Well, first of all, y'all look good. Just gotta slow down to make sure I see it. But it's so fun, like the holiday is so fun to see people back in town. And so if you're back in town, welcome to you. We're glad you're here. And even if it's just for a quick, I'm here. I'm celebrating Thanksgiving and I'm out again. Welcome to you. And then those of you online, welcome. Alongside us, Mark King. So you guys saw Mark up here. Mark is online today down in Phoenix. And so Mark, welcome to you.
We love you. We're praying for you. And all of the adventure God's got you on, but we're praying for you. And then somebody, they go by the tag of CIS. Not sure who that is, but CIS in Arkansas. You're there. So welcome to you and your family. And glad you're along with us. Baghdad, welcome, welcome. Paulden, welcome to you. Hope that you might not have breakfast. They might still be full from Thanksgiving. I didn't think about that. So whatever you're doing, welcome to you.
We're glad we get to do this together. And so speaking of Thanksgiving, how was your Thanksgiving? It was good? Come. I got good news for you. We're not gonna talk about football other than one thing. You ready? The Chiefs are the luckiest team in football. Okay? Like other teams are figuring out ways to lose so you can win. Like, anyways, we're done. Football, we're moving on from football. We'll leave it where it is. So hopefully you had an amazing Thanksgiving.
And what comes then naturally is obviously now, depending on Cameron was leading out at Prescott Valley last night and Cameron's like, okay, you have to get past Thanksgiving before you can do anything Christmas. So whatever your family's like, whether you've already fully done Christmas and it's decorated and you've been going for a couple of months, you know, and leading in or you're doing it now.
But here's the thing, like Christmas coming in the church world, it puts us into this season that we call Advent. And what Advent is, the wording is the anticipation of the arrival of, and so we're anticipating December the 25th coming. And December the 25th, obviously the birth of Jesus is what we're really leaning into.
And so kind of design in the church calendar is that these four weeks as we get towards Christmas would really prepare us, would center us as the people of Jesus so that, I don't know how your Thanksgiving was, but mine felt like it came and went, right? Like it was here and it was gone. And I don't, for Christmas, Christmas isn't supposed to be that for followers of Jesus.
That the actual celebration of Christmas, yes, we have family, yes, we have good food, yes, we have presents, yes, we do all the things, right? But the actual celebration for us as followers of Jesus is that Jesus was born, right? Like that's what's supposed to, on that day, we're so ready to go, yes, we are fully present in the fact that this day is about Him being born and the rest is all trimmings to that. And so these four weeks are really just to prepare us for that.
That's what we lean into. And as we kind of go this year, we're rallying around this idea of happy to be, okay? So this is the big concept of Advent. God is happy to be with you. He is happy to be with you. Here's what I mean. Matthew chapter one, the announcement of Jesus, right? What's being told to Mary, or actually I think this is, I just said that wrong. This is Joseph, so there you go. 1-23, the Virgin will conceive.
So Mary will conceive and give birth to a son who is Jesus and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. I am kind of stunning that right out of the gate, the first thing we kind of get in regards to this, this Christmas narrative is that what's being told to us is this is God with who? Us, with you. This is God with you.
And it's one thing to go, okay, God with us, and we understand that on a large scale, God becoming human and being alongside us, but we don't actually understand or we struggle with the idea that God is happy to be with you. He is happy to be with you. And over the next weeks, we'll kind of unpack this.
You ever have a moment where maybe you've been around little kids, maybe you got little kids, but you come into wherever those kids are and you kind of, maybe it's after a long day for me, it was my own kiddos, right? Like I would come home after being at work, they would hear the garage, they would hear the car pulling in, and they're already on their way, you know what I mean? And they're so excited to see you.
You've only been apart for eight hours, and they're so excited that you are home and you are here and their faces light up, right? And maybe you've been around little kids that do that to you. They see you and they just come across a room towards you. You have that experience, maybe it's friends for you. Maybe you've got a friend that you see, and when you see that friend, it's like, I'm just so excited to see you. You're my friend, right? And so you move towards them.
Maybe you embrace, or maybe for some of you, it's a meaningful relationship. You go on a trip, for me, it was my spouse. I would go and come back to Cindy, and just that initial like walking into the house, having not seen each other, or she would be away and come home, that there's this moment where it's like, oh, it just feels so good to have you in my presence. You ever had that feeling? Hold on to it, because we're going to explain what that feeling is and why that feeling is so important.
Because your brain and my brain and our brains were designed by God, and your brain is designed to run on joy. It is the fuel for you. It is the fuel that your brain runs on. And so this idea of joy, right? Like, let's take a definition that we're going to work with over today and over this collection of talks. And the idea is this, that the joy in God's context is the declaration of He is happy to be with me. Right? So God is happy to be with me.
