Joy in Serving By Francis Chan

Got to love Ron. You know, I was just realizing, you know, I preach that passage on Rejoice in the Lord all the ways, and I just don't know that I have a better model of that than Ron Hafer, you know what I mean? Seriously. Seriously. I mean, he's got a ton of other issues, but when it comes to rejoicing, when it comes to rejoicing in the Lord, always, I mean, always. I just every time I've seen, you know, I'm with my buddy who has just spent three and a half years at Talbot, you know, just graduated, never met Ron just first time he met him.

But he's just going for the last three and a half years. I mean, I just see that guy on campus. He's just always joyful, always greeting people, always, you know, just seems like he's just got the smile on his face. And and, you know, when I think of that passage, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice that you're forbearing, superbly made, known to all men. I think, man, does he ever get mad?

Does he ever just lose it? You know, I just want to see you lose it one times. I feel so I feel better about myself, but it's like no, when I look at God's word is there's no it is a command. You rejoice. I mean, you rejoice in me always. You know, let your for everyone see that even when difficult things happen, I'm sure he has tough us everything else that you know, you have the sweet reasonableness, there's appropriateness.

Chan: Joy in Serving

You just don't go wild. You just don't want to go on for me. Because you know what? Things are good. I love the Lord. God's been good to me. Rejoice and him always in the whole idea of

Jesus. Don't be anxious for anything to never worry again. You know, I was speaking on that passage at church and I said this whole idea of never worrying again because you've prayed about it already. I mean, how many times do we pray and then we still worry about it afterwards, right?

And so I asked the church, I asked you and I asked you how many you guys have ever been in any type of I don't know, OK, you're still kind of young, so never mind. How about this where you've asked people to do you a favor? We all do that, right. You give someone, hey, can you do this for me? Can you do this once you ask them to do that for you? Do you worry about that task getting done? Think about it. Think about it. When you give a task or maybe your boss already had some somewhere you've had employees or whatever, or you just have friends that you asked them to do things.

Once you've asked them to do it, do you worry about it getting done? What's the answer that?

Always. Do you sometimes give a task and go, I'm not worried about it, that person, I'll get it done. Why? You trust them? What does that tell you about the times when you pray and you worry? I tell you, when I God gave me that revelation, like it just hit me like a ton of bricks, I guess, Francis, you're a boss.

You have all these people working for you. Sometimes you give assignments. You just don't worry ever again because, you know, they're dependable. They always come through. I know she

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Chan: Joy in Serving heard what I said and knew other times. I give assignments and I go, what have you done yet?

Have you done anything? Have you done yet? And I worry, why? Because they're unreliable.

And I thought, then why do I pray sometimes that, God, I'm giving you this, I'm asking this from you, and then afterwards I still stress about I still worry about it.

And it killed me when I realized I don't trust God enough. That's why I still worry. Is he gonna say, no, no, you gave me this assignment, you know, I heard it. Don't worry about it. I'm going to do what's best for you and for me to just go right back to rejoicing then. OK, I gave it up to you,

I don't have to worry about and be anxious about it, let me go right back to rejoicing in the Lord.

Always, he says, and I'll say it again, rejoice. And after he says, you know, don't be anxious, everything with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. It does matter. The peace of God that surpasses all comprehension. I'll guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. But what's interesting is right after that and verse eight, he says, Finally, brothers, 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 these things.

He says, don't let your mind dwell on the problems you already gave that up to the Lord. Now what you have to do is focus and think about things that are true, honorable, right. Pure, excellent, praiseworthy. Is that what your mind dwells on? So, you guys, this is this is one of those passages where I never totally took seriously and I would excuse it to me, it was one of those yabut passages. It's like, yeah, but I'm not one of those guys who just always happy, you

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Chan: Joy in Serving know, I'm not a you know, that's not my gift being joyful, you know, and I would make excuses and go, well, you know, I've got too many.

I'm a past president of a college. I'm doing I got a lot of things going on. These are big things.

These are Kingdome things. So it is right for me to worry about them. I can understand for other people. They don't I mean, they do just rejoice, you know. But for me, I've got some responsibilities. I've got some things I got to do so I have to worry about because someone has to worry about them and say, no, this is my command.

