Oh, yes. Hello everybody. Welcome to Valley Creek. As we get started, let's welcome in all of our campuses where they're joining us in Gainesville, Denton, Lewisville, Flower Mound, all you great people online. Let's welcome each other together today. Hey, the Lord wants to speak to you today. God has something great He wants to show you today. God loves you. He's going to reveal more of His love for you today. And the joy of the Lord is available for you today.

So, as we get started, have some fun with me for a second. Okay. I'm going to say this. I want you to repeat this. Ready? The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Say it again with me. The joy of the Lord is my strength. One more time. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Yes, it is. Sometimes you got to say it out loud so your ears can hear it, so your heart can believe it, and your soul can begin to receive it. The joy of the Lord is your strength. There is joy for you in the house of the Lord today.

And we are in a series we affectionately call 60 days. And for the last few years and the months of June and July, we just take two months to focus on what God wants us to focus on. This year, my friends, it is 60 days of enjoying God and the life He's giving you – giving you – active, present tense, real time, right now. Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes down present tense from the mouth of God. Every good and perfect gift comes down present tense from the Father. He's come that we'd have life and have it right now to the full – present tense. You see, we've been saying this phrase all year long. We've been saying uh enjoying God and the life He's given E N. But we realized that's not quite right. It's giving. It's real time. It's right now. It is a present tense God in a present-based reality. He is presently with us giving us more of His life. He is the greatest giftgiver the world has ever known. Your life is a gift. Can I ask you, how do you like your gift?

Come on. Have you been looking for the gift receipt? You want, you want to give it back? You want to exchange it? You want somebody else's life? See, this year so many of us have been on this journey of enjoying God and the life He's giving us probably more than we've ever imagined, ever imagined. It's incredible. Thank You, God, for the gift of Your life. And then I think for others of us, we struggle a little bit when it comes to enjoying God and the life He's giving us. Why is that? Why is it that we struggle sometimes to really enjoy this life, this incredible life that we've been given? Well, here's the thing. In order to enjoy my life, I have to enjoy the one that gave me life. In order to enjoy today, I have to enjoy the one that made the day. In order to enjoy the world, I have to enjoy the one who holds in His hands. And really in order to enjoy anything, I have to first enjoy the one that made everything. It starts with enjoy God. That's the beginning. And when I enjoy God, I will begin to enjoy the life He's giving me. But if I do not enjoy God, it's going to be really difficult to find the joy throughout my life. Enjoy. What is that? To rejoice, to be glad, to take great delight in my life. Joy – this pervasive sense of well-being – that is what Jesus offers us.

So, check this out. “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Incredible. It's a beautiful verse. Inexpressable. It's actually the only time in all of the Bible that this word is used and translated – the only time. The kind of joy that Jesus offers is so incredible, they had to pull the word that they didn't use anywhere else in the Bible to attempt to explain it because it can't be explained. It can only be experienced. It can't just be talked about. It has to be felt. It's inexpressable. It's that incredible. And you're receiving the end result of your faith. Did you know that your faith, it has a goal? It has an endgame. And the endgame is the salvation that's found in Jesus and glorious joy. Glorious joy in Jesus. There's an old statement of faith. It's called the Westminster Catechism. It's basically just a bunch of churches decided to believe this. Here's what it said. The chief end of man is to enjoy God and to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And forever, my friends, starts right now. To actually glorify Him and give You praise, Jesus. And I enjoy my life that You have given me. There is a goal to your life. There is a point to your life. It's the end result of your faith. Isn't that incredible? So much joy, so much life, inexpressable and glorious.

So then why does it seem like sometimes it's a struggle to get there? To enjoy God for God, not just for what He can do for me, for who He is, for what He is in my life. It actually says if you love Him, you love Him. And I think it's safe to say if you love somebody, then you enjoy them more and more. And when you enjoy them, your love for them grows. And when you love them, you enjoy them more more and more. And when you when you when you enjoy them, your love grows. And I think this is the paradox. Um, we say we believe in God and we do. I really do think that we we try to love God. I'm not sure we always enjoy God. Believe in God, yes. Love God, yes. Obey Him most of the time. Enjoy Him.