That feeling you get that you're happy to be with me is what He's talking about here, that He goes, God, with us. That God gets to be with you. And so you think about the person of Jesus, right? Like, Jesus is on the earth and He goes, hey, I'm here to show you what God is like. I'm here in human form so that you get a physical view of what Jesus is like. And then we have all these moments from His life where we get to see what Jesus is like.
And Luke, Luke chapter 8, and verse 43, it says this, a woman was there, so Jesus is on His way somewhere, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you. But Jesus said, someone touch me. I know that power has gone out from me.
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed. Then He said to her, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace. And so you have this moment from Jesus' life Jesus is showing us what God is like, right? And so in this moment, you see proximity given. Okay, one of the key components of joy is that joy is relational.
So if you are going to experience joy in your life, it's relational, not head knowledge. Okay, on top of that, joy, because it's relational, comes through proximity. You have to be close. So God with us is God moving in proximity towards us. In this context now, you have Jesus in the midst of a story and the verse before it talks about they were crowding around and pressing Him, right? And she comes through the crowd. Now, little context to help us.
For her being in that culture at that time, the fact that she is bleeding means that she is unclean. The fact that it's been going for 12 years, it means that for 12 years she has been suffering. The fact that she was unclean means that she could not be in a setting like this. She couldn't be this close to people. You couldn't have proximity. And so what would happen is, is in between her moments of bleeding, she would go do things that she needed to do.
But if anyone found out, she would be punished. She would be ostracized. And so now you have this moment where you see the full Advent picture, right? Advent being hope, love, joy, and peace. You see the full picture of Advent in this story. That out of hope, she moves towards Jesus. What is her hope? That if I can just touch the tassels on His robe, I'll be healed, right? There was a belief that the Messiah would come with healing in His wings.
And so the belief that the tassels were like the wings of the Messiah, that if you just touched the hem of His garment, you could be healed. And so this lady out of hope moves towards and she touches. And what happens? She's completely healed. No one else could heal her. She's completely healed. And then the story unfolds that Jesus goes, hey, I felt power leave me. And He kind of stops the parade, so to speak.
And in the midst of stopping the parade, He basically makes it to a point where she comes forward. You got to understand, she thinks she's in trouble. She's got the thoughts that some of you have today. I don't belong here if you only knew who I was. I shouldn't be here. I'm not like the rest of you. You don't know where I was last night, let alone what I did at Thanksgiving when I said that to them, because it's always them, right? Like, you know, that whole thing.
And you can come into this space and all of a sudden you feel like you don't belong and you shouldn't be here. And yet what do we see in the story that the lady goes through all of that, she comes in, she goes, hey, here's why I touched you, and here's what happened, I was healed. She experiences joy in His presence. And we'll talk more about that concept of joy and what happens. But you know what He says to her? Daughter. I don't think it was daughter. I think it was a term of endearment.
And you can't say daughter is a term of endearment and not smile. Your countenance cannot be favorable. It has to be favorable. And so He says daughter, she experiences love through His words and through His actions. And the last thing He says to her is go in peace. And you have all of Advent tied up in one story, but there's a moment that only one of the authors that capture this story captures for us. And it's so pivotal to what it means to experience joy.
In Matthew, Matthew chapter 9 and verse 22, inside of this story where Jesus is now like, wait a minute, who touched me? And she comes forward. Jesus turned, Jesus turned, and you got to get this. You got to get this. It's so important to joy. And what? Okay, I just told you, you got to get this. Jesus turned and what? Saw her. Okay, I don't know how online is doing. I don't know how Baghdad and Palden, you guys are doing, but in here we're struggling a little bit. So Jesus turned and saw her.
Okay, take heart, daughter, He said. Your faith has healed you and the woman was healed at that moment. Jesus, Jesus, right? It says that He was going this way and she came from somewhere over here and He what? He turns. That takes effort to turn. And it says that He saw her, which means that He looked directly at her. Why is this so important? Because God made your face where you receive and transmit joy. It's in your face that God has wired your body. God made your brain, right?
And He made it with two sides, a left side and a right side. As He made you, He made the right side of your brain for attachment. I came across a book recently and it's transforming the way I'm understanding some stuff. One of them is this, that joy is not knowledge. Joy is experience. Joy is felt. Joy is emotion. And joy happens on the right side of your brain. You know what we do in church world? We're analytical, right? So we run everything through information. Let me tell you all the facts.
