Stop Rushing Your Season

Open your Bibles to John chapter 10. Meet me at verse 10, and we're going to.

John 10 · chapter mention

Read it from the Amplified Classic.

John chapter 10, verse 10. Jesus tells us the thief, talking about the enemy,

John 10:10

comes only, no other reason, but to steal, kill, and destroy.

Jesus says, I came that they may have life and enjoy life and have it,

life, in abundance to the full till it overflows.

At the beginning of this year, the Lord spoke to me towards the end of last

year and said, hey, this will be a year that you and I are to enjoy the journey.

Enjoy the journey. And began to talk to me about what it means to enjoy the

journey. And we started the church on this verse, actually, John 10,

10, Jesus saying, I came to give you life and to give you life more abundantly.

And I saw from the Amplify Classic where it says, I came that you may have life

and that you may enjoy life.

I thought that was important because a lot of times we've been taught throughout

history that we as believers should not enjoy life.

I remember as a kid, I did not want to be a Christian because there was no fun in Christianity.

There was one particular time I went to a Baptist church. We were up front as

kids and we created this song and we were snapping our fingers.

It was hot. That song was hot. And we got rebuked.

Reprimand it. You don't snap your fingers. Matter of fact, you don't have any fun in church.

And I said, I cannot wait to grow up, move out my mom and dad's house to get

away because church is not fun.

But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, I want you to have fun. I want you to enjoy life.

I want it to be so much enjoyment that it is to the full and it overflows.

And some way, somehow, Now, you and I have, if we're not enjoying life,

the thief has stolen from us.

In some area of our life, we've allowed him to steal, kill, and destroy if we're

not enjoying life. Because Jesus wants us to enjoy life.

He wants us to enjoy the journey.

Somebody say, enjoy the journey.

Now, this is important because the journey is a process.

This journey doesn't end when we depart this earth.

It goes on forever in this journey that we're on.

And too often, you and I, whether intentionally or unintentionally,

we are not where our heart is. Like our feet are here, but our heart's somewhere else.

We want to be somewhere else. We want to be further along.

We want to be at another level. We want to be ahead in some ways or another.

And we're not enjoying the present.

And that's what enjoying the journey is all about, enjoying the here and now, enjoying the present.

This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad.

I won't be sad. I'm gonna enjoy this journey. I'm gonna be glad because God

has given me an opportunity today that maybe somebody else didn't get today

and I'm gonna enjoy today.

I got a lot of reason to be upset. I got a lot of reason to be disappointed.

I got a lot of reason to be mad, but I'm not gonna be mad. I'm going to enjoy

the journey. I'm going to enjoy the present.

I'm going to celebrate today, and I'm going to have fun today because this is

the day the Lord has made, and this should be our attitude.

We're going to enjoy the journey. I didn't say that bad things won't happen.

I'm not saying that you won't go through trials. I'm not saying that there won't be tribulation.

I'm not saying that there's this, you know, there's a utopia and everything

works out the way you want it to work out.

No, there's going to be obstacles and challenges.

Jesus said in the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Have joy.

Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. The Amplified says,

I've deprived it of its power to harm you.

And so you and I have got to understand that we are to enjoy the journey that we're on.

You may not be where you want to be, but you're where you're supposed to be.

Because Psalms 37, 23, I like what it says here in Psalms 37,

23. three, it says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,

and he delights in his way.

Somebody say steps. The steps of a good man. Now, a good man,

one translation says righteous man.

The steps of a righteous man. You're not righteous because of your actions.

You're not righteous because of your deeds.

You're not righteous because you do everything right. You're righteous because

you believe in Jesus and Jesus exchanged your unrighteousness for his righteousness

and now you're in right standing with him.

That's what righteousness means. I'm in right standing with him.

And so the steps of a righteous man, someone that believes in Jesus, are ordered by the Lord.

Now that word ordered means prearranged.

It means directed.

It means established. Your steps are ordered not even by you.

They're ordered, if you're a righteous man or woman, and you yield to the Holy

Spirit, they're ordered by the Lord. Not the devil.

They're ordered, directed, prearranged, and established by the Lord.

And how many of you know that a journey is a series of steps?

A journey is a series of steps. And steps imply process, that it's going to take some time.

When you are stepping, walking, it's going to take some time to get somewhere.

And so the journey, the steps, the path imply that there will be a process.

But understand your steps are ordered, directed, established,

and prearranged by the Lord. And I like the next sentence there.

And it says, and he delights in your way.

