Count It All Joy 6-14-2026

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast. If this is your first time listening, you can check us out on our website at lifefamily.church or on Facebook at LFC Beardstown. Now let's get right to the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Good to see everybody. How are you? Good. Good to good to see you. Um this morning, um, I want to take just a moment, first of all, before I get started. And I just want to say um how much uh I appreciate my wife putting up with me for 23 years. Um yeah. Give it up to her. Yeah. Um, it's not always been easy. I I started out very legalistic in in my approach towards ministry. I was very um, I don't, I wasn't trying to be mean, but I mean, I I remember she had a couple Faith Hill CDs and some country music in her car, and we're going down the road, and I'm like, that's gotta go. That's gotta go. That's not godly, that's not worship, and I was just rough. Thank God I was good looking, wasn't it? That's the only reason she stayed with me, right? No. The I think um, you know, I I've been as a minister, it's it's not easy to deal with a minister uh as a wife. Um I've talked to I've I'm talking about you, yeah. But you know, there's a lot of emotions that go into it and and ministries and ministers and people and when when I'm up here preaching, I've been to two Bible colleges and I've studied my entire uh you know, from the time I was 16, 17, I've studied the word to try to learn everything I could. And you know, when it comes to ministry, um, I've I've been thoroughly prepared for this. Um but when I was in Bible college, she was raising our kids. You see what I'm saying? Like it wasn't always easy for her. I was getting tanked up five hours a day of the word, running and shouting and coming home telling her how great it is, and she's got two babies on her hips, one in the oven. You know, I'm glad you're having a great time. We're spending the Lord, you know. But then on top of that, you know, people just expect that she knows more than me, just as much or more than I do, and and and that she's gonna get up here and preach and sing and play, you know. That's the the a lot of times you just you thought of pastor's wife, someone who's gonna get up here and play piano and sing and do all that stuff. You know what? She's the perfect wife for me. I needed someone just like her, and God knew that, and he gave me you. Um, we've we've known each other for nearly 8,000 days. That's a long time. Yeah. You know how I found that out? I'm like, chat GPT. How many days is this? You just thought I was romantic. But it's been good. We have four beautiful children. One of them sitting over here, Emma. Wave at everybody, baby. Yeah, this is my this is my first, and um she was our test baby. We we ran everything through her, we we practiced on her, we did pretty good with her. So, you know, thank God for her. She's at Rhema. She just she just finished her first year of school. So, yeah. She's got one more to go, and unless the Lord leads her to stay, or um, the Lord sends a young man her way, or whatever happens, um, which your daddy still got a shotgun. Um, but um, it it's been fun, and the Lord has prepared us. I I like to say it like this I'm 48 now. The Lord has prepared me 48 years for this moment right now, and he's prepared you, whatever your age is, for this moment right now, and you're adequately and thoroughly equipped, and you're ready, you're ready for whatever the devil throws at you, amen. I've got some good news. The Lord is still seated on the throne, and he's still good, and he still loves you, and he still has you written down on the palm of his hand. No matter what you've done, no matter what you've gone through, no matter all the mistakes you might have made, God still loves you and he's not mad at you. He's mad about you, right? I love to say that because it brings so much, it's like it's like when I'm talking at a funeral or something, and I say that, I can see the all the all the resistance, all those tough men at funerals or women who are just hurt at funerals who's who's heard nothing, but God is mad at you, God is mad. I just see their countenance just kind of ease up. Oh, yeah, God loves me. You know what? He loves you. So I want to make sure. I mean, I try to say this almost every service: God loves you so much. Because if you don't believe God loves you, you won't receive from him. I don't want to receive from someone who's angry at me all the time. I don't want to hang out with you if you're angry. You know, if you're hanging out with someone who's angry all the time, I want to get away from them as fast as possible. But that's not how our God is. Our God is full of joy. Amen. Glory to God. Now, if you have your Bibles today, I'm gonna be in a couple verses. I'm gonna name them. So if you want to write these down, write these down because I've been known to go a little fast when I get going. If you can, go to James chapter 1, verse 2 through 4. I'm gonna give you a few others to prepare for. Numbers 21, verse 4 through 9. 