MOVE with Joy | Kyle Idleman

Well, hey, Pando family, welcome to worship today here at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. My name is Derek. I am our online campus pastor. And from Southeast to me, to our team, to you, we're so grateful that you decided to click on our video today and worship with us. I think you are going to enjoy it no matter where you're at today. And we would love for you to write us and let us know how we can be praying for you and your family and your friends this week. You can find the address to our church in the description of this video. You know, we continually get to see more and more of you in the flesh who are out of prison and are in a different season of life now that may come here to church. And we love that, and especially we love getting to connect with you through that in-person experience, but also through the Pando app and by those letters that you all write. But we would also invite you to subscribe to our Southeast Christian Church channel. We've had over 31,000 of you that have subscribed to our channel. And when you do that, you get our weekly services, you get our Bible studies, our weekly podcasts that come out. And all of this exists to be able to help you stay connected to us as a church, but more importantly, stay connected to Christ as you're following Him in this season of life. Y'all, but today is week five of our MOVE series, and Kyle Eidelman, our senior pastor, is back today. And he's going to be talking about this concept of moving with joy, that Paul is writing this letter to the Philippian church. And in chapter four, he's reminding them that in all circumstances to have joy. And so y'all, it impacted me in a great way, and I'm sure it will for you as well. So settle in, get ready, and let's go worship together. We sing of His faithfulness. You are faithful to Your promise. You are strong when I am weak. And when I'm standing in Your presence, I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. We believe the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. My soul will sing. Oh, my soul bless His name. All that is within me sing. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Yes, it is. Oh. Jesus, come what may.

You are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise. You are faithful to Your promise. You are strong when I am weak. And when I'm standing in Your presence, I have everything I need. The joy, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. It's more than a feeling. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Some souls will sing. Oh, my soul bless His name. All that is within me sing. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, I'm brought with joy. It's my strength. Thank You, Jesus. So let it rise up like a river, overflowing Holy Spirit. Let it pour out with no limit, overflowing Holy Spirit. Let it rise, let it rise up like a river. Holy Spirit, overflowing Holy Spirit, overflowing Oh come on, let it pour out We don't have it Overflowing Holy Spirit We've got the joy It's more than a feeling It's our strength Oh come on, we sing the joy Oh the joy of the Lord And it's more than a feeling The joy of the Lord And our souls will sing Oh my soul, all that is Oh my soul, my soul Bless His name, all that is Oh my soul, bless His name And all that is within me sing The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength I thank you Jesus The joy of the Lord is my strength When I think of the Father Sending us His Son

So we could all inherit The riches of His love Oh I can't help but exult in it When I think of the Father Everything is Him Impossible is nothing According to His plan Oh I can't help but exult in it Now to Him is able To do so much more than we Ask or imagine Glory to Him In the Bride and in Jesus Through all generations Forever and ever Glory to Him Oh Lord, all power All glory to Him Oh When I think of the cross And how it's set us free From hell into heaven For all eternity Oh I can't help but exult in It will be a holy moment When we walk through heaven's door Pain will be behind us And death will be no more Oh I can't help but exult in And lay my crowns down before Him Now to Him is able To do so much more than we Can ask or imagine Glory to Him In the Bride and in Jesus Through all generations Forever and ever Glory to Him Oh Lord, all power All glory to Him Thank You Father For Your love ♪ How dear, how high the love of God is ♪ Come on, you sing. ♪ How strong, how wide the arms of God are ♪ Sing, I stand in awe, how great is He ♪ I can't, I don't know how to say it enough ♪ Sing, how deep, how high the love of the Father

♪ How strong, how wide the arms of the Savior are ♪ ♪ I stand in awe, I'll worship forever ♪ ♪ I can't help but adore Him, oh I can't help but adore Him ♪ ♪ But it's all there ♪ ♪ Who is able to do so much more than we can ask or imagine ♪ ♪ Glory to Him who abided in Jesus through all generations ♪ ♪ Through all generations, forever and ever ♪ ♪ Glory to Him, all honor, all power, all glory to Him ♪ Yes Lord. This morning, all glory, all honor, all power to Him and Him alone, amen. Amen. You may take a seat. In a moment, we're going to take communion together. And I've always loved that Jesus chose the table of thanksgiving to establish the new covenant. But I've often wondered, how is it that at the last supper, just hours before His arrest and torture and death, Jesus talks about joy. He knew what was ahead of Him. The betrayal, the humiliation, the cross. And yet in the accounts of John, we read that Jesus again and again keeps coming back to joy. Just listen to Jesus' words to His disciples just hours before His death. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. And when He talks about obedience and abiding and bearing fruit,

He doesn't separate those things from joy. In Hebrews, it says, "'For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.'" Which means that joy wasn't waiting for Jesus on the other side of obedience. Obedience was His joy. And then He says the same counts for His disciples and for you and I. If I have to be honest, looking back at my life in the years as a Christ followers, the time when I tasted the deepest joy were not the easiest moments. Those were the moments where my obedience to the Father was costing me something. But it was also those moments that in the midst of them, I have tasted joy that couldn't be explained circumstantial. So maybe this morning, as we come to the table, maybe the Holy Spirit is asking us, where is it that we believed that our obedience is costing us joy? Or where is it that we have treated surrender as loss instead of life? So as we come to the table this morning, we come remembering the cost, but we also come with thanksgiving because His obedience became our joy and His cross became our life. So as we approach the table, let's approach it with gratitude, thanksgiving, and joy.

