Neither be sorrowful, for the joy of the Lord Yahweh is your stronghold of protection. Philippians 4 verse 4 says these words, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice.

If Paul has to say, again I say, he meant, please take note. I meant what I said. Rejoice in the Lord always.

One final verse, Psalm 16 11. Psalmist said, You will make known to me the way of life. In your presence there is joy that fully satisfies.

At your right hand there are pleasures that last forever. God has made us with three parts to our being. A body and a soul and a spirit.

Now the spirit is the most important part of all because that part came straight from God. But the part of us that actually controls us, our control tower is actually the soul. The soul decides what happens in our life.

Why? Because the will, our ability to choose lies in our soul. But there's two other things lying in the soul. There is our mind, our thoughts and our emotions, our feelings and our desires.

Now we often use this term, I've got great willpower. But in reality, the will is the weakest out of all three. The part of our soul that has the greatest power lies in the emotions.

Not in the will. Let's just consider the power that emotion has over us. We always do the things we desire.

Have you done something you didn't want to do? Oh, see, whatever I desire to do, that's what I'm likely to get my will to do. And we find it much easier to do things that make us feel good. Oh, yeah, if something makes us feel good, we want to do it again and again and again.

Our emotions are where our desires and our feelings come from. So can you see how strong an effect our emotions have on what we do in life? Truth of the matter is that we follow our feelings even before we follow our thoughts. I learned this a long time ago in selling.

You can convince the prospect of how he should buy your product, of how he needs your product, of how important the product is, of how vital it is to get him to buy it. And you may come with all the logical explanations and fully convince his mind that he needs to buy it. But if he doesn't want it, your sales pitch was a waste of time.

There's only one way to get somebody to buy, and that's to get him to want what you're selling. And there's only one way we can get anybody to do anything in this world, and that's to get them to want to do it. Now, where does that want to come from? It comes from the emotions.

If I feel like doing it, if I'm excited about it, see, my mind says, I can't really afford this. You know, our budget is pretty full already. You know, we just barely got enough money left in the house for food.

But I see it, and oh, it looks so awesome. I just wish I had one of those. Oh, it's going on special right now.

If you buy it right now, you're going to get it 50% off. In fact, they're selling so fast, come here next week, there's none left. See now, you know, could we just eat pop for a week? Just cut out some of the stuff? You know, what can I cut out on you? We can let the electricity bill go for a month.

They won't cut us off. Our mind starts to reason and logic. We find a way to get what we want, not what we need.

See, our emotions are so strong. They control us, control us. See, think about everything you did today.

You got up and you went to work. Chances are you weren't very excited about that. You had to do it.

And so you went to work and you did your job, what was required of you. Enough so they don't fire you. Enough so you're still a good testimony.

It's Christian. But your mind is thinking, I wish I was home now. I wish I was doing something else now.

I wish I didn't have to be here now. Boy, if I had the free time, I certainly wouldn't be sitting here in this place. I'll be doing someone else.

Right? With half the chance. See, I come down with a bit of a cold. That's a good excuse to go see the doctor and book off a day sick.

I'm not really that sick, but hey, it's legal. Right? Now I can spend the day doing what I want to do, right? Come on. Come on.

You see, we do the things we feel like doing. Why do you think different people are so excited about different things? You look at somebody else, you go, why are they so excited about that? You know what? I wouldn't waste any time or money on that thing. Yeah, they're just pouring out all that they've got.

See, because their emotions and their desires have been stirred in that direction. See now, here's the difficult part about emotions. You can't switch them on and off.

So how do you change your emotions? When they're negative. When you're feeling down. When life is on top of you.

When everything's going wrong. When you're in a circumstance you don't want to be. And you're feeling down in the mouth.

Discouraged and depressed. And somebody says, cheer up. Why are you so miserable? You can punch them, don't you? Easy for you to talk.

Easy for you. You're in my situation, you'd be very different. Easy for you to talk.

What's the matter with you? You know, we're supposed to just be happy. Well, I'm not happy. I'm feeling horrible.

See, if you could turn your emotions on and off, you'd do that. See, because emotions have power. They have power.

See, that scripture we looked at in Nehemiah says, the joy of the Lord Yahweh is your strength. There's a power in joy when you are excited about something. See, if I'm excited about my work, I miss my afternoon sleep.

Because I'm so excited about working. I'm working. Before I look, you know what? It's supper time already.

I forgot to have my afternoon sleep. You know, I love my afternoon sleep. Okay, I'm old.

