Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. Joy is a spiritual principle.
I'm going to say that again. Joy may be more
than you think you know about it. It's a spiritual
principle. Everybody say joy. Let's look at some
Bible verses. Nehemiah 8 and 10. We sang about
this today. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
How many of you feel weak at times? And you could
use some more strength to help you get through
your day, to help you deal with the situation
that you're dealing with. Who needs some more
strength every once in a while? We can be found.
Anytime you need strength, it can be found in
the joy of the Lord. Because the joy of the Lord
is your strength. Psalm 118, 24. I think we might
have sang about this. This is the day the Lord
has made. Look at the person beside you and say,
today. God made it. God made today. This is the
day the Lord has made. We will rejoice. Everybody
say rejoice. And be glad. Everybody say be glad.
In it. Here's the deal. If you're going to have
any joy or rejoicing or gladness, it's going
to be because you chose it. I'll say it again.
Even though I don't have it written down. I think
I can remember it. If you are going to have any
joy or rejoicing or gladness in your life, I'm
going to add a little phrase, in this fallen,
messed up world, you're going to have to choose
it. Because we all face a lot of choices every
day, right? How many of you have the choice to
be mad every once in a while? Almost daily. How
many of you have the choice to complain? How
many of you have a choice to be sad? Hello? What
I'm telling you is joy is a spiritual principle
and you don't have to choose all those other
things. You can choose joy. We've looked at this
verse quite a few times. Luke 2 .10, this is
at Jesus' birth, at the announcement of His birth,
the angel said, I bring you good tidings, they
were talking to the shepherds, I bring you good
tidings of great, exceedingly great, exceedingly
large, exceedingly loud, if you look at the word
study, joy. So could we say that Jesus brought
a new level of joy that is available in this
earth? Jesus brought it. And guess what? He didn't
take it back to heaven when it went back to heaven.
He ushered it in. John 15, 11. These are Jesus'
words. I've told you these things. What did he
tell us right before then? He said, well, I want
you to do life with me. I want you to abide in
me. Abiding is where we live. It's not where
we visit. He says, abide in me. I'm the vine.
I'm the source. And if you abide in me, my source
is going to flow through you. Hallelujah. I might
just preach myself happy today. And after he
said that, he says, I want you to do life with
me. I want you to do my kind of life. You can
read the verses before it. He says, if you're
connected with me and walking in the spirit and
living with me, You know what? That's the way
to joy. He says, I've told you these things so
that you will be filled, filled with my joy.
I told you these things. This is how to be filled
with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. So
it's not just being filled with the joy of the
Lord. It's overflowing with the joy of the Lord.
That's what Jesus said. I didn't write this.
Look to the person beside you and say, it's available.
You just have to choose it. Romans 14, 17. Oh,
we've read this one a lot too. The kingdom of
God is not meat and drink. Because everybody's
just about, well, what can we eat? What should
we eat? What shouldn't we eat? What should we
drink? What should we drink? I mean, you know,
in this society, we're living around all these
pagan temples and people are sacrificing food
and all this kind of stuff. And then it's making
available. They're selling it in the markets
now after it's been sacrificed to some false
gods. Should we eat that or not? Everybody's
like, rules, rules, rules, rules. So the kingdom
of God is not all these rules. So many people
think that Christianity is just about keeping
a list of rules. Have you ever thought that before?
It's about, well, you need to do this, and you
need to do this, and you need to do this, and
you shouldn't do that, and you shouldn't do this,
and you shouldn't do that. The kingdom of God
is not about that. If your religion is about
rules, you're missing it. Kingdom of God, the
eternal rule and reign of God that's now that
Jesus ushered into this earth. It's not about
the rules, but it's about righteousness. It's
about understanding that we are clothed in the
righteousness of Christ because of what Jesus
did on the cross. And in relationship with him,
we are as righteous as we will ever get. We can't
get more righteous. We can't be any less righteous.
Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we're
now clothed in his righteous robe. That happens
at salvation. That's what the kingdom of God's
about. The kingdom of God's about peace. So why
do we always, I need peace. God, please give
me peace. I want peace. I don't have any peace.
Jesus has already given you more peace than you
can handle. Overflowing peace. He's already given
it to you. But you have to take it. You have
to believe it. I mean, God's name is peace. He
is Yahweh Shalom. So why do you think He's holding
out on giving you peace? Don't ever think he's
holding out on you. We need to receive what he's
made available to us on a daily basis. But we're
not done. The kingdom of God is about righteousness.
