Baptist Grove Church | Happy Feelin's | Dr. Phillip L. Pointer, Sr.| 8am Service

[Music] hey family welcome back we are so happy you are here to worship with us i'm here with minister cynthia she's been here a lot longer than i have but i have the pleasure of introducing her today so yeah tell us what you do yeah so aside from leading worship on sundays i am also the outreach coordinator so i'm making sure that we are in the community and responding to the needs that are out there that's awesome well you're definitely a blessing to a baptist grow so who is the food pantry serving so overall we serve about 30 to 50 households and so within those households there are children there are seniors we have cancer patients who are also being served and a lot of our members the cool thing is are picking up groceries for people who are unable to get to us so yeah we serve a variety of folks every second and fourth saturday that is awesome if you would like to be a part of that sign up at the link below and you can come out and help with the food pantry so tell us about the love for neighbor food drive what and when is that yeah so our love for neighbor food drive is um bgc's opportunity to restock the pantry the pandemic has just increased the need and so we're going through a lot of groceries very quickly so it's just our opportunity to restock the pantry and that's going to be this this saturday coming up on the 25th and you can just sign up with the items that you want to donate the cool thing about our grocery list that we've put together is that it's based on what our guests are always using or commonly using and so from that from that assessment we make our grocery list that you can shop from so if you want to participate you can go online shop through our grocery list and drop off your items on the 25th at the food pantries in the fellowship hall if you don't have time to shop it's not a problem just go to our giving page and you can give that away real simple that's awesome well thank you so much for giving us all that great information so let's jump into worship let's do it [Music] good morning baptist grove family and to all of you that have tuned in to this virtual worship experience i don't know about you but i am excited about what god is going to do in this place i am in great expectation of his magnificent healing his power his shaving grace and most of all his mercies father we thank you today for this golden opportunity again to come into your presence just one more time declaring that you are great you are awesome you are magnificent you are the great i am and we just come to lift up your holy and righteous name today father we pray god that you would inhabit our worship that you would inhabit our praise oh god be pleased with our worship be pleased with our praise o god we pray right now no lord that you will touch heal and deliver anybody oh god that is watching that is tuned in to this experience and we ask all of this with the forgiveness of sin and it is in jesus mighty name we do pray amen and amen well it's time to give our god a great praise this morning i don't know about you but i'm excited and when i get excited i go overboard so i got to think about what i'm talking about hallelujah hallelujah but the song said if i had a thousand times it would not be enough to give our god a great praise come on come on y'all ready here we go hallelujah the song says the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i feel and who shall i be afraid right here it says the lord is my light in salvation whom shall i fear whom shall i be afraid but lord is my light and salvation whom shall i fear of whom shall i be afraid i will wait on you i'm going to be waiting on this morning and i will wait on you i will trust in you oh yes i will i will trust in you [Music] shall i be afraid [Music] who shall i be afraid [Music] every day of my life i'm gonna trust i will remain confident in this i will see the goodness of the lord [Music] who shall i be afraid the lord is [Music] i will trust [Music] i will speak the goodness of the lord [Applause] come on somebody see the goodness of the lord in this place [Applause] come on it's a great sunday to give our god a great praise here we go [Music] [Music] you are the everlasting [Music] [Applause] is oh [Applause] god me [Music] oh [Music] yes oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] hey i will remain confident in this i will see i'm gonna see the goodness of the lord yeah i will remain confident in this i will see the goodness of the lord [Applause] hey thank you lord i will wait on you i will trust in you thank you hallelujah i will trust in you [Music] [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you lord thank you lord hallelujah come on hallelujah hallelujah come on hallelujah somebody just declare my hope it's in the lord come on somebody right where you are would you just make that declaration god my hope is in you god my trust is you in you god my confidence is in you because you're great because you're mighty because you're awesome because there's nothing too hard for you come on somebody ought to just open their mouth and bless the lord right where you are because you know he's worthy because you know he's deserving because you know he's deserving and worthy of all praise honor and glory father [Music] we set our hope on you this morning we set our love on you this morning father we gather in worship to lift your name on high god you are the one in whom we hope you are the one in whom we trust you are the one in whom we look to o lord god we thank you god that you are the strength of our lives god we thank you that you are the light of our lives we thank you god that there's no darkness god that you can't illuminate god we thank you god that there's no situation that you cannot overcome we