January 9, 2026 • 47 mins
Where your joy comes from will determine when it runs out.
Scriptures:
James 1:2-5
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message. Look, I want to preach about joy
today and I want to get there from a story
and then share several scriptures with you can't tell your story.
(00:25):
I just got a new car last year. I drove
a Nissan Maxima for ten years before I bought this
new car.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I loved my Nissan Maxima.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
My car before this Nissan Maxima was a Nissan Maxima.
That's how much I liked my Nissan Maxima. I maximized
the Maxima and it was very good to me.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Only thing that I ever.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Remember happening, other than the time it cut off in
an intersection, was that one day I was driving down
the road a few years ago and my stereo system
started doing strange things. It started skipping around to different
tracks without me telling it too, and the volume kept
increasing and decreasing, and so then.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I would put it back on the song. I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Listen to, and I would turn down the volume or
turn up the volume, depending on it would go both
ways without me telling it too, without me turning the knob,
and it happened for about ten to fifteen minutes straight
one day that I was driving, and it seemed like
my speakers in my car had a mind of their own.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So I thought maybe my Maxima got a demon, and.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Then I looked in the backseat and.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Realized it wasn't a demon. It was my daughter.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
That she had the center console down and I never
rode back there, so I didn't realize that all the
years that I've had this car, you can control the
volume and skip tracks.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
From back there.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And she was laughing, and Graham was back there and
he would laughing, and they were controlling something from the
back that I was trying to deal with in the front,
and they thought it was so funny, and I told
him to stop that it's annoying. When I figured out
what they were doing, two or three minutes later, there
(02:19):
goes the volume up and down again. There goes track two,
track three, track four. Again, it's on shuffle.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And I turned around and said, I'm telling y'all stop.
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It was maybe cute the first time for you, but
it's really driving me crazy up here. Stop and a
few minutes go by and it starts happening again. I
pulled the car over the third time. I pulled the
car over the third time. I'm Providence Road. I said,
let me explain something to you. I said, y'all are
(02:58):
passengers in this maximum I'm the driver.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That means I'm the DJ.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I get to choose what comes on this stereo and
how loud it is because the driver gets.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
To be the DJ.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I want to appreach to you for about thirty seven
minutes today about back seat DJs, because I suspect that
there are some things in your life that are being
controlled from the back seat, that are being controlled at
(03:41):
a level that you're not realizing that they're being controlled.
And I believe that today God is going to use
me and trust me.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I study.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Joy has become more important to me every year that.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I've been alive.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I feel like in my twenties I just cared about
accomplishing things. In my thirties, I've been figuring out, what's
the point if you don't enjoy it? What's the point
in doing something? Awesome if you are not in a
position to appreciate the accomplishment because you constantly need more.
And I spent my twenties and maybe the beginning of
my thirties just trying to get more, more, more. Sometimes
(04:19):
that meant more popularity. Sometimes that meant more impact. Sometimes
that meant more influence. Sometimes that meant more money, more resources,
more friends, more phone numbers, more connections.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But lately I've been asking the.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Lord for more joy, and it sent me on a
scriptural trajectory.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And I want to bring you into it today.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Would it be all right if we talked for a
little while today about what's controlling your joy? Amen, I'm excited.
Do you feel my enthusiasm? James Chapter one, verses two
through four. We'll start here. I believe there's some things,
(05:00):
things that are destroying your joy that you were unaware of.
And James is going to teach us how to develop joy.
Very different than discovering joy. Discovering joy means it's waiting
somewhere and you got to find it. It's waiting in
(05:20):
your next career move, it's waiting in your next relationship.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's waiting somewhere. You're not right now.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
But James is going to show us something that may
be familiar to a few of you, but it is
very strange if you consider.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
What he's actually saying. And I'm going to just read
those verses, just three verses to.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You, he says, James, Chapter one, verus to consider it
pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials
of many kinds. That's not where I was looking for joy,
by the way, that's not what I was praying for,
hoping for, asking for, believing for. Anyway, he said, consider
(06:02):
it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing
of your faith produces perseverance, Let perseverance finish its work
so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
(06:27):
I'm glad he specified, because the first thing I want
to mention to you today, all of these points they
kind of followed the theme of DJ. So the first
one is the distinction of joy, the distinction of joy
knowing what it really is, understanding the nature of it.
And James helps us to do that first bite, helping
(06:49):
us to understand that there are trials of many kinds.
That's what verse two, said the old King James that
Pastor Mickey preached from said, diverse trials because I have
learned that we're not all going through the same thing,
but we are all going through something. And how many
(07:11):
know that there are as many different kinds of trials
as there are different drinks at Starbucks, as there are
different colors of paint at home depot. I found out
that there are trials that are associated with plenty. There
are trials that are associated with poverty. I always understood
(07:34):
the first one because everybody understands that being broke is
a battle. But management of resources can, in its own way,
test a part of your character that if you're not
prepared to have it testing, it can create a lot
more problems than financial poverty. In fact, financial riches can
(07:56):
create relational poverty if there is not the emotional maturity
to help us to steward with understanding what we've been given.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I'm appreaching today. If y'all come along with you, it's
true me.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
There's single people trials, there's married people trials. There are
trials that are associated with loneliness, and there are trials
that are associated with companionship. There are many kinds of trials.
There are many different That's what James is saying. He's
making a distinction that there's different kinds of trials, and
(08:32):
some of us are like, well, can I try a
different kind of trial?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Like can I trade trials?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like you're talking about rich people trials, I'd like to
try those for a little while you're talking about married
people trials. I'd like to try. I think I'd be
good at those trials. I think I'd be better prepared
for those trials. But we never again, after the year
that we had last year, get to associate joy with
status or success, because we have now seen that no
(08:58):
matter how great your name is in the eyes of people,
you can still want to take your very own life
because joy is not a product of what people say
about you.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Joy is not.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
A product of how people hold you in esteem or
in disregard. And so there's different kinds of trials. Added
to that, most of us don't understand the distinction between
a temptation and a trial. The language that James uses
in this biblical writing, the common Greek of his day,
(09:32):
allows for both. When he says trials of many kinds,
he could just as easily be referring to economic hardship
or persecution that many of this diaspora of tribes scattered
abroad who were believers in Jesus were experiencing, or he
could be talking about temptation. And it is important to
know the distinction between the kind of trials that you
(09:55):
will experience in your life, otherwise you might in years
blaming the devil for your bad decisions. There are different
kinds of trials. Some of our trials are the result
of evil in the world, and that results in all
kinds of different warfare that we could study for weeks about.
(10:18):
Some of our trials are the results of things that
we did contrary to our inner wisdom. There are many
different kinds of trials, and if you don't know the
difference between a temptation and a trial, you will try
to use the wrong tool on the trial. Because when tempted,
(10:40):
the Bible teaches resistance. When you are tempted to step
outside of the God given means by which you've been
empowered to meet your God given desires, the strategy, the tool,
the technique is resistance. A trial, however, not a temptation,
(11:02):
but a trial.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Often the key is not resistance but acceptance.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And this was important for me to see the distinction
because a lot of times I'm accepting what I should
resist and resisting what I should accept. It is taking
me time to learn the difference, is taking me prayer
to learn the difference. It's taking the other's community to
(11:30):
learn the difference. I'm having to get into the Word
of God to know the difference so that I can
approach my trials with wisdom.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
In fact, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
What James one to five says, and it's connected to
this passage, even.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Though I never thought it was.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should
ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault,
and it will be given to you. Now, if you
want to flip the flow this year, just do.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
James one to five.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Instead of asking everybody around you what you should do,
start with the source, start with the solution. We're talking
about your problems with people who are powerless to fix them.
