Joy Pt. 2 // Guest Speaker Mary Jean Powers

Discover the life-changing difference between temporary happiness and eternal joy in this powerful message about cultivating lasting spiritual fulfillment. Learn practical strategies for finding joy in difficult circumstances and developing a deeper relationship with God that transcends life's ups and downs. This biblical teaching explores how to remain in God's love, follow Jesus authentically, and develop spiritual practices that nurture lasting joy.Key topics covered include understanding the biblical difference between happiness and joy, practical steps for following Jesus daily, how to endure hardship with supernatural joy, spiritual cultivation practices for personal growth, dealing with negative thought patterns, breath prayer techniques for centering on God's presence, and seeing life's challenges through God's perspective.Whether you're struggling with anxiety, depression, difficult relationships, financial stress, or simply want to deepen your spiritual life, this message provides biblical wisdom and practical tools for experiencing the joy that Jesus promises. Learn how to develop spiritual disciplines that create lasting transformation, overcome negative thinking patterns that steal peace, and cultivate a mindset that remains anchored in God's love regardless of circumstances.Perfect for anyone seeking spiritual growth, emotional healing, biblical guidance for daily living, practical Christianity applications, or deeper intimacy with God. This teaching combines solid biblical exposition with actionable steps you can implement immediately to begin experiencing more joy, peace, and spiritual fulfillment in your daily life. Discover how to move beyond surface-level happiness to the deep, abiding joy that comes from walking closely with Jesus and remaining in his presence throughout every season of life. 

This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at the lookout.church.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

I do want you to help me welcome just warmly together as a church family. Mary Jean Powers this morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Thank you. Merry Christmas. Here we are, doing it again. Yeah, I had just flown by. Luke, that is probably the best pastoral pep talk on giving I may have ever heard. And I've heard a bunch of them because I'm getting old. And it was really well done, don't you think? Yeah. That that hilarious, generous giving, gracious giving. Thanks for the plug for the books, Luke. There aren't tons of books back there, but I did bring a few. And I actually, I was telling the group earlier when we met before service to pray, that I just finished a book and I actually like it. It's one of the few. You know, you know, when you do your own stuff, you go, eh, but it can improve here and here. Anybody? Yeah, you're like that. And so am I. But this one, I really like it. So I I might plug it myself here. Uh it's called Prayers of Life for Your Family. Yeah, I know. And all the people said, ooh. So this one uh took me by surprise, came about. I was just minding my own business, reading somebody else's prayer book on praying for your family, and the Lord said, Would you just write your own? It was my sixth time through the book I was I was praying through. And the Lord said, You've you've you've prayed, you've learned a couple of things here about prayer. Why don't you write your own? And I stopped, immediately stopped the book I was working on and started this one right away, and it was just fun. I mean, it's a boatload of work to write a book, but it was fun to do because it was reflection on scripture. So here's the way, this is just gonna take a second. On the left side of the page is a scripture, on the right side of the pray page is a prayer for your family based on that scripture, and then it prompts you to go ahead and pray for your own family and your own words based on that. Um, anybody else with me fall into the trap of you pray your opinion and your emotion for your family and kind of throw an amen in there and stop there some. Yeah, let's just repent and turn from our wicked ways because we just don't know what's best. But he does, the Lord does. So I think this would be a great stocking stuffer, or maybe if you have other prayers in your family, you could all be praying the same stuff this year, just saying I leave and like it. So, there that is, it's over. Yes.

unknown 3:05

If they sell out, can you get them online?

