Celebration Must Be Stronger Than Cynicism - Jon Tyson

Isaiah 60:1 one through seven the spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom to the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the favor or the year of the favour of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes though the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair they will be called oaks of righteousness a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor and they will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated they will renew the ruined cities and have bent that had been devastated for generations strangers will Shepherd your flocks foreigners will work in your fields and vineyards and you will be called priests of the Lord you will feed on the wealth of the nation's and in their riches you will boast instead of your shame you will receive a double portion and instead of gray of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance and so you will inherent inherit a double portion of the land and an everlasting joy will be yours this is the word of the Lord we are continuing along in our series this must be stronger than that and I like we're talking about how cynicism cannot be stronger than celebration it is important that the church acts as a counterculture to the way of the world God's heart has always been that his people would bring hope they would be a distinct people who are not compromised by the world around them but have something to offer and tonight we're going to talk about the importance of celebration in a culture of cynicism we do live in a culture of cynicism don't we it's hard to be a New Yorker and not be cynical you meet someone that like I love this place so much it's so great I'm gonna do really well here it's like you won't you wanna look I don't know how to tell you this you're not gonna make it on Broadway you're not gonna make it in finance it's not gonna happen it's something that isn't it true when you meet someone and they and they they sort of get off the bus and they're all you know excited and filled with joy it's like we feel like a sort of like a citizenship type responsibility to just beat that out of them there's something in New York that just over the course of time develops cynicism if I honestly had a dollar for every time somebody said to me you know but well I'm just a cynical New Yorker it's just one of the things that comes with the territory there's the low-grade cynicism that we we have in this city and that is obviously you know sort of like a part of life here it is very challenging and it can be hard and very few people will actually realize their dreams in a place like New York but there's a deeper cynicism that's leaking into our hearts it's leaking into our culture and this kind of cynicism is a troubling cynicism it kind of comes with a sense of hopelessness cynicism as defined by one author says this it's an attitude characterized by a general distrust of others motives a cynic you may have a general lack of faith or hope in the human species or people motivated by ambition desire greed gratification materialism goals and opinions that a cynic perceives as vain unattainable or ultimately meaningless and therefore deserving of ridicule or admonishment and so that is what's happening in our culture cynicism around almost everything cynicism around the institution of marriage cynicism around our economy cynicism around politics cynicism around entertainment it's just so much cynicism in our world and you can understand where some of this comes from because of the failed promises of modern culture in terms of our own proven dallas world says this modernity has given us a culture that offers a flood of self-fulfillment programs in the form of political scientific and even psychological revolutions all promise to promote personal peace and affluence and yet we suffer from an epidemic of depression suicide personal emptiness and escapism through drugs and alcohol Kotick obsession consumerism sex violence now there's that and then you look at the kind of week we've had this week living here in the city I live just over here in Hell's Kitchen where some of those pipe bombs were sent this week and you could just citizen the app was just going insane on my phone and then it was like what is what is happening oh yeah people are so disillusioned and so cynical that they're resorting to terrorism and you just sort of feel like is this an endless loop and then yesterday what happened with the shooting in the synagogue the rise of anti-semitism around the world it says anybody who gets up and says we can do it yes we can everyone's like no we can't probably not I appreciate your heart but grow up the world is a dark and hard place reading a book right now called winners take all I'm not sure I recommend it but I am reading it and in it the author basically critiques the current state of the United States and so let me just give you a couple of highlights American scientists make the most important discoveries in medicine and genetics publish more biomedical research than those of any other country but the average Americans health remains worse and slower improving than that of peers in other rich countries and in certain years of expectancy life expectancy actually declines American inventors cred astonishing new ways to learn thanks to the power of video on the internet many of them free of charge but the average twelfth graders test more poorly in reading today than in 1992 the countries had a culinary Renaissance as one publication puts it one farmers market in whole foods at a time but it's failed to improve the nutrition of most people with the incident of health related diseases increasing steadily over time the tools of becoming an entrepreneur appear to be more accessible than ever the student who learns coding online or the yuba driver but the share of young adults who actually own a business has fallen by two-thirds since the 1980s America's birth the wildly successful online book superstore called Amazon and another company Google that scanned more than 25 million books for public use but illiteracy has remained stubbornly in place and the fraction of Americans who read at least one work of literature a year has by almost a quarter in recent decades the government has more duck where's the good news John can we get past this still going the government has more data at its disposal and more ways of talking and listening to citizens but only one quarter as many people find a trustworthy than it did in the middle of the Vietnam War in the 1960s rich American men who tend to live longer than the average citizens of any other country now live 15 years longer