Be of Good Cheer - David Gibbs

music has been wonderful I've sure enjoyed it how many of you thankful for music that is clearly Christ honoring him boy listen now let's thank all these musicians and singers again well done well done and I have thoroughly enjoyed brother Vaughn every morning he throws those nuggets out there so fast now you have to be careful to catch them all but I'm telling you that's amazing in the time that I can't get an introduction out he's over and done and he just makes it happen oh my and God has given that man a gift and his passion for prayer has touched our life it's touched our ministry's life and I pray that today it's touching your life boy last night's message from dr. John get this magnificent servant how many of you like this football story last night how many of you are on the playing field with them getting thumped at 63 to nothing at halftime right Wow I played in some football games I thought were a little lopsided I feel wonderful today I may turn in your Bibles please to the book of John chapter 16 the book of John chapter 16 we're living in a day when everybody wants your ear do you understand to get into you God created with you with two ports of entry one is your eyes and one is your ears anybody who wants to influence you says hey look here look here hey listen to this listen to this because that's how you get in who you give your eyes to and who you give your ears to their influence is in I promise you in this conference we're doing everything in our power brother Vaughn's doing everything in his power to capture your eye and your ears because that's how you get in and who you give your eyes and ears to is who you're saying fashion in my life I grew up on farms a little different than the dairy farms that dr. Getz was on I grew up on cattle feedlot farms we were in the cattle slaughtering business my family slaughtered five to seven thousand head of cattle a week then I grew up on feedlots where semis were coming and going our farms were never pretty they were farmed farms but one day I bought a small farm for myself and I got some cattle and I got a great buy on the farm because it was all overgrown it had been let go all the weeds all the weeds on my farm were shoulder high some of them were ten feet high but I got a great buy because I wasn't sure what I bought so I called my dad and I said I need to borrow your brush hog and get out here and and clean this up see what I own and I like brush hogs how many of you ever had a brush hog time yeah I mean they're just fun nothing's pretty but it's all down okay and you go over it and then if the tractor can bend it over it'll chop it up for you well I'm out mowing along and everything's going good and I made a discovery that I bought something on my farm I did not know was there and I found a lot of things somebody had thrown away dozens of old baby buggies you ought to hear what they sound like one through a brush hog it's great and then somebody who lays some old engine blocks you ought to hear what they sound like going through a bread shock pow but I'm going along and I went over a hole not very big but that big around and in that hole was an animal I had no idea existed on planet Earth they're called ground bees they're a cousin of a wasp and when I went over that hole those ground bees like an oil gusher came flying up out of that hole they came after that tractor and they came after that brush hog like you couldn't imagine they're trying to sting it some of them went into the tires and stuck so hard they got stuck on the tires of the tractor but while they were nailing the tractor and while they were nailing the brush hog you could hear him talking oh I'm telling you they did they said get the fat boy on the tractor that's what they said they went up my pant legs they went down the back of my t-shirt they went up under my ball cap I got bit everywhere those stingers are unreal I come flying off that tractor swatting myself I didn't even get the thing out of gear it just ran off and went in the hit a tree and stopped over there man I went and jumped under there's a pond probably a distance from here to that wall man I jumped in that pond and I'm looking up you see him hitting the water roof finally they went away I come out of that pond and I had one mission in life get even with the ground bees I know vengeance belongs to the Lord but on occasion he just has to understand that's all I made I just I told my wife she said you're so lucky you didn't get killed I said I'll tell you I'm gonna get even she said don't you think we should call some people out here who know what they're doing how many men understand the inherent insult in that common now if you're in the country and you want to do something there is a resonant place of knowledge called the feed store and in the country you go to the feed store and there are always guys sitting in the feast store who can answer just about everything man I am all bit to pieces I come walk-in in the feed store they got a potbelly stove there and there's three guys sitting there when they looked up it was amazing first guy looked at me and he said ground beefs I thought the man's a prophet okay second guy looked at me and he said bet that hurt and third guy said bet you want to know how to get even I mean it was the tunica team continue I'd even opened my mouth yet I said yeah you bet when I to get even it's okay here's what you do make sure you wait till tonight because they said at dusk like ribbons in the sky they'll all come back and go down the hole you get them all in the hole you don't wait till it's dark they'll nail you again and you don't want that do you fat boy that's it that's why I don't want that oh they said once they're all down the hole you pour gas down the hole and once you afford gas down the hole then you light a match and you will feel much better I said I got it wait'll dark gas down the hole light a match they said that's it and I went home I told my wife this is gonna be good sure enough I waited and at dusk it was amazing like ribbons in the sky black ribbons I have no idea how many ground bees were in that hole but thousands and thousands of them and they would come and go walk right down the hole finally it's all dark I got my son Matthew who's a pastor today with me he was a