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. Look, I want to preach about joy
Speaker 2: today and I want to get there from a story
Speaker 2: and then share several scriptures with you can't tell your story.
Speaker 2: I just got a new car last year. I drove
Speaker 2: a Nissan Maxima for ten years before I bought this
Speaker 2: new car.
Speaker 1: I loved my Nissan Maxima.
Speaker 2: My car before this Nissan Maxima was a Nissan Maxima.
Speaker 2: That's how much I liked my Nissan Maxima. I maximized
Speaker 2: the Maxima and it was very good to me.
Speaker 1: Only thing that I ever.
Speaker 2: Remember happening, other than the time it cut off in
Speaker 2: an intersection, was that one day I was driving down
Speaker 2: the road a few years ago and my stereo system
Speaker 2: started doing strange things. It started skipping around to different
Speaker 2: tracks without me telling it too, and the volume kept
Speaker 2: increasing and decreasing, and so then.
Speaker 1: I would put it back on the song. I wanted to.
Speaker 2: Listen to, and I would turn down the volume or
Speaker 2: turn up the volume, depending on it would go both
Speaker 2: ways without me telling it too, without me turning the knob,
Speaker 2: and it happened for about ten to fifteen minutes straight
Speaker 2: one day that I was driving, and it seemed like
Speaker 2: my speakers in my car had a mind of their own.
Speaker 1: So I thought maybe my Maxima got a demon, and.
Speaker 2: Then I looked in the backseat and.
Speaker 1: Realized it wasn't a demon. It was my daughter.
Speaker 2: That she had the center console down and I never
Speaker 2: rode back there, so I didn't realize that all the
Speaker 2: years that I've had this car, you can control the
Speaker 2: volume and skip tracks.
Speaker 1: From back there.
Speaker 2: And she was laughing, and Graham was back there and
Speaker 2: he would laughing, and they were controlling something from the
Speaker 2: back that I was trying to deal with in the front,
Speaker 2: and they thought it was so funny, and I told
Speaker 2: him to stop that it's annoying. When I figured out
Speaker 2: what they were doing, two or three minutes later, there
Speaker 2: goes the volume up and down again. There goes track two,
Speaker 2: track three, track four. Again, it's on shuffle.
Speaker 1: And I turned around and said, I'm telling y'all stop.
Speaker 1: I don't like it.
Speaker 2: It was maybe cute the first time for you, but
Speaker 2: it's really driving me crazy up here. Stop and a
Speaker 2: few minutes go by and it starts happening again. I
Speaker 2: pulled the car over the third time. I pulled the
Speaker 2: car over the third time. I'm Providence Road. I said,
Speaker 2: let me explain something to you. I said, y'all are
Speaker 2: passengers in this maximum I'm the driver.
Speaker 1: That means I'm the DJ.
Speaker 2: I get to choose what comes on this stereo and
Speaker 2: how loud it is because the driver gets.
Speaker 1: To be the DJ.
Speaker 2: I want to appreach to you for about thirty seven
Speaker 2: minutes today about back seat DJs, because I suspect that
Speaker 2: there are some things in your life that are being
Speaker 2: controlled from the back seat, that are being controlled at
Speaker 2: a level that you're not realizing that they're being controlled.
Speaker 2: And I believe that today God is going to use
Speaker 2: me and trust me.
Speaker 1: I study.
Speaker 2: Joy has become more important to me every year that.
Speaker 1: I've been alive.
Speaker 2: I feel like in my twenties I just cared about
Speaker 2: accomplishing things. In my thirties, I've been figuring out, what's
Speaker 2: the point if you don't enjoy it? What's the point
Speaker 2: in doing something? Awesome if you are not in a
Speaker 2: position to appreciate the accomplishment because you constantly need more.
Speaker 2: And I spent my twenties and maybe the beginning of
Speaker 2: my thirties just trying to get more, more, more. Sometimes
Speaker 2: that meant more popularity. Sometimes that meant more impact. Sometimes
Speaker 2: that meant more influence. Sometimes that meant more money, more resources,
Speaker 2: more friends, more phone numbers, more connections.
Speaker 1: But lately I've been asking the.
Speaker 2: Lord for more joy, and it sent me on a
Speaker 2: scriptural trajectory.
Speaker 1: And I want to bring you into it today.
