Restoring Our Fortunes

I think these morning gatherings for awakened are becoming my favorite. There's just such a sweetness in how he shows up. And even in my preparation for these mornings, he's just really been visiting me and I'm so grateful.

Quickly, I know Amber already gave announcements. I don't want to add anything to that, but I want to emphasize a couple of things. First, Amber, who she said this was her first awakened connect. Really, we're trying to call them all awakened now. We have morning awakened and night awakened.

But this is an opportunity that we build in times for you to connect with other people. Honestly, I feel like after 29 years of doing full time ministry with women, it feels like for the first time we've turned a corner where the social times aren't as awkward. Now maybe you're sitting there saying, no, I felt plenty awkward. But I'm telling you as one of the leaders who would try to flutter around and get to people that were standing alone. Just the sound of community is an answer of decades of prayer.

And so we cherish these times. Amber is going to be around more often because she's actually joining our staff. We're super excited about. She is going to be the serve coordinator as Mary Biven has transitioned from her role. And Amber's also going to be Pastor Jay's assistant.

So she's going to be a bitter in Jesus name. I break that. She's going to be a busy woman. And that is what I meant to say. Believe me.

I applied for the assistant position in Pastor J. He wouldn't have me. So he's an awesome man to work for and work with. I have no idea where that came from. If you tell him I said it, I'll deny it because it's not my heart.

But some of the things that we have planned for this year have been very intentional. And through a lot of prayer and generosity from our pastors, Jay and Mel. And we decided last year not to do a women's conference, but to offer individual nights that we made free. We would just take an offering and trust God. You guys have been super generous in those offerings and we've been able to cover a lot of the expenses that way.

But we wanted to give you opportunities to have encounters with the Lord throughout the year. And we're very serious and intentional about who we bring in. We spend a lot of prayer and just being honest. A lot of traveling ministries. It's become very industry and it's very expensive and there are a lot of requirements.

And as local church people, we often with tears in our eyes, process that. Not trying to be judgmental of those that are traveling, but it's. It can feel grievous. What we would have to. The burden we'd have to put on the church to have them come.

It's been quite the process. But the Lord has given us the strategy for this year, and we're halfway there for the awakened nights. We've had two beautiful, intentional nights already, and we have two more this fall, as Amber already mentioned. Kathryn Mullins. It'll be her first time with us after a long time.

Years and years and years of crying out for a baby and the Lord answering that cry. And it'll be our first time being with her since the Lord has answered that prayer and just excited. She does carry something very special in worship. I know Amber said, get ready to jump. Sometimes people don't want to come because of the jumping part.

She does move on from that eventually. So don't let that keep you from coming. There is something that Katherine carries that we're just super excited about. And I'll be bringing a brief word that night and bringing us into ministry time. And then the hand of God that's on Jesus image.

And you guys have, you know, heard Michael Kulianos. Amelia and I were able to go to the women's conference. I may talk about that in a little bit. But what Jess carries, and specifically for young adult women, I mean, I was radically impacted by my time there. But the way people respond to her, particularly of that age group, is beautiful.

And there's nothing cool as it relates to, like, what we would think is the cool thing in church about Jesus Image. It's just a focus on the man Jesus, and it is so cool and amazing. So mark your calendars not just for yourselves, but for people that you can invite to that. And then Amber mentioned the morning awakened in August. Not sure what's going to happen at those.

What's going to happen at the next one. I'm probably going to speak just based on where the Lord's been leading me this year. So this is my time to kind of sit with you and share with you out of my life and what God's showing me. And I'm just. Presence is precious, and your presence is precious.

And to that end, my friend Dana Rollins is here in the back, and we are so glad you're here. She and I got to spend some time. Was that yesterday? Tuesday Feels like it was three weeks ago. But just her process and pursuit of the Lord through some very trying times.

It's Just crazy how courage and strength comes when that happens. And so I'm going to be speaking to you out of that place still, because that's the only place I have to speak from right now. I've been camping out in the Psalms. Those school teachers too, that are here. We're glad you're here.

We're glad you're here in the summer. Robin, my sister. 30 years. She's been teaching. 30 years.

Yeah. Glad you're here. I hope I meet your teaching standard this morning. I can't solve calculus, but I can tell you things that the Lord's speaking to me. So over the last two years in particular, the Psalms have had a tremendous impact on my life for many different reasons.

