SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, if you're gonna clap, do it well.
SPEAKER_00: So glad you're in church today in uh week two of Happy But Hollow.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a great time together, been a great weekend.
SPEAKER_00: And uh today's Patriot Day.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know that, but a time where we honor first responders, police, firefighters, EMT, EMS, nurses, all those who serve us so well.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you would stand, if you don't mind, we want to honor you across the room.
SPEAKER_00: If you would stand for us, if you serve in that way.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for you.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: What a gift you are to uh our communities, and we're just very, very grateful for how you selflessly serve others.
SPEAKER_00: It is the very heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Um I want to remind you that uh we're on this happy but hollow Bible reading plan.
SPEAKER_00: It's really through the book of Philippians, and we had so much engagement last week.
SPEAKER_00: The team told me that it was by far um a record number of people that engaged with the Bible reading plan.
SPEAKER_00: I think over 4,700 people um have said, I'm gonna start reading through the book of Philippians together.
SPEAKER_00: 1,700 were brand new, never engaged with anything like that through the church.
SPEAKER_00: And you can still jump in.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's not too late to get a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: So text happy, you can get your phone out right now and then put it away.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be looking at TikTok during the message.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_00: Um text happy to 71010.
SPEAKER_00: You'll get a link right to your phone, and that's the way I used it this week and uh enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00: And we give you even a simple way on how to learn to do devotions.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not in the habit of doing that, I want you to get in the habit.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if this is the only time you spiritually have a meal every week, um, you're gonna be weak in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Um, just like you would be weak in your body if you only ate once a week.
SPEAKER_00: You need to take in the Word of God every day.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so there's a simple way to do that, and we give it to you in the devotional.
SPEAKER_00: And it's simply the word SOAP.
SPEAKER_00: It's an acronym and it just stands for this.
SPEAKER_00: The S is for scripture, so we'll give you a scripture reading.
SPEAKER_00: The O is for observation.
SPEAKER_00: It's what did God say to me in the reading?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the A is for application.
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to apply to my life?
SPEAKER_00: Because growth happens in steps, and steps happen as you apply the Word of God into your life.
SPEAKER_00: And then the P is for prayer, just close in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the deal: there's no better way to start your day than in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so just start somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to start with an hour in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you get there, maybe you don't, but just start.
SPEAKER_00: Say I can get up 15 minutes earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I can set the coffee timer 15 minutes earlier, and I can go through this simple scripture reading, five or so verses.
SPEAKER_00: What did God say to me?
SPEAKER_00: How am I gonna apply it?
SPEAKER_00: And then end in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And I promise you, it'll start your day better.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, you'll know Jesus more, you'll fall more in love with him as you fall in love with his word.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So everybody do that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's all do that together.
SPEAKER_00: There should be a lot of us doing that, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Do you agree?
SPEAKER_00: You ready for the word of God today?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: We ready to get into the word?
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to preach it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to bring a message entitled How to Rediscover Your Joy.
SPEAKER_00: How to Rediscover Your Joy.
SPEAKER_00: Week two, happy but hollow.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, our hearts and minds are open.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: We believe your word has the power to change us and uh shape us, and we wanted to do that today.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so speak to us, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said a big amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, by show of hands uh in the room online, everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are notorious at losing things?
SPEAKER_00: You're notorious, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are afraid to admit it.
SPEAKER_00: You were like, um, how many of you uh you're more in the camp of everything has a place, it should go in its place when you return it.
SPEAKER_00: All the boring people, raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding, I'm joking.
SPEAKER_00: I'm joking.
SPEAKER_00: I'm more in that camp, like everything has a place, you should put it back in its place, um, you know, then you'll be able to find it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh but there is one area where that is not true about me, and it's um it's as it relates to AirPods, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: For the life of me, I cannot keep a pair of AirPods.
SPEAKER_00: And I always lose them somewhere on a flight.
SPEAKER_00: I don't lose them around the house, I don't lose them in my car.
