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In this podcast, we share our sermons and teaching from our Sunday Celebrations + some other additional teaching content.
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Thank you very much, Harry. Thank you. Good morning everyone. It's it's so lovely to be with you. it's it's lovely to be in Southport in the warm summer sun. We normally come around about springtime and it's a little bit cool. But not today. It's great as well to come into a room that's alive, alive and buzzing.
Buzzing with people will be laughing. No, but just the sense that God is doing something and, to see, two young men who have given their life to Jesus. and I was talking to Keith. Every time I see it, it just takes me back. And I think Mike said every time that's. I know where I was baptized.
And it's it's a marker. Every time I drive past that building, I think that's where something died. And it's it's incredible. But I was just sitting there waiting as well to just come and share and I just felt it was interesting because you were you were expecting one. But the Lord gave you two. And I don't believe in coincidences.
And I'm thinking, what's going on? And I you know, that's the way this. But but I just felt the Lord say the pace is increasing and not the pace is going to increase. The pace is increasing. So don't be surprised that you say it'll be this. And the Lord says it is this, but then he'll give you that, which means you're going to have to make room in your hearts for enlargement.
Yes. Because it's not just not I'm not just talking about numbers. It must obviously mean more people. But there's the pace is increasing. Does that makes it. You can weigh that and look it up. But I really believe that's what happened. I wish I was called Victor, a champion.
I'll just stick for Roja, which I think means little Welshman.
Okay. I've been asked to share something very specific with you today. it's, something that's good for your health. something that's good for your spiritual health. Something it's good for your mental health. Something that's good for your physical health. And, it's a little word, and it's called joy. In fact, we already sang James let us so fantastically, didn't he?
I'll give you a little clue if you behave yourself. We just might sing that song again at the end. We just talking. And he said, should we sing again? And he said, with joy, I said, that'd be a good idea. So it depends how well you behave or how well you misbehave. Because I know you. Let's read some scriptures, shall we?
Romans chapter 14. It's a funny little word, joy. And it's like one of those Bible words that we use all the time. And then when you try to define it, what it is and what it looks like, they think, well, what is it? How does it work? How do I get it? How do I maintain it? well, hopefully what we're going to do, we're going to share, some scriptures tell us what it is, and then I'm going to give you, just some things that I find in my life.
I'm not an expert, as you know, things that I find in my life that help me maintain joy. And then we'll sing. So get ready. Romans 14, verse 17. Start with these are familiar scriptures. It says, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. That means it's not natural things, not physical things, says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit, and the hallmark of the kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the spirit. As anybody in the kingdom of God here, if you're born again, you're in the kingdom of God. So the answer is yes, just to know it's in Romans 15 and verse 13, then place. And I know I will have shared this verse with you before when we talked about hope.
And hope is very much linked to joy, as we'll see here. This says Romans 15 verse 13 says, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy. Not a little bit. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and all peace in your faith, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Did you notice something that God gives you? He fills you with it. Just go back to John 15 now, please. In verse 11, this is something that Jesus said when he was talking, at the Last Supper and that long, long discourse before he goes away talking a lot about the Holy Spirit and the future. And he says this, right in the middle of, his discourse, John 15 and verse 11, and I'm sure you will know the Scripture.
He said, I have spoken these things to you, so that my joy may be in you. Did you notice that? So that's gives us a clue where joy comes from. He says, my joy may be in you, and therefore your joy will be complete, so my joy will be in you. He's talking about what the Holy Spirit will do, and your joy will then be complete.
So that tells you where it comes from, what it is. and then just finally, for now, turn to Galatians chapter five. Please.
I think these are for most of us, these will be familiar passages and familiar verses.
Galatians five and verse 22.
Says the fruit of the spirit, this is what the spirit produces. That's what it means when the spirit comes into you in the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit produces in you. It comes from him. He brings it. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So that's the scriptures tell us many things about joy, but one of the biggest things it tells us where it comes from.
