Rejoice |Sermon series “The Power of Re" | Robert Madu

we've been in a series called the power of power of what three if you're watching in the chat would you just type that in right there the power of re and if i could encourage you actually how many is this your first time here let me see your hand again come on make some noise one more time for every single person that's amazing man thank you so much we got john legend's twin is right here in the middle section right here his stunt double here i'm playing i mean put you on the spot like that but right here on these lights you look like john legend hogan um this is this is such a privilege for you to come out tonight and i would encourage you to come out every single sunday night stream every single sunday because each week we might be in this series till 2021 uh we're going to look at a different re because there's so many different re words re the power of read life is not what you see it's what you read what you re-envision how you recreate yourself some of you think this year has wrecked your life hadn't wrecked your life it's just opportunity for you to read reevaluate some things so that's what we've been in and we're going to get another read tonight and daniel on the team just set it up so good go and meet to philippians chapter 4 philippians chapter 4 and just one verse of scripture philippians chapter 4 verse number 4. when you're ready to read it say yeah if you're not ready say hold up why you saying hold up when it's on the screen come on [Laughter] it's just one verse of scripture one verse of scripture look at what it says rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice that's the only verse i knew you right there rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice this is just one verse can we read some different versions that's the king james version let's do the new king james version it says rejoice in the lord always again i will say rejoice let's do the niv version it's just one verse of scripture let's do that i think it says rejoice in the lord always i will say it again rejoice let's do another version real quick this is the nlt version always be always always that's all the time see that's why you can never have an excuse to come into church looking frustrated like you've been sucking on lemons all day it doesn't matter always be full of joy in the lord i say it again [Music] rejoice one more version the message translation you know the message translation breaks it down i love this one celebrate god all day early i mean revel in him can you guess the read the read we're going to talk about tonight is rejoice rejoicing here's the title of my message tonight make sure you get it down rejoice on repeat rejoice on repeat do me a favor i want you to look at the person next to you whichever one you like the best get in their face i'm just playing don't get in their face but just look at them and just say neighbor come on don't be afraid to talk to people at social dallas come on say neighbor you need to put rejoice on repeat come on look at another neighbor a long distance neighbor in the room and look at them and say other labor you're my second option but i got to tell you put rejoice on repeat now i don't want to preach before i preach but you do know it matters what you put on repeat matters have you ever heard a song that you didn't like at first but then the radio just kept putting it on repeat that they made you like it like remember dude just for the mess remember cause i'm happy clap along if you when that song dropped i was like i can't stand that song and then like three weeks later i was in the house thinking cause i'm happy until i was like i thought you didn't like it i know but they kept playing it over and over again they made me like it it's it's powerful what you put on repeat and right here we're learning in this text that you got to put rejoicing on repeat let's pray and then we'll jump into this word father thank you for your word thank you for your presence speak to us tonight in jesus name everybody say it rejoice on repeat do you remember your very first car anybody remember your first car okay some of y'all are smiling when i said that let me ask a different question how many of you your first car was like a really nice or brand new car can i see your hand nice or brand new car okay oh in that lovely in that suite how many you like me how many like me your first car was not brand new it wasn't fancy it wasn't nice but it didn't matter because you were just happy to have a car finally you were just happy to finally be driving i'm telling you there are very few things as exciting or as joyful as getting a car for the first time and being able to drive for the first time the day you make that transition from being a passenger to a driver how many know that's a big deal today you could tell somebody hey i'm gonna meet you today at three o'clock and i'm gonna be there at three o'clock because i gotta wait on nobody i got my own car i got my own will the power of having your own car in fact if you want the facial expression for rejoicing find a 16 year old kid who just got their license and has a brand new car and you will see the facial expression of rejoicing you can't tell that kid nothing okay that kid could be in a minivan with 80 000 miles but they will pull up on you like they in the mercedes tell me what up fam i'm telling you there's nothing like the joy of a new car you ask me how i know my very first car my very first car wait for it was a minivan it was our family minivan it was a mazda minivan my parents are here they will attest to that i will never forget the day my nigerian father handed me the keys to the family minivan it was a mazda it was a mazda but it was mine on the back in chrome