Manouchka Charles — 7 Rules for Self Discovery: Joie De Vivre

well we have been in a collection of talks over the past seven weeks called seven rules for self-discovery and we've been really taking the time it's it's been foundational work of really looking inward and discovering who we are we've nicknamed it seven rules for soul discovery it's not just self-help but we're really taking the time to see who we are so that we could become who God has called us to become and we started off with what do we want the most and how do we spend our leisure time and what do we think about and what do we do with our money and who and what we admire the company we keep passing rich peace preached a beautiful message on check your circle I love it I don't need a BFF I need a faith-filled friend and today we're talking about what we laugh at and these seven rules really come from the theologian the pastor aw Tozer he gives us these rules and he says then any wise Christian will find more and I'm not saying that I'm wise or anything but as I've been asking myself these questions I found that it's really helping me to ask more questions to figure out who I am and this question this rule number seven what we laugh at when we think about what we laugh at we all laugh at different things see we all have that one group chat with our friends and family you know that group chat that you you share all your memes pastor it says show me your five friends I'll show you who you are I say show me the fact that the last five means that you screenshotted and I'll tell you who you are you guys are like delete delete maybe it's not memes maybe means don't make you laugh maybe it's that one person that you get around that can make you laugh so hard that bring so much joy to you or maybe it's your favorite comedian or your favorite TV show maybe you laugh when people fall I don't I don't know what you guys are into but we all laugh like laughter isn't it you don't have to teach laughter I love how it said laughter is a mechanism that everyone has it's a universal human vocabulary we all have the ability to laugh there's different languages there's different dialects but we all speak laughter the same way we all can laugh but the thing about humor humorous subjective it's kind of like your favorite pizza place you think yours is the best like some people like Steve's some people like gazzola's some people like Pizza Hut Papa John's I come from a different place I come from Brooklyn New York I think that we have the best pizza don't debate me but it's like you it's what you know it's what you are around see really age gender your your culture your background really dictates what your laughs in a given situation see I believe that laughter is a gift that God has given us but he's given us a much deeper gift a greater gift and that's the gift of joy see why laughter may be subjective joy is objective see something that is subjective is based on feelings and it's based on emotions but something that is objective is based on fact it's based on truth see our joy is not based on our age it's not based on our race it's not based on our gender it's not based on how much money we have in our pocket but it's based on Jesus see our joy is based on Jesus and Jesus is a constant so that means that no matter what I'm facing no matter what I'm dealing with I can have joy it's not situational see the Bible says in Philippians 4 verse 4 rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice the joy is not a sometimes thing it's an always thing so that means in the good times I can rejoice in the bad times I current choice when my money is looking funny I can rejoice when my change is looking strange I can rejoice on the mountaintops on the valley I can have joy in everything and I believe that as we're taking time to discover who we are as we're taking time to to uncover who we are I believe that God has called us to be people who have joy through it all that no matter what the circumstance is that we can have joy I believe that God has big promises for every single person in this room and in order for you to get to the promise you have to go through the process and the process is not always easy and that's why God's saying I want to give you joy so you can make it to where I have for you and I really love David David is one of my favorite characters in the Bible because he has walked through many different seasons of his life but he somehow manages to have joy through it all and he writes so beautifully about it he is poetic in the way that he talks about joy David says this in Psalm 16 verse 1 to 5 he says keep me safe my god for in you I take refuge I say to the Lord you are my lord apart from you I have no good thing Lord you alone on my portion in my cup you are my lot secure the boundary lines have fallen from me in Pleasant places surely I have delightful inheritance I will praise the Lord who counsels me even my night heart even my at night my heart instructs me I keep my eyes always on the Lord with him at my right hand I will not be shaken therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices my body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me in the realm of the dead nor will you let your faithful one see decay you make known to me the path of life you fill me with the joy of your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand see God wants us to have what the French call uot aviv c that means the joy of living and I believe that's only found in the presence of God so for the next few moments I want to talk to you from this thought ah Davies can't wait can we practice our French together can you say that after me is you I Davies look at that you sound more romantic and intelligent already I thought this title was appropriate because our church the name of our church is actually French vous means you in French but it's often mispronounced I love when I'm telling people about church and I'm like oh you go to that Voss church and I'm like well Voss is a water but we have