thank you god that there's no circumstance that you cannot turn around god we thank you that there's no chain you can't break that there's no situation that's gone left that you can't make go right god we praise you this morning because our hope our confidence our trust is in you god it's in you god no other help do we know there's no one else who can deliver there's no one else who can make ways there's no one else who can set free there's no one else who can restore so father we lift up our voices to you we lift up our hearts to you we lift up our worship unto you and we say have your way god we say move how you want to move god god we surrender to your presence we surrender to your power we surrender to your spirit god we ask that you would meet us wherever we are on today god that we might experience the transformational power that comes from an encounter with you lord we want to encounter you today god we want to experience you today and so we lift up our praise asking that you would meet us where we are and lord we ask that you don't allow us to leave the same way we came but lord healed today set free today renew today revive today restore today heal today and we'll be careful to give your name praise honor and glory it's in jesus name we pray amen amen and amen hey bgc family thanks so much for joining us today for worship yeah if this is your first time just type first time in the chat or give us a i'm new or maybe you've already been here just write it in the chat below and let us say hey to you that's right listen we're so glad you're here and we have a lot that's happening here at bgc so let's jump in life groups are back this sunday that's right today our life group registration is opening for our fall cycle of life groups here at bgc we believe that life is better when we do it together and that discipleship does not happen in crowds but discipleship happens in small groups so make sure that you go online the link is below and register for a life group today speaking of life groups if you're interested in leading one we have several groups that cover a wide variety of topics and life circumstances such as social justice moms we have a golf life group a life group for grief but there's definitely still room for more so life group leader training is saturday september 25th that's this saturday from 10 a.m to 12 30 p.m we'd love to see you there if you would like to lead a life group as bgc continues our 2021 plans to feed those in our community who are facing food insecurity the life harvest food pantry is reaching out to ask for your donations to help make this possible the love for neighbor food drive is back and we need you to show off your love for your community there are two ways for you to help you can go to baptistgrovechurch.org slash food pantry and sign up for as many items as you wish to donate then drop those donations off on saturday september 25th at bgc between 10 a.m and 12 p.m or if shopping isn't something you are able to do at this time you can give directly to the live harvest food pantry and the team will purchase the items for you either way we are grateful for your generosity and we know you are making a difference in our community listen we want to thank all of you that gave to the relief efforts here is a special thank you from minister cynthia [Music] did not tell you that caring is what we do family you hurt the needs of those affected by hurricane ida and the earthquake in haiti and you responded with a tremendous outpour of love because of your generosity bgc is sending 2 100 to world central kitchen so that they can serve hot meals to residents whose food is spoiled people and shelters first responders and volunteers helping people pick up the broken pieces and recover to all who gave thank you for putting your faith into action thank you for digging into your own resources to lighten the load of someone else thank you for the prayers you lifted for restoration and recovery thank you for being a blessing beloved hallelujah we give the lord praise for today and what the lord is doing in the midst of worship we're grateful for all that's happening here the church specifically for our ability that god has given us to be able to meet hunger needs in our community as you heard of the announcements uh this saturday we are having the love for neighbor food drive and listen the only way that we can continue to meet needs in our community specifically as it relates to hunger is through your generosity so we're asking everyone who is able to participate and donate through the love for neighbor food drive the information is on the screen if you want to participate and donate you can go to our website find all of the items that we need for the food pantry to supply it and you can drop off those items on saturday from 10 o'clock to 12 p.m listen again our ability to do ministry and to meet needs in our community is only made possible through your generosity so please everyone who can participate in this initiative because you are going to help put food on someone's table now what time is it what time is it and what do we do we give the lord praise that we have it to give listen family that's not rhetoric that's the realization that all we have comes from god that because of god's faithfulness to us we have a responsibility to respond in gratitude and expression of praise and the bible says that our faithful response to god's financial provision is to give our tenth our tenth the tithe back to god and then also that offering so listen beloved we believe that the offering is an extension of our worship because how we give the lord praise and tell the lord thank you for his goodness in our lives there are several ways that you can give and they're appearing on your screen you can give through our app you can give through text to give you