Always Be Joyful | 05/31/2026

I just love you so much.

People uh said, David, you married out out of your league, and I said, I know.

Amen.

God is good like that.

Is everyone doing well today?

Okay, you ready for summer?

Now it's getting official.

Some people are like, no.

I was I was praying.

We had a I feel like we had a message, it really hit me last week.

I hope it ministered to you if you were here or watched online about endurance, about when times get hard, not quitting.

And I was praying, I was saying, Lord, okay, what what what do you want to tell your church?

You know, we're getting ready to go into summer, and I felt like you wanted us to talk about joy.

And I think that this is a little bit of a you know part two of that endurance message, because as we're enduring, as we're learning to not quit when things get hard, and I'm primarily talking about not quitting on God.

There's always going to be a temptation, and you all have known this, you've probably been there, there's always a temptation to quit, to quit trusting, quit hoping.

I mean, uh, this part part of the challenges of life is how God trains us and molds us into the image of Christ.

Amen.

And but endurance is not just the simple thing of not quitting, it's also how you go through those hard seasons.

It's how you endure.

We see the Thessalonian church, they went through a lot of hardships and suffering, but it said they endured with hope.

The actual posture of their endurance was a testimony and encouragement to other believers.

Okay, so it's not just, you know, oh, I'm not I'm not quitting, you know.

We've been, you know, watching Winnie the Pooh with my little son, and I see Eeyore, and he's like, Well, another day.

You know, we're not a bunch of Eeyers, we're tiggers, you know.

I was well, that was like a Hispanic tigger.

Oh God, help me.

I I I feel the Holy Spirit sometimes say, David, don't do that, and I'm like, I'm doing it.

But whatever.

But I felt like we're gonna talk about joy now.

Sometimes I use AI to make uh generate images for my backgrounds, and so I would I asked the AI, I was like, hey, you know, I want you to make a background, you know, like a banner for this message, it's kind of uplifting and fun.

And this is what it made, and I was looking at it, and I was singing, I was like, that's a little bit girly, so I tried again and I said, Listen, you know me, make something that suits my personality.

So we got a take two.

Soy, get you some.

This is also a real pick of me back when I was in Nam.

Kathy, I love you so much.

She's like, wait a minute, you weren't even born yet.

My dad fought in Nam, though.

He flew jets and nom.

So, anyways, yeah, he did.

So, anyways, we're gonna talk about joy today and we're gonna get real with it.

Let me go ahead and show you a verse.

Again, no respect.

No, let's there we go.

Y'all want to vote?

You want to do a church vote?

Raise your hand if you want this one.

Raise your hand if you want this one.

Okay, that wins.

Yeah.

Only one gets to leave a year, Miss Pam.

So you have to stay seated.

So, anyways, always be joyful.

This is a verse in 1 Thessalonians 5.6, 5.16, and I want us to look at this.

You know, sometimes when we're reading the Bible, I'll read the Bible on a daily basis.

Sometimes we'll read and we'll just cover a lot of ground in one day, like real quick.

Maybe you're going to work, you listen to a couple chapters, you read through it, and the Holy Spirit can highlight and make something pop out at you.

But then there's times where you can soak on just a verse or two.

Is it you know what I'm talking about?

Well, I'll get into these modes sometimes where I'll just be looking at a verse and I'm just like thinking about it.

Just one verse.

And this is one of these verses this week that really just I've been thinking about this, and I want us just to look at what this is saying.

It says, always be joyful.

Now, this is the word of God.

This is God's instruction written by band, but it's God's message to us.

It's an instruction.

This we could even say that this is a command from God, an expectation He has for us.

Do you know what?

Do you understand what this verse is saying?

He says, I want you to always that means there's a time where you're not this to be joyful.

Good, good, good.

And I here's the thing, when I see this verse, I personally, because I'm a man, I have sin, I have misunderstandings, God's ways are higher than mine, I have challenges when I see a verse like this because I begin to question, I'm like, well, how can I possibly do that?

How can how can God, knowing my state, knowing my imperfections, expect me to be joyful all the time?

And I imagine a lot of us we see verses like this, and maybe we skim over it and we're like, well, that's good, but we don't really take it to heart.

This is an expectation of God.

This is an instruction.

And here's the thing: God understands there's certain things we can't do.

We can't save ourselves, we can't make ourselves godly, right?

So but when the Bible gives us an instruction, a command to do something, there's an expectation that, hey, you have the ability to do it.

And that challenges me.

I'm like, wait a second, you're telling me to always be joyful, then I guess there's a way and ability and a power that I have to be joyful.

So let's talk about this because there are some very stark, obvious things and challenges that we can see when we look at a verse like this.

We can take some certain things for granted.

We can also misunderstand what this is saying.

We can get the wrong expectation and then try to do the wrong thing.

You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah.

When we see joy in the Bible, it can mean there's two types of joy.

There's two types.

We could there's actually more, but there's two primary types of joy.

There's the feeling of joy.

The emotion of joy.

Joy is a feeling, it's a feeling of happiness.

Has anyone ever felt joy before?

Yeah.

The feeling of joy, the emotion of joy is not something that you can just make yourself experience.

Can I go ahead and take a little bit of the burden off of us to conjure up happy feelings?

That's not what God's asking us to do.

He said, Hey, I'm not expecting you all of a sudden to like flip the light switch and just be happy.