And we'll come to that in a moment. But let's try and say, well, what? When the New Testament uses the word joy, what is that word mean? joy? we're not going to go into a big Greek lesson. Joy comes from the same root word. That's the word grace. The grace of God and joy all come from the same word.
So joy is very much linked to grace. And grace is a lovely word, isn't it? And basically what it means is joy means, oh, there's people up there. Hello. Are you the late comers? Are you? Just don't let you just don't like being with us. Is that right? So I see you at there. so, yeah. You know, joy simply means delight in God.
It's a very positive thing. It means delight, but it's a delight that's based in God because it comes from God. So to be joyful is to be delighted, okay? It means to be delighted in God. It means to be glad in God's grace. It's something much deeper than being happy. As we'll explain. We used to sing an old song.
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Yeah. Oh yeah. You don't remember that to you. Wow, I don't feel so bad now. But the only problem was, it was so deep down we never showed on our faces. True, people didn't wear a crown of righteousness. They wore the crown of righteousness, as you call it.
Lesson. That's another time. But the joy means to be glad, to be delighted in God's grace. It's it's really a good thing. Okay? It means that joy isn't something that you can go and get. Joy comes from God. Now that should make it much easier for you. All right? Joy is not happiness. happiness. And even, social psychologists and social, people who work in human behavior, research, they say happiness is something that some that you pursue.
Okay. I think there was another film called The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith. Wasn't it? Man? happiness is something that you go after to get. If I, if I, if I win the lottery, I'll be happy. If my next door neighbor moves, I'll be happy. if my mother in law gets off my back, I'll be happy.
Or if I pass my exams, I'll be happy. And you might well be. But it's something that you're going after. Joy is different because it's the same thing. It's like grace because it's linked to grace. You don't go and get grace, do you? God gives it to you. It's the same with joy. It's something you have to try and go and get.
So I'm not telling you this morning to go and get joyful. That should make you feel better because you don't. Okay. It says in Romans 14 he said, it says the kingdom of God is joy. It's something about the kingdom. So it's also righteousness. Now you don't go out to get righteousness. Still you are righteous. That's that's established in this church.
You are righteous, holy people. So Victor and Champion, they've the old past is gone. Now you're righteous, they're righteous, and they'll ever be, aren't they? Your righteous? You don't go to get righteousness. We are righteous. It's the same with peace and joy. You don't go out to get them. They're not external to you. That's the point. Joy is not something that's external to you.
It's something that the Spirit of God has put within you. When you were born again. Welcome to the kingdom. It's a good kingdom, all right? It really is. So therefore, our default setting is joy. So I can't say, well, I'm not a joyful person. I'm a misery. Guts. No, you're not. You are a joyful person because you're in the kingdom.
You see? You say, well, no one knows the trouble I've seen. That's a different thing altogether. But you have a default position because you're in the Kingdom, because the Holy Spirit has come to live within you, that you are geared to be delighted in God and to rejoice. Hallelujah! Thank you. Someone. Jesus said, remember my joy will be.
It will be in you. Not any. You might get it. Now I know one thing about Jesus his prayer gets answered. So when he says, I like your face, I'm going to pick on you this morning. Might you? Is it really well, I thank you. We're here all week. Your name is Joy. Oh, you're my favorite person in the whole room.
Oh, I'm sorry.
White alert. I was making a point.
Stay in. Stay. Enjoy, sister. Oh.
Wait, wait. Would you like me to, Jesus said my joy will will be in you. Father answers that prayer. He doesn't say, yeah, but not you. But that's not for you. He says, my joy will be and your joy will be complete. So we have to settle. I have to settle that. Within me there's a DNA of the Spirit of God, and part of that DNA is this joy, that it is part of my DNA.