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♪♪♪ ♪ Of Kings, praise forever to the King of Kings ♪ ♪ Oh Lord we magnify Your Name ♪ ♪ And forever sing Lord ♪ ♪ How amazing You are, how amazing You are ♪ ♪ We sit at Your feet God ♪ ♪ You're living hope today, today and always ♪ ♪ You're living hope today ♪ God we love You and we worship You. We thank You for the truth of the gospel. That Jesus came, He died and He rose again God. We love You. We will forever sing of Your glory and praise Your Name. We love to praise Your Name. May we find ourselves in the gospel story today God. We love You Lord and everybody said, Amen, Amen. Church, let's take a seat together this morning. I'm Kevin. And I'm Carissa and we go to the Nelson County Campus. Before I got sober, I could say I had experienced homelessness for years and it was scary to not have that financial security and what if we can't make the mortgage payment or what if we can't make the car payments or these kind of unhealthy fears that if I don't put every dollar away I can, I'm gonna lose everything. God was not a part of my life even the first few years that I was in recovery. He would go to church by himself actually in Nelson County

because I just wasn't sold on it, you know? Like what got me involved was meeting someone who I worked with that came here and she discipled me. The joy that she naturally felt and I knew that something was missing in my life and I just wanted what she had. And then she was baptized shortly after that before MOVE. Giving was just kind of an afterthought and it was just maybe to check that box like, hey, this is what we're supposed to do. We're not really praying about it. We're not really discussing it. Just here, well, after we pay everything, we'll give a little bit. I just assumed it was like an obligation, you know, because my faith at that point was very new. Before the MOVE initiative, our finances were a little iffy. Kevin actually took a different job and it was a pretty significant salary cut. When we heard about the MOVE initiative and we knew that the night at the Young Center was coming, we had a number in mind that we wanted to give and that we felt comfortable with that we knew wouldn't cause us too much discomfort. I wrote it down and she said, no, I don't think that's right. I knew that we could do better. In that moment, I knew we could do more. And so I had whispered over to him like,

you have a motorcycle and a driveway that we can sell. I remember the documentary where people were so willing to sell everything they have. And it touched me so much that I knew that God was calling me to step out of my comfort zone. And we ended up putting double what we had originally discussed. You know, we just kind of looked at each other and was like, yeah, let's do it. Like the answer's yes. There wasn't a feeling of anxiety or fear. It was almost like a weight lifted off. It just felt, it felt peaceful. It felt right. I think what's changed from then to now, we've really experienced the goodness of God and the blessings. Not only are we able to give the amount we said we would give, but now, you know, there's another ministry partner of Southeast that we're also given to as well. In the moment that I learned to trust God in our finances, it makes it a lot harder to not trust Him in every other aspect of our life. And I know 100% that it started because we decided to trust God with one area of our life. You know, it really changed everything because we weren't doing any of that. I think what's next for us, we're going to continue to serve. We're going to continue to look for opportunities to help people. We've never been on a mission trip before, so we are planning to go to Uganda in July,

and we're really just trusting the Lord and what He wants to do in our lives and through us. It's not about the church needing it. It's just about our obedience and our hearts, and it's so crazy to me when you hear someone say God will provide from our experience and Him having taken a huge salary cut, me getting laid off at my job, and then us starting the business, fully trusting God, and He has provided. It's just been amazing just to watch Him work. We've started getting more on top of what our number was because we have it, and we know that that's the next step in being obedient. This past year has changed every aspect of my heart, my love for other people. I've gone from being selfish—can still be a little selfish, maybe—but just to genuinely having the heart to want to help others, and my goal is to have a heart that's more like Jesus's. I think He wants my heart, and I think that He knew that my heart was consumed by striving for this financial security, and He wanted me to trust Him and led me to be a giver. And in doing so, that kind of broke that emotional relationship that I had with money. You know, I know now it's a tool. It doesn't provide security, and I think that's what God was trying to teach me in that moment. No, I don't need your money. I just want your heart, and if I can separate it from this money, then I'll have it, and He did. I love hearing stories like that. It drives home this point that can be hard to accept until you experience it, and that is generosity really is a discipleship journey. You heard them talk about this, that when I learned to trust God in this area of my life, I found myself trusting Him in these other areas of my life. And the Bible talks about this, that where your treasure is, that's where your heart will follow. If you listened in that testimony, you heard the word heart pop up again and again. There's a connection here with what we give and with the heart that we have, and what I've just been struck by in the past year as we've been on this journey together is

