Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Dustin…
[the opening remarks did not record.]
All of the verses before it talk about nice things to do, sacrifices that are pleasing to God. And then verse 15 talks about offering to Him a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of your lips. Not just sitting there feeling good feelings, but actually opening up your mouth and saying something and praising Him. And these verses are telling us that we’re not praising Him to get His approval. We’re not praising Him to receive forgiveness or something like that. That’s not the point. We’re praising Him because we have forgiveness. We’re praising Him because we have approval.
And so from that place of joy this morning, let’s just begin to worship. We’ll begin to pray. And if you want to sing something out wherever you’re at, sing something out. If you want to take a little victory lap, feel free to take a little victory lap. I’ll do my usual pacing. Let’s just pray.
Prayed…
Lord, we thank you. We’re so grateful for your goodness, your favor, and your love. Father, we thank you that we are your children… that you’ve adopted us into your family… that you’ve justified us… that you’ve declared us righteous… that you’ve given us a spiritual inheritance that we have right standing with you.
You’re not mad or angry with us. You don’t keep us at arm’s length. We don’t have to justify ourselves. We don’t have to do a bunch of works to earn your favor.
If we make a mistake, we don’t have to expect calamity. We can be confident in the truth that you who began a good work in us will see it through until the day of Christ. If you started it, you’re able to finish it. And so we give you praise and glory and honor for the fact that you have saved us and given us a purpose. You’ve given us a calling, an assignment. You’ve given us your Spirit. Father, we thank you that your Spirit lives and abides on the inside of us.
(Here the Lord begins to lead Pastor Dustin to expound on joy…)
This is the day that the Lord has made. And so we make the decision to rejoice and to be glad in it. We decide to rejoice. We decide to have joy. Filled with joy because the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Joy is serious business…
As Pastor Mark Hankins would say, “Joy is serious business.” It’s not an accessory. It’s vital to your success. It’s vital to you enduring. Yet Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. He was able to endure the most significant thing that’s happened in history. He was able to do that because of joy. There was joy that was before Him, and so He was able to look away from the shame. The Bible says He was able to fix His eyes on something else. He had a vision of something else and it gave Him the strength to endure.
Prayer for joy…
So, Father, we thank you for joy this morning… that your joy would bubble up in the hearts of every single person here. We thank you for joy. Just receive it wherever you’re at. We thank you for joy. The joy of your salvation. You’ve been made right with God.
Look away from stuff that would try to rob you of your joy…
You have a future and a hope. So look away from all that other stuff that would try to rob you of your joy and peace. And put your eyes on Jesus.
Think on these things instead…
Philippians 4:8 says, “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 that.” Whatever is right, whatever is true, whatever creates joy in your heart. Think about those things. Don’t dwell on the negative report. Don’t take your cues of what you should be dwelling on and thinking about from unbelievers, from people who don’t even have a relationship with God.
Take control of your thoughts…
You’re going to wake up in the morning and let them guide your life!? You’re going to let them guide the way… No, no, no. Instead, wake up in the morning and take control of your thoughts and put your thoughts on something else. Put your thoughts on the truth of God’s Word, on the promises of God. Reign it in.
You have authority over your mind…
If your mind’s been running all over the place, you have authority over your own mind, over your own feelings. You have authority over your own emotions. So meditate, contemplate, mull over, think on things that are of a good report. And that’s going to produce joy. It’s going to change something. Don’t wait for joy to just fall on you.
Your joy is not someone else’s responsibility…
And there’s somebody, you’re almost bugged because you’re like, “I just don’t have that joy” as if it was somebody else’s responsibility… As if someone’s not giving you something that they’re supposed to. The Bible says, “Encourage yourself in the Lord.” Stir yourself up. Pray in the spirit. Praise Him. Rejoice. Fix your mind on something different.
It’s not your pastor’s job to make you happy…
If you’re bugged, if you’re frustrated, it’s not your pastor’s job to keep you excited. It’s not your pastor’s job to keep you happy. It’s not your pastor’s job to keep you excited about what God is doing and the plan that He has for your life. He’ll encourage you. He’ll preach the Word. He’ll do his job, but you’ve got to do yours.
You’ve got to do your part…
It’s your life. You’ve got to change what you’re thinking on and change the words that are coming out of your mouth. You’ve got to decide… this is the day that the Lord has made… what a miracle that all of this came into existence. What a miracle that God keeps the sun where it’s supposed to be, and He keeps the earth where it’s supposed to be, and He keeps it spinning the way that it’s supposed to spin, and the oxygen levels are right, and my body can breathe and I can live and move and think. What a miracle my heart keeps beating. So God made this day. God sustains me on this day. And so I’m going to think about His goodness and His mercy and His favor. And I’m going to think about how powerful and mighty He is. And I’m going to think about His goodness toward me, the promises that He’s made to me. And I’m going to rejoice! I’m rejoicing.
Joy is a fruit of the spirit…
If you’ve got to look in the mirror with a grumpy face, just say, “I’m rejoicing. I have joy in my heart.” You’ve got to have joy. It’s a fruit of the spirit. It’s evidence that the Spirit of God is at work on the inside of you. You’re not too spiritual to have joy. The more spiritual you become, the more joy you’re going to have.
Pay attention to the level of joy in your life…
You can see joy as like the needle on your gas tank, like your level of joy. You got to pay attention to the level of joy that you have. And if you are realizing, “I have no joy in my life,” that’s a serious thing that you need the Lord to help you with and you’ve got to give some attention to. Just like you would for healing, just like you would for any other part of your life, check your joy level this morning. And if it’s not where you want it to be, don’t feel condemned about it. Don’t feel bad about it, but stir yourself up in the Lord. Dwell on things that are of a good report. Delight yourself in the Lord. Get in His Word. Yield to the Spirit of God. If He wants you to dance, dance. If He wants you to laugh, laugh. If He wants you to sing, sing. Just respond to the Spirit of God.
