Gateway Church's Podcast
Joy: God's Gateway to Fun
How are you? It's good to have you a gateway this morning. I'm Brady Boyd. I'm part of the pastoral team here And I'll be speaking this morning. We're wrapping up. This is week 20 of our Elevate series So it's good to be with you I want you to turn to two places in your Bible to James chapter 1 and Psalms 43 and The title of my message this morning is joy God's gateway to fun You know all of us are looking for some fun looking for a place to have fun. Life's no good unless you're having fun by the way I hope you are Planning some time for having fun. I want to tell you a story about a guy who had a plan for fun They didn't go so well the true story. I'm not going to change the names because no one in this story is innocent This guy's name is Larry. This happens true story happened 1998 Larry was a young boy when he grew up grew up as a young boy all Larry wanted to do was to be a pilot He wanted to fly planes He fact when he grew up the house he grew up in was near LAX Airport And so every day he in his backyard he would watch planes land and take off land and take off And he would just look up at him and say one day. I'm going to be a pilot So when he got out of high school He went to the Air Force and we got to the Air Force He realized through some tests that his eyesight was not good enough for him to be a pilot and he went into a deep depression He finished the Air Force and he moved back to LA and actually bought a home of his own near LAX Airport So that in the afternoons after work he could watch the planes take off and land at LAX Which is one of the busiest airports in the world. Well one day he got a great idea Supposedly he went he and a group of friends went and bought 45 helium weather balloons from an army surplus store. They're they're pretty good size They're big you can see them when they're up in the air So they're big balloons and they filled them up with helium and he strapped them to a lawn chair that he had bought at Sears And he dove that Inspiration one he had them all strapped on there filled with helium. It was tied to the ground He made a homemade harness to keep him in and he brought on board with him a cooler with a six pack of Miller Lite Two sandwiches and a pellet gun Now his plan was for his friends to cut those cords and he was gonna drift up about a hundred feet and then he was Gonna eat his sandwiches. He was gonna drink his six pack of Miller Lite How many of you believe that possibly he'd already had a few before he got this idea? So he is he's sitting in his lawn chair. They cut the cords and he not he doesn't drift up a hundred feet He shoots up immediately to 1,000 feet to 5,000 feet and Topped out at 16,000 feet for 14 hours He drifted at 16,000 feet in the flight path of LAX Delta and American airline pilots begin to radio in they said we just saw a guy sitting in a lawn chair Eating sandwiches with a Miller Lite in his hand and he has a pellet gun He said a world's record by the way for the longest sustained flight at that distance and that altitude without oxygen Well, he realized after 14 hours in flight that he's either gonna die of hypothermia because it's cold by the way at 16,000 feet And the Miller Lite didn't help And so he's cold and he realizes if he shoots the balloons that he might topple over and fall to his death But he had no he had no other plan at this point So he shoots a couple balloons and he realizes that he can keep it steady He starts shooting balloons and he drifts down What every time he shoots a balloon the rope that held the balloon falls to the side and they get tangled up as he drifts down near Long Beach, California the ropes that were holding him up begin to tangle up in some high-line wires He he ends up face hanging off these high-line wires and 20,000 homes in Long Beach, California without power All because Larry wanted to have some fun one day Well the police and all the news media arrived they get him untangled They drag him down out of the high-line wires and they are resting him in the and the and the press asked You know why Larry did you come up with this idea? What's the purpose? And Larry said all could Larry could say was a man just can't sit around and do nothing all his life See all Larry was wanting to do is have a little fun And he ends up winning the Darwin award by the way of that year the stupidest human trick or plan for 1998 And that's Larry's story. I hope you have a better plan for having fun Because Larry's plan didn't work out so well. He did survive though by the way now Fun is something we're all searching for in fact what we're really searching for is happiness But what I want to tell you this morning is is that happiness is not the answer to your problems Joy is the answer that you're looking for and so the first thing I want you to know about joy is that joy and happiness are not the same I want you to really catch this this morning that joy is not the same as happiness You see happiness is dependent upon our circumstances is your mother-in-law coming to visit to you this week? Are my finances in order or do my spouse and I do my wife and I are we in a complete agreement on every issue? Does everyone at work love me and am I getting along with everyone do I feel good all those Circumstances have to line up perfectly in order for us to be happy see they're dependent upon circumstances Joy is not dependent on your circumstances Joy is constant because our source of joy is