Joy To The World #4 - Find Joy Even When You've Messed Up

[Applause] [Music] all right Merry Christmas love you excited to be with you a great day to be with you best day of the week we are in the book of Philippians looking at the theme of joy if you've got a Bible turn to Philippians chapter 3 and today I'm going to tell you how you can find joy even when you've messed up and let's just be honest we're all in church we've all messed up and God has joy for all of us let me start with a story from this past week so last weekend small team of us went down to Mexico we brought the presents that you gave and you gave a lot of great presents thank you for that we brought those over the border we hosted a Christmas dinner for Mexican pastors and their spouses and kids most of them are in poor communities mom and dad are both working a full time job they volunteer at the church and a huge percentage of what the family makes goes just to support the local ministry so we wanted to honor them and thank them and love them and strengthen the Mexican church and so we threw a Christmas party that was a smashing success we'll do it again next year we gave away all the presents that you gave to us and some of the pastor's took them back to give to children in need in their community and the trip was over all great except there was one thing that was a little more complicated that was the sleeping arrangements we we showed up and they said okay you're sleeping here one big huge room tile floors for around 20 people on air mattresses men women children families the whole deal and so I married a girl who won't even stay no bed-and-breakfast so this is too close to camping this is too close to camping for our family so amen I got a Amen from the front row from this beautiful blonde girl they're married so that being said what happened was they threw the air mattresses down everybody tries to go to bed but the fatal flaw was they left the windows open and there's no heat and it got down to the 40's and if you're from Arizona that's really really really cold so 70 and so and so what happened then during the middle of the night everybody's freezing to death one of the dads who was on the trip literally got up and put on all the clothes that he brought to Mexico all of his pants all of his socks all of his shirts his coat put his beanie over his face climbed into his sleeping bag and shivered and only slept about an hour thankfully he was awake when his daughter sleeping next to him threw up in her sister's blanket joy to the world okay so at that point he had to spring out of bed you know lift his you know bank robber stocking cap situation and then there's no there's no laundry facilities there's just one bathroom so he's in the shower in all of his clothes with his daughter and they are cleaning out the blanket in the shower in the middle of the night the next morning we all get together for breakfast he slept about an hour and was dealing with Peter and then and then breakfast he comes down smiling smiling and he's sober and it's like why how why are you happy how are you doing great joyful well what I heard you had a rough night oh yeah it's up all night freezing to death my daughter puked how you feeling it's such a great day I'm so glad to be here I'm so excited zero people have slept on a Mexican floor cleaned up puke and woke up smiling praising God good night this guy has a superpower and so I asked him I said well what's to do is I go I'm glad to be here I'm sure God has great things for us today I really love the team I'm glad to be doing missions with my kids I'm glad that when my daughter threw up I could either which I've never said once in my whole life and he said I'm happy that when I go home and it's all said and done I got a bed not an air mattress I got a heater and you know so it's just a little while and I made me very grateful and content for everything that I have it's not just what you go through it's your perspective of it and and the reason I tell you this is so often times when it comes into the holiday season there are joy killers and joy stealers and God wants you to have his mind his attitude his disposition and so where we've been studying is the book of Philippians it's written by a guy named Paul 19 times and 104 verses he talks about joy and rejoicing and there's a lot to learn about joy and rejoicing for you today we'll start in chapter 3 verse 1 where he is going to tell us remember to rejoice because we forget right you would never leave the house without your wallet or your purse or your phone or your keys but you would leave your house without the joy of the Lord you got to remember to take it with you chapter 3 verse 1 this is awesome finally now let me just ask this is he done with his sermon no he's halfway done and he says finally this is my new life verse okay at some point in the sermon I will say in conclusion or lastly what I mean is we're halfway there that's what I mean and some of you will ask why is that it's biblical halfway through the sermon to say finally it's a way of a preacher keeping your attention it just means that you're nodding off and I need to get you back and so here it is he's halfway through a sermon finally my brother so church's family and God his father what rejoice it's a decision it's a choice that you can make and the Holy Spirit will empower to occur in the Lord to write these same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you now what he's saying here first is that God is a happy God that God is a cheerful God that God is a joyful God how do I know he's telling us that no matter where we're at or what we're going through we can enter into the Lord's joy we can we can find joy we can find reasons to rejoice in the Lord in the Lord so joy is in the Lord so you can't find joy at Costco how many of you been to Costco you got to go to the guy with the vest on say where's joy he's like I don't know you know we have a wine section in the Hutt's as close as we can get here and get some dessert but we can't get joy you can get Mayo at Costco but not sure you can get enough toilet paper to last you through Armageddon and the Millennium but you cannot get joy at Costco so if you go onto Amazon and click for joy will they send it to your house No the drone doesn't deliver that this time of year we're getting things from stores and online retailers God wants you to know that joy is only found in the Lord so if you want joy you've got to go to the Lord Jesus that's the only place for joy to be found and then you can enjoy the people and things that God puts in your life therefore if we can continually access the joy of the Lord it must mean that the Lord is continuously joyful if he was happy here sad here and angry here if we entered in then we'd be downloading his anger downloading his sorrow and occasionally downloading his joy God is a cheerful God God is a joyful God God is a happy God this is his disposition constantly there are occasions seasons and reasons for his sorrow and his anger and his grief and he has full emotional spectrum the God of the Bible does but his default is joy some of you didn't know that and it's important to know that God is cheerful and joyful and happy because to be godly is to follow in the example of God if God is cheerless if God is joyless and God is hapless then it would be godly to be that way but because God is joyful cheerful and happy the godly children of God should share in his joy rejoice he tells us over and over and over because we forget and he's going to remind us you need to remind yourself today you need to remind yourself when you go to work tomorrow you need to remind yourself when the relatives come over for Christmas you need to remind yourself to rejoice in