The Road Back To Joy |02.16.25| Made For More pt.3
I've been made aware that there is already an over-under as to how long it will take me to cry.
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No one has told me when but I'm informed that there is an opportunity there.
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I'm just kidding. That's not real. All right, but anyhow, I'm happy to be here with you all. I'm very very thankful to have the opportunity to talk with you today about something that is really a fresh
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experience for me, a fresh discovery for me as I was given the opportunity to research this and pray on this and meditate on this. God opened up a really special door in my heart and I hope he does the same for you today. Well, let's go back. We're gonna go way back to about(...) 2005. It was a cloudy windy day and I was in Spokane, Washington at Whitworth College campus and I was in the pits. I was not happy. I was almost miserable and I was lacking something and I was frustrated. I couldn't shake my awful mood and I sought for a way to break free and all of a sudden I had it. I thought of it. Here's what I needed. I needed one nice tall cup of steaming hot chocolate.
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That was gonna fix my mood and it just so happened that our school cafeteria had a self-serve hot chocolate machine with the push of a button out would come the perfectly mixed sweet and creamy 16-ounce cup of what I have often referred to as liquid joy.
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It was right there for the taking and I had a ticket that gave me unlimited meals so I could go in there even if it was only for one steaming cup of 16-ounce hot chocolate liquid joy. And so that was it. That was what I was gonna do. I happen to be heading straight forward already. So I continued on the way. I went to the cafeteria. I put my book bag in a locker at the entrance and I scanned my card and I made my way straight for the joy dispenser and I hit that big red button after I put the cup underneath the nozzle and I watched entranced as that sugary chocolaty powder mixed perfectly with the steaming hot water. You didn't have to stir it. It just went
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and it made that perfect perfect cup of hot chocolate and I picked it up with both hands and I brought it to my nose.
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Oh yeah, oh yeah, that smelled so good. It smelled so perfect. This was going to fix my mood just as soon as it cooled down a little bit. And so I take that perfect cup of hot chocolate and I walk out into the hallway and I'm gonna go get my book bag and take that cup of hot chocolate out into the cold and I will be filled with joy. And so I take that cup and I take a little sip of that froth on top. Oh, yeah, still too hot. But it's gonna be so good as soon as I get to have my cup of joy. It's gonna be so dang good. It's gonna fix everything. And so I go to set it up on the ledge and a little bit splashes on my wrist and ah, it's hot and doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. There it goes. Hits the floor, splashes my joy all over the floor.
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It's gone. I never got to have a single sip and my day was just crushed.
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My day was just crushed. There was nothing that was going to fix it. From that moment on, that hot chocolate machine at Whitworth was no longer a dispenser of joy. It was something of suspicion.
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It just never had the same relationship afterwards, so it still gave perfectly good hot chocolate. But the joy had departed in that entire 16 ounce cup of hot chocolate. There was not a single ounce of joy.
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And it's now easy to look back at that cloudy day and dissect all the things that went wrong. I put my hope into flimsy and false thing. I thought creature comforts and physical pleasures would overwhelm my growing sense of uneasiness and separation, isolation that I was experiencing in my spiritual life. And I had yet to learn as I am still learning that there is a vast difference between happiness and joy.
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Have you been in a place like I was? Do you feel like even today life was meant to be a little bit more? Than what you have? Is life a little bit more than just getting through the day? Is there something deeper and richer and more meaningful that God wants us to experience in our lives?
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I think yes.
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I think yes, you were made for more. Both of those statements are true. You were made and you were made for more.
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We're walking through our talk about the fruit of the spirit right now and asking ourselves these hard questions about what are these fruits of the spirit and how do they fit into our lives? Are they in our lives at all? What more does Jesus have in store for us that right now we're not experiencing because we're not allowing Him to be at work in our lives and bringing to fruition the many, many riches He wants us to know and experience.(...) So today we talk about joy and there's some really important things that we need to unpack about joy.
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We have been conditioned today in our society to think that joy and happiness are interchangeable words, but we're wrong about that. That is not true.
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Happiness is actually defined as a short term reaction to a physical stimulus.
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It is a short term reaction to a physical stimulus, something that is easily achieved. For example, drinking a cup of hot chocolate or eating French fries or maybe for you it's shoe shopping or maybe it's binging a new show on Netflix.
