Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message Joy is a focus before it's a feeling.
Speaker 2: And so while we're chasing a feeling called joy, God
Speaker 2: has given us the ability to choose not our feelings.
Speaker 1: You ever tried to choose joy?
Speaker 2: I saw it on Pinterest. I tried it. It sucked,
Speaker 2: it didn't work. Then I felt guilty because I couldn't
Speaker 2: find joy, and it made me feel less joy. So
Speaker 2: now I'm in a joyless pit of joylessness. It is
Speaker 2: cyclical joylessness and shame is the difference between choice and consequence.
Speaker 2: Joy is a choice, really because some of the trials
Speaker 2: that people go through are actual mental illness. And it's
Speaker 2: kind of hard for them to just feel happy because
Speaker 2: they got a good parking space. And no matter how
Speaker 2: much you tell them to feel happy, be happy, you know,
Speaker 2: be happy.
Speaker 1: Feel happy.
Speaker 2: Counter blessings, James doesn't say counter blessings.
Speaker 1: This isn't a nursery rhyme. It's a Bible scripture.
Speaker 2: He said, count it all joy, He said, learn how
Speaker 2: to flip You might not know this statement, but there's
Speaker 2: a there's a statement. In financial terms, it's an income statement.
Speaker 2: It's it's got your your income on one side, your
Speaker 2: expenses on another. James says, if you can learn to
Speaker 2: put some of the stuff in the income column that
Speaker 2: you thought was an expense, some of the stuff in
Speaker 2: the blessing column that you thought was a burden. If
Speaker 2: you can flip the flow, you actually have more joy
Speaker 2: than you're aware of.
Speaker 1: But you're not gonna get it by.
Speaker 2: Praying for a feeling. You're going to get it by
Speaker 2: making choices. Joy is not a choice. In fact, the
Speaker 2: worst way that I can get more joy is to
Speaker 2: focus on getting more joy. The best way to stop
Speaker 2: being happy is to ask yourself the question am I happy?
Speaker 1: And see?
Speaker 2: I don't remember my grandparents ever talking about this. If
Speaker 2: they did, I don't remember it. I never remember my
Speaker 2: grandmother my grandfather talking about are we really happy?
Speaker 1: They didn't think like that.
Speaker 2: There wasn't feeds and scrolling, There wasn't there wasn't all
Speaker 2: this other stuff to make them feel unhappy in a
Speaker 2: moment's notice, there wasn't There wasn't an infinite supply of
Speaker 2: unhappiness in their pocket in the form of a device.
Speaker 1: They didn't have that, so they focused on something else.
Speaker 1: What was it?
Speaker 2: What is it that.
Speaker 1: Brings joy?
Speaker 2: If I focus on it, I know it is not.
Speaker 2: It's not looking around? How are they doing? What do
Speaker 2: they think? Where'd they go on vacation? Where's your thinking?
Speaker 2: Where's he going on? What's she wearing when she is on?
Speaker 2: What do they think about me?
Speaker 1: No, no, that's not gonna do it, he said for
Speaker 1: the joy set before him.
Speaker 2: So I can't be looking all around and expecting to
Speaker 2: have joy. I can't be judging my situation according to
Speaker 2: other people's calling and expect to have joy. I can't
Speaker 2: be judging my gift compared to.
Speaker 1: Other people's talent and expect to have joy.
Speaker 2: I know it's so cliche because we say it every week,
Speaker 2: but nothing destroys joy like comparison. The life you've got,
Speaker 2: some of you would be so enjoyable if only you
Speaker 2: didn't do this while you were living it. If only
Speaker 2: you didn't do this. I mean, it's hurting my neck
Speaker 2: just to do it. To illustrate to you, imagine what
Speaker 2: it's doing to your soul. You can't have joy that way.
Speaker 2: It is destroying your joy. You're praying for more joy,
Speaker 2: and yet you are destroying the joy God has given you.
Speaker 1: The joy of your.
Speaker 2: Salvation, the joy of your calling, the joy of your assignment. God,
Speaker 2: give me more joy. Well, it's a decision not to
Speaker 2: have joy. That's the worst way to get joy, the
Speaker 2: decision of what I'm going to focus on.
