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00:00 Now today I'm just going to preach on basically these two verses. And really
00:05 this morning the verse is do you have joy? Look at what the verse says. It
00:12 says be joyful always. Uh let me just bridge it. For this is God's will for
00:17 you. Here's some simple commandment from scripture. You are meant to be happy.
00:27 And you're not happy. You're being disobedient. That's right. It be joyful always. This
00:35 is God's will. Wow. I know. Easy for you to say. You don't know what I'm going through. Then
00:41 there's a whole long litany of my job, my health, my marriage, my this my that
00:47 you want me to be happy. Wow. Okay. So, but here we have in scripture always be
00:53 joyful always. So, we're going to really break that down today into the text. I'm going to give you four points. Joy and
01:01 realigning our heart's desires. Joy and developing godly habits. Joy and
01:07 spiritual discernment. And we're going to tide by what we did just now. Joy is filled by worship.
01:14 Let's take the first point. I want to ask a question to you. Let's do a show of hands. Is there a
01:21 difference between the word joy and the word happiness? Okay. I mean, is there
01:27 difference? Okay. How many of you say there's a difference? Put up your hand. Oh, quite a lot, huh? Okay, let me just
01:35 tell you this. If you Google the word uh and you look at psychologist and know
01:41 cognitive behavior people, they'll tell you there's a difference. They would say happiness is externally driven. You
01:48 know, you're on a happy day. You know you got a you got a raise in your job you got a promotion you got a girlfriend
01:55 uh boyfriend you got you they're happy days that means happiness is externally driven
02:02 they would say however just just do a Google search joy is internal meaning
02:07 joy comes from within so the way the world describes it and I'm not saying it's right or wrong it's
02:14 a fair description all right it's semantics is language joy comes from within in despite your outdoor external
02:23 circumstances. So the world recognizes joy as something which is characterdriven.
02:29 Meaning you could be going through bad times. You could have bad health, bad marriage, bad stuff happening to you,
02:36 but you're joyful. That's the way the world describes it. Now, how does scripture describe it? Now if you do a
02:43 quick search depending on the version of your Bible you will find the word joy
02:49 rejoice and all his versions of it will appear 300 times at least but the word
02:55 happiness rarely occurs. And if you take one verse I'm going to give you Jeremiah 31:13 and it says this. I will turn
03:04 their mourning into gladness. Gladness here the Hebrew is happy. I will give
03:10 them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. Now what is scripture telling us? As far
03:16 as the Bible is concerned, there's no difference. Now that's important point to pick up. As far as God is concerned,
03:24 joy and happiness is the same thing because as far as scripture teaches us,
03:30 all joy comes from within, not from the outside. So for the purpose
03:36 of this sermon, we're going to use the two words happiness and joy interminglingly because they're the same
03:42 thing. But let me take something on the root of all of this. And the root of it is this thing, the desires of your
03:48 heart. Because you see what scripture tells us, all of us have vacuums. You enter life
03:56 with an expectation and they're vacuums and you fill those vacuums with things or people and they make you happy and
04:04 sometimes they only make you happy for a while. I give you an example. All right. Uh December coming up some of you book
04:10 holiday. So some of you all want to go Beijing or went to Mata Fair already or
04:15 go to social media. Oh look forward dream going to go Chinese New Year. Go you go to see the great wall of China.
04:22 Then you get there. Tada. Expectations versus reality.
04:31 That's the first thing you got to understand about happiness. We all enter this world with
04:38 expectations. A youth goes to school expecting
04:44 hopefully to do well and have friends. You go to work, you expect to do well
04:51 and fit in. You come to church, you hope people treat you well and you find some
04:57 purpose. You get married and you want to live
05:03 happily ever after. But many of times the reality does not meet the
05:09 expectations. This is rule 101 on why people are not
05:15 happy. Now there's a reason for all of this. Okay. Now, some people don't have them their expectations crushed is
05:23 simply lessons. Look at everybody on their marriage day, on their wedding
05:28 day. I tell you, they look like babies. I'm so happy.
