Protect Your Joy | Aaron Marshall

free temple. He said, "Can we give Jesus a loud shout of praise this morning?" If he's provided for you, if he's healed you, if he's delivered and set you free, he deserves every hallelujah, every praise, every song we sing. So, can we give him a shout of praise?

((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) I'm just what a song because what I love about that song, it's not just telling us what God does because sometimes we could grab of a grab a hold of what God is doing and just focus on that. But that song is talking about his name and his nature.

And we know that things are fleeting, but God's nature and character never changes. So, here's what I want to do because I'm feeling this stirring in my heart. I want you to really quickly, 30 seconds, close your eyes, and I want you to think about how good God has been to you.

I want you to think about how he has blessed you, how he has woken you up this morning. Those who are watching online, the fact that God gives us a brand new day of grace and mercy has enough for us to worship him and thank him. But here's what happens.

We may not know the lyrics of the song, but sometimes all we have is a O. All we have a O is in our spirit of God. Thank you. God, I praise you. So, can we just sing that out? Just a O. When we have nothing else to say, we just say, ((music playing)) >> let our heart cry out to the Lord this morning with gratitude and thanksgiving.

We're not worried about tomorrow. We're going to worship him right now, today. The problems of tomorrow will take care of themselves. So with deep within our soul cry out, "Oh, ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) Heat. ((music playing)) Heat. Yeah. Heat. ((applause)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((applause)) Can we give Jesus a loud shout of praise this morning? ((music playing)) I don't know about you, but my faith is stirred up because again, we serve a God that in the midst of everything we may go through, he remains the same.

Amen. Go ahead and tell two or three people as you are seated that you serve a great God. And while you're being seated, we want to welcome our online campus. Thank you for tuning in wherever you're tuning in from. I know you are watching from all over the world.

We are grateful for you and we love you. And we want to shout out all of our campuses who are streaming. We love you guys and you are family and we hope the Lord is blessing you this morning. And shout out to those who are in our prisons out in Metro Hay State, Witworth, Hall County, Phillips, uh Hayes County Jail in Lee Arendelle.

Can we give it up for them? We are thinking about you. We love you and we are praying for you. God is good. I know you all are looking up here like, "Wait, that's not Pastor Jensen." Yeah, I am not Pastor Jensen. He has a little more. He has better hair.

It's beautiful and gray. He has a beautiful gray beard. But our pastor and him and Sharice are in Orange County. We just had round two of our divine conference out there in our OC campus. So, pastor is there. He will, as of right now, he's bringing the word and I know he's bringing a fire word to Orange County and I know they're going to be blessed by him.

But if I haven't had the honor and privilege of meeting you, uh my name is Aaron Marshall. Um yeah, and I am on staff here at Free Chapel. I get to lead in a variety of different ways. One being young adults ministry as well as our men's ministry.

Can the men make some noise this morning? Yeah. God is doing something in our men's ministry. Uh this past Thursday, we had an opportunity to get together and we had 320 men in the room where 12 got saved. Amen. So, God is doing something in our church and in that ministry.

But I'm excited to be before you. Uh as I said, pastor is an OC, but I'm honored to attempt to walk in the footsteps of a giant. All right. But I am honored. And can we celebrate our pastor him and Shereice for what they do? We wouldn't be able to do what we do without the vision that God has given him.

But he will be back here next Sunday with another incredible word. So bring somebody and be ready to be encouraged. And then lastly, tonight we have our prayer and worship uh night. It will be at 5:00 pm in this room. How many of you know a praying church is a thriving church?

Amen. So, we want to continue to pray and allow the Lord to lead us and guide us in everything we do. So, be here tonight for that. We're going to go after the Lord. You guys ready for the word? >> All right. We are going to start in a familiar passage of scripture.

Go to Galatians 5 if you have your Bibles. We'll also have it up on the screen. And for the sake of time, we will not read the whole thing, but we'll kind of stop and go and end up down at verse 24. But starting with verse 22, it says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy."

Let's stop right there. Look at your neighbor and say, "Joy." >> Look at your other neighbor and say, "Joy." >> Let's go down to verse 24. And it says, "And those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." We'll stop there. If you had to give a title to my message this morning, it's simply this.

Protect your joy. I don't think y'all heard me. Protect your joy. I've been thinking about joy a lot lately, especially with everything that's been going on in the world. You know, the murders, the violence, the division, not the not to mention the things that I've been dealing with in my own personal life.