It's making you feel worse, it's making them feel worse,
and everybody's frustrated. So I need the wisdom to make
(12:15):
the distinction to know the trial that I'm in. God,
is this one that you want me to fight, or
do you want me to do what the Parables said
to do one time with the weeds that were growing
up alongside the terrace and leave it alone and let
you deal with it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
There's a distinction. There's different kinds of trials.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Some of the stuff that I'm dealing with as a
parent right now.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Is just called puberty.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
You can't cast it out, you can't annoy it, you
can't instruct it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It's a different kind of trial. It's just life.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Some of the stuff I'm dealing with right now is
a temptation.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Some of it is actually, I believe, from the pit
of hell.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Not that the devil is like personally a sign to me,
but just some stuff is evil against my purpose. And
don't give yourself too much credit, because a lot of
us like to think that the devil had nothing better
to do than give us, you know, a flat tire,
and I think the devil is much busier than that.
I think a lot of it comes down to distinguishing
the type of trial that I'm in, which helps me
(13:25):
to understand the distinctions between joy and pleasure. Oh, you
know those little church signs that they do, I think
we should get one by the way at elevation the
church signs where they change the letters and they put
up little quotes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I like this.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think we should get one. How many vote we
get a church sign. Let's have our first ever church
voted elevation church vote. We should get a church sign
and we could put stuff up there like this.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I saw this one.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It said no Jesus, no Joy, but it was felt,
k now Jesus. So the first one was no Jesus,
you don't have Jesus, you don't have joy. K and
oh Jesus, k and ow Jesus, kN ow joy. And
I thought it's cute, but it's it's not true.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
No Jesus, no joy. There's a lot of things you
can enjoy without Jesus. Christy Kreme tastes.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Good whether you're saved or not.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
My taste buds didn't get saved. It's fun to.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Talk bad about people whether you're saved or not.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Only differences.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And this is important, is that the quality of the
joy becomes more important than the quantity of the joy.
You also hear preachers say stuff like this, God doesn't
care if you're happy. He just wants to make you holy.
And I can't believe how many people will say amen
to some business like that that you would never feel
(15:00):
about your own kid. How many parents do we have
in the house, and how many of you don't care
if your kid is ever happy in life at all.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I'm gonna call.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Child Protective Services on.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Y'all. Ain't a good good father. No, he is a
good father, good gift.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I never got that, and I never really understood
the distinction between joy and happiness, because like, there's not
a difference in the Biblical language. It's not difference Like
in English we have like phar real happy, which is
like dancing happy, and then in Hebrew they had happy.
It's the same word, it's blessed. It's the same word
as joy. When James says counted joy, he means consider
(15:42):
yourself supremely happy literal translation. So we need to make
the distinction, I guess between generic joy.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
And Jesus joy.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Because he said verse two, consider it pure joy. The
way my mind works, if there's such a thing as
pure joy, there must be another kind of joy.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I kind of cheated that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
It's more a grammar issue because the literal translation is
count it all joy. So he doesn't say pure joy.
I got a verse for this, though. Let me do
it from a Let me do it from Hebrews chapter twelve.
I've always loved this picture of joy because it helps
me to make a distinction between.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Joy and pleasure.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Okay, pleasure can be associated with joy, but joy is
not dependent on pleasure. This is the second thing I
want to talk about. I want to talk about the
direction of joy. The direction of joy. We're talking about
backseat DJs, right, We're talking about how sometimes we find
our joy controlled by circumstances and situations. But Jesus gives
(17:03):
us a picture that stands contrary to the cultural expectation
of joy.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And I promise I'll read the scripture in a minute.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
But I just want to tell you so much, and
I just don't know where to start, where to stop.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's just it's all in me today.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
There seems to be right now more than there was
like when my grandparents. We're thirty and forty, there seems
to be a pressure for us to always feel pleasure.
It's no longer just a desire that we have that
we want to feel good. It's almost like the way
that social media has constructed our viewing experiences of other
(17:43):
people's lives through the filters of their most desirable moments,
there is something wrong with me. If I am not
constantly happy all the time. That's a problem with me
because I am not genetically predisposed to be happy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I'm just not.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I've found that out about myself early in life. I
am not like one of you who just finds reasons
to smell roses, who just finds reasons to be happy.
Some of y'all appreciate the rain, appreciate the sunshine. The
rain makes you feel relaxed. The sunshine makes you feel active.
You can find the joy in everything. I am not
(18:22):
of your species, and frankly you make me sick. But
joy is something different, because the pressure to feel pleasure
is part of the reason why we feel so miserable.
And now we are living in the midst of a
generation that thinks that joy is associated with a feeling
in your flesh. And it can be, but it doesn't
(18:44):
have to be. It's important that I say it can
bring a feeling, but it doesn't start with the feeling.
This is where we flip the flow. Can we flip
the flow? If anybody flipped the flow it was Jesus.
Here he is up on a cross. Here he is
mocked and and his reputation.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Is beyond repair.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Here he is being spat on and condescended to by
the ones that he created. And the writer of Hebrews,
whoever he was, says, we need to fix Hebrews twelve
to two our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector
or the author and finisher. Either translation is acceptable of
(19:25):
our faith. HM for the joy set before him, he
endured the cross. Now this is where my message really happens. Okay,
what have you set before you? That is what your
(19:49):
joy is connected to what you have set before you,
And I'll break that down the best that I can.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Joy is a point of view. Joy is a way
of looking at things. This helps me.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I don't know about you, but it sets me free
from feeling the need to feel a certain way. We
got so many people quitting their jobs because they're unhappy
and not really understanding that sometimes joy is not the
(20:32):
absence of sadness.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Or the presence of the spectacular.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And all we need to look at is that one
verse where it says that Jesus for the joy that
was set before him, I want to use that as
a picture for a moment. He set joy before him,
so in order to endure the cross, that's the next part,
(20:58):
enduring the cross, scorning as shame.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
He didn't find joy in the event. He found joy
in the guaranteed outcome of the event.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
He did not find joy in the feeling of hanging
on the crops. It wasn't like because he was the
son of God that the nails, you know, transcended the
laws of pain and the material laws of the universe.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It was just as.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Painful, but because of purpose. You understand, it's very different
to go through pain with purpose than pain without purpose.
It's the difference between Graham jumping on my back he's
only ninety pounds and me not knowing that he's gonna
jump on my back and me feeling like every disc
(21:52):
just slipped like I'm seventy three years old in my
lower back. And the difference between me putting ninety pounds
on a bar to squat it.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
If I do it on purpose, it's a warm up weight.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
If I don't expect it, it might take me down.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
To the ground. Same weight. But what I was ready
for when Jesus hung on the cross.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He wasn't surprised by the shame. He wasn't surprised by
the suffering. He wasn't surprised by the pain, He wasn't
surprised by the jeering. He wasn't surprised by their saliva.
He wasn't surprised by the blood.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Joy is a focus before it's a feeling.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
If you came to church just to hear that I
promise you got.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Your gas money's worth.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Joy is a focus before it's a feeling. And so
while we're chasing a feeling called joy has given us.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
The ability to choose not our feelings. You ever tried
to choose joy? I saw it on Pinterest. I tried it.