that we've spent a fair amount of time talking about the impact your generosity can have out there, but so much of the impact your generosity, my generosity have, it's in here. That God doesn't necessarily need your money to accomplish what He wants to do in others, but He may need your generosity to accomplish what He wants to do in you. It's a discipleship journey, and we've spent a lot of time, as we've gone through MOVE, saying, hey, here's what your generosity will fuel. Here's what it will accomplish, church plants and new campuses and helping people who struggle with addiction and rescuing those who've been sex trafficked and caring for those with special needs and translating Scripture into 14 new languages and coming alongside foster and adoption families. But maybe some of the most significant impact God wants to take place on this journey together is what's happening in you. Carissa said it really well in the video. She said, this journey isn't about the church needing something from you. It's about the church wanting something for you. It really is true. Listen, God doesn't need your money. God's not in heaven wringing His hands, thinking, what am I going to do if that person doesn't give? He owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He spoke the universe into existence. He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, however He wants to do it, and yet He has given us the privilege to be His hands and feet. In His plan, it's the church that is impacting the world. It's the one thing that He promised He would build. We are honored to be a part of God's plan. We're halfway through this two-year, move-discipleship journey of generosity. The prayer we've asked you to pray is, God, what do you want to do in me and through me? However He answers that is what we want for you. As we hit this midway point, there's some of you who have started coming to church in

the last year. Maybe you're on the sidelines, sitting in the stands. You've been watching other people. You've listened to some of the testimonies and stories. but you're not really a part of it, this is a perfect time to say, I wanna be in the game, I wanna be a part of it, I'm gonna engage more fully. For some of you, you made a commitment last year, and maybe you kinda forgot about it, or you kinda drifted from it, and at this halfway point, it's a great time to just recommit yourself. And for some of you, just like we heard in the testimony, this is an opportunity to expand your commitment. So next weekend, on Thursday, Sunday, bring your card with you, we're gonna have this midpoint commitment time together. It'll be a special time of worship, so whether it's your first time, whether you're recommitting, whether you're expanding your commitment, we're gonna have a special moment in the service this next weekend. It'll be a great time of worship as we continue to give God our hearts, as we move with Him, as we move in Him, as we get the privilege of seeing what He's gonna do, not just in us, but through us as a church. Let me pray for us, and we'll jump into Philippians 4.

God, I thank you for your power that's at work in and through this church. It's more than we could ask for, it's more than we could imagine. We are privileged and humbled to be a part of it. I pray, God, that you would give us the courage and the humility to pray that dangerous prayer of, God, what do you wanna do in me? What do you wanna do through me? Just knowing that this life is short, we're just here for a moment, it's only a breath, a mist, you tell us, that appears for a little while, and we wanna make the most of it, we wanna be intentional with it. So would you allow us to do that together as a church, and may it be an act of worship towards you, because it's all yours, and it's all for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. I wanna tell you about a lady I met out in the lobby over Christmas Eve. She came up to me, she introduced herself, she was wearing a Christmas sweater, one of these kinds of people, like a Christmas tree on the sweater with ornaments sewn onto the Christmas tree. She's been waiting for Christmas since July, and we're standing out in the lobby. There are lights in the background, joy to the world playing over the speakers, and she starts to cry.

Immediately she apologizes, I say, it's okay. She says, no, I don't wanna cry, it's Christmas Eve. I don't even know what's wrong. Not really, nothing's wrong. I just feel like I'm waiting for something. I just don't remember the last time I was happy, she said. Nothing's wrong, not really. I just don't remember the last time I was happy. I took that to mean that her marriage is okay, the kids are doing okay, bills are getting paid, no diagnosis, no tragedy to speak of, but there is this gray that has settled over everything. And she just finds herself going through the motions and checking the boxes, and she's waiting on something that might come to make her happy, but she's not even sure what she's waiting on, and now she feels bad about feeling bad. And joy just slipped out the back door, and she didn't even notice until it was gone. And that's the thing about joy. Joy doesn't make a scene. Joy doesn't slam the door when it leaves. Joy rarely leaves a note. It just quietly excuses itself while we're busy with everything else, the job and the kids and the bills. And then one day, she looks up and she realizes she can't remember the last time they were in the same room together. Her joy was lost, and she couldn't remember where she put it

and she didn't remember the last time she had it. And I think about her sometimes, because I don't think she's alone. I think there are probably a lot of you walking around like that. Like you've got smiles on your faces, and yet there's emptiness underneath. And people ask you how you're doing, and you say, fine, because you are doing fine. You can't point to something significant that's going wrong in your life. You're not depressed, like not exactly. Not in crisis, but you're just kind of going through the motions. Doing the next thing, because the next thing needs to be done. Waiting on something, but not sure what you're waiting on. Spending a lot of your time just scrolling your life away, and in the back of your minds, there's this quiet question that you're afraid to ask out loud. Is this all there is? Is this what life is supposed to feel like? I think that describes some of you. But maybe, maybe that's not you. Maybe you know what's wrong. Like maybe you know what's behind the tears. It's the diagnosis that changed everything, and ever since the diagnosis, every day seems a little heavier than it used to be.