The fruit of the spirit is joy. He just produces it. It's in you. He's saying, I don't want to be joyful, tough. I want to be a Christian. That. Life is serious. I know life is serious, but the kingdom is joy. So we have an underlying mindset, an undergirding mindset, of delight, of positivity, of rejoicing, of being glad.
Now, of course, that doesn't depend on situations and circumstances. You can be grieving. You know, we all at some point will go through a season of grief. We lose loved ones.
But you can still know the joy of the Lord in your grief. Yes, that's true. Have you ever known that you've gone through David? Of course you go through grief process and yet you think. But there is a joy within me and people will say, what's wrong with you? It's nothing wrong with you. See, when you understand what the joy of the Lord is, it's there.
Even in grief, you can be suffering. Loss. My lost a job, lost a loved one. Something like you lost possession. But you can still know the joy of the Lord because it's not something you have to go and get. Of course you've got a great bonus. You just look in the mirror and you say, joy! Oh, maybe we should just rename ourselves Joy.
You can be unhappy and still know the joy the Lord. I'm not happy about everything. There are things in life I look in the world of thing. There are things I'm unhappy about. But I still have the joy of the Lord, because the joy of the Lord is the answer for grief. It helps you walk through grief. It helps you walk through loss.
It helps deal with unhappiness. Do you know? And I say this carefully, you can even know the joy of the Lord when you're angry. You know Jesus got angry. He never lost his temper. He didn't fly off the handle. He wasn't a comedian. I don't know what it is about. As you get older, people say, don't be a curmudgeon.
I think if I knew what it was, if I if they say, no, no, I won't stop there. I'm not converging on my family. One let me be one. You can be angry about something. You can look at the status of certain things and you say, I'm angry about that. Jesus got angry. He got angry at hypocrisy. He got angry at hard hearts.
He got angry at people who refused to believe what he was doing and said, you're of the devil. He got angry. He never got angry at ordinary people. It's okay to be angry. It's not. It's not okay to be walking around losing your temper and shouting and screaming at people. That's a different thing. But if I'm not asking other things that make you unhappy in this world, other things that you get angry at in this world, it's okay.
But don't let that rub your joy, because the joy of the Lord is your strength and it will overcome. You know, so important to understand that the, let's let's read Habakkuk, shall we?
If you can find it, it's what's the end of the Old Testament? So if you have your Bibles, open your Bibles. If you haven't, if you haven't got your Bible, let me encourage you. Bring one with you. Because I could be telling you a whole lot of porky pies.
Bring your Bible with you, please. Habakkuk was a man who had problems with God. He had problems because God God had told him he was going to do something and Habakkuk didn't like it. And he basically said to God, you can't do that. And God said, don't tell me what to do with. I found that God says that.
I know what I'm doing. And Habakkuk comes to his senses. And then have a look at chapter three, verse 13, and you can substitute anything you like. Notice what he does when he comes to his senses. Habakkuk chapter three, verse 17. This was the end of the Old Testament. Use your index. It's on page two of my Bible, if that helps you.
He said this okay, though the fig tree doesn't budge and there's no fruit on the vines. Okay, so I didn't get a pay rise. I didn't get the pay raise. Didn't happen. So the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food. even though the price of bread is going up and petrol just seems to be increasing all the time, we're not going to get that holiday this year.
And anti-glare. This is not saved yet, though. There's no sheep in the pen, no cattle in the stalls. Okay. The car broke down again. I'm off. I'm back on the bus. Failed him. Okay. Life. What did he do? And he says, well, I'm just going to go down the tubes. He says, in spite of all that. I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will rejoice in God my Savior says, even though all that happens, there's something about me. There's something about me, even though everything's gone wrong. If you haven't had one of those days, weeks, you think if that's the worst thing that's going to happen to me, and then something worse happens and you think, well, tomorrow can only get better and tomorrow's worse.
And by the time Friday comes, you think, I'm not getting out of bed today? That's that's what I was going through. some big issues you face in life. Serious issues. I know some of you things you face, and I'm making light of those. He says despite all that, I am still going to rejoice in the Lord because I'm DNA prone.
