SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please have a seat.
unknown: Woo!
SPEAKER_00: So today I'm doing a special message.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a while since I've done actually a message about humor in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This message is going to be lighthearted, but not lightweight.
SPEAKER_00: I really want to deal with the breadth of how the Bible describes laughter, how it's used, sometimes to hurt, sometimes to heal, sometimes to conceal things that we're feeling and not being honest about.
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a real healing power in laughter, like what this Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: So I've called today's message, learn to laugh again.
SPEAKER_00: I will tell you right before I pray, after this service, I'm not going to be able to hang around and greet because I'm catching a flight out of DFW, and so I have to go straight from here to the airport.
SPEAKER_00: So I apologize in advance for not being able to greet you after service.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin today's message with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you so much that uh we've had this time to worship and thank you, God, for all the groups that were represented here on the stage, ways of connecting with one another.
SPEAKER_00: That's what makes church real.
SPEAKER_00: Is as we go from being a spectator to actually being a participant, to get involved in the life of the church, that that's really where our spiritual life comes alive.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray, God, a lot of people would be making that sort of decision today to move out from anonymity to a place of being known, a place of being celebrated, a place of being loved.
SPEAKER_00: I pray now that as we gather around your word, that you're just gonna have complete freedom in today's service to speak to our life, no matter where we find ourselves, whether we're in a good place or a bad place, whether we're coming off of a great week or a really sad one.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, God, that you're just gonna meet us where we are with exactly what we're needing.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: So you should just know from church history, the church itself, Capital C Church, has had a real mixed history when it comes to laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Most Christians know that the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11, 35, says Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: But you know that there's no place in the Bible that ever says that Jesus laughed.
SPEAKER_00: That led people like Chrysostom, he was a fourth-century bishop.
SPEAKER_00: He argued that Christ never laughed and warned Christians against frivolous laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Other church fathers kind of followed in his footsteps, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict, all thought it was indecent to laugh.
SPEAKER_00: They believed that the age we live in is an age of tears, not one of laughter, and things like laughter and pleasurable activities were the products of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: So they did everything they could under their influence to suppress laughter among believers.
SPEAKER_00: But then there was a movement back toward including humor in church.
SPEAKER_00: During the Middle Ages, some European churches developed a tradition that they called Rissus Pascalis.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is the Easter laughed.
SPEAKER_00: So this typically happened the Sunday after Easter.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason it's timed for the Sunday after Easter is because they believed that God got the biggest laugh on Satan on Easter Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, on Friday, Satan thought he won.
SPEAKER_00: But on Sunday morning, he was shocked to see that Jesus was back from the dead, and so Jesus' resurrection was the greatest laugh ever got because Satan didn't see that one coming.
SPEAKER_00: So on that Sunday, priests, people at church, they just all told jokes to celebrate God's best joke that he got over on Satan.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, are we meant to go through life with a gloomy face, or we is it okay to laugh?
SPEAKER_00: John Wesley, he was one of the founders of the Methodist movement.
SPEAKER_00: He used to say sour godliness is the devil's religion.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon was known as the Prince of Preachers.
SPEAKER_00: He was often criticized because he used humor in his sermons.
SPEAKER_00: But he defended his use of humor.
SPEAKER_00: He said, it's because a good laugh breaks down the barriers between people, and not just that, that cheerfulness has a legitimate place in the church.
SPEAKER_00: So what I'd like to do today is explore what the Bible says about laughter and help us see why it's not only beneficial, but absolutely needed for this broken world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: But what better way to start a message on laughter than with a good laugh?
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, over the years I've collected uh church announcements, kind of bloopers that make it into church publications that I have found funny.
SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, at the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be what is hell?
SPEAKER_00: Come early and listen to our choir practice.
SPEAKER_00: So evidently that prepares you for that sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Or how about this?
SPEAKER_00: Potluck Supper, prayer and medication to follow.
SPEAKER_00: I've been to a few of those.
SPEAKER_00: There's also this one.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody did not think this announcement through.
SPEAKER_00: Thursday at 5 p.m., there'll be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club.
SPEAKER_00: All wishing to become little mothers, please see the minister in his study.
SPEAKER_00: Or, how about this?
SPEAKER_00: This is one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_00: Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church in Racine.
SPEAKER_00: Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's this.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale.
SPEAKER_00: It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget your husbands.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll tell you, I grew up Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: So I have more Baptist jokes than I have anything else.
SPEAKER_00: For the record, I have no ill will toward Baptists.
SPEAKER_00: But with that said, a Hindu yogi, a Jewish rabbi, and a Baptist preacher, they were traveling together in India.
SPEAKER_00: They came to an inn where they need to spend the night, but they were informed that the inn only had room for two in one room.
SPEAKER_00: The remaining traveler would have to go out and sleep in the barn.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Hindu graciously volunteered to sleep in the barn.
SPEAKER_00: As the rabbi and the Baptist preacher are getting ready to go to bed, they hear a knock on the door.
SPEAKER_00: The Hindu's there and he says, I'm sorry, I can't sleep in the barn.
SPEAKER_00: There's a cow out there.
SPEAKER_00: So the rabbi volunteered to take his place.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the rabbi goes, the Hindu and the Baptist are getting ready for bed.
SPEAKER_00: They hear another knock on the door.
SPEAKER_00: It's the rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm sorry, I can't sleep in the barn.
SPEAKER_00: There's a pig out there.
SPEAKER_00: It's against my religion to sleep with an unclean animal.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then the Baptist preacher said, Hey, I got no holy restrictions placed on me at all.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go sleep in the barn.
SPEAKER_00: Well, a few minutes later, there's a third knock on the door.
SPEAKER_00: The Hindu and rabbi opened the door.
SPEAKER_00: This time it's the cow and the pig.
SPEAKER_00: So today's message, today's message is for everybody whose circumstances have gotten the better of them.
SPEAKER_00: It's for people who've watched the joy slowly drain out of their life, and especially for those who've forgotten how to laugh.
SPEAKER_00: So let's begin with God's antidote for the heavies.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this verse from the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing with armloads of blessings.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing I tell you about laughter is simply this laughter is power.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible describes it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah prayed, I'm bursting with good news, I'm walking on air, I'm laughing at my rivals, I'm dancing my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Now you probably recognize the great poet's name, Maya Angelo.
SPEAKER_00: She was a great singer, she was a dancer.
SPEAKER_00: She worked with Dr.
SPEAKER_00: King during the civil rights movement.
SPEAKER_00: She wrote an opera.
SPEAKER_00: In one of her autobiographical works, it's called I Know Why the Cage Birds Sing, she wrote about laughter.
SPEAKER_00: And in particular, she said this You know, in slavery time, the slaves were not allowed to laugh on many plantations.
SPEAKER_00: There was a rule against it.
SPEAKER_00: You can see why there might have been such a rule.
SPEAKER_00: The fear, I suppose, that if the slaves started laughing, then they'd end up laughing at their masters.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe worse than that, if the slaves started laughing, the laughter might become infectious, and the master would laugh with a slave.
SPEAKER_00: How can you laugh with a person one day and have the person be a slave the next day?
SPEAKER_00: So what she did is she went on to describe this practice that developed on certain plantations when the urge to laugh became absolutely irrepressible.
SPEAKER_00: They had what they called a laughter barrel.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'd go to this barrel on the pretext of getting something out of it, you'd lean deep in, and then when you just couldn't hold it any longer, you just laughed and laughed and laughed.
SPEAKER_00: Now I thought about that and I said, how can imagine being afraid to laugh?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid to laugh, afraid of how my master might interpret my laughter, which brings up an important point.
SPEAKER_00: People with power don't like laughter, especially laughter at their expense.
SPEAKER_00: Dictators and authoritarian systems have often feared comedy because it punctures the illusion of absolute power.
SPEAKER_00: For example, did you know in history that Adolf Hitler absolutely hated Charlie Chaplin because of his portrayal in The Great Dictator?
SPEAKER_00: Dictators can't tolerate ridicule because laughter makes them appear smaller and less powerful.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something else about laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Laughter is perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it like this: Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus knew that one of the signs that we're emerging from a time of loss, a time of sadness, is we begin to laugh again.
SPEAKER_00: It indicates that something is healing, that we're feeling better.
SPEAKER_00: So why does laughter help?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you learn to laugh at your setbacks, you're no longer feeling sorry for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sense in which religion and comedy serve the same purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Both help us to overcome tragedy, both help provide strength to face adversity, and both help us to deal with the insecurities and uncertainties of life.
SPEAKER_00: Good humor gives perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, in order to joke about something, you have to kind of extract yourself emotionally from that situation to look at it in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a sense of distance.
SPEAKER_00: I can bring a sense of distance between me and being immersed deeply in my problem.
SPEAKER_00: So having a sense of humor and possessing the ability to laugh, they're priceless gifts from God.
SPEAKER_00: They can make a huge difference in how we respond when things get really tough in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes there's unintended humor in very difficult, intense situations.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've done a ton of funerals, I mean hundreds of funerals in my years as a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And one time I was doing a funeral down at Restland in their little Wildwood chapel, uh, which is on the grounds there, and it was for a manager at Fujitsu.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Mark.
SPEAKER_00: I had led Mark to Christ maybe about three or four weeks before he died.
SPEAKER_00: And so I go and I'm there and I'm I'm getting ready to do his funeral.
SPEAKER_00: And the family and I had talked, and and the wife and Mark, they were they were both fans of the uh singer-songwriter Carol King.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember her name?
SPEAKER_00: So they love Carol King.
SPEAKER_00: They loved her music.
SPEAKER_00: And they decided they'd play a song of Carol's during the funeral.
SPEAKER_00: So they the family had brought a boom box, which you know is a big cassette player and all that.