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Nothing horribly wrong with any one of these things, but they don't contain joy.(...) They're a source of happiness, a source of entertainment, a source of distraction. It's not joy because happiness is something really special or something really important. Happiness cannot exist at the same time as conflict or sadness or grief. Happiness cannot exist while the other one is present.
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Joy, on the other hand, is a long lasting sense of peace or hope that takes time to develop. It's often spiritual in nature. You can't put your finger on it like a remote control or a shiny credit card, but it is something that is felt deep within you and can still be felt whether life is going well or not. It can be completely present and felt in the midst of conflict, confusion, sadness or grief.
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Our society today is becoming more and more misled being told over and over again, if your life isn't happy, find a new...
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What? A new what? A new power tool, a new miter saw, a new credit card, a new car, a new house, a new spouse.
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What? Because happiness is the greatest thing, right? It's the greatest thing we can experience in life is happiness.
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No, actually,(...) it's not. Joy is greater than happiness.(...) It's longer lasting. It's more pervasive. It's less elusive and it will even survive conflict, uneasiness and distress. So I decided to do some research on this because you may remember from the last time I talked, I am a huge nerd. I'm a huge nerd and I don't apologize for it. That's who I am. But I had to do some research on it because I didn't want me just talking at you. I wanted to help you understand that it's really, truly, physically, scientifically proven. There is a difference between happiness and joy. And we need to do some research about our bodies because, again, you were made. God created you and God made you good. He made your body to work in a certain way that would bring about good things in your life. When God finished creation, he looked back and he said, "It is all very good." You were made good.
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So we need to know about this good way that God made our body to work. Now, your brain, it's a big hunk of muscle inside your skull, right?
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So what happens, and this is going to be very brief, I did a lot of research and I found some really interesting stuff. And I'd be very happy to share a lot of that with you after the service. But I'm going to give you the main key points that I learned. I think these are the most important things. All the information comes in your eyes or your nose or your mouth, like these are your sensors, right? Okay, that goes straight to your amygdala and the amygdala sends that through your brain. Everything ends up at the prefrontal cortex right up here in the front of your brain. And then it gets dissected. Is this good? Is this bad? Do I want this? Do I not? It sends it around your brain and causes your body to react.
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Now, what's really interesting is that your brain is created for one major purpose. Find the quickest route from A to B. The trouble is our brain is always looking for shortcuts. How do I get faster from A to B? And as we do things, as we react to things, we create pathways in our brain from A to B. And this prefrontal cortex regulates those emotions and the decision process and gets you as fast as possible from A to B. It's the part of your brain that says, hold on, everybody. We've been here before. We know what to do.
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Eat more pizza.
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That'll make everything better, right? Maybe that's not your brain. That's where my brain wants to go first. It's either hot chocolate or pizza, which one it's going to be. But as I've found out and as maybe you found out, it really doesn't really doesn't make life better all the time. The truly great news is that your brain, that a brain that has worked to develop joy, not just happiness, has stronger pathways,(...) is able to produce more of a chemical called dopamine, which is the chemical that makes your brain, makes your body happy. Dopamine makes you happy. Your body, your brain produces it.
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But a body that has worked to develop joy, not just happiness, has stronger pathways, can produce more dopamine and is shown to lead a more productive life.
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The trick about your brain is that if you do not train your brain, your brain will train you.(...) So a brain that has worked to develop joy, not just happiness, has stronger pathways, produces more dopamine and has a more productive life. And now you're probably sitting here thinking, wow, Danny, that's good news.(...) How do I get me some of that? I want some of that in my life. Well, you're in luck because science has shown us that there are three very simple things you can do to have to start building more joy in your life. OK, now you may have possibly heard of these. And what I found really interesting,(...) really interesting was that these three scientifically proven things the Bible has already told us.
