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As we get closer and closer to Christmas, the temptation to find joy in a delivery from Amazon is tempting—but God’s Word says that joy is the undercurrent of our lives as believers. It’s not dependent on circumstances, relationships or any other thing in our lives. Because of the depth of the undercurrent of joy in the life of a Christian, no matter what is happening on the surface, the undercurrent still moves with strength and stability when it is rooted in Christ. Join me today for a discussion from MomStrong International: In Search of Joy and be encouraged!
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Hey you guys, this is Heidi St. John! Welcome to the podcast. Today is Wednesday, the 12th of December. This is episode 700 here at the podcast. A moment of silence. 🙂
I just want to thank you guys for listening. We are so excited about what God is doing and today we’re going to take a little bit of time to dig into the study for the month of December, the MomStrong International study – In Search of Joy. You guys, I love this study. I know you’re gonna love it – stick around, I think you’re gonna be encouraged!
So, it’s the 12th of December. I feel like I should be singing a song right now, you know – because we’re running out of time! So, Christmas is gonna be over two weeks from today. If you guys have done your Christmas shopping yet – you heard me talk about this a little bit – I’m kind of a fan of simplifying Christmas. I think – get off the crazy train, simplify it, do things with your kids.
I feel like our kids need to see our faces and we tend to be so often in, you know – we’re trying to help them find joy at Christmas in the aisles of Wal-Mart! And it’s not going to be there. And we’re gonna be sorely disappointed which is kind of why we took the month of December – and we decided – hey, let’s talk about what it means to find joy because we’re literally living in pursuit of it in the culture right now.
And last week at MomStrong International – so, first of all, let me explain something. Let me ‘splain something to you. We are just about at 10,000 members at MSI. And the heart behind it really – is to get you guys into the Word, to equip you.
If you haven’t downloaded the new study, we’ve reformatted a little bit. God has been so good to us, and to me in particular, as He is surrounding me with a team of people that are really coming alongside to help make sure these studies get out to you.
We’ve had a brand new addition to our writing team. I’m very excited about where the ministry itself is going. And I want to just encourage you that God is still at work. I have been, I guess, for lack of a better word – and a lot of you guys follow me online, and so you may have noticed…
Well, first of all, I’ve just started writing. I have a brand new project I’m working on now a 365 day devotional for women. And I’ve decided that no one learns more than the teacher when it comes to teaching -and that’s really what this devotional is. It’s getting me even more in the Word and something that the Holy Spirit has really been convicting me about lately is all this bad news that we’re surrounded by. I mean we are surrounded by bad news! It’s everywhere! I’m tired of my Facebook feed. I open up my phone and it’s just bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news. So what do I do? I share this bad news, that bad news – hardly any good news. But the gospel is good news!
Men and women, we’ve been redeemed.
Oh my goodness, we have the hope of heaven in front of us! I don’t know about you, but that just fills me with an incredible sense of anticipation and joy. And so I’ve been like – Lord help me live out your joy, even in the midst of this of this culture that is just crazy town.
Am I discouraged about what’s happening in the culture? Yes. And am I’m frustrated when I go into downtown Portland and see what’s happening on the streets, the city I love so much? Absolutely. But you know what? I’ve decided we’re not going to sit and wallow in it. We’re going to be like – Lord, this is where we live. We were born for this. Women, I’m going to say this to you again you – you were born for this. Born for such a time as this.
Nothing that’s happening around us right now takes our amazing God by surprise. The Lord of heavens armies is not sitting back going – man, I just did not anticipate that. I just did not realize that in 2018 people were going to start thinking that men were women and women were men. I just I didn’t see that coming.
No, he did see it coming. And our role in all of this is exactly the same today as it was five years ago, ten years ago, a hundred years ago. It’s to share the gospel, it’s to be ambassadors to the people around us. It’s to share the hope that we have in Jesus. The knowledge that we’re just passing through.
If you’re sitting here listening to me today, and your heart is tangled up in knots because of what you see happening in the culture, you’ve been watching too much of the news, or whatever it is – can I just encourage you right now – take a step back.
The gospel is good news.
And the whole month of December gives us opportunity to reflect. I was listening to my friend, the pastor at Abundant Life Church, speaking a couple of weeks ago and he’s taken his Church actually through Revelation 22.
And dude, I am I’m blessed. Because what he’s doing is he’s pointing people to heaven. And just like there was a due date on Jesus coming into this earth, there is a due date on His coming back again . He’s going to return. He’s going to return!
Are we living in such a way that our lives say – hey my hope isn’t here, my hope is in heaven. And while I’m here I’m going to say – Father, you’ve given me hands, and feet, and a voice, and a family. Lord help me impact this culture with the Gospel, the good news of Jesus.