can give online or if you want to you can mail your check into our p.o box we ask that however you choose to give that you just give out of obedience and faithfulness to the lord's goodness and provision in your life let's pray over our offering dear gracious and almighty god we thank you for your faithfulness we thank you god that day after day you continue to make sure that all that we need is provided god we thank you for your faithfulness we thank you god that you continue to make sure that we are covered in that we are cared for and that we are not without so lord as we give faithfully back to you our tithes as we give out of gratitude our offering we pray that you will use it that you will multiply it so that ministry work can continue here at baptist grove lord we pray that our seed that our offering that our tithe would help to lead to someone's salvation lord we pray that our offering that our tithe would help to spark and to fund some new ministry initiative that you are calling us to do lord let what we give make a difference in the lives of your people in this community and in our world it's in jesus name we pray amen dr philip l poynter senior is the senior pastor of saint mark baptist church one of the largest baptist churches in the state of arkansas having now served as a senior pastor for 15 years pastor poynter has grown the saint mark ministry by leaps and bounds achieving major installments of community outreach offerings such as job fairs financial stewardship classes record expungement seminars and food drives he led the formation of the tendagi community development corporation which provides outreach programs and initiatives that support the entire little rock community such as program impact an after-school program for elementary students and reclaiming scholars in alternatives alternative suspension program for middle and high school students in addition to his assignments at st mark in august 2019 philander smith college appointed pastor pointer to the institutions facility in 2019 as associate pastor of philosophy and religion and chair of the department of philosophy and religion pastor poynter earned a master of divinity degree with honors from the samuel dewitt brocktour school of theology at virginia union university in richmond virginia dr porner resides in little rock arkansas with his wife kia and their three children after this election by our worship ministry the next voice you will hear will be that of the holy spirit as he speaks to his servant dr philip l poynter let us pray for him as he proclaims the word to us glory to the lamb of god thank you holy spirit as we prepare to hear the word of you in jesus name hallelujah [Music] you met me deep in my despair to show me you would never leave me there you claim because i was made for so much more i am your child and i'm worth fighting for so heavy with the weight of my mistakes you carry me [Applause] and refuse to let me think under the pressure you meant for me to soar i am your child and i'm worth fighting for [Music] and nothing can separate me from your love when there's so much more still worth fighting for now i'm moving by faith and not my sight towards victory by [Music] and i'm a worth fighting force [Music] [Music] [Music] that's why you gotta keep fighting [Music] [Music] hey but in the meantime [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] i'm not worried about the troubles [Music] [Music] is is [Music] there's so much more [Music] still [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] can i sing it again sing eyes have not seen yay ears have not heard all you have planned for me come on take it again hey have not seen your ears they have not heard all that the lord's hasn't planned for you but there's so much more still worth fighting for hallelujah hallelujah [Music] grace and peace be multiplied to you from god our father and from the lord jesus christ and we honor our great god christ god's son and the spirit who is our comforter and our guide to my friend and my brother of many years dr vincoli i can bring you to you the baptist grove family it's my joy to pinch hit for pastor this sunday and to be a part of this series of services designed to strengthen and bless the baptist grove family i want to invite you to join me in what might be for many of you a familiar passage of scripture it's psalm 126. psalm 126 is one of those psalms of ascent sung by the children of israel as they would gather in jerusalem during those three mandatory feast days as prescribed by the law and commandment of god psalm 126 is a pilgrim song sung by people who are going up to worship and here in psalm 126 beginning at verse 1 and reading its entirety i believe the lord has a word for us today from this text listen to it from the english standard version of the bible when the lord restored the fortunes of zion we were like those who dream that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy and they said among the nations the lord has done great things for them the lord has done great things for us we are glad restore our fortunes o lord like the streams in the negeb those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy he who goes out weeping bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy bringing his sheaves with him let's pray and then we'll seek to unpack the truths that are embedded in this text and hear what the lord will say to our lives father we again approach your throne with deep humility and need asking you lord to speak because your servants are listening i'm begging you lord to pour fresh oil on my head to give me clarity of thought precision of speech please use me as an instrument in your hand then grant all of us what we need to hear to understand and most importantly to obey i pray god that you would save those who are lost you would