1 Thessalonians, if you can write down Thessalonians 5, 18, and then Psalms 103, verse 2. And I've got others, but those are those are my rabbit trail notes. So I'm not giving you those yet. Psalms 103, verse 2. Numbers 21, 4 through 9. I don't think it's me going too fast. I think it's you all ain't hearing fast enough. Turn up your hearing aids, guys. Here we go. Um, yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thankfulness is one of the clearest signs of a mature faith. Thankfulness is a very clear sign that you are a mature saint. It's easy to be thankful when life is going well, prayers are being answered, and doors are opening. But the real test of faith is whether we can still give thanks when things are difficult, things are tough. This week has been challenging to say the least for us. Now, don't you dare hear this as a pity party because it's not. This is totally opposite of that. But I'm giving you an illustration of what happens in a normal life. Happens to your pastor just as much as any of you. First of all, our air air conditioner goes out in our vehicle a couple weeks ago. We get that fixed, about $690-something dollars. It's fixed. All right. Uh this week, at the beginning of the week, or maybe it was the end of last week, our air conditioner went out again. And $1,400 later, it's still not fixed. So we're we're going back to fix it tomorrow. Thank God it's going to be fixed, or else we're going somewhere else. Um and then I went and got my license, and I got it finally, and it was a wrong date on there, so I had to go back two or three different times because I forgot my paperwork. So it was just frustrating getting all that. Huh? Yeah, wrong birthday. And then my, and probably a lot of y'all experienced the same thing. My debit card, there was a fraudulent charge on it to Jersey Mike's. Not jerseys where you girls are going, but Jersey Mike's. How many of y'all got that same fraudulent charge on yours? Any, yeah, a couple others. Yeah, yep. You did too. But, you know, these things, we were supposed to go to Tennessee, it didn't work out because of all this stuff, but it's okay. Sometimes you're gonna go through challenges in life, but those challenges are not meant to destroy you, they're meant to build you and make you stronger. Um, James chapter 1, if you want to go there, it says this in James chapter 1. I'm gonna read it so that it says, brethren, count it all joy. Everybody say joy. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Knowing, everybody say knowing. I always love to underline that word knowing because when you go through a trial, you gotta know something. Amen. You gotta know something. That's what takes you to that place of joy is that you know something. If you don't know it, you can't have joy. But thank God we know in whom we believe. And we know the word and what the word says, and that we'll come out on the other side. Amen. So we know something, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. So when you go through a trial, if you'll take it the right way, God will produce something on the inside of you that'll make you stronger than you've ever been before. Prepared, better than you've ever been prepared before. So that the next time you go through a trial, it's a little easier. And it doesn't shock you, it doesn't set you back, it doesn't bother you. There's things that take place in ministry today that 20 years ago, if I was to try to do these things, it would have shook me to my core and I wouldn't have been able to hang up. I wouldn't be able to do it. It would have been impossible. Mentally, I wasn't prepared for it. But thank God, now that I've grown a little, been through some trials, been through some tests, been through some hard times, good times, bad times, all these things produce something in our lives. So that when we come up against another issue, we're ready for it. Amen. You're prepared. God will not place anything or allow anything to be able to consume you. You're prepared for whatever life's coming at you with. You're prepared for it. Don't ever think for a moment that I wasn't prepared for this. God has prepared you for every trial in your life. And you have the tools necessary to come out on the other side and come out with joy. He says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. He does not say the trial is joy. He says, count it as joy. Meaning you have to purposely step back from your trial, step back from the issue, step back from what's happening, and you have to say, I'm gonna choose joy in the middle of this trial. You have to purpose that in your heart. You gotta make certain in your own heart that I'm not gonna allow this thing to defeat me, but I'm gonna rise above circumstances and I'm gonna defeat this thing in the name of Jesus, and I'm gonna do it with joy. That means joy is not based on your feelings, it's based on faith and your perspective. God wants to give you a new perspective