always constant Now I want you to look at a couple of scriptures and I want you to catch this morning That is possible to have joy no matter what's going on in your life No matter if you're walking through the darkest Deepest hurt of your life right now if you're going through the most painful Experience of your entire life. It is possible to live with God's perfect joy in your life Do you believe that I want to show you this first of all in James chapter 1 verse 2? It says consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. This is really one of my least favorite scriptures in the Bible Because you get tested with this right? I mean it's According to this scripture when you're facing the deepest test of your life You are supposed to consider it beforehand as pure joy That seems impossible and to someone who reads that for the first time That's an impossible thing to grasp and get a whole tub Philippians 4 4 says always Always be full of joy in the Lord and I say it again rejoice You see the reason most people never experience joy is because they're chasing after a mirage of happiness You know mirages ever see those movies where someone's crawling through the desert And they think they're crawling toward water and they get there and it's just another pile of sand and they keep crawling They keep chasing something that's not real. You see the world says if you want happiness Maybe you need another relationship and so you go from one relationship to another from one house to another for one job To another from one hobby to another you keep chasing after something and every time you get it every time you get that next promotion Every time you get into the next tax bracket every time you find supposedly the perfect next relationship It's suddenly you find out that it was all a mirage You know, I've just determined already in my life at 38 years old that the Holy Spirit is a better master of my life than my flesh I believe that the Holy Spirit is a much better master of my life and your life than our flesh is My flesh has never led me to happiness The desires of my flesh only lead me to more desires for my flesh They only in cause my flesh to increase they don't cause me to be happy When I found Jesus I found the source of all joy and the first thing we have to understand as believers is that joy and Happiness are not the same There's a second thing I want you to remember about joy is that joy is the antidote for depression You see Larry was depressed when he got in that Chair that day Inspiration one Larry was going through deep depression But he was chasing after happiness. He felt like the air flight that if he could just become a pilot even of a well-planned Scheme that he could somehow get into the air that that would cause him to be happy It didn't cause him to be happy. In fact, just a few years later. Larry killed himself Larry was a victim of suicide because he fell into deep depression. That's the end of that story and Larry was looking for something that we're all looking for but he fell into depression You see I'm not here today to I have about six minutes to spend on this point and in six minutes I cannot give you a full detailed answer to how to overcome depression But I'm going to give you a key this morning. I'm not here to make depression seem trite or simple Depression is a terrible terrible disease in fact right now in America 38 million people have been diagnosed with clinical depression It's one of the most common illnesses in the world right now according to the World Health Organization Depression causes more disabilities than any other condition It's the second leading cause of disease and hospitalization right now second only to heart disease Depression is rampant and that by the way that 38 million number does not include the millions of people who are depressed But simply won't go to the doctor and get diagnosed most of those are men by the way because we don't go to the hospital for anything We can have a large tumor on our side and we think I'll go away I'll just get some rest tomorrow. We don't go to the hospital for anything So that didn't include the millions of people who have not even been diagnosed with depression Most medical experts agree that they're simply no cure for depression. There is no cure right now But I believe there's a source for our cure and I want to show you two scriptures I believe the Lord gave me just one key thing and if you're here today with a heavy heart if you're here today And you've been diagnosed with depression. I'm gonna give you one key. This is not a cure all answer That's not what I'm trying to do this morning What I'm trying to do is give you some hope and I'm gonna show you this morning where you can go for some hope and it's found in 1961 verse 2 and it says to all who mourn in Israel. He will give beauty for ashes Joy instead of mourning and praise instead of despair For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory According to this scripture. I was born to worship my purpose in my life was to worship the Lord with all of my heart But yet what I've understood in my life is that depression and worship cannot coexist together I've discovered it as I've grown older that I can't be depressed and worship at the same time that the attack of the enemy With depression in my life keeps me from worshiping. However We have to worship regardless of our circumstances According to this scripture I'm a strong and graceful oak that God himself has planted