It's the grief that won't lift, because somebody who's supposed to be here isn't here. And it's been a while. It's been a while, even since people ask, hey, how are you doing? But the truth is, you're not doing good. It's the marriage that looks fine from the outside, but it feels hollow on the inside, and you share a bed with somebody, but you feel really lonely. It's the kid who's pulling away, or the job that's sucking the life out of you. It's the money that's not enough. It's the stress that wakes you up at 3 a.m. and won't let you go back to sleep, and you know exactly where the joy is gone. You can name it, you just can't fix it. And so whether you're like that woman in the lobby, you're not quite sure, but you know you're waiting on something, or maybe you could write out your list and you know exactly what you're waiting on. Most of us find ourselves waiting for joy, waiting for something to change, whether we can identify it or not, waiting for something to be different so joy will walk it back in the door, and you think, well, maybe when the kids get a little bit older, maybe when the job situation improves,

maybe when my marriage finds its rhythm again, maybe when the grief finally lifts, maybe when this shifts, I'll feel some joy again. And here's what we've done, is we've made joy something that is almost always conditional. We've told ourselves when this happens, when this changes, I'll be happy. And we spend so much of our lives waiting. And then here's what happens. We have these moments where we get something we think will make us happy, something we think we've been waiting on comes true for us, and then it doesn't quite raise our joy level the way we thought it would, or at least not for very long. It's what psychologists call the hedonic treadmill. It's this human tendency for us to return to this baseline level of happiness or lack of happiness. The hedonic treadmill would be like this. It would be like, if I could just have this job, or if I could just get this promotion, then we would have some joy. And you get the promotion, and after a few months, it's just the job. You think, okay, you know what? If we get out of this house,

and we get into that house, then I'll feel some joy. And you get into that house, and then after a year, it's just where you live. It's a hedonic treadmill. You get the car, and for a week or two, it's great. But then you start to think, well, maybe I got the wrong model because this isn't doing it for me anymore. Or you think, okay, if I could just have that relationship, and then you get married, and then in your marriage, the texts start just being like, can you pick up milk? That's the text. Not even that, it's like, milk, 2%. That's all the text is. And you just find yourself returning to this baseline. The new becomes normal. The thrill fades. You're right back to where you started, waiting for the next thing. Maybe that will bring you some joy. Right now, the Winter Olympics are going on in Italy. There's a phenomenon that psychologists have studied for years called post-Olympic depression. About one in four Olympic athletes experience what they would call significant depression after the Games.

Significant. What's fascinating about this post-Olympic depression is it's not connected to whether they win or whether they lose. Gold medalists get it just as bad. In fact, maybe the most epic example of this would be Michael Phelps with 23, I believe, gold medals, the most decorated Olympian who's ever lived, and he just talked very honestly about his deep depression after every Olympics. How in 2012, he sat in his bedroom for days in the dark, and he didn't eat, and he didn't sleep, and he didn't want to be alive. 20 plus medals on the wall, and he sits in the dark trying to find joy. That is the hedonic treadmill. The gold medal you thought would deliver joy doesn't. The promotion doesn't. The house doesn't. The relationship doesn't. And it's not because those things aren't good, but because those things were never meant to carry the weight of joy. And so maybe we've been thinking about joy all wrong. Maybe, maybe joy's not on the other side of something. Maybe joy's not waiting for you after the end of this hard season. Maybe joy isn't hiding behind the next accomplishment or the next change in circumstances. Maybe joy works differently than we thought.

And so with that in mind, I just want to take you somewhere to a first century prison cell in Rome. Stone walls, no window. A man sits on the floor. The stench is horrible. His wrist is chained to a Roman guard who despises him. He pulls on the chain, trying to get a little slack, so he can get out. He can write this letter, man's name is Paul. And most people would've looked at his life and they would say, well, things have fallen apart for him. Like he used to be somebody. Circumstances used to be different. He was a Pharisee, respected, educated, financially set, his future was secure, but he became a follower of Jesus. And it just would seem that once he became a follower of Jesus, a lot of his circumstances didn't get better, they got worse. He's beaten and shipwrecked and stoned and left for dead, he's rotting in a cell while people are gossiping about him on the outside. There's a trial that could end with his execution. If anybody looks at this guy sitting on the prison cell, they would think, well, look. When his circumstances change, when he gets out of that prison, then joy can come back. But he picks up a pen and he writes this letter

and he writes to this church that he loves about joy. One of the most outrageous sentences in the Bible will be offensive to some of you. Philippians four, verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again, rejoice. I used to think maybe he was saying I'll say it again for the people in the back, for the people who thought, well, surely he doesn't mean it. I kind of wonder, the more I study this, if he's saying it to himself. Rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again because I need to hear it. Rejoice. It's the word always that trips me up. Like, I would be totally on board with this if it was rejoice in the Lord sometimes. If it was rejoice in the Lord when things get better, rejoice in the Lord when the trial goes your way, rejoice in the Lord when you're out of your chains. But he says rejoice in the Lord always. What would cause him to say that? Maybe, this is it, maybe Paul is one of those annoying, always optimistic people. The glass is always half full, even when it's clearly not half full kind of people. Like, everything happens for a reason kind of people. Like, maybe Paul's just wired for optimism. There's a certain kind of person who can respond to crisis