Give righteousness. It's about the peace that
surpasses all understanding, that guards my heart
and my mind in Christ Jesus. And it's also about
joy. In the Holy Ghost. Glad one person got happy.
If your religion does not have joy, if your experience
with church or with God doesn't include joy and
peace and gift righteousness, you're barking
up the wrong tree. I don't know if that translates
into another language or not, but... You're focused
on the wrong things. Galatians 5 .22. Oh, we've
read this one before. The fruit of the Spirit
is love. Everybody say love. Joy. Everybody say
joy. Peace. Everybody say peace. And a whole
lot more. Don't ever forget self -control because
that's in there too. We talked about that for
several weeks. But the fruit of the Spirit, the
kingdom of God is about joy in the Holy Ghost.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit, part of that is
joy. And the fruit of the Spirit should be continually
increasing and not decreasing in our lives. I'll
say that again, even though nobody asked for
it. The fruit of the Spirit should be continually
increasing. That's called spiritual maturity.
When the fruit of the Spirit is increasing in
our lives. Hallelujah. Philippians 1 .25. This
is Paul talking. And having this confidence.
I know that I shall abide and continue with you
all. You know, Paul just said, I sure would like
to go be with Jesus. I sure would like for my
faith to be made sign. I'm looking forward to
that day. I'm not dreading taking my last breath
because I know what it's leading to. I don't
fear my last breath. I'm not going to commit
suicide or anything like that, but I don't fear
my last breath because I know to be absent from
this earth suit body is to be present with the
Lord according to the word of God. My faith will
become sight. I'll be face to face with Jesus.
Hallelujah. There's nothing to be afraid about
if you're in Christ. It's nothing to fear. But
Paul is saying, you know what? I'm torn between
this because I want to go to heaven, but I've
got work to do here. Look to the person beside
you and say, you've got some work to do here.
He says, I know that I'm going to abide, that
I'm going to stay. I'm going to continue with.
you all, I'll just say y 'all right there, with
you. I shall abide and continue with you all
for your furtherance. To help you grow spiritually,
I need to stay, is what Paul said. To help you
grow. For your furtherance. And, Joy of faith.
Everybody say joy. Paul needed to stay because
they hadn't really took hold of the joy that
was available to them in Jesus. He's going to
keep on so that their joy will be full like Jesus
said and their joy will overflow. How many of
you know Paul had some pretty bad days? There
was a time when a lot of people said, hey, we're
not even going to eat again until we kill Paul.
Now, you may have some people that don't like
you, but I don't know of anybody in this room
that somebody says, I'm not even going to eat
another meal until I kill you. Shipwrecked, whipped,
beaten. I mean, he had some bad days. But he's
like, I'm not leaving yet. Because you need to
have more joy in your faith. You need to grow
spiritually. I need to help you. I need to keep
watering and feeding and watering and feeding
and watering and feeding and watering and feeding
until the joy of your faith rises. Philippians
4 .4. I think we sang about this today too. Because
I get to pick out the songs. Rejoice in the Lord
always. And again I say rejoice. And you might
say, what's that have to do with joy? I'm glad
you asked. Because rejoicing is the outward expression
of joy. Rejoicing is the expression of joy. Rejoicing
the Lord always. Does it say rejoice in the Lord
when everything is going wonderful? You know,
you need to really rejoice in the Lord because,
you know, everything's been going your way. Everything's
perfect. Everything's so awesome right now. So
you need to be rejoicing. Is that what it says?
No, it says rejoice in the Lord always. And in
case you didn't get it, the Holy Spirit says,
and again I say, rejoice. Let your joy in the
Lord, your joy in the Holy Spirit, let that come
out. Let that be expressed. Always. How many
of you know that You're going to have to choose
for it to be always. Because like we've already
said, you've got the opportunity to gripe, complain,
be sad. You've got the opportunity. You're not
the only one who has the opportunity to be overcome
with fear. Everybody in this room. How many of
you have the opportunity to complain every once
in a while? Raise your hand. How many of you
have the opportunity to be filled with fear and
be afraid? Who has that opportunity every once
in a while? Who has the opportunity to just get
mad sometimes? I heard. Heard somebody say this,
so I'm going to repeat it because it just hit
my brain right now. Listen, you can get glad
in the same britches that you got mad in. I thought
that was funny. Some people try to over -spiritualize
joy to the point where believers say, you know
what, I must have it. But I don't know what it
really is. If the Bible says I have joy, then
I must have it, but I just don't know. I'm going
to tell you something. This preacher, this preacher
right here, has stood in the pulpit and said,
because I heard somebody else say it and I thought
they were smart. Joy. It's like the deep current
in a river. Now, happiness. Joy and happiness
have nothing to do with each other. Because happiness
is like the rapids and the movement on top of
the river. But joy runs deep. Joy is what's there
whether you see it or not. You know, that river's
moving whether you see it or not. It can look
real still. But what's moving it is that joy
that you can't really see. I've said that. Has
anybody ever heard a preacher say that? Well,
this preacher has said it. Thinking I was being
real spiritual. Right? Here's what I was doing.