You don't ever worry again. Be anxious about nothing, nothing ever again. You give it to me and you got to trust that I'm going to do what's best. Go right back to rejoicing right back. Rejoice in focusing and thinking about the things that are praiseworthy, because I tend to gravitate toward problems. I tend to gravitate toward my issues and all the things I need to fix in a days time. And

I remember that past and go on.

I'm not dwelling on anything praiseworthy. I'm dwelling on a problem right now. That's not right. That's not good. It was all I had so many excuses for you guys. I remember, as you say to me, Ron is probably one of these babies that came out of the mother's womb and go, you know, you know, and that's my picture. You know, it's just like, gosh, I'm not like that. And I remember

I, I still remember my childhood.

You know, how there's those weird things you remember, you know, people saying to you as a kid and you remember childhood memories. I remember my aunt, you know, she you know,

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Chan: Joy in Serving from San Francisco, she'd come up to me and she I still remember looking me in the face and going, Why are you never happy, you know? And because that's just was her impression of me.

Why you never happy. And I have a problem.

Problem, you know, and all these, you know, things that even as a kid, I totally remember

Taurima one time my dad my dad was cooking this fish. You know, in Chinese, we cook the fish, the whole fish, you know, and he's cooking it, you know, and I'm I'm looking at the fish, his face, you know, and you know how the fish is facing has this big frown on it. And then I just looked at the fish, you know, and I just said to my dad, wow, that fish looks really sad.

And my dad looks at me. He goes, That's how you always look. And that's what he said, you know, it's like, what do I mean, that's how I always work. I always work like that, you know?

But I remember that was me, you know, ever since I was a kid, ever since I could remember, it was like there was no joy in my life. And I just come in. That's not my disposition. That's not the way I was made, you know, to be joyful.

You know, it didn't come naturally. And some you guys look at that passage and go, oh, I could never be that. I'm going. I'm telling you today by the power of God, you can that it's not about how you're raised. It's not the way your mind operates. It's all about your obedience to scripture, to saying, will I allow my mind to dwell on the things that God wants to dwell on. See I can think myself into depression faster than anyone in this room. If I want to sit here and dwell on the issues in my life, man, I'll crawl into a hole and feel sorry for myself and want to kill myself if I dwell on those things.

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But the Bible tells me you don't let your mind go there. You dwell on what's true, what's honorable, what's right, what's pure, what's excellent, what's praiseworthy. Let your mind dwell on these things, the problems. Give them up to God. You gave it to Him. Forget about it. Don't be anxious about it again. Rejoice. Go right back into rejoicing and go, wow, what a great passage. And you guys, it's about obedience. It's all about obedience.

And I, I understand, you know, I got stuck in traffic, but during the, the last, you know, message, you know, Bryan had some of you come up here and and confess sin and and repent of your sin and and you know, even yesterday at lunch, you know, a gal that was here that came with us to lunch, you know, she just said, you know what, that illustration of holding on to the hair of, you know, your daughter, grab her hair and pulling, she goes, I just realized I'm letting go. I'm letting go. I've been killing myself thinking that all this partying and everything else is going to bring me fulfillment. And it was just like so obvious. That's what's made me miserable. And I let go, and I let go.

And the important thing now, for those of you who heard that and said, you know what, I had ears to hear, I know what I've been holding on to that I thought was going to bring me pleasure.

I've let go now. The important thing now is not to dwell on that. Don't dwell on that since you gave it up to the Lord, it's time to move on. The reason why people don't move on and they never get totally past their sin is they keep looking back at it. They keep running away from it. They keep dwelling on it, I hear this all the time. Where people go, oh, I don't want to go back to that,

I don't want to go back to that, I want to go back to that.

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And, you know, what are you going to do? Go back to that. Do you think I'm understanding about Christianity as Jesus made it real simple? He says there's not a whole bunch of rules. He goes, just love me like crazy, love other people. Just do that, and if you do that, that'll sum up all the commands. It'll sum up all the commands. You see, there's this passage that I love in

Galatians five, I love the way he puts it, Galatians five, verse 13, he says you, my brothers were called to be free, but don't use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love.

The entire law is summed up in a single command. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. Paul says, you know what, you've been called to be free, OK, God, God wants us free. I've been set free if you're free or you feel like you're just in bondage to all these rules, you have to because you're free, you're free goes.