with kind of this bumper sticker ideology, like God's got this, choose joy, good vibes only. And you're like, have you met the world? Have you met the world? Because it's not good vibes only. And if that's the picture of Paul in prison, here's, like, if this is Paul in prison, if he's in prison and he's got these signs up that he's decorated his prison wall with, live, laugh, love, I'm not into it. Like, I'm just not interested in that. It seems like that's not real. Psychologists have studied optimists for decades and they found something that won't be surprising to the pessimists in the room. The optimistic people are less accurate in their perception of reality. They overestimate their chances of success, they underestimate their risks, they remember the past is better than it was, they predict the future is brighter than it likely will be. It raises this question in the field of optimism that gets debated quite a bit. Is it better to be realistic and sad or to be deluded and happy? Like, if you had to choose between those two, which would you choose? Would you rather be somebody who's honest and realistic, but a little sad?

Or would you rather just be deluded and happy? Which one would you rather be? And maybe that's Paul here. Maybe Paul's just trying to talk all of us into being deluded and happy, trying to get us to ignore reality. And if that's what he's selling, I'm just not that interested. If joy requires me to pretend things aren't hard when they are, if joy means ignoring the diagnosis and minimizing the grief and acting like a marriage is fine when it's not, I'm not interested in acting like everything is great. If it's actually really difficult. But Paul's just getting started. Look at what comes next, verses five through seven. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, in every situation, by prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. There's a lot of beautiful ideas in this passage. But there's words he chooses that make these ideas really uncomfortable. Because again, he doesn't say rejoice in the Lord sometimes, he says rejoice in the Lord always.

He doesn't say let your gentleness be evident to the people who deserve it. He says let your gentleness be evident to all. He doesn't say don't be anxious about the small stuff. He says don't be anxious about anything. He doesn't say when things get really bad, try praying. He says pray about everything. And so there are four words he uses in three verses, always, all, anything, and every. Always, all, anything, and every. You take these out, I'm great with this passage. But these words. Depending on your circumstances, depending on what you're walking through, always, all, anything and every are pretty difficult. In English class, this might be a time where you would be reminded of the difference between qualifiers and universal qualifiers. A qualifier gives some wiggle room. Words like usually, sometimes, mostly. I like those words. Universal qualifiers leave no room at all. Words like always, every, and all. Paul uses these four universal qualifiers that just don't leave a lot of room. Always, all, anything, every. Not a lot of exceptions, not a lot of fine print. Those words don't give you an out when the diagnosis comes back wrong. Those words don't make an exception

when your kids break your heart. Those words don't offer a pass when a spouse rejects you or a friend betrays you. Always, all, anything, and every. And so he writes these while he sits in a dungy prison cell. And so those words are a little relentless. They're somewhat exhausting. And they make me uncomfortable, not just for myself personally, but for you as well. Because I know what some of you are carrying. I know the weight that some of you walked in with. I know what's been done to some of you. And so we're left with a couple of options here. I think, a couple of options. Either Paul is out of touch with reality, or he knows something we don't, and he's figured out something that we haven't. In these verses, there are three joy thieves, three things that steal our joy. I just want us to draw attention to. First verse five, let your gentleness be evident to all. First joy thief is the bitterness towards others. So there's this link here between joy and gentleness. And it seems a little bit out of place. But an un-gentle spirit is a spirit that's marked with bitterness and resentment. That's an un-gentle spirit. And that will kill your joy faster than anything. You cannot be joyful and bitter at the same time.

They don't coexist in the same space. Now we'll talk about this in a moment. There's certain things that should coexist. Like you can be carrying grief and joy at the same time. Like you can grieve and still have hope at the same time. But bitterness is like a squatter. It comes in uninvited, and if you just let it live there, it'll take over the whole house. The Bible in Hebrews talks about bitterness as a root, that if you don't deal with it, it just grows. It takes over, and pretty soon, there's no space left for joy. And so Paul says, let your gentleness be evident to all. Joy thief number one is bitterness towards others. Second thing that can steal my joy, verse six. Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, and with thanksgiving. Not with entitlement, not with a spirit of complaint. With thanksgiving, present your request to God. That's how you present your request, is with a spirit of gratitude. Joy thief number two is anxiety over things that you can't control. My friend describes his unexpected battle with anxiety. He says it's, quote, a low-grade hum that follows him everywhere he goes. It's those 3 a.m. thoughts. It's the worst-case scenario playing on repeat. It's the constant mental spinning

over things you can't change. A lot of us don't realize how much of that we carry because it's just become part of our culture. That hum has sort of become the background noise we live our lives by. We normalize it, and the thing about anxiety is so much of it revolves around things that we don't have any control over. We're anxious about what might happen, what could go wrong, what someone might say, what someone might decide. We're trying to control outcomes that aren't ours to control, and the weight of that crushes joy. Third thing that can steal our joy, verse eight. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things. And the third joy thief would be what you give your thoughts to. We've talked about this quite a bit in the past number of months, but what you give your thoughts to forms neural pathways, so whatever you think about is what you think about. And so many of the thoughts that steal our joy comes because we have these neural pathways that have been established by our algorithms. As the psychologists talk about