today. A perspective that's full of joy, full of hope, full of peace, full of righteousness, full of fun and enjoyment in the presence of the Lord. Did you know that you can be going through the toughest battle of your life, but yet still have joy? Because joy is not an outward emotion, joy is an inward conviction. Joy is a knowing on the inside of you that only comes from the Holy Ghost, and when you have the Holy Ghost, you got joy. Amen. Trials. The definition of a trial is it is a test, it's a difficulty, it's a hardship or a period of suffering that challenges people's faith. It challenges your character, it challenges your obedience and your trust in God. Jesus went through the same tests and the same trials that you'll ever go through. The Bible says in Hebrews that he was touched with the feeling of your infirmity, your weakness. He went through the same challenges, he went through the same trials, the same temptations that you have, he had, yet without fear, yet without sin, yet without losing his joy. Jesus walked with purpose. And the way that we should walk is with purpose. We should know in whom we believe, and we should walk with that same kind of intense purpose for God. That no matter what the enemy does, I've already chose joy ahead of time. Amen. I've already chose joy ahead of time. Joy is in front of me all the time, never leaves me, never, never forsakes me. Because joy is not a word, joy is not an emotion, joy is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ. And he dwells on the inside of me. And no matter what takes place in my life, the presence of God is on the inside of me. And he said in Psalm 16, verse, sorry, let me make sure I say this. 16 verse 11, in your presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Amen. Do you all remember the story of when Mary entered into Elizabeth's house? And how when she stepped in and announced that she was there, John the Baptist was in the mother's womb, and the baby leaped for joy and was filled with the Holy Ghost. Do y'all remember that? Why did that happen? Because the baby was in the presence of Almighty God. Jesus was present. You see, everywhere we go, Jesus is present. He said, I'll never leave you and I will never forsake you. But we have to choose and keep it in our mind and in our hearts that no matter what happens in life, I have the presence of God in me, therefore I've got the joy of the Lord in me. Nehemiah 8 and 10 says, the joy of the Lord is what? Is your strength. So if you don't have strength, you can't battle the enemy. And you don't battle the enemy on his playing field, down in the mully grubs. You get up from the dirt, you get up higher and higher and higher. You rise up like an eagle and you soar. You soar with the joy of the Lord. You don't allow him to get you down on lower ground because when you're on the lower ground, you can be defeated because your perspective is skewed and your perspective is the same as the enemy, but the enemy wants to keep you down. He wants to keep you depressed. He wants to keep you in that position of defeat. But we are not defeated. We are the triumphant church of Jesus Christ, and greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. And you have the greater one in you. Amen. And the resurrection power of Almighty God dwells on the inside of you. And we can call those things that be not as though they were. That's how we talk. We have the voice of victory. Hallelujah. So when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will rise up on the inside and you'll begin to speak what thus saith the Lord. And the joy of the Lord will start bubbling up on the inside, and you'll start saying one joy, two joy, three joy, four joy. You'll start counting it all joy because God is on the inside of you. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. You've got the presence of God on the inside of you. Now listen, I'm gonna get a little nasty with you here. I'm just kidding. I'm not, but there's a spirit that attacks joy, and that is the spirit of complaining. Now, I don't I haven't heard any of y'all complaining over here, all right? I'm just saying that is the number one thief of joy is complaining. When you start complaining, joy just kind of steps aside and says, Okay, have it your way. Do what you want to do, but God's presence is not in complaining. He doesn't hang out with complainers, he hangs out with people who are full of joy. In God's presence is not full of complaints. And there's, you know, in God's presence is not full of problems and all these uh situations that you just we consume. I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about me. We consume things that does not produce the joy of the Lord. And we have to be, we have to be aware that when you're hanging out with people that are complaining, guess what? It gets on you. When you hang out with people that are full of joy, guess what? It gets on you. Amen. So we have to hang around the right people. I don't want to be around a complainer. I