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July 9, 2025 • 48 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the joy of being the church. And I'm thankful
for you. I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful that
it's growing, and I'm thankful for all of you who
serve at our church. But I want to talk to
you about the joy. That's what my life is. My
life is filled with joy today because of the church,
and I want to express that to you. I want
to take some time when I'm here in person to
talk about the church. What is the church here for?

(00:23):
On Thanksgiving? I was browsing the web and I came
across this article in the New York Times here with
the title of the article how liberals can be happier,
And we know they could be a lot happier if
they just took their masks off. Anybody know what I'm
talking about. Yes, you breathe a lot easier. Anyway. If
you're liberal and you're here today, I'm so glad that
you're here. If you're conservative, you're here today, We're so
glad that you're here. We're not the church for liberals

(00:44):
or conservatives. We're here for everybody. Okay, But there is
and this article is talking about it in the New
York Times. There is a huge discrepancy. And this is
the writer admitted, between liberals and conservatives on the happiness
on the happiness quotion, we can take that off. This
looks like it's blinding some people's eyes. Guys, take that

(01:05):
off the screen. And it was an average of about
twenty five percent the number of conservatives who were happy
compared to the number of liberals. And the article went
on to say the person writing it was a liberal
trying to figure out how can we be happy because
we want to be happy, and there's nothing wrong with happiness.

(01:26):
In fact, we're just reading a passage here about being joyful, rejoicing,
being filled with gladness. The Bible has many verses about
they're going to go through them today. But there's something
to the secrets of joy. There's a secret to joy
that the writer in that article actually found out. And
what it said basically is conservatives tend to prioritize three

(01:49):
things that give them a greater sense of personal happiness.
And those three things it came down to purpose in
living and faith and family. That if you have a
purpose to live, and it's got to be bigger than you,
and if you have faith in something other than you,

(02:10):
and you prioritize family. That's people who you relate to
you that are close to you, and it can be
a biological family, but it could also be a spiritual family.
Like this, you're more often going to be happier. And
isn't it kind of amazing because those are the three
things I believe that God prioritizes in this institution called

(02:34):
the church. The church is God's family. The church is
a house of faith, and the church is here for
a purpose. And I think that there's nothing better for you.
I mean, I mean, you have a choice right now
to get happy. You can pursue things which give you
temporary happiness. You can pursue glory and fame, which can

(02:55):
give you momentary moments of glory and fame and happiness.
But ultimately, if you do life God's way, I believe
that you will live in the joy of the Lord.
And the joy of the Lord is a gift. Three
things about joy from the scriptures before we get to
the real points. Number one, joy is a god given

(03:17):
gift from God. It's the fruit of the spirit, and
it's the strength of the saints. It's a gift from
God because Jesus said in John fifteen. And I know
I don't have all the passages on the screen today.
I'm going to do a lot of scripture reading today,
but if you want to just jot down the references.
John fifteen ten, Jesus said, if you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love. And then verse eleven,

(03:39):
he says, these things I've spoken to you that my
joy may be in you. Jesus said, I'm telling you
these things. The words of Jesus bring joy into your life.
Why because you know that no matter what you're experiencing
in life, that Jesus is in charge, he's in contral

(04:00):
he's over all, he's working through it all. That there's
nothing you will experience in this world that is detached
from God's purpose and plan and hand a protection on
your life. And I don't know about you, but that
gives me great joy to know that even when life
is a mess, God is gonna turn it into a

(04:22):
message of His glory and goodness. He's a gift of God. Secondly,
it's a fruit of the spirit. Now we should know
this text the Galatians five twenty two that the fruit
of the spirit is love. Joy. Yeah, that's number two.
Joy peace, patience, kind of gentlemen's faith in thiss, goodness,
and self control. Nine gifts of the nine fruits of

(04:42):
the Holy Spirit. And one of them, the second one
in the list is joy. That is that when the
Holy Spirit lives in your life, there should be joy.
And you say, well, I'm a chrishanplive the Holy Spirit,
but I'm not joyful. H Are you filled with the
Holy Spirit? Because the scripture says that we need to
be filled with the Spirit regularly. How do I get

(05:05):
filled with the Holy Spirit. I ask Jesus to fill
me with the Holy Spirit. He said, if you ask,
I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. The Father's gonna
send the Holy Spirit in my name. And so we
ask and we get together with God's people because in
the presence of God's people, the Holy Spirit moves in
our midst. And sometimes I don't know about you, but
sometimes I need the work of the Holy Spirit in

(05:28):
my brother Kenny, when the Holy Spirit and feeling when
I'm not feeling the Holy Spirit in my life. Anybody
with me on that, Like, sometimes I need your faith
to build my faith. Anybody know what I'm talking about.
Sometimes I need your joy to build my joy, because
the worst thing you can do in life is to
do things alone. So as a gift fruit of the