Speaker 2: Would it be all right if we talked for a
Speaker 2: little while today about what's controlling your joy? Amen, I'm excited.
Speaker 2: Do you feel my enthusiasm? James Chapter one, verses two
Speaker 2: through four. We'll start here. I believe there's some things,
Speaker 2: things that are destroying your joy that you were unaware of.
Speaker 2: And James is going to teach us how to develop joy.
Speaker 2: Very different than discovering joy. Discovering joy means it's waiting
Speaker 2: somewhere and you got to find it. It's waiting in
Speaker 2: your next career move, it's waiting in your next relationship.
Speaker 1: It's waiting somewhere. You're not right now.
Speaker 2: But James is going to show us something that may
Speaker 2: be familiar to a few of you, but it is
Speaker 2: very strange if you consider.
Speaker 1: What he's actually saying. And I'm going to just read
Speaker 1: those verses, just three verses to.
Speaker 2: You, he says, James, Chapter one, verus to consider it
Speaker 2: pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials
Speaker 2: of many kinds. That's not where I was looking for joy,
Speaker 2: by the way, that's not what I was praying for,
Speaker 2: hoping for, asking for, believing for. Anyway, he said, consider
Speaker 2: it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
Speaker 2: trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing
Speaker 2: of your faith produces perseverance, Let perseverance finish its work
Speaker 2: so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Speaker 2: I'm glad he specified, because the first thing I want
Speaker 2: to mention to you today, all of these points they
Speaker 2: kind of followed the theme of DJ. So the first
Speaker 2: one is the distinction of joy, the distinction of joy
Speaker 2: knowing what it really is, understanding the nature of it.
Speaker 2: And James helps us to do that first bite, helping
Speaker 2: us to understand that there are trials of many kinds.
Speaker 2: That's what verse two, said the old King James that
Speaker 2: Pastor Mickey preached from said, diverse trials because I have
Speaker 2: learned that we're not all going through the same thing,
Speaker 2: but we are all going through something. And how many
Speaker 2: know that there are as many different kinds of trials
Speaker 2: as there are different drinks at Starbucks, as there are
Speaker 2: different colors of paint at home depot. I found out
Speaker 2: that there are trials that are associated with plenty. There
Speaker 2: are trials that are associated with poverty. I always understood
Speaker 2: the first one because everybody understands that being broke is
Speaker 2: a battle. But management of resources can, in its own way,
Speaker 2: test a part of your character that if you're not
Speaker 2: prepared to have it testing, it can create a lot
Speaker 2: more problems than financial poverty. In fact, financial riches can
Speaker 2: create relational poverty if there is not the emotional maturity
Speaker 2: to help us to steward with understanding what we've been given.
Speaker 1: I'm appreaching today. If y'all come along with you, it's
Speaker 1: true me.
Speaker 2: There's single people trials, there's married people trials. There are
Speaker 2: trials that are associated with loneliness, and there are trials
Speaker 2: that are associated with companionship. There are many kinds of trials.
Speaker 2: There are many different That's what James is saying. He's
Speaker 2: making a distinction that there's different kinds of trials, and
Speaker 2: some of us are like, well, can I try a
Speaker 2: different kind of trial?
Speaker 1: Like can I trade trials?
Speaker 2: Like you're talking about rich people trials, I'd like to
Speaker 2: try those for a little while you're talking about married
Speaker 2: people trials. I'd like to try. I think I'd be
Speaker 2: good at those trials. I think I'd be better prepared
Speaker 2: for those trials. But we never again, after the year
Speaker 2: that we had last year, get to associate joy with
Speaker 2: status or success, because we have now seen that no
Speaker 2: matter how great your name is in the eyes of people,
Speaker 2: you can still want to take your very own life
Speaker 2: because joy is not a product of what people say
Speaker 2: about you.
Speaker 1: Joy is not.