It’s so easy to grab our kids and want to shield them from the pain of this world, it’s so easy. It’s so easy to want to hide from it or to just complain. It’s so easy. But God is doing a good thing. Remember Jesus endured the agony of the cross. Our God who knew not one second of sin – endured the shame of my sin, of yours. He endured the hostility of sinners – so that we wouldn’t grow weary and lose heart.
What kind of love was that! What an example. So this week precious mom, precious dad, teenager who’s listening – keep your eyes fixed on Jesus no matter what your friends say to you, no matter what you read on social media, no matter what the pressure is – you have an opportunity right now to say: I’m going to keep my eyes on Jesus because He’s gone through everything I’m going through and more. Why? To receive the joy set before Him in God’s presence. And Jesus taught us by His example and so that’s what we do with people around us.
We lead by example, we set our gaze, our eyes on the Lord. And what is the result of that, men and women? The Bible says it is inexpressible joy. So if you’re listening to this right now and you’re looking at your bank account you’re thinking – man I just I’d love to go out and get a bunch of Christmas gifts but I just can’t do it. Can I just tell you Joy is never gonna be found off of a delivery truck from Amazon?
It’s not going to be found in Walmart, or on a vacation that you can’t afford. Joy comes from the Lord. It comes from the Lord of Heaven’s armies.
Such an amazing gift that we’ve been given that we get to talk about this time of year.
Don’t lose sight of it in the hustle on the bustle, and the pressure, and all those things. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that…
You guys know I love it when the Bible says this.
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Praise Him. He is the father of compassion, He’s the God of comfort. He’s got a comforting. He comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others so that we can be the light of the world. If He gives you a platform, men and women, if He gives you a platform – it’s so that you can use your platform to share the good news of the healing that’s found in Jesus. Don’t grow weary.
Stop looking for joy in the stuff you can get at Ulta. (that might of been for me, just ignore it 🙂 )
Fix your eyes on Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith.
You guys remember a song – I used to sing when I just sing when I was a kid.
I have the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart.
You remember that?
Where?
we sat down
down in my heart. Where? down in my heart. I’ve got that…
You guys remember that song? It’s a simple song, but I’m telling you what it is unearthing a massive truth that lies at the heart of the Gospel. One of the central aims of the Christian walk is this – It’s a deep and abiding joy in Jesus.
It’s a deep abiding Joy. Everyone wants to be happy.
We see it all over the news right now, right? It’s on Facebook, it’s in all of the banners that are hanging from the malls and the department stores. Our desire for happiness influences everything we do – the jobs we take, the relationships we’re in, how we spend our time. But so many of us today are settling for temporary happiness instead of lasting joy. The dominant cultural ideal right now is to have the freedom to choose whatever brings us pleasure, right?
That’s what we see. That’s we’ve seen the church take an about face and say – whatever works for you right.
It’s hedonism at its worst. The Bible tells us that our pursuit of happiness isn’t wrong, but if happiness is where we stop there were only scratching the surface of what God has for us.
Joy is different. Don’t you love that we’re studying this?!
You guys want to dig deeper with me? Head over to MomStrong International we have an incredible bible study for you this month – it’s only two dollars a week. We’re going to be digging deeper into what this looks like. We’re going to be talking about the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness – primarily and emotion – comes and goes. It’s dependent on our circumstances, it depends on the environment.
The environment can give it to us , or take it away. Emotions are superficial and they’re often overpowering. Anybody listening to this with PMS right now? I won’t tell if you won’t.
Emotions change by the minute, but joy is different. Joy is the undercurrent for the believer. You see, in the ocean, there are two kinds of currents – there’s the undercurrent, the deep water current, and the surface current. And because of the depth of the undercurrent, no matter what’s happening the surface – the undercurrent still moves with strength and stability.
And this is how God’s joy is in our heart. God desires for us to have a joy that resides, and even thrives, deep within our souls – no matter how strong the storm is of our emotions – or how disappointing or frustrating our circumstances might be. Joy is the undercurrent in the life of the believer.
For those of you who are tired, or you’re struggling with your kids, or you feel like you just have lost your you in your parenting – I’m going to end this podcast today with a little bit of a lesson from Hebrews 12:1-3. This is Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
In the study at MomStrong International, the very first week, one of the first things we did was look at this verse. And I asked you to list four things that you can actively model for your children, so that you wouldn’t grow weary and lose heart. And what are some of those four things – let’s look at it really quickly.
So first of all, we’re reminded that we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses – not the least of which are our children! And I know there’s there’s a whole bunch of other theological implications to this. But let’s make it real simple right now.
Let’s think about the people that are surrounding us, the people that are watching us, the people that are watching our lives and the way that we live our lives. How do we run our race our endurance?
Well the first thing we do is we lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily and tangles us. I said this a couple days ago and I’m going to say it again – how’s your Netflix addiction?
