Sermon

Rejoice, Anyways and Always || Pastor Nathan Mesa

Patria Sermons

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Welcome to the Lesse Podcast. Here at Lesse we seek the loss, teach

  2. the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by this

  3. week's message. God. We just thank you for this time. We thank

  4. you Father, that you have brought us to this moment. God. It's

  5. not by accident. Everyone that is here God is here. Lord. So

  6. we just ask you God now to be with us in this moment. Father.

  7. I ask you God to guide my words. God. May I just

  8. be a vessel unto you. Father. May your word come to life,

  9. May it stir us, May it challenge us, and may it convict us.

  10. God that we leave here different, Father, because that is the desire

  11. of what we want your word to do, to sharpen us and to challenge

  12. us, and ultimately to draw us closer to you, your precious son in

  13. Jesus name. Amen. You know, for many of you, I have

  14. two young boys in school, just got out just a couple of weeks ago,

  15. and it was just at the beginning of the me the end of last

  16. month that I was going to my son's recitals. It was their spring performances,

  17. and so as we got ready to go, it was my youngest boy's

  18. recital, and I was sitting there like most parents, and I was just

  19. nodding my head and smiling as they went through one song after another song after

  20. another song after another song. Can any parent relate like me? And I

  21. was like, son, you better appreciate me sitting here right now listening through

  22. all this. But in one of the songs, as I sat there,

  23. I would not realize how much it would minister to me in that moment.

  24. And I just want to share a short ten second clip of that with you

  25. tonight. So that's my youngest Lorenzo and Daniels beautifully opened our worship set tonight

  26. with that song when I shared with him what we're going to be taking a

  27. look at tonight. That is a song that many of us grew up singing

  28. within church, and it's a simple song that just says, today is the

  29. day that the Lord has made. And as I sat there, it was

  30. so simple and it brought memories back to when I learned it when I was

  31. in children's church and when I was in a Bible school and VBS that we

  32. just finished, and I began to reflect on the passage and say, this

  33. is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad

  34. in it. But if we're real and honest with one another, so often

  35. it's hard for us to rejoice with everything that may be going on within our

  36. life. Yet the word of God encourages us and reminds us that today is

  37. the day that He has made, So let us rejoice. Do you have

  38. your Bibles? I want you to turn with me to Psalms one eighteen.

  39. This is where we're gonna park it tonight, and they're gonna put some of

  40. the passages up on the screen with us. But before we do, I

  41. think it's important for us to understand the context of Psalm one eighteen and what

  42. we are about to dive into and discover together tonight. When we take a

  43. look at Psalms one eighteen, it's located in a group of psalms called the

  44. Halal Psalms. These psalms were memorized by every Jew and were sung at the

  45. end of Passover meal. For the Israelites, it was all about coming into

  46. the presence of God, coming into his temple, thanking him and praising God

  47. for the great things that he has done. And it was all linked to

  48. God delivering Israel from the hand of Egypt and bringing them to the Promised Land.

  49. So as we read through Psalms eighteen, specifically in verse twenty four,

  50. we have to realize that the Psalmists, the individual who wrote this, was

  51. very much aware of what was taking place during this time and even to this

  52. day. At this point when we would read the scripture together and let it

  53. have the same meaning to us as it did back then, will you stand

  54. with me as we read the passage of scripture together and honor God through the

  55. Word of God. I'm not going to read the whole passage this evening,

  56. but I encourage you to do so. It's not very long, and we're

  57. going to break down components of it, but specifically, I just want to

  58. read in verse twenty four together, and if you have your Bible, will

  59. you read it with me tonight? Since it's just one verse. It says

  60. in verse twenty four that this is the day that the Lord has made.

  61. Let us rejoice and be glad in it, you may be seated rejoice.

  62. Rejoice is defined as to feel or have a great joy, a delight,

  63. to acknowledge and to praise publicly. This verse has a greater meaning than just

  64. today. And we'll discover that in just a moment. But as we navigate

  65. through this, and as we took a look at Psalms one eighteen, the

  66. context is so important. The psalm is who we believed to be. David

  67. was the individual who wrote Psalms one eighteen. And when we read verse twenty

  68. four and think, oh, whoever wrote that they were having a great day.