Why is that? In fact, I think for some of us, we would almost rather enjoy our life without God. God, thanks for creating me. Thanks for uh, health and some resources. We're going to have a great vacation this summer. If you could just keep my kids healthy and then if I need something, I'll kind of pray sometimes and maybe you can Venmo some money from heaven. That'll be good. But why is that? Why is it that um that it feels like sometimes we want to enjoy our life without enjoying God? And and and you understand there's a difficulty there because there is no way to enjoy your life without God because He is your life. His His life is in you. His breath is your breath. Look at this. “In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” There it is. You're in His hand. Look at this one. “If He should set His heart to it and gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, gather it back to Himself, all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust.” That is a profound verse. It's His – His Spirit, His breath that is in us. One more. “He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything... In Him we live and move and have our being.” In Him we live and move and have our being. His life is our life. His breath is our breath. His hope is our hope. His joy is our only chance to experience joy. It's Jesus. It's found only in Him. I think one of the one of the paradoxes to when we think about enjoy God is that we're not sure that the word enjoy and God should be like in the same sentence. God is to be feared and God is to be revered but not like the good kind of fear like fear like I'm going to get you like I've been watching Zap you lightning and not the right kind of like revere not like a reverence not like an awe revere like formal like formal like formalized like I have to act a certain way around Him but here's the thing it's really hard to enjoy somebody that you're afraid of and it's really hard to enjoy somebody you feel formal around all the time like you have to act a certain way. It's also really hard to enjoy someone if your primary relationship with them is just wanting them for what they can give you. So like God is, hear me, God is not a cosmic slot machine. I'm not just pulling the handle every time I want for just for more things. No, no, no. I enjoy for who He is, for His presence, for His goodness, for His character, for who He is. I mean, do you remember the story of of Martha and Mary? Uh, two sisters, two similar family background, came from the same family, came home, you know, grew up in the same home, but two very different outlooks on how to enjoy Jesus. You have Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and Martha just running around scurrying, hurry. You can almost hear it like, "I'm so busy. I can't slow down. Why Why won't anybody help me? What's going on around here?"

So, quick timeout. Here's one of the things I want to say about joy. Uh, do not try to only enjoy your life when all the stuff you want to accomplish is finished. Enjoy your life right now. Whatever the season, whatever's happening, whatever's going on, enjoy God and the life that He's giving you. So, we see something in that story. We see that you only sit somewhere that you want to enjoy. Think the beach. Think mountains. Mary wanted to sit there because she enjoyed being with Jesus. And we also see that you only sit somewhere if somebody forces you to do it. Think the DMV. Think the emergency room. Like if I'm forced to be there, that's when I actually sit down to enjoy it. And because Jesus is not a forcer, He's a filler. He will never force you to sit down and be in His presence, but man, He will invite you. And so He talks to Martha and says, "My dear Martha, you're worried. You're upset about all these things and these details. There's only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her.” One thing, one person, one name above every name is worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, which is so encouraging because it means that we can actually discover how to enjoy God. Isn't that good news? Do you want to discover how to enjoy God? It can be discovered. It can be realized. It can be leaned into. It can be it can be taught to us and we can walk in that way. We can discover it and it will not be taken away from her. This is interesting. You ever hear somebody say, "Oh, that situation's just been stealing my joy – situation stealing my – that person they stole my joy today.” It turns out that's not actually possible. My joy can't be stolen. It can be, it can be handed over. It can be given away. It can't be stolen from me because joy can't be bought because Jesus already bought it. And it can't be stolen because it's a gift that He gave us through His presence. It cannot be taken away.

So Martha's scurrying, Mary is sitting, and we learn something interesting from her. We basically learn that the Martha spirit starts first when I choose not to enjoy God – hurrying, scurrying, anxious, busy, frustrated. We think that that's like the Martha spirit, like you're anxious, you're running around, you're just doing all this stuff. The Martha spirit actually, it's primarily rooted in not enjoying God. See, did Martha enjoy Jesus or did she enjoy what Jesus could do for her? She actually says it to Him. She's like, "Uh, Jesus, tell my sister to help me." And in that moment, we learn that what she really wanted was Jesus to kind of like get her sister to do the stuff. Maybe she wanted um approval as a hostess. Maybe she wanted uh you know, everything to be done and not have to mess with it. But the spirit of it starts with she didn't sit to enjoy God. So then that leads us to something that's really important to understand. The opposite then of joy, a pervasive sense of well-being, is not just the word sad, it's the word unsettled.

Joy is a pervasive sense of well-being. So when my spirit is unsettled, that's my warning sign. That's my, that's my flag. In fact, I actually can be sad for periods of my life. Blessed are those that mourn. They will be comforted. Sadness is really almost the opposite of the word happiness. Unsettled is the ant- is the opposite of the word joy. Martha's spirit, the one where she didn't sit to enjoy Jesus, she had this unsettled spirit inside of her. The Martha spirit grows in me when I don't slow down and recalibrate and choose to just sit at His feet.