young man and we went out we're listening man you can hear them down there I think they're still gurgling on the fat boy stuff so point one's done dark there in the hole point number two I need gas walked over got a 5-gallon can with me cord five gallons down the hole hey there's a lot of beats but I'm not done I can still hear him so I for a second five gallons they never said how much gas to pour down the hall I told Matt I said there's a bunch go get the other two five-gallon care when it was done I had 20 gallons of gas down the hall I said okay Matt I'm ready to feel good what happened next was like unbelievable I took the match and I went and I never got to toss it I mean I went I burned a perfect circle all those vapors had come up out of that hole and spread out in a circle that circle had to be probably 75 or more feet in diameter it melted the soles on my shoes it took my eyebrows off flames went up so high in the air that we got a call from the local police that an airliner had spotted an explosion my wife who was watching from the house came running out and she said where's Matthew you killed Matthew I'm looking around no Matt he had run and jumped in the pond next morning I went back to the feed store so all three of them are sitting there first one said too much gas second one said bet that hurt and third one said that you're up here to find out how to do it next time I say guys I got one question how many times have you ever done it you know what they said in unison we've never done it we just tell other people how to do it and the one guy said fools like you walk in here all day long you know what I've discovered everybody wants to tell you how to do it but they've never done it and what they want is for you to follow their counsel their advice but they're not following their console and they're not following their advice you remember what Paul said the things you have heard and seen in me we're about to read a passage of scripture that has a command and a promise of God in it and the command is one that it's kind of impossible to understand why anyone would want to navigate life without it because it's a command of well-being it's a command of joy it's a command of peace but then God tells you how to produce that commitment the passage we're about to read is at the end of what people often referred to as the Upper Room discourse and Jesus has just told his disciples all the horrific things that are going to befall him and they're upset they're dismayed this is not a good moment for them most of them had mistakenly thought that Jesus Christ was here to usher in the kingdom physically and humanly but he said no my kingdom is not of this world and now they're suddenly being told once again that he's going to be betrayed he's going to be beaten he's going to be crucified for the sins of the world and in the midst of that he gives them this command get ready to read with me John chapter 16 starting at verse 31 jesus answered them do you now believe behold the hour cometh yay has now come that ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone yet I am NOT alone because the father is with me these things these dismaying troublesome things I have spoken unto you that in me he might have peace now he makes a pronouncement in the world you shall have tribulation but here's the command but be of good cheer I have overcome the world repetitively from the mouths of Jesus he commanded be of good cheer in the midst of a hellacious scorn storm on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus came walking on the water the disciples fearful that they're going to die Jesus walking on the water so frightened them that they screamed with fear you know what he says be of good cheer your lies be of good cheer is not a suggestion it is a command to every child of God we have good cheer means that there is a resident peace that means there is a resident joy there is something magnificently happy be of good cheer is that you is that me it's an amazing thing to be around people who don't have cheer they drain you just being in their present sucks the hope out of you they're like little walking hoover's they want to vacuum you and if there's any joy any peace there's any cheer in you they want to remove it because they don't have it do you want people to be wanting to be around you be a man of good cheer remember it's not a suggestion it is a command now the world says yeah yeah this all right we want you to be happy we want you to be cheerful but the world says there's three ways you get it and I want you to write these three down because they're all deceptively wrong the only place you can get cheer is from Jesus Christ number one the world says you want cheer here's how you do it by diversion by diversion you just got to get something to get your mind off of things man you need a vacation you need to go play golf you need to go hunting you need to go fish it you need to get a hobby you just need something that's a diversion and boy they've made a masterful art of marketing diversion and it always shows these people happy now two problems with the version the problems you left will still be there when you get back the stuff that's been tearing you up will still be there all you'll have done is diverted for a moment the second problem is most diversions are pretty expensive boy let's buy a boat yeah you want to make a small fortune start with a large one and buy a boat and then it'll cost you a fortune and all of a sudden we're living in a world that's diversion crazy the problem is you just haven't gotten away the problem is you and God never said I'm gonna give you good shear but you're gonna have to get away to find it you see are you against going to get some rest no Jesus went to get rest but diversions not the answer to cheer it's okay if you can't do it that way what you want to do is by numbing yourself and boy the two chief things or drugs and alcohol let's just get something that numbs you up I'll never forget I was in the hospital and was in a lot a lot of pain didn't understand I was having a gallbladder attack and I walked in that hospital I said man I need a doctor well I need a doctor and this lady came walking in and she said I'm dr. so-and-so I said no no no I need a real doctor I need a man she said well let me explain