Stay Strong in God Through Joy

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It's time, Your time, not just to 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.199 go back to school, but to come back and move 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:11.039 forward with Purdue Global, Purdue's online university for working adults. 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.160 Start your comeback at Purdueglobal dot edu. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.280 Welcome to the Joe Lostine Podcast. Help us continue to 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.280 share the message of hope with those all over the world. 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.280 Visit Joelostin dot com slash give Hope to give a 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:28.199 gift today. 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.000 We love you so much. It's fun to be in 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:39.920 the house of the Lord. 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.119 It's fun to celebrate a God who is for us 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.679 and not against us. Can you imagine coming to a 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.880 god who you don't know what he thinks about you, 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.680 You don't know how he feels about you, You don't know. 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.360 But we don't come to a god like that. 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.800 We come to a good God who's already told us 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.880 that he loves with an everlasting love, that he redeemed 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:09.240 us for his good pleasure. He is pleased with you today. 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.920 He loves you. He gave you his very best, and 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.760 that is something to celebrate. That's something to remind ourself of, 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.440 to stir up every single. 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:21.040 Day of our life. 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.680 Because life doesn't remind us of that. Life tries to 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:32.600 tell us something totally different. It tries to show us difficulties, heartaches, hardships. 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:37.399 But Jesus is saying, I've given you my joy. I've 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.160 given you what you need to defeat. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.840 The power of the enemy and stay strong in this life. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:48.080 Amen, You've got what it takes to stand strong in 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:49.560 the Lord Jesus Christ. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.560 And that's what I want to talk a little bit 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:56.080 about today. I want to talk about staying strong in 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.680 God through joy. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.960 The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:08.080 our strength. That's what Neemiah told the people who were downcast. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.840 He said, go eat, celebrate. The joy of the Lord 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.560 is your strength. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:18.760 It is what is going to sustain you. 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.640 It's gonna fight off anxiety, it's gonna help balance your life. 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.200 And Jesus said, the joy that he had, he gave 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:28.720 it to us. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.360 He said, my joy I give to you, and I 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:35.080 give it to the full. 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:40.440 Now, the joy that Jesus gave us is not dependent 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.600 on what is going on around us. See, the joy 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.320 that Jesus gave us is on the inside of us. 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.600 You see, God does his work on the inside of us. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.760 When you said yes to Jesus Christ, the outside didn't 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:03.120 immediately change, but the inside did you See he put 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.360 seeds on the inside of you. He gave you a 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.600 new heart, a new start, the ability to take what 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.280 He's put on the inside of you and make it 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:19.520 come out of you. See, God's blessings start on the inside, 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.320 but they show up on the outside. 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:22.719 You see. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:24.839 I have a lemon tree, and when I got it 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.679 and planted it, it had no lemons on it. 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.520 It was a lemon tree, but it had no lemons. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:33.160 But I took care of it. 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.479 I watered it, I fed it, I made sure that 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.640 it was, you know, was in the right soil. I 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.560 did everything I could to cultivate and develop the lemons. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.960 And sure enough, that lemon tree that had no old 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:53.520 lemons on the outside produced them from the inside. So 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.360 my lemon tree now has fruit that I. 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:58.360 Can eat from. 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.680 And do you know that's how joy were. Joy is 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.719 inside of us. But we must cultivate it. We must 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.400 tap into it, because there is fruit in there that 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:15.080 we have to eat from if we are going to overcome. 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.359 The trials of life. 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.440 You see, you may be in a trial, You may 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.440 be in a difficulty. You may have lost a loved one. 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.320 You may have a child who is who is wayward 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.760 or far off, and you feel sorrow, but do you 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.120 know on the other side of that sorrow, parallel with 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.200 that is joy. It's the fruit of joy that you 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.520 can eat from and it causes you to be strong, 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.440 and it causes you to stand firm, and it causes 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:47.400 you to overcome. And that's why joy is so important. 