The Fight for Joy

You can grab the sermon notes. He said fresh fresher than you'll realize. I just finished up this morning I want to be open though to what god wants to Really say to us and that's kind of the job of the pastor What what I mean by that is some people might be confused, you know, really what we're supposed to do is Spend time with with god in prayer and fasting brokenness humility And then as we're spending time with god that reservoir Of of what he puts into our heart We're we're supposed to come up and we just we feed all of us including myself Anytime I preach I love it because i'm feeding myself first And I want to being open to what god wants to do and I believe god still speaks to us today His word is primary.

Obviously. It's the foundation We love it. It's it's our guide.

We can we can be sustained If we had that and that alone But I do believe that god can really deposit things into our heart And sometimes you'll see me Especially at our church. I'm looking at my phone. I'm not really texting as things are coming to me I'm i'm adding them to uh word documents and it just during worship It's so important because I don't remember them later And actually this morning as i'm just worshiping and i'm going to I want to teach a little bit about parenting uh in the weeks to come And just I had this this picture of a of a fighting match and you ever feel like you're fighting with your kids Sometimes teenagers and it was just so clear.

Make sure you're in their corner more than you're fighting them Now my I have to remember that and i'm sure I won't in about an hour and a half So I write it down. Uh, we have rend the heavens coming up in october the last week of october. We meet every single night Uh at six o'clock for you know a couple hours Um, if you want to make the drive, we'd love to have you of course some great hotel deals we can Get you.

Uh, my books are all free. I brought I had half had a half a box left Of a book, uh, I wrote recently my wife actually contributed a chapter. I talked her into it.

Um, and uh If you didn't see it yet, we were we're down at pastor jack hibbs's church. He's a friend of mine Uh, we were on his podcast um and uh talking about the book the title is I almost quit And her chapter was I almost quit too And so we have free copies take them and what went on Amazon and it became a bestseller like that that day. It was amazing what god is doing We're hearing encouragement all over the united states.

What is the point of that? Well, i'm glad you asked because the title this morning is the fight for joy. Thank you don The fight for joy anybody have a problem with joy these days? I don't know if it's true, but I just had this thought during worship many of you. How many of you live up here? Wives too maybe you're thinking how can we get out of here lord? Is this all you have for us? I'm thinking the opposite.

How can I get up here and trade with pastor mike for three months and and switch? This is a deadbeat place. How can I get out of here? Maybe teenager? Trust me Joy is internal It's not your destination because you'll get where you want to get and then you're not going to want where you got Don't ask me to say that again because i'm not sure I can But the fight for joy and that's where the book actually came from The book came from a very difficult season that I was in My wife was obviously in it too if i'm in it And I didn't want to preach anymore I don't want to pastor anymore God wasn't the problem. I love my I was still getting up at 3 34 in the morning for hours worshiping God wasn't the problem people were Isn't that true? He's never the problem.

Really? It's horizontal Is the problem not vertical? uh, but the in the irony is we have the I've never Well, i'm hoping every pastor would say this right but you you have the best people in the best church I I can't think of anybody there At west side christian fellowship and that we you know, there was the issues all the time with them It wasn't it was something going on internally internally. I'm not going to talk about everything. I wrote about it in the book and And the book came about so quickly.

It's actually available as a free download on our church website So you can share it with people and and I think when god encourages us our job is to encourage others And what we're really finding is that we're hearing from single moms single dads housewives Uh homeschooling families like I was so encouraged because it's not really just for pastors we all experience the challenges of life the fight for joy You know, what's robbing my joy right now is all the critics coming against california I just on tiktok california's garbage instagram. Why are you still there getting emails? You're living in sin because you're not fleeing from your your repressive Newsome and government i'm like well, I don't I don't see paul running from rome I see paul running into rome so Let me be a disclaimer if because I hear you know, if you're moving that's fine. I believe god calls I believe god calls people to move.

Thank god people are moving But make sure the heart's right That's the key because god is not happy with grumbling and complaining. I hate it. I gotta get out of here That's not a good heart Year 40 year 11.

Do you know how long it should have taken the children of israel to go to the promised land? You're ready for this 11 days Why did it take 40 years? grumbling and complaining And I do believe I you know and I get I get worked up I get upset You know the ab whatever the bill was I was I was even looking How long does it take me to drive to sacramento from here back? You know, it's nine hours um incredible Thing that happened there they actually just i'm not going to go into details on that You can look it online because if so, I'd probably be here a couple hours if I listen to every rabbit trail But it was it's a very dangerous bill. Of course assembly bill ab that's what ab means assembly bill And just the things that are happening and I like yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, let's get out of here And I don't like it here either and I I can move to idaho and plant a church pretty quickly. All my friends are there or texas Or florida, you know and and uh, tennessee. Oh my goodness We we'd have a couple hundred people of day one If we could move out there and but but I think I start to encourage myself again.