reclaim those who are backslidden that you would strengthen those who are believers that you would get the glory for yourself this is our prayer in jesus name amen and amen perhaps you're too saved to know this but there is a famous soul group that goes by the name of maize maze featuring frankie beverly had as one of its timeless tombs a major hit called happy feelings that's the tag i want to put on this text today frankie beverly was interviewed by ed gordon in july of 2005 on npr gordon asked frankie beverly if there was a song that if he had to say that's the ultimate maze song what what would be the song that you would say represents you and maize mr beverly responded if someone was to say what depicts the body of maize where maze comes from he said it's happy feelings he says and i quote that is maze i find that remarkable i find it interesting that over the course of their total body of work out of all of the great songs written and sung played by that group all over the world they identify with happy feelings that's there this is my jam jam it's interesting to me because if i believe i believe that if we were to if we were forced to try to find one psalm one song that should depict the attitude and proportion of those of us who are followers of the lord jesus christ among the myriad of famous strong psalms i think psalm 126 with its tone of happy feelings is a very viable and good candidate it's it's what i call a bi-visional psalm it's a psalm that that that looks back at god's deliverance in the past and it also looks forward to god's deliverance in the future what what a song we have before us today that as we think about what god has done and what god will do it should make us sing loud out loud that's that's what the psalm is doing as it's nestled neatly in the psalms of ascent it it is one of the songs sung by pilgrims passengering on their way up to corporate worship not a song sung when they arrived at the temple at the house of god at at the place of sacrifice and celebration but no on their way on their journey these songs of ascent or songs of degrees as otherwise described were also songs sung as they traversed up their way up the the geographical uh hill of zion or or up to jerusalem it's it's people who are both progressing and elevating who sing these songs and as such they are limited in scope friends to those of us who are going forward and going up at the same time and i'd like to suggest that those of us who are going forward in faith and up in our character and our likeness to the lord jesus christ have some similitude to the lyrics of this psalm we can relate to looking back at what god has done and looking forward to what god will do and finding something to celebrate and sing about in in fact friends that's the simple central truth that i'd like to lift from this text and for our time it's that god's experienced and expected deliverance should invoke sincere intense and energetic corporate celebration did you hear it i want to say it again it's god's experienced and expected deliverance that should invoke sincere intense and energetic corporate celebration that that means that that i'm sure i should look back with gratitude and look forward with faith while singing loudly between the two um i i need to i need to look back with gratitude look forward with faith and learn how to sing in the middle while i am progressing and elevating forward and upward in my life's journey i i can look back at the ground i've already covered and forward toward the ground i expect god to bring me over and it ought to make me sing loud and that's that that's that's what the psalm is about and it answers for us the simple question why should thinking about god's deliverance cause us to sing and it gives us two very neatly packed stanzas to answer that that query why why should i look back with gratitude and forward with faith well here's why verses one through three the first stanza of this psalm are going to teach us it's because god's past work in my life is incredible the the the things god has done are absolutely incredible let me let me show it to you again when the lord restored the fortunes of zion we were like those who dreamed then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy then they said among the nations the lord has done great things for them listen the lord has done great things for us we are glad listen to the description of god's work in the life of the people of god it is sudden it is joyous and it is conspicuous when the lord restored the fortunes of zion or literally uh king james translates it turned the captivity of zion this this harkens back to a period of bondage and deliverance in the life of the children of god specifically when they were taken captive by nebuchadnezzar in 586 bc when when when judah the southern kingdom was was overthrown they were they were ransacked the temple was destroyed the walls were burned down and the and the precious vessels from the house of god were carried away to babylon along with the best and the brightest of the young minds of of of jerusalem men like daniel his friends azariah uh michelle uh they they were they were they were taken captive um and and how how they longed for freedom and for liberty to come back to to come back to their homeland to reestablish their national identity they were strangers in a foreign land they were they were imposed upon to learn the language and the literature of their captors and even to serve their captors as some slaves others officials in government places and their identities were stolen and and their their sense of home was was was fractured but but but but one day one day after god permitted uh the medes and the persians to overthrow nebuchadnezzar's grandson and and babylon uh began to succumb to the might of the persians one day god raises up a