Rejoice Always | The Grafted Church

how many of you guys have had a hard time going back to work this week yeah how many of you guys are having a hard time with uh maintaining the joy of the self of the celebration we had last week [Music] is it a little harder is it a little bit hard to maintain that joy or is it have you continued on with the celebration the joy would you buy your heads with me lord we love you so much lord we thank you for this opportunity to come and to worship you to fellowship with with brothers and sisters and family friends like-minded people lord we thank you for your love we thank you for your salvation lord we thank you for all that you do in our lives would help us to drawn closer to you help us always keep our eyes on you lord i pray that our our life our worship that everything we do everything we think everything we say would be pleasing to you would be exalting to you lord we praise you we thank you in the name of yeshua amen [Music] okay so you know we know we talked about how sukkot we're commanded to rejoice it's a feast where we are actually commanded to rejoice we're commanded to celebrate and how many of you guys realize that that's not the only time you're supposed to celebrate and it's not the only time you're supposed to have joy did you know that uh the joy doesn't have to end when sukkot ends i want to open up with a verse from philippians chapter four i'm having problems with this mic stand today philippians chapter 4 verses 4-7 it says rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice you guys remember singing that song that's the coat not stopping i tried to stop you guys and you guys couldn't stop just kept on going rejoice in the lord always again i say rejoice let your gentleness be known to all men the lord is at hand be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through christ jesus so the question i have is how can we how can we rejoice always i know that in this life we're going to have trials we're going to have tribulations we're going to have sorrows we're going to have loss we're gonna have hard times we're gonna have all kinds of different stuff happen tragedy pain suffering yet we're instructed to rejoice always so how does that work how can i rejoice whenever i'm suffering how can i rejoice whenever i'm in sorrow how can i rejoice when i'm being persecuted how can i rejoice when i'm in pain how does that work it says rejoice in the lord always it doesn't say rejoice in every circumstance it doesn't say rejoice in your circumstances at all you may have a really bad circumstance that you're going through this says rejoice in the lord so what does that mean how do we do that our circumstances might not give us anything to rejoice about sometimes we go through really hard things sometimes we go through really difficult things and it's easy to get our focus off of the lord in those situations but the bible says the joy of the lord is your strength the joy of the lord is your strength so that is that's how we rejoice through all circumstances when there's a difficult circumstance you're going through when there's a hard time persecution tribulation sickness sorrow loss whatever difficult thing you're facing the bible says the joy of the lord is your strength so you find strength when you put joy when you place your joy in him when you rejoice in him so how does that work how do we do that it means no matter what your circumstances may be you find strength when you rejoice in the lord you find strength from rejoicing in the lord listen to what paul says in the same chapter philippians 4 skip down just to verse 10. paul said but i rejoiced in the lord greatly that now at last your care for me has been has flourished again though you surely did care but you lacked opportunity not that i speak in regard to need for i've learned in whatever state i am in to be content i know how to be a based and i know how to abound everywhere and in all things i have learned both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need i can do all things through christ who strengthens me he says i rejoiced in the lord greatly and then he ends it by saying i can do all things through strike i can do all things through christ who strengthens me so he starts out by saying rejoice in the lord always he says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me rejoice in the lord always i can do all things through christ who strengthens me do you see what he's framing in here paul went through all kinds of difficult things he was beaten whipped imprisoned all kinds of things were done to him most of his writings were done from prison and yet he would write things like this rejoice in the lord no matter what your circumstance is he'd get beaten with whips and he'd send a letter to to a church and say rejoice bear all things i counted joy that i can suffer from my lord these are the kinds of things that paul would write about and you know we oftentimes we get in a circumstance where we're like well people don't like me very much you know they said something mean to me on facebook right and paul's getting beaten with whips and he's saying rejoice and we're getting down about something so petty and meaningless right if we find our joy in the lord we can do all things through christ because he gives us strength this is because our focus is not on the problem our focus is on the lord our focus is not on our sin it's on our savior it's not on our sickness it's on our healer right our problem is not on our enemies it's on our advocate so if you want to have joy in all circumstances the key is actually found in verse eight so we start off it says rejoice in the lord always again i say rejoice ends it by saying i can do all things through christ who strengthens me but what's in the middle he's giving us a key to how that happens how how do we rejoice in all things and how is christ our strength verse 8 says finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there's any virtue or if there's anything praiseworthy meditate on these things how do you rejoice in the lord always well you don't focus on the negative stuff you focus on the good stuff right yeah i'm having a really hard time financially but i have great friends