The Pursuit of Joy, Week 3: Maintaining Your Joy
For most, life is all about the pursuit of happiness. We chase after the boy, the girl, the car, the job and the American Dream only to find that happiness is a moving target. While happiness is short lived and good times are in short supply, there is still the pursuit of something better, something lasting, something called JOY. In this four-week study of the book of Philippians we will go on a quest to unlock the power of joy in our lives. You'll discover the secret to a happiness that doesn't change with the stock market or the weather. It's time to begin the pursuit of a lifetime—the pursuit of joy.
"Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)
"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Psalm 16:11 (NIV)
"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you." Philippians 3:1 (NIV)
Watch out for negative people.
"Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh." Philippians 3:2 (NIV)
"You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?" Galatians 5:7 (NIV)
Watch out for legalism.
"For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh." Philippians 3:3 (NIV)
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14:17 (NIV)
Watch out for the substitute.
"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless." Philippians 3:4-6 (NIV)
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Maintaining Your Joy
1. Keep on knowing.
"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:8 (NIV)
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." Philippians 3:10 (NIV)
"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." 1 Peter 1:8 (NIV)
2. Don't stop growing.
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4 (NIV)
3. Know where you're going.
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." Philippians 3:20 (NIV)
"He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you." 1 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV)
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