05:36 So, there there there's some psychological teaching on this. It spikes and then it drops and then you
05:44 move on to something else that'll make you happy. In fact, they call this a
05:49 cycle. You enter life and you say, "This is going to make me happy." Either it
05:56 crushes you or it makes you happy for a while. The happiness sets down. Then you move to something else. I'm going to
06:01 find it in my work. After that, maybe I'm going to find it in a hobby. Maybe
06:07 I'm going to find it in church. And it's a cycle. In fact, there's a
06:13 term for this is called the happiness treadmill or the more scientific term is
06:19 called the hadonic treadmill. Meaning you got to work at your happiness.
06:25 You got to work at it. You keep going on and on and on and you find something
06:30 that makes you happy while it will settle. Then after a while you're not you're restless. You try to find something else
06:36 that makes you happy and then it settles. And so that is life. And let me
06:42 just make a point. A very famous uh Christian philosopher called Bla1 Pascal
06:47 says this. All men, women seek
06:52 happiness. Even those who hang themselves
06:57 who doesn't want to be happy. I mean, let's be real. Some people say, "Oh, no. I seek God. I don't seek
07:04 happiness." Rubbish. I I'm not I'm not so selfish like you,
07:10 Anna. I seek God. Actually you are hoping by seeking God you will be happy.
07:16 It is dishonest to yourself to say I like to be unhappy. Yes I I want to be sad. Yes. Come on man. Everybody seeks
07:23 happiness. And what psychologists are telling you it takes an effort. And it's
07:29 a cycle. And this goes back to a very famous Christian teacher called
07:34 Augugustine. And Augustine said this centuries ago. He said desire has no
07:40 rest because happiness comes from your desires in is infinite in itself endless
07:47 as one calls it a perpetual rack a horse mill hundreds of years ago.
07:54 Now this does not square with scripture but here's the first point. Happiness has got to do with what are the desires
08:03 of your heart. You fix that you fix your happiness. So, a lot of us go in and
08:08 say, you know, if I if I if I get married, I'm going to be happy.
08:14 You know what? Uh, I come to church and I see everybody else, you know, they
08:20 seem to have a lot of money. If I have more money, I'll be happy.
08:28 People got children. I don't have children. If I have children, I'll be happy. Let me tell you what scripture
08:34 says. If you are not happy poor, you will not be happy rich.
08:41 You are not happy single, you will not be happy married. If you are not happy without a child,
08:48 you will be not happy when you have children because you're simply transferring your unhappiness to
08:54 something else. And that becomes a cycle that goes on and on and on. You have to
09:01 fix the desires of your heart. That's that vacuum. Now, let's go back to the
09:07 text. What does the text tells us? He says, "Be joyful always." Let's go to the last part. For this is God's will
09:13 for you in Jesus Christ. It's the same as Philippians 4:6 on another thing.
09:21 Peace. Peace in Jesus Christ. Is not joy
09:26 in your marriage, joy in making money, joy in your friends, joy in your career.
09:32 is in Jesus Christ. Let me give you a more succinct verse in the Old Testament
09:39 and is this delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your
09:46 heart. Why? Because the desires of your heart will be in the Lord to be more
09:53 accurate in Christ Jesus. Now this is not only a commandment. Let me tell you
09:59 this is simple wisdom. I I give you a simple example.
10:06 You you do an audit of yourself why you're happy. Let's be honest. If I ask myself why I'm happy, the the real human
10:13 reason are not Christian what is because things are going well. I mean I'm very
10:19 happy with my marriage. I'm very happy with my daughter. I'm very happy my work, very happy with my health. I mean,
10:26 let me be very honest with you. Right now, in his grace, I'm in a very happy moment. But what happens if those things
10:34 are taken away? Not by any reason, but it just taken away. Would I still be happy? So, CS
10:41 Lewis said something very right. Don't let your happiness depend on something
10:47 you may lose. So, God in his wisdom says, "Anchor your
10:53 happiness in the Lord. because those are treasures you will not
10:60 lose. Now let's give an example. How did Paul practice this? And you can see this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Okay? And
11:07 I'll I'll read it to you and it comes from uh what he says about the
11:12 Thessalonian church. He says, "Therefore, brothers, verse 7, therefore brothers, in all our distress and
11:18 persecuting persecution, he was unhappy. We were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now, we really live.
