Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Verse number four, the Bible says,
rejoice in the Lord all way.
And again, I say rejoice.
Probably, you know, up there in terms of
some of the more famous verses in the Bible.
It's a very simple verse.
It's obviously the verse of this week.
You know, it's a verse that's even been turned into a song.
But yet this small little verse
holds a lot of deep truths.
Some things that we can really understand
and take away from the Bible
and become better Christians
by applying this simple truth to our life.
You know, I'm not expecting this sermon
to necessarily be flashy or wow you with all this knowledge.
A lot of the things I'm gonna preach to you this evening
are gonna be things that you probably already know.
But you know, here's the thing is
the reality is when it comes to the basics,
when it comes to these basic truths,
we need to be constantly reminded of these things.
Go back to chapter number three.
Notice what the Bible says in verse number one.
The Bible says, finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you, to me,
indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Understanding that we should rejoice all way
and again is something that's going to preserve us.
It's gonna help us to be a better Christian.
It's gonna help us glorify God more in our life.
It's very important.
And I know we use this verse often
to relate it to the next verse, right?
And that's very true, right?
We should be warned constantly.
There are wolves, there are wicked evil doers, right?
In this world that want to destroy us.
But you know, it's not just limited to that either, really.
Paul, he's bringing up lots of things
that we should constantly be put in
to remembrance things that we should constantly
be dwelling on, things that we should constantly
be hearing from the Word of God.
And when you study this book, the book to Philippi,
the really one of the major themes of this book is rejoicing.
I mean, if you just slow down
and pay attention to what the book is saying,
he's highlighting just this concept of rejoicing in the Lord.
And you know, it's interesting in verse four,
it's like rejoicing the Lord all way and again.
As if all way wasn't enough
for us to understand that we should do this a lot.
It's like he says, oh, well, you need to do it again
as well.
You know, I think that's an important aspect of rejoicing
that we need to take to heart
is that this is something that we should be doing
on a consistent basis in our life.
We should be rejoicing in the Lord all way and again.
Now, what does rejoicing mean?
Now, I just looked up a basic definition of rejoicing
and it means to express great joy or happiness.
Rejoicing is how joy is expressed, right?
And that's important for us as Christians
if we want to be pleasing in the sight of God.
Why?
Because we should be producing the fruits of the Spirit.
And one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy.
And you know, we could turn to Galatians.
I know many of you guys are familiar with that passage.
The Bible says, but the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, long suffering, right?
So one of the things that we are supposed to produce
in our life, a fruit that should be evident in our life
is joy.
How do you produce joy through rejoicing?
It's the means in which joy is evident, right?
It's how you express joy is through rejoicing.
And rejoicing can look like a lot of different things,
but primarily in our life,
we should be producing this fruit of the Spirit
which is joy and of course it comes through rejoicing.
Go to Philippians chapter number one.
Just flip forward a couple of chapters.
Notice what the Bible says in verse 11.
It says, being filled with the fruits of righteousness
which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory
and praise of God.
So our ability to produce the fruits of the Spirit,
they come by Jesus Christ.
Notice it didn't say rejoice when things are going good.
Rejoice because of your life circumstances.
Now the object of our rejoicing,
the object of our joy is the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is where rejoicing is going to come from.
It's in him.
And the Philippians, when you read through this,
they didn't really have a whole lot to rejoice about,
carnally speaking.
The Bible seems to indicate
they didn't really have a whole lot of money.
They didn't have a whole lot of an abundance.
But what's interesting about the Philippians,
the Bible says that they were the first ones
to offer Paul some assistance, some help.
They're willing to give of their lack even unto him.
And so the Philippians from their own perspective,
from like a carnal means,
from looking at them from a worldly perspective,
on the outside didn't really have a whole lot
to be rejoicing about necessarily.
And maybe that's why Paul is bringing this up a lot.
Maybe he's trying to remind them.
Maybe he's trying to help them
to kind of focus on this area of their life.
And I think it's important that us as Christians,
living in a lot of the situations
we have to deal with in this life,
it's important that we remember
to rejoice in the Lord all the way.
I agree.
I think you could look at this world
and get really black-pilled
on all the things that are going on in this world.
There's a lot of things to be down about.
And if you're lacking in joy in your life,
the problem is is most likely
that you're dwelling on a lot of these things
that are going wrong in the world.
It seems like nothing is going well
or you just have judices and backstabbers.
You have the enemies of the Lord
constantly fighting against good churches.
You have all these negative things that are taking place
and you find yourself not having a whole lot of joy
in your life.
It's probably because you're focusing more
on the carnal things
and all the things that are going on in your life,
your life's circumstances,
rather than just rejoicing in the Lord
in His goodness and in His greatness.
That's how you find joy in your life
is rejoicing in the Lord.
Because honestly, many times
there's not a whole lot to rejoice about in this world.
There's not a whole lot of things,
carnally speaking, to be rejoicing in.
Many of us have all kinds of struggles,
all kinds of issues that come up in our life.
And so it's really important
that we focus each day on rejoicing
in the things that the Lord has done for us,
dwelling on those things.
And you're gonna be a joyful person.
I like that meme.
It's like the background, everything's on fire.
And he's like, this is fine.
And that's how we should be as Christians in a way.
Not that we should ignore issues
or that we shouldn't be affected by issues.
That's not what I'm saying.
I don't want you to miss what I'm saying.
We're gonna look at some passages
that'll kind of help us to understand this.
But in reality, even though all the world
might be burning down around us,
we should be saying, hey, this is fine.
This is fine.
Why? Because your joy is coming from the Lord.
You're rejoicing in the Lord on a consistent basis.
Turn in your Bibles.
Turn your Bibles, you're already in chapter number one,
aren't you?
Go back to chapter number one, Philippians chapter number one.
