We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
Can we find real joy amid the glitter and hustle of the holiday season? Brian, Austin, and Neddie, explore the role of joy in Christmas and the Christian life in this latest installment of the Living Reconciled podcast. In this episode we reveal how Scripture sees joy and how the giving, the food, the fun, and the fellowship flows out of the joy we receive in Jesus.
You won't want to miss this episode, and don't forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and SHARE!
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
Can we find real joy amid the glitter and hustle of the holiday season? Brian, Austin, and Neddie, explore the role of joy in Christmas and the Christian life in this latest installment of the Living Reconciled podcast. In this episode we reveal how Scripture sees joy and how the giving, the food, the fun, and the fellowship flows out of the joy we receive in Jesus.
You won't want to miss this episode, and don't forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and SHARE!
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Hey, thanks for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled, episode 34. I am your host, brian Crawford, and I am with my really really, really, really, really, really, really, really really good friends, austin Hoyle, nettie Winners. Co-host of Living Reconciled. Gentlemen, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm good, I'm good man. Um, football is looking good this year. Fantasy football my fantasy football is looking really good this year. Number one seed in my league, that's good. I almost almost got a 10-game winning streak. But my wife's cousin barely beat me by 10 points this time and now I can't claim that, claim that right of passage. But there's always next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely you can you know, all streaks will break, and then you start them over again.
Speaker 2:So there's an opportunity for a new streak and maybe you know what? Maybe I can go undefeated next season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely so. Are you playing fantasy football, this, this? No, I don't play fantasy anything. Somehow I didn't take you as a fantasy football player. I'm not a fantasy anything.
Speaker 3:Do you play fantasy football? I have dreams, you have dreams I have dreams.
Speaker 2:I have dreams, I have dreams, no fantasies. This is dream football I play dream football. That's what I'm saying, absolutely. I used to play a little fantasy football.
Speaker 1:I don't play as much anymore these days, so special thanks to our sponsors Nissan Atmos Energy Regions Foundation. Brown Missionary Baptist Church, christian Life Church, ms Doris Powell, ms Robert Ward, ms Anne Winters. Thank you so much for everything that you do. Because of what you do, mission Mississippi is able to do what we do, and so we appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Today, I want to talk about Before you go in, can I speak? Absolutely, I'm really really. You asked me how I was. I'm really really really good. I'm almost as really, really good as you are to be with your really, really, really, really, really good friend.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and the reason why I put so many realies into my description of my friends today is because we are talking about a really really, really, really, really good topic today. Last week we talked about envy.
Speaker 3:Comparison. Oh, I thought we were just really really good friends. But you just said you put those realies in there based on the topic. You see you being evaluated on the topic Austin, did you know that? Are you and him and crime together?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll start deducting them, depending on how this whole conversation goes.
Speaker 3:So I've just lost three realies, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We've already lost a few.
Speaker 2:But here's the good news, though. Here's the good news the realies. Once we leave the podcast room, they don't really mean anything after that.
Speaker 3:That's true. Yeah, that's true. Wait a minute. You mean I lose my, really, when I leave out the door? No, no.
Speaker 1:Austin's making no, no, no, no they just have no impact upon our eternal life Absolutely Right. That's the important thing. That is where we're going.
Speaker 3:Until I get to the crossover. I really really really like having really, really, really really good friends, hey well and I don't want to leave it in the podcast.
Speaker 1:We'll make sure we take this beyond the podcast studio.
Speaker 3:Oh that's nice. So when you see me in public, you acknowledge me. You really, really really good friends.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We'll gladly acknowledge this, so you'll talk to me in public too. Absolutely Unlike that last time we. You just passed me right by man.
Speaker 3:He promised that he wouldn't bring that up. Here we go, I know man, here we go.
Speaker 2:And then I heard you were embarrassed to know me. Here we, no, no, no, I'm joking, that never happened. No, no, I would not ignore Austin in public.
Speaker 1:So we're talking about Christmas Joy today. We were talking, we talked about last week Christmas envy and Christmas comparison and how they can serve as roadblocks. I want to talk a little bit about Christmas Joy today. My family and I have spent some time in reading Advent devotionals and one devotional stood out to me recently.
Speaker 3:Is that joy?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, in fact. It sparked joy in our house. Here's how it began, this devotional that we read. I thought it was really important.
Speaker 1:When I was younger, christmas seemed to have split personality. Religious Christmas was deep and serious. It was weeks of waiting and candles in the dark and four stands of hems. It was an extra church services and listening to Luke two before opening gifts. It frowned on things like commercialism, santa Claus and saying happy holidays. Secular Christmas, on the other hand, was bright and glittery. It was lights and party and kitchen countertops loaded with cookies and chocolate. It was snowmen with black hats and reindeer with red noses. It was cousins to play with in a mountain of presents under the tree, some from Santa.