Speaker 2: A product of how people hold you in esteem or
Speaker 2: in disregard. And so there's different kinds of trials. Added
Speaker 2: to that, most of us don't understand the distinction between
Speaker 2: a temptation and a trial. The language that James uses
Speaker 2: in this biblical writing, the common Greek of his day,
Speaker 2: allows for both. When he says trials of many kinds,
Speaker 2: he could just as easily be referring to economic hardship
Speaker 2: or persecution that many of this diaspora of tribes scattered
Speaker 2: abroad who were believers in Jesus were experiencing, or he
Speaker 2: could be talking about temptation. And it is important to
Speaker 2: know the distinction between the kind of trials that you
Speaker 2: will experience in your life, otherwise you might in years
Speaker 2: blaming the devil for your bad decisions. There are different
Speaker 2: kinds of trials. Some of our trials are the result
Speaker 2: of evil in the world, and that results in all
Speaker 2: kinds of different warfare that we could study for weeks about.
Speaker 2: Some of our trials are the results of things that
Speaker 2: we did contrary to our inner wisdom. There are many
Speaker 2: different kinds of trials, and if you don't know the
Speaker 2: difference between a temptation and a trial, you will try
Speaker 2: to use the wrong tool on the trial. Because when tempted,
Speaker 2: the Bible teaches resistance. When you are tempted to step
Speaker 2: outside of the God given means by which you've been
Speaker 2: empowered to meet your God given desires, the strategy, the tool,
Speaker 2: the technique is resistance. A trial, however, not a temptation,
Speaker 2: but a trial.
Speaker 1: Often the key is not resistance but acceptance.
Speaker 2: And this was important for me to see the distinction
Speaker 2: because a lot of times I'm accepting what I should
Speaker 2: resist and resisting what I should accept. It is taking
Speaker 2: me time to learn the difference, is taking me prayer
Speaker 2: to learn the difference. It's taking the other's community to
Speaker 2: learn the difference. I'm having to get into the Word
Speaker 2: of God to know the difference so that I can
Speaker 2: approach my trials with wisdom.
Speaker 1: In fact, that's.
Speaker 2: What James one to five says, and it's connected to
Speaker 2: this passage, even.
Speaker 1: Though I never thought it was.
Speaker 2: It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should
Speaker 2: ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault,
Speaker 2: and it will be given to you. Now, if you
Speaker 2: want to flip the flow this year, just do.
Speaker 1: James one to five.
Speaker 2: Instead of asking everybody around you what you should do,
Speaker 2: start with the source, start with the solution. We're talking
Speaker 2: about your problems with people who are powerless to fix them.
Speaker 2: It's making you feel worse, it's making them feel worse,
Speaker 2: and everybody's frustrated. So I need the wisdom to make
Speaker 2: the distinction to know the trial that I'm in. God,
Speaker 2: is this one that you want me to fight, or
Speaker 2: do you want me to do what the Parables said
Speaker 2: to do one time with the weeds that were growing
Speaker 2: up alongside the terrace and leave it alone and let
Speaker 2: you deal with it.
Speaker 1: There's a distinction. There's different kinds of trials.
Speaker 2: Some of the stuff that I'm dealing with as a
Speaker 2: parent right now.
Speaker 1: Is just called puberty.
Speaker 2: You can't cast it out, you can't annoy it, you
Speaker 2: can't instruct it.
Speaker 1: It's a different kind of trial. It's just life.
Speaker 2: Some of the stuff I'm dealing with right now is
Speaker 2: a temptation.
Speaker 1: Some of it is actually, I believe, from the pit
Speaker 1: of hell.
Speaker 2: Not that the devil is like personally a sign to me,
Speaker 2: but just some stuff is evil against my purpose. And
Speaker 2: don't give yourself too much credit, because a lot of
Speaker 2: us like to think that the devil had nothing better
Speaker 2: to do than give us, you know, a flat tire,
Speaker 2: and I think the devil is much busier than that.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of it comes down to distinguishing
Speaker 2: the type of trial that I'm in, which helps me
Speaker 2: to understand the distinctions between joy and pleasure. Oh, you
Speaker 2: know those little church signs that they do, I think
Speaker 2: we should get one by the way at elevation the
Speaker 2: church signs where they change the letters and they put
Speaker 2: up little quotes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like this.
Speaker 2: I think we should get one. How many vote we
Speaker 2: get a church sign. Let's have our first ever church
Speaker 2: voted elevation church vote. We should get a church sign
Speaker 2: and we could put stuff up there like this.
Speaker 1: I saw this one.