If you've been around me in these last couple of years in a context of me preaching, you know that the Psalms have become incredibly precious to me. Most of what I preach about, if it's not centered on a psalm, a psalm shows up somewhere in there. Because the Psalms are a book of soul worship before God. The Psalms are really, really precious to God. In the New Testament, Jesus told the woman at the well that the location and the liturgy of worship is not what's important.

That's a powerful statement. The Lord gave me that really early this morning. It's not the location and liturgy of our worship. He said he's seeking a worship that is honest and is spirit led. So we're not faking it till we make it.

Doesn't mean we always feel it, but we respond to what we know to be true. And he is worthy. He is worthy of our attention and of our worship. I want to read a few quotes of some theologians, specifically about the Psalms.

Athenaeus, who is, I think he was in the early 300s, ancient theologians said, I believe that a man can find nothing more glorious than the Psalms, for they embrace the whole life of man, the affections of his mind and the motions of his soul. NT Wright said, to worship without using the Psalms is to risk planting seeds that will never take root. Billy Graham, who read a chapter in Proverbs every day and five psalms every day, said this was his reasoning behind that. The Proverbs of the Bible helped me learn how to get along with my fellow man. The Psalms of the Bible helped me learn how to get along with God.

So to that end, the text for this morning is Psalm 126. You know what? I think I have my font at 200. I mean my screen at 216% and it's not still blurry. Not have to Wear my glasses.

Because when Tamsy posts those pictures of me in my glasses, I decide I'm not going to wear them. My hair does a weird thing as they sit on them. Who cares? Okay. Psalm 126.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, Lord.

Like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. So that first verse, and I know it's already 11:15. I'm going to move through this as quickly as I can, try to lean in, because I really believe the Lord has plans for us through this word this morning.

Verse 1. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. The proper translation of that phrase is a bit more complex and technical. In fact, if you look at the original language, the word fortune isn't even there or really anything like it. So the phraseology there in the original language is when the Lord brought back the returned to Zion, or of Zion.

I'm going to break that down a little bit. When the Lord brought back the returned of Zion. So actually, the first thought to consider is the return of Zion. That's a label to the group of people. They are the returned.

They are the returned of Zion. The Lord had rescued them from a geographical location of bondage. They're the returned of Zion. They were there in Babylon captivity. I'll talk about that in a moment.

But the Lord returned them from there back to Zion. So that's their new title. They're the return of Zion. So this is kind of a technical and complex idea. The Lord brought back the return of Zion.

So were they already back when they returned? And the answer to that is no. And I'll explain that in just a moment. So he had returned them to their former land, and he had a plan for them once he returned. He said, here they are, the returned of Zion.

But what did he do with the returned of Zion? This is what he did. He brought them back. And it's two different thoughts. They were returned out of a geographical location of Zion.

And even though they were in the land of the free, they still weren't back. And that's what he's after today. He wants to bring us back. He wants to return us to the beauty of our former state. Some of you have been experiencing the pressure, the weight, the pain of external circumstances, and he wants to give you hope in the midst of it.

But others of you have actually been physically freed from some difficult external circumstances, but you haven't been brought back yet. The Lord's been talking to me about this in my own life. You've yet to be restored to the beauty of your previous state. That's what it means. When he restores our fortunes, he brings us back.

He's making us alive again today.

And I am wrestling to lay hold of this myself. Four takeaways this morning on what it means to be brought back. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. So to be brought back, we must, number one, become oriented in the dream. So there's a kind of a leading statement to each of these takeaways that won't be included on the slide that gives the point.

So the first part would be to be brought back, we must, number one, become oriented. So to be brought back, we must. Hey, that's pretty good. That makes me feel powerful. To be brought back, we must go to, number one, become oriented in the dream.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. It's a past tense event he's referring to because the people of God had been in Babylonian captivity for 50 years. This is when they were in disobedience and rebellion before God. Their enemies. There are two major groups of enemies throughout the Old Testament, the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

They would come and bring all kinds of destruction. A lot of people would be killed and then others would be captured and taken hostage. So this is the. This is what they're returning from. They had been hostages there in Babylon for 50 years.

So the people of God had been living in the patterns of Babylon for 50 years. So the writer of the Psalm is saying, when the Lord brought us back, we were shocked. We could not believe that it actually had happened. It felt like it was actually a dream. In other words, it had been so long since we had experienced this kind of freedom that it didn't feel real.

And that's where some of you are today. And he wants us to become oriented. The dream. I'm going to read what one commentator said, a man by the name of Joseph Benson, who is a contemporary of John Wesley, specifically about verse 1 of Psalm 126. He translated it this way.