Truth be told, I loved it when I was younger too, so. They say it's a good thing to have an afternoon siesta. So, you know, I've got medical basis to say it's right.

And, you know, I believe God made us that way. But, you know, come a certain time of day, my eyelids start to close. And I think, okay, guys, I got to go sleep.

But what about the work? The work can wait. Really, the work can wait. What about those emails? They can wait.

What about the lectures supposed to be mocked? They can wait. But then I get excited about some new project that I want to do. Oh, this is so exciting.

I just can't wait until I finished it. And I sit down at my computer and I work. And you know what? It's such a nuisance to have to get up and go to the bathroom.

Because it interferes with my work. I'm trying to get this job done. You know, somebody calls you up on the phone.

Shut up. I'm busy. It's lunchtime.

Do we have to eat? My wife brings me a cup of tea. And about 15 minutes later, I look at her and I say, when did you bring this? I don't even notice. Because I'm so engrossed in what I'm doing.

I'm so excited about what I'm doing. You see? See the power of emotion. Oh, if only we could turn that on and off.

If we could just turn it on when we needed it. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Well, there's a way to do it. There's nobody I'm going to preach on tonight.

I've got teaching on it. If you've read the blessing code, you should understand a little bit of how it works. What I'd like to show you is what God has given us as a tool to change our emotions.

He's given us gift of joy. Joy. See, joy is one of the most positive emotions that you can have.

And when you can get your emotions stirred with joy, you become unstoppable. There's nothing that can put you off. There's nothing that can dissuade you.

There's nothing that can get you down or discourage you in any way. Joy pulls things out of you that you wouldn't do. See, you, this nice, quiet little guy.

He never says much. See, then you're sitting there watching your favorite team and they score. Yeah! This little person who never even smiles or moves is withdrawn.

Suddenly is shouting, screaming. What causes that? Joy. See, joy has the power to change people.

Make them do things they don't normally do. Very powerful tool that can make us accomplish great things for God. And succeed in this life and live the kind of life the Lord intended us.

To live. Oh, it's such a powerful thing. Joy has the power to help you overcome all of your weaknesses.

All of your fears and insecurities and caring about what people think about you. Be excited. We just got a lot of money.

Yeah! I'll tell the whole world about it. Stand on top of the roof and shout it. Well, you know, we have a few things to be joyful about.

We don't normally respond that way, do we? See, joy displaces all laziness. You know, there's really no such thing as a lazy person. So, you give a person a reason to do something and they'll do it.

People aren't just lazy for the sake of being lazy. They're lazy because they've got a job to do that doesn't excite them. And they don't feel like doing it.

Their emotions are not stirred. If you could put some joy into what you're doing, you could accomplish amazing things. If you could get excited about your job, you'll probably become a star employee and they'll promote you.

Give you an increase in salary. Well, how can I get excited about this boring job? Because the Lord told you to. He said, whatever you do, do in the name of Jesus.

Well, if you can't get excited about doing something for the Lord, well, you know, that's fine. I can come to church and serve the Lord. I can sing and worship and get excited about the Lord.

Now, don't ask me to get excited about doing what this miserable boss of mine told me I have to do. What do people see when they look at you? They see somebody who's trying to get away with as much as they can, do as little as they can. Or somebody that's so full of the joy of the Lord that he's excited.

Excited. A great success preacher who's also a Christian, a man by the name of Charlie Jones. He's dead now.

Real motivating speaker. I read his book called Life is Tremendous. I saw some videos of him.

Even in his old age, he was still full of life. And he wrote what he called the laws of success. And law number one was get excited about your job.

Be excited about your job. So what if I'm just a housewife? Get excited about your job. What if I'm just doing mundane work, like cleaning the floor? Get excited about your job.

Why? Because we're doing it as unto the Lord. And what we do for the Lord, we must do with joy. How does your spiritual life look like? Oh boy, it's Sunday.

We have to go to church again. I don't get it. The pastor's going to be on the phone and say, why weren't you there? We missed you.

We missed you. No, you didn't miss me. You just had an empty stomach.

Pre-chat. So I better go and get him off my back. Right? Where's the joy? No joy.

See, joy is the total opposite of fear and worry and depression. So if you're afraid, if you're worried, if you're feeling depressed, the solution, God's solution, is add a bit of joy. Again, I can't take my emotions and just change them, can I? I can't just change my feelings because God told me to change my feelings.

And yet, God gave us a commandment. He said, rejoice. He didn't say, feel like rejoicing.

He said, rejoice. It's kind of like when he gave us a commandment that said, love. Husbands, love your wife, that miserable woman.

