Joy On Repeat | Selena Greiner

This episode, “Joy on Repeat,” explores how cultivating consistent, God-centered joy can transform your mindset, strengthen your faith, and shape your daily life. Through personal stories, scripture, and practical encouragement, the message highlights how joy isn’t dependent on circumstances but flows from a relationship with Jesus. Listeners are challenged to develop a habit of praise, guard their thoughts, and remain grateful, even in difficult seasons, discovering that true joy is both an inner strength and a contagious force that impacts not only their own lives but everyone around them.

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So let's start out in prayer. Father, we just thank you, Lord, for tonight. We thank you for your word, that it's powerful, it is sharp. We thank you that our hearts are open to your word, what you have to say tonight. Holy Spirit, we welcome you. We do not grieve you, but we welcome you. Have your way here in our hearts. And so we thank you for everybody joining us tonight. We thank you that lives will be changed tonight. Your word produces a good fruit in our lives. And so we thank you for that. We are grateful people in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So if you're taking notes on live stream and you can even type it out there where you're at, or you can just old school pen and paper like I do. The title of my message is Joy on Repeat. Joy on Repeat. I don't know how many of y'all have a playlist, or um, you know, I'm married to a musician, and we have two kids that are musicians. Uh, you know, I did the piano when I was little, but I didn't keep with it. But I did, I did live vicariously through my kids and made them take piano lessons and learn music theory and uh just the importance of um music and the worship. But uh there's always um songs or music growing up and uh and and it sets the atmosphere. Um I've been going through the house and just kind of organizing some things and uh a while back I had come across a CD old school. We don't use CDs anymore, but um, and I used to have a CD player and cassette player, remember those? Um, but I had one, it was Yancey. She was just a she's just a fun um, I don't know if she's a I guess she's geared more towards kids. Anyways, I I put on the kitchen counter and also like, oh, I remember when you used to play, you know, play her around the house. And um I had forgotten, you know, we go through seasons of life and and genres of music. And so I was like, oh yeah. And so just the importance of setting the atmosphere in our home and and in our lives, um, you know, worship is so important and and setting the atmosphere uh through worship is so important. And so um, so again, I'm talking tonight. I'm gonna be talking about joy on repeat. And uh there are many things that can steal your joy. If you haven't already found out, first of all, I live in Houston, uh, and there is traffic here, so that already getting to church, that uh pretty much in the Holy Ghost. That can steal my joy, right? And uh we live in a big city and all kinds of things, um hurts in life, uh your past, uh things people say, thing there are different things that can steal your joy. Um, but God is in the business of restoring joy. You know, maybe um you're I think of a gas tank, you know, I always like to keep it on full, but sometimes I don't. The light comes on. But you know, whether your your joy is like halfway or or a quarter, no, God, God wants it to be full. He wants your He wants your your joy tank to be full. And so uh joy on repeat. We should always, you know, and I go through seasons again, like I said, like about music, um I'll have different uh songs that are just my favorite, and they'll be on repeat. We have on Spotify GWC playlist. A lot of times if I'm cleaning at the house or cooking or whatever, that'll be on repeat. And so it sets the atmosphere in my home and and more importantly, like inside of me. And so uh Nehemiah 8.10 says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. And so um God is in the restoration of restoring our joy. So if you're taking notes, a couple points. My first point is joy on repeat creates a grateful heart. Joy on repeat, daily uh, daily joy, it creates a grateful heart. Hebrews 13, 15. I'll read it in the amplified. Hebrews 13, 15 says, Through him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times, everybody say all times, or you can type it, all times, so not sometimes, not when you feel like it, not when everything's going your way, but at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of my lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify his name. In the New King James, I was gonna read this little kingdom dynamics that I have. Um so in the New King James this is therefore by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And so here in the Greek, um, the word sacrifice comes from uh it means um the root word is thhu, uh which the Greek word is thusiat, but it means to kill or to slaughter for purpose. So praise often requires that we kill our pride, fear, or sloth, anything that threatens to diminish or interfere with our worship for the Lord. And so that's pretty strong. That's a pretty strong word there to sacrifice. So a lot of times we just, you know, um we flippantly maybe use that word, but it's really um God wants our attention. Anything that that is uh placed before him is should