Joy

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.

James 1:2–4

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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