it had mpv a mazda mpv that's director mpv and here's how excited i was about that car i went to school telling my friends you know that mpv stand from a dew pin van that's what that is right there don't hate on me i got plenty of room in this car i had a mazda van the exterior was a rustic blue the interior was a plush cloth with a custom color custom color called four kids and i rolled that minivan i kept that minivan meticulously clean all day cleaning my minivan i had so much armor all on that minivan look like somebody took a bucket of chicken grease and just started spreading it oh on the dashboard i love my video when i put up to the stop light you ain't ready for me my wheels kept on spinning when i just had to stop like some of y'all like you put spinners on a minivan you better believe i put some spinners on a minute and not the real ones that were expensive i was bawling on the budget target no no walmart had the plastic kind that you just snapped on the hubcaps and it was still spinning i love love my mazda minivan you couldn't tell me nothing in my miles of minivan only problem with my mazda minivan is that i got a cheap cd player installed in it and i blew out the speakers the first week i had it listening to a christian rap group called the hot boys cash money records blew it out the first week and it created a problem because every time i would drive after blowing out my speakers if i was on a smooth road it would be fine but if i hit a bump or hit a pothole my speakers as soon as i hit the bump would just go [Applause] you know how long it was going to do it that was my challenge while i was driving but it didn't matter because when i was by myself i was just so happy to be driving i didn't care about the noise i was cool with it until the day i picked up my friends to ride with me picked up my friends to get in the car with me as soon as they got in the car come on i'm 16 years old you know how friends are still getting the car like robert cut off some music i was like cool y'all want some music and i almost hit the button and before i hit the button it hit me bro your speakers are messed up so i pulled back real quick i got nervous i was like man y'all sure y'all want to listen to music today like y'all don't want to just talk we don't ever connect emotionally can we just talk as friends like robert quit tripping put on the music so i put on the music and i'm driving and praying y'all i cannot tell you i am interceding i'm speaking in tongues as the spirit gets me utterance talking about god you do miracles you spit the red sea please don't let my speakers go bad on me right now i can't be in these streets like this i know my friends are going to clown me god please do not let these speakers while i'm driving and while i'm praying they notice they're like robert why are you driving so slow man i'm like look i'm a responsible driver put your seatbelt on okay don't worry about why don't you just scared but it was inevitable two minutes into the ride hit a pothole and a classic messed up friend's form there was that pausing oh my goodness laughs laugh laugh laughing they're laughing completely quenched my joy i'll never forget what happened afterwards though i went home with attitude you know how you do when you got attitude and i was talking to my nigerian father who gave me the keys who's here tonight and he saw my countenance was down he said what's wrong with you i said oh you won't know what's wrong man i'll tell you what's wrong with me you got me on these streets in the minivan and i got messed up speakers my friend was laughing at me all day he goes he starts laughing at me he goes oh my goodness i said oh that's funny that's why i said what's so funny dad so i'll tell you what's funny it's funny that you are laughing or you're crying rather that they were laughing at you i said that it's not funny i got messed up speakers he goes let me ask you something he said all of your friends that were laughing at you do they have cars they are driving i said no that's why they were with me because i got plenty of seats in the back they were with me he said oh okay so they don't have cars they're driving he said son which one would you rather be driving with bad speakers or laughing with no car i'll never forget it never forget it and when my nigerian daddy said that oh i'm telling you it was instant my disposition immediately shifted i went from soaking to celebrate it i went from complaining to rejoicing i went from downcast to smiling i couldn't wait to use that comeback on the next day at school at least i'm driving yeah you good in the back it was amazing amazing how one word don't miss this one word from my father shifted my focus from complaining to rejoicing i immediately got the joy restored that i had lost because my friends were laughing at me and i shared that story with you tonight because i think all of us need voices like my father they don't have to be nigerian but how many you know every single one of us we need what i call rejoice reminders you need rejoice reminders because i found out that we don't rejoice naturally have you noticed this rejoicing is not in the default settings of humanity you know when you have an app and you go into your settings there's default settings and there's things you got to turn on how many you know rejoicing is not in the default settings of humanity you know what's in our default settings complaining oh complaining is in our default settings you got to turn on rejoice notifications but complaining is hardwired in our dna we love to complain i'll never forget one day taylor and i we did something don't try this at home we did the no complaining no negative challenge have you ever tried this we said we're gonna go the whole day no complaining