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Would you know that the Bible has already told us here they are. Number one, meditation.(...) All right. Meditation is simply finding some quiet time away from distractions to focus on something good. OK, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. Psalm one, 1937.(...) Take time. And this is a great thing you can do. Read your Bible for a little bit. Maybe you want to write in a journal. Maybe you just want to have absolute complete silence and just fill your heartbeat in your chest. All of these good things. Very important things for building a life of joy.(...) Number two, physical exercise. Praise be to the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.(...) Psalm 144, verse one.(...) Physical exercise. You were created to live. Right.(...) You were created to be alive. And so that requires you getting up and moving around a little bit. OK. And you can start small. It doesn't you don't have to do a horrible heart pounding, make you want to find a bucket and hurl kind of exercise. That's not necessary.
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It's kind of fun sometimes, but it's not necessary. But it is important to get up and move around a little bit. And I was feeling kind of spicy when I wrote my bullet points. This point C is walking to the fridge for a beer and back to the couch does not count.
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Sorry.(...) The spirit led me to write that on the day I was writing that. I forgot to mention that the first service. But there it is. That it's not quite enough. Get up and move around. Go for a walk around the block. Go for a walk with someone else. Build a relationship with them and actually leads into our third one. Social contact. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Not neglecting to gather together or a sum is in the habit of doing from Hebrews chapter 10. Now there's one caveat I got to give to this one, too. This requires real physical people in the same room is best. Now a phone call also good.
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But real physical people in the same room is how we build connection and leads to lasting joy. Long lasting relationships lead to lasting joy. So these three things meditation, physical exercise, social contact, all very easy, simple ways. Science has proven leads to a life of joy trains your brain. So your brain doesn't train you and easily backed up by our scripture. Now you might be thinking, gee, Danny, all this is kind of neat.
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This is kind of neat stuff. But what does this really have to do with our faith? Well, I hope I've shown you a couple of things. One, you are a physical body. You were made and you were made good.
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And the choices that you make can impact you both physically and spiritually because you are not only a physical being, you are also a spiritual being. And what one does affects the other.
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And right here, I think, is the real, real problem because we already know those three things, don't we? Has anybody never heard of those three things being good for you? You never heard that. We've all heard that, right?
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So why don't we do it?
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Well, there might be a lot of reasons. It might be a lack of discipline or a lack of focus, but I really think it's more likely it's spiritual.
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We feel guilty. We feel ashamed. We feel embarrassed that we're not as able to do what we think we should be able to do. Or maybe I can't do it as well as that dude over there. And so I don't even want to try doing those, those pull ups or those push ups or, you know, it could be any number of things.(...) We feel guilty.
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Feel ashamed and embarrassed.
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But I think it goes even a little bit deeper still because as I've been praying on this and sitting in this for more than a week now, I finally had this realization very recently.
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And this is very true for me, but I don't think it's only me.
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So when I find myself getting lost in my phone, spending too much time scrolling short videos on YouTube that make me laugh,
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or sneaking out to grab fast food more and more and more, all these things are fine. When I'm getting lost in them, over investing in them,(...) my social relationships are deteriorating because of them. My productivity is deteriorating because of them. More and more, I'm hoping for these three for these things to tell me three things. I love you. I accept you.(...) I forgive you.
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Now, it sounds really silly, doesn't it? Danny, a cheeseburger can't tell you, I love you. I accept you. I forgive you.
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But that's what I'm looking for.
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I'm looking for something.
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To shake me loose.
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To restart me, to revive me, something to tell me, I love you. I accept you. I forgive you.
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Remember, happiness can't exist in the midst of conflict. And these things, these physical things can only give us happiness for a short while. They cannot give us joy.
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Because our brain loves the dopamine those physical things give us, and we're looking to physically substitute what we spiritually need. So we look to food, we look to fitness, we look to films, we look to our sports team, we look to websites,(...) social media, politics,
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you fill in the blank.
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To fill that hole of our own making because we've moved away from what was good, something we thought would be easier,(...) simpler, happier.
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We found out after only a moment, it was only a cheap imitation of what we wanted, to be loved, accepted,(...) and forgiven.
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And would you believe it?
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God already knew that.
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It's the crazy thing. God already knew this was going to be the case for us. And not only does he know it, but he has already told us in absolutely no uncertain terms, in the most incredible terms ever, ever done. I love you.(...) I accept you.(...) I forgive you.(...) God has told each and every one of us this. In fact, he told us this in a Bible story.(...) And this is probably the most famous Bible story that has ever been told. If you've never even darkened the doors of a church, which all of you have, and I'm so thankful that you are here today to be a part of this. But if you've never even stepped inside a church, you've heard this story. You know this story.