It sucked, it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Then I felt guilty because I couldn't find joy, and
it made me feel less joy. So now I'm in
a joyless pit of joylessness. It is cyclical. Joylessness and
shame is the difference between choice and consequence. Joy is
(23:32):
a choice, really because some of the trials that people
go through are actual mental illness, and it's kind of
hard for them to just feel happy because they've got
a good parking space, and no matter how much you
tell them to feel happy, be happy, you know, be happy,
feel happy, counter blessings. James doesn't say counter blessings. This
(23:55):
is in a nursery rhyme. It's a Bible scripture. He said,
count it all joy. He said, learn how to flip.
You might not know this statement, but there's a there's
a statement. In financial terms, it's an income statement. It's
(24:20):
it's got your your income on one side, your expenses
on another. James says, if you can learn to put
some of the stuff in the income column that you
thought was an expense, some of the stuff in the
blessing column that you thought was a burden. If you
can flip the flow, you actually have more joy than
(24:40):
you're aware of. But you're not gonna get it by
praying for a feeling. You're going to get it by
making choices. Joy is not a choice. In fact, the
worst way that I can get more joy is to
focus on getting more joy.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
The best way to.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Stop being happy is to ask yourself the question am
I happy?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And see?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I don't remember my grandparents ever talking about this. If
they did, I don't remember it. I never remember my
grandmother my grandfather talking about are we really happy? They
didn't think like that. There wasn't feeds and scrolling. There
wasn't There wasn't all this other stuff to make them
feel unhappy at.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
A moment's notice. There wasn't.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
There wasn't an infinite supply of unhappiness in their pocket
in the form of a device. They didn't have that,
so they focused on something else.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
What was it? What is it that.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Brings joy? If I focus on it, I know it
is not. It's not looking around. How are they doing?
What do they think? Where are they go on vacation?
Where's she taking, where's he going on? What's she wearing
when she is on? What do they think about me? No, No,
that's not gonna do it, he said for the joy
(25:57):
set before him. I can't be looking all around and
expecting to have joy. I can't be judging my situation
according to other people's calling and expect to have joy.
I can't be judging my gift compared to other people's
talent and expect to have joy. I know is so
cliche because we say it every week, but nothing destroys
(26:21):
joy like comparison. The life you've got some of you
would be so enjoyable if only you didn't do this
while you were living it. If only you didn't do this.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean, it's hurting my neck just to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
To illustrate to you, imagine what is doing to your soul.
You can't have joy that way. It is destroying your joy.
You're praying for more joy, and yet you are destroying
the joy God has given you, the joy of your salvation,
the joy of your calling, the joy of your assignment.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
God give me more joy. Well, it's a decision not
to have joy. That's the worst way.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
To get joy, the decision of what I'm gonna focus on.
And I can't get it like this. And I definitely
can't get it like this looking.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
At what's behind me. I can't. I can't look back.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Remember when God called Moses at the burning bush and
he said his name, he said, I am not I was.
Remember he said, I am not, I will be. There's
something to that. There's something to that. It's echoed by
David in Psalm sixteen. He says, in your presence is
(27:43):
the fullness of joy. Presence. Everybody say that word presence.
The gift of joy is found in presence. But that
doesn't mean in church, that's not what it means to say,
in God's presence is the fullness of joy, because God
would never limit his presence to a building. It doesn't
mean when you're doing everything right, then you're gonna feel happy,
(28:05):
because God is not going to reward you based on behavior.
That's not the good news of the Gospel. The gospel
is for sinners. The Gospel is for the weak. The
gospel is for the lame. The gospel is for the broken.
The Gospel is for those who feel ashamed. That's not
what it means. In your presence is fullness of joy.
That means joy can only really come to my life
(28:26):
when I am focused on what God is doing in
this moment. And I cannot focus on what God is
doing in this moment in my life if I'm consumed
with what He's doing in somebody else's or if I'm
still in regret and bitterness about what happened three years ago,
or three months ago, or even three minutes ago. A
(28:49):
lot of our lack of joy is really not about possession.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
It's about position.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
What I mean is this, He set joy before him.
It's not a question of God's presence. His presence is everywhere.
It's not a question of God's presence. You don't have
to ask him to be with you. He already is.
It's not about God's presence, It's about yours. Are you
present in this moment? Are you present in this trial?
(29:19):
Are you present in this worship service? Well, if you
are giving praise for a second, we need this lesson friends, family, brothers, sisters, brethren, sistern, mother's,
(29:44):
father's children. We can't go to a concert anymore without
trying to capture it, and I can't enjoy it because
I'm too busy trying to post it. Kids do something cute,
(30:04):
capture it? Well, you can't, but you're also gonna kill it.
There is no quicker way to kill your kid's cuteness
than trying to capture it. I swear demons come out
when you start trying to capture stuff to post it.
God knows your heart and he sends something to your
iPhone I don't know, and it shoots beams into your
children and they start.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I can't show you a picture real quick.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
I don't like to be too indulgent in these sermons,
but and show my family off. But this is just
a quick picture of us on vacation before Christmas. Look
at that. Here's another picture. I'll show you a couple
just so you can see. I'm gonna tell you something
(30:50):
that you wouldn't see if I put those on Instagram.
Go back to the first one again. Please, That one
looks happy, right, and go to the other one. Can
go to the other one. That one looks sad. Let
me tell you something. That's not my sad face. M hm.
That's my RBF. That's my resting Bible face. That's my
(31:15):
really blessed face. That's my focus face. That's when I
was getting the sermon flip the flow at TGI Fridays
in the Miami International Airport in the d concourse.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I'm happy the other one put the other one out.
I was so mad at Abby.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That was the seventeenth time I tried to take a
selfie of us, and I wanted to throw her in
the ocean by the time it was over. Not in
a playful way.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Let's see.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I'm just trying to get us in this series to
start take it down, start looking beneath the surface and stuff,
to stop looking at the surface of stuff, and to stop,
you know, discerning. I found out that you can miss
joy because you're looking all around. You can miss joy
(32:18):
because you're looking behind you.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
But here's the thing, you can also miss.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Joy because you're trying to look too far ahead.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
It's an equal danger.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And some of you, while I was preaching the part
about looking around, you're like, nah, I'm good, bro, I'm
like fifty three.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I don't do that anymore. And when I was tell
my looking back.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You're like, yeah, I already dealt with my stuff back there.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's fine. But what you do is you look so
far forward.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Like I was doing the other day driving that new
car I told you about, and I can't get anywhere
without a GPS.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
What did embarrass you for me?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
If I told you I was going to my mom's
house in town and was following the GPS, that's how
bad my sense of direction is.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
This true story. And I slammed into the.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Back of another car because I was looking three turns
ahead and not looking three feet ahead. And it might
be destroying your joy. Not that you're like comparing, or
not that you're regretting.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But maybe you're just trying to get.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
So far out there, you know, like my retirement is down,
you're twenty four, it'll catch back up.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
It's a lot of timing, you know. But for those
of us who.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Need to plan, he didn't say in your plans this
fullness of joy. And you can't even really affect the
future from anywhere but the present, and it's all wasted energy.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So this is my year of presence.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I'm trying to figure out what it means to find
fullness of joy in God's presence. And in order to
find fullness of joy in His presence, I have to
bring my presence to my real life.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Not my presence to.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Some imaginary scenario, but the real life that God has given.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Me right now. And you know what's great about it.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Let's go to Psalm sixteen for just a moment, and
I promise I'll start closing this.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Are you enjoying this teaching today? Is this blessing your life?
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Touch somebody and say this is my happy face? Because
I was focused. I was happy because I was focused.
The other one, I was trying to show something to
the world that wasn't real. I was thinking maybe I
could get some likes on this, and so I wasn't
focused on what was right in front of me. But
Jesus for the joy set before him endured He didn't
(34:57):
enjoy the cross. He you're the cross because of joy
set before him. And now I want to give you
the whole sermon. Okay, here's the sermon in a sentence.