no negative words we didn't make it till 12 o'clock in the afternoon already complain don't judge me okay we got kids okay three or four we couldn't do it we couldn't do it you know why because in our dna in our default settings we are so quick to complain we have to rehearse rejoicing but all of us are trained to complain oh you don't believe you're trying to complain how many you ever experienced this you ever been talking to somebody and as you're talking to them they say something to you like this maybe it's after an event they'll pull you over and they say hey come here hey what did you really think about that event or they'll put you over and talk about somebody say hey come here hey come here what you really think about them how many you know when that person asks you that they're not trying to get you to say something positive or rejoice the reason they're asking what did you really think is because they're trying to tap down into that propensity that all of us have to look at situations and find what we can complain about instead of finding something to rejoice something to celebrate i'm telling you we are trained to complain we have to rehearse rejoicing you have to put rejoicing on repeat because we are trained in our dna to always complain would you wake your neighbor up and look at them and say stop complaining tell them please rejoice don't reap me you have to put rejoice on repeat because this will not come naturally it is not in our natural dna to rejoice is like we are wired to complain about something rejoice is something that has to be put on repeat look at your label one last time and say put rejoice on repeat when the last time you called somebody was the last time you called somebody especially this year and said to them hey man what you doing and they said to you oh man i'm just rejoicing you'd be like oh really in 2020 that has never happened to you i will you could call somebody say what you're doing oh man i'm rejoicing nobody says that and if they do tell you they're rejoicing what will you say in return you'll be like are you rejoicing well what happened you'll say what you're rejoicing what happened and i think that's the fundamental problem about rejoicing is that we have rejuve reduce rejoicing to happiness we've reduced rejoicing to something happening in our life or to like a happy countenance but how many know there's a vast difference between rejoicing and happiness happiness is temporary rejoicing is permanent hear me comes from the word hap which means chance it means something has to happen in your life in order for you to get happy but rejoicing is something deeper that's why happiness is not a fruit of the spirit joy is because you can't get this in the natural you can't get rejoicing in the natural this has to be something down in your spirit something that anchors you something that is not predicated upon your circumstance whether you got a check in the mail whether your likes your picture or not this is something deeper rejoicing is not happiness preach robert there's a difference it's a difference can i give it to you the way the holy spirit gave it to me holy spirit speaks to me in illustrations see happiness is like going to a playground by yourself and expecting to have fun don't miss this on a seesaw going to a playground by yourself and sitting on the seesaw waiting for something great to happen waiting for something to lift you up and this is actually how a lot of people live their lives that's why some people have no joy in 2020 because you're just sitting on the seesaw by yourself waiting for something to happen that's what happiness is it's like sitting on a seesaw just waiting for something to happen okay i've been here five hours how many know you're gonna sit there all day on a seesaw but can i tell you the difference between happiness and rejoicing happiness is like a seesaw but rejoicing rejoicing is like a swing set rejoice is like a swing set because i mean if you go on a swing set and you get on that swing set because that swing set is anchored in the ground because the swing set is anchored how many you know it's nice when somebody pushes you on the swing set but you don't need somebody to push you on a swing set to go up how many you know you can start creating your own momentum y'all not feeling me that's the power of rejoicing when you rejoice in you say a good check is fine but even if i don't have a check even if i don't have a job even if life isn't the way i wanted i still got a reason to rejoice i'm still gonna give god praise i'm still gonna give god glory i'm not gonna see saul i don't care what i see or what i saw i will rejoice in the lord oh i feel like preaching tonight i need about 15 people to give god some praise if you know that you are anchored that you got a reason to rejoice come on turn up the volume of your praise in this place tonight stop being a seesaw believer sit up there waiting huh yeah you're done do you see what i see you see what i saw stop predicating your happiness on what you see or what you saw but you better start rejoicing just start swinging and say there's something deeper that i can predict my life on it doesn't have to be circumstances this is the power of rejoicing and i want to teach tonight because i want you not just to shout i want you to get some practical things the first thing you got to understand about rejoicing is hearing me rejoicing requires put on the screen choice [Applause] rejoicing requires choice see people think that rejoicing is something that has to happen to me and all that's happiness rejoicing requires a choice you have to choose to rejoice you have to make up your mind beforehand and this is what the apostle paul in philippians is getting to in chapter four look at what he says