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 Page 2 of 17 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 Page 3 of 17 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, Page 4 of 17 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.