and family i have a savior who saved me i have all this you take your focus off the bad situation put it on the good situation what do you have to be joyful for we all have something to be joyful for so even if the only thing you have is yeshua saved me he forgave me he died for me if that's the only thing you have joyful to be joyful for in this life that's more than enough to be joyful you don't have to have anything else if that's all you've got that's enough to be joyful for but it's so easy for us to get our eyes off of him and on to the other stuff and the reason i bring this up is because you know we just we had a wonderful time at sukkot i mean it's it's like we were up on the mountain you know like moses is sitting on the mountain spending time in god's presence hearing from the lord we had amazing things happen and and tonight by the way i'm gonna put you on the spot and you guys we're gonna have some testimonies here in a little bit so be prepared if you guys have a testimony be prepared to give it if you don't have a testimony be prepared to come up anyway i'm teasing but you know it's like moses up on the mountain right we we go to sukkot we spend you know we spent a week celebrating worshiping praising praying people getting healed lives being transformed people just hearing the voice of the lord all kinds of amazing stuff happening and like i said we're going to hear some of these really cool testimonies but then we come back home after spending eight days celebrating and rejoicing we come home and we gotta get back to the regular routine and it's easy for our joy to slip out it's easy for us to just kind of get back into the way things used to be get back into the routine the rut get fall back into the way you used to be you know if if god is taking you from one place to another place and he says you know what you're not going to be like that anymore but then you come back home and it's easy just to fall back into those old routines of what you used to do and how it used to be and the enemy the bible says that the enemy wants to steal kill and destroy and i think he would just love to steal your joy you know when he sees us celebrating rejoicing praising god worshiping him and every part of our life is a celebration of the lord you know what the biggest target that's going to be for the enemy right he's going to say let's let's see what i can do to to steal that joy from them maybe i'll make him sick maybe i'll make work really difficult somehow i'm gonna i'm gonna make them miserable somehow then they won't have joy and so i would just want to encourage you be on guard against that and realize that that is what the enemy is trying to do he wants to steal your joy he wants you to be miserable he doesn't want you to be celebrating rejoicing so when we meditate on the truth we're not going to be led astray by the lies when we focus on praising god we're not distracted by the things that are not praiseworthy he says whatever's good whether it's true whatever is pure whatever is noble whatever is excellent praiseworthy think on those things keep your focus on good keep your focus on god keep your focus on your salvation the joy of the lord is your strength put your joy in him let him give you strength to endure whatever the difficult situation may be that you're facing how many of you guys just out of curiosity how many of you guys have had some difficult things to face since you've been home from sukkot a few of you okay did it was it hard to hang on to the joy dom during that situation or did you did you muster the strength to say you know i'm going to rejoice anyway so the enemy is going to send all kinds of things to try to keep you from rejoicing and some of us even experienced a little bit of that succote there were times it's a coat where things were happening there were distractions there was various things going on and there were times this coat even during the feast of tabernacles when it was hard to keep our focus on on the lord and and to to worship and to praise and to rejoice how many of you guys experienced some of that during sukkot okay why do you think that is well like i said what does the enemy want to do he wants to steal your joy and he doesn't want you worshiping and rejoicing and celebrating at a feast of the lord he wants you to be miserable he wants you to be distracted he wants you to have your focus someplace else and so he's going to try to to do those things for you but we can't let the enemy stop us from taking pleasure in the lord you know i talked a couple months ago i said worship is warfare and i want to clarify something people you know when i when i might use the term worship as warfare you know they i think people imagine well i'm gonna i'm gonna stomp on the devil when i dance you know and i'm gonna punch him whenever i'm dancing or like they make it out to some kind of a physical warfare but it's about what are you doing in your spirit you're if you're praising god for exalting him you're worshiping him it's not about like oh i'm gonna kick the devil in the knee you know it's i am my focus is on the lord i'm exalting him lifting him high and the enemy hates that and so when we put our focus on the lord and we worship him and we pursue him and we find pleasure in him we take pleasure in him we rejoice in him that defeats the enemy it's us finding pleasure in the lord is what defeats the enemy you realize that the problem with sin is that you like it too much right isn't that the truth the bible says that we're enticed by our own desires and so if you desire sin more than the lord you're going to be pursuing sin you find more delight in sin you find more pleasure in sin but when we find delight and pleasure in the lord we stop pursuing those sinful things we start pursuing the lord and so if you just pursue the lord you find pleasure in him you rejoice in him seek him first right all these things will be added to you when you pursue him first pursue righteousness when you love the lord with all your heart soul mind and strength you delight in him those other things are not really going to be that troubling to you you're not going to be as tempted the temptation for worldly things is going to be less significant