SPEAKER_00: It's sometime in flying, from from leaving the destination to getting to where somewhere I lose my AirPods, and it I think Delta has something to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: All right, but I seem to misplace them all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And and here's the deal with something that that you've lost or you've misplaced is this is that it's lost because you don't know where you put it and you don't know how you lost it, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you knew where you put it and how you lost it, you'd go back and get it.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me?
SPEAKER_00: You would just go back and find it.
SPEAKER_00: But the nature of something being lost is you don't know where it is and you don't know how to get it back.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about this as it relates to joy.
SPEAKER_00: That a lot of times in our life we can lose our joy and we don't know how we lost it, and we don't know where we lost it, and therefore we can't get it back.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that it's necessarily like joy just like goes out of us one day, but like all of a sudden we just lose our joy.
SPEAKER_00: I think often it's a slow fade over time.
SPEAKER_00: That over time we wake up one day and our faith is no longer vibrant and it no longer has the joy that it once had, and there's no longer the passion and the energy towards the things of God that we once had, and there's many, many things in our life that can begin to rob us of joy.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking through a few of them, and you don't have to say amen, and you don't have to point to anybody, but there's some people in your life that you could wake up and everything is great, and then you run into them.
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't point, don't elbow anybody, but there could be some joy robbers in our life, right?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know circumstances can rob your joy?
SPEAKER_00: That it's the phone call you got, it's the situation at school, it's the thing happening in your dorm room, it's the thing at work, whatever it may be, there's circumstances in life that all of a sudden you can feel like, man, this is sucking the joy out of my life and the passion and the vitality out of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And it can just happen a little bit at a time over time.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that shame can rob you of joy?
SPEAKER_00: That the narrative of the enemy in your mind, that you're not good enough, that you'll never measure up that how could God ever do something with your life with all the things that are in your past?
SPEAKER_00: I heard someone say once that every time the enemy reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say this to you right now?
SPEAKER_00: That you're right, standing with God isn't because of anything good that you've done.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that it's not of works that we should get the credit, but it is the gift of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're right, standing before God is by grace.
SPEAKER_00: Your continued right standing before God is by grace.
SPEAKER_00: You are a child of God if you've placed your faith in him, filled with the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: So the next time shame comes to rob your joy, just remind yourself, no, he chose me, he died for me, he loved me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in right standing with God, not because I'm good, but because Jesus is good.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe that, put your hands together today.
SPEAKER_00: But shame is a thief.
SPEAKER_00: Shame can cause you to lose your joy.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think in Philippians chapter 2, the next chapter that we're studying in this book, is Paul gives us some ways to rediscover our joy.
SPEAKER_00: That if there's some areas in your life where joy is low or your joy meter's low, how do you get it back?
SPEAKER_00: How do you rediscover it?
SPEAKER_00: How do you go reclaim the joy that is yours, that's your inheritance as a child of God?
SPEAKER_00: How do you get it back?
SPEAKER_00: I think he gives us some clues in Philippians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you four thoughts today.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to write them down if you're in the note-taking type.
SPEAKER_00: If not, go ahead and write it down anyways.
SPEAKER_00: Become a note taker.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is writing this as a little recap.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing this to the church he planted in Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: It's in northern Greece.
SPEAKER_00: It was planted about 10 years prior to the writing of this.
SPEAKER_00: So he's writing it somewhere between 57 A.D.
SPEAKER_00: and 62.
SPEAKER_00: Most people say around 60.
SPEAKER_00: But he planted the church 10 years prior.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He's under house arrest in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: He's waiting to go before Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't know if he'll be befriended or beheaded.
SPEAKER_00: He's not sure what his outcome will be.
SPEAKER_00: And in the middle of that, with elite Roman guards around him, under house arrest for preaching the gospel, he writes the epistle that is known or the letter that is known as the letter of joy.
SPEAKER_00: That should speak to us right there.
SPEAKER_00: That should tell us something right there, that no matter the circumstance, God can give you a divine joy, no matter what you're facing.
SPEAKER_00: Joy isn't based on your circumstance or your situation or whether or not everything is moving in the direction you thought it should move in.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on you being in Christ, intimate with the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He gives you joy no matter what is going on.