(05:50):
Holy Spirit. And the number three is the strength of
the saints. That great text from me and my eight ten.
The joy of the Lord is our what it's our
strength that when we have Jesus the joy, not joy,
the joy of the Lord is our strength. Now, sadly,
in America today, Sadly, in this most prosperous country on

(06:11):
the face of God's earth, there's a joyless epidemic. People
are more depressed than they've ever recorded in modern history.
And I don't know how long they've been recording it,
so we only can measure it by how long they've
recorded these things. But the happiness, the joy quotient of

(06:34):
our country is bottoming out. I was talking about this
on the deep End this past week. Depression and anxiety
at all time highs. And I was talking about this
stuff before COVID pre COVID eleven percent of Americans. Pre COVID,
eleven percent of Americans were diagnosed with depressive anxiety disorder

(06:57):
eleven percent. That is exact phibiting the emotional physical problems
that come with anxiety, depression, one out of ten. Well,
you go through a global pandemic, a contentious presidential, highly
polarized election, you go through the race rise of twenty twenty,
you go through all the divisive political nonsense that we've

(07:19):
been through for the last twenty months, and on the
out coming out of all of that, guess what happened?
The anxiety depressive quot quadrupled. Americans are four times more
depressed and more anxious than they were before COVID. In fact,
the most depressed, which is kind of ironic, the most

(07:39):
depressed generation or group of people in our country are
the eighteen to twenty four year olds. Literally, fifty two
percent of eighteen to twenty four year olds from the
research that I found, fifty two percent of eighteen to
twenty four year old kids are diagnosed as clinically anxious
or depressed. Now, I don't know about you, but I

(08:02):
remember when I was eighteen, I was not depressed. I
mean eighteen, that's like the best time of your life.
Anybody know what I'm talking about? Mom and Dad pay
for everything. You don't have to pay the electric bill,
you don't have to pay the oil bill, you don't
have to pay the guy I mean, there's no mortgage,
you don't have kids. That's like, hallelujah, God is good.

(08:25):
Every day you're free, you're ready to you can God.
You you get a little bit older, you start you know,
you're driving at eighteen then, but then you can start
having a little fun when you're twenty one. And they
kind of like lift free. In the kind of ironic
that the generation that should be the happiest is actually
the most depressed. And it's kind of ironic that we

(08:47):
have told this generation there's no rules anymore. Like we've
got this false idea that rules bring sadness. No, the
rules bring safety, And we've told a whole generation there's
no rule. All the things that were off limits when
I was eighteen are suddenly not only no longer off limits,

(09:07):
but endorsed by the authorities of our lives, the public schools,
the government. Everybody's saying, have sex with whoever you want,
it's your body, have all the fun you want. Marijuana
is legalized, gambling is legalized. Everybody's just allowed to do
whatever they want, take the rules away, do whatever feels good.

(09:29):
And the entire generation did it, and they realized it
actually sucks. It's not what we're made for. We're not
made for absolute freedom. We're not made to do whatever
we want. Do you know what we're made to do.
We're made to do what God wants. That's why anybody

(09:50):
who says I gotta save you so I can do
what I want, you have not actually met Jesus. He
doesn't save you so that you can do what you
want you can get. He saves you so that you
can stop doing what you want and start doing what
he wants, because what he wants will bless you and
prosper you over the long haul of your life. Amen.
And so I was thinking about the starting this church

(10:14):
here in Apollo Beach is probably and hear me, I'm
not all for emphasize. This is not this is not
over exaggeration. I believe starting this church in Apollo Beach,
Florida was the best thing we could have done, because
the joy of the Lord is available to anyone that
comes through these doors. The church is a place of joy.

(10:38):
I want to give you a couple of scriptures that
prove it. Jesus believed that the church was a place
of joy. Hebrews chapter twelve. We emphasize a lot about
this passage Hebrews chapter twelve, Verse one. It says, since
we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses that
aside every way and sin that clings so easily, and
let us run with endurance the racist step before us.
We emphasize that part of the text, but it goes

(11:01):
on and it says, and looking to Jesus, the founder
and profector of our faith. Next words, who for the what?
Who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross? What is that talking about? What is the
joy that was set before Jesus that empowered him to

(11:22):
go through the hell of the Cross? I mean, I
mean the cross was pure, unadulterated torture that is incomparable
to any torture ever in the history of the world.
And Jesus, I mean they whipped him thirty nine times
with the cat of nine tails, little clays and metal pieces,
with nine tales of a whip. They whip literally, stripped