Speaker 1:It can almost make you wonder if Christians know how to have fun. Is Christianity just a bunch of rules keeping you from the real pleasures of life? Don't buy too much, don't believe in magic, don't drink too much, don't have sex with your boyfriend, don't swear, don't gamble. But if you dig into this even a little bit, the lie gives way. The lesser amusements we turn to for happiness a new car, sex, alcohol, perfectly clean house all those lesser amusements deliver a burst of bliss that quickly wanes. Secular Christmas, with its enthusiastic sparkles, dumps us into the cold gray of January. But Christian joy is much weightier, much more durable, because it comes from a clean conscience washed by Jesus's blood. When you hear those words about Christmas and the secular Christmas versus the Christian Christmas, and how sometimes Christian Christmas can almost come off boring, and secular Christmas can come off with all sorts of joy and happiness, even though it might be short lived, what comes to mind, gentlemen?
Speaker 3:What comes to mind for me is that when you describe Christmas in the dull as you put it boring way, it's like, okay, maybe four hours, and then it's on to the party. Man, that's what I was thinking Like go to church on Sunday morning, then go home and watch a Heasons football game and jump and shout louder that afternoon than you did Sunday morning.
Speaker 1:Almost like we're trying to just kind of get through the Christian elements of our Christmas so that we can get to the real fun part of Christmas.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's do the Luke 2 and get it over with, and let's talk about the story of Christmas and what it means. And, you know, with the Charlie Brown or one of the commercials, you just say talk, talk, talk. When do we eat?
Speaker 3:It's like man, when are we going to get to the opening presents? When are we going to get to the real stuff, the real Christmas? Let's get over to it. And so I think many times we take the joy out of Christmas rather than put joy into Christmas, because we have all these roofs and thou shalt do and thou shalt don't, and if you do, you know you've been gnarly, so you don't get in, right?
Speaker 2:right.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry I had to toss that in there, but you know so. The joy at Christmas is just the freedom to enjoy your relationship with Christ and with one another. We've detached it, We've detached the joy.
Speaker 1:so that we have our quote unquote Christian part and then we'll have our quote unquote fun part, rather than understanding that there are some.
Speaker 3:That's why I can put the two together.
Speaker 1:Right and, if you want, there's some fun and some enjoyment that should be interwoven into our Christian experience, because the Christian experience should be all of life, which means that it includes room for laughter and it Includes room for a jovial experience in yeah and the and the and the and the laughter that makes makes your stomach hurt, and the and the good cookies and the in the lights, and the, and all of these things that we talk about in terms of fun man right, all of these fun Elements.
Speaker 1:how have we gotten to a place where we detach ourselves From the fun when it comes to the Christian experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. That hasn't necessarily been my experience, though.
Speaker 3:Talk to me, about me, because I hadn't.
Speaker 2:I hadn't seen Christmas necessary. In the light may be to some degree, you know, especially for our children. We've done that whole thing where you know Christmas isn't your birthday, it's Jesus's birthday.
Speaker 2:So, we actually haven't been investing so much in the Present aspect for all of our children. So Christmas for us has not been a time of Immense spending. We kind of just we haven't, for our children, instilled that aspect. But that doesn't mean it's any less fun. We see family, we are able to, to find that kind of joy of being together, of having nothing, nothing, a fettered, you know nothing, nothing keeping us from being able to truly just enjoy each other's companies. You know, even even as sometimes, like when we were back down on the coast but my wife and I were both Pastoring churches on the coast, we would oftentimes our, our Christmases were filled with just church stuff all the time. You know church services in the evening at both of our churches. And then there was two years where Our two churches adopted a homeless ministry. For Christmas morning we just woke up and we went and we cooked breakfast and cooked lunch for our two churches. Just this homeless ministry. C-sure Forgot it, c-sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah one of the one of the homeless ministers down there. I forgot the proper name of it, sure, but it was just it was. It was. It was a good time, our kids loved it, we loved it and you know, that's just kind of how we've approached Christmas. And in our house yeah, you know it hasn't necessarily been the party that Nettie's talking about that as a meme or not having a sense of abiding joy. Yeah, in our lives that's just how we've chosen to do things at our house. I'm not trying to say, I'm not trying to Jesus-juke anybody and say that you know, this is the way it has to be, yeah, but I'm just saying this is the way that my family has decided to to practice and celebrate Christmas.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I don't think you're Jesus-juke and at all to basically say that our lives should be, that our lives as Christians should carry an experience of joy, and Certainly doing the time in which we are celebrating the arrival of Christ should joy be prominent. In fact, when we read passages like Proverbs, chapter 17, it says verse 22 a joyful heart is Good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. Last week we read Proverbs 14 and 30 and it talked about envy drying up the bones in a Peaceful heart bringing life to the body. Now we hear about joy and happiness bringing life to the body, and and and the Sorrow and the sadness and the brokenness that we can sometimes allow to allow to overtake our lives can can actually dry up Our lives, and so when you hear passages like that in the scripture, right.
Speaker 1:A joyful heart is good medicine. How do you, how do you Process that as Christians in your own life and particularly doing this season?
Speaker 2:Oh, for me, I processed and I'm with John Calvin in this, in the sense that how he approaches joy, in that.
Speaker 1:He's knocking his head on the mic, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know, because I'm quoting John Calvin and I'm a Methodist quoting John.
Speaker 3:Calvin.