Speaker 2: It said no Jesus, no Joy, but it was felt,
Speaker 2: k now Jesus. So the first one was no Jesus,
Speaker 2: you don't have Jesus, you don't have joy. K and
Speaker 2: oh Jesus, k and ow Jesus, kN ow joy. And
Speaker 2: I thought it's cute, but it's it's not true.
Speaker 1: No Jesus, no joy. There's a lot of things you
Speaker 1: can enjoy without Jesus. Christy Kreme tastes.
Speaker 2: Good whether you're saved or not.
Speaker 1: My taste buds didn't get saved. It's fun to.
Speaker 2: Talk bad about people whether you're saved or not.
Speaker 1: Only differences.
Speaker 2: And this is important, is that the quality of the
Speaker 2: joy becomes more important than the quantity of the joy.
Speaker 2: You also hear preachers say stuff like this, God doesn't
Speaker 2: care if you're happy. He just wants to make you holy.
Speaker 2: And I can't believe how many people will say amen
Speaker 2: to some business like that that you would never feel
Speaker 2: about your own kid. How many parents do we have
Speaker 2: in the house, and how many of you don't care
Speaker 2: if your kid is ever happy in life at all.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call.
Speaker 2: Child Protective Services on.
Speaker 1: Y'all. Ain't a good good father. No, he is a
Speaker 1: good father, good gift.
Speaker 2: So I never got that, and I never really understood
Speaker 2: the distinction between joy and happiness, because like, there's not
Speaker 2: a difference in the Biblical language. It's not difference Like
Speaker 2: in English we have like phar real happy, which is
Speaker 2: like dancing happy, and then in Hebrew they had happy.
Speaker 2: It's the same word, it's blessed. It's the same word
Speaker 2: as joy. When James says counted joy, he means consider
Speaker 2: yourself supremely happy literal translation. So we need to make
Speaker 2: the distinction, I guess between generic joy.
Speaker 1: And Jesus joy.
Speaker 2: Because he said verse two, consider it pure joy. The
Speaker 2: way my mind works, if there's such a thing as
Speaker 2: pure joy, there must be another kind of joy.
Speaker 1: I kind of cheated that a little bit.
Speaker 2: It's more a grammar issue because the literal translation is
Speaker 2: count it all joy. So he doesn't say pure joy.
Speaker 2: I got a verse for this, though. Let me do
Speaker 2: it from a Let me do it from Hebrews chapter twelve.
Speaker 2: I've always loved this picture of joy because it helps
Speaker 2: me to make a distinction between.
Speaker 1: Joy and pleasure.
Speaker 2: Okay, pleasure can be associated with joy, but joy is
Speaker 2: not dependent on pleasure. This is the second thing I
Speaker 2: want to talk about. I want to talk about the
Speaker 2: direction of joy. The direction of joy. We're talking about
Speaker 2: backseat DJs, right, We're talking about how sometimes we find
Speaker 2: our joy controlled by circumstances and situations. But Jesus gives
Speaker 2: us a picture that stands contrary to the cultural expectation
Speaker 2: of joy.
Speaker 1: And I promise I'll read the scripture in a minute.
Speaker 2: But I just want to tell you so much, and
Speaker 2: I just don't know where to start, where to stop.
Speaker 1: It's just it's all in me today.
Speaker 2: There seems to be right now more than there was
Speaker 2: like when my grandparents. We're thirty and forty, there seems
Speaker 2: to be a pressure for us to always feel pleasure.
Speaker 2: It's no longer just a desire that we have that
Speaker 2: we want to feel good. It's almost like the way
Speaker 2: that social media has constructed our viewing experiences of other
Speaker 2: people's lives through the filters of their most desirable moments,
Speaker 2: there is something wrong with me. If I am not
Speaker 2: constantly happy all the time. That's a problem with me
Speaker 2: because I am not genetically predisposed to be happy.
Speaker 1: I'm just not.
Speaker 2: I've found that out about myself early in life. I
Speaker 2: am not like one of you who just finds reasons
Speaker 2: to smell roses, who just finds reasons to be happy.
Speaker 2: Some of y'all appreciate the rain, appreciate the sunshine. The
Speaker 2: rain makes you feel relaxed. The sunshine makes you feel active.
Speaker 2: You can find the joy in everything. I am not
Speaker 2: of your species, and frankly you make me sick. But
Speaker 2: joy is something different, because the pressure to feel pleasure
Speaker 2: is part of the reason why we feel so miserable.
