Frankie Mazzapica - The Flame of Joy
In «The Flame of Joy,» the preacher distinguishes happiness (temporary, circumstantial) from biblical joy (spiritual strength from thankfulness, per Nehemiah 8:10), explaining God delights in giving joy while Satan steals it through problems, negative people, or unrepented sin; believers must cultivate it by verbally expressing gratitude and depending on God in prayer.
The Title and Core Text
Let me share with you what the title is. This is: The Flame of Joy. There is a flame of joy on the inside of you.
Now here is the thing: In Nehemiah 8:10, it says joy is your strength. If you have courage, if you have this optimistic view, if you feel like things may be going a little bit hard right now, but you just know that at any second the tide is going to turn because God is with you, if that is in you, there is a reason for that.
There is a thankfulness that is unexplainable. It is called joy. And when you have that joy, you have confidence. We are going to show you in a second that that joy is like a flame.
Now here is the catch: If you do not have it, it is on you because it is your responsibility to keep that flame burning.
Happiness vs. Joy
Now there is a big difference between happy and joy. This is critical. Happiness is a natural thing; joy is spiritual.
Let me put it another way: Happiness is something you experience when you see candles on a cake, but joy is a spiritual thing that you experience when you see God cause the sun to rise in the morning. It is like, «Wow! Oh my goodness, that is amazing!» You feel it in your spirit. All of a sudden, God is big. When you are looking at a sunrise, you are in awe. You are not thinking about unfortunate things.
Let me tell you something else about the contrast between happy and joy. Happiness is something that you experience for a moment but only in the daytime. Joy is a spiritual experience that glows in the midnight hour.
And I am not just talking about at 12:00 PM; I am talking about when you are living in a midnight season. A midnight season is when you can hardly find anything good. Some of you might be there this morning; you can hardly find anything good. You are trying, but all you can see is bad, negative. You cannot even watch this; you cannot even imagine the season changing.
See, when you are in the middle of Texas heat, you know that the weather is going to change soon. It is like hoodie weather. Everybody loves hoodie weather; it is coat weather. You know it is going to change.
But when you are in a midnight season and you have got things going on with the family, you have things going on at work, have you ever noticed that Satan never just shoots one arrow? You could handle one problem, but when you have got four or five different problems…
I heard somebody say this one time: If you have got four chickens on a fence and one is squawking, that chicken is having a bad day. But if all four chickens are squawking, there is a wolf in the woods.
See, the enemy wants to come when you have a whole bunch of things going wrong all at the same time. There is an enemy in the woods, and his primary goal is to get this flame of joy snuffed out.
Biblical Examples
Let me unpack it a little bit. How do we cultivate this? Let me show you an example of Peter. When he was in prison around midnight, Paul and Silas… I said Peter, but I meant Paul. Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and other prisoners were listening. They are in jail, and they are singing. This has nothing to do with being happy; it is a spiritual element.
Why am I talking about this this morning? Because without joy, you have no strength. You just stay weak. Joy, as I will unpack further, is when you are overwhelmed with thankfulness, and that is not easy.
But let me show you another example: «To bestow on them a crown.» This is what God does for you and me: to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning.
He says this: «My children are going to go through problems just like everybody else, but they are going to have a joy.»
Three Key Points About Joy
Now, I do not want to talk about things that just seem like, «Okay, blah blah blah blah blah blah.» This is unrealistic, Frankie. Like, come on, wake up. This is unrealistic.
I am going to tell you three things about joy that I believe will build your faith. Number one is that God loves to give you joy. Number two is that Satan loves to steal your joy. He loves it. Number three, I have already kind of hinted at it: It is your responsibility to keep that flame alive.
See, let me show you two scriptures about how God loves giving joy. Take a look at this: Second Timothy 1:6. «Fan into a flame the spiritual gift that God gave you.» Are we sure that this is the one? The one underneath joy? Yes? Okay. «Fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you.»