So, ready? Here we go. I don't always just enjoy God for God. And I don't like that. And I'm actively trying to do something to change that. In fact, that's part of why I've done a lot more um walks of solitude over these last two years. Solitude walk. Uh no dog on a leash. Uh no phone in my pocket, nobody to just – I'm out with Jesus. And I'm just trying to be in His presence because I want to learn to enjoy God for God more and more and more and more. And when I do that, I will enjoy the life that He's given me. You see, you can't enjoy the beach unless you're there. You can't enjoy a country you haven't visited. You can't enjoy music you're not listening to. You can't enjoy a conversation over coffee that you're not having. And you can't enjoy the God that you haven't spent time with. And you can't enjoy the Jesus that you don't know. And you cannot enjoy the voice of God that you are not asking and listening and responding to. So in Jesus' name, I'm learning to enjoy God more and more and more. And in Jesus' name, you are learning to enjoy God more and more and more.

Could it be that our biggest barrier to enjoying God is that we just haven't learned to enjoy God for who He is? Not for what He does, for His character, His heart, His attribute. Not Not God plus that relationship eventually leading to a marriage. Not God plus my job satisfaction reaching an all-time high. Not God plus all my kids excelling in sports and school and friendships and everything else. Not God plus anything. Because God plus nothing is still everything. Not God plus just just God. To gaze upon His beauty, to see Him in His goodness, to comprehend and try to comprehend His glory and His majesty and worship Him just God.

I don't ever want to be bored by what's exquisite. I don't ever want to call the miraculous mundane. I want to enjoy God for who He is by Himself. Just Him, just Jesus. And I'm not there. I have not perfectly figured it out. I am growing. I am changing. I'm mature, maturing. And I would say this, maturity is learning to enjoy God and the life He's giving you more and more and more and more. Maturity is choosing to sit, to be still, and learning to enjoy God faster, quicker, more, and just to be with Him. Maturity is learning to, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” “Set your mind on things above.” We primarily set our minds on things that are low, low, low, low, low, low, low, so low. Let me just say it like this. If it's not going to be around in 10,000 years, it's not worth your energy or your anguish. God, His people, and His Word will be around in 10,000 years. It's really good to set your mind on those things. “Because your life was hidden with Christ.” I think it's fair to say if you don't enjoy Him, you won't want to be hidden with Him. If you don't want to be hidden with Him, you you probably don't want to be found by Him either. So, we might have a deeper problem going on, which is this sense of God, I want You to find me. I want You I want to hide myself in You in the secret place inside of You. And I want to enjoy You in that place. I want to live my life enjoying just being in the presence of God because You're not a part of my life. You are my life. “When Christ, who is Your life,” he's the whole thing. He's not a portion of it. He's the entire thing. Christ who is Your life. “When He appears, you will also appear with with Him in glory.” Oh man, that's a future promise. May that be a current, right now reality in Jesus' name. And we experience the glory of God day in day out, moment by moment because He's appeared and appearing inside of our life.

I mean, here's a question for you. Do you think the disciples enjoyed Jesus? Because I'm, I'm not sure that they enjoyed it when He made them feed a bunch of people that they wanted to send home for dinner in the first place. I'm not sure that they enjoyed it when He spoke to them in confusing parables. I'm not sure that they enjoyed it when He was asleep at the bottom of the boat and they thought they were going to drown. I'm not sure. I don't, I don't know that answer. I know that they enjoyed the authority. I know that they enjoyed uh what was happening and and the the miracles they were seeing. I think they enjoyed when He was preaching and kind of shaking things up in Jerusalem.

But just Him, just Jesus for Jesus. So what did Jesus do about that? He did the most beautiful, selfless thing that He could possibly do. He invited them to Himself. Hey, come follow me. Not because I need you to do something, but you need to be in my presence because that's the only place that you can experience a fullness of joy. You will show me the path of life. “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” So God was so good to the disciples. He wanted them to walk out a path of life by being in His presence. Come follow me, Peter. Come follow me. Come on, guys. Let's go. Let's do this thing. Be in my presence and experience the realities of the kingdom. In His presence is fullness of joy. In His right hand are pleasures forevermore.