We cannot rely on circumstances or live circumstances
to produce joy in our life.
You know, whether it's good times or bad times.
And honestly, I would even say,
even when it's bad times,
it's even that much more important
that we rejoice in the Lord.
That we spend time dwelling on the goodness of the Lord.
Philippians chapter number one,
notice what the Bible says in verse number 12,
says, but I would, you should understand, brethren,
that the things which happened unto me
have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel.
So that my bonds in Christ are manifested in all the palace
and in all other places.
And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident
by my bonds are much more bold
to speak the word without fear.
Now, the reason I bring up this verse is,
you know, even though bad things could be happening,
we could have some bad life circumstances.
We could have issues that are come up.
Just all, you know, you fill in the blank
of things that you could be dealing with,
things that you might be currently dealing with.
The reality is that all things work together for good
to them that love God,
to them that are called according to his purpose, right?
And that's why I'm highlighting this verse is,
you know, Paul, he's really emphasized and rejoicing
in the book of Philippians.
And in the New Testament,
it comes up more in the book of Philippians
than most other books.
And he's bringing up this concept, you know,
that very next verse, we read verse 11, right?
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness.
Verse number 12, he's bringing up the fact that
even though he's in bonds,
even though he's going through a difficult season,
now I've never been in jail, I've never been imprisoned,
let alone imprisoned for doing what's right,
what's righteous, right?
So I can imagine the amount of, you know,
uncertainty, the amount of distress,
the amount of anxiety that Paul probably experienced
throughout his life, his experience in going through,
you know, persecutions and trials,
and then being held off to jail, prison.
You know, he wanted to go to Rome,
but he got there a different way, right?
And he ended up in prison.
And it seems to indicate that he never really got out.
You know, when you're reading in 2 Timothy,
you know, he's writing from prison.
In 2 Timothy, it seems like a conclusion
to his ministry in a way.
How he's talking about finishing his course,
his life here on this earth, being faithful to God, right?
Not wavering.
And so, you know, Paul, he's in a really bad situation.
All these things negative are happening in his life.
But what is he focusing on?
He's focusing on the fact that, hey,
even when bad things are happening, hey, this is fine.
Good things can still happen from this.
Notice what the Bible says.
It says that the things which happened unto me
have fallen out rather unto the further and so the gospel.
So even though Paul was put in prison, he's locked up.
He has no ability necessarily to go freely
as he had in prior years in his ministry.
The Bible seems to indicate
that the gospel is even going further into the world,
that the gospel is being preached even further,
that more people are getting saved by his bonds.
You say, well, how is that even possible?
Well, it caused others to be more bold.
It caused others to look at Paul's situation
and say, wow, if Paul can go through all these things,
if Paul can endure this kind of persecution
and tribulations and trials in his life,
how much more can I?
Why can't I do those things?
Why can't I go on and continue the work that he was doing?
Notice in verse 13, it says,
so that my bonds in Christ are manifested
in all the palace and in all other places.
And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing,
confident by my bonds are much more bold
to speak the word without fear.
So even though from Paul's perspective,
currently speaking, things aren't going well.
His life circumstance isn't ideal,
but yet all things work together for good.
And this is something that I think many of us
we probably struggle with.
I know I struggle with this.
It's like, how do you find the good in backstabbers?
How do you find the good in struggling to make ends meet?
How do you find the good in difficult situations?
Those are all real scenarios
that people have to deal with.
And what we have to understand is that,
God is still on his throne.
God is still in control.
And that gives us a reason to rejoice in the Lord all the way.
And this is what I think is really important about this
is it's easy to rejoice when things are going good
in your life, isn't it?
Like you get a new promotion at job,
at your job, hey, praise God, right?
You acknowledge God.
You have a child, hey, praise God.
You know, whatever, anything good that's going on in life,
it seems like most people are really easily able
to rejoice in the Lord.
But really, where the rubber meets the road for a Christian
is that they're rejoicing even when things aren't going good.
Even when the situation seems dire.
Even the worst possible scenario
you could be going through.
Somebody who's producing fruits of the Spirit,
whether they're gonna do, they're gonna rejoice in the Lord.
They're gonna be filled with joy
even though they're going through terrible circumstances.
And one of the motivating factors in doing that
is just understanding, hey, all things work together
for good.
I may not be able to understand it.
I may not be able to see the forest through the trees.
But I know that God is true
and every man is a liar, right?
And I could put my confidence in things
that do not move.
And I think that's really important
if you're going to rejoice in the Lord always
is realizing that you're not rejoicing,
your joy, the foundation of your joy,
where your joy comes from
is not in something that's movable.
It's not in something that's changing,
that's ever moving.
Because our life and the things that happen in our life,
that's something that's constantly moving.
One week it might be a good week,
the next week it might be the worst week of your life.
You have no clue, right?
There's all kinds of ups and downs in the Christian life.
But you know, one thing that's constant, it's the Lord.
And so how do you rejoice in the Lord always?
Because of his unchangeability, right?
Because of his immutability.
The fact that God doesn't change.
The fact that God is always faithful.
The fact that God is always gonna be on his throne.
He's always in control.
And so that should drive us,
that should cause us to want to rejoice in the Lord
all the way and again in our life.
How do you rejoice in times of uncertainty and upheaval?
Because this is gonna be, again, something very difficult.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number one.
1 Peter chapter number one.
How can you rejoicing in times of uncertainty,
upheaval, distress, perplexity?
How can you be faithful to do that?
Well, it's when you're putting your trust
in something that doesn't change.
It's when your joy is rooted in the Lord.
1 Peter chapter number one.
Notice what the Bible says in verse number three.
Says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Notice there's not a dead hope.
It's a lively hope.
It's something that's alive.
It's existing.