than poor American men who endure as long as men in the Sudan and in Pakistan so there's this just this deep deep sense that we're stuck here nothing's really gonna change actually doesn't matter who's president no one's in office long enough to really change the thing and religious leaders keep falling and your friends keep falling and it's just it just gets into our spirits so there's a laughter in our culture it's a laughter of derision it's a laughter of disbelief it's a laughter of defiance it's foolish laughter and anybody who believes anything can change and honestly wouldn't you say that that feels a lot like the culture that we live in now the problem with that is that when that sort of cynicism makes it way it makes its way into the church we lose our antibodies of hope to offer the world anything I don't know if you get around this I I have some cynical people who speak to me occasionally on social media and any time I tweet something about revival or a move of God they symbolically roll their eyes no I was getting in touch with these Pentecostal roots bless his heart but nothing's gonna change someone gets healed in you like yeah but honestly man I mean they were drinking juice at the same time so it was probably just like natural anyway our ability to dismiss the work of God in the church is kind of extraordinary and you just you see a lack of expectation and we begin to believe that this is all there is the effect of cynicism from the culture bleeding into the church is that instead of being people who carry good news we begin to agree with the world that there is no good news and the gospel means an announcement of good news so I could have easily called this talk tonight joy must be stronger than cynicism or hope must be stronger than cynicism but I hope as we go through this you'll see that that's assumed and it's implied but celebration is the practice of defiance against cynicism it's spiritual warfare against hopelessness it is a prophetic reminder of who God is and what God can do and so we have to practice this as a discipline to push back the cynicism in our world and so what I want to do tonight is just build basically a biblical theology of celebration at the end of it I want to give you five practical ways that we can begin to build a culture of celebration and then we're gonna close by just celebrating God when you think about God what do you think about in your mind what's God like he's excited to see you does he feel about life how does he feel about the world if we don't think that God is happy or in a good mood or filled with joy then we won't see that as fundamental or essential to our discipleship but we do serve a joyful God this is how John of a big puts it in the life you've always wanted we will not understand God until we understand this about him God's the happiest being in the universe God also no sorrow Jesus is remembered among other things as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief but the sorrow of God like the anger of God is his temporary response to a fallen world that sorrow will be banished forever from his heart on the day the world is set right joy is God's basic character joy is his eternal destiny and God as the happiest being in the universe and if we believe this and then we believe that we are made in the image of God and it's our job to represent him in the world it's important that we see that as fundamental to discipleship if God were joyless and we've been created to mirror him in the world we could not pursue God and joy the closer we moved to joy the Father we would find ourselves from him the closer to him the greater our distance from joy but that is not the living in true God happy the people whose God is the Lord if we take our cues from the Bible and the ancient people of faith through whom it came to us we will see that all Crete joy is grounded in the creator's joy here's the wellspring of joy in all places and all times it is the joy from which all joy in the universe flows so we need joy that's in your life the source of it if you trace it back far enough it's gonna come back to God himself so if this is what God's lacking that's our job to be His image bearers part of our call is to model this sense of joy and celebration in all of life so I want to show you this thread and I want to make the case tonight that celebration joy delight this is not sort of an occasional theme in the scriptures it's a dominant theme all the way through the scriptures in fact if you don't understand that you may not understand the story of God so I want to start in Genesis chapter 1 looking at a few ideas that perhaps we've overlooked when it comes to God being in a good mood Genesis chapter 1 creation now most of us when we read the Genesis account a lot of us are kind of like is that scientific is a poetry is it literal it's just like I don't I think if you were to talk to the authors of the text I'd be like what are you talking about I don't think that's the point they're trying to make what they want us to know is that there's a good God who made the world and it was good this is their intent is to describe who God is and what he's made and a lot of us then because of that we try to import different theories into it and often they're kind of like scientific theories or their theories that are very reserved there are motionless theories like God's kind of like a stoic engineer if you're an engineer I love you bless you I'm glad you're here but he's kind of like a stoic engineer not like you and he's just sort of sitting there going okay let there be light okay that was good let the let there be a gap between the land and the sea okay that's not bad that's good that's good he's just making his way look at what it says in job 38 about the emotional tone of creation this is God having a chat with Jobe where were you and I laid the Earth's foundation tell me if you understand who marked off its dimensions surely you know who stretched up during line across it or what were its footing set or who laid its cornerstone and what's happening while this is happening while the morning stars sang together and all the Angels shouted for joy what's the soundtrack of creation it's like here he goes again here we go so get this singing that's happening here and there's like yes yes shouting with joy whoa I mean this is the soundtrack of creation this is not a stoic reserve this is this is not this is not God emotionally separated this is a joyful soundtrack of life and that's why when God makes everything he's like it's good it's good it's good it's good good very good his heart is in this there is an emotional field of celebration and life enjoy woven into the fabric of