Called this series “Bidding Wars” because there is so much BIDDING going on in our lives
  • Time
  • Attention
  • Heart
  • Allegiance
Bidding has a simple rule –
►The more valuable something is, the more bidding will take place for it
Today’s question – What is bidding for your Joy?
  • Joy is quite valuable
  • Several things bidding for our joy
Difference between Joy and Happiness
  • Happiness is based on circumstances, joy is not.
Our culture is addicted to happiness, but very absent of joy
Things that bid for our joy (May give short term happiness)
1-AMBITION
  • Never satisfied/never have enough
2-PERFECTIONISM
  • Never good enough (Yourself or others)
3-BITTERNESS
  • Never going to let it go
4-GUILT OR SHAME
  • Never able to move past (stuff in the past
5-ENVY
  • Never going to be like or have
Story of Abraham and Issac
  • God promised Abraham and his wife a son in old age
  • This son would be the start of a chosen people, God’s people
  • God delivers on the promise – they have a son
We would say – What joy that must have brought Abraham
  • Having a son
►But we often mix up and place to much priority on the gift and little on the gift giver
One day God gives Abraham a bizarre and honestly insane request
Genesis 22:1-2
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.
2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Say what?!
Abraham now had two options:
1-Say no
  • Decide that the gift was more valuable that the gift giver
  • Decide that Issac was his ultimate fulfillment as a person
2-Say yes
  • To continue to do and be what God has called him to do and be
  • To TRUST that God had a plan and wouldn’t go back on his promise
In this moment, God was trying to teach Abraham, That while God’s gifts are a blessing, they are never more important than having God himself
Real joy is this:
►Being who God has called you to be and doing what God has called you to do
So what does Abraham do?
Genesis 22:3
3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.
Abraham chose the hard thing
  • Chose the FAITH-FILLED thing
Genesis 22:9-12
9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
He replied, “Here I am.”
12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
Your joy will be limited by your capacity to give things over to God
  • Issue of trust and faith
The thing standing in the way of your joy is that thing(s) you are refusing to let go of
God knew that for Abraham to be the leader he needed to be, he had to understand where his fulfillment came from.
  • The gift is never greater that the gift giver
He came down from that mountain more free, more joyful, more sure that God was good, that he could be trusted with everything, not just some things
Hebrews tells us this..
Hebrews 11
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, 18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead.
The reason many of us never know true joy is because we don’t know what its like to truly trust
  • To give God the parts of our lives we hold most dear
  • The things most sacred to our lives
We have made idols out of God’s gifts
  • Idol – Anything that hold value over God in our lives
Examples:
Money: – A tremendous tool for Good
  • Don’t trust God with our finances
  • Make decision first, then ask God to bless it
  • Afraid God may take it
Relationships: (or Sex): – Are a gift from God to make our lives rich and full
  • But we refuse to trust him with our future
  • Pursue relationships for our own desire, then expect God to bless it
Our Lives: – The ultimate gift from God
  • But we don’t trust him with it
  • Pursue our own goals and dreams
  • That if we give God anything, he will take from us and never give it back
Real joy is this:
Being who God has called you to be and doing what God has called you to do
Our joy will be limited by you capacity to give things over to God
The parts of your life that you struggle to give God the most is where the most potential for your Joy lies
James says it this way…
James 1:2-3
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
Joy makes us mature and complete
Joy is a process
  • Don’t wake up one day and have joy
  • You must learn what it looks like, feels like
The reason many of us don’t have true joy, is because we are afraid of the process…
What is Real Joy?
Joy is Peace
    – Absent of anxiety and worry. Circumstances do not dictate what you feel in your soul
Joy is Confidence
    – Absent of fear. Trouble does not change what you know to be true about God, Yourself, or how God loves you
Joy is Purpose
    – Knowing who you are and what you are here to do
Real joy is this:
Being who God has called you to be and doing what God has called you to do
That is what Abraham had when he walked back down that mountain
  • Everything on the outside looked the same, but inside everything had changed
There are so many things out there bidding on you life
  • Everyone of them promises fulfillment
  • Everyone of them promise Happiness
  • And not of them deliver
But Jesus Bid on you too…
Heb 12:1-2
Let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We are the Joy of the Lord
  • He has bid on you, regardless of where you are or what you’ve done
Must ask ourselves…
What are you refusing to let go of?

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