That means he takes pleasure in. He has joy in directing your steps,

in your path. He enjoys directing your steps.

So if he enjoys directing your steps, why don't you and I enjoy the steps that

God has prearranged for us, has directed for us, has established for us?

We need to enjoy the journey. Say that again, enjoy the journey.

We need to enjoy the journey because God is directing our steps.

And last week we talked about some joy killers.

Some things that will cause you and I not to enjoy the journey.

And last week we mentioned worry.

Worry is something that will cause you not to enjoy the journey.

And if you missed last week, just go to truelifefc.org, our website,

and you can listen to it at no cost on worry.

But today I want to talk to you about an obstacle, a killer of joy,

and that is the word impatience.

Impatience. Why are things not happening for me? Why?

What's taking so long? Is my faith even working?

What happens when you get tired of waiting?

What happens when you get tired of waiting?

Steve, can you bring me a bottle of water if you don't mind,

sir? My throat's a little parched.

What happens when you get tired of waiting?

And this is something that you and I are always asking ourself.

Whether you admit to it or not, we want to be further along.

We want to have what God has promised us.

We want to be where God wants us to be.

But we fail to realize we are where God wants us exactly at this period of time in our life.

We are right where he wants us.

Thank you, EJ. Give EJ a hand. Praise God. EJ, mighty man of God. Thank you, sir.

I guess I got to open it by myself, EJ. My goodness. No, I'm just playing. Thank you.

What's taking so long? What happens when you get tired of waiting?

And on this journey, we can get impatient.

I was thinking about three people in Scripture, three stories in particular

where impatience was involved.

You know, impatience just simply means that you're restless,

that you're irritable because there are delays.

Impatience, I'm irritable because things are taking too long.

I was thinking about Abraham and Sarah.

You know, they had a promise, right? A promise to have a child.

And in their impatience, Sarah says, I got an idea, Abraham.

We're barren. We haven't had children. You're in your 80s.

I have a great idea. why don't you

sleep with my girl you know

she just just sleep with my girl she'll you know just she'll get pregnant and

you know what she'll let me be the mother of that child and Abraham dummy Abraham

said that's a great idea you know I've been checking your girl out you know and uh,

what a great idea that is

he says yes let's do that and so

he takes hagar and they

begin to have relations and hagar gets

pregnant and they have a son and

sarah here believes that hagar is just going to allow her to be the mother but

hagar says no that that's my baby and there's there was contention and there

was drama that was taking place and Sarah ends up going to Abraham now listen

to this fella Sarah ends up going to Abraham saying this is all your fault.

Now, the idea came from her, but this is all your fault.

And so, they admit that this was wrong, but their impatience led to Ishmael,

who is a great patriarch to the Muslim religion.

Impatience created something that they didn't even intend to create.

Well, let's think about another story, the Israelites.

They've been supernaturally and miraculously released from Egypt by many signs and wonders.

And as they have come out of Egypt now, they're in the wilderness,

going forward to the promised land.

And Moses tells them, I need to go up on the mountain, spend time with God.

God called him, said, come on up here.

And while Moses and the Lord were spending time together, Moses is hearing the

Ten Commandments, and God's hand himself wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets.

But the people got impatient.

They got so impatient because Moses was up there 40 days that they decided to force Aaron to.

To build them a golden calf.

And so all of the gold that they stripped the Egyptians of when they left Egypt,

which was set apart, in my opinion, for the tabernacle that was going to be

built, they used it to build a golden calf.

And scripture says there in Exodus 32 that Aaron fashioned the calf.

And when it came out it was a golden calf

and they worshiped this calf and the Lord told Moses get down there for I kill

them all and Moses comes down and he begins to talk to Aaron what happened and

Aaron's Aaron lies Aaron said when I threw the gold in it came out as a calf,

I want to talk to Aaron about that when we get to heaven no brother you made

that calf stop it it didn't just jump out as a calf, but Aaron lied and said he did.

And Moses burnt the calf, mixed it with water and made him drink it. And you know what?

3,000 people died that day. The result of impatience.

They could have just waited on Moses, but they got impatient.

1 Samuel 13, we see King Saul.

He's got a battle and he's being outnumbered by the Philistines.

Matter of fact, they said the

Philistines had so many warriors that it was like sand on the seashore.

And they were outnumbered. They were scared. They were afraid.

They were hiding in caves.

Terrified. Samuel said, I'll be there in seven days.

I'll be there to submit burnt offerings so that we can hear from God and get

direction from the Lord.

