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As people of faith, we regularly celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion. In its simplest form, Holy Communion is a worship moment when we memorialize Jesus' last meal with his disciples. During the meal, Jesus announces to them that He will be arrested and crucified. Pretty heavy stuff. Yet, Jesus gave thanks and rejoiced, even in His darkest hour, because He was confident that God would turn His suffering into victory.
In this sermon, we take a look at our next Fruit of the Holy Spirit: joy. The Greek word for joy is chara, and it refers to an inner gladness or delight in response to the work of God in the world. Our culture often misunderstands that joy isn’t like happiness, which is dependent on our circumstances. It is a choice to believe, like Jesus did, that God has the desire and capacity to turn all of our darkness into light.