the Lord in those moments in those seasons in those circumstances the joy doesn't come from the circumstances the joy comes from the Lord and we bring the circumstances into the joy of the Lord that's exactly what he's teaching and telling us is possible for the children of God and the reason he reminds us and he keeps saying it is because we keep forgetting so many of us have so much to do work shopping gift wrapping food buying you know party hosting we forget joy that's the one thing that we can easily miss particularly during the holiday season and how many of you have a kid and you realize if you're raising a child little parenting tip you can't just tell them something wants amen it's not like they're six months old hey no fornicating you know and then they're 30 and they're do it you're like I told you when you were six months old not to do that that you got to tell them over and over and over in that particular thing you got a tattoo it on them right you got to make sure they take it with them what Paul is doing here is like parenting we are the children of God God tells us things we tend to forget so he tells us again that's why the Bible often repeats itself it's like a parenting manual he says it is no trouble at all God doesn't mind reminding us of joy now how do we do this it's a mindset reset it's a mindset reset sometimes we get so focused on the pain the problems are the people that we miss the joy of the Lord I'll give you an analogy I was thinking about it I recently got a new phone my old phone went home to be with the Lord and it was a very old phone and it's it stopped working in the camera and it had shaky blurred vision so me and the phone are enduring the same thing at the same time so I go into the store and I I said hey I need a new phone I pulled out my phone and the dude is like how old is that phone I was like as old as me I guess is made out of stone you know here's my phone they gave me a new phone my new phone pray for me has no button I can't make this thing do anything I'm yelling at Siri I'm sure the Russians have hacked it and hear me say in words I probably shouldn't say but I can't get this phone to do anything and so this phone or this exact replica of the phone I've not yet proven that it is a phone what happened this week was it locked up entirely and wouldn't function so what did I need to do reset I powered it off powered it back on to reset it and then it function your life is like that sometimes you get locked in pain or problem or person and the result is you need a mindset reset you need to stop and think and pray and process in the presence of God for me this was my weekend I I know that with Christmas season and and we got a lot going on I mean church is going great but it's your end and we got Christmas Eve and then I'm preaching and then where I've got a kids birthday and then we got a wedding so it's it's it's a real busy season and I want to make sure that I had the presence of God and the joy of God so I took a 24 hour break silence solitude I turned off my phone I wanted to be happy so I didn't check the news and and I just drove to be with the Lord and I got time with the Lord and my prayer and my focus was a mindset reset if I'm looking for joy from grace if I'm looking for joy from you if I'm looking for joy from my children if I'm looking for joy from circumstances I may not have joy but if I receive joy from God then I have joy to share with everyone who's in my life and that's the mindset reset and what's interesting is eventually the social sciences catch up with the scriptures just just give people doing research time eventually they land at what the Bible told us a few thousand years ago there was a study that was done that culminated in a book it was a scientific secular investigation of joy happy cheerful people what it determined was that your joy your cheerfulness your happiness is only 10% 10% contingent on your external circumstances how much of our time and energy do we devote to what really is not the primary issue if that would change if they would change then I would be happy 50 percent this secular study determined regarding your joy is contingent on your personality right your personality type of you you just you sort of lean in one direction or the other you're the optimist you're the pessimist you're the introvert you're the extrovert whatever the case may be but it also determined that 40% of whether or not you have joy is entirely dependent on a mindset the ten percent of external circumstances you likely cannot control you control freaks need to know that you can't control everyone and everything 50% that is your personality that is the way that God hardwired you the 40% is a choice that you get to make and what Paul is encouraging exhorting and exemplifying here is this rejoice in the Lord now in this moment Paul does not have circumstances to rejoice in if you know the story he's been arrested he's in prison he's in Rome he's 800 miles from the Church of friends that he's writing to at Philippi he has probably chained to a Roman guard and he sits down to write about joy and you can have joy in prison you can have joy separated from family and friends you can have joy without an uncertain future if your joy is in the Lord because that is the only secure source for unshakeable continual joy amen all right whew all right we're both fired up that's good all right now what he's going to talk about next may seem like a tangent but it's absolutely incontrovertibly essential and that is this principle you can believe something and negate it with a defeater belief there are certain things that you believe that then undo what you truly believe so what he's telling us is to rejoice and have joy and he's going to tell us about a defeater belief that comes to ruined joy give you an example let's say during the holiday season you decide you're gonna diet okay so you're like I'm gonna add a miracle to Jesus list of supernatural events and I will diet during the holidays and every day all day you make really good decisions but then at bedtime you eat all the desserts that defeats how many of you are like I I now know my problem okay that decision defeats the other decisions what is true of your body is also true of your mind you can believe things and then believe other things that defeat the things that you believe and here's how Paul is going to articulate it religion kills rejoicing God wants you to have joy and religion is a defeater belief by religion I'm not talking about what James calls pure undefiled religion caring for widows orphans and those in need I'm talking about man-made religion I'm talking about man-made traditions I'm talking about man-made rules that try to form a ladder by which we can climb and be acceptable in the presence of God so he says it this way flippy ins 3 2 3 6 look out for the the dogs some of you cap people are like does the Bible say anything about cats no it doesn't because they don't matter ok that's why all right does he do this all the time yeah he does yeah he does so will it happened again yeah just hang in there ok watch out for the dogs look out for the evildoers those who mutilate the flesh talking about religious folks he can't be present and Phillipi he's in prison religious people are coming in ok we got some rules here's what you need to do is stop doing we're gonna have meetings and committees and clipboards and judgements and and performance reviews and here they come for we are the circumcision how many of you would not have started with that who works I'll just keep going otherwise I gotta fire myself who who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus not glorying in your performance not glory in anyone or anything other than Christ Jesus and to put no confidence in the flesh that's human works human efforts human performance though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also so he's going to give us his little resume of who he was before he met Jesus if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more circumcised not just circumcised on the eighth day so very specific this is sort of the religious list of those who were Jewish and some of us look at say what a silly list let me just tell you we've all got a silly list some of you had speaking in tongues some of you it's baptisms sometimes it's speaking in tongues while being baptized we were your varsity sometimes it's mission trips sometimes it's tithing sometimes it's home schooling sometimes it's Christian schooling whatever the case may be we've all got our silly little lists of where the good people here the bad people I am the standard you fall short I'm here to judge you thank you very much that's what religion does this religious spirit and disposition doesn't just exist in Christianity it also props up and promulgates various religions and every social moral and political cause everyone we're the good guys you're the bad guy's we're the good party you're the bad party we're the good race you're the bad race we're the good income level you're the bad income level it's us versus them and we always wear the white hat and you always wear the black cap that is the spirit an essence of religion oh I'll show this to you with a funny analogy my daughter oldest daughter it's Grace's daughter too so it's our daughter she graduated from ASU with her master's degree last week we were at the commencement where they have the big celebration and at the very end they said now to you know protect our environment and be you know environmentally friendly please take your water bottle on the way out and put it in this bin not that bin you could tell immediately and everybody's looking like are you gonna are you a good person or bad person is it a bad thing to protect the environment I know the Creator are and he wants us to take care of his creation but even in that moment it's a secular way of doing a public act it shows that you are a righteous and good person so I got all of you okay you're welcome I have more circumcised on the eighth day the people of Israel the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law a Pharisee these are the most zealous devoted committed hard-core as to zeal a persecutor of the church he murdered an early church leader named Stephen he arrested people he harassed people he was a terrorist and he terrorized he was doing jihad before he met Jesus that's what he was doing as to righteousness under the law and this is a crazy statement the Old Testament in the first five books has 613 laws and here's what he says what blameless nailed it here's what he's saying I don't need Jesus I am Jesus that's what he's saying what he thought before he met Jesus is that he had arrived and he had achieved near perfection on earth there was a smug pride arrogance Smarr meanness judgmentalism regarding him until he met Jesus and what he ultimately does now is he saying I pursued religion with the utmost zeal achieved the utmost accomplishment and I find it all to be absolutely in vain he's discouraging you and I from being religious and instead enjoying a relationship with Jesus Christ and he uses these three sort of metaphors mutilators of the flesh evil doers these would have been the negative and pejorative nicknames that the religious people gave to other people and also the dogs let me talk about that briefly he's not talking about here your domesticated dog your dog that weights its tail and chases its frisbee and loves you no matter what you do not that dog these are the wild dogs have you ever seen a wild dog we were just in Mexico there were a ton of them if you're in a poor community they tend to be present I grew up in a your community we had wild dogs they're covered in fleas they're barking all night they are chasing children they are terrorizing neighborhoods they are eating garbage and they are the only domesticated animal that if you die they will eat you that's a wild dog and he uses this similar language in another book that he writes Galatians in chapter 5 verse 15 he says that religious people bite and devour you ever seen a dog fight I still remember as a poor kid in the poor neighborhood some of the wild dogs ended up in a dog fight and I drove up on it on my bike it was scary and dangerous and and there there was certainty that one dog or the other was gonna die and they're biting and attacking one another that is the demonic spirit of religious people biting devouring criticizing name-calling shaming people beating them up rather than building them up and and and and some of you need to know this because oftentimes Jesus and religion are put together and people are rejecting religion but they think that Jesus is religious he's not jesus is about relationship not religion that he will change you by his love he doesn't demand that you change to have a relationship with him he has a relationship with you and through that loving relationship you change and Paul learned this the hard way and he is here giving us his resume and what he says he was of the tribe of Benjamin that's the only son of the tribes of Israel born in the promised land and the most faithful of all the tribes when he says he's a hebrew of hebrews he's saying my dad is pure blooded Hebrew my mom is pure blooded Hebrew I can trace our family all the way back to Abraham I'm of a direct descent of the great man of faith and the founder of the nation of Israel Abraham furthermore this would mean that he knew the Old Testament in its original languages of Hebrew and Aramaic he could read the we'll translate the Bible he had memorized the Bible whole books of the Bible in his native language the point is you need to know the word to know the Lord but you can know the word without knowing the Lord he knows about God but he doesn't know Jesus as God and here is ultimately where he lands he is zealous he is motivated he is self disciplined he is successful and he is cheerless and he is dangerous religion never ends in cheer it always always always brings a spirit of negativity darkness and criticism he was going from house to house harassing and arresting Christians as I articulated he oversaw the murder of an early church leader named Stephen he was a terrorist he was a religious zealot and let me just say this there is a religious spirit that can turn anything into a religious zeal true or false some people have a religious devotion to their political party some people have a religious devotion to their race or gender some people have a religious devotion to their sports team or their my couple of you chuckles right I know but so you wear the jersey and what that means is idolize demonize I first moved here they're like are you for a su are you of a I'm for Jesus whatever I mean I I don't I don't like I don't what will you get to pick one or the other well you know I like you know I like peanut butter and jelly I don't know you know why because what we do we idolize demonize people like me are good people like you are bad therefore I make a list by which I judge you because you're not like me that's the religious spirit that Paul had and then he met Jesus and he stopped believing the myth that he was the stain and he compared himself to Jesus as the standard and realized how far he had fallen short this really is taking God's place it is I will sit on a throne I am perfect I am right I am good I have laws I will judge you and punish you it's cheerless how many of you grew up in a religious home and it was cheerless how many of you