survival kit and I spend time with Him, I praise Him, I get good people around me, I see that He's moving me in the direction that my life is supposed to be. And when circumstances come at me that I wish will not, When circumstances come at me that are hard to navigate, that are challenging, that are difficult, I can still lift my eyes and see God at work because he's given me gracious strength because the Lord is near. And I wanna say to some people today, in the story, the story about God in your life, God is closer to you than you think. And some of the hardships and pains God is closer to you than you thought and God is near and scripture tells us and we hold this scripture true that God is near the broken hearted. And so when our hearts are broken and usually and usually this is how it happens before you do something that you say you never are going to do there's an attack on your heart and when our hearts are under attack God is near he's close he's close to us and so I say to us today LVC that even in a difficult season people can still experience Jesus the Lord is near that's the bigger story so I can't change yesterday. I can't control tomorrow, but I can choose joy on this day. And I say, "Rejoice." I say it again,"Rejoice." let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord God is near so God Jesus Holy Spirit we thank you we thank you for your power and grace we thank you for your love and your goodness. We thank you, God, that you are near and that you are close, that you are gracious and good. So right now, no matter what circumstance you are going through, just right where you are, Begin to visualize handing that to God, saying, "God, this is what I'm dealing with. This is what I'm going through. And I'm trusting you right here, right now, with this." His gracious strength will meet you right where you are. Holy Spirit, I pray for those, yep, those who are on, who are on that lap of feeling, man, I don't know if I can run anymore. God, would you fill them up with supernatural strength that doesn't come from their own effort and willpower, but from you, Holy Spirit, those in here who are in desperate need of a physical healing. God I pray you bring healing power in Jesus name. God those who are searching for purpose. God I pray you meet them right where they are Holy Spirit. Like Paul in a situation that he wished he wasn't in, says, "I will choose Jesus regardless." God, give us that kind of gumption, that kind of heart saying, God, I'm gonna go after you and let us be relieved when we see, God, that you are closer than we thought. So Jesus, Jesus, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness. And maybe you're in here today, and you're like, Jacob, that sounds good, but I don't personally know this Jesus the way you are talking about. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life for the first time, I'm going to ask you, I'm going to count to three, and on three, I'm going to ask you to shoot your hand up in the air so I can see who I'm praying for. Don't worry, I'm not going to call you out, have you come up front, nothing like that. I just want to see who I'm praying for. So if you wanna make a decision to trust Jesus with your life for the first time, on three, shoot your hand up. But also, if you wanna recommit your heart back to Jesus, you wanna say, "Jesus, I wanna trust you again. "Life got in the way at some point." You say, "Man, I wanna come back to Jesus." On three, I want you to toss your hand up in the air too. One, two, three. Bless you, bless you, all across this room, bless you. Bless you. Just right where you are, you can pray out loud or you can pray in your heart to say,"Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new." Today, I trust you. I follow you, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, let's give God some praise in here today.