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Yes, you can get them online, or there's an order form back there as well. Thanks. Great question. So, talking about cultivating joy this morning, and the word cultivate, when Luke invited me to come teach, I said, ooh, can I call dibs on the word cultivate? Because that's the one I want. That's the one I want to talk about. And so that's what we're gonna do. Um, I was taking a walk the other night and I had this uh this idea, not idea, these words go through my head of a greeting for you today, distinguishing between what's happy and what's joyful. And this was the thing, I even recorded it on my phone because I so I wouldn't forget it. It's kind of cheesy, but it works. I am circumstantially, temporarily happy to see you this morning. But I am eternally joyful to know you and to be part of this community. Ah, you see the difference? Yeah? I did too. And that that really distinguished for me the difference between what the world speaks and what the kingdom is about. Because when we cross over from happiness to joy, we go from quantity to quality, we go from temporary to eternal, we go from our circumstantial, limited perspective to God's perspective of his greater purpose. A lot of difference there. There's a lot of difference. It doesn't even mean as there's gonna be a smile on my face all the time. But there is gonna be a river running through me that says, I'm kept, I'm good, I'm seen. So we're gonna start this morning together by reading from John chapter 15. Jesus is talking to his disciples. If you have your Bible with you this morning, and I hope you do, uh, we're gonna read from John 15, verses 9 through 11, and the verses are gonna be up here on the screens as well. Uh, Blaise, just quick question. Is it gonna be up here too? Good. That'll help me stay focused on you guys. So uh let's actually read it together. The first scripture, John 15, 9 through 11. Let's read in unison. Ready? Jesus said, As the Father has loved me, so have I 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 commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. That is good news, really good news. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You know the song Joy to the world, say it, say it, don't sing it. It's kind of tricky to do that. Say it with me. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let Earth receive her king, let every heart prepare, prepare him room, let every heart prepare him room. How do we prepare him room? How do we prepare for joy to come? The same joy that Jesus has in him to be in us. How do we prepare for that? How do we prepare so that there's room for his joy in us? The scripture we just read answers that. By remaining. By remaining. God's Jesus' promise is that, get this, you guys, talk about Merry Christmas, what a gift. Jesus promise is that we will receive the same quality of love and closeness and joy that he experiences with his father if we remain in him, if we remain with him. Does that not just mess with your head? Let it drop into your heart. It will always mess with our heads, I hope, but let it drop into your heart. Would you like to be secure in the Father's love? Wouldn't that be nice? All the time? Would you like to be full of joy like Jesus is? The answer is remain. Remain. That's what we're talking about this morning. So how do we cultivate, gonna come back to that word in a minute? How do we cultivate remaining? How do we prepare room for the kingdom of joy, for the king of joy? We have to know these answers. Why? For what we were talking about earlier. So we have hope. Hope is really important. And hope is married to joy. You can't separate the two. Biblical hope definition is joyful and confident expectancy in the goodness of God. You cannot separate biblical hope from biblical joy. They're married to each other. Joyful and confident expectancy in the goodness of God. So this scripture that we just read from John 15 is talking to Jesus' disciples. So a disciple, this is kind of a cool idea, a disciple is one who imitates until he emulates. He copies, if you will, he imitates what is done and said until he owns it, until it becomes his own, until he adopts the same thought processes and heart attitude and motivation and dreams and goals, until he adopts that as his very own. Make sense? Do the same in the kingdom of God. We imitate until we emulate. We imitate exactly. And I'm sure we've all got family stories that are kind of embarrassing of our kids imitating us and our grandkids. I know we do, and they would not appreciate it if I told those stories this morning, so I won't. So moving on from there, talking about discipleship, let's read this other verse from Matthew chapter 16, 24, and let's read it together. Um that Jesus is talking to his disciples. You ready? Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. We're going to do it one more time. And instead of just focusing on reading together, if you would picture this happening as we read it, ready? Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus answers the question in this who can be a disciple of joy? Who? The invitation for discipleship for joy is for anyone. It's for everyone. No one in this room is exempt from the possibility of walking in joy, of being a disciple of joy. The invitation is to imitate and then eventually emulate the genuine joy of our very joyful King, Jesus. So in this verse, Jesus outlines how we're to remain in him and choose joy, because it's a choice. Joy's not going to come automatically, is it? It's just not. What's the opposite of joy? Somebody throw out a word. Misery? Misery is going to come pretty automatically. Agreed? We live in a really broken world. It's going to come automatically. Joy kind of has to be cultivated, has to be chosen. Really does. It's not natural for us. So if I want to emulate joy, then in this verse, Jesus outlines for us how to imitate his joy. Graham, you want to come up here for a second? I've asked Graham, he doesn't know what he's getting into, which is probably a great job description for you most of the time. Yeah, you never know. You just kind of show up and are willing. So I appreciate that. But you're going to represent Jesus, okay? Don't go get a fat hat or weirdness on me here. Just represent. So I'm going to take my cues from you because I'm going to do the outline of this verse. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Okay? So this is how to imitate joy, imitate the joyful one until I eventually emulate. Alright. So the uh Paul talks to us about. I'm just, I'm not gonna mess up your shirt here. Don't worry about it. But if I do, I know where you can get another one because it's a lookout shirt. Okay. So I'm just gonna start following you around because you're representing I already kicked your heel. Dang it. See, I'm not good at keeping in step with the spirit. Yeah, there we go. Okay, we're doing it. I don't know where he's gonna go, I don't know when he's gonna stop, I don't know when he's gonna turn, I don't know anything. But if I follow, I I'm gonna lose dang it, Jesus. What do you if I follow well, then I'm gonna run into. If I follow well, then I will keep in step with him. This is what the verse literally means to follow to track with. Now stop just for a second, Jesus. Not that I'm bossing Jesus around, but if I stop where he stops, even if I do run into him, we end up with the same perspective. I'm seeing what he sees if I stay close, if I remain. If I don't, I won't. I won't. The further away I get, the more vague his voice is. And we change perspectives immediately as soon as I wander a little bit. Okay, okay. You start me with your left foot. What are you doing that for? I'm I'm a right foot starter. Okay, but if I do this, then stop just for a second. Because what I'm gonna have to do is surrender my own way. I'm gonna have to give up where I want to go, how fast I want to get there, and the route I want to take. Does this make sense to us? This is how we remain. Because if he's joyful and I hang with him, I'm gonna start seeing what he sees. And I'm gonna start emulating and doing it more naturally and knowing how to track with them way better. But I've got to surrender my own gig. I've got to surrender my own direction. Does that make sense? And that's not easy. Thank you, Jesus. No problem. I've got to surrender it. This is not easy, you guys. It's hard. How did Jesus do it anyway? I mean, that'd be a great place to start. How did Jesus do it? Life was not easy for him. The writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter 12, verse 2, that it was for the joy that was set before him that he endured the cross. The joy that was set before him gave him the grace and the capacity and the strength and the determination, the joy that was set before him to endure the cross. He surrendered to the work of the cross with full confidence that the joy of the resurrection would follow. But there's more. There was more beyond the resurrection. And the more is us. The joy that was set before him was knowing me and you closely, was giving us an opportunity to remain and to stay close and attract. He was so joyful about me and you following closely that he had what it took to endure the cross. That's some serious joy. Yeah? And he says, and if you remain, my joy will be in you. Same joy, the same joy. So I have to ask, what's the joy that's set before you that will give you the grace and the capacity for the hard stuff in your life? What is the joy that is set before you? What can you look forward to if you do the hard work of surrender and trust? Do you know? The joy that is set before us is the best blessing of all. It's his presence. It's his presence, his constancy. And not just that. It's not just the theological awareness or the occasional visitation we have of, oh, Jesus is here. It's the joy that's set before me is that I can eventually emulate enough that I am constantly aware of his presence. I forget that he's close to you sometimes. Yeah? I forget him. You know what I'm talking about. He doesn't forget, but I forget. I don't want to forget. Emmanuel, God with us, God for us, God in us, and he's not going anywhere. So rather than striving to remain in his love, you guys get caught up in that sometimes, just the striving of doing the God thing or the kingdom thing, the Christian thing, whatever. Rather than striving to remain in his love, rather than striving to obey his discipline and his lifestyle, rather than striving to disown myself. By the way, the word dis uh deny, um, take up your cross, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me that we just read in Matthew 16. Do you know the root, the Greek root word for deny is disown? Oh, this is this is a serious surrender. I need to disown me so that I can track with him step by step by step and imitate until I emulate. So rather than striving to disown myself, you know what? Let's just make a decision this year, me and you, that we're gonna focus on the joy that's set before us. His presence. Always, always with us, in us, for us. Uh several years ago now, I got the incredible opportunity of going to China for um for about a month to smuggle Bibles. It was a it was a trip. Oh, such a rush. It makes your heart beat really, really fast. And it was so fun. I digress because I want to tell you about a few of the pastors that I met there and many, many, many books and stories that I've read since then, and these pastors who are imprisoned because they love Jesus. These pastors because these pastors who are tortured, who are put in boxes that are the