I was over -spiritualizing joy. Where you say,
well, I must have it. I really don't know what
it is. All I had to do was look in the Bible
and look at the word and look at the definition
of the word that the Bible uses. The Bible, New
Testament is written in Greek, right? So we need
to look it up and just see. And guess what? It
didn't say anything about deep current. That's
not what it says. Biblical joy, the joy that
we're talking about, it's not hard to grasp.
It's not a hard to grasp spiritual concept. It
can't be seen. The Greek word is kharah. Hope
I said that right. Unless I need to say kharah.
I don't know. Thanks for laughing. I thought
it was funny. Here's what it means. Every time
you read the word joy in the New Testament, here's
what it means. It means exceeding joyfulness.
It means gladness. It means rejoicing. I've got
a question. How much of that is invisible? Is
any of that invisible? Can you have any of that
with a big scowl and a frown on your face? Looking
like your mama gave you a bottle with lime juice
in it growing up. Just bless God. I have joy.
I'm just telling you what the Word says. I don't
think you can have exceeding joyfulness or gladness
or rejoicing without it being noticed by the
people around you. As I was studying, I'm like,
boy, you got a ways to go. Just like we talked
about the other week about the Word of God being
like a mirror. And you see yourself in the mirror.
And then you start looking at this and you're
like, boy. The good thing is when you get out
of the mirror, all of a sudden it's like it's
cool again because you think that you have joy.
But in the mirror of the Word of God, you can
tell that you need to be choosing joy more than
you've actually been choosing joy. And you might
not have even realized that you can choose joy.
But it's a spiritual principle. If it wasn't
a spiritual principle, it wouldn't be in the
Bible over 400 times. C .S. Lewis says, joy is
the serious business of heaven. I agree with
him. I mean, it's not a Bible verse, but... He
said, joy is the serious business of heaven.
I can't prove it biblically. Psalm 1611 says,
in your presence, in God's presence, is fullness
of joy. What does fullness of joy look like?
Just a dab of joy? Is it a dab of joy? A little
dab will do you? No. In your presence is fullness
of joy. Here's another one. Luke 15, 10. We've
read this a few times too. There's joy. Everybody
say joy. Celebration, rejoicing, gladness, cheerfulness.
There's joy in the presence. Of God's angels.
Who's in the presence of God's angels? Who's
in the presence of God's angels? I hope I've
already corrected this in so many of you, but
maybe you think that it's the angels that are
rejoicing and having joy. Because I grew up thinking
that. It says there's joy. In the presence of
God's angels. Well, God's seated on the throne.
Jesus is at his right hand. They are in the presence
of the angels in heaven. Also, those who have
gone before us in faith, having faith in Christ,
They are there in the presence of the angels.
So there's rejoicing and celebration and gladness
and joy going on in heaven whenever one sinner
repents. Now listen. I think there are over 8
billion people in the world. How many of you
think that... People are repenting on a pretty
regular basis if there's 8 billion. Are you with
me? Do you think that people might continually
be repenting out of 8 billion? That the repenting
never stops on earth? Is that a fair statement?
So what does that tell us? There's a whole lot
of joy. There's a whole lot of rejoicing. Because
it bumps up a notch every time one person...
I mean, it takes a little while to rejoice, right?
But it just keeps compounding and compounding
and compounding and compounding. Hey, there's
a lot of joy and celebration and rejoicing and
gladness in heaven. Heaven is a very happy place.
But yet I grew up thinking that God was like
one of the Supreme Court justices and he's just
sitting there looking at everybody. Oh, I'm going
to get you for that. Oh, I'm going to get you
for that. You shouldn't have had that thought.