creation another area that perhaps Christians think is an area that's supposed to be sort of obligation and duty but that's not what the Bible's idea is it's the issue of tithing how many of you when you get ready to give to the Lord are like oh my gosh honestly this might be the highlight of my week tithing joy I had a friend who used to call that boxes at the back of the room joy boxes you put your offerings in the joy boxes I like that Deuteronomy 14 be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year eat the tithe of your grain you wine and oil and the first one of your herds flocks in the presence of the Lord your God or the place you choose is a dwelling for his name so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always but that place is too distant you've been blessed by the Lord your God and you cannot carry your tithe because a place where the Lord will choose to put his name is so far away exchange your tithe the silver take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose use the silver to buy whatever you like cattle sheep wine or other fermented drink or anything you wish then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice do not look like the Levites living in your towns for they have no a lot other inheritance of their own so one of the things that you learn in seminary in studying Hebrew is that this case is act this passage actually here is making the case for bourbon and barbecue you can see it actually quite quite clear in the text use the silver to bar whatever you like cattle sheep wine or other fermented drink and just rejoice before God what an image of giving in celebration and joy before the Lord in the New Testament it says God loves a cheerful Giver the chief will give the Greek word hilarion where we get the term hilarious he loves hilarious give me some star I love this love generosity my gosh the offering was so good this week honestly I'm a church hopper and I shop at different churches just to give to the offerings because it's my favorite thing I do is giving the church is all over the city and building it up laughter tithe another area perhaps another area the Scriptures the law the Old Testament many of you the Old Testament particularly the law Leviticus Deuteronomy your favorite parts of the Bible and when you look at the reading you plan out like our wonderful chronology today hallelujah look you thought of meeting with the Holy Spirit through the text but look at what happens in Nehemiah chapter 8 when they recover the law Nehemiah who was the governor and Ezra the priest inscribed and the Levites he taught the people said to all the people this day is holy to the Lord your God don't mourn or weep now remember the context of this passage we taught through this last year the book of Nehemiah their city has been so a part of the remnant has gone back and built the temple but they're struggling and there's no safety in the city because the gates are burned down they can't get protected and so they you know in a covenant of repentance begin to turn back to God and they're rebuilding the wall rebuilding the gate and then they hear the word of the Lord read over them and they realize they've just been failing God in terms of covenant obedience says for the people wept as they heard the words of the law but then he said to them go your way eat the fat drink sweet wine send portions to anyone who has nothing ready for this day is holy to the Lord and do not be grief for the joy of the Lord is your strength so the Levites come the people and they said be quiet for this day is holy do not be grieved and all the people went their way to eat and drink in to send portions and to make greater rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them now I love this phrase how's the weekend it's not bad what you get up to I made great rejoicing this weekend really where'd you do that I did that a church tithing it was fantastic great rejoicing this is their response they hear the word they understand it and you see this again an ear March up to 12 and on that day they offer great sacrifices rejoicing because God had given them great joy the woman intrude and also rejoiced the sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away what is that noise you know what that is that's the sound of great rejoicing that's the sound of sweet drinks and fatty meats that's the sound of the goodness of God now the reason this is important because you remember Sanballat and the enemies that gathered around them to shut them down and so part of their triumph over their enemies part of their declaration of the goodness of God and the victory of God was to celebrate and the noise of it was heard by their enemies now the other thing we see in the Old Testament the festival's many of you when you've read these accounts about God establishes these festivals or feast through the course of the year you like I bet it was like honestly like a week-long lecture series we know what festivals are today don't we've got some festivals here Coachella Coachella Coachella looks pretty strong by the way that's a strong festival they should do it they should do a filter for that next what about this one Bonnaroo Bonnaroo first time I heard Ray LaMontagne holy place holy moment next slide this is burning man this looks biblical I don't know what they're doing in the desert but this looks kind of kind of biblical my point is when we think of festivals we think I cannot wait maybe here in New York is like I cannot find a Governors Island so I'm ready for a weekend or a few days have just revelry and joy and fun how many of you view this is what this is what it was happening in the Old Testament these festivals were feast look Allah says in Deuteronomy again says then you shall keep the feast of weeks of the Lord your God you shall rejoice before the Lord your God you should keep the feast of booths seven days you shall rejoice in your feast I mean the term feast is a bit of a giveaway what you're supposed to be doing rejoice in the feast before the Lord and this oh it's - I think one of God's favorite practices or rhythms in the Old Testament the concept of Jubilee Leviticus 25 you should consecrate the 50th year proclaim Liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants it should be a jubilee for you and each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan if you brought if your brother becomes poor besides you and sells himself to you you shall not make him serve as a slave he should be with you as a hired servant as a sojourner he shall serve with you until the year of Jubilee then he should go out from you he and his children with him and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his