Well, Samuel is delayed.

Saul gets impatient. He offers up the burnt offerings himself,

something kings were not prohibited to do.

That was for priests. He offers it himself. As soon as it gets done, here comes Samuel.

Samuel finds out and said, you should not have done this. and he loses his entire

kingdom because of impatience.

Jacob and Esau, he gives up his birthright because of impatience.

On this journey, one of the major killers of our joy is impatience.

And when you get tired of waiting, I want to ask you what is your posture.

Are you sane? Probably not. Be honest.

Or do you go crazy because I am tired of waiting and I want to do things in

my own might and in my own strength.

The last moments of waiting are the most difficult and tempt you to take matters into your own hands.

The last moments of waiting are the most difficult.

And people tend to take matters into their own hands. They'll begin to force doors to open.

They'll begin to try to create momentum that's not even there.

They'll begin to make decisions that God doesn't want them to make because of impatience.

You get irritable and you don't like the delay.

Impatience is something you and I have to really keep an eye on.

Because if we don't, it has the ability to get us completely off of our journey.

And now we're going somewhere else.

I remember a particular person came to our house and she was dating this guy

and she asked us what we thought and we were honest. We say, he ain't it.

He's not it. Well, I'm getting older. Well, he's not it.

You just want to be, you ask us, we're going to tell you. He's not it.

And she said, well, can we go through marital counseling?

So I got them with a marital counselor that I know very well that did Stacey

and I's marital counseling.

I said, get with them. They went to some sessions. He ended up quitting the

sessions. I ended up talking to them.

And the counselor said, we told, we told her, he's not it.

He's not it. But because of her impatience, getting older, I want to have children.

She married him, and now, what, less than two years later, they're divorced,

angry, fighting all the time. They have a kid together, and it's terrible.

Impatience. Just wait a little longer.

And it's hard to be patient when you put pressure on yourself.

When you put deadlines on yourself when you begin to say I'm going to have this

done by this amount of time and it doesn't happen that's when we are the most impatient.

Sometimes you want to look good and so you'll do something you'll try to force

something you'll try to make something happen because you don't want to just wait.

Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord.

Wait on the Lord because impatience will get you off track.

In James chapter three, I'm sorry, James chapter one, we'll read one through three.

It says here, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the

12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greetings.

Verse two, my brethren count it all joy

when you fall into various trials look at verse three knowing

that the testing of your faith produces patience now I want you to know the

several things in this passage of Scripture number one I want you to recognize

that James is a half-brother of Jesus and James didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ.

Until after the resurrection. How patient was Jesus with him on the earth?

He didn't believe him until after the resurrection.

And at this point in time, James is a pastor in Jerusalem.

And the first thing he says is, brethren, count it all joy when you go through various trials.

Now, that word various means a diverse or a different types of trials.

So we understand that we will go through trials.

I'm not preaching a gospel that says we're not going to go through anything.

We will go through things.

Now, I believe we're supposed to enjoy life, but you and I will go through trials.

And James tells us here, he says, count it all joy.

What does that mean? I believe it means don't disregard joy.

Don't eliminate joy. Don't forget about joy when you're going through various trials.

Don't stop rejoicing. He says count it all joy when you're going through things.

Find joy because joy is your strength.

Joy is what's going to cause you to continue. It's going to give you endurance

and stamina because of the joy that's already deposited on the inside of you.

And James tells us, count it all joy.

So we're supposed to be excited when we go through a trial.

We're not supposed to be sad. We're not supposed to be depressed.

We're not supposed to be down and out. We're supposed to be excited.

Why? Because we've seen the end of the story before.

We've seen what's going to happen. God's going to come through.

God's going to be victorious and show himself strong on our behalf so we can

count it all joy when we go through something bad. Let me ask you this question.

How do you conduct yourself in the middle of a trial?

How do you conduct yourself? Do you cuss? Do you fuss?

Do you act crazy? Or do you count it all joy?

Do you include joy in the midst of the trial? And the next verse he says,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces something.

It produces patience.

Now you cannot pray for patience because patience doesn't come by answered prayer.

Listen to me now. Oh, I just pray for patience. That's not how patience comes.

Patience comes by testing.

Patience comes by trial. Patience comes by putting to the proof.

Patience comes by testing. And so if you want patience, and we all need to have

patience because when we have patience,

what we have is everything that we need.

Everything you need is wrapped up in being patient.

It really is. Everything that you need. In verse 4, if you don't mind,

put it on the screen there, Alfred James 1, verse 4.