he says rejoice in the lord always always how many you know he didn't say rejoice in the lord sometimes because if he said sometimes then we would base it on how we feel no he said i want you to rejoice in the lord always and then he says i'm gonna put it on repeat because i know how many you think that's crazy and you're gonna shrug it off so let me say it again rejoice he is telling us to put rejoice on repeat here's what i love about paul he doesn't just do it in philippians chapter four he does it throughout the entire book of philippians all throughout philippians you'll read paul talking about rejoicing and joy rejoice he puts it on a repeat rejoicing and joy over 16 times in philippians paul talks about rejoicing in joy as he writes to the church in philippi 16 times how many of the book of philippians is only four chapters and over 16 times this dude is like rejoice rejoice i'm gonna say it again y'all tripping rejoice rejoice i'm putting on repeat again rejoice because rejoice has to be rehearsed this doesn't come natural you will naturally complain but i'm telling you rejoice has to be put on repeat here's what i love about the book of philippians and this isn't even a part of the message i'm gonna give you this for free how many of you 2020 has been beating you upside the head it's just messing you up okay can i give you a prescription this is especially if you're new to reading the bible read the book of philippians it's only four chapters read it when you get home tonight philippians is like the prescription for 2020. i'm telling you philippians is different from any other letter that paul wrote to the churches because he's not addressing doctrine he's not dealing with drama in the church he's basically just giving them energy shots every single day it's all encouragement shots i'm telling you philippians is powerful if 2020 has been taking your breath away you just need to read the book of philippians okay that's your homework assignment for this class of read just read it's only four chapters okay read the book of philippians because all throughout philippians paul is giving you all kinds of encouragement how many know you need some encouragement this year read the book of philip philippians paul dropped so much incur it's in philippians that paul says i know this one thing that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it until the day of christ jesus that's the one thing i'm confident in that's in the book of philippians philippians paul says this one thing i do this one thing if i don't do anything else there's one thing i do i'm forgetting those things which are behind and i'm reaching for what's ahead towards the mark of the high calling of jesus christ i'm telling you y'all better read philippians when you get home he's got some encouraging things and philip it's in philippians paul says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me that's in philippians philippians paul tells you how to handle this year's election it's in philippians yes he says do you not know that you are citizens of heaven citizens the greek word politico citizens he said quit tripping about what's going on down here don't you know you got another home don't you know you got citizenship that is in heaven and it's not who you voting for it's going to be the hope of the world it is the church of jesus christ that's going to be the hope of the world you're a citizen of heaven you better read philippi it's in philippians that paul says i've learned he says i've learned i've learned in all things to be content paul says i can do it all he says i know how to base and i know how to abound but do translation says man i know how to ball and i know how to straight up be broke he said i'm cool either way it's all in philippians all the olympians he puts it on repeat look at your name and say put rejoice on repeat how can paul tell us to put rejoice on repeat cause here's what tricks me out about philippians it's not what paul is saying it's not just the power of what he's saying it's where paul is saying it from some of y'all know your bible guess where paul is writing the book of philippians from prison honorable you got the nerve to tell me to rejoice and you locked up honor paul you're locked up for something you didn't do by the way just preaching the gospel helping people you're wrongfully imprisoned and of all the things you're going to write about you're going to tell people rejoice rejoice rejoice see this is why this is different about faith walking with god is something different okay you talk about peace that passes all understanding how you locked up in joel in jail time about rejoice rejoice he puts it on repeat in jail how are you talking about joy in jail palmer's realized something he must realize that everything is not what it looks like yes i'm locked up but don't get it twisted i'm free and some of y'all out there are free but you're locked up because stuff is not what it looks like oh come on somebody i know some people who are rich rich wealthy but they broke no they got money but they broke because stuff is not what it looks like i know people who are broke broke broke you know people you avoid you're like oh there he is i know he gonna ask me for something i can't broke but watch this they're rich they're rich because they got something money can't buy because things are not always what they look like things are not always what they see that's why you can't predict your life on what you see so paul's locked up but he's really free so that's why he's telling him hey y'all out there he's like i'm cool but let me help you all out there it's like i'm cool on death row i'm fine but i want to tell y'all out there put rejoice on repeat don't stop rejoicing now paul not only does he have this