Louie Giglio - Fighting for Joy
Today we’re talking about joy, thanks to Jared Butler and the Baylor University men’s basketball team. We’re in this series called Joy, in the final four. If you missed the setup a few weeks ago, as Baylor was progressing to the championship game and ultimately winning it, every interview mentioned how all year long they played with a culture of joy. I thought, this is a team that had a three-week COVID knockout; this is a team that faced incredible challenges during a season that barely happened, yet they made it all the way through because they were playing with a culture of joy. I’d never heard that phrase before, and something blew up inside my heart. I thought, I want to be a part of a culture of joy; I want to join whatever a culture of joy looks like. So we pivoted and started this journey, and I’m telling you, it’s doing something really good. I don’t know about you, but this journey is doing something really good on the inside of me. Today we’re talking about fighting for joy.
We defined joy a little differently than happiness. Happiness is an emotion based on circumstances and outcomes. Happiness isn’t bad, but you can be at your pinnacle at 2:15 in the afternoon and then in the pit of sadness by 2:30. Happiness is based on circumstances and outcomes. We’ve been looking at the word for joy in Greek, and it taught us that it is an awareness of God’s grace in our lives. We’re defining joy as gratitude rooted in grace, no matter the circumstances. In other words, joy supersedes circumstances, and when you have it, it is permanent and permeating in your life because it overrides whatever is happening around you.
We’re going to end this talk with some practical takeaways on how you can fight for joy in your life, drawn from the book of Philippians, by our brother, the Apostle Paul. Philippians is called the book of joy. I was in the Jesus Bible this week digging around in Philippians, and the title page for each book connects back to the person of Christ. The title page for Philippians says, «Jesus, our joy in suffering.» So we have a whole letter written to this church that’s all about joy: «Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!» These are the kinds of things Paul is writing while he’s in prison for his faith in Christ. In a circumstance that says «no joy,» he says, «Oh no, I’ve got joy,» because my joy is gratitude rooted in immovable circumstances, namely the grace of God at the cross and the future grace I have—that I am now and will forevermore be seated with Christ at the right hand of God. I am alive and saved, and those things cannot be affected by any situation or circumstance; therefore, I can always have joy in any situation.
But you have to fight for joy, and we’ll discuss why that is. The reality is that kind of permeating joy, the joy that rises above and trumps all circumstances, doesn’t come naturally to a human being. It has to be produced by the work of the Spirit, and you’ve got to fight for it. If you don’t have it today, it’s because it’s been stolen from you. We live in a battle, not in a bubble. Recently, we spent some time with people who were coming out of 2020, talking about their bubble group that they maintained all year. Maybe you had a bubble group that could only eat at each other’s houses and travel together. Their bubble group had just gone on a trip, and somehow that allowed them to survive in a challenging situation. But in faith, we don’t have a bubble group that can protect us from the elements of the spiritual battle we live in. Living in this spiritual battle, there is an enemy for you and me, a specific enemy trying to steal your joy.
We see this in Galatians chapter 5. Paul sets it up this way in verse 16: «So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other.» So the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and our sinful nature are in conflict with one another, and one of them will win out. You’ll see very clearly through our lives which one has the upper hand. They conflict so that you do not do what you want. If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. He describes the differences. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious, and he lists them all. But I want you to notice jealousy, fits of rage, and selfish ambition. Some of the other usual suspects from the sinful desires are mentioned, but jealousy and selfish ambition sneak in. These are in conflict with the Holy Spirit.
He continues in verse 22 and shows us what happens when the Spirit is in control: «But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,» our word, «peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.» Now I want you to put a little mark by verse 24 because we are going to need to return to this verse as we fight for joy: «Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.» In other words, the way we translate that into real language for us in this moment is, if joy is going to live in your life, something is going to have to die in your life. If you are going to be a living fountain of this gratitude expressed in joy, then something has to die, and the something that has to die is the sinful nature. The flesh, the «me» that I want, the «I» that I decide part has to go away.
In verse 25: «Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited.» Man, these words seem to pack so much more meaning right now: «Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.» At the end of the day, we have to fight for joy. It’s like in France this month; the spring has been brutally cold, and the winemakers there have been fighting for their grapes. On any given night, it looks like this in France. Because of the cold temperatures and ice forming on the little sprigs of the vine, the winemakers have had to light pots all through the vineyards. For miles, you see the fires burning because they’re fighting for the fruit, fighting for the crop they want. They know they can’t just sit back and do nothing or they’ll lose that battle. They’re in the middle of it, fighting, stoking the fires, if you will, for the fruit. In the same way, that’s what God is inviting us to do today. He’s saying, «I want to invite you to stoke the fires of joy, and you can step into that process today.»