My default setting is this no matter what happens, I will rejoice in the Lord and because it's easy when everything is hunky dory and it's a wonderful sunny day in Southport and we all say, let's join the house of the Lord, there is and I'm going to get a suntan over my screen today. But what about when it's a cold, rainy day in February?
I still rejoice in the Lord. That's not cheesy unreality. it's not saying, you know, you're a Christian, aren't you? If you've got that inane grin across your face the whole time. No, it's nothing to do with that. It's not being false or pretense. It's thinking, you know, in my life I am default setting to be joyful in the Lord.
I am rejoicing in the Lord. Just, you know, this is the physical bit. Doing some research and reading on this joy is good for you in medical research and psychological research. And if you work in these fields, medical research tells you that joyful people sleep better at night. Having trouble sleeping?
Joy is good for your digestive system.
Joy is good for your immune system because of all the things that are released when you enjoy your body response. And guess who gave you your body? God is interested in your body. Joy reduces stress. Joy reduces anxiety. Are you anxious? Are you worried about something? The answer is joy, not prayer. Maybe.
Joy. Not knock against prayer. Joy is good for your blood circulation.
And joy can prolong your life. People live longer. Because of joy. It's interesting, isn't it? That is. That's not Christian. That's just medical research. The one wonder Nehemiah said. No surprise there, Maya said when the people were downhearted that day, he said, this is not a day for that. This is not a day for that. This is a day to be glad.
Why? Because the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy without it is not feel good, he said, the joy of the Lord is your strength. We're dealing with something much, much deeper than just feeling happy and having a good time, which is great in itself.
Just in the time left, can I share with you just some things that I keep saying this, this, this is necessarily subjective, so please excuse that, but these are just things that I find work for me and help me maintain that attitude of joy. All right? Because, we all have to you. It's then there. But you you think the Lord says, now it's there, but now you have to maintain it and foster it.
And there are practical things we can't all be called. Joy.
And the first thing, And it's no coincidence. I didn't know I was going to say this practically. And this works. One of the practical things I find that help me these days, and to maintain, they're all to do with my relationship with the Lord. Everything is to do with my relationship with the Lord. And you have a relationship with the Lord.
So I don't have an advantage over you. He's the same Lord for you. Okay. I don't have an advantage. And the first one is this. Number one is to know that God is for you and did me have that this morning? Didn't you prophesy? Did you say this? You must know something. You said this. You must know. Said it 3 or 4 times.
She had no idea I was going to say this. In fact, when she sat down, I said, look at that. God is for you. Has to. Would you say this with me? Please? God, you know God is for me. Would you say it again? God is for me one more time. God is for me. So why do you ask to say it?
Because there's a power in your words. When you agree with something that God says about you, it becomes yours. So you say it one more time. I'm not. Look and see who is and who isn't. God is not for me. God is not against you. Up. God is not against you. God is not here to trip you up and make your life as tricky and as horrible and as hard as he can.
God is for you, he says. I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future.
But most of us don't have a problem with that one. Our problem is this God is indifferent to me. I don't really feature that. Importantly in God's plans. I'm not one of his champions. I'm not one of his victims. I'm just me. I'm middling. I just make up numbers. God's not really interested in me. Lie lie lie lie lie.
If you were the only person alive in this world, God is for you. Yeah, yeah. And if you know that God is for you, you know that he is for you, isn't he? You've at least. Oh. Is that news to you, or have you always known that? Is that new to you? So you're you always known it or you really believe it?
Now? Yes. Yes. Great I love I love it. You get response. You can so you can know something as well. God is for you straight. I look in the mirror. My name is not Joy, but I know this. I look in the mirror and I used to know it's. You know one thing. God is for you. And I may have said this before.