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.960 In fact, the Israelites, when God brought them out of 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.240 captivity from the oppression of the Pharaoh, it says in 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:00.800 scripture that he brought them out with joy and led 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:02.960 them forth in peace. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.599 You see, I believe what he. 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.359 Was showing us was if you're gonna come out of 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.039 these dark places, if you're gonna stand under the trials 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.960 of life, you're gonna have to come out with joy. 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:17.440 You're gonna have. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.400 To use the joy to get you out of captivity, 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.240 to get you out of those anxious thoughts, to get 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.839 you out of that defeat and discouragement. Joy is the 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.920 key of coming out. Joy is your key, and it's 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:36.320 inside of you. But it's like anything else, you have 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.279 to tap into it, you have to develop it, you 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.640 have to use it. The Bible says, in this world 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.680 you're gonna have troubles. Jesus said that he wasn't promising 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.320 us that we weren't gonna have troubles. 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.040 But you know what he said about those troubles. He says, 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.000 here's the key. Be of good cheer. 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.160 Be of good cheer because I have overcome the world. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.719 Be of good cheer, for I have overcome. You know 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:07.839 what he's saying. He's saying, brighten up, Brighten your face up. 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:13.480 One scripture says, rejoice in the Lord. And again I 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:20.280 say rejoice. Rejoice means to brighten you. See there's a 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.240 light on the inside of you, but you've got to 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:23.720 flip it on. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:26.520 And the key to joy is this. 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.800 I really believe this, because some people just seem to 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:33.120 have a different personality. They can just be more joyous, 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.960 where some people maybe a little melancholy and they have 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.960 to work on this. But the truth is, in a trial, 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:41.480 we all need this joy. 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.960 We all need it, so we must develop it. 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.200 Listen, I didn't take my lemon tree and put it 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.760 in the ground. As soon as I needed lemons. I 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.200 put it in the ground, I cultivated it. I did 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.360 what it took so the lemons would come out. Then 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.520 I could take them. I could use them. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.680 And see, when you need joy, you can't try to 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:06.000 cultivate it right away. 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.720 You have to know how to tap into it. The 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.840 fruit has to already be there, Okay. So I think 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:17.640 every day we have to practice joy. We have to 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.800 laugh in the face of adversity. We have to smile 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:26.160 when there's nothing to smile about. You know, I was 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.320 talking to a friend of mine the other day, and 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:29.720 she's been very discouraged. 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:30.960 She's been very down. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.400 She's having some difficulties with her daughter and is going 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:36.079 through a divorce. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:37.160 And she has a young child. 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.240 And you know, as a mother in here, when your 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.400 child's not doing good, it's hard for you to do good, right, 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.960 I mean, you just worry. And I've watched her just 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.080 get more discouraged and more discouraged, and now I see 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:55.360 her health is being jeopardized, and because anxiety and stress 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:59.600 will jeopardize our physical be and so I begin to 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:01.360 talk to her the other day because I thought, you 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.360 know what I've just watched day after day after day. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:06.600 You know, I just want to encourage her. 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.000 So uh, she we we've been friends forever, I worked 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.320 with her forever. We really love each other, so she 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.720 she knows me pretty well. But I walked in and 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.000 I just started deciding that I was just gonna make 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.560 her laugh, you know, I was just gonna bring the 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.320 joy up in her. And so I was like, hey, 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:23.600 can I see your teeth? 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.000 She thought, what. The next thing, I know, I start 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.840 seeing a little bit of her teeth, and I. 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.480 Said, oh man, your teeth are beautiful. Look at your smile. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.320 I haven't seen you smile in a long time. And 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.320 so I just start laughing and cracking up. And I'm 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:48.000 being so silly that she starts laughing, you know. So 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.880 I begin to just brighten her. I begin to encourage 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:58.040 her joy. See, I was simply changing the atmosphere in 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:03.040 her mind. I was changing that so that she would 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:08.080 be opened up to what God wants to say to her. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.280 So funny, because okay, y'all, I'm gonna just admit something. 