JOY KILLERS

Joy Killers
Rex Yancey
Philippians 4:4

A man of Italian ancestry dreamed of going to Italy to see the Pope. He saved
his money. Just before leaving he went to the barber shop to get a haircut.
The barber was a pessimist. He told the barber his plans. The barber said,
"How are you going to Italy?" The man said, "Italia Airlines." "Forget it,
they have a terrible reputation. You will be sorry you took that airline."
"Where are you going to stay?" "I will stay at the Hilton in Rome." "Forget
it. They have terrible service." "What are you going to do when you get to
Rome?" "I am going to see the Pope." "You will never see the Pope. You are a
nobody. The Pope only sees important people."
Six weeks later the man comes back to the barber shop. The barber asked him
if he made it to Italy. "I sure did," the man said. "I flew Italia airlines,
and it was the best flight I ever had. I stayed at the Hilton and I could not
have been treated any better. I went to see the Pope." What happened?" I bent
down to kiss his ring and the Pope looked at me and said, "Son, where did you
get that terrible haircut!"
The Church at Philippi was founded by Paul on his second missionary journey.
The word joy, rejoice, or gladness, is found 19 times in this little book. The
word mind is used a number of times in the book. Philippians is God's
psychology Book. It is hard to have joy with a troubled mind. This church
faced challenges but they did not have to be controlled by them.
If you are a Christian with little or no joy you need to find out why. Billy
Sunday said, "If there is no joy in your Christianity there is a leak in your
religion somewhere."
There is a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness depends on
happenings. Joy depends on Jesus. Happiness is an outside job. Joy is an
inside job.
If it is not happening, many people are miserable. There was a man who
climbed to the top of a ...

---

There are 9991 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.