And as I was reflecting on life and reflecting on this idea of joy, it hit me that it's so easy to get overwhelmed with life. It's easy to develop a heaviness and a sadness about life that if we're not careful will bring us to lose hope and allow us to step into this slim space of depression.

But the Lord reminded me though that as a believer and a follower of Jesus that that doesn't have to be my portion and that doesn't have to be your portion. And we can lock into a reason why that is. And one reason is is because we have joy.

Joy is a major part of our faith. And sometimes we forget this. We forget about the fruit of the spirit. We forget about joy. And we must be reminded that joy is at hand. Joy is not optional. It's a fruit of the spirit where as believers we are expected to allow God to produce fruit i.e. joy in our lives.

I love what CS Lewis says. This is a great quote. He said that joy is the serious business of heaven. Joy is the serious business of heaven. See, I know CS Lewis was reading Paul's letters because this has the same tone that we see in Romans 14:17 where Paul tells us that for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and I'm going to say it like the Baptist, joy in the Holy Ghost.

Yeah, you know they say it like that, the Holy Ghost. But I love Pastor Samuel Shoemaker. He said, "The shest mark of a Christian isn't their faith." isn't just their faith. It isn't just their love, but their joy. Wow. And I I was thinking about that. It was a friend of mine I was talking to recently.

His He was talking to a friend of his and his son had just got back from college and his son was excited. He was like, "Dad, I met this girl. I met this." And before the son can get into it and explain who this young woman was, the dad stopped him.

He said, "Let me ask you something, son." He said he didn't ask the son if she was pretty like my wife. God bless you. Love you, honey. She is beautiful. He didn't ask that. You would think a dad would ask, "Is she pretty, son? Does she have long hair?

What does she do? Is she an athlete?" He didn't ask any of those things. You know what the dad asked the son? Does she have joy? Does she? What a dad. What a question to ask your son because the dad knows that joy is attractive and God will use joy to attract people to himself.

Now hear me single people please note that don't be out here sad because nobody wants a sad frowning sack of potatoes. Hear me. I didn't find my wife on these looks. It was my joy. Ain't that right, honey? Y'all, I'mma just be myself this morning. I just got the joy of the Lord.

Amen. But just like any fruit, joy is attractive. And as I was thinking about this attractive fruit, this attractive joy, I started thinking about people in our church. Big Rich, who sits right here on the right on the in the 9:00 am service, big guy. I mean, you see him.

He's like, he plays no games. But he walks into this church with the joy of the Lord. And he'll walk and smile and he'll look at you and he'll say, "I ain't mad at nobody." I'm like, "Go ahead, Rich. I ain't a mad at nobody either, baby. I ain't mad at nobody either."

But here's the thing. Big Ridge can break you in half. And he'll even do that with joy. But grace, grace, grace, grace. But I was thinking about even Mr. Weaver out in our parking lot who when he was battling, he was literally in the middle of battling cancer.

He was out in that parking lot dealing with you crazy people talking about grace grace, but he was doing it with joy. I'm thinking about uh Michael Pottston, one of our greeters. Every time our doors is open, he's at the doors ready to greet people and smile and say, "Welcome to church."

I was thinking about Michelle McKenzie, who's in our bookstore right now. She's battling a diagnosis. But guess where she's at? in the bookstore with joy, leading, serving, and honoring God with all that she has, believing, and hoping that God is gonna heal her. But it isn't the circumstances that she's locked in on, it's the joy of the Lord that she's holding on to. >> So, with that, I pose this question this morning with all humility.

If joy is a major part of our Christian faith, why aren't we more joyful? Why aren't we more joy? Why don't we smile more? Isn't this interesting to me? I'll be at different places. I'll meet different people and I'll come across people and I may have something that may signify I may wear a hat or a shirt that signifies I'm a Christian.

And they'll say to me, "Oh, you're a Christian. I'm a Christian, too." And I'll be thinking to myself, and this is no judgment. I'm like, "You're a Christian?" Because uh the Christianity I know says the joy of the Lord is my strength. But you might need to tell your face.

Like, and don't act like you ain't ever heard that before. My pastor be up here telling people about themselves, talking about, "Man, people just be so grumpy. Like, why is the sky blue? Why is green? I don't get it. Why isn't pastor preaching on Sunday?" Like, too soon.