this anchor to say rejoice you got to put this text in context because how many know you grow in rejoicing you grow and rejoice so if you leave here today you're like wait a minute what in the world is he talking about how am i supposed to rejoice i just lost my job for real robert how many know as a believer you grow in rejoicing that's why paul said i learned to be content he said i didn't always know how to be content or until i lost some stuff that i realized stuff don't matter but as long as i have relationship with jesus i'm good you grow and rejoicing so you can't even really appreciate what paul is saying to the church of philippi until you remember how the church in philippi got started can i remind you how the church of philippi got started acts chapter 16 let's reverse to acts chapter 16. this is how the church in philippi was started where's ryan at ryan come up here real quick because when i was preaching this in my head i had you helping me with this illustration make some noise yeah just stay right there let's social distance just a little bit because people are watching right now and the internet trolls are real okay you remember how acts chapter 16 got started the apostle paul ryan was about to go to asia to preach but the holy spirit restricted him from going to asia to preach because how many know god will order your steps but he'll also order your stops that's why some of you ought to thank god for 2020 because you're about to step in some stuff that was about to mess you up so god gave you the gift of a global timeout because he'll order your steps but also order your stops so he's going to go to asia holy spirit restricted him from going to asia so he ends up going getting a vision to go to macedonia and he lands in philippi he lands in philippi with his homie now ryan silas this is how the church in philippi got started acts chapter 16. so paul and silas walk with me silas they walking around in philippi they ministering they preaching and walking this way they're ministering they're preaching and something crazy happens in acts 16. i've never understood this in all of my life ashley while they're preaching in philippi a psychic if you will a woman who's possessed by a demon starts shouting at paul silas saying this these men are servants of the most high god they cut i don't know why i did that voice but that's just what came to me these servants these men are servants of the most high god they come to show the way of salvation that's what hold on the woman who's demon possessed is saying the woman who's demon possessed says these men are servants of the most high god they come to show the way of salvation hold up she's demon possessed telling the truth because they were servants of the most high god and they weren't coming to show the way of salvation look see demons don't always look the way you think they should look first demon jesus ever cast it out was in the temple tama it may look like i'm surrounded until jesus showed up and the demons started screaming saying she's a demon but she's saying what's true what's wrong she's distracting because yes the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy but how many know some of the ways he destroys you is just to distract you so sometimes watch out for what distracts you because that's what's actually going to destroy you watch out for what distracts you that's one of the story i'm sorry i watched social dilemma last night anyway and so they start screaming these men are servants of the most high god listen to them and paul just gets so annoyed ryan he gets so annoyed he's like in the name of jesus come out sets this woman free she's delivered guess what happens to paul and silas afterwards they caused an outbreak in the city and because that woman made her master some money the masters got mad and went to the council and got paul and silas locked up had their feet locked up just get your feet locked up had their hands locked up just get your hands locked up locked up watch this i'm going somewhere they're locked up they put them in the inner part of the prison inner part of the prison they've been beaten they've been whipped they've been beaten backs bloody for preaching the gospel did nothing wrong they're in the inner part of the prison and the bible says at midnight at midnight they didn't complain because i'm you know rejoicing requires a choice he said we got a choice sadly you know we ought to do we got to start rejoicing it's not right rejoicing requires a choice it's not on our circumstances man they got you good it's not predicated upon my circumstance i got a choice to rejoice and they start rejoicing watch it let me show you they start rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing i don't like it rejoicing rejoicing would you say that rejoicing rejoicing they put it on repeat rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing will y'all help me say it rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing come on say hello rejoicing rejoice that's what they did at midnight rejoicing it's midnight it's midnight you know what midnight is midnight is when there's about to be a shift in the day but it still looks dark that's why you can't predict your life on what you see you see when it's 1201 the sun don't come up at 1201 but you can't predict your life on what you see are you only going to give god worship when you can see something or you're going to say i'm rejoicing rejoicing rejoice and help me say it rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing that's what they did at midnight rejoicing rejoicing flip it real quick rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoice that's why i brought you up here ryan because how you know if you're really going to rejoice you got to