what they call negativity bias, this idea that our brains are wired to click on, to pay attention to negative information instead of positive. So that's why people who are monetizing your social media platform. platform, like they know that this is how your brain and my brain works, and so they're going to put things in front of you that are negative because they know you and I, we're more likely to click on something that's upsetting than something that's uplifting, and each time we click on that, like each time we give our thoughts towards that, that algorithm, it creates that neural pathway, and what we give our thoughts to can steal our joy. Researchers have been tracking anxiety levels in America for decades, and starting around 2012, if you look at the charts on this, it just skyrockets, and it's just not a coincidence, right, that the other thing that skyrockets in 2012 is social media use and smartphones in every pocket and the 24-hour news cycle on demand, the ability to know everything that's happening everywhere in real time, and it just seems painfully clear now that we're this many years on the other side of it, that it's not a coincidence, like we live in a world where you're constantly being fed thoughts that are the antithesis of Romans chapter 4 verse 8, and so we scroll through 45 minutes of bad news and political arguments and clips of strangers screaming at each other in the Costco parking lot, and then we close the app and think, why am I so anxious? It's like eating gas station sushi every day, and something's not, I don't feel right in this area of my body, I don't know, I can't put my finger on it, and so what's stealing your joy? Joy, for a believer, doesn't leave because it wants to, it leaves because something else moves in. Bitterness unpacks its bags, anxiety sets up shop, fear and cynicism start redecorating, and somewhere in the midst of that in your life, joy slips out the back door. But as Paul writes to us about joy, listen, he's doing this in a prison cell chained to a guard, and he is describing joy as an act of defiance. The Roman Empire had taken everything from Paul, taken his freedom and his future and his comfort, they controlled where he went and what he ate and where he lived and whether he lived or whether he died. You would think he would be obsessed with it, he would be

obsessed with the injustice of it all, you would think that his letters would read like a collection of outrage posts, passive-aggressive comments at the very least, you would think that he would take his stand and use his voice against government officials and the Roman propaganda machine, but you know how he gets defiant? By posting about joy and peace and humility. And so here's what I want you to see, for a believer, joy is not denial, joy is defiance. Joy is rebellion against the darkness of this world. And so the Roman soldier looks over his shoulder at what Paul's writing, and he realizes he has no power over this man. This man's writing to these believers about the joy of the Lord. If he would have looked over his shoulder and he just would have seen Paul just ranting about how he's being mistreated, how everybody's believing these lies, if he would have looked over his shoulder and just seen Paul worked up about the condition of everything that's happening in the world, he'd be like, yeah, we got him. But when Paul starts speaking joy, joy is the rebellion. Joy is the defiance. Paul picks up a pen and he doesn't write a complaint, he doesn't send a negative Yelp review, he doesn't write an appeal, he doesn't send out a manifesto, he rejoices. So I want to be careful here. Because I know some of you are suffering, and as your pastor, I so want you when you come in here, I so want you to feel seen and cared for. And if you walk in here and you listen to the message and it just feels like it's dismissive of what you're going through and just minimizes kind of the reality of your life, like, I mean, honestly, that scares me. Because as a shepherd with sheep, like, I just, I want to make sure you know that you are seen and that you're cared for. I don't want to minimize that. Joy doesn't mean your pain is real, but joy means that your pain isn't final. And so I want to be careful not to dismiss or minimize your hurt. More important to me, if I could just say this gently, it's more important to me that I don't dismiss or minimize what God's word says. And God's word says, be joyful always. And so as gently as I can, I just wanna challenge you towards this defiant joy that if you're in the middle of a hard season,

that you make a declaration, my circumstances don't get the final word, my diagnosis will not define me, my anxiety will not win the day, my grief will not own me, my marriage falling apart doesn't mean God's goodness is falling apart. Then you understand that that's not denial, it's not pretending that everything is okay when it isn't. I'm not saying you shouldn't give yourself some space to feel hard things, you should, but I'm asking you at the end of the day to understand your act of rebellion in this dark world is to find your joy in the Lord. Joy is resistance, joy is rebellion. Joy is standing in the middle of a prison cell and declaring the God I serve is stronger than the chains I wear. I sat with a woman last year whose husband had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, he's 54. They had been planning their empty nest years, travel, grandkids, grown old together, won doctor's appointment, all changed. I expected to find her devastated, and on one hand she was, I mean she was grieving. She wasn't pretending like everything was fine, she wept, she was scared, she was angry, but there was something else, something underneath the grief,