SPEAKER_00: And and at the right time, after I've kind of done the eulogy, dad walks forward and he puts the cassette into the boom box and he presses play.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, as soon as the song began to play, I realized I recognize this song.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the lyric said.
SPEAKER_00: And it's too late, baby.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's too late.
SPEAKER_00: Though we really did try to make it.
SPEAKER_00: Something inside has died, and I can't hide, and I just can't fake it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there behind the pulpit thinking, okay, it fits, but this is the weirdest song I've ever heard played at a funeral, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just bizarre.
SPEAKER_00: And I lean around the pulpit and I look at the family and they're all shaking uncontrollably with laughter.
SPEAKER_00: You see, dad had put the cassette in backwards.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was playing the wrong song.
SPEAKER_00: And so dad gets up really sheepish, totally embarrassed, walks to the front, hits stop, looks at the crowd, and he said, Mark would have loved it.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of it being an embarrassing or humiliating moment or people saying he ruined the memorial, it ended up being a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Because it helped put things in perspective and reminded everybody of the happiness they shared with Mark.
SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's also this about laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Laughter is perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says there's a time to weep and a time to laugh.
SPEAKER_00: We can't forget suffering, but neither can we neglect laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Laughter is kind of like changing a baby's diaper.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to permanently solve anything, but it makes things a whole lot more bearable for a while.
SPEAKER_00: So let's face it, death and disease are a part of being human.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we often respond to those things with fear and discomfort and avoidance.
SPEAKER_00: But have you ever considered the link between crying and laughing?
SPEAKER_00: Truth be told, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
SPEAKER_00: How often do you see tears streaming down the face of somebody who's had a good laugh?
SPEAKER_00: And how often have you looked at somebody who had a good laugh after they had a good cry?
SPEAKER_00: Even our facial expressions when we're laughing and crying are very similar.
SPEAKER_00: There have been a few times I've leaned over and say, Are you laughing or are you crying?
SPEAKER_00: Because I couldn't tell.
SPEAKER_00: It looked the same to me.
SPEAKER_00: The last time you had a good cry, you probably felt drained, but you probably also felt better.
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing is true when you had a good laugh.
SPEAKER_00: So laughter touches a place deep within us, the same place that tears come from.
SPEAKER_00: It touches something deep in our souls.
SPEAKER_00: There are also other links between laughter and crying.
SPEAKER_00: They're both cathartic, they're both effective in releasing stress and tension, but there's a difference between the two as well.
SPEAKER_00: Tears tend to turn us inward, laughter tends to turn us outward.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about this last week.
SPEAKER_00: I did a message on loneliness, and I talked about the difference between an inward-downward orientation versus an upward-outward orientation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get me wrong, crying is important and we should not suppress it.
SPEAKER_00: But there comes a time in our life when we need a new perspective on our pain.
SPEAKER_00: The ability to laugh demonstrates that you're able to look at your situation in a whole different light.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also something else you need to understand about laughter, and that is the benefits of laughter.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this guy who wrote a book, I have it in my library, it's called The Humor of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things he points out in his book is that Jewish humor is humor by exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00: Jewish like to use intentional exaggeration in order to get a laugh.
SPEAKER_00: And once you understand that, you can see humor in the teaching of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus was once teaching about how easy it is to accuse other people before we look at ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he said.
SPEAKER_00: He uses humor to make the point.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
SPEAKER_00: How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye while the whole time there's a plank in your own eye?
SPEAKER_00: You hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
SPEAKER_00: So this is Jewish humor, pure and simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's humor by exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, imagine somebody leaning over, somebody says, I got a speck in my eye, and this guy's leaning over trying to get the speck out, but he's got this massive 2x4 coming out of his own eye.
SPEAKER_00: That's a problem.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is using humor to make the point of how often it is we accuse other people of the sins we don't want to own in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: On another occasion, Jesus said this, Matthew 23.
SPEAKER_00: He told the Pharisees that they would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me explain this illustration so you get it.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were purists.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to follow the Levitical Purde.
SPEAKER_00: And so they wanted to avoid ever eating anything impure.
SPEAKER_00: So what they would do is when they're pouring water, they'd put a piece of cloth over the top of the glass, and then they would pour the water into it to strain out a gnat.
SPEAKER_00: A gnat is the smallest of the unclean creatures.
SPEAKER_00: And so to swallow a gnat would make you unclean.
SPEAKER_00: So they want to strain that out, but Jesus said, while you're straining out gnats, you're swallowing camels.
SPEAKER_00: The camel is the largest of the unclean animals.
SPEAKER_00: So you focus on the minutiae, but you lose the bigger picture.
SPEAKER_00: You see that?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure the moment Jesus says that, the disciples look at each other, hit each other in the ribs.
SPEAKER_00: Good one, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He's using humor to make a point to help people understand how silly we can be focusing on the minutiae and losing the bigger picture.