But you know what facts don't do? Give you attachment. I'm more convinced than ever, you guys. You ever have that person in your life and you're like, they're such a strong believer. They know all the answers to everything. And then something happens in their life and they're gone. They're done with faith. They're done with church. You ever come across somebody like that? Because they didn't have an answer? That's because everything in their world is analytical.
Everything is on the left side of the brain. But God created you with two sides of your brain. And on the right side of your brain is where you feel, where you experience, where you attach. Joy is an attachment. Remember, your brain is wired to run on it. And only in proximity can you experience joy. And so what happens is, joy is something that you have to take in through the right side of your brain. And you know how you experience joy? Through the face.
You remember the feeling you got when you come into the presence of little kids? Why? Because you're looking at what? Their face. And what exudes in you is joy. When you come into contact with somebody, why is the door holder? If you were a door holder at Heights, you are so important. Why? Because as somebody is walking up, guess what their brain is doing? You remember your brain is hardwired to scan, right? For what? For joy. How do you find joy?
You find it in the face of somebody who is saying, I am happy to be with you. What does the door holder do? You're the first face. And you're going, I'm so happy you're here. Right? You're looking at them. I tried this out on my kids, by the way, last week. They came home. I heard the garage door open. I opened the door. And I'm literally standing there as they're driving in. And then they came to the door. And I'm like, I'm so glad you're here. And my little one's like, OK.
And my older one goes, this is weird. You never do this. But that's the whole point is in the face. God made you to receive and transmit joy. That as somebody walks up to the door of a foreign building that they've never been to, that your face is what transmits, I am happy to be with you. Your brain's work is when you walk in a room, you know what you do? You scan the room. Who do I know? They're happy to be with me. Right? And they're doing the exact same thing. Who do I know? Where are they?
They're happy to be with me. Because joy is what we run on. Right? And so God created the face. And so God in the story, right? Jesus in the story, what does he do? He turns. Don't miss as he turns. And what does he do? He looks at her. What is her countenance? I don't belong. I shouldn't be here. I've done something terrible. I've gone outside of the cultural code. I'm not, in our terms, in our day, I'm not a good Christian. And what does Jesus do? I don't care. I am happy to be with you.
This is the same message for you that you discover. What does God say? God with us. And how did he prove it? He became a man. Walked among us. And what did he do while he walked among us? He looked at people. He sat and had meals. You ever wonder? I tried this at the Thanksgiving meal this year. Nobody knew I was doing it, just me. I'm going to make as much facial contact as I can. Because I'm happy to be with the people I was around that table with. Right? That's how this works.
That's why a meal is so important. That's why Jesus shared so many meals. Why? Because when you sit in a meal, what do you do? When you go on a date with your wife, hopefully you don't sit side by side. If you do, not judging. But why do you sit across the table? Because then you are what? Face to face. And where does attachment happen? Where is joy felt? Face to face. Why? Because God made you that way. I mean, you guys, this concept is all over the Bible.
This is not just a concept of one story. Listen to this. Numbers. Numbers chapter 6. So in Numbers chapter 6, it's the priestly blessing. Right? So the priest would say this over all the people. Right? So over the nation of Israel, here is the blessing from God to you. Okay? Verse 24. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his what? Face shine on you and be gracious to you. You know what the concept was in the Old Testament, the Israelites had of God?
That his face shining on you was the blessing and favor of God. That God was on your side. When his face was towards you, it was a sign of blessing. But they doubled down. Look at the next verse. And the Lord and the Lord turn his face towards you and give you what? Peace is an outcome of the Lord's face, what? Being towards you. Think about the story with the lady. We see this blessing lived out. What happens? God's face turns towards her. Jesus turns towards her. And what's the outcome?
Daughter, go in peace. Joy is pivotal to you experiencing peace because it's connected to the very face of God. Think about it for a second. We always talk about joy and we throw out this, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's good theology. We throw out the line, hey, no matter your circumstances, you can still have joy. You know why that's true? Because even in your worst circumstances, God is still happy to be with you.
Even in the worst, no matter what it is, God is happy to be with you in that muck and mire that you're walking through. God is happy to be with you in the pain. In the knowledge of God being happy to be with me, that the presence of God is with me, that his face is toward me. You know what that does? That allows me to sit in that moment and feel something and be attached to him as creator instead of running the analytical side of my brain that goes, wait, why did this happen?
I thought God was good. If God is good, then, you know, and we go through the analytical thing and then people go, I'm out. Well, I think it's because you've never built the attachment. You realize you were called into a love relationship. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength. It's a love relationship. What fuels love is joy. Right? There's this idea of joy being something that builds attachment.