Speaker 1: And I can't get it like this.
Speaker 2: And I definitely can't get it like this looking at
Speaker 2: what's behind me.
Speaker 1: I can't look back.
Speaker 2: Remember when God called Moses at the burning bush and
Speaker 2: he said his name, he said, I am, not I was.
Speaker 2: Remember he said I am, I will be. There's something
Speaker 2: to that. There's something to that. It's echoed by David
Speaker 2: in Psalm sixteen. He says, in your presence is the
Speaker 2: fullness of joy. Presence. Everybody say that word presence. The
Speaker 2: gift of joy is found in presence. But that doesn't
Speaker 2: mean in church. That's not what it means to say,
Speaker 2: in God's presence is the fullness of joy. Because God
Speaker 2: would never limit his presence to a building. It doesn't
Speaker 2: mean when you're doing everything right, then you're gonna feel
Speaker 2: happy because God is not going to reward you based
Speaker 2: on behavior. That's not the good news of the Gospel.
Speaker 2: The gospel is for sinners. The Gospel is for the weak.
Speaker 2: The Gospel is for the lame, The gospel is for
Speaker 2: the broken. The Gospel is for those who feel ashamed.
Speaker 2: That's not what it means. In your presence is fullness
Speaker 2: of joy. That means joy can only really come to
Speaker 2: my life when I am focused on what God is
Speaker 2: doing in this moment. And I cannot focus on what
Speaker 2: God is doing in this moment in my life if
Speaker 2: I'm consumed with what He's doing in somebody else's or
Speaker 2: if I'm still in regret and bitterness about what happened
Speaker 2: three years ago, or three months ago, or even three
Speaker 2: minutes ago. A lot of our lack of joy is
Speaker 2: really not about possession.
Speaker 1: It's about position.
Speaker 2: What I mean is this, He set joy before him.
Speaker 2: It's not a question of God's presence. His presence is everywhere.
Speaker 2: It's not a question of God's presence. You don't have
Speaker 2: to ask Him to be with you. He already is.
Speaker 2: It's not about God's presence, it's about yours. Are you
Speaker 2: present in this moment? Are you present in this trial?
Speaker 2: Are you present in this worship service? Well, if you
Speaker 2: are given praise for a second, we need this lesson friends, family, brothers, sisters, brethren, sister,
Speaker 2: and mother's.
Speaker 1: Father's children.
Speaker 2: We can't go to a concert anymore without trying to
Speaker 2: capture it. And I can't enjoy it because I'm too
Speaker 2: busy trying to post it.
Speaker 1: Kids do something cute? Capture it? Well, you can't, but
Speaker 1: you're also gonna kill it. There is no quicker way
Speaker 1: to kill your kid's.
Speaker 2: Cuteness than trying to capture it. I swear demons come
Speaker 2: out when you start trying to.
Speaker 1: Capture stuff to post it.
Speaker 2: God knows your heart and he sends something to your
Speaker 2: iPhone I don't know, and it shoots beams into your children.
Speaker 1: And they start. Can I show you a picture real quick?
Speaker 2: I don't like to be too indulgent in these sermons,
Speaker 2: but and show my family off. But this is just
Speaker 2: a quick picture of us on vacation before Christmas. Look
Speaker 2: at that. Here's another picture. I'll show you.
Speaker 1: A couple just so you can see.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you something that you wouldn't see if
Speaker 2: I put those on Instagram. Go back to the first
Speaker 2: one again. Please that one looks happy, right, and go
Speaker 2: to the other one. Can go to the other one.
Speaker 2: That one looks sad. Let me tell something. That's not
Speaker 2: my sad face.
Speaker 1: M hm.
Speaker 2: That's my RBF. That's my resting Bible face. That's my
Speaker 2: really blessed face. That's my focus face. That's when I
Speaker 2: was getting the sermon flip the flow at TGI Friday's
Speaker 2: in the Miami International Airport and the d concourse.
Speaker 1: I'm happy the other one put the other one up.
Speaker 1: I was so mad at Abby.