I'm going to get you. You shouldn't have said
that. I'm going to get you. You shouldn't have
done that. I'm going to get you. That's just
the way I grew up. That's just the concept I
had. If you've never had that concept, God bless
you. Because it's a bad concept. Heaven's a happy
place. Heaven's a place of joy and rejoicing
and gladness. And anybody that really gets in
God's presence taps into some supernatural joy.
Right? I'm going to say it again. If you will
tap in to the manifested presence of God, you
will have supernatural joy available to you no
matter what's going on around you, just like
you can have supernatural peace in your life
no matter what's going on around you. Hallelujah.
Help us take it. Like I've said multiple times,
joy is a key spiritual principle that's often
overlooked. The concept of joy and rejoicing
appear over 400 times in the Bible. If it's in
the Bible over 400 times, do you think that God's
serious about it? Billy Sunday. Old preacher,
I can't remember when he was a preacher, but
I think he was a baseball player. Am I correct?
Baseball player, professional baseball player
turned preacher. Here's what he said, and I agree
with him too. That's why I've got his quote up
here. If I didn't agree with him, I probably
wouldn't have his quote. The trouble with many
people... is that they have just enough religion
to make them miserable. Just enough to make them
miserable. If there's no joy in your religion,
you've got a leak somewhere. John Wesley. Here's
what he said. Sour godliness is the devil's religion.
A joyless Christianity is a religion that's false
and encouraged by Our spiritual enemy. God wants
you to be happy. Everybody say blessed. Every
time you read that word blessed, what does it
mean? Supremely blessed, happy, well off. How
many of you believe God wants to bless his children?
Made his blessings available to his children?
So God wants you to be happy and God wants you
to have joy. I've got a lot of preacher friends
that would be mad at me for saying that. And
I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for them.
But what if you're not experiencing the blessed
life, the happiness of God? What if you're not
experiencing true joy? Well... How many of you
know what this is? Might be because you're not
tuned in correctly to the Word of God. I was
the youngest of four. I know this is hard to
believe. But we had three VHF stations and two
UHF stations. that were available. I was the
youngest. Mom and dad, three older siblings.
I was a remote too. There's no such thing as
a remote. If the channel had to be changed, it
wasn't just walking up to the TV and clicking.
It was like a big dial. 1 through 13 was your
VHF stations. So it would click. It had a big
knob in the middle that you would click to those
stations. But just because you put it on channel
7, it doesn't mean that Spartanburg showed up.
So it wasn't just clicking the station. No, the
antenna was on top of the TV. And we thought
it picked up better if we wrapped tinfoil around
the top of the antennas. That little circle that
you see is for UHF channels. The other ones are
for VHF channels. So we put tinfoil on them,
and you had to turn it towards Spartanburg to
pick up Spartanburg. Then you had to turn it
towards Greenville. If you want to go to channel
4, you had to turn it towards Greenville. to
get Channel 4. And then, Asheville didn't come
in great. That was Channel 13, but to get Asheville,
you had to turn it towards Asheville. And it
was still pretty fuzzy most of the time. Had
to be tuned in. Public broadcasting. Can't remember
what channel it was on. It was on UHF. But there
was a Christian station in Greenville that was
channel 16. You didn't have to turn that circle.
For some reason, UHF came in better than VHF.
But it was a long way away, not as powerful.
So it was kind of rough, had a lot of static.
When you turn on the TV, I might as well throw
this out there. When you turn on the TV, you
had to stand there and wait. And then a little
light would show up right in the middle of it.
And then it would kind of go across and then
it would kind of get bigger. Anybody know what
I'm talking about? One of the great things that
happened that should happen today is right at
midnight, every station cut off. Every station
showed an American flag and played the national
anthem. And then it was like, we're done. Off.
Huh? Yeah, that'd be nice, wouldn't it? That'd
be nice. Now we got 800 channels and nothing
to watch. Don't have anything to watch. Anyway.