It's a lively hope, the Bible says,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
and that faded not away reserved in heaven for you
who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season
if need be you are in heaviness through manifold temptation.
So I wanna just kind of pause and highlight the fact
that what is being said here is that
they're rejoicing greatly because of the Lord's salvation
because of putting your trust in Jesus for salvation.
That's something that doesn't change.
And there's kind of this truth here
in rejoicing in the Lord and that commandment
that God is giving us
because God's not gonna command us,
a just God isn't gonna command us to rejoice in Him always
if it were possible for us to lose our salvation.
Because if you think about it,
it's like the reason why we can rejoice
through difficult seasons, through difficult times
is just knowing the fact that, hey, I'm going to heaven.
There's nothing gonna change about that.
There's nothing that's going to move that.
And notice the Bible says that why is that true?
Because we're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, right?
It's the Lord that we can rejoice in knowing that,
hey, we're never gonna lose our salvation.
No matter how bad things get,
no matter how much we screw up,
if we believed on Jesus Christ,
hey, nothing's gonna change that fact.
We can rejoice in the Lord all the way
and again, simply because of salvation.
I mean, that fact alone should cause you to rejoice
on a consistent basis.
But notice here, and this is what I wanna highlight too,
is I'm not discrediting or I'm not saying that,
oh, well because you rejoice in Lord all the way and again,
that you can't have times of,
you can't have heaviness as the Bible puts it, right?
Where times where you're feeling down,
you're feeling depressed,
you're going through the wringer, right?
You've got all these issues going on in your life
and you're feeling the heaviness of that,
the burden of that.
Because notice what the Bible says in verse six.
It says, wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season,
if need be, you're in heaviness
through manifold temptations.
That word manifold just means many.
You know, again, let's just stop on that fact
is living the Christian life
is about going through many temptations, many trials,
many issues in our life.
That is the Christian life.
So it's not that you can't greatly rejoice in the Lord
and still be going through a difficult season in your life
and still have a heaviness in your heart.
By the trial that's there to try you,
notice what the Bible says in verse seven.
It says that the trial of your faith
being much more precious than of gold, that parisheth,
though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Whom having not seen ye love,
in whom though now ye see him not yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
And so what the Bible is saying is that even though
you might be going through difficult seasons in your life,
you might be going through trials.
And the whole reason for a trial is to purify you in a way.
Right, it's there to make you better.
You're gonna get something out of that
when your faith is tried.
But at the end of the day,
we have salvation to rejoice in.
We have so many things that we can rejoice in.
And it's kind of interesting.
It's like Thomas, he believed because he saw the Lord.
He had faith because he saw the Lord Jesus resurrected.
He handled him, he touched him.
But we love Jesus.
We worship him.
We serve him without ever having seen him.
And the Bible indicates that that's something
that takes a great amount of faith, right?
Now obviously our faith starts just by believing
on Jesus for salvation, but that doesn't mean
we stop just having faith in our life.
Faith should be evident in our life
throughout our Christian life.
Trusting in the Lord's salvation in this world, right?
Just through different circumstances, issues,
health issues, our faith is gonna be tried in many ways.
Whether or not we're going to continue to serve God.
And the reality is some people,
they'll go through those trials and tribulations,
they'll just quit on God.
They won't remain steadfast.
And you say, well, why does that happen?
Probably because they didn't have
a whole lot of joy in their life.
Why did they not have a whole lot of joy in their life?
Because they weren't rejoicing in the Lord all the way.
You find yourself in a difficult season in life.
You're going through difficulties, issues.
It's important that that's when you really rejoice
in the Lord even more so, right?
Not just when things are going good,
not when everything's hunky-dory,
but rather when things are difficult.
That's when your focus should be to rejoice in him,
in his salvation, the many great things he has done
for us.
Go back to Philippians chapter number one.
The fact that we can rejoice in bad times
is evidence of the fact that we have
that eternal security of salvation.
When you're going through difficult seasons,
that's how you can express or demonstrate, if you will,
the fact that you're never gonna lose your salvation,
just not even just to yourself, but to others.
Because think about the world loves to rejoice
when things are going great, but it's unique
for somebody to rejoice when things are bad, right?
That's what distinguishes a Christian
from the rest of this world,
is rejoicing when things are going bad
rather than just when everything's great.
Philippians chapter number one, let me get there as well.
Philippians chapter number one, verse number 28,
the Bible says,
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries
which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but to you of salvation and that of God.
Front to you it is given in the behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.
The Bible says, yeah, and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
The Bible indicates and brings up the fact
that the Christian life is filled,
it's manifold temptations, many trials,
many trials of your faith.
And when you go through those trials,
rejoicing in the Lord, when you're able to go through it
and still produce fruits of the spirit,
it's two things are evident from that.
One is that those that are your adversary,
those that are attacking you,
those that are trying to persecute you,
it's an evident token of their damnation, right?
Of their perdition.
You know, and if they're a brother and you know,
if a brother's attacking you, it's possible.
Yeah, there may be their consequences
not gonna be damnation in terms of hell,
but they're still gonna have judgment from God.
God is still gonna judge even a brother
that's persecuting a brother,
but how much even more so the unsaved, right?
So the fact that you can go through difficulties,
go through persecution, go through
difficult situations in your life,
not being afraid, you know, rejoicing in the Lord,
in the face of adversity.
It's to them an evident token of their damnation,
their perdition, the Bible says,
but it's also the flip side of that coin,
the flip side of that token,
is that it's an evident token of salvation for you.
Knowing that, you know, I can rejoice in the Lord
going through difficult seasons, difficult times,
because hey, at the end of the day, I'm going to heaven.
You can't take that away from me.
And that alone is something to rejoice in.
Go to Psalm chapter number 42.
Psalm chapter number 42.