But don't use your freedom to indulge in sin. He goes rather. What's the opposite of sinning? You would think it's not sinning. But it's not. The opposite of sin is love. The opposite of Senning, he says, don't don't send, don't indulge your sinful nature is instead serve one another in love. And he explains, he says the entire law is summed up with that one. Come in. Love your neighbor as yourself. Is this whole idea of if as long as I love, I don't have to worry about the do not do this, don't do this, don't do that, don't do that.

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Don't you? I have to think about that. I just think about two things. Love God, love people. That easy, we're called to be free now a bunch of rules, not a bunch of implications, because as long as

I am loving someone, I can't sin against them. That's why he says this sums it all up. If I'm loving

Ron at this moment, I can't lie to him. I have to stop loving for a second and then I could tell them a lie.

If I loved him right now, then I couldn't covid what he has. I have to stop living for a second, they go, oh, I wish I had that stuff, but when I'm leaving, I'm gone. Man, I'm so glad he has it.

I'm so glad he's got that. I'm so glad she's got it. This whole idea of I've got to stop. I've got to stop loving you in order to lust for you. I've got to stop loving you in order to hate you.

As long as I am loving, as long as I'm just focused, not dwelling on my son who I don't want to do that. I don't want to do I don't want to do that because you're going to dwell on your sin. You can go right back to it. But as long as I dwell on love, focus on don't stop loving, don't stop loving, just love, love. God give me the ability to love you and ability to love people.

This is easy. Just let me love and I won't sin. It's when I stop loving. That I can get selfish, start sinning against you. It's kind of like, have you ever tried to go jogging while eating Twinkies?

You ever try it, it's hard, it's hard. I've never seen anyone pull it off. I've never seen anyone desire to do it. The only way you can do it is you run and then you've got to stop.

Once you start running, take a shower. Sit down. OK, now I'll pound a box of Twinkies, but as long as you're running, it's not appealing. You can't do both at the same time and in the same

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Chan: Joy in Serving way, it's like I can't love you and while I'm loving you soon at the same time, I've got to stop.

I've got to put it down and stop loving you and then I'll indulge in my sin. But not so many people don't get there easy.

As long as you love, you're safe. That's what the Bible saying. As long as you love your safe. It's like my one when we go shopping. It means my wife will go through the mall, you know, and me and my two oldest girls will play tag or something and, you know, and try to keep ourselves occupied or find another dad with his kids and go, hey, hey, you want to play capture the flag or something?

You know, it's just, you know, because we got to do something for those eight hours, you know?

And so. But what they do. My oldest daughter, Rachel, you know, they'll play tag and she'll tag

Mersea, you know, my five year look at urate and she'll start running a little mercy isn't as quick or whatever, but she's so persistent, she'll just keep walking and running and following and and, you know, and and pretty soon you ever play tag where you just go, I am tired of running.

I don't care how slow this person is, you know, they're going to catch you eventually. But she keeps running, running, running. But my daughter, she, you know, she's very clever. She always at some point in the game goes, OK, Dad, safe and she'll run to me and touch me. I'm still holding his hand because she knows I can't run away from her forever. But as long as I'm holding

Daddy's hand, I'm safe.

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I'm safe. I have to worry. You can't touch me. It's that same idea. You guys. I feel like so many

Christians just keep running away from sin. You're running away, away, away, hoping it doesn't catch up to you. And I'm saying there's safety in love. If you would just get to love, you wouldn't have to worry about running away from anything. Oh, he's got to do is just keep laughing, just like my daughter knows all I do is keep holding Daddy's hand out to worry about anything.

I can't be hurt. See, that's what Scripture sayings is so much of my life. I'm thinking I can't do this. I can't look at that. I can't. And it's not about can't, can't, can't, can't, can't. Jesus says you sum it all up by just loving your neighbor. Don't stop loving. It's a great way to live life. Man, for so many people, Christianity is about these rules and about these things that I can't do, I must not do, I must run from.

And yeah, there's a time for that. But you know what? You're going to get exhausted if that's what your Christianity is all about. The Bible says you love as long as you love, you're safe, and he says in verse 16, he says, So I say live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature for the sinful nature desires, which contrary to the spirit and the spirit, what's what is contrary to the sinful nature that are in conflict with each other so that you don't do what you want.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. I love the phrase, because if you live by the spirit, you will not it's a promise. You will not gratify the sinful nature, the desires of the sinful nature. So what safety safety is OK? Lord, what is your spirit calling me to do right now?