want to be around people that are full of joy. Israel had an issue in Numbers 21. The children of Israel became discouraged in the wilderness. Let's let's go over there, Numbers chapter 21. Verse 4, it says, Then they journeyed from Mount Or by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the soul of the people became very discouraged. Everyone say, discouraged. Did you know on your journey of life you can be discouraged? It happens. Even this week, while all this stuff is going on, I mean, it's the temptation's there to be discouraged. It's almost like it's a constant banging, a constant, a constant fight. The Bible talks about in Ephesians chapter 6 that the enemy will throw fiery darts at you. And they're constant. They're constant, they're trying their best to penetrate the armor of God. But we've got to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might and not allow the devil to enter into what is on the inside of us. You see, you can be discouraged on the outside. There's nothing wrong with things attacking your mind. Just don't let it get on the inside. Because what's on the inside is what defiles a man. And when you start speaking out of the abundance of the heart, what happens? The mouth begins to speak. Then faith is released, faith in the negative, just like faith in the positive. So your faith is greatly, your faith, faith is greatly impacted by your joy and greatly impacted by discouragement. So make sure you keep yourself in a place where you're not hanging out with discouragement, but you put the circumstances in their rightful place below your feet. It says this. Verse 5, and the people spoke against God, and they spoke against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food, no water, and our soul loath this worthless bread. So the Lord sent fiery serpents. That word serpent represents the curse. The curse was released. Anytime you see the serpent, it's it's typically a curse or the devil. What was he in the wilderness? What was he in the garden? He was a serpent, right? Well, he's still a serpent. He's a serpent among the people, and they bit the people, and many. The people of Israel died. So you could kind of put this in and use your imagination what was happening. All of a sudden, they're complaining. The next moment, they're getting bit by serpents and they're dying. And then they're very smart people. So the next thing they did is they immediately came to Moses and said, Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we've spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He take away these serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. Now, what does that remind you of? The Bible says Jesus became a curse for us. Jesus went to the cross. He became the serpent. He became the curse on our behalf. So we have a God who's experienced everything we've experienced. The pain, the suffering, the hurt, the shame, the rejection, he's experienced all of it. And yet he's now seated at the right hand of the Father, and he's praying for you. What's he praying for? That you would maintain your joy, that you won't give up, that you won't quit, that you won't be discouraged, that you'll keep marching on. Because, and I know I've said this before, and you might have heard this before. Those people were griping and complaining. You see, I like to say it like this, it's just a good way to remind myself. Gripers get the diapers. Complainers are not obtainers. And I always say, gripers also wear diapers. Just a funny way to remind yourself, like, you know. So God delivered them, but he didn't take away the serpents. What did he ask him to do? Look to him. You see, God's not going to take away those things attacking you. He's going to have you look to him, the author and the finisher of your faith. For the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. The same joy is set before you. You can endure. You can make it. Don't lose heart. Don't lose hope. Keep your eyes on Jesus because he'll lead you through. He can't, he's not going to take away the result of what happened because of Adam's sin. You're still going to have to face challenges in your life. That's why he gave us the word of God, and he said, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Because when we when we hear the word of God and we stay in the word of God, faith rises up on the inside. And when you go through a challenge, that's what you'll sense. You'll sense faith start bubbling up. And then because you know what the word says, you start sensing that joy on the inside. Why? Because you know something. I think it's fun when somebody tells me a secret. Now, I don't mean gossip. Although that could be fun too, but it's not godly. Just playing. You know, when someone tells you a secret, hey, we're going to have a party for so-and-so meet at the house, we're going to surprise them. Everybody's there, the anticipation's there, everything's exciting. Everybody's just fired up that knows about it. But those that come in and they don't know