This is Paul talking to his son in the Lord, Timothy. Watch this: For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as He took delight in your fathers. He loves giving you joy. He loves to make you smile.
Have you ever noticed that when you give somebody a present, you are smiling? It is like, «Here you go.» And while they are opening it, you are like—you know what is in there, and you know they are going to like it. They do not know what is in there, but you are like, «But God does.»
He knows you do not know what is coming, but He is looking at you and smiling. This is what—have you ever wondered what God loves seeing? He loves seeing you smile.
Personal Stories of God’s Joy-Giving
I will give you a quick example: I bought a pen. It is a pen I have always wanted. I have seen business guys writing with a pen, and for me, it was an expensive pen. My wife was like, «Why are you going to waste money on this pen?» And I am just like, «I have always wanted the pen.» She says, «You do not even write.» And I am like, «I do not care. I want to hold a pen, and I just really love this pen.»
So I went out to the mall, and I found that pen. I walked out feeling like I was holding something extraordinary. I was so proud of my pen. I am showing Ally, «Look at this pen! Look at this pen!» And she is like, «Frankie, it is a pen.» I was like, «But it works just like mine! It does not even work better than mine!» I was like, «I know, but I have always wanted this pen.»
A month later, I lost the pen. Oh! I took a couple of weeks before I told Ally that I lost it. I lost the pen.
So I was up preaching one time; I cannot remember what the illustration was, but I talked about the pen. This was years ago. A guy comes up to me after the service a couple weeks later and says, «Hey, I heard you talk about losing a pen, and I went and bought you a pen.» I was like, «Man, thank you! Wow, that is really cool.»
So I get in the truck and hand the box to Luke. He is in the front seat. I said, «Hey, somebody got me a pen. Open it.» I was turning the truck on, getting ready, and he is like 12 years old or maybe 14. He is opening it up, then he closes it. I was like, «Is it nice?» His eyes were like this big. He hands me the box. I open it, and it is the exact same pen that I lost—exactly the same color, same everything.
I went, «God, what in the world? That is impossible! That is impossible! You know how many pens are on the planet? The exact same pen!» I just felt like the Lord was kind of showing off, and He was like, «Am I awesome?» I said, «You are awesome! This is crazy!»
See, sometimes we are not thankful because we do not give Him the credit for awesome moments.
I heard about this guy. He could not find a parking spot. I think he was at the mall or something. He could not find a parking spot, and so he is driving away from the mall, trying to find a far parking spot. He circles back around, driving towards the mall, and he says, «God, would you give me a front row spot?»
But before he got the prayer all the way out of his mouth, he said, «God, will you give me a front row spot?» As it was pulling out, he said, «Never mind, God. Um, it is like—never mind! Someone is pulling out.»
It is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! God is having so much fun right now giving you things just for fun. This is how God does things; He loves to do it. When we see it, we are just like, «That is where joy comes from.» Because when you are constantly seeing what God is doing, that is what you are focusing on. And what you focus on has a direct impact on whether or not that joy is there.
How Satan Steals Joy
But here is the problem. Just as much as God is like, «You are gonna like this,» Satan is like, «I am taking it,» and I love taking it.
There are two ways that he takes our joy. You are not going to find this in the Holy Bible, but you will find this in the Frankie International Bible. It reads like this: This is in the book of Frankie, chapter 1, verse 1: «And behold, Satan will therefore send idiots into your life.» Yeah, write it down! Tweet it! Do not put my name on it, though! Say Pastor Joel, Pastor Joel, TD Jakes said, «Idiots will go into your life.»
This is how Satan will come and take your joy. It is almost like he finds people that are always down and sends them into your life, and they have got a virus and they sneeze in your face. Told you I appreciate y’all being in the front row. It comes in your face, and you were doing fine before they came into your day.
Have you ever noticed you would have no problems if nobody brought you their problems? They come, they sneeze on your face, and you are having a great day until that idiot came into your life. The enemy backs up, and he is laughing because you were doing so good.