You have to do that David did it He strengthened himself in the lord. Don't wait for others And I said lord, how do you know you how do I know you don't want to make a difference in this state? You think god's going oh man, that's yeah, they're have you seen hollywood lately? I don't know what to do with this The darker it is the greater the light Do you know about california's rich heritage spiritual heritage research it from the 1900s early 1900s To to even what he's doing now How are people like jack hibbs There we just lost an incredible saint john macarthur an hour from us David jeremiah Jim, garla when he was down in san diego calvary chapels The calvary chapel's fighting the government in central california or over by the coast James kiddies a friend of mine you hear on the radio I mean, there's some solid Pastors, so i'm wondering what's what's the deal here? You never you never judge a state or a nation by its government You you judge it by the spiritual condition of her people And people in california are hungry for revival. We've got people actually moving to california Because of that hunger But there is a great fight for joy in our hearts right now Isn't there and I I hate it too you go on social media you hear about california news It's like they are so anti god.

It's it's it's incredible and it robs my joy Because of what we're going to leave our kids and our grandchildren, but you don't stay there You don't stay there and then oh my goodness. What was me? What's that? What is that little thing on when he went eeyore eeyore we have turned into eeyore Oh my goodness Eeyore, I don't know what he says So i'm not gonna try but it's just that Negative and that that there's there's a fight for joy in that that fight in my my heart It was a long process of months and and even years Sometimes of of just looking at social media getting jealous of other things um and seeing these things and and what's going on our nation you become that fight for joy and you begin to realize your plans aren't happening like you thought they would and they Rob you of that joy and I didn't think life was going to do this and it robs you of that joy Anytime you are self-centered and prideful. It's going to be hard to find joy because let's define it Do you know the difference between happiness and joy? big difference Happiness comes from the word happenstance What's happening? To me i'm happy I'm happy.

It's the only place i've ever preached where I can go to the owens river first And i'm filming a video you can see on facebook. I caught a little little trout I wish it was bigger, but I couldn't lie because it's on the on the video First cast i'm filming. Wow.

This is incredible. I'm happy I'm, so happy And then i'm fishing I realize I'm gonna be late for church and so i'm hitting the three i'm like it's I broke the speed limit I'm, just tell the you know the highway patrol I'm i'm on my way to church. Hopefully he'll let me go But he'll write me a ticket and he'll say sin no more I'm sure But see what's happening to me Joy is internal It's the joy of the lord is our strength Getting to that spot say, you know lord.

I just want to come here and be a blessing to people I'm if I get a flat tire, maybe the person who picks me up needs to hear something. Um, we're this is the We want the late day not the rain day With all the rain and and thunderstorms or and and you just begin to take that that joy Because of who god is and who he made you to be and helping and serving others And really when you remove self from the equation, there's a lot more joy Lord, thank you that I could thank you that I can even live here Like anybody living here should not be disgruntled or even where we live. Thank you for los angeles county Thank you that we don't live in syria Or north korea or about a thousand other places Thank you lord that joy is internal.

It comes from a heart of thankfulness So instead of what's happening to me I praise god for what's happening within me And the closer you draw to christ the closer you draw to god that the more that fullness comes out Thank you lord Because I don't know about you, but I I could be I could be dead right now and I don't know exactly where i'd be How many of you are thank god he didn't take you decades ago I mean, I don't want to get too Transparent my kids are here, but I remember closing down mammoth brewery In the 1990s anybody remember buffalo bills and bishop Those little dive bars June lake loop Hitting the tiger bar I remember in the 1990s. I shouldn't even be here by the grace of god Something else I wrote down. I told my wife this should have been the last sentence in her book I didn't quit because he never quit on me So you've got to find that joy the reason some people are just dead to the things of god is because they're dead spiritually How do you know if you're dead spiritually i've got a real quick test don't raise your hand But when the worship when he was leading worship, by the way great job today Great job.

I I love worship. I became a worshiper I would worship was like give me some george straight on my drive up to 395 Give me some garth brooks Give me you want to go conway twitty? george jones Oh, I could oh I could grab that six-pack and he stopped loving her today And just having a rewind and get being so depressed and and and and but that that joy here when you're dying Spiritually when the worship when he was leading worship and he said we've got another song. Did you oh my goodness? How long is this worship You should be saying lord.

I want to press in more and more and more god The more I worship you more the more I seek you the more I find you and the more I find you the more I want to seek you It's that desire. It's that hunger. Oh, we hunger for those donuts out there.