for you because your focus is not on those things anymore your focus is on the lord how can i please him how can i serve him how can i make him happy what can i do to spend more time with him we need to find more pleasure in pursuing god than in pursuing sin i find more pleasure in pursuing god than pursuing earthly things you know there's a lot of times we you know we want to do things that's not necessarily sin but you know we're we're not pursuing god we're just kind of doing what we want just doing our thing it's like well it's not really i'm not really doing anything bad i mean just just not really doing what i'm you know i feel like god has wanted me to do or what i could be doing or what i should be doing or not whatever you know i'm not really sinning it's the excuse we make but you're pursuing your own pleasures you're not pursuing the lord we need to learn how to seek joy pleasure happiness and fulfillment in the lord because if we look for those things anywhere else it's gonna fall short you look for your fulfillment your happiness your joy in any other place that's gonna fall short the bible in psalm 16 it says verses 6 through 8 it says i have set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand i shall not be moved therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices my flesh also will rest in hope for you will not leave my soul in sheol nor will you allow your holy one to seek corruption you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy at your right hand our pleasures forevermore and your pre in your presence is the fullness of joy so if you want to have joy this is where you find it you hear all the all the time about people you know rich people who have you know everything everybody can possibly imagine right they've got all the wealth all the houses the cars the clothes whatever it might be fame fortune and they're miserable because they're trying to find joy in everything else they're looking for joy and satisfaction fulfillment everywhere else but the one place that they can actually find it and that's in the lord people work work and work and work they work their tail off work round the clock work in multiple jobs or working one job 60 80 hours a week however much they can possibly work slaving away trying to find happiness you're not gonna find it there you'll never find happiness at your job okay they think well if i can save up enough money then i can retire and then i can be happy you'll work your whole life away and you're still not going to have happiness at the end of your life you'll have nothing to show for it it's only in the lord that we can find true joy true happiness true fulfillment it's only in the lord that you're able to rejoice always rejoice in the lord always how do you do that well it's because you have to be in the lord if you're walking with him you're pursuing him spending time with him making him your focus that's how you rejoice that's how you find joy that's how you find fulfillment that's how you find peace that's how you have the strength to endure whatever situation may be going through i want you to think about a couple of phrases see if these make sense to you we praise what we prize you ever thought about that think about what is praiseworthy what kinds of things are worthy of your praise i know a lot of times people praise lots of things that probably shouldn't be praised did you see that touchdown pass wow that was awesome that's praise isn't it there's all kinds of stuff that we give praise to but is that where your praise should be going we praise what we prize and you know in the same note we worship the things that we find worth in where is your worth where is your treasure where your treasure is that your heart will be also right what do you find worth in what is valuable to you what is worthy to you that's what worship is this is the problem with idolatry we we often think well you know i don't have any golden statues sitting on my shelf that i bow down to that's not necessarily what idolatry is idolatry is where are you putting your worship where are you putting worth where are you putting value where's your praise going what do you treasure that's an idol to you so do you prize the lord more than worldly things you prize the lord more than sinful things do you find more worth in god or do you find more worth in the world around you david spoke about the joy of salvation king david this was after his sin with bathsheba in psalm 51 12 he says restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your generous spirit do we understand the joy of salvation do we do we still cling to that joy when you first got saved when you first came to the lord there was a joy right because you realized i'm not the same i know i was this way and now i'm this way he has changed me he has set me free i am no longer like that there's something new something better and so you know for a while you have that joy and just knowing wow god has made a huge change in my life and i'm excited about that i want to tell everybody about that but do you still have that 10 15 20 30 40 50 years later as life goes on stuff happens do you still hang on to the joy of your salvation the joy of knowing that you have been saved you've been set free you have been given eternal life does that joy still stir you restore to me the joy of your salvation the fact that we have been forgiven should be enough to bring us joy in any situation right all of us are worthy of death all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god the bible says right we have all fallen short none of us deserves salvation none of us deserves forgiveness none of us deserves grace none of us deserves eternal life not a single one of us and if you think you do you're worse off than i think if you think that you can somehow earn your way or that you are somehow good enough you're worse off than you think you are we have all fallen short we all deserve death the fact that he gives us grace that he died for us that he has paid our ransom that he's given us an opportunity to enter into eternal life with him that alone should be enough to keep us rejoicing for the rest of our days that's why we gather together and we worship isn't it to celebrate