same size as them for days in a standing or a crouching position, these pastors who their guards put their lit cigarettes on their eyes, these pastors who are defecated on and beaten daily, multiple times a day, because they love Jesus. When you ask them the question, how in the world did you endure? Every account I have ever heard from one of them or read, they say exactly the same thing. The word of God sustained me. And then they say a very interesting thing. They say, I kind of miss those days. Why? Why? Because Jesus was just so close. He was so close, and since I got out of prison, I just haven't felt him that close. You guys, I do not understand that. I can't relate to that at all. But I do know that in the hardest moments of my life, he has been the closest to this broken heart. And he becomes the joy that is set before me that keeps me calling out to him and remaining in him to sustain me, just like John told us about this morning. The verse in John 15 said, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. So I rewrote it in first person, and I want us to read this together. Just that one verse. It says, You ready? Jesus said, Oh wait, that's the 1511. Now go to the next one. The next one is the the paraphrase, first person one. Nope. Joy. I don't know where it went. Let me read it to you. Okay? It's right, Lisa. It's cool. I probably told you to delete the wrong thing. It's probably on me. So here's the first person paraphrase. You ready? Jesus, you've told me, Jesus, you have told me about remaining and love and surrender so that I can have your joy. That was really nice of him. Don't you think? You've told me these things so that I'll be full of joy. He wants us to be like him. He wants us to be full of joy. He wants that for us. That's the reason he told us this stuff. Perhaps the biggest relief here is that we serve a joyful God. Is that not a relief? How many of you were raised with a God that wasn't so happy? Wasn't Joyful. And I certainly was. It was don't don't disturb the God, right? Because he's kind of edgy. That's the God I was raised with. Actually, I used to spend Christmas with uh with this family, and the patriarch of the family, you talk about a not happy, not joyful family, but the the patriarch of the family was the video guy for hours on Christmas Day. He ran that was back in the video camera days. This is international sign language for video camera right here. He'd grab up that that video camera and then he would say things like this smile. That's motivating. And he'd say, You guys, you guys go over there to the piano and sing something and smile while you do it, because I'm videotaping. And we want to look at this next Christmas and remember. It's like, man, I don't want to remember. I don't remember this at all. He was just be joyful. When we're learning to trust a joyful God who also wants us to be joyful, not as a command to follow, like, be joyful, Graham, be joyful. Not that, but as an invitation into his presence. An invitation. That's a completely different motivation. An invitation into his perspective. It's an invitation to choose joy because joy will surely come as we stay close, as we remain. It just will. So let's let joy be our motivator. For the joy that's set before us, let's remain with Jesus through the hard stuff of life, you guys, and there is plenty of that. Joy is found in his presence. Say that with me. Joy is found in his presence. Say that to him. Joy is found in your presence. So we're going, Jesus, where are you in this? Oh, you're here, Jesus, with me in this. Man, thank you. I don't know, you guys, I spent so many years heavy and sad and negative, and I just decided enough is enough already. You know, I want to be joyful. I really do. I want that undercurrent. In fact, you know what? I used to work with this lady. Can I just say this? I didn't like her. You ever have a coworker you just aren't a fan of? I didn't like her. But she had, she was joy, she was genuinely, legitimately joyful. It was one of those unique kinds of joy, a unique depth. And that kind of made me madder. Do you know? I think you're laughing because you know what that's like. And so I decided I was gonna be a big girl. And I just invited her. I said, Can I buy you breakfast some morning? Can we just go out for breakfast? Because I want to hear your story. Something has made you joyful, and I need to learn. I need to learn from that. Will you tell me your story? She did. It was one of the saddest stories ever. And she learned to choose joy in the middle of it. She learned to choose the presence of Jesus in the middle of it. And I'll be really honest, super honest with you, I did not ask her out for breakfast again. I don't think I even liked her personality anymore, but I understood, respected, and adopted her attitude. That created joy. That ended with joy. Changed me. She changed me. It's really beautiful. Andy Freeman says, while pain is inevitable, and it is, isn't it? Joy is not. The message of the kingdom of heaven demands that we seize opportunities to savor life's goodness whenever we can. That's a good one, isn't it? So we learn to look for evidences of Jesus. I like that idea. Picture yourself going through your day-to-day stuff, looking for evidences of Jesus. When we find Jesus, we find joy. Joy, I want you to picture this with me. Joy is this, it's life-giving. It's a deep undercurrent in my life of knowing unquestionably that I am kept and seen and chosen and liked by God. It's the abiding sense of being permanently established in his presence. Let's read together Psalm 16, 11. You make known to me the path of life. Let's try again. You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. It's where joy is. You fill me with joy in your presence, but sometimes we forget he is present. Agreed? When