I’m Not Happy

You may not need that prayer, but I do. So there's this epidemic today in churches across America, where preachers get up, and they like to bring all this great and amazing news, and they love to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they like to tell you that if you give your heart to the Lord today, your life is going to change, and it's going to be great, and everything's going to be good, and everything's going to be roses. And they get a whole bunch of people that rush to the stage to give their hearts to the Lord because they're going through trials and tribulations, and they walk out the door, and their car won't start. And the next day, they wake up, and there's a bill from the IRS, and they go to pay the bill from the IRS, and they realize the bank made a mistake in the bank's error, and they have no money to pay the IRS.

And it's just this snowball. And what happens is all of a sudden, there's this crisis of faith because their faith was built on this idea that God just wants us all to be happy. We watch things like Duck Dynasty, which I love that show. It's a great show built on faith, and we hear the catchphrase from Phil, happy, happy, happy. And we all went out and bought t-shirts that said it.

We walked around like, we're going to be just like them, happy, happy, happy all the time. I mean, everything always goes their way. They've got millions and millions and millions of dollars. Everything's great. But the reality is that since the bite was taken out of that fruit in Eden, there's been problems.

That was the catalyst. It is what introduced sin onto this earth, and sin is going to bring problems. And because you're not perfect, and I'm not perfect, and none of your neighbors in this room or in your neighborhood are perfect, if I just offended you, told you you're not perfect, I am sorry. Your parents should have done that a long, long time ago. But because of that, we are going to face problems.

If you're in marriage, guess what? Everything is great until the day you get married. And then you're going to have this nice little honeymoon. Maybe I didn't. And you're going to realize this person is not perfect like they said they were.

And then there's going to be problems. First time that, as a wife, you wake up and your husband doesn't give you roses and a romantic card, and this is coming from experience because my wife still gives me grief. You get the poem, stop, and the roses on your card, work stops. And you're like, man, he was this really nice, perfect guy when we were dating. And then as a husband, first morning, you roll out of bed.

Usually this happens four or five months in, and she doesn't get up earlier than you to get her makeup on. And you're like, who are you? Hey, if you're a man in the house, raise your hand because don't tell me this has not happened to you unless you're blessed enough to have a wife who just doesn't wear makeup. I have a beautiful wife, and I tell her, please stop wearing makeup. And Miranda has been on me because of this.

I'm like, please don't. You're this beautiful person. You don't need makeup. Like, you really don't need it. See?

Still there. But there's this, it's just innate. We can't help it. We're not perfect. And because of that, we are going to face problems.

And so if I was up here preaching to you the good news of the gospel followed by everything is going to be great, I would be doing a disservice to you, a disservice to your faith, and most importantly, a disservice to God. See, that cuts his feet out from underneath him because we are going to face problems. But it's we have this good, good father who walks us through them. The world wants us, man, all you got to do is watch TV, and it's like everything is about being happy. You watch a commercial, and it's like you see this new cleaning product, and the husband or the wife is there trying it out, and they spray it on the wall, and they're like, this just made my month.

It cleans my tile. Or the Swifter commercials where they just can't seem to get their floor clean, and then someone drops this beautiful box off, and all of a sudden we're happy. The world wants you to believe that happiness is the answer. And they want you to believe you're supposed to be happy all the time, and if you're not happy all the time, then something is wrong with you. The problem is that the world's view is skewed, and their view of what happiness is is off.

So I'm going to quickly address worldly happiness before we jump into godly joy. Worldly happiness, and these are the blanks on your little notes, should be all popped up here, is temporary. It lasts but a second. It's fleeting. It is circumstance-driven.

It's outside influence that for those brief moments make you happy. It's why our world is constantly searching for the next best thing, because once the one thing goes away, the happiness goes away, and we're in trouble. It's why there's addiction. It's why people are addicted to crack, and meth, and pot, and alcohol, and sex, because in that brief few moments, it feels so good, and then when you're done, it's gone. And you're trying to find, how do I get happy again?