Too soon. I ain't going to miss. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. But why don't we have joy when we wake up in the morning to a day of new grace and new mercy? Why don't we have joy about work?

Why don't we have joy about serving? Like the individuals I just mentioned, why don't we have joy about giving? Because according to the word of God, the Bible empowers us to be cheerful givers, joyful givers. Now, hear me. I'm not trying to be negative this morning, but I just want us to be real that we can allow life and all of life issues, which are significant, to bring us to a place of being downcast and sad.

And hear me, I'm not pointing the finger at you. I'm not saying it's ju just you. It's me, too. I've been guilty of it of myself. Ask my wife because there have been times where I would be overwhelmed about life. I would complain about life. I may have some conversations and pray to the Lord and seek the Lord about life, but I would still allow life and all of life issues to keep me down, sad, and stuck.

Hear me, Free Chapel. I'm not saying that we have to ignore our problems. I'm not saying we have to suppress our emotions or not think things. But what I'm saying is according to scripture, the Bible tells us 2 Corinthians 6:10 that as sorrowful yet still rejoicing. That I can have emotions and feelings but yet let me still rejoice.

I can have the world around me going crazy but yet let me still rejoice. We need consistent joy and we need to talk about joy more. So can we talk about joy this morning? I said, "Can we talk about joy this morning?" >> And I want us to look at a unique place in scripture as we unpack this idea of joy.

And I want us to go to Genesis 21. And what you will find here in Genesis 21, and it'll be up on the screen, we find here a type and shadow of New Testament scripture. in a type and shadow of this picture of protecting your joy. And we'll start with verse one.

It says, "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him."

Now, please note this because we know that Abraham had another son and that son was born of a woman named Hagar and that son name was Ishmael. Keep that in mind. Hold that note. But here it tells us whom Sarah bore to him. They're making a distinction, Isaac.

We see here that Abraham and Sarah was given a promise in the form of a seed. Now we know that that promise came with challenges, difficulties, setbacks, even at times shaky faith. Is there anybody in the room that at points in your walk with God had a little shaky faith?

Anybody? Or is it just me? But we see that eventually that promise, that seed was activated and it led to Sarah giving birth to Isaac. Now follow me. Watch this. We know Isaac's name means he laughs or laughter. And in some translations, it carries the idea of joy.

Catch it. That through everything Abraham and Sarah have been through, God kept his promise, allowing the seed of joy and laughter to develop in and mature despite everything they had been through. The promise of joy through difficulties was birthed. And again, this is a type in shadow. And I want you to see that when the Holy Spirit is given full access to your lives, your mind, your heart, your will, your emotions, your decisions, the seed that is connected to the promise is activated.

And even though everything around you may seem bleak, even though the world around you is going crazy, even though it may seem that what you're praying for is impossible, God is saying, "Trust me. Seek me. Walk with me. and I will allow my spirit to invade your soul and I will produce fruit in and through your life and that fruit will be joy. >> That fruit will be joy.

Look at your neighbor and say joy. >> Look at your other neighbor and say joy. >> I want to remind us this morning joy isn't happiness because happiness is based on conditions and circumstances. Happiness is rooted in people, places, and things. And we all know based on life experiences, people, places, and things can disappoint us, leave us, and forsake us.

But God won't, won't he? He will not do it. But happiness is fleeting. Sometimes it's just for a moment moment. But let me tell you about joy. Joy is different. Joy is a seed of inner gladness. Joy is this deep delight. It's dependency on Jesus. Joy is rooted in Jesus, breathed on by the Holy Spirit.

And catch this, joy is anchored in God's goodness and his presence. And this is scripture because Psalm 16:11 declares that in your presence there is fullness of >> joy. So what that means is when you get into the presence of God, worry can't stay. When you get into the presence of God, anxiety can't stay.

When you get into the presence of God, overthinking can't stay. But just get into the presence of God and he won't just give you a little joy. He won't just give you half a joy. He'll give you the fullness of joy. The fullness of joy. This is why it's called the joy of the Lord.

Because it is not based on what I've done or you have done. It's not based on what we possess, but it is developed and birthed through encounters with a living God. encounters with the living God through hope of promises planted by God through trust that God will and has fulfilled his word in our lives.