(11:43):
him of his skin, nailed him to a rugged splintery cross,
dropped him in a hole, spit on him, ripped out
his beard, beat him with rees, nailed him and shunned him,
and rejected him. And the scripture says He went through
all of that for the joy that was set before him.
What was that joy, ladies and gentlemen, that joy was

(12:05):
you see? The scripture says that the Father brings the
church to Jesus. We are brought to Jesus from the Father.
That that that this is why weddings matter. Whenever you
see a wedding and the bride comes down with her,
what with her? What? Who's she coming down with her father?
Her father brings her to the altar and then he

(12:28):
hands her off to the man. That is a symbol
from the scriptures that the father brings the church, the
bride of Christ to the Lord Jesus at the altar
and gives his daughter away to the son, the man
who will take care of her, who lives for her
and dies for her. And ladies and gentlemen, you've got
to understand that that's who you are. If you're saved today,

(12:50):
you are not saved because you suddenly had an epiphany.
You suddenly decided to get your life right. You suddenly
decided to choose Jesus. No, you didn't choose Jesus. Jesus
chose you, and the Father brought you to his son
and Jesus went through the hell of the cross because

(13:10):
he was looking down the corners of time at you,
the bride of Christ. Don't tell me the church shouldn't
be a place of joy. If Jesus finds joy in us,
we should be finding joy in us. Amen. The scripture
says in Philippians one, and this is not on the
on the screen, Paul saying to the church and PHILIPPI, therefore,

(13:31):
my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy
and my crown, Oh, this is on the screen Philippians four,
verse one. He calls them my joy. Paul planted this church,
started the church, minister to this church, and he loved
the church, and he called the church his joy. Tewod
Corinthians two two. He says, if I cause you pain,
who's there to give me joy except you? In other words,

(13:53):
let's not wound each other as the church. Why because
if I wound my brother or sister and Christ and
I create division between us, who do I got left
the world? That's all I've got left, And the world
is anxious and depressed. We just determined that. So that's
why you gotta heal the relationships between believers. You gotta
work toward reconciliation. Amen, We're gonna do whatever it takes

(14:18):
to bring people back into the fault. In fact, our
year's theme for next year, twenty twenty two is called
come Home, Come Home, And I think after twenty months
of division and separation and isolation, it's time for the
church to say to the world and those who are lost,
come home working for reconciliation. Because I believe all that

(14:40):
anxiety and all that depression is because we are in
a very christ less society, and we've got the answer
to joy Saw one two. I was glad when they
said to me, let us go to the House of
the Lord. Right. I was glad when they said let's
go to the House of the Lord. I don't know
about you, but I love coming to church. When Sunday
comes around and I'm not sitting there saying, oh, I

(15:02):
gotta get to you, I'm excited to come to church.
I need to come to church. And even when I
feel like I don't need it, that's probably when I
need it the most. And sometimes, yes, there are a
few Sundays a year I won't tell you which ones
they are when I do have to force myself to
get there. But those are the Sundays when I'm most
glad I went because all that depression and all that

(15:24):
sadness and all that weight comes off as I experienced
the life of Jesus through the life of the Church.
And so we're glad to be here because of the
House of God. And Isaiah fifty six. Look at this text.
This is a prophecy of the Church. This is written
eight hundred years before Jesus, and it says in foreigners
who join themselves to the Lord, foreigners non Jews. I

(15:45):
say it was a Jew prophetess, line of Jews. And
he says, listen, foreigners, non Jews, that's you people, anybody
who's not a Jew today, here's who he's talking about.
Eight hundred years best foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love name of the Lord,
and to be the servants everyone who keeps the Sabbath
and does not profane and holds fast my contant. These

(16:05):
I will bring to my holy mountain. And look what
it says here, and make them what m joyful. I'm
gonna make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their
burnt offerings and sacrifice will be accepted on my altar.
From my house will be called a house of prayer
for who all people's not just Jews. The nations come

(16:26):
through Jesus Christ, the true Jew, who was given for us. Amen.
And when we come, we receive joy. Peter back to
One Peter. If you've got your Bibles, you can open
that up again. One Peter, Chapter one. He's writing to
church people in the first century, and I want you
to show you how he introduces himself to these people.
First Peter, Verse one. It says this Peter and apostle

(16:47):
to Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of
the dispersion. Who's he writing to? He's writing to elect
exous of the dispersion? And then he names the cities
there in Pontius, Galicia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bethinnia. Galaci is an area,
not a city, but anyway, five regions are five cities
that he's writing to. And he calls these people elect

(17:10):
what exiles? Why are they called that? Why does Peter
open his letter and say he's writing a letter to
the church. He says, I'm writing to people who are
elect exiles. Like, first off, first word elect, That means chosen.
That's what Israel used to call themselves. They still call
themselves out the elect of God. They have been chosen