It's materialistic. Happiness is materialistic. It is about what you have, when you get it, how much you have, how big your house is, what is it compared to the neighbors? Man, when you're a next-door neighbor, and this just happened to me, I love my tundra. I put a lot of miles.

On this thing, and it still runs, I’m still able to pull our church trailer, which, praise the Lord, you can pray for that truck, that it does not stop, or pray for somebody with a big F-350, your choice, that’s what I’m praying for. We just moved into a new neighborhood, the guy across the street had this real cool jacked up Ford, and then the other day I wake up and I walk outside, and in its place, it was already pretty cool, is this brand new, bright blue Ford four-door FX4, and I’m like, oh, and here’s my truck. Still a very nice truck, but not that truck. It’s materialistic. I immediately am comparing, what do I have, what does he have?

His house is bigger, my house is smaller. Like, it’s immediate, and the minute that you compare what you have to what someone else has or what you want that they have, you are going to be unhappy. It’s a crapshoot. It really is. It’s just a matter of time before something bad happens.

Right. And so you can be going through one of those days where you’re like, zippity-doo-dah, zippity-day, my, oh, my. And if you do not know that song, come talk to me afterwards. You did not grow up right. Everything’s going your way.

There’s not a problem in the world. The skies are blue, and all of a sudden, thundercloud, poof, you get zapped by lightning. It’s just a crapshoot. Maybe you’re at the wrong stoplight at the wrong time, and the grandma behind you looks down for her medication and runs into the back of you. It’s literally a crapshoot.

And that’s the problem with happiness, is that you have no control over it. It controls you. And it is outside influence based on those things that do that. Happiness is an instant. It is a moment in time where you feel this short-lived emotion.

If you’re newly married, I’ am talking to you. The happiness that you felt over that honeymoon will end. And if you don’t learn to derive joy from the inside, from God, and understand what it is to have a husband or a wife, and the joy that comes with that, and the sanctification that comes with that, you’re going to be unhappy your whole marriage. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break and steal, Matthew 6, 19. It goes on in verse 20 to tell you where to lay up your treasures, and that is in heaven, and eternally.

But that’s such a good verse here, because the truth is that so many times we base our happiness on these things that can be destroyed, that are going to go away. And so we’re, we get in this, like, cloud of depression that we put our’self in because we think nothing’s going my way, and I’ don’ have nice clothes, and she’ just got that new job, and I’ don’ have it. Man, it’ gives control of your joy. It gives control of your life to people outside. If you’re like me, I’ am a control nut.

I just’ am. I’ am controlling. It is something I’ve had to learn with my wife to back up off, let her have it, because I’ enjoy having my hands on everything. And when I’'m put in’ positions where I’ have people underneath me in the past, I’ have gotten myself in trouble by micromanagement. And so for me, this isn’t hard, because I’ don’ want anyone else to have control over my happiness.

I don’t. But for some people, it’ is. And they allow everyone around them, every person they’ come in contact with, every’ everything they’ see to have control over their heart and over their emotions. And that is not the way God’ intended. Let me introduce you to what joyfulness is.

And I’ use two different words here. If you’ go do word studies, you’'ll find that there’'s not a ton of a difference between these two. However, there’ is enough of a difference. And for me, when I’ think of the joy of the Lord, it’ is my strength. That word joy means something different for me.

So I’ am going to use that here. Joyfulness is an inward decision, not to focus on the outward influences, those temporary things, which accompany life in a dying world. But to focus on the internal well’ being or prospect of well’ being. We cannot escape the effects of sin on this world, regardless of our spiritual level. We are going to encounter trials.

The statement here that I want to focus on is the prospect of well’ being. Because that tells us, where are you putting your joy? Where are you deriving your joy from? And the deal is this, guys. The end game on earth, this’ isn’ for us.