SPEAKER_00: If you're with me, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've lost it, I'm gonna give you four thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is this I think when you lose your joy first, you've got to check your posture.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 2, verse 3 says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, do nothing out of selfish ambition.
SPEAKER_00: This is our family verse, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And it has been since Owen was born.
SPEAKER_00: And we haven't moved on to new verses because we haven't lived this one out yet.
SPEAKER_00: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
SPEAKER_00: Rather in humility.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody shout humility.
SPEAKER_00: Value others above yourself, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of others.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed how much posture can communicate when you're in a conversation with someone?
SPEAKER_00: You ever seen that?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me ask this.
SPEAKER_00: All the parents of teenagers, you ever noticed how posture?
SPEAKER_00: The arms crossed?
SPEAKER_00: I call it the rock back.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you're in a conversation, you tell they've really not this isn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: They really disengage when they put the foot back and it's like.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: You ever been talking to someone and you can just tell they're they're standing there, but they're not there?
SPEAKER_00: You ever been in the conversation where they're looking at you but they're really looking over your shoulder to see if someone better is coming along?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, can I get a better okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is the saints on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, no, we're holy.
SPEAKER_00: We were our right, you've seen that?
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: That's posture.
SPEAKER_00: And the posture of it is communicating.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is talking about posture here.
SPEAKER_00: Although he's not talking about an outward posture, he's talking about a heart posture.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but rather in humility, value others above yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Another translation says this that we're to honor others above ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you a gateway to joy is humility?
SPEAKER_00: That whenever your joy is low in your life, it's a good chance to take your posture and go, has my life become about me?
SPEAKER_00: Do I wake up in the morning and the thoughts through my head are about what I get out of the day and what I've got to do today?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about your plan and your schedule.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about when life begins to revolve around you, joy will evaporate from your life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, do nothing out of selfish ambition.
SPEAKER_00: I do want to point out this real quick, though, is that Paul does not rebuke ambition.
SPEAKER_00: This may be a little soapbox for me, but in the body of Christ, I've heard this too much.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you shouldn't have any ambition.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, I'm glad Peter didn't think that way because he took the gospel, he had an ambition to get the gospel out of sight of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful Paul didn't think that way because the apostle Paul went on these missionary journeys because he had this godly ambition to get the gospel out, and because he took it to Philippi, because he received this Macedonian call in Acts and he went to Philippi, he planted the gospel in Europe, and because the gospel took root in Europe, then years and hundreds and thousands of years later, pilgrims and Puritans came to the Americas, and because they came to the Americas, the gospel made its way to East Tennessee, where this little boy lived.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever I heard it for the first time, I responded to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm thankful for the godly ambition of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: If you've accepted Jesus, you should be thankful for it too.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with having ambition.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, when it's about you is when it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: When the ambition is selfish, when it's all around what you get out of it, it's building you, building your name.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He says, don't have that kind of stuff in your life.
SPEAKER_00: He says, let there be a humility in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this would have been radical teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Radical teaching for this time.
SPEAKER_00: Because the pre-Christian Greco-Roman culture, which is just basically the Greeks and the Romans had begun to blend together this culture, thought very little of those they called humble.
SPEAKER_00: And so for Paul to say you need to take on humility, it would have been like, you've lost your mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is radical.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody lives this way.
SPEAKER_00: The humble were, they they use the word humiliors.
SPEAKER_00: If you hear the word humiliation in there, you're on the right track.
SPEAKER_00: That they were the lowly of the day.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that were looked down on today.
SPEAKER_00: No one of any status thought good about those who were humble.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, the word humility in its root is comes from the word humus, which means dirt.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, a humble person is a grounded person.
SPEAKER_00: They have an accurate view of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They're not too highly of themselves, but they don't think too lowly of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Humility isn't, I'm just the worst person, I'm not any good, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, it's not playing down.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: But but it's not arrogancy.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread.
SPEAKER_00: Humility is having a grounded view of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I I love the quote that's accredited to C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
SPEAKER_00: No one really knows if he said it, but he gets the credit.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna say it a few times and then say as I always say.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_00: It's accredited to C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
SPEAKER_00: It says, humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's just thinking of yourself less.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, in the bandwidth of your mind, how much of your day is focused on you?