man named cyrus and according to ezra chapter one verses one through four cyrus wakes up one day having having had an experience the night before and tells the people of god they could go home y'all they they had been um captive and disconnected and just disjointed for some 48 years and then all of a sudden one day one declaration they allowed to go home that that that helps me sometimes friends because often it feels as if the time and the tensions that i am in are unending is it not our sense of that in in in our culture today in the midst of this persistent pandemic that we still find ourselves fighting against in in the midst of social upheaval and unrest and even though there are new people in the highest offices in the land there still seem to be the same old problems that have plagued those who have been historically oppressed in these yet to be united states and here we are friends longing for freedom and for liberty longing to reconnect with identity and y'all the good news of this text is that it reminds us that god might take a long time to start but it doesn't take him long to finish in one day in one moment by one decision and some of you know that that's not just true on the macro level you know it's true on the micro and individual level in your life one conversation one one job interview one one one door open one chance meeting that seemed coincidental was actually a divine appointment with destiny and god sometimes does a remarkable things that seem to have taken forever all at once that's what the psalmist is celebrating god you turned our captivity in in one day 48 years since solomon's temple had been burned to the ground and and then they they would they would reconstruct that temple and complete it in 516 thereby verifying the prophecy of jeremiah that from 586 when it was burned to 5 16 when it was reconstructed it would be 70 years and when they consider the friends how god did that one day everything just turned around listen they started laughing and they started shouting these are vocal and visual expressions of internal gratitude for the miraculous work of god and friends i need to remind you that you can meditate silently and you can meditate quietly but you can't praise quietly and you can't praise silently what the text is calling for is visual and vocal expressions of your gratitude for the grace of god in your life that's that's that that that's that's that's that's what happened um um everybody can see it's joyous it's conspicuous it's sudden everybody can see um with the lord turn the capital of zion it was so good we were like we were like them that dream it didn't feel real and and and allies and enemies and and all of us we're all united in one principle agreement and that is the people of god are blessed people people who are with you will acknowledge that you're blessed and even those who don't like you will have to acknowledge that you are blessed that's what the text says we were like those who dreamed it didn't even feel real our mouths were filled with laughter our tongues with shouts of joy then among the nations because friends when you're really blessed you don't have to go around bragging about your blessings favor is conspicuous favor is obvious favor uh has a way of showing up and showing out without your trying to promote your own personal prosperity when god blesses you he blesses you in public and conspicuous ways and this is why you should not be ashamed or hide or shrink back when god has blessed you because it's god who made it public not you it says our minds were filled with laughter not tongues with shouts of joy and the nation says god has done great things and then we say yeah god has indeed done great things we we we should be celebrating god's past work in our lives because because that that celebration is for us in many ways cathartic uh it was norman cousins who was hospitalized with a rare crippling form of arthritis when he was diagnosed as incurable cousins checked himself out of the hospital and aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body cousins reasoned that the reverse must also be true so he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment consisting of marx brothers films and old candid camera reruns it didn't take long for him to discover listen church that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain-free sleep amazingly the consistency of laughing caused his debilitating disease to eventually be reversed doctors were amazed and the account of this victory appeared in the new england journal of medicine cousins received more than 3 000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world who would then advise their patients to find ways to laugh they simply were catching up with what proverbs 7 2 17 22 told us a long time ago and that's a joyful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones and friends when you look back at your past the temptation is to remember the babylon and the difficulty and the bondage rather than to celebrate the deliverance and yes you might have spent more time in what hurts you but it should not outweigh the benefits and the blessings of the god who helped you and so don't count the days concern yourself with the days that count stop finding or inventing reasons to be angry and to be hurt and to tell the story of your struggle without telling the story of your survival stop finding reasons to blame others for the pains of your past more than you bless the god who has brought you through those pains stop finding reasons to lament what went wrong rather than the lord the god who can make everything all right god has done something enough for you for which you should be grateful when you look back over your past god's past work in my life is incredible but but verses four through six tell me then the second reason why