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Where?

Where?

I got the joy, joy.

I feel so happy because God told me to.

That's not what he's saying.

It's a feeling, it's an emotion.

There has to be causality for it.

There's something that causes this to happen, and we can have days and times in our life where that we don't have a cause to feel happy.

God's not asking you to do that.

God's not asking you to be fake.

Sometimes people read this and they think, well, I just gotta have a smile all the time.

Perma smile.

Do we got some kids in here today?

Are the kids staying in here because it's Fifth Sunday?

Kids, raise your hand.

Okay, we we okay, we got some kids.

Listen, kids, during this message, we're gonna play a little bit of a game.

Can y'all want to do that?

Anytime if you hear if you hear me say grumpy gus, I want you to say boo.

Okay?

Grumpy gus.

Yeah, say it a little bit louder.

Grumpy gus.

Alright, good.

And now if I say joyful Jim, I want you to say, yeah.

Joyful Jim.

Oh, you got it.

Grumpy Gus.

Joyful Jim.

Grumpy Gus.

Joyful Jim.

Okay.

That's gonna be the game.

Now, when it comes to joy, now joy is not, God's right here in this verse, it's not telling us, I want you just to all of a sudden just fake being happy.

And like this, you know, sometimes we think, oh, I'm a Christian, I have to have the appearance that I'm just happy all the time.

I want you to understand something, what the Bible what this verse is not telling us to do.

This verse is not telling us to lie about reality, to never admit that things are hard, to never be sad, to never grieve, okay?

The Bible says, you know, rejoice with those who are rejoicing, be glad, be happy with them, but also weep with those who weep.

Even there's another verse where I think it's talking to Thessalonians, he says, Hey, I don't want you to grieve like those without hope.

He doesn't say you're not gonna grieve, but there's a point where that sadness, that grief, that disappointment, that discouragement that can become the foundational reality that we live our life from.

And that's what God is trying to guard us against.

So I want us to understand something.

There's a thing where we can feel like we just have to be fake.

Well, I'm just happy all the time when that's not reality.

So this is still talking about something else besides that.

It's not expecting you to conjure up some emotion and some feeling that you don't have, and it's not calling you to be fake.

There's something more to the story here.

When we look at joy in the Bible, joy is also a command and an instruction.

And I actually sat with as well because I really I dug into this and I studied this and I'm like, how, I'm like, like, what is this?

Because I say joy of the Lord all the time, and then sometimes I'm like, well, what does that mean?

And there's some days that I don't have the joy of the Lord, and I question, I'm like, Lord, what am I doing right?

Why don't I have the joy of the Lord?

You know, in Nehemiah 8.10 it says, the joy of the Lord is our Yeah, and I and then I'm like, well, I don't really feel that strong right now.

Maybe I'm missing some joy, but how do I get it?

Just think real hard.

Boom, joyful.

Nailed it.

No.

That's not what this is saying.

So I I I dug around with this and I said, okay, so Lord, how can I explain this even to myself to actually obey the instruction of this verse?

It's a very simple verse, very easy to memorize.

Always be joyful.

And I I came up with this idea.

It's what are the things that we can do on a daily basis, okay, that fills us with the potential to be joyful.

I thought I was gonna get more of a like answer to that.

Like, wow, David, so much revelation.

What are the things that we can do on a daily basis, and what are the things potentially that we're not doing to fill ourselves with joy?

To fill ourselves with the causality that would cause the feeling and the emotion of joy.

You see, when you look at this verse, it'll be it's tied to other things to cause joy.

There's things that we can do, call it like spiritual disciplines.

There's things that we can do to cause us to have the feeling of joy.

Y'all following me?

That's what he's talking about, that's what God's talking about here.

There are certain things, and I'm gonna I'm gonna go into this, there's certain things that we as Christians are not just suggested to do, we're required to be doing that can cause this to happen.

Amen?

Okay, follow me.

When we look at Galatians 5, it says one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy.

The fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, these are all aspects of the character of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was fully perfected in all of these fruits.

Let me put it this way Jesus Christ is the most loving human being that ever walked the earth.

He was the most peaceful, he had the most patience, he had the most self-control.

Okay, he was the perfection of all these.

We're still learning.

God's still working in us to produce these fruits.

Y'all following?

But Jesus was the full experience of them.

Jesus was the most joyful human being that ever walked the planet.

Even for being a man that endured much suffering.

Yeah.

And even suffered the cross, he was still the most joyful human being.

Think about that.

Why do we have fruits of the Spirit?

We have fruits of the Spirit, so our lives can be a testimony of Jesus.

Think about this.

Why does God want to produce love in you?

So that you will love other people.

Why does God want to produce peace in you, a peace that surpasses understanding, so that when people who don't have Christ and they lack peace will see the peace on your life, and then they'll want that thing that causes peace?

Are you following me?

The fruits of the Spirit is not just for our own indulgence, it's a testimony and a witness.

So when we see joy is one of the fruits of the spirit, why does God say, I want you to always be joyful?

It's not just for your sake and your benefit, which it will be for your sake and your benefit, but it's also for the sake and the benefit of others.

Because you know what the world wants?

The world wants to be happy.

And they're not.

They're chasing things, they're lying to themselves, they're trying to convince everyone, I've got joy.

But when you see a Christian that goes through life just as much and have just as much problems as everyone else, but yet they got joy, people want that.