the holidays you're gonna get together with some religious relatives and their cheerless religion is the defeat or belief of rejoicing you can believe that the joy the Lord is your strength you can believe what the angel said at the birth of Jesus I bring you good news of great joy for all the people you can believe the theme of Philippians rejoice in the Lord always I say it again rejoice you can believe the Old Testament promise that in the presence of God there is the fullness of joy and it be defeated by a religious mindset and so Paul here is begging and pleading and he's testifying that joy is not found in religion but rather relationship with Jesus so then he transitions well where do we go to get joy he tells us Jesus is joy to the world and this is amazing Philippians 3:7 through 11 and here Paul is taking his past and using it as a testimony so that he can pay your dumb tax so the friend of mine calls it he says let other people pay your dumb tax Paul here did some things that were wrong they were evil they were dumb he's telling us about them so that we won't do them he loves you enough to use himself as a negative example but whatever gain I had those of you that do accounting think profit and loss column all of his performance all of his achievement was in the performance column of gain whatever I gained I counted his loss he moved everything from the gain column everything I have done over to the loss column the only thing that he had in the gain column was Jesus Christ I count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I've suffered the loss of old things he lost a lot he lost his family he lost his friends there is a possibility that he lost his wife he was a member of the Sanhedrin which was a ruling body and one of the requirements was to be married by the time we read of him in the New Testament he has no wife she may have died or may be divorced him when he met Jesus some of you have had that experience you meet Jesus you come home you tell your spouse I love Jesus they're like I don't piece out his family would have probably had the equivalent of a funeral for him once he gave his life to Jesus he was out of the family his degrees were null and void his teaching certification was was ultimately rendered null he couldn't go back to teaching the places he had taught he couldn't be honored and the places he was honored all of a sudden he lost his income he lost his safety he lost his security he lost his friends he lost his family now he's in prison he's lost his freedom and he's looking at the possibility of losing his life and what he says is what a great deal is I got Jesus I took everything in the profit column that I had done moved it over to the lost column the only thing I have in the profit column is a relationship with Jesus Christ and that's a decision you'll never regret that's a trade you'll never have remorse for he goes on to say and I may gain Christ to be found here I'm not having a righteousness we'll talk about that because that's the essence in the heart of the issue of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ that's trusting him not me the righteousness from God righteousness is not from you it's for you but it's from God we're gonna hit this more and we get into Romans next summer righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings geez suffered for me as I head home with him there will be some bumps on my road as well becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead let me unpack this issue of righteousness God is righteous that means he's holy and pure and blameless and truth and light and good God made us male and female to be righteous through sin rebellion folly we have become unrighteous because we were made to be righteous we still long to be righteous and so this is the prevailing motivation under self-help life coaches personal trainers religious zeal political causes social and moral issues all of it is people who are saying you know I'm not the best version of me I'm not satisfied with this version of me something in me needs to change I think I was made for more and I can do and be better and then they look at the world and say this is true of everyone and everything this is not a religious issue this is a human issue and this desire for righteousness leads us to either pursue it through what I will call works righteousness or gift righteousness works righteousness is reading the Scriptures or making your own list of moral acceptable dutiful behaviors and then by bootstrapping and self willing achieving and accomplishing so that you can declare yourself a good person who is doing a good job here's the problem God's standard is not good or better but what perfect God is righteous some people think God grades on a curve I'm a C student I'm sure I'll be fine no no God's grading system is not a sliding scale it's a pass/fail scale perfect imperfect that's God scale how do I know Jesus says unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees always a Pharisee you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven that's like saying if you to them those two teams would have been like the Dodgers and the Yankees you're like well I can't play ball at that level huh if they're not good enough there's no way our team is good enough Jesus says be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect why does he say that so that we would be humbled that we would know that we need his perfection because we do not possess our own even if you at this moment did everything perfectly for the rest of your life it's too late because you've already sinned and failed this is the problem with works righteousness now what Paul uses here is a very strong word to explain religious works seeking to make us righteous in the sight of God he uses this little word right here what is it rubbish okay if you've got kids cover their errors and I'll give you the other English translation of that word some will call it garbage dung sewer trash felt worthless trash dog dung refuse a pile of waste and turds those are all Bible translations in the English giving definition to this word here's what I want you to know one of the moms said between the services she said that's funny on the chore chart I'm going to tell the kids go out and pick up the religion in the yard that's exactly that's exactly the metaphor he's using next time you're not walking your dog and they do something say that's religion and what's weird is people will compare and brag about their religion there's my pile of achievement my pile is bigger than yours well I'm not sure that's a real accomplishment well my pile is neater than yours I don't think either one is a real victory I feel like my pile is interesting well congratulations what a pile you know here's why we're laughing because religious people take themselves seriously and they don't take God seriously I believe we should take God seriously but not ourselves and so Paul uses this word he was teaching people how to do the religious works and he said when it all got said and done it's just garbage it's dung it's Refuge it's it's ultimately worthless and in vain now a couple things on this strong language God is using strong language here number one God rarely is this strong language if you use words like this all the time you're just a naughty potty mouth that's what you are right you're like well God said it so I could say it God said it once right so you can't work it into every sentence and here's what God is doing he'll use strong language rarely to drive home a vital point Paul's in prison 800 miles away false religious teachers are showing up and he is telling everybody don't eat that in the strongest possible words in addition not only does God use strong language