SPEAKER_00: We're all made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: That means we're beings like God.
SPEAKER_00: We think, we feel, we act.
SPEAKER_00: And among the feelings we possess, they all reflect something of God.
SPEAKER_00: Our love does, our anger does, our joy does, and so does our laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to teach a baby to laugh, do you?
SPEAKER_00: Before they say mommy or daddy, they know how to laugh.
SPEAKER_00: It's spontaneous.
SPEAKER_00: It's a part of the way they're wired up.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, scientists tell us that infants begin to laugh when they're tickled or stimulated as early as 17 days old.
SPEAKER_00: So when you think about it, our first language, crying and laughing.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way we can communicate until we can learn to say words like mommy and daddy and other things.
SPEAKER_00: Bottom line, children laugh far more frequently than many adults.
SPEAKER_00: Small children display a remarkable range of facial expressions.
SPEAKER_00: By the time we're adults, we settle into like two or three.
SPEAKER_00: So work on that, will you?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another thing.
SPEAKER_00: You'll feel better.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Proverbs reminds us of this.
SPEAKER_00: Laughter does good like a medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.
SPEAKER_00: It's a medical fact that when you laugh, endorphins are released in your brain.
SPEAKER_00: Endorphins are nature's painkiller.
SPEAKER_00: It's the way God has built your body.
SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, a good bout of laughter is like a safety valve because it shuts off the flow of negative stress hormones in our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Or how about this?
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
SPEAKER_00: William Fry Jr., he's the of the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford Medical School.
SPEAKER_00: He's found that a brief period of intense laughter raises the heart rate in ways comparable to strenuous exercise.
SPEAKER_00: So you understand what that means.
SPEAKER_00: When Brenda's giving me a hard time, I can just say, hey, I'm exercising.
SPEAKER_00: I'm watching ridiculousness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm laughing and I'm getting an internal workout at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: So it seems that study after study is validating this 3,000-year-old principle from the book of Proverbs that laughter works good like a medicine.
SPEAKER_00: There's a name you ought to recognize from history.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Norman Cousins.
SPEAKER_00: Norman Cousins had a serious connective tissue disease that made all of his bones, his joints, his spine ache.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a book about his experience called Anatomy of an Illness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a New York Times bestseller.
SPEAKER_00: Cousins had read a book about the effect of negative emotions on body chemistry.
SPEAKER_00: But it made him think what about positive emotions?
SPEAKER_00: If negative emotions can impact me physiologically, can love and hope and laughter have a lasting positive and therapeutic effect?
SPEAKER_00: So here's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: Cousins at the time was taking maximum doses of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, which all it did is give him severe hives, nausea, and they weren't really helping him, and they were certainly not curing his illness.
SPEAKER_00: So he decided to use himself as a guinea pig with his doctor's permission.
SPEAKER_00: He discontinued using all of his prescription drugs and decided to improve his body chemistry by infusing himself with positive emotions.
SPEAKER_00: So he rented movies.
SPEAKER_00: In his day, it was like the Marx Brothers and candid camera reruns.
SPEAKER_00: He read funny books.
SPEAKER_00: He went to see comedies at the theater.
SPEAKER_00: He spent time with friends who liked to laugh.
SPEAKER_00: And what he discovered is that ten minutes of hearty belly laughs produced two hours of pain-free sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Scientifically, he decided to document the effects laughter was having on his body.
SPEAKER_00: In particular, he would take his sedimentation rate, they call it sed rate for short, before and after every laughing episode.
SPEAKER_00: Each time he laughed, there was a drop of at least five points in his sedate, which he said was cumulative over several episodes.
SPEAKER_00: His conclusion was there's a physiological basis for the ancient belief that laughter does good like a medicine.
SPEAKER_00: And I can personally attest to this too.
SPEAKER_00: After open heart surgery, my family said that while I was still sedated, that evidently I'm quite the comedian.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm in intensive care, my breathing tube has been removed.
SPEAKER_00: Now remind you, I remember none of this.
SPEAKER_00: That's the effect that anesthesia has on me.
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember any of it.
SPEAKER_00: And Brenda will tell you that even when I'm under sedation, and she knows I'm under sedation, I speak as clearly to at then as I'm speaking, see, I'm not speaking clearly now, but I speak as clearly under sedation as I do when I'm up here talking.
SPEAKER_00: So in particular, I'm in, so I'm in ICU.
SPEAKER_00: Brenda, the girls are in the room.
SPEAKER_00: They're very concerned about me.
SPEAKER_00: Tubes, wires coming out everywhere, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and they made this announcement that there was going to be a shift change in the intensive care unit.
SPEAKER_00: And all the doctors and nurses need to meet in the hot and in the hallway five minutes before the shift change.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as they made that announcement, I looked at Brenda and I said, Tell them I can't make it.
SPEAKER_00: And she heard that, and when she realized what I said, she started laughing, but it helped her and the girls realize I was going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then after surgery, one of the great things about a hospital stay is you get praised for things you never get praised for at home.