Love your neighbors yourself. Have you seen my neighbor? Love your enemies. Are you mad? See, because we think of love as an emotion.

See, now the truth of the matter is that joy affects your emotions, but joy itself is not an emotion. Joy is a fruit of the spirit of God. And when God tells us to love, he says, take an action.

When God says, rejoice, he says, take an action. So I don't feel like it. I don't feel like it.

You see, you may not be able to change the way you're feeling by an act of your will, but your will is free to do something. And that something that you do could change your emotions. See, when you have this unlovely person in front of you, and you really don't feel any love for them at all.

And the scripture says, love that person. What do you do? I can't feel love for this person. They're horrible to me.

They're ugly to me. God says, love. So how do you love? You take an action.

And you speak words. See, these are spiritual things. Love and joy are a fruit of the spirit, which means we've got to release what's in our spirit.

And there's only two ways to release it. Words and actions. Words and actions.

The first time I met my wife, I knew that we were meant for each other. I proposed to her the day afterwards. But you know, I didn't have any feelings yet.

I liked the look of her. I don't think either of us would have noticed each other if we passed on the street, but we knew God had put us together. We were talking about getting married.

I didn't feel any love yet. So how do I produce love for somebody? I know this is God's choice for me. I know this is the woman I'm going to spend my life with.

But how do I get to love her? Feel those ooey-gooey feelings that you get when you're in love. When I started loving her by faith, I spoke those words that kind of got caught in my mouth. The first time I said, I love you.

It just didn't feel right. That's a lie. I don't.

I don't feel a thing. I love you. See, after a while, she kind of felt obligated, and she just went by saying, I love you, too.

Very romantic. I took words and actions. My first action was to propose to her.

I mean, that's got to create love when you marry somebody, right? People who've been married for years and still don't love each other. See, you're not feeling love for your partner. Let me ask you these words.

When is the last time you said to them, I love you? But I don't. God didn't ask you to feel love. He told you to.

Love. When's the last time you showed your love by your actions, by giving them something they really want? Preferably something that costs you. Otherwise, it's not really worth much.

Ooh. What does your partner want? Yeah, that's too expensive for me. Demands that she's making on me are just a bit much for me to handle.

What he expects me to do is out of the question. Mm-hmm. See, you want to show love.

Take an action. An action that costs you something. Speak words.

Words that are going to cost you something. Because once you say to a person, I love you. And I will give you whatever you want.

You've kind of put yourself on the line, haven't you? Now she's going to mock it. Going to take everything out of me now. See, you're going to have to do the same thing with joy.

You're going to have to rejoice when you don't feel like rejoicing. You're going to have to take it as an act of your will. But how do we produce joy? Firstly, with words.

You could start with praise and thanksgiving. You wake up in the morning and you're just feeling love. There's no joy whatsoever.

Okay, so I'm going to suggest what you should do is put out a book and write down two or three things that you're thankful for. Preferably, speak them out loud. Well, we can be thankful to the Lord.

So we can start by praising him. And that miserable guy or woman next to you wakes up. Tell him something that you're thankful for.

Told you it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you. But you see, unless you do that, your feelings are not going to change, are they? It's just like they are.

So start with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Start thanking God for everything in your life that is so wonderful, so easy to find a million things are bad. Start with thankfulness.

Speak only positive words. No negative confessions. Let no negative words come out of your mouth.

Oh, you know, it is so tempting when you get together with a group of people to trade with one another all the latest negative things that are happening in this world, in your life, and in the country, and in the church, and everywhere else. When you finish your conversation, if you did have any joy, it's gone. You're only going to produce joy by speaking positive things.

Don't speak all the fear, and the worry, and the anger, and all the negative things. They're going to make your feelings negative. Because when you fill your mind with these things, your emotions will be very obedient and will respond with blah.

Don't ever think you're a victim of these things. Yes, we do have an enemy that attacks us. And there's actually only one thing he can do.

He can put thoughts in your mind. See, if he puts thoughts of fear in your mind, and you entertain those thoughts of fear, your emotions dive. He puts thoughts of worry in your mind.

And when you entertain those thoughts of worry, your emotions drop. So don't blame the devil because you have no joy. Blame yourself because you listen to his lies.

You've got to make a choice here. If you've got nothing else, take a few positive scriptures and begin to quote them and confess them. Start with some of these.

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Rejoice in the Lord always. And I say again, rejoice.

Go and stand and look in the mirror and say, hey, you, you start rejoicing now. That's a commandment. That's an order.

You heard me. Rejoice. Words, very powerful weapons.