They're attracted to that.

So this is not just some little thing to make you feel better.

This is the witness in the ministry and the testimony of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world who is not full of joy.

This is a big deal.

Always be joyful.

And sometimes, this is what I've done.

I've come to God and I'm complaining, like, why am I not more joyful?

And it's not his problem, and it's not his lack of providing me everything that I need to be joyful.

The problem is that I'm too immature and inexperienced and undisciplined in my spiritual walk to be walking in the joy of the Lord.

Well, I'm not been paying attention to the details.

Y'all following.

By design, in the same chapter of the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5, you know what it says?

It says, our flesh, our natural self, okay?

Our flesh, even here, if you're a Christian, you still have a natural flesh side, is going to work against the Spirit of God, the Word of God, the truth of God in your life to produce the image of Jesus Christ.

It does not want that.

It is going to not want to do the things that you need to do to produce the other.

How many adults went boo?

I love it.

I'm still a kid at heart.

Let me read a couple things.

This is I'm gonna read like five different things that is part of our natural makeup, okay?

Our mental makeup of how we live and perceive and life.

Okay?

The first thing that we naturally have is what's called a negative bias, and that's where our brain gives more weight to negative experiences.

We by ourselves, unsanctified, undisciplined, unliving by the word of God, unfollowing the Spirit, we are naturally going to be negative.

When something negative happens, doesn't matter, you can have a hundred good things.

When something negative happens, our focus and the weight and what we're gonna live our life from is gonna be based on the negative.

By yourself, naturally, that's what we're gonna do.

It's called negative bias.

Second thing, threat scanning.

This is where our brain is wired to look for danger before desire, before delight.

We're gonna live life scanning.

Uh-oh, there's a threat.

There's something wrong.

Instead of scanning for what are the things that are good.

Why do you think the Bible says think on things that are good?

Because naturally, without the word of God, we're not gonna think on things that are good.

We're naturally going to follow our natural desires and tendencies to think on things that are not good.

Thus removing our joy.

Are y'all following the track here a little bit?

Sometimes we're waiting for the supernatural power of God to do something when he's saying, Hey, I need you to take the practical decision to follow my word, and then that supernatural thing that you want will happen.

Confirmation bias.

This is so dangerous.

Listen, I'm guilty of all these, by the way.

I am guilty of all these.

I read this, I'm like, oh man.

Confirmation bias is so dangerous.

You know what it is?

It means when you believe something, your brain looks for evidence to prove it.

Wow, wow, wow.

When you start to, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna take I'm gonna take a sentence.

I I've I've decided something, I believe that, and now the way I live life is I'm just going to look for anything I can find that proves my belief.

Even if there's little to no evidence.

Even sometimes, you know what people will do?

They'll twist things in life just to prove what they believe.

You can make a belief about someone that's completely wrong, but all of a sudden, everything they do and everything they say is going to prove and validate what you've already decided you believe.

In the church, it's so dangerous.

We make beliefs and stuff about people all the time, and we don't ever go talk to them.

Why does Jesus say go talk to somebody?

But instead of talking to them, we just get in our own by ourselves and we just have our thoughts going, and we have all these things that we're trying to validate and prove what we believe instead of just talking to them and finding out, hey, none of that's true.

And then you go through a thing in life, and you can have a perspective, you can go through a hard thing, and it is absolutely a hard thing, but your perspective of that hard thing could be wrong.

Why do you think the Bible says count it joy when you go through hard things?

But we go through hard things and we think God's canceled us.

God's not with me.

I'm cursed, blah, blah, blah.

And God says, actually, I'm allowing hard things for your development, to develop endurance, to make you more godly.

Peter says, be joyful.

James says, be joyful, Paul says, be joyful.

Jesus suffered the cross because of the joy set before him.

There's something where God's trying to yell at us.

Hey, you can have joy of the Lord no matter what you're going through, no matter what your circumstances are, but you are gonna have to play a part in this if you want to experience this.

Confirmation bias is dangerous.

There's a term, we my wife and I don't use this term, but it is a universal term.

It's called plain devil's advocate.

What I'm talking about?

Playing devil's advocate is when you're a group of people and there's a plan and everyone's agreed, there's a plan, we're gonna do this, we're making a choice.

And what you do is you purposely, even if you don't believe this, you start to argue for an opposite, different side.

Okay?

And the point is, the goal of being the devil's advocate is to get people to think hey, let's reconsider.

What if we're actually wrong?

Let's call this playing the God's advocate.

I this is what I realize.

The Lord's been working in my heart a ton, pointing out my own faults, my own sins, even sins I didn't realize were there.

And and what I realize about myself is that I always assume that I'm right when I make a belief about something.

When I have a perspective, I have a thought, I just assume it's right.

And this is something that we'll do.

In fact, this is in the list, I think it's called emotional reasoning, assuming our emotions are telling the truth.

We just we have feelings and thoughts, and we just assume that's gotta be true.

This is what I feel like the Lord was saying is like, hey, why don't you start to debate yourself?

Why don't you play God's advocate and actually go against the thing that you assume is so right?

Why don't you start to talk and say, well, have you considered this?

Have you considered the idea that maybe you're simply wrong about life and you're wrong about the situation in your life?

Maybe you're actually wrong in your character and your morals, maybe you have sinned, maybe they're not the problem.

What if you're the problem?