SPEAKER_00: Humility says, I'm gonna live life valuing others above myself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look out for your need above my need.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna honor you above me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what humility does.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd give you a little list, mark some markers I thought of humility, because humility is difficult to talk about because it's if you say you're humble, then where do you think you've grown this year?
SPEAKER_00: I've become a lot more humble.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know if you have.
SPEAKER_00: But here's how you pick someone out that is humble.
SPEAKER_00: They're quick to laugh at themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Prideful people can't laugh at themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Humble people, you'll know them because they're quick to admit when they've made a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a great one.
SPEAKER_00: They delight in the success of others.
SPEAKER_00: Even if they're losing.
SPEAKER_00: They're able to celebrate others.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm so glad they're winning.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm so glad they're blessed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that other church is growing.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: They don't posture or pretend to have knowledge or abilities they lack.
SPEAKER_00: They're not frightening, they're not faking.
SPEAKER_00: Humble people are a bit able to be vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: I like this thought.
SPEAKER_00: When you go low in humility, joy goes high in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: When self steps down, joy steps in.
SPEAKER_00: If your joy meter is low, you may want to check your posture number two.
SPEAKER_00: If you've lost your joy, Paul tells us this that we should serve willingly.
SPEAKER_00: Serve willingly.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says in this next section of chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: He goes into this whole example of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about Jesus saying this, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: I love, I love in this text that Paul doesn't say that Jesus is our model and our example because he came and did some servant things.
SPEAKER_00: Although he did.
SPEAKER_00: So he didn't shed his nature when he came to earth.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, are y'all with me?
SPEAKER_00: That's an important theological statement because if he was not God, then he could not take our sins on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So the very nature of the God man is that he came and he took on, he had the very nature of God, but he didn't shed that.
SPEAKER_00: In addition, he took on the nature of a servant.
SPEAKER_00: So he didn't just do servant things, he became the prototype in his ethos of what a servant looks like.
SPEAKER_00: He became the model and then he lived it out.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't command you to serve, he modeled how to serve.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you right now that if joy is getting low in your life, then look for the last time that you serve someone else willingly.
SPEAKER_00: Because serving is the pathway to joy in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's when you go, I'm gonna put others first.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna bless instead of waiting to be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna serve someone else.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look out for your needs, I'm gonna see a need and I'm not gonna walk by it blindly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not gonna put the blinders on and go, I'll pray, I pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: When someone needs a cup of cold water, yes, pray for them, but give them some water for God's sake.
SPEAKER_00: And when someone needs to be rescued from human trafficking, a prayer is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: But let's get in with an organization that'll go in there and bust down the door and get the girl out of the situation.
SPEAKER_00: A prayer is good, but we need to put it into action.
SPEAKER_00: We need to serve this heart of a servant, the nature.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just that we do some servant things and we check the religious box.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is when you go, I'm gonna make that a part of my DNA.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm in this process of sanctification where God is making me more and more into the image of his son, and he's whittling away the things that don't look like him.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that doesn't look like him is when we live for self.
SPEAKER_00: And it'll rob your joy.
SPEAKER_00: It'll take it from you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here today and you're going, man, I hear you, but I'm walking through some stuff right now.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be served.
SPEAKER_00: And I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to propose a different paradigm to you, a different way of thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, what you make happen for others, God will make happen for you.
SPEAKER_00: The biblical principle is whatever fruit you want to harvest, that is the seed you have to put in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: So can I challenge you to think this way?
SPEAKER_00: If you think, man, I'm I'm in need of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Could you go find someone that has a greater need and pray for them?
SPEAKER_00: And what you sow will come back into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I need some encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Can you go find someone that needs encouragement and speak life into them and what you sow will come back into your life?
SPEAKER_00: I know it's upside down and not the way we think, but that is the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is upside down and backwards from everything of the kingdom of this world.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're here today and you're like, ah, you don't know my status.
SPEAKER_00: I can't get down and serve people.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say this: the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this thought that if you're too big to serve, you're too small to lead in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's called us to serve.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you some markers of a servant.
