Allow Joy To Re-introduce Himself | Pastor Tauren Wells | Forward City Church Matthew 5. ((music playing)) Thank you to all the production worship, those that have labored and worked to make this happen to set the table. Mean and April, ((music playing)) >> what a gift to the body of Christ, to this city, and to this church. You both are >> so encouraged. April, I saw you preaching on Instagram. Just got all convicted. Just you weren't even standing up to preach. I actually have to stand to say anything good. You're just sitting there dropping bars. And um just so grateful for you for your example and uh for the way that you selflessly serve stepped into this and uh I can't wait to see the next 10 years of this thing. I know it's been nine years. I can't wait to see the next decade. I I just believe that God's going to do something absolutely exponential in this house. Matthew 5 verse one. One day, one day, just just an ordinary day, as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the hillside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him and he began to teach them, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, >> for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart. Does that remind you of that word last night from Pastor Travis? What a word. >> Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Today, I'm going to attempt to preach from scripture with the help of the Holy Ghost. allow Joy to reintroduce himself. >> Allow Joy to reintroduce himself. Would you pray with me? Jesus, I pray that this word would come alive in our hearts in a new and fresh way. made this ancient text be like fresh bread, God, that that it would fill us, that it would satisfy all of our needs and that you would speak to us in the unique distinct way that each of us need to receive your words. God, I pray that I would step out of the way and Holy Spirit that you would speak with clarity in the name of Jesus. And all the churchy folk said, >> "Amen." And you can go ahead and sit down. Allow joy to reintroduce himself. Who taught the most important message on joy in human history? I think it's a question worth asking and answering. I think that many people in the world today would not come to the same conclusion that many of us bibleelving Jesus following people would come to when we discuss the idea of the important message of joy in the lives of people. Some people may point to someone like Buddha and say that Buddha taught the most important message on joy. He said that happiness isn't a path that you take, happiness is the path. Not really a bad swing at it for Buddha. But then there would be a more stoic philosopher like Marcus Aurelius who taught that joy really depended on self-disipline. Taking life as it comes to you, not really bad or or maybe the philosopher Aristotle. He said happiness depends on ourselves. None of these are really bad attempts at offering us some type of substance around this idea of joy. But I had to go to the source of all sources. I I I had to go to the resource of all resources. I had to go to the one who tells the truth and cannot lie. I had to get on chat GPT. Jesus jked you there. Sorry. I got on Chad GPT and I asked Chad GPT who taught the most important message on joy in human history. Now I don't know if Chad GPT got saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost, but Chad GPT preached to your boy and said Jesus Christ preached the most important message on joy in human history. Now you have to be careful with chat GPT because it has a 80 to 90% inaccuracy rate. So you got to be really really careful when you're studying it. But in this case, >> I think Chad GPT nailed it >> that Jesus Christ taught the most important message on joy in human history. This is not a coincidence. This is a revelation >> that Jesus actually used the framework of Matthew 5 to communicate >> the message on joy. This is really important for us to understand. And I I'm going to say something here today at the risk of offending you. >> In preparation for the re release of my book, Joy Bomb, I did a few interviews and and a few conversations. And I was surprised at some of the religious interviews that I did, they all kind of pushed back on this. And I'm going to need you to bypass your religious reflex today when I say this statement. >> Are you ready? Say, "I'm ready." >> I'm ready. >> Your happiness matters to God. >> I know. I know you want to hear the rest of what I'm going to say to see if I'm going to qualify this statement theologically and biblically or if I'm going to be a heretic up here preaching about happiness. But when I look at happiness, I don't just start with the lens that I view it through in 2025. I don't just view happiness through the lens that I have from the culture. >> Right? >> To start with this idea of happiness, I have to start with the original idea of everything, >> God. >> And so to consider happiness, I have to consider the source of happiness. And when I read through the scripture and I start to understand the character and the essence and the nature of God, there seems to be something about God