Faith Works : From Philippians 3: Finding Strength In Joy

We draw a clear line between joy and happiness and show why Paul’s call to “rejoice in the Lord” still makes sense under pressure and loss. Joy becomes strength, fuels evangelism, and shows up as steady generosity that points people to Jesus.

• defining joy versus happiness from Philippians 3 
• joy as inner strength grounded in Christ 
• rejoicing through grief with hope and honesty 
• guarding joy against legalism and “Jesus plus” religion 
• Psalm 1’s tree versus chaff as a picture of stability 
• practical habits to protect joy and refocus on Jesus 
• how true joy drives evangelism and service 
• generosity in action through shoeboxes and local food boxes

A lot of what we’re talking about can be found in our newsletter, Echoes of Sunday. If you’re not signed up, go to our website, scroll to the bottom, put your info in, and I’ll send it out to you.

Transcript

Framing Joy Versus Happiness

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, good day to you and welcome to the Faith Works Podcast. My name is Jonathan Locklear. And I am Tyler Edge. We are thrilled to be here with you and to discuss biblical principles that we believe work. We believe in a faith that works. Anyways, this week we're discussing, well, Philippians three is what we've been working on, series in the book of Philippians on Sunday mornings. And this week we found ourselves in chapter three, I guess kind of just immersed in the concept of joy.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Right. Yeah. So for me, one of the main things when I was listening to it that stuck out to me and that I want to focus on today is just simply joy versus happiness. That was what I wrote down when I was taking notes, right, when you were preaching. And so to me, I think it's important. Can you explain what is the difference between joy and between happiness? Because I think nowadays in the world we live in, people get that mixed up quite a bit. Or maybe they don't even realize that there's a difference between the two. So what are they?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, first of all, you're paying attention Sunday. That blows my mind. Okay, that's great. Thrilled about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Esther actually took the notes. I wasn't paying attention.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

AI takes the notes for you. Yeah, joy is what's lacking in so many people. Right. You see this in a loud discontentment. It is an angst. It is a nervousness. It is evident that there is something that should be had by people that they do not have. It's a confidence that only comes from the Lord. It only comes from the Lord. It is an inner quietness, a gladness. It is to delight in something that is not here in the room. Because everything here in the room can change, can go away. However, our joy is solid. Joy is, well, it is untouchable. Right? Happiness has to do with our happenings. While the good things are happening, we're glad, right? I love it. I love when the sun shines. You know, I love the flavor of good steak. I love the company of good friends. All those things can go away. Okay. Joy is saying that if those things do go away, I'll not collapse. I'll still have a measure of strength. In fact, the Bible says that in Nehemiah chapter eight, that the joy of the Lord is our strength. And that's what I was trying to get across on Sunday morning. And every time I'm done with a sermon, I always just think like, man, I want to make everybody sit back down. Like, let's redo that. Like that was clear enough. But if you have Jesus, you can have joy. And if you do have the joy of Jesus, then you have strength. Right. If you do not, then you'll be weak. Right.

unknown 2:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So so what one of the main things that I was wondering as well for everybody is so in those moments of sadness, right, where we're just in the deep depths of despair, right? When things seem so bad and maybe life's going bad, it's not going the way that we would want it to go. How is it that for the Christian we're

Joy As Strength In Scripture

SPEAKER_00 2:45

able to have joy even in times of sadness? How are we able to do that?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Well, that's that's what joy is for. Joy is for when things are bad. For example, Paul writes, he exhorts them to rejoice in the Lord. It's Philippians 3, verse 1. And you've context is king. What is the context? Well, one, Paul's in prison. He's literally falsely accused in prison, and he's like, Don't forget to rejoice and have joy and protect your joy. And he's writing to a people that are politically persecuted. They are outliers, they are excluded from society, they are literally the Jews hate them because they're Christians, and the Romans hate them because they're Christians, and a Christian loyalty is to God and not to Caesar. And this is a problem for everybody. And he says, regardless of life circumstances, we rejoice in a God who does not change, in an everlasting God who has our back. If he never changes and he's good, we can be joyful.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