(17:31):
by God to glorify God and show the world who
God is. Now, Peter, writing to Jews and Gentile, says,
you guys are the elect. The Church is true Israel.
The Church is the true people of God, Jew and Gentile.
That we all have one Father, one Lord, one baptism,

(17:53):
one salvation in Jesus Christ, the two become one. That
was what if Jesians chapter two is all about the dividing.
All of his hostility between Jew and Gentile has been
torn down through the blood of Jesus. And now one
group of people, Jew and Gentile like come to the
Father through the blood of Jesus, and so he calls them. Now,

(18:14):
you guys are now the chosen people. By the way,
every gentile in this house who thinks that you need
to marry a Jew to be blessed, you are disconnected
from the Gospel. Because the Gospel preaches that through Jesus Christ,
we are all sons of Abraham. That means you have
a promise from the Father to be blessed and prosperous

(18:36):
through your spiritual father Abraham, who has been adoptive to
you through Jesus Christ, his true son. That means you
don't need to have friends who are Jewish to be blessed.
I don't don't. I don't demean that have Jewish friends
of you on. But there's a lot of Christians. They
get caught up in this stuff. And I've heard of
this stuff. They want to hire Jews for their business
because they think that will bring blessing to their business,

(18:56):
or they want to, you know, marry Jews or be
friends with Jews because their God chosen. That's nonsense that
they're Yes, they are God's chosen natural people. But now,
through Jesus Christ, we are all sons and daughters of Abraham,
and we all have his promises in our lives, promises
to be fruitful, promises to be a blessing to the nations. Right,

(19:18):
these are our promises now. But then he calls them exile.
Somebody said exiles. What's an exile? And exile is someone
who's living where they don't belong. And that's who you are,
That's who Christians are. We are chosen by God. Now
look at the nature of this chosen and elected by God,
but at the same time strange to this world, not

(19:42):
home yet. I mean, I don't know about you, but
it seems like every time I turn on the television,
I feel more and more foreign to this culture, more
and more foreign to this world. And the reason why
is because I am I am chosen by God. But
the God of this world is the devil, and he
used to be my daddy, and he's not my daddy anymore.

(20:04):
I've been adopted into God's family, but I'm still here physically.
So you're always going to you and listen to me
very carefully. The Christians, You're always going to feel uncomfortable
a little bit and sometimes a lot, like some of
you are thinking about, I gotta go back to work tomorrow.
Oh my gosh, I gotta see them again. Yes, you're

(20:27):
strange to this world. Some of you just came from
a Thanksgiving dinner that was very contentious because of the
vaccines and because of the pandemic and the mask and
this and arguing, and you're like, I just want to
get away from these people. And it's because, you know why,
because they're not actually your family anymore. Your family is

(20:52):
the family of God. And that's why I love that
this building was open on Thanksgiving for some people well
in our church to come and have Thanksgiving with their
holy heavenly family over here in the fellowship. Paul, Praise
God for that. But this is what Peter is writing
to and he's telling them, I know you feel strange.

(21:15):
I know you feel like you don't belong. You don't belong,
you belong to God. But I want to write to
you because you're the church. You're the place where God
wants you to find joy. So how do we find
joy in a depressive culture? Through the church. Three priorities
of the church. And this is why I believe the
best thing we could have done to Apollo Beach was

(21:36):
to plant this church. Three priorities. What are we here
to do? What brings the church and what brings people joy?
Three things, then we're done. Number one, the church is
called to worship, So why are we here. We're here
to worship and love the Lord. That's why you come

(21:58):
to church. Okay, you don't. You don't come to church
to check off religious boxes for you for your application
to get into heaven one day. You're not here to
try to outdo your bad this week by coming here.
This morning and say, okay, I went to church. So
hopefully my good and coming to church today has erased

(22:22):
a few of my mistakes from Monday through Saturday. No, no, no,
we're here because we love the Lord, and worship is
our first priority. Worship the old English worthship, what's worth
it to you? Deuteronomy six, verse five. Moses said to
the people, you shall love the Lord, your God with

(22:45):
all your heart, your soul, and your strength. That's the
first priority of every Christian. What's my first priority? My
first priority is to love the Lord. Now listen to
me very carefully. Moses did not give that law to
the Jews, to the Israelites until they had been saved
from slavery. The order is important, because this is important.

