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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE Podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our Services from One in la. If you haven't been to one, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to One the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
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Just want to read this word and then we're going to move forward. Mm. We're going to start today in Nehemiah, chapter 8, verse 10. We'll come back to verse 9 later, but we'll start in verse 10. It's the short one, so y' all can sit down. And Nehemiah said, this is him speaking to God's people. Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared. Ooh, I love the spirit of generosity. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Spirit of the living God, you have prepared an encounter for us. With your word, we are ready to receive it. We are hungry for what you have for us. And I thank you, Lord, that every heart may receive what you pour out. Receive it and run. Use me however, Lord, you need to. I am your willing and open vessel. Have your way in and through this. In Jesus name, Amen. Let's all have a seat. So today, our encounter with the Lord. Well, let me give you the title. I was ready to jump right all the way in. The title for today is Joy in the Victory. So we have been in this series and PDA has spearheaded and been leading us through all of the different elements of victory. Can we shout out the senior pastor over this house? And she has been giving us nuggets, jewels about what it is to really walk in and through victory according to how God has prepared it for us. And so, as I step in to take the baton from this series, God drops the most fascinating and interesting word in my spirit. Joy. Joy is one of those words. You can't even say it without smiling. Joy that's right. Somebody needs to say it. I want y' all to walk out of here to just sing it to yourself, because it's contagious when you say it. And the spirit of what joy really is hits you. The person next to you sees it, and now they want to start saying joy, too. And so as he dropped this word in my spirit and I said, lord, joy and victory, I thought they were intertwined. I thought they were all one. And I'm realizing that perhaps they should be, but they are not always. So here we are proclaiming victory and learning about victory and walking in victory according to our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, who secured the greatest victory for all of us. And yet, somehow, some way, we find ourselves in a season where we are claiming and proclaiming victory. But. But if we're all 100% honest, we don't have the fullness of joy in the victory. This is tricky because you would like to believe once you understand, you have full power to walk covered by the blood of Jesus and the victory that comes with owning your identity when you come, claim and proclaim that. You would think we would skip through lilies every day, but we know that that's not the case because Jesus did not skip through lilies every day. And at the same time, we have to make sure that as we are walking in victory, that we're not just, but we are also receiving the joy that comes with victory. And so I'm brought to this passage, which we quote a lot. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. We claim it, we speak it, and it does something on the inside of us. And then I look at the passage from where it actually came from, and I was surprised at how this comes about. Very quick backdrop. Nehemiah, who's a cupbearer, has come from Persia back to Jerusalem, and he has rebuilt the walls. These walls have been torn down by enemy forces, and they had been torn down for a long time. And finally, God gives an audacious word to a cupbearer in a foreign land and says, you go back and rebuild the walls of my city for my people. And he goes back and he does it. And not only does he do it, they managed to build this wall in 52 days. This is something that was supposed to take months. And somehow or another, he manages to build something that should have taken a long time in 52 days. Yet what? And then what? What then happens afterward is he has built this wall, and now they have come forth the Priests and. And Nehemiah. And they have come to read the Word of God. And why they're reading the Word of God to the people of God is because they are now resetting an understanding of what is going to govern moving forward. So they have rebuilt the walls and now they come forth to. To read the Word. And as they're reading the Word of God to these people who have just rebuilt a wall that should never have been rebuilt. And if it was going to be rebuilt, it should have taken much longer than it did. It was rebuilt in 52 days. They should have been celebrating. Yet they're reading and hearing the Word of God and they begin to mourn and weep. But the reason they mourn and weep is because when they are receiving the Word of God, all they are hearing in that moment is how they believe they have missed the mark. So they have the backdrop of victory and they have the Word of God. But all they're hearing in this moment is how they as a people have missed the mark, how far away they are from God. So as these standards that are the law continue to be read to God's people through, the more they hear, the more they mourn and the more they forget the victory that they just secured. And for some of us, what I'm realizing in this season, we don't recognize with all of the time that we have spent. For some of you, the fact that you are even sitting here right now is a victory. The fact that you're under the sound of my voice is a victory. You're in your sound mind, you can move, you can breathe, you have access to the Word of God where you are, that is your victory. And in this backdrop of victory, they're receiving the Word of God and they are losing sight of the victory because they've lost the