that carries an inherent joy. >> In fact, the angels and the elders and all of creation, the scripture says, gather around the throne of God and they declare, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." And many of us our our religious upbringing leads us to this idea that God is holy and therefore he is only concerned with our holiness. >> And God is concerned with our holiness. >> That's absolutely right. But what is the presence of God evoking from the creation around him that is beholding his glory? >> Singing. So there is something in the very nature of God that evokes a rejoicing >> from every angel and every elder and every created thing. That makes sense because the scripture says in his presence >> is the foot. Not a partial joy, not a fleeting joy, not a momentary joy, but everything that joy is is in his presence. Well, how can there be joy in his presence if there is not joy in him? >> How can someone produce that which they don't possess? >> And so, in order for God to provoke joy in others, in order for God to promote joy from his presence, God must possess joy in his being. And then when I look at the fruit of the believer, Pastor Travis pointed to this last night, that the evidence of God's spirit in a person produces fruit. >> And the fruit of that spirit is love, joy, >> peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, self-control. >> And so joy is what I get when I'm around him. >> Yes. And joy is what I get when he is in me. >> And so I think there has been no more of a subversive theological perspective throughout the church today than this notion that God does not care about your happiness. He does not care about your joy. If that is true, then we have a God who does not disclose himself to us, but withholds himself from us. A God who will let us experience peace and hope and love, but for some reason, happiness and joy are off limits in the life of the believer. And I came to challenge that notion today because many of us will settle beneath the watermark of the life that God has given us permission to live because we have misunderstood in great part who he is, what he does, and how he does it. >> There is something about famous last words. famous last words, moments that are sealed by by sentence and syllable that put a book in around just just an experience, a a feeling, a moment in our lives. Famous last words like u um ain't going to be no rematch. Apollo Creed, Rocky 4, huh? Famous last words like, "My only regret is that I have only but one life to lose for my country." Nathan Hail. Famous last words like, "Don't let it end like this." Tell them I said something. Ponchovilla, glory, >> famous last words like, "You must do me this honor. Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up no matter what happens. No matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose. And never let go of that promise. Jack from the Titanic. ((applause)) I'll never let go. Let's go. ((applause)) >> I can't believe it. Yeah, >> there was room on the floaty thing out there. There was >> Rose stole Titanic 2 from us because she was selfish. ((applause)) Famous last words, the weight in their finality. But what about famous first words? Words that carry weight not because of their finality but because of their primacy >> because they were spoken first. Four score >> and seven years ago. >> Abraham Lincoln. I >> have a dream >> that little beige boys and little white girls would populate the earth with little khaki kids. Praise God. Tell him the dream, Martin. Something like that. That's my version of Martin's dream. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. >> I knew there would be some Star Wars nerds up in here. You can't hide from me. Last words. First words. Last words. First words. Last words, first words. The last word in your Old Testament is curse. This is all the people of God were left with since they could not live up to the stringent traditions and and the rituals of what the law >> imposed upon them. Failure after failure, struggle after struggle, disobedience after disobedience. God constantly just wanting to wipe people from the face of the earth except for there would be a person called by him to stand in the gap for those people. >> Curse. Curse. Curse. Famous last words. Then when you flip your Bible to the New Testament, we find Jesus sitting down on a hillside in Matthew 5. Now, what you have to understand contextually here is this would be the first recorded time that Jesus would deliver a message. >> And so, this was his inaugural speech, the first time he preached and someone wrote the whole thing down. And sometimes we forget that Jesus was like us. He was probably thinking about this message. He was strategic about this message. He knew what he would say. He knew where he would say it. He knew who he would be speaking to. >> And so with great strategic intention, the first word out of Jesus's mouth is blessed. And I wonder if the people sitting on the hillside that day, familiar with law and Torah and scripture, >> would have caught that the embodiment of the law, the personification of