And I'm telling you what, I'm finding out that I've been wrong and been sinful in more areas than I wanted to admit before.

Because admitting that is painful.

And this is the thing, a lot of people don't get to joy because they're not willing to have the temporary pain of simple repentance.

I want to live life being right, but yet you're sad, mad, and you're not glad.

Instead of just admitting you're wrong, and then you can sing a happy song.

I'm flowing right now, y'all.

I don't know if you recognize the genius that's happened up here.

My wife just said, help us, Lord.

Joy.

I'm just kidding.

There's rumination.

This is something I struggle with.

And it's funny, the Lord tests me weekly.

Whenever I'm preaching a message on something, it's it's He does this every week now.

He tests me.

I get tested in something where I have to experience, deal with, walk through, and actually go through what I'm about to preach on and tell y'all, y'all need to do better.

I have to like do it.

So this next one is rumination, it's replaying negative things without resolution in our minds.

Wow.

And we'll say, Oh, I'm just processing it.

No, you're not.

You're just replaying pain.

And I do this.

I'll just replay things.

It's called rumination.

It's a thing that we we can naturally do this.

We're not resolving anything.

Oh, we're replaying what they said to us.

We're replaying what happened to us.

This, this, this.

I woke up at one o'clock in the morning for no reason.

And I woke up and I spent an hour, and my mind was just racing on all this negativity, all these things, even things years from ago.

It was just conjuring it all up.

And there was no resolution, just playing over and over, and I realized, okay, God, I get it.

And I started to pray to the Lord, and I started to praise him and I started to give thanks.

I said, No, I don't receive this.

I was like, God, you are faithful, you are on the throne.

I combated.

You know what the Bible says?

Take every thought.

I took them thoughts captive.

And then I went back to sleep.

But it took an hour.

I was challenged in my own message.

Rumination, we'll do this.

Sometimes we're like, where's my joy?

It's because we're ruminating.

We're always just going, going, and we never stop the crazy cycle.

If the Bible tells you to take your thoughts captive, it's because God knows that we have the ability to do that.

And you know what a victim will do?

Well, I can't do that.

I can't do that.

Listen, victims, you'll feel justified, but you'll be sad.

You'll feel justified, you'll justify it, but you won't enjoy the joy.

This is what I'm realizing.

It's it's not me protecting my own reality, it's me repenting of my false reality.

It's me feeling the pain and the conviction of the Spirit of God to be honest with me, not blaming everybody and everything, and everything I want and everything to how I think life should be, and not getting that.

Instead of just blame shifting, I'm owning up to it.

You know what I'm experiencing?

Joy.

That's what's powerful about this.

The next one is hedonytic uh he hedonic adaption.

It's quickly getting used to good things.

Something good happens to you, and then we forget.

God does provide that breakthrough.

God does open that door, and we're so joyful, and then we move on, and we're right back to wanting the next thing in life.

How many times does God do this?

If you read the Old Testament, you know what he says to his people?

He's like, Don't forget what I did.

I was faithful.

I set you free from Egypt.

I did all these beautiful things.

Don't forget it.

There's a point where where we can be where we can become lacking of joy because we don't remind ourselves of how faithful the Lord has been in and out of season.

At the times we didn't know that he was going to show up, at the times our future was uncertain, at the times we were wanting that job, that open door, some of you you were praying for a spouse, and then brought God brought you a good spouse.

And you celebrated with joy when you got that good spouse, and then two years later, all of a sudden, they're the burden on your life, and you complain about them, you don't have joy because you forgot the blessing that God gave you.

And all you do is focus on the negative.

Oh, when you've developed a lie that you believe, so now everything they do, you're looking for evidence, and your marriage is not joyful, and it's your fault because you don't have spiritual discipline.

Negative, believing lies, ruminating, complaining, and yet this is a blessing of God.

The Bible says a man who finds a wife finds a good thing.

Men say amen.

Don't be a grumpy gus.

Be a joyful Jim.

Does someone say, Whoa?

That's not what I said to say.

You need to repent.

It's okay, I'm messing.

Nehemiah 8.10, I said this the joy of the Lord is our strength.

We can say this.

What they're talking about here, the joy of the Lord being our strength is, and I'm going to explain this a little bit later, it's not just circumstantial.

The joy of the Lord is not something that is it has to do with the circumstances of life.

The goal of God's word is to get us beyond circumstances, this life, and something that transcends this life.

It's an ultimate hope, it's an ultimate joy that the circumstances of life cannot shift and waver.

Does that make sense?

Jesus talks about whoever builds their house upon the rock.

The joy of the Lord is meant to be a rock, it's a foundation of our life.

And this is where I'm going to go back earlier when I was talking about well, what about days that we actually have legitimate sad things happen?

I imagine a lot of us have have experienced a broken heart, okay, for some reason.

Maybe it was like a romantic dating someone or something you've had a broken heart, or you can have a broken heart for other reasons.

A broken heart is very interesting, is that you have the initial trauma of it.

You're crying, you're going through all this stuff, you don't even think you can go on anymore.

You know, you're calling into work, all these things.

But then as time goes on, you learn to start doing life, and you still have a broken heart, but you learn to maintain.

You learn to like get up, get ready, get your clothes on, go to work, and put on like a smile, show up to church, how you doing?

I'm great.

But inside you have a broken heart, and this can linger for years.