  69. If they were declaring that today is the day the Lord has made let

  70. us rejoice, then probably everything was going right for them. They were walking

  71. in a beautiful, perfect day within their life. But that was not the

  72. case at all when it came to David. This was a time when David's

  73. back was pushed up against the wall. He was in probably one of the

  74. darkest seasons of his life as he was on the run running away from Saul

  75. who wanted him killed. Talk about a low point. Talk about a season

  76. where you're overwhelmed and your emotions are running high and you don't know what's going

  77. to take place day after next. I don't know if someone's ever been there

  78. before where you felt that you've been pushed up against the wall and in that

  79. miss you're realizing, like today is not a moment for me to rejoice.

  80. But yet, even all in knowing all this, David still pinned verse twenty

  81. four that today is the day the Lord has made, and I'm going to

  82. choose to rejoice. Why was David able to declare this despite what was happening

  83. all around him, I believe simply because it was his perspective. It was

  84. a choice that he chose to have in the midst of what he was going

  85. through. And you and I family, I believe, have a choice to

  86. take a look at how we rejoice. I've come across a lot of people

  87. like probably you, and in their hardest seasons of their life, they still

  88. chose to rejoice. How can someone who has cancer still have a smile on

  89. their face and choose to rejoice. How can someone who just lost a job

  90. still say it's gonna be okay and choose to still rejoice? How why when

  91. we get around these people were like, hello, aren't you human? What

  92. is it in you? What do you have that's different from me? And

  93. the Psalmis understood something that greater than his sword, greater than his sling shot,

  94. greater than his own strength, It was going to be his spirit that

  95. was gonna carry him through. It was gonna be his decision to say,

  96. I'm gonna choose to rejoice despite what I'm going through because I know the Lord

  97. has been faithful, and I know the Lord will continue to be faithful within

  98. my life. It was a declaration and a reminder to him. And so

  99. when we choose to declare that today is the day the Lord has made,

  100. it is a constant reminder to you and I that God has a purpose for

  101. our today. Tonight, I want us to take a look at three simple

  102. reasons, three reasons as to why we have the opportunity to rejoice today,

  103. and how to strive not to worry about tomorrow, but be faithful in the

  104. gift that you and I have been given in today. The first thing we

  105. discover is that we can rejoice today because God is good, not sometimes,

  106. not most of the time, but all the time. From the beginning to

  107. the end of Psalms one eighteen, it says in verse one, give thanks

  108. to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Right

  109. from the beginning, the first verse of the text is a proclamation and outpouring

  110. of the goodness of God within our life. The whole Psalm is framed from

  111. beginning to end with the goodness of God. It is at the very core

  112. and nature of who God is. It says in Genesis one thirty one,

  113. and God saw everything that he made, and behold it was very good,

  114. not just good. It says in Psalms one sixteen and verse five, How

  115. King the Lord is, how good he is, so merciful, this God

  116. of ours. To declare that God is good is not the same as when

  117. we say in and out is good, or when we say that latest Marvel

  118. movie was good. You see, at the core of those statements, it's

  119. still what It's still a subjective, it's still my opinion. Even though we

  120. know in and out is king. It's still subjective, okay. But when

  121. we talk about the goodness of God, that is not subje jective. The

  122. goodness of God is exactly who he is, at the very core of who

  123. he is. There's a statement in church that goes, God is good and

  124. all the time, why do you say that? Why do you say that?

  125. Someone said, because he is. You're absolutely right. That is why

  126. we are able to declare that, because we are an expressing an assurance of

  127. who God is and the character of who God is within our life. Goodness

  128. is at the core of who Jesus is. The goodness of Jesus, in

  129. all his glory and all his nature, is the reason alone for us to

  130. rejoice today. His goodness is love. We read this in Romans five eight.

  131. But God shows his love for us that while we're still sinners, he

  132. died for us. His goodness is a gift. In James one seventeen,

  133. it says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. His goodness

  134. is protection. In Nay Whom Won seven, it says the Lord is good,

  135. a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge

  136. in him. His goodness is salvation. In John three sixteen, it says

  137. that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that we

  138. might not perish but have everlasting life. You know, if you grew up

  139. reading cartoons or reading comics at all, there's a cartoon called Dennis the Menace.