Hadn't you been preaching for thirty five minutes yet? But
I hadn't said anything yet. Here's the sermon in a sentence.
You cannot choose joy. You can only choose your priorities,
(35:19):
and your priorities control your joy. You can't choose joy
anymore than you can just can you think you can
choose joy.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
It's like trying to choose the weather. What you can choose.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Is your priority, and your priorities will ultimately control your joy.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Psalm sixteen. Put it on the screen for me.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Verse when I start verse five, please, the Lord is
my chosen portion.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
See the word chosen.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It means I have decided to make God the most
important thing in my life. I don't want to leave
that too abstract, because what does that mean? Read the
Bible first thing every morning? Maybe, but it means more
than that His will is what I want. His waves
are higher than my waves. So the Lord Yahweh, the Great,
(36:11):
I am the ever present help in time of trouble,
he is my chosen portion. I've looked at everything else
that this world offers me to enjoy, and yes, I
can enjoy things that aren't necessarily spiritual, but I do
not need them to survive. And I will not attach
my joy to a temporal pleasure anymore because I tried that.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I tried that.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I cheered for the Clemson Tigers when they were three
and eight, and when they won the second national championship
in the last few years, people were coming up to
me saying congratulations.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
I was like, for what.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I enjoyed the game. I watched the game. I liked it.
I enjoyed the forty four to sixteen victory. But I
didn't need college boys in Spandex to give me a
reason to live.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
That is not my priority. I can't invest my.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Joy in what people I don't know do with an
oblong object made out of pigskin converted into leather with
some stitches for four fifteen minute increments, it's the wrong priority.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I enjoyed it, but my joy is not in it.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Last week, I told you something very powerful about your heart.
I said, when you know where it comes from, you
know how it comes out. When you know where it
comes from you know how it comes out.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
This is what I want to tell you this week.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Where it comes from determines when it runs out. This
is the source of your joy. The way you can
know that is what are my priorities. Psalma said, The
(38:17):
Lord is my chosen portion. And here's something Jesus said
that I've been thinking about all week. I've been meditating
on this. He said, Abide in me my words. Abide
in you. You bear much fruit. Sometimes you're going to
get cut on, but you'll never be cut off. If
you abide in me and my words, abide in you,
there will be a constant flow of joy.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Like the vine and the branches. You're going to have
what you need. The joy is going to.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Flow from a place of your rest and trust in me,
not in your own effort, and not in just certain
things that happen. If they happen, is fine, but don't
confuse the icing with the cake.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Abide in me my words. Abide in you.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Many says something in John fifteen eleven. Please I have
told you this so that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be complete. The Lord said,
A lot of us are settling for partial joy. Partial joy,
(39:15):
and we equate joy with the absence of sadness. Joy
is not the absence of sadness. If it was, Jesus
couldn't have had it on the cross. He said, I
want my joy to be in you, but you've got
to own it because to just say, well, Jesus is
my joy, it doesn't really get to the heart of
(39:35):
why we could know Jesus and still not no joy,
because it's a decision. When I give the wrong things
too much priority in my life, then those priorities control
my joy. If my priority is recognition, then recognition controls
(39:59):
my joy. When people recognize me, I will feel happy
about it.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
If my priority is recognition.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
If my priority is convenience, then when something is inconvenient,
the inconvenience will steal my joy. But it really didn't
steal my joy, did it? Because I let it drive
and whatever is driving the car gets to DJ. So
(40:33):
the Lord told me in preparing this message that we've
got some back seat DJs that have been controlling our joy,
our feelings, our finances, our bank accounts, our status, our standing,
our situations. And today God wants you to tell some
(40:53):
of the things in your life that have been controlling
your joy from the back seat. You are not my God,
you are not my vine, you are not my source,
and you don't hold my joy. Joy is something deeper
than how I feel about it. Joy is something deeper
than what I post about. Joy is something deeper than
(41:14):
the way it feels. Right now, I am setting joy
before me.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I'm resetting my warnings.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Now. When I do that, my joy flows not from
what it is, but from who God is to me.
This is the duration of joy. And when my joy
is running out, give me my point, my last point.
The duration of joy is because it's coming from the
(41:42):
wrong place. Where it comes from determines when it runs out.
And I wonder, where's your joy today. I had to
study this hard because I struggle to enjoy my life.
(42:04):
I really love my family, I really love my church.
I love what I get to do. It's a blessing
and a privilege. But I have to admit to you
that sometimes I have been guilty of enduring something that
God has given me to enjoy, and every time it happened,
(42:24):
it was because of my priorities.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Your priorities control your joy.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
You can try all you want to be happy, happy, happy,
and the quick hit stuff, the quick fixed stuff. It'll
get you through the next few hours, but where it
comes from determines when it runs out.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
There is a well that never runs dry. There is
a joy.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
There is a deep, abiding sense of joy that is
available to us that we have not been accessing. And
what we're praying for more off, God is waiting for
us to order our lives around. My joy is too
important for me to leave it up to whether or
not today goes well, or whether or not they speak
(43:12):
to me, or whether or not it turns out well.
Is too important. I can't afford. I'm getting older now.
I'm not a twenty five year old anymore. I'm a
distinguished thirty eight year old full of wisdom, and I
can't afford.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
To just give my joy away just any time.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I can't afford to have these back seat DJs just
changing the temperature of my life.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
I can't afford to just let my emotions control my joy.
So I want to pray for people today. Play something
more interesting, that's boring. I want to pray for people
today is just one chord. Pray for people today who
have allowed your joy to be controlled by something other
than the priority of God's presence in your life, And
you want me to pray for you to experience a
(44:00):
vital connection to God in the coming six days until
we meet again.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Please stand if you want me to pray for you
about that.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
I've been allowing my joy to be connected to things
that can't sustain me.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
There's so much more that I wanted.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
To share with you, but I feel like I was
able to present this word to you on a level
that if you can just receive that much of it,
So flip it instead of going, Lord, I need more joy,
(44:36):
like it's gonna come raining down in the form of
candy pellets. Instead of praying, God, give me the wisdom
to when things come in my life to count it joy,
to consider it joy, because I know that the testing
(44:59):
of my faith patience teach me God to set joy
before me, like Jesus did, like the Psalmists did. He said,
the Lord is ever before me. He is in my
right hand. I will not be shaken in your presence
is the fullness of joy. And watch this at your
right hand, pleasures forevermore, not the kind that come and go,
(45:21):
not the kind that leave you feeling worse afterwards. Not
the kind that leave you sick afterwards, not the kind
that make you feel bad about it, shameful about it afterwards,
perpetual pleasantness in the presence of God, Father. I thank
you for each person who you brought here today. Maybe
they've been in that season of mourning you are in.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
I in mourning.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Thank you that your word says that weeping may endure
for a night, but joy comes with the morning. And
we bless you because what that means to us today
is that in everything that is happening in our life
right now, there is an opportunity for joy. I confess
to you before these people, God that I need this
message more than anybody who heard it. I'm preaching this
(46:09):
today God because sometimes in my life I have set
things before me that had no place being my priority,
and every time I did, I was disappointed.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
And every time I.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Did, I got a hit, but it didn't fix anything.
So this week, would you show us what's truly important.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Would you help us to see.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Our lives with the wisdom that only you provide. Help
us to understand that joy does not come from better circumstances.
Joy does not come from human acclaim. Joy comes from
ordered priorities. We want to seek first your kingdom. We
(46:53):
want to know what matters to you, and we thank
you for it in Jesus' name, hey.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Man, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message. Look, I want to preach about joy
today and I want to get there from a story
and then share several scriptures with you can't tell your story.