rarely and sparingly he uses it so that we can see truth clearly this is very very important here's the big idea God uses good words for good things and bad words for bad things and in our culture we confuse people when we don't use the right words so if you kill a baby that's a murder not a choice okay that's just that so that's a strong word well that's a strong thing so we're gonna use the right word and it'll be a bad word for a bad thing in a good word for a good thing and we confuse people when all we say is good words and we apply them to bad things okay this is part of parenting as well so that being said that is works righteousness gift righteousness every Christmas we remember that the wise men brought three gifts to Jesus we don't know how many wise men there were but they brought three gifts every Christmas we give an exchange gifts this season is all about gift giving and receiving righteousness is not earned by you it's earned by Jesus who gives it as a gift to you only Jesus is perfect only Jesus has no sin only Jesus has no fault failure or flaw only Jesus didn't need to repent of anything he ever said or did okay so Jesus is righteous and in one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible sin Corinthians 5:21 God made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God you want to be righteous you need Jesus Jesus is perfect he suffered after living a perfect life he suffered as a perfect substitute for you he rose to then give you the gift of righteousness it's a gift of grace you have to receive it some people will say Christianity is too easy all you need Jesus no actually it's hard because it requires humility we come to God not with our hands full of our achievements but we empty our hands and everything we have is a gift from God righteousness is a gift salvation is a gift forgiveness of sin is a gift heaven is a gift everything in heaven will be a gift you will bring nothing to heaven with you everything there will be gifted to you by God when we come forward for communion we come empty-handed to receive the the remembrance of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus and when you do that you are publicly saying I bring nothing Jesus brings everything he is the giver I am the receiver amen that's that's that's gift righteousness so let me let me ask you this do you know Jesus do you love Jesus do you believe in Jesus do do you follow Jesus do you trust in Jesus if you don't that's the most important decision you will ever make and that will determine your eternal destiny and even right now even in the quietness of your because the God who loves you also knows your thoughts you could simply say Jesus I am a sinner and I need a Savior save me and you know what Jesus is always glad to show up forgive love serve and save it's his joy our God enjoys giving righteousness to people and changing their lives and so in this I put together a little bit of a chart just to sort of compare and contrast works versus gift righteousness and I'll just bill Klein to say this we're not saved by our good works were saved to our good works and it's ultimately the life of Jesus showing up in our life so it's the work of Jesus for us it's the work of Jesus in us it's the work of Jesus through us it's all his works just by faith he begins to work in us and through us but religious works it's all about me here's Who I am here's what I've done God's grace it's all about Jesus see Paul says when I was religious I talked about myself now that I met Jesus I'm talking about him my works is about what I do God's grace is about what God does my works the focus is I make myself better God's grace makes me new you know what's even greater than a better you a new you alright that's where self-help will make you better God help will make you new how many of you God's made you new I talked to a guy last Sunday came up to me gave me a hug he's like I was a heroin addict my whole life I met Jesus he got baptized here he said last night I was at a show with some very well-known celebrities and he said they invited me back to the hotel room to do heroin and he said I went home and read my Bible instead and it's the happiest I've ever been that's a new you that's a new you he said I don't even want to do that anymore he said previously to hang out with celebrities and do heroin that would have been my focus instead I'd rather be with Jesus than them reading the Bible rather than participating in some activity that causes me to forget the life that I hate rather than embrace life with Jesus which I enjoy okay what happens in works I cannot be wrong or fail it's I got a bootstrap I got to achieve this were religious people they're performance-oriented they're driven and you can't fail and you can't be wrong so you never say things like I'm sorry it was my fault you got a blame ship excuse make you've got to hide you got to change the subject religious people can't say it's my fault religious people can't say I'm sorry religious people can't say I was wrong because it's based on their performance God's grace I could be wrong or fail I mean if what I say and do is so bad that God died for it then I could just be honest that I did something wrong right I'm sorry it's my fault I was wrong that shouldn't have happened by God's grace it won't happen again works the the underlying problem with the religious spirit is it despises grace and it declares that weak people need grace yeah well you know for you people who fall short you need God's grace but for those of us who don't fall short we don't need God's grace oh I'm praying for you brother you're struggling little smarmy 'no sin that ultimately weak people need grace so you need grace you blew it again you need forgiveness according to god's grace and gift righteousness everybody needs grace amen i mean i know this i I married a girl named grace that's how much God needs to remind me that I need grace amen we only you need grace to forgive you not just her but him you grace to forgive you to love you to serve you to bless you to course-correct you to cleanse you we all need God's grace and so you know what you need grace let me put some grace on it we all need grace and that creates a cheerful rather than a cheerless environment what happens in works righteousness it's an independent spirit I'm on my own I will accomplish I will achieve I will perform and then God will be pleased and proud instead God's grace provides a dependent spirit hey God I need you I'm stuck again I got confused I made a mistake I'm scared you know I don't know what to do whoops help you know and it's just this disposition that says if I don't have God I'm doomed and I'm dependent on him what happens in works our tribe is superior God's grace only Jesus is superior and and and in religious zeal this can be we get down three times a day on a prayer mat and face these toward Mecca or we suffer to pay off our karmic debt and in Christianity sometimes will even take good things make them saving things which is an awful thing well have you been water baptized do you speak in tongues did you speak in tongues while you're getting water baptized because then we know your varsity right we all have our silly little lists what Paul says I had a list I flushed it the only thing on my list is Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ here's the other problem with works I'm never sure I'm good enough I talked to a dear Saint who was approaching death not long ago there near the end of their life they do know Jesus actually loved Jesus and so how's your soul yeah how are you doing they said the man I sure hope I get into heaven you hope like yeah I hope God will accept me no see they believed in Jesus but they had a defeater belief and