We can be joyful.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

There was something that I thought about as well, and it's, and we talked about it actually a few weeks ago just in person, but that that what I'm feeling versus what I'm knowing, right? And to me, that seems very much prevalent to a happiness versus a joy, right? That's right. I always joked, I got the privilege of preaching my grandfather's funeral like two years ago, right? And I always joke with people when it comes to funerals. Like I can be joyful. I was joyful at my grandfather's funeral, right? If I'm joyful at a funeral, it's because I'm Christian and I have hope, right? If I'm happy at a funeral, I'm kind of a crazy person, you know. So that's nice. There's always the difference. One is psychopathic. Yeah. And so, but what it was is is if it was happiness, what I felt was that my grandfather was gone. What I felt was sadness and separation, right? But I was able to be joyful because what I knew was that he loved the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

And it really is unique only to Christians. Right. Christians are the only people on the planet that can rejoice in their tears. You can we can rejoice while we grieve. Right. No matter what the day brings, no matter what the world brings, Christ remains the same. His family tree is growing, his word, his work will go forward, his will will be done. In the end, we win.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Right? If if our wives leave us, if our children disown us, if our bank accounts dwindle, if politicians turn on us, if our friends leave us. And all those things are displayed in the scriptures, all of them. Everyone from Job who maintains himself in the Lord. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. David the same way. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And he's, you know, a hundred times cast down, just dejected, discouraged. And he has to encourage himself, he has to remind himself though the world is on fire, I rejoice that, well, my faith works, my God remains. It's going to be okay. I don't know how it's going to be okay, but I know he has me. I trust him. And there's strength that goes along with that. It's really what I said Sunday morning, point number one. Joy is about what's happening on the inside, regardless of what's happening on the outside.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, right. And there's an ultimate security, right? That that's what our joy is found in, our hope is found in, right? Right. Is I mean, and you see this with Paul that even if I were to die today, right, then I'm gonna go and be with Christ. Like at the very least, at the very worst, quote unquote, I get to go and be and have him for eternity, right? Exactly. So how is it? It's it's so it can be easy for

Rejoicing Through Grief And Loss

SPEAKER_00 6:20

us if we remind ourselves to be joyful and to be hopeful because that is promised to us as Christians. Correct. Yeah. And did you have are you looking for a verse about that? Is that what you're checking out right now?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

I mean, I'm just always thumbing through the scriptures, but yes, my mind is racing with all of these. Not only the reasons to rejoice, but the means to rejoice. You know, uh joy is something that's learned as well. I had a young man come to me Sunday and he just said, I just don't have joy. I don't feel like I have joy. Well, my first inclination is you probably don't have Jesus, right? You may have had some spiritual experience, you may have said some prayer, you may have gone to some altar, you may have raised your hand, you know, in some service. That is different than owning Christ and Christ owning you. Therein is joy found.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

And I would say only therein is joy found.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, I was struggling this last week with with many things. I had many things come into my life, and I was just down in the dumps to the point where Esther knows. And that's always like for me, when your wife starts to be like, hey, you know, something up. I'm realizing my like manly bravado is starting to fade a little bit and she's seeing through the cracks there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I can't identify with that, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

There was, but there was, I was realizing and she called it out and said, Hey, what you know, what is up with you? What is going on with you? And there were so many things. And and I went to bed that night and I just said, Lord, I'm I'm miserable. You know, I'm I'm not happy right now, right? Take this. I don't want it. I I have joy, I can have joy in the promises that you've given to me, right? That's right. So I laid my head on the pillow, I prayed, Lord, take these things from me. I don't want them anymore. I want to be joyful because I have every reason to be joyful. Yeah. I'm telling you, I woke up the next morning and I'm just like, you know, I'm I'm on clouds, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:53