a different foundation she was standing on, this defiant spirit of joy. Later she messaged me, here's what she said, I've decided something, I'm going to enjoy every day I have with him, every single day. I'm not gonna spend the time I have left dreading what's coming, I'm gonna be present, I'm gonna laugh with him while he can still laugh, I'm gonna dance with him in the kitchen, I'm going to thank God for every good moment, even more so because I know the moments are numbered. That's defiance, that is making a statement that because of Jesus, dementia can take her husband's memory but it cannot steal her joy. So let me just give you three things in about one minute. Number one, make a trade. Trade in your anxiety for God's peace. The Bible says that his peace will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, it's a military word. Paul kind of flips the situation he's in, he's got this Roman guard standing over him and he uses that as a metaphor to talk about God's peace standing over him, that he's chained to God's peace, that it never leaves him. Second, change the algorithm. Think about what you're thinking about,

your Instagram and your TikTok and your YouTube, it has an impact on you that's more than you realize. One of the things I've been trying to do since the beginning of the years, I've been trying to check the news twice a week. And I use a qualifier there, not a universal, like sometimes I'm doing that. I found that certain things will get to you if it's really important. The unexpected thing that I have found in checking the news twice a week is that it makes people upset. They get mad that you don't know certain things are happening in real time. We're just so conditioned. And so change your algorithm, what do you need to give your mind to that's good and lovely and pure and praiseworthy? And thirdly, just to finally declare joy, to finally declare joy in your life. Three words that I kind of skipped over Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord, in the Lord, always. Rejoice in the Lord, not in your circumstances, not in your situation, not in your temporary reality, rejoice in the Lord. And Paul calls us back to a joy that's not rooted in an attitude, it's rooted in Jesus. That's why he can say always, joy is not something you manufacture,

joy is a person, joy is someone, rather, that you return to. Joy isn't an it, it's a him. You didn't lose joy, you drifted from the person where joy lives. Your joy is in the Lord. He can't be taken from you. Your employer can't fire him, your diagnosis can't outlast him, your worst day can't change him, the economy can't touch him, your critics can't silence him, your anxiety doesn't overwhelm him, your failures can't fire him. And so today, like not when things get better, but today, let's be defiant. Let's be rebellious. in this dark world by being a people of joy. You can't make us panic. You can't pull us in with the rage bait. We're not gonna get upset and angry over the little things in this world that we can't control. We're gonna declare that our joy is in the Lord. Paul did it from a prison cell. Some of you, I know, some of you are watching this online and I'm asking you to do it in a hospital waiting room. I'm asking you to do it walking out of a lawyer's office. I'm asking you to do it in a chair beside a hospital bed from a cubicle where no one knows what you're dealing with and no one seems to care, from a carpool,

from the car in a carpool pickup line where you fake smile five days a week, from a bedroom where you sleep on your side of the bed. I feel very alone. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Paul declared it in chains, so you declare it in yours. Let's be defiant, church, with our spirit of joy. So if you'd stand with me at all of our campuses, I'm gonna pray for us and then we're gonna rejoice together. God, I thank you that your joy is our strength. Thank you that when we talk about joy, we're not talking about these set of circumstances that need to change so that we can experience this feeling or this emotion that's been missing in our lives, but rather we can find it in you right here, right now. And God, in a world where people just seem upset and overwhelmed and anxious and angry, may we be defiantly joyful because of you. And so as we worship, as we sing this, would you let us defiantly declare our joy? It's in your name, Jesus, we pray, amen. We're gonna worship together, declare our joy together. I wanna give you an opportunity while we worship, if you're ready to put your trust in Jesus, to find your strength in the Lord, to let his peace guard your heart and your mind, we'd love to talk to you about your relationship with him. You can go to our next step room over here, love to visit with you on the first floor right over here. Or maybe you're ready to become a part of our church family.

Like part of this is something we do together in community. I don't know how you experience the kind of joy God wants for you in isolation. That's not how it works, we need one another. And so we'd love to have you be a part of our church family, let's declare church together that our joy is in the Lord. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen, amen. Amen yeah. Amen, amen yeah. Amen. Amen. ♪ He won't ever let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now He won't ♪ ♪ We believe He's mighty and He won't fail ♪ ♪ Oh, I've still got joy in Chaos ♪ ♪ I've got peace, I've got peace that makes no sense ♪ ♪ So I won't be going under ♪ ♪ I'm not held by my own strength ♪ ♪ Cause I built my life on Jesus, oh ♪ ♪ Cause He's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful in every season ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now come on He won't ♪ ♪ He's not gonna fail, He never has and He won't ♪ ♪ Thank you Jesus, He won't fail, He won't fail ♪ ♪ Christ is my third foundation, the rock, the rock ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be a Christ then, when everything around me is shaking ♪