How are you doing with self-control in your life? That fruit of the Spirit that really governs all the other fruit? It’s so easy for us to make excuses for the sin in our lives and point out the sin of other people’s lives. But the apostle Paul is saying – listen! people are watching you. Jesus is our example. We need to follow him. Lay aside, men and women, the sin which in tangles us. In other words, you got to say – Lord, open my eyes.
Show me anything that’s hindering my walk with You. Anything that’s keeping me from being the example that You want me to be – and let me run with endurance the race is set before me.
So the first thing you do is say – Oh Father, open my eyes, help me to lay aside the sin which is tangling me up.
The second thing you want to do is fix our eyes on Jesus. So every time an article comes through Facebook, or you see something else on the news, or you get a news alert on your phone. Come before the Lord. That’s what I’m trying to do.
Father, help me fix my eyes on You. You are the author and perfecter of my faith, not me. You are. And the Bible says – that because of the joy set before You, You endured the cross. You despise the shame. Lord for the joy that’s set before me, help me to endure the shame, and the culture right now of being called a woman who loves You.
Next thing we want to do – is consider. That means we want to think about… there are all kinds of places that we could take this but for the sake of time today and for this study I’m going to keep it with Hebrews 12:3
3 For consider Him
So think about the Lord
who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,
Why?
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
So the first thing we want to do is lay aside every encumbrance, and then we want to run with endurance the race set before us. Endurance and perseverance – we’ve talked about this before on the podcast – endurance is perseverance in action. It’s – even though we’re tired and we may go “You know. Hands up. I give up. I’m done.” – we go “Nope! We’re gonna run this race with endurance”
Why? Because God set us here. The race is before us. So we lay aside the sin with – Father open my eyes to it. We run with endurance – Lord fill me up, help me run this race with endurance, that you’ve that you set before me. Third thing is we fix our eyes on Jesus. We fix our eyes on Jesus. Eyes on Him, men and women. Eyes on Him.
Some of you are listening to this. And when you when you fix your gaze upon the Lord He’s given you something He wants you to do.
He’s given you resources, He’s given you time, He’s given you platform, He’s given you children. Fix your eyes on Him. We can’t hear from the Lord unless we’re listening, unless our eyes are on Him and not on all the other distractions in the world right now.
And then finally, we want to consider. We want to think about it. We consider that He’s endured hostility. He’s not unfamiliar with what you’re going through.
He did it himself. Why? So that we would not grow weary and lose heart. Hang in there. The gospel is good news. The Gospel is good news.
Father, I thank you so much Lord for the men and women and the young people who are listening to this today. Lord would you open our eyes so that we could see if there’s anything – we want to be like David, Father. Search our hearts. Is there anything that we’re doing that’s not pleasing you? Anything that’s keeping us from walking in such a way that our lives speak of the love that You have for this world? Father I pray that you help us to use our gifts and our talents and our abilities to further the message of the Gospel, but I thank you for the opportunity you’ve given me to speak into a microphone and that it’s reaching tens of thousands of people, Father we want your Word to go forward and we want to be known as men and women who love you. Lord as we come closer to Christmas and remembering this season of your birth, I pray Lord that you would help us to fix our eyes on you. So that we would not grow weary and lose heart. We love you Father, we thank you that joy is found in your presence. That you are Joy that you are love, you offer all these things. Help us to take hold of it today Father, in Jesus name. Amen.
I want to thank you guys for listening, we so appreciate your membership at MomStrong International. If you’ve been wondering about this podcast that is the primary way that you can help us keep this podcast on the air. There are not ads on this podcast – we don’t do ads here. And instead we’re trying to just encourage you to get involved in what we’re doing.
You can join MomStrong International for just two dollars a week and that two dollars really helps us to keep this podcast on the air. I hope you guys have been encouraged by what you’ve been hearing here and that you would share this podcast with other people. We read your reviews every time you leave them over it iTunes. So I want to thank you for doing that.
Also if you’re interested in supporting this ministry financially, we would welcome that support. Obviously, we very much welcome your prayer support as well. We love to hear from you! If you want to send a Christmas card to the ministry – we are putting those cards up on the wall here and hundreds of kids are seeing them as they come to Firmly Planted – to the Homeschool Resource Center.
You can reach us to send us a Christmas card, or to send a year-end donation – we would very much appreciate that. Here at the podcast address it to Heidi St. John care of Firmly Planted Family 11100 NE 34th Circle Vancouver Washington 98684.
If you’re interested in hearing me in person I will be in Abilene Texas coming up January 19th for the Heidi St. John conference. And also in Coos Bay Oregon on the 26th of January. The theme for 2019 is Miracle Worker – The life-changing power of following Jesus.
I hope to see you at one of these events coming up soon. In the meantime have a great day and keep walking with the Lord. I’ll see you back here on Friday.