That's exactly right. But that's part of your maturing as a Christian. Sure. You are growing because you are learning to protect your joy and you're learning to preach your joy to yourself, right? In the very same way that David does over and over and over again. Why art thou cast out on my soul? And I wonder at the end of that sentence, there's like a comma. Because he's gonna go on to say, Hope thou in God. You know, remember whose you are and to whom you belong. But I wonder if there's like a week in between the first part of that sentence, comma, a whole seven days, a month goes by, two weeks, you know, and then he goes, I will rejoice in the Lord, right? And that's all of us, and we're learning to do that. We're learning to encourage ourselves in the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah. So so I wrote this down as a question, and I hope it makes sense. I can try and we reword it, if not, but I wrote this and I said, What is it that can cause a Christian to forfeit their joy? So if we have a joy that's given to us, right, like we've just been talking about, how can the Christian forfeit it? What do we do that turns that away?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Well, we go away from the source of it. Yeah, it's easy to get our eyes off of where our joy comes from. Our joy comes from Jesus. And you might say, Man, do you remember a time when you gave your life to Christ and you were so passionate, you were so on fire, and you were just, you know, enthralled and thrilled by Christ. Yeah. Well, what happens? Life happens. And if we're not careful to protect our joy, it does seem to like leak out. Right? It does seem to go away because, well, life is tough, life's brutal, and I would contend that life is it's it's unbearable. Thus, we have to have Jesus. And if we get our focus off of that, man, it is so quick, you know, to dry up. If we start looking at other things that we think are gonna produce joy for us, it's so easy to say, you know, if my if my if politically in America things would go better. If my girlfriend, if my wife, if my boss, if my children, if my body, if my bank account, if my if my if my psyche, if my, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

None of those things are gonna do it. So you've got to quit looking at those things. Those things are all fine and they're good, sure, and they need maintaining. But we have to know that our joy comes from the Lord. Paul even says in Philippians 3, beware of dogs, beware of the concision. He goes, these are Judaizers that, well, their theology is just so bad. And they were literally saying, you know, yeah, yeah, I'm you know, that's fine. You can be a Christian, but just make sure that you are doing Christian my way. And, you know, Jesus plus the law of Moses, and you'll be good. Jesus plus circumcision, yikes, and you know, you'll be good. Jesus plus, you know, keep all the feasts and wear the robes and say the prayers multiple times a day, and you know, that's just not that's just not how God prescribed it. Yeah. God prescribed it to be a relationship with Jesus Christ, and that's it. No one else involved. And I think I even said Sunday, Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah, you did.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And that's what we're trying to learn. That's what I'm trying to learn. As

Protecting Joy From “Joy Thieves”

SPEAKER_01 11:00

a Christian, right? You know, I'm supposed to be a mature Christian every room I walk into, and I have never graduated past the elementary fundamentals of the game. I've got to stay sweet in my spirit, I've got to trust the Lord for everything. And in that, joy is found, right? And forget everybody else and everything else and every other theology and doctrine. By the way, these Judaizers, he calls them dogs because they're thieves. They're literally joy thieves. He starts off verse one rejoice in the Lord. I want you to have your joy in Christ. Beware of those that would steal your focus and your attention and your affection off of Jesus, because that's when your joy is going to go out the window, too.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

And he names them by name. He's not shy to talk about it. And I think that's one of the things that is so detrimental, especially for young Christians. Young Christians will encounter major difficulty, major difficulty. And, well, get your eyes off of Jesus because you know, life's unbearable and their joy goes away. And they say, you know what, forget it. And they quit going to church, they quit the small group, they quit the accountability, they quit their Bible, they quit prayer. And man, it is so easy for them to get so cold.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

And their joy is no more, right? And it's tough too, because we live in a world now, and I mean it's it's always been this world. Satan's always been very great at deception, but where we think there's so many other things that are going to offer us that joy, right? That we go and look in everywhere else but here, right? But in scripture, but in God's word, yeah, but to God for joy and for happiness and for fulfillment, right? Yes. That's why I said I think it's so important, and this is gonna be so good for people to understand that there is a difference between joy and happiness, right? That they're not the same thing, they're very different.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah, I love to be happy. Absolutely, and I do pursue that. Yes, you know, if I'm healthy, I'm happier. If my food is good, I'm happier. Yes, if they don't turn the heat off at my house, I'm happier. If those things, so I want those things to be there. But man, joy is just it's on another level. That stuff's changing. That stuff changes. They can turn that off.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Your joy is unshakable.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Well, and your joy will become evident when you need strength and you have it.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Because the joy of the Lord is our strength. And so if you have strength, man, in difficult times when the world is on fire, well, there's an indication that the joy of the Lord is present in your life. And it's going to be dependent to whatever level you've submitted yourself to Christ.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

