How to have Joy

Intro:

This last week we launched into our new series called Grit: A Guide to Perseverance and Presence. Let’s re-establish a base line for this series by defining grit, and looking at our anchor verse for the series.

1 ) Grit: is courage and resolve, and strength of character.

2) Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”

What God has spoken concerning our lives through His word has the needed strength to help us persevere no matter the situation or season we find ourselves in.

What we are going to look at today is how God’s word gives us strength to persevere.

Q. Did you know that current research indicates that an average person thinks roughly 50,000 thoughts a day?

That is roughly 2100 thoughts per hour. If you divide that out over 16 hours to account for 8 hours of sleep that would be 3,125 thoughts an hour. Wow! That is a lot of thoughts!!

We know that not all thoughts are created equal. At times we daydream, other moments we ponder on the beauty of a sunrise or sunset. In moments our attention shifts to our family or spouse, while other times its finances and the future. Some thoughts are strong eliciting heartfelt emotions. At times we drift to memories of a lost loved one. We have thoughts of joy and expectation, moments where we are filled with hope or anticipation for what is to come.

We know that this is not an exhaustive list , but merely a glimpse of the thoughts that permeate our minds.

For a moment as we consider the magnitude of our thoughts, let us also consider the potency of our thoughts!

Each and every thought has the potential to move us closer or further from our God given potential and purpose. Our thoughts have the ability to strengthen or tear down. To cause us to advance or retreat.

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Submit:

The Society we live in is bent on nursing old wounds and highlighting what is wrong with just about everything. In America, we have grown accustomed to viewing the world, our lives, and ourselves through a lens of negativity. This lens stands in direct contrast to the passionate, purpose filled people God wants us to be.

We must evaluate our lives to determine if the filter is present. If so, it is in our best interest to change the way we think.

Remember this simple truth, where the mind goes the man follows. If we choose to go with the cultural flow we will miss God’s best for our life! Negativity is tied closely to doubt and unbelief, and it is revealed through murmuring and complaining. Today, we must know that there is no area of our life left untouched by our thoughts.

To develop Grit and remove a negative lens we must begin with the mind. We develop Courage, Resolve, and Strength of Character through the proper development of our thought life. How do we develop our thought life? With the word of God. Romans 12:2.

Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Negative thinking robs us of seeing the good. How then do we counter negative thinking? By learning to look at our lives through the lens of Joy.

You might be tempted to think. Pastor you don’t know what I have been through. You don’t know how hard life has been. You don’t know how bad they hurt me. How I could I just be happy and joyful in the face of everything I have been through?

No doubt many of us have been through some tough times, but before we go any further let's gain a biblical definition of Joy.

Joy is “Closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy is more a state of being than an emotion; a result of choice.”

Joy can result from good things happening to us in our lives, but more than that Joy is a result of choice. Joy is an outward sign of inward faith in the promises of God. Joy is is within all of us, but it must be realized. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Rejoicing, prayer, and expression of gratitude by giving thanks are a choice. None of them are dependent upon the circumstances of our life. We can do any of these things at any moment if we choose to. It is certainly easier to rejoice and give thanks on the mountain top than the valley, but neither location determines the choice.

Jesus modeled to us in Hebrews 12:2 that Joy is a choice.

It says, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

If he could face the agony of death I would venture to say that it is possible for you and I to live a joy filled life.

How could Jesus have joy in the face of death? Through the renewal of the mind.

Jesus in the garden of gethsemane made this statement Matthew 26:39 “He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.””

The ability to say not as I will, but as you will is powerful! He understood what was before him and chose joy. What was before him was our redemption, and eternal life.

This is not the first time that He operated with a renewed mind. In Matthew 4 Jesus is lead by the spirit into the wilderness to be tested. After a period of 40 days fasting His Spirit was strong. He defeated satan through the power of a mind renewed in the word.

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Apply:

The renewing of our mind with the word of God helps us to develop mental discipline that can keep our thought life consistently focused. The number one area that satan attacks is our thought life. This why we are commanded to take every thought captive. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

The renewed mind captures rouge thoughts and brings them under the authority of the Word of God. This matters because whatever you give your attention to expands into your experience.

Listen, the secret conversations you hold in the privacy of your own mind are shaping your destiny, little but little. Your thoughts will eventually show. What you persistently think eventually crystallizes into the words you speak and eventually is evidenced by the things you do.

Every thought you have shifts your life in a particular direction, sometimes in a minor way and sometimes in a major way. This reality should awaken the truth that every thought matters. We have to make a decision to live counter cultural. Going against the societal norm to highlight what is wrong with everything.

In Philippians 4:8 God gives a lens for us to view life through.

He says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

True: credible, aligning with reality, reliable, or trustworthy. Aligned with eternal truth rather than earthly acceptability.

Noble: honorable, pertaining to what is worthy of respect.

Just: correct, righteous,

Pure: innocent

Lovely: pleasing

Good Report: Worth of Praise, admirable

Virtue: Goodness, excellence

Praiseworthy: in the NT both of praise or approval given to humans and of praise given to God and his qualities.

Meditate on these things. Which means to calculate, consider, think about, and believe.

For a moment consider the impact this type of thinking would have on your life. If you chose to look at life through these types of things consistently vs. the negative highlights of the world. How do you think your life would change?

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Closing:

Great power dwells in our perspective. How we think will set the trajectory of our life. Example Romans 8:35-39.

For example lets look at Romans 8:35-37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Here we see that there are many challenges that were being faced, but the perspective is in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. This is faith in action. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Look at what it creates in the writer of Romans. Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If you choose to see yourself as more than a conqueror through faith in Christ, you will certainly ascend to that level and become a conqueror. This is why the renewal of the mind is so important.

We will almost always act consistently with the internal image we have of our ourselves because your self-image is wired to you short term emotional appetite.

The great news is that it is possible to override past negative lenses by deliberately choosing to think on right things. God has great power to change us. It begins with what the Word of God says about us. Line up your thinking, and you will change your life.

Let’s Pray!

Salvation

Give us understanding of the power of our words.