And everything you do, when you have a broken heart, you can have days that are joyful and fun.

You hang out with people, you laugh, but underneath the surface, foundationally, there's still a sadness there.

And it doesn't escape.

I'm ta I I know I'm talking to people that know exactly what I'm talking about.

It just lingers there.

There's always a state of sadness.

It doesn't matter.

You have ups and downs, good days and bad days, but it's always a lingering sadness.

Jesus says, I came to heal the brokenhearted.

You know what he wants to do?

He wants to replace the broken heart with joy.

This is the same way joy works.

The joy of the Lord is foundational.

And that means we can have a bad day, but what we do is we always return to the joy of the Lord, the hope in Christ, the hope of glory.

No matter how hard this life gets, I know that my future is bright.

No matter how uncertain things are, I know God is in control.

Even when I feel like a complete failure, I know God is merciful.

God is operating and orchestrating my life.

That's a return, that's a foundation of joy.

We have days we cry, we have days we complain, we have days we're discouraged, we have days we're grieving.

But yet we have the joy of the Lord as a foundation.

Is that making sense?

That's what Nehemiah 8.10 is talking about.

And it's not just, it's not saying just don't like, you know, try to conjure up ways to just look at everything, even the Bible, even though the Bible does say that.

See life through the lens of God's development.

But what it's saying is that there's things beyond this life that we can place our faith and hope in.

1 Thessalonians 1, 6 through 8.

It says, So you receive the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

So this whole the Thessalonian church, they went through suffering, persecution, very hard things.

Like when the Bible says someone suffered, we might think of hard things, but we have first world props.

Oh no, my car insurance is like$50 more.

Lord, please have mercy.

I mean, they would just have like back in back in the day, it was crazy.

Like you'd just get thrown in jail.

Yeah.

Just be killed, be stoned.

Oh, a bunch of religious people didn't like what you said, they'll just stone you.

You have all your stuff taken from you.

You don't have life insurance, you don't have retirement insurance.

It was it was like when when they talk about persecution and suffering, it's suffering that we've never even tasted of.

We can't even fully relate to it.

This is a church that is suffering, it's poor, they're being persecuted, and it says, You heard the good news and you received it with joy.

Let me keep reading this.

I want you to pay attention to this.

You receive the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought to you.

Not only are they suffering, but it's the very message of God that's causing their suffering.

We we live in such a blessed land, and we're so Americanized in our faith.

I'm guilty of this too.

But the moment we have an ounce of not even suffering, it doesn't even qualify just comfort and offense, we quit on God.

These people are suffering, yet they're joyful.

Listen to what it says.

As a result, you have become an example to all believers in Greece.

You become an example and an encouragement.

Why does God want us to be joyful?

It's a testimony.

How are we going to defeat the devil?

One of the reasons is our testimony.

How you what's one of the ways that you're going to win the loss?

Talking to them, sharing the truth and the gospel?

Absolutely.

But you don't just talk the gospel, you live the gospel.

You know what?

I had an opportunity to share the gospel years ago with someone I worked with.

He was a gothic, he was an atheist, he was very cold, everyone was scared and intimidated of him.

The guy was like 6'6, super tall.

He was just a scary-looking dude.

He was cold and mean to everybody, okay?

And the Lord put him on my heart.

I started praying for my and I would say this, Lord, please provide a window and opportunity to share the gospel with him.

And I started by this.

I would go by his cubicle every day, and I would say good morning, and I'll be very nice.

And he a lot of most mornings he wouldn't even acknowledge me.

Very cold, very rude.

And I said, Okay, I'm not gonna let that disturb my joy.

I'm gonna keep showing the love of Jesus the next day.

Come by, hey man, how you doing?

Good morning.

Nothing.

And then all of a sudden, this was like months, this wasn't like a week or so, and then finally one day he started to hey, what are you doing?

And I started talking to him and started cutting jokes with him.

And finally, one day it happened where I was able to share the gospel with him.

And you know how it happened.

He went out on a smoke break outside and I followed him out there.

I didn't smoke, I don't like the smell of it or anything.

But so I'm gonna follow him out there.

And we sat at one of these little picnic tables, he smoked a cigarette, and he finally just said this.

He looked at me, he says, Why are you always so happy?

And I was like, Let me tell you something.

Because I switched my car insurance to Geico, I've been saying$50 a month, y'all have no idea.

That's why I'm so happy.

That was very manly, by the way.

No, I said because my sins have been said, my sins have been forgiven.

That's it.

That's it.

I had a chance to witness to him.

I didn't leave him to Christ in that moment, but I was able to sow a seed.

But I want to tell you something, what happened to this guy.

This is amazing because we worked in a place, there was over a hundred people that worked in this little department, okay, in cubicles together.

Is that I was able to share the gospel with him, and something softened in him.

Yeah, good.

And all of a sudden, I started, he started talking to me every day.

And all of a sudden, we started cutting up.

He actually was very witty and liked to have fun and joke around, and all of a sudden, other people started to joke with him, and all of a sudden, other people started to like him.

All of a sudden, he started to lighten up, and all of a sudden, all the the way he was, no friends, not talking to anybody.

Now he's one of these fun guys, full of life.

And I don't know if he accepted Christ, but I sowed the seed and I trust the Holy Spirit watered it.

But how did I get to sow that seed?

Because I was simply joyful, because the world sees it, it catches their attention.