truth and justice, >> just delivered a word that would re-calibrate their lives. See these people had been not worn down by Egypt, not worn down by army, not worn down by oppressor in that sense like in the Old Testament, but they were worn down by religious systems. They were worn down by Roman oppression and religious leaders aligning themselves with a um with a authority >> that actually allowed them to have their autonomy and their belief system but forced them to align culturally. And so you have leaders in the church who are speaking on behalf of God and on behalf of Rome >> who are not just communicating kingdom initiatives but government initiatives >> and it was wearing them down that that they had such distance from God and from the relationship that God intended for his people. And so this word carried great weight. Blessed >> are those who are poor in spirit for they will inherit the earth. See Jesus was reorienting the heart of the people back to God's original intention. >> The first interaction God had with people was that he blessed them. Genesis 1, he blessed them, told them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Before he ever told them what to do, he gave them a a a an empowerment >> to fulfill it. And it was blessing. >> Now, when we hear the word bless, we put our context around it. >> We put a lot of bad preaching around it. We put a lot of toxic culture around it. So when we say bless, we think car, house, 501k, benefits, guy, girl, health, wealth, all of these things. >> And I'm not opposed to a prosperous life. >> However, a materialistically profitable life could actually be the shallow end of the blessing of God. I love what Bishop Jake said. Since when was getting a car a miracle? ((applause)) >> People buy hundreds of thousands of cars every day? >> A miracle is God super invading our natural. >> And and and the for some person getting a car may be a miracle. That's wonderful. However, it could be the shallow end >> of what God actually wants you to do in your life. Because God doesn't just want to bless us with things we can grab on to and hold and drive and sit in and wear and put in our bank account and fly to and cruise to and vacation to. That's the shallow end of the spiritual human experience in the world today. And some of our prayers are actually so small that we're trying to get God to meet our physical needs when he actually wants to deposit into our lives a spiritual inheritance. But you have not because you ask not or because you ask a miss. I don't just want a car. I want a legacy. I don't just want a house. I want a family. >> I don't just want health. I I I I I want a a spirit that is resilient through no matter what issue that I'm faced with. I continue to move forward into God's purpose cuz he built me that way. >> When they heard the word bless, they didn't hear # bless shout out 2014. In the original language which Jesus mostly spoke, which was just the the everyday man's Greek, the word there would be translated happy. >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Give us something deep. This isn't from me. >> This is the first word Jesus chose to say. He said, "Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." This word happy meant delight, >> prosperous, >> glad. And he reorients the heart of human history around the heart of God eight times with a rhythmic cadence. Happy, happy, happy. He drops a joy bomb on human history. This message at the intersection of happiness and heaven would disrupt the collective and individual spiritual paradigms of that day and of our day. And like some of those in that original audience, you've been told that joy is only possible for those with the correct religious practices, with the correct religious pedigree. Jesus is saying, "Happy are the poor in spirit or the spiritually bankrupt because they experience the wealth of the kingdom of heaven by the currency of faith and the reality of grace. Happy are those whose transgressions have been forgiven. This is the foundation of the joy that I'm speaking of. >> You've been told that joy is impossible for those of us caught in a storm of grief. But Jesus recalibrates us and says Jesus says happy are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Church culture has even misled us emotionally with ideas like faith it till you make it. >> Faith over feelings. >> Putting to the side that we serve the God who cried. ((applause)) >> Strong enough to hold the world. >> Weak enough to shed tears. ((applause)) Me, too. >> Happy are the desperately sad. >> Mourning is what God uses to deliver us from the grip of grief so that we experience God's comfort. If you don't sew in tears, you can't reap in joy. And that's why one of the greatest attacks against the church is either a heightened sense of emotionalism where we use faith as another narcotic to numb us instead of allowing God's presence to heal us. And we'll come into church on Sunday or a conference and we'll use a worship song to bypass our problems instead of processing them. But when you go through the Psalms, you see a man who is processing his internal