If you’ are a Christian, the Bible’ tells us you’ are a sojourner. You’ are an alien. This’ is not your home. This’ isn’ our place. And the problem is, is that we’ get so caught’ up in this, that’ that’'s where we put all of our focus.

And we’ forget eternity. We’ allow those things that’ rob us of our happiness to control our time here on earth, instead of focusing on eternity and realizing this’ is going to go fast. And my life and my time on this earth could end the moment I walk out this door. It could be gone. And if all we’'re worried about is this, we’'re in trouble.

We’ are in trouble. Philippians 3.20 says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we’ eagerly’ await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’ tells us where our focus is supposed to be. If you’ are eagerly’ awaiting something, you’'re probably looking in that direction.

Like, I’'m waiting on a box right now of clothes that I’ ordered a while ago that still’ hasn’ showed up. And every day, it’ doesn’ matter if I’ know the mailman’'s already been there. When I’ come home, I’ find myself looking at my front door. Is it’ there? Is it’ there?

Is it’ there? That’ is how we’ are to be on earth. We’ are to be constantly’ focusing on heaven. And if you’ constantly’ focus on heaven and where our hope’ lies, then the things that’ come on this earth can’'t affect you the same. They’ will affect you some, but they won’ affect you the same, because you’ know where your foundation’ lies.

Whenever I’ speak or we’'re in small group, I’ use myself as an example. The reason I’ do that, I’ don’ want you’ guys to think I’ think I’'ve been through the worst of it. I know I’ haven’. There’s always somebody’ I’ I talk to you, and I'm like, man, I thought I had it bad. I was wrong.

I don't want you to think that, like, I think I'm the greatest. I know I'm not. The reason I use myself is because it's my experience, and I can speak out of my experience. And I don't want to try to speak out of yours. So I'm going to give you a quick glimpse into my 2014.

If you were here the last time, you already heard that part of the testimony. I'm not going into it. You can look it up online and listen to it. The last time that I spoke to get the details of June 30th, 2014. But needless to say, it was the rock bottom of my marriage.

I thought my marriage was over. Just a couple short months later in October, my grandfather died after battling cancer for two years. Literally six to seven weeks about that. After burying my grandfather in Texas, we get a phone call on December 23rd that my father is in the back of an ambulance. They handed my mom his watch, his ring, and his wallet when she showed up on scene.

He had been found after cardiac arrest, unconscious, no heartbeat. They didn't know how long he'd been there. Rushed him to the hospital two days before Christmas. If you've been around, like, this was on base, so if you've been around the military long enough to know, you know when they hand somebody your wallet, your watch, and your ring, it's not good. So the moment she was clueless, the moment she told me that, I looked at my wife and said, my dad is in trouble, we gotta go.

This is all happening in, like, an eight-month span. And it was like, I felt like I couldn't get out of my own way. Every time I felt like maybe I was coming up for a breath, it felt like somebody took my head and just shoved it in deeper. And at the hospital, when we were waiting on my dad, what they did is, if you've ever, if you've been around a hospital, if you've had somebody who's gone through heart attack or cardiac arrest like this, they actually put him in a medical coma. They drop his body temperature so that, like, when you walk up and touch him, he's literally shaking.

He looks dead. And so we showed up to the hospital after they'd done multiple surgeries, and we go in to see my dad. And the doctor comes in and says, listen, he's gonna be in this for three to five days. When we take him out of this, there's a spectrum of things. We don't know how long he was like that.

He could be a vegetable. He could just die immediately. You know, he could get some part of his brain, not all of his brain. You have no idea what's going on, and so you're looking at your dad, who you're supposed to spend Christmas with in two days, and he's dead. For all intents and purposes, my dad was dead.

And so in those moments when we face those things, you have two options. My response was not such a good one. I went to the top of that hospital, and me and God had words. I'm not joking. I was like David.