So I said two things Sunday. I said, the joy of the Lord is our strength, Nehemiah 8.10. But then Jesus is the strength of our joy. Jesus is the strength of our joy. And Paul goes and he belabors the fact that he wasted so much of his time and his life in Judaism. He talks about, man, I can brag about my education, my pedigree, where I was born, how I was, you know, committed to God, how I even persecuted the church. I mean, I was doing all the things I was supposed to be doing. None of it brought him any joy until he came to Christ. Then he found real joy. And that's why he continues, and let me just read a few verses here.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Please.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

What things were counted to me? Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I do count them but dung that I may win Christ. All he cares about is Christ, because Christ is a strength of his joy, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness. No, by the way, self-righteousness is a joystealer. Right? Boar theology is a joystealer, self-righteousness is a joystealer, which is in the law, but that which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him. That's all Paul wants. And that's what I'm learning as a Christian. It's all about knowing Christ. The more I have of Christ, the more joy that I have in my life, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his death. If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead, he goes, Not that I've already done it, but man, I'm working towards it. I'm working towards it. And the more Jesus I have, the more Jesus focused I am, the more strength there is in my joy. Real joy produces real strength, but only Jesus gives that.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, I find in my life, and this was you know personally convicting to me, but I find that when it's a good litmus test for me, that when my when my happiness starts to fade, then I really see where I'm at as far as joy goes, right? And you're like, man, I'm on fire for the Lord and I'm a good Christian and I have the joy of the Lord within me.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

And then the things that make me happy start to fade away. And then I'm down in the dumps and I go, well, wait a minute then, did I really have that joy in the first place?

Happiness Isn’t The Point Of Life

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Or were I just was I just riding the high of all the things that I had, right? It can be fake. Yeah. And sometimes I feel like it's the it's the work of a loving father too, when those certain things, those those kind of fake joys in my life, not real joys, right? But like you said, the money and all and all these different things are going well, but then they fade away and I go, Man, Lord, I'm I'm having nothing to do with you right now. That's right. Sorry, right? And it's a loving father, though, because I would prefer that. Take those happinesses away from me, right? If that's what's keeping me away from you, take them, have them, right? Because I'm being a bum. I need to get my joy back, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:12

They're fake. They're like they're placebo. Right. Right? How's it going? Oh, things are great, man. And you can list up all the great things that are making you happy right now. That doesn't say anything about your walk with Christ or your spiritual health.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Right? Yeah. Those things are dangerous to live on. By the way, uh, happiness is not the point of life. No, right. It's not the point to be happy. No, the point of life biblically is to be joyful. That is from Genesis to Revelation, to rejoice and to be joyful and to find your joy in God. I I find my friends in Haiti at the Mountain Faith Mission. They are some of the most joyful people I know. And I'm telling you, they have nothing. They have nothing. And it's almost a gift that they have nothing. Right. All they have is Jesus. And it's almost a curse that we have everything. Because then we're tempted to think this is what we should pursue. Yeah. And this happiness is really a joy stealer. It's a joy stealer. It can, it can imitate, look like joy, you know, at times. And by the way, it's a good feeling. Absolutely, it is. But painlessness is not the point of living. Happiness is not the point of living. Good feelings are not the point of living. The point of living is to know Christ. By the way, when you know Christ, then you can have joy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah. And that's a tough one. I've seen friends before, family, right? That you ask them how they're doing, you check up on them, you want them to know that you love them, right? And you say, How's life? They go, man, my life, it couldn't be any better, right? They don't know the Lord, mind you. This is the whole context here. My life couldn't be better, right? I got I got money in the bank. I just got this new car I love. Look at my house, right? Look at my beautiful wife. Look at all these great things. And you're smiling, but on the inside, you're almost heartbroken for him because you realize that those are things that are that are good, but they're not going to have that eternal value, that eternal joy that those people really need, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