emotions, his emotional state, not with a prescription. I'm not against that, but with the presence of God. ((applause)) >> The road to joy is not often paved with laughter. >> It's paved with tears. You've been told that delusional self-confidence brings opportunity into your life. >> One of the things I hate watching are postgame press conferences. >> Cuz coming off of a loss and athletes going to sit down in front of a microphone and remind the world how great they are. But the kingdom of heaven is different. We operate with intentional humility, >> with meekness, strength under control. >> Meekness is the evidence of the sanctified ego. >> I was convicted when Pastor Travis was preaching last night talking about, "You've been serving God for so long, but when was the last time you killed something?" If we were to make a hit list today, we might want to start with our ego. ((applause)) >> Ego. >> Meekness brings an inheritance and a richness into our lives. And look at this. It's an inheritance. >> Inheritance is not something you work for. >> Inheritance is something that is deposited into your account based on relationship. ((applause)) You may never look more like Jesus than when you're operating in humility. He didn't come to be served. >> He came to serve. And the greatest among you will be a servant. I found that God puts the greatest treasures, the greatest gifts on the bottom shelf where only the humble can reach them. You want to do something great for God? How low can you go? That's where the joy is. >> Jesus wasn't giving us new theology. He was shifting the human heart. >> And a lot of us would be willing to say, "Yes, you know, I agree with this. I I I can buy into the premise that God is uniquely invested in my joy. I'll I'll buy into that. A lot of us wrestle with that this idea that Jesus is the only doorway into experiencing that joy. And many of us ideologically will say, "Yes, I believe Jesus is the way to joy. >> I I I believe that uh theologically, but practically I expect joy to walk in with my wife. All right. >> Practically I expect joy to be uh uh something that flows from the achievements of my children. >> They do bad in school and I have a bad attitude. >> The church got quiet at engage culture and start getting real dot up in here. >> Yeah. I I know that Jesus is the only door to my joy. But if I had a thousand likes instead of 700, if I had a little bit more money, if my boss gave me some more credit on the job for the work, if the hater wasn't constantly chattering about me behind my back, I'd be a lot happier. >> This is pushing joy to the external of our lives. But happiness is an inside job. >> And by the way, there is no biblical distinction between joy and happiness. This was something that someone decided to articulate that caught on like many things in church do that is actually not biblically founded. The word blessed means happy. Happy means joy and joy means happy. Someone like John Piper would say, "If you try to relegate joy to being something that the church has and happiness being something that the world has, then you have overlooked the biblical narrative." That these are one and the same. That that word blessed in Matthew 5 is the same blessed in Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Happy. It's happiness. It's a deep internal, not emotional state, not based on personality, not based on temperament, not based on circumstance, not based on things that are external. It's not something that we go into the world, into the church, into a class, into a degree program, into a marriage to go get. Dallas Willard said, "It's the journey to the great beyond within." And maybe that's why the first place Jesus points us to discover joy is the spirit, >> the poor in spirit because happiness is an inside job. I believe that Jesus chose his words carefully and Jesus chose his location strategically. >> A friend of mine gave me some advice. We had two kids. Lorna was pregnant with our third and he said, "Hey, since you're going to have so many kids, it's going to be hard to get individual time with them." So, what he did with his girls was every five years, he and his wife took one of them on a five-year trip, some one-on-one time. I'm that great. That sounds awesome. I would love to do that, too. It was very, very good idea. So, we put it immediately into practice. Kanan was turning 5 years old and I went to him. I said, "Hey little brother, we about to we about to go on a trip for your fiveyear birthday. Where you want to go now?" We lived in Houston, Texas at the time. We have a great zoo. San Antonio's right up the road. We could go see the state capital in Austin. I I'm thinking this kid's never been outside of his neighborhood. What kind of dreams could be in his heart? and he comes to me >> and he says, "Uh, Dad, >> I want to go to Disney World, the trip of all trips, the location of all locations." I happen to have a work thing in Orlando, so we made it work. He got like a five-star Disney trip that we didn't really have to pay for. Praise God. Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. ((applause)) >> So, then here comes Lawson. five years old. I said, "Lawson, bro, fiveyear trip. Where you want to go?" He sat there for a second. He said, "Japan." ((applause)) I said, "What in the anime? You Japan? What are you going to do in Japan? You don't even like peanut butter and jelly. What are you going to eat there? You can't speak English. How are you going to communicate to people in Japan? What? Japan? We're not I'm sorry. We're not going to Japan. My man melted into a puddle of tears. Where to go to Japan? I said, "We're not going to Japan. I promise you." He wiped his last tear and said, "Fine, I'll go to Disney World." Like, I don't know what you think this is, but so we're still in debt, but we went to Disney World. Here comes Navy, the third born. They're different. Y'all know this. He was three and a half years old. I'm going to Disney World. I'm going to Disney World. I'm going to Disney World. So, we took him to Disney World. And if history repeats itself, that little blue-eyed terrace that I showed y'all earlier, going to be talking about I want to go to Disney World and I've already planned it out. I'm taking him to the Alamo and I'm giving him some Mickey Mouse ears and I'm going to say this is Disney World, son. Isn't it amazing? It's incredible. So, we're Disney pros. If you need any tips, let us know. Don't talk to me. Talk to Lorna. >> But I realized when we got there, you know, there's there's a lot of energy around Disney. There's this whole mantra that Disney is the happiest place on earth. >> The happiest place on earth. I've seen more people throwing fits, temper tantrums, stomping their feet, cussing And the kids were misbehaving, too. >> You think you got a strong marriage till you go to Disney World? It'll test you in ways you ain't never been tested. You just, first of all, your whole identity. You become a person with a backpack with a straw with water. You're just, who is that guy? Like, why? There's drinking fountains, water bottles. I needed a backpack with Awa. It's crazy. Sorry, I'm getting distracted. He's offended. I'm sorry, sir. You have that backpack. Long runs, hikes. That's wonderful. The happiest place on earth. Isn't it funny how we will assign >> a belief system, an expectation >> to a location? >> And I'm not talking about Disney World. But I'm talking about graduating from college. You think I'm going to graduate from college? It's going to be the happiest place on earth. >> I'm going to walk into my career field. >> And you know what you realize you get for graduating from college? >> A job. You have to work. and you don't make enough money to pay for the school you just went to, but it's the happiest place on earth. And then we push it up. Well, I didn't get exactly the job that I wanted to do, and this didn't exactly go how I wanted, but you know what? When I find my soulmate, >> when I get married, my wedding day will be the happiest place on earth. And then you get to your wedding day and you got to deal with disgruntled family and people that are jealous of you that you actually get married and then you get bills and you realize you're no longer on your parents' insurance anymore. And to pay for your own insurance and the dishes actually don't wash themselves. You are the dishwasher. The garbage you this this will be the happiest. this will solve all of my problems. I get my dream job. I get promoted. Happiest place on earth. And I think honestly the church at large, and I love the church, the church at large has misled people in this area more so than anyone else. We have given people the illusion that happiness and fulfillment comes from the stuff we do >> here on this earth. >> That's not true either. We use what we know about now to shape what we believe about forever. But the biblical perspective is to use what we know about forever >> to inform how we feel about now. >> And so now I'm not looking for ultimate fulfillment and contentment. >> I know that my ultimate fulfillment and contentment will happen when I'm in the presence of the Lord forever in eternity. And so I live my life toward that day. I show up to my job with eternity in view. I show up to my marriage with eternity in view. I show up to my children with eternity in view. Because if they make their bed or not in the morning is really secondary to if they make heaven their home. And so I'm going to have a lot more patience for what's happening in my life now because I'm trying to point them toward a greater reality. And they can't see heaven in the future if they can't see heaven in their home. It's a total shift. >> I'm closing with this. There are seven areas of happiness pointed out by David Murray. Intellectual happiness, vocational happiness, physical happiness, social happiness, nature happiness, humor happiness. Six categories. The seventh is spiritual happiness. >> And God in his common grace allows all people the opportunity to experience six of those seven categories. That's why someone outside of a relationship with Jesus can sit at a table with friends and laugh until they cry. Because God's grace is so rich that even people