  140. Has anyone heard of that before? And if you've ever read anything about

  141. Dennis the menis Dennis is not a Let's just say that Dennis is not a

  142. good kid, right, Dennis loves to get into trouble. Dennis loves to

  143. get into mischief, and in this one particular comic expressed a time when Dennis

  144. and his friend Joey would often go next door to Missus Wilson's house, and

  145. this one time at Missus Wilson's house when they were visiting, they were getting

  146. ready to go, and Missus Wilson said, Dennis, I have these freshly

  147. baked cookies just for you, and he said thanks, Missus Wilson, and

  148. him and Joey walked outside and on the porch, Joey said, Dennis,

  149. I wonder what we did to deserve these cookies. And Dennis looked over at

  150. Joey and said, Joey, Missus Wilson doesn't give us cookies because we're good.

  151. Missus Wilson gives us cookies because she is good. The cookies came because

  152. of the goodness of Missus Wilson. We do not deserve what God has blessed

  153. us and bestowed upon us. We don't deserve the job we have. We

  154. don't deserve the kids we have. We don't deserve the house we have.

  155. We don't deserve to be able to go to dinner on a Friday day night.

  156. That is not because we are good. It is because He is good,

  157. and he desires to bless us, and he desires to pour out his

  158. mercy and his grace and his favor and his blessing upon us. Why.

  159. Because God is good, and God is good all the time. There was

  160. purpose when He made today. You know, if you're like me when it

  161. comes to electronics, there's nothing better than Apple. I'm sorry, Samsung users,

  162. There's nothing better, you know why. I am confident. I am

  163. confident in anything that I buy from Apple, whether it is a iMac my

  164. iPhone, whether it's a headphones, anything I buy from Apple, I am

  165. confident in who they are. I love the customer service, Paster Kenney,

  166. I love the store, I love the design. I love how sleek it

  167. is. I am confident in what they make. Some say the same about

  168. Samsung, if that's your opinion. Some say the same about Mercedes Bins.

  169. They only buy Mercedes Bins because they are confident in what they are buying and

  170. know that what they make is truly going to be beneficial to them and it's

  171. gonna last, and that it's gonna give them everything that they desire. Because

  172. of the workmanship and the craftsmanship that goes in behind it. When it comes

  173. to our life, family, there is nothing greater than anything that God created,

  174. and there's nothing greater than you can do than God and better than God.

  175. That when He makes something, he makes it with intentionality. That when

  176. He created you, he created you with intentionality, That when He created you,

  177. he created you with a workmanship in mind, that when He created today,

  178. there was a purpose in today. And so if we understand that God

  179. is good and that God created today with a purpose, and that God created

  180. a day with a workmanship, then why wouldn't I rejoice for what God has

  181. done within my life? God is good all the time. The next thing

  182. we discover through Psalms one eighteen is that God is in control. God has

  183. made today, God has planned today. God reigns over today. And David

  184. knew this and Psalms one thirty nine a bit later when he says, your

  185. eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in

  186. your book before one of them can be. There is no surprise family,

  187. when it comes to God. What may catch you off God, What may

  188. be overwhelming to you tonight? What may be a surprise to you tomorrow is

  189. not out of God's control, It is not out of the palm of His

  190. hand. Part of rejoicing today in the midst of it all is understanding and

  191. trusting that God is in control, that all things work together for the good.

  192. That God doesn't want us to stress about our worries, and he desires

  193. us to cast them and our cares upon him. Part of rejoicing is having

  194. faith in the unknown, that we can rejoice in the midst if we don't

  195. know what's going to happen. And that's okay, We're not meant to know

  196. everything, But God does. I want us to take a look at the

  197. two verses before we got to Psalms one twenty four. It says in verse

  198. twenty two, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This

  199. is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is

  200. the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in

  201. it. Psalms one eighteen had a greater prophetic message than this day. This

  202. day was referenced and this is the day that God has created, and this

  203. is the day that we can rejoice in. But when we declare Psalms one

  204. eighteen, and we specifically read verse twenty four. This day that is being