SPEAKER_00: A servant is willing to sacrifice because it's the currency of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Servants look with eyes of compassion, they notice pain and they move towards it, they don't run away from it.
SPEAKER_00: Servants are faithful.
SPEAKER_00: They show up when people are watching, they show up when nobody's watching.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just interrupt here and say, thank God for the volunteers all across the life of our church who show up when people are watching and they show up when no one else is watching?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you can do better than that.
SPEAKER_00: They're loving your children right now.
SPEAKER_00: They opened a door for you, they served a coffee to you.
SPEAKER_00: You can thank God for all that they've done.
SPEAKER_00: And can I just say they showed up over the last year, too?
SPEAKER_00: And they kept showing up and they kept showing up, and God will honor your service.
SPEAKER_00: Servants are teachable.
SPEAKER_00: They don't think they've come to some point where they know it all.
SPEAKER_00: They're always ready to grow, always ready to get better, always wanting to be made and molded more into the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I think some of the happiest people in a local church are people that are serving.
SPEAKER_00: Because they understand that the gateway to joy, the pathway to joy, is serving.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to encourage you to go to Growth Path.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I need to do that?
SPEAKER_00: You need to get a part of the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been sitting in the stands forever.
SPEAKER_00: It's time to get a jersey on.
SPEAKER_00: It's time to quit sitting in the cheap seats.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Telling the coach on the field, isn't that what we do?
SPEAKER_00: I wish he'd put that running back in.
SPEAKER_00: You're not even on the team.
SPEAKER_00: Get a jersey on, then have an opinion.
SPEAKER_00: Sign up, go to growth path.
SPEAKER_00: Get into the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's joy in serving.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the model of the master of King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He came to serve.
SPEAKER_00: To put others first.
SPEAKER_00: To end humility.
SPEAKER_00: It became a part of his ethos.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do servant things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get this wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I went to Growth Path and I got on a team.
SPEAKER_00: I checked the box.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to become a part of your ethos.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to see a napkin on the floor at Starbucks and you're going to pick it up and put it in the trash can because you've got a servant ethos.
SPEAKER_00: It's the nature of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to see someone that is struggling at the register and the cards being declined.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to go over and swipe your card.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because a servant ethos, it's the name.
SPEAKER_00: He took on the nature of a servant.
SPEAKER_00: It's beyond the walls of church, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: It's living this faith out in the real world.
SPEAKER_00: So serve willingly.
SPEAKER_00: It'll bring your joy back.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, obey fully.
SPEAKER_00: Obey fully.
SPEAKER_00: Not partially.
SPEAKER_00: Not a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: My dad used to say this to me.
SPEAKER_00: He would say, partial obedience is disobedience, Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: He'd also tell me this, you never have to pray about obeying.
SPEAKER_00: You never have to pray about obeying.
SPEAKER_00: If God said it, you just you don't have to, Lord, should I get water baptized?
SPEAKER_00: He's already.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot he's already answered that you may be praying for, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Like he's already told you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to pray about, it's not like, like, how would that go over?
SPEAKER_00: Hey kids, it's time to get the trash down to the end of the road.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray about that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray about letting you live here.
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to pray about obeying God.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 and 13 says, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, now, always is a statement they always tell you in marriage conferences, don't use always and don't use never in communication, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a bad road to communication.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul uses a very strong language here with these Philippian believers.
SPEAKER_00: He says, as you have always obeyed, there was a fully all-in, I'm obeying God mark on the life of these believers, not only in my presence, so not only when Paul was around, but now you've done it much more in my absence.
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't even obedience that was because someone was watching over you and there were eyes on you, but in my absence you took your obedience even to another level, and you can tend so continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_00: For it is God who works in you to will and to act.
SPEAKER_00: The will and the act, in order to fulfill his good purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, He's commending them that they obey.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you in this that your joy probably got less left at the last point where you chose not to obey God.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever that last moment was where God spoke and you you did a half-hearted obedience, you did a ugh, I don't know if I can do that, God.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably where your joy is.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably in Delta C 16B.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says they obeyed fully.
