Living Word Live! The Fullness of His Joy!

But you've got to choose to find joy. And after you choose to find it, you may still try to pick it apart. And the Lord will say to you, hey, guess what? Let me show you how you were blessed. Let me show you. The song that we sing every Christmas season, joy to the world, the Lord has come. And without him, there would be no joy because he came to bring the fullness of joy. [00:35:42] (33 seconds)  #ChooseJoyInChrist

See, we can come up with reasons as to why we can't find joy or why we can't share joy with other people. We are concerned about how other people are going to feel or what they're going to think or if we might say the wrong thing, or what if we give somebody money on the side of the road and they use it for something other than what they say they're going to do? That's not us. How somebody receives the message is not on us. We have been told to go and share the message to all people so that all people can have joy. [00:38:44] (37 seconds)  #ShareJoyWithoutFear

``But if we don't share it, nobody's going to hear it. And we can't worry about what somebody's going to think about it. We just have to do it. I don't know if you all saw the news, but Nigeria has had a rash of attacks on Christians, children, adults, a school, people beheaded in the name of Jesus because they stood firm on what they believed. And I'm afraid to share it with the person in the cubicle next to me. Oh, my friends, we have got to share Jesus while we have the opportunity. [00:39:21] (38 seconds)  #BoldlyShareFaith

If you decide to do it, commit it to the Lord and he will help you with your plans. We always wonder, how are we going to do that? Well, you start with prayer and you tell the Lord the desires of your heart and how you want to do it and you commit to the plan, he will come alongside and show you. He will go in front and you will come alongside and he will show you how to do what it is that he has called you to do. But we got to do it. See, that's the first thing. We have to actually move. [00:40:43] (30 seconds)  #PrayThenAct

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what they had been told about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds had said to them. See, they went. And they didn't just go and look and go back home, but they were so excited. They were so fulfilled because they were diligent in getting there. And when they saw what they saw and it matched what they had been told, they began to tell everybody who would listen and maybe some who didn't. [00:42:04] (42 seconds)  #GoAndTell

And I told them, you blessed me so much. And so I went from there while waiting on Kirsten. You can see my little car just sitting there back there. So I go on up to the, I walk up to the Burger King, and I said to Kirsten, when you get here, just let me know. I'm at the Burger King. No big deal. Just show up. So I'm sitting there, and I'm eating my little cheeseburger, and I'm just waiting. And I was chatting with somebody on the thing, and I said, I choose to choose joy today. [00:55:56] (33 seconds)  #ChooseJoyToday

I can be upset that I'm not going to make it to Houston, and obviously not going to make it to Corpus for a while. But I choose joy. I choose to feel blessed. Now, I was a little agitated at the first two guys who only got me out of traffic. But you know what? Sometimes we say, that person needs more help than I can give, so why do anything at all? God doesn't ask us to give beyond what we can. If we can't do it, but doing something is better than nothing. [00:56:29] (38 seconds)  #DoWhatYouCan

And it does not matter if we feel like sharing or not. When God asks us to do something, we do it to the fullest of our capability because nobody likes a half-done job. Don't just invite somebody to church. Hey, come to church. That's passive. You say, hey, you know what? On this date, we are doing something really cool at church. I would love to have you come out. Get them in the door at something that isn't scary like family feast or hanging of the greens in a time that you can get them in just to have fun. [00:59:39] (41 seconds)  #InviteWithPurpose

And it does not matter if we feel like sharing or not. When God asks us to do something, we do it to the fullest of our capability because nobody likes a half-done job. Don't just invite somebody to church. Hey, come to church. That's passive. You say, hey, you know what? On this date, we are doing something really cool at church. I would love to have you come out. Get them in the door at something that isn't scary like family feast or hanging of the greens in a time that you can get them in just to have fun. [00:59:39] (41 seconds)  #GetThemInTheDoor

And then you hook them with the story of Jesus, and then they don't just see you. And if they're not resonating with you, there is somebody in this congregation that will go, ooh, yeah, I got it. That's me. That's where I can connect. And then don't get upset when your friend finds another friend in church. You just say, yes, they have a friend. Thank you, Jesus, that they now know the gospel. See, we can get caught up in all sorts of things. But what we got to get caught up in is sharing joy. [01:00:21] (31 seconds)  #ShareJoyNotCredit

But we've got to share God's word, because we are living in a world that has no joy and is looking everywhere to find it. And we have the answer to the fullness of joy. This week, maybe I'll do a test next week. Maybe I'll make everybody turn in a paper with how you found joy. But what I want you to do this week isn't necessarily where you found joy, but where you gave joy. Where did you deliberately give joy to someone else? [01:03:15] (38 seconds)  #GiveJoyDeliberately