that was in addition to what Jesus had done they needed to do something and if they didn't do their part then Jesus wouldn't accept them I said no no no you can have full confidence and assurance but if you are in Jesus then Jesus is enough okay and that's the grace of God I'm sure Jesus is enough see there's this weird picture I don't know where it came from some of you may have heard it when you die and stand before Saint Peter at the pearly gates I don't know where any of that came from but nonetheless you're not gonna die and stand before pearly gates and give an account to Saint Peter you're gonna die and stand before Jesus and here's what you're gonna realize if you have Jesus you have everything you need right it's his eternity it's his righteousness it's his forgiveness it's his salvation if you show up and you're like okay give us your resume I didn't bring one but I'm with Jesus they'll be like that's your resume he's your resume he's your grade point average he's your performance review he's your righteousness now works what happens it ends in cheerless pride or despair cheerless joyless pride I'm a good person you're not I'm here to judge you or despair I tried and I blew it and I'm not good enough and I'm a loser religious people and religious spirits never result in cheerfulness and joyful ism that's what Paul say he said I was so religious and so cheerless I was seeking to make other people cheerless by arresting and murdering them thinking that I was doing the work and will of a cheerless God then I met Jesus and I realized that he has joy in loving saving seeking forgiving blessing me he filled me with the fruit of the Spirit which is love and joy and now I have joy to give other people because God's grace ends in cheerful joy you blew it you got God's grace you need help you got God's grace you're dying you're gonna exceed Jesus yay hey man and so I just need you to know this that some of you you put Jesus in religion together and you reject it all don't separate take Jesus reject religion it was the most devoutly religious people who hated and conspired to murder Jesus ergo religion and Jesus are not on the same team and huh yeah I'm preaching myself happy okay here's a little bit of encouragement for you sometimes the problem with our joy in the present and future is because we have not recovered from the past God has joy in the future but there is a defeater pain problems and people in the past Paul addresses this and he says there's far more joy in your future than in your past Philippians 3 12 through 16 not that I have already obtained this or I'm already one perfect we're going to unpack that in a moment but I press on I move forward to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own brothers we're family here God's our Father Jesus is our big brother I do not consider that I have made it my own but one thing I do put this on your to-do list put this on your calendar don't just buy your presents wrap your presents unwrap your presents bake your cookies send out your cards do this one thing forgetting what lies behind and straining forward toward what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus let those of us who are mature think this way and if any of you think otherwise we're not going to criticize you blog about you or just put a frowny face on your social media we'll pray for you and God will reveal that also to you only let us hold true to what we have attained in Jesus Christ you have attained righteousness in Jesus Christ you have attained relationship with God in Jesus Christ you have attained eternal life and then the Holy Spirit helps you live up to what Jesus has already attained for you religion beats people down Jesus builds people up that's the way that it works 8 8 things I want to share with you maybe more from this section number 1 get past your perfectionism how many of you are perfectionist your need niché's your list makers your to doers your checkers write your Christmas present you're hoping for a label maker and some files you like everything in order in sequence how many of you are like that see some of you're on your phone you're not those people ok you're not some of you though and so the problem is unless everything from the past is tidied up you can't move forward into the future the problem is you can't always fix the past and you've got to get over your perfectionism here is a clue hole says I am not yet perfect this guy writes thirteen we're not sure who wrote the book of Hebrews maybe 14 books of the Bible there's only 27 excuse me in the New Testament so he writes about half of the New Testament and at this point he's been a Christian for thirty years and he's in prison writing a book of the Bible because he loves Jesus and here's what he says I've not arrived yet here's the good news it doesn't matter how mature you are we have some incredibly mature Saints in this church family but let me just tell you don't always quote the old verses learn some new ones don't just reread all the old books pick up some new learning you know press forward learn grow there's always more to learn about Jesus and there's always more ways to become more like Jesus if the Apostle Paul writing the Bible after 30 years says I'm not there yet then good news for us all guess what we've not arrived it's what works in progress there's more to learn more to change more to experience more to hope in and become number 2 if you cannot fix it then flush it right just using that little word I showed you if you can't fix it flush it if you can fix it fix it there are some things in his past they can't fix he murdered the a deacon named Stephen can't fix that he can't be he had a bunch of Christians terrorized and arrested he can't fix that if you can't fix it flush it if you can't fix it flush it if there's nothing you can do about it then move on with the things that God has for you to do number three you know you have healed from past hurts when you can talk about it in the present in a healthy way some of you some of you will say things like I'm not going back there I can't talk about it that means you're carrying it with you somebody say well that's in the past that was a long time ago if you're crying or emotional when you're talking about it it's not in the past it's in the present and you will be carrying it with you into the future some of you will say things like time heals all wounds it doesn't only jesus heals ones time actually can make them much worse how do I know shoot somebody and wait the longer you wait the worse they get amen what is true of your body is true of your soul I probably shouldn't have said that but it's a vivid illustration it's true flush it there you go thank you sister I received that okay that's good news what some people will do they will say forgetting out lies behind I press forward but again in context what did Paul just tell us his past here's who I was here's what I was doing he's not unhealthy about it he's saying who thankfully Jesus showed up and here's where everything pivoted with Jesus that's where if you'll be honest about your past with yourself and God then you can be honest about your past with others and your past can be a ministry to them that's what Paul is doing if you can't talk about the past it's not in the past it's in the present going into the future if you can't respond to it in a healthy way or talking about it without an emotional destruction and catastrophizing you've not healed some of you've been through a lot you've been abused you've been traumatized you've been divorced you've been cheated on I mean some horrible things have happened to you and unless you can be honest and talk about it in a healthy way with God and others it's still in your present