learn to be a worshiper if you're struggling with depression and anxiety you got to learn to open up your mouth and give god worship that's what rejoicing is rejoicing is when you sing at midnight they started praising god rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing oh when you sing there's power in your praise when you sing there's power in the way you worship you know what happened the bible says that as they were rejoice seeing that all the prisoners were listening to them they were listening to them and all of a sudden the earthquake hit that place when they were rejoicing rejoicing because god doesn't inhabit the complaints of his people he have inhabited surprises of his people if you want your circumstance to change don't sit there and complain about it start rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing an earthquake shook the very foundation and watch this the bible says that everybody's chains were broken watch this not the people that were singing they were the only ones singing but everybody in the prison got set free when they started singing y'all missed it other prisoners weren't singing only paul and silas were singing but the earthquake was so strong every single person that was in chains got released not because of their praise not because of their worship but because of paul and silas his worship i wish some of y'all had faith to believe that i'm telling you there's something about worshiping that will break stuff off of your family that will break stuff off of your life that will break stuff up for generations that will break stuff off of people who aren't even in this room you cannot worship if you want to i'm just telling you that your worship affects other people everybody's chains got loose because they started rejoicing rejoicing rejoicing thank you so much ryan rejoicing rejoicing so i told you that to tell you not only does rejoicing require choice but number two rejoicing releases chains rejoicing releases change when you have been bound by some things that's not the time to keep your mouth shut that's time to open up your mouth and develop worship and not just worship in a church but how many know you can worship at home can worship in your room i'm telling you if you keep relegating your experience with god to church no wonder you're going to keep going back and forth in strongholds and addiction i think that's what god even did in this shutdown he's trying to get people to understand what nobody go to churches he's trying to get people to understand you know this stuff works at home too you know you can worship at home too you ain't got to wait for a worship team you ain't got to wait for daniel you can do this at home i've done it before i've shut everything down just put on some worship music and started singing and felt a shift in my life because rejoicing releases chains and so that's how the church of philippi started how many know what happened after that everybody's chains got loose the philippian jailer was about to kill himself because he said i'm about to lose my job and paul interrupts him and says no no no we're all good we're all safe and he says what do i have to do to be saved that philippian soldier got saved his whole family got saved that whole community got transformed and that's how the church at philippi started paul knew there's power in choosing to rejoice and so that was 12 years prior to him writing this letter to the church at philippi so they're checking on them and he responds and says hey i'm good and they're probably saying ooh paul you singing are you singing because i know you about to get out they probably wondered if he was worshiping but here's the difference in what happened in philippi and what happened when paul is in prison in rome writing to the church at philippi y'all still with me because when he's writing to the church at philippi he's in rome but when he's in philippians he's worshipping as soon as he worships midnight chains are loosed when he's in prison in rome writing philippians this is a different circumstance because paul does not have silas with him how do you know sometimes when you're going through stuff it can be bad but at least if i got somebody with me i'm good come on anybody know what it's like to have somebody with you it's like man this is bad but at least we ended together you know what i'm saying like we're broke down on the side of the road but at least ain't by myself come on you get on that side we'll try to get your uber together it's a little bit different paul is writing from rome and he's in prison and he's in chains quentin come help me real quick but these chains a little bit different because it's one thing when you are with somebody that's got faith and that'll worship with you and god shows up automatically but can you rejoice when god doesn't do it automatically can you rejoice when you prayed and you sang robert told me to sing i'm singing and it's midnight the situation doesn't change and it's next week and the situation doesn't change and it's next year in the situation of the chain how many of them is like i'll forget this rejoicing i'm sick of this get rejoiced off a repeat because when he's writing to the church at philippi he's in rome silas is gone and he is chained to somebody he's chained to somebody and i never knew this before i found out in philippians chapter one paul says don't trip that i'm in chains he says because the gospel is being furthered because of my chains he said so i'll rejoice he also says that there are people in the palace guard who are being transformed and preaching the gospel without fear because of my chains which made me start going who were those people in the palace guard started studying this and found out that those people those guards who