Do you find joy in your relationship with others? Welcome to the Parable Podcast, today I would love to share one of my recent messages from our home church as we take a little holiday break here at the Parable Podcast.

First, let me say thank you! When you have so many options to choose from, thank you so much for being a listener. 2023 has been a great year and I have been so encouraged by all of these stories. Please enjoy this message wherever it may find you today.

What happens if joy is not separate from pain? What if joy and pain are fundamentally tangled up with one another? Or even more to the point, what if joy is not only entangled with pain or suffering, or sorrow, but is also what emerges from how we care for each other through those things? What if joy, instead of refuge or relief from heartbreak, is what [bursts forth] from us as we help each other carry our heartbreaks? - Inciting Joy by Ross Gay

Sermon Notes

• Choosing joy changes our relationship with others.
• Happiness is how you feel when good things happen to you.
• Joy is an attitude and way of life that you choose despite what happens to you.
• “Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy.” Philippians 4:8
• “More than anything you guard,……protect your mind, for life flows from it.”
  Proverbs 4:23 CEB
• But even if we Choose joy, does it change our relationships with others?
• “Nevertheless, it was admirable of you to participate in my affliction. Philippians 4:14

Reflection Questions

1. Remember Happiness is how you feel when good things happen to you. And oy is an attitude and way of life that you choose despite what happens to you. Write down 3 things in each of those categories and thank God for the ways Joy shows up in your life
   
   
2. Inciting Joy by Ross Gay - What if joy, instead of refuge or relief from heartbreak, is what [bursts forth] from us as we help each other carry our heartbreaks? Think through that for yourself as you walk through this season of your life.

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