♪ Oh, I've never been more glad ♪ ♪ That I put my faith in Jesus ♪ ♪ As He's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would He fell down, He won't fall ♪ ♪ Oh, I thank you God for all you do ♪ ♪ For all you've done, never fail, He won't fail ♪ ♪ He won't fail ♪ ♪ Oh, we've seen you move ♪ ♪ Oh, our sovereign King, you're mighty ♪ ♪ Nothing could stop so we build our lives on you ♪ ♪ Rain came and fled that my heart was fed ♪ ♪ Oh, I really see your face and I can't taste you anymore ♪ ♪ Oh, I really see your face and I can't taste you anymore ♪ ♪ Thank you, Lord, rain came and went blue ♪ ♪ But my heart was built on you ♪ ♪ And I'm safe with you and I'm gonna make it whole ♪ ♪ And I'm gonna make it whole ♪ ♪ Rain came and went blue but my heart was built on you, Lord ♪ ♪ And we are safe, I'm safe with you and I'm gonna make it through ♪ ♪ I believe and I'm gonna make it whole ♪ ♪ Because we can stand on the front front page ♪ ♪ We're gonna make it through, I'm gonna make it through ♪ ♪ Because my house is built on you ♪ ♪ Christ is my third foundation ♪ ♪ He's the rock on which I stand ♪ ♪ And everything around me is sinking, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I'll never be more glad that I was born today, oh ♪ ♪ Because he's there, he's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful through generations ♪

♪ We celebrate his faithfulness, oh how great thou art, hero ♪ ♪ Hero, thank you Jesus, you're awesome, oh, he won't fail ♪ ♪ And we believe, we sing, he won't fail, no, your Lord ♪ ♪ He won't fail, he won't fail, no, your Lord, he won't fail ♪ ♪ He won't, thank you Jesus, he won't fail, no, your Lord ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ In the valley of the shadow, I got a feeling ♪ ♪ It's a season that'll make me grow, I'm just breathing ♪ ♪ I got praise in my lungs and a choir in my soul ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ What the world couldn't give, no it can't take away ♪ ♪ Sorrow may come but it can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ Come on, whoo, can't steal my joy ♪ ♪ In the highs and the low lows, you fill my cup ♪ ♪ You fill it up until it overflows, I remember ♪ ♪ I keep holding on to hope, you're the king of rolling stones ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ Hey, can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ What the world couldn't give, no it can't take away ♪ ♪ Sorrow may come but it can't steal my joy, come on, hey ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, yeah! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, hey, whoa! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, whoa! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, hey! ♪ ♪ Down in my soul, deep in my bones, I got that joy, joy, joy! ♪ ♪ I can't contain, nothing can quiet my pain, hey! ♪ ♪ I got the joy, joy, joy, down in my, oh-oh! ♪ ♪ Down in my soul, deep in my bones, I got that joy, joy, joy! ♪

♪ I can't contain, nothing can quiet my pain. ♪ ♪ Joy, hey! Can't steal my joy, hey! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, hey, whoa! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, come on! ♪ ♪ What the world couldn't give, no, it can't take away. ♪ ♪ Sorrow may come, but it can't steal my joy. ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, hey! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, hey, come on, hey! ♪ ♪ Can't steal my joy, hallelujah! ♪ Well, welcome back, Pando family. Again, my name is Derek. I'm our online campus pastor here at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. And I hope that you enjoyed that message. I know that depending on our circumstances, that type of message can be hard to hear because there are many times in our life where just on the surface, we shouldn't have joy, right? No matter what we're going through, you may be in prison right now, it may be your first time, your second time, third time, and you think, man, why should I have joy? Why should I strive to have joy in my life? And one of the things from Kyle's message today that comes from Philippians chapter four is what we have to remember is that as Paul, the apostle Paul is writing this to the church in Philippi, Paul's in prison, right? He can relate directly to you in this season of life. And yet in verse four of chapter four of Philippians,

he says, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice, right? And there's a word there that I underlined, I think Kyle did as well, and that word was always, right? He's not talking about our joy being tied to a specific circumstance. Our joy is not tied to being out of prison. Our joy is not tied to all of our relationships being perfect. No, our joy should not be tied to a circumstance. Our joy is directly tied to Jesus, right? And for Paul at that point, like they had taken everything away from him. He had nothing but the clothes on his back sitting there in prison. And yet he's writing this church to the church in Philippi and reminding us that in all circumstances, it doesn't matter what we have going on in our life because the thing that no one else can take away from you is the joy that is found in Christ that lives inside of you. And so no matter where you find yourself today, and you may be asking that question, like, man, like you don't understand how hard my life is right now. Like, you don't understand how hard it is to live with these people around me, or you don't understand the things that people say about me. And that may be true, and I acknowledge that. But what I do know is that the word of God

is true and living and active. And for all believers everywhere, in every circumstance, Paul, but more importantly, God, is reminding us and challenging us to have joy and rejoice always. Y'all, so I hope that you take that with you this week as you just continue to follow Jesus the best way that you can where you're at, rejoicing in Him always. Y'all, but I wanted to remind you as well that we have a MOVE podcast that'll be coming out again this upcoming Thursday. It's a great opportunity to hear from our senior pastor, Kyle Eidelman, and some other important staff here we have here at Southeast that get to be a part of that. We hope that that encourages your journey following Christ as well. But y'all, I wanted to end today the same way we have for the past month or so, by offering a prayer over you. through Philippians 1, 9 through 11. And it says, we pray that our love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment so that we may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Amen.

Well, Pando family, we love you. We're grateful for you. And remember, our circumstances, our joy is not tied to a circumstance. Our joy is tied to Him. We'll see you next week.