Kerry Shook - Joy Remains
This last week, Chris and I had a few amazing days in Yellowstone National Park, and it was quite a blessing. She'd never been, and I hadn't been since I was a kid when my parents loaded us up in the family station wagon, you know, one of those wood-sideboard station wagons, and they drove, and drove, and drove until we got to Yellowstone, and I have a whole new admiration for my parents. I don't know how they did it. It was before seatbelts, and so we three kids were just loose in the back seat to fight each other the whole way, and to gripe, and to wrestle, and I don't know how they did it. My dad would always make that threat though, "Don't make me pull over this car. Don't you make me pull over".
And we knew he wouldn't, because he always wanted to make good time, so he would never pull over, but I mean, what they had to go through to get us to Yellowstone had to be very painful. And so, Chris and I made the trek to Yellowstone this last week. We flew, and one day after a hike we went back to the lodge and we met an incredible artist named Kathy Burk, whose medium is glass. She makes these beautiful glass bowls, glass lamps, and wall hangings, all inspired by Yellowstone's beauty. And her art is in all the Yellowstone gift shops, and Kathy and her husband, Reese, happened to be in the lodge that day when we walked in, and she was doing an exhibit of her art.
And as Chris asked Kathy about how she makes those amazing pieces, I was talking to Reese, and when he found out I was a pastor, he said, "I want to show you something I think you'll be interested in". And he showed me a picture of one of Kathy's largest and most beautiful wall hangings, and here it is. And you can't even really grasp how big this is and how long this is and it's just beautiful. And he said, "We hung this on a wall at one of her exhibits, and a few minutes later, we heard this huge boom and it sounded like a bomb exploded. And we turned around to see the glass picture had fallen off the wall and shattered into a million pieces".
And here's a picture he took of that. And Reese said, "I knew it was my fault because I had glued it to the backing and I didn't give it time to dry before I hung it up". He said, "When it crashed to the ground, my wife and I just looked at the shattered pieces in disbelief, and then we looked at each other," and he said, "At that moment, there's only one of two ways this can go". He said, "Thankfully, my wife is amazing, and we both just started quietly picking up all the pieces, and Kathy took them back to her studio, and she put the pieces together and made this".
It's this beautiful bowl out of all the broken pieces, and she named it "The Spring Breakup," not because it broke up their marriage, but the rivers in Yellowstone completely freeze over in the winter, and in the spring, all the ice starts to break up and all the fragmented pieces start flowing down the rivers, and they call it the spring breakup. And I hear that it's amazing, I would love to be there sometime. It's beautiful in Yellowstone as the spring breakup clears up to bring the amazing Yellowstone summer. And Reese said the glass wall hanging was shattered in the spring, and the spring breakup of the glass led to the beautiful bowl.
And when a negative change slams into your life and shatters your dreams and your life into a million pieces, there's only one of two ways it can go. You can choose to look back and try to go back to the way it was before, but you can't, you just get stuck. Or you can pick up all the broken pieces and give them to the master artist, and let him make something beautiful out of it. It won't look the same as it did before. There are some heartbreaks that come into our lives where nothing will ever be the same. You'll never be the same again, but if you let him, God can still make something beautiful out of the brokenness. You can choose joy in the changes.
We're in this churchwide adventure we're calling The Joy Challenge as we're practicing choosing joy, so we can experience joy no matter what. Real joy is a gift from God. You can't earn it or deserve it, you can't conjure it up in your life, real joy is a divine gift from God, but it's a gift that you receive by choosing it. Joy doesn't start with a feeling, it starts with a choice. You don't get to choose most of the circumstances that come into your life, but you do get to choose joy in spite of your circumstances, and joy is a gift that no human being can take away. Joy is something that no problem can prevent and no circumstance can steal.
If you don't get anything else in this message, get this. I mean, if you don't get anything else, you better get this or nothing else will matter. What I'm saying is, your joy can't be stolen without your permission. Your joy can't be stolen without your permission. Your joy can't be taken away unless you let it be taken away. But even though I know this truth, that my joy can't be stolen without my permission, it seems like there's so many times I let things steal my joy. So, this weekend we're talking about one of the most common joy stealers, the thief of change. The winds of change blow into every one of our lives, whether you want it to or not.