father's so you imagined this this was God's Way of ensuring that amongst the children of God there was no such thing as systemic poverty there was never to be in the economy of God multi-generational poverty so in every lifetime there was a great reset when you were reminded the whole thing was Grayson it all belong to God we ought to be generous people so you can imagine if you're a kid and you're born on the 43rd year and it's been a tough time for your family daddy why are we working like this been a tough season son but I've got good news Jubilee is coming you can imagine that countdown daddy's at Jubilee yet not yet 4 years to go what's gonna happen in 4 years everything will be as God intended there's the great reset of Mercy 1 daddy is that you believe yet no only three daddy is it no it's not I'll let you know trust me the whole world will know when the Jubilee comes you can imagine the year of Jubilee that feeling of just freedom and joy being released from bondage and God wanted this to be a part of their culture that was supposed to be different than any other community on earth and it was a giant celebration is this your view of tithing in God's Word is this your vision of what's happening through the scriptures is this your understanding perhaps one just one more maybe worship the second samuel chapter 6 you're familiar with this passage this is when King David brings the Ark of the Covenant into the city and you know the story he gets a little excited so he strips off his outer garments he's like where's Loras if I've got a dancing choice for the Lord down of the ephod and he's in the ephod and he's just like just like he's he's letting it God completely unaware of the world around it oblivious dancing and celebrating before the Lord and his wife Michael sees him and says oh good one good one you've embarrassed yourself he's supposed to be the king and she despised him in his heart and you know what it says from that point he says you know what I'll become even more undignified than this and it says from that day on she was barren he never had children her cynicism led to Baroness but David his worship led to the presence of God defining his whole ministry and anybody who hasn't encountered with his God has one of these moments of joy and overwhelm our thinking about Blaise Pascal he's encounter with God they found this sewn into his coat after he died on November 23rd 16:54 he was obviously my philosopher and an incredible thinker but he had this sewn into his coat and this is what it says from about half-past ten in the evening until half-past twelve fire now if ever there's a Pentecostal introduction it's this fire fire fire he's got fire sewn into his heart okay God of Abraham god of Isaac God of Jacob not of the philosophers and scholars he was a philosopher and a scholar certitude certitude feeling joy peace God of Jesus Christ dear meum @dm vestrum your God be my god forgetfulness of the world and everything else except God he's to be found only by the ways taught in the gospel greatness of the human soul righteous father the world has not known you but I have known you joy joy joy tears of joy so is that into his jacket everywhere he goes the filter over his heart is of the joy of encountering the God of the Bible the most commonly used word for celebration in the Old Testament is translated with as laughter with joy laughter with joy so we God says I want you to celebrate he's like I want you to have joyful laughter don't you have laughter with joy I want the sound of what I've done to be heard by your enemies from a great distance coming out of your life this is what God is like the enemy's strategy at this time of history is to profane the character of God to make him into somebody his not and God wants us to see his goodness his love his life that he is a God of joy so you would expect then moving through the New Testament that this will not only continue but intensify and you see this the Angels when they're giving their manifesto they're appearing to the shepherds and the Shepherd's like hey angels what are you doing here and they say this I bring you good news of great joy that should be for all the people oh that's good good news great joy all people so Jesus mission in the world was to bring joy and it was great news and was for everybody and so when Jesus begins his ministry Luke chapter 4 Jesus turns to the passage that was the teaching text and he picks this as the theme of his ministry and if you ever get bored go back to that teaching text in the Book of Isaiah because there's 11 things that define the Ministry of Jesus from that passage and if you want to know what it looks like when people live in the way of Jesus for the renewal of the city those 11 things will set your heart on fire about what is possible in our world today Luke 4 Jesus begins by saying this so the context again Jesus is in the local community and he's in the synagogue and he's getting ready and he has the opportunity to read a text and he says this the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he sent me to proclaim Liberty to the captives recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant he sat down when the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him and his response is today that's been fulfilled right here he would talk about an awkward moment who's sitting who's like I picked that one because I'm gonna do that stuff because I'm I'm him and what's their response to him do you remember in this passage they tried to throw him off a cliff and kill him cynicism at the messiah's ministry has always been present and so Jesus gives us this reminder that if we are going to be people who celebrate we're gonna have to contend for celebration because people will always seek to either reduce it or to miss it and so this is Jesus hold ministry he just goes around and he finds people who've been left out of the party of God the celebration of God it just invites them and he brings him in so you begin to see a theme developing Jesus teachings Luke 14 a man once had a great banquet and he invited many people to it none at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who'd been invited come everything's ready but they began to make excuses the first said you know I bought a field and I'd need to go see it excuse me another said I bought five yoke of oxen I need to examine and excuse me should have examined before you bought them and other said I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come so the servant came and reported this to his master the master of the house became angry and said go quickly to the streets and lanes of the city bringing