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.800 Sometimes when I talk to you guys, like I got 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.360 this light that shining in my eye, I'm trying to 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.320 think of what I'm supposed to say. I'm being all serious, 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.680 and I see sometimes when I watch myself, I'm on, cup, 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.520 look listen, I'm talking me on and. 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:28.920 I think I gotta stop that. 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.679 How can I stop that? And I told Joys, I 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:33.960 don't mean to, because I'm such a happy person and 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.680 I but I just all of a sudden start frowning 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:38.839 trying to And Joel said, oh, it's gonna take you 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.240 a year to stop that if you start practicing right now. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.480 And I'm like, hello, mister encouragement. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.760 So I read that if you put a pencil in 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:57.760 your mouth between your teeth, that it makes you the 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.400 sides of your mouth go up. You know, there's studies 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.960 that say if you'll change your facial expressions, it does 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:06.120 something to you emotionally. So what I've started doing was 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.000 sitting in my computer with a pencil in. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:12.040 My mouth so I can just be smiling all the time. 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.040 So I thought about that, and I had took two 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:18.920 pencils with me when I was talking to my friend, 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.240 and I said, I said look at this, and put 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.160 a pencil in my mouth and said, look out, it 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:23.920 makes me smile. 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.080 I said, here, you put this pencil in your mouth. 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:29.520 I said, I washed it. 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.400 We're both standing there looking at each other with pencils 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:36.000 in our mouth. 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.800 What can I tell you? The atmosphere changed, The. 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:48.079 Joy came, the blessing came, the problems. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:52.720 Seemed to be smaller. You see, the joy was there 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:53.880 to be her strength. 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.400 And I begin to tell her about the promises of 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.400 God and the good of God, the things that really 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.320 produce that joy. And I said, you know, you're worried 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:10.240 about your child, and that's certainly understandable, but I want 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.880 to explain something to you that I truly believe your child, 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.880 your daughter, what she's going through right now. God has 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:21.199 given her the grace to go through it. God has 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.280 given her the grace to go through it. He hasn't 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.840 given you the grace that she has. He's given you 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.120 the grace to help her through it. But you can't 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.640 help her through it with a long face. You can't 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.880 help her through it with discouragement. God wants you to 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.960 stir up your joy. He wants you to bring a 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.680 sense of happiness and joy and elation to her life. 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.319 You need to elevate and push that joy up for 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:54.520 her and for yourself. Do you know when you push 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.280 joy up, it signals victory. It's like when a god 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.400 runs and he wins the race, the first thing he 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:01.760 does is throws his hand up. 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.839 It's because he has victory. We need to change our 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:07.160 posture and. 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.839 Let the joy come out in our life. We need 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:17.040 to put a pencil in our mouth if necessary, because God. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.440 Works through our joy. 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.679 He brought them out with joy because he knew they 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:25.600 needed the strength to go on. 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.120 They didn't even know all the things they were gonna face. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.080 But if they could go out with joy, if they 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.280 could tap into that joy, that joy would be. 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.960 There for them, would be their strength. So IONE encourage 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.079 every one of us today to practice. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.480 Joy every day. Look at what your face is saying. 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.160 What is it signaling to your body and your mind? 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.720 What are you thinking about? The Kingdom of God starts 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.400 within us and it flows out of us, and that's 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:56.640 what brings the blessing. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.679 So I encourage you. Don't let life difficulties. 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.480 Push your joy down. You push your joy up because 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:05.679 it signals victory. 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:10.080 Amen, Hey man, She's an awesome God. 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.440 Now available from New York Times best selling author Victoria 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:22.000 ostein her brand new thirty day audio devotional, Embracing every Day. 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.920 In this uplifting thirty day audio devotional, you'll be challenged 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.400 and inspired to start living with greater faith and favor 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:35.200 every day. Request your copy of Embracing every Day Today 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.480 at Joeloustein dot com. 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