living water so it's kind of the same thing or it is my favorite one do you go to the voos Church so I don't know who this one is for but it's pronounced vous the S is silent you get in French lessons all day but but you I do vivre really means the joy of living exuberant joy the enjoyment of life buoyancy it means a liveliness it's this unimaginable joy and I believe that that's the joy that God wants to bring into our lives that as followers of Jesus there's certain benefits come with knowing Christ and one of those benefits is the access to joy so my question for you is do you have the joy of living do you have this exuberant joy and in order for us to have this joy we have to realize and we have to recognize that God is our source that he is our source David said it he said that without you there is no good thing that apart from Christ there is no good thing Jesus says in John 15 I am The True Vine and the father is the gardener he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful you already are clean because of the word I've spoken to you remain in me as I also remain in you no branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me so what do you produce when you remain connected to the source so glad you asked Galatians 5 verse 22 to 23 says but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace forbearance kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control and so really the way to sum up all three of these verses is that you can't have joy without Jesus you can't produce fruit without Jesus you absolutely positively cannot have access to true joy without being connected to the vine you cannot produce fruit if you're not connected to the vine there's never been a moment where I have my iPhone and I just put it around my charger and hope that it would charge you can't just be around church you got to be connected to church you can't just be around the things of God you got to be connected to the things of God see some of you you might be at the version where just like I'm ready to give up I'm ready to quit but may I submit to you that what God has for you is still in seed form that God wants to produce fruit in your life he wants to produce joy in your life and you may not see it but it's in seed form and you've got to remain connected in order for you to produce you've got to stay connected to the vine see the joy in me is because of the goodness it's because I'm connected to him David knew this David knew that no matter what he was facing that as long as he connected himself to the vine as long as he connected to the source that he would always have joy see David walked through many different seasons of life when we first meet David David is a shepherd boy he's in the field and and David gets anointed as king after David gets anointed as king he has to go right back to the Sheep and then we find David he becomes a musical therapist he's taking care of Saul he's soothing his comfort and then David becomes a war hero he defeats Goliath and and they're walking through the streets and the singing that David has killed ten thousand and Saul killed 1,000 Saul hated that song and so Saul started hunting David down he wanted to kill David David became a hide-and-go-seek master he's going through caves trying to fight for his life and then David finally makes it to the palace we finally meet King David but what I learned from this is you can get the promise but still have some problems because even as a king David becomes an adulterer and a murderer but there's one consistent David throughout his whole story and it's David the worshipper the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart despite the season that David was going through he still knew the goodness of God he he still could write and experience the goodness of God he writes it this way in Psalms 36 he says God's love is meteoric his loyalty is astronomic his purpose is Titanic his verdict is oceanic yet in his large list nothing gets lost not a man and not a mouse slips through the cracks see that is the kind of God that wants to bring joy into our lives we don't serve some itty-bitty God that can't do anything but we serve a massive God that is our source he is the God that can turn your tears into joy he is the guy that could take every tear that you cry and bring joy from that I love this definition of joy it really talks about joy being not situational that you can have joy no matter what you're facing it joy in everything see my joy is not situational it's supernatural see it doesn't matter what I'm facing I can have joy the psalmist says this he says those who sow their tears as seeds will reap a harvest with joyful shouts of Glee they may go out carrying a seed to sow but they will return with joyful laughter and shouting with gladness as they bring armloads of blessing and harvest overflowing so you may cry some tears but God can turn that into joy that you may have some tears but the psalmist says it doesn't matter what I'm going through I'm going anyway then I might have to sow my seed with tears in my eyes but I'm going anyway then I'm gonna sing anyway that I am gonna shout anyway that I'm coming to church anyway that it doesn't matter what it looks like I'm going anyway because what happens when we decide to sow our seeds anyway God produces a harvest and this harvest that he produces is not just for us but it's for multitudes that what God's getting ready to produce in you is for many to be blessed but that can only happen when you stay connected to the vine it only happens when you stay connected when you know that God is your source see God is our source but he's also our satisfaction see you really cannot be satisfied when you're looking to the left and you're looking to the right it's really hard to have satisfaction when you're comparing see the secret to joy is contentment see it's so easy for us to look at Instagram and it's so easy for us to look at everything and compare our lives to other people when God's like I've blessed you right here and