So if you're not experiencing the joy of the
Lord, joy in the Holy Spirit, maybe you're just
not tuned in correctly. Hopefully those verses
helped you tune in just a little bit. Or maybe
you're experiencing some things in this life
that try to steal your joy. Because there's some
joy stealers. Sometimes expectation can be a
joy stealer. It's good to have expectation, but
it's not good to say, I'll be happy or I'll have
joy when this happens or when that happens or
when this day gets here. You know, always pushing
it out sometime to the future. You got to choose
it now. You got to choose it today. And if your
expectations are, well, you know, if all this
falls into place, Then I can be glad, and I can
be cheerful, and I can have joy, and I can rejoice
if everything lines up exactly like the way I
want it to. Look at the person beside you and
say, good luck on that. Conflict. We just said
that we have the opportunity to be mad sometimes.
Well, we face conflict, right? If we live in
this broken world, we have some conflict coming
our way. But it's up to us to choose how we're
going to respond to that conflict. It's up to
us. Is getting mad really going to make a difference?
All it's going to do is steal your joy. Wouldn't
it be so much easier to say, you know what? They
did me wrong. They said something that made me
feel bad, but you know what? I'm not going to
let it steal my joy. Stay in control of your
own feelings. Pain in the past. Some people don't
think they ever can experience joy like we're
talking about, cheerfulness, gladness, rejoicing,
celebration. They think that they will never
be able to experience that again because of something
that happened in their past. If that has ever
been an issue for you, please, please, please
do whatever you can to be here next Sunday. Because
what happened to Ken, there was no fault of his
own. Just the way his life turned out. If anybody
could say, because of what happened to me in
my past, I will never be able to be happy. I'll
never have joy. I'll never be able to rejoice.
I'll never have gladness. If anybody can say
it, he can say it. But he made a choice. Pain
of the past. Here's the deal. God's a healer
of your broken heart. That's what he does. That's
who he is. He will give you beauty in the place
of the ashes in your life. And he will give you
the oil of joy in the place of mourning. Some
people are just stuck in mourning for the rest
of their life. Stuck. But God will give you the
oil of joy. He'll bind up your wounds, the Bible
says. Troubles. Anybody face any troubles? Cast
all your care on the Lord because He cares for
you. Troubles that come your way can steal your
joy if you let them. And here's the deal. Don't
get mad at me because I'm trying to help you.
Troubles cannot steal your joy unless you let
it. Troubles cannot steal your joy unless you
let your troubles steal your joy. Psalm 51, 12.
Restoring to me the joy of thy salvation. There's
joy in our salvation. Psalm 35. Weeping may endure
for a night. Look at the person beside you and
tell them, don't get stuck. Don't get stuck.
Don't get stuck. The biggest thing you face should,
I mean, it might possibly knock you for a loop,
but don't get stuck. Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy comes in the morning. Here's where
we're going to focus the rest of our time. Look
at the person beside you and say, listen fast.
James 1. We spend a lot of time in James lately.
James 1, verse 2 through 4. Here's some instruction.
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any
kind... Everybody say, any kind. When troubles
of any kind come your way... When troubles of
any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity
for great joy. Have I been telling you the truth
up until now? When troubles of any kind come
your way, consider it an opportunity for great
joy. For you know something. You know something.
That's how, listen, it's raining. It's going
to be okay. Going to have great joy loading out
in the rain. Hallelujah. Getting wet to your
socks and your drawers. Hallelujah. At least
God has given me the strength to be able to do
it. Hello? He's given me the strength to be able
to do it. I could be laid up in a hospital somewhere
and not be able to do it. Hallelujah. Dear brothers
and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your
way, consider it an opportunity for great joy
because you know something. For you know. We're
going to read the rest of it, but I just wanted
to stop at for you know. Now, I know you didn't
want me to dissect every word of this, but I
spent a long time, over an hour, and you don't
want to spend another over an hour, I'm pretty
sure. But I did an in -depth word study of the
words to this, so I have a DFV version for you.
Dean Forrest version. Okay? The first one was
NLT, New Living Translation. This is the Dean
Forrest version after doing a word study on every
word in these verses. Choose joy, gladness, and
rejoicing. Let joy, oh boy, when it says consider
it all joy, it means to esteem it all joy. It
means to judge it joy. It talks about authority.
Let joy have the rule and authority over all
your trouble. Come on, somebody. When we face
trouble, what we have to do is we have to make
a ruling, a judgment. We've got to consider and
esteem it. No matter what we're seeing, we're
going to count it joy. Because we're going to
let joy have rule and authority over our trouble.