and rejoice for what he's done in our life i want to read i'm almost done tonight you guys are lucky tonight it's going to be a short one and i did this on purpose because i want to give time for testimonies so i know normally i'm i'm a little long-winded billy's happy but uh i wanted to i want to intentionally and just having a short thought tonight because i want to give you guys plenty of opportunities for testimonies because i want to hear what god is doing in your life and i want you guys to share that with others because that gives us recent rejoice as well when you hear the encouraging words of what god is doing in someone else's life that encourages you i want to read exodus 34. this is interesting this is what god said about himself and keep in mind this is after israel sinned so god gave them the ten commandments while moses was up on the mountain they build a golden altar a golden idol and they're worshiping this golden calf and god's mad and he says you know i'm gonna wipe these people out and moses intercedes for the people and this is after moses goes back up to get the ten commandments again because he smashed the first tablets so he goes up to get the second set of tablets so after all this has happened listen to what god says about himself now the lord as the lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the lord and the lord passed before him and proclaimed the lord the lord god merciful and gracious long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity in transgressions and sin by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generations so moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped then he said if if now i have found favor and grace in your sight o lord let my lord i pray go among us even though we are a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your inheritance but it says that he proclaimed his name and it says the lord the lord god so yahweh yahweh god yahweh elohim merciful and gracious this is still part of his name that he's declaring to us merciful and gracious long-suffering abounding in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin this is who he's telling us he is he's this is who i am i'm long-suffering i'm forgiving i'm gracious he said i'm giving you a second chance i give you other opportunity i want to restore relationship with you this is the god we serve but then he says that by no means clearing the guilty what does that mean he's not just he's not just gonna say oh whatever i know you're guilty but who cares you're still you're held accountable there still has to be a debt paid so what does he do he pays the debt it also means that you have to repent yahweh describes himself as being merciful and gracious long-suffering abounding and goodness and forgiving iniquine and transgression and sin this these are his characteristics these are who he is this is the god we serve and this this should give us reason to rejoice shouldn't it again we've all fallen short it's easy for us to look at israel and say man those guys are always messing up weren't they god pulls them out of egypt the first thing to do is build a golden calf can you believe that why does god put up with them why didn't he just wipe him out and start over because it didn't matter who he who the people were it's going to be the same story he could have reversed it he could have left the children of israel in egypt and pulled the egyptians out it would have been the same story he could have wiped israel out in the wilderness and said you know i'm just going to keep the people in canaan and just you know deal with them it would have been the same story because all of us mess up all of us fall short all of us need to fall on his grace to fall on his forgiveness right does anybody here say you know what i don't i don't need that i've never messed up in my life anybody okay i didn't think there was any perfect people in here yet we all need that paul described himself he said that you know i'm what a wretched man i am i know i've i've often quoted paul whenever i pray and say god i am i'm such a wretched man we please save me forgive me heal me how many of you guys have done that what a wretched man i am but we serve a god who restores he heals he forgives we are wretched poor pitiful blind and naked but he restores heals forgives clothes cleans and saves everything we are he can undo everything we've done he can undo there's an interesting verse in luke chapter 10 verse 20. this is one we looked at a couple months ago as well remember i was going through the gospel series i'm still kind of stuck there in luke we'll pick up in luke 13 soon uh maybe next week wait who's teaching next week are you greg greg's teaching next week so it won't be next week maybe the week after we'll do look 13. but in luke 10 is interesting because yeshua gave them power and authority to cast out demons and to heal diseases and he says don't rejoice that the demons obey you he says rejoice that your names are written in heaven is that not an interesting thing to think about don't rejoice that the demons obey you rejoice that your name is written in heaven because the source of our rejoicing should be in the lord not on anything else rejoice in the lord always rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice don't rejoice in what you can accomplish don't rejoice in your successes in ministry even because that's what the disciples were basically doing right wow this is so great did you see what we did we cast out these demons they they ran they were scared of us he said don't rejoice that the demons flee rejoice that your name is written in heaven don't rejoice at your accomplishments rejoice in the lord and the salvation that he has given you so we rejoice in the lord and he gives us strength

Channel: The Grafted Church

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Keywords: church online, sermon, Bible Teaching, Lex Meyer, Grafted Church, rejoice always, rejoice always sermon, rejoice in the lord, rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice, rejoice in the lord always

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Length: 37min 33sec (2253 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020