(23:10):
He did not go, he did not go into the
nation of Egypt and talk to those Jewish slaves, those
Disareeli slaves. And he said, listen, if you guys start
loving God, if you start loving him like you should,
he'll get you out of this slavery. No, no, no.
The Lord came in with Moses and ten miraculous signs,
and he delivers the people, and he leads them through
the Red Sea, and they come to the mountain of

(23:32):
God's presence. And the first law is this love the Lord.
Why because we don't love God to get things from him.
We love God because we know we have all things
from him already. We love God because of who he
has done, what he has done for us, and who

(23:53):
he is to us. And so we don't come into
this room to be religious and to go through the
motions and check some spear rtual box off for the week.
We come into this room because we know who we
are is all because of who he is and what
he has done. I'm saved, I'm delivered, I'm chosen, I'm

(24:15):
born again. I'm his child. Praise Jesus. He has set
me free from sin and condemnation. He has transferred me
from the kingdom of darkness and brought me into the
Kingdom in one of his life. And I don't have
hell in my future. I've got heaven in my future.
And no man can pluck me out of the hand
of Almighty God. Thank you Jesus. Jesus affirms this is

(24:39):
the first commandment Matthew twenty two, verse thirty seven. You
shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength. So what is worship. I had this idea
about worship in the church, and I want you to
write this now. Worship is keeping the Lord most important.
Why do we come here on the first day of
the week because we are today we are giving our

(25:00):
first fruits of our time to the Lord. He's getting.
Today's a new week, amen, last week's over. This is
the first day of the week. By the way, worship
starts on the first day of the week, because Jesus
rose again on the first day of the week, and
so the day of rest for God's people moves from Saturday,

(25:23):
the last day of the week, to the church's first
day of the week. Because here's this. Listen to this.
We don't work all week to get to rest. We
work from the rest that God has already provided for
us in Jesus. So you're going to work tomorrow, maybe

(25:43):
some of you tonight, and I know you're like, oh,
please stop reminding me, or you know whatever, and it's like, okay,
but listen, you gotta understand that that work when you
set God first, when you put Him first, is now
blessed and empowered by His presence in your life. You
need to claim those promises of Abraham I'm telling you something.

(26:04):
You gotta claim those promises. I'm chosen. I'm going to
that workplace, a chosen representative of the most High God.
My Father is with me. Jesus has for me. No
weapon on this earth that is formed against me shall prosper. Amen.
Greater is he that is in me than he that
is in the world. Jesus came that he might destroy

(26:26):
the works of the devil, and this world has no
hold on me. When we worship, we keep Jesus most important. Now,
notice I said keep, not make because you cannot make
God most important in your life. You cannot. No one
can make God most important. Do you know why he
already is? God is most important no matter what you think, Amen,

(26:54):
I mean He's overall, in all, through all, and for all.
In all things are created for him and by him
and through him. I mean he is everything. He's not
in everything, but everything is about him. And even to unbelievers, listen,
God is most important. You know why because he will
determine their eternity. They're gonna spend a lot of time

(27:16):
in hell because of God. So what worship is worship
is reminding yourself that the Lord is most important, Keeping
him most important. What does Peter say? One Peter one three,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Blessed.
That's worship. I'm worshiping God for you, for what He's

(27:40):
done in you. Psalm ninety two, Verse one. It is
good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing
praises to your name. That's what we're doing right now.
That's what we just did in this moment. We're worshiping
and giving praise to God and singing to him. Some
people don't sing in church, and I never understand that,
because they'll sing almost anywhere else. You know what I'm saying.

(28:04):
You'll go to somebody's party and they'll sing Happy Birthday,
and you, out of tune, will offer your services. Yeah right.
You go to the sporting events, you go up here
to the Tampa Bay Bugs, and if they sing, if
they have a song, oh you sing that. Up in Boston,
they'd play Sweet Caroline at the bottom of the eighth

(28:25):
inning every game, Sweet Caroline. A bunch of drunken weirdos
singing Sweet Caroline. Every Who the heck is Caroline? And
what does she have to do with baseball? It doesn't
matter it's being played. Let's sing. Some of you will
sing in the shower. Right When you're a child, you
easily sing the songs. The wheels and the bus go

(28:46):
round and round, round and round, round and round. My
son was showing me a YouTube channel, and the most
viewed YouTube video right now is a video of the
wheels on the bus go round and round. Three point
eight billion views to the wheels on the bus go
round and round? Why? Because children love to sing? What

(29:07):
is it about we get older and we stop singing.
Maybe we need to start singing when we don't feel
like singing. Adults. Oh, I'm an adult now, I'm too old
to sing. No, you're a child of God. Sing make
melody in your heart now some of you you shouldn't
sing with a microphone, amen, Okay, but sing out there

(29:31):
all you want. Praise God and sing loudly and rejoice,
because the scripture says it is good to sing praises
to your name. It is good. It's not bad, it's good.
And I guarantee you start singing, you'll change the reality
of your inward being. Verse three, to the music and lute, harp, liar, melody,