They've even done studies.

You know what?

If you want to do good in your career, it says joyful, happy, positive people always do better in their career.

They're gonna get promoted first, they're gonna get hired first.

They said in relationships, sometimes people are like, I struggle to have friends.

Maybe because you're a grumpy gus.

And you need to be a joyful gym.

You see, grumpy gusses like to complain and always point out the negative, and it's everything's negative, and point blah, blah, blah.

People get exhausted by that.

You know what we need in life?

We need joy.

And sometimes, and here's the thing, I could tell you in this room, I'm not gonna share details, some of the most joyful people in this room are going through some of the hardest things in life, and you would never know that because they've understood the spiritual discipline.

I'm going to tell my soul to bless the Lord.

I'm going to, I'm going to call myself, even though I don't feel like it, I'm going to be grateful.

I'm going to rejoice in the Lord because the joy of the Lord is my strength.

This is not a mind over matter.

This is called putting the word to practice and watching the supernatural happen.

That's some of our problem, is we need the joy of the Lord, and we're not doing our part.

And it's hurting and it's affecting your life.

It's hurting your career, it's hurting your marriage, it's hurting your friendships, your ability to have friendships, your ability to integrate into the body of Christ because you are just negative all the time.

And I'm telling you, I could be negative if I wanted to be negative all the time.

The Lord's convicting me on this.

I realize I look mad and I'm preaching on joy.

Hey! Get joyful.

Very joyful guy.

It's a character I'm developing.

I see these guys and they're walking contradiction.

I see them there, and they they put on a facade that they just care about the lost and they want to go reach the lost.

I just want to go reach the lost, and they're always mad and they're always negative, and they never have joy.

And I said, You're a walking contradiction.

I'm like, I don't want people to get saved by you.

I don't want them to have your fruit because you're gonna reproduce what you're trying to disciple.

I'm like, there's there's there's something missing here.

Mr.

angry all the time, Mr.

Never have anything good to say.

You're a walking contradiction.

I'm gonna tell you what the kingdom of God is about.

You claim to be a Christian, you claim to be part of the kingdom.

Let me go ahead and tell you what Romans 12 says.

It says, the kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat and drink, but living a life of goodness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Always be joyful.

That's a command.

He's commanded us because he's equipped us.

You know what?

I ordered some baby stuff.

Actually, I didn't.

My wife did because she handles that stuff.

I would get weird things, but we ordered a baby crib.

Y'all have no idea what I would order.

She gets like these nice baby toys.

I'm like, let's get him some barbed wire.

That will keep him from going in the room.

He's not supposed to go in.

David, that's a horrible idea.

It'll toughen him up.

I would never do that.

That's a joke, by the way.

I'm just trying to put some joy in the room.

She ordered a baby crib.

You know what?

The baby crib didn't come put together, but we had the materials to have a baby crib, but you know what we had to do?

A little bit of effort and put the pieces together so that we could have a baby crib.

God has given you the materials to have joy, but you know what?

You're gonna have to do a little bit of effort and put some things together in your life so that you can experience that joy.

Psalm 126 says, We were filled with laughter and we sang for joy.

And the other nation said, Check this out.

We were filled with laughter and sang for joy.

This is a joyful people, right?

They ain't just thinking about their joy.

They're laughing and they're singing.

You why are we all talking about the praise as a weapon?

Why do you think we say that?

Do you think like it's kind of funny to me, and people mock us that don't believe in this stuff, and I get it mock away.

They're like, you know, this whole thing dancing and praising, and we keep encouraging everybody to do this.

It's kind of silly to me when I think about this.

I'm like, what is your goal in life, David?

I want to fill people in a room, and this is my goal.

I just want to get them to jump.

That's my goal in life.

If we can just fill this room and they're all jumping, I'm like, yes.

No, that's so stupid.

No, praise is a weapon, it's a it's an act of spiritual warfare.

That's why we want to get people, that's why Pastor Garner was up here doing his steps things.

I can't even do it.

He's got moves that I don't have.

But we're trying to teach you something, church.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, our praise is a weapon, our praise is an action of joy.

That's why this psalm is saying, listen, we didn't just feel joy, we express joy.

Listen, listen to the word of God, 126.

Psalm 126.

We were filled with laughter and we sang for joy, and the other nations said, What amazing things the Lord has done for them.

Other nations, pagan nations, said, What amazing things their God has done for them.

Do you see their posture?

Their state, they're singing praises to God, they're joyful.

We want that.

We want that.

And people mock.

They mock it.

You can mock it all day long.

Maybe the Spirit of God will deal with you and you actually learn something.

That praise is tied to an action.

So, yeah, we'll dance and make a fool of ourselves all day.

All day.

Boom, sister.

So God's like, if my people ain't gonna praise me, rocks will.

Amen?

Joy.

1 Thessalonians 5, 16, I have it up here, but listen to verse 17 and 18.

It says, never stop praying.

Always be joyful, never stop praying.

This is one of the things how I see the joy of the Lord being established in my life.

Because what I found is I can be very grumpy and negative.

And it hurts my family.

When I'm grumpy, and my wife, she would never admit this publicly, maybe.

I can be mean to her.

When I get grumpy, I can be very cutting, passive, aggressive, and negative and mean.

When I just get in the mood, I find myself, and let me just go ahead and tell you a real story that happened a couple weeks ago.