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Story from Luke chapter 15. If you want to join me in your Bible, it's under the seat in front of you. You can turn to the New Testament page 60. And we're going to look at this story here because this is this is the point. This is where it all comes down.(...) I was stunned as I read this again for the hundredth time this last week that the story played out so perfectly for the search that I have tried over and over and over again to complete. And I can't complete it in physical things because there's no joy in physical things. Only moments of happiness. But I saw in this story that joy is not something that we take. It is something we are given. And so today as we read this, if you could set aside your biases and the stories you heard from Sunday school and all those other places, set those aside for now. I'm sure that those were good things and meaningful things. And you learned great lessons from those. But I want to set that aside for now as we just look at this story and we see our story played out once again in the pages of Scripture. Luke chapter 15 verse 11.
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Excuse me.
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Then Jesus said there was a man who had two sons and the younger son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die.
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So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
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A few days later. I'm sorry.(...) I'm going to let you run it. I'm going to let you run it.
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You do it. I'm going to read. I'm going to focus on this.
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A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country. And there he squandered his property in dissolute living, in wild living.
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When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country and he began to be in need.(...) So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.(...) He would gladly have filled himself with the pods the pigs were eating and no one gave him anything.
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But when he came to himself,(...) he said, how many of my father's hired hands have bread enough to spare? But here I am dying of hunger. I will get up and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands. So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.
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He ran and put his arms around him and he kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.(...) But the father said to his slaves quickly, bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and get the fat and calf and kill it. And let us celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and now he is found.
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And the party began.
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I love the way it says that. So the party began as I was reading through this.
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I was just so struck by the process of discovering joy. Remember, joy is not something that we take. It's something that we are given. It is a gift that is given.(...) And we find that gift like finding the gift under the tree on Christmas morning. We find it in little bits and pieces along the way and it builds and it builds and it builds. So as we look at this story.
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Starting in verse 11, we see the same old story that we've all played out at least once in our lives, right? I've played this out. I can't even count how many times, but we've all felt the story, the story of seeking after something or seeking after a physical thing to fill a spiritual hole. All right. We see to illustrate the point further, Jesus told him this story. A man had two sons. Younger son told his father, I want my share of the estate now before you die. I need that thing. I need that thing, dad. I'm just not happy unless I have that thing.
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And the father loving him and accepting him says, OK,(...) you can have that thing.
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I think the father knew the whole time. It's not what you need, but I'll give you that thing. You can have that thing. So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
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But now he had the thing and the thing wasn't enough, was it? Because now he needed to take that thing and he needed to go somewhere else so he could really use that thing. A few days later, the younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land. And there he wasted all his living, all his money in wild living. He needed the experience. He needed that car. He needed that excitement. He needed that adrenaline. He needed the something that he wasn't getting at home waiting.
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And about that time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve.(...) So here's the truth.
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We don't find joy in objects, wealth, or fame.
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We find joy in authentic relationships. The one thing he already had was a real relationship with his brother and his father. And he thought a thing would make it better. But you know, it was really fascinating as I looked at this. What's really, really neat is that, can you see how he keeps trying to fill it with something else? And he keeps creating more and more space between that relationship.
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You see this a few days later, the younger son packed all his belongings and he moved to a distant land.
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And there he wasted all the money in wild living.
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And about the time his money ran out, there was a great famine. He swept over the whole land and he began to starve.
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And he persuaded a local farmer to, "Please just give me a job, any job."
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The man sent him out into the wilderness to feed pigs.
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Can a Jewish boy get any lower than feeding pigs? Apparently so, because nobody gave him a crumb.
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He couldn't even push the pig out of the way to lick up the pig slop.
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He had gone so far away from what he already had,(...) because he thought maybe something else, maybe the next one, maybe the next one, none of it. None of it filled him.
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But finally, there's a moment, says when he came to himself, we find joy when we break free from distractions and foolish idolatry.
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It's when we put down the phone and we turn off the notifications, right? And we look our spouse in the eye and we say, "How are you doing today?"