I do don't do that again I've been thinking of those the last hour and a half mike. What are you thinking? Pizza with the pastor I've got avocados with shane. We need to we need to change this and get the health again But it's funny I wrote a whole chapter on I had to take back my health Again as well and and be disciplined and eat better and take care of my body and fasting because it's all connected Isn't it? When you take better care of your body fit, this is my note So I hope this rabbit trail helps but when you take care of your body physically you you feel better spiritually I guarantee this sermon would not be Very effective if I was on four hours of sleep And eating junk food all week and pop to xanax before I came in because I was a little wound up Why would it be the same No Why because our physical? Effects are spiritual So the fight for joy, it's real Ephesians Reminds us take up the whole armor of god not partial whole armor of god That you may be able to withstand in the evil day And having done all stand God calls us to stand when the godless culture comes against us stand when it comes against our families stand don't run Don't fight with the wrong heart because I can fight any fighters out there type-a fighters You've heard of mama bear.

Have you heard of papa bear? So sometimes I got to put on the gas and stand Because I start responding to gavin on x and I start to oh my god, that's probably not the right thing to say Your policies are the problem with america not and so you you see you gotta you gotta hold on the put on the brakes sometimes And of course we get the pushback you shouldn't be political really We're being biblical actually It's it's biblical to confront the wickedness. Are you kidding me? What bible are we reading? Brother, I just preached the gospel. I don't I don't talk about politics Well, what gospel are you preaching because when the gospel changed my heart I wanted to talk about controversial issues I want to talk about the unborn and and marriage and things like that And why we don't give up this fight for joy why we don't give up because we were bought at a heavy price We were bought at a heavy price.

God didn't give up on us And i'm going to go quickly Um through a few things, but there are two joy killers. You need to know about I wrote about them And I don't know if you're ready to hear about The these but i'm going to give them to you anyway Because the first one is pride And the hard thing about pride is we don't see it That's the deadly nature of pride we don't see it why don't we see it because of pride When i'm prideful i'm not open to constructive criticism Who are you to tell me? I'm not open to conviction I've got it mastered. I know the bible It's deadly it's damning And they kill your joy Because when we feed pride it kills joy You know this maybe you've lived here i've been here where I can go back into this mode anytime I Fuel the pride, but when i'm prideful, it's about me And it kills joy It will kill your joy Think about it the most upset angry people, you know are probably very arrogant Always popping Out something from their mouth critical negative It's all about them all about their schedule all about their deadlines all about what they want to do And it just it kills your joy And what do I do then well, there's a beautiful word we love at westside christian fellowship it's called repent You Repent you change your mind about The pride in your heart and you repent of it and here's the interesting thing as you repent guess what comes back Oh, does it come back? Joy, that's I get the joy back I repent and the joy is back when I don't want to repent anybody want to dig in You dig in Oh, i'm not good.

That joy kills your joy And I talk about my dad often and he didn't come to know the lord till later he was I mean towards the end of his life and It was tough. It was tough having an unbelieving father Because they manage everything by anger And pride and there's no joy there. I don't remember any joy in our home Unless the oklahoma sooners won or the dodgers I just saw a picture that took me back.

I can remember remember phil. You might remember too steve garvey davy lopes bill russell Ron say on third base. That was my team growing up by the posters and and uh, I don't side note just for those who are curious But uh pride pride pride kills the joy and another one is pain With pride focusing on you keeps you bound Because life as a christian is not about us it's about others And once you begin to let that outflow You create you god puts it into you so you can go and outflow it's a beautiful thing when there's no outflow Oh, it's it's it stinks Mono lake, that's where I was going phil Anybody go drink the refreshing waters of mono lake recently You can go down and you can drink.

What is that? Rush creek? Oh Flowing into mono and just for here's what's interesting rush creek Mono, oh what just happened? What just happened in like three feet here? Disgusting beautiful Because you were designed to flow out We just start something in our church again to visit hospital homes It's hard, but we go into all these different homes like in a neighborhood and visit patients who are probably not coming out They don't know anybody And it's hard you park you're like, oh, I hope I get a text or I get excused to leave Morgan is there any emergencies that I have to But but you walk in and you leave different They minister to you, but you were there ministering to them why the outflow Get the outflow. You're going to be a very critical joyless christian You sit there and you get doctrine and doctrine and doctrine But you become more critical and more critical and more critical Because knowledge Puffs up. I I love just having one service.