I want to be liked and popular, but with great respect. I don't care what people think of me. Doesn't mean I can behave badly. But I know this God is for me and you who walk through the world and you think you know something. God is for me. God's on my side. Yeah, well, he walks about. Value of a shadow.
Guess what? God is with me. God is for me. It's an incredible thing to know that God is for you.
You have to work all this out. I know one lady. One young lady. Got it? Thank you. What's your name like? Maya. Does that mean joy?
Second thing, and this is not just knowing theologically and having knowledge. So when you leave this room, whatever else happens, and tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday doesn't matter. Not because you just said it in this room. I think God is for me. Because for me, the next thing I find helps me is this is to know that I know that I know that God is good.
Yeah, yeah, I know the Bible says God is good. No, no, no. God is good and God does only what is good. God is incapable of doing you harm. God is incapable of thinking any evil towards you. God never. It never answers. God's thinking process is to think I'm my having a great day today, but you wait till Wednesday, girl.
God's not like that. God says I am good and everything I do in your life is good. Now, like me, I'm sure you think, well, I don't understand everything that happens in my life. You will not understand everything that happens in your life. But you know this one thing God has a unique ability. Romans eight says, God has the unique ability to take everything that happens in my life.
All the good things, all the bad things, all the bad things, and all the indifferent things. Not that he brings bad things. He doesn't inflict bad things, but he says, I have the unique ability because I'm for you, and I'm good to take that and take that and take that and take that and bake it all together so that what comes out of it is for your good.
And you say, Lord, I don't understand why this happened. He says, you never will, but will know this. I am working for your good and it all you see, you come into a relationship with a God who who's massive and has a massive plan. But if you know that God is for you and that God is good, you're thinking, you know what?
Everything is going to be all right. It's all right. And if you can say everything is all right, God is good. That's why peace is important. And the third thing is coming to know this and this whole thing you check off. He's thinking, I know it, I'm living it, I know it, I'm going to whatever happens. Good bad blessing.
God's in control. God is good. The third thing is this to know that God is in control. If you ever felt who is in control, who's got the hands on the rudder of our nation or this world, who is in control, God is in control. But bring it down to your life. God is in control of your life.
But I find this. He didn't tell me. He didn't. He's not here to answer all my questions. Have you ever had things in life you think a lot? I don't understand why that has happened. And you need to tell me. Then I'll trust you. And you're still waiting. And he never tells you because he's working things and it's not playing a game, but he just says, I know what I'm doing.
I am in control because I'm good and I care for you, and I love you and you. You just need to trust me.
And when you do that, you can say everything. Okay? Yeah. Car broke down again. Yeah. Didn't get the pay rise. Yeah. Didn't get the grades I wanted. Yeah. Mother in law is still on my neck. But I know this. God is in control of my life. And he's good and he's for me. And you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to give him. I'm just going to rejoice in him because he's good and I love him, and he has he has me in the palm of his hand. He said, well, how can you do that? Because that's the DNA of the Spirit of God in me. I will rejoice in the Lord. Yeah, I'm trying to get them.
That's James. So when they sing a song, they're really ready. It's you, me and Maya and Joy. So far.
You're doing great. Bless you. Here's the fourth thing. It's just practical things you work out in your life. Maintain your hope. You know, hope is all to do with the future. We shared that many times here recently and before. Hope is all to do with your future. God is your God of hope. God says you have a future.
You have a future. And he says in Jeremiah, my plans are to give you hope and a future. It's a good future. Wouldn't it be terrible? As God says, I got you a future in my hand? It doesn't look too good. Yeah. All right. I know the future. Not promising you well. Thank you Lord. He never says that.
You just. You've got a future. And you know what? I can hardly wait to give it to you because it's good. That's what it is. You're in his hands.
It's wonderful to know hope. I was listening to a Christian the other day. He was an apologist. And Justin Brierley's name is. And he was being asked. He said it. And in everything he says what he was asked, what is it? The one aspect of Christianity that keeps you going? And he said, hope. Because when you talk to your non-Christian friends, they have hope and want to get.