I was yelling at God. Why are you doing this to me? Why can you let this happen? I love that word. Let.

Why are you allowing this to happen to me? I'm pursuing ministry. I've been a Christian my whole life. Why are you letting this happen to me? Just screaming and yelling.

In that moment, in those moments, the thing is that as you face these trials, as you face these tribulations, you have two options. Run from him or run towards him. And when you find your joy in God, when you find your joy derived from the hope of eternity with your heavenly Father, then these things don't affect you the same way. And when finally someone came up and laid hands on me and prayed for me and encouraged me and said, wake up, dude. We aren't from here anymore.

This isn't home. If your dad goes to be with the Lord tomorrow and they take him off of that, guess what? He's in a better place. If you think, well, you're just weird. You've had a bad life.

Bad year. Let me help you out. Let's go to the Bible. We'll start with Joseph. Here's a guy who is thrown into a pit, then sold into slavery, has favor, and then the wife of his master accuses him of rape, and so then he's thrown into jail.

This is all before he gained favor again and God put him in a place of authority. But he had a crappy life. Can you imagine your brothers? You think you have family problems? Have they sold you into slavery yet?

Have they dropped you off in a pit yet? Yeah. They would think his dad thought he was dead. His dad was mourning because he thought his son was dead. That was just the beginning for him.

And Moses, we always think of this like the savior of Israel leads him out. Mighty warrior. There was one point in Numbers chapter 11, he was begging God to take his life. He said, God, if you really love me, take my life from me. Because he was so done dealing with these crazy rebellious Israelites.

He got sick of coming down the mountain and seeing them worshiping idols, wandering through the desert. King David. And here's this guy who is king. And he brought it on himself. Commits adultery.

Then the prophet Nathan comes and says, the sword will never leave your family. One of his sons rapes his, essentially his stepsister. The stepbrother kills him and then tries to usurp David's throne. David has to flee. Gets back in only to have one of his own sons try to take his throne.

Like we have these pictures. Oh, David, this mighty man of God, everything was so great. That dude went through some junk. Just read Psalms. Pastor talked about Job last week, so I'm not going to go into that.

We all know Job's story. That dude lost everything. And then there's Paul. And if you go into 2 Corinthians, I love Paul. I think most pastors love Paul.

He's such an amazing example. But let's take a quick look at Paul's trials. And this is just a summarized version. And there's going to be some fill in the blanks in your things. He was beaten too many times to even count.

Who here has been beaten so many times they can't even count it anymore? Who here has been beaten once? A couple of us who got in trouble when we were kids. Yeah. But this dude got beat so many times he can't count them anymore.

Then he was whipped five times with 39 lashes with a whip. Crazy. 覚悟 That dude got healed instead. Congratulations. I'm You can't even fathom that.

Then he was stoned. I mean, they're trying to kill you, in case you didn't know that. When they stone you, they're trying to kill you. Sounds like this is, they're trying to kill this guy, right? Like, we want to get rid of him.

And then he's shipwrecked. This dude has been through it. And I know you guys are all like, I know, but that's the Bible. Like, that's just this real cool story that God put in there and wove in there just for his, you know, just so we would, you know, just be encouraged. Let me help you out with this.

The Bible is infallible. It is inerrant. It is the breathed word of the Almighty God. He didn't have to make this stuff up. He put it in here for our encouragement, to challenge us, to show us how we're supposed to act, to show us other people who've been through what we've been through, to show us other people who've been through a whole lot more crap than we're ever going to go through.

But he didn't make this stuff up to make you feel good. In fact, this shouldn't make you feel good. When you read this about Paul and then you understand how faithful this man was to preach the gospel and you understand how he just kept his mind on the Lord and he kept his heart on the Lord and he allowed the Holy Spirit to use him over and over and over again, it should do nothing but challenge us. When I read about Paul, it makes me almost fall to my knees and ask the Lord for forgiveness. Lord, I have failed you.