We have a similar routine in the morning, is that I usually wake up before them and I get ready for work.

I usually do some meshes prep.

And then I just get ready and then I see them a couple minutes, they're woken up, and I could say talk to her a couple minutes, hold the baby, make him laugh, and leave for work.

And I was in a foul mood.

I woke up.

You ever just woke up and you're just mad for no reason?

You know what I'm talking about.

It's okay.

It's a safe place, admit it.

We're filming online, but yeah.

It's a safe place.

I was in a foul mood.

I was just angry at the world.

And I'm getting ready, and I just I'm just like, uh, I'm gonna have to go to my job and I have to do this and stuff, and I'm like, I don't even want to go say bye to them.

I just want to get out of here and blah blah blah.

And I'm getting ready, and the Holy Spirit does the thing.

He taps on my shoulder, internal shoulder, David, and I know it's the Holy Spirit because I've been doing this long enough to recognize when God's about to talk to me, and I know what's about to happen.

Hey God, what I do this time.

He said, David, you don't seem happy.

And I said, Yeah.

Well, I'm just, you know, and I start, you know, I'm when the Holy Spirit talks to you, and y'all know what this is like internally.

You can have like a, you know, what seal feels like a 30-minute conversation almost in seconds.

It's just like boom, boom, boom, boom.

So the Holy Spirit, he just said, Hey, you don't seem happy.

And I'm like, well, you know, I start justifying, well, I've got this, got this, blah, blah, blah.

I don't really like this.

This is hard, this is something to see, blah, blah, blah.

I started just talking about reasons.

This is why I'm not happy.

And the Holy Spirit said this, and this is what caught my attention.

He says, David, you're about to go talk to your wife, and you're about to go be around your son, and what they're gonna see is a husband and a father who's not happy.

Is that the imprint and the witness that you want to leave them with before you leave for work?

David, you're the head of your house.

You have the ability and the possibility, just in a few moments, to affect the rest of their day for the good.

And that really that poked my heart.

I was like, You say good.

It did.

And so the Holy Spirit, and this is what he does, it wasn't just the revelation of the moment, but he also started to walk me through some things.

He said, David, are you happy about and are you glad?

Because the word joyful here means part of it means to be glad.

He goes, Is there anything you're glad about?

And I said, Yeah.

And he goes, What's the thing you're most glad about?

And I'm like, Well, salvation, Jesus dying on a cross.

He shed for my, you know, he gave me mercy.

My sins are forgiven.

I didn't deserve this.

That's that's the thing I'm most grateful for.

That when I die, I'm gonna be in heaven, I'm gonna have a new body, my tears will be wiped away, there's gonna be no more sickness.

Like, that's I'm glad for that.

Okay?

He goes, Yeah, that's really good.

That's really good.

Are you happy you have a wife?

Yes, I'm very glad that I have a wife.

Do you and then the Holy Spirit started to walk me?

It's weird because the Holy Spirit does those in you with words, he can all of a sudden bring up images that remind you, that create like a full message, like a picture of pictures of a thousand words.

He started to he start I started to see the images of dating my wife.

And I and when I saw the images, I also felt the feelings that I had in that moment.

And it was so excited.

You know what I'm saying?

And I remember I had waited and prayed to God for so long to Lord, I want a spouse.

And I remember all those lonely nights of having it, wondering, is it ever gonna happen?

And I was very tough and manly, so I didn't cry.

But I was like, Lord, I'm you know, I was in the jungle fighting the gorillas, and Lord, is it ever gonna happen?

And and I remember all of a sudden when it started to happen, it was just so quick.

I waited for years and years, and then when it happened, it was just so quick, and it's just in one year we start dating, we're married, and I remember so much joy, and even in the first years of marriage, there's so much joy, and the Holy Spirit says, Is is is she still the same woman?

I'm like, Yeah.

And they said, and the Holy Spirit said, David, do you get the joy to go up and say goodbye to her?

That's your wife, that's the mother of your child.

That's something to be glad about.

I'm like, okay, and he goes, and you got a son, David.

You prayed and waited for eight, eight and a half years trying to have a son, and you were wondering, is it ever gonna happen?

And then it happened.

Are you grateful for that?

Yes, David.

Do you remember your house?

You were trying to get a house, and you were wondering if it was gonna work out.

You were wondering if all the thing and the paperwork and the finances, and you were praying to God every day.

Do you remember how scared you were that it wasn't gonna work?

Work out to have a house, and you're wondering, are we actually gonna get this?

And then it happened, you're so joyful.

David, do you still have that house?

Yeah, are you grateful for that?

Yes.

Y'all see where I'm going.

The Holy Spirit started to walk me through all these things.

David, you're about to go to a job.

Do you remember when you were sitting there wondering if you're gonna have a job and you're filling out all these applications, no one's calling back, no one's calling back, and then someone finally did, and this company who hired you, and it's been such a blessing for over 10 years, and you love your work and you're well taken care of and the people you work with.

Are you still grateful for that job?

You have the ability to go to that job today, David.

And I was like, Yes, you're right.

And and he goes, David, even you have the ability to buy food.

You're about to go down and get your little lunchbox that has your company logo on it, and you can put some hot dogs in it.

Because, David, you like hot dogs, and I do like hot dogs.

I take hot dogs almost every day.