11:26 Look at that. He's alive since what? Because he got money. No, because you are standing firm in the Lord. We really
11:33 live. Why? Because you are standing in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return? For what? For all the
11:40 joy. The joy we have in the presence of the Lord. Because of what? Because of money. Because of his marriage, because
11:46 of you. He has translated his joy to the things
11:51 of God. And these things cannot be taken away. This is simple wisdom.
11:58 And this is the joy that takes you through difficult time. And that's why in the book of James, it says, "Consider
12:03 it pure joys, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds." Because you know
12:08 that testing your faith develops perseverance. So settle your joy first. Let's get the
12:15 fundamental right. Realign your heart's desires and realign it to God. Realign
12:22 it to the things of heaven. Don't realign it to things of the world. And
12:27 you'll find a lasting joy that will take you through difficult times. Now that's
12:33 theory. Doing it much more difficult. Very easy to say ah say put my joy in
12:41 God. I rather put my joy in getting a new Mercedes-Benz. Thank you very much. Oh, very good to say uh find joy in
12:48 things of God. Come on now. If I tell you, hey, so and so became a Christian, you say, hallelujah. If I tell you, hey,
12:54 you just made $1 million. Hallelujah. Correct or not? We are not wired that
13:00 way because of our sinful nature, because of sin. We are much more wired to find happiness and joys in tangible
13:07 things, not in the intangible, not in those that spiritual. So, how do you
13:13 develop an attitude that allows you to change the desires of your heart to
13:19 godly things? And you do it via habits. This is so important.
13:26 Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do." Excellence then is not
13:31 an act but a habit. This is a mantra of every management book you read.
13:39 Manners maketh man. They say not so true. Habits maketh men. Habits maketh
13:47 woman. What you repeatedly do will become you.
13:53 Now this is so powerful. I don't know where to begin.
13:58 But you are what you everyday repeatedly do or say. If you for example are
14:05 bitter, you're always complaining, that will become you. Let's swing it to the
14:11 other side. You've always comparing yourself to others. Yeah. Sila my life
14:17 so Kian you know other people like that like that like that like that like that that will become you you know
14:24 sila everyone against me this honor want to talk
14:30 never help me see him out there he very exy walk away sila Peter also like that
14:38 Richard also like that they will become Who?
14:46 See, you watch porn, watch every day. You see what it does to your brain.
14:52 See, you going to watch Korean dramas every day. See what it does to your brain. Let's let's let's be fair,
14:58 everybody. What you repeatedly do will become you.
15:06 This is one of the most powerful things I discovered. Now, what is the way out of that? You
15:11 don't do that by saying, "Oh, tomorrow I'm going to be hero. I'm going to break all my habits." All the best to you, brother. I pray for you. I want to hold
15:18 my breath. The way you change is by doing what people call replacement
15:24 habits. Replacement habits empower you and they slowly take you out of bad
15:31 habits because they shift you with godly habits. Why do you think in the book of Galatians there are two fruits? The
15:38 fruits of the flesh. How do you fight the fruits of the flesh? You put on the fruits of the spirit and that's how you
15:45 walk in the spirit. Now the text gives us basically two habits. There are many
15:50 habits but just for the sake of the text two habits. And what are they? Prayer
15:55 and thankfulness. Now how do we know is a habit? Now number one the text is saying this. You
16:02 want to be joyful right? Pray. If you're not joyful because it means
16:07 you don't pray. If you pray but you're not joyful, it means you're praying for the wrong things. Quite simple, right?