outside of him can experience in partiality, a category of happiness. That's why you can go to work and be like, I love my job. I I wake up ready for this. This excites me. This energizes me. That's wonderful. It's the common grace of God. But there is a seventh category, spiritual happiness. And what happens is we try to use the six other categories to fill the void and the chasm that exists when we don't have spiritual happiness, the force of the joy of the Lord operating in our lives. And what happens is we end up swallowing the world whole >> and we're still empty >> because spiritual happiness is the seal on the human soul. >> So you can drink all you want, have all the friends that you want, and fulfill all the goals that you want and achieve all you want. And if you're even doing it for God and not with God, you will still leak. ((applause)) And you'll wonder why I'm never full. >> Cuz that fulfillment only comes from Jesus. The most beautiful thing that I discovered throughout the course of writing Joy Bomb and just staring at Matthew 5 was that Jesus wasn't pointing us to some good ideas about how to live a better life. >> Although they will empower you to live a better life. >> Jesus was saying, "I'm going to show you who I am. I'm going to reintroduce you to the person of joy because it's not an idea or an ideal. It's not merely a characteristic. Joy is a person >> and it's a person who recognized a spiritual bankruptcy. Although he was equal with God, he didn't look for equality with God as something to be grasped. But instead, he humbled himself, took on the form of a human, a servant, making himself obedient to death, even death on the cross. He was modeling us the way to being poor in spirit, to empty ourselves out of any religious glory. that we might think would be attributed to our account for righteousness, >> to empty himself of that righteousness on the cross to fulfill your righteousness. >> He was the one who would mourn so that we would have permission to feel. He was the God, the the king crowned with meekness. He was the one who showed mercy not because he needed it but because we did. >> He was the one who was persecuted for our transgressions. >> Wounded for our iniquities. He was introducing us to the person of joy. and he chose to sit down on a hillside called Aramis to teach us and introduce us to the person of joy. Not Mount Si over 7,000 ft in elevation. Not Mount Zion over 2500 ft in elevation. a hill you've never heard of called Aramis. Aramus means desolate, isolated strength. And so on a common normal day, Jesus sits down on a hillside. Scripture didn't find it important enough to name to give us a master class on joy, a barren place, a desolate place, an isolated place, Aramis. Why? Because he knew that's where we would live the majority of our lives. that you'll spend more time in traffic than on vacation. >> That you'll spend more time getting stretched by life and crushed by life than killing it in life. >> It's just the reality. He was showing us that you can actually have joy in ordinary places. That actually the strength of true joy is found in ordinary places. And just because it's ordinary doesn't mean God is not there. >> And just because it's not extravagant doesn't mean it isn't significant. >> Because what makes joy possible in an ordinary place >> is that Jesus is there. And I want to remind you today, Jesus is there. >> Jesus is in your relationships. Jesus is in your past, your present, and your future. Jesus is in the work that you love, and the work that you hate. >> Jesus is on the mountaintops. Jesus is in the valleys. And when you realize that joy is present, anything becomes possible, even contentment. >> What if the greatest thing God does for you for the rest of this year is give you the gift of contentment. >> I am not going to suffer or agonize my way through this season. I'm going to recognize God's presence in the midst of it. >> So Jesus, would you speak to our hearts right now? We recognize your presence. We recognize your goodness and your faithfulness to us. God, I pray that you would detonate a joy bomb in our hearts and in our lives. That you would move in a way that only you can move, God. that you would give us fresh eyes to see the miracles that you're doing in the mundane. I pray that you would give us a resilience and a passion and a drive, a motivation that allows us to continue to move forward in purpose by your divine design. Lord, we love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. >> Hey families, it's Pastor Jim. I pray that this message you just heard impacted your life forever. That's our desire. And not only you, but that you would share it with a friend, a family member, anyone that God puts on your heart that this word would affect, would change them, too. Hey, also while you're at it, head over to our YouTube, become a subscriber, hit that bell notification so that you are notified every time we upload something new. And Meg, we have some good stuff coming to you. Hey, at Ford City, we don't dismiss. We simply declare your past is gone. Your future awaits. Move forward.