now if you just only looked at what I had feel it you can only see what I had feet you don't have to look to the left or look to the right you could be content in what I give you see comparison is a killer of contentment it will kill your contentment so fast have you ever been to a restaurant and you ordered your food somebody else ordered another thing and you look at your food and you look at their food and you don't even want your food anymore you just like why did we even come here it kills our contentment when we look to the left and look to the right it kills our contentment when we want what somebody else had you love your Toyota Camry till you saw her mercedes-benz you loved what you had till you saw what someone else had the grass is green on the other side because the grass is fake we can't look to what other people have in order to be content we have to keep our eyes on what God has for you this thing's that God wants to pour into our lives but we cannot sit still enough for us to realize and recognize God was God is saying if you could just stay in my presence if you could just see what I had for you you would know that I'm your satisfaction today this Sunday is is Pentecost Sunday and now Pentecost is 50 days after the Passover and before Jesus ascended to heaven he tells his disciples to wait on the promised Holy Spirit he says wait for the Holy Spirit that will guide you in all truth and so for 10 days there's a hundred and twenty people in the Upper Room and for 10 days they're praying and they're fasting and they're just waiting on the promised Holy Spirit they're not in the Upper Room checking Instagram to see what's going on on the other upper rooms there they're focused on what God has for them and then the Bible says that the Holy Spirit enters into the room like a mighty rushing wind that tongues of fire come down and they start speaking in other languages they spill out into the streets and the Bible says that they start speaking the wonders of God in different tongues and people in the cities start hearing the wonders of God in their own language and isn't it so personable of God and isn't it so amazing about God that he would have people hear the wonders of God in their very own language and people are amazed but there's another group of people who are like are these people drunk like what's going on and I'm not sure what group I would be in because a hundred and twenty people for ten days we're in one room I don't even want to know what that smelled like imagine them pouring out into the streets speaking different languages people thought they were crazy and Peter responds he says they are not drunk as you suppose and he begins to preach a message and the Bible says that 3000 people are added to the church that day and that was because people decided to stay in one place to have one focus and to realize that God was there satisfaction seemed a lot of what I laughed that really comes from church I grew up in church and Pentecost Sunday was one of the Sundays that I really enjoyed and I remember going to a French Church on Pentecost Sunday and their father preached a message and this was probably about nine years ago so when Jamie Foxx was making music and and we and he was talking about this the story of people thinking that they were drunk and and I don't think we were ready for the message that we're getting ready to receive because he started preaching and he got to the really good part he said blame it on the goose thomna getting to us and we're like what he's like blaming on the truck get you in the zone you can't blame this on be alcohol and we're like did he just did he just is that his sermon I couldn't believe it but really the significance in that is the world will try to attribute our joy to something else the world will tell us how can you have joy and not drink how can you have joy and not smoke how do you have joy and not do what the world will say will give you joy see the joy that the world tells us that we have is a temporary joy it's something that will go and flee as quick as it came but the joy that God wants to give us his eternal joy the joy that God wants to give us his everlasting joy I can't contribute it or attribute it to anything else but God that's true joy its satisfaction guarantee that the joy that God has for us is satisfaction guaranteed that we know that if we're in his presence that we'll be satisfied by him and a lot of us we've tried to get joy in different ways we tried different things you name it you've tried it but it has not been able to give you joy it has not been able to fill you up and you might be new to this faith journey and you come one day I just want to let you know it's not gonna be like the joy of the Lord it's the world it's not gonna be quick it's gonna take some time we say this all the time as a church just keep coming back because when you keep coming back that is when you realize the presence of God when you keep coming back that's when you can meet the presence of God you might still have tears in your eye but just keep coming back you you might feel some hurt and you might feel some pain but just keep coming back just keep coming back to his presence just keep coming back to his feet God wants to satisfy you he wants to satisfy every single part of you and in order for God to satisfy you you have to seek Him you have to seek his face you have to get into his presence it's real practical we we have to find a time and a place we have to find a time and a place to meet with God that you can't be satisfied with God if you're never around God if you're never connected to him you can't find satisfaction in his presence and God's just saying just meet me and I'll satisfy you I wish I could take the worship team home with me I wish I could take these moments home with me but the presence of God is with you everywhere you go that you need to take time in your schedule that you need to take time to meet with God and the same thing applies sometimes you come in God's presence and you