There were times in my life when I felt grumpy…
I’ve had times in my life where I felt so grumpy and just so bugged. And by myself, I just started dancing. I felt like an idiot. And I don’t know if it was the Lord or if it was just me feeling ridiculous, but I just couldn’t stop laughing.
And it just broke something.
Joy breaks stuff off of people…
And so you could say, “What is it with the dancing?” The Holy Ghost starts moving in a service and people start dancing and you could judge them, but you don’t know what they’ve been through. You don’t know what God’s breaking off of their life. Same with laughing. It might offend your flesh, the logical side of you, when people start laughing in the spirit. But it breaks yolks. It just breaks stuff off of people. And so you just got to respond the way the Spirit of God tells you to respond. Even now, just respond the way the Spirit of God tells you to respond. Joy, joy, joy…
The Lord interrupted our prayer…
We came in today focused on prayer and the Lord just interrupted it all and just said, “You’ve got to have joy. You can’t be so serious that you stop enjoying life.”
I’m serious about this…
I’m just so serious. I just feel like they’re like this is… we’re talking about joy and I’m not… I don’t know how to explain it. There’s just such a weight on this in my heart, this joy thing. It’s like this is the Lord’s mercy and grace to you. And it’s a word that we all need on some level. But for somebody, you’ve been so stressed out and so angry. And you’ve allowed so much bitterness to creep into your heart. And you’re still doing all this stuff. You’re still checking off the list. You know, to everybody else. Maybe they’ve noticed your attitude because it’s gotten so far. But you’re still in the game and you’re still doing the right stuff and around the right people.
A warning from the Lord…
But I feel like this is just a warning from the Lord. You can’t keep going like this. And it’s not that you need to change your job. It’s not that you need to start changing your circumstances. It’s not that you need to move. I’m not happy and so I’m going to move. No. It doesn’t matter where you move, because everywhere that you go, you’re there. And that’s the issue. It doesn’t matter what circumstances you change because you’ll still be you. And so it’s not the circumstances that need to change. It’s your perspective. It’s your approach. It’s how you’re responding.
The danger of doing things in your flesh and not in the spirit…
For some people, you start this Christian life doing all of these fundamental things. You’re praying… you’re reading the Bible… you’re enjoying the presence of God… you have a relationship with God. And then time goes on and He blesses you. And you start adding things and God’s doing stuff in your life. And over a period of time, what can happen is all of your attention goes to the stuff that God’s given you. All of your attention goes to like trying to be a good little boy, trying to be a good little girl, trying to be a good soldier in the army of the Lord, and you’re just doing these things by your own hand in the flesh. Your relationship with God… You remember fondly to when you had one, but now it feels like you don’t even have a relationship with God. And it’s an unsustainable way to live.
The example of Mary and Martha…
And what happens is if you don’t disrupt that cycle, if you don’t make a change, you become angry and bitter. Mary and Martha, perfect example. Thank you, Lord! Mary and Martha. One sat at the feet of Jesus, and she received what she needed from the Lord. Jesus even recognized it. “You’ve made the right choice.” The other sister is so busy doing the work. She’s trying to cook and doing all that kind of stuff… and she would probably make a better employee. I’m joking. But she’s doing all the work and all this stuff and she gets to a point. I think the intentions were probably good in the beginning. To everybody else, she looked responsible. But that mentality and that neglect of focusing on what she needed, which was Jesus, that mentality, she ended up becoming bitter at her sister and she ended up getting mad at God. She’s mad at Jesus. All of a sudden, she’s giving commands to the Master. “Jesus, tell my sister.” She’s working hard and doing all of this stuff, and it leads her to becoming angry with the people that are closest to her and the Lord Himself.
Some of you have become a Martha…
And so with this joy thing, I believe the Lord’s having us talk about this, this morning because for some of you, you’re kind of at that place. You’re doing this stuff and you’re looking around and you’re judging other people and what they’re doing. And you’re comparing their work to your work and you’re like, “They’re not doing what I’m doing. No one’s working as hard as I am. Nobody appreciates me. I’m the only one in this house that cleans. And I’m the only one in this house that does anything and everyone else is just watching me.”
God is disrupting that bitterness this morning…
And your focus has shifted off of God and His grace and it’s just all on you and about what you’re doing. And you’re becoming bitter and resentful to other people. And eventually you will turn that toward God and you’ll be mad at Him for the decisions that you’ve made. And He’s disrupting it this morning.
Set your mind on something else…
And He’s saying, “Set your mind on something else. Get your joy back. Enjoy your relationship with Me. Spend time with Me. Get your joy back. It’s going to produce strength and life. And you’re still going to do stuff, but it’s not going to be burdensome. It’s not going to be heavy and make you tired and exhausted and weary. You’re going to be strengthened and reinforced. You’re going to be able to enjoy your life.
So take that word seriously…
Don’t just be like, “Oh yeah, I got to be happier.” No, you’ve got to get your joy back. And that’s a completely different thing. Because it involves your relationship with God. It’s an emphasis on your relationship with Jesus. The fruit of the spirit, praying in the spirit, it’s a result of you putting first things first and shifting your focus off of other things and onto the Lord.
And so, Father, we just thank you for your joy. We thank you for your peace. We take it seriously.