So we can always rejoice in salvation.
And that can get us through a lot of bad situations.
Just realizing, hey, this life is but a vapor,
that the trials, the temptations we go through,
their temporary, it's not downplaying
the severity of them.
I mean, we can all go through some difficult seasons
in our life and it's not to say that,
oh, well, you shouldn't have moments in your life
where you are depressed or moments in your life
where you're looking at all the things around you
and just the weight of that is a heaviness to you.
But also during those times, we should be rejoicing
in the Lord just for the simple fact that we're safe,
that we have eternal life, that we're gonna go to heaven
no matter what.
Psalm 42, and this is another thing is joy,
producing joy in your life, it's not just
something that happens.
It's something that you have to do.
The Bible says to walk in the spirit.
So it's something that you have to actively do.
And again, this kind of goes back to
a lot of people really easily can rejoice
when things are good, when things are bad,
it takes effort.
And sometimes you gotta just give yourself a pep talk.
Sometimes you just have to tell yourself,
hey, rejoice in the Lord.
Hey, quit feeling sorry for yourself.
Hey, I know this is a difficult time,
but what about all the things that the Lord has done for you?
And sometimes you just gotta give yourself that pep talk.
And I don't know, maybe I'm the only weird one here
that talks to myself sometimes,
but the Psalmists are about to read a verse
and I really relate to this verse
because I find myself doing this a lot,
giving myself a pep talk, right?
But notice what the Bible says in Psalm 42.
And we're gonna read the whole Psalm
just because I think there's just so many great things here.
The Bible says in verse one,
as the heart panteth after the water, Brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, oh God,
my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God,
when shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my meat day and night,
while they continually say unto me, where is thy God?
So obviously the Psalmist here
is going through a difficult time in his life.
He's being persecuted by the workers of iniquities,
being persecuted by people that are against him,
that don't want him to proceed,
don't want him to prosper,
don't want him to have success in his life.
Who knows the reason, we don't really get that.
But obviously the Psalmist is upset.
I mean, he's saying that his tears have been his meat.
And meat is just in the Bible,
it's not necessarily referring to like beef or pork
or anything like we would typically think of.
Meat often in the Bible just means food.
So what he's saying is that he's been lamenting,
he's been weeping and that's been his sustenance.
That has been his food.
He's been eating his own tears.
He say, well, why?
The reason why is because of the scoffing,
the mocking of his adversaries.
What do they say?
Where is thy God?
And evil people, workers of iniquity,
this is something that's just common with many of them
is they look at the judgment of God,
they hear, oh, well, God's gonna take care of you.
God's gonna have vengeance on you.
What do they do?
They mock, they scoff these pieces of trash.
They say, hey, where is thy God?
But the reality is that, hey, God's on his own timeline.
God's gonna produce his judgment.
He's gonna execute his judgment on the wicked.
It will happen.
We're gonna look at some other verses
to reassure us of those things.
But I kind of think God allows these wicked people
to just heap up even more damnation upon themselves.
Just allow their mouths to keep running
these pieces of trash who just wanna mock God,
mock his judgments, mock his word.
And you know, it's upsetting.
It can be a difficult time to go through
having to deal with that kind of persecution.
Notice what the Bible says in verse four.
It says, when I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me,
for I had gone with the multitude.
I went with them to the house of God
with the voice of joy and praise
with the multitude that kept holy day.
Notice, he's going through a difficult season.
He's going through just this severe persecution in his life.
And it says, when he remembered these things,
what did he do?
He went to the house of God.
And I like the way the Bible words this.
It's kind of poetic.
It says, with the voice of joy.
What is the voice of joy?
It's rejoicing.
You know, in the Bible rejoicing
can be synonymous with singing.
If you look up the passage and I believe it's some,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Isaiah 54.
Isaiah 54 is a prophecy of the Gentiles
who are going to basically be,
it refers to them as a barren woman
that brings forth the child.
And it says rejoice.
Oh, I'm sorry, in Isaiah it says sing, oh, barren woman.
In Galatians, it's quoted.
And in Galatians chapter four,
it says rejoice, oh, barren woman.
So rejoicing and singing, these are synonymous things.
So one way that we can rejoice
is just to sing in church.
You know, and I know this is true
because not just here,
most, you know, every church I've ever really been a part of,
there's always people who just don't like singing.
You know, and the question I would ask myself is,
well, if you don't like singing,
do you just not like joy in your life?
Why, because the songs that we're singing,
what are they doing?
They're helping us dwell on the Lord.
The great things that the Lord has done for us.
I mean, if you just read the hymns,
many of them are just highlighting rejoicing in the Lord.
Right, just acknowledging all the great things
God has done for us.
His provision, just, you know,
all these things that He does for us on a daily basis
that we oftentimes take advantage of or we take granted,
take those things for granted.
So just one easy way to just be rejoicing in the Lord
all the way and again, is to come to church
and speaking the words of joy, right?
Rejoicing through song.
And it's really important, you know,
if you're lacking joy in your life,
hey, sing some songs.
Ask my family, you know, I'm not a great singer,
but, you know, when we're driving, it's karaoke time.
You know, I like singing the hymns
and I'll definitely belt them out more in the van
because, you know, I'm not ashamed.
Who's gonna laugh at me?
I'll just whoop them, right?
No, it's a joke, right?
But, you know, we should be rejoicing in the Lord
through song in many instances in our life.
That's one of the easiest ways to do it.
And, you know, if you find yourself
in a difficult season in life,
you're going through a trial, you're going through difficulties.
Hey, one of the best ways to help uplift your spirit,
your soul, is to just turn on some hymns
and start singing some hymns.
You know, you say, how did Paul
get through all these difficulties?
Well, in Acts 16, what did it say?
That him and Silas, they prayed and sang songs.