(29:53):
liar for your Lord, have made me glad by your
work and at your works, I sing for what? For joy?
Do you understand that if you don't feel joy, you
can sing your way into it? You can? There is
a physiological fact. This has been proven by science, and

(30:16):
I love it because science always backs up the Bible.
Anybody tells you that the Bible and science are incompatible
is lying to you. Fabricated science is against the Bible,
like evolution fabricated science. But true science always backs up
the scriptures. When you smile, endorphins released, or I mean,
the serotonin hormone is released in your brain and you

(30:38):
suddenly feel happier. Did you know that that God has
programmed your body to control your emotions? I want to
say that again. God has programmed your body to control
your emotions. So that means that you are not what
you feel feelings coming to go. In fact, you can
all change your feelings right now by just smiling. Smile.

(30:58):
Go ahead, let me see this. P whites. Okay, some
of you, don't show me the whites. Just smile, closed
my mouth, just kidding. It's good to smile, right. Many
of Jesus's parables were very humorous. We don't know them.
Because there there's a lot of context to the first
century that we don't get. There's a lot of humor
in Jesus. There's a lot of humor in the Bible.

(31:21):
There was a prophet who wanted to go curse God's people,
and he was riding a donkey on the way, and
the scripture says that the donkey wouldn't go, and he
starts beating the donkey. We know the story. Balem starts
beating the donkey, donkey starts going again, stops and crushes
his head again, his his leg against the wall. He
beats the donkey a little bit more, he goes a
little further. The doct just stops, all right, because this

(31:41):
guy is going to go and prophesy curses on God's people,
and the donkey won't let him keep stopping, and he
starts whacking the donkey. What the heck is wrong with you?
And the donkey starts speaking, and the donkey literally says,
when have I ever disobeyed your commandments? Like this is
a god. And the funny thing is not that the
dog he's speaking. The funny thing is that the prophet

(32:02):
starts having a conversation with the donkey He's like, well,
I'm wondering what's going on? He I mean, they just
have this back and forth with this donkey. It's funny.
Why Because humor heals the heart. Joy is good for you,
and God wants you to be people of joy. That's
why we worship. That's why we come into this room.

(32:23):
Make let me just say it like this, Let me
apply this practically for you. Make Sunday morning worship non
negotiable for your family. We talk to all the men
in the house, all the men. It's time for the
men to be men. And if you want to be
a real man, bring your family to church on Sunday.

(32:43):
As for me and my house, we will what sir
the Lord and I've shared. I shared a couple of
weeks ago about the statistics that the highest percentage of
kids that grow up in Christian families that become Christians
later life are the families where the father is a
committed believer. If dad prioritizes the Lord's work, the kids

(33:03):
will prioritize the Lord's work more than anything else. That's
the number one contributor to faith later in life. Number two.
So worship number two. The church is called to discipleship.
So what are we doing here. We're discipling people. Discipling people.
That's what our church, that's what our church exists to do.

(33:26):
By the way, the word discipleship, there's two words that
are associated with that number one disciple, and there's a
second word, discipline. A disciple is someone who receives the
Lord's discipline, and discipline helps shape our activity, helps shape

(33:52):
how we live now. Even Scripture in Hebrews chapter twelve
admits that discipline at the time is not enjoyable. I thought,
you love the fact that the scriptures honest, like I
love that. It's not Hinduism. It's not like you're gonna
love nothing and love love nothing. Right, the scripture is honest.

(34:16):
You're gonna get disciplined by the Lord, and it's gonna
be painful, and it's not gonna be enjoyable. But if
you let the Lord discipline you, it will produce a
harvest of righteousness and joy in your life. So here's
what Peter says one Peter one fourteen. As obedient children,

(34:38):
do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
In other words, you're no longer living like the world,
but as he who's called you is holy, So be
holy on all your conduct, since it is written you
shall be holy for I am I am holy. Okay,
discipline definition, write this down. Discipleship is training to live
God's way. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. Most of

(35:00):
your long term pain is because of some area of
your life that's not disciplined in the Lord's way. So
one of the ways that we have a lot of
pain in our world today is money. Money stresses us out,
money frustrates us, money causes us grief. There's never enough money.

(35:21):
And the reason why for many Christians God's people is
because they never give God their money. And I'm not
talking about the tenth that's just the tithe. I'm talking
about the whole thing. It's all his. And if you
live according to that, and you live with God in mind,
you spend money with God in mind, you pay your

(35:44):
bills with God in mind, I'm telling you it's going
to go far better for you in the long run.
But this world fights tooth and nail against that philosophy.
This world is by now, pay later. This world is
zero percent issues for eighteen months. This world is the slave.