Speaker 2: That was the seventeenth time I tried to take a
Speaker 2: selfie of us, and I wanted to throw her in
Speaker 2: the ocean by the time it was over. Not in
Speaker 2: a playful way. See, I'm just trying to get us
Speaker 2: in this series to start take it down, start looking
Speaker 2: beneath the surface and stuff, to stop looking at the
Speaker 2: surface of stuff, and to stop, you know, discerning. I
Speaker 2: found out that you can miss joy because you're looking
Speaker 2: all around. You can miss joy because you're looking behind you.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. You can also.
Speaker 2: Miss joy because you're trying to look too far ahead.
Speaker 1: It's an equal danger.
Speaker 2: And some of you, while I was preaching the part
Speaker 2: about look around, you're like, nah, I'm good, bro, I'm
Speaker 2: like fifty three.
Speaker 1: I don't do that anymore. And when I was tell my.
Speaker 2: Looking back, you're like, yeah, I already dealt with my
Speaker 2: stuff back there.
Speaker 1: It's fine.
Speaker 2: But what you do is you look so far forward,
Speaker 2: like I was doing the other day driving that new
Speaker 2: car I told you about, and I can't get anywhere
Speaker 2: without a GPS.
Speaker 1: What it embarrass you for me?
Speaker 2: If I told you I was going to my mom's
Speaker 2: house in town and was following the GPS, that's how
Speaker 2: bad my sense of direction is.
Speaker 1: This true story. And I slammed into.
Speaker 2: The back of another car because I was looking three
Speaker 2: turns ahead and not looking three feet ahead. And it
Speaker 2: might be destroying your joy. Not that you're like comparing,
Speaker 2: or not that you're regretting, but maybe you just trying
Speaker 2: to get so far out there, you know, Like my
Speaker 2: retirement is down twenty four.
Speaker 1: It'll catch back up just a lot of time, you know.
Speaker 2: But for those of us who need to plan, he
Speaker 2: didn't say in your plans this fullness of joy, And
Speaker 2: you can't even really affect the future from anywhere but
Speaker 2: the present, and it's always an energy. So this is
Speaker 2: my year of presence. I'm trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: it means to find fullness of joy in God's presence.
Speaker 2: And in order to find fullness of joy in His presence,
Speaker 2: I have to bring my presence to my real life.
Speaker 1: Not my presence to.
Speaker 2: Some imaginary scenario, but the real life that God has
Speaker 2: given me right now.
Speaker 1: And you know what's great about it.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Psalm sixteen for just a moment, and
Speaker 2: I promise I'll start closing this.
Speaker 1: Are you enjoying this teaching today is blessed in your life?
Speaker 2: Touch somebody and say this is my happy face.
Speaker 1: Because I was focused. I was happy because I was focused.
Speaker 2: The other one, I was trying to show something to
Speaker 2: the world that wasn't real. I was thinking maybe I
Speaker 2: could get some likes on this, and so I wasn't
Speaker 2: focused on what was right in front of me. But Jesus,
Speaker 2: for the joy set before him, endured. He didn't enjoy
Speaker 2: the cross. He endured the cross because of joy set
Speaker 2: before him. And now I want to give you the
Speaker 2: whole sermon. Okay, here's the sermon in a sentence hadn't
Speaker 2: you been preaching for thirty five minutes? Yeah, but I
Speaker 2: hadn't said anything yet. Here's the sermon in a sentence.
Speaker 2: You cannot choose joy. You can only choose your priorities,
Speaker 2: and your priorities control your joy. You can't choose joy
Speaker 2: anymore than you can just can you think you can
Speaker 2: choose joy.
Speaker 1: It's like trying to choose the weather. What you can choose.
Speaker 2: Is your priority, and your priorities will ultimately control your joy.
Speaker 1: Psalm sixteen. Put it on the screen for me, verse
Speaker 1: what I start? Verse five? Please? The Lord is my
Speaker 1: chosen portion. See the word chosen.
Speaker 2: It means I have decided to make God the most
Speaker 2: important thing in my life. I don't want to leave
Speaker 2: that too abstract, because what does that mean read the
Speaker 2: Bible first thing every morning?
Speaker 1: Maybe, but it.
Speaker 2: Means more than that His will is what I want.