joy. Previously, when the Word was read in assembly to the people, what would happen is they would read the Word, the people would be convicted, and then they would have to leave and they would have to work out all the things they were convicted by, by themselves. This is the Old Testament. They did not have Jesus yet. So when they received the Word of God, all they had was conviction, conviction, conviction, conviction. And all they had to try to bring themselves back to the Word was the Word, the law. Let me put it that way. So all they had was to try to fix and fix and fix. I got this law wrong, I need to fix it this season, next season. I got this law wrong, I need to fix it. Meanwhile, as they're moving forward and they're hearing the law and they are mourning. Nehemiah says that's not the occasion we're here for. We have just rebuilt a wall that was not supposed to be rebuilt. You as a people have just been rebuilt. Someone in this season needs to understand the fact that you've made it through everything that you have made it through to this point. You have been rebuilt this whole season where you were trying to figure out how you were going to make it through. Who I am, what am I going to do? How's God going to do it? Will he bless me? Will he show me the way? And the whole time you thought you were struggling, God was building layer by layer. He was building you and building you faster than you could possibly have imagined. So much so that we don't even remember what we looked like in the beginning of this season when the building started. Don't make me. But what we do is we nitpick about the things that are wrong, the things that we haven't gotten right yet, the things we think we need to fix in our own power and in our own strength. And the enemy loves for us to stay that way. Because now we're losing the joy. Have you ever had one of those moments where God blesses you and I know I'm not alone, so don't play with me. God will bless you, and immediately you're thinking about what's going to come to take it away? My personal favorite. God will bless you, global family. It's just me and you. It's me and you. God will bless you and we will have the nerve to be like, I don't think this is enough. God brings you a blessing and we do human accounting for supernatural blessing. And now instead of celebrating a blessing, instead of celebrating what God has built, instead of celebrating the material God has put into your life to build what's coming next, we spend times boohooing about what we don't have and what's wrong and what he hasn't done yet and what isn't fixed and what's not perfect. And we have totally bypassed the blessing. And what we have to recognize is at any given moment, at any given moment in any given time, we have access to joy. I know there are 10 people who are struggling with that right now. Even as I say the word joy, it's warring with your pity party. You got a whole list of things you want to fix for 20, 26, but have not counted the blessings of 20. We will be standing in a prayer answered from six years ago, mad about the prayer that he hasn't answered from last week. We will lose our joy if we are not tracking the victories that he's given us. Day in, day out, season in, season out, global family. I'm here in Los Angeles. A lot of us are not from here. And some of us are mad that we are here, even though we prayed to get here. And now that we are here, it's not the way we want it to be, even though it's the way God meant for it to be. And we are losing sight of the joy. I had to get checked about this myself, and I'm gonna move real quick. I remember seeing a movie, I believe it was called Collateral. It's Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Tiny little scene, and it shook me when I saw it. I'll never forget it. There's a scene with a taxi driver. He has a little card, a little postcard. And I believe the postcard is of, like, Los Angeles, but it's a beach. And he looks at this postcard and he drives. He says, one day, I'm gonna get there. And I'm watching the movie, struggling, but I'm there. Somebody has the snapshot of the life you're living right now on a little car. They're praying to get where you are. They have friends interceding just to sit where you sit. And some of us are coming to church from the pity party we had in the car on the way here. We've lost our joy. And so God sent me today to have us reclaim our joy because it is there. There is an opportunity for this joy to be there at all times. I love that this passage says, this day is holy to our Lord. Nehemiah is resetting everything. He says, wait a minute. This is an incredible feat, what has taken place, God's favor, God's mercy. And go back and study all of Nehemiah. When you see what they went through to build this wall externally and internally, the enemy was within them at some points, outside of them. At some point, they were dealing with fake threats. They were dealing with real threats. And they managed to build this thing quicker than ever. Why? Because God's favor was on it. And so the whole point at that time to read the Word was to let them understand, from this moment forward, we will be established in the word of God. Yes, I know in the previous generation and in the previous season, you fell short. But stop letting your shortcomings blind you to the victory God just delivered to you. And I love this because he says, do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength. When you look up this Word joy, it's to rejoice, to make glad. In other words, he was saying, why are you mourning and weeping when God is rejoicing and glad? You were obedient to the best of your ability and you are here right now, still under the grace of the Lord. Why aren't you filled with joy? And in seasons where we are being built, ooh, help me, Holy Spirit. We see more of the construction that needs to happen in our eyes than the construction that's already been done. This was a moment where, yes, these walls were built