the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame the servant said sir what you've done has been done what your command has been done there's still room master said to the servant go out to the highways and hedges compel people to come in that my house may be full you ever been to a party and no one's there and it's kind of sucky you know you like or maybe just like an event you can like hey how's it going already told you I didn't like you okay my friends doing okay Yelp anything good at all I mean you did if you ever have you been to one of those it's that awkward silence where I'm missing my joke here you know what I'm talking about have you ever been one of those parties is just jumping into the Annis incredible incredible the amount of energy God's not interested in like a few awkward people in the kingdom of God his heart that it may be full that it may be full Matthew 22 Jesus spoke again of the kingdom the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king you have a wedding feast for his son and again similar situation the oxen fat calves have been slaughtered sweet wine has been prepared the wedding feast is ready and people begin to make excuses I'm too busy I can't come so the Kings angry and destroys the city and the people who refuse his invitation but again go to the roads invite the wedding feast as many as you can find and those who and they went into the roads and gathered all they found good and bad in the wedding hall was filled with guests Jesus theme I don't know if you aware of this the kingdom of heaven is like a great banquet the kingdom of heaven is like a great feast the kingdom of heaven is like a great celebration Jesus is trying to make the point that he is here God is in the world redemption is happening rescue is available the kingdom is drawing near and cynicism shut people out I'm busy it's not coming from you is it they didn't honor him and then Jesus leads us up to what I think is sort of like pretty pretty aggressive move on Jesus behalf Luke 15 where he just he goes jab jab straight right hand it's over for the Pharisees he takes the same point and so the only place in the Gospels he makes us three times in a row tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear to hear him and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying the man receives sinners and eats with them so he tells a parable ok there's a man who has a hundred sheep he loses one of them and then he leaves the ninety-nine in the open field and when he finds it he puts it on his shoulders and rejoicing comes home and says honestly I'm sick of these sheep they always run away I am done with sheep and goes on with his life but it's not what it says right here rejoice with me I found my sheep that was lost in Jesus so I told you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent part two there's a woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin lights a lamp and sweeps the house the King diligent if she finds it and when she finds it she pops it in her pocket says there it is and then keeps cleaning no she gathers her neighbors and friends and says rejoice with me I found the coin that was lost just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over once who repents and then Jesus this is all just a setup for the prodigal son which is a we're still talking about today extraordinary and you know this story the young man runs away spends his money on prostitutes at wild living and then comes home comes to his senses and he turns home and then this is what we read the father runs down the road cuts off his repentance speech says quick bring the best robe put it on him put a ring on his hand shoes on his feet bring the fattened calf kill it let us eat and celebrate for my son was dead and he's alive again he was lost and he was found and they began to celebrate now the older brother you know the story is out in the field and he hears the noise and I always do this in a Shakespearean voice but he's like what is that noise is that mirth I hear is that mirth from the house he's angry angry at the joy and delight from the celebration so he comes in and he's angry and what does he say you never gave me a young goat that I can celebrate with my friends and what does his father say everything I have is yours the culture of celebration is the culture of this house but you never utilize their resources this party was available for you but because it's not in your heart you didn't throw it for yourself Jesus says it's in John 15 I've spoken these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full my joy in you your joy for that's what abiding is it's about joy now are you picking up on the theme of Jesus ministry hopefully you are I read a book this summer a wonderful book I really enjoyed it it was a book called the power of moments and it's if you're a human being it's a good book for you and it's a book about the psychology of how to build moments that last a lifetime and I really enjoyed this book I read it several times I was on a road trip are going through cemani and my kids are in the car and I had him stuck in the car had a captive audience so I put it on put it on the stereo system trying to just bleed this into their here's the power of moments people said well would you get out of the book you read a lot of books why was this one so good I was like he's well so good because when you get ready to celebrate when you get ready to mark this holy moment there will always be resistance and cynicism and have a phrase in this book and here's the phrase beware of the soul-sucking voice of reasonableness beware the soul-sucking voice of reasonableness we can't afford that we don't have time it's too expensive it's not worth it silence what is that I hear so sucking voice of reasonableness I hear is that the soul sucking voice of reasonableness come out of Jesus name none of you in my life the soul sucking voice of reason with every now and then and one of our staff meetings I'll sit there till I can't take it and I'll just be like that is the sauce sucking voice of reasonableness cuz here's why already the love of God is not reasonable its lavish the grace of God is not reasonable the mercy of God is not reasonable God is an unreasonable God and when his people look reasonable they don't look like God beware the soul sucking voice of reasonableness because of the church is reasonable people look at the church and they say I think I'm gonna go to Coachella I mean listen after there's nothing in here there's nothing for me we have to celebrate the goodness of God to excess we are in a culture that is drowning in hedonism because people ache in their cynicism for pleasure and relief Thomas Aquinas says this