The more I build attachment, the more I'm connected. The more I'm connected, the more I feel love, not just know it intellectually. I mean, this is all over. I'm turned to Psalm, Psalm 89, verse 15. Blessed are those who have learned. So that's that idea of blessing is that God's on the side of right. God is for God's favor. Right. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk, who walk. So live their life. Right. So the point of this talk is that you do all of life where?
In the light of your presence, Lord. Now, some of you are like, hold on, John, we're talking about the face. That says presence. If you go to Hebrew and you look at the literal interpretation of the word presence, guess what you get? Face. So let me reread it for you. Who live their life, the ones that are blessed, who live their life in light of your face, Lord. In the light of your face. Okay. Jump back in Psalms, Psalm 16, verse 11. You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me.
Right. So full to overflowing with what? With joy. Where? In your presence. Guess what the word for presence is? Face. Right. So in your presence. So if I want to experience joy, it's in his what? In his face. In a good way. In his face. Right. In your face, God. Is where I'm filled with joy. Another one. Psalm 21, verse six. Surely you have granted him an ending blessing. Speaking of a king, right? The king, surely the king has the favor of God and made him glad. Made him glad. How is he glad?
Glad being a word for happy. How is he happy? With the joy, with the joy. So separating the words of happy and joy. With the joy, what? Of your presence. Guess what presence is? Face. In proximity. Why? Because joy is relational. Joy comes through a person. I mean, it's all over the Bible. If you were here last week, you get all the way to the end of the book. And what is the exclamation of God? He goes, finally. The new heavens and the new earth are there. And what does he say?
Finally, I can be with them. I can make my home with them. I can be with them and they can be my people. He's going, finally, I'm what? Face to face. So much so that in the next chapter, after he says, hey, the curse is gone, he then goes to this side. He goes, you know what? And they will see my face. Why? Because joy is experienced in the face. You were created for it.
This idea of joy that you are happy to be with me, we see it in Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, where it says fixing our eyes, fixing our eyes. So we are fixing our eyes on Jesus. Right. The idea behind this is that if you were to fix your eyes on something, it's mutual. Right. God's face can be towards you and you not experience joy in any way, shape or form today because you have not turned your face towards him. It's mutual.
You ever have a conversation with somebody when you're walking side by side and you never look at each other? Some of us are walking with God that way. The way God intended it is that we would have this mutual face to face that I would turn my eyes because he's already turned his.
And it says fixing our eyes on him, on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith for the joy, for the joy, use our working definition for the happy to be with me set before him because he was so happy to be with you, to be with me, to be with us, to be with humanity, to be with his people. Because he was so happy to be with us. He set before him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You know what that says?
That because he was so happy to be with you that he knew there was shame in the cross. And instead of instead of running away from the shame, he despised it, meaning he counted it as no consequence. Everything that was in the cross that was shameful, he counted it no consequence. Why? Because being with you was worth it. He's happy to be with you. He's happy to be with you. I don't think it was a mistake. That the word remember shows up in such a pivotal moment.
That when Jesus sat with his friends, right? He talks about remembering, but you know, it's interesting. It's interesting. Is it in church world? And I'm not saying this is wrong. Please don't mishear me and misquote me somewhere. I think having right theology is extremely important. How you think of God is extremely important. Don't mishear me that there is an intellectual side to faith that matters.
But isn't it interesting that a moment around the table that was relational with his friends, we have taken the word remember. And we have made it intellectual. And so you need to sit here often in reflection. What we'll do is we'll sit here and often in reflection. What we'll do is we go into this analytical process and we begin to analyze all the things that I've done since last time I took communion. Or all the things I've done since the last time I had confession.
And we use this moment to make give God a list of all the things that can you forgive me for this? Can you forgive me for this? Can you forgive me for this? Or and don't mishear me, confession is important. Or we make it about the facts of crucifixion. We talk about what happened to Jesus and we talk about, OK, now sit and ponder that. But here's what's interesting. God made you whole brained. He didn't make you half brained.
And what I mean by that is that the word remember also is important for the right side of the brain. And what I mean by that is you can actually build into your life nutrients to help you attach to God. And what that looks like is that I go back to moments where I know that I know that I know that God's face was toward me. What I mean by that is he was happy to be with me. I go back to moments in my life where I've experienced the closeness of God.
And you can't even explain it to people that inside I just felt this thing that I have. It's the most beautiful thing and I don't want to leave. And then I had to tell a whole bunch of people about it. You just felt in that moment you knew without a doubt that God was present and he was for you and he was happy to be there with you. And so I think remembering is going back. I think remembering is sitting in the right brain as well as the left brain. What does that look like? Well, it's moments.