It changes things when you think about it like this. Ready? When Jesus went to Thomas and He's like, "Oh, hey Thomas, you're doubting. Come here. Touch my hands. Touch my side.” And see what was He doing in that moment. He wasn't only trying to erase his doubt. He was trying to pull him a little bit closer. Thomas, come here for a second. Just here. Touch my hands. Reach out and touch. It's like the woman that says, "If I could just reach and touch Him, then I would be." That's exactly right. If you could reach out and walk in the presence of God, there would be a fullness of joy in your life. So, do I think the disciples enjoyed Jesus while they were with Him? I'm not so sure. But once the Spirit came inside of them, once joy came in – in joy, enjoy – I believe they enjoyed their life very much. I believe that they enjoyed their life even unto some crazy things like this. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds. Or when one of them said, "For me to live as Christ and to die is gain." What? What is that? That sounds like a very settled spirit – one that is living in the fullness of joy. That's a beautiful thing. It's part of why Jesus said to us, "I've told you this, so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." There's only one way to have complete joy. There's only one place to get it and one person to get it from – Jesus. “That my joy may be in you.” What does that mean? That I may be in you, that you will enjoy, you will enjoy, you will rejoice, you'll be glad, you'll take great delight in your in your life because I am in your life.

It's amazing to me how much we run around in our life and we try to scurry finding joy in all the wrong places. And we try to build fruit uh in our own selves as if we're the tree and we're the vine. The entire thing that Jesus is talking about in this passage just this, “Remain in me as I remain in You. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.” I can't bear fruit on my own. I can't, I can't force it out of my life. I can't force it into my life. There's only one place and one way to bear the fruit of joy. It's by staying in the vine. And it's by knowing that that very vine, that very presence of God in Jesus lives inside of me. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in me. So therefore, joy is alive in me. Therefore, peace is alive in me. Therefore, hope is alive in me. Therefore, love is is alive in me. There's only one place to get it.

And I think for most of our lives, we try to um we try to create our own fruit as if we have that power as if a tree could just be like, I'm going to and I created fruit on my branches. And sometimes that'll be stuff like, oh, I just want to be happy. I just want to be happy. I need some more me time. And what that's doing is that's us attempting to uh bear fruit, but it's not fruit that will last. Jesus says, I've come that you're going to bear fruit. You're going to bear fruit that's going to last. Joy is a fruit that will last. Happiness that's beyond temporary. Can you bear the fruit of happiness for a little while? Yeah. It's about, it's about that big. And honestly, that new church, that new marriage, that new situation, that new job, you you actually can you get? Yeah, you can probably get some happiness. You can. Um it rots on the vine quickly. Uh it falls off quickly out of your life. But the joy of the Lord, oh the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord, there's more and more and more to be experienced. And when you remain in Him as He remains in the Father and He remains in you, you will have joy and have it to the full. Let's go. That's the kind of joy I want. Is that the kind of joy you want? Is that the kind of life you want? That's the kind of life Jesus offers us. That's the kind of life that He gives to us. That's the kind of life that just says, "I'm going to start by enjoying God and then I will enjoy the life He's giving me."

So, practically, how do we do that? I'm going to give you some really practical ways as we get into the summer here, and then I want to spend some time doing exactly what we're talking about. So, really practically, how can you enjoy God? How can you learn to cultivate this with God life? Well, one of the things is that what we're in right now is called a weekend experience – not a weekend explanation, not a weekend sermon, not a weekend teaching, not a weekend service. This is a weekend experience. And in this space with the people of God and the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the realities of the kingdom of God, oh my friends, there is joy to be had. And so, why do I come here? Why do we come every single weekend and bring my family? Cuz I just want more of what Jesus has to offer. I want more of His life and His Spirit and His hope and His joy. And so I just encourage you, make this your thing. Build your entire life around God and His people and experiencing the presence of God. He has been on the move in our church. He's going to continue to move in this church. I don't want to miss any of it.

Why do we read the reading plan? Well, because the Bible is a love letter from a father to His children He loves. So, there is a joy that comes in my heart when I get to read how much I'm loved by God and how much the this irresistible and glorious joy is for me and available to me. So, I just want to read Scripture. I want Scripture to be in my heart and in my mind and I want to take it in more and more and more and more. Sometimes when I do um sometimes when I walk on these solitude walks, I will just ponder His Word, His ways, and His world. His Word – the Scripture I've been reading, the things that I'm trying to memorize. His ways – um, God, what are You doing right now? How are You moving? What what's happening in our church? What's what what what's going on? Help me help me think of it. Help me have Your mind. And His world – oh man, that that bird is beautiful. That flower is amazing. Uh why are there why are there so many rabbits in my neighborhood? I don't – they're all over the place. And then I'm like, biology. So, like, I ponder things. I ponder things. I think about it. And I wonder and I wander with God. And I'm so glad that um that I'm learning to do that more and more and more. May we all enjoy His Word more and more and more.