I wish I we could do that again because then you can just pour it out and not be in a hurry and um, but no, I Multiple services are fine, too. I just side note there A lot of side notes here, but the next point pain Pain pain pain can rob you of joy What is what do you mean by pain have anybody holding in an offense? Against somebody else You've been hurt By people if you've if you've if you've not been hurt by people just start a ministry Yeah, you want to go real deep plant a church Friends and and and backstabbing and and critical hearts and of course pastors have to own some of it as well But there's there's the pain and that pain actually again drove me to want to isolate Because the walls you build to protect you imprison you And I didn't want to go to church anymore I didn't want to be around people and looking back. It was because of a lot of it was because of pain I mean you can only get hurt so much And ironically the bolder you are it seems to be the more hurt you get and this leads me to This page from this morning early And I told my my kids I don't think i've even confessed this before I'm going to mention to our congregation when i'm back on the 14th of september And it'll be applicable to you I hope But what and what I mean by confession is is things I don't you don't share everything But during this difficult season, I actually morgan might know I talked to her a little bit about it, but I begin to really question my calling Not as a pastor This goes a little deeper My my like how he Created me How he wired me? The the the fire he put in my heart I begin to look at other pastors and go.

Why can't I just be like them? Like calm just nice and loving and monotone. Nobody's upset at them. Just just man.

He's the best guy ever People come to church. Oh, I love what you had to say You don't convict them. You don't upset because when you convict you hurt And so I became disgruntled with my calling because the deeper the cut the more it hurts The and I can cut When I preach it cuts to the heart And I begin to resent that like lord.

Why why did you? I I liked when people liked me I was a people pleaser And I still remember my mom. Oh shane's a quiet one He'll go in his room. He'll shut the door and just give him some tonka trucks and he'll be good for hours Right just and and conflict just quiet Just quiet anybody relate.

You're the No, just go and avoid the conflict The problem is when the holy spirit came upon me I Got this fire burning And I don't know what to do with it other than set you on fire Or upset people and it can fit and it cuts And when boldness and repentance define your ministry, the road is hard. It's bumpy It's unpredictable people get upset. Who's this guy? Telling me I have to who's this guy telling me jesus is the only way the only truth the only life Who's this guy that that's so bold and in my face? But praise god the emails that come in from all over are the encouragement.

Thank god for those And I begin to question and say lord. Why why did you? Why did you Why But god often uses the least likely Because now I can look and say god it's god Because i'm i'm not this way I'm the people pleaser I mean, I began to realize that all of the prophets The apostles were not popular You guys ever read the prophets If you just want to have fun one night just open up isaiah jeremiah Just read their words Why are the words so hard so cutting because sin has to be dealt with it can't be coddled A lot of these people we see on tv these famous pastors they never convict So that the the lgbtq Can walk in the party or the fornicator they can just walk in and and worship and sing and and god just loves you You're the head not the tail Go team go team go team We'll see you next sunday they leave and they're not changed But when the word of god comes alive What it man When it comes alive, that's how you repair families That's how you repair broken homes That's how you repair the state of california. You don't run you preach the glorious gospel And you call people out in the spirit of love and humility The truth is what sets them free Where does god say my word is like a soft pillow my word is like a gentle breeze You bible students, you know what? It says my word is like a Hammer that breaks the rock in pieces Breaks the pride in three pieces breaks the the arrogant man to go back and humble himself And tell his wife i'm sorry.

I own some of this. Let's work on this marriage I'm, sorry kids. You humble yourself.

Let the word of god break you And it's also a fire that devours Devours what? Sin, it's a refining fire that devours That's why god said jeremiah before you're even born Can you imagine this? Can you imagine me god telling you before you're even born? I Called you And I ordained you To be a prophet to my nation So because of that you will go to who I send you You will speak what I say You will pull down you will root out you will destroy But then you will rebuild Do not be afraid these people will not hear you They will not listen They will hate you Do not be afraid because these are my words that I gave you. I will hold you up And that's the only thing that strengthened me Was that call of god? But what does this have to do with me? God has uniquely called you as well To speak the truth and love To love people you don't have to be like me, please don't By the way how I talk to individuals not how i'm talking now I don't get somebody in a room But it's a fight for joy It's a fight for joy And so a couple of scriptures For application i'm sure you want some application this morning. I hope so In due season galatians 6 9 in due season You i'm gonna put you in here You will reap in other words You will receive those things you want from god not not these frivolous frivolous things and not i'm not talking about the big car And the big house, but you will there will be a benefit in your life You will have blessed how many of you know that the blessings of god aren't always financially or financial Thank god some more new levels new devils Some of the most miserable people I know have have wealth A couple different houses.

So now they've got a couple different llcs. They've got different tax appointments They've got this and i've got to make this and i've got to do this and if their whole life is full of stress the blessing of god is No stress hardly. They're stressed.

Don't get me wrong, but it's simple The house we love the one house, it's okay to have one house The car that still gets you there The washing machine hasn't broken in a long time or the refrigerator. Everything is good. There's peace at home.