We were so surprised and astonished at the report of such favor after such long captivity, we could scarcely believe our own eyes we could scarcely believe our own ears. We were ready to think it but a dream or an illusion of our own fancies, a restoration so complete, so strange, so unlooked for, so brought about at once without any endeavors used on the side of Israel, it seemed in all respects as a dream. Why am I taking so much time talking about this? Well, this is what I believe the Lord's after today Sometimes you cannot be settled into your own breakthrough because you've gotten so adjusted to a negative experience.

I'm going to say it again because I'm telling you I was up early this morning to pray over all of you, and I spent some time in prayer over all of you. But I was in a lot of time repenting before the Lord, because sometimes I don't settle into my own breakthrough or my own promise of blessing because I've gotten so adjusted to a negative experience. And it's time we become oriented in the dream. We become oriented in God's dream. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 A familiar passage, but I want to read it in this context.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed by becoming oriented in God's dream, not in your own pattern, not in the pattern of this world. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. We talk so much about our dreams, physical dreams we have at night, dreams that we have for the future.

But often we question if they're even real.

But really, for the most part, it is best to not be sure of our own dreams. We need to become oriented and most sure of God's dream. That's the dream that matters. And we've got to make decision, the decision in the dry places of our lives that negative is not going to become our normal.

And I'm telling you it is a trap of the enemy we have. We could sit with each other and justify why negativity has become our normal, but we have got to refuse that because it's not God's dream. We have become oriented with the normal of negative, but for him to restore us, for him to bring us back to the beauty of the intended state. We have to dream his dream and become oriented with his dream. We've got to make the decision for our mouths to be filled with laughter.

We've got to make the decision for our mouths to be filled with songs of joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And in doing that, you're making the decision that negative is not going to be your normal. Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who can know it? So there are patterns of our hearts.

There are these. What seems to be the road of least resistance, where we'll go into these negative patterns of worry and dread and what's around the corner. Especially if, like me, you have encountered things you did not see coming, and now you're getting reoriented or just oriented into a new identity. And he's saying, stop using your energy to become oriented with your new identity. Become oriented with me and my dream for your life.

Come out of your patterns. Because oftentimes we live out certain patterns and we pray certain prayers, and the two do not resemble one another. Do your patterns match your pair, your prayers? What do I mean? We shouldn't operate in the same cynicism as this angry world.

And some of us are at times. And we've got to come out of it. We shouldn't operate in the same worry of those who have not encountered the One who is above all.

I've learned a new skill. Well, maybe it's a skill I always had. I learned a. Or I've discovered. Discovered a talent.

I'll say it that way. In this season, something I realized I'm really, really, really good at. Other than gardening, Some of you are stressed that that's your baby down the hall. It probably is. Just pray for the workers.

So I have, like, a really strange talent in creating negative, hypothetical situations. Like, I'm really good at it. Like, I could sell what goes on in my head to a screenwriter, and they could make a major motion picture. I mean, they're so good, and they lead to such fear and such dread. I mean, they even take my sleep at night.

Like, it's that colorful. It's that good. These hypothetical things that haven't even happened. The other night, the Lord was like, you had enough happen. Just think about that.

Like, if you're looking for drama, go with that. But as if that's not enough, I have these other scenarios that are crazy, and I've realized it's some strange and kind of sick coping mechanism. We shouldn't operate in the defense mechanism of pessimism when we can find safety in his everlasting arms.

And sometimes we can rest in the fact that we've made some improvement, and those improvements are to be celebrated. And I'll give you an example. I mentioned Michael Kulianos earlier, but, you know, he was back at this launch in January. He had been here two years before, and that was my first time hearing Michael Kulianos preach, I had heard little snippets, but I had never heard him preach before. And I was so undone, as many of you were, by his message.

And Pastor Jay always sends an email to the pastor saying, hey, after the launch service, please stop by the green room, say hi to the speakers. And that's always awkward because I don't want a fan girl. And, you know, they meet a bunch of people and they don't want to meet me. You know, that's what's in my head. But Michael Kulianos was one I was interested in meeting.

So I'm kind of telling myself during the service, like, no, I'm going to go meet him. I'll make it quick. But I do want to meet him. So after the ministry time of the launch service, this is two years ago now, two and a half years ago, when I exited the auditorium and I was in that little hallway between the auditorium and the offices, I had this grief come over me and I could not go in the green room. I could not do it.

