Faithbase

close. We're close. Hey folks. Today is our third installment of the Advent series I've been doing. Um, kind of here and there. It, uh, today we are actually talking about joy and we're going to look at this pretty amazing story in Luke. Um, we've talked about hope and we've talked about peace. You can go check those out. I'm going to post this story down below. You can read along as I, as I share it, but essentially Mary is visited by angel. Gabriel says, you're going to bear the, your son, the Messiah, you're going to call him Jesus. And, uh, your cousin is also pregnant and, um, I want you to go visit her. So Mary gets up and she, she travels to go visit her cousin and her cousin, Elizabeth. Um, she heard Mary's greeting and the baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy spirit and a loud voice. She exclaimed, blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy. Blessed is she who has believed the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. Jesus is, isn't even born yet. And here he enters the room and, and creates joy in the people who are in the room. And that's just fantastic. It's incredible. Jesus does this throughout the gospels. He does lots of other things and creates lots of other experiences for people as well. But, um, here in John 15, the night before he goes to be betrayed, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says this, when you obey my commands, you remain in my love, just as I obey my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. I hope that your life and your time with God is filled with joy in this season. No matter the circumstances, Jesus, his actual presence can be with you through the Holy spirit and bring you joy. I know for some of you, um, you're definitely experiencing that all the time. It's such a joyous season anyway, and you get to spend time with family and friends. I know some of you, this season is particularly hard and my hope, my prayer for you right now, I'm just going to pray for you, Lord, that each and every person who hears these words would be filled with your joy and blessed to overflowing. God bless you and may his peace and joy rain on you.