16:13 If they all tied, you know, so you want to be joyful, you better pray and you better give thanks. Now, how do you know
16:20 is a habit? Because of these three words which are interchangeable always, continually in all
16:28 circumstances. He not ask you 24 hours to go along ah happy that means you are
16:34 drugs. He's not asking go around like that. that why you got problem better see me for counseling. He means generally
16:42 despite what the world wax you are strong this is really about the
16:48 victorious Christian life remember is God's will. So let's break down these two habits. The first is prayer. So I'm
16:55 going to do a little test for you all. What is the fastest prayer in the Bible?
17:02 I didn't say shortest fastest prayer. Last time I used to give money, right? So I used to give money
17:09 for music every time lost. So now I give money again five ring got change. Anyone
17:16 can tell me the fastest prayer in the Bible.
17:22 Not not kidding you. Not trick question. Fastest. I didn't say shortest. Fastest.
17:27 Okay, I'm going to give you a clue. That prayer quite likely was probably less
17:32 than 5 seconds. Not a trick question. Oh, okay. So, I'll give it to you. Hey, so today once I I I
17:40 somebody beat me. Yay. Sorry. Little do things make me be happy. Okay. Okay.
17:46 I'll read it to you. This is from a book on Neahmiah chapter 2. All right. And
17:52 you have a case where Neahhemiah sees the king. I give you a picture to give you the drama of it. And basically he
17:59 comes before the king. And you find here the king asked him, okay, in verse four,
18:04 the king said to me, "What is it you want?" And look at the verse. Then I
18:09 prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king, "If it pleases the
18:15 king, etc., etc." Look at that again. The king asked you, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of
18:22 heaven and I answered the king, "Do you think when the king, you know, the king of Persia tells you, what is it you
18:28 want? King, sorry, I go and pray first. I'm going to pray pray pray pray
18:33 this is my answer the king will chop off your head when the king asks you a question he
18:39 expects you to answer immediately that prayer is very much 5 seconds now I'm not asking you to do that let everybody
18:46 say yeah I pray do five five second prayer I'm not ask you to do five second prayer no now why does he do that now if you look
18:52 at chapter one he prayed so much he fasted we won't go into that now what he
18:58 has done is that he has made prayer instinctive
19:04 [Music]
19:09 is instinct is like the air he breathes meaning before he sees the king
19:16 instinctively he prays God help me give me the right words to ask the king hallelujah he opens his mouth now how
19:24 many of you before you go to a meeting do that how many of you when You get to the car
19:32 early morning, do a prayer. How many of you when you meet someone in
19:37 front and you look at him and you pray that's a soul to be saved. Lord guide my
19:43 words that be full of wisdom and grace that I can win the person to the
19:48 kingdom. Until prayer becomes the air you
19:54 breathe, there will be no real joy.
19:59 Because prayer is your connection. So some of you say I don't know how to pray. Don't know how to pray. Memorize
20:06 scripture. Be joyful. Always pray continually in everything
20:12 circumstances. Give thanks. This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Just taught you that today, right? Pray
20:18 there. Oh, you don't like to pray? I sing. Sing. Joel just taught you the song.
20:24 Sing. You don't like a song? Sing another song. I don't like to sing. Okay, give you very good. Just keep
20:31 quiet before God. That's prayer. Find silence.
20:38 But until prayer becomes your habit, you will not find true lasting godly
20:47 joy. It has to be the air you breathe. That's one. Let's go for the second uh
20:55 uh habit. And the habit here is the habit of thankfulness. Give thanks in
21:01 all circumstances. Now, here's a cup. Uh, psychologists call this the gain
21:06 frame or the loss frame. Let me ask you a question. You can describe the cup here as half filled or half empty? Let
21:15 me ask you a question. Do you think the majority of people would describe this as half filled or half empty? How many
21:23 of you said half filled? Raise your hands. Okay, that that's fair. How many of you
21:30 say half empty? Very few. Wow. Very positive, huh? Okay,
21:36 let's see whether science backs you up. Okay. Uh next year election coming.