Speaker 1:That's what.
Speaker 2:Calvin does is he focuses on the assurance of God's grace, that's it as as the foundation.
Speaker 2:So this union with Christ is the foundation for For all of our joy, and it gives us the salvation of this firm foundation, of this assurance that we know that we're given this gift From from God and thus we are able to then live this Christian life with a sense of gratitude, with a sense of joy. So so. So, when I hear a joyful heart and or versus a broken Spirit, for me I'm looking at this and I'm saying that the joyful heart can only come from a deep and abiding relationship with Christ Mm-hmm and with God, and knowing that we have that relationship and that is the best joy that we can have. That broken spirit, that broken heart comes from that Either either doubting, either not fully knowing, either just, or or just flat out knowing For a fact that you're not In union with Christ right, or doubting whether you're in union with Christ right, doubting we're union with this ultimate good, with this, this creator, with this life bringer right or losing sight of the benefits of having that union with Christ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, losing sides of. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely there's. There's definitely times of ebbs and ebbs and flows, yeah, that we have sometimes when we're a Christian, we always may not feel in our hearts that we are assured of that, but there are times that we can ask God for that assurance, which is a and which is once again I'm delving into, I guess, method of stuff. We would say that's a second blessing, yeah, of that assurance that we're there, were saved, but yet we can receive that assurance as a second blessing with Christ.
Speaker 3:You know, I got carried away with your discussion. I forgot what was it first.
Speaker 1:We got deep in the Methodist waters.
Speaker 1:That's what yeah, well, calvin waters too, we went to Calvin, we went to Methodist and now we're. Now we're in the waters. Hey, real quick, real quick. Before we jump too deep, let's take a quick break and then we will come back, because there's a couple of other things that I want to run by you. We particularly want to hear back from netty winners in terms of how he's processing and his thoughts on John Calvin and We'll take a quick pause and then we will come back with more on this episode of living reconciled.
Speaker 1:Living reconciled is a work of mission Mississippi, but it is not our only work. From days of dialogue and prayer meetings to consultation for schools, businesses and churches, mission Mississippi is eager to help you, your team, your church and your community live reconciled Every month. Join us for our weekly prayer breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 45 am, our bi-weekly statewide connection meetings on Fridays at 10 am and a focused time of prayer on the third Thursday of the month at 7 am. To get details on any of our upcoming events or to learn how you can invite us to your church, business or school, visit our website at mission Mississippi dot org and click on the events button or call us at 601 353 6477. Hey, thanks again for joining us on this episode of living reconciled, episode 34. Your host, brian crawford, with my really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really good friends austin winners, austin winners and netty winners. I've just combined, combined them. They're. They're such good friends that they're at a hall.
Speaker 2:He just sees it as the same person. I just see you as the same person netty hoyle austin winners.
Speaker 1:Gentlemen, how are you?
Speaker 2:How are you Go have a daughter in front of our names? So I think that works.
Speaker 3:I was, I was doing. Hey man, you got you guys, man you guys are just so intertwined, and so netty has a new a new son.
Speaker 1:His name is austin austin winners.
Speaker 3:I'm his white son. Welcome to the family, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So, dad, what's your view on right? What's your view on john calvin's view on joy right?
Speaker 3:How did I get? I was I was gonna get my view on a virtue.
Speaker 1:We'll share your view on. A joyful heart Does good like a medicine, but broken spirit Drives the bones when I think about the joyful spirit, I think about what paul says.
Speaker 3:He says that I am, I find myself and I've learned how to be content. Yeah, and whatever circumstance, that's joy. Yeah, he said, I am okay when there's not enough. Yeah, and man, I'm okay when there's too much, because I believe in that. He's saying listen, god G is not caught off, god by surprise in the circumstance. He knows my circumstance, he knows my condition and he's allowing this to happen to me and I need to be content and patient and calm and collected in in this situation. When I think about the broken spirit or broken heart, I think about all these great expectations.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Of anticipation, like like christmas man. It's like we go through the commercialism I think you make, we got these great expectations, man. It's like a drum roll For a whole year, yeah. And then the drum stops and the box open and you go like, is this anti Climatic or what? Yeah, it's just it. You know you get through opening the prayer and then you sit there and you're looking at each other like man, right, and then the other end of that broken spirit is like, really, it's just all I'm gonna get. I was expecting so much more.
Speaker 3:I was expecting a car. Here you come with a bicycle and it done even have any bells and whistles on it, and so I'm so disappointed, I'm so saddened by this and that thought of having joy in Jesus don't even get into the room.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the trick, right? The subtle trick has been our joy has been repositioned, whereas Christmas is supposed to be a time where joy flows from our relationship and our union with Christ and as it flows from that, it manifests itself in the giving, it manifests itself in the festival. But now what's happened is the joy has been repositioned so that it flows from the festival, not from Christ, but it flows from the festival and it doesn't flow to the gifts, or it doesn't flow from Christ to manifest in itself in gifts. It flows from the gifts. And so, even though we'll have Christ, if we don't have the gifts, we don't have joy, because our joy has been repositioned.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know. I appreciate sermon one time from the passage where a devil, no room in the end but Jesus. If of Mary and Joseph, our future sermon says Christmas just ain't Christmas without Christ and we get carried away with the festival or whatever you're talking about with the celebrative things or whatever. Who define all this stuff? How is defined that if you just get the right gift the diamonds, the car you know, who plants a lexicon in the snow meaning lexicon in the snow and come out the next morning, there's a big lexus.