(00:25):
I just got a new car last year. I drove
a Nissan Maxima for ten years before I bought this
new car.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I loved my Nissan Maxima.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
My car before this Nissan Maxima was a Nissan Maxima.
That's how much I liked my Nissan Maxima. I maximized
the Maxima and it was very good to me.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Only thing that I ever.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Remember happening, other than the time it cut off in
an intersection, was that one day I was driving down
the road a few years ago and my stereo system
started doing strange things. It started skipping around to different
tracks without me telling it too, and the volume kept
increasing and decreasing, and so then.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I would put it back on the song. I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Listen to, and I would turn down the volume or
turn up the volume, depending on it would go both
ways without me telling it too, without me turning the knob,
and it happened for about ten to fifteen minutes straight
one day that I was driving, and it seemed like
my speakers in my car had a mind of their own.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
So I thought maybe my Maxima got a demon, and.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Then I looked in the backseat and.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Realized it wasn't a demon. It was my daughter.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
That she had the center console down and I never
rode back there, so I didn't realize that all the
years that I've had this car, you can control the
volume and skip tracks.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
From back there.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And she was laughing, and Graham was back there and
he would laughing, and they were controlling something from the
back that I was trying to deal with in the front,
and they thought it was so funny, and I told
him to stop that it's annoying. When I figured out
what they were doing, two or three minutes later, there
(02:19):
goes the volume up and down again. There goes track two,
track three, track four. Again, it's on shuffle.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
And I turned around and said, I'm telling y'all stop.
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It was maybe cute the first time for you, but
it's really driving me crazy up here. Stop and a
few minutes go by and it starts happening again. I
pulled the car over the third time. I pulled the
car over the third time. I'm Providence Road. I said,
let me explain something to you. I said, y'all are
(02:58):
passengers in this maximum I'm the driver.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
That means I'm the DJ.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I get to choose what comes on this stereo and
how loud it is because the driver gets.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
To be the DJ.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I want to appreach to you for about thirty seven
minutes today about back seat DJs, because I suspect that
there are some things in your life that are being
controlled from the back seat, that are being controlled at
(03:41):
a level that you're not realizing that they're being controlled.
And I believe that today God is going to use
me and trust me.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I study.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Joy has become more important to me every year that.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I've been alive.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I feel like in my twenties I just cared about
accomplishing things. In my thirties, I've been figuring out, what's
the point if you don't enjoy it? What's the point
in doing something? Awesome if you are not in a
position to appreciate the accomplishment because you constantly need more.
And I spent my twenties and maybe the beginning of
my thirties just trying to get more, more, more. Sometimes
(04:19):
that meant more popularity. Sometimes that meant more impact. Sometimes
that meant more influence. Sometimes that meant more money, more resources,
more friends, more phone numbers, more connections.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But lately I've been asking the.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Lord for more joy, and it sent me on a
scriptural trajectory.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And I want to bring you into it today.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Would it be all right if we talked for a
little while today about what's controlling your joy? Amen, I'm excited.
Do you feel my enthusiasm? James Chapter one, verses two
through four. We'll start here. I believe there's some things,
(05:00):
things that are destroying your joy that you were unaware of.
And James is going to teach us how to develop joy.
Very different than discovering joy. Discovering joy means it's waiting
somewhere and you got to find it. It's waiting in
(05:20):
your next career move, it's waiting in your next relationship.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's waiting somewhere. You're not right now.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
But James is going to show us something that may
be familiar to a few of you, but it is
very strange if you consider.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
What he's actually saying. And I'm going to just read
those verses, just three verses to.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You, he says, James, Chapter one, verus to consider it
pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials
of many kinds. That's not where I was looking for joy,
by the way, that's not what I was praying for,
hoping for, asking for, believing for. Anyway, he said, consider
(06:02):
it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing
of your faith produces perseverance, Let perseverance finish its work
so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
(06:27):
I'm glad he specified, because the first thing I want
to mention to you today, all of these points they
kind of followed the theme of DJ. So the first
one is the distinction of joy, the distinction of joy
knowing what it really is, understanding the nature of it.
And James helps us to do that first bite, helping
(06:49):
us to understand that there are trials of many kinds.
That's what verse two, said the old King James that
Pastor Mickey preached from said, diverse trials because I have
learned that we're not all going through the same thing,
but we are all going through something. And how many
(07:11):
know that there are as many different kinds of trials
as there are different drinks at Starbucks, as there are
different colors of paint at home depot. I found out
that there are trials that are associated with plenty. There
are trials that are associated with poverty. I always understood
(07:34):
the first one because everybody understands that being broke is
a battle. But management of resources can, in its own way,
test a part of your character that if you're not
prepared to have it testing, it can create a lot
more problems than financial poverty. In fact, financial riches can
(07:56):
create relational poverty if there is not the emotional maturity
to help us to steward with understanding what we've been given.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I'm appreaching today. If y'all come along with you, it's
true me.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
There's single people trials, there's married people trials. There are
trials that are associated with loneliness, and there are trials
that are associated with companionship. There are many kinds of trials.
There are many different That's what James is saying. He's
making a distinction that there's different kinds of trials, and
(08:32):
some of us are like, well, can I try a
different kind of trial?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Like can I trade trials?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like you're talking about rich people trials, I'd like to
try those for a little while you're talking about married
people trials. I'd like to try. I think I'd be
good at those trials. I think I'd be better prepared
for those trials. But we never again, after the year
that we had last year, get to associate joy with
status or success, because we have now seen that no
(08:58):
matter how great your name is in the eyes of people,
you can still want to take your very own life
because joy is not a product of what people say
about you.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Joy is not.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
A product of how people hold you in esteem or
in disregard. And so there's different kinds of trials. Added
to that, most of us don't understand the distinction between
a temptation and a trial. The language that James uses
in this biblical writing, the common Greek of his day,
(09:32):
allows for both. When he says trials of many kinds,
he could just as easily be referring to economic hardship
or persecution that many of this diaspora of tribes scattered
abroad who were believers in Jesus were experiencing, or he
could be talking about temptation. And it is important to
know the distinction between the kind of trials that you
(09:55):
will experience in your life, otherwise you might in years
blaming the devil for your bad decisions. There are different
kinds of trials. Some of our trials are the result
of evil in the world, and that results in all
kinds of different warfare that we could study for weeks about.
(10:18):
Some of our trials are the results of things that
we did contrary to our inner wisdom. There are many
different kinds of trials, and if you don't know the
difference between a temptation and a trial, you will try
to use the wrong tool on the trial. Because when tempted,
(10:40):
the Bible teaches resistance. When you are tempted to step
outside of the God given means by which you've been
empowered to meet your God given desires, the strategy, the tool,
the technique is resistance. A trial, however, not a temptation,
(11:02):
but a trial.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Often the key is not resistance but acceptance.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And this was important for me to see the distinction
because a lot of times I'm accepting what I should
resist and resisting what I should accept. It is taking
me time to learn the difference, is taking me prayer
to learn the difference. It's taking the other's community to
(11:30):
learn the difference. I'm having to get into the Word
of God to know the difference so that I can
approach my trials with wisdom.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
In fact, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
What James one to five says, and it's connected to
this passage, even.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Though I never thought it was.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should
ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault,
and it will be given to you. Now, if you
want to flip the flow this year, just do.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
James one to five.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Instead of asking everybody around you what you should do,
start with the source, start with the solution. We're talking
about your problems with people who are powerless to fix them.