SPEAKER_00: So, just in case you're unaware, under general anesthesia, it kind of puts your digestive tract to sleep and it has to slowly reawaken.
SPEAKER_00: So, one of the things they encourage in the hospital is to pass gas.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've never been praised for this ability in my entire life.
SPEAKER_00: But after open heart surgery, my nurses were beaming with pride every time I passed gas.
SPEAKER_00: So I had entered into a whole new world where the things frowned upon in polite society were openly encouraged and celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: So I took full advantage of my new frown freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And Brenda, when she'd come up to see me and we'd walk the halls for exercise, I would just toot away as we're walking down the hall.
SPEAKER_00: And she was so embarrassed, she's mortified, she's dying a thousand deaths, and she says, Stop it.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I they want me to do this.
SPEAKER_00: I can't let my nurses down.
SPEAKER_00: So laughter makes you feel better.
SPEAKER_00: But another benefit, you can connect with others better.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said this laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what I've learned about people is this is if I can get people to laugh at themselves, it's a far more effective way of making a point than scolding them.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes to get them to laugh at me is far more, is far better to persuade people than even get them laughing at themselves.
SPEAKER_00: For example, you know, I I could tell you about pity parties and how they take us on a downward spiral and it's nothing but a negative effect.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't tell you that that way.
SPEAKER_00: I told you a story about me in college and being on my downward spiral and going to see a professor at college, confessing all my problems, and them asking me, have you looked up in the trees to see the color of the leaves?
SPEAKER_00: And I was just so irritated by that, I said, yes.
SPEAKER_00: And then when I walk out after the session, it's a dead of winter.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a leaf on a tree anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And so you laughed.
SPEAKER_00: You laughed at me.
SPEAKER_00: You enjoyed my pain in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: But when you did that, when you laughed with me, you were much more open to thinking about how many times have I got caught in a negative spiral and went out of control and had a pity party and couldn't break free of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when we laugh.
SPEAKER_00: So have you ever considered how closely the words humility and humor are joined?
SPEAKER_00: A sense of humor requires a sense of humility, ruthless honesty about who we are, without disguise, without pretense.
SPEAKER_00: Humor lets us laugh at ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Humility lets us laugh at ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: People who take themselves too seriously, they can't laugh at themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Humor, what it does, it reminds us that we're not the center of the universe, that there's a whole lot of stuff we don't know and still even more that we don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: So humor puts us in our place, just like the teachings of Jesus do.
SPEAKER_00: The actor Woody Harrelson said it like this: the only way to get a serious message across is through comedy.
SPEAKER_00: The actor-comedian John Cleese, who you might remember from Monty Python, he said, if I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it, you acknowledge its truth.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the case?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's why I say humor is a very effective way to get people to move from a ha-ha moment to an aha moment.
SPEAKER_00: When you laugh at yourself, you're showing I got caught by the truth and I've been humbled.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you accept yourself the way God does, the more you can laugh in that way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one time after a service, I would it was a marriage series, and somebody came up to me and said, Pastor, during the service, there was some lady behind me who said, I don't know how Brenda can stand to be married to Pastor Keith.
SPEAKER_00: And I just looked at this lady and I said, She doesn't know the half of it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because one, that's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna get all offended, I'm not gonna get all hot and bothered that somebody criticizing me like that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know me and they don't know half the story.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm a problem to deal with, and so are you.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the truth, right?
SPEAKER_00: When you're willing to laugh at yourself, you enhance your credibility.
SPEAKER_00: When we're real enough to laugh at our own stupidities and foul-ups, we're secure.
SPEAKER_00: And only secure people can see the comedies of life.
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the upside and downside of laughter, beginning with the upside of laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Laughter has a way of restoring hope.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might remember this story.
SPEAKER_00: It was years ago.
SPEAKER_00: The actor Christopher Reeves was on horses and he and he had an accident.
SPEAKER_00: He fell off the horse, it severed his spine at the neck, he became a quadruplegic like that.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a book called Still Me.
SPEAKER_00: And in that book, he tells a story of what happened prior to a very delicate surgery he was about to undergo.
SPEAKER_00: So as this surgery date grew closer and closer, it became more frightening for him to think about.
SPEAKER_00: As a quadruplegic, he can't move, he can't go anywhere else, he can't sit up, he can't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: He just lays there and he's stewing in all these negative emotions and this depression his feeling.
SPEAKER_00: But in this bleak moment, the doors to his room flew open, and in rush, this doctor had a blue scrub hat on, a yellow surgical gown, glasses, speaking in this thick Russian accent.
SPEAKER_00: The doctor said he was Reeves' proctologist and came to examine him immediately.
SPEAKER_00: And Christopher Reeves says his first reaction was to think this doctor is either on drugs or he's brain damaged.
SPEAKER_00: But guess who it was?
SPEAKER_00: It was Robin Williams, Reeves' good friends.