And we see Abraham and Sarah in their journey. It shows us that joy comes in the stretching that joy is produced in the waiting. That joy is activated as our faith is activated to believe that God in what he said and promised, he will come to do it.

And y'all, we see this type of joy all throughout scripture. I bring your attention to the Apostle Paul. This man had been robbed, beaten, flogged. He had been rejected, not to mention the several shipwrecks. But even while he was in prison, hear me. Somebody's watching this morning. You're in the prison and you think all hope is gone.

No. Have hope. Because Paul while he was in prison wrote a letter in Philippians 4:4 that says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." And again I sayord >> rejoice. How can he rejoice >> when he's in the prison? >> How can he rejoice when he have been beaten and rejected even by his own people?

Because that's that joy that my grandma used to talk about. That joy when she would tell me, "This joy that I have, the world didn't give it. And the world, >> it can't take it away." Does anybody want that joy that no matter what you go through, no matter what life throws at you, the world can't take it?

Because the world didn't give it. As believers of Jesus Christ, we can't allow the world or the cares of the world to take away what it didn't give us. But I believe this morning that the Holy Spirit is tugging on our hearts and saying, "I want to produce the fruit of joy in your life."

Why? Because I have given you a promise of joy. So again, I ask, why aren't we consistently walking in joy? I want to show you something that the Lord showed me. Maybe you've seen this before, but it shocked me when I saw this. Verse 8 in Genesis 21, it says, "The child grew and was weaned.

And Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned." Verse nine, this is where it gets real. But Sarah saw the son mocking. Again, the Bible is making a distinction. We saw it earlier. It showed that the one Sarah had bore and it was Isaac. Now, it says the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.

Now, let me paint this picture for you and show you what's going on. Isaac had come to this place of overcoming that stage of weaning. What that was is at that time a lot of babies and infants didn't make it past the weaning stage. And all that is is infants and children going from being solely dependent on mom for milk to now stepping into a place of maturity.

So we see that Isaac aka Joy is maturing. Joy is growing. Joy is now not depending on mama's faith but God's faith in his relationship with God. >> But then it was such a big deal because again at that time infants wouldn't survive at times the weaning. So they threw a feast.

They're like man we are going to celebrate the maturing of Isaac. We are going to celebrate the maturing of our joy. So they throw a feast and they're having a good time. I can see Abraham doing his Holy Ghost twostep. He's just moving. But as he's having a good time, Mama Sarah is watching.

And as Mama Sarah watches, she looks and she see Ishmael mocking Isaac. But if you just look at it for face value, you'll miss the revelation. What she saw is Ishmael who was born out of the flesh mocking Isaac that was born out of the spirit. No, no, no, no, no.

I want you because this is all scripture. And as she's seeing what was born out of the flesh, mocking what was born out of the spirit, let me show you what she does. Let's go to Genesis 21:10. Sarah said to Abraham, "Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be co-air with my son Isaac."

The Bible teaches us that the flesh and the spirit cannot live together. The flesh and the spirit cannot be at peace. So what that is communicating as we protect our joy is that we have to let the things of the flesh go. And this is Bible Galatians 5:17.

It tells us for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. If you are going to live with consistent joy, the Ishmamails and the Hagars in your life have to go. >> They cannot stay.

They cannot be a part of the feast and the party. Hear me this morning. There are things in your life that may have been birthed out of a season of sin. There are things in your life, maybe you're this in this morning, that there are things in your life where you had a human moment, a a fleshly moment, and you just made a mistake.

You yell, you got mad, you did something just out of your flesh. Or maybe this morning you birthed something in a season where you didn't have the faith to believe that God was going to do it. So, you had trust in yourself and trusted in yourself allowed you to birth a Ishmael.

But hear me this morning, free chapel. That Ishmael is mocking your joy. >> That Ishmael, that Hagar is mocking your joy, making fun of your joy, trying to remind you of your past, trying to bring heaviness and sadness, trying to get you to forget everything that God has done for you.

So I ask this morning, why aren't we more joyful? It's hard to be joyful when you're being mocked by your past. >> It's hard to be joyful when you're being mocked by your mistakes. It's hard to be joyful when fleshly thoughts, feelings, and emotions are lying and screaming in your ear, telling you're no good, that God doesn't love you, that oh, God could never use you.