It's making you feel worse, it's making them feel worse,
and everybody's frustrated. So I need the wisdom to make
(12:15):
the distinction to know the trial that I'm in. God,
is this one that you want me to fight, or
do you want me to do what the Parables said
to do one time with the weeds that were growing
up alongside the terrace and leave it alone and let
you deal with it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
There's a distinction. There's different kinds of trials.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Some of the stuff that I'm dealing with as a
parent right now.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Is just called puberty.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
You can't cast it out, you can't annoy it, you
can't instruct it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It's a different kind of trial. It's just life.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Some of the stuff I'm dealing with right now is
a temptation.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Some of it is actually, I believe, from the pit
of hell.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Not that the devil is like personally a sign to me,
but just some stuff is evil against my purpose. And
don't give yourself too much credit, because a lot of
us like to think that the devil had nothing better
to do than give us, you know, a flat tire,
and I think the devil is much busier than that.
I think a lot of it comes down to distinguishing
the type of trial that I'm in, which helps me
(13:25):
to understand the distinctions between joy and pleasure. Oh, you
know those little church signs that they do, I think
we should get one by the way at elevation the
church signs where they change the letters and they put
up little quotes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, I like this.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think we should get one. How many vote we
get a church sign. Let's have our first ever church
voted elevation church vote. We should get a church sign
and we could put stuff up there like this.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I saw this one.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It said no Jesus, no Joy, but it was felt,
k now Jesus. So the first one was no Jesus,
you don't have Jesus, you don't have joy. K and
oh Jesus, k and ow Jesus, kN ow joy. And
I thought it's cute, but it's it's not true.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
No Jesus, no joy. There's a lot of things you
can enjoy without Jesus. Christy Kreme tastes.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Good whether you're saved or not.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
My taste buds didn't get saved. It's fun to.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Talk bad about people whether you're saved or not.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Only differences.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And this is important, is that the quality of the
joy becomes more important than the quantity of the joy.
You also hear preachers say stuff like this, God doesn't
care if you're happy. He just wants to make you holy.
And I can't believe how many people will say amen
to some business like that that you would never feel
(15:00):
about your own kid. How many parents do we have
in the house, and how many of you don't care
if your kid is ever happy in life at all.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I'm gonna call.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Child Protective Services on.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Y'all. Ain't a good good father. No, he is a
good father, good gift.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I never got that, and I never really understood
the distinction between joy and happiness, because like, there's not
a difference in the Biblical language. It's not difference Like
in English we have like phar real happy, which is
like dancing happy, and then in Hebrew they had happy.
It's the same word, it's blessed. It's the same word
as joy. When James says counted joy, he means consider
(15:42):
yourself supremely happy literal translation. So we need to make
the distinction, I guess between generic joy.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
And Jesus joy.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Because he said verse two, consider it pure joy. The
way my mind works, if there's such a thing as
pure joy, there must be another kind of joy.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I kind of cheated that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
It's more a grammar issue because the literal translation is
count it all joy. So he doesn't say pure joy.
I got a verse for this, though. Let me do
it from a Let me do it from Hebrews chapter twelve.
I've always loved this picture of joy because it helps
me to make a distinction between.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Joy and pleasure.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Okay, pleasure can be associated with joy, but joy is
not dependent on pleasure. This is the second thing I
want to talk about. I want to talk about the
direction of joy. The direction of joy. We're talking about
backseat DJs, right, We're talking about how sometimes we find
our joy controlled by circumstances and situations. But Jesus gives
(17:03):
us a picture that stands contrary to the cultural expectation
of joy.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And I promise I'll read the scripture in a minute.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
But I just want to tell you so much, and
I just don't know where to start, where to stop.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's just it's all in me today.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
There seems to be right now more than there was
like when my grandparents. We're thirty and forty, there seems
to be a pressure for us to always feel pleasure.
It's no longer just a desire that we have that
we want to feel good. It's almost like the way
that social media has constructed our viewing experiences of other
(17:43):
people's lives through the filters of their most desirable moments,
there is something wrong with me. If I am not
constantly happy all the time. That's a problem with me
because I am not genetically predisposed to be happy.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I'm just not.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I've found that out about myself early in life. I
am not like one of you who just finds reasons
to smell roses, who just finds reasons to be happy.
Some of y'all appreciate the rain, appreciate the sunshine. The
rain makes you feel relaxed. The sunshine makes you feel active.
You can find the joy in everything. I am not
(18:22):
of your species, and frankly you make me sick. But
joy is something different, because the pressure to feel pleasure
is part of the reason why we feel so miserable.
And now we are living in the midst of a
generation that thinks that joy is associated with a feeling
in your flesh. And it can be, but it doesn't
(18:44):
have to be. It's important that I say it can
bring a feeling, but it doesn't start with the feeling.
This is where we flip the flow. Can we flip
the flow? If anybody flipped the flow it was Jesus.
Here he is up on a cross. Here he is
mocked and and his reputation.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Is beyond repair.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Here he is being spat on and condescended to by
the ones that he created. And the writer of Hebrews,
whoever he was, says, we need to fix Hebrews twelve
to two our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector
or the author and finisher. Either translation is acceptable of
(19:25):
our faith. HM for the joy set before him, he
endured the cross. Now this is where my message really happens. Okay,
what have you set before you? That is what your
(19:49):
joy is connected to what you have set before you,
And I'll break that down the best that I can.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Joy is a point of view. Joy is a way
of looking at things. This helps me.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I don't know about you, but it sets me free
from feeling the need to feel a certain way. We
got so many people quitting their jobs because they're unhappy
and not really understanding that sometimes joy is not the
(20:32):
absence of sadness.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Or the presence of the spectacular.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And all we need to look at is that one
verse where it says that Jesus for the joy that
was set before him, I want to use that as
a picture for a moment. He set joy before him,
so in order to endure the cross, that's the next part,
(20:58):
enduring the cross, scorning as shame.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
He didn't find joy in the event. He found joy
in the guaranteed outcome of the event.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
He did not find joy in the feeling of hanging
on the crops. It wasn't like because he was the
son of God that the nails, you know, transcended the
laws of pain and the material laws of the universe.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It was just as.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Painful, but because of purpose. You understand, it's very different
to go through pain with purpose than pain without purpose.
It's the difference between Graham jumping on my back he's
only ninety pounds and me not knowing that he's gonna
jump on my back and me feeling like every disc
(21:52):
just slipped like I'm seventy three years old in my
lower back. And the difference between me putting ninety pounds
on a bar to squat it.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
If I do it on purpose, it's a warm up weight.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
If I don't expect it, it might take me down.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
To the ground. Same weight. But what I was ready
for when Jesus hung on the cross.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
He wasn't surprised by the shame. He wasn't surprised by
the suffering. He wasn't surprised by the pain, He wasn't
surprised by the jeering. He wasn't surprised by their saliva.
He wasn't surprised by the blood.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Joy is a focus before it's a feeling.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
If you came to church just to hear that I
promise you got.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Your gas money's worth.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Joy is a focus before it's a feeling. And so
while we're chasing a feeling called joy has given us.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
The ability to choose not our feelings. You ever tried
to choose joy? I saw it on Pinterest. I tried it.
It sucked, it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Then I felt guilty because I couldn't find joy, and
it made me feel less joy. So now I'm in
a joyless pit of joylessness. It is cyclical. Joylessness and
shame is the difference between choice and consequence. Joy is
(23:32):
a choice, really because some of the trials that people
go through are actual mental illness, and it's kind of
hard for them to just feel happy because they've got
a good parking space, and no matter how much you
tell them to feel happy, be happy, you know, be happy,
feel happy, counter blessings. James doesn't say counter blessings. This
(23:55):
is in a nursery rhyme. It's a Bible scripture. He said,
count it all joy. He said, learn how to flip.