Seasons change, times change, people change, circumstances change, and there are times in life we get blindsided by change that knocks us to our knees, and it's disorienting. It can be devastating. And some of you today are getting battered by the winds of change, a change in your life that you never saw coming, a change you didn't choose, that wasn't your fault, that you have no control over. The kind of painful change that no one would ever choose for themselves. You didn't choose the change, but you can still choose joy, even when you can't see it or feel it. You can choose joy in the wind, or you can try to control the wind. And whenever I try to control the winds of change, I lose my joy.
When I try to change someone who won't change, I let that person steal my joy. When I try to change the past that can't be changed, I let the past steal my joy in the present. When I try to change a circumstance that I have no control over, then I let that circumstance steal my joy. I let my joy be stolen away. But God wants you to realize your joy can't be stolen without your permission. You can't control all the changes that come your way, but you can control whether or not you choose joy, and that's what David did when all the circumstances in his life took a turn for the worse.
So, open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 30, and would you stand in honor of God's Word? Just follow along with me because you're going to see that David's life was going great, and then all of a sudden, the winds of change blow in. I want you to see what happens. David recalls this. "When I was prosperous, I said nothing can stop me now. Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me and I was shattered. Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me. Help me, Lord. You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You've taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O, Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever".
You can be seated. Here David recounts how everything in his life was going in the right direction. Everything was smooth sailing, and then the winds of change blew in without warning and battered his life and sent him into the depths of despair. And he says at first that he let the changes that blew into his life, that shattered his security, steal his joy. At first, those winds of change blew away his joy, but then David takes this turn, and it's really important. Even in his pain, he chooses to cry out to the God of joy, and something miraculous happens. David says God turned my mourning into joyful dancing. David was amazed that he could experience the dance of joy in the depths of his despair. He receives this divine gift of joy.
And this passage shows us that you can't stop painful changes from coming into your life, but the painful changes can't stop joy from coming into your life when you choose it. You can still choose joy and discover the dance of joy in the depths of despair, but how do you do that? I want to know how I do that. It's available to me, and all I've got to do is choose it, but how do I choose it when painful changes sweep into my life? Well, first I need a faith that trusts God's purpose. A faith that trusts God's purpose, even when I don't understand it.
So, let's go back to Psalm 30 verses 6 and 7. David looks back and he says, "When I was prosperous, I said nothing can stop me now. Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me and I was shattered". So, David's life was going according to plan. He felt like it was a good plan because he was really following God, and so it had to be a good plan because he was following God and God's Word and everything was just falling into place. Nothing was standing in the way of his plan. Then suddenly, the winds of change blow away his plan.
And folks, the real reason why we lose our joy when change hits is because it changes the plan. We have this plan in our minds of how our life should be, and then a sudden and unexpected change hits and it blows up the plan. And when our plans get upended, we usually lose our joy. And there are those devastating changes that come in and shatter our lives, and instantly nothing will ever be the same again. There are some cold winds of change that really wound us. They change the plan so painfully that it doesn't make sense, and all you can think is this is never the way it was supposed to be. It may be the loss of a job.
And you think at this stage of my career, I should be thriving. It was never supposed to be this way. Or maybe it's a change in marital status, where you've gone through a painful divorce and you went into marriage thinking it was going to last forever but it didn't, and now you find yourself where you never thought you would be, single again. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Or maybe it's the loss of a loved one. I mean, you had a future planned together, and it was a good future, and now everything has changed. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
After our grandson, Jude, went to be with the Lord after only one day on this earth, Chris and I were at the hospital where he was born with Josh and Kelly in Cincinnati, because that was the only place where these amazing doctors were doing an experimental treatment that gave Jude a chance. And so, Josh, and Kelly, and Chris, after Jude went to be with the Lord, flew home to grieve and to plan the funeral service, and I stayed another day and I flew home the next day with Jude's body in a tiny coffin in the cargo of the plane. And while I was on that plane, I thought we live in a world where coffins this small are necessary. This isn't the way it's supposed to be.
