Dharius Daniels - A Gratitude Adjustment

Matthew chapter 14, verse 18 says this: «Bring them here to me,» he said. He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up toward heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves, then gave them to his disciples, who distributed them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men, besides women and children.

I want to speak on this topic in our time together today; this is installment three of our series «Jaywalking,» and I want to tag the title «A Gratitude Adjustment» to this text. I want to begin our time together by articulating the following axiom: Please listen to me. The evidence of walking with and walking like Jesus is not just seen in the transformation of our ethics; it’s also evident in the transformation of our emotions. In other words, walking like Jesus not only helps us get right, it helps us get well. Somebody say or put «well» in the chat. Come on!

So, I am encouraging, affirming, and announcing to someone that maybe God wants to shift you from simply focusing on, watch this, just getting right to actually getting well. Jesus puts it this way in John 10:10: «The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.» When Jesus uses the phrase «I have come that they may have life, ” he is not referring to the quantity of time; he is referring to the quality of time. He is saying that whenever I come into your life, I improve the quality of your time, not just the quantity of it.

The word here that Jesus uses to describe life is the word „zoe,“ which means life as God intended. Watch this: the largest contributor to the quality of your life is your emotional well-being. In other words, the quality of your life is not just tied to the condition, listen to me, of your bank account; it is tied to the condition of your heart. This is why Solomon, the wise man, says, „Guard your heart with all diligence. Be intentional, be assertive, be active when it comes to guarding your heart, for out of it flows the issues of life.“ In other words, if something gets your heart, it’s got your life.

I want to know if there is anyone honest enough to audit your life and look back over it and say, „Yeah, that’s true,“ because there are times when I’ve been in one place and my heart has been on the other side of town. When something gets my heart, it’s got my attention, and when it gets my heart, it’s got my focus. Let me see if I can find some honest people: if it has my heart, it will get my appetite; if it gets my heart, it will take my sleep. The largest contributor to the quality of a person’s life is the condition of their heart.

There is a word that the Bible uses to describe the condition of the hearts of those who follow Jesus, and that word is „joy.“ I’m going to say it one more time: there’s a word that the Bible uses to describe the dominant disposition of the hearts of those who actually jaywalk—not the hearts of those who go to church, but the hearts of those who walk like Jesus. It says that the emotional condition of their life changes and is dominated by this word called „joy.“ In John 15:11, Jesus said, „I told you this so that my joy might be in you and that your joy may be complete.“ Don’t miss this: notice now what he says. He makes a distinction between your joy and his joy. Come on! He says, „What I’m going to give you is not emotional in nature; it’s spiritual in nature, but it affects you emotionally.“

The joy you have is incomplete without the joy I have to give. He said, „I need to put my joy in you because until my joy gets in you, your joy is incomplete. It’s temporary, it’s fleeting, it’s fragile.“ Watch this—this is important, family. He says, „My joy“ means you only get this joy with Jesus, not necessarily with religion. Did you hear what I just said? He says, „My joy“ meaning you can only get this when you get me. This is the only promise I’m making to you: when you run into me, you run into this.

He says you can attend church and not run into me. You can go to church and not encounter me. He says, „But when you actually run into me and you start living life my way, your heart starts experiencing something that cannot be explained, something that cannot be articulated, something that defies reason and rationale.“ Your heart starts experiencing what Peter calls „joy unspeakable and full of glory.“ What’s that? It is a joy that I can’t articulate, but it’s a joy that’s full of the glory of God. It means that God gets glory out of that kind of joy. Did you hear what I said? That when we walk in, live with, exude, and express joy, it gives glory to God. God says, „Look at my children with a smile on their faces in the middle of a global pandemic. Look at…“