Two of your major themes, Pastor John, are God's sovereignty, of course, and in the centrality

of joy in God, we're Christian hedonists.

How do these two topics relate?

How does God's sovereignty and the centrality of joy in God relate?

How does Calvinism connect to joy in God?

I love that question, Tony.

I really do.

I mean, these are two of the most precious and glorious things in my life.

I could talk about these all day long, which created a problem when I went to answer this

with you.

I think we're going to need to break this into two if I'm not mistaken.

So you decide whether you want to make this two or not, but there's two ways to answer

this.

One is foundational about the very nature of God Himself and how His Godness, His free

and independent sovereignty relates to our joy.

That's the first one that I'll answer.

And the second one that may need a second APJ is how God's sovereignty in this fallen

world actually helps us fight for our joy in the face of enormous suffering and sorrow.

So let me tackle the first one and then we'll see how long it takes and we can go for

a second if you want to.

Here's how they relate.

God's sovereignty is owing to His completeness as God.

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