are watching paul it was like the secret service for rome these ain't regular soldiers these are special soldiers who are entrusted with watching high profile prisoners and since there are no cameras they would actually be chained to the hope to the high profile high profile prisoner that's what he is secret service he's the guard it's one thing when you locked up with a silas that you like right but can you rejoice when you locked up with somebody you don't like watch this when you're locked up for two years was in jail two years this ain't no overnight can you rejoice then when you're locked up to somebody you don't like and the situation didn't change automatically not only does rejoicing require choice not only does rejoicing release change but you do know that rejoicing reveals character it reveals character that's why if you really want to know the character of somebody don't look at how they look at you whenever you're going down look at how they look at you whenever you're going up that's how you really judge the character of somebody oh god help me the bible says rejoice with those that read and weep with those that and it's easy to find somebody to weep with you i mean you just gotta have a hard heart to not weep with somebody anybody will cry with you but it's hard to find somebody that will rejoice with you rejoicing reveals character so here's what's tripping me out about paul because i know he's got character because he's been in prison for two years he's chained to a guard who if it was me i'd be so mad can you imagine going to the bathroom just like what is this trying to sleep i mean it's getting real weird in this illustration but paul knows the power of rejoicing it reveals his character because paul the reason he's able to declare that these chains are furthering the gospel is understand that these guards these elite guards would watch the prisoner in six hour shifts six hours a day for two years every day somebody chained to you look at how paul has power look at how he rejoices if it was me i would have been complaining it was me i would have been so ticked off you got me in jail i didn't do anything and now you got me chained to this guard always in my face ain't social distancing always up on me six hour shifts every day for two years why am i chained to him that's me here's the apostle paul [Music] y'all got me locked up for two years every day with elite guards for six hours you got me locked up to somebody that has access to caesar the most powerful person in the top you got me locked up for six hours chained to this dude i'm about to rejoice i'm about to rejoice because i don't know how you see it but i see it a different way i don't see myself being trained to him he's chained to me for six hours oh hold up this is a privilege i'm not chained to him he's changed them for six hours i'm about to preach to you for six hours i'm about to preach to a captive audience and watch this gospel that changed my life change your life for six hours oh [Applause] i'm not trying to help he's chained to me for six hours i'm gonna tell you about a guy who's a waymaker who's a miracle worker a god who's got power to pick you up and change your life worship teams join me oh everything that you see is not what it really looks like some of you think that you are chained to a situation but i came to tell you that situation has changed to you and you better rejoice because it's an opportunity for god to get the glory out of it i need somebody to get up on your feet and give god some praise like you feeling this thing tonight it is not chained to you [Applause] paul can rejoice because he says this ain't an obstacle it's an opportunity i got a captive audience every communicator knows if you're gonna preach you better know how to arrest somebody's attention and for six hours every day for two years not only does he write come over here not only does he write philippians he writes ephesians come over this is a good problem we'll tell him don't you know that god is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you may ask or say writes colossians philemon all with the guard that's chained to him six hours a day history will tell us that guards were so transformed some of them were fighting over a shift come on man let me cover for you man i want to hear paul preach man let me get my shift let me get my ship you know you can preach i got you let me cover you paul understands this is an opportunity it revealed his character he said because i'm not only going to rejoice when everything goes well or when god shows up on my time schedule i'm gonna look at every situation even being wrongfully imprisoned and being chained to somebody as an opportunity for the gospel to go forth take that off if you can [Applause] this isn't an obstacle this is an opportunity for the gospel thank you to go forth i'm not chained to him it's chained to me maybe you're chained to a circumstance that you would have not picked for yourself i wonder if you could see it a different way because it's producing character in you i know somebody battling cancer he wouldn't have picked cancer taking chemo treatments but i know this person that sits with their chemo treatment and starts preaching and sharing god's love to the people that are getting the chemo with her she wouldn't have picked it but she says hey i'm not chained to this cancer this cancer's chained to me and this is an opportunity yes i'm believing god for healing and i know he is a healer but in this moment i got an opportunity for the gospel to go forward because hear me please don't miss this whatever you find your joy in is what you're chained to whatever you find your joy in is what you're chained to if you find your joy in status you'll always be chained to it and