Speaker 2: And now we are living in the midst of a
Speaker 2: generation that thinks that joy is associated with a feeling
Speaker 2: in your flesh. And it can be, but it doesn't
Speaker 2: have to be. It's important that I say it can
Speaker 2: bring a feeling, but it doesn't start with the feeling.
Speaker 2: This is where we flip the flow. Can we flip
Speaker 2: the flow? If anybody flipped the flow it was Jesus.
Speaker 2: Here he is up on a cross. Here he is
Speaker 2: mocked and and his reputation.
Speaker 1: Is beyond repair.
Speaker 2: Here he is being spat on and condescended to by
Speaker 2: the ones that he created. And the writer of Hebrews,
Speaker 2: whoever he was, says, we need to fix Hebrews twelve
Speaker 2: to two our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector
Speaker 2: or the author and finisher. Either translation is acceptable of
Speaker 2: our faith. HM for the joy set before him, he
Speaker 2: endured the cross. Now this is where my message really happens. Okay,
Speaker 2: what have you set before you? That is what your
Speaker 2: joy is connected to what you have set before you,
Speaker 2: And I'll break that down the best that I can.
Speaker 1: Joy is a point of view. Joy is a way
Speaker 1: of looking at things. This helps me.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but it sets me free
Speaker 2: from feeling the need to feel a certain way. We
Speaker 2: got so many people quitting their jobs because they're unhappy
Speaker 2: and not really understanding that sometimes joy is not the
Speaker 2: absence of sadness.
Speaker 1: Or the presence of the spectacular.
Speaker 2: And all we need to look at is that one
Speaker 2: verse where it says that Jesus for the joy that
Speaker 2: was set before him, I want to use that as
Speaker 2: a picture for a moment. He set joy before him,
Speaker 2: so in order to endure the cross, that's the next part,
Speaker 2: enduring the cross, scorning as shame.
Speaker 1: He didn't find joy in the event. He found joy
Speaker 1: in the guaranteed outcome of the event.
Speaker 2: He did not find joy in the feeling of hanging
Speaker 2: on the crops. It wasn't like because he was the
Speaker 2: son of God that the nails, you know, transcended the
Speaker 2: laws of pain and the material laws of the universe.
Speaker 1: It was just as.
Speaker 2: Painful, but because of purpose. You understand, it's very different
Speaker 2: to go through pain with purpose than pain without purpose.
Speaker 2: It's the difference between Graham jumping on my back he's
Speaker 2: only ninety pounds and me not knowing that he's gonna
Speaker 2: jump on my back and me feeling like every disc
Speaker 2: just slipped like I'm seventy three years old in my
Speaker 2: lower back. And the difference between me putting ninety pounds
Speaker 2: on a bar to squat it.
Speaker 1: If I do it on purpose, it's a warm up weight.
Speaker 2: If I don't expect it, it might take me down.
Speaker 1: To the ground. Same weight. But what I was ready
Speaker 1: for when Jesus hung on the cross.
Speaker 2: He wasn't surprised by the shame. He wasn't surprised by
Speaker 2: the suffering. He wasn't surprised by the pain, He wasn't
Speaker 2: surprised by the jeering. He wasn't surprised by their saliva.
Speaker 2: He wasn't surprised by the blood.
Speaker 1: Joy is a focus before it's a feeling.
Speaker 2: If you came to church just to hear that I
Speaker 2: promise you got.
Speaker 1: Your gas money's worth.
Speaker 2: Joy is a focus before it's a feeling. And so
Speaker 2: while we're chasing a feeling called joy has given us.
Speaker 1: The ability to choose not our feelings. You ever tried
Speaker 1: to choose joy? I saw it on Pinterest. I tried it.
Speaker 1: It sucked, it didn't work.
Speaker 2: Then I felt guilty because I couldn't find joy, and
Speaker 2: it made me feel less joy. So now I'm in
Speaker 2: a joyless pit of joylessness. It is cyclical. Joylessness and
Speaker 2: shame is the difference between choice and consequence. Joy is
Speaker 2: a choice, really because some of the trials that people
Speaker 2: go through are actual mental illness, and it's kind of
Speaker 2: hard for them to just feel happy because they've got
Speaker 2: a good parking space, and no matter how much you
Speaker 2: tell them to feel happy, be happy, you know, be happy,
Speaker 2: feel happy, counter blessings. James doesn't say counter blessings. This
Speaker 2: is in a nursery rhyme. It's a Bible scripture. He said,
Speaker 2: count it all joy. He said, learn how to flip.