The devil is a liar. God has given us grace to overcome. And all we have to do is repent and allow the Holy Spirit to do a work. And that work will produce fruit and that fruit is joy. Look at your neighbor and say, "Joy," >> look at your other neighbor and say, "Joy, >> joy.

Here's the encouragement this morning, though. You don't have to live with these things mocking you. >> We go back to Galatians 5:24. Paul told us, "Now, those who belong to Christ," I want to ask another question. Do we have any people in the room that belong to Christ? >> I said, "No."

Online and in this room, do we have any people that belong to Jesus Christ? And Paul goes on to tell us that if you are in Christ, which we are, we have crucified the flesh with his passions and his desires. Free chapel, the things of the flesh must be crucified. >> They have to go.

If you want to protect your joy, the Ishmamails must be crucified. The Hagars must be crucified. And they must go. The things mocking your joy, they have to leave. That relationship must go. Amen. >> Those negative thoughts must go. >> Those old habits must go. Those things that you have been watching and consuming that's bringing you this heaviness, they must go.

The hurts and the wounds, don't neglect them, but they can't stay. They have to go because it's time for a body of believers to start protecting their joy. >> Hear me this morning. There are things that will consistently try to rob you of your joy. But we got to protect the promise and protect the seed and drive out every area of sin.

Drive out things that are poking holes in your renewed mind. Drive out the old habits that you've become comfortable with, that keep you overthinking, that keep you sad, and that keep you anxious. God has not called us to live with these Ishmaels, >> but he wants to empower us to crucify them and tell them that they must leave.

And he's not asking us to do something he hasn't done because our savior went through something similar. And I want to make sure this is understood. The Bible is clear. He was tempted, but he did not sin. But we see that in the garden of Gethsemane, he was tempted with the flood of emotions, with the flood of anxiousness, with the flood of heaviness about going to the cross.

But what I love about what Jesus did, he did not let the negative thoughts stay there. He didn't hold on to the negative thoughts and emotions. He did not stay there in the garden complaining about the cross, but he removed everything that was mocking his decision to please the father and die for you and me.

He removed everything out of the way and he said, "Not my will, but your will be done, God." This is why we can read scripture like Hebrews 12:2 and know that God is real. Because the Bible tells us looking onto Jesus, he is our example because he's the author and finisher of our faith.

And the Bible says for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. So he didn't look at the cross and allow the cross to keep him from staying stuck, sad, and anxious and emotional. No, he looked past the cross and looked at the joy of heaven.

He looked at the joy of being with the father. He looked at the joy of being obedient to the father. He looked at the joy of like, no matter what this world may give me, I'm not gonna be here. I have the joy that's before me. And that joy allow him to go to the cross.

And that joy produced fruit that we now get to eat off of. The joy that's within us. The fruit that's with us that God wants us to now give to the world. Don't you want joy this morning? I don't know about you, but I want that joy that when the whole world has dumped on me, the enemy is kind of confused because the enemy is trying to figure out why I'm still smiling and laughing and why I still have hope because I'm holding on to the joy not of the circumstances, but of God that can help me overcome those circumstances.

So I ask this morning, what's mocking your joy? What's trying to steal your joy in this season? Because my prayer for every single one of us this morning as the body of Christ, that we will protect our joy, that we will be the people that will bear fruit of joy.

That the joy of the Lord can truly be our strength. that we won't let circumstances or the enemy or any of the things happening in the world rob us of the seeds that God has put in us and the promise that he has given us. God has given us a promise.

God has given us a seed and all we have to do is allow his spirit to do the work. And I can say this with boldness and faith. If you do that, joy is coming. If you allow God to have his way, if you allow the Holy Spirit to invade you, joy is coming.

Look at your neighbor and say, "Joy is coming." >> No. Say it with your chest. Say, "Joy is coming." >> And the band can come up at this time. >> The joy. Come on now. That's that young faith right there. Believing that the joy is coming. I don't know what you going through, young man.

I don't know your family dynamic and situation, but I stand in faith with you that the joy is coming. >> Now, I do I have to be honest. I'm not speaking something this morning that I haven't had to wrestle with. I'm not speaking something that's just something I'm like, "Oh, this is cool."

No, I've had to walk this and live this. Because there have been times even as of recent where life and all that life is bringing wanted to steal me of my joy to where the overwhelming things of life, the busyiness of life wanted me not to have joy in my marriage. that the busyiness and having to take my daughter to practices and games and my son to practices and games to lose the joy of being a parent and watching my kids do a sport that they love and that they're passionate about.