They sang hymns, right?
And that caused them to have joy in the Lord.
They're rejoicing in the Lord
even through difficult times in their life.
So, I don't wanna skip over that verse there
that this is what the psalmist is looking at.
This is what he's remembering.
And, you know, he's going into the house of the Lord.
He's vocalizing his joy through rejoicing,
through praise.
Notice in verse number five,
it says, why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted in me?
Now, this is what I was talking about,
is the psalmist is what?
He's talking to himself here.
Notice this, why art thou cast down, O my soul?
He's going through a difficult season.
He's like, dude, what's wrong with you?
Why are you so down in the dumps?
Have you forgotten all the things
that God has done for you?
And, you know, I find myself having a lot
of these conversations with my own soul.
You know, and I think it's good for us sometimes to do this.
You know, and it's not weird.
The psalmist is doing it, so I know it's not weird.
You might say I'm weird, but listen,
this is what the Bible says.
Is the psalmist is really just,
he's looking inside himself.
The attitude he's having, you know,
that just, you know, how he's burning down
with this heaviness of the persecution.
And he's given himself a pep talk.
Notice this, why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God.
He's given himself a pep talk.
He's like, hey, quit, you know, getting upset.
Quit being cast down, being down in the dumps.
Hope in the Lord.
Hope in thy God, he says.
For I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
O my God, my soul is cast down within me.
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan
and of the hermonites from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts,
all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness
in the daytime, and in the night his song
shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
You know what the psalmist is deciding to do?
Rejoice in the Lord all way and again.
Morning, evening, he's dwelling on the goodness of the Lord,
the things that God has done in his life.
It says in verse number nine, I will say unto God, my rock,
why hast thou forgotten me?
Why go I am mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
As with the sword in my bones,
mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me,
where is thy God?
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquited within me?
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him
who is the health of my countenance and my God.
Sometimes we just need to give ourselves a little pep talk.
You know, when we're feeling like, you know,
life is not going our way,
we're going through all kinds of issues.
Hey, sometimes you just need to tell yourself,
soul, why are you disquited within you?
You've got a lot to be thankful for.
You have a lot that you can dwell on,
you know, when it comes to the goodness of God.
Go to Psalm 103.
I'm gonna spend some time in the Psalms
because there's so much great verses.
So many great truths here.
So hopefully you don't mind the Bible.
But you say, you know, I'm struggling with rejoicing.
I'm struggling with seeing the good in situations.
You know, what are some of the difficulties
that we could be going through?
I don't know, how about higher taxes?
Property taxes in Texas, man, they're real.
That's a real issue.
Higher interest rates.
I mean, you know, the banks just, you know,
because they love usury and because this world's wicked.
And interest rates are just killing people right now.
You know, it's hard to even find a house.
If you can afford a house, it's like you're, you know,
you don't even wanna know how much of your money
is going to the Jew through interest.
It's terrible.
The slow economy, slow economy can, you know,
only further issues, right?
Because slow economy means slow business,
slow business means slow work, hard to find work, right?
Less disposable income.
Because of inflation, you have less money to go around,
less ability to, you know, provide for the things
that you have.
You know, guys, I know plenty of guys in here
that are working 50, 60 hours a week.
You know, just to have a little bit extra on the side
in case of emergency, you know,
issues that are gonna come up in life.
Just grinding out there, you know?
And it can be tiresome.
It can feel defeating a lot of times.
Like you can never get ahead.
Housing costs, food costs, utility costs, gas,
all these things just seem to constantly be rising.
Health issues.
I mean, health issues just, you know, they're inevitable.
Everybody's gonna have health issues
at some point in their life, no matter how hard you try.
And then when you talk about the cost associated
with health issues, political uncertainty.
There's no certainty in politics right now.
You cannot trust in any politic.
If you haven't figured that out yet,
I mean, I don't know where you've been.
You had your head in the sand.
There's no political certainty whatsoever.
You know, Trump is not your savior.
He never was your savior.
He's never gonna be your savior.
How about world war?
I mean, that's a legitimate concern for people.
You know, that can keep people up at night
because there's a lot of psychopaths at the helm, right?
Controlling what happens in our foreign policy
decision-making.
I mean, that can be scary.
Literal psychopaths, literal reprobates running, you know,
with the red little button on their desk.
You know, and of course, if there were a world war,
there's all kinds of other consequences
that come with that.
Famine, pestilence, you know,
you think the economy is bad now,
it would only get worse, right?
Identity theft.
Man, I've been getting just bombarded
with all kinds of identity theft schemes lately.
I don't know if it was maybe just me, I don't know.
Maybe my info got leaked or something.
I don't know, but man, I just feel like it's just constant.
And you know, that's just a hassle to deal with, right?
Issues like that.
Immigration of false religions, you know,
our governor is basically having an open door,
you know, to all the Hindus,
all the Muslims it seems like.
You know, and listen, I don't have any problem
with some Middle Eastern or some guy from India
coming to America, if he's a Christian.
Hey, praise God for that.
But listen, I don't want a bunch of false religion
coming to this state, a bunch of Hinduism,
a bunch of disgusting Hindus.
That's gross, man, I don't want that.
How about anxiety, depression, loneliness,
all things that can be a result of just dwelling
on all these issues for too long.
It's like feeling like, oh, well, there's no hope.
There's no end in sight.
I personally don't think we're ever gonna go back
to the greatness of America personally.
I really don't think that's ever gonna happen.
You know, the Lord will come back
or we'll get overthrown by some other government.
That's my opinion, you know,
but I just find it really hard to believe
that America's gonna be this just champion of the Bible
and God's word and implementing his commandments
in our government again.
Now, hey, listen, I'm all for the preaching of those things.
We should want to preach those things
and sound those things from the rooftop
and be champions of those things.
