Just Living My Best Life: Joy
Speaker: Pierre du Plessis
Read: Numbers 6:24-26; Psalm 16:11; Matthew 28:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17
Like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly, God desires that we experience a personal transformation. This only comes through the internal work of the Holy Spirit and is the evidence of the Gospel at work. As every caterpillar has the potential to become a monarch butterfly, every person has the potential to be transformed into a new creature. However, healthy soil is needed for there to be such a harvest. Healthy soil includes God’s design for our brains to seek out joy as a pre-dominant quest in life is to find happiness.
But Satan, the enemy of our soul, knows all to well how to bait us with falsehoods and cause us to seek joy and happiness in wrong places and ultimately where we will not find it or not for any long term. Joy cannot be found in things, but only in the countenance of God. When God looks at us, He sees bonded joy. Our sense of identity and attachment is revealed in joy and acceptance. His radiance over us creates a place where we can bring our messy lives and yet feel that we belong. God desires that we show that same kind of bonded joy towards each other. When our face and lives reflect such acceptance, we give others the grace that we have received and it becomes catalytic to the process of transformation.
Discussion Questions:
What resonated with you as listened to this sermon and reviewed?
What are ways that we as people have sought after happiness? What results have you experienced?
It was said that when we judge others, we forget how much grace we have tapped into. What does this mean to you?
The Zulu term sawubona implies I see you; I value you. What would this mean to you if someone addressed you with this term?
Pastor described our brain as having right side functions to include having group identity, being attuned to others, able to assess our surroundings, and making relational attachments; and the left side functions to include conscious thought and speech, analysis and problem solving, strategy and logic and stories and facts. He said that in order for left brain truth to be transformative, right brain flourishing must be present. What does this mean to you?
It was said that what we long for is what we are baited (by Satan) for. What does this mean to you?
It was said that a sense of identity and attachment is found through the face and eyes of another human that transmits joy and acceptance. What does this mean to you? What things can we do to transmit joy and acceptance? How is this catalytic to the process of transformation?