21:42 Okay. So, this certain candidate wants to run run as uh MP for Sububanga
21:50 independent candidate. He's going to fight against Hayo. So I plug this picture from the internet. Completely
21:56 random individual. Any correlation to anyone you know is purely coincidental. So let's just say for example this
22:05 I don't know who he is. He looks vaguely familiar to me.
22:10 He was a run. And we tell him you know he save 40% of the jobs in subuna. Yay.
22:17 Wow. Thumbs up. Very good. Very good. Second part 60% of jobs lost. Wow.
22:23 Rating go down. Okay. F. Now this is a clinical experiment done in every major
22:28 university. Harvard, Princeton, Oxford is about the human psyche. Okay. Now
22:35 basically he ends with a certain rating. Okay. Good news first, bad news second.
22:41 Now what they do in clinical uh uh experiments is they simply reverse the
22:47 order. same same decimination of information is
22:52 just reversed. So you start off first by saying 40 60% of jobs lost and then you tell
23:00 him 40% of jobs safe. Same information right now common sense will tell you
23:06 that the slick diagram should be what? A thumbs up isn't it?
23:13 But all the clinical experiment done repeatedly will tell you no.
23:19 Now what does it tell you about human beings? It tells you human beings basically are
23:25 negative because of our sinful nature. We are
23:31 generally negative. You just don't recognize it.
23:36 And negative people are unhappy people.
23:42 And that's why scripture picks it up. And this scripture says give thanks. Now hear what it says in all circumstances
23:51 you know not only give thanks when you are going well in your lifeh give thanks
23:57 in all circumstances you know. Now here is the thing he didn't say give
24:03 thanks for all circumstances. He said give thanks in all
24:08 circumstances. Meaning people who pray very often
24:15 and look around, they don't just pray for their Santa Claus list. They pray because they are
24:22 thankful. Last night I had dinner with a brother here at the uh at the globe at we had a
24:28 dinner for newcomers and he sat next to me. I won't mention his name. He had cancer. Four years ago, he may be here.
24:36 his brother. I still remember sitting down with him and his wife in Globe Cafe. The wife was
24:42 in tears. He was in the words lighted up like a
24:47 Christmas tree. When you look at the Christmas marker four years on the Lord has given him a clean bill of health. He
24:54 later result shows him a clean bill of health. But what really encouraged me was his attitude because what he says is
25:01 this. I am grateful for life.
25:07 Do you at the end of every day sit down, kneel
25:13 down and say, "God, I thank you for today."
25:21 Or instead you say, "Terrible day. My boss really want kind one. Go
25:27 back. My wife me nobody love me my life
25:36 don't know why I'm being put on earth everyone very unfair on me
25:41 see where I'm going with this every day is a blessing from God
25:49 I'm telling you especially for us we are those this is the aging church
25:54 you start off with that Let's build this. Here's another one. This is based
25:60 on what Mark told us last week. H this one quite controversial. Ah
26:06 yeah this church stupid church leaders never listen to you one you see
26:12 out there. So the globe cafe like that yeah this
26:17 Richard this all the leader don't listen to you.
26:25 Thank you very much. Now
26:32 just really saying something let me let me give you a test
26:37 and I say this in love a simple thingh I'm guilty of this also
26:43 last week Mark said go and thank the elders and the leaders
26:50 not because I'm I'm sensitiveh how many of you came and thank you
26:56 got you there. But that's not the point. The point is
27:01 don't have to thank me. You can thank Richard or Yen or Peter. But you know why you didn't do it in love? I tell you
27:08 because unconsciously to you it was not necessary
27:13 already. See me personally
27:19 a good comeback. No, but but let me tell you, happiness comes from a grateful heart.
