Services | Rejoice Always

Bulletin

Hymn # 177 “I Am Resolved”

SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 37:1 - 5

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“House of the Lord”
“Only King Forever”
“Over Come”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“God’s Will: Rejoice Always”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection

“Love Is War”
“Praise You Anywhere”

Acknowledgements and Announcements

Sermon Notes
1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18 God’s will is to rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks
Philippians 4:4 We are to rejoice in the Lord always
James 1:2 – 4 Rejoice in various trials it produces endurance
Matthew 5:11 & 12 Rejoice when you are persecuted because of Jesus, you will have a great reward in heaven

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

You will frequently hear parents say that they want their children to be happy. Well the Father in heaven wants more than your happiness. As a matter of fact, He wants not only for your happiness but it was something greater than that and it is His will. Come and listen to what the Father's will is for your life that is greater than happiness.

Series which is a matter of taking certain easy to remember concepts of Scripture in the Bible and taking a look to see how it should affect and change our lives. And we're going to look at one so if you have your Bible and you should turn to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. Basically we're going to concentrate on verse 16 but we'll go to the other verses because of 18. Now we

need to do what God tells us to do. So for instance, the Scriptures tell us and God tells us that we are to believe on the name of Jesus the Son of God. Because He's God and He is, because He's God that revealed Himself in the Scriptures and He is, we should do what He tells us to do. Now what He also tends to do is give us instructions on things to do and then He will give us benefits. So we should believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus is the Lord and He was worthy to believe and to be worshipped. But then He adds the benefit if we do that we will inherit internal life. Now that's a benefit but we should be doing what God tells us to do because God tells us to do it. But He's generous because He gives us benefits even when He tells us to do things that are ultimately in our best interest. And so today we're going to take a look at a very short verse, one of the shortest, and argue whether Jesus wept or whatever.

If you remember back in the day when we looked at Jesus wept, that's three words in the Greek, two in English and this is two in the Greek and two in English. So I guess it qualifies as the shortest verse in the Scriptures but it is something that we should be doing. It says rejoice always. Rejoice is making a manifestation of the gladness in your heart. You are saying out loud and conducting yourself as a person that says I am praising God, I am rejoicing, I am stating with gladness because of who He is and what's happening and so therefore we are told to rejoice. Well when or how long? Always. Not when we feel like it, not when circumstances say oh well now's a good time to rejoice because great things are happening. Now the world loves to look at happiness and happiness depends on happenings. The Scriptures don't concentrate on happiness, it is on joy and we are to rejoice always. And then it says pray without ceasing. Well how do you do that? You have a continuous conversation with God. Well how can I pray and drive? Have you ever had a conversation with a person next to you? You're obviously driving and conversing. Have you ever sung along with the radio? You're obviously doing something along with driving. So there and some of you the way you drive you need to be praying. So we are to be praying without, we are to have a continuous conversation with God. So we are to rejoice always, we are to pray without ceasing and then it says in everything give thanks. In everything, not in most things, not in the good stuff, in everything we are to give thanks and we're gonna take a look at why later but again it says in everything we're to give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. God's will is for us to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing and doing everything give thanks. Now it's funny everybody wonders what God's will is for my life. We tend to think well am I going to be a lawyer or a banker or a doctor or a plumber and we want to know what God's plan is for our life and we wonder well should I make a right turn or a left turn and as one intelligent person once said when you come to a fork in the road take it and so but we're always concerned how is it that we are to move and operate. Well God clearly tells us here are three things that are His will for us in Christ Jesus. We are to rejoice always. Well if you have my perspective y'all ain't doing that all the time. I've seen the hurt and pain and the tiredness and whatever you're not rejoicing you're barely positive but we as believers should be rejoicing always and then we're always to be praying without ceasing and we are to and everything give thanks that is God's will and so my statement is is there are so many people who want a new word from God and I always say I'm having trouble with the ones he's given me already. If I get down rejoicing always and praying without ceasing and in everything giving thanks then I'll ask for something new but he's told us these things are His will and so since He is God and He is then we should do as He instructed us because He is God and He has made us and we should do so but in case you think well maybe this is just one verse by two or three witnesses every word will be confirmed well in Philippians chapter 4 verse 4 which we took a look at the later verses last week it says rejoice in the Lord always our rejoicing should be taking place because of what God is doing when God means and we rejoice in the Lord and again always not when we feel like it not when great things are happening not because we won victory even in defeat we should rejoice in the Lord always and in case we didn't get it he goes and again I say I will say rejoice so if the Scriptures tell us something more than once then maybe it's important for us to do that we need to have this rejoicing and if we are always defeated and in a foul mood and and negative why would the world want anything to do with our God