feel like I haven't heard anything keep coming back well god I don't I didn't get the answer that I was looking for keep coming back God I'm still going through I'm still dealing with this problem just keep coming back because he wants to satisfy every part of you Paul says in Philippians 4 verse 12 to 13 I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty I have learned the secret of being content in in every situation whether well fed or hungry whether living in plenty or in one I can do all this through him who gives me strength that is the secret to life that the joy of the Lord is strength see God is our strength and we need strength because there's gonna be moments where life throws things our way there's gonna be moments where where life throws us a curveball that life shakes us up that we get news that we don't want to hear that we lose a loved one or or we lose a job or someone breaks our heart life is going to shake us up we we can't control the shaking but we can know where our strength comes from we can know who is our strength James says this consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature complete not lacking anything I read it this way that whenever you face shaking of any kind whenever you do with shaking of any kind that it is to produce something in you the shaking in this season is to make sure that you are mature complete and not lacking anything that God wants to make sure that the you that he creates is the best version that God is working on the best version of you that don't be afraid of the shaking I'm a big fan of simply lemonade that's my new thing I'm a huge fan of it and I'm bringing it to every party if you invite me to your party barbecue this summer that's what I'm coming in with the other day I had some simply lemonade in my hand and and I poured it out and my friend was like did you shake it and I was like does this say shake it and I looked over and it said shake well before using and it was one of those random moments where God spoke to me and said don't shy away from the shaking because I want to use you don't be afraid of the shaking because I want to use you to shake well because God is going to use it he wants you to be mature complete not lacking anything what God wants to pour into you it's so that you could pour into others God wants to use you that you don't have to be afraid of what you go through every obstacle is an opportunity for God to show his strength then in his in our weakness that is when he is our strength that's when he can show us that he is strong I don't have to be afraid of any moment of my life because I know that God is gonna use it and say God did it but he can use every part of it there's nothing that's gonna be wasted there's no tears that's gonna be wasted there's no hurt that's gonna be wasted God is gonna use every bit of it and I truly believe that God wants to bring joy into our lives that God wants to bring our joy back that he wants to bring joy back into the lives of people who feel like it has been stripped away and who feel like it's been robbed from them but there's joy in this healing and as I was thinking and I was studying God really spoke to me said there's a lot of people that are walking around broken and don't even know it there's a lot of people walking around broken and don't even know it and God reminded me of my story of when I was walking around broken and didn't even know it some of you know my story of me getting into a car accident and I had two surgeries in Mexico and I remember coming back to the states and we had to do a bunch of different checkups and had to do a bunch of different things to make sure that I was okay and my brother was like hey Manish can make sure you check this bump on your back and I didn't even think about it because there was just so many other things that was going wrong I couldn't tell up from down and I remember being at the doctor and I had forgot to even mention that I had this bump on my back and I called him back into the room I was like hey can you check out this thing on my back and and he was like I don't know what it is but we'll get you an x-ray in two weeks and and we'll figure it out and so for two weeks I started physical therapy I started different things I started trying to get back into this normal routine and remember when I finally had that Rex x-ray I was in a room with one of my friends who's a doctor and she saw the x-rays she said just just wait one moment I wanna I want to check on this with one of my colleagues and she went away for a little bit and I'm texting I'm like hey like I'm hungry can you can you come down and tell me what's going on and she walked in the room and I could just tell by her face that something was terribly wrong she tried to encourage me she's just like hey like you you've been through a lot but God has his hand on you but I just want to let you know that you fracture in your back and the doctors looked at your x-ray and they weren't even sure how you were walking because this fracture is so bad that you should not even be able to walk she's like you need to go into the emergency room immediately and you need to get tested to figure out what's going on and to figure out what the next step is at that moment I was completely numb I couldn't believe it I thought things were getting better but all of a sudden things just got worse in a moment and I got to the emergency room and it was all night of testing and test after test and x-rays and MRIs and doctors in and out the room trying to figure out what was going on and the doctors finally came to me said hey you need to have another surgery because there's no other way for us to fix this issue you need to have surgery because this fracture is so bad it's dangerous that you could if you make one wrong move you'll be paralyzed and in that moment I thought all this time I was broken and I had no idea all this time I was walking around broken and I had no idea I felt pain but I couldn't discover what this pain was coming from I couldn't