27:28 I'm thankful for my wife. I'm telling you seriously, not because I want to, you know, so that today she cook better
27:34 dinner. I'm thankful for my daughter. I'm thankful for this church.
27:40 I'm thankful for every leader I met. I'm thankful for everyone who goes out there and serves, I tell you. And you know how
27:47 I express my thankfulness? I pray. That's what fills my prayer.
27:55 And if every day my habit now at the end of the day, I sit down and I say, "God,
28:03 I start off by thanking the Lord for the day and everyone I met."
28:08 Now, where does this come from? It comes from one simple source. It comes from
28:14 the cross. Because if you are thankful
28:19 that Jesus died for you while you were still a sinner,
28:25 his love so overwhelms you. It takes away one word which the world uses so
28:33 often and it is this word entitlement.
28:39 You and I are entitled to nothing but the wrath of God.
28:45 And every day when you live under the shadow of grace, you become more
28:51 grateful and grateful people are happier people.
28:57 Develop these two habits. That's all God is saying this morning. And is a simple
29:03 habit. When you do it daily repeatedly, you will take away a lot of the
29:09 negativity. And these habits will make you breathe life and be happier.
29:17 Let me just tell you how this works out uh when you go through a difficult time. Okay, I'm I'm going to give you a simple
29:22 example. I quote you Philippians 4:67. Do not be anxious by anything in every
29:29 situation by prayer and petition. Present your request to God. The peace of God that transcends all understanding
29:36 will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. Hey, brother Anna, I pray this. I got no peace.
29:43 Did I just uh quote the verse? Did I quote the verse correctly? See how many
29:50 Bible teachers here? No googling, no looking the Bible. Is this the accurate verse?
29:57 Come on. Correct.
30:02 Oops. With thanksgiving. Now, why did Paul add
30:07 that in? And I I really owe this to pastor Rama because he sent a devotion on this because when you are thankful
30:14 when you pray you surrender your life to God you know and you basically say God
30:20 no matter what I pray my petition my worry I trust you Lord
30:27 your will be done then you will have peace here a simple application on it a
30:34 thankful heart takes you through anxiety.
30:39 Let's look at the third habit, joy and spiritual discernment. And we're going to look at the next verse just to tie it
30:45 in. It says in the next verse, do not put out the spirit's fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test
30:52 everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. Now, we could do a whole sermon on that. We're not going to
30:58 do it. But let's let me give you a simple example. Fruits of the spirit. Love. What's the
31:04 next fruit? What's the next fruit after fruit? After love.
31:09 Get it? Joy is a fruit of the spirit.
31:14 You're not joyful, you don't have the fruit of the spirit. That's why I said you are commanded to be happy.
31:21 If you're not happy, there is something not right your Christian life. I say this in love. But here's what he's
31:27 saying. Joy comes in a package. You got to have love, peace, forbearance,
31:32 kindness, goodness, faithfulness. If you don't have the rest of the fruit of the
31:38 spirits, you are not having godly joy. It comes in a package. And I want to
31:44 take you into a specific fruit of the spirit. And it's about quenching the
31:50 spirit. Now you know in you go to any church, you always have the division.
31:56 Charismatics versus evangelicals. We can debate about this for for the for centuries.
32:03 But someone can't tell you you know I went to healing rally and I got healed. Ah stupid fellow
32:10 that fellow not heal man he's now you really he really healer and then the whole unpleasant discussion starts. Now
32:17 it's quite true there's quite a lot of that going on but you got to ask yourself why did Paul put in this verse
32:23 do not treat prophecies with contempt. Why suddenly he inserts this verse in
32:29 the final instructions quite likely because there were people going around trying to prophesize about the end days
32:36 because in chapter 5 he talks about brothers chap verse one times and date we we do not need to write to you you
32:43 know very well the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. So some people are trying to prophesize and
32:49 because of that the Thessalonian church were despising every kind of prophecy.