  205. referenced is the day of deliverance and bondage of sin by the death of Jesus

  206. Christ, and that he rose again for you and I. This is the

  207. great and momentous day that the verse is referring to. It is the day

  208. that God exalted Jesus, even though he was rejected by the chief priests,

  209. and became the chief cornerstone within our faith. This day that the Lord has

  210. made speaks to the greatest example of how God is in control because of what

  211. happened. That day when Jesus died on the cross for us and became that

  212. chief cornerstone, was the day that you and I were offered salvation. It

  213. was the day that he brought deliverance upon the cross. You see, at

  214. this time, Israel considered itself to be the stone that the world rejected.

  215. Through the Jewish leaders and the builders, and the scribes, the priests,

  216. the pharisees Israel, they all rejected Jesus, They all turned their back on

  217. Jesus. They all saw no value in who he was. But God,

  218. in his power and in his might in raising Jesus from the dead, exalted

  219. him to be head of the Church and head of our lives. That is

  220. why today is the day that the Lord has made his reason alone, that

  221. we can rejoice and be glad in it. In nineteen forty, in the

  222. state of Washington, just right outside of Seattle, in Tacoma, the city

  223. had built a bridge that connected the city of Tacoma to Kitsap Peninsula. And

  224. during this time, in nineteen forty, it was the third longest bridge in

  225. the world, and so this was really a marvel at this time, and

  226. so when the city unveiled it, it was all the greatest news because it

  227. would connect two large areas between Tacoma, Washington, and this peninsula. But

  228. unfortunately, four months after it was built, it collapsed, and it collapsed

  229. tragically because as they built it, the builders thought that they could get away

  230. with using cheap girders or steel, which eventually caused bridge to buckle and sway

  231. and completely collapse. You see, family, in our life, we have

  232. a choice on what we build our life and faith on. And if we

  233. cheapen our life and cheapen our faith with things other than the Word of God,

  234. and we put our hope, in our trust, in our family,

  235. and in our spouse, and in our kids, and in our own understanding.

  236. It will only be about a matter of time before we sway, we

  237. buckle, and we collapse. But when we put our faith into the foundation

  238. of Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, the only cornerstone that could keep us

  239. together, the cornerstone that can hold us and keep us right along this journey

  240. and along this path, then we are confident to know that God will always

  241. be in control. And there is an assurance that you and I can have

  242. today when we know Jesus in our life that even though the bridge may sway,

  243. that life may sway, as long is built upon the foundation of Jesus

  244. Christ, you and I are not going anywhere. Jesus will always remain the

  245. staple and the cornerstone within our faith. But so many times again, if

  246. we're being real, we miss out on the goodness of God because we get

  247. lost so much in the day to day trying to control things on our own.

  248. We try to take problems into our own hands. We try to be

  249. our kids savior, we try to do everything at work, we try to

  250. be everything to everyone. When God desires us to just pause and to be

  251. still in the every day, and to rejoice in the small victories and to

  252. be reminded that Satan is already defeated. The fact that you woke up today

  253. and we're able to shower is a small victory. The fact that you got

  254. to work safely is a small victory. The fact my little boy has a

  255. fever and with a flu right now. But the small victory is is that

  256. I continue to pray and confess healing over my son and he's still awake right

  257. now in bed. He's still sick in fighting this, but the goodness of

  258. God is that God still has a purpose for him in this moment, and

  259. as a parent, I just want to surround and I want to love him.

  260. We have to recognize and praise and rejoice the small victories within our life.

  261. We still may be battling a lot of trauma from when we were younger,

  262. but you may not be where you used to be twenty years ago,

  263. and for that you need to rejoice for the small victory of what God may

  264. have delivered you from. You still may be navigating through that trauma, but

  265. guess what, You're not where you used to be. We have to rejoice

  266. in today and know that God is in control. And lastly, our third

  267. point we discover through Psalms one eighteen is that we rejoice because God is joy.