to you she said I got something here in this needle that'll take all your pain away or you can wait for a real doctor I said doc you're looking more beautiful all like ah come on come on you know what if you don't have Jesus Christ you're to look for something to numb it up and I'm a little frightened because drugs and alcohol are invading Christian homes magnetized by what's on television has become the prime diversion people have no time to read the Bible no time to pray but they can put in hours every day in front of electronic media and computers that's all diversion and then something to numb it up in order to keep all our bar permissions and bar licenses I have to take a lot of continuing legal education every year and part of it is on substance abuse and every time I go it amazes me they all stand up they say now look we know you're going to use drugs we know you're going to use alcohol cuz everybody loves the buzz and one time I raised my hand and I said wouldn't just be best if we didn't do the drug and alcohol and every head in a place spun around and looked at me like what planet did he fall off of we're living in a culture that is drug and alcohol it's numbing obsessed obsessed well the world says if you can't do it with the version and if you can't do it with numbing that here's the third thing you do you just decide I'm going to resign myself it's just the way life is and our churches are full of men who've ever given up on good cheer this is just a way life is and I guess you just have to take it the way it is if you only hear one thing this morning no you don't have to take it the way it is the Bible commands be of good cheer if I could talk to your kids before you could talk to what your kids say they're nobody more cheerful on planet earth than dead grandpa all my soul the most cheerful person on the planet or would you have to say yeah I'd like that to be the case remember what I said why would anybody want to navigate life without this when by God's grace we can be this now please note what he says look at the verses we just read once again verse 33 these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace now here's the president in the world you shall have tribulation underline the word tribulation in your Bible the people to whom he was speaking would understand this explicitly in that day when they threshed wheat or grain rice anything they had to get the chaff separated from the valuable grain today we have combines that do all of that in one step but in that day they would spread all of the grain out and they did it manually in the way they did it was they had a long wooden Club looked like an overgrown baseball bat and it had a spike like a big nail in the end of it and they would take that club with that spike and they whack the fire out of that grant what what what that club was called a tribulus and the process of whacking it was called tribulation you know God says in this world you shall have what tribulation brother Vaughn said it's so clear think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you jesus said in this world there's gonna be stuff that's gonna try to knock the fire out of you I don't know what's on your plate right now all I know is tribulation and God said it's going to come but he said I have overcome the world be of good cheer now in this passage he tells us how to get this cheer and I want you to write this down because why would you want to go home without it why would you want to live a day without good cheer oh my my you know there's people I know Christians they're not nice to be around or the look on their face remember your face is God's billboard it's always talking I think people forget if you've ever been on a platform while you're watching the platform whoever's on the platform's watching your faces boy your face is talk there's some people I'd never want to take a car ride with them of any length that'd be tribulation but God said I want you to be the person of good cheer I'll write this point down here's number one here's how God gives good cheer we're gonna read it in just a minutes in the passage God says I'm not gonna give it to you by substitution I'm gonna give it to you by transformation I'm not gonna give it to you by substitution I'm gonna give it to you by transformation I am going to transform you through your tribulations not going to make them go away not gonna sub you know how we get little kids happy their toy boat here take this one here take this we try to give them something else that'll make them happy man if you've ever been in the nursery one kid grabs a toy from the other one this kid is screaming right door here take this one take this one that's how we come to God just give me something to make me happy that's the diss that humma dude I am literally gonna take your trials and transform you into a person of good cheer read with me the passage starting at verse 20 verily verily I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoice and you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be what's the next word turned into joy a woman when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour has come but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remember it no more of the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world and he now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you whoa God doesn't make great Christians on mountaintops he makes them in the valley great soldiers are not made on R&R great soldiers are made on the battlefield if you've ever climbed on a commercial airliner if the pilot came on and said kind of new at this and just want you to know I've never been in any bad weather so what'll be a first for you will be a first for me have a great flight oh no no no you want a pilot that's been there a lot of times who has the judgment the skillset you see his skills are never honed in smooth weather his skills are honed in the storm the Lord said I want to transform you be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God when's the last time with all thanks you said Lord thanks for this you are good cheer that's where it starts because you're gonna use this to make me what I'm supposed to be not by substitution not by and boy if I ever prayed this wrong so long God just make this go away how many of