32:55 So long somebody prophesy nonsense rubbish. So basically they were cutting
33:00 out the good with the bad. And that's why he says hold on to what is good
33:06 reject every kind of evil. Now just sideline a little bit. It means if someone had a prophetic word you test
33:12 it. Test them all. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test them all. Don't just accept them all, but test
33:18 them all. Now, how are we tying that to joy in simple English without going to
33:24 the other subject about um uh uh prophecy
33:30 is about quenching that which is good which God has given you. Because the
33:35 same verse is given when Paul talks to Timothy, fan into flames. Now, what we
33:41 talking about now is about discernment. Let me tell you another word which is very linked to unhappiness.
33:49 It's called stupidity. It's true. You don't think you're as
33:54 smart as you think. A lot of us make very stupid decisions. You know, and those stupid decisions make us unhappy.
34:02 Paul says this, those that want to be rich have wandered away from the faith and pierce themselves with what? With
34:09 grief. Let's see how this works out. Okay. There's a psychological term called
34:16 selfserving bias. I will tell you how the mind works. They they did clinical
34:21 tests in uh major universities in US where they put everybody into two groups
34:27 uh no not into one group and they give you a test okay and you could be working a group let's just say the the the group
34:34 me and Richard was one group we working on a test then all the results came back. Now this is clinically proven and
34:40 then what they do instead of giving back your results they give back the results randomly
34:46 meaning there's a very high chance you did well in your exam your test they give you result that show you you did
34:51 poor another guy who did badly got a results that did well and then they
34:57 compile statistically what everybody felt that mean they came to me and Richard says why do you think you did
35:02 badly let's just say I did a test with Richard and I thought wow very good po
35:08 then come back fail fail they ask me why do you think you fail I should say I
35:14 don't know I should have passed instead you know what the the statistics show you I see it's rich's fault
35:22 it's his fault I failed now that's something about human nature we're going to go on negativity negativity does this
35:29 to you and that's why we're unhappy you and I don't have discernment we are
35:35 not objective when things go bad in our lives
35:41 is Richard's fault. Not you all the time, but Richard, it's
35:46 my wife's fault, is FBC's fault, is the church's fault.
35:53 When things go right, I deserve it. You see where we going with this? The
35:59 Malays have a sayingar.
36:06 This young people don't know Malay really.
36:18 Now I tell you why this is so important.
36:24 because it shows you a simple desire of us to believe lies
36:32 and that's why you're unhappy is the art of selfdeception. In the same way when prophecies come you
36:41 despise them all. You can't discern the good and the bad. You can't discern
36:47 what's good and bad in your life. That means when things go bad you are always
36:52 the victim. So sometimes you talk to someone know why did the this happen and you're
36:58 unhappy not my fault it's my husband's fault you can tell he's very happy what way
37:04 you had a quarrel with that person is the other guy's fault it takes a lot of discernment to
37:11 recognize your faults and I will tell you for myself recognizing your own
37:17 faults is the key to happiness now how can Can you know whether you are
37:25 living a lie or living a truth? Very simple. It's simple test. I I said this
37:30 before. Go back, take a piece of paper, write down your faults.
37:37 You find it's very hard to do that. No. And if you do it, you probably only need two lines. You know, take that same
37:44 piece of paper, go to someone you trust and ask him to write down your faults. It'd be twice as long.
37:51 You can't see your faults, but I will plead with you. To be joyful is recognizing your
37:59 shortcomings. That's why we are sinners. That's why we come before God and we say, "Lord,
38:06 forgive us our sins." How can you ask God to forgive your sins if you don't know what your sins are?
38:13 And this art of selfdeception like makes you live a lie because living
38:18 a lie makes you happy short term. I rather believe the reason why I didn't
38:24 get a promotion was because my boss was racist towards me. Actually, it's not true. You didn't get promotion because
38:30 you didn't perform. I rather believe why I I'm unhappy in my marriage is because
38:35 my husband is a real jerk. But you don't want to believe that you probably didn't want a very good wife.