And as long as I'm just living life that way, going, God, what do you want me to do right now?

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Who do you want me to leave right now? And I'm focused on what I actually do and where I'm actually going. I'm safe. And it's such a great way to live. So I think some of you in this room, you're just exhausted. You look at your life and and you just feel like, God, I can't keep running from this and it's catching up to me, that temptation, I don't think I can run for the rest of my life.

I've said things like that to God. I remember one day temptation getting so bad I'm going, God, would you just kill me because I can't keep running from this thing. I'm going to blow it and my ministry will get too big and then it's going to create this ripple in this just the destruction in this, you know, pain for so many people. So why don't you kill me now before I fall? Because I can't keep running. Because all my life, I've been running away, away, away from these things, and, yeah, there's a time to flee youthful lust and everything else, but it's like when I finally understood their safety in pursuing.

Pursuing God, pursuing what the spirit is calling me to do in my life. And when I'm on fire, just pursuing what God wants for me. I don't worry about sin. When I'm loving people and begging

God every morning, God help me to love everyone that comes into my path, as long as I'm loving, I don't worry about sin. It's not there. It's when I stop. It's when I stopped sinning, I mean, when I stop running and pursuing that, I said, what are you after right now?

Are you pursuing what the spirit desires of you? I don't know if I shared this with you last time, I it by all, but, you know, I was with my wife like a year ago and and we were, you know, this whole thing with the spirit. And I don't know, I just feel like God. I believe that God always

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Chan: Joy in Serving speaks to me through his word. And there's some times when I just feel like he opens my eyes with an illustration that makes his life, you know, his words come alive.

Where I go, I get it. I get what I was reading all these years. And I had one of those moments when I was just sitting, just watching TV or I'm with my wife and I forgot what we we're doing.

And I just look over. I go, honey. Have you ever thought what goes through the mind of a caterpillar? And she goes, no, I go, I have I just thought about it, I think about this, OK, a lot of you have never thought about it, but think about it all your life as a caterpillar. What do you do?

Just this, you know, on leaves, you know, on the jury or whatever. Think about what goes through your mind when one day you take a nap, a long nap.

Think about what goes through the mind of that caterpillar when he wakes up and he goes, shut up. Have you ever thought what are you thinking at that time when you're looking at yourself?

This isn't me. I'm flying, you know, and you're going all these places, you're looking at your own way to look at everything in the world. No way. What goes on in your head, you guys? And then why are we here? Maybe because the Bible says if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation, that the old is gone and new things have come.

In Romans. He talks about if the spirit who raised Christ from the dead, the spirit of him, who raised you from the dead, now dwells in you. It's like you're a completely different person now.

You do believe that about yourself? See, I believe it about me. You know, there are things that I can do that I could never do before because you you look up here and you see, you know, flesh and bone. You see, OK, a little Chinese guy.

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There's so much more up here on stage. This is not just another person on the stage. The Holy

Spirit of God lives inside of this body. And so the sin, the issues like, oh, give me a break. That was the old me. You know, the things I can do right now, I can fly. I can do things I'd never done before. I can have visions and dreams of doing things that I could never do as the old me and I can start pursuing.

Gosh, Holy Spirit, now that you're in me and now that I'm a new creation, what do you want me to do next? Let me pursue this dream. Let me just go after something crazy. Let me fly because

I'm a new creation now and you start pursuing those things. You start loving people like never before seen since it's not even an issue you pursue and you live by the spirit and you will not fulfill the sinful nature. You won't fulfill the desires. The simple said, don't don't think about it.

Don't dwell on it. Dwell on the great, powerful, amazing things that God can do through you.

You ever see you ever see when when butterflies, they'll they'll flock together and then they'll get in the dirt and they'll start rolling around in the dirt. Ever seen that? No, because it doesn't happen, I just want to see if you were going to lie about it, OK? But but to me. But to me, you guys to me, that's that's what the Christian church looks like today. It's a bunch of butterflies still rolling around the dirt going, I can fly. I could never fly. You know, I could never get rid of this sin in my life. Yeah. I mean, either, you know, and you're still crawling around like you've never been changed and you're looking at these butterflies going, are you kidding me?