Speaker 1:You know. So Is that the lexus commercial?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm thinking what would this kid do if he opened the door and and?
Speaker 1:the lexus wasn't there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he's like no bowing. He's like, oh, he goes and digging the snow and there's a little lexicon he put in there. So what is he gonna do? He hollets for mom and dad to celebrate the fact that the new lexus is there. But what happens if the lexus is not there?
Speaker 1:Right, mom, dad, because there's because there's, because there's many people Right who are gonna open their doors and the lexus will not be there.
Speaker 3:There you go, the lexus will not be there. But they were fully expecting, anticipating all of this wonderful joyful of getting a new car and a new whatever. And they opened the door and there's, that's nothing. You're trying to break a spirit.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about the prophet Habakkuk when we were talking about this and reflecting on this a little bit, where he talks about this idea where the Chaldeans have come along, they've been used as a tool in God's hand to punish God's people, so to speak, and they have this kind of roller coaster relationship where they've had much and then they come down to not having much at all.
Speaker 1:And as he's looking at the future and the way ahead, he has these last words in Habakkuk, chapter three, that he says. He says, though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olives should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice. Rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength, and he has made my feet like hind's feet and makes me walk on my high places. And so what Habakkuk is basically saying is though I walk outside and I open the door, and the Lexus is not there, big or small, or the gifts are not there.
Speaker 3:I still got the joy.
Speaker 1:I still rejoice. Why? Because the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is my God.
Speaker 3:He's saying yesterday, today and forevermore. I'm reminded of the fishman Peter. The Bible says when he got to the shore he forsook the greatest catch of fish in history and followed Jesus. For me, that says listen, I don't need to be dragging this, it's harding and holding on to this fish. When I got the guy right there, man. Whenever I want to fish, all he's doing is say dip your neck, dip your bucket, there you go, and then he's pointing me when he says that so I'm the guy who's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's the guy. Oh, you're the guy, you're the guy.
Speaker 3:So, so, so, so. So think about this, just think about this during Christmas, right, right, the Jesus that we're gonna, we walk out there and see that Lexus by the way, I don't mean to give any promotion to this, but we walk out there and see this great expectation of whatever it is be a Lexus, boat or whatever else it is Is that when we see that, oh, pray the Lord, god answers prayers, man, he blessed me forever and a day, and so forth, and so on. So if you walk out there and you don't see it, hey, is it still true?
Speaker 3:There you go, right. And my point is that, hey, if I'm depending on Jesus to bless me with a catch or whatever the, then my joy is complete. Yeah, without the thing or things, because he's able to give me what I need, just what I need.
Speaker 2:And sometimes what we need is the opportunity and empowerment to be a witness, and for me, I think that's what's when we have the greatest joy. You know, that type of heartwarming witness that we can offer to persons, no matter what they're going through, and it's almost like it's seeing Christmas, you know, is the Christmas season the place where we're deriving our joy, or is the Christmas season a place where we get to enact and live out our joy through? Because we're so, we have so much gratitude for what?
Speaker 3:we're doing. Christmas should be every day, yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I mean, I think that's part of the point. Absolutely, I think that's part of the point. It's a special time of year when we can set aside time to be able to express our joy and express our gratitude to God.
Speaker 1:And we do that together. And we do that together and there's nothing wrong with particular times of focus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, we do that. We do that in Easter, absolutely. You know, we have different holidays.
Speaker 1:We do that in wedding anniversaries Throughout the year.
Speaker 2:And I think it's because I do it on birthdays. Yeah, see but every day can't be my birthday.
Speaker 3:We can't celebrate as if every day is my birthday, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And if you're born on February 29th, you only get a birthday over four years, right? So no, but I'm Joe Pitch.
Speaker 3:Are you that lucky person that gets?
Speaker 2:Maybe that's what happened to Jesus. I mean, don't they say that Jesus was born sometime in the spring and maybe he was one of those?
Speaker 1:unlucky few. What is happening?
Speaker 2:What is happening?
Speaker 1:You're losing it now man, what were you saying now?
Speaker 2:You know, maybe he was born February 29th and they just said well, we got to give him a real birthday. So they decided it's December 25th.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, is that right? We're going to talk about four-leaf clovers.
Speaker 1:I was about to say if you guys keep down this road, I'm going to start calling you Nettie Hoyle and Austin Winters.
Speaker 2:Well, I do have Irish blood in me, so I'm perfectly fine with a four-leaf clover conversation, or it's a three-leaf.
Speaker 1:I forgot. So to Austin's point 2 Corinthians, chapter nine verse six.
Speaker 3:That is point about the four-leaf clover.
Speaker 2:Not about the four-leaf clover In a few minutes. I need to close out with John Wesley.