Your kids are walking the blessings of god That's the blessings of the lord And it says here if you do not give up If you if you do not give up Have you ever studied the ifs in the bible? Oh Be ready Because we have this view of god sometimes That um, hey, it's a sovereignty and he'll do whatever he wants to do I I don't really need to you know, but it's not up to me And i'm all for god's sovereignty. Amen Praise god for god's sovereignty, but I can't avoid the ifs in the bible If you do this I will do this One of the most famous verses That we love to quote, but we forget that there is an if in there It begins at the beginning if my people God heal our land heal our land. Oh god.

We know we're just going to trust if my people humble themselves And pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. That's the door. That's the key that unlocks the heart of god If If you seek me You will find me could it be that some of you are not finding him because you're not seeking him Well, how can you say I read the word this morning? I listen to 88.5 when i'm driving I've got a devotional I turn to sometimes I I pray on on the run.

I i'm what do you what do you what do you who do you say? I'm seek not seeking him Well It's time to do a word study the word seek How many of you heard me talk about this before not talking about this front row? You can't you can't raise your hands This like this changed my life And again look it all up check for yourself, I don't have the notes in front of me it's been a while If you seek me that word B-a-q-u-a-s-h, I believe bakash It means to seek something as if you lost it until you find it All right parents ready for an example What would happen children's ministry, hey, hey, uh, can you real quick who has kids here you have kids Okay Uh, you're one of your kids is we can't find them Would you say well hold let's wait till shane's done. Let's get through worship We're gonna go get lunch and mammoth then we'll look What would happen this service would stop? I would stop preaching Hopefully she would come and say hey, we got a kid missing boom done Empty out the building That's the word So are you you're seeking god like that I'm not tell you tell you because i'm not perfect My messages are never about perfection, but come on morgan direction Is that that that's what the word means? If you seek me You will find me and let me tell you it's not a 10 minute process Or a day or a week or a month. We don't know All we know is we have to get so desperate for god That we will seek him no matter what And sometimes maybe it takes a while because he wants to test the validity of our commitment god, come on It's been a week.

This is i'm not i'm not seeking you anymore This is ridiculous. I've got life to lead People think i'm weird. Don't get weird.

We have to do work. We have to be employees and bosses and and workers and but That's what that verse is. If you seek me, you will find me And I don't know about you, but I I can take god on his promises I don't think it says if you seek me you might Find me anybody i've ever known who's been mightily filled with god's spirit who sought him.

They it was a process And sometimes it's a breaking process One thing i'm thankful for for what we went through is it was a refreshing filling of the spirit It was a new Refreshment, that's what the bible says paul says be filled with the holy spirit There's it's it's it's a continual seeking of god and there's there's times where you're just barren and dead and and For example this morning i'm like, oh lord, I don't know about today and i'm not really feeling it Everybody say that i'm not really feeling worship today. Well good for you worship wasn't about you Feeling it told you i'm getting a little snarky so But it's a pressing in regardless of how we feel And second chronicles is so important. But as for you not the world not your spouse as for you Be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded And maybe you might not see it on this side of heaven This is what I I talked about before too there were there were three dreams i've been praying about I had this Idea of what god was going to do and he's not doing it So then you get disgruntled How do I know that reward's not in heaven? Versus here and how do I know what I want might destroy me? We don't know that god knows he's sovereign Because we never make perfect decisions anybody make a perfect you have perfect motives I'd love to meet you afterwards if you have you have perfect motives We have fallen motives We try lord help me.

I want to do the right thing this heart this this This isn't right this thought process and you get back on track and you're going but then here comes another ulterior motive and here And it's a journey And god knows so well that he knows how to pull us out of that fire Do not give up your work will be rewarded the fight that you have the spiritual fight that you have confirms the value of your commitment You realize that so next time you you beat yourself up man. This fight is hard. The spiritual battle stinks, right? It shows how important it is When I was walking with the world, I didn't really have too many spiritual fights Did you? I was already on the enemy side.

God's fighting for my soul Thank god through the prayers of my mom. Many of you heard me talk about it, but i'd have my acdc and metallica albums and and uh, And highway to hell my mom's praying over there putting her bible on it. Don't pray for me.

I want to have fun tonight I'm on the i'm on the devil's side. There was no struggle. You just went with the flow How many of you ever enter tube on the owens Try swimming up it That's what happens when you become a christian You're swimming up stream That's why there's a fight.

That's why it's challenging But you the bible says you pick yourself back up and you keep fighting having done all stand Having done everything you can do just god just thank god. He tells me to stand Isn't that good? He doesn't say shane you go get him. I'm gonna stay up here in heaven He says stand the battle is not yours It's mine Thus sayeth the lord having done all stand moses.