You might not know this statement, but there's a there's
a statement. In financial terms, it's an income statement. It's
(24:20):
it's got your your income on one side, your expenses
on another. James says, if you can learn to put
some of the stuff in the income column that you
thought was an expense, some of the stuff in the
blessing column that you thought was a burden. If you
can flip the flow, you actually have more joy than
(24:40):
you're aware of. But you're not gonna get it by
praying for a feeling. You're going to get it by
making choices. Joy is not a choice. In fact, the
worst way that I can get more joy is to
focus on getting more joy.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
The best way to.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Stop being happy is to ask yourself the question am
I happy?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And see?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I don't remember my grandparents ever talking about this. If
they did, I don't remember it. I never remember my
grandmother my grandfather talking about are we really happy? They
didn't think like that. There wasn't feeds and scrolling. There
wasn't There wasn't all this other stuff to make them
feel unhappy at.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
A moment's notice. There wasn't.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
There wasn't an infinite supply of unhappiness in their pocket
in the form of a device. They didn't have that,
so they focused on something else.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
What was it? What is it that.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Brings joy? If I focus on it, I know it
is not. It's not looking around. How are they doing?
What do they think? Where are they go on vacation?
Where's she taking, where's he going on? What's she wearing
when she is on? What do they think about me? No, No,
that's not gonna do it, he said for the joy
(25:57):
set before him. I can't be looking all around and
expecting to have joy. I can't be judging my situation
according to other people's calling and expect to have joy.
I can't be judging my gift compared to other people's
talent and expect to have joy. I know is so
cliche because we say it every week, but nothing destroys
(26:21):
joy like comparison. The life you've got some of you
would be so enjoyable if only you didn't do this
while you were living it. If only you didn't do this.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean, it's hurting my neck just to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
To illustrate to you, imagine what is doing to your soul.
You can't have joy that way. It is destroying your joy.
You're praying for more joy, and yet you are destroying
the joy God has given you, the joy of your salvation,
the joy of your calling, the joy of your assignment.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
God give me more joy. Well, it's a decision not
to have joy. That's the worst way.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
To get joy, the decision of what I'm gonna focus on.
And I can't get it like this. And I definitely
can't get it like this looking.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
At what's behind me. I can't. I can't look back.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Remember when God called Moses at the burning bush and
he said his name, he said, I am not I was.
Remember he said, I am not, I will be. There's
something to that. There's something to that. It's echoed by
David in Psalm sixteen. He says, in your presence is
(27:43):
the fullness of joy. Presence. Everybody say that word presence.
The gift of joy is found in presence. But that
doesn't mean in church, that's not what it means to say,
in God's presence is the fullness of joy, because God
would never limit his presence to a building. It doesn't
mean when you're doing everything right, then you're gonna feel happy,
(28:05):
because God is not going to reward you based on behavior.
That's not the good news of the Gospel. The gospel
is for sinners. The Gospel is for the weak. The
gospel is for the lame. The gospel is for the broken.
The Gospel is for those who feel ashamed. That's not
what it means. In your presence is fullness of joy.
That means joy can only really come to my life
(28:26):
when I am focused on what God is doing in
this moment. And I cannot focus on what God is
doing in this moment in my life if I'm consumed
with what He's doing in somebody else's or if I'm
still in regret and bitterness about what happened three years ago,
or three months ago, or even three minutes ago. A
(28:49):
lot of our lack of joy is really not about possession.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
It's about position.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
What I mean is this, He set joy before him.
It's not a question of God's presence. His presence is everywhere.
It's not a question of God's presence. You don't have
to ask him to be with you. He already is.
It's not about God's presence, It's about yours. Are you
present in this moment? Are you present in this trial?
(29:19):
Are you present in this worship service? Well, if you
are giving praise for a second, we need this lesson friends, family, brothers, sisters, brethren, sistern, mother's,
(29:44):
father's children. We can't go to a concert anymore without
trying to capture it, and I can't enjoy it because
I'm too busy trying to post it. Kids do something cute,
(30:04):
capture it? Well, you can't, but you're also gonna kill it.
There is no quicker way to kill your kid's cuteness
than trying to capture it. I swear demons come out
when you start trying to capture stuff to post it.
God knows your heart and he sends something to your
iPhone I don't know, and it shoots beams into your
children and they start.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I can't show you a picture real quick.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
I don't like to be too indulgent in these sermons,
but and show my family off. But this is just
a quick picture of us on vacation before Christmas. Look
at that. Here's another picture. I'll show you a couple
just so you can see. I'm gonna tell you something
(30:50):
that you wouldn't see if I put those on Instagram.
Go back to the first one again. Please, That one
looks happy, right, and go to the other one. Can
go to the other one. That one looks sad. Let
me tell you something. That's not my sad face. M hm.
That's my RBF. That's my resting Bible face. That's my
(31:15):
really blessed face. That's my focus face. That's when I
was getting the sermon flip the flow at TGI Fridays
in the Miami International Airport in the d concourse.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I'm happy the other one put the other one out.
I was so mad at Abby.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That was the seventeenth time I tried to take a
selfie of us, and I wanted to throw her in
the ocean by the time it was over. Not in
a playful way.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Let's see.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I'm just trying to get us in this series to
start take it down, start looking beneath the surface and stuff,
to stop looking at the surface of stuff, and to stop,
you know, discerning. I found out that you can miss
joy because you're looking all around. You can miss joy
(32:18):
because you're looking behind you.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
But here's the thing, you can also miss.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Joy because you're trying to look too far ahead.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
It's an equal danger.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And some of you, while I was preaching the part
about looking around, you're like, nah, I'm good, bro, I'm
like fifty three.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I don't do that anymore. And when I was tell
my looking back.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You're like, yeah, I already dealt with my stuff back there.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's fine. But what you do is you look so
far forward.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Like I was doing the other day driving that new
car I told you about, and I can't get anywhere
without a GPS.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
What did embarrass you for me?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
If I told you I was going to my mom's
house in town and was following the GPS, that's how
bad my sense of direction is.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
This true story. And I slammed into the.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Back of another car because I was looking three turns
ahead and not looking three feet ahead. And it might
be destroying your joy. Not that you're like comparing, or
not that you're regretting.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But maybe you're just trying to get.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
So far out there, you know, like my retirement is down,
you're twenty four, it'll catch back up.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
It's a lot of timing, you know. But for those
of us who.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Need to plan, he didn't say in your plans this
fullness of joy. And you can't even really affect the
future from anywhere but the present, and it's all wasted energy.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So this is my year of presence.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I'm trying to figure out what it means to find
fullness of joy in God's presence. And in order to
find fullness of joy in His presence, I have to
bring my presence to my real life.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Not my presence to.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Some imaginary scenario, but the real life that God has given.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Me right now. And you know what's great about it.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Let's go to Psalm sixteen for just a moment, and
I promise I'll start closing this.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Are you enjoying this teaching today? Is this blessing your life?
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Touch somebody and say this is my happy face? Because
I was focused. I was happy because I was focused.
The other one, I was trying to show something to
the world that wasn't real. I was thinking maybe I
could get some likes on this, and so I wasn't
focused on what was right in front of me. But
Jesus for the joy set before him endured He didn't
(34:57):
enjoy the cross. He you're the cross because of joy
set before him. And now I want to give you
the whole sermon. Okay, here's the sermon in a sentence.