y'all have ever prayed like that God just make it go away oh all right dad enough I got it make it go away when's the last time you said don't make this go away until I'm what you want me to be that's how you get good cheer it's not by substitution it's by trance formation right the second thing down we want to be the men of good cheer we're not going to do it through diversion we're not going to do it through numbing and we're not going to do it by resignation we're going to do it by understanding that God's in control of these trials and whatever it is that's whacking on us God has brought that number one it's not by substitution estoy transformation right number two down prayer is the key to the transformation prayer start with me in verse 23 and in that day you shall ask me nothing verily verily I say unto you whosoever she shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you parent to have he asked nothing in my name ask and he shall receive say out loud the next phrase with me that your joy may be full Lord I want to be transformed and God asking prayer yesterday when I spoke about what's on your prayer list that word asked there is the word for asking with specificity not asking in general ask and you shall receive the Bible says you have not because you asked the word specificity again my wife has helped me so much she'll say let's get real specific with God what exactly are we asking for now I'm kind of like I got time for this honey let's just give it a prayer shot and get on God says huh ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full how good are you at getting specific with the ask I was in a trial it was not going well in fact it was going horrible in fact the third day you know you're in trouble when the jury looks at you and every time they look they either look down or they go and it just thanks for a very long day in court halfway through it one of the Deacons in the church came up to me and he said boy I thought you were a much better lawyer than this good night what I'd have the heart to tell him is I thought ahead of this I was too I mean this is just not going so great but the pastor's wife came up and she's our brother Gibbs brother Gibbs she said you don't have to worry you don't have to worry I got ESP and this has gone great I said you got ESP oh yeah and I said to her you you got extrasensory perception she said no no ESP enough sense to pray and with that she opened like nothing like a shopping bag she's carrying and she said here's what I've been praying for in this truck it had to be 30 pages and she said if all we got is you brother Gibbs then all we gots a man but we got God problem these rooms when she said that my face lit up I thought you know what judge you've been giving me trouble for three days unless my God gives you your next breath you're a dead man that jury my God's in control of not only what they do what they think and what they say how many of you thankful your God is in control in this world G shall have but if you've got ESP enough sense to pray I was in a room with some wonderful pastors I would dare say half the men in that room you'd know their name men of national and international renown man we were wrestling with the problem and one of the men said you know we've been working on this now for six hours and do you think maybe we ought to pray and the man sitting next to me said in jest you mean it's come to that once you hear me and I'm done the devil loves it let's see if you can figure it out or have you got ESP enough sense to say that have this sometimes as little things sometimes it's unspeakably huge things but every child of God is going to have it and would you would I ask with specificity at the end of that trial I told you about we won the judge literally in court when the jury announced the verdict he said I don't know how this happened I turned around and looked at that pastor's wife and she went you know what happens to most people we go through the valley and all we do is come out bewildered never understanding we are commanded by God to be the people of good cheer I'm at a church were gonna have visitation and a young lady in the church came in she's a thalidomide baby a drug which was thought to be safe which was FDA approved got out and lo and behold too late they found out that it did unbelievable deformity and birth defects this young lady born with no legs no arms just a trunk of a body strapped in a wheelchair can't even hold herself up has to be strapped up she's there for visitation I looked at her and I thought how'd you like never to be able to scratch your face comb your hair how would you like to have to ask people to do preacher said let's do this before we go out a few testimonies of praise and she's sitting there and she went like this and the preacher said what's your testimony that and she said I just want to thank the Lord for giving me such a good nose she said I need it so bad I just want a praising for it the pastor sitting next to me said let me explain brother Gibbs when we'd go out soul-winning we take her and put her by a Walmart or a grocery store and her Bible is in the back of her chair and people coming out she just calls them over and says could you come here a minute and just chat with me and everybody comes then she says would you get my Bible out it's and a pouch behind me and they get it out and I asked them would you hold it up and brother Gibbs she uses her nose to turn the pages I'm so glad I got a good nose you know what magnetized me was her smile but she had good cheer if you don't have good cheer it's because you chose you chose to be the grump you chose to be the Eeyore I'm Eve you know who er is Winnie the Pooh's pal you'll see it'll get worse stop it you're commanded by the power of the God we serve to be a man of good cheer I asked them to take me by where they put her I thought God would that smile be on my face i watch them hold Bible I'm so thankful I got a good nose the Bible's the same for her and you and me and everything give thanks but you know what the devil wants to get you focused on the tribulation you know God says I have overcome the world be of good cheer father thank you why would we want to live with that good cheer you don't do it by substitution you do it by transformation that our joy may be full