And I'm thankful for our church,
but I just don't see that actually happening, you know?
There's just a lot of fake Christians out there
that are willing to accept all kinds of perversion,
all kinds of false religions,
all kinds of just very apathetic to anything
that the Lord is very strong against, right?
Privacy and surveillance.
I mean, you know, there's all kinds of issues with that.
Yeah, I've given up hope on that as well.
Like I'm telling you, the black pill is real.
I used to be, and we were talking about this,
you know, I used to be this guy that would not like,
I didn't, you know, everything was in cash
or tried my most, my hardest to just, you know,
deal only in cash.
I didn't do anything on my phone
that was giving it any of my information.
You know, I'm like trying to withhold all these things.
And just like in the last two years, three years,
I was like, you know what, screw it.
They're gonna get this stuff anyways.
They're having it.
I might as well just make my life a little bit easier
and embrace some of these things
and just rejoice in the Lord all the way, you know,
because there's not a whole lot in this world to rejoice on.
How about just information overload?
You know, this is something that's really been bothering me
a lot lately is just the amount of misinformation.
And then with AI, it's only getting worse, right?
Deep fakes, it's only gonna get harder
to tell what's real and what's fake.
There's just all kinds of misinformation, fake news.
You know, you can't really trust any institution
in our country today, whether it's the media,
the government, the education system.
I mean, there's no institution
you can really put any trust in.
You know, and because of information overload,
it produces a lot of echo chambers, right?
So you have a lot of idiots
that get stuck in their little echo chamber
and, you know, they just repeat a lot of things
that they hear, not having any actual knowledge
or information themselves.
You know, you say, who's that?
Well, a lot of the orthoboat boys are like that.
You know, a lot of these people who follow, you know,
the Tate brothers, Nick Fuentes, people like this.
So I mean, that really lifted up your spirits, didn't you?
Or didn't it?
There's a lot of things that we can be disappointed in,
disgruntled in, but you know what?
The reality is that we can still have great joy.
We can rejoice greatly in the Lord, even in 2026.
Look at what the Bible says in Psalm 103.
It says, bless the Lord, oh my soul.
Now, I just, I like that little phrase there,
bless the Lord, oh my soul.
He's basically like just commanding himself.
Hey, bless the Lord, right?
And again, because it's so difficult, you know,
to do this in difficult times and, you know,
when persecution or issues arise,
but sometimes you just have to force yourself.
You just have to tell your soul, bless the Lord, right?
Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
And here's just a list of reasons to bless the Lord,
to rejoice in his name.
The Bible says, all that is within me,
bless his holy name, bless the Lord, oh my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.
This is a big one for me,
who satisfied thy mouth with good things.
Man, brisket?
You know, as funny as we went to Fiji and they,
there's this restaurant advertising brisket.
So I'm like, get all excited, you know,
I'm like, all right, you know,
let's go try some Fiji brisket.
It was terrible.
Listen, there's nothing like Texas brisket, guys.
I mean, that is a benefit from God.
Hey, that alone is a reason to rejoice in the Lord all way.
You know, some beef, some steak,
you know, whatever the Lord blesses you with,
hey, you should be thankful for the food
that God is giving you.
Man, there's so many good food options out there
to be thankful for, to be rejoicing in.
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
The Lord executed righteousness and judgment
for all that are oppressed.
He may know his ways unto Moses,
his accent to the children of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always try,
neither will he keep his anger forever.
He have not dealt with us after our sins,
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
You know, that's something to rejoice in the Lord about
is the fact that we don't get punished,
we don't receive the judgment
that we often need sometimes in our life
or that, you know, that would be merited,
I should say, right?
We deserve, you know, a lot of, you know,
punishment for all the sins that we do,
because we do them on a consistent basis all the time.
You know, we're constantly thinking things
that we shouldn't, our mind is constantly
not doing the things that we wanted to
or, you know, we're not fulfilling all the things
that God wants us to.
We're not as consistent as we should be.
We're not as faithful as we should be.
You know, and I'm, that's a reason to rejoice
in the Lord all the way and that fact alone
is that he's not dealing with us
after all of our iniquities.
Now obviously he does deal with us after our iniquities,
you know, when we deserve it, when it's merited,
when he, you know, when he makes that decision.
And I kinda look at it as like a father with his children,
right?
My children disobey my rules,
but they're not always getting the harshest punishment
or a punishment every time they do that.
You know, there's mercy that is shown.
And so, you know, that's something that the Lord does
for us and that's a reason to rejoice in the Lord all the way.
Notice in verse 11, it says,
for as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is this mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
You know, and ultimately we're never gonna have to pay
the true penalty for us in which as hell.
You know, that's a reason
to rejoice in the Lord's mercy.
He didn't have to save us, but he did, he chose to.
Verse number 13, the Bible says,
like as a father pityeth his children,
so the Lord pityeth them that fear him.
And you know, when a father understands that verse,
you know, because your children do wrong
and you can tell when they're truly sorry
and when they're, you know,
they're upset that they screwed up,
that they're upset that they did something wrong.
And just as a father pity's his children
and has mercy on his children,
how much more so does God for us?
You know, and to me, that, you know,
that definitely rings true.
And that's a reason to rejoice in the Lord all the way.
Just for all the things that he does for us.
Skip down to verse number, I'm sorry, Psalm 104.
Let's go to the next chapter.
I wanna highlight a couple of things.
It says, bless the Lord, oh my soul,
oh Lord my God, thou art very great,
thou art clothed with honor and majesty,
who covers thyself with light as with a garment,
who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain,
who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters,
who maketh the clouds his chariot,
who walketh upon the wings of the wind,
who maketh his angels spirits,
his ministers a flaming fire,
who laid the foundations of the earth
that it should not be removed forever.