be slaughtered, should be killed. Anything that comes, oh I don't have time to to worship, I don't have time. No, no, you you better make time because we were created to worship him. We were we are beings that were created to worship him. The word says the rocks will cry out. If we don't worship, the rocks will cry out. And so joy on repeat creates a grateful heart. You know, we have to, we it's a sacrifice uh on our lips continually, continually, the fruit of our lips giving things and thanks and praise. And so all the for all the for what for all the benefits that we have, for all the good things that he's done in our lives. But so many of the times we focus on the bad. We so many of the times we focus on um the deficiencies in our lives. And so, no, God it God wants us to to continually on the repeat to to praise him, to have a grateful heart. And so it keeps us, it keeps our mind, it keeps our heart turned upwards towards him. It uh and it and it diminishes the things of this world. Psalm 107, one says, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. We should always give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Amen. James 1, 2, and 3 in the New Living Translation says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. Great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it, let it, everybody say, Let it, let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. So when you're here, he's saying, and that's kind of that's tough. We don't want to let it. Like, we're always in the why. Why? Why did this happen? Why did so and so say this, or why did so so, or why did I do that? Right? And so we're no here he like whether no matter whether you caused the problem, somebody else caused the problem, whatever it may be, you know, uh we repent, we move forward, God wants us to move forward, but here he's saying, hey, consider it, we can't wallow, consider it an opportunity for great joy, right? Because that's gonna produce some grit in your life. That's gonna produce uh endurance, and that's how you're gonna grow. As a believer, as um a child of God, that's how you're gonna grow. That's how you're gonna become strong in life, that's how you're gonna not fall under pressure and and just wanna um throw in the towel and say, oh, I quit. No, that's here. He's saying, hey, let it grow in you. When when things are tough, don't just retaliate, because that's not, again, that that would be acting like a baby when we retaliate or we're we're we're revengeful. No, during those times, we have to make sure to keep our heart right and that we that we allow those things to to let them produce good things in our lives, to let it, that's a time where you get into the word. That's a that's a time where you pray much in the Holy Ghost. That's a time where you keep your heart right and uh just get more in your prayer closet and more one-on-one time with God, because that's what's gonna cultivate a grateful heart. But if you're always looking at, you know, that person didn't do something, that that person didn't do, you know, no, hey, like there, there's this popular book, like I guess the number one seller. I think it's called Let Them. I haven't read it, but I've heard good, I've heard some things about like let them. I'll have to read it and tell you about it. But uh sometimes you just have to have that out to you, like, you know what, you can't change somebody. You can pray for somebody, but we can't get all worked up about what somebody is doing or somebody is acting or what somebody did to me or what you can't change them. Let them and just focus on your race, focus on the thing that God has called you to do because you guys have a there's a plan and a purpose for your life that's specific to your life, and so um, and but the enemy wants to bring all these other people and all these other voices to to um get you off course, and so I just want to encourage you to stay the course and to allow uh joy on repeat to cultivate a grateful heart and a thankful heart, and really it's just a perspective, it's just the how you view life. First Thessalonians 5, 16 and through 18 in the new living says, always be joyful, never stop praying, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. So it's simple. Always be joyful, never stop praying. Um, gratitude and and joyfulness, uh it trains us how to become more Christ-like. We are supposed to be Christ-like, right? We're so like the how Jesus, if you read in the word, how Jesus was, he was full of compassion, he loved people. Um, yes, he he he called it, he he was stern at times, but he was also full of compassion, loved people, doing the will of the father, not my will, you know, before he was about to go to the cross, not my will. He didn't want to go betrayed by Judas, Peter. So not my will, but your will be done, Lord. Your will, not my will, not not what I want to do, but he saw you guys, he saw you on the cross. And so um we should always be joyful, we should never stop praying, but but be thankful in all circumstances. Number two, joy on repeat gets you thinking right. How many of y'all know sometimes we can have squirrely thinking? Right? We have a curveball thrown at us, and then we're like, what do we do with that? Why did you throw me that? Um, and so joy on repeat gets you thinking right, right? You're full, you're you just when you're bubbling up with have you ever met somebody who is so joyful? And you would