The Rebel's Guide To Joy Part 1: Acts 16, Philippians 1:1-1a

First off, the beginning to this sermon is hilarious. That's my first observation. Secondly, 'culture is not THE place to look for happiness'. Agreed. Pastor Mark begins by outlaying what the culture has to say about happiness and joy. Beginning with the easy to write off hedonism, moving to the pop-spirituality, and then a bolt out of the blue... 'Joel Osteen'. Who is this guy?! Haha... I've completely missed something here. Supposedly he's on the radio, on the TV, in magazines, is number 1 on itunes, and has published books. Maybe I've been so wrapped up in frantically trying to get my head around what's going on in Church by reading commentators that I've missed what's actually going on down south? Anyone else missed out on who this Joel Osteen guy is? *I just checked out Amazon, it's true, this guy's a pretty big deal by the looks of things, but not really any different from the 90s dudes with the nice teeth, he'll pass into history without making too much of a dent I suspect*

Anyways... supposedly he's suggesting that 'joy is to be found in the same place that culture and pop-spirituality tells us'. And it seems to be 'health and wealth'. I'm so frustrated with the current 'Gospel', the reactionary anti-health and wealth 'Gospel', that I'd forgotten that in many places the 'health and wealth Gospel' still has many followers. I just don't bump into many these days. Anyways, I'm getting tired of the polarized 'health and wealthers' and the 'sexy servants of the poor' discussion. In case you're a lazy blogger and don't read other posts, I do believe that the Church as the body of Christ has a responsibility to tend to people's physical needs, as well as spiritual needs. Love the poor, go for it. Swiftly moving on...

Ok, so now Driscoll is doing what I'm doing basically. Only he's watching a Joel Osteen sermon and discussing it. So what's going on here is I'm discussing a Mark Driscoll sermon in which he discusses a Joel Osteen sermon... I know it's confusing.

The Osteen clip really, genuinely, hurts. There is a real pain in me when I hear that garbage. And it pains me even more to see tens of thousands of people buying it. I agree with Mark, we have to be careful not to accept garbage because it is popular, even... ESPECIALLY... among Christians. That's one thing I noticed in the Christian bookstores here (North America). The majority of their shelves are stacked with books that are pop-spirituality, feel-good, garbage. Again, enough about this, I don't want this to become endlessly frustrating as well. I want to learn from the Word of God in Philippians. It will suffice to say that Jesus does not guarantee painfree health, stressfree finances or troublefree relationships.

Where does the answer to 'how to find Joy?' lie? Having read 'Desiring God' and a bunch of other Piper books I'm guessing where Driscoll's going with this. Let's see.

Joy is not found in culture, Joy is not found in religion, Joy is found 'in Christ Jesus' (Phil 1:1). Good.

As Christians we are 'saints'. This is something that I've fought hard to be made known for a few years now. Paul repeatedly addresses Christians as... saints. As a Christian I am a saint. This says something of who I am now. My identity no longer lies in my sin, my identity lives in the freedom of being a Christian, won by Christ. I live in a fallen world. I do sin. However, I am forgiven, when I come to God humbly with a repentant heart acknowledging that I have sinned against Him, that I do not deserve His forgiveness, but appealing to the sacrifice made on the cross of Christ. Our identity is that of a forgiven saint. Cool.

We are all slaves, to something. I'm a bondservant of Christ (Gal 1:10). I don't want to be a slave to sin. I don't want to be a slave to religion. I don't want to be a slave to the idol of service. I want to be a servant of Christ. I know He's a Master that loves me. My slavery is voluntary to Jesus.

And I appreciated the clip on Robert Robinson, I love the media stuff Mars Hill puts out. It's just well done. The music at the end, maybe not my taste, I loved the original, but hey, they're being missional, so GREAT. The lyrics are phenomenal. I'm looking forward to a sermon series on Hymns here at Catalyst in the New Year.

Anyways, that's that. It's 5am. I was away at a youth retreat all weekend. I'm tired.