Speaker 2: His ways are higher than my ways. So the Lord Yahweh,
Speaker 2: the Great, I am the ever present help in time
Speaker 2: of trouble.
Speaker 1: He is my chosen portion.
Speaker 2: I've looked at everything else that this world offers me
Speaker 2: to enjoy, and yes, I can enjoy things that aren't
Speaker 2: necessarily spiritual, but I do not need them to survive,
Speaker 2: and I will not attach my joy to a temporal
Speaker 2: pleasure anymore because I tried that.
Speaker 1: I tried that.
Speaker 2: I cheered for the Clemson Tigers when they were three
Speaker 2: and eight, and when they won the second national championship
Speaker 2: in the last few years, people were coming up to
Speaker 2: me saying congratulations.
Speaker 1: I was like, for what. I enjoyed the game. I
Speaker 1: watched the game. I liked it.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed the forty four to sixteen victory. But I
Speaker 2: didn't need college boys in spandex.
Speaker 1: To give me a reason to live. That is not
Speaker 1: my priority.
Speaker 2: I can't invest my joy in what people I don't
Speaker 2: know do With an oblong object made out of pigskin
Speaker 2: converted into leather with some stitches for four fifteen minute increments,
Speaker 2: it's throw priority. I enjoyed it, but my joy is
Speaker 2: not in it. Last week, I told you something.
Speaker 1: Very powerful about your heart.
Speaker 2: I said, when you know where it comes from, you
Speaker 2: know how it comes out.
Speaker 1: When you know where it comes from, you know how
Speaker 1: it comes out.
Speaker 2: This is what I want to tell you this week.
Speaker 2: Where it comes from determines when it runs out. This
Speaker 2: is the source of your joy. The way you can
Speaker 2: know that is what are my priorities, Essama said, The
Speaker 2: Lord is my chosen portion. And here's something Jesus said
Speaker 2: that I've been thinking about all week. I've been meditating
Speaker 2: on this. He said, Abide in me my words. Abide
Speaker 2: in you. You bear much fruit. Sometimes you're gonna get
Speaker 2: cut on, but you'll never be cut off. If you
Speaker 2: abide in me and my words, abide in you, there
Speaker 2: will be a constant flow of joy.
Speaker 1: Like the vine and the branches. You're going to have
Speaker 1: what you need.
Speaker 2: The joy is going to flow from a place of
Speaker 2: your rest and trust in me, not in your own effort,
Speaker 2: and not in just certain things that happen. If they happen,
Speaker 2: is fine, but don't confuse the ice and with the cake.
Speaker 2: Abide in me, my words, Abide in you. Then he
Speaker 2: says something in John fifteen eleven. Please I have told
Speaker 2: you this so that my joy may be in you,
Speaker 2: and that your joy may be complete. The Lord said,
Speaker 2: a lot of us are settling for partial joy, partial joy,
Speaker 2: and we equate joy with the absence of sadness. Joy
Speaker 2: is not the absence of sadness. If it was, Jesus
Speaker 2: couldn't have had it on the cross. He said, I
Speaker 2: want my joy to be in you, but you've got
Speaker 2: to own it because to just say, well, Jesus is
Speaker 2: my joy, it doesn't really get to the heart of
Speaker 2: why we could know Jesus and still not no joy.
Speaker 1: Because it's a decision.
Speaker 2: When I give the wrong things too much priority in
Speaker 2: my life, then those priorities control my joy. If my
Speaker 2: priority is recognition, then recognition controls my joy. When people
Speaker 2: recognize me, I will feel happy about it.
Speaker 1: If my priority is recognition.
Speaker 2: If my priority is convenience, then when something is inconvenient,
Speaker 2: the inconvenience will steal my joy. But it really didn't
Speaker 2: steal my joy, did it? Because I let it drive
Speaker 2: and whatever is driving the car gets to DJ. So
Speaker 2: the Lord told me in preparing this message that we've
Speaker 2: got some backseat DJs that have been controlling our joy,
Speaker 2: our feelings, our finances, our bank accounts, our status, our standing,
Speaker 2: our situations. And today God wants you to tell some
Speaker 2: of the things in your life that have been controlling
Speaker 2: your joy from the back seat.