Speaker 1:Not about the four-leaf clover, but about giving, so to speak, flowing from joy. Paul says this. Now this I say he who sowed sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Listen to this. This is the most important part here for us today. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Is this a steward's?
Speaker 3:message man.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no. God loves a cheerful giver.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The gi no hold on, hold on. I can't shout now. The giving is the joy Is coming from joy, Exactly. Exactly, it is the joy so what happens in Christmas right is a product of the joy, Is a product of the joy, the giving. In other words, I got to receive something.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so joy is a gift, and thus we give because we've been given.
Speaker 1:Have you read in the latest that they've been Joy is a gift and because we have received joy, we are giving right from that joy. What happens how we twist the Christmas season is that, oh my goodness, I got to have All of this in order to have joy.
Speaker 2:I got to have all these things in order to have joy, so that I get out of Christmas with happiness and joy, exactly. I'm not-. I'm entering into it with happiness and joy so that I can help others also come united with Christ, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:That that that continuum on to say thanks. Be to God for the gift.
Speaker 2:Yes, indeed, indeed.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so. So you know, when the baby was born, in a manger, in the crib or whatever those people came, did they celebrate him or celebrate Is that?
Speaker 1:the crib or whatever, which is whatever Jesus was for it's manger crib whatever.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I see displays-.
Speaker 1:Water bed, water bed, whatever Jesus-.
Speaker 3:You know, hallclaws or whatever you know, did they do what we do today? Is that the model? Is that the example? I think that the kings said let's go worship him. Right, somebody said let's go worship him. Let's go bow down before him, let's go recognize him, and with that, for that day, part of the worship and part of the celebration was the brain gifts, not so much to him but on to God, but that sprung from joy.
Speaker 1:There you go. That sprung from joy and those guys was excited about that sprung from joy.
Speaker 3:It was so excited they counted it as such a privilege and honor and celebration that they man, we gotta bring a gift you know that's exciting, you know we get to do this thing of knowing that this is the savior that we long for, that we've been waiting for Absolutely.
Speaker 1:How it?
Speaker 3:has come, let us celebrate. You know we do what we pass out cigars or whatever you know.
Speaker 2:take a shot of bourbon or whatever you do so we do not condone the smoke I was about to say where is this going?
Speaker 1:We're talking about bourbon and cigars now.
Speaker 2:I was interested. I was about to say y'all, we only have 20 seconds left.
Speaker 1:My Baptist brothers and sisters are listening. Y'all be careful with this.
Speaker 3:I apologize for you the illustration of how we celebrated New Bird. We get excited and we use abbreviations Libriations, right.
Speaker 1:Hey, let's take a quick pause, as it relates to the podcast for our radio listeners. This wraps up our radio broadcast, but the good news is is that this is a podcast and so you can go out to any podcast subscriber and you can download living or subscribe to living reconcile podcast and you can continue this episode with us, and we would love for you to continue this episode with us for our radio listeners who won't be doing that today. We wish you a God bless before our podcast listeners will see you on the other side of this break. Living reconciled is a work of Mission Mississippi, but it is not our only work. From days of dialogue and prayer meetings to consultation for schools, businesses and churches, mission Mississippi is eager to help you, your team, your church and your community live reconciled Every month. Join us for our weekly prayer breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 645 am, our bi-weekly statewide connection meetings on Fridays at 10 am and a focused time of prayer on the third Thursday of the month at 7 am. To get details on any of our upcoming events or to learn how you can invite us to your church, business or school, visit our website at missionmississipiorg and click on the events button or call us at 601-353-6477.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Wrecking Sound, episode 34. I'm your host, brian Crawford, with some bonus content with my good, good, good friends Nettie Winters, austin Hoyle. We're talking about the joy in Christmas and this has been a really, really interesting discussion. When we left on the other side of the break, we were talking about 2 Corinthians, chapter nine, and Paul's words about giving from a cheerful place, and that in and of itself signifies that giving should come from joy and not to joy. In other words, I'm not giving in order to get joy through the, through the source of gifts and in hopes that when I give, you're going to give me something and receiving that that's going to make me have joy, but rather it should come from joy, and we talk about this from joy being our rootedness in Christ and our relationship in Jesus and the fact that he has arrived and come to earth, and that, in and of itself, has brought forth joy.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, austin, and I'm just, I'm hearing your description and I also want to say there's a there's a reciprocity between joy and giving as well, that, even if you don't necessarily have joy in your heart right now, don't, don't not give just because you don't. You're not giving out out out of the sense of joy, because taking and oftentimes if you take on the posture of joy, god bless you with amen. So taking on that posture, not posturing Amen, not not lying, not manipulating necessarily, of trying to say I have a state that I don't actually have, but if you just humbly ask God for joy and you take on that posture of joy, that may be an avenue. Amen To joy, and I think that's, I think that's fine. There's there's, there's a just the you know, a slight nuanced difference, I think, and how we sometimes understand joy deriving from certain things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, no, you're 100 and that posturing our hearts 100 percent 100 percent.