SPEAKER_00: Not I'll obey God if you'll do this, God, I'll obey when you do this, God, I'll obey when you show me the whole picture.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: God just says, when I speak, you obey.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the journey of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is not, it's not rocket science, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: It's the old hymn, trust and obey.
SPEAKER_00: For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
SPEAKER_00: So it's God speaks, I trust what God says, and I take a step of obedience towards God.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: When I do that over and over and over and over, I find more and more intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: I grow in him, I'm becoming more like him, I walk in his blessing better when I hear his word and I just obey it, and I'm obeying it because I trust him.
SPEAKER_00: So it's step by step.
SPEAKER_00: I trust him, I'm obeying him.
SPEAKER_00: I trust him, I obey him.
SPEAKER_00: If he says it, I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna love my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a hard one, but I trust you, God, and I'm gonna obey.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna forgive the person that hurt me, but if you say it, God, I'm gonna trust and obey, because this is how you find joy in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: I am all for knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: But the goal of the Christian life isn't for you to know as much as you can know.
SPEAKER_00: Heart transformation is the goal.
SPEAKER_00: That you would be shaped and formed into the image of Christ, that you would be made more and more like him.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said it is God working in you to will, in other words, to give you the motivation.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't he good?
SPEAKER_00: He gives you the motivation.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Spirit of God working to will and to act.
SPEAKER_00: So there's acting to this.
SPEAKER_00: There's a step I've got to take.
SPEAKER_00: There's movement.
SPEAKER_00: There should be Christian movement in my Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: If you shouldn't be next year where you are right now.
SPEAKER_00: If you still have the same attitudes and the same perspective and the same outlook, and you're wrestling with the same things, then we need to talk about that because there should be movement in this thing.
SPEAKER_00: There should be this process of sanctification, of growing more in Christ, but it takes full obedience, full surrender to God.
SPEAKER_00: God just doesn't want you to have more knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, the Bible says that knowledge can be puffed up and lead to pride.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't always happen, but it can.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the business of heart transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, when Jesus talked about knowing or about knowledge, there were two Greek words that he would use.
SPEAKER_00: One is uh the Greek word gonosco, and it's the most frequent that he uses when he talks about it, and that is a knowing by experience.
SPEAKER_00: Something that's been changed on the inside of me.
SPEAKER_00: I've experienced something with God, and I have a knowing because I have walked through it with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's another one that's called oida, and it has to do with an intellectual knowledge, and it is the least common use that Jesus talks about when teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he wants for you is not just to have some intellectual knowledge, he wants it to get from here to here, where it transforms your heart, and you experience the power of his word, and then you live a different life.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can know the right thing to do, but not do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to experience it because what it good, what good is all the knowledge in the world about the Bible if you don't love people well?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says you're a clinging symbol.
SPEAKER_00: Let me go a little deeper.
SPEAKER_00: What good is it if you've been through every equip class but you switch campuses so you could avoid someone you have an offense against that the old campus you used to attend?
SPEAKER_00: Is this too much?
SPEAKER_00: Should I save this?
SPEAKER_00: Should I wait until I've been here a year?
SPEAKER_00: What what what good is it if I have all the knowledge in the world, but I can't love someone that is unlovely and doesn't look like me, think like me, talk like me, believe like me, vote like me, or act like me?
SPEAKER_00: I've been called they said they'll know me how I love one another.
SPEAKER_00: What good is all the knowledge if I'm not living this town?
SPEAKER_00: What good is all the knowledge if I don't pray for someone that's hurting?
SPEAKER_00: If I don't share the gospel with someone that's lost, if I don't, I don't, I actually believe this book, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: I actually believe I'm supposed to live it out tomorrow on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and every day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: What good is it if I know all the things but I don't live it?
SPEAKER_00: Knowledge isn't the goal, and I'm not against it.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I I've been through a lot of school.
SPEAKER_00: I went to cemetery forever.
SPEAKER_00: Seminary for those of you that aren't around church.
SPEAKER_00: I've been in school half my life, I think.