so that the city would be protected. And now the Word is being brought into the city, brought back to the people so that their hearts could be protected. Could it be family that the Word of God that has been stressing you out because you feel like all you do is read and miss the mark. Meanwhile, the point of you having access to the Word that you have is not for you to obsess over you missing the mark. It's over the victory of us even having access to the Word at all because none of us have earned it, none of us have deserved it. But because of Jesus and His mercy and his grace, grace and his sacrifice, we have access to the Word to correct us, transform us, change us, and renew us every single day. When I read that his mercies are new every morning, that brings me joy. And this is the joy I'm calling for us to have. And I'm not saying joy by itself. Let me be very clear. The fullness of the human experience means that you can have joy. And ooh, this is tricky because we want this to be a one dimensional thing. I want to feel one thing, I want to know one thing, and that's it. Meanwhile, God in His glory has given us the ability to hold many different things at once. And I'm for holding many things at once. What I'm also saying is don't fumble the joy so you can be in your season of concern and allow for a moment of joy to creep into your life guilt free. If that's all you get from me today, hallelujah. Because too many of us as believers think that we have to suffer our way through the existence and then feel guilty for a little drop of joy. I will break that off of everyone in the name of Jesus, he came that we may have life and life more abundantly and the abundance of life means, yes, I have a moment where I feel one thing, but I don't drop my joy I hold them both because when this passes, I can enter into that joy. I love that. This is illustrated in Ecclesiastes chapter three, one of my favorite chapters. I feel like we need to meditate on that one more often. I'm gonna just take verse four. Says there's Ecclesiastes in chapter three. Speaks of. There's basically time for everything. What I've always loved is there's time for everything, but there's not time to waste. It says there's a time to weep and not or. And a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. So if we find ourselves in the midst of being built in the travails and the struggles of being built like those walls were being rebuilt, like the struggles that they had facing the tribulation that they faced from the inside and the outside, there is time to see what's happening and say, this is an incredibly difficult situation. This is an uncomfortable situation. This is a situation I don't even see the victory in. Even though I already have it. There is still space and a place for joy. As a pastor, I've had to learn this because I have found myself in weeks where I have gone from officiating a wedding and officiating a funeral within six or seven days of each other. I've gone from spaces where I've gone and I've had to officiate a funeral and then find myself within a couple of days at a baby shower. And as a pastor, I have to know, oh, my goodness, there's a celebration of life that has gone to glory and a celebration of life that has come from glory. And I have to allow for the space to feel it all and not lose my joy. I'm realizing, especially in this season, we're towards the end of this year and everybody's very already beginning to have the optimism of the new year begin. Let me advise you very quickly. Please don't check out on 25. I'm gonna take a time out from here. Please don't check out on 25. This is not the time to check out on 25. There's so much more that God can do in such a small space of time. If he can rebuild a wall that took months and 52 days. If you would just give him the rest of 25 to see how he can set you up from 26 and just take joy in the construction that is still taking place, that is giving a foundation for 26. Don't you check out on 25 now. But what allows us to have space for both is the recognition that we have to take it because you can have a victory. But if we spend so much time not actually extracting the joy from the victory, we miss the victory. Have this written down. In this season, the enemy wants us to limp into the next season with joyless victories. In other words, instead of remembering what God did and actually not just giving him glory, but allowing the experience of joy to wash over you, even if it's just for 30 seconds. I know the bills are coming. I know the business isn't where you want it to be. I know the husband isn't here. I know the wife isn't here. I know all of these things. I know that you're not ready and you're still getting yourself together and you're still doing what you need to do. I know all of these things. God knows even more of these things. And yet in the midst of that, there is still the opportunity to have joy. Just in the fact that you can do this. Because right now, somebody's praying just to do that. In fact, somebody's praising, and they can't do that unassisted. And they still have more praise than us. Take back your joy. And you. I like to use the little simple things for my joy. PDA noticed this. I was shocked that she caught me. I wear happy socks. For those who don't know there's a brand of socks. They're called happy socks. Do you know why I wear them? They make me happy every time I look at these socks. And they look crazy. Polka dots, all kind of colors. Do they match my outfit? I don't care. Brings me joy. That's mine. So I can be in the middle of a crazy day and just be like, and I'm good. I had a better one years ago, I found. A long time ago, I went to visit my mom in New York, and I was at her house, and she had managed to get a hold of a Pikachu. Y' all don't know. Okay, so there's this thing called Pokemon. One of the characters is called Pikachu. Heads. No. Y' all know, Global family, y' all all in the chat. I know y' all know. And these things. There's