about it, they don't know what's about to happen to them. But we have the secrets and the mysteries of God revealed on the inside of us, and that's by the Spirit of God. So we know something. I said something, I think it was Wednesday, I said, faith always puts you ahead of the enemy. Faith gives you an advantage over the enemy. Faith keeps you a step ahead of the enemy and his tactics against your life. So you always are aware when the enemy's coming in, you can know it. And you know it by this, by the things that are happening around you. There's an atmosphere changing around you. You can sense it. You can kind of sense, ooh, my joy level's a little down. I need to stir myself up. The Bible says, building yourself up in your most holy faith. What? Praying in the Holy Ghost. So you can begin to pray in the Holy Ghost, and that joy will start to bubble up. See, praying in the Holy Ghost is also a tool that God gave you to build yourself up, to edify yourself, to encourage yourself. Amen. So as we begin to speak in tongues and as we begin to pray in the Spirit, God will reveal mysteries to you. God will reveal things to you, and what's on the inside of you will start to rise up. The joy of the Lord will start to bubble up like a well. And when it starts to come out, you'll probably start going, ha ha ha ha, and start laughing. See, the Bible says that God laughs at the devil. He laughs at the enemy. Why? Because God knows his end result. God knows what happens to him. He knows that Satan is defeated. And that's the way we can go into every battle is this too shall pass. Why? Because my God is more than enough. He's El Shaddai, He's a way maker. There's nothing my God can't do. There's nothing impossible with my God. So no matter what trial you might be going through, God is more than enough to overcome it. But you've got to look unto him. Keep your eyes on him. He is the joy that you need. Amen. God delivered them from Egypt. God parted the Red Sea. God provided manna daily. And God gave water out of a rock. Instead of remembering those things, what did they do? They started complaining and griping about the next problem. You see, the same God that delivered you 20 years ago is the same God that would deliver you now. Amen. The same God who saved your soul is the same God who will heal your body. Amen. And you've got to know that. You've got to go ahead and put a period where there's a question mark that my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory through Christ Jesus. Amen. You've got to know these things and you've got to put a period there. I always make the period really dark. Put a bold period there. Take away the question marks out of your life. Where you go into a situation, you say, I just don't know how it's going to turn out. Yes, you do. It's going to turn out in your favor. And it's going to produce some things on the inside of you, and you're going to come out better than you've ever came, better than you've ever been before. Think about Daniel when he was putting the lion's den. To most people, that would be very scary and very intense. But to Daniel, that was some fluffy teddy bears or teddy lines that he could snuggle up with at night and go to sleep. Why? Because his perspective was not that they were going to eat him, his perspective is they were going to be there to protect him. Because with God, all things are possible. Those things that were meant to destroy you are meant to propel you forward in life. To give you a testimony that my God, He did it. And He did it again and again and again. And He'll do it again. The scripture shows the result. Fiery serpents came among the people. Complaining didn't just express their frustration, it revealed their hearts. You see, when you're complaining, who are you thinking about? Come on, somebody. Who are you thinking about when you're complaining? Yeah. So what is that? Pride. Because you're thinking about yourself. When you're going through trials, come, I'm almost say it. I'm gonna say, when you're going through something, get you off your mind. First thing you need to do. I'm going, I my my I'm just in so much, I'm I'm I'm just in so I've I've had I I get eye off your mind, get your eyes on Jesus. The quicker you get your eyes on Jesus and start focusing on the joy of the Lord, the stronger you become, the quicker you get out of the trial. But if you stay in the eye, way down there thinking about yourself, that keeps you in a position where you're not able to receive from God because you become your source. That was better than your amens. Pride makes you your source. I am not my source, I can't fix my problems, I can't fix my situation, but I know someone who can, and I'm gonna keep my eyes on him. A complaining spirit always distorts God's goodness. If you're entertaining a complaining spirit, and yes, that is a spirit, the spirit loves, the demonic spirits love to hear you complain. They love that. They love it when you're just thinking about your problems and you're just