SPEAKER_00: And Reeves said for the first time since his accident, he laughed.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he said.
SPEAKER_00: My old friend helped me to know that somehow I was going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: We need people to help us laugh, to help shift our mind away from the negative downward spiral, to remind us that we're not alone, that we're loved, and no matter what the outcome, there's people cheering for us.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also this there's a downside to laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Laughter can be a mask to hide from people.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible openly acknowledges this aspect of laughter.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Even in laughter, the heart is sad.
SPEAKER_00: You can use humor to hide from a painful truth.
SPEAKER_00: You can use humor to avoid facing things.
SPEAKER_00: If you're part of my generation, you grew up with the sounds of Motown.
SPEAKER_00: In the 60s and 70s, Smokey Robinson was the epitome of the sounds of Motown.
SPEAKER_00: And he wrote a particular huge success in the 60s, sold millions of copies.
SPEAKER_00: The lyrics went like this.
SPEAKER_00: People say I'm the life of the party because I tell a joke or two.
SPEAKER_00: Although I may be laughing loud and hardy, deep inside I'm blue.
SPEAKER_00: So take a good look at my face.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see my smiles look out of place.
SPEAKER_00: If you look closer, it's easy to trace the track of my tears.
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, Smokey understood human nature and how many of us we like to hide behind masks.
SPEAKER_00: We conceal our feelings, we disguise our vulnerabilities, and one of the most effective masks that is out there is laughter, clowning around so that people won't see our tears.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but I've always been fascinated by the backstory of some of America's greatest comedians.
SPEAKER_00: Richard Pryor.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up in a brothel where his mother was a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: His mother eventually abandoned him and left him to his grandmother, who was the brothel's owner, and she frequently beat him.
SPEAKER_00: He was molested multiple times as a young boy, first by an older kid, later by a Catholic priest.
SPEAKER_00: Pryor divorced seven times as an adult.
SPEAKER_00: He had recurring problems with drugs and alcohol, even infamously set himself on fire while he was high on cocaine.
SPEAKER_00: Pryor had a truly troubling past.
SPEAKER_00: Others of you from our generation or from today's generation might think of Pete Davidson.
SPEAKER_00: He was a regular on SL.
SPEAKER_00: He's a really well-known comedian.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Pete Davidson, if you're not aware of this, he lost his dad because his dad was a firefighter on September 11th, rushing into the building to save others.
SPEAKER_00: Pete was seven years old when his dad died, tried to save other people.
SPEAKER_00: And not just that, but he also has uh borderline personality disorder that he's been very upfront about.
SPEAKER_00: But he uses this gallows humor, this dark humor to deal with a very painful past.
SPEAKER_00: Robin Williams, whom I just mentioned, for much of the 70s and 80s, he spent it addicted to cocaine.
SPEAKER_00: Though eventually he quit the drug, he had another battle after that with alcoholisms.
SPEAKER_00: Williams' uh struggle with depression is also well known and documented.
SPEAKER_00: After his suicide, an autopsy revealed that Williams had Lewy body dementia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a devastating and progressive neurological disease, really a terrible form of dementia.
SPEAKER_00: His final days were plagued by anxiety, paranoia, and memory loss from the disease.
SPEAKER_00: A second downside to laughter is laughter can be a weapon to hurt people.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this they will laugh at you in contempt and scorn.
SPEAKER_00: Not all laughter is healing, and not all laughter is good for us.
SPEAKER_00: Some of it can be hard, some of it can have an edge, some of it can be cruel.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people use humor at the expense of other people, and maybe you've been the recipient of that.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the most common type of humor used that way is sarcasm.
SPEAKER_00: Sarcasm literally means to rip the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what we're doing in sarcasm.
SPEAKER_00: We're attacking people.
SPEAKER_00: We have these verbal zingers to put people in their place.
SPEAKER_00: So healing humor allows people to laugh along with us, not to be laughed at.
SPEAKER_00: Positive humor helps us laugh at ourselves and see the absurdity in life situations.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then there's this rediscovering our joy as Christ followers.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, one of my favorite books is the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: It's short.
SPEAKER_00: You can read all four chapters in about 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: It's an easy book to read.
SPEAKER_00: In Bible, oh, in seminary, graduate school, we had to translate that book word for word from the original Greek.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: And I fell in love with it because it's the most joyful book in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's 16 times in those four short chapters, the Bible uses the word joy or rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's more amazing than that is the circumstances under which Paul wrote this book.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote it while he was in prison, under Roman guard, uncertain whether he'd live or die.
SPEAKER_00: So if there's anyone who had a reason not to be joyful, it was Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Besides his present circumstances, life had not been a pain-free experience for this man.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to him list what he went through in 2 Corinthians 11.
SPEAKER_00: Been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, been exposed to death again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Five times I've received from the Jews the 40 lashes, minus one.
SPEAKER_00: Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones.
SPEAKER_00: Three times I was shipwrecked.