Speaker 2: You might not know this statement, but there's a there's
Speaker 2: a statement. In financial terms, it's an income statement. It's
Speaker 2: it's got your your income on one side, your expenses
Speaker 2: on another. James says, if you can learn to put
Speaker 2: some of the stuff in the income column that you
Speaker 2: thought was an expense, some of the stuff in the
Speaker 2: blessing column that you thought was a burden. If you
Speaker 2: can flip the flow, you actually have more joy than
Speaker 2: you're aware of. 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.
Speaker 1: The best way to.
Speaker 2: Stop being happy is to ask yourself the question am
Speaker 2: 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? They
Speaker 2: didn't think like that. There wasn't feeds and scrolling. There
Speaker 2: wasn't There wasn't all this other stuff to make them
Speaker 2: feel unhappy at.
Speaker 1: A moment's notice. There wasn't.
Speaker 2: There wasn't an infinite supply of unhappiness in their pocket
Speaker 2: in the form of a device. They didn't have that,
Speaker 2: so they focused on something else.
Speaker 1: What was it? What is it that.
Speaker 2: Brings joy? If I focus on it, I know it
Speaker 2: is not. It's not looking around. How are they doing?
Speaker 2: What do they think? Where are they go on vacation?
Speaker 2: Where's she taking, where's he going on? What's she wearing
Speaker 2: when she is on? What do they think about me? No, No,
Speaker 2: that's not gonna do it, he said for the joy
Speaker 2: set before him. I can't be looking all around and
Speaker 2: expecting to have joy. I can't be judging my situation
Speaker 2: according to other people's calling and expect to have joy.
Speaker 2: I can't be judging my gift compared to other people's
Speaker 2: talent and expect to have joy. I know is so
Speaker 2: cliche because we say it every week, but nothing destroys
Speaker 2: joy like comparison. The life you've got some of you
Speaker 2: would be so enjoyable if only you didn't do this
Speaker 2: while you were living it. If only you didn't do this.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's hurting my neck just to do it.
Speaker 2: To illustrate to you, imagine what is doing to your soul.
Speaker 2: You can't have joy that way. It is destroying your joy.
Speaker 2: You're praying for more joy, and yet you are destroying
Speaker 2: the joy God has given you, the joy of your salvation,
Speaker 2: the joy of your calling, the joy of your assignment.
Speaker 1: God give me more joy. Well, it's a decision not
Speaker 1: to have joy. That's the worst way.
Speaker 2: To get joy, the decision of what I'm gonna focus on.
Speaker 2: And I can't get it like this. And I definitely
Speaker 2: can't get it like this looking.
Speaker 1: At what's behind me. I can't. 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 not, I will be. There's
Speaker 2: something to that. There's something to that. It's echoed by
Speaker 2: David in Psalm sixteen. He says, in your presence is
Speaker 2: the fullness of joy. Presence. Everybody say that word presence.
Speaker 2: The gift of joy is found in presence. But that
Speaker 2: doesn't 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 happy,
Speaker 2: because God is not going to reward you based on behavior.
Speaker 2: That's not the good news of the Gospel. The gospel
Speaker 2: is for sinners. The Gospel is for the weak. The
Speaker 2: gospel is for the lame. The gospel is for the broken.
Speaker 2: The Gospel is for those who feel ashamed. That's not
Speaker 2: what it means. In your presence is fullness of joy.
Speaker 2: That means joy can only really come to my life
Speaker 2: when I am focused on what God is doing in
Speaker 2: this moment. And I cannot focus on what God is
Speaker 2: doing in this moment in my life if I'm consumed
Speaker 2: with what He's doing in somebody else's or if I'm
Speaker 2: still in regret and bitterness about what happened three years ago,
Speaker 2: or three months ago, or even three minutes ago. A
Speaker 2: lot of our lack of joy is 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 giving praise for a second, we need this lesson friends, family, brothers, sisters, brethren, sistern, mother's,
Speaker 2: father's children. We can't go to a concert anymore without
Speaker 2: trying to capture it, and I can't enjoy it because
Speaker 2: I'm too busy trying to post it. Kids do something cute,
Speaker 2: capture it? Well, you can't, but you're also gonna kill it.