SPEAKER_00: I calculated.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not against knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God for our partnership like with TKU, and we're raising up the next generation of leaders.
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: But knowledge that doesn't make it its way to transform your heart.
SPEAKER_00: What good is it?
SPEAKER_00: And when knowledge just becomes here and it doesn't become here, your joy will evaporate.
SPEAKER_00: Because the joy is found whenever I apply what I'm learning.
SPEAKER_00: When I live out what God is saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the joy is found.
SPEAKER_00: Final thought.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: Choose your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's a choice you get to make.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this in verse 14 of Philippians 2 through 16.
SPEAKER_00: He says this.
SPEAKER_00: Do everything.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody shout everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, wow, Paul, you're setting a high standard.
SPEAKER_00: Without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure.
SPEAKER_00: Children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the why.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I do this, Paul?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I do everything without grumbling and arguing?
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, in the world around you, you're gonna stick out because you don't grumble and argue.
SPEAKER_00: As you hold firmly to the word of life, and then I will be able to boast.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul goes, I'm gonna get a benefit out of this, and here's what it is I'm gonna know I didn't run my race in vain.
SPEAKER_00: But what I invested in you made a difference.
SPEAKER_00: You want to rediscover your joy?
SPEAKER_00: Man, get rid of the grumbling and complaining in your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Paul reiterates this thought.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you this quickly in Ephesians 4, verse 22 through 24.
SPEAKER_00: He says this.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about how they learn to walk in Christ, and he says, But that's not the way you learn Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You'll have to go back and read the context.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life with corruptful and deceitful desires, and to be renewed, here it is, in the spirit of your minds.
SPEAKER_00: And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, to be renewed and put on the spirit of your minds, in the spirit of your minds.
SPEAKER_00: As I studied that phrase, the construction of it leads most people to believe he's not talking about divine spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not talking about the Holy Spirit, he's talking about your human spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And that human spirit includes all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: It's your emotions, your passions, your convictions, your creativity.
SPEAKER_00: But the way that I think about it the most is this is with this question.
SPEAKER_00: What do people get when they get you?
SPEAKER_00: When you walk into a room, something comes with you.
SPEAKER_00: And it is it is informed by your past experience, it's informed by what you're going through now, it's informed by words and labels and maybe even lies that have been put on your life.
SPEAKER_00: But what do people get whenever they get you?
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give it in reverse.
SPEAKER_00: When you've met someone, you've said this before, probably.
SPEAKER_00: Man, they just kind of have a negative spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They just have a divisive spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Or you've said this, man, they just lighten a room.
SPEAKER_00: You ever met anybody that just makes everything lighter?
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about their disposition.
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about the vibe they get about.
SPEAKER_00: Are you all with me?
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about their spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I would encourage you: you get to choose it.
SPEAKER_00: And depending on your past, it may be harder work, but you still get to choose it.
SPEAKER_00: You get to choose the spirit you have.
SPEAKER_00: And if you choose a spirit of grumbling and complaining, and man, that's so easy to have, because all the inputs that we have around us today, everything we're doom scrolling on, and everything that we're seeing on the media, and every high headline that comes is just negative, and it's grumbling and it's arguing, and it's so easy if you let that into your eye gate and ear gate for that to seep into your heart and eventually it begins to come out of your mouth to everyone around you.
SPEAKER_00: And most people aren't brave enough to go up to you and be like, hey, you just have a grumbling spirit on you.
SPEAKER_00: And in the name of Jesus, are y'all following me?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you need to get.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us don't.
SPEAKER_00: I pray you have a friend that deep.
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of people don't.
SPEAKER_00: And you end up like the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 1, the Bible says that they were grumbling in their tents.
SPEAKER_00: And they said this the Lord hates us.
SPEAKER_00: And so He's brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice this.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't grumbling in public, they were grumbling in their small group.
SPEAKER_00: It was in their tent.
SPEAKER_00: The word grumble means to complain clearly but quietly.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's not enough courage to say it boldly.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just going to say it in a little side conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Just a little I can't believe they can't believe they say hi to me.