When the better answer would be, how are you doing? I got nothing going on except a couple of bad things, but I feel content. I feel good. I feel steady. I'm walking with the Lord, you know. I I don't know what to say other than like the old song, It is Well with My Soul. That's a believer. That's a believer who's going to last a long time because there's strength, because of joy.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

And what a testimony it is, too, right? To the believer and to God. When you see these people, I think of a lot of the older ladies like in our church that you see, hey, their husband has passed away, right? And they carry themselves with such grace, right? And just in just a joy. Maybe not in that they're smiling brightly all the time. No, it's difficult, man. Right. And they're carrying heavy loads. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

But they but they do it joyfully.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Yes, and they're constantly leaning upon the Lord, right? Yes, man, that's what I want to be like, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Well, and you said it right. There's a grace to them. There's a lovely grace. Even in the storm, they go on step by step, day by day, trusting the Lord quietly. And we feel we feel sorry for them. Absolutely. Like we we we grieve for them. And

Joy That Fuels Evangelism

SPEAKER_01 19:00

man, they're trying to figure out how to live life as a widow or widower. Yes. And yet the strength of the Lord is there day by day. He walks with us. Nobody would choose that difficulty. Nobody would choose that. That's if I had it my way, I would eliminate all the bad feelings from my life. Right? And all the bad things and all the difficult things and all the betrayals and all that stuff. However, God has seen fit to allow those things to show me Himself. And so even in those difficulties, we're able to have joy while we navigate that. And the ultimate turnout is that we know Jesus more, is that we know his grace. Without the darkness, we could never know the light. Without the pain of life, we could never know the medicine that he brings to us, the healing that he brings to us, right? And all those things, they complement one another. God allows these things that we might know him more.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah. And and I think a big thing, and for me personally, right, is that I, even when things are kind of, I guess you could say like the rug is pulled out from under you, right? As a Christian, there's still always a purpose. And, you know, so you go back to those the grieving widow, and a lot of people they they lose their significant other or they they lose all their money, right? The stock market crashes or somebody's sick. Sure. And they just sit there and they go, What do I do? Yeah. Well, what am I supposed to do? I where do I go from here? Right. And for the Christian, there's still some of that where we go, man, I don't, I don't know the next steps here. But what I do know is that I'm going to continue to rely upon the Lord. I'm going to continue to lean upon him, right? Yep. So it's not always that we have everything together, but we always know what it is that we're supposed to be doing. Lord, I don't know the next steps here, but I know you do, and I'm just going to rely upon you here. Right. And people who don't know the Lord don't have that, right? That's exactly right. And that's, I think, where that anxiety and that and that fear and all those things come from that just almost a spiral into a descent of sadness and depression. You're talking about a minute ago, David, right? He had that same thing, and you said maybe there's those commas and there's weeks in there. But during that time, he's going, This is how I feel. These are the problems I have. And then he reminds himself, but this is what I know to be true. This is what I'm I'm certain about, right? That's exactly right. And that's always how he's getting back up, right? And so please go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Let me just finish with this. Yeah. And then we can go on. This is so clearly illustrated in Psalm 1. By the way, it's it's known as our nation's psalm, George Washington's favorite psalm, aside from the point. It talks about strength of the believer. It says, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He does not stand in the way of sinners. He does not sit in the seat of the scornful. But his delight, his joy is in the law of the Lord. Well, the law of the Lord is who God is. His joy is in knowing who God is. In difficulty with the scorners, with the sinners in a in a wicked world. And in his law, he meditates day and night. And then it says that he shall have a strength because of that. He shall be like a tree. Verse 3, planted by rivers of water. It brings forth fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he does shall prosper. That's like the most incredible promise. It's this beautiful picture. It says in the inverse, the wicked, the one who does not care for God, who does not pursue God, does not have Jesus, the ungodly are not so. And they're like the chaff that the wind drives away. Chaft is like