My wife's trying to make us be more healthy, but she, and I'm just like, I refuse because I like it so much.

I get Hebrew national hot dogs, catch them a mustard, I'm a simple guy.

Sometimes I'll do chili.

But you get to put some hot dogs in that.

And you know what else, David, you get to do?

You get to put a Great America cookie in your lunchbox that you snuck and bought.

Your wife didn't know about it, you door-dashed it last Sunday, and then you hit it in the freezer so she wouldn't know, and every day you've been sneaking in and get eating Great America cookies.

Even though she's wanting you to watch the budget and be more healthy, you still got it.

And you got multiple flavors to choose from: strawberry, cookies and cream, birthday cake, chewy pecan.

I don't really care about pecan cookies, but Great America Cookies Super Supreme Chewy Pecan is amazing.

You get the chance to take one of those.

Are you grateful for that?

Oh, yes, I am.

The Holy Spirit said, Why don't you thank me?

And maybe if you would think about these things and thank me, maybe you would be more happy.

But you decided to just be negative, Nancy.

I'm sorry if your name is Nancy, and you're in a grumpy mood, you're grumpy Gus, and I want you to be joyful Jim.

And so all of a sudden, I started.

You know what I started to do?

I started to thank the Lord.

And this is what it says in verse 18.

It says, be thankful in all circumstances, be thankful, be thankful, have some gratitude.

Look at how blessed your life is.

Look at how faithful God's been, not just now, but in the past and how faithful He's gonna be in the future.

Always be joyful.

So I went upstairs and all of a sudden I didn't have to fake it this time, Miss Janet.

All of a sudden I said, Lord, I thank you so much for this house.

I thank you, God, for my wife.

I thank you for salvation.

I thank you for my hot dogs and my great America cookie.

I thank you for the clothes I've got.

I thank you for the car I have that I can drive to work for.

I thank you for the mind skills and ability to even have the job.

You've been so faithful, time and time and time again.

And all of a sudden, you know what?

I had the emotion of joy.

And then I went up to my family and I was like, Good morning! My wife's not a morning person, so all of a sudden I had to dumb it down a little bit.

But I was like, hey everybody, and I gave my wife a hug.

And I'm a little boy, and I put him up and I was like, and he was just smiling, and I got to set the tone of my family in a joyful state before I left.

Because you know what?

I learned the truth.

We can always be joyful.

Listen, great America cookies for everybody.

You get a cookie, you get a cookie, you get a gluten-free cookie.

No GML for you.

I know you like that stuff.

You're crunchy.

Thank you, Jesus Lord.

Father, we repent, God, for being ungrateful.

Last week I ended the message in 1 Timothy 3.

It marked, it marked a people who had the form of godliness, but they lacked the power.

Do you know one of the characteristics of those people?

They were ungrateful.

God forgive me for being ungrateful.

Sometimes your problem is not your problems, your problem is you.

Your lack of doing something.

The Bible clearly states that you have the ability to do every day.

Thank God for his faithfulness.

Thank him for his son who bled on a cross for you.

You have been an evil sinner all of your life.

You don't deserve it, but there's a God that died on a cross, a perfect lamb, that has come and saved your soul.

That is something to be grateful for.

That is a joy that goes and transcends our circumstances.

God, forgive us when we've not been thankful and grateful for all the many blessings in your faithfulness all of our life, and how you're gonna continue to be faithful and mold us into the image of Jesus.

You are always good, you are always faithful, and your word is true.

God, forgive us.

And we say today, Lord, as we start this summer season, there's gonna be some days we want to be a grumpy gus.

But we're gonna be a joyful gem.

I prophesy this over you.

You're gonna be a joyful gem in the name of Jesus.

Amen, amen, amen.

Church, we love you.

And now, can I ask one favor?

Um, we have to do construction work in the church, not us.

We're high, we people are replacing the pipes.

Can you please help us stack up chairs?

If you're not able to, you know, medically, physically, you don't have to.

We need to get all the chairs stacked up because they're starting tomorrow.

This will help us out a ton.

Just as we're going some strong men, we're just gonna stack these chairs up and we're gonna take them out of service.

And also, I want to tell you this we love you.

God is good.

Listen, if I sounded too harsh to you, trust me, I needed this for myself just as much, okay?

Love you, church.

We're praying God's peace and protection.

Did you want to say something, honey?

Just a reminder that service is going to be online this coming Sunday.

So if you show up to church, you can just do some circles around the building and do some intercession, but you'll be by yourself.

So we love you guys.

And and mountain movers is going to be meeting in the kids' modulars Tuesday.

Also, Pastor Garn is going on a mission trip to Brazil this too today.

He's about to leave.

Let's go ahead and pray over him real quick.

In the name of Jesus, we ask for the peace and protection of God over him as he goes out, Lord, to do your work in a different country, God.

We say no weapon formed against him shall prosper.

Well, Lord, we ask for your peace and blessing over his travels, no complications, no issues.

We say he's camouf we've camouflaged from the attacks of the enemy, Lord.

And we ask for a fruitful time of ministry.

Give him the grace, the anointing, Father, the wisdom in the name of Jesus.

And we also lift up Miss Anna, Father, as their newlyweds.

We ask for your peace over her, Lord, as his as her man is gone.

And we just say, Lord, peace and comfort over her strength in the name of Jesus.

Amen, amen, amen.

All right, church, we love y'all.