My wife and I we grew up in Louisiana and we were there this past weekend And this is a great time a year to go back to that part of the country because they have big magnolia trees that are in Full bloom right now and a magnolia tree takes years and years It's a very slow-growing tree But if it ever takes root if a magnolia tree ever catches root somewhere It'll grow for two or three hundred years and it becomes this huge tree and these big white blooms open up this time A year and they're beautiful all over the state You see God planted those trees the way he's planted you and I when you came into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus He planted you like a strong and graceful oak your roots go down way deep and a couple of bad winners and a couple of Hot summers won't kill a real strong graceful oak It won't kill a big strong magnolia tree the deep dark days of your life will not uproot you because I'm a strong Graceful oak that God has planted That's why I can have joy for morning. That's why I can have a garment of praise instead of a garment of despair Regardless of the circumstances that are happening in my life So I'm 40 verse 2. I want you to see this this distinction between worship and depression and how depression is broken through worship And Psalms 40 verse 2 it says he lifted me out of the pit of despair out of the mud in the mire He set my feet on solid ground and he steadied me as I walked along He has given me a new song to sing and I want you to underline that in your Bible He's given me a new song to sing a hymn of praise to our God and many will see what he has done and be astounded And they will put their trust in the Lord now if you came this morning with a heavy heart You're in a good place today because in just a few minutes We're going to call for our ultimate ministry team and they're going to pray for you last night We we pray for people literally an hour after the service last night This this you are here today by divine appointment God is going to give you more hope today than you've ever had if you're suffering with depression If you came here with a heavy heart the Lord's here today to put his hand upon you and he's about to give you a new song to sing and Here's the song that you're going to sing You're going to begin to declare what God who God is in your life You see one of the things that can tell it one of the ways you can tell if you're being healed of heaviness and depression is that you stop Talking about it as your identification Now, it's okay. If you're depressed in fact, I want to recommend if you're depressed You need to go tell someone and be accountable to someone so they can pray with you and help you But as you talk about it, I don't want it to become a part of your identification. It's not who you are It's what you're going through. It's what you're suffering with but it's not who you are You see I'm a strong and graceful oak. I have a new song to sing. I am redeemed. I am a child of God I'm a full heir. I'm an heir of Jesus Christ. I have all the benefits that Jesus has right now I have the rich deposit of the Holy Spirit. I have the word of God. That's a sharp two-edged sword at my disposal I have the shield of faith. I have the helmet of salvation. That's who I am I've been sentenced to heaven and I can't get out of it That's who you are this morning. I may be going through a dark time in my life I may be suffering with depression right now, but that's not who I am I'll tell you who I am. That's the new song that I want the Lord to give you this morning I want you to really catch that the Lord wants to give you a new song and out of that new song You will begin to worship. You will begin to cry out to the Lord. The Holy Spirit will come He will invade your life and I promise you worship and depression Can I coexist in your life? Depression will leave when you begin to worship And your family and friends will be astounded at the changes in your life and many will see and fear the Lord and they good news Here's the third thing is that joy comes from serving people It's a great scripture in Proverbs chapter 11 that I love this this verse It says the generous prosper and are satisfied and those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed That's the scripture that I quote I memorize it because I believe that's true I believe the reason many people are not refreshed if they're walking around with a heavy heart is because they're full of themselves And they're not empty themselves on behalf of other people that were caught up in an orbit You know for hundreds and thousands of years all the scientists all the leading scientists on the earth felt that the earth was the center of the universe That all other planets all the Sun everything rotated around the earth Why would they not believe that? I mean we live here, right? Obviously. We're the center of the universe I've come today to tell you the honest truth You and I and all our concerns and all our problems We are not the center of the universe and we need to stop waiting around for everyone to get caught up in our orbit We are not the center of the universe. This is not about me. This is not my world that I've just allowed you to live in The Bible says if you want to be refreshed if you want the Spirit of God to live in you Give your life away to other people Hours before Jesus went to the cross and by the way Hebrews 12 to says that for the joy set before a Jesus went to the cross So if Jesus had joy as