  268. Each and every day we have a reason to be glad, whether we

  269. may think we do or not. There is a reason for you to have

  270. joy today. But so many people are chasing happiness and they get disappointed when

  271. the circumstances change, or their feelings and emotions surround them and dictate what kind

  272. of day they will have. But God desires us to enjoy each day that

  273. he creates it. He doesn't want us to just endure it. He doesn't

  274. want us to just push through and get over it. He wants us to

  275. enjoy the joy that is in the day that He created. That if we

  276. allow happiness to dictate our day, it will always change. You know why,

  277. because happiness is fleeting. Happiness is dependent on circumstances that come into my

  278. life. I got a promotion, I'm happy, I got laid off,

  279. I'm sad. It's subjective to the circumstance that comes around us. I could

  280. lose my happiness easy. When Chapot lays skims on the chicken, when I'm

  281. ordering the bowl that can affect my mood like that. For some of you,

  282. your happiness has changed. The moment someone cuts you off on the freeway

  283. or gives you the little old middle finger, your happiness is completely gone.

  284. But John fifteen eleven says, have I told you so that my joy may

  285. be in you, that your joy may be complete? The happiness can change,

  286. but joy can be complete through Jesus. True contentment is not found in

  287. the circumstances that makes us happy. True contentment is found in the joy that

  288. can only be found in the Lord. It is a joy that is a

  289. deep seated confidence that God is in control, a confidence that from only a

  290. relationship with Jesus. We don't arrive at joy. Joy is not a destination

  291. that we're trying to get to. If I get in the car right now,

  292. I know that I can get to San Diego in two hours and I

  293. will have reached my destination. Joy is not a destination that we get to.

  294. We are always evolving when it comes to joy within our life. We

  295. are always developing joy within our life because joy comes within our faith and within

  296. our walk. It is not a destination. The apostle Paul knew this,

  297. as he wrote in Philippians four four. He said to the Church of philipp

  298. I, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice.

  299. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

  300. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication,

  301. with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known to God. And the peace

  302. of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

  303. In Christ Jesus, like David, Paul wrote this when he was in

  304. horrible conditions. He was locked up in prison. His circumstances and his surroundings

  305. were not perfect or ideal, ideal at all. Yet he encourages his own

  306. spirit and us to rejoice in the Lord always. Paul encourages us to rejoice

  307. in the Lord, even though what we're going through at all times, because

  308. he knew that joy and rejoicing were connected to one another. His circumstances and

  309. situations did not dictate his joy, but rather, his focus on Jesus dictated

  310. his joy. I have this cylinder up here, and for the sake of

  311. this illustration, I want this cylinder to represent our lives for a moment and

  312. in our life. As we navigate through this journey of life, there will

  313. be seasons, there will be circumstances, There will be things that we go

  314. through that will naturally affect our happiness and our emotions. Perhaps when you were

  315. younger, someone told you that you never were going to accomplish anything. Maybe

  316. when you were younger, someone just said, give up on that dream,

  317. that that won't ever happen. Go in a different direction. Perhaps you were

  318. going through college and things just didn't work out and you ended up dropping out

  319. and it wasn't the plan that you had originally thought. Perhaps you had a

  320. miscarriage in your relationship that you weren't expecting. Perhaps you lost a job or

  321. you lost a source of income. Maybe you just made some stupid decisions in

  322. your life and it affected your happiness and your emotions. That's all of us,

  323. if we're being real, and before we know it, our lives can

  324. be so consumed and filled and dictated by the circumstances that we have gone through

  325. that our life has been dependent on these traumas or these experiences that we have

  326. gone through, that we are just living day to day being filled with these

  327. things. The goodness of God, though, is that when we accept Jesus

  328. into our life, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And as we

  329. are filled with the Spirit of God, what begins to happen is we should

  330. begin to see some changes within us. And in the beginning it may be

  331. a little bit. We'll be able to see a little change. But it

  332. feels good. I like what this feels like. I like knowing and following

  333. Jesus. I like coming to church. I like finding community. And the

  334. more that we spend time in the Spirit of God, the more that we

  335. come to church, the more that we invite the presence of God into our

  336. life. What begins to happen is what once filled us up, what once

  337. consumed us, what's once dictated every emotion within our life now begins to what

  338. overflowed. And for some we're completely healed of these things. For others,