because we're no different than they are but we are instructed notice again this isn't an option it isn't well on a good times do it it's always and he keeps saying over and over and over always now God is God and God also tells us that there are certain benefits for doing what he tells us to do again he's God and if he tells us to do it then we ought to do it so if God said I want you to push a peanut down the 405 freeway from Golden West to Euclid and you go I don't see what the point is that's not for you to see I don't see what the point is if God said it then you do it because he's God and you're not so God has told us to rejoice always and again I say rejoice but he also will give us some benefits so if you'll turn in your Bibles to James chapter 1 starting with verse 2 says consider it all joy no one consider it think about it think about it consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials now James is going to muddle with us because Paul simply said rejoice rejoice always and again I said rejoice tell he just tells us to rejoice James is gonna say when you face various trials consider it all joy unfortunately what we do is consider well why is God picking on me how come it's unfair just like when we took a look at the end of the gospel of John when Jesus told Peter what to expect it was well what about John always well what about James is saying it's not about what about when you face various trials consider it all joy why knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance the testing of your faith produces endurance now I want to give you a real world example how would I in my present condition run five miles if I ran for any length of time I'd probably have a heart attack so what I would need to do is run a jog for about 25 yards and you go on and whatever you know and then after a period of time then you would run 40 yards and 50 yards and then you would continue increasing your endurance because you are repeating the activity so when I was a younger person and living down in Huntington Beach about a mile or so mile a half from the beach I decided that I needed to get in shape so what I did was and I wasn't as bad a shape as I am now I would run from one telephone pole or one light pole to another and then walk then run from another and walk and as I did that I was able to then start running two light poles and walk in one and then eventually running three poles and walking one because I was building my endurance to the point which I never got I did get to the point because one of the most difficult things about working out and running is when you're out of shape it hurts and all your mind is telling you just stop you know your lungs are crying out your your sides hate because your diaphragm is expanding and everything tells you that you should just stop but if you keep on and keeping on all of a sudden you're able to move longer and further and then all of a sudden which I never got to the stage where you hear runners talking about the endorphins kicking in and how they almost can't run they have to run every day because they don't feel good if they don't because they're in used to the enduring of that and then because of that now they have what they call a runners high. When you face various trials look at it at joy because it is producing endurance producing that ability to go on and on and on so that when more difficult times come it is easier to handle because you have the endurance of faith because it's testing of your faith produces endurance if God never tested your faith at all you would have no understanding of just how deep your faith might be. All we want good stuff good stuff doesn't necessarily produce endurance it might produce happiness it doesn't produce endurance and God is saying this is not a 20-yard dash not even a hundred-yard dash it is a marathon and how is it that we're able to endure a marathon unless we have the endurance that it takes so is it but then notice it says and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. We need to consider all joy because God is in causing endurance producing greater faith so that we might be perfect complete that we lack nothing