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We break free from the distractions and the idolatries.
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We quiet down our heart. We spend time in meditation.
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That's when we start to find that joy has been there all along.(...) When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, "At home, even the hired servants have more food, and food to spare. And here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father." He makes his plan. "I'm going to go home to my father and father. I have sinned against heaven. And you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Please take me on as your hired servant."
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We find joy after a long and usually painful process.
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After first service, I was hanging out right over here talking to some people after church. And there was a wife who was just quiet. And she just kind of had her hands folded and her head down a little bit.(...) And she said,(...) "I appreciate what you said.(...) I know what joy is."
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I didn't ask her for more details.(...) I just could see in her eyes there was something there. There was a discovery that she had and it took a long time.
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It took a long time. She didn't have to tell me.
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She just saw it in her eyes. All she said was, "I know joy."
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I said, "Praise God.(...) Praise God, because He's the one who brings us the joy. He's with us throughout that long and painful process. He is the bringer and the giver of all joy. And I'm reminded of Romans chapter 5 that reminds us, we don't hope without hope.
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We face suffering and suffering produces perseverance. And perseverance produces character. And character produces hope.
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And hope, our hope in Christ and Him crucified, does not put us to shame.
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And so the young man, he returns home to his father and he's thinking the whole way through. He's like, "Okay, here's how it's going to go. I'm going to walk up to him. I'm going to be humble. I'm going to be quiet." He was going to let him know, "God, I messed up. I messed up again. I'm sorry."
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He's got the whole thing.(...) But he returns home to his father and here's the point. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.
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His father already knew. Your father already knows what you've been trying to do. And he's known the whole time it wasn't going to work.
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But he's been waiting because he loves you.(...) He accepts you.(...) And he's already forgiven you.(...) Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son.
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Embraced him.
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Kissed him.
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You may not be that kind of guy who wants your dad to kiss you and stuff. That's okay. God is there.
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Ran to him, embraced him and kissed him. And his son starts in the speech, "Dad, I messed up. I've sinned against you and heaven and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Hey, God, I messed up. I'll come and I'll sit in the back of the church and I'll keep my head down and I'll be quiet and I'll just kind of come here and I'll do the little things. But I'm not worthy to step in and be like an active member in all this and your story. I'm not good enough for that.(...) Have you ever been invited to do something in the church? Oh, I can't do that. I'm not good enough for that. Yes, you are.(...) Yes, you are.
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You are good enough to be here.
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You are important.
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You are loved. You are accepted. You are forgiven.
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You belong here.
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Not to be a body in a seat. To be a living, breathing testimony of the power of Christ.
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The joy he wants to build in your life.
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That is why you are here today.(...) You are important. You have a purpose.
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Not a warm butt in a seat.(...) It's a lot more than that.
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Sorry.(...) Who won the bet? Who won the bet? All right.(...) Sorry.(...) There is so much more for you to discover in your life. I don't care what point in your life you are at. There is more.(...) Because the father interrupts him. He is going to go through his speech. His perfect speech that he has planned out with every step. His dad just cuts him off. He says, "Be quiet."(...) The words of your testimony aren't good enough.
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You are here.(...) You are here. That is what God cares about. He says to everybody, "Quick. Bring the best robe in the house and put it on him.
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I love you. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. I accept you.
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Kill the calf we have been fattening. We have to celebrate. We have to have a feast. For this son of mine was dead and now he has returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found. I forgive you."(...) And then the party starts.
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Are you ready to start the party?
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Who is somebody in your life right now?
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That God is calling you to let them know, "I love you. I accept you. I forgive you." Because we really find joy when we seek that relationship with God. That God is standing there with open arms to give us today.
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"I love you. I accept you. I forgive you." "Husbands, could your wives tell you anything better?"
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"Wives, could your husbands tell you anything better? I love you. I accept you. I forgive you."
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"Could our kids tell us anything better? Could we tell our kids anything greater?"
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"I don't think we can."
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"What if we were the church that was known for telling people, "I love you. I accept you. I forgive you." "Because Christ has loved me, accepted me, forgiven me." "We give because we have been given." "We share because He shared everything with us."
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And isn't that good news?(...) Amen.