The title of this sermon is surprised by joy. Surprised by joy. This week's theme in Advent is joy.

And if that title looks familiar to you at all, it's actually the title of the autobiography

to C.S. Lewis's life. And in that book, he argues

that if you were to sum up what it is like to follow Jesus over the course of a lifetime,

talking about your transformation, talking about the suffering you walk through, talking about

the hardship, ultimately he said that the experience of following Jesus is a constant life of being surprised

by joy.

And in that book, he has this quote, joy is the serious business of heaven.

And the last few years, if you're new to our church, I've become tasked as becoming the suffering

pastor of ACC. Although, I will say, this last year, I feel like I tagged Miles in for 2025.

And so the other day in our office, he just looked at me and goes, you're back. So 2026, we'll see.

But the last few years of my life, what's happened is I've watched my mom

go to be with Jesus after fighting cancer. I've walked with my wife through some miscarriages,

and my son has a heart condition that we had to figure out. And I was in a nearly fatal accident

where I physically was broken, reconstructed my face. And in the midst of all of that,

what it did for me was it launched me into this journey

to try to understand the theological depth of suffering. Like what is this suffering? Why me, God?

Why is this happening? Why do we have to walk through these things? And so I went through this deep dive

into suffering, but you know what I found? As I looked more into suffering, I unearthed the reality of joy.

The last few years have been some of the most joyful years in my life, and it does not make sense.

Let me give you just an illustration to explain what I'm saying. My grandma, who's just turned 90 years

old, has had to bury both of her daughters and her husband. And she had to take my mom to all of her oncology appointments. And so in the midst of all this, she gets an iPhone, namely almost 90 years old, gets an iPhone. And when she would text me, she didn't know that you don't have to hold the sin button on the iPhone, which if you haven't done

...