it will be in your future and Paul demonstrates what it looks like to be honest about the past and to have hope for the future number four to move forward you need to leave some people and things behind some of you your your your lack of joy is you're trying to take every relationship and every person and every experience and everything into the future some of the people that were Paul's friends were no longer his friends when he became a Christian his family probably disowned him he talks about losing a lot of things sometimes to move forward you need to leave some people and things behind now you don't get hard-hearted for them you hope that they meet Jesus and catch up you got to move on into the plan and purpose that God has for your future hoping and praying that they join you but not waiting for them number five when you start moving forward don't look back he says this one thing I do forgetting what lies behind I look forward there's a guy in the Bible his name is Lawton disease a lot of trouble okay that's law D's in Genesis and they're leaving this godless town called Sodom and Gomorrah and God tells them run for your life and don't look back because that's longing and reminiscing and and and reconstituting history oh I missed that no what happens is they're fleeing and his wife does what she looks back what happens to her she becomes a pillar of salt which means she is frozen in that glance in perpetuity sometimes you will look back and it will literally freeze you and you're incapable of moving forward my wife Grace was a sprinter our daughter Ashley was a sprinter some of you a special mark were you sprinter obviously not but I did watch them run and what I saw especially when my daughter started running track first in high school she was really fast Allstate's runner like her mom that sometimes the rookie runners they'd be neck-and-neck headed to the finish line what's the fatal flaw you look over at the next and they pass you lie because you can't go here if you're looking here here this is why Jesus says he uses the analogy of a farmer plowing a field he says if you put your hands to the plow don't look back otherwise all your lines will be crooked during our staff Bible study that we use to prepare for the sermon one of the staff members one of the team members they they know a lot about horses I don't know anything about horses but what they said was this that the reason that they put blinders on a horse especially when they're pulling a cart is the horse will wrongly think that the cart is chasing them and so you need to put blinders on them so they can't look back if they don't have the blinders on and they look back and see the cart they will literally out of fear run until they die some of you are like that you're running from things that aren't chasing you you're looking back and causing yourself fear anxiety worry and paranoia that's where he's going to go in Philippians 3 and 4 next by looking forward you'll have hope and you'll have faith by looking back you will have hopelessness and fear next point number six the best is yet to come so believe by faith until you see by sight Paul here I mean he's planted churches he's written books the Bible I mean his life is amazing he's one of the most towering figures in the history of the world and what he says is tomorrow is gonna be my best day forgetting what lies behind I'm pressing forward there's an upward call for me there's hope for me you need not know what the future holds but you need to know that a good God who loves you and is for you holds that future and you pursue it and chase it by faith until you see it by sight okay let me just test a vial I'll share with you our family was in the worst season of our whole life and it was transition time we moved to Arizona five kids elementary middle school high school college we have no family we have no friends we have a couple of acquaintances we have no job we have no clue what we're going to do there's nothing and we press forward and it's really good to see you guys thanks for showing up you know I mean it's amazing four years later this is the most joyful healthy hopeful season of my whole life this is the healthiest most joyful season in the history of the Driscoll family I'm here to testify that we had no idea what was out there but God did so if you're in it right now and you're in the middle of it right now move forward keep going don't look back don't get paralyzed don't be consumed by the paralysis of analysis flush it forgive move forward that's Paul's exhortation to you and I just tell you you guys are part of our joy I love you this is the this is so much fun that teach the Bible and to say crazy things to people who love you enough to bring their friends that's awesome so thank you this is really fun for me okay number seven only God can create joy that is genuine healthy and unending God made you for joy and the Bible says that in the presence of God is full of joy it's not the absence of trouble but the presence of God that brings joy if you will invite the joy of the Lord's presence then whatever comes into your life is coming into the presence of God where there is fullness of joy so you're bringing hardship or tragedy or loss or crisis or longing or hurt and you're bringing it into the presence of God where it is overcome by the joy of the Lord because the joy of the Lord is bigger truer better richer than whatever you bring into his presence God wants his presence and the joy of his presence to live with you day by day that's why you can rejoice in the Lord always in addition God wants this joy to live in your family God wants this joy to live in our church family for that to happen it will be the presence of God and in the presence of God there is fullness of joy your joy is your choice your joy is your opportunity your joy is your ministry number eight God has joy in your present and future that is bigger than your past mess-ups some of you are looking back right now and you're like but man I can't believe I said that I can't believe they said that I can't believe I did that I can't believe they did that if I could just tidy that up if I could do that over if I could get over that if I could stop being haunted by that Paul's riding on joy from prison and he lived a life that he now realizes was awful true or false if you harass Christians arrest them and kill some you've messed up amen how many Christians go yeah I agree with them he's now their pastor God has good that is much bigger than your bat so don't look back at your bad look forward to his gun and he begins this whole section Philippians 3 1 finally my brother's rejoice in the Lord let me just say a few things maybe in closing okay these are practical things so you got my poker tail now you know okay this is a personal testimony so my wife Grace is the most joyful person I know that she laughs all the time and I say crazy things so we are equally yoked it works really good for us my wife yesterday was laughing so loud I was upstairs and heard it and came down just to see what fun I was missing true that's what happens in my house my wife's life her so preached to you I think it's on January 5th rejoice in the Lord always again I will say rejoice I was the defeater to Grace's joy I would come home she'd be happy I'd be stressed I would defeat her joy I would negate her joy I I would I would sit on the other side of the teeter-totter and level her joy out did this for years and I told myself things that weren't true like well as soon as I fix this problem then it'll be good as soon as I get into this life stage then it'll be better as soon as that relationship is resolved as soon as that person apologizes as soon as I earned that much income then I will land in