Just stand and watch the sea be part of joshua Just stand and watch the walls come down ephesians having put on the full armor of god. Just stand there Just stand there because there is strength and standing isn't there how many of you live? I love those navy seal Uh videos and and we're listening to their podcast We have a guy coming to speak in december Who's a former navy seal and they talk about often how they would just stay there and hold? They wouldn't always just go all the time. They would hold the ground they would stand they would hold that stronghold It's the same thing for us.

Just stand there and finally, of course let pain Break you in order to remake you Oh, don't let pain take you to a dark spot I was going down that rabbit trail. How many of you been hurt a lot and that pain can take us to a dark spot Can it? Well, can you be more specific? Yeah, it's called a critical heart You become critical anybody become critical we got a good crowd here this morning no no critical hearts here let me change my sermon and and uh Most of us are most of us are critical Let that pain break you in order to remake you See what I what I realize is the sooner you surrender to god being the potter and you being the clay the easier it is On the will the potter's will this is nice, but if you're already formed i'm already a bull don't make me into a vase God breaks you and breaks you and breaks you in order to remake you I mean we appreciate my wife and I she gets so many great feedback Too on her when she does things and and we appreciate that, but we're not superman superwoman We have flaws we've been broken And broken and broken for everybody. Oh, we love this sermon.

I've got nine other people saying i'm a clown I should repent a white ring a white wing, whatever that means Now I got a goatee. I'm really in trouble. Yeah, christian nationalist pecker woods straight out of the jail.

What? It's like it's it's but god breaks you and breaks you and breaks you so you'll be able to minister to anybody I can relate your marriage is falling apart. I've been there Alcoholism has you bound crystal myth this depression once god breaks you you don't begin to look down on others You look at them eye to eye and you can help them He breaks you to remake you I love that worship song out of the ashes I what I rise God pulls it. He says now now you're usable.

See now. You don't think you're all this in a bag of chips I don't know if that's applicable, but it seemed to be right then but right god breaks you and now lord I I'm broken my my my spouse left and and god my health issues and and my finances and I'm so broken good. Now the lower you go the higher god can raise you up That's how it works in the spiritual kingdom humble yourself before god does Humble yourself before god does people sometimes why do you get so worked up? This is the words of the living god.

How should we act? blah blah blah i'm watching What am I watching? Oh What's pretty boring Oh my god, it's like i'm going shopping at the mall with my wife I have to I have to just sit right guys. You don't like do you like shopping? That's the most painful process That's not rude, isn't it? No, but I like being with her but the shopping Is like she'll last about 20 minutes at the owens river fly fishing I could say they're all day right just the the difference there But these are the words of the living god Guys, once you realize that the bible will come alive It comes like this is this is god's word It's more solid than carson's peak Than half dome This this is the word of god. It will never return void So when he says be strong gird yourself up don't give up you will be rewarded If you if you keep persevering if you do not give up So powerful jesus said i've spoken these things to you that in me You may have peace in the world.

You will have tribulation Get used to it. Get ready for it. You will have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world All right, i'm going to wind it down shortly because if not we'll be here a while Philippians 4 13 I can do all things through christ who strengthens me I don't know if we have that one I can do all things through christ who strengthens me, but you have to remember something It's not just a passive sitting at home Watching netflix Waiting for christ to strengthen you there's participation When I am weak he is strong He gets you to those weak moments and then dependence on him deepens my faith and abiding in him empowers me The only way we can do things is through christ who strengthens us.

How does he strengthen us through that relationship? Have you guys noticed this before the more time I spend with christ the stronger I become And the more I drift away The weaker I become and those who drift are not anchored to the rock Those who drift from god again, all of us have been there. Have you ever drifted? As a pastor i've drifted Because it's hard to swim upstream every day 24 seven week in and week out you will drift And you begin but wait the keys you would notice that drift and you say here and no more god restore those years back to me Restore david said something interesting restore the joy of my salvation Some of you need to pray that this morning return the joy of self my salvation to me god I i've become barren and unfruitful and I want that joy back I don't know about you, but I don't want secondhand fire I want the fire the spirit in my heart and in my life So ask yourself this question is there any fruit is there any fruit in my my life is there joy Joy is one of the the biggest indicators of someone filled with the holy spirit And this is coming from someone who has a hard time with joy from time to time Is is that not one of the key fruits of the spirit You think about love joy peace contentment long-suffering gentleness that all surrounds itself around this word joy Joy filled filled with joy That's why I love I don't know about you and I know this topic's controversial But I love seeing joy during worship man, you're you're man you're smiling big You can't even have that six-pack when your favorite team's winning Man you're so full of joy. You're getting up out of your seat a little bit Look at them go look at them go But when they come to church Here we go.