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You're wasting all this potential and you're still rolling around the dirt like like a pagan, like someone who doesn't have the spirit of God, like someone who hasn't been transformed, like someone who isn't a creation, a new creation. You're still going to live that way. Man, that's so boring. It's such a waste. And honestly, I drive over here and I'm thinking, man, there's going to be, you know, hundreds, hundreds of college students.

And it's like, man, God, I don't want this to be a waste. You know how much potential there is if we would all just leave this room and leave and pursue the things of the spirit rather than groveling in the dirt and saying, yeah, I still struggle with the same old things. It's like, no, pursue your new life, live by the spirit. Live by the spirit and you won't gratify the sinful nature.

Don't look back, just love.

And that'll sum up all the commands you've been called to be free. Now, I don't have all these rules heaped upon you to where you just feel like you can't do it anymore. It's like, no, I'm free from that. I'm a new creation. I'm going to fly. So do you do you believe that about yourself? I guess that's what it comes down to. You really believe you're a completely different creature? A whole new creation.

Are you still stuck in the junk? I just close with this thought, you know, I was because I know some of you, you come in here and you've got a bunch of baggage failures, feel like you've been stuck in things for so long. I gave that illustration this summer. And there's this lady who was in the back room, the green room area. She's back with me. And there's this other guy, Fred Lynch, who is speaking at this thing to this black pastor.

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And and as she comes up to me, she goes, you know, I'm a biology major. And I'm like, oh, OK.

And I say something wrong. And she goes, No, just incomplete. She goes, you know, she goes, you know what happens to a butterfly when it's in the cocoon? She goes, you know, that it actually dissolves itself just into these raw acids. And then it even rebuilds new internal organs like, wow, that's weird.

Like it dissolves itself into something like amino acids or something. And then it just rebuilds and formed this whole thing. And then she says this. She goes, Do you know what the wings are made out of? You know, where it gets its color and everything else. And now she goes, that is crystalised waste. Crystalise Waste, and I remember the other passengers with me, Fred, he slams his hand down, he goes, did you hear that?

He goes, That means God takes my Miss Andrews in his own beautiful. Oh, man, what an amazing illustration, what a beautiful picture of you guys, I made a wreck of my life. I made so many mistakes, I ruined everything. I screwed up. And God says, you know, I'm going to take your mess. I'm going to take your waste and turn into something beautiful. I'm going to turn you into this whole new creation.

Now go out there and live like it and you. OK, Lord, this is it. I'm called to be free. I'm not bound even by the ground anymore. I can fly. I've been called to be free. I'm not going to get stuck in my sin and dwell on it and meditate on it day and night. I'm going to I'm going to stop running

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Chan: Joy in Serving from it. I'm going to run toward love and run toward this vision, in this goal, in this dream and whatever the spirit leads me to do.

So I do something huge on this earth. So at the end of my life, everyone looks at me and goes, you. I remember you. Mister, you never happy? You know, I remember you, you know, that just you failed at everything you tried Francis remember, you're the loser, you're the one that you couldn't get anything going in your life. Everything was falling apart. You're socially retarded.

You're all these issues, you know all that. That's you.

And then look at what you've done and you go, Yeah, that's right. Because I can fly because ever since the Holy Spirit came into me, I became a whole different person. You got to try it. And that's when God's glorified, when we're satisfied serving him, doing things we never dreamed possible and everyone else just looks in amazement and goes, wow, God took that garbage, the waste, the mess of his life and turned him into something beautiful.

Don't leave your dwelling on your past. Think about what God's made you and pursue it and do something huge with your life. Don't waste it. Let me pray for us. Oh, Father, I just so do not want this to be another cheerful message. Maybe we have ears to hear, eyes to see. That we are a new creation and that your spirit dwells in us. And so God sin, what a joke. God, we can put that to death.

They no longer think about it, but just rejoice in you and dwell on the fact that we're new creations now. I pray that Satan would not cause us to just focus on the past and run from these

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Chan: Joy in Serving ghosts. We've we have long slain God. May we focus on your spirit when we leave here in love and make each individual in this room just lie and do things that amaze us. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.

[End of Recording].

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