James 1:4

He says, the testing of your faith produces patience. Verse 4 says,

but let patience have its perfect work so that you may be complete, lacking nothing.

And so patience allows you to be fully developed and mature,

perfect, not getting everything right, but mature, complete,

whole, lacking nothing.

We should all endeavor to be patient people. We really should because we can

be complete, lacking nothing.

When we're patient people...

We are people that can hold on and wait and enjoy the journey that God has.

But back in verse 3, he says, watch this.

Knowing that the testing of your faith produces this patience.

So there's a test of your faith.

What is actually being tested?

Scripture says your faith is being tested, but what is it actually testing you?

So we know that Hebrews 11.1 says, now faith is. When is faith?

Now. Now. When is it? Now. Now faith is. Now. Faith is now.

Faith is at this present moment.

It's now. I have faith right now. I'm not trying to get faith.

I have faith now. So what is actually testing you?

Time.

I believe I have it now and time is saying you don't have it and so time is testing you and I,

I believe we've got a church building glory to God time is testing me,

but I'm going to be perfect and complete lacking nothing I'm not going to be.

Impatient. I'm not going to do anything.

But it came to pass. What are you unwilling to wait on?

If it came from the Word of God, you're going to have to wait on the Lord and be of good courage.

Wait, I say, on the Lord.

Don't be impatient because that will cause your journey to be disrupted and

really get you on a whole nother course.

You begin to do things that are not right or not in the timing God wants you

to do, and you're trying to force some things to happen, to open up,

to work out for you, force somebody to love you, force somebody to accept you and embrace you.

You're going to have to say, no, no, no, I'm too valuable for that.

My time is not worth that, and neither is yours. I'm not going to let it test me.

There's some people I hear in my heart, some people are going to have to just

stop taking their phone call because they're wasting your time.

I just heard the Lord say that. Just no more. Stop taking their call. They are time wasters.

And you don't have time to waste. Somebody say amen.

You don't have time to waste because God is trying to make you into a more patient person.

See, if you can be patient and.

You cannot be moved by anything else when you become a patient man.

The devil can't manipulate you.

He can't deceive you. He can't lead you astray when you are simply patient.

And God is working it out.

He didn't, Exodus says, he didn't take the Israelites straight from Egypt to

the promised land. even though the shortest distance was 11 days.

He took them the longest route. And they stayed in the wilderness longer because

of their grumbling and complaining.

But what God was trying to do was not get them to the promised land.

He was trying to get Egypt out of them.

So in order to get Egypt out of them, he had to take them to the longest route to get there.

Because it takes time to get you to the place that God wants you to be.

And when you get to that next step, you will say, praise God,

I know what it takes to get here.

I have so much patience for my last pastor.

I'm telling you, I used to think he should be doing this and he should be doing

that. Now I'm in this role.

I like, oh, I see why it took him a little time to do some things.

Because I now had to grow into it to even stand in that position to even understand.

There are different vantage points that people have and you don't know what

they see because you're not there but impatience says, well,

I look as good as you and I'm just as smart as you. I need to be right where you are.

Impatience says, I need your job because I can do your job better than you can

do and you don't have the experience or anything to go with it.

Somebody say amen to that. That's what impatience does.

But patience allows you to enjoy the journey.

You just say, you know what? I'm going to have fun today. There's some phone

calls I'm waiting on right now. They're supposed to call me.

They ain't called. I want to get impatient about it. But the Lord said, just wait.

It's better when they call.

Isn't it better when they call me than if I call them? It's just better.

It's just wait. They're supposed to call. We ain't forgotten about you.

We gonna call. We gonna call. We ain't forgotten.

It's gonna happen. I'm all like, I'm about to go do something else.

No, no, no. Just be patient.

Enjoy the journey. Stacey asked me, did you get that phone call? I said, no.

She just said, well, enjoy the journey. I said, that's right.

We're just going to enjoy the journey. It didn't come. Maybe it'll come tomorrow.

We're going to enjoy the journey.

Because when you get impatient, you get out of God's plan for your life.

And while God is ordering and directing your steps, if you do something outside

of that, God is still good and he's bigger than your mistakes.

Thank God that he's bigger than our mistakes. Amen to that.

Thank God he's bigger than our mistakes. He's bigger than our mistakes,

but it's almost like the GPS. If you go off straight, it'll say recalculating

and it might take you a little more time to get back to where you're supposed to be.

I don't need to waste any more time.