Debbie downer Mike how many songs this morning? man What's and you know, you think i'm thinking about my work i'm thinking about my job I can't wait to go on my phone and check my social media feeds What am I texting and what am I going to do later and why am I so bored you've lost the joy of the lord Think about this. We're worshiping The god of the universe Where's the joy? Well sin kills joy I can get real convicting right now if you want Sin kills joy But so does quenching and grieving the spirit. Yes, we do it through sin, but we can also drift away from god Why did jesus say return to your First love So the enemy wants to rob you of that love rob you of that joy and you become discouraged Do you want to go to church when you're discouraged? Do you want to tell anybody about jesus when you're discouraged not me I go into loony bean.

I see the line i'm discouraged. I don't want to talk to anybody about jesus We walk into our stores get me in get me out. I don't want to talk to you about jesus We get home.

How many of you are guilty you get home? There's not a smile on your face There's a pout in your face Critical that joy robbing us of that joy because joy contains change your family and your marriage as well Isaiah 41 fear not i'm with you. Do not be dismayed I will strengthen you. I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand But again, even though the word if isn't there it's implied if you fear not What's interesting about fear is it's actually rooted in trust Not trusting god Because I fear just like many of you but why am I fearing man not trusting in god Fear and discouragement are satan's greatest weapons And our fear is either fueled or it is quenched Do you realize that if you're fearful you're either fueling it? Or you can quench it by god's word you open the psalms. You're not going to stay in fear very long Put on worship music open the psalms camp out there for about an hour find a quiet place a quiet heart in a quiet hour You're going to push fear out But you jump on social media You start looking at the news How many stuff that we worry about never even happened It's amazing Yeah, almost all of it And of course some things are true. I'm not naive.

I know, you know, I know about Government, I know about deep state. I'm i'm not naive. Please trust me.

I've got friends who are well Educated in this area, but all the things remember we thought that during covid they're going to build uh these These big cities and we're going to move all this too And if you don't get the jab and and this is going to happen in this it's like all these things I wrote down like None of that happened It could in the future again. I'm not naive. I know where things are going But everything we worried about From five years ago.

It's like nothing happened Maybe it was the prayers of god's people. I don't know. Maybe it was conspiracy theory.

Some of those are true Some are but we get so worked up In my area I had to turn off something on facebook Yep notifications from something called av scanner You're following a police scanner Oh not healthy. Not good No Another stabbing we're not going to park Another shoplifting you're not going to walmart Another beating you're not going to movies Kids got arrested them all you're not going to mall Fear Right pop pop pop pop pop pop. What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? I was just feeding And some of you will not stop that because you enjoy it There's something about knowing and i'm all for know if there's people at the mall with the bomb I want to know But I don't think we're designed to know everything going on In north carolina in maine and vermont and texas look what's happening here.

Look what's happening here Look what's happening here. Look and and we're just fed. That's why we got to be very careful with what you're allowing into your As a man thinketh So is he Finally brethren paul said in philippines, whatever things are pure Noble, how are you doing so far? I mean, let's be honest that gets that gets rid of 90 of what we're watching and viewing and listening to Finally brethren, whatever things are pure and noble and honest and upright And have a good report Where's where's the good news channels? They probably won't it probably will will flop because nobody wants to listen to it Finally paul ends his whole letter to the church in philippi.

Paul Really? Really? Finally after i'm all done saying all that whatever things are pure noble honest right and a good report meditate on these things You you can either fuel fear Or you can quench that fear And then james blessed is the one who perseveres under trial. You are actually blessed when you persevere Having stood the test. There's that word again To stand stood having stood the test you held the ground that's That's what god's looking for.

It's not always about forward action. It's also about not retreating Because what is retreating? See you later coward And that's what we do. We run from conflict We don't want to get involved.

We don't want to say things I mean think about california if if just a few christians would run for school board Hello Senate hello Stand fight the good fight of faith And you know what? I I should clarify because people get all worked up. I trigger so many different people saying so many different things I know that politics is not our hope Of course not It that's not even god's mechanism, but the church is to be a spiritual influence in all areas of life We're to be the conscience of the nation There's nothing wrong with saying these these laws are are a form of child abuse This is against god's standard where why don't we say like jesus zeal for his house has consumed me Why don't we say you know what this this godless legislation? How can we allow this perversion? Oh god, there's a fire burning in me I've got to do something because it's righteous indignation We're supposed to be an influence everywhere Well, that's yeah, that's another topic. But when you have a weak relationship There's weak faith a strong relationship with god equals strong faith So just a reminder there is only one hope There's only one hope And I don't know about you, but all these these people passing lately.