i should i should sing when i think of god's deliverance and it's because god's future work in my life is inevitable watch it verse four revers restore our fortunes oh lord like the streams in the negeb those who sow in tears shall reap with south of joy he who goes out weeping bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy bringing his sheaves with him this this is a picture of a people who've been delivered but who are now responsible for developing what they've been delivered back to um the picture that's used by the psalmist is the picture of the the negeb it's a it's a river that dries up in the summer months in the desert so dry that you almost can't tell that any water has been there but then suddenly seasons change and the rain begins and they become that negab and other streams in the desert become what one commentator called a raging torrent again and when they get back to jerusalem after having been delivered from bondage in babylon and set free by cyrus the king of persia listen y'all the ground in and around the holy city had not been tended it was filled with weeds it was filled with debris they they were able to sing and shout over their liberty but they learned quickly that liberty is joyous but restoration is hard work did you hear me it's it's joyous to be set free but it's hard to be responsible when you're partnering with god in your own restoration you're getting married a wedding day is joyous but but staying married for 30 and 40 and 50 years is hard work having a baby can be joyous but raising that child who's hard-headed and disobedient whom you concerned about sending to school because of of viruses and and and teachers who don't understand culture and and and the way you raise your child that can be hard work the ribbon cutting on your business can be joyous but pursuing customers and dealing with employee issues and supply chain challenges it's hard work an initial sermon can be joyous with your friends and family around and everyone rooting you on and telling you you've done a good job but but studying and praying and preaching to those who don't want to hear it's hard work being accepted into college is joyous but but trudging through gen eds and and and dealing with major assignments getting to graduation is hard work and the description of the people of god in this text of this hard work that they are looking for god to help them through is that when we understand the nature of the work of restoration that we are included invited and responsible for listen it will cause us to have to sow in tears it is to to take the seeds of our lives but not just to plant them in the debris and with weeds to weed out the ground to remove the rocks and the broken bricks and and and the broken uh farming tools that have been left rotting out in the fields they had to clear the land and then till the soil and then plant the seed and then pray for rain sowing in tears friends however is a healthy part of the happy feelings experience and i need you to know that what we must do is we must stop stopping our tears did you hear me lean in shout out to god if we must stop stopping our tears we've got to stop that false face of pseudo strength which psychologists are now calling toxic positivity you've got to watch these carnal self-focused affirmations that speak about how strong you are and forget about how much you need god you and i must learn that part of the experience of being restored and living the life god intends for us to live is there are times of god permitted and god redeemed grief grief is holy and healthy when done appropriately jesus says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted isaiah says he appoints for those who mourn in zion beautiful ashes the oil of joy for mourning and the garden of praise for the spirit of heaven is paul will tell us that we serve the god of all comfort we are called at times to cry in fact it's not just the truth scripture has listed and lifted but but it's also a truth that that science has finally caught up with an affirmed harvard health journal of the harvard medical school talks about tears and says that not all tears are created equal that scientists have divided the liquid product of crying into three distinct categories their reflex tears there are continuous tears and then there are emotional tears the first two categories perform the important function listen of removing debris such as smoke or dust from the eyes they lubricate the eyes to prevent uh them from infection and those tears are 98 water those are tears that are reflex or continuous something happens that something gets in your eye and your eye exposes or expels rather uh those those uh those uh entities with tears but but there's a third category that's emotional tears which do the same work as the first two categories they lubricate the eyes they they flush the the eyes from from from from such things as dust and and pollen but but emotional tears have some other uh characteristics and and duties emotional tears flush stress hormones and other toxins out of our system and in fact uh they suggest that it's emotional tears that potentially offer the most health benefits researchers then have established that crying releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids known as endorphins they release the field good chemicals and help ease both physical and emotional pain listen y'all popular culture is just catching up with the reality that the bible has always said that a good cry is something that helps you feel better and then positions you for better physical pleasure i'm saying to you friends that you're going to have to cry but it's washing your eyes and washing your soul and washing your heart and positioning you to experience another degree and dimension and level of joy that you would not have experienced