Speaker 3:You know, I think I got this Austin All right, is that? What I take from what you just said is that sometimes we force ourselves, fake ourselves into being joy. I won't complain or say something like that it's part of it and I'm gonna be joy.
Speaker 3:I don't care what anybody, I'm gonna have a happy Christmas. I'm gonna. You know, the thing about that is there's an insinuation in that's the make. That statement doesn't insinuation that you can do something to take away my joy. You can do something to break my heart. You can do something that's going to not allow me to have a happy, joyful whatever the term you want to use Christmas. And we're so busy making sure everybody have a merry Christmas. Whatever that means is that we forget about the fact that we're supposed to have a merry Christmas because of Christ, irrespectively or iris, whatever the word is about whether or not I got to give, and sometimes we give, even sometimes we don't give with the expectation to receive them, but we give to fulfill some emptiness or something you know I promise myself when I get money. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this. Like, really, is this bringing you joy? Is this part of joy? Forgiving? Is that I do it simply because of the joy within me to do that.
Speaker 1:But to Austin's point, that, even taking that, that point about, we've talked about this just collectively in our own private time of dialogue, where you take one of these words and you switch a letter out, you know, from I got to do, I get to do, and all of a sudden that is a paradigm shift, or shattering shift, so to speak. Perspective just moving from get got to do this, got to do that to I get to do this. In other words, moving from obligation to opportunity and life. Life in and of itself is all these opportunities that the Lord has afforded us. But I think to your point, austin, is that there are people out there who are saying to themselves oh so, since giving comes from joy and I don't have any joy, I shouldn't give and I shouldn't give any expectations from God, right or anything like that.
Speaker 1:You're right, you know you. You're just saying I don't currently have it and you adopt that nihilistic mindset that I never will Right and the reason I try God can actually bless us with joy in our obedience to him. Yeah, so pursuing joy through, in other words, we're giving but we're not giving because we're pursuing joy in terms of that reciprocity from people. Oh, if I give.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you a gift back.
Speaker 1:It's an obedience, but we're saying an obedience to God, even though I'm not feeling it in this moment. In obedience to God, I'm going to pursue joy in God by giving, with the hope that, because God is who he says he is, he's going to restore joy to me.
Speaker 3:What is the thing about feeling it? What's that? What feelings got to do with it?
Speaker 2:Not, feeling joy. Well, there's assurance, you know, I'm just saying there's assurance of God's blessings in our lives.
Speaker 3:And you know I got that. But. I'm saying I don't feel you know some emotion again is go back to this thing of how we defining happiness and joy Because I don't.
Speaker 3:I don't feel like my emotions and things that I want, as you say, I want to let so because I'm being dictated to by my feelings. So I decide, well, I'll never have it, you know. And so joy is a spontaneous thing that comes I mean the gift of giving and other things. That's a spontaneous thing that comes out of the joy. So again, I don't think we understand many times that people will manufacture some kind of joy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or a pretence. I definitely think that's true. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:We go from one extreme to the other, and so I help people say oh, I get so much joy out of Christmas, I want to go to the mailbox. I want to open the letters, yeah, and I just love giving and cooking and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2:I would just ask that person how are you the rest of the year? Yeah?
Speaker 1:but there are some people that do get that kind of joy.
Speaker 2:I mean every time.
Speaker 1:I hear Nettie describe these moments. I picture him as like the green little grinch that's going around still in Christmas presents for Mother. The tree, yeah.
Speaker 3:Why they talk about it. They know the joy Give it. I got my arms up.
Speaker 2:So if Nettie Winters comes to your house around Christmas lock the door.
Speaker 1:He's going to steal your joy.
Speaker 3:He's looking for all of the happy people. I'm not going to steal it, I want to give some.
Speaker 1:I'm going to steal it. Yeah, he's looking for those really excited people. Yeah, that's going around. It's really excited about Christmas.
Speaker 2:The reason why you do not have Alexis outside your house.
Speaker 1:Nettie's been at your house and he's taken it already.
Speaker 3:Thanks guys. I know we went from beginning of this podcast. We were really really, really, really, really really good friends and when we went to the rest of the story time. It became my good, good, good friend.
Speaker 2:Well, for a second there. When he said I'm talking about bonus content of the podcast, I was talking. He was about to say and these are my bonus friends. This is like they're not really our friends, but I get to hang out with them every once in a while.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So this thing of joy, how do I avoid these pitfalls that we're talking about that manufactured joy, or I don't feel the joy, I don't know how to be joyful. How do we avoid that? Yeah, here's a great they go with that Bible again. Man, he's a lot of scripture.
Speaker 1:Here's a couple of different ways in which we can look at that.
Speaker 1:Number one number one, psalm 16, and it says, verse eight I have set the Lord continually before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely.
Speaker 1:I think about that passage. It comes to mind because it basically is saying I have set the Lord before me, I have put my gaze on God. And so, in the midst of when we read Habakkuk, habakkuk is envisioning the destruction and the devastation and the lack and the gloom around him. And yet he says though the fig tree is not producing and though the olive branch is not producing, and though there's such lack of production around me, my hope is fixed and my hope is set on God. The Psalm is saying the same thing. I've set my gaze on God. And because I've set my gaze on God, rejoicing is what follows. I'm reminded of Second Samuel, I believe. Where is the Second Samuel? Six, the return of the Ark to the city where David is leading the processional dancing, because the presence of God has returned. Of course, there was a season where they touched the Ark.