(36:06):
The borrower is slave. To the lender, and slavery is
not what God has in mind for you. He wants
you to have freedom as the sons and daughters of
Living God. Amen, and so discipline. Another way we are
miserable is because of our relationships. Wow, you're playing way
too early, dude. I'm sorry, Joel. I'm gonna be a
little bit longer. Don't get your hopes up. Sorry, he's

(36:28):
trying to nudge me over here. I still got a
whole nother point. Thank you for being here. He's on it.
Praise God. He's disciplined. I got a lot to say.
I'm sorry. Discipline, all right, focus back up here. There's
another way we need to be disc and that is
in our relationships. Our relationships are out of whack. Like,

(36:53):
for instance, some of you need to hear this today.
Your closest friends are unbeliever and that is not what
God wants for you. You don't reject friendships with non believers.
That's not what I'm saying. They just must not be
your closest relationships. You have to have relationships with the

(37:16):
world so that you can win them to Christ and
influence them for Christ. But your closest relationships have to
be the people who are sold out to Jesus who
love the Lord. And I guarantee you if you are
miserable in churches, because you are more tied to people
who have no love for the Lord, and they will
take you down a road of misery and confusion. Now,

(37:38):
discipline is the missing or the lost art of today's church.
I hate to say this, but discipleship is a lost
art of today's church. Today's churches want to just encourage, encourage, encourage, encourage,
and a lot of preachers that's all they want to do.
I just want to encourage you, Just want to encourage you,
and thank God for encouragement. We need encouragement, but sometimes
we need rebuke. Sometimes we need preacher to say something

(38:01):
we don't want to hear. Amen. I never pray God,
help me to say something they want me to hear,
they want to hear. Help me to say something that
they need to hear, because when you hear what you
need to hear, it'll save your life. Right. Discipline is
when I say something from the screen or from the
pulpit and he goes right here and you get all.

(38:24):
I want you to know that the problem is not me. Okay,
if it comes from this book. Okay. If it comes
from this book and you say, well, that's not my opinion,
the problem is your opinion. If your opinion does not

(38:45):
jive with this book. The answer, the disciple says, change
your opinion. I need to change what I think, how
I'm living, training my life to live God's way Matthew
twenty eight nineteen. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations right,
baptizing them and the Father's and the Holy Spirit. And
then look at verse twenty what teaching them to what

(39:08):
observe all that I have? What commanded you that if
we're gonna be the church, we need to be teaching
God's people how to live the way Jesus taught us
to live. Now, let me say something, because you're a
young church. That's very important to have a healthy church.
Listen to me very carefully. There is a way that

(39:28):
Jesus told us to deal with people who hurt us.
It's in Matthew chapter eighteen. Okay, and I want to
unpack this because we are a young church and its important.
It's important for you when someone sins against you, Jesus says,
you go to that person and you show them what

(39:50):
they did again. Young church, y'all don't know each other
that well. Believe me, give a time, you're gonna hurt
one another. You're gonna sin again to one another. So
you don't do what the world does and get on
Facebook and do the little covert little post that's really

(40:12):
aiming at them. Right. Don't you just hate it when
someone blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,
and you're telling all these people that are your friends,
all the world is watching you have this emotional breakdown
over the hurt that you experienced from this one person,
and everybody's like, why is this person posting this on Facebook?
And then you might have said, oh, like with you,

(40:35):
prayer hands praying for you, Oh God bless you. You'll
get through it. All things work together for good. No,
the person should not be talking about on Facebook. The
person should be going to the person like Jesus commanded
us and telling them this hurt me. Amen. I just

(40:56):
say that, because no matter how many times I say it,
the church is still gonna go this is and gossip
and slander each other. And you want to you want
to get your little team of group of people. Hey,
they did this. Don't you think it's awful? Yeah? I
think it's awful. Yeah. And before you know what, there's
factions and there's divisions in the church, and that's not
what we're supposed to do. Go to the person. Well,
what if they don't listen. Well, Jesus has more to

(41:18):
say in it, Matthew eighteen. He says, bring a brother
or two with you. By the way, make sure that
what they did was sin. A lot of times we
get offended over things that aren't sin. Oh they didn't
like my mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, Okay, that's not sin.
Oh they commented about my hair do is awful, that's

(41:39):
still not sin. In fact, they might be right. Have
a little humility, Okay, make sure it's sin. Then you
bring somebody else, and then if they don't listen to
those people, then you bring it to the church so
that the church and the elders can handle the sinful issue.

(41:59):
That's how you handle conflict. And that's just one example, friends,
of how the church needs to be disciplined and taught
to observe what God gives us. Okay, how does God
train us? Got to move on? Letter A in your notes,
God trains us through scripture. I've already talked about that enough.
That's two Timothy three sixteen to seventy that all scriptures
God breathe profitable for teaching, training and righteousness, correction and reproof.

