Pursuing Joy: Attitudes Rooted in Christ's Example

1) "So we're talking about having an attitude that is pursuing joy, a joyful attitude. Joy is a happiness of the soul. And as we saw last week, and as we see from Paul, it's not produced by circumstances. It's not produced by circumstances. Feelings, but it's produced by the Holy Spirit. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. And the truth of the Gospel. Joy is an attitude of the heart and a byproduct of faith. So for me, as I've been going through this all week, I've been getting a little bit of an attitude adjustment. You've heard that word before. Hey, you need an attitude adjustment. Maybe that's you. Maybe you're not, your attitude is down or negative on something in your life. Be open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do through the Scriptures, through Him opening our minds and our hearts to have this attitude in us that is in Christ Jesus." [08:35] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "How do we pursue joy in our attitudes? I think there's three things that from the passage I read that we can do to pursue joy always and have joy, a joyful disposition. The first is start with the right foundations. Start with the right foundations. He says, therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in Spirit, intent on purpose. I think what he's trying to say is there's four things, four foundations. There's four original truths I need to build my life on. And the first is finding encouragement from being connected to Jesus. You are connected to the Creator and Sustainer of all things. You're in fellowship with the Father, Son, and Spirit. What a beautiful thing." [09:59] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "Have you ever noticed it's hard to be joyful when you're discouraged? Discouraged people are rarely joyful people. How do we break through discouragement? And find that encouragement. I think we need to find a deeper encouragement, a deeper encouragement that does not depend just upon our circumstances. It made me think of 1 Samuel 30. David is, in his manner, out at war against the enemies of Israel. And David does this huge military blunder. And they leave their wives and their children alone. And David says, I'm not going to do this. To the other enemies of Israel. So while they're fighting this war at Ziklag, the other enemies of Israel come and take and kidnap all their wives, all their children. And his men were mad and discouraged. And they were mad at him to the point that they were thinking about picking up stones and killing David and stoning him to death. David was bummed. He was discouraged. He felt guilty and shame. And 1 Samuel 30 verse 6 says, David encouraged himself or strengthened himself in the Lord. He strengthened himself in the Lord. He was able to pick himself up through his knowing that Yahweh loved him and that he was going to get him through this. Sometimes we need that deeper encouragement. We need to get our eyes off what's discouraging us and get our eyes on the one who encourages us, that we are connected to Jesus." [11:42] (101 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Then another foundation to have a joyful attitude is fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I say this often. We don't need to ask God to be with us. He is with you 24-7. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He resides in you. You don't need more of him. He needs me to recognize his presence. So when you pray, just say, Holy Spirit, thank you that you're with me. Help me to recognize. Help me to recognize your presence. Help me to recognize that fellowship and that guidance that I have from you. Then I think Paul tells us here to have joy in our attitude is to reciprocate love to others. You receive joy when you show love to others. We actually benefit from it ourselves, the joy of loving others." [14:22] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Second thing to have a joyful attitude is make the right attitude choices. There are choices Paul tells us in verses 3 and 4 about making the right attitude choices. So we start with the right foundations and then we make the right attitude choices. Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit. But with humility, consider one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. What powerful relationship rudder. You know, a rudder on a boat guides where the boat's going to go. I think that verses 3 and 4 are the rudder for our relationships where we're not selfish. We're not, we have humility towards one another. We're looking out for one another. John Maxwell, he said, people hear your words, but they feel your attitude. They hear your words, but they feel your attitude." [15:04] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "And then lastly, we get to the meat of this passage to have a joyful attitude is to imitate the right example, imitate the right example. I'm not going to read the whole passage again, but he says, have this attitude in you that was in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself and came to this earth in the form of a man. And that he humbled himself to the point of death. And then God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above all names. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God, the father. It's interesting in the Greek, the word confess means everyone will give him praise and even allegiance. That's what that Paul says that in Romans, every knee will pledge allegiance to Jesus. What does that mean to imitate the Lord? Because the Lord is first and foremost, he's our savior. He's our Lord, but he's also our rabbi. He is our teacher. We learn how to live life from him. We follow our rabbi." [21:32] (76 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "What did Jesus do that we can learn from? I wrote down four simple things. The first thing Jesus did is he laid down his rights, right? He let go of what was due him. He let go of what was due him. He's the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the creator and sustainer of all things. And when he came into this world, most people didn't even notice him. Most rejected him because he didn't come the way they thought he was supposed to come as some military general and all of that. But Jesus came to lay down his life, yet he's the King of kings, Lord of lords, worthy of all praise from all humanity. And yet he didn't demand it. He didn't go around going, don't you know who I am? Don't you know who I am? I'm the King of kings. I created you. Bow down to me. That's not our God. That's not how Jesus... That's not who Jesus is." [22:57] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "And then Jesus was obedient to his father. He was obedient in everything that he did to the father. And it was sacrificial obedience. I don't know, a week or two ago on a Monday on our day off, Janelle and I might have been on a golf course. And we found this little yardage thing. Sometimes people have a GPS watch. This was like a little thing you clip onto your card or keep in your pocket. And it lets you know how far your ball is from the hole on the green. Very, very handy little thing because then you can know what club to use. And so we used it the whole round. I was like, I like this And there was... There's this tug of war going on inside of me that I knew I needed to turn it into the clubhouse because somebody paid good money for it. And they probably were hopefully going to come and check, hey, did this get turned in or not? Did somebody find this? And I was like, but I really want to keep this. I really want this. And so we actually had to go in the clubhouse for something. I forgot about it and it was in my pocket. And we almost left because we were done. And if we would have left, I probably would have kept it. I reached down and felt it in my pocket. I know what I need to do. I walked in and I told the clubhouse guy, I said, we found this on whatever hole it was. And hopefully somebody will come back and he goes, that's really cool that you did that. And I was thinking, I didn't do that for you, but thank you. I want to be obedient to my father. And when I give you personal examples of this, it's part of my role as a pastor teacher is to, you know, so that you have real life examples. Because it's in the little things. When we're obedient in small things, when the tougher things come, we will have built up a strength of obedience that it becomes easier and easier rather than just that slippery slope of disobedience. And when Jesus tells us to obey his commands, it's out of love. He knows what's best for each one of us. The father is a good father. And he says, do this, don't do that. It's for our good. It's not for our, to throw a drag. Boy, do I wish I would have known that in my teen years and in my early 20s that God was looking out for my best. Anybody with me on that? I really messed up those teenage early 20 years. But I've been spending the rest of my life realizing God is love. And when he says do this or don't do that, it's because he cares for us. He cares for us as a good father." [24:50] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "And then through the example of Jesus, he was exalted. He was exalted. Jesus in Luke 14 11, he says, those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted. The way up in the kingdom of Jesus is down. The way up is down. It's an upside down kingdom. What sustained Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane when he was asking for forgiveness? agonizing, knowing what was about to happen to him. What sustained him on the cross? The writer of Hebrews says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. What was the joy? The joy was you. Because we see in Scripture that he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God had a plan for the mess we were going to make in the Son of God, the Word of God, becoming flesh and coming into this world and living a life where he was mostly rejected. And then humanity put him on a cross, and he submitted himself to death. But in the plan of God was to rise from the dead and to reverse the curse, to reverse the fall of Adam. That was the joy set before him. So in the agony that he experienced, he was thinking about, you and I. He was thinking about you on the cross. Don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget that." [27:47] (103 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)