We're going to let joy have rule and authority
over our adversity. We're going to let joy have
rule and authority over our temptations. We're
going to let joy have rule and authority over
the trials of our integrity. Does anybody encounter
some of this stuff every once in a while? Is
your integrity ever on trial? Hello? Let joy
have the rule and authority over any evil experience
that you encounter. Would anybody say you face
some evil experiences in your life? Even not
a fault of your own? How can you choose joy,
gladness, and rejoicing? How can you let joy
have the rule and authority over the troubles
that you face? Because you know something. I'm
trying to remember how to pronounce it. Kara.
There's two words here. Kara and karis. Can you
just look at these words? I want you to look
at these words. The first one is joy. The second
one is grace. I was just blown away when I saw
this. I found it in some word help studies that
I was reading and stuff, and I'm just like, really?
I should have known it. All my edumacation and
stuff. I should have known it. But can you tell
that there's a pretty serious relation or a connection
between joy and grace just by looking at the
words? Can you tell? Well, joy and grace are
connected. Here's what you know. Here's how you
can choose joy, gladness, celebration, rejoicing,
even in the face of trouble, because you know
something. You know God's grace. Paul was facing
a difficult time, and the Holy Spirit told him,
my grace is sufficient for you. What I have done
for you, what I have accomplished for you, my
acts of favor and kindness towards you, My promises
that I purchased when I took on flesh and became
a man and laid down my life, everything that
I accomplished, everything that I've promised
to you, no matter what you're facing, listen,
that's more than enough. Here's what you know.
I can count it all joy when I face trouble because
I know something. I know that God's acts of kindness
and favor have made provision for me in this
very situation that I'm in. The provision has
already been made. The promise has already been
forgiven. Given, not forgiven. The promise has
already been given. The problem is, most of the
time we don't know it. And when we don't know
it, it's hard to count it all joy when we face
the trouble if we don't know that God has already
provided. Are you with me? I don't want to weave
you in somewhere that you don't have a clue what
I'm talking about. You got to know. You got to
know. You got to know that in Christ, who you
are in Christ, that you're more than a conqueror.
That the blessings of Abraham is yours. You got
to know that. You got to be confident in it.
I know it. You got to say, I see what I'm facing
right now, but I know something. I know that
God's going to supply all my need. I know that
I'm the head not to tell, above only not beneath.
I know that I'm a new creature. I'm a new creation
in Christ. I know that. I know that I can do
all things when I'm in Christ. I can do all things
that he is leading me to do and call me to do,
the situations that I face. I know that I'm going
to triumph in all things. Because I know God's
promise. I know something. Because my faith in
God already knows the outcome. I can count it
all joy because I know something. By faith in
God's grace, gifts, and promises, I already know
the outcome. I know where I'm going to wind up.
The Bible even tells us that Jesus was able to
endure the cross. Everybody say trouble. He was
able to endure the cross. Because of the joy
that was set before him. He knew what was going
to happen. He knew the outcome of him dying on
the cross. He knew what he was going to accomplish
for you and for me. So he endured it. Found joy
in it. Because of the outcome. Football season's
here, so I got to tell them a little story again.
Because some of you hadn't heard it, and some
of you have probably forgotten it. I love college
football. Well, I better change that. I enjoy
college football. I love people, and I love God,
but I enjoy college football. Is that fair? Oh,
boy. I like my teams. Get excited. You might
not want to be around me when I'm watching a
football game. Because if my quarterback takes
a sack instead of throwing it away, you're going
to hear me coaching through the TV. As they got
him tied up, I'm going, throw it away, throw
it away. I mean, I get worked up watching football.
It's like, I was a defensive back in high school.
So I'm like, why are you giving him 12 yards?
Why are you standing 12 yards off the line? They're
just beating you to death, throwing that little
short slant right in front of you. Get up in
his face. Bust him one good time and back up
quick. They're killing us. Don't you know how
to play cornerback? You're not a safety. Get
three to five yards in front of me, not 12. Man,
I coach. It sounds like you're out. Anyway, here's
the deal. If I don't get to watch the ball game
live, there are opportunities to watch replays.
Some people say, don't tell me the score because
I haven't seen it yet. Don't tell me the score.
