Choosing Joy: A Journey of Faith and Obedience

1. "Joy also is a decision. Joy is more... I just read something recently and I, because I've been studying on joy, that joy is more of a decision than it is a feeling. It begins with a decision. It begins to walk. I'm going to walk in the joy of God. We're supposed to be filled with the spirit. We're supposed to be filled with the fruit of the spirit. What people see coming out of us should be love, joy, peace, and so on. The fruits of the spirit. That's how they know that you're actually different than the rest of the world." [41:07] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Real joy comes from, from who Jesus is. And that's where we've started from. Real joy is from who Jesus is. And based on him, rather than who we are. And what is happening around us. Joy comes from the Holy Spirit. Abiding in God's presence and from hope in his word. I love that definition. True joy is limitless. Life-defining. Transformative. It's a reservoir waiting to be tapped into. It requires the utmost surrender and, like love, is a choice to be made. You can choose to live in joy. No matter what's happened. No matter what the news says. No matter what your bank account says. No matter what the doctor says. No matter what's happening around you. You can choose right now, I want to live in joy." [44:02] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "We can be walking through this life. And we don't have to... We don't have to be affected by whatever circumstance comes up. But you have to choose where you're going to keep your eyes. Remember Peter. When he walked on water, he could walk on water because he had his eyes on Jesus. The moment he took his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the waves, the circumstances, the idea that water and water... I'm not supposed to be able to walk. As long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he could do the miraculous. He could do the supernatural. He could exist in a supernatural. He could exist in a supernatural state because of not who he is, but because of who Jesus is. And what Jesus has done." [48:07] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "We have the authority to speak over this stuff. We as believers shouldn't be watching whatever local TV, or whatever TV we're watching, and going and lamenting, yep, it's horrible, yep, it's bad, yep, it's never going to change, yep, it's going to get worse. We're speaking death. We should be looking at this going, you straighten out right now. You come in line with the Word of God. Local school district, you come in line with the Word of God. Local school board, instead of complaining and whining about the local school board, start praying for them and speaking life over them." [50:01] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Joy is a choice. Not necessarily a feeling. Turn to Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15, beginning with verse 12. Says, and again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles. In him will the Gentiles hope. Praise God. If you're not a Jew here today, you're a Gentile. And that's talking to us. If you're a Jew, you're in too. I heard it before I said it, and I was so happy. I was so happy. Here we go. Okay, I will try to stay focused today. I can see it's one of those mornings." [46:17] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Joy is not happiness. Happiness exists. Of course it does. But happiness is basically... Based on circumstances. Someone who is happy has feelings of pleasure, usually because something is nice. Something nice is happening or because they feel satisfied with their life. You don't have to be satisfied with what's going on around you to walk in joy. I know that seems so weird. That seems so anti-reality. But praise God, we live in a supernatural world that is more real than our physical world around us. We can choose. To trust and believe God in him, we can choose to be in joy. You can choose right now. You can start choosing right now. And that's what I want you to do." [55:16] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Worship produces joy. This morning, worship was producing joy in me. There was a couple of songs. It caught me, man. I mean, I praise God that the worship in here is loud. Not too loud, but loud. Because there were a couple of times when my voice cracked this morning because we were singing about the goodness of God and what he's done for us and how I'm not, I'm not, you know, sins are not accounted against me. And it got me again, man. It just, it just like, I, I, I said, my voice started to crack just a little bit, very manly, but I was just started to crack just a little bit. And it was just like, God, you're so good to us. Thank you. You're so good to me. Thank you, Lord. Worship produces joy." [01:19:57] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "When we pray, you're speaking God's will out into this earth. And when you do, and then a prayer gets answered, you can go, wow, there's joy in answered prayer. There's exceeding joy when our prayers are answered. The epitome of the Christian life is stepping beyond our needs and asking God to bless others. Ephesians 3, 14 says, for this reason, I bow my knees before heaven. This is a prayer that you can pray for people. I pray it for you guys all the time. I almost daily. I pray this prayer for our church. I pray this over you. I pray this over individuals. If an individual is going through something, I pray this prayer for that individual. Whenever I hear about it." [01:18:23] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Fellowshipping with God, the Father produces joy. Fellowshipping with Jesus produces joy. The thing that, that takes away joy, takes away joy is sin. Now here's the deal. The sin doesn't change how God looks at you. It just changes how you want or desire to relate to him. Perfect example is, Adam and Eve. Before the tree, before the fruit, Adam and Eve were in the garden and it says every day God would come down in the cool of the day and he would walk with them. He would fellowship with them. He would hang out with them. And then Adam and Eve disobeyed God and they ate the fruit. They sinned. The sin entered the world. So then from that point on, God never came down in the cool of the day, did he? You're wondering, aren't you? No. The Bible says he came down that day. He came down that moment. He came down in the cool, just like he, his, in his heart, the relationship had not been broken. In his heart, he loved them just as much as he loved them before. He cared about them just as much. He wanted to be with them just as much. He came down in the cool of the day to spend time with them, just like he had always done. It was them that went and hid and put on some leaves. They were trying to hide from God. That's what sin does to us." [01:13:06] (95 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "How do you have a relationship? You just follow him. You follow him wherever he leads you, how he leads you, when he leads you. Your following Jesus could be very different the way you follow Jesus, the way I follow him. Now he's, it's the same Jesus. It's not like however you want to, it's however he wants to. But he's individual. He leads you individually. Fellowship, fellowshipping with God, the Father produces joy. Fellowshipping with Jesus produces joy. The thing that, that takes away joy, takes away joy is sin. Now here's the deal. The sin doesn't change how God looks at you. It just changes how you want or desire to relate to him." [01:11:21] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)