identify the pain that I was facing and it was not until I did a series of tests it was not through it was not until I got tested and and and things were looked at till I found out that I was broken and so many people in this room you're walking around broken and you don't know why that you're walking around with brokenness you feel pain but you can't identify the brokenness you don't know what the brokenness is from but God is saying he's running some tests and he wants to show you what's broken that's why we're taking time to discover who we are so we can figure out the broken parts of us so that God can heal us and that God can mend us see God doesn't want us to Keith as God doesn't want us to stay the way that we are God doesn't want us to stay broken because we can't move forward in our brokenness we can't operate in our full potential in our brokenness see I remember looking at the doctor and I was terrified the last thing that I wanted to do was have another surgery and I looked at him like is there any other way is there anything else that we could do is there anything else that I can do so I could get better he said there is nothing else but you have to have this surgery this is the only option and I come here to tell you that God is the only option for you in this room that there is no other way for your healing there is no other way but for you to allow God to work in your life that he wants to do surgery on you that he wants to take every broken part of you and he wants to mend it some of us are broken because of something that someone said to us or did to us or something that happened to us in our past and we can't move forward from it and we can't move on and we do not know how to get past it that we have not been able to get past the hurt in the brokenness but I come to tell you the one that wants to heal your brokenness is in the room this morning the one that wants to heal the broken parts of you is in this room the you you you might have not been able to have joy but God said I'm bringing joy back into your life that you might have cried some tears but I'm bringing joy back to his to your life that you have to trust God as your source you have to trust God as your satisfaction and you have to trust God as your strength he is your only option there is no other way it is him and God wants to do it he wants to pour into your life he wants to pour into your life so that you could pour into the lives of others that because as God heals you as you get healthy the people around you can healthy I couldn't help anybody in my broken state it was not until God fully healed me could I ever help anybody else that you can't help anybody you can't carry somebody when you're broken it is only when you're healed and when you're healthy and God wants you to be healthy he wants you to be whole he wants you to be mature he wants you to be complete and he doesn't want you to lack anything the guy says no good thing will you lack there's not one good thing that God doesn't want to pour into your life and I believe that there's people in this room who feel broken who have walked in here empty who have walked in here feeling like they are ready to give up that you've tried God in you're at your wits end is like nothing's happening but here's my encouragement to you stay connected to the vine stay connected to the source what God has for you is in seed form if you would just hold on if you would just remain connected it is too soon for you to quit it is way too soon for you to quit God doesn't want you to give up you've thought about it and you're wondering why you can't give up the reason why you can't give up is because God has put way too much in you to quit God has poured too much into your life for you to quit and really I just feel like this is God saying is that you you've wondered why you couldn't kill yourself and you wonder why you couldn't go through with the things that you thought you could go through it and it's because God's saying that he has a plan over your life that God saying that you couldn't do it because he wants to do something through you that he wants to use you and then as you're hearing these words God is going to fill you up with his joy and God's gonna fill you up with his presence it's all that you ever can need it's all that you can desire that you don't have to look anywhere else you don't have to try anything else because what you need is in the room that what you need is in this room today that God is going to turn every tear into joy every single tear is a seed your watch is God it uses every tear to produce a harvest that he'll use every tear to produce something in your life that none of it is in vain that God wants to bring you to joy that he wants you to know that you have access to joy some some of you have discounted yourself from joy and you said well that joy thing is not for me joy is not for me but I come to tell you it is for you as a follower of Jesus as someone who God loves so deeply joy is for you do not discount yourself from what God has for you do not distract or discount yourself from what God has for you you don't have to look to the left or look to the right God has designed something uniquely just for you it's just for your life and he has prepared it and he has planned it in advance for you that's God's encouragement just say connect it be connected God wants to do something come on why don't we just all stand to our feet and I believe that God wants to bring joy back and God wants to bring healing and God wants to do a work and you have to realize that it's going to take some time that you don't have to rush what God wants to do in you and through you that you don't have to rush for a second what God wants to bring in you you have to stay faithful and stay connected to what God is going to do

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 22,859

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Id: HpFtUYOk700

Length: 32min 9sec (1929 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 10 2019