concentrated on everything's going wrong in my life. They love that because it's just it's just giving them more fuel to the fire. You keep talking about your problems, guess what? You're gonna keep seeing the same problems. We need to start talking about something else. Start talking about Jesus. Start talking about what the word says. This is what the Bible says, this is what Jesus says. I heard somebody say one time, you know, uh we uh I think um Brother Caps, uh Charles Caps, was talking to someone and uh they were needing to be healed, and he said, Well, well, ma'am, what what scripture are you standing on? And she looked at him, she says, Nothing in particular. He said, Well, that's exactly what you're gonna get. It's nothing in particular. You see, we got to know and what we're believing for. We've got to keep ourselves in a place where we're ready to receive from God. We've got to have the word of God out in front of us. Amen. John chapter 3, verse uh 14, it says this, and as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, thus it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up. Did they lift him up? Yes, they did. Did he go to the cross? Yes, he did. Did he accomplish everything he was sent to accomplish? Yes, he did. So do we know that? Yes, we do. So that we now, because we know that, know that we have a Redeemer who lives. And he's seated on a throne, high and lifted up. And the devil has no more authority over you because he took the keys of death, hell, and the grave, and he gave us the keys to the kingdom, and he said, Whatever you call forth on earth, whatever's in heaven, you can have it. It's yours. You have that kind of authority. We have authority in the name of Jesus to speak forth joy. To call those things that be not as though they are. When you don't feel right and your body isn't listening to you, you just start speaking to your body and telling your body to line up to what the word says about. Amen. Glory to God. When the people repented, God instructed Moses to lift up a bronze serpent. Those who looked at it lived. Those who did not died. There's so many people out there that are trying to do life by themselves, and they're looking to themselves as the source, or they're looking to another man as the source. But I'm going to tell you, stop looking to the government as a source. Stop looking to a family member as a source. They cannot supply all your needs according to what you need. They can't do it, they don't have the power and they don't have the ability to do it. Look to Jesus. Amen. Keep your eyes on him because those who keep their eyes on him live. Don't focus on the snakes, don't focus on your pain. Focus on God's provision. Where you look, it determines how you live. Now I'm going back to James chapter one, and it's gonna get good. When faith is tested, it produces endurance, maturity, and spiritual strength. That means trials are not wasted, they're forming something on the inside of us. So we can count it all joy because God is still working in us. God is still present and God is still shaping us. How can we keep it? How can we count it joy? Because God is producing something on the inside of us and producing strength. So when you're going through a trial, think about it. Oh, he's shaping me, he's making me stronger, he's developing my faith, he's taking me from glory to glory. So I'm about to step out of this season into the next. Amen. I can see that clearly. I hope you can as well. See with your spiritual eyes. He's taking you from one season of your life to another season. When you go through a test, typically that means you're testing out of one grade and you're stepping into what? Another grade. And the same way happens when you're going through a trial, you're going through a test, God is taking you from glory to glory. And you're going to go through a battle to get to that next glory. Don't think for a moment that you won't be tested. You will be tested. The only question is: are you ready for the test? Are you trying to cram right before the test, Jared? Are you ready for the test? Amen. It's like an inside joke. I was telling these guys before, church, and I told, I told uh Kendall this last night. I'm like, you know, you know what we ought to do? We ought to get a video camera. And we ought to put it right in the middle of Jared, Justin, and Jimmy. And just and just push record and just walk away. And that would probably be the most funniest movie ever. We could probably make a lot of money on that. I told Kendall and these guys this morning, I'm like, it'd be like tying three cats' tails together and setting it on fire and just watching them burn. They would be hilarious. Huh? That's awful. I don't mean that in a bad way. Like, I'm not literally burning cats tails. I probably got that saying from Mark, so y'all can go to him. You notice he didn't say count it all hope. You notice how he didn't say count it all faith. He didn't say count it all love. He said count it all joy. Why is that? Because