Why do we pray? We pray because that's what you do when you have a conversation with somebody you're building a relationship with. And you don't only talk to them when you need stuff. I remember an entire season of college where I basically just called my parents because I needed stuff all the time. Mom and Dad, uh, could I have just a little bit more money because I just my the whole, you know, college work thing is not working. Hey, Dad, can little help with my car? Could you help me try to figure out what's going on? Hey, Mom, could I come home this weekend? Exams have been really hard. Now, listen, that's okay. My parents love me. It was a great season of time in my life. They were so compassionate and so kind. They loved having that conversation. But just hear me, that's not the best way to cultivate a relationship. It's also not the very best way to lead in a prayer life. That's why I want my prayer life to be uh cultivated primarily with lifting up the name of Jesus, praising Him, and then having a real conversation with Him and then on the back side of that asking for the things I need, which by the way is the way that Jesus taught us how to pray. Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name and then Your kingdom come and then eventually give us today our. And that's, that's how it works. So that's how you pray. That's how you cultivate this, this active conversation, this active relationship.

This is also part of why when uh we started things off last week, we gave you guys a card. We wanted to call out this celebration practice. And so I really want to just ask you, how did that go as you kicked it off this week? Did you have a chance to to celebrate the goodness of God? Five to 15 minutes a day. Think on it. Write it down. How's He moving? Where's His goodness? Jesus, I'm grateful for… all the ways we want to cultivate in this in the celebration practice. I really encourage you. Let's do this together. Let's do it as the people of God. Let's do all, all summer long. Let's celebrate God's goodness.

Other practical ways that you can really enjoy God would be things like this. Maybe this summer you just say, "We're only going to listen to worship music all summer long. At the pool, in the car, we're going to let the anthems of heaven just ring out through our home and and over ourselves." That's a good one.

Uh, another good one is this. I love this one. Take one extra moment than you want to having that conversation with somebody. Take one extra moment than you want to. And here's why. It's amazing how quickly we build our little k kingdoms and little q queendoms. And when I have to do something that I don't want to do, like spend a little bit more time in a conversation, I love what that's doing inside of me. Less Jason, more Jesus. And so there's some of those kind of things you can do to be like, I'm just going to do that instead. That that's great.

And then maybe one last one. Wonder and wander. It is summertime. Uh it is just a beautiful time to be alive and just enjoy God in His world. So wonder and wander. Wonder about the things of God and wander outside and enjoy His presence. Just be with Him. So many ways that we can enjoy this life that He's giving to us. But it all starts with enjoy God. There is no enjoying my life unless I first enjoy God.

So let me invite you. Would you close your eyes with me? And we're going to do that right now. And I'm going to ask you if you're willing to do it. Just place your hands right there on your lap and just maybe palms up like a like a I'm going to receive something. Like I'm open to receive it. Yeah. Just sometimes that's just an open heart posture. Just says, "I want I want that, God. I want what You're going to give.” And I'm going to let it go quiet for a moment. And I'm going to give you a chance to just enjoy God – to be in His presence. But before I let it go quiet, I want to remind you how much God enjoys you so much. He loves to be with you. He loves to be around you. For anybody that has Jesus, He loves to be in your presence and with you. Oh, man. If you don't have Jesus, He wants to know you and He wants to invite you to experience life with Him. This week's reading plan, Proverbs 8, “You are daily His delight.” You are daily His delight. So even right now, would you take about one minute to enjoy God by letting Him enjoy you?

And Jesus, the Lord takes great delight in you. He rejoices over you with singing. So Jesus, we just choose to rejoice over You with singing in our lives and our homes and our hearts. I declare over Valley Creek an inexpressable and a glorious joy this summer. I declare over our church that we would be people that enjoy God and the life that He's giving us. We would be so aware of Him, so aware of His presence, how He's moving, what He's doing, how He's speaking, that we can't help but just radiate that joy. We can't help but have this pervasive sense of well-being. For that, my friends, is the end result of our whole faith, the salvation of our souls and glorious joy in Jesus' name. So, may you take one step further, one step farther to enjoying God and the life He's giving you. May you step into it full of hope, full of anticipation, knowing that God just He doesn't just love you. He really likes you and He rejoices over you in Jesus' name. And He wants to be with you in Jesus' name. And He wants to talk with you in Jesus' name. He wants to be around you and and share His heart with you. So may we be a church that truly leans into all of that. May we be a people that just has the joy of the Lord that is our strength. Thank You, Jesus, for You. Thank You, Jesus, for Your joy. And thank You, Jesus, for this life that You are giving us in Jesus' name. Amen.