It's really eye-opening Of course you have the dobsons and and John, mccarth and hulk hogan who became a christian and but then you have the aussies you remember him? I do the prince of darkness I don't know where he's at and you look at these famous actors these famous actresses These these these famous musicians kids really need to hear this these famous athletes. We never hear from them anymore I can find the article if you want, but do you know who is very very depressed right now? the goat in basketball jordan If I could just go back and play the game Can you imagine? You are glorified as a god for a while Stop trying to follow all these social media people and athletes and there's no fulfillment. They are miserable They are miserable A guy how many of you used to watch wrestling sting? He used to work out the gym I managed in santa clarita He became a christian lex luther became a christian all these guys and and you see them talk about now They they were at a dead end.

They were depressed everything but now they have the joy of the lord now. They're nobody to the world There's there's only joy in that relationship with god I've talked about this too, but I was really into weight lifting because I was called a fat and stupid when I was younger So a guy at the gym said hey try this little blue pill diana ball try this white pill annavar And boy, I was hooked Now this chubby fat kid could take people and wrestle and beat them up and strong and this is my This is this is my joy now I found it And of course you can look up these names I used to you know a hero of mine ronnie coleman now can barely walk Mr. Olympia flex wheeler has his leg removed Many many of those guys have died that I knew some of them from the gym days gone That joy is fleeting There's only one source of lasting joy until the day you die It's that relationship with the lord. He might not raise you up.

He might put you down But in that down position you humble yourself What was macarthur's final words? You probably heard it death. Where is your sting? There is no sting There's only joy in those filled with the spirit of god surrender to god Bless is the man whose strength is in you the psalmist said And like david repent create in me a clean heart But do you know god is looking for response not just the hearing Many christians live in deception how they hear? But they do not do So I don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. You can actually stay where you're at doesn't matter You can come forward you can kneel The altar for me.

It was a place of brokenness I'll still never never forget that day in cortzill california avenue l I was just I came back to the lord And he said if you need to humble yourself and surrender to god, I I couldn't have got up there quicker I was ready i'm done when you're done with this world. Some of you are still playing in it You like this world right now, but trust me it will chew you up and spit you out And you have to call on god. That's the only hope Stay seated if you like stand if you like and kneel But what I mean, there's a time for response to say, okay The word has saturated my heart That's the job of preaching the word has saturated my heart lord.

Now. I need to respond Lord i've been prideful and arrogant in my marriage I'm the problem I can restore this i've been a jerk to my kids Or young adults say lord i've been i've been not following you i've been involved in idolatry putting things before you God, I need to make that response. I need to repent And get my life back on track.

I want I want to experience that joy of salvation that I once had or maybe for the first time The bible is clear. I don't I don't know what the group decides. I don't know if everybody is a christian If you're like me, I went to a christian school I had a bible My mom was a christian Don't I just get a ride on her coattails? It was quite a day when I realized nobody would be standing next to me When i'm in front of the living god And he will not say let me see all your good works And I hear that a lot.

Hey, i'm a good person. I do good things That won't even come up What how arrogant that won't even come On the day of judgment Christians when we go into the what they call the The beam of seat of christ and your works are judged and and see but before god before god the living god What did you do with my son? Did you will you hear well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the lord? You won't be able to argue You won't be able to debate You might be able to talk your way out of things here Not there He'll say depart from me I never knew you That's the two choices I remember I highlighted that that verse I started crying When I came back to lord says what will profit a man? To gain the whole world Let you And you lose his soul And then you look for okay, what good works get me into heaven The only good work is jesus's finished work on the cross And i'm only going to hear well done thou good and faithful servant or depart from me. I don't even know you Jesus is not saying he doesn't know you as a person.

Of course. He knows everyone. He's saying I don't have that relationship with you You knew about me I know it's a hard topic, but it's in the bible and jesus talked about it How many people are on in hell that knew about jesus Millions Oh, I knew I know he's he's that guy right that died on the cross Right that guy that they I heard about in church, right that guy I know about it.

I I study in school I I know matthew mark luke judges. John is a I I know I know all about that You didn't repent And believe one of my heroes of the faith, of course billy graham When I came back to lord, I couldn't put down his biographies and listen to the sermons and um I I mean I I could I knew he walked down the sawdust trail under the preaching of mordecai ham And became a christian and some ushers pulled these teens back. I I know all about him North carolina's I know all about him, but if I ran into him I said, oh billy.

I know all about you. I know all about you. He'd say young man I don't know you Bye, I don't know you What's the difference? There's no relationship And the only relationship is not head knowledge.

It's heart engagement repenting and believing