SPEAKER_00: I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
SPEAKER_00: In danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers.
SPEAKER_00: Having gone without sleep, I've known hunger and thirst, and have often gone without food.
SPEAKER_00: I have been cold and naked.
SPEAKER_00: In short, he's had a pretty rough life.
SPEAKER_00: And yet in this prisoned letter, Paul refuses to wallow in self-pity.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he's full of joy and encourages us as the family of God to experience more joy.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you right up front, if you don't have much joy in your life right now, don't blame your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Your circumstances were never meant to bring you joy in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: If you build your life around circumstance, you're going to be happy as much as you're sad.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be joyful as much as you're going to be miserable.
SPEAKER_00: You need a source of joy that's not tied to circumstance, something that doesn't change, something you can count on regardless of whether times are good or bad.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really not something that's someone.
SPEAKER_00: You see, joy is primarily a worldview, a view that God is always at work in my life, and that he takes what is in my life and always works for my good and my growth.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like Romans 8.28, all things work together for the good of those who love God who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say everything that happens in your life is good.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's not good.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that happens in my life is not good.
SPEAKER_00: But God takes the good and the bad and he always works them to my good.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: That's the way God works.
SPEAKER_00: God is always working in my circumstances because he loves me and he's got a purpose for my life, and he's going to take everything, even the setbacks, even the discouragements, even the problems and the pain, and he's going to work them to my good.
SPEAKER_00: So I love the way Paul Thigpin said it.
SPEAKER_00: He said, to discover joy, we must abandon the search for it and go looking instead for the one who is himself joy to see, to know, and to love.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul is saying in Philippians, that he has a joy not dependent on circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: He said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 7.
SPEAKER_00: I'm greatly encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: In all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you love to be able to say that?
SPEAKER_00: In all my troubles and all my difficulties, my joy knows no limit whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: Or how about this in 1 Thessalonians 5?
SPEAKER_00: Be joyful always.
SPEAKER_00: Pray continually.
SPEAKER_00: Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're to always be joyful in all of our circumstances, in the good and the bad.
SPEAKER_00: He brings up an important point.
SPEAKER_00: You see, a lot of us, we try to get more joy in our life by eliminating the things that hurt us, or distracting ourselves from our problems by going shopping or going on vacation or indulging in addiction.
SPEAKER_00: When you pursue joy in that way, what you find is the cost of your happiness highs goes higher and higher, and your return on that investment goes lower and lower.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is not found in happiness highs.
SPEAKER_00: You don't find it in your circumstances, you find it in God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing to keep in mind: nothing ever takes God by surprise.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He knows your future as well as he knows your past in this present moment.
SPEAKER_00: So God, who knows the future, has already anticipated what you're experiencing in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: And he has a glorious plan to work through all these circumstances to work it out to your good and to your growth.
SPEAKER_00: So every time I get my eyes fixated on my problems and become obsessed with my own difficulties and suffering, I return to the source of my joy.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that's what the word rejoice means, right?
SPEAKER_00: To return to the source of your joy.
SPEAKER_00: If I find myself, you know, uh just feeling depressed and down and beat down and not feeling like anybody cares, I return to the source of my joy.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal: you don't get joy by going to look for joy.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get joy by trying to ignore the bad things that happened in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get joy because you elect into a great group of friends or got a raise or took a vacation.
SPEAKER_00: The source of joy is God.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more joy, you need more of Him.
SPEAKER_00: So every time I get fixated on my problems, become obsessed with this moment, I return to the source of my joy.
SPEAKER_00: Because listen to this from the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Your presence fills me with joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's presence that fills us with joy.
SPEAKER_00: How could it be any other way?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is God's basic nature.
SPEAKER_00: It's who he is.
SPEAKER_00: So where God is, you'll always find joy.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a lot of joy in your life right now, it's because you have a lot of God in your life right now.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a lot of joy, it's because you're missing out on being deeply and intimately connected to him.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe it is you haven't laughed much lately.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe life has been too heavy.
SPEAKER_00: The loss is too painful, the pressure too constant.
SPEAKER_00: God's not going to ask you to pretend that that doesn't hurt.
SPEAKER_00: But he's inviting you back into his presence where sorrow is not denied and sorrow's not given the final word.
SPEAKER_00: The God who carried you through those tears and everything else is restoring your joy.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the first sign that that healing has begun is we learn to laugh again.
SPEAKER_00: So, like I say, I'm leaving this afternoon, be hopping aboard a flight to Houston, and then tomorrow morning I fly on to Guatemala with the team that's coming from out in the northwest.
SPEAKER_00: And really looking forward to this two weeks away.
SPEAKER_00: God's provided me a lot of opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: Um World Vision has arranged for me to speak to pastors, denominational leaders, seminary leaders.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be going to radio stations a couple times.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be going to a couple television stations.
SPEAKER_00: They want to record my talk so they'll always have it.