I have not been through a tenth of what this man has been through. And yet, I feel sorry for myself. I have never been beaten. I have never been shipwrecked. I've had a couple bad things happen in my life.

And other than that, it's been a pretty decent life. And yet, I find myself wanting to be happy. So we should be challenged by Paul. In 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18, it says, Therefore, we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles, I want you to listen to that, for our light and momentary troubles, that means your troubles ain't jack, jack, some of you got that, are achieving for us eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. The reason Paul could walk through these things and not get flushed and not get flustered, Of course, he probably got angry at times. I'm sure he was feeling sorry for himself at some times. And I'm sure he, like me and David, had some words with God at different times. But he kept his focus on the unseen.

He kept his focus on his true hope. And when you keep your focus on true hope, which is eternity with your Savior, these things are light and momentary. It requires us, guys, to preach this to ourselves. Like, this isn't just something that, like, it clicks, and all of a sudden you're able to walk around and get beat and still able to sing the song and keep on going. No, it requires us, in the midst of that pain, to get on our knees before God, ask him for his Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and to help keep our focus on him.

It requires us to pick up our Bible when we're in the midst of depression, when we're in the midst of an attack, and pick up our Bible and find the scriptures that will encourage us because it's the sword of God. Because it is sharper than any two-edged sword. And we have to use it. If you have kids, and you look around this world, you gotta be real. Like, if you live at the ocean front, what's been going on the last three or four days is just insane.

And part of you as a parent wants to, like, protect them. Nothing bad is happening. No one's being shot. Hey, don't worry about CNN. Don't listen to what daddy's watching.

Everything's good. But see, if we train them up the way they're supposed to go, and we explain to them early on, guess what? You're gonna face some things. You're gonna go through some things. But if you can practice now as a young child to focus on the eternal, to focus on God, to keep your focus on things that are unseen, then when you walk through these things, God is right there with you.

So, as Paul went through these things, it's not like it just happens and then it's done. These things have an effect on you. My dad is a preacher, and I could actually almost verbatim preach a message that I've heard him speak at our churches and multiple other churches when we would go. And it was on, he is the potter and we are the clay. And at one point, he brought someone in and while he was preaching, she was on her potter's wheel making stuff.

My dad's very good at that kind of thing. So I have this particular sermon of his. I literally could get up here and just verbatim go because I've heard it so many times. But there are so many good things about it. And one of the things that is in that, that symbolism, that allegory, is that in order for the vessel to be complete, in order for the vessel to be usable, something has to happen.

Anybody know what that is? Fire. That vessel must go through the heat. And if you try to use a pot that has been shaped and not heated, what do you have? It's just this soft piece of clay that will fall apart the moment that you try to use it.

It will cave in and it will mess up. And that is us if we do not walk through the fire. If you are not tested, if you do not allow the fire to literally bake the imperfections out of you, you are a raw vessel. And so many of us see trials and tribulations as these bad things that happen to us because Satan is attacking, which he is, or because God just abandoned us, which he never does, or I'm just such a bad person. But the truth is, these things happen to us and they are allowed by God at times because when you go through the fire, you...

Come out the other side, usable. Once again, I’m going to use myself. Before 2014, if you would have met me, a pretty prideful dude. I'm not going to use pretty, I wasn't arrogant. And I was in ministry, right?

And we’re at this church that is full of very needy people. A lot of drug addiction, a lot of alcoholism, a lot of sex addiction, a lot of, it was crazy. And I would sit down with these people and they would share with me because they need ministry, they need help. And I’m sitting there and at times thinking, are you kidding me? Like, this is the fourth time you’ve done this.

Like, come on. I’ll pray for you. But, like, there was no sympathy. Because I had never been through the fire. I didn’t understand what it meant to fall on your face before God, begging him to make it stop.