Speaker 2: There is no quicker way to kill your kid's cuteness
Speaker 2: than trying to capture it. I swear demons come out
Speaker 2: when you start trying to 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
Speaker 2: children and they start.
Speaker 1: I can't 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 a couple
Speaker 2: just so you can see. I'm gonna tell you something
Speaker 2: that you wouldn't see if I put those on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Go back to the first one again. Please, That one
Speaker 2: looks happy, right, and go to the other one. Can
Speaker 2: go to the other one. That one looks sad. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you something. That's not my sad face. 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 Fridays
Speaker 2: in the Miami International Airport in the d concourse.
Speaker 1: I'm happy the other one put the other one out.
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.
Speaker 1: Let's see.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get us in this series to
Speaker 2: start take it down, start looking beneath the surface and stuff,
Speaker 2: to stop looking at the surface of stuff, and to stop,
Speaker 2: you know, discerning. I found out that you can miss
Speaker 2: joy because you're looking all around. You can miss joy
Speaker 2: because you're looking behind you.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, you can also miss.
Speaker 2: 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 looking 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
Speaker 1: my looking back.
Speaker 2: You're like, yeah, I already dealt with my stuff back there.
Speaker 1: It's fine. But what you do is you look so
Speaker 1: 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 did 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 the.
Speaker 2: Back of another car because I was looking three turns
Speaker 2: ahead and not looking three feet ahead. And it might
Speaker 2: be destroying your joy. Not that you're like comparing, or
Speaker 2: not that you're regretting.
Speaker 1: But maybe you're just trying to get.
Speaker 2: So far out there, you know, like my retirement is down,
Speaker 2: you're twenty four, it'll catch back up.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of timing, you know. But for those
Speaker 1: of us who.
Speaker 2: Need to plan, he didn't say in your plans this
Speaker 2: fullness of joy. And you can't even really affect the
Speaker 2: future from anywhere but the present, and it's all wasted energy.
Speaker 1: So this is my year of presence.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure out what it means to find
Speaker 2: fullness of joy in God's presence. And in order to
Speaker 2: find fullness of joy in His presence, I have to
Speaker 2: 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 given.
Speaker 1: Me right now. 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 this blessing your life?
Speaker 2: Touch somebody and say this is my happy face? Because
Speaker 2: 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
Speaker 2: Jesus for the joy set before him endured He didn't
Speaker 2: enjoy the cross. He you're the cross because of joy
Speaker 2: set before him. And now I want to give you
Speaker 2: the whole sermon. Okay, here's the sermon in a sentence.
Speaker 2: Hadn't you been preaching for thirty five minutes yet? But
Speaker 2: I 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.
Speaker 2: Verse when I start verse five, please, the Lord is
Speaker 2: my chosen portion.
Speaker 1: 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? Maybe, but it means more
Speaker 2: than that His will is what I want. His waves
Speaker 2: are higher than my waves. So the Lord Yahweh, the Great,
Speaker 2: I am the ever present help in time of trouble,
Speaker 2: he is my chosen portion. I've looked at everything else
Speaker 2: that this world offers me to enjoy, and yes, I
Speaker 2: can enjoy things that aren't necessarily spiritual, but I do
Speaker 2: not need them to survive. And I will not attach
Speaker 2: my joy to a temporal 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.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed the game. I 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 to give me a
Speaker 2: reason to live.
Speaker 1: That is not my priority. I can't invest my.
Speaker 2: Joy in what people I don't know do with an
Speaker 2: oblong object made out of pigskin converted into leather with
Speaker 2: some stitches for four fifteen minute increments, it's the wrong priority.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it, but my joy is not in it.
Speaker 2: Last week, I told you something very powerful about your heart.
Speaker 2: I said, when you know where it comes from, you
Speaker 2: know how it comes out. When you know where it
Speaker 2: comes from you know how it comes out.
Speaker 1: 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. Psalma 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 going to
Speaker 2: get cut on, but you'll never be cut off. If
Speaker 2: you abide in me and my words, abide in you,
Speaker 2: there 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. The joy is going to.
