Guarding the Heart: Cultivating Joy Through Faith

1. "I think Proverbs 4.23 is saying that who or what holds my heart determines the course of my life, determines the course of my life. We're in Paul's letter to the Philippian church. Paul planted this church in Philippi, which is still in modern-day Greece. And you go to Acts 16, Paul had quite the experience there. But he stayed with them, and he moved on to plant another church. The unique thing about the Philippian church is it is the first church that was planted in Europe. It made it into Europe. And Paul is writing to encourage people who are discouraged. They were under great persecution from the Roman Empire for being believers in Jesus." [04:20] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "The Apostle Paul did that. And he has a word of encouragement for us this morning on how to pursue a joyful heart. Because there are things daily that are trying to steal your joy. And God wants us to have true, lasting joy. Let me read from Philippians 2, beginning in verse 12. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for his good pleasure." [06:06] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Fear is a joy stealer. You ever notice how when you're worried, you actually become very selfish and you get closed off to other people? And fear makes us selfish. It's a waste of time, but we all suffer from it, right? The antidote or the remedy is faith. And faith is believing in who God says He is and what He's promised. So that's how we remedy that heart problem. Second is a bad attitude. We talked about this last week about having, pursuing joy in our attitude. And the remedy to a bad attitude is love because love is not a feeling. Love is, it's a choice. It's something that we do." [07:48] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The Heart Association has five exercises that they recommend for your physical heart. Circuit training, swimming, lifting weights, running, and yoga. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stretch on that last one there, but the other ones, right? Well, think about what Paul says in verse 12. He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. There are five exercises that I think we can do to give us joyful hearts, to pursue joy. When he says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, we work out what God has already worked in." [09:29] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The first exercise we find in verse 13 is I need to keep reminding myself that God is with me and that he's for me. There's power in repetition, like repeating, Lord, thank you that you're for me. Thank you that you're with me. We don't ask God to be with us. We ask him to remind us that he is with us and to acknowledge his presence and to remember he's always with us. He said, for it is God who is at work in you both to desire and work for his good pleasure. God takes responsibility. You see in that verse, he's working in you." [12:56] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Second exercise for a joyful heart is keep a grateful and compliant heart. Keep a grateful and compliant heart. Do all things, all things without complaining or arguing, all things. I don't know if you guys know this, but there's this election happening in 30 days. Did you guys hear about that? Okay. Here's an important thing. And hear me on this. You are a Christ follower, a Christian before you are whatever political party you're with, whatever ideology. You are a Christ follower. Work backwards from there. Don't get into silly arguments with people." [14:23] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "The third exercise for a joyful heart is keep a clean conscience. Keep a clean conscience. There is power in a clean conscience when we don't have something hidden in our life. I've seen this before in, in like big famous preachers who like one guy was, he was having an affair on his wife, but on Sundays was preaching about integrity. I got, I didn't have a joyful heart. I can guarantee you that he's faking his way through that. And thank God he repented. And there was some restoration there, but when you have a clean conscience, there's not something you're hiding because obviously God knows everything, but you're not hiding it from others." [19:03] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "Fourth, exercise in keeping a joyful heart or pursuing a joyful heart is keep your grip on the gospel. Keep your grip on the gospel. He says, holding firmly to the word of life. I want you to do this with me. Make a fist. Everybody, make a fist, please. Now, if you're going to grip a baseball bat, or you're going to grip a golf club, or a shovel, or whatever, right? Like, you grip it like you're gripping it. Now, take your pinky and do that. How much, did you lose on what you would be holding and keeping a grip on? You need to have a firm grip, all five fingers, and your palm to grip a club, to grip a bat, or whatever, a shovel." [25:33] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "The last exercise, keep living for the ultimate affirmation. Keep living for the most important affirmation. We can get so caught up into the approval of people that we forget the approval of the Lord is so much more important of an affirmation. Paul's in prison and he says, I'm being poured out like a drink offering. He knew what was coming. He's in prison awaiting a trial. We know church history says ultimately Paul was beheaded in Rome. He never made it out of that prison. But he's talking about joy and the joy of hearing that ultimate affirmation, well done, good and faithful." [30:35] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)