The enemy wanted me to lose the joy of even speaking this morning. Right. >> The reality is I recognize that I'm looking at the footsteps of a giant Pastor Jensen, >> but at the core, it should be a joy to come and share with you and direct you to the word of God to where all I'm called to do is either plant or water.

But God gives the increase. But the enemy wanted me to not have joy. The enemy wanted me to get in my flesh. and overthink and get emotional. But I looked at those Ishams and those Hagars and I said, "You have to leave. You can't stay here. You're not going to get the glory out of this.

The joy of the Lord is my strength and I'm going to get into the presence of the Lord. And whatever the Lord does in my family, in my marriage, and in this ministry, he'll do it." Stand to your feet with every head bowed and eye closed. I don't know where you are in your walk with Jesus.

I don't know what's been going on in your life over the last few days. the last few months. I don't know what challenges are ahead of you tomorrow, but I do know that the Lord has given us a promise of joy and a seed of joy. And regardless of everything that may be going on, he wants you joyful because he wants you to attract people with that joy that will attract people to him.

We are living vessels. So, I want to give an altar call, a three-point response. And the first one is this. If you don't know this Jesus we're talking about, if you don't have a relationship with this Jesus that can live literally give you unspeakable and unshakable joy and you want a relationship with this Jesus so you can have the joy of the Lord, I want you to raise your hand this morning.

I see that hand. I see that hand up in the balcony. I see that hand. The second invitation is If you know you have some Ishmaels in your life, some Hagars, and again, it could just be you had a moment, life got so overwhelming, it just caused you to have a fleshly moment, but now that moment is trying to drag you back into a past that's not of God.

That moment is trying to discourage you and cause you to overthink. and you need a lifeline this morning and you're saying, "Man, I need the joy and I need to protect the joy I know is there." Raise your hand. I see the hands. I see the hands. And the third invitation, if you've just been, it's not a sinful thing, it's not an Ishmael or Hagar thing, you've just been coasting.

You're not sad or depressed, but you know there's no joy. You're just clocking in and clocking out. You're just going through the motions. And you would say to me, "Pastor Eric, I need a joy boost this morning." That I really want to be joyful in everything that God is allowing me to do and be a part of.

If that's you this morning, raise your hand. I see the hands. So, what we're going to do is we're going to be like Mama Sarah and we're going to stand on business and we're going to put the enemy on notice and say, "Enemy, you no longer can mock our joy.

We are going to step into God's presence and say, God, I'm going to allow the joy of the Lord to be my strength." So, if you raise your hand, I want you to slip out of your seat and come up to this altar. Oh, we're going to leave this room this morning with some joy.

So, if you raise your hands for any one of those invitations, I want you to slip out of your seat and come up here to the altar. Now, give it up for them, family. This is a This is being strong and courageous. This is saying that we're not going to stay in this thing, but we going to crucify the flesh this morning.

((music playing)) Oh, they're still coming. Come on, give it up for them as they still come. They're still coming. They're still coming. They're still coming. Oh, come on. Give it up for them. ((music playing)) Hear me this morning. I empathize with you. I told you I was being vulnerable. The enemy has been trying to strip me of my joy.

The enemy doesn't want joy in my home and in my family. The joy doesn't want me to have joy about serving. It is an honor to serve the Lord. It is an honor to serve this house. And that the enemy can blind me to truth and bring me to a place of grumbling, overwhelming, and anxiousness.

He's winning. But I'm grateful for your obedience. He will not win any longer. Amen. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to pray. But a part of our prayer I'm I'm big on when you pray, pray scripture because you're praying God's words back to himself. And part of our prayer this morning is going to be Psalm 51:12 that says, "Restore the joy, not my salvation, but it's on him."

So with every head bowed and eye closed, repeat after me. Jesus, I repent. >> Jesus, I repent. >> Forgiven, >> control of my joy, >> control of my joy >> to other things. >> Jesus, >> Jesus, >> from this day forward, >> this day forward, >> you can have all control. >> You can have all control >> and all authority.