And it was. My season was very fresh then. So I ended up going out the back door. I sobbed the whole way home. I asked the Lord to help me with the pain, and he did.

Fast forward two and a half years later, and I happened to get scheduled for platform while Michael Kulianis was there. That was kind of a sweet thing. But it turned out that he wanted to meet me after, and I was ministering to a lady, and Pastor J actually came because he knows how I am. He's like, hey, you need to stop by the green room. Don't just say you're going to, like, please come by.

I mean, I had the head guy come and give me the tap. So I finished my time with the lady there in the front row, and I walked into that hallway in between the two places again, and the memory of that grief came flooding back. But all of a sudden, I was able to breathe. And I said, I'm better than I was then.

And that may not. For those of you that have dealt with deep grief, and I'm not saying that those of you that have dealt with hard things in life, everyone has. But if you've dealt with a deep grief, like where there's. You can't even find words. It's like something sitting on your chest, like, then you know what I mean?

It's like you don't even know you're doing better till you have something that takes you back. And you're like, ah, I'm not there. Like, I don't even in my hardest days, I don't really put myself in the category. I know we're still on point one, but the rest go very quickly. And that's a true statement.

Number one is always my longest point because I get tired studying.

Well, if you have any idea. Well, some of you do, but, man, and this one is where I had the most tears. But it is that, like, no. And my smile as I entered the green room was real. Wasn't because sometimes you smile because people deserve it, and they do.

I'm not talking about being fake, but no, it was like an authentic smile. And sometimes I'll catch myself laughing now, and I'm like, no, but it's. Wait. I just laughed with that person. And there was no dull ache under it, like, thank you, Lord, but am I fully back?

No. And to become fully back, and I'm talking about just to the state of beauty I was in, really. His dream is to bring us into the state we were intended for. So. But in that, it's.

But he's bringing me back. He's orienting me in his dream. I mean, the first thing Michael Culiano said to me was, man, you've been through some stuff. And I just kind of. Yeah.

He said, no, I don't know anything. I just know for you to pray the way you just prayed, you had to have been through stuff. And he began to share with me how that year had been the worst year of his life. Because when you are coming into something new, and I'm telling you specifically, when you're coming out of the opinions of people, people, many of which are justified, it is not easy, and it will be the thing in my life that will hold me back the most. But he's bringing us.

He's bringing us back. That revelation in that hallway is, I'm not where I was, but I want him to bring me back. For our fortunes to be restored, for us to be brought back, we must orient in God's dream and refuse to allow the negative to be our normal. I don't care if you have 5,000 reasons for the negative to be your normal. Do you want to live your preferences, or do you want to live God's dream?

Sometimes it's a default setting, and it feels safer to just approach everything negative rather than to have hope. And it turned negative. But that's. That's not how God does it. He said, when I bring you out of captivity, you're the returned one.

When I bring you out of that place, But I want to bring you back. I want to restore you. And for you to be restored, you have to orient with my dream. So I can still enter public places and try to survey the room of who might have a certain opinion about. I mean, I've pastored in this area for a long time, 29 years, and did life and was married in that context for a lot of those years, for 21 of those years.

So I would find myself surveying a room, trying to figure out if people are for me or against me. That's not orienting myself in God's dream. And he wants to bring us back. So to be brought back, we must, number two, learn how to stretch.

I love that God gave it to me like this. I really wasn't trying to be cute because of dreaming. And this is how he gave it to me. If you're over 50, you're going to understand what I'm about to say. Maybe if you're younger, you'll understand it as well.

You get to a certain age that when you wake up in the morning, RDS girls, this is what it's like when you get up in the morning. If you don't stretch, you don't walk.

Why are you looking at me like you don't know what I'm saying? Janet. Janet can walk whenever. She doesn't need to stretch.

We have to stretch our physical bodies to get out of bed. I spent years telling the RDS students, girls, as you get older, everything gets easier. Your skin has more elasticity, sleep is easier, you can eat, eat whatever you want. It doesn't matter. You barely have to work out.

But now I've come into the truth. I tell people the truth. Now listen. Just like we have to stretch our physical bodies in the morning, we have to stretch our minds every day. Because if you don't, you can't walk.

You've got to stretch your feelings so it goes beyond what you feel like feeling. We have to stretch our spiritual bodies. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said, among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.

This psalm focuses on what God has done and what he will do. Our mouths were filled with laughter. Some of you are going to have to stretch because you have no room for laughter. There's too much contemplating, there's too much complaining, there's too much declaring your critique because you don't want to be disappointed and you want someone else to enter into it. With you.