  339. we may have the memory of that lost child, We may have the memory

  340. of that loved one that passed, and that's okay still. But here's the

  341. thing. That memory remains at the surface because what has changed from the inside

  342. is that we are now filled with the Spirit of God. And if we

  343. know what the spirit of God does, then we know that one of the

  344. fruits of the spirit is what joy. And when we spend time in the

  345. presence of God, we can be so filled and consumed with joy within our

  346. life that even though I may go through these circumstances, even though I may

  347. go through these seasons within my life, I can still go through life with

  348. joy because the Holy Spirit lives and dwells within me. So I ask you

  349. in the beginning, how does someone that is walking through cancer still have joy?

  350. How does someone that just lost a job say, it's gonna be all

  351. right, kids, I still have the joy of the Lord. How can

  352. I go to school from six am to twelve pm or six am to six

  353. pm and still have joy because I know that I am walking in the purpose

  354. that God is calling me. It's hard and I want to give up,

  355. and I have kids, and I have a husband, and I got a

  356. house to put together and hold. But I'm doing this and I'm still gonna

  357. walk with joy. Why because I still spend time in the presence of God.

  358. And as I spend time in the presence of God, I can continually

  359. be filled up with the fruit to the Spirit. And one of the fruits

  360. of the spirit is joy today. And so when we navigate this life.

  361. I encourage us all that we find, and we pull and we lean on

  362. the joy that is available to you. And I today that when we're walking

  363. through, say a tough season within our life, and you may be in

  364. a great season right now, but we know that this life is not perfect,

  365. and we will all come to a season that is a little overwhelming.

  366. We will all come to a season where we may lose a loved one.

  367. We will all come to a season where we will have to navigate someone who

  368. may be sick. And let it be an encouragement that not only you can

  369. have joy, but they can have joy within their life today when they remain

  370. close to the source. And the source is Jesus Christ. So how do

  371. we rejoice without losing joy? Today? Very briefly, we can't get hung

  372. up on the past. We have to trust that God has a plan for

  373. our life. Number two, we can't worry about tomorrow. The Bible says

  374. each day has enough troubles on its own. And thirdly, we can't miss

  375. what God has for us today. We must be present in the gift of

  376. today and seek His presence. The Word of God encourages us in Psalm sixteen,

  377. that it is in his presence. There is a fullness of joy,

  378. a fullness, a completeness that can happen when we are in his presence.

  379. I find that too many people are focused on the past. They're grieving over

  380. what they lost, what they could have have, what they should have done.

  381. That it's stealing their joy in today, that they're allowing the enemy to

  382. steal the gift of the day that they have right in front of them.

  383. And if that's you, then I just encourage you to fight for your joy

  384. today. That you fight and you remind Satan that he's defeated, that Jesus

  385. has already won the victory. And through the Holy Spirit, you can have

  386. a completeness and a fullness of a joy, and you are able to rejoice

  387. and not just rejoice, but rejoice and be glad in it. If we

  388. choose to rejoice when we're walking the perfect road, when life is going like

  389. everything we wanted, Well, guess what, we're gonna be waiting a really,

  390. really long time, and we're gonna be disappointed and we're gonna get discouraged.

  391. But when we choose to look at today as the day the Lord has

  392. made the gift that He has given us because of his goodness, because of

  393. the gift of his salvation and the joy that can only be found in him.

  394. Family, we can take his joy and we can begin to put it

  395. into action by rejoicing. Joy is something that happens internally through the Holy Spirit,

  396. and rejoicing is the outward expression from experiencing the inward joy that can only

  397. come from Him. Let's pray, God, we thank you Father for your

  398. word tonight. God. We thank you for your son Jesus. God that

  399. without him, God, we would not only have salvation God, but we

  400. wouldn't be able to navigate this life here on this earth God, with a

  401. fullness of joy God, a joy that can only be found in You.

  402. Father. So, Father, when we hear Psalms one eighteen and verse twenty

  403. four, God that today is the day the Lord has made God. From

  404. here on out, God, may our outlook and our perspective be different.