no one can live without delight and that's why a man deprived a spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures because we have deprived the world of the joy of God the world looks good researchers talk about what happens in our brain in this phrase hedonic hotspots and there's actually there's an article written about this we should pull up here next slide so there's a biological reason you feel down after having the time of your life this is like Coachella bummer I miss like that the downside of the great event and it's basically like our brains of design for peak experience has been there boom like a rubberband they pull us back down and if you're not careful people get addicted to this a dull feeling of gloom once the peak event is over and then we try and recreate them we become slaves to hedonism but never getting in touch with true deep joy and we are cold and by the way that's what you do in your 20s in your 30s it's called mindfulness and in your 40s it's called gratitude but what it is it's an attempt by our culture to import meaning into the midst of our cynicism isn't there something I can pull into this that will give me hope and shame on us if the world's festivals are better than ours so celebration then is a discipline of delight and it is a practice of defiance against cynicism this is what we are called to do now I mentioned this in my controversial Jesus and it's surprising some people are like I never heard that that's amazing other people like this is actually the only thing I remember from that entire series but I talked about as opposed to hedonic hot spots there's five of them in our brain there's another part of the brain called the joy Center neurobiologists have shown that while most brain development stops sometime in childhood the brain's joy center located and observable in the right orbital prefrontal cortex is the only part of the brain that never loses its capacity to grow as dr. James Freesat and his colleagues explained when the joy Center has been sufficiently developed it regulates your motions pain control and immunity centers it guides us it guides us to act like ourselves it releases neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin and it's the only part of the brain that overrides the main drive centers food and sexual impulses terror and rage without sufficient choice strength we spend the rest of our lives trying to fill the deficit so the practice of celebration strengthens our joy center which enables us to break out of hedonism and invites the world into true pleasure in fact if you were to get back to Psalm 16:11 and and read it in Hebrew it doesn't say in your presence is fullness of joy and right handed and pleasure forevermore it actually says pleasures it's in the plural pleasures forevermore Joy's there is a wide range of never-ending pleasure and joy that is found in the presence of God so we have to have this celebration must be stronger than cynicism if we're gonna live the gospel at this time now that's my biblical theology of celebration a few practical steps about how to begin to cultivate this to strengthen the joy center in your life first one here we're starting starting low simple celebration simple celebration CS Lewis in the four lives Dhingra distinguishes between need pleasures and the pleasures of appreciation and I'm highlighting these because these are two ways to begin to celebrate need pleasures follow a sense of deficit this is like getting a cool drink on a hot summer day you have the sensation of thirst and then the drink comes and then you celebrate and then you have these pleasures of appreciation where you see things that don't normally command our attention but we're aware of them because we like God pronounce them good that is good and this is how you build your personal preferences this is why there's certain coffee shops in New York City that will sell you on magic if you ever ever have one of those well let me tell you it'll cultivate your hedonic hotspot like you've never believed but it's basically it's unlocking Cortado it's an Australian drink but when I have it I literally do a biblical pronouncement over on my dad is good that is good and it's when we impute meaning based on what we have developed our own tastes so we're curating goodness like God so these are very small things we can do when in need of ours is met we can turn this into a micro celebration and when we begin to develop our own taste and we infuse it with meaning we can begin to appreciate things and so this is simple celebration often people selling me I'm not like your have a personality like you I'm like don't think you know my personality I'm a quiet introvert I'm a quiet I could be in the woods right now on my own doing nothing I'm not by disposition filled with life and joy but I've cultivated it and learned to do this and it's changed my life so just say to people like I say with prayer celebrate what you can not what you can't I can't do that well then don't do it what can you do well I can do that well then do that great after you go then you're making your way into the way of Jesus and building a culture of celebration and you'd be amazed how simple things can become contagious there's a there's an actual crisis right now in England because there's a movement called Brits giving if you heard of Brits giving out an article about it up here Brits give Thanksgiving or Brits get one in six Britons to celebrate the u.s. holiday they're running out of turkeys in England because English people are looking at the Instagram feeds of Americans they're looking at friends giving and Thanksgiving and they're like why can't we have that it's like our cuz you're a horrible monarchy polluting the world and we run away for religious freedom and so we were trapped in the moment and then we were gonna take your oppression and pass it on to the people we conquer but in one moment in one moment they gave us some stuff and we're still here and the English say that was a long time ago we're just gonna join you in it and so Brits giving my hope button is it becomes contagious a culture of celebration is contagious and if you get around people who celebrate be careful because it could sabotage your cynicism so that's the first one simple simple celebration be strategic celebration ceaseless talks about the shift from need pleasures to reflective to light and again this is a larger curation of our lives to boot celebration into a richard foster celebration is the results of a consciously chosen way of thinking and living we've been trained since we were two years old to be full of care but the spirit of celebration will not be innocent till we've learned to be careful