think, like, oh, you you might think, well, they they have no cares in the world. You never know what somebody is going through, right? But maybe they got a hold of, hey, this word, and they're gonna be joyful, and they're going through all kinds of things, but you don't know it because they're so happy, they're so joyful, they have this inner strength. And so joy on repeat gets you thinking right, it gets your it gets your brain, your thoughts um in line with the word of God. Philippians 4 8 uh says, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, and I just taught on this in the youth. Uh, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, lovely, good report, if there's any virtue and if there's any praiseworthy, meditate on these things. And so meditate means you think about them over and over and over. How many of y'all have worried before, right? And worry, and so, like, no, in the good, meditate. You know, a lot of times if you worry, we're just thinking about things over and over and over. No, no, meditate, meditate on here, it tells you what to meditate on. Pure, lovely, good report. If it's if it's praiseworthy, if that thought is praiseworthy, if God can, you know, if you can say that thought out loud and give glory to God for that thought, then it's a good thought. But if not, it then kick it, kick it down, kick it down the road, replace it with the word of God. And so here he says, the things which you've learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. And so joy on repeat gets you thinking right. And here, Philippians 4, the this is like the filter. This is how you filter your thoughts, you know, and so we want to make sure that all of these, the what's pure and lovely, and of good report, that we're meditating on these things. Second Corinthians 10 5 and the Passion Translation says, We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. And that's, I mean, that this right here can preach this just verse. You have a whole message of this verse. We capture like prisoners of war every thought and insist that it bow into the obedience of the anointed one. And so the enemy throws lies at us. He, I this past Sunday night, I, you know, um ministered to the teenagers and Joe's. There's so many lies that the enemy throws at them or at us, like we're not good enough, you know, you're not good enough. Oh, you're pa, you know, you got that past. You can't you can't talk to anybody about Jesus because you did that. You did that yourself. So why are you that's a that's a lie from the enemy. Oh, you're you're not good enough. That's a lie. All of those are lies, lies, lies. You are God created, you are beautiful, you are unique, you are God's masterpiece in Ephesians. It says, You are his masterpiece, created for such a time as this, created to do good works. And so here in 2 Corinthians, it says, we can demolish all of that. We can demolish it, and it calls it an arrogant attitude. It is raised up against the knowledge of God. What God did for us and through Jesus, and we we bring into the obedience of the anointed one. And so you're not what your past says you are, you're not what your mom and dad say you were, you're not what however you grew up on the other side of the tracks. That that's not who you are. You're who God created you to be, your royalty. And so we can demonstrate, and so joy, you can't be caught up in that and have joy, right? You can't have all these funky thoughts and and have joy at the same time. And so we have to make sure that, hey, when those thoughts come, know that we know where they're coming from. We know that they come from the pit of hell. And so we have to speak with our words, right? But our thought, you know, the word says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And so your thought life is so important. What you think about yourself is so important because eventually that's gonna come out of your mouth, right? What you think, because I can sit here all day and tell you how wonderful you are. But if you never uh know um what God did for you and what Jesus did for you on the cross, if you never have a revelation of that, you won't believe it. And so you want to make sure that joy on repeat gets you thinking, right? So the more you laugh, the more, the more you just ha ha ha ha, the more you put on worship music, the more you wake up in the morning. You know, maybe you wake up in the morning and what whatever you feel bad attitude coming on, right? Or or you woke up in a hurry and you didn't get enough sleep that night. But hey, no, the joy of the Lord's our strength. And so it's what it's what's gonna keep you going. And so um we have to make sure that that we're thinking right, we're we're that our thoughts are lined up with the word of God, not what somebody else thinks, because a lot of times that also also who we're hanging around and who we're listening to, um, that can bring us down, right? And so you there are boundary, and I won't talk about all that, but there are boundaries. And so you should place God's given us boundaries, God's given us his word, and and we can't just allow any voice into our life, related or not related, family or not family. It doesn't matter. You cannot listen to any voice that is just uh, you know, has an opinion. And so their right to an opinion doesn't make their opinion right. And so we have to make sure that we're listening to the word of God, that we're listening to the