I think it is Matthew 13, verse 20. They do not have it; it is just coming to my mind. It says people receive the message of God. They receive it, and when the—yes, it is Matthew 13:20. You got it, man! My present self loves my past self because I sent them to the scripture.
The seed on the rocky soil—the seed is the message of Jesus. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with great joy. They are so happy to hear what Jesus said.
Watch this: but since they do not have deep roots, they do not last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems. The enemy looks at some people and says, «Uh-oh, they are worshiping!» Then like a captain demon, he will look at lower-ranking demons and say, «Do not worry about it. I have been watching this person their entire life. All we got to do is get a blowgun with a problem. Done! All the joy they lose.»
You guys, put that 13:20 verse back up, please. Look at this: they receive it with joy, the message with joy. One problem? Done!
Here, God loves to give you things, even little things. The pen meant my life did not get any better with the pen; it was just Him showing off, smiling.
Has God ever given you something that really was not necessary but was kind of cool? And then the enemy comes and just says, «Do not get worked up!» Watch this, little devils! Watch this! Just like a paper airplane—just send a little problem over there; they are gone. Bye-bye. See you later.
He sends idiots. The second way, your note says people, but you know what? It is not all people. You know those people?
Sin and a Seared Heart
I have ADD; it is a strong case. I say it all the time. But if you are new here, do not pray for me; I love being this way. If you do not have ADD, I actually pray for you. You think about one thing at a time, and that must be so boring.
But anyway, anyway, anyway, anyway, anyway, what am I talking about? Oh yeah, how he takes it two ways. He takes people. But here is the second way he takes joy: when there is a flagrant sin in your life and you just kind of leave it alone.
The Bible says—we will read it in a minute, but your heart gets seared. And when your heart gets seared, it feels like God is distant. And because joy is a spiritual thing—this overwhelming thankfulness—if you are not thankful, you are not strong.
You hear me? If you are not thankful, you do not pray. If you are not thankful, you do not praise.
So the enemy is going to take that thankfulness, and when there is a sin in your life that you are just like, «Hey, this is me, and this is how it is,» your heart gets seared like with a hot iron. It gets seared, and then all of a sudden, there is no joy. It is like it is gone.
Let me read it to you. It is in—do I have this one in First Timothy? Yeah, for—did I give it to you? Okay, good. It is not good, but this is what it says: 1 Timothy 4:2.
It says this: there will be a time when people will turn—look at this—turn their back on the faith. You know people like that, right? They used to believe, and now they are gone. You do not know where they went. They turned their back on the faith and followed deceiving spirits, things taught by deceiving liars—people.
So evil spirits are moving through people. Then they turn around and watch this: their hearts become seared as with a hot iron, which means they are living in sin, but they are just like, «Me and God are cool. We are cool.»
If you think you and God are cool while you are living in sin, somebody who loves you needs to tell you: you guys are not cool. You are cold.
There is this—let me show you this grieving scripture. This is wild. Ephesians chapter 4:30 says, «And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.»
What does «grieve» mean? Grieve means this: oh man, that hurts. That one hurt! Has anyone ever said something to you, and you get mad? Then, sometimes they say something, and you are like, «That hurt so deep that I cannot even get mad right now because that hurt. That one hurt.»
And the Bible says that the Lord looks at you and says, «Just do not—do not grieve me. I am not going to stop loving you, but do not grieve me.»
Personal Story of Grieving
I got a call from Presley’s school. She is off to college now, but when she was in the third grade, I looked at my caller ID, and it was the elementary school. I was like, «Man, this is strange.»
I answered the phone, and they said, «Hey, Presley is the last one here; nobody has picked her up.» On this bald head, there were a whole bunch of little dots of sweat, bing bing bing, because it was my day to pick her up.
Now, I live in the country, about 30 minutes away. I am here at work. I get in my car, driving 175 miles per hour. If a cop pulled me over, I would still be in jail.