when your followers go down your life will go down if you're chained to acceptance from other people you will live and die by their compliments if you're chained to a successful business you lost it this year i bet you are feeling down cause that's what you found your joy in but guess what paul's joy was connected to he said my joy is that people will encounter the same savior that i encountered that's what my joy is connected to he said so if somebody's encountering jesus in six hour shifts then i'm thankful for these chains i'm glad to be locked up if the gospel is going forth if people are being transformed that's where i find my joy so it's worth it worth whatever you find your joy in that's what you're chained to i believe god is trying to get us to not base our lives on circumstance and what we're facing to not be a seesaw believer [Music] sitting my whole life waiting everything is what i see and what i saw i'm gonna swing and i'm gonna sing and i'm gonna give god glory because rejoicing is something deeper the reason i can rejoice in the lord always is because he's the only thing that is always he is the only thing that is the same yesterday today and forever so i got to put a rejoice on repeat put it on repeat heads about eyes are closed in here tonight [Music] if you're in here tonight you say man i need to put rejoice on repeat i am not dismissing what's happened to you i'm not dismissing that this has been a crazy year but i am telling you that rejoicing requires a choice and every day you get up you gotta choose to rejoice [Music] you gotta be careful what you keep repeating no wonder you feel bad you keep repeating the news channels and what we see you better start repeating the word of god some of you that was a word for you you better get in philippians and start repeating god's word put that on repeat you do not have to be controlled by everything that comes into your life joy it's the fruit of the spirit it's not based on circumstance so just with his bowel and eyes closed tonight if you be so on and say man this was for me and i want us to sing that uh it may look like if we can i'm surrounded but i'm surrounded by you because somebody in here needs to know it's not what it looks like paul says i'm in chains but i'm telling you to rejoice because i'm free it's not what it looks like if you know tonight say i need to put rejoice on repeat [Music] i believe y'all's going to give you the strength for tonight especially would you just lift up your hand as a sign to say this words for me tonight just lift it up thank you jesus thank you god thank you god yeah yeah so many hands lifted heads are still about eyes are still closed [Music] if you're here tonight you've not surrendered your life to jesus hear me you can't get this joy in the natural you can get happiness in a natural a boy when something bad happens you're gonna lose it this is a work of the spirit if you're not surrendered your life to jesus you don't have to fix yourself you don't have to get yourself together you just come to him just as you are that philippian guard said what must i do to be saved paul said believe in the lord jesus god raised him for the dead heads about how's the close even somebody watching online if you've not surrendered your life to jesus i want to give you that opportunity tonight if that's you would you just lift up your head as a sign to say i'm giving him my life tonight maybe you need to recommit your life to him tonight if that's you i just want you to lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where i can see it thank you jesus thank you god here's what i want us to do i want us to pray this prayer i'm gonna pray there's one big family and even those of you online but after i pray it hear me the worship team's gonna lead but some of you you need to respond just by getting out of your seat come find a new place i love this theater because there's just so much space right down here at the front but some of you you just need to leave where you are as a sign to say i'm stepping into something new i'm tired of living my life on circumstance and happiness but i gotta put rejoice on repeat and it starts with rejoice sing sing sing so we're gonna worship but if you need to get out from where you are and come find a place at this altar i wanna let you know that this place is open for you tonight and i believe god's gonna do something as you rejoice saying come on some of you've had so much depression so much anxiety and god's saying i love counselors sometimes you need medicine oh that's good but can i tell you there's something powerful about worshipping you were created to worship you were made to worship when you open up your mouth and worship god i'm telling you things change so i'm gonna pray i want you to repeat this prayer after me and then we're gonna worship would you just say this say dear jesus come on let's all declare say dear jesus i need you tonight i surrender i give you my life i won't live my life on happiness i want your joy i'm rejoicing i'm rejoicing tonight because you died on a cross from my sin you set me free so today forgive me make me brand new and from this moment forward i'm following you i will rejoice i will rejoice i choose to rejoice in jesus name come on if you want to come to the front come to the front but come on let's just begin to fill this place with worship tonight come on somebody needs to rejoice until depression falls off for you rejoice until anxiety falls off of you rejoice until generational curses are broken off in your life come on

Channel: Social Dallas

Views: 13,512

Rating: 4.9685864 out of 5

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Id: 3bDawR8fDgc

Length: 54min 56sec (3296 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020