Generosity, Service, And Shared Joy

SPEAKER_01 22:20

this super light dust when you're grinding corn and it's just like the slightest breeze stirs it up, and it's like if you've ever been to a silo on a farm, it's everywhere. It's it's like in the crevices of your eyelids, it gets everywhere. The righteous has a strength of a planted tree. It's healthy. The unrighteous means they don't love God, they don't love his word, they don't have him. The slightest little breeze will blow them over. And you can just see how how beautiful that that is. Are we perfect? Are we any good? No. But we have a strength that comes from the joy of the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Right. Yeah, and absolutely. And and kind of in starting to head towards the the ending of this here, I've I've one last question on joy, okay, on hope, right? And so question that I wrote here, or I guess what I'm trying to say, is we're supposed to be as Christians evangelistically minded, right? That's that's a big part of being a Christian.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

So my question here, I said, I guess it's not a question, it's more of a statement. I put that this joy should motivate the Christian to evangelize, right? When we have this joy. I found a quote by Charles Spurgeon, cool dude. He says, Our joy is that we have to deal day to day with lost souls who are not yet hopelessly lost. Right. So they're lost souls, but they're not yet hopelessly lost. And they're great. Yeah. So, so, so how should, as a Christian, how should this joy motivate us, right? Me thinking of it simply, it's that I have something, yeah, and because I have it, I really want others to have it and experience it as well. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

So if you could kind of the the scriptures say, taste and see that the Lord is good. Right. It's like, and I do this to my wife all the time. You know, I eat something, I'm like, oh, it's so good. And I just naturally gotta say, taste this. Yeah, you know, you need to experience this for yourself. Well, that's what we are with Christ. We simply, it's very natural to want to share the good news that we have everywhere, at the every restaurant, with every waitress, at the gym, at the bank, at the grocery store, everywhere we go. When we're standing outside washing our cars and our neighbors are out there, we're pulling our trash cans to and from the street. We see these people, man, we want them to have what we have. If if you have it, you'll want to share it. In fact, I could I can say that's a pretty good litmus test. That's a pretty good litmus test as to whether you have it or not. Do you want to share it? Yeah. Right? Right now we've got uh two giving programs going on here at the church. One is the Operation Christmas Child, it's you know, world-renowned shoeboxes through the Billy Graham Association uh around the world. It's fantastic.

unknown 24:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Why do we do that? Well, because we want some kid in Zimbabwe to know the joy of the Lord. We want the people in Haiti and Uganda, you know, and you know in the bombed-out city of Ukraine. We want them to know there is a savior who provides a joy and a joy that comes with a strength. And I don't know, I just I just can't get away from it. It comes up in every conversation that I have.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

You're right. I've been able to share the gospel with someone every single day for about three months now. Yeah. It's just something I just kind of intentionally, man, that's what I want to do. And the more I do that, the Lord's giving me a lot of opportunities for that.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Right. And I mean, we should have every reason, we should have all the motivation to do that, right? If we are joyful Christians, right? If we have that joy, it's it's almost impossible to not want to share it. Like you said a moment ago, it's it made me laugh a little bit, but it's so true. The food thing, right? Yeah. You have something like, man, this tastes incredible. Sometimes I'll be telling somebody about that for the next week, or I'll be like, hey, you you should go over there and get this, right? It's so good. It's the same multitudes greater, right? Absolutely. So it comes with the joy of the Lord. Sure. You know, and so us as Christians, I think we need to be mindful of that. Okay, am I a joyful Christian? Am I not? Why is that? What do I need to address here? What needs to be figured out, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:03

It's going to be a focus issue, right? Yeah. Why am I not joyful? Uh you're focused on the wrong thing. If you see Jesus, you'll be glad. Yeah. If you see Jesus, man, you will be delighted. It'll change you. Yeah. It'll change your, I don't know what's what do we say? Your countenance, your aura, your sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