had you not had a good cry hymnologist would say the christ our sinners weep and shall our cheeks be dry no let floods of penitential grief spring forth from every eye the son of god and tears the angels marveled see be thou started oh my soul he shed those tears for me he wept that we might weep each sin demands a tear in heaven alone no sin is found and there is no weeping there we got to learn then that today's tears produce tomorrow's testimonies i'm saying we got to learn how to sing while struggling and sowing because because i look back with her with gratitude for what god has done but i look forward with faith for what god will do and and somehow in the middle of my sowing and struggling the tears of my today are watering the seeds of my tomorrow so watch the psalm and i'm through now it's joy at first it's weeping in the middle and then it's joy at the end did you hear it joy at first when the lord turned the captivity of zion we were like those that dreamed our mouths were filled with laughter our tongue with shouts of joy weeping in the middle those who sow in tears shall reap yeah shouts of joy listen listen listen listen there it is oh joy weeping joy and what does that joy end up with it's it's what he calls sheaves now now in our 21st century um uh post-industrial technological age we don't know what sheaves are sheaves however are are the result of a harvest of wheat that has been reaped by by the farmer he is he has taken his uh long hook uh on a wooden uh pole called a sickle and he has he has cut the wheat down with the intent of taking it back to the house to store it in the barn after he processes it to make sure that he's gotten the good weed away from the useless stock and the chaff but but but it's too bountiful it's too much for him to carry all separately no so what he does is he takes these stalks of wheat and he ties them together into bundles those bundles are called sheaves sheaves ain't nothing but bundles of blessings i'm through now but i need you to know friends that the reason i can look back and shout and look forward and keep shouting even though i'm crying today it's because i know that the tears of my today are watering the seeds of my tomorrow and when god touches my field and when god touches my harvest it'll be more blessing than i can physically carry on my own and so god will give me enough to bundle up my blessings and to take them in friends i'm saying that this is what paul meant what he said unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think our god gives us bundles of blessings he's not the god of enough he's the god of more than enough he's not just the god of sufficiency he's the god of more than sufficiency he's not the god who can just help us to make it through he's the god who can help us to overcome he is not just a god who helps us survive he's a god who helps us to thrive and to experience his best and highest good if i can live with faith while i'm crying today i will come home singing with bundles of blessings in my life joy weeping joy joy at first weeping in the middle joe again at the end i see another example of this not just in the life of the people of god as they sang and remembered on their way up to jerusalem but but there's another pilgrim who who started in joy traversed through weeping and ended up with joy again yes started in joy at the manger where the angelic host appeared to shepherds in the field and said glory to god in the highest peace on earth and good will towards men joy that gave way to to weeping weeping at the tomb of lazarus his friend weeping over jerusalem as they rejected him knowing he would go to the cross weeping as he himself hung out on calvary's cross as his mother and and others lamented his his pain and his agony he he had to weep in the middle they wept when he gave up the ghost having been nailed in his hands and and and crowned with thorns and and pierced in his side as his lifeless limp body was uh was extracted from the cross wrapped in linen strips and placed in joseph's new tomb that was weeping that friday night and that was weeping that saturday morning and as they celebrated sabbath and as they had their meals with one another and there was weeping saturday afternoon when the rabbi from nazareth was nowhere to be found and there was weeping saturday night but i'm glad that the joy at the beginning and the weeping in the middle gave way to joy at the end when bright early on sunday morning as they approached the tomb the roll the stone was rolled away and the grave was found empty and you and our friends can remember that reality and live with joy knowing that no matter how bad the weeping is there is coming a day where god will dry up the teardrops of our time with the tissue of eternity and when we won't have to cry no more i'm saying that ought to give you happy feelings that's why you ought to celebrate him that's why you ought to shout that's why you ought to lift your voice and lift your hands that's why nobody should have to beg you and pull you and pump you and prime you give me a j give me your e give me your s no it ought to be something on the inside of you that looks back at what you've been through and forward to where you're going and say this joy i have the world didn't give it to me and the world cannot take it away father help us to live with that joy those happy feelings in jesus name amen god bless you [Music] you

Channel: Baptist Grove Church

Views: 173

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: baptist grove church, bible, learn the bible, study the bible, worship, church, church worship service, black church, african american church, sunday, love, hope, peace, relationship, relationship with christ, jesus, god, christ

Id: kS7RRiszcEM

Length: 66min 10sec (3970 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021