And my heart was broken for Josh and Kelly, because no parent should ever have to bury their child, whether they're one day old, 10 years old, 40 years old, that isn't the way it's supposed to be. I mean, what about those plans that are only good and then hurricane force winds of change slam into your life and shatter your world. David says when the change hit, I was shattered. David's whole world was turned upside down, and he said, God, I felt like you turned your back on me. God, I felt like you abandoned me, like you were nowhere around. The plan was shattered and my heart was shattered into a million pieces. David's heart was broken and the good plan was shattered, but it couldn't shatter God's purpose. If you're a believer, no change can change God's purpose for your life. You may not understand it, you may not see it at the time, but there is no change that can change God's purpose for you.
I want you to look at Proverbs 19:21. Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails". There's no change that can change God's purpose. God's purpose will prevail. We may not understand it here on this earth, but we will one day. David didn't understand why God allowed the devastating changes into his life, and at first I'm sure he wanted to go back to the way it was before the plan was upended. And when our hearts are shattered by the winds of change, everything in us wants to go back to the way it was before the change hit. Everything in us wants to bring ourselves back, and want all of our circumstances to go back to what it was like before the hurricane hit, but we can't.
And David finally came to the place where he accepted the fact that he couldn't go back and change the past, and there was only one of two choices. He could choose to trust God's purpose, even though he didn't understand it, or he could stay stuck without joy. We can't go back before the plan was shattered, but we can choose joy and let God take the shattered pieces and make something beautiful out of it. So, first I need a faith that chooses to trust God and his purpose, even when I don't feel it or understand it, but then there's the second thing. I need a foundation that never changes.
Hey, in our constantly changing, uncertain, and shaky world, you better have a foundation that never changes, a foundation that is solid and certain. And look what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, "They are foundational words to build a life on. If you work these into your life, you're like a smart carpenter who built this house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit, but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock". In a shaky and uncertain world, you need a solid foundation that never changes, and God never changes. You can always count on him. Look what he says about himself in Malachi 3:6. "I am the Lord, and I do not change".
It's important to remember when things are constantly changing, we have one who never changes. God never changes. He's always faithful. Now at Yellowstone, the main attraction, of course, is Old Faithful, the geyser are that is constant. And one night, Chris and I were walking around the boardwalk through the thermal basin, and all of a sudden, Old Faithful goes off, and Chris took this picture with her cell phone. It was amazing, just look. The moonlight, everything.
Now, my pictures don't come out like that, and usually, you know, I look back at a video, and it's just shaking all around the place because I don't know that it's on, haven't turned it off. But she took that beautiful picture of Old Faithful, but you know what we discovered about Old Faithful? It's not that faithful. I mean, yeah, I mean, you can predict it within 10 or 15 minutes, but you know, it's changed a lot over the years. I mean, 50 years ago, it used to go off about every hour, give or take 10 or 15 minutes, and now it goes off, after an earthquake in the '50s about every hour and a half, give or take a few minutes.
And Old Faithful will continue to change over time as the tectonic plate that's over the magma will keep moving, and Old Faithful will keep changing. Old Faithful is not so faithful after all, but the God who created Old Faithful is always faithful. He never changes. He always tells the truth. He's always dependable. In a world where it seems like you can't count on anything or anyone, you can always count on God, because he never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and you can build your life on God's Word, a solid foundation, because God's Word never changes. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of God stands forever. It has all the answers for everything we go through in life.
And so, the first decision you have to make is what will you base all your decisions on? And once you decide you're going to follow God's Word because it's true, that makes all the rest of your decisions in life a whole lot easier. You base your decisions on God's Word, not popular opinion, not what our ever-changing culture says, not what's cool or makes you sound really smart, or what you feel like at the moment, you make decisions based on the truth of God's Word, because it's true, because it's the best way to live, because God created you and he gives you the owner's manual of life. He knows how you work best, and it leads to fulfillment.