Speaker 3:How about dance like David did?
Speaker 1:Right, they touched the Ark and of course the Lord strikes the individual who touches the Ark, strikes him dead, and all of that. We can unlock that and unpack that at a later time, but nevertheless they put the Ark in another place and say, hey, if that's gonna happen, we wanna avoid it, we wanna stay away from it. And then there's finally the season. The season finally arrives.
Speaker 1:The parade man when they can bring the Ark to the city and when they go and they get the Ark and the Ark comes back to the city, David is so excited.
Speaker 2:He's pumped.
Speaker 3:He's pumped.
Speaker 1:And why is it? It's because the presence of God is there.
Speaker 3:There you go, exactly.
Speaker 1:The presence of God. And so at the site and at the return of the presence of God comes joy. Luke two behold, I bring you good news of great joy. And what is that good news of?
Speaker 3:Glad tidings man Right.
Speaker 1:what is that glad tidings. What is that good news of great joy Christ has come.
Speaker 2:The presence of God Emmanuel.
Speaker 1:God with us. He is now here, and with that comes joy.
Speaker 3:And so that gaze? Yeah, y'all hear that there. Yeah, y'all hear that idea. I Christmas every day.
Speaker 2:Every day.
Speaker 3:Y'all come see me and bring the gifts Every day.
Speaker 1:Where were you going to say I'm sorry?
Speaker 3:I like that.
Speaker 2:I like that every day man Christmas every day.
Speaker 3:Every day, every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I was going to say. And what we do with that joy is we live it out. That's right Every day.
Speaker 1:You bring the gifts. That's right.
Speaker 2:He wasn't going to say anything too far. I might have thrown in the John Wesley quote or something but I'm not going to now for that.
Speaker 3:he's saying right. Thank you so much for that. Yeah, no, no problem, no problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, married Christmas. And whoever needs me to quote any theologian, I can just let me know a couple of minutes before the next episode Now I'll do it and that he will be very appreciative of that, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I want to go back to the point you made Brian about when you quoted Samuel and some other places. There's a passage that says the joy of the Lord, that's our strength, that's our strength, and the strength of the Lord is my joy, right? The second part, the strength of the Lord is my joy, not the strength of my gift In the sense of some box, wrapping paper on it or in some individual that wears a red suit. My joy is in the Lord.
Speaker 3:And because of the Lord I have strength and I have contentment and I don't want to miss this thing of contentment. See, so often I think the broken spirit, the broken heart and things you talk about, the depressions and other things comes out of the fact that we're just not content. We're not content in the Lord because there'll be some. I ought to get something out of it. I ought to get some kind of surge or charge or whatever. We always experience it. We jumpin' off cliffs and you know, conkin' the mountain, the fastest car, the greatest fancy football team, that's mine.
Speaker 2:That's mine.
Speaker 3:So we're always competing and we always want more. At what point do we start wanting more, stop wanting more? Yeah.
Speaker 1:When we find our satisfaction in Christ.
Speaker 3:When I say want more, I want more Christ, of course.
Speaker 1:But at what point do we get satisfied? I would satisfy when we finally find our satisfaction in Christ.
Speaker 3:Do we go to the wedding in Canaan? They celebrate for five days, sounds good to me.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about joy, right, even when we talk about where is joy in the life of the Christian, where can joy be found in Christianity?
Speaker 1:It is not mere coincidence that the very first miracle that Jesus works Come on somebody Is the transformation of water into wine at a wedding feast.
Speaker 1:That's been ongoing for days on days, and so there's a celebration, and that celebration, that transformation of water to wine, is intended to show us, number one, that of course, this is the Christ, and the Christ has arrived. But it's also intended to foreshadow for us that he is preparing us for another feast, another wedding, another marriage, the church in the groom, who's the Christ uniting forever in a marriage feast that will forever continue. And so, all within our Christian understanding of even the arrival of Jesus and his confirmation and his affirmation to the world that I am the Christ, all in our understanding of that is joy, this proclamation that comes with joy. And so there is. I say all that to say that when we, when Christians, when we hide that, whether it be in our Christmas expression or whether that be in our daily expression, we are reducing in some way, what does it mean to actually live out the Christian life? Right To live out the Christian life is to live it out in a sense of joy, is to live it out in a sense of David.
Speaker 1:David says, hey, I'm dancing uncontrollably almost wide because the presence of God has come and, in the same way, that should be consistent with the Christian life that I have a joy unspeakable. Why? Because the presence of God has come and now lives in me, and so, yes, this Christmas holidays, while you may not have the Lexus that's parked out front, man, listen go inside.
Speaker 3:We've probably got everybody not thinking what is this Lexus?
Speaker 1:Right next week we'll be like we'll be talking about. Hey, thanks for joining Living Reckon South, sponsored by Lexus.
Speaker 2:Sponsored by.
