Matthew Trexler
Lead Pastor | The River Church

PRE-SERMON NOTES:

• Growth Track “Week Two” | Sunday, March 16 | 11:30AM in the Gathering Place
• Easter Weekend | Marion Campus
  • Friday, April 18 at 6:00PM | Saturday, April 19 at 5:00PM | Sunday, April 20 at 8:00AM, 10:00AM, and 12:00PM
• Easter Weekend | Chesterton Campus
  • Sunday, April 20 at 10:30AM

Interactive notes are available on The River App. Printable notes are available alongside today’s sermon both online and in our app.

John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

{____________________} is the byproduct of being connected to the {____________________}.

Nehemiah 8:10
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

John 15:10-11
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Luke 15:12-20
The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

1.) {____________________} isn’t out there somewhere – its right here.

Luke 15:17
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!

Psalm 16:11 (AMP)
You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

The more we delay our {____________________} the more we deny our {____________________}.

Nehemiah 8:10b
Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

2.) Joy is to be {____________________} not {____________________}.

Luke 15:28,31
‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’”

“When we don’t celebrate with others we distance ourselves from them.”

“Reserved joy now, will cause you to resent joy later.”

Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 100:1-5
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

3.) Never lose sight of the fact that {____________________}.

Luke 15:32
But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Philippians 4:4
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Interactive notes are available on The River App. Printable notes are available alongside today’s sermon both online and in our app.