I pull in. There is Presley sitting down. Her backpack is so big it is coming up to here. I see her pink backpack. I park the car, get out, run over there, and get on my knees. I say, «I am so sorry! I am so sorry!»
And she looks at me and she is like, «Daddy, it is okay.» What was my concern? My concern was not that she was going to hate me forever. My concern was maybe I hurt her feelings because I forgot about her.
You see, when your heart gets seared, there is this sense of, man, you feel really far. I am not feeling there. There is no joy burning in me. There is no flame of joy burning in me. You just feel really far.
And sometimes you have to back up and just say, «God, have I hurt you in any way?» and just wait. A lot of times, a thought will cross your mind that you will think is the devil, like, «You need to go apologize to that person.» And you go, «God, are you sure that is you?»
And the Lord will say, «It is grieved My Spirit because you ask for mercy, but you are not giving it.» Or, «Man, God, you feel really far. Have I hurt you in any way?» It is like, «Yeah, you are keeping that in your life, and you think I do not care, but I do care, and it hurts.»
And what the enemy does is, «I am going to take joy out of your life, and you are going to walk around feeling distant.»
Now, watch this—oh my gosh! Sometimes we learn to live distant from God and think that that is normal. We learn to live that way. We learn to live down. We learn to live discouraged. And we think that that is normal, and everybody—all Christians—feel that way.
No! No! Not all Christians feel that way. Only Christians who do not have any joy, who do not have any thankfulness. They have let the fire go out.
Your Responsibility: Cultivating Joy
And now how do we cultivate that? Point number three: It is your responsibility. It is my responsibility.
Number one, there are two ways. Number one is to say thank you out loud. Now, if you do not say thank you out loud—watch this—your faith will stay like this. It will always be like this. You will be laying in your casket with your face like this.
It is like this now; you do not know it, but we know it, and we do not really like looking at it. And you will always be that way. Your face is a reflection of what is going on in here.
And so how do we cultivate that? Thank you has to be out loud. If you do not say it out loud, forget about it.
It is like if I give you a present and you think, «Thank you,» but you do not say thank you—I am like, have you ever opened the door for somebody, and they do not say thank you? It is like, «Hello?»
You know, when you let somebody in, you are sitting back to back at 72 cars, and then all of a sudden, you let somebody in. And what are you waiting for? You are waiting for the «thank you,» and you are like, «You are welcome!»
If you do not say it out loud, forget about it. Forget about it. Forget about it. That joy, that flame—it is like it is done. You do not feel thankful. And if you do not feel thankful, you will not be strong, because Nehemiah 8:10 says joy—thankfulness is what makes you feel strong.
When you are saying thank you for what God has done, your faith goes up because you say, «If God has done this, I know He can do that.» That is a good time to clap. Just know He can do that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Personal Examples of Thankfulness
I drove down my driveway this week, and I looked at my house, and I went, «Thank you.» You drive up to your apartment just before you walk in, just walk up and go, «Thank you.»
You walk out to your car, just say thank you. Do not play yet because they will think that I am done. Not even close!
I am okay. I look at my truck, and I go, «Thank you.» Only because I remember my first truck. My first truck was white, but it was two different whites. The cab was the original white, and the bed was spray-painted white.
If you have ever tried to spray paint a car, just so you know, it is a circle first. You do not—like, professionals have this gun. But when I was not, I was not poor—I do not want you to get the wrong impression. I was poor.
I had a stereo in my car with an antenna up, and that was my music, and I seat-belted it in. Right? In order to drive straight, my horn went across the steering wheel. It had to be going up like this. No rims, no tires matched, but four wheels are better than two heels. Are you with me?
So, I walk up to my truck, and I am like, it is all black, and it is the same black. I see my grass, and my kids will tell you I will go, «Whose green grass is that?» Because I am so happy it is green, because I remember being yellow growing up. I remember when Ally and I first got married. It was yellow.