Speaker 1: You are not my God, you are not my vine,
Speaker 1: you are not my source, and you don't hold my joy.
Speaker 2: Joy is something deeper than how I feel about it.
Speaker 2: Joy is something deeper than what I post about. Joy
Speaker 2: is something deeper than the way it feels. Right now,
Speaker 2: I am setting joy before me.
Speaker 1: I'm resetting my warnings. Now. When I do that, my
Speaker 1: joy flows not from what it is, but from who
Speaker 1: God is to me. This is the duration of joy.
Speaker 2: And when my joy is running out, give me my point,
Speaker 2: my last point. The duration of joy is because it's
Speaker 2: coming from the wrong place. Where it comes from determines.
Speaker 1: When it runs out.
Speaker 2: And I wonder, where's your joy today. I had to
Speaker 2: study this hard because I struggle to enjoy my life.
Speaker 1: I really love my family, I really love my church.
Speaker 1: I love what I get to do. It's a blessing
Speaker 1: and a privilege.
Speaker 2: But I have to admit to you that sometimes I
Speaker 2: have been guilty of enduring something that God has given
Speaker 2: me to enjoy, and every time it happened, it was
Speaker 2: because of my priorities.
Speaker 1: Your priorities control your joy.
Speaker 2: You can try all you want to be happy, happy, happy,
Speaker 2: and the quick hit stuff, the quick fixed stuff. It'll
Speaker 2: get you through the next few hours, but where it
Speaker 2: comes from determines when it runs out.
Speaker 1: There is a well that never runs dry. There is
Speaker 1: a joy.
Speaker 2: There is a deep, abiding sense of joy that is
Speaker 2: available to us that we have not been accessing. And
Speaker 2: what we're praying for more of God is waiting for
Speaker 2: us to order our lives around.
Speaker 1: My joy is.
Speaker 2: Too important for me to leave it up to whether
Speaker 2: or not today goes well, or whether or not they
Speaker 2: speak to me, or whether or not it turns out well.
Speaker 2: Is too important. I can't afford. I'm getting older now.
Speaker 2: I'm not a twenty five year old anymore. I'm a
Speaker 2: distinguished thirty eight year old full of wisdom, and I
Speaker 2: can't afford.
Speaker 1: To just give my joy away just any time. I
Speaker 1: can't afford to have these.
Speaker 2: Back seat DJs just change in the temperature of my life.
Speaker 2: I can't afford to just let my emotions control my joy.
Speaker 2: So I want to pray for people today. Play something
Speaker 2: more interesting, that's boring. I want to pray for people today.
Speaker 2: There's just one chord. Pray for people today who have
Speaker 2: allowed your joy to be controlled by something other than
Speaker 2: the priority of God's presence in your life. And you
Speaker 2: want me to pray for you to experience a vital
Speaker 2: connection to God in the coming six days until we
Speaker 2: meet again, Please stand.
Speaker 1: If you want me to pray for you about that.
Speaker 2: I've been allowing my joy to be connected to things
Speaker 2: that can't sustain me.
Speaker 1: There's so much more than I wanted.
Speaker 2: To share with you, but I feel like I was
Speaker 2: able to present this word to you on a level
Speaker 2: that if you can just receive that much of it.
Speaker 1: So flip it.
Speaker 2: Instead of going, Lord, I need more joy, like it's
Speaker 2: gonna come raining down in the form of candy pellets.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: Instead of praying, God, give me the wisdom to when
Speaker 2: things come in my life to count it joy, to
Speaker 2: consider it joy, because I know that the testing of
Speaker 2: my faith produces patience. Teach me God to set joy
Speaker 2: before me like Jesus did, like the Psalmist did. He said,
Speaker 2: the Lord is ever before me. He is on my
Speaker 2: right hand. I will not be shaken in your presence.
Speaker 2: Is the fullness of joy. And watch this at your
Speaker 2: right hand. Pleasures forevermore. Not the kind to come and go,
Speaker 2: Not the kind that leave you feeling worse afterwards, Not
Speaker 2: the kind that leave you sick afterwards, Not the kind
Speaker 2: that make you feel bad about it, shameful about it afterwards.
Speaker 1: Perpetual pleasantness in the presence of God,