It'll change you. You know? Yeah. And it's it's once again going back to the David there, right? Yes. He's he's in the first parts of the chapters, he's acknowledging what he's focused on, which is the world, which is the trials. And in the second half, he's focusing on God, right? And that's always, like you said, his countenance. That's what he's reminding himself of to bring up his countenance once again. Thinking on the trials and the difficulties of the world. Now I'm going to shift my focus over to the goodness and the promises of God. Right. Right. And so, yeah, it should be a good motivator for us. We should be evangelizing as Christians, right? And I think the joy of the Lord is going to be that main fuel for that. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

If you don't if you don't have that, man, something's broke. Yeah. Something's, you know, something's wet. You know, if your fire's not burning.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

I don't think. I don't think you can evangelize if you're not a joyful Christian. Hey, let me come tell you about my Lord, my savior. And you're like, man, go away. Who is this guy? What's he talking about? Yeah. But um, on that note, and in winding up here, so just speaking of this joy and this happiness, I want to ask you as pastor, right? I like to end these with a question towards you. What is what are you

Newsletter Invite And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 27:20

seeing right now in the church? What is something that you see the Lord's people doing that is bringing you joy right now?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Well, their generosity. Yeah. Right now, I've mentioned we have these two box ministries. One's going around the world, these shoeboxes, the other one is staying right here downriver, and it's these food boxes. So every year we we have a ministry that's put on by Daryl and Charlene Thomas, this wonderful godly couple. They've been doing this for 17 years, where we get with families that are in need. And in our local downriver area, we find them through schools and just relationships. And we're going to bring them in. We do at least 200 families a year. We're going to give every kid a coat, hat, and gloves. We're going to give them board games and toys for Christmas. We're going to give them boxes of food. We're going to give them Bible tracts and, you know, stockings that are stuffed. And I mean, they come out of here with a haul of stuff and it's all free. We just give it away. But I mean, our people are just beaten down the doors to be part of this. They're joyful people and they want to share that joy with our downriver community. And I'm just thrilled. I'm thrilled. My church people outshine me. They outdo me in generosity and in kindness. They outdo me in zeal for the gospel. And, you know, as convicting as it is, I just stand back and clap.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Yeah. No, absolutely. It's wonderful to see the church serve in the way that the church should be serving, right? We just incredible church.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

We just want to cast bread out on the water. Yes. Ecclesiastes 11. And in many days it will come back to you. We just leave that up to the Lord. But for now, we're just joyfully being fishers of men. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. Uh, a lot of what it is that we're talking about today, it can be found in our newsletter. It's called the Echoes of Sunday. It's something that we send out every Monday. We've actually moved it to emailing it to you guys at 6:30 in the morning for those of you who are getting up really early for work. So all this stuff we're talking about, a lot of it can be found in that. And if you're not signed up for that, go to our website and just scroll all the way to the bottom there. Put your info in, and I'll send it out to you. It can be very helpful to kind of guide us through the week, help remind us of why it is that we should be hopeful, right? And all these important things. It's been a good blessing, I think, to a lot of people. And uh there's been a lot of people helping with that. And I'm super encouraged about it.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

So it does. It breaks down the sermon from Sunday, it multiplies that, you know, throughout the week. It gives great notes. And Tyler, you've done an incredible job on harnessing that and distributing it to the glory of God. Yes, I please mention.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

It's on our website. And then John, just in closing, if you would pray for our church, and we'll close.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Father, we give you praise for the joy that we feel and to the strength that comes along with that. Lord, you are what we need. Help us to be reminded, Lord, to focus on you, to find you in your word, to Make time for you in prayer. And when we do, we find a joy and a contentment and a peace that passes all understanding, and a strength that we would not have known, a strength that we are absolutely in need of. In an intolerable world and an insufferable world, our joy that comes from Jesus makes it possible for to live and to live well. Lord, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done. Bless us this week. Bless your people and all those within the hearing. Father, I pray that you would bless them for their good and for your glory. We thank you for a faith that works. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.