Speaker 2: Flow from a place of your rest and trust in me,
Speaker 2: not in your own effort, and not in just certain
Speaker 2: things that happen. If they happen, is fine, but don't
Speaker 2: confuse the icing with the cake.
Speaker 1: Abide in me my words. Abide in you.
Speaker 2: Many says something in John fifteen eleven. Please I have
Speaker 2: told 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 2: because it's a decision. When I give the wrong things
Speaker 2: too much priority in my life, then those priorities control
Speaker 2: my joy. If my priority is recognition, then recognition controls
Speaker 2: my joy. When people recognize me, I will feel happy
Speaker 2: 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 back seat 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. You are not my God,
Speaker 2: you are not my vine, you are not my source,
Speaker 2: and you don't hold my joy. Joy is something deeper
Speaker 2: than how I feel about it. Joy is something deeper
Speaker 2: than what I post about. Joy is something deeper than
Speaker 2: the way it feels. Right now, I am setting joy
Speaker 2: before me.
Speaker 1: I'm resetting my warnings.
Speaker 2: Now. When I do that, my joy flows not from
Speaker 2: what it is, but from who God is to me.
Speaker 2: This is the duration of joy. And when my joy
Speaker 2: is running out, give me my point, my last point.
Speaker 2: The duration of joy is because it's coming from the
Speaker 2: wrong place. Where it comes from determines 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 2: I really love my family, I really love my church.
Speaker 2: I love what I get to do. It's a blessing
Speaker 2: and a privilege. But I have to admit to you
Speaker 2: that sometimes I have been guilty of enduring something that
Speaker 2: God has given me to enjoy, and every time it happened,
Speaker 2: it was 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 off, God is waiting for
Speaker 2: us to order our lives around. My joy is too
Speaker 2: important for me to leave it up to whether or
Speaker 2: not today goes well, or whether or not they speak
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 2: I can't afford to have these back seat DJs just
Speaker 2: changing the temperature of my life.
Speaker 1: I can't.
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
Speaker 2: today is just one chord. Pray for people today who
Speaker 2: have allowed your joy to be controlled by something other
Speaker 2: than the priority of God's presence in your life, And
Speaker 2: you want me to pray for you to experience a
Speaker 2: vital connection to God in the coming six days until
Speaker 2: we meet again.
Speaker 1: Please stand if you want me to pray for you
Speaker 1: 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 that 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 2: So flip it instead of going, Lord, I need more joy,
Speaker 2: like it's gonna come raining down in the form of
Speaker 2: candy pellets. Instead of praying, God, give me the wisdom
Speaker 2: to when things come in my life to count it joy,
Speaker 2: to consider it joy, because I know that the testing
Speaker 2: of my faith patience teach me God to set joy
Speaker 2: before me, like Jesus did, like the Psalmists did. He said,
Speaker 2: the Lord is ever before me. He is in 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 that 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 2: perpetual pleasantness in the presence of God, Father. I thank
Speaker 2: you for each person who you brought here today. Maybe
Speaker 2: they've been in that season of mourning you are in.
Speaker 1: I in mourning.
Speaker 2: Thank you that your word says that weeping may endure
Speaker 2: for a night, but joy comes with the morning. And
Speaker 2: we bless you because what that means to us today
Speaker 2: is that in everything that is happening in our life
Speaker 2: right now, there is an opportunity for joy. I confess
Speaker 2: to you before these people, God that I need this
Speaker 2: message more than anybody who heard it. I'm preaching this
Speaker 2: today God because sometimes in my life I have set
Speaker 2: things before me that had no place being my priority,
Speaker 2: and every time I did, I was disappointed.
Speaker 1: And every time I.
Speaker 2: Did, I got a hit, but it didn't fix anything.
Speaker 2: So this week, would you show us what's truly important.
Speaker 1: Would you help us to see.
Speaker 2: Our lives with the wisdom that only you provide. Help
Speaker 2: us to understand that joy does not come from better circumstances.
Speaker 2: Joy does not come from human acclaim. Joy comes from
Speaker 2: ordered priorities. We want to seek first your kingdom. We
Speaker 2: want to know what matters to you, and we thank
Speaker 2: you for it in Jesus' name, hey.
Speaker 1: Man, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you