he was headed to the cross to the most Torturous death the murder that he was about to go through if Jesus could have joy then I want that joy and Then John chapter 15. He's talking to his disciples hours before he's about to go to that death And he gives them some final words and he says in verse 9. I have loved you even as the father has loved me Remain in my love and when you obey me you remain in my love Just as I obey my father and remain in his love and I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy Yes, your joy will overflow now listen to the next scripture because it tells us how we get this joy Not number one the first part is remain in this love and obey his commandments to be a devoted follower of Jesus But then he gives us part two So this is by the way the great commandment love the God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself Can you see how Jesus is repeating this down this next scripture? He says I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you and here is how to measure it The greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends Laying down your life for other people. Let me give you some practical ways of doing this the next time you meet someone that you've never met I want you to learn. I want you to ask them 15 questions about them and refuse to talk about yourself Now if they ask you a question about yourself politely answer But turn the attention back toward them let them brag on their children's report cards Let them pull out the pictures of their grandchildren. Ask them. How can I pray for you? What's God saying to you? What can I do for you turn your attention to them? Empty yourself now Here's the guarantee if you will empty yourself on behalf of other people you will never ever ever Have to pray again for the Holy Spirit to fill you with any of his gifts In fact you need to stop praying for more of the Holy Spirit and start praying for more of compassion more compassion for other people if you will empty yourself on behalf of other people the Holy Spirit will come Automatically and fill you so full of his power of his gifts of his revelation of his understanding You will be so full of the Holy Spirit when you empty yourself of yourself The Holy Spirit will come and fill up the void All the Holy Spirit is warning this morning is a few volunteers to give their lives away on behalf of other people if you'll volunteer this morning to give your life away and quit living for yourself and your own desires I Promise you you will be a well spring of the Holy Spirit over flowing all the time That's a guarantee I believe that self-absorbed Self-centered selfish people cannot experience the joy of the Holy Spirit when all of our attention and all of our thoughts are upon ourselves the Holy Spirit cannot compete with that and The Holy Spirit's not there joy is not present which brings me to my fourth point Joy is a free gift from God and that is good news this morning Joy is a free gift just like salvation was a free gift just like healing is a free gift joy is a free deposit of the Holy Spirit in our lives 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 16 says and what union can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God now the church that I grew up in was built with some leftover wood from Noah's Ark I'm convinced of that how many of you grew up in a church that was built with some of that same wood I Was there about seven times a week? Oh, I literally I was at church all the time and it always smelled the same and I was wondering growing up If I'm gonna be here all the time, maybe we should invest in some Lysol or some nice candles Because it smells the same it was an old building and I'm grateful for what God did in my life there But it needed some renovation and I'm gonna raise some money to grow by it just recently I'm gonna renovate that thing it still looks the same there's cars there every day like I was there every day The fact is though in August of 1988 when I gave my life to Jesus and the Holy Spirit moved into my life I needed some renovation too I'll tell you something the Holy Spirit when he comes into your life, it's not gonna let you stay the same That's good news too by the way. I don't know about you, but when I was 21 years old and born again I was messed up. I was full of everything that I needed. I'd need to be cleansed the Holy Spirit's not used to living and sin diseased Surroundings the Holy Spirit's used to living in perfect sinless surroundings and when he moved into my life He began to change every part of me. He began to renovate me According to Galatians 5 verse 22 it says when the Holy Spirit controls our lives He will produce this kind of fruit in us now There are two key words in that first part of that scripture the first word is controls. That's how you know by the way if you're born again Being born again is not a religious experience. It's not coming down front and signing a card It's not coming down front and praying with someone being born again means that I'm no longer the boss That the Holy Spirit now controls my life Now don't get offended if you have this bumper sticker on the back of your car But this is one of my least favorite of all religious bumper stickers, which by the way, I have a never mind Okay, I want to get into that But this is my least favorite. God is my co-pilot. I Don't really care for that one because I don't want my hands anywhere near the steering wheel. I Don't even want to be a