Now I am like, «Whose green grass is that?» I lay on my pillow, and I am like, «Does anyone here love their pillow?» Like, like, like unusual, like a little bit weird love.
If you break into my house and you steal everything, there—just take whatever you want. Do not take my coffee machine. Do not take my pillow. You just take my couch. Just—I do not care. I do not care.
I lay down on my pillow, flip it over in the middle of the night to the cool side. If you did not know, it gets cold. I just blessed you in the middle of the night. Go use the bathroom, come back, flip it over, lay down—thank you, Jesus.
Do you love your bed? Thank you, Jesus. Open up the refrigerator. You got so much food that you throw it away. You take out the trash every day, full of food.
Next time you take out the trash, you are like, «Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.»
If you do not say it out loud, forget about it. Because if you keep saying thank you, that joy is your strength. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I went to the gas station the other day—alright, you can play now. I went into the gas station the other day. I need to get some Kleenexes, so I go. I am walking all the way around. It is not in the chips, not in the chocolate, not in this, not that.
I find like the aspirin, I am like, «That is where it should be.» And my eyes are going like—going down. And all of a sudden, this was like yesterday—I was like, «Man, God, thank you for I got two good eyes.»
You know when I say thank you, I got two good eyes. At that moment right there, at that moment, I cannot speak about tomorrow, and I cannot speak about later in the day, but I am so thankful that the Lord just gave. I am so thankful. I am so happy.
I got problems just like you do. I say it all the time. The common denominator that we all have is we are all praying for a miracle.
But when you are standing there and you are like, «Thank you,» are your children in the hospital? Because if they are not, thank you. This is so important.
But that is your responsibility—it is your responsibility to say thank you, and it is God’s responsibility to make that moment your strength. The enemy wants you down and consumed. So he tries to make you unthankful.
Two Ways to Keep Joy
Two ways to keep joy. The first one is to say out loud, «Thank you.» And then secondly, everything depends on who you depend on.
In 20 minutes a day, it is you saying, «I am depending on You.» Do not be a child of God who does not talk to God. There is too much available in that moment when you shut the door behind you to experience right then. And there is too much at stake.
James 4:2: You have not because you ask not. You are not going to get things if you do not ask for them. And those things will cross your mind while you are praying.
That is why I am saying I want you to be a part of this 90-day prayer journey.
Closing Prayer and Altar Call
Why do not you stand to your feet for me, please? I have got two different prayers that I would like for you to pray.
The first one, I would like for you to just put your hands out right now and close your eyes. I want you to imagine your biggest concern, your biggest worry, your biggest issue that takes away your joy. And I just want you to imagine holding it in your hands.
I just want you to say, «God, I am just giving You this. Here it is.» Whatever it is, just, «Here it is.» Go ahead and take a minute.
And now what I want you to do is say, «Holy Spirit, place joy in my hands.» And I just want you to take it, and I want you to say it. You do not have to say it so loud that the person next to you hears it, but I just want you to take a minute and give God a long list of things you are thankful for, and put «thank you» before every sentence. «Thank you for this.» Go ahead.
If you are in this room and you know that if your heart were to stop beating in the next five minutes, you are not ready to see God, then I just want you to say, «Lord, thank You for loving me. And from this moment forward, I am going to serve You.» Just take a minute.
Thank You, Jesus.
There is going to be no official dismissal, so you can leave whenever you get ready. But there is a sweet spirit here. And I have to say this: If you were in the first service and then you came to the second service, you will notice that this one feels nothing like that one.
There is just a sweet atmosphere in this one. It was a beautiful atmosphere in the first one, but it is just different.
And so what I would like to encourage you to do is let us just sing one song through before anyone goes, and then after that, it is open dismissal, so you can leave whenever you get ready.
May the Lord bless you. May He keep you. May His face shine down upon you and be gracious to you. May His countenance be lifted up on you and bring you peace and bring you joy. In Jesus' name, Amen.