a little yellow one, and it has a lightning bolt tail. You see how much I know about. I'm describing it like. Like an old head. And I saw one and it was just sitting there, and I busted out laughing for no reason other than the fact that it just looked utterly ridiculous. The next day I saw it. I busted out Laughing again. The third day I saw it, I just busted out laughing again. Fourth day, I was leaving, back to my apartment. I took it home with me, and I put it in the trunk of my car, and I was driving around LA dealing with all the rejection that comes with being an actor in la. Multiple rejections per day. And after each one of them, I would just pop the trunk. Not that kind of pop the trunk. All right, let's be clear. I don't roll like that anymore. No, I never did that. Never did that. Never did that. Never did that. I'm not him. Some of y' all think I'm lying. What's going on with that? Wait. Wait a minute. Y' all laughing a little too hard about that. Wait a minute. But I will pop the trunk and look at this thing. And it brought me joy. I would look at it, and it, for whatever reason, it was just so ridiculous. It was so unexplainable. And on my way here, I realized what it was. See, I'm the type of person that likes to have everything explained. I like to have the reason. It has to be in order. It has to be sequential. And that makes me feel good. The thing with being that kind of person is your brain is always working. I'm always sequencing. I'm always making sense of. And I'm putting it all together, and then I see something utterly ridiculous that makes no sense to me. And it sets me free because I don't have to explain it. It's ridiculous. There's no explaining a big yellow thing with a lightning bolt tail that goes Pikachu. There's no explanation for. But it allowed me to momentarily understand that not everything needs to be explained because I'm not the one with all the wisdom. And this revelation brought me joy. I say all of this to say every one of you has at least one thing. It could be your morning coffee or your morning matcha. I'm a matcha rebel. Come on. I see your hand. Thank you. Thank you. Rest of y', all. You're like, nah, I didn't want that. It's okay. I love that stuff. Brings me joy. Find the things in your life. And I say find because they're there. They're what? I guarantee you they're there. Find the things in your life that bring you joy, that allow you to feel the gladness of the Lord. Because if there's one thing as believers we lose track of is how glad our Father is for his kids, even in the midst of us not being our very best. Do you know why he's glad? Because he knows that our heart is still with Him. He knows that even as we are in the midst of there's a part of us that still wants to be with him and a part of us that is desperately trying to realign with Him. There's a part of us that wants and is doing as much of the work possible to look like him. If you take no if there's any victory you can take joy in it is that one. So I'm looking at this and I say, wow, Lord, this season is about us as a people as we are walking in victory, not only having victory, but having joy in the victory. I want you to re examine all of your wins in 2025, because I guarantee there are wins that we celebrated that we testified about that we posted 25 pictures on Instagram even though the limit is 20, had a long, long caption that looked like an essay. But then there were five or 10 other victories that you glossed over and we didn't even think about. So our challenge in this season is not just securing the victory, but securing the joy in the victory. Because as we will find and we're going to close very quickly, this joy is critical to us moving forward. This joy is critical to what allows us to sustain in this path that God has us walking in. Joy is not an option, it's a mandate. You won't make it to where God has for us to go if we continue to have his blessings and bypass the joy of his blessings in pursuit of other blessings we haven't had yet. And so I'm looking at this word joy and then I understand why it's so important to us because it was also important to Jesus. I want to go to Hebrews 12 and 2. Now, the first part, Hebrews 12 and 1, speaks of us running our race. And it speaks of what it takes for us to have the endurance to run our race. I'm skipping down to verse two. Verse one is homework for you in your own time. Verse two. Now, looking unto Jesus, this is the we're being implored to do this. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. I'm going to pause right there. His Father set the joy of his assignment in front of him, not how hard it was going to be, not the tribulation, what was set before Jesus that causes the endurance for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, Jesus endured the greatest sacrifice, the most gruesome sacrifice, the most Mission Impossible of Mission Impossibles ever. And what was set before him by His Father, joy. So there is a connection to joy and endurance some of us have been trying to endure. And we think we need more discipline, and we think we need more inspiration. And we think we need a habit. And we think we need a structure. Structure. And we think we need a calendar when all you have been missing is the joy set before you. Because if the joy set before Jesus propelled Jesus, what can that kind of joy do for me? I'm not going to pass victory after victory after victory after victory. Missing the joy for the rest of this year and the rest of your life, may you never have another joyless victory. This word joy, I love this. It is cheerfulness. Watch this. Calm delight. Gladness. So when I say joy, I'm not talking about painting a smile on your face, laughing hysterically and skipping through lilies and pretending everything is okay. That's not the joy that was depicted here. Calm delight, which means there is an awareness of what is happening and there is an awareness of where we're going. And most importantly, there is