Now I know. Because I’ve been on my face before God, dealing with my marriage, feeling attacked by Satan, and literally been on my face before God and doing what Moses did. God, if you really love me, you’ll take me right now, because I cannot handle this. But he didn’t stop it. But what has come out of the other side is I have this sympathy and this empathy for people now that I never had before.

And when someone sits down with me and begins to share with me the troubles and things that they have going on, there’s a sympathy there I never had. And I never would have had it had I not walked it out. God has a plan for each one of us. And if we just walk through life all happy, happy, happy, joy, joy, happy, happy, joy, he’s not putting you through the fire. The world wants you to believe that problems are this horrible, bad thing.

But what God wants you to understand is he will use them for his glory. He will use them to transform you into a vessel of his purpose, of his timing, of his place. And so when you go through these things like Paul went through, man, Paul came out the other side stronger, bolder, more impassioned by the Holy Spirit. Every time they tried to get him, he came out louder. He's like, okay, beat me.

I'm going to come out and start preaching even stronger. I'm going to get up on a higher box. If they'd had microphones, he'd have just turned up the volume. He kept walking through these things. Ask why, why, why, why, why, why?

And God wants you to know this. Like, you can ask why a million times and probably never get the answer. But there will be a day when you will look back and you will go, my why. That's why I've gone through this. That's why the Lord allowed this.

And sometimes it's of our own doing. I am not even going to get up here and pretend that we don't put ourselves in positions to reap what we've sowed. Done it myself a million times. I will do it again. We will reap what we sow.

But God allows us to reap that stuff. He allows it to happen. Why? He's strengthening us. He is preparing you.

He is allowing you to go through these things so that you can rely on him, so that you can face him when these things happen, so that when you walk through the flame, your face doesn't look down and look at the circumstances and want to be happy, your vision immediately goes up. And then when bad things happen and you look up and you find your vision goes up, it doesn't mean you won't have pain. You're going to have pain. It doesn't mean it's not going to make you sad. You're going to be sad.

You're going to lose people in this life. You're going to see people hurt in this life. And the emotions that go with that are not going to stop. But what stops is you see the greater purpose. And when you see the greater purpose, something happens.

You find joy. You find joy. Finally, when I look back at what happened to me in 2014, I honestly can tell you today as I stand here, and there's many of you who have testimonies like this, I thank God for it. I thank him for it. Lord, thank you.

It stunk. It hurts. It still hurts. God, thank you. Because now the circumstances and the craziness of life just don't have the same effect because I'm not worried about being happy, happy, joy, joy anymore.

I'm really not. It's just, I'm just not. I have a joy now that I never had before 2014. Never. And this isn't just me, guys.

I know there's testimonies all throughout this room of people who have the same thing, who have faced these problems, who have gone through crap, and when they come out the other side, they don't understand why at first. Why am I joyful? Why am I able to stand today with more joy and more smiles and more gratefulness than I was before I went through this? And it's because we learn to rely on God for our joy. We learn to go deep in instead of be affected by out.

Philippians 4, 11, verse 4, I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances. I've learned to be joyful in whatever the circumstances. I've learned. It doesn't say, and Jesus made me. He didn't wave his magic wand.

Well, you know what, Chris? I really like you. Bobby, you're just such a good guy. Joy. Unbreakable.

You have to go through it. You must find yourself in a place where you can draw on the joy that is already within you, that God has given you. You have to draw on it. How do we draw on it? How in the midst of pain?

How in the midst of trials? How in the midst of the whole world falling apart do we have joy? There are people I know in this room right now looking at me like, you are crazy. You're one of those weirdo Holy Spirit people. Yes.

Yes, I am. And I'm joyful because of it. You should join the party. But there's three ways that we find ourselves able to derive from the joy within. And you're going to be surprised to find out that none of this has to do with you.

I'm going to be surprised to see you. Thank you. None of it has to do with your house. None of it has to do with your car. None of it has to do with your paycheck, or your education, or the color of your skin, or your sex.