for nothing so this is finding reflective delight in all of life the number one Hebrew word that talks about finding joy in God is the same word on purpose I believe used by God to talk about finding delight when you fall in love the sexual pleasures in delight of marriage the pleasure of being young and having an eternal horizon in your mind the pleasure of enjoying your work and the pleasure of a massing wealth to spend and why does God use the same word for delight in him as delight in these pleasures is because he wants us to know that he is the source of all of these pleasures it's like all that stuff does from me enjoy that that's one of my good ones isn't it you like that what about that one that's for me too you're welcome he wants us to see that blessings flow from God see look do you think that apple-picking is designed to have parents paying too much to rent rental cars so that children can vomit in the backseat from having too many appling I mean is it designed as an exercise in patience no why do we do these things monthly as a church because we're trying to build rhythms of celebration where strategically we get out of the funk of whatever's happening and we get together somewhere else and we reflect on our stories and the goodness of God and he we see what he's doing so join into these things be a part of it and in your own life planning things like the Sabbath and your own events in building your own calendar these things become very very important so there's their simple celebration and the strategic celebration and then there's this this category where if you are simple and your strategic spontaneity will be released and this will begin to become a little bit of an instinct it's like you've been discipled in celebration rather than cynicism and it will begin to flood into your larger life this is when spontaneous play happens now I'm not gonna my wife often will say to me when I'm deeply stressed she's got a voice that she does I could be in trouble I didn't ask for permission for this in fact even as I'm saying this I'm saying I shouldn't say but I'm gonna say it because it's too late no it's not bad but what is issues who said Oh mr. grumpy pan oh here comes John Tyson he's here to renew the city oh just like she just gets like stuck into me and she will not she literally physically torme at torments me until I am laughing and I'm like okay I'm serious I get it I get it what she's trying to uncorking me is spontaneous joy spontaneous joy you play when you feel safe kids play when they feel safe kids play when that there's no cares in their life the burdens of life are lifted off them I love this Malachi 4:2 but for you who revere my name the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go out and leap like calves released from the storm you're gonna leap with joy isn't it amazing when you see some more children how often they skip you just you literally are walking from your bedroom to the kitchen you're like I had to skip I just couldn't couldn't keep it in the level of joy in the New Testament the Greek word skirt AO is used to describe this joy it literally means to leap or spring as a sign of joy you know like that that thing that comes out it was used of the infant John the Baptist who let four join his mother's womb at the arrival of Mary so you've got like womb joy right here's John Jr John the Baptist is like he's that Jesus you asked the Messiah in his room he's leaping for joy because he sees it Jesus uses this when it comes to persecution he says rejoice in that day and leap for joy because your reward in heaven is great I've shown you maybe perhaps these photos before I believe they bear repeating I began to realize in my family that we had cultivated simple and strategic joy to the point where I was leaking to my kids physical behaviors like you see this in sporting events like if someone kicks a goal what do you do there God but do you do that in everyday life like the ocean croissants I'm just like this sense of joy but I began to realize this was happening in my family here's my sweet daughter like what what are you doing he's just delighting next one here his Nate you know Nate he's in the river that's just like what are you doing man he's like I don't know I'm just it happened like it's just free this is Nate right now this is Nate he's in Swaziland I was like what are you doing he's like what's your son doing in the gap I believe he's distributing the joy of the Lord to AIDS orphans for a year what a great vision and say what do they do is they play with these kids that's their ministry they infuse joy into these kids this next one here is my favorite photo ever taken of my wife this is Christy and Christy's our proverbs 31 woman I don't know if you've read proverbs 31 but he is just so secure she laughs at the future strong industrious all that sort of stuff but I love this that what is that that is real that's no joke that's hiking up into the mountains and then you know she's like children if you think this is joy little arms watch this whole body joy nepeta slip and break her tip in a fib after this and was on meant to be on bed rest for a month in a cast that's another story but my point B sometimes joy will cost you but my point is it's worth it almost done redemptive celebration that's spontaneous celebration redemptive celebration have you carefully plotted out the redemption of God in your own life and do you mark that you know one of the greatest one of the greatest moments in my life I've had friends who have been in recovery and you know say they'll get a coin in five years sober I've had people hand me their coins it's like I want you to have this man this is a celebration my life is different I receive it's just it's not just a coin this is this is marriages saved as relationships restored I received that with holy or thank you I honor your story praise God I'm with you more keep going you stay strong we have to mark our own moments we have to build our own redemptive calendars and I want to urge every one of you to do this for your own life where has God stepped in Megan Carroll was leaving one of our prayer meetings this past week and I just I overheard her say oh it's my one-year spiritual birthday and that phrase was just like ah that's such a beautiful phrase celebrating my spiritual birthday I was like well we have regular birthdays which we had no control over being born or whatever we should probably throw consolations and and support for parents who had the children and have raised them all the time but spiritual birthdays we can point that at God thank you God thank you thank you so I said like a spiritual birthday tell me about the last year here's what