38:42 Could reverse the roles. You rather believe that the reason why I can't fit into FBC because everybody around here
38:49 ignore me and this church is just full of people who are very exy. This is really pushing it. But the truth
38:55 is because you have issues. You see where we going? This is a very important point. Pick this up. Take the
39:03 long road. Pray. Be grateful and you will be happier. Now let me just close
39:10 with the last point and I want to talk about singing.
39:15 When do you sing? When you're happy. Correct or not?
39:22 When people sing only when they are happy.
39:28 And so here's the last point to really tie it up. Joy is fueled by worship. You
39:34 talk about worship very controversial. Some people say y you're turning this to rock concert.
39:41 either that we start to play very old hymns, all the youth will run away, they all fall asleep.
39:46 But I think you're missing the point. Now, why do I say worship? Because everything we just spoke about
39:54 is worship. What is worship? Romans 12 tells us is the presenting of your
40:00 bodies and everything you do to glorify God. is 1 Corinthians 10:31.
40:06 In everything you do, whether you eat or you drink, do it to glorify God. So,
40:11 here's something I want to tie it together. Monday to Friday, everything you do at
40:17 work, at home, is worship. That's what scripture says.
40:24 Sunday, when you sing is worship. But how are the two tied together?
40:32 It's an important point. So let me give you a verse. The psalmist says this, "Shout for joy to the Lord all the
40:41 earth." Wow. Happy. Oh, this guy. How does he express his happiness?
40:47 Worship the Lord. In fact, the ESV has a better translation. The ESV is serve the
40:54 Lord. Now, what am I trying to tell you? If this morning you came to FBC
41:02 and you sing like that, hallelu, hallelu,
41:08 amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
41:16 Hallelujah. Amen. You think you're going to be happy on
41:22 Monday. That's one point.
41:27 Number two, you just insulted God. You know,
41:32 you just insulted God. You see, everyone in this worship debate, there's a big
41:38 misunderstanding. They tend to think everyone up here, let's get a worship team up here, easier to understand. Get
41:45 get the guys up here. Li lie. We must have live demo. Huh?
41:52 You see, you get them up. Where's Joshua? Where's Joash? Where's my man my jo uh you think that you guys are the
41:59 audience and they are the performers. Correct. That's that's not right.
42:06 Let me ask you a simple question and why this is so important to Thai worship.
42:12 Who do you think when you sing a song is the audience?
42:18 There's only one audience, you know. So when you come this morning and you go hallelujah,
42:25 hallelu, you insult God.
42:32 Now you take this with seriousness and you wonder. You wonder why you're not
42:38 happy during the week. You see how the two are tight? Because Monday to Friday, you worship God with
42:45 your actions and your deeds. You come on Sunday, you worship together.
42:51 On Monday to Friday, the world hits you. You come together as a family. You recognize you are together. You're one.
42:58 And as you sing those words and they go to heaven, heaven responds to you. And
43:04 what heaven does, heaven recharges you. And as heaven recharges you, you go out
43:11 tomorrow, you will be happier. Amen. Really?
43:17 Are you sure? I think we should test this out. I think we test this out. Let's see whether true
43:24 or not true. Okay. So, what we going to do? Here are the four points. Let's have
43:29 some music to get them in the mood. Piano. Piano. Joy and realigning our heart's desires.
43:36 I pray today that your desires are realigned to godly desires.
43:42 Number two, joy and develop godly habits. Two habits today, brothers and sisters. pray and thankfulness.
43:49 Thirdly, discernment. Know that which makes you unhappy. Take out every
43:55 insecurity, every wall you have put around you, every lie you choose to believe because
44:02 it makes you feel happier short-term, long-term, it makes you bitter.
44:07 Take all of those and place them at the cross. And together as family, we are now going to
44:15 worship God. And we are not going to worship God with our hands in our pockets, on our handphones. God watches
44:24 each one of you now. We are going to worship him with our hearts. And God's
44:30 promise to you, tomorrow you will be happier. Amen.