an awareness of a Father who has set something before us that we need to stay focused on and moving toward. And as we stay focused and move towards what the Father has set before us, the joy, the gladness that he has as we walk out the path he's given us, this is what allows us to endure. Let me say this plain. Some of us have been working the wrong muscle to endure. We've been using the wrong strength to try to build endurance. We've been using the wrong habits to try to build endurance. It's great to be strong. Everyone wants to build strength. I'm one of those people. What I will not do is lose sight of my happy socks and my joy. Because the joy that comes from my little happy socks and my ridiculous Pikachu is what allows me to endure. This is how I build my endurance. I set some joy in front of me and I say, this is why I'm still running the race that I'm running. I'm running it because there is a joy set before me. And I am now of the mind that that joy set before me is something that I can reclaim daily. No more grim faced victories, no more forgotten victories. Because if we learn to take joy in each one of them, we can't forget them. Because now joy isn't just an isolated experience. Joy is a way of living. It's a way of thinking. It's a viewpoint. It's a vet. It is an exp. It's a whole life. And knowing that we are going to experience things that war with and challenge and try to distract us from the joy set before. But it is up to us if we are going to do this in full. Claim the victory. Do a happy dance for at least 10 seconds before you move on to the next thing that you need and the next thing that you want and the next trouble and the next care. I believe we talked about that. Those are thorns seed getting choked out by the cares and the worries of life choking out your joy. Meanwhile, there is always an opportunity for us to snatch that joy back. Last verse. And then I'm gonna send us on our way. Because not only did Jesus carry this joy, I then love that this same word is used to describe the disciples. And if you've been rocking with us during our discipleship series, you're going to recognize this verse, Acts 13 and 52. This is the mindset and the mentality I want us all to leave out on. It's very simple. It says and it's a description. And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. This is how they were marked as those who were learning from and following Jesus. It was not just them carrying the Holy Spirit. They did it with joy, calm, gladness for my moody Holy Spirit. Character walkers, your moodiness does not mean mean that you are carrying the Holy Spirit with heaviness. How are you doing? I'm carrying the Holy Spirit. I'm travailing, working my way through this thing. Afam. Nobody wants to get down with you when you're doing that. And we miss an opportunity, as those who follow God to make Jesus attractive enough for them to do the same if they see you carry the Holy Spirit with no joy. So it's not only a mandate for how we're called to see things, it is a mark of us as disciples of Jesus, to carry both joy and the Holy Spirit. And that word joy is the exact same word used when it speaks of the joy set before Jesus as he endured the to go to the cross, defeat the cross, and ultimately wind up at the right hand of the Father. Can I give you another reason to have joy? Because while he's at the right hand of the Father, do you know what he's doing at the right hand of the Father? He's interceding on our behalf. He's talking to dad for us, about us. That alone gives me A reason to shout. So as much as I want to beat myself up because I didn't wake up to my 3:30am prayer, Jesus covered me because he's at the right hand now. Don't miss it twice. But we need to stop beating ourselves up about the one thing we did wrong. Instead of seeing the small victories, the medium victories, the large victories, and and anticipating the ultimate victory that is set before us, let's stand up, make a what joyful noise unto the Lord. I want to take this opportunity because as I talked of the man Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross. I don't want to have this opportunity to pass without someone claiming that victory in their life today. If you want to start a life with Jesus today, let me tell you, there is a joy unspeakable with starting a life with Jesus today. I will testify that we ain't got that kind of time. But if you want to start a life where, as Jesus did, you can understand what the Father has set before you and make your way to it with Jesus walking right along with you. You want to start that today, go ahead and raise your hand. It's a courageous thing to do because we, there are some of us, and Global Family, you can join us in this as well. Some of us have been doing life the way we want to do it, and it's a whole other bag to say, you know what, even if my life is going great, if it's not with Jesus, let me take the step and see how much more there is for me. And if it's not going well, you know what? I've tried it my way. I've tried it some other ways. Let me try it the way with Jesus. If that's you, just raise your hand. Global Family, if that's you, you put your hand up in the chat as well. Okay, so everybody here walking with Jesus. Okay, That brings me joy. Hallelujah. If you did decide to make that decision, but you did not put your hand up, there's QR code behind me. Go ahead and scan that because either way, we're going to get to you. However you need us to be there for you.
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Hey, family. Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a dynamic, dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades, and I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called. It's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast, you can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Terry Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the call. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.