we forget he's with us, here's what happens: joy quickly fades, and we start grasping at temporary happiness instead, circumstantial happiness. We default immediately to I'm not happy. It's said that the word happy is derived from the word happenstance that describes whatever's going on in the moment. So being happy is basically determined by a response to whatever is going on temporarily, which is likely to be transitory, right? Happiness is more about the temporary than the eternal, more about quantity than quality. I I don't know, maybe I'm watching too many Hallmark movies. I can't stand those things. But but there's something about, I see it in all kinds of movies. It may be the most repeated line in all movies, I don't know, where somebody eventually says, I just want you to be happy. And I can feel my jaw go. It's like I don't want to just be happy. I want more than just being temporarily happy. Do you want more? Please, please let there be more. To know I am kept, to know I'm seen, to know I'm wanted, to know I'm chosen, to know I'm liked by God. It's an incredible thing. So how do we cultivate this kind of joy? We need to look at the word cultivate. Let's read together Romans 14, 17. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Okay? For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So eating and drinking, that's external, that's circumstantial. Righteousness, peace, and joy, that's internal, that's eternal. So craziest thing happened, you guys. I'm not a great sleeper anyway, but I was sleeping, I was having a good night. Three o'clock rolls around in the morning, and suddenly I am wide awake. That ever happened to you? You're just in an instant, boom, wide awake. And I had this immediate thought, and it was so bizarre. It was this. Boom, I'm awake. The thought was the root word for cultivate is cult. I thought, what did I eat before did I? The root word of cultivate is cult, which by the way, because I got out of bed and Googled it, you have to when you're a teacher. You just can't lose those moments, you know. So it's not always a negative connotation. We in our culture, culture, culture, remember that word. In our culture, root word, I'm making a point here, and it's a good one. The root word of cultivate is cult, the root word of culture is cult, and we have this negative association with that word, but it does it doesn't always have to be that way. Listen, a cult is a root word for culture. What's culture? Customs, arts, social institutions, achievements of a particular nation or people or social group. You with me so far? When a person or a thing becomes religiously popular or fashionable among a particular section of society, they begin to devote themselves to that person or thing or ideology. And da da da culture develops. A cult is developed. You with me? Okay. So, in light of that definition, then I had to get out my lexicon and go to the Greek and Hebrew words for cultivate. So in the Bible, there are five words for meditate, two Hebrew words and two derivatives, and then one Greek word. And the Greek word for meditate literally means cultivate. I know, this is getting interesting. Aren't you glad you came? I'm glad I came. It means, here's the literal definition of cultivate biblically. To purposefully tend to, to till, you know, like you till the ground to prepare. Oh, there's that word, prepare, to prepare it for something, prepare it for planting, to purposefully till, to purposefully tend to. But listen to this one. It means to inhabit repetitive practices. That's what cultivate means. To inhabit repetitive practices, routines, and rhythms until they become culture. Imitate until you emulate. Yeah, Chloe, you got it. Yay! You got such a great face, Chloe. So I want to, I am not a farmer. I have never been a farmer, I will never be a farmer. But I know a lot of farmers, and because I am because I teach on this pretty often, actually, I have talked with a whole lot of farmers to correct me and to make sure I get this thing right. And so far, so good. So if if I understand the whole cultivation thing, here's what happens: you prepare the ground, you dig it up, right, you you make it in soil that is uh fine enough to plant, you make the rose, you put the seeds in. This is so not technical what I'm describing to you, but you're with me. I can tell you're with me. You plant, and then comes the light, and then comes the air, and then comes, you know, you gotta add some fertilizer to that, and then comes the um the moisture, and the plants start to come up, and with the plants come the there it is, got a farmer in here. With the plants come the weeds. Um, weeds are nasty. So here's what happens. After the plants start coming up along with the, then the farmer puts this implement on the back of the tractor called a cultivator. And the cultivator is like a great big, huge rake, and it goes in between the rows like this. Ooh, isn't that a cool picture? In between the rows like this, and it does two or three things all at the same time. Here's what it does: it means the cultivation of land loosens the soil around the roots of the plants, tills it, tends to it to nurture it for healthy crops. Once the ground around the plant is loosened, there's greater absorption of air and water and light. Can you picture it? Simultaneously, and this is what's so cool about the cultivator. Simultaneously, as the cultivator loosens the ground around the plant, it uproots the weeds. The weeds that have grown alongside the plants and are stealing life from it. Cultivation stops the growth and the maturation of the weeds. They are foreign growths that suck life from the plant and steal the nourishment and even take over a field if you just let them go to themselves. Sometimes we forfeit joy by cultivating weeds. Joy can be given