sometimes we look at people in our lives that we consider spiritual well how did they become one quote spiritual because they endured the difficulties and trials and tribulations so that they became lacking in nothing perfect complete but we want the easy way out and God is saying no no the easy way out isn't the good way out various trials have a benefit so one of the reasons why we can say in trials yippee Lord I'm rejoicing you in the Lord hallelujah praise God because I now know that when I face the various trials and tribulations I am having greater enduring faith see God gave me a reason to be able to rejoice even in trials and tribulations because he's saying I'm just not mad at you I'm just not ticked off and making you do all these things I am producing in you faith and faith is a very valuable commodity with God so much so that he refines our faith so that it may be like gold that it might be pure Jesus also tells us about these situations and in Matthew chapter 5 which a lot of people talk about it being the blessings that God has given us and and whatever and in chapter 5 verse 11 it's in 12 it says this blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me I want you to noticing you are blessed when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil because of Jesus now there are a lot of you we're just hard to love the most PG way I can say this a lot of you are just gluteus maximus if you don't know what a gluteus maximus is ask me after the service I'll tell you when people don't like you because you're an idiot people don't like you because you're an idiot Jesus isn't talking about people not liking you because you're an idiot they're saying when people don't like you and persecute you and insult you and falsely say things about you because you are a believer you are blessed and then he says this rejoice and be glad now again most of us I can't believe what they say about me it hurts my feelings it's not true Jesus saying rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great he has now given us two different benefits benefit number one when we endure all kinds of trials is because it endure we have enduring faith and then when we face these types of persecutions and insults it produces rewards in heaven that are great now we usually have the wrong perspective the perspective we usually have is I want an awesome mansion I want this you know 37 bedroom 45 bathroom 16 car garage with an Olympic-sized pool and and you know 14 servants and all kinds of stuff and I want to drive a Maserati and then have in my garage a Lamborghini just to say I have one and we think because we have all this stuff it's awesome now if you're really fortunate you might live to be 80 you're really really really really really fortunate you might live to be 102 but I tell you however long you live it's gonna be a lot less than eternity if you are so concerned about what house you live in now why not to be more concerned about the house that he's building for you in heaven and that the rewards that we have and we do there is while we Christians we believers don't face the great white throne judgment we do face what is called the beam of seat this the judgment of Christ and we don't and the example there is like the Olympics what's going on now and what happened is the winner would get a reef sometimes it was a reef of just leaves from a plant which would perish and dry up and die now they're much more permanent to give you gold medals and silver medals and bronze medals but there's that where they stand on the the boxes and they play the national anthem of the and people acknowledge the fact that they won the race or that they came in fastest swimming or whatever the contest might be why don't we want to be on the gold medal box that we might receive great rewards of Jesus those that never fade never perish but it's imperishable and pure the rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great it's not even just a little bit God does nothing partially God is rich in his mercy God in his grace is rich because if he wasn't I wouldn't get it because I don't deserve it but because of the richness of his grace and his mercy it's includes me when God does things he does it with great generosity so when he gives us rewards in heaven it will be great so we should be rejoicing when these difficult times because what's happening going to happen in heaven then he says for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you

notice what this says I would never think that I could be compared to Elijah or Elisha or Daniel or Amos or Obadiah or Haggai and I can be in the same group

because they persecuted the prophets and if they persecute me I'm in that class

now the great thing about the prophets as Jesus said they hated the prophets and killed them then after they did that they talked about how wonderful they are it's kind of like a funeral service everybody talks about how wonderful the guy who is now dead would never say that to his face we somehow become more but in God's economy God gives us greater rewards than we deserve he places this in a group of people that I don't deserve to be in so what do we do it's a simple concept rejoice always rejoice without exception

rejoice when you don't feel like it rejoice when you do feel like it rejoice when you think no one's hearing rejoice when you think no one cares rejoice because that is what he's instructed us to do rejoice because that is his will rejoice because it produces greater faith rejoice because there will become a time when we may be received great rewards in heaven it's a great verse it's true if you have trouble memorizing this verse I can't help you

it's not like I'm asking you to remember Romans chapter 8 just remember two words rejoice always and every single moment we can take that mirror and say am I rejoicing or am I complaining am I rejoicing or am I just saying nothing am I rejoicing because I said I'm a follower of his if I'm a follower of his then I will do what he tells me to do one of the things he's told me to do to rejoice always and I should do that whether there are any benefits or not

but he has given us great benefits now again the problem with rejoicing always

depends on us we have to change our minds and our attitudes it is a war not with others but within ourselves to say I don't care what anybody else is going to do just like Joshua said but as for me in my house we will serve the Lord

well in this situation as for me I will rejoice always and all people God said