Hadn't you been preaching for thirty five minutes yet? But
I hadn't said anything yet. Here's the sermon in a sentence.
You cannot choose joy. You can only choose your priorities,
(35:19):
and your priorities control your joy. You can't choose joy
anymore than you can just can you think you can
choose joy.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
It's like trying to choose the weather. What you can choose.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Is your priority, and your priorities will ultimately control your joy.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Psalm sixteen. Put it on the screen for me.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Verse when I start verse five, please, the Lord is
my chosen portion.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
See the word chosen.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It means I have decided to make God the most
important thing in my life. I don't want to leave
that too abstract, because what does that mean? Read the
Bible first thing every morning? Maybe, but it means more
than that His will is what I want. His waves
are higher than my waves. So the Lord Yahweh, the Great,
(36:11):
I am the ever present help in time of trouble,
he is my chosen portion. I've looked at everything else
that this world offers me to enjoy, and yes, I
can enjoy things that aren't necessarily spiritual, but I do
not need them to survive. And I will not attach
my joy to a temporal pleasure anymore because I tried that.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I tried that.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I cheered for the Clemson Tigers when they were three
and eight, and when they won the second national championship
in the last few years, people were coming up to
me saying congratulations.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
I was like, for what.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I enjoyed the game. I watched the game. I liked it.
I enjoyed the forty four to sixteen victory. But I
didn't need college boys in Spandex to give me a
reason to live.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
That is not my priority. I can't invest my.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Joy in what people I don't know do with an
oblong object made out of pigskin converted into leather with
some stitches for four fifteen minute increments, it's the wrong priority.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I enjoyed it, but my joy is not in it.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Last week, I told you something very powerful about your heart.
I said, when you know where it comes from, you
know how it comes out. When you know where it
comes from you know how it comes out.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
This is what I want to tell you this week.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Where it comes from determines when it runs out. This
is the source of your joy. The way you can
know that is what are my priorities. Psalma said, The
(38:17):
Lord is my chosen portion. And here's something Jesus said
that I've been thinking about all week. I've been meditating
on this. He said, Abide in me my words. Abide
in you. You bear much fruit. Sometimes you're going to
get cut on, but you'll never be cut off. If
you abide in me and my words, abide in you,
there will be a constant flow of joy.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Like the vine and the branches. You're going to have
what you need. The joy is going to.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Flow from a place of your rest and trust in me,
not in your own effort, and not in just certain
things that happen. If they happen, is fine, but don't
confuse the icing with the cake.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Abide in me my words. Abide in you.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Many says something in John fifteen eleven. Please I have
told you this so that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be complete. The Lord said,
A lot of us are settling for partial joy. Partial joy,
(39:15):
and we equate joy with the absence of sadness. Joy
is not the absence of sadness. If it was, Jesus
couldn't have had it on the cross. He said, I
want my joy to be in you, but you've got
to own it because to just say, well, Jesus is
my joy, it doesn't really get to the heart of
(39:35):
why we could know Jesus and still not no joy,
because it's a decision. When I give the wrong things
too much priority in my life, then those priorities control
my joy. If my priority is recognition, then recognition controls
(39:59):
my joy. When people recognize me, I will feel happy
about it.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
If my priority is recognition.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
If my priority is convenience, then when something is inconvenient,
the inconvenience will steal my joy. But it really didn't
steal my joy, did it? Because I let it drive
and whatever is driving the car gets to DJ. So
(40:33):
the Lord told me in preparing this message that we've
got some back seat DJs that have been controlling our joy,
our feelings, our finances, our bank accounts, our status, our standing,
our situations. And today God wants you to tell some
(40:53):
of the things in your life that have been controlling
your joy from the back seat. You are not my God,
you are not my vine, you are not my source,
and you don't hold my joy. Joy is something deeper
than how I feel about it. Joy is something deeper
than what I post about. Joy is something deeper than
(41:14):
the way it feels. Right now, I am setting joy
before me.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I'm resetting my warnings.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Now. When I do that, my joy flows not from
what it is, but from who God is to me.
This is the duration of joy. And when my joy
is running out, give me my point, my last point.
The duration of joy is because it's coming from the
(41:42):
wrong place. Where it comes from determines when it runs out.
And I wonder, where's your joy today. I had to
study this hard because I struggle to enjoy my life.
(42:04):
I really love my family, I really love my church.
I love what I get to do. It's a blessing
and a privilege. But I have to admit to you
that sometimes I have been guilty of enduring something that
God has given me to enjoy, and every time it happened,
(42:24):
it was because of my priorities.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Your priorities control your joy.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
You can try all you want to be happy, happy, happy,
and the quick hit stuff, the quick fixed stuff. It'll
get you through the next few hours, but where it
comes from determines when it runs out.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
There is a well that never runs dry. There is
a joy.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
There is a deep, abiding sense of joy that is
available to us that we have not been accessing. And
what we're praying for more off, God is waiting for
us to order our lives around. My joy is too
important for me to leave it up to whether or
not today goes well, or whether or not they speak
(43:12):
to me, or whether or not it turns out well.
Is too important. I can't afford. I'm getting older now.
I'm not a twenty five year old anymore. I'm a
distinguished thirty eight year old full of wisdom, and I
can't afford.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
To just give my joy away just any time.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I can't afford to have these back seat DJs just
changing the temperature of my life.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
I can't afford to just let my emotions control my joy.
So I want to pray for people today. Play something
more interesting, that's boring. I want to pray for people
today is just one chord. Pray for people today who
have allowed your joy to be controlled by something other
than the priority of God's presence in your life, And
you want me to pray for you to experience a
(44:00):
vital connection to God in the coming six days until
we meet again.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Please stand if you want me to pray for you
about that.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
I've been allowing my joy to be connected to things
that can't sustain me.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
There's so much more that I wanted.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
To share with you, but I feel like I was
able to present this word to you on a level
that if you can just receive that much of it,
So flip it instead of going, Lord, I need more joy,
(44:36):
like it's gonna come raining down in the form of
candy pellets. Instead of praying, God, give me the wisdom
to when things come in my life to count it joy,
to consider it joy, because I know that the testing
(44:59):
of my faith patience teach me God to set joy
before me, like Jesus did, like the Psalmists did. He said,
the Lord is ever before me. He is in my
right hand. I will not be shaken in your presence
is the fullness of joy. And watch this at your
right hand, pleasures forevermore, not the kind that come and go,
(45:21):
not the kind that leave you feeling worse afterwards. Not
the kind that leave you sick afterwards, not the kind
that make you feel bad about it, shameful about it afterwards,
perpetual pleasantness in the presence of God, Father. I thank
you for each person who you brought here today. Maybe
they've been in that season of mourning you are in.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
I in mourning.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Thank you that your word says that weeping may endure
for a night, but joy comes with the morning. And
we bless you because what that means to us today
is that in everything that is happening in our life
right now, there is an opportunity for joy. I confess
to you before these people, God that I need this
message more than anybody who heard it. I'm preaching this
(46:09):
today God because sometimes in my life I have set
things before me that had no place being my priority,
and every time I did, I was disappointed.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
And every time I.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Did, I got a hit, but it didn't fix anything.
So this week, would you show us what's truly important.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Would you help us to see.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Our lives with the wisdom that only you provide. Help
us to understand that joy does not come from better circumstances.
Joy does not come from human acclaim. Joy comes from
ordered priorities. We want to seek first your kingdom. We
(46:53):
want to know what matters to you, and we thank
you for it in Jesus' name, hey.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Man, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Host
Steven Furtick
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