away. I can reject it. I can let other people steal it from me. Speaking of family holidays, I can let other people steal it from me, even though it has eternal quality. You know, you know. Listen, farmers never cultivate a field of weeds. Just saying. They don't need to. They're really healthy all by themselves. They just grow. Farmers' job is to eliminate the weeds, not cultivate them so that they get more air and light. Weeds don't need to be cultivated, but plants do. Some things in our lives feel like weeds. Joan, such a great story this morning. Those things in your life, when you're driving down I-25, feel like weeds. And Jesus sees them as an invitation to cultivate joy. We need the grace of God to see them in a different way so we can cultivate them, okay? Here's a really trite example. You've got a well-manicured lawn at home, and there's a dandelion in it. That sucker's a weed, right? You don't like it. You go out, you make war on the dandelion. Different scenario. You're not at home on your manicured lawn. Or maybe you are, and your kid goes next door to the unmanicured lawn, picks a dandelion, and brings it to you. See there. It's cherished, it's enjoyed. It's not a weed, it's a gift of love. See, meaner, near, neener. So here's some more applicable, applicable illustrations. I might view a relationship that I have with a difficult person as a weed. But God may see it as a plant. For the joy that it can produce if I would just deal with my judgment, my attitude, start praying for them, start blessing them. Just saying. You might view financial hardship as a weed. God may see it as a plant. For the joy that can come when he provides miraculously or when he gives you a different job, or when he shows you a way to restructure your entire budget to make it work. Seriously. You might view a health challenge as a weed of discouragement, but God may see it as a joyful opportunity for you to draw near and get to know him differently. Perhaps as the healer of your soul and the healer of your body, or to know the joy of his presence in the midst of your pain. Like the Chinese pastors. Or even to know the joy of vulnerability when you share your pain with a friend. That's a whole different kind of joy. It's cultivating joy in the ordinary, in the day-to-day. It's seeing them, seeing the day-to-day as opportunities to become God conscious, God-aware, God's presence with me, in me, for me. I want you to try something. I want you to try, and this will be a great thing to keep doing through December of all times. Peace on earth, after all, and we lose it so quickly, right? But let's uh let's practice a breath prayer, okay? I'm gonna demonstrate first, and then I want you to repeat after me. So you breathe in, and then as you breathe out, you say just one line. The kingdom of God is within me. Close your eyes, take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, say it with me. The kingdom of God is within me. Focus. This is called centering prayer. We're gonna do another one. I'll model it for you. Take a breath, and as I breathe out, God is here with me right now. Take a breath in, everyone. Breathe out. God is here with me right now. Here's the next one. The presence of love is here. Breathe in. The presence of love is here. So you guys, it takes 20 20 seconds. And you recenter and choose joy. You re-center and remember his presence. Biblically, as I said before, the idea of cultivation is associated with what goes on right here. And isn't this the bigger biggest stealer of joy? The narratives that we play, especially the ones that are on repeat. The narratives, the thoughts we routinely practice until and tend to. It could be said then that our joy is dependent on what's going on in those heads of ours. So, just a few reflective questions. You can sit there with Jesus. On what do you meditate? On what do you fix your thoughts? Let him let him tell you the patterns. What repetitive thought patterns dominate your mind? What has your mental focus? Life-giving things or life-sucking things? Because that which dominates imagination and thoughts will determine your life and character. So while you're sitting there with Jesus, I want you to imagine, use your imagination with him now, and picture this process of cultivating joy in your minds, in your thought life. I want you to see Holy Spirit coming and rooting out the joy-sucking weeds in your thinking. Can you just close your eyes and spend this time with Jesus? This is his ministry time to you right now. Imagine Holy Spirit coming and rooting out those joy-sucking weeds in your thinking. The things, the thoughts that are repetitively stealing life from you instead of giving life to you. And now in your imagination, you can see that that creates space for the wind and the water of the spirit of joy to breathe his nutritious life into your thought patterns. And renew them. And wash them with his word. Watch him do that. And with that space that's created, the light of Jesus can energize your thoughts for growth. Your thoughts, empowered by the Holy Spirit, for growth, for flowering, and even more seed production. Joy must be cultivated by the word and the spirit. So we allow the cultivation process to drive out the weeds in our thinking as we set our minds on the king and his kingdom. Because the kingdom of God isn't a matter of do this and don't do that. But it's a matter of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So may you prepare room for the king of joy by cultivating joy in your hearts this season. May the culture of your thought life be transformed by the cultivation of joy. May your awareness of Jesus' joyful presence within you increase and increase. And increase. In the name of the Father of Joy, in the name of the Son of Joy. And in the name of the Spirit of Joy. Amen.