God knows something about joy that we we might not know. And that if your joy levels down, that means your fellowship levels down. One of the prime indicators that you're not being in fellowship with the Lord is that your joy levels down. I can locate you based on your joy. If you're smiling, happy, exciting, you got life in you. Now I don't mean fake, I mean if you're legit legitimately, I know who you are and I can see you're down, I can tell you your fellowship with the Lord's a little down because in the presence of the Lord there's fullness of joy. You can't be in his presence and be in the mully grubs if you know what the mully grubs are. I don't even know what the mully grubs are, but they sound nasty. They don't sound good. I wouldn't eat those things unless Justin smoked them. Then we might. Whatever you smoke, man, it's good. And if you're listening on this, this is not like what you're thinking. If the devil can steal your joy, he can destroy you. And that's where it's at. We've got to keep ourselves smiling, making ourselves stay in that place of joy, keeping ourselves in the presence of God. Because we need to have thankfulness in every season of our life. We need to be people that are thankful. We need to be people that when you see somebody do something good, just say thank you, thank you, thank you. You need to have thank thankfulness at the tip of your tongue all the time. Thank you. Somebody blesses you, thank you. If someone does something nice, thank you. If somebody worships the Lord, maybe Jimmy's up here leading you, thank him. Go to him, say thank you so much for what you do. And I'm not looking for a thank you after the service, but if if a minister says something that blesses you, thank him. If someone's up here preaching, thank him. Thankfulness is a blessing that you have from God that keeps you in a place of joy. We need to be thankful people. When we come to church, we need to be thankful. Man, I'm so thankful when I get here and I see you. It is awesome. When we we get a chance to hang out with you guys, I love it. I thank, I thank God for that. We need each other and we need to stay in a place where if everybody's full of joy and one person's down, guess what? We can build them up, we can raise them up. They won't stay down too long, right? And like she was saying before church or during the announcements, that if you notice someone is not here and they haven't been here for a few weeks, I don't know if you know this, but I'm not a mind reader. Um I'm not a psychic, and I I don't know what's going on in your life, and I just can't pull rabbits out of a hat and trust. And I I need to know these things. So if you know something that's hurting somebody or or someone's going through something, we need to know about it. I just don't know. It's like it's like you men, your wives just think you ought to know what they're thinking. I mean, I've been married 23 years now, and I'll tell you right now, I don't know how that works. And I get it, I get it. It's because you're not listening. I get it, I get it, I know that's what I've been told before, over and over and over again. But I am thankful. But anyways, um moving around. Why are you interrupting me? You're interrupting a lot today. Um we're we're gonna what we're gonna do is um if someone's missing for a while and you notice it, if you get a chance to call them, call them. If you don't know their number, that's fine. Tell us and we'll call them. Um I don't want anyone to feel like they're left out. I don't want anyone to be attacked by the devil and walk away and us not know about it and then get away. Because I love you, and I know this church loves you, and and you might be going through a trial in your life, and discouragement might be trying to set in. We need to know about it so that we can go and we can stand by your side and that joy on the inside of us can rub off on you. So don't don't ever think for a moment they just don't care. We do care, we just don't know. We need to know. So help me out with that. I would that would be great. Um I've got a story. I heard the mm, oh Lord. But it's a good story. It's a story about a mule falling in a well. So there's this old mule. He's walking, just having a great day. And in town, there's this old well that's been dried up. For years, and this mule's walking by and he slips and he falls in this well. He finds himself in a little bit of a pickle stuck at the bottom of the well. The townspeople thought, well, this old mule, he he doesn't have any life in him. There's no way he made it. He's probably dead. And this well, it hadn't produced in years. So let's just go get a bunch of shovels, we'll meet over here and we'll just bury this mule in that well. So what happens is they all get together and they start digging and throwing that dirt in that well. And every time they'd throw that dirt in that well, that mule would shake off that dirt, stomp it down, and say, Thank you. And he kept doing that over and over and over until that