I don't want to get too political now, but there are many people in this country who they have a hope. So in a general election, everything will change.
Okay. That's I'm not I'm not being political. In 1997, it was the same. And then that party left power and another party came in and people had hope. And now their hopes of and other people have hope because there's only one hope that will last. I'm not saying don't involve yourself in will in the world and politics. By the way, but the hope you have is not dependent on who's in government.
But your hope is in God. And thinking he got hope. Yeah. Bam bam must be tense.
The next one. Just a couple more. is. Do you want to say anything on this? Would you leave this to me? Thank God and circumstances. Anything. It's me. Or do you want to say anything about it? Okay. Just heard this recently. and I thought, yeah, this is really great.
You have to understand that, God, on your circumstances are not the same. When we have a circumstance or a situation that we don't seem to see a resolution to, we think that's what God is like. We put God in the circumstance and God in the circumstance become one. So our understanding of what God is like can be clouded by the circumstance of the situation.
We can't see the wood for the trees, but God is not the circumstance. God is God. He stands that. You see where I'm getting. He stands apart from this circumstance. He's God. He says, I'm there. God is for you. I'm the God is good. I'm the guy who's in control. I'm the God of hope, he said. But my circumstance, he says, yes, I am not the circumstance.
I am God, the God, I am God. And if I can determine that and distance that, I think, do you know what? My circumstance will pass and will change? But you are always the same. You are always good. You're always in control. You're always for me. You're always on my side. And boy, you wait till James stands up and strums that chord.
I'm going to give it everything because bang, I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. You watch me. And the final thing is this. Then I'm going to give you two practical things you can do this week. And the final thing is this one Thessalonians chapter 518, which you've been around me any time in recent years. One Thessalonians 518 says, Give God something in every circumstance, not the blame.
Give God thanks in every circumstance. Give God some. In whatever circumstance you're facing right now, good, bad or indifferent, there's something you can give God thanks. Not for the circumstance necessarily. Thank you Lord, I lost my job. Thank you. I failed this exam. No, Lord, I failed it. I didn't get the job. But in this, I know this.
I'm still in your hands. You're still guiding me so the fig tree doesn't blossom. So they're not piling into intuition right now. This is your business. And therefore we're going to give you thanks because you've put food on the table. There's clothes in our bodies. There's chocolate coming from guests and strangers. Thank you. That's a little joke between us.
You think so? We'll give God thanks, like, and use it because it got it. It's your business, Lord. You're looking after us. I'm talking about and enjoying. God is for you. God is in control. God is on your side. God's there. He's brought you here. He's thinking, oh, Lord, we're not getting the business yet. He says, I know what I'm doing.
But you trust him, don't you? You do. You really do. You have fantastic people and you watch them go when they sing. Now, should we get you up on the stage? You can, They're great people, full of integrity. And they say, Lord, we just need more business. You thinking they're not standing accusing God? They're saying, Lord, we will rejoice.
We will rejoice in you. We're going to give you God thanks in our circumstance. And when they got a full house and full booking and they're rushed off, their feet and knees run out of bacon and eggs, he said, Lord, I haven't got any more. There's so many people. Thank you Lord. He's not going to get frazzled when he has to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get everybody's breakfast, he said, thank you, Jesus.
You remember that when it happened, don't you? Best cook breakfast in town. Free advertising.
You don't give God thanks for the circumstance, but you give him thanks in it. Is there something you can give God thanks for this morning? Is there something you can rejoice in God for this morning? You can have an opportunity in just two minutes so here's two things that you can do this week one to make an invitation to you.
Two things that you can do this week to share the joy and the resurrection life of Jesus. Because I believe, I firmly believe that every time you do these two things, you are sharing the risen Lord Jesus because you've been born again to a living hope that the resurrection. And every time you express his life, you express his resurrected life.