SPEAKER_00: They can dub it in Spanish and keep using it with their leaders.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking forward this time away.
SPEAKER_00: But over the last couple weeks, it's been very difficult for me.
SPEAKER_00: There have been some challenging circumstances around here, especially related to the facility.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, it looks like on the 21st of next month we're going to begin replacing the roofs.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God.
SPEAKER_00: But just a lot of stuff going on here been frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: Then about a week ago, my back started killing me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting on a heating pad every night thinking, man, I'm going to be on planes, trains, who knows what else, and my back is not going to like me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went to the chiropractor a couple times.
SPEAKER_00: Another doctor wrote me a prescription for steroids to deal with the inflammation.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm feeling so much better now, and I'm not worried about the impact on my back.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then a week ago, I got a tooth that starts aching.
SPEAKER_00: And I think, man, I'm going to be in Central America and this tooth is going to crack and I'm going to have to go see some dentist somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: So I go in, see the dentist.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Well, I can pull it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Let's do that, you know.
SPEAKER_00: $200 versus, you know,$3,000 to replace.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, let's just pull it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a far back molar.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to decrease my eating power, I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: But but she went ahead and pulled it, came out easily.
SPEAKER_00: Next day, no pain whatsoever, feeling great.
SPEAKER_00: Got on an antibiotic, make sure I don't get an infection.
SPEAKER_00: All things great.
SPEAKER_00: But it's just been frustrating.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing after another going wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And I could focus on that, or I could focus on what happened yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: So yesterday, I get a call from a friend who had uh lunch with another dear friend I've known for 20 years with World Vision.
SPEAKER_00: Uh at one time he was a second in command at World Vision.
SPEAKER_00: And he just wanted to convey to me all the kind things that he'd said to me over lunch, said about me over lunch.
SPEAKER_00: And that just spoke to my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then that afternoon, I had two different leaders from Latin America, one from Puerto Rico and one from Guatemala, just blessing my life and speaking nice things to me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then on Saturday in the morning, uh I went to see my granddaughter play at the Bullet Center in Rowlett.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever heard of this place or not.
SPEAKER_00: It's a recreational center.
SPEAKER_00: They do basketball, they do volleyball, you know, the team stuff, the elite stuff, and uh pickleball courts, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: A really cool center.
SPEAKER_00: Um and Brent and I walk in, and I notice behind the counter is a spring creaker, and it's Melvin Bullet, who's the owner of the facility, who was named after, who was a former NFL player with the Indianapolis Colts, and I never knew any of this, okay, before I walked in.
SPEAKER_00: And I see him sitting there and trying to figure out the connection and start making all the connections.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Melvin first, he he says, here, here's your here's your wristbands.
SPEAKER_00: He he wasn't gonna take money for us to go see our granddaughter play.
SPEAKER_00: Nice, you know, but uh he says, you know, my wife listens to you, your messages, and falls asleep.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, in in church, she I said, isn't she gonna be upset with you telling me that she falls asleep?
SPEAKER_00: I evidently this is one of my powers.
SPEAKER_00: My my my voice is smoothing enough that half the congregation is in full slumber by the end of the service.
SPEAKER_00: But but but but he he was saying, you know, at home, she's listened to my messages and doing that, and and I had no idea.
SPEAKER_00: And what a blessing it was just to talk to him and find out that all this time that uh my granddaughter's been talking about talking to Coach Bullet that it was Melvin, part of our church.
SPEAKER_00: And and I just thought, you know, God, this is just so like you, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I just got encouragement after encouragement after encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of something my spiritual director told me.
SPEAKER_00: She said, whenever you're going through a time of desolation, look for God's consolation.
SPEAKER_00: And they always show up in threes.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how she knows these things, but evidently that's the case.
SPEAKER_00: But I think what she means by that more than anything is when you're going through a difficult time, don't stop looking for God to show up.
SPEAKER_00: Because he keeps showing up.
SPEAKER_00: We just stop looking for it.
SPEAKER_00: So once you see it once, don't stop it the first time, start looking for the next time, and the time after that, and the time after that.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's going to keep showing up because God hasn't forgotten you.
SPEAKER_00: He's aware and he cares very deeply, and he wants that joy to be centered in your life, and for you to know that you can get to a place of healing and wholeness where you can laugh again.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I just want to thank you for this time we've had together.
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you, God, that your word is so incredibly real and relevant even today, that there's so much truth packed into this tiny message about how laughter can be so healing in our life, can shift our perspective, and how we can use laughter even to wound and to hurt.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, I pray that we would find ourselves, no matter what the difficulty, the challenge, the moment may have, that we would constantly return to you because God, you are the source of our joy.
SPEAKER_00: Your presence fills us with joy.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, may today, for everyone who's going out of here, maybe with a little bit lighter heart, that today before the day is even over, that you would show up again and again and again and remind them that they're not forgotten, that they're loved incredibly, and that God, you're working everything for their good and their growth.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.