happiness and I never did it was a wild goose chase with no goose and there were seasons that I believed in God but it was defeated by a cheerless nasai just tremendously regretted I was actually lost be real honest with you I preached the book of Philippians years ago and I was rereading the transcripts and there's very little joy in them because there's a difference between information and impartation information is I know a few verses about joy impartation is and the joy of the Lord lives in me and through me and he is my strength what I've learned then practically and I'll just tell you this is the most joyful season of my whole life I'm the happiest I've ever been the most content and thankful I have ever been and it is a supernatural provision from a cheerful God a couple of things I've learned number one social media and your phone is not the pathway to happiness it's not you want to flush something flush your phone studies show the more you're on your phone the more anxiety stress and the less joy and cheer you have because you are reading news stories about horrible things that you can't do anything about and also you're comparing yourself to liars on social media flyers right right the guy who took the photo of himself in front of the Bugatti he's a valet that's not his Bugatti right it's it's an illusion just convicted all of cure 'land okay number two happiness like everything else must be actively pursued you don't learn the Bible passively actively you don't pray passively actively you don't become a generous giver passively but actively you don't become healthy passively but actively you don't become joyful unless you activate the joy of the Lord and you enter into the joy of the Lord and it is a spiritual discipline for the children of God to grow in cheerfulness number three happiness is often a bunch of little things more than one big thing some of you keep waiting for the big thing it doesn't happen but there's little things along the way if the Lord gives you joy then you will find opportunities to enjoy the life that God has set before you this is my experience yesterday I took a 24-hour mindset reset to get my heart right for the holidays turned off my phone jumped in my Jeep took the top off so Jesus could see how happy I am to live in Arizona don't you love living in Arizona in the winter if you're depressed here during the winter it's on you I mean yeah this this is nice it's really now I'm like Jesus thanks for the 70 degree Christmas weather and then I'm driving in the Jeep and and I'm just like lord thank you thank you that the sun is shining thank you that it's warm out I get to the place sit outside I set up my chair get on my laptop studying the Bible out in God's creation love that get a decent night's sleep wake up the next day I go in for breakfast and to heat the room it was an old ranch they heat it up with a fireplace so I'm sitting down having breakfast and I can just smell the fire it's a Kris morning and I'm drinking my coffee I'm just like hey Lord thanks I mean I deserve hell this is awesome that you know the wood is burning not me yay I'm so happy I mean honestly what else do I got here number four your happiness comes in giving to others and bringing happiness and joy to others this is where God loves a cheerful Giver giving is cheerful God is the most joyful because he helps the most people and he gives the most generously joy is something that comes from the Lord and is multiplied as you share it they did a secular research study they followed 4700 people for 20 years the people who sought to bring joy to others and give generously had remarkably higher rates of happiness and joy that's why during Christmas we're trying to serve people and give gifts because God is so good that he blesses them and he blesses us he blesses every one who chooses joy and generosity number 5 self-control and happiness or friends not foes some people will tell you well I just want to be happy and then they over indulge and they make sinful and foolish decisions how many of you have drank too much and didn't find joy at the bottom of the bottle how many of you ate the whole cake and at the end the joy of the Lord was not your strength all right we live in a culture that will tell you that rebellion and folly leads to joyfulness and it never does number 7 the paths of happiness and success rarely intersect this is a great lion cultural myth I will set my happiness to the side I will pursue my success and I am sure somewhere down the road as soon as I achieve my success it will intersect with my happiness and I'll be successful and happy how many of you have gotten there successful and not happy why is it that some of the most powerful people some of the most influential people those that are celebrities they they live in large homes they Dreyse drive nice cars they've got beautiful spouses they've got amazing staff they have stadiums that cheer their name and they self-medicate and commit suicide we've had enough of those stories that we need to allow those people's tragic testimony to give us the truth and that is that our success and our joy are not usually paths that intersect lastly and I do mean it this time parties feasting laughing making memories singing going out having fun needs to go on the calendar first so you don't don't I'm just telling you there's there's gonna be some things they're gonna eat up your budget so get fun in there early there gonna be some things that take up your schedule so so so get cheer in there early that's why Paul keeps saying rejoice rejoice rejoice they don't have it on the calendar yet they don't have it on the budget yet they're like well we'll get there as soon as we return all our emails and deal with Aunt Sally and and clean the house and pick up after the dog and do the dishes and and what he's saying is no start with joy and then you can enjoy everyone and everything that God brings into your life I want this for you this holiday season I want you to be happy and cheerful and joyful I want you to wake up with hope in your heart and a smile on your face and a spring in your step so you can run through life enjoying the people and things that God gives you and we do this this time of year by throwing parties because the storyline of the Bible is there's a party at the end of it lasts forever and it's amazing and it uses this language they're singing Zephaniah three system that's crazy karaoke I can't wait to see how that works and the Bible says that we're gonna live in mansions and streets lined with gold it's gonna be even better than Scottsdale and the Sun will always shine and Jesus will pay for everything and there won't be any more elections whoa and also oh also there will be any taxes Jesus will take care of everything and it says that he is gonna feed you the best of meats some of your vegetarians you can still come but I call dibs on your steak in addition he will give us the choicest of wines some of you are Baptist you can come to dibs on your drink all right it's gonna be a good party amen yeah let me pray for you father God thank you thank you thank you thank you the you're a cheerful God a generous God a good God a loving God that we're your kids and that father just like our kids need us and it's our joy to serve them we need you and it's your joy to serve us during this holiday season let us not just sing about joy to the world but bring joy to the world through the person and work the presence and power of Jesus Christ and whose name we pray all God's people said amen

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 1,500

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: Ny2cWh7eeww

Length: 74min 48sec (4488 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 24 2019