co-pilot I won't be in a back seat with my tray table stowed up my luggage overhead, and I'm reclining I won't God to pilot my life. I don't want to be the co-pilot every time I become the co-pilot That's when things get really messed up. I Want the Holy Spirit according to Galatians 5 to control my life because when he controls my life now Here's the other key word. I'll get this kind of fruit the word. This means that I get all of them. I Don't I can't pick and choose which part of those fruit basket that I want in my life I get all of that and it says that I'll get this love joy piece patience kindness goodness faithfulness and Self-control gentleness and self-control and here. There is no conflict with the law This morning. I want you to stop asking what makes you happy Stop asking that question what makes me happy. I deserve to be happy. So I need to find out what makes me happy Because I'm telling you the answer you get will be from your flesh and not from God's spirit Stop asking that question God never promised you happiness God promise you persecution God promise you that everyone around you would despise you God promise you hard and difficult times if you follow after him That he also promised this in the midst of your greatest trials in the midst of your darkest days My joy will be with you My spirit will be with you. I will send you friends if you give up friends and family to follow me I will replace them with friends and family. I will fill you with the Holy Spirit I will give you my word and greater is he that's in you than he that is in the world That's what he promised. He promised me love. He promised me joy. He promised me peace He promised that I would have self-control that I would have gentleness. That's what he promised me And so here's the question. We should be asking what areas of my life are not controlled by the Holy Spirit Stop asking what makes you happy And start asking this question. Lord Show me the areas of my life That are not controlled by the Holy Spirit Lord, what part of my life are you not controlling this morning? And I promise you if that's a dangerous question to ask You know why because you will get an answer If you want to hear God this morning ask that question If you if you had a hard time hearing God lately Close your eyes in just a few minutes and ask the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit What areas of my life are not being controlled by the Holy Spirit? I can guarantee you'll get an answer this morning And it'll be a gracious answer Because he wants to renovate our hearts and when we give up the areas of our life that are not being controlled by the Holy Spirit He will come and fill them with abundant supernatural joy The word rejoice simply means to return to the source of your joy The word rejoice means to return to the source of your joy I want you to look at Psalms 43 as we close this morning. It says send out your light and your truth And let them guide me Let them lead me to your holy mountain to the place where you live And there i'll go to the altar of God to God A source of all my joy This morning. I'm so grateful that you're here if you're here this morning with a heavy heart If you're here this morning and and you're going through the darkest days of your life last night in the service Jeff and I pastor Jeff and I were on stage and we looked across and we saw this young couple that had just lost a baby at birth And I knew what I was preaching on I'm so grateful What i'm preaching is truth And I saw joy on them This is real what i'm telling you is real what i'm telling you will change your life What i'm telling you is if you'll embrace what i'm saying you will never ever live your life without joy again I saw something on their lives. I'm so proud of them So grateful for God being true to his word Joy as yours this morning if you want it. I want it. I need it. I can't live my life without it All i'm asking you this morning is to consider Where you are? Where are you right now? Is your life being controlled by the holy spirit Because if he'll take control this morning he'll come and fill you with all those things that you need We just pray with me this morning just close your eyes And I want you to if to ask that question that I ask you to ask Lord Jesus is there any area of my life that's not being controlled by the holy spirit Because he wants to come this morning and fill you completely He wants to feel the emptiness in your heart the void that's in your heart Lord, I thank you this morning for your word And lord i'm so thankful for your love this morning Lord i'm thankful this morning that you have searched the depths of our heart and you love us the same Lord you know everything about me You know everything about every person in this room and yet you are so in love with us You can't get enough of us you are infatuated with us Despite the things that you see in our heart And so lord this morning because I know how you're going to respond lord. I I know you're going to love me I know you're going to embrace me. I know you're going to give me your grace I know your mercy will come so lord this morning I I willingly Choose to open my heart to you this morning lord come and control every part of me And I pray that as every any man any woman any teenager any child in this room this morning if they're suffering from depression or heaviness I pray right now in Jesus name that you would come and lift their head And fill them with your joy In Jesus' name.