And so, you've got to make that one decision, what are you going to build your life on? And once you make that decision to build your life on God's Word, all the other decisions are a lot easier. You know, the Bible says that life is sacred, and that's so important to understand. Because if you're alive, God has a sacred purpose for you. He doesn't want you to wait to live. He doesn't want you to regret the past. He doesn't want you to worry about the future. All that does is mess you up in the present so you can't take hold of the sacred moment that you're in. All life is sacred, and if you're going to experience joy when the changes hit, then you've gotta realize that if you have your next breath, that's a sacred moment.
No matter what circumstances are going on in your life, you can still choose joy in life. No matter what wind of change comes in to slam into your life, as long as your heart is still beating, you're in a sacred moment. And when we choose joy, we begin to find it deep within our hearts and it surprises us because it can only come from God. Look what David said in Psalm 139. "For you, God, created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well".
David says, God, you knit me together in my mother's womb. Did you know God planned you before you were born? God planned you and created you in your mother's womb, and that's why there's no such thing as an unplanned pregnancy. Your parents may not have planned you, but God planned you, and he planned you for a purpose. You're not an accident. God planned you for a purpose, and God is getting ready to enlarge your purpose. God is getting ready to do something big in your life if you'll faith it, if you'll look for it, if you'll be open to it. Before the change hits, David had the wind at his back, it was smooth sailing, then the wind changed and everything in his life goes in the other direction.
And at first he tries to fight the wind, he tries to control the wind, he wants to change the direction of the wind back to the way it was blowing before. And when he finally comes to the place where he's just worn out, he surrenders to God. And instead of fighting the wind, he gives over control to the God who can still the wind, the God who can calm the storm. And in his tears, he starts to trust in the God of joy, and somehow God helps him set his sails to catch the winds of change, because the winds of change will blow into every life, and they'll either batter your ship or you'll set your sail to catch the winds of change and God will take you to a new place, to the next level.
In Psalm 43 David says, "He has given me a new song to sing of praises to our God. Now many will hear the glorious things he did for me and stand in a before the Lord, and put their trust in him". David says God gave me a new song, a song of joy. It wasn't the same old song, that was a good song I was singing, I like that song, I want to go back to that song, but you know what? When I chose joy and I chose to give him the broken pieces and let him make something beautiful out of it, he gave me a new song, a new song to sing. And maybe all the painful changes in your life have stolen your song of joy. God wants to give you a new song to sing. It won't be the same song, but it will be a new song, one that rises from your heart that no circumstance can steal away.
So, with a little bit of imperfect faith, I just want to ask you and challenge you, with the little bit of imperfect, ordinary faith you have, just take it whether you feel it or not, and place it on him. In the middle of the pain, choose joy, and God takes care of the rest. See, it's God's job to give you joy, it's just your job to choose it, whether you feel it or not. You can't work up joy, this divine joy that we're talking about here, you have to choose joy and then God does the rest. It's up to him. And what will happen when you choose joy? He will begin to fill your heart with a new song that can't be stolen.
Now, at first you can barely hear the music. You choose joy, and at first you probably won't hear the music at all, because your ears aren't tuned to it. And then you'll keep choosing joy, and choosing joy, and then you'll hear the music but just barely. You'll hear the sound of a little melody that's so faint. You'll wonder, "Did I hear that or not"? But you keep choosing joy, and you keep choosing joy, and you keep choosing joy, and then the music will get a little louder, and you'll hear it, and you'll be amazed, but you keep choosing joy, and then it gets louder, and it gets louder until it fills up your whole life and you can do the dance of joy right in the middle of despair.
You keep choosing joy, and you keep choosing joy, and it gets louder and louder so everyone around you can hear it, and they're amazed by it, and they're drawn to it, because they wonder what in the world do you have that I don't have? You've got circumstances in your life that are so painful, and I see it, but yet you've got joy in your heart. You're not jumping up and down going, "Yay, I've got all this pain in my life," but there's something in you that's playing music.