  405. God, because today is not just an ordinary day. Today is not just

  406. a day that we get to check off. God. But today is an

  407. ordained day that You created with purpose and mind, Oh God. And so

  408. even though God, we may navigate through sea sass of hardship God, circumstances

  409. that are overwhelming. God, help us God to be able to rejoice in

  410. the midst of it all. And we know that the rejoicing God is not

  411. in vain, but it is because we can be so filled with the Spirit

  412. of God within our life. Wather. I just pray God for anybody that

  413. feels empty tonight, God, that you begin to fill them up God through

  414. your word. That through the worship tonight God, and through the reading of

  415. your word. God, I pray that in this moment God, they are

  416. being filled up with the spirit of God, specifically with the fruit of joy

  417. within their life. God. That when they walk out of here tonight,

  418. God, I pray that their mouth God may have been a frown coming in,

  419. but there is now a smile upon their face. God, because they

  420. could look at today a little bit differently. They could look at what they're

  421. going through a little bit differently. Oh God, because you are in the

  422. mists and You, God, are good even when we don't deserve it.

  423. God, you are so faithful. God. We thank you Father for your

  424. presence in Jesus name. I'm going to ask everyone to just continue to bow

  425. your heads for me for this moment, and we're going to leave here together

  426. as a family. But I don't want to take for granted that everyone here

  427. tonight has had the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ in their life and had the

  428. opportunity to ask Jesus to come into their life as their personal Lord and savior.

  429. And you may be going through life right now and you feel you're in

  430. that valley, you feel you're in that pit, and you feel there's no

  431. way out. And I want to tell you without apart from Jesus, there

  432. really isn't a way out. But with Jesus, there is an assurance that

  433. you can have today that God has a purpose for you, that God sent

  434. his son Jesus to die for you and for me, that we can spend

  435. eternity with him. There is a love that He gave to us through his

  436. son Jesus. And so I'm going to ask you tonight, if you've never

  437. accepted Jesus Christ into your life, then I invite you to say this prayer

  438. with me. Tomorrow is not promised. This morning, we had a beautiful

  439. homegoing service to one of the founders of this church. And here's the thing

  440. I know about Mother Mackie. Mother. Mackie knew where she was going.

  441. There was not a shadow of a doubt that she was going to heaven when

  442. she would pass here on this earth, and that is exactly where she is

  443. today, in the presence of Jesus. I want to ask you, do

  444. you know without a shadow of a doubt that if you were to close your

  445. eyes tonight and not wake up, would you land in the presence of God?

  446. And would you be welcomed into Heaven to spend eternity with your Savior.

  447. If you can't say that confly, then I invite you to say this prayer

  448. with me. Jesus stretches his arms to you, and you might say,

  449. pastor no, I've done some jacked up things. No, you don't know

  450. what I did last night that he don't love me. I'm so messed up.

  451. I'm telling you he loves you, and I'm telling you he died for

  452. you as much as he did for me and anyone else in this building tonight.

  453. So I'm gonna ask that you say this prayer with me. It's not

  454. the prayer that saves you, but it's the positioning of your heart and the

  455. belief and faith behind it. So I'm gonna ask you to repeat after me.

  456. Dear Jesus, come into my life. I repent him my sins.

  457. I ask you to cleanse me and to make me whole. I declare that

  458. Jesus is Lord, and believe in my heart that God raise him from the

  459. dead. And I am now saved. I am now a child of God

  460. in Jesus name. Amen and Amen, Come on, family, Let's give

  461. a hand for anyone not accepted Christ Tony. That is the greatest decision that

  462. you could ever make. Chelsea's gonna come up here and she's gonna dismiss us.

  463. She's gonna share some final announcements with us, and we pray. I

  464. pray that you are blessed by the word of God tonight as much as a

  465. minister to me the day my little boy sang the song. It reminded me

  466. of the beauty and the pureness behind the scripture. And so my prayer for

  467. you today is that we all find the joy that God who wants us all

  468. to half. God bless family. We really hope you enjoyed the message,

  469. and if you said yes to Jesus, we just want to say congratulations and

  470. give you a free devotional to help you walk out your faith. Click the

  471. link of the description or head over to grow dot Faith to download your devotional.

  472. Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends.

  473. Thanks for listening to Let's See Podcasts, and I hope you tune in again