the God is done by asking forgive me where I've been so focused on what's been knocking the fire out of me instead of saying my gods in control of this and if I ask I'd be the man of good cheer heads are bowed how many of you say brother Gibbs God spoke to my heart this morning I want to be a man of good cheer if you raised your hand I'm going to ask you to step out and go to the aisle for one minute as far as you can remember when we kneel when we bow it's not backs it's not knees we bend it's our spirit we Bend and we want to be the man ask that your joy may be full you can send a new dad home a new husband a new friend we can go home men of good cheer not by our making but by the power of the God we serve father I bow with these men forgive us how did the devil ever stamp out our cheer when it's a promise from you and a command from you God tribulations going to come but you've overcome every bit of it praise the Lord and by your grace were commanded to be men of good cheer god I ask for me right now I pray in the hearts of these men you'd hear the cry of their precious hearts may we be of good cheer in the name of Jesus I pray and all God's men said amen you make your way back to your seat thank you Steve now mention these briefly brothers one you know Charles Finney had a sermon I did not yeah I did not know yeah no thank you maybe you're perfect that the stuff I just talked about if I want to tell you what I've discovered I want to be around men a good cheer and I want to be a man of good cheer there's nothing attractive about a Christian who doesn't have good cheer well you walk in some churches and you say I think I'll look at the billboards the faces you can't hide good cheer if it's there your face will shine with it and boy I encourage you while you're here at this moment of focused prayer what a magnificent thing how it's helping me make sure ask that your joy may be what's the next word well there's some books over here and every penny we make on ours we do this and I want to say this if you're here with with limited limited resources make sure you buy brother Vaughn's books first please support this ministry I'm gonna go over there and get all the books he recommended I'm a I'm a book a holic I love books I don't tell you what I've discovered if you get one good thing out of a book it's worth a thousand times what you paid for it and you make sure over there the book one nation under God 10 things every Christian should know about the founding of America please let me warn you they're trying to rewrite our history and they're trying to get God out of do you understand one half of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were dead within 12 months for putting their name on the paper if I put a paper down here and I said I want you all to sign it but happy you will be dead within a year for putting your name on that what would have to be on that paper such that you'd line up to sign it why was it that every signer held the Bible 10 things every Christian should though don't you let them steal God out of what God did in this country and then ten things every Christian should know about the Constitution everywhere I go people say I believe in the Constitution they've never read it they have no idea what's in there you say well I'd like to read it but it'd take a long time if you're an average reader you can easily read the US Constitution in 15 minutes you can put a copy in your shirt pocket and they want to tell you the Bible had nothing to do with its writing then why and the drafts are 90% of the reference notes to the Bible the Bible had nothing to do every morning and blind courage this book this is a ladies devotional now it's designed for ladies it's full of pretty pictures and stuff but every morning at 5:00 a.m. I know where I'll find my wife every morning she's at the kitchen table and writing prayers for our kids she's done it every morning since she found she was pregnant with our oldest child and always ask her honey why do you write him she said cuz the devil's after my kids and I'm their mom at the end of the week she tears them all up throws them away starts over I said we should put some of these in a devotional and she said who'd read me I'm a nobody I said you're the best heart I know this is the third one we have never had anything get the response that this has now it's designed for women we have men read in fact we have some pastors taking their men through it pastor chapel said I'm using some of your wife's stuff with my men I'm just not telling them where I got it was cute this would be a great thing to take home to your wife and then there's a children's book there that my wife did years ago she created a little fictitious frog called Georgie she wanted the kids to memorize Scripture our kids so she would take a Bible verse have him memorize it and then would tell them a little fictitious Georgie story and these stories got a life of their own and one day a doctor Jack Trevor from California heard my wife telling a joy he said where'd you get those she's how I made him up years ago he said well would you put him in print so I could use him with my grandkids remember what's your grandkids or your little kids get when they're young they will carry the rest of their life they'll never forget it this is back there now here's our policy if you're here and you have no money I'll give you a book if you just promise me you'll read it but please don't fib to me about whether you have money or not how many of you all agree it's not nice to fib to brother Gibbs how many of y'all all like that praise the Lord please once again get brother horns up brother gets his books that one on the mind oh I encourage that I've given many copies of that away there's a few books I've read multiple times that's one of them the thing that he has in there on the invited front to your house is worth the price of the book in itself you make sure you get these resources remember in this world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer The Devil's scared to death of a smile in your heart and if there's a smile in your heart there'll be a smile on your face thank you brother you

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Length: 54min 49sec (3289 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 03 2011