I just need to do exactly what God's telling me to do And I need to be patient

and not allow these other things to force my hand,

to force me to do something that I'm not supposed to be doing, to kick in the door,

to make a phone call I shouldn't make, to make a deal I shouldn't make,

to get in agreement with somebody I shouldn't get in agreement with because of impatience.

This is, I hope you're listening to me today because this is very, very important.

We just saw three people in the Bible that went totally different directions

because they were impatient.

You must wait on the Lord.

The last moments of waiting are the most difficult and they tempt you to take

matters into your own hands. the last moments of waiting.

Most people are full of joy until they encounter a trial that causes them to be impatient.

Oh, I'm full of joy, and then here comes a trial.

Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength, and then here comes an opportunity to be impatient.

Oh, I love the Lord, and he loves me. I'm so excited. I celebrate the goodness.

Oh, and then here comes a test.

You got to be patient and you got to have joy during the test you got to be

patient with each other you got to be patient with each other with your spouse

and with your with your family and with your children did you know those of

you that have children that your children can have bad days,

Did you know that? Like we think, we think, oh, don't you say that?

They're just having a bad day today.

Now, every day shouldn't be a bad day. But there are times that we know it's okay.

That's a bad day. We're not going to get on that one too much today because

they're just going through some things today.

We have to be patient because God's patient with you and I.

And any act of impatience could ruin a relationship.

I'll tell the story of myself Oh goodness, I'm so glad I didn't do this Praise

God Somebody say hallelujah.

Zai was younger She was probably about 10 And I bought her A ice cone,

Slushy thing And she was In my opinion, she was whining that whole day And I

bought her this ice cone slushy thing And and she didn't like the flavor.

I don't like this flavor.

And my first intention was, well, don't eat it then. I almost knocked it out of her hand.

Thank God I didn't do it.

That would have ruined a relationship.

But it crossed my mind to swing my hand at the ice and say, don't eat it then.

But I didn't do it. Glory to God. And the Lord, when I was thinking about the

impatience, the Lord brought that back.

One little act like that.

Oh, forgive me, I'm sorry. That's all great.

But they can remember stuff. I'm not asking you to be perfect.

But I am asking you to be patient.

They can remember stuff like that. In my mind, I ran it through my mind.

I had my arm all ready, back ready to knock it out of her hand.

But I didn't do it. Thank God I didn't do it because I thought,

man, in Zai's temperament, that would have crushed her.

Then he knocked it out of my hand.

It had been on the ground. Don't eat it then. I didn't do it. Why? Why?

Thank God that there is the Holy Spirit that's leading and guiding us.

I was cooking some meat on the grill, and I was really excited about this meat on the grill.

This meat, man, I had been, you know what I'm saying? We had sautéed it and

seasoned it and it sat and had it on the grill.

And for some reason I come back

in and I cut the grill off and I was coming back

to grab something to get it and I got a little delayed in coming back but you

know I thought it's fine you know good piece of me to be fine just sitting there

a little bit I come back and that thing was about this size and it was a hockey

puck the whole grill was on fire somehow something dripped and just ignited it.

The grill was on fire.

We had to get the fire extinguisher and the piece of meat had shriveled down to this size.

And I was livid.

And I heard Stacy in the house say, okay kids, kids, everybody come over here.

I heard her whisper, everybody, everybody come. Come, come.

And I said, I was outside. I said, while I was outside and she grabbed everybody

I could hear her in there because I had the sliding door open.

And she, and then I walk in the house and they're all sitting in the corner looking at me.

And I really wanted to start throwing stuff and kicking and jumping up and down

and acting a straight fool.

That's what I wanted to do. When I looked at all my kids sitting there looking

at me, I thought this is a moment that they'll remember forever. her.

And I looked at them and I said, I'm going out to get something to eat.

I'll be back. And I just, I jumped in the car and I left where I got me some takeout.

But those are moments, right, that we got to exercise patience.

When I came home, let me tell you what I did when I came home.

After I came home, I grabbed that grill, immediately took it to the corner of

the street, kicked it down, and let the trash man get it the next day.

I was so angry at that grill.

It wasn't the grill's fault, but I'll tell you what, it's gone.

That grill is gone because it tore up my nice piece of meat. Glory to God.

But in front of my children, I said, let me go out and get something to eat.

And I just went straight from there to the car and drove off.

And I thought, these are moments that they'll remember ever.

Now, I've made mistakes. I have.

I'm not perfect up here. I've made mistakes. But I'm endeavoring to be patient.