Over my mind, >> over my mind, >> over my will, >> over my will, >> and over my emotions. >> over my emotions. >> Jesus, >> Jesus, >> restore to me. >> Restore to me >> the joy of your salvation. >> the joy of your salvation. >> And uphold me. >> I uphold it. >> By your generous spirit. >> By your generous spirit. >> I believe it. >> I believe it. >> I receive it. >> I receive it. >> In Jesus mighty name. >> In Jesus mighty name. >> Amen.

And amen. Can we give Jesus a loud shout of praise? Now, what we going to do is just for 30 seconds to a minute, we going to allow the joy of the Lord to stir in us to where now we're just going to praise and thank God for what he did.

Because you didn't just come up here to pray. You came up here to give God control. And now with celebration, we going to walk out of here with some joy. Amen. So, here we go. Here we go. There is a life changing great power. ((applause)) ((music playing)) Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah.

Heat. One more time. Give Jesus a loud shout of praise this morning. ((applause)) Now look at me. Can we make a declaration as a body, as a church family, even those walking work that's watching online that we are going to go out into the world and give the joy that the world didn't give us, but know that the world can't take it away. >> That when we give that joy, know that that joy is attractive to where we wanted to draw people, not to us, but to the King of King and the Lord of Lords.

Amen. Because here's the thing you need to know about joy. Joy is communal. We don't bear fruit to eat it ourselves. We bear fruit to give it to somebody else. So here's what I want us to do. You pray here this morning. Don't do this thing alone. We have our altar and our prayer team that wants to talk to you, that wants to encourage you, that wants to help you navigate whatever season of life you are in.

They want you to consistently be joyful to where you don't have to fake it to make it. You can stand no business and say, "No, I truly have the joy of the Lord." But if you don't want to do that, head out to our connection lounge to our Nextstep booth.

Our team is there. They will give you resources. They will help you find joy in learning through SOD. They will help you find joy in serving through one of our serve teams. Whatever it may be, they will help you get connected. Amen. >> Amen. Now, Free Temple, I got to say thank you for your giving.

Again, the Bible says for us to be cheerful and joyful givers. But because of your joyful giving, we have been able to do so many incredible things, not just locally, but globally. But as you continue to support this ministry, please know the conviction our pastor holds is to make sure we're pouring to people that we're supposed to be pouring out to.

Amen. So, if you want to give this morning, you can give online. You can text to give or give in one of our offering boxes out in the lobby. Now, don't forget, pastor will be back uh next week with a powerful word. Make sure you invite somebody. And again, tonight we'll be having our prayer and worship at 5:00 p.m.

Come back and be a part of this amazing praying church. Now, raise your hand and receive the blessing. And when we dismiss, we going to go out here with joy. Amen. I pray that the God will bless you and keep you. That he will make his face shine upon you.

I pray that he will be graces unto you, that he will lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. In Jesus mighty name we say, >> amen. ((music playing)) ((applause)) >> Well, joy is an incredible tool in your arsenal that will help you face whatever you're facing this week.

Like pastor Aaron pointed out at the very beginning of the message, joy is a fruit of the spirit and fruits grow by watering. And we want to give you a resource to help you grow in joy. And that's to download the free chapel app and walk out what you've learned today in daily devotions.

Each and every week there's daily devotions written on free chapel messages. So that will help you grow in your joy. And all God's people said, "Amen." >> Amen. And if you recently decided to accept Jesus into your life, whether that was today or in the past couple weeks or you just ne never let us know, we want you to text the word yes to 510510.

We want to get connected with you. As Pastor Aaron said, we don't want you to do this alone. We have a team of people that want to walk with you, give you resources. So make sure you you also can text the word prayer to 510510. If you're needed in any need in need of any type of prayer, we have a team that would love to pray with you, rally with you, and just show you the love of Jesus. >> Absolutely.

It makes a difference to have people in your corner praying for you. So, take advantage of that text prayer to the number 510510. Also, thank you for your generosity. I know Pastor Aaron mentioned it, but thank you. This is a generous church, and it doesn't just stay here in Gainesville, Georgia.

Goes out and ministers all over the world. God uses it in a mighty way. It's an investment in the kingdom. If you'd like to get involved in giving, you can do that. Some of the prompts on the screen will help you. Again, 5:00 PM tonight, right back here online or at our Gainesville campus.

We love you guys. Follow Free Chapel and Jensen Franklin during the week on social media. We'll see you right back here next week. >> We'll see you. ((music playing)) ((music playing))