I'm like, tell me the score. Here's why. Because
if my team loses, I don't even want to watch
it. Right? We lost. Why do I want to watch us
lose? If my team wins, I want to watch it. But
here's the deal. If I'm watching a replay and
I know that my team's already won, I watch the
game a whole lot differently. Right? I don't
get all worked up. It's okay if you get sacked
because I know we won. It's okay if they keep
getting those short, you know, end slants and
keep getting... It's okay if you're not playing
up close because we already won. I'm just going
to sit back and enjoy it. I watch it differently
because I already know the outcome. You better
listen. Because we already know the outcome by
faith based on God's promises and based on our
confident hope that God is faithful. Our faith
in His faithfulness. We can live our lives in
a different way, people. We can choose joy every
day, no matter what we face, because we know
the outcome. When we're standing in faith, if
we're not standing in faith, we may not have
a good outcome. It's not just up to however the
wind blows. It's up to us knowing the promise
of God, wholeheartedly believing the promise
of God, agreeing with the Word of God, with our
words, and taking hold of it. Having complete
confidence that God's going to keep His promises.
And when I stand in faith, I know the outcome
of my day. I know the outcome of my week. I know
the outcome of my month. I know that I'm standing
in an opportunity. Every time I face trouble,
I know I'm standing in an opportunity to see
the goodness of God about to break loose in my
life. That was my next slide. When counted all
joy. Because we're in a position where we are
about to see God do something amazing when we're
standing in faith based on his promise that he's
already made that has everything to do with this
trouble and this situation that we're facing
today. God doesn't have to create a whole bunch
of new promises just to get you out of your situation.
Hallelujah. Some of you are looking at me like,
what? Verse 3, for you know that when your faith
is tested, everybody say, fight the good fight
of faith. Fighting the good fight of faith is
where we're standing when we count it all joy,
we're fighting the good fight of faith, right
in the middle of it. Oh, you should remember
that. Count it all joy is fighting the good fight
of faith. When you face trouble, if you'll count
it all joy, that is fighting the good fight of
faith. You know that when your faith is tested,
your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it
grow. Everybody say, let it grow. For when your
endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect
and complete, needing nothing. That only comes
when you count it all joy. That's key to this
text. Here's a DFV for the last two verses. Standing
in faith with confident expectation without wavering,
in the middle of your trouble, right, is what
we're talking about, will produce something in
you. It'll produce a cheerful, hopeful, steadfast
endurance. A constancy is another definition
of that word. That will keep you from failing
or being destitute. You go do a word study on
these verses and you'll find everything that
I've put here. So here's the deal. Counting it
all joy in the middle of the trouble because
you know something, right? And if you stand,
And you stand on the grace of God, His favor
and His acts of kindness towards you, His goodness
towards you, His promises towards you. If you'll
keep standing, if you'll keep choosing joy, something's
going to be produced on the inside of you. It's
going to bring the best results. It's going to
produce a cheerful, hopeful, steadfast endurance,
a constancy that will keep you from failing.
How many of you know that choosing joy will keep
you from failing? Just because God promised it
doesn't mean that you're not going to fail in
different areas of your life. Some of us want
to say because God promised it is, you know.
Why am I failing if God's promised? Why did I
lose? God must not be keeping his promises. Bless
your heart. You must not be choosing joy and
choosing to fight the good fight of faith. Hallelujah.
Here's my last slide. Everybody say last slide.
Here we go. The level of your joy, the level
of your rejoicing, the level of your gladness
is an indicator. It indicates something. Because
if you don't have joy, rejoicing, and gladness,
you know what? Your faith is very weak. If you
don't have joy, rejoicing, and gladness, the
level of your trust in God, your confidence in
God, that He's going to keep His promises, your
faith, It's very weak. But when you have it,
when you choose it, when you choose it, when
you choose joy, because you know something. And
what you know is based on what God has said and
what God has done, right? We're not just choosing
joy. This is not just some kind of secular theory.
We're choosing it based on what we know. And
when we stand, we will have joy. When we stand
in faith, we will have joy. We will have rejoicing.
We will have celebration. If we're really in
genuine faith, believing that God is faithful,
believing that he's going to keep his promises
that we found in scripture and we're standing
on. You might have to stand a while. We think,
oh, if we do this for five minutes, then wow,
you know, God's holding out on me because it
didn't happen in five minutes. Sometimes it takes
a while. But in your waiting, choose joy, gladness,
rejoicing. Let's pray. God, thank you for today.
Thank you for your truth. We take hold of your
word. We see areas of our life where we're not
living up to the standard of what you provided
for us, to what you want for us, to how you want
us to live. We see that we're coming up short.
But we receive your word. And from the day on,
we're going to be doers of your word, not just
hearers. In Jesus' name, amen. This online worship
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