It has nothing to do with any of that. It all has to do with God. Number one, focus on, give you three guesses, God. Focus on God. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy might be full.

Your joy can be full. He wants his joy to be in us, instilled in us. And the only way that that happens is by walking out the fire. I can tell by looking around the room, y'all, like, this is not a happy message. I wish I was at the beach instead.

No! Telling you that you‐re going to face problems, telling you that your God allows this to happen sometimes, that's not like this great happy thing that you love to get up here and preach. But what makes me happy, what makes me want to get up here and preach this to you is because when you focus on eternity, when you understand that the thing that derives joy is focusing on the well-being that is to come. Guys, it‐s not now. It‐s then.

I‐m going to face junk. My kids are going to disappoint me. I have three kids. The chances of me getting through life with three perfect angels is zero. It is.

I am going to have one kid that is just going to be that one. I might have two. Praying is not three. So I‐m going to go through those things. So how do I get through them?

I‐m focusing on God. I‐m focusing on the fact that I‐m a sojourner. I‐m an alien. This place is not my home. I‐m here for a brief period of time.

And then I get to go live with my Savior. And life gets good. Man, when good things happen and you can be happy for a brief moment, thank God for it. Thank God. If you have a good life, a good house, a good car, a good marriage, a good job, good education, and you like your friends and you love your church, thank God for it.

It‐m a blessing. But do not rely on those things because you will be disappointed. One of those people around you is going to tick you off. I‐m that way with all my friends. I‐m like, listen, I know I‐m going to offend you at some point.

Please love me through that. We‐re going to have disagreements. We‐re going to have problems. We‐re going to have different views of opinion. Please love me through that.

Don‐t rely on me for your eternal happiness because it‐s not going to be there. Number two is to focus, and this goes right in what we‐re doing, focus on eternity. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God is eternity-focused. Like, our purpose on earth was eternity-focused.

He didn‐t create us as beings to be momentarily focused. He created us to be eternally focused. The apple messed a lot of it up. Or fruit, whatever it was. That tree was bad.

Good, bad. It messed it up. It made us momentarily focused. It put us in a place where we‐re so worried about our happiness and the things around us that we allow it to have an effect on our lives that God did not intend. If you go back to Genesis, the reason we were on this earth was to be in God‐s presence.

God was going to live his very presence among us until sin came, and he could no longer be here. Like, our entire being, our creation was made to live and be in the presence of God. God, it hasn‐t changed. Sin has corrupted the earth, but we are still created for eternity. We are still created for eternity.

And if we allow ourselves to find these happiness things distracting us, affecting us, and hurting us, and we don‐t derive our joy from eternity, you‐re always going to be unhappy. If you‐re not a Christian, if you‐re here today and you‐re unsaved and you‐re like, oh, he‐s cuckoo, my question to you is, are you content? Are you happy? Seriously. When you look in the morning, look at yourself in the morning, are you content or are you happy?

My guess is no. I‐m not even going to take a show of hands because this would be offensive to some of you, but there‐s a lot of people in this room on depressive medications. Like, you‐re depressed and so you‐re on meds. I know it. God did not intend that.

That is an effect of the earth. That is an effect of the world. That is an effect of sin. He intended for me to be joyful and to walk in joy that he imbued in me because my focus is eternity. When your focus is eternity, your finances become small.

When your focus is eternity, your marriage, you understand, is temporary. I know there‐s this view that, like, when we get to heaven, our dog‐s going to be there, our cat‐s going to be there, we‐re going to live in a mansion with our wives and our kids. Dude, you‐re going to be so busy praising God and in so awe of his presence, you‐re not going to be worried about anybody else. And none of those are going to matter. Lastly, is we have to focus on God‐s word.