Speaker 3:Lexus. We mentioned Lexus so much at this point.
Speaker 1:I know it, we need to start mentioning these songs, right, but when you think about this idea of the Christmas cookies and the candy and the oven cooking and all this food, it should be springing from this joy that we have in Christ and so it's like man, I'm celebrating, not the cookies.
Speaker 2:I'm celebrating the fact that Jesus is ours and we are His All right and I've kind of got a concluding thought of the difference of what it is joy versus what we talked about last week envy.
Speaker 2:So oftentimes when we're envious, we're envious sometimes of those who have joy or those who we look at it having joy Because we're on the outside looking at it.
Speaker 2:We like what joy looks like, we like the big holidays, we like the big family gatherings, we like to have that food and for so many of us, especially if you're operating and looking at joy from an envious perspective, that's what joy looks like and that's the extent of what joy looks like. You know, outside looking in, and those who are oftentimes envious aren't looking at the very fact that this joy is coming from a deep and abiding relationship with Christ. But they like all of the outside aspects of joy. They like having a person that has a countenance that is good and fair, countenance that is kind, that is gentle and all that, and they want that for themselves. Because I think a lot of times you know what's keeping people from being kind and gentle and having that type of good, fair countenance is internal, isn't allowed, you know and they look at someone who has that and they say, I want that too.
Speaker 2:Where does that come from? And they're envious and they try to replicate that based on being from the outside looking in. They try to replicate that for their own lives and oftentimes they may not reach it. Because, they're coming at it from a perspective or from a direction that isn't going to be helpful and isn't pointing towards the prevalence of Christ.
Speaker 1:Isn't this a golden opportunity to Austin right when people observe that joy in our lives, that we give them the source right To be a witness.
Speaker 3:We give them the reason for that joy, as Paul would tell us to be prepared to give a reason for the hope.
Speaker 1:And in a sense there's very much some of that as well there in terms of be prepared to give a reason for that joy that you live in and that you walk in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also without that reason.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes I think we see a lot of people kind of going through the basic outward lookings of what they think joy looks like. And that's the whole point that you have people, year after year after year, they do the same thing over and over again, even though it has stopped giving them joy and even though it has stopped being a product of joy, and that is exclusive, because they're looking after what they have either had in the past or what they see other people as having. So it becomes kind of this outward expression of a desire that they want to have. They don't necessarily have it, but yet it is something that they're chasing after, absolutely Right. I mean, we see all the time, or we hear all the time about how families, they come together for the holiday seasons and they have fights, even though they're trying to replicate what they've done in the past, and maybe relational reasons why they don't. But it also may be because they're pursuing joy in a way that doesn't lead towards that type of long, lasting, abiding relationship with Christ. Right, right.
Speaker 2:Amen, I know, I just jumbled a lot of thoughts in there, no good thoughts, all good thoughts, all good thoughts.
Speaker 1:I wanted to share this final quote, really interesting way of looking at joy in and of itself. He says life is serious all the time, but living cannot be. You may have all the solanness you wish in choosing neckties, but in something important such as death, sex and even religion, you must have mirth or you will have madness. You must have jovial times, you must have times of levity, you must have times of lightheartedness, you must have times of laughter. And if you do not have laughter, if you do not have joy, if it's all all straight laced and all you know, straight tight lipped, and if that's the life, then that life is bound for madness.
Speaker 1:And so our hope and our prayer this holiday season, this Christmas season, this Advent season, is that your homes would be filled with joy, and hopefully you've heard today that it does not require an abundance of gifts or Nissan, new Nissan's out front, or new Lexus is out front, but hopefully you've learned that.
Speaker 3:That existence would look good and I know it, I know it.
Speaker 1:But hopefully you've learned that Christ is the source of the of, source of that joy, and from that joy flows all the festivities flows, all the food flows, all the fun, not to joy, but from the joy that's already rooted and founded in Christ.
Speaker 3:You're saying that I can have a joy for Christmas and don't have to go through the commercial stuff of buying gifts and all these things threatening and frantic and and panicking and all of those things that brings people into these stages of madness as you talked about earlier. You mean I can just relax, become and take in the joy of just enjoying the presence of God, as David did. And when I do that, I can dance like David.
Speaker 1:I would encourage you before you even go out and buy one gift. I would encourage you to rest in that joy.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm resting in that joy. I just hope the people that expect the gift of me are resting in the joy. I love it.
Speaker 1:The people that are listening in. They're saying rest in that joy that it did Make sure you go get that gift.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying I'm going to rest in that joy through the 31st. So I'm not going out, I'm going to rest in that joy. And I guess my final thoughts before we two now is this is the second time he's lying. I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Those were concluding thoughts.
Speaker 1:Oh this is a final.
Speaker 2:This is different. This is the final thought If you wake up and you go outside and you were expecting Alexis and and you believe Sanad didn't bring you one, maybe Sanad didn't forget you and maybe it's just at Nettie's house. I'm done.
Speaker 1:I am Brian Crawford, with my good friends. I think to be a Nissan, with my good friends Nettie Hoyle and Austin Winters, signing off saying God bless, god bless, god bless. Thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.