(42:25):
Scripture should correct and teach, Scripture should rebuke and train both.
And okay, God trains us letter b through grace. This
is Titus two eleven. Titus two eleven says the grace
of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training
us to renounce worldly passions and ungodliness. God gives you

(42:47):
grace to say no to this world. Some of you
have a hang up, you have a repetitive sin, You
have this debilitating issue, and I want you to know
that God gives you grace to train you to say
no to it. Sometimes the grace is the horrible feeling
you have after to know this is not who I am.

(43:07):
Sometimes the grace is the supernatural empowerment to reject it
and resist it in Jesus' name. By the way, the
scripture says, when you're tempted, when the devil comes against you,
we do two things. We submit to God and we
resist the devil. Listen, James, so when you're tempted the
devil's coming against you, you submit to God. This is

(43:28):
your life, this is your body. I'm your servant. And
then you resist the devil. You say, in the name
of Jesus Christ, get away from me, devil, in the
name of the Lord, rebuke you. You have the weapons you
need to say no to the devil. Okay, And then
number letters. See God trains through trials, and that's the
one we don't like, but that's true, and that's all

(43:48):
over the Bible. And so some of you are going
through a hardship, a tough time right now, and it's
just rocking your world. And maybe you're praying more than
you ever have before. Can I tell you that's that's
a good thing. God's training you and shaping you through
that trial, and the result is blessing. Look at Psalm
one nineteen to two. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,

(44:10):
who seek them with all of their heart. So worship discipleship.
Here's number three. What's the church for three priorities of
a joyful church? Fellowship. The church is called to fellowship.
Somebody say fellowship. Fellowship is two fellows in a ship. Amen,
and uh, This is why we're going to do regular

(44:32):
fellowships after church on Sunday, December eighteenth is the next one.
Bring a friend, free food, Come on, somebody one Peter
two nine. Now, Joel, you can make your way to
the keyboard. Amen. Some of you were worried it was
never gonna end, weren't you? It says you verse nine,
You are a chosen race. All this race stuff right

(44:55):
now in our world, all this pit the news media
and the politicians are pitting us against each other. Wake up.
Not everything is racist. There is racism, and it is
absolutely evil, But we are all the same race, human race,

(45:22):
some black, some white, some in between. And the church
is not for one racist, for the human race. And
when you turn on CNN and Fox News, I want
you to know you are just being trained to hate
other people. That's why you need the word of God.

(45:43):
Jesus said, love your enemies. Now I don't see that
in our culture right now. The only place you're gonna
find people willing to do that is in the Church
of Jesus Christ. Do you know why, Because there was
time when Jesus was our enemy. We were at odds

(46:04):
with God. We were enemies by nature. Children of wrath.
The Bible says, and he laid down his life for
his enemies when he was hung on that cross. What
did he say, Father, forgive them? He didn't say, Father
judged them, Father, send them to hell. Father get rid
of them. Father vindicate me, he said, Father, forgive them,

(46:24):
for they know not what they do. And I'm telling
you something. We've got to be the church here, no
political arguments, no getting into it without each other. At
your fellowships and at your small groups. Let it go.
The scripture says that God establishes kings and he removes kings.

(46:45):
That's Daniel Chapter four. So, ladies and gentlemen, last November,
God removed Donald Trump and established Joe Biden. And I
don't care which guy you liked and which guy you hated.
That was God's doing. Because God, God will use the
leaders the way he wants. We are the Church, and

(47:07):
we know that whoever is our human leader has a
heavenly leader, and that leader is Jesus Christ, the Lord
of Lords and the King of kings. Amen, you're quiet,
so I know I'm preaching. Write this down. Fellowship is
alignment with the Lord's family. It's alignment my life is

(47:28):
aligned to the family of God. I always love this
passage from Second Corinthians, chapter two. Paul says, when I
came to Troaz to preach the Gospel of Christ, even
though a door was opened for me and the Lord
look at this, my spirit was not at rest because
I did not find my brother Titus there. I love
that text. So it says I took leave of them
and I went on to Macedonia. Here's Paul, the Apostle,

(47:51):
Ladies and gentlemen. This man could go anywhere, he could
do anything, He could preach to anyone, but not alone.
Not alone. He says, I had this opportunity, That's what
he's saying here. I had this open door, and I
had a chance to tell people about Jesus. But my
brother Titus was not there, and so I left it

(48:16):
because I can't do this alone. I just wanted to
write this down. Paul could go anywhere and preach to anyone,
but he needed his brothers and sisters in Christ. And
if the greatest apostle that ever lived needed fellowship to
get the job done, so do you
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