You get to pick what those moments look like. For me, an example of one would be when I first met Jesus, where I know without a doubt I was 19 years old. Oh, I could tell you, by the way. I could tell you the intellectual side. What do I mean by that? I had all the facts because I grew up in a Christian home. Sixteen years old, I sat drunk on a bench and told my best friend the gospel, drunk. I had the facts. But at 19, something hit different.
Where I was on my knees and I knew without a doubt that God was happy to be with me. That I was loved exactly as I was. That God was the God of second chances. That we just knew, I can't explain it to you. I just knew inside of me that there was this presence that I had never felt where I was attached to Jesus. And it's never looked like since that day, never gone back. But I can tell you about another moment sitting in my Devo time in the morning.
Sitting with the Lord and going through just spending time with Him. And I don't know why it's this way, but there are moments where I can tell you that I felt the exact same thing in those moments. It's almost like time stood still because He was so present and so real. I can tell you other times of holding my kids for the first time. I can tell you other times of sitting with people in pain and God having this moment where I just knew. I just knew He was there.
And what I felt was overwhelming. And so here's what we're going to do. We're going to reflect with the right side of our brain this morning. What do I mean by that? What is a moment for you where you experienced God is happy to be with me? He is face to face. He is present. And He is smiling. That He is with me. And then here's what you're going to do is you remember. Don't put words to it because that's the left side of your brain trying to rob the moment.
But instead, sit in the memory like you're experiencing it again for the first time. Feel it and sit in the feelings of what it was like to know that God is happy to be with me. The moment is yours and then we'll take it all together. God is happy to be with you. God is happy to be with you. Can you imagine if we could have one of the disciples, Jesus's friends, and have him here this morning?
And go, Hey, Peter, would you tell us a moment you knew that you knew that you knew that Jesus was just happy to be with you? I wonder if Peter would take us to a moment on the beach. Jesus has died, rose again, but Peter thinks he's not worthy to be around Jesus. And Jesus makes breakfast. He makes a meal. And he has a conversation with Peter. Can you imagine? I think Peter would take us back to that moment where he goes, he just looked at me.
And it said everything I needed to know that he was happy to be with me. I wonder if John, right? That John had all the moments around the table of the one reclining on Jesus. They were that close, right? Like they were physically close, but they were also, he would declare, I'm the one he loved. But I wonder if John would take us to the cross when Jesus is hanging on the cross. And it says that he looked down. He looked down and he saw John. What was John doing?
He was looking up. And what did we quickly do? What did he say? Because we go to the analytical side, right? But I wonder if John would take us and freezes in that moment and go, even in the midst of suffering, he was happy to be with me. I don't think it's by chance that when they sat around the table, can you imagine them going, hey, I need you to remember that I was physically here. I think they're like, I'll remember that forever. How could I forget? Right?
But I think what he was getting them to get at is remember how close, proximity, remember, is where joy is experienced because it's relational, how close Jesus was that they were faced. I think he was saying, don't forget that my face is towards you because I'm happy to be with you. And so Jesus took bread that represented his body, that reminded them that he came and died. And he broke it and he gave it to them and said, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
He took a glass of wine and he began to talk about how everything would change because in his blood, all the things that have been against you, all of your worst things, Jesus goes, they're gone. I'm going to pay for them. There will be nothing that the enemy can use to separate us ever again. Nothing can separate. Why? Because proximity is important because it's in proximity that you experience joy. Why? Because you can see the very face of God.
And in that moment, he's not talking about just that moment. He's talking about all of eternity because of his blood, because your sins are forgiven, that you, you and me get to see the very face of God. And so he took wine and he gave it to them and he said, take drink, do this in remembrance of me. God, we thank you today. We thank you first and foremost for being our God. We thank you that you are the God who, God, you have given everything that we can be in proximity to you.
God, we thank you that today you are declaring by proximity that you are happy to be with us. God, that feeling, that emotion, that joy, would it just overwhelm us today? Would it overflow from us today? No matter where we go, what we do, would it be on our face? Would our countenance be that we are joyful because we've experienced the very face of God being towards us? That God, no matter what we carried in here, you are happy to be in the presence of God.
That God, no matter what we carried in here, you are happy to be in that with us today. God, as we take these next moments and we declare joy that has come for the entire world, for every person, that we declare joy to you and we declare why we have joy. God, would you take us to moments and remind us of what it means for you to be happy to be with us today, here and now. Thank you for loving us and thank you for being the God that is with us. We are grateful and everybody said, Amen.