You‐shall, therefore, lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and you‐shall bind them as a sign on your hands. What he‐s saying is, you‐have to have this so deep inside of you, so imbued in you. It‐s got to be so in there that when you walk through these trials, you‐re able to then derive your strength. You‐re able to preach to yourself the scripture and word of God, because it is a tool God has given us to overcome. And when we read his word, it points us to eternity.

It points us to him, and that immediately brings joy. And every time I pick up my word, when I‐m going through crisis and I read, it‐s like, thank you, Lord. We‐we‐ just went through very close to the same thing that Leona and Miranda are going through. We‐actually got two closing on our new house. And the underwriter had to go home early that day.

And so we had to come back the next morning. It was chaotic. It‐s just‐ It's real estate. But man, it's hard. Man, was I not happy.

I was not happy. Thankfully, Bobby was there to point me back to the Lord. I was not happy because I was, my focus had drifted from God, from the purpose of this house. It's His to myself, to my happiness, to my immediate second. I'm not getting the house.

I wanted. I want to be in there tonight. I want to move in right now. I was going to have barbecue tonight. I have steaks ready.

God said, no. You need to learn patience. So I'm going to walk you through this. When you come out the other side, you're going to be able to drive more on me. You can be able to stand more on my joy, more on my presence.

It requires us to preach to ourselves. Philippians 4-4 says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, Rejoice. You will have to preach to yourself. In those moments where you're walking out the trials and the tribulations, you're going to have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, Rejoice.

Look at yourself in the mirror and preach to yourself. Rejoice. And again, I say, Rejoice. David used to preach to his soul. He would tell his soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul.

And again, he's preaching to himself. He's telling himself. And you must do it because your sinful flesh, it's not natural, right? It wants to focus on happy. He wants to turn on Duck Dynasty and watch Phil and I don't even know all the rest of them anymore.

He wants to watch the commercials and go down to the beach and put your feet in the sand and feel happy for a moment. But your soul longs for eternity. Longs for eternity. That's why we search so long to find that thing that brings us joy. And it's right in front of your face.

His name is Jesus Christ. Like, he is joy. Because when you accept him as your Lord and Savior and your eternity is done. Like, when you can stand and say, I know I'm going to heaven. I know my soul is good.

I mean, this life just doesn't matter that much anymore. It just doesn't. All of a sudden, you can live with reckless abandon for God. And let me tell you from personal experience, that's why I love hanging out with Leon. There's a reckless abandon for God.

It makes me want to do the same. My brother Seth is the same way. Like, you get around him and it's like, man, it's just all on. Nothing turns off. Because this life just doesn't have the same value.

I would encourage you if you're here today and you've been struggling and you've been walking out all these trials and tribulations and you're wondering why God is doing this to you, stop asking God why he's doing it to you now and ask him what his purpose is. All right, Lord, who are you going to use this for? Why are you going to use this? How can I use this? Let this be for your glory.

Let this be for your purpose. And if you're here today and you're thinking I'm crazy because you don't know Jesus, I want to introduce you to him. He's my Lord and my Savior. And he's the reason that I can walk out trials and tribulations and be joyful. I know there's people in this room, I can read your faces who are doing it, who are walking through trials and tribulations, who are going through painful things.

I'm actually going to allow Leon to come out and close, but I want to pray for you who are walking through it because I have walked through that. And then I'll let him come out here. Lord, I pray for these people today that you will keep their eyes lifted to you. Lord, that they will find themselves focused on you and they will find the joy come easy as they walk out through the fire. Lord, as they find themselves in the midst of the trials and the tribulations, that they could look at Paul and David and Moses.

Lord, and they could use that example of the fact that God used that for eternity. Those men were then exalted. Those men were given authority. They were given positions of authority, Lord, to use for your glory. And so I pray today, Lord, over this body, as we walk out these trials and tribulations, Lord, you would keep us focused on you.

You would keep us focused on the joy that is eternal. Lord, that we would be a lot less concerned with happy and a lot more concerned with joy. Your name I pray. Amen.