Thou coverseth it with the deep as with a garment,
the waters stood above the mountains,
at thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder
they hasted away.
They go up by the mountains,
they go down by the valleys unto the place
which thou hast founded for them.
Thou hast set abound that they might not pass over,
that they turn not again to cover the earth.
He sendeth the springs into the valleys
which run among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field.
The wild asses quench their thirst.
By them shall the fowls of the heaven
have their habitation which sing among the branches.
He watereth the hills from his chambers.
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle
and herb for the service of man,
that he may bring forth food out of the earth,
and wine that maketh glad the heart of man,
and oil that to make his face to shine
and bread which strengtheneth man's hearts.
You know, the Psalmist he's just really highlighting
just all the things to be thankful to God about.
Just the earth, the beauty that God has created,
you know, his creation.
The fact that God provides for not just us,
but every beast of the field, every fowl of the air.
He's got this perfect creation
where it's just a cyclical creation
where, you know, you have the water system, right?
Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
Just that fact alone is something to rejoice in the Lord on.
You know, rain is a blessing from God.
I mean, he's bringing up the fact that rain
produces all these great things that we're gonna enjoy.
I mean, there are so many things
that we can rejoice in the Lord about.
And yet sadly, you know,
most of us, we really struggle with that, don't we?
We don't always have the right mentality.
We're not always producing the joy
that, you know, we should be producing.
We're not giving God the glory that he deserves.
Let's skip down to verse number 31.
The Bible says, the glory of the Lord shall endure forever.
The Lord shall rejoice in his works.
He looketh on the earth and it tremble
if he toucheth the hills and they smoke.
I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
My meditation of him shall be sweet.
I will be glad in the Lord.
Notice this, let the sinners be consumed out of the earth
and let the wicked be no more.
Blessed are the Lord, O my soul, praise ye the Lord.
You know, the Psalmist, he's dwelling
and he's thinking and he's rejoicing
in all the greatness of the Lord
and all the great thing he's done,
even though he's going through a difficult time.
He's being persecuted by sinners.
You know, and this kind of brings me to another point here
that, you know, another reason to rejoice in the Lord
is to rejoice for, you know, the vengeance of the Lord.
Right, when the Lord basically comes to our defense,
when he executes his judgment upon those
that have risen up against us,
that is a reason to rejoice in the Lord.
Go to Psalm 58.
Go back in your Bible just a few chapters, Psalm 58.
And of course, this is a, you know, a Psalm
we put the music and a lot of people don't like this.
You know, a lot of people, you know, the holier than thou
is they scoff at rejoicing
when the enemies of God are judged.
You know, they scoff when you rejoice at your enemy,
when they, you know, when you're able to see
vengeance taking place in their life.
But listen, this is a godly attribute.
This is what God has commanded us to do.
We're gonna look at a couple of verses on this.
And it's really important that we understand
that God's vengeance is always just.
It's always right.
And that's something to rejoice in.
You know, that's the reason why
we should rejoice in the Lord's vengeance.
It's not necessarily so we can, yeah, of course,
sometimes it is just nice to see people
get what's coming to them.
But the main point, focal point of our rejoicing
in that situation is just on the fact that God is just.
You know, that alone should cause us to rejoice in him.
The fact that God is just, he's true,
he's righteous in doing these things.
Notice what the Bible says in verse number 10.
It says, the righteous shall rejoice
when he seeeth the vengeance,
he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked
so that a man shall say,
verily there is a reward for the righteous.
Verily he is a God that judges in the earth.
You know, the Bible is bringing up the fact
that the Lord will give vengeance to the righteous.
He's going to recompense those that are persecuting them,
causing evil to happen in their life.
Go to Revelation chapter number 18.
We see kind of a culmination of just Christian persecution
in the Bible with Babylon being destroyed.
Revelation chapter number 18.
The Bible says in verse number 20.
It says, rejoice over her thou heaven
and ye holy apostles and prophets
for God hath avenged you on her.
Notice the Bible is saying that this is a commandment
that we are to rejoice over Babylon.
And in that time, when that happens,
we're going to be rejoiced
and we're going to be commanded to rejoice.
And you notice it's bringing up the fact
that it's not just those on earth,
it's those in heaven as well.
And when you go back to Revelation chapter number six,
I believe, and it's talking about the fifth seal,
the fifth seal is all the martyrs of Christ
under the altar, crying unto God, how long, oh Lord,
holy and true, without a vengeance, right?
So they're longing for this.
And so we get to this point where God is basically
pouring out his vengeance on this city
that has caused many to send Babylon.
And the commandment is that they're to rejoice over her, right?
Even though there's people dying,
there's all kinds of carnage taking place on the earth,
for those in heaven, that's going to be a time
of rejoicing because the Lord is just in doing that.
The Lord is right in executing that vengeance
upon those that deserve it.
Skip over to Revelation chapter number 19.
Revelation chapter number 19.
It says in verse number one,
and after these things I heard a great voice
of much people in heaven saying,
alleluia, salvation and glory and honor
and power unto the Lord our God,
for true and righteous are his judgments,
for he had judged the great whore
which to corrupt the earth with her fornication
at the binge of the blood of his servants at her hand.
Notice they're rejoicing through song,
they're saying alleluia, and they're highlighting what?
Why are they rejoicing?
Because of the true and righteous judgments of the Lord.
This wicked city, Babylon, what did it do?
It persecuted the saints, caused them to be put to death.
You have, at this time, the Antichrist
is literally beheading Christians.
You have many being slaughtered,
but in a totalitarian sense,
when you're looking at the whole of this vengeance,
it's not even just for those that are martyred at this time.
It's really just for all the saints
that were ever martyred.
They're gonna be rejoicing in the fact that the devil,
the Antichrist is gonna be defeated.