We talked about how the key to the fruit of the Spirit—this love, joy, and peace, this outcome we want—is all connected to the root. In other words, we get the fruit from the root, and the root is Jesus. We focus on Jesus. We talked about that early in the journey so that we can get the fruit that is produced from that root. But in the same way, if you are losing this conflict, the root in your life isn’t Jesus; the root is self. As the root, Jesus moves through the vine; we’re in the middle, as the vine. As Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, moves through the vine, the fruit is produced. In the same way, if self is the root, it’s also moving through the vine with us as the middle person. Self produces fruit, and the main fruit it produces related to joy is the fruit of an ungrateful spirit.
You’ve seen it everywhere: «Comparison is the thief of joy.» That’s a super famous quote, and it’s almost always true. The real bullseye enemy of joy is an ungrateful spirit rooted in self. If joy is gratitude rooted in grace, then the enemy of joy is an ungrateful spirit rooted in self. That ungrateful spirit expresses itself in two major ways that trap us in a cycle of ungrateful hearts. The first is entitlement. Entitlement, with a simple definition, is this: «I deserve it.» An attitude of «I deserve it» fosters an ungrateful spirit in your life. Anything that comes your way, you’re likely to say, «I deserve it.» If you don’t get what you want, you’ll envy, compare, and complain until you do get what you think you deserve. That spirit snuffs out gratitude and steals your joy. When it’s said that «comparison is a thief of joy,» that’s true, but the reason we compare is that we feel entitled to more.
Therefore, we evaluate how many chips everyone else has in their stack, figuring out how to get more than someone else has. An entitled person may have tasted the fruit of joy at some point, but it"s spoiled in their heart—spoiled is a good word. They’re spoiled because they think they deserve everything they’ve got. For all of us sitting in this building today who have so much in our lives, it’s a big deal. I’ll give you a good example of entitlement, but I’ll use someone else instead of myself. Recently, we were at the Kennedy Space Center with astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is on the International Space Station. He commanded the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon capsule docked to the station. Shane may see this gathering at some point, so it would be great to say we are proud of him as Passion City Church, and we are praying for him on his journey.
During the week, we did some amazing things, and one day we found ourselves in a very special situation. At the end of the time, we had to wait a bit longer for some things to happen, and people started to grumble because we had to wait after doing something that no one gets to do. Finally, we went to an employees-only store where you can buy various unique items related to our visit. Our little group of fewer than twenty people kind of flooded into the small store where the manager behind the plexiglass said, «Whoa, whoa, whoa! Only eight people in the store at a time.» I hadn’t gotten in yet, so I was in line as the eighth person. The store manager insisted that the guy there had to leave to let others in. He counted again and said, «No, there are seven; you’re eight.» The manager replied, «Only eight people in the store.» So our host asked him to wait outside.
Now there’s just me and the guy, and I’m telling this story about him because I would never have done what he did. He yelled back in about the sign; a little sign stuck on the plexiglass says «Eight customers.» You ever been there? «The sign says eight customers. Is it eight people or eight customers?» I’m telling you, we are the best sign readers in the world, are we not? He said to the manager, «Do you need me to come in and turn the sign around for you so you can read it while we’re in a building that no one gets to go in?» I have to wait five minutes to get into the little store that we didn’t even know existed so we can buy something that people can’t even get. Any joy going on right there? All the goodness we just experienced was stolen by the spirit of an ungrateful heart.
Entitlement robs joy. Our world is filled with it. There were ten lepers who begged Jesus for healing. He said, «Go show yourself to the priest,» and as they went, Luke tells us they were healed. Visualize a man who had lost the tips of three fingers and now has whole fingers. Imagine a guy whose nose had come off now with a nose again. One person had lost a part of his ear, and now he has two ears. As they realize this is incredible, one of them says, «Wait a minute, that guy named Jesus is responsible for this!» He goes back, falls to Jesus' feet, worships him, and thanks him. Jesus responds, «Weren’t there ten of you? Didn’t everyone get healed? Where are the other nine?» He says, «Only one came back to express gratitude.»
Entitlement can grab you so fast that you can go from begging for mercy to celebrating over healing without remembering to express gratitude and allowing joy to get stolen from you. Entitlement says, «I deserve it.» There are many people who haven’t used those words in church, but deep down, they feel that God is going to help them anyway. Why? Because he probably will. «Give me a little nudge; give me a little help; give me a little pat on the back.» Of course he will, because somehow everything has worked out like that, so surely God will help me.
The second way self expresses itself is through shame, which is an adversary to joy. You’d think shame means «I don’t deserve it,» and from one perspective, that’s true. But shame will say, «When I hear about the grace of God, I could never receive it.» In other words, «Based on what I’ve done or what’s been done to me, that may work for everybody else, but I can’t receive that goodness and forgiveness, that holiness and righteousness in Christ.» We won’t receive that new identity at the table of God. To live in shame is to say our opinion about what we should get trumps God’s opinion about what he wants to give us.