And the first thing is this ready for it? It's deep. It's profound. Smile. It's someone.
What smile at someone. To give us something deep. You came all this way to tell us to smile. Yeah. Do you know why? When you smile at somebody. When you smile at somebody, Jesus is smiling at them. Have you ever thought the number of people you pass in the day it was miserable? Is anything.
So. Well, I'm not. I'm not a smiler. Get a get a smile on your face. There's a power in your smile. I know some, some of you think, oh, he's lost it now. I haven't lost it. This is the point. You watch the power of your smile.
You will. I got nothing to smile about, really? Yes. You have. I was, I've learned. I've learned how to use the smile God has given me. I know for my smile. And I suddenly realize there's a lotus. Give me a smile. I have to learn how to use it. I don't walk around like.
Diane tells me that I was in a little village community shop just recently with a friend of mine who lives in this village. He's a believer, and we went down to the community shop to get some some goods, and we were in there and a lovely lady was just serving us, and I, I was chatting to her and, talking to her and just passing the time of day and I, I was smiling and as we were leaving, she said, thank you for coming.
You just made my day.
Really awesome. Thank you very much. She said. Yeah. She said, you smiled at me. Come on, she said, I get so many misery guts coming in here.
But I never mentioned the name of Jesus. But because my friend is a believer, it goes in there all the time. And he's just. He's worse than me. He's a happy guy. What? What have I done? She now intensifies a smile with my friend who is identified with Jesus. So she's got a link to Jesus. I well, I did what made Jesus look good.
And you see. Yeah, but you never. You didn't preach the gospel to her. Yes, I did, I smiled at her. Try it, try it now. Don't be don't don't be so serious. Smile to try. Before you leave here today. Just go up to someone's smile. And the last thing is this. Encourage somebody this week. Encourage. Think outside yourself and encourage somebody.
Let's say I've got a word from God for you. Just encourage someone. Do you know one of the greatest things you can do to encourage someone is just when you say, how are you? How are you today? I'm very well, thank you that you encourage someone to say, James, I, I, I really love the way you let us today.
That was that was fantastic. You were it was really, really encouraging. You know a lovely spirit, don't you? You said to me, doesn't have a lovely spirit, you have a lovely spirit. You and I was encouraged. So how do you feel? Feel great. Oh, sorry about that. You're in church. You shouldn't feel great. It's all about Jesus.
One of the powerful things you have is just to say thank you. How are you today? Think of someone. How can you encourage them? Ask them. And when they tell you, listen to them. Listen to their answer. Yes, I said, how were you today? You said not say, I've had the worst week of my life. I say, well, I better finish now because we're going to we need to have a cup of coffee, listen to people encourage you.
You know, every time you encourage someone, you strengthen them. They go, and and I have been built into my life. Now I'm in building. I'm not great at it yet, but constantly I want to leave everybody that I have had a conversation with that they've had a smile, they're left with hope and they're encouraged and they say, you know what?
That guy was weird, but he was all right.
But you've you're leaving something of Jesus. And that is what the joy of the Lord does, and it strengthens you. And I really believe, small as the pace will increase, people aren't going to come to a house of misery. People are looking for life and joy and peace. And there's is there is a sound of joy which is a clue.
Do you want to? Do you want all the musicians up? Yeah. Your job is not finished yet. Thanks, guys.
Would you like to sing? I feel like singing. we're going to sing, if that. let's join the House of the Lord. Thank you. David.
Isn't he great?
Have you got things to do now? Do you understand what joy is? Understand? You've got it. It's not happiness, but your DNA. No matter what happens, this joy, the Lord. And you can give it away. And if you do these things, I guarantee progress. Yeah, but I thought it'd just be great. Why don't we came in singing the joy the Lord.
Why don't we go out with it as well? So I'm gonna hand over to James now and then whoever's going to come and finish off the meeting for us. So should we stand? You can actually move out your seat if you want to do whatever you want. James, over to you.