But we need to stretch our mouths and empty out our complaints before God, not before people. And open our mouths and say, the Lord has done great things for me. The people of God had just gotten out of 50 years of captivity. Were they telling the truth when they sang that the Lord has done great things? They just got out of 50 years of constant pain.

But was the statement still true? They had no temple to worship in. It was still destroyed and lying in ruins. But was it still true? Pastor Dana was.

Was still true. They didn't even have a wall of safety around Jerusalem again because Nehemiah hadn't shown up yet to rebuild it. When Psalm 126 was penned, they had no infrastructure. They were exposed to the enemy attack on all sides. But was it still true?

Some of their kids had never seen the land of freedom. They only knew the bondage of Babylon. They had been there 50 years. They didn't know a life of freedom. They didn't know a life of safety.

They didn't know a life of new opportunities.

And the parents stood and said, the Lord has done great things for us. Is that a fact? Is it a fact in your life, even through life's trials, when you are asked, has the Lord done great things for you? Do you hesitate? Do you pull out a calculator?

Do you go through your bank balance? Guys, I'm not. If you think I'm singling anyone out, like, I'm just giving you. I'm telling you my things. Do you pull up Fox News?

I don't do that. ChurchLeaders.com, yes. And that's not always the best. God has been good to us. And even with all you've been through, something deep in your soul knows it to be true.

It's a fact, not a feeling. So you have to stretch those feelings to get to the truth. We've got to learn how to stretch so we can be filled with joy. Some of you have ticked all the boxes of what you thought would make you happy, but you're still not filled with joy. You self talk.

I have so much more than so many people. I have so much of what I thought I wanted, but I'm still not happy. I still don't have joy. I'm going to give you a practical thing to do that the Lord's having me do. And I want you to know, when I did this, it's probably been three or four days ago.

It's the first time that I was able to do it. And I'll tell you what it is in a moment without sobbing. And it felt, feeling painstaking to declare it. It felt more true to me than it's ever been. And it's Psalm 16, 5, 11.

You write it down and look at it every day. Look at it in your Bible. Put it on a piece of paper, some of you. The Lord's going to have you commit it to memory. Psalm 16, 5, 11.

I may not do it without. Now that I'm with all of you, I feel I need it. The Lord is my chosen portion in my cup. You, God, have made my lot secure. This one's hard, the next one.

The lines of my boundary have fallen in pleasant places. Surely my inheritance is delightful. I will bless the Lord who counsels me. Even at night my conscience instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand. Because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken, therefore my heart is glad. I would say this like didn't sound glad, but I would declare it. Therefore my heart is glad.

And my tongue rejoices. My body also will dwell securely. For you will not abandon.

You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. When you are going to the comparison game, or someone's life that seems easier to you than you, easier to you than yours does. I'm telling you, let it be a discipline.

Stop where you are, lift your hands, and if there's nothing else you have committed to memory, commit. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Why? Because inside of those boundaries he is there. He's restoring fortunes.

Today he's bringing us back. Today, to be brought back, we must, number one, become oriented in God's dream. Number two, we must learn how to stretch and go ahead. And to be brought back, we must number three. So in tears.

There's no way around it. Well, I'm not a big crier. Then ask the Lord to tenderize your heart, because otherwise he'll let trials come. He'll let that happen anyway. The songs of joy do not come without tears.

Period.

Psalm 126 is a Psalm of ascent. What does that mean? There are 15 Psalms that were written. Who? I am almost done.

Just stay with me. There are 15 Psalms that would be sung as the people of Israel would ascend to Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem is elevated. They would ascend for the three festivals. There were more than three, but there were three major categories.

Pastor Jay talked about that on Sunday, the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Feast of Passover, Feast of Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles. And there were certain songs that were sung when they were ascending the hill because they were going to a high place geographically. Two of those 15 songs of ascent are you guys tracking with me? Two of the 15 are can also continue considered songs of lament.

And Psalm 126 is one of them. Lament is connected to mourning and grief and repentance. Sometimes we cry in repentance over our sin, and sometimes it's over destruction coming to other people. And the Lord is looking for people that will weep with him in it.

So they're going up. But singing a lamentation, this brings me great comfort. Why? Because you can be on your way up and still have things to lament. Whew.

That makes me want to do a little praise dance, but I'm not going to because I didn't stretch enough this morning.

We're going up, and we're still sowing in tears of grief, right, Dana? You're going up. The presence of tears does not mean you're not ascending. It means that you're sowing those tears on more ground. Because the higher you get, the further those tears spread.