Holy Spirit that is on the inside of us. Number three, joy is found in the presence of Jesus. Really, this should be my number one point. This is the most important one. Joy is found in the presence of Jesus. I put more joy, more Jesus. More Jesus, more joy. The more Jesus you have, the more joy you have, right? Joy comes from knowing God. Joy doesn't come from external things. This society is so fixed on they don't know the difference between happy and joy. Happy is like, oh, I'm happy, you know, because all things are going well. And and um, but no, joy is joy is Jesus. When you know Jesus, you have true joy, right? So we're not looking for the external things, we're not looking for other people. Oh, if I'm the you know, once I find the right person, then I'll be joyful. No, you're joyful, you're complete in him. He's made you complete. Once I have that that perfect job, and then I'll be joyful. No, you're joyful right now in the job that you have. You can be joyful. Oh, I'll be joyful when my husband or wife, when they, you know, act right and do right. You can be joyful throughout in the storm, through the storm. Anybody can shout after the storm, and most people do, but it's the ones that fight through the storm, the ones that stay in the relationships, the ones that uh keep fighting for their kids, the ones that um, you know, the naysayers are there, but they're gonna keep on keeping on. Those are the ones that, hey, they're like it it in the end, like God will God will redeem all the things through the storm, and you will have a shout of victory. You'll have a victory shout. And so you don't so you don't want to quit during the storm. And so joy is found in the presence of Jesus. Psalm 16, 11 says, in your presence there is fullness of joy. Right? And so it's not optional. It's not optional, it's not enough just to come to church. You have to spend time with him on Monday morning, right? When that alarm clock goes out, you have to spend time with Jesus. And so more Jesus equals more. More joy. Like I was uh getting ready this morning, I heard the guitar playing from the bedroom. I was in the living room, I'd made coffee, it was peaceful. Jay doesn't always play the guitar, but sometimes he does, and it it just brought joy to me because when there's music in the house, when there's we're singing, you know, it's just it brought it it creates an atmosphere. And so um, so it's found in the presence of in the presence of Jesus. My next scripture is Isaiah 12, 2 and 3. I'll read verse 2 first. Behold, God is my salvation, and I'm reading it from the New King James. God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord is my strength and song, he has also become my salvation. Therefore, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And so here Jesus is declaring that he's a well, like when you draw from him, it made me think of John uh 4, the the lady at the well, you know, the lady, the Samaritan lady. And so she was she had a conversation with Jesus. Um and she was, you know, she had had a past. She she won't perfect. She wasn't perfect. And so um, so she was drawing something. She's like, oh, you know, that the water, and she she needed something to draw. And and Jesus was like, no, I'm I'm him. I'm I'm I'm what you need. I'm that white. For if you drink from me, you'll never thirst again. I'm that ever, ever living, everlasting water. And so salvation is in us, it's in our spirit. And so, uh, and I wrote here, let's see, um, salvation sums up all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ through the Holy Spirit. So the God's blessings are in you, God's blessings are in us, and so all of his blessings of salvation that includes joy. We draw upon that. We don't just leave it. Salvation is not a lot of times, people think salvation is just like, okay, yay, it's my free ticket to heaven. I got saved, I'm going to heaven. But then they live a defeated life down here on earth. You can't tell they're Christians, they're not joyful, they live defeated. No, God wants us to be, God said that word salvation includes joy, it includes peace of mind, it includes healing. And so um, so we stand on God's word, right? We rejoice, even when troubles. And you read all about the letters of Paul. I mean, he went through all kinds of shipwrecked and he was beaten, and he uh but he counted it all joy. If you read his letters in Philippians, you know, he's not sitting on a beach somewhere drinking uh pina colada. He's in prison, he's going through it, but he's rejoicing. He is rejoicing, and so if he's rejoicing in prison, we can rejoice, right? We can rejoice. And so when we so our thoughts, so really it goes back to our thoughts, the mental arena. The enemy wants to keep our mental, wants to keep our thoughts just our bogged down and thinking about the now and thinking about the past and thinking about, oh, I'm not worthy. No, God has made you worthy. You are worthy because of what Jesus did on the cross. You are unique because what if Jesus did on the cross? You can you can do all things through Christ because of what he did on the cross for you. And so joy on repeat, it's it's an inner strength, right? So I encourage you next time, whether you're you came out of a whether you came out of a trial, whether you're in a trial right now, or whether you're gonna be in one, right? Tribulations come, tough, there are tough times, and I just encourage you to keep joy on