Joy

And, you know, taking something out of the oven early ain't good. Anybody take a cookie out of the oven way too early, it's just not good. It falls apart. You leave it in there way too long, it becomes a brick. You don't want that either. You gotta take it out right on time. And God will show up right on time. Don't get desperate. [00:39:10] (20 seconds)  #WaitOnGodsTiming

And if you if you follow recipes, if you see things in cookbooks or in different things, they'll tell you, put it in there for x amount of time. And sometimes they'll say to them, do not open the oven. Because if it's gotta be at 300 degrees for twenty five minutes, and at fifteen, you open it, it's no longer 300 degrees because it goes out. And some of us, we're in this place, and we're, like, always just checking it. When's it gonna happen? When's it gonna happen? When's it gonna happen? Not realizing that what we gotta do is just trust God and let him do the baking. [00:39:50] (35 seconds)  #TrustTheBakingProcess

Many times, we're not walking in joy because our eyes are on the wrong things. They're not on God, and they're not in our relationship with him. And our eyes have to be fixed on him and our relationship with him, and that's what will allow us to be able to walk in this unspeakable joy even in the face of whatever they say is coming. Joy. [00:54:27] (27 seconds)  #FixYourEyesOnGod

There's another portion of scripture that when the disciples went to the grave and found that the grave was empty, they were sad but filled with joy. Because they didn't get it for a second, but there was joy. He's arisen. And, church, I need us to have an understanding and have that vision of finding God's joy in us and in everything that we encounter because the joy of the Lord is our strength. Amen. [00:59:03] (27 seconds)  #ResurrectionBringsJoy

And this year is gonna have blessings upon blessings upon blessings. I think we sang that a little while ago. You give us blessings upon blessings. And in the name of Jesus, we are believing for a year filled of health and prosperity and salvation for our loved ones that don't know Jesus, and we are believing for amazing things. But in the middle of it, there will be moments that are difficult, and in those moments of difficulty, we can still have joy because joy doesn't come from man, and joy doesn't come from people, and joy doesn't come from circumstance. [00:59:30] (31 seconds)  #JoyBeyondCircumstances

The joy. Talking about social media, I just wanna remember every I want you guys to remember, not everything people post is true or happening, especially right now where with AI, they can make all kinds of different things all over the place, and you don't even know if it's real or not real or fake or whatever the case might be. Do you know what is real and unchanging and gives you unspeakable joy? God's word. When did Nehemiah look and tell him the joy of the lord is your strength? When they had read and clearly understood what the word said. [01:02:22] (34 seconds)  #GodsWordIsTrueJoy

Church, understanding this clearly, that god's joy cannot be taken from us, and it's not dependent on the circumstance, and it's not dependent on what's going on. Too many times, we're living lives in up and down and up and down. And I'm gonna be honest with you, authentic from my personal experiences. When I'm having those moments, almost every time is due to a lack of consistency in my intentional pursuit of him because you get caught up with whatever the different things and the busyness. [01:04:01] (51 seconds)  #PursueGodConsistently

Remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength. It's not given by man, so man can't take it from you. When we have an encounter with God and we have salvation, everything else is fleeting after that because I know where I'm going. The fact that Jesus paid the price and now I can spend eternity in heaven with him, I know what's happening and I can be totally trusting in him, and his joy is my strength. It's not my joy, it's his joy, and it comes from that relationship with him. [01:06:15] (40 seconds)  #JoyOfTheLordIsStrength