she said here's a bit of some of the things God's done Jesus has completely redeemed and restored my relationship with my dad today my dad's one of most life-giving sources we constantly share Scripture Christian podcast and worship music we talk with each other we talk about what Jesus is doing in our daily lives he listens to the co t podcast every Wednesday what's up man thanks for listening in so we can discuss what I'm learning in my community as a way for my dad to love me well God's plan and provision for our life has become more revealed to me every day and a season to freelance in God's hands so clear most of my work comes with members from our community who I didn't even know a year ago in April when I was let go from my job I didn't know if I didn't know Jesus I would have left the city he's been so gracious giving me a community to love me and encourage me to grow in my knowledge of him during this season he's restored this restored the burnout that I hadn't given me a new vision and creativity there was a sin I struggle with for years and one that caused a lot of brokenness and pain in my life after surrendering that era of my life to Jesus in April is completely removed all temptation and desire from my life and replaced it with the desire to know him spend more time with him I just thought what if we were literally hosting parties where you had your friends over from work great parties full rooms and you had it from there they're like okay what are we celebrating you tonight you're like it's my ninth year of being a Christian so what do you tell you a story of redemption and you just recounted the mercy of God in your life I even think that you're cynical atheist friends would be like that was pretty good that that was a good party so having a redemptive calendar in our own lives marking these moments it's not just that there's a story of redemption in the world that there's a story of redemption in your world tell that story mark those moments and then lastly this may be for some of you it's courageous celebration maybe you've been here the whole time and been like okay look one or two of those jokes got past my cynical defenses but you haven't converted me I'm still cynical this is for everybody else but it's not for me and this is where we have to win some sense celebrate by faith this is defiant celebration this is what the Jewish community practice in Asha which you read the accounts of how they kept the redemptive calendar and they did this because they said the final word for the Jewish people it's not World War two this was not the final part of our story Max Lucado says this he talks about the difference been courageous versus contingent joy and he says courageous joy can be a sorry assist if if you are only happy when your circumstances go well you may have substituted courageous joy for contingent joy contingent has always depended on a circumstance it'll happen when or I'll be happy if courageous joy however turns us into strong people craziest joy sets the hope of the heart on Jesus and Jesus alone since no one can take Jesus from you no one should be allowed to take your joy from you Christian's of the New Testament church we're not known for their buildings or denominations or programs they were known for their joy they ate together in their homes sharing the food with joyful hearts they praise God and receive favor from all of the people and so maybe for you this is going to be something that you have to fight for maybe this is something you're gonna have to do on purpose but it's gonna be a courageous celebration spiritual warfare contending for joy in your own heart or in your own life so when it comes to us as the people of God I think the opportunity before us is a clear opportunity and it's this it's celebration must be stronger than cynicism cynicism is destroying our nation it's killing our hearts and God has an antidote it's his presence it's his Redemption in his presence is fullness of joy and when we celebrate when we do simple celebration strategic celebration spontaneous celebration when we have courageous celebration when we have redemptive celebration we are literally pulling down the glory of God into the brokenness of the world around us and we're representing the joyful God we serve and offering our world hope and so you can't be bitter or anxious or envious and be joyful you have to choose there's no such thing as a joyful bitterness or joyful anxiety or joyful Envy that contrary emotions that contradictory bitterness anxiety Envy their symptoms of heart sickness but joy epitomizes health and wholeness a healthy spirit they are emotions of fallenness joy is an emotion of godliness they have a downward pull off the fallen world joy is the upward pull of the Living God they are the dimensions of darkness but God brings joy as patches of his light when joy reigns there cast out as a useless irrelevant not necessary for the people of God when they usurp the place of joy among the emotions joy departs and beckons from a distance but you have a choice for your heart and I want to pray tonight that God will help you choose joy could help you choose joy Paul puts it this way this is his prayer now may the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope and may that be true of our church may the god of Hope fill us with joy and peace as we believe in him so through the power of the Holy Spirit we abandon hope let's pray father thank you thank you for your heart thank you for your joy thank you that the kingdom of God is define defined by righteousness peace and joy and father I just want to pray that you would just come tonight and minister to all with the spirit of heaviness of those experiencing sir I just pray that you're comforting love will come in father those whose hearts have just been gripped by cynicism and despair I just pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit that you will break through the shell of the hardness and you'll begin to resurrect the possibility of life with you Jesus thank you that you died for the joy set before you you thought it was worth it to have us so you endured the cross and I just pray that you will impart the joy of your reward which is us living for you into our spirits we thank you for your word tonight we honor your word we hear your word we pray for grace to live it out this week in Jesus name

Channel: Church of the City New York

Views: 2,299

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: God, Jesus, Christianity, Church, Church of the City, Jon Tyson, This Must Be Stronger, This Must Be Stronger Than That

Id: _AkuW1oE1AE

Length: 56min 13sec (3373 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 30 2018