repeat. Keep laughing, keep singing, keep rejoicing. You know, I'm grateful for Pastor because we get to hear all of his, I love all his stories. We should number them. We were talking about that the other day. Number 432. He has so many. But I love him because it's just there's nobody like Pastor, but he all his stories you you have him growing up and all the things that he's gone through. And um, it just shows you that hey, we all go through stuff. We all go through things, nobody's exempt from going through things, and so um you just want to make sure you're running your race with joy, right? Because what kind of a race is it if at the end of the race you're just man, you're wore out, you're bitter, you're you're mad at the world. Um, no, no. We have to make sure that that we dig deep in the well of salvation and know that that all that the Holy Spirit is on the inside of us, helping us, leading us, guiding us, directing us. And so we don't want to, I think we we grieve him when we're not joyful. Because we there's no such thing as a sad Holy Spirit. Right? I think maybe Mark Hankins says that I've heard that, like there's no such thing as a sad Holy Spirit. And so we want to make and joy when you man, when you're around somebody like that's joyful, it's contagious, right? It's contagious. Like I I got in trouble for well, you should be joyful at the right times. I did go to the principal, principal's office one time and one time only. I learned my lesson in Miss Thompson's class, sixth grade. We have a uh my best friend Maria, that was the only class we had together ever. I think we always made a joke because I was like, Ms. Thompson wrote on our file folders, do not put these two girls together. Seriously, because we did not have a class the rest of junior high and high school. I was like, I would always like, Maria, what classes do you have? I was like, man, Miss Thompson. But we um we would laugh in that class. Like it was just the goof, I don't know, we were goofy. Sixth graders are goofy, right? You remember when y'all were sixth grade? It's a long time ago, for some of us. But I uh her and I, if you we were in the same classroom, we were we would laugh. We would somebody would say something we were supposed to read, and anyway, it was just it was a thing, and we would laugh, and she separated us, and we would still laugh anyway. But but I always loved being around people who would just made me laugh and were joyful, and because it just brightened up, it made me learn better, but not at the time when we weren't supposed to be laughing or talking, that was not a good thing, but seriously, um, joy is contagious and it's an inner strength. It's a like sometimes when we get older, we we forget, we forget those things. Like kids laugh, they laugh. Uh what's that video? What's the uh home movies? What's the show that used to come on back in the 90s, the 80s? Um, you know, America's funniest home videos. My grandma used to always watch it, like because you would laugh at the the dumb stuff people did. And it was it was just so funny. But really, it's the word of God, it's scripture. You know, the joy of the Lord is our strength. That's how we're gonna remain strong, is when we laugh. And again, I just want to remind you, not in the tough, not only in the happy times, but when you're going through struggle, when you're going through hard times, just laugh. Laugh at the devil, ha ha. We just laugh our way. The joy of the Lord's our strength. It's it's it creates an inner strength in us, right? And so, um, so yeah, joy on repeat. I just wanted to encourage you with that. Whatever you're going through, know that God is for you. Know that He loves you, He has a plan for your life. His plan is not at the end of your life for you to struggle and be bitter, but but to have joy, to have joy in any circumstance um through the tough times, to be joyful. And then not once we have that joy, then it's contagious, and then you share it with others, right? And then you and then you share it because people are watching you. People your circle is different than my circle. People are watching you, and so you want to make sure that you're representing Jesus well, that you're representing um the one who created us, the one who gave us purpose, that you're representing him well, that you're not representing, that you're not a misrepresentation of of the joy that we have and that the joy he has given us. Jesus equals joy, and when we have Jesus, we have joy. Amen. Amen. So I hope that blessed you tonight. Um, you know, there's so many things that I could teach on. And I remember actually my very first message in youth a long time ago was on joy. And so it's just uh, I don't know, it's a good reminder for me. And I think it's always a good reminder for all of us, especially in the world that we live in. I mean, you can just click on the TV, click on the reels, and the and I'm like, I don't want to see that. I'm gonna click that off. I'm gonna get in the word. Not like that we're an ostrich and we don't know what's going on, but a lot of the times that can get on you and you don't even realize it. And then you're carrying other people's stuff on your shoulder. And we're like, you know what? I don't want that. You know? Yes, we pray for our nation. Yes, we pray for our our leaders, but uh we have to make sure that that that doesn't come upon us and that um that that we remain joyful and remain hopeful.