They're preparing for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And so it's all of heaven is going to be rejoicing.
All of heaven is gonna be saying alleluia
and praising God and rejoicing in his mighty works
that he's doing here, his wonderful works
to destroy the wicked.
Go to Psalm 92.
Psalm 92, we're gonna end there.
Psalm 92, the Bible says in verse number one,
it says, it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord
and to sing praises unto thy name,
almost high, to show forth thy loving kindness
in the morning and thy faithfulness every night.
Upon an instrument of 10 strings
and upon the sultry, upon the harp,
upon us with a solemn sound,
for thou, Lord, has made me glad through thy work.
I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
O Lord, how great are thy works
and thy thoughts are very deep.
A brutish man, knoweth not, neither doth the fool
understand this, when the wicked spring as the grass
and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish,
it is that they shall be destroyed forever.
Notice the Psalmist, he's rejoicing
and it's something that's taking place day and night.
It's something that's good unto him,
something that's pleasing
and he's acknowledging just the great works
that God has done in his life.
So it's kind of like a synopsis
of how to rejoice in the Lord.
But he brings up this fact in verse seven,
he says, the wicked spring as the grass.
And I kind of read this verse,
I'm thinking like of a weed, right?
You know what happens to a weed?
A weed springs up really quickly, right?
But then it gets plucked, right?
It gets rooted out, it gets ripped up,
it gets destroyed, if you will.
So the wicked, they're like a weed.
And you know, there is a time where they're flourishing,
where it seems like they're having prosperity,
like they're winning.
But what's the end of the Psalm?
How does this thing end?
It says that they're destroyed forever.
And that's something to rejoice in the Lord about,
is knowing that God is going to take care of these people.
He's gonna take care of all the people
who are persecuting our church, persecuting our friends,
persecuting our brothers in Christ,
the people we care about.
We can have solace, we can have joy in our life
going through difficult seasons,
because we know that their flourishing
is only for a moment.
Don't be surprised when they seem to be on the winning,
or not be on the winning side,
but when they seem to be winning, right?
When it seems like God's not taking care of it,
God's not, you know, dealing with them.
God allows them to flourish for a moment,
but then he roots them out, he plucks them up.
Notice in verse eight, it says,
But thou, Lord, art most high forever,
for lo thine enemies, O Lord,
for lo thine enemies shall perish,
all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered,
but my horn shall thou exalt,
like the horn of a unicorn.
I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies,
and mine ears shall hear my desire
of the wicked that rise up against me.
That is something to rejoice in the Lord about,
knowing that, hey, even though they might flourish
for a moment, hey, mine eye is gonna see
the desire of my heart,
that they get what's coming to them.
They're gonna get that vengeance from the Lord.
It says in verse 12,
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree,
he shall grow like the seed or lemon.
Notice the difference here, the contrast.
You have the wicked, the workers of iniquity,
the evil doers, the backstabbers,
they're like the weed, they're like the grass.
They flourish for a moment, but then they're destroyed.
But the righteous, those that serve God,
those that come to the house of God
that are planted in the house of God,
the Bible says they flourish like the palm tree.
They flourish like the seeders of Lebanon.
And if you read in the Old Testament,
the seeders of Lebanon,
they were like the choice of wood for building, right?
They're strong, they're tall,
so they do well for building a house to dwell in.
And that's kind of the idea,
that's the picture that you're seeing here,
is that the righteous or the wicked,
they're going to be destroyed there.
Even though they might flourish for a moment,
their day of reckoning is coming.
We're going to be able to see the desire
of our enemies upon them,
but we are going to flourish like the palm tree.
We're going to flourish like the seeder of Lebanon.
Notice this in verse 13,
those that be planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.
They shall be fat and flourishing
to show that the Lord is upright.
He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
You know all the wicked people
that want to destroy our church and our friends' churches,
you know what?
We are going to be still producing fruit in old age.
We're going to be fat and flourishing
and they're going to be destroyed.
We will see it with our own eyes
and you know what?
We'll just move on to the next trial,
the next temptation,
the next trying of our faith.
You know and this is something
that we can rejoice in the Lord about
knowing that hey, this is a promise from God
that we shall see these things happen.
You know and I want to encourage you
even though it seems like man,
everything's negative, everything's bad.
I've taken that black pill.
It's settled in in my heart.
Listen, I want to encourage you to rejoice in the Lord
all the way and again, right?
Remember all the mighty works,
the great works of the Lord.
You know we have so much to rejoice in the Lord about.
You know and when that wicked is destroyed,
when those that you know sought evil against our church,
against our friends and faithful Word Baptist church
or church foundation first work.
I mean all of our friends,
those that are attacking them,
that want to harm them,
that want to destroy them.
I want to destroy good men,
destroy godly men, men of God.
Listen, we can rejoice in the Lord
knowing that we're going to see their destruction
and when they're long gone,
we're going to be fat and flourishing.
We're going to be producing fruit in old age.
I want to encourage you to,
you know dwell on the things
that God has done in your life.
You know don't dwell on all the negative things.
I get it.
You're going to have seasons where that's going to happen.
Bad things are going to happen.
You know and I'm not saying
you can't be in heaviness during those times
but just know that the way to produce joy
in those moments is through rejoicing in the Lord.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord.
Thank you for just so many great truths that we have
that we can be encouraged by.
God I pray that we would just apply these things
to our heart Lord.
I know I needed this message.
I needed to just study your word on this topic
and to just get some joy back in my own life.
Just knowing that you're still on your throne Lord,
that you're still in control
and that all things work together for good.
I pray Lord that we would have that type of attitude
where we would want to produce joy in our lives.
We would want to rejoice in all that you've done
all way and again.
We pray these things in your son's name.
Amen.