If you want to break free of all the negative emotions, change your words. Okay. And then, of course, we need actions.

Well, again, rejoice is a commandment. God requires an action. Well, what actions could you take? How about starting with a smile? See your teeth? All right.

You can do it. You can do it. Come on, you can do it.

Come on, come on. You can do it. You can do it.

I see everybody's got white teeth. Amazingly. Amazing.

I didn't know it in some of you. How much effort does it take to smile? Yeah, it feels stupid, doesn't it? But it's an action. It's an action.

You can't smile without kind of getting some kind of positive emotion. I know some people do it all the time and it looks stupid. I'm not saying be like that.

I'm just saying practice smiling. Practice smiling. You know, I've been accused of being a terrible person to preach at.

They say when I sit there in the pews, I get that serious look on my face. And I know all of my team, they're thinking he doesn't like what I'm saying. He's angry.

I did something wrong. So I've been practicing now when I'm in the audience to smile. Yeah, you're doing great.

I like it. It affects people. And it affects you.

I say it takes more muscles to smile than it does to frown. See, frowning comes naturally. Smiling takes an effort.

So make the effort. Take some action. Start smiling.

Try laughing on purpose. When's the last time you laughed? If you can't laugh, go and find somebody who's funny, tell jokes. See, if you're funny yourself, stand in the mirror and tell yourself jokes.

Start laughing. Come on, let's try it. There's a power in it.

There's a power in it. There's a spiritual force that gets released. I'm just feeling discouraged.

Did you smile? Did you laugh? Did you? Well, you better start doing it. Spread a bit of joy around. Amen.

Amen. You know, act like things are great, even when they're not. That's the hard part, to act positive when everything's going wrong.

But when people look at you, they would never guess. I heard a story once on this, which I thought was such a beautiful illustration. Coach brought his team to play in a ball game, and it was an important game.

He wanted to make sure that they won this one. And so as he came to choose the players who would go on the field, one young guy said, oh, coach, can I play today? Coach, can I play today? The coach said, you're not one of my best players. This game's important.

We're putting the best players on. So I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait out. And so he put his players on, and the game began to go, and it didn't go so good.

The team started to lose again and again. By halfway through the second half, all hope was gone. There's just no way that they were going to beat the opponents.

And the young guy came again and said, coach, can I play? Coach, can I play? The coach said, you can't do any damage now. Go ahead and play. This guy went onto the field, and he exploded.

He literally exploded, so much so that his fellow players got motivated and excited. And within 15 minutes remaining, just before the whistle blew, they won the final score, and they won the game. And afterwards, the coach went to this guy and said, what happened to you today? He said, I've never seen you play like that ever.

He said, coach, my dad died last week. The coach said, yes, I remember reading it. He said, well, coach, my dad was blind, and he could never, ever come and watch me play.

He said, today, he watched me play for the first time. And I wanted him to see me play. Because of that, everybody else got motivated, and they got changed.

You know, we have a heavenly father who's watching us play this game of life. Let's do it with the fullest of enthusiasm and power and excitement, and let the joy of the Lord fill our hearts as we act out, even going against our feelings. If you can't break free, stand on the promise that says, in your presence is joy that fully satisfies.

At your right hand are pleasures that will last forever. Come into his presence. Come into his presence in prayer and praise and worship, and let him touch your heart and stir your emotions and fill you with his joy until it begins to bubble over, and then you will become unstoppable.

God has given us a powerful tool to keep us motivated, to make us achieve in this life. Are you using this tool daily? If you're not, you're missing out. It's time you start using it.

It will change your life. Amen. Thank you, Father, for your words.

Gave it as you gave it to me. Ask God you'll take it and apply it to the hearts. Even to those who will watch this video afterwards now, I pray for each one in Jesus' name.

And I ask you, Lord, that you will stir up those who have given in to discouragement and fear and worry and anxiety and care and depression, and you'll inspire those who've given up hope on life, who've given up hope on people, and you'll challenge afresh and stir them up, cause them to realize the power that they hold in their hands, which you have made available, Lord, to each one of us. Oh, Lord Jesus, speak your joy upon your people now. Abundant joy.

Abundant joy. Not just a little bit of joy, but abundant joy by your Spirit, Lord. May you move upon them.

May you stir them. May you motivate them. And may your church stand up tall and strong in the power that you've given us.

Show this world what it means to be a Christian. Show them what we have that they don't have, Lord. And all of them will want to come running in and say, I want some of what you've got.

Show me how to get it. And we'll be shining lights in this dark world as we let your joy just radiate from us. Thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus' name.

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