Because it's in the impatience where we lose our joy.

And when we lose our joy and do something that God has not orchestrated for

us to do, it can alter your destiny.

I want you to get how serious what I'm talking about today is.

It can alter your destiny when you operate with impatience.

Hebrews 6.15, I'll end with this, Hebrews 6.15.

And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

When did he get it? after waiting patiently. Did he get it right away?

No, after waiting patiently. Did it come instantly?

No, no. After waiting patiently, the promise came.

After he waited patiently.

He waited. He waited. He enjoyed the journey. After he realized that,

hey, we made a mistake, I've got to wait patiently for the Lord.

He waited. He waited.

Since Ishmael, he waited like 14 years before Isaac came, which was the promise.

He waited patiently, patiently.

David was called king as a teenager. Didn't get into like, you know,

something like anywhere from 16, 13 to 16, 18 years later or something along the lines.

Joseph had a promise, went through so many obstacles, but it wasn't 13 years

later or something along the lines that he became number two in command.

There's some waiting, some waiting that takes place.

Moses, 40 years old when he fled from Egypt, and then it was another 40 years

later when he was the deliverer of the children of Israel. There's some waiting.

And you and I just have to be comfortable with a posture of waiting.

Now, that's after you do everything God told you to do.

When God told you to do it now, your job is to believe that God will do his job.

Say this after me. My job is to believe that God will do his job.

That's our job, is to believe that God will do his job. And so we wait.

You know God doesn't tell time. Did y'all know that? He don't have a clock in

heaven. and he's, oh, it's 12.02 right now. He doesn't tell time.

He's outside of time. He created times and seasons for us, but he's outside of it.

And so he's not looking at the clock like you and I are. Well,

I'm, what's taking so long?

Lord, you know, in our church building, you knew that by the end of year that

we had to leave, why don't we have our worship facility at? God said,

I never told you December 31st.

That's what the contract said, not what the Lord said. So we wait.

And we are of good courage, and there's favor that's happening right as we wait.

In this wilderness season that we're in, it's not a punishment, it's preparation.

I'm learning more things about why true life exists and what God wants to do,

and when we get in our new building, what we're going to do and why we're going

to do it, how we're going to do it. It's a process.

In the wilderness season, you're

not preparing. God's not giving you a new vision he's refining identity.

He's telling you who you are. The Israelites didn't know who they were.

The Jews, they didn't know who they were. They were slaves. That's why they

kept trying to run back to slavery.

You know, we're reading through Exodus in our daily Bible reading plan,

right? They're running back.

Let's go back. Why? Because that's all they knew.

God's trying to say, no, I want you to know something different so you learn

it in a wilderness season. It's not punishment.

It's preparation. I may talk about that more later. But it's in this season

that we just have to make sure in your life that you're patient.

Because impatience is a killer of joy.

If you stay in a posture of impatience, you will not be joyful.

And there should not be any such thing as a sad, depressed Christian.

We should all be full of joy because we got the victory.

The worst thing that can happen to us is we die and we go to heaven.

That's the worst. And Paul said he looked forward to that.

He was ready to go. Now, I'm not ready to go yet. I got some things we got to do here on the earth.

But when my time is up, that's the worst thing that can happen is die and go to heaven.

And then there's our loved ones that are in heaven. How many know heaven is full of joy?

There's no sad heart in heaven. We got some loved ones in heaven.

We've got some relatives in heaven and they're not sad. They're not hurting.

They're not depressed. It's full of joy.

And Genesis tells us that, or is it Deuteronomy, tells us that there should

be days of heaven on the earth.

Amen. The joy that's in heaven is the joy you and I can possess right here on the earth.

The joy of Jesus, like we talked about at Midweek Boost, is the joy that's overflowing in our life today.

What's causing you not to experience this kind of joy is Satan's tactics to steal from you.

And one of them is impatience.

Just be patient.

It's all going to work out.

I believe to see, matter of fact, Alfred, put Psalms 27, 13 on the screen. Psalms 27, 13.

See if I can find it before you.

Psalms 27, 13. I want to read this to you.

I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness

of the Lord in the land of the living. Watch this.

I would have lost heart. I would have quit unless I believed that I would see.

How many of you believe the sea?

About three of you. How many of you believe the sea? Amen.

I believe to see that I, the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Look at the next verse, Alfred. Put it up there for us, please, sir.

The very next verse says, wait on the Lord.

Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord. Amen.

This is how you experience true life.