well was full. And that mule was standing up at the top of that well and walked right out. And that's exactly what I saw that the other day. I heard the story before, but I thought about that with this message that we need to learn how to shake it off. Stomp on the devil's head and say, Thank you, Jesus, and walk on. And not give the devil any glory, any praise, or any any anything. Just shake it off, step on the devil's head, walk away in joy. Amen. We have the joy of the Lord, it belongs to us. We are not giving it to anyone in Satan's kingdom. It doesn't belong to him and he can't have it. So are you ready to shake it off, stomp it down, and rise higher, raise up higher? If the dirt keeps on coming, that means one thing. You're gonna keep on going higher. Amen. So count it all joy. Every time they throw that mud on you, shake it off and say, there's one joy. Stomp on the devil's head, thank you, Lord. We're going on up. And just keep on going up until there's no more dirt slinging. And you know when that's gonna be? When we go all the way to glory. Because guess what? The devil's gonna keep throwing dirt. Amen. So you might as well just get on board, shake it off, stomp it down, say thank you, and walk in joy. Amen. Because we know something. We have him on the inside, and his name is joy. Let's all stand up this morning. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. If you're in here today and you don't have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, let me tell you something. He is joy. And if you're not experiencing true joy in your life, it's because you don't know Jesus. If you need to know Jesus, want to know Jesus, have never met Jesus, has never have you've never received him as your Lord and Savior, and you're in here today and you want to do that, make that confession today. If that's you, can you please just get up from where you are, come up here to the front. I want to pray with you and lead you to Jesus who is joy. Amen. Amen. If that's you and you want to receive Jesus for the first time, come on up here. I want to pray with you. Amen. Don't ever allow opportunities of a lifetime just pass you by. Because you don't know. I don't know. No one can know exactly when that time will come when you'll be face to face with a judge. And he'll look to you and he'll say, What did you do with the blood of Jesus? Did you receive my son? Or did you reject him? Amen. If you receive the Lord as your Savior, can you say amen? If you have the Lord as your Savior, then you have his joy on the inside of you. So when the enemy comes in, you say, uh, nope. Hold on. I've got the joy of the Lord. He's in me. And his presence is in me, so there's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. But we have to, by faith, shake it off, stomp it, and go up higher. Amen. I want to pray for you this morning and then we'll we'll dismiss. I want to make sure I invite you Wednesday nights. We're growing, we're changing, we're developing leaders, and I want you to be a part of it because I want you to go everywhere we're going. This church is growing, and we're going to need more leaders. We're going to need those who are stepping up to the challenge of entering into ministry. We're going to need more ministers in here. And I don't necessarily mean pastors, but we'll need more ministers and leaders and people who are part of this church so that we can fulfill what God has for us. So I need you here Wednesday, not just because I want people filling the pews, but I want you here because when we work together and we're hearing the same things, then we're unified. And when we speak, we're speaking the same thing. And we're saying the same things about each other, about the community. Like everything we say is one. And you can't get that just one service a week. You probably can't get that on two. You probably need to come all the time. But we need to be unified together as a body so that we know each other. Because I truly believe this church has something special that they're going to do for the kingdom of God. And I think the Lord is preparing us now for what's about to happen. Amen. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I thank you so much for your word today. Lord, I thank you so much that your word does not return void. It is not empty. It is not vain. But when it is, when it has gone forth, it accomplishes the things it was sent to accomplish. And Lord, I thank you that if there's anyone here who is battling depression, battling anxiety, battling turmoil in their mind, that this message will be driven home in their spirits and they'll realize who they are in Christ Jesus and the joy of the Lord is their strength. Lord, I thank you. I thank you. I thank you. We're free. We are free in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. We'll see you Wednesday.

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Thanks for listening. We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out your faith. We'll see you next week.