Shameful people think it’s humility when it’s really pride. Both the entitled and the shameful have the same remedy. You would think there’d be a different remedy for the entitled person than for the shameful person, but they have the same remedy. The solution is a revelation of grace and glory, eyes opened to see the gap between where they are and where God is. Both the entitled and the shameful are ungrateful. The entitled person thinks they deserve what they have, while the shameful person believes they cannot receive it. How can you be grateful for something you haven’t received? They are both ungrateful, and the answer for both is a revelation of grace and glory to see the gap.
You need to understand this: I don’t deserve anything but death. If you want to be a sign reader, read that sign: «The wages of sin is death.» It says it right there. I know I have sinned; therefore, I deserve death. If I say I’m entitled, I am entitled. You know what I’m entitled to? I’m entitled to death. That’s the sign I saw. Nobody is reading that sign. That’s the entitled sign: I am deserving, but I deserve death. When I see the gap and know I don’t deserve anything but death, I see how, because of grace, I have life in Christ Jesus.
In other words, the ultimate fruit came when Jesus came. At some point, the root became human; he became flesh and dwelt among us. Isaiah prophesied that he would be like a tender shoot, cut off and offered for your sake. The entitled person sees their need for a Savior, and the shameful person recognizes that grace is for them too: the one who has the title above every title gave himself for me. He was crushed for me.
When people realize there’s something called new wine, entitlement goes out the window. People who’ve lived under shame realize what’s in the cup has made them feel ashamed. Many have heard the victory story but have never come to lift the cup for themselves, so they still have no joy. When I was a young speaker, I would say yes to everything. I accepted invitations to lock-ins, even speaking at the wee hours of the morning for $25 and 30 cents a mile. One time, I went to a youth event in a small town in West Texas, and it turned out there were no hotels nearby. The guy said, «No worries, my office has a little efficiency apartment.»
His office was very nice, but when we arrived, the sun went down. He went, «No sleeping tonight.» Another time, I went to a town in Oklahoma, and when we arrived, I thought, «Wow, this must be a hotel!» but later found out he was the local bail bondsman. After arriving, he said we had to leave for his softball game—having a youth revival that same weekend. The guy thought I should join the team. I had an extra jersey and some sweats.
I warmed up with the team, introducing myself to everyone, and later, we won the Oklahoma men’s softball championship. Picture me standing by the dugout, feeling exhilarated, but I had nothing in this victory. I didn’t rush the field, nor did I care to hold the trophy high because I had no investment in it. Many people sing the song of victory but still don’t see their stake in the game. When Christ took the cup, it was your cup. When he said, «Your will, not mine,» it was your sin. He carried your shame, and when he said, «It’s finished,» it truly was finished.
You might have never felt the freedom of lifting that cup, seeing it as your cup, holding it up and claiming, «This is my cup, my forgiveness, my grace, my love, my new life.» This represents a brand new me! I’m lifting up the cup of new wine and letting shame die. Whether you lift the cup out of entitlement or shame, that revelation of grace and glory transforms every person into a grateful one.
Instead of being self-centered, receiving the revelation of grace and glory at the center means going in every direction and being surrounded by grateful people. Grateful people have joy, but you’ve got to fight for it, stoke the fires of gratitude. How do you do it? Here are some takeaways, all from Philippians:
Number one: identify things you’re grateful for and give thanks. In chapter one, Paul opens the letter saying, «I thank my God every time I remember you.» He was in prison but thankful. There’s a connection between gratitude and joy. Maybe the takeaway is to start a gratitude journal or note on your phone. Before reading about work troubles or the latest headline, write down two or three things you’re grateful for and thank God. Studies affirm that gratitude produces happiness, which God’s law of the spiritual universe declares produces joy.
Number two: don’t over-ask people and things. Enjoy the blessing but don’t put the root of your joy in the blessing. Paul said he rejoiced when their concern for him renewed, but he clarified he wasn’t in need. He learned to be content in all circumstances. He doesn’t ask anyone to be his source of joy. He has a root: Jesus. The root of Jesus produces the fruit of joy.
Number three: joyful people with joyless people. Paul said in Philippians 2:2-14, «Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same mind, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit…» If your crew is filled with joyless people, they will steal your joy. You might need a reset of your group.
The last point is obvious and connects us back to where we began: keep seeking Jesus. You must make the root the priority. Don’t simply wish for fruit; prioritize your relationship with the root. You can’t long for joy without abiding in the root. Paul emphasized: «Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.» Nothing compares to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. So we stoke the fires of gratitude, embracing our connection to the author of grace, knowing that joy ultimately comes from Him. Joy does not exist out there but is found in Christ; it is not a trait to develop but is embodied in a person named Jesus. The more time you spend with Him, the more joy you will experience because joy is spelled J-E-S-U-S, and that stands counter to the world. The world will tell you it all begins with you—but in our upside-down kingdom, when you put Him first and trust Him, you won’t come in last.