See how I'm getting tongue tied on other things? I didn't mean to say Amber was going to be a bitter woman.

Right in the middle of this psalm of ascent. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Keep in mind, this is a community psalm. It was something that was sung corporately. Why is that important?

Because we need to remember that the sound we release is not just about us. It's unto the Lord, certainly. But in the corporate setting, we're releasing it among other people. You can look down your row right now, and everyone on that row is exceptional. Experiencing a spot in between the two extremes of sowing in tears and reaping in joy.

They're somewhere on that scale, and you don't know where they are. So when you go to church and you're not in the mood and you want to say, God understands, there may be someone in your atmosphere that needs you to lament while you're going up so that their hard ground and their hard situation can receive the blessing of the reign of your own rain. R A I n the reign of your own experience, you don't know what's going on in the person next to you, But I can guarantee you it is Somewhere between those two extremes. The beauty of corporate worship is the harmony of our sounds. The one that's closer to sewing in tears and the one that's closer to songs of joy.

When that sound comes from together, it moves God. So you don't have to feel guilty if you're in a song of joy season. Drink that cup deeply. Celebrate it, release it in the atmosphere.

There are so many people that are so sensitive to me. If there are certain things being talked about or certain things on. Marriage, family, like I can feel their compassion and it's beautiful. But I don't ever want to be the one in the room that pulls the energy to that. No, you rejoice in where you are and let my tears join it.

So that in the atmosphere there's a harmony of sowing in tears and reaping in joy. That is revival. That's orienting us to the dream that God has for us. That's him bringing us back. He wants to restore our fortunes.

I don't usually yell in the morning like this. Maybe I do, and I tell myself we don't. He wants to bring us back. He wants to give us lasting, supernatural, divine, eternal joy. Joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Joy in the Holy Ghost. I wrote this down. This isn't mine. I heard someone say it and it sounds cheesy, but I love it. Jesus joy, Holy Ghost happy.

The world doesn't give it and the world can't take it away. And I believe it only comes when we're willing to first sow in tears. Situational happiness, which is what many of us long for, is too cheap to have any place in the kingdom of God. Jesus paid too much for circumstances to be the boundary of our joy.

I'm going to quote myself, put that in sermons. Jesus paid too much for circumstances to be the boundary of our joy. We sow in tears because the currency needed for breakthrough is tears. The breakthrough of joy comes when we sow in tears. Not where we just are crying because we don't have hope.

No, we're crying unto something. To be brought back, we must, number one, become oriented in God's dream. Number two, we must learn how to stretch. Number three, we must sow in tears. Number four, to be brought back, we must show up.

We see the wrestle of this, of showing up in the biblical story of Rachel and Leah. I could preach a whole other sermon about this. Maybe my first point wasn't the longest. I'm going to leave a lot of point four out, but I'm going to Give you the highlights. There's Leah and Rachel.

They both marry Jacob, you know, Jacob of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He's an important guy. They're both married to him. I'm not going to get into how all of that happened. Many of you know the story.

Rachel was the one that Jacob loved. She had the beautiful countenance. She's who he wanted. In fact, he married Leah so he could have Rachel. So Rachel had a beautiful countenance.

Leah had a fruitful womb in the south. You would say it this way. Bless her heart. Right, Kathy? Bless her heart.

Rachel's beautiful. Bless Leah's heart. She had a fruitful womb. Rachel was barren. Leah had a fruitful womb.

But she was not beautiful. She was not Jacob's desire. So Rachel had Jacob's desire and had the beauty, but she didn't have children. So she gives her maidservant to Jacob. And then Leah, after having her first four sons out of her own body, she then starts having trouble having more.

So then she gives her maidservant to Jacob, because even though Leah had already given Jacob four kids, he doesn't love her. Leah wants him to love her. Now she can't have kids. She can't even give him that. So then she gives him one of her maidservants.

Because Leah was trying to win the love of someone who most likely didn't love himself. How can I say that? Well, the reason Jacob is in Laban's house was because he was running from himself after pretending to be someone he wasn't. Remember, Esau wanted to kill him so she couldn't experience love from someone that didn't love himself. So now Leah has two more sons after the first four through her maidservant Zilpah.

And that the second of the maidservant sons. So she had four. Then Zilpah has a fifth, and now Zilpah has a sixth. So when Zilpah has her sixth, Leah names him Asher. I'm going to read it to you out of Genesis 30.

Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then.