SPEAKER_00: This church isn't friendly.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big church.
SPEAKER_00: And the grumbling in their tents cost millions of people the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was in their spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just encourage you today?
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like joy is gone in your life, choose your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't know what I'm going through.
SPEAKER_00: Just because chaos is around you doesn't mean chaos has to be in you.
SPEAKER_00: You have the spirit of Almighty God if you've placed your faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you can choose.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have a spirit of life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have a spirit of joy in me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have a spirit of hope in me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to walk in and I'm going to speak the words of life over situations.
SPEAKER_00: There's power of life and death is in my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to be determined.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to speak words of grumbling and of arguing and of complaining.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying we gloss over life and act like everything's hunky-dory.
SPEAKER_00: When it's not, I'm not saying that there are places and times to get real, but the constant words that are coming out of your mouth and the spirit that you live with, you've got to determine and you get to choose.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have a spirit of faith that if God is for me, then who can be against me?
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not good yet, then God's not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to have a spirit that declares the goodness of God and victory.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to give the enemy more time in my life to declare all the negative things he's throwing at me.
SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that is in me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, give me eyes to see that those who are with us are greater than those who are against us.
SPEAKER_00: You get to choose the spirit that you live with.
SPEAKER_00: It's your choice.
SPEAKER_00: You can walk through life, everything's awful.
SPEAKER_00: Why God?
SPEAKER_00: Or you can choose to see it a different way and choose the spirit that goes, Oh, God must be up to something good.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm fighting hell this much, there must be a good victory on the other side of this battle.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't brought me here to leave me here.
SPEAKER_00: He's never forsaken his children, and he's not about to start right now.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not him, if it's not good yet, then God's not, he's not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: So if your joy meter has got low, then just make the determination.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna choose the spirit that I live with, and I'm gonna choose the spirit of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You receive the word of God today.
SPEAKER_00: Is that helpful?
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me all across the room?
SPEAKER_00: If you can, right there where you are online.
SPEAKER_00: All of our gatherings.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here today.
SPEAKER_00: And you've never experienced true joy.
SPEAKER_00: You've experienced moments of happiness.
SPEAKER_00: But you haven't experienced true joy because you've never encountered the source of joy.
SPEAKER_00: And it's who we've been talking about all day.
SPEAKER_00: Its name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't just a good man or a great prophet or a good teacher.
SPEAKER_00: He was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Who gave his life on a cross and he rose three days later, giving proof to the reality that he is who he claimed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And he could do what he claimed to do, and that's forgive the sins of all of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here today and you've never received the gift of salvation, the ri the gift of forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in this place today, and culturally you're like, of course I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I live in the South.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: Me being in church doesn't make me a car.
SPEAKER_00: You being in a church doesn't make you a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you know when you lay your head down at night that God feels a million miles away from you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because you've never truly surrendered your life to him.
SPEAKER_00: You've never made him what the Bible calls the Lord of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning he's in control, he's calling the shots.
SPEAKER_00: But you can.
SPEAKER_00: Today's the day.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta fix some things in my life.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get things right to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You come to Jesus and He'll take you on a journey of getting some things right.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to invite you to do that today.
SPEAKER_00: A moment we're gonna pray a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing special about the prayer, it's just me helping you communicate your heart to God that you want a new beginning today.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know that your sins have been forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Before we do, I just want to know who I'm praying with.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't come to you or point you out or embarrass you, but if you're here and you say, Pastor, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to make that step.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Then when I count to three, I just want you to shoot your hand up high enough and long enough for me to see.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna pray together.
SPEAKER_00: So if God is speaking to you right now, then you shoot up your hand on three.
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
SPEAKER_00: You just shoot it up high all over the room.
SPEAKER_00: All over the room.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Keep it up, keep it up.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Incredible.
SPEAKER_00: All of heaven is rejoicing over you right now.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know that.
SPEAKER_00: You can put your hands down.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let's pray this out loud together for the benefit of those who just slip their hand up, say, Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you died for me.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God raised you from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Today I make you my Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for a brand new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody said amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's put our hands together and celebrate those who made that decision.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have a great week.