-Transcript-
00:39 Amen. Welcome to the cafe. Hopefully you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week. Maybe you got you a cup of coffee there, or tea, or whatever, water. It’s always good to drink water.
00:54 Got me a nice hot cup of coffee. My favorite handmade mug from the Smoky Mountains. Amen. Everybody’s got a favorite mug, don’t they? I’m just so thankful here to spend time in God’s.
01:06 I’m very grateful for the opportunity, and I’m thankful that you’ve tuned in. Today we are looking at a very important passage of Scripture, as we always do here. But this one’s extra important because it helps us to look inward. The idea is, serve the Lord with gladness.
01:23 And then the other idea is, why is that so hard to do? You know, why is it so hard to serve the Lord with gladness? Have you had to go, actually had, but have you gone and done something for God?
01:43 And internally, we’re murmuring about it, or complaining, or whatever it may be. I think we’ve all been there, especially if you’re in the ministry, or if you’re volunteering with your church.
01:49 There are some days that are awesome, and you’re just, wow, you know, presence of God is here. I feel great. Other days are not always great, and they just say, man, I’m tired.
01:59 You know, you pray to God and say, Lord, I’m tired. Or maybe you’re just talking to a friend and say, I don’t know if I can do this. And it’s hard in today’s day and age to live for God because of the culture and so many things.
02:14 And it’s hard in a world where work is, you know, following us home on the phone or on the computer or whatever. Work seems to follow us home. And the stresses and cares of this life are ever present.
02:31 You’re on social media. You know, I got rid of my social media about five years ago. Four or five years ago, I got rid of all of it. And we have a social media page for the ministry, and I’ve worked in social media for my job, you know, day job, so to speak.
02:49 But personally, I don’t have any. And one reason I got rid of it was because of all of these just, like, things coming onto the feed that would either distract you, make you desire to have that thing, or make you sad about something going on. And it was just too much.
03:05 It was too much to bear, you know, honestly. And I just prayed about it, and I believe the Lord wanted me to get rid of it. So there’s my testimony on social media. Get rid of it.
03:13 If you don’t feel happy every day, if you have trouble serving the Lord with gladness, let’s start with getting rid of that social media. Yeah, there’s a lot of good that can come from it, but there’s also a lot of things that really mess with people.
03:25 I saw a guy who looked like he was, you know, didn’t look like he was from a ministry or anything, just like a guy in the world talking about how they made a phone that has no social media on it.
03:35 All the anxiety and stress people were getting from social media. So that’s a little sidebar. But let’s look at today, how do we serve the Lord with gladness in this world? You know, maybe it’s not social media that gets us, that makes it hard for us to serve the Lord with gladness.
03:45 Maybe it’s our health. Maybe it’s a perception of what could be happening to our health. Maybe it’s our wealth. Maybe it’s a perception of what could be happening to our wealth.
03:55 Maybe it’s a realistic thing where we have a bill we don’t know how to pay. Maybe it’s jobs, the job we’re in. Maybe it’s relationships with coworkers. Maybe it’s family.
04:07 You know, there was a prayer meeting we had recently and one individual said, pray for me. There is no work at work and I’m just sitting there all day. And the other one said, pray for me at work.
04:15 It’s so busy that I don’t have time to do anything. And both of them needed prayer. Amen. You know, and I could say this too. Like, I think the only thing worse than being too busy is not being busy enough.
04:26 I mean, that would be like, if I had nothing to do, that’d be worse than being busy, I think. And so we have all this stuff going on, family and so forth. Family could have. Have strife and arguments in the family or just worried about the family and cares and burdens for the family.
04:46 Doing what we’re called to do as Christians, bearing the burdens of others. Amen. And thus fulfilling the law of Christ. So even living godly can really become a challenge. And then we read in Psalm 100:1-3.
04:56 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All ye lands serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he. That hath made us and not we ourselves.
05:07 We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Well, that can be difficult to swallow sometimes, can’t it? You think about when are you singing? You’re singing when you, you know, you don’t have a care in the world.
05:20 You’re joyful. You’re singing. You’re praising God. It’d be difficult to serve the Lord with gladness day in and day out. And last episode, we talked about how God’s here to help and not hurt.
05:28 And that we can, as we look upon the love of God for us. And the idea that he has the thoughts, uh, towards us of peace and not evil and to give us an expected end.
05:43 The idea that he healed the broken heart and binds up the wounds, uh, of people. The idea that he sent his only begotten Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us. Do we need any greater love than that?
05:54 The Bible says, uh, there, there is no greater love than one that dies for another, for a friend. Amen. That’s what Christ did for us. And he did that by the way, as Romans 3:23 tells us while we were yet. Sinners.
06:08 So we can look upon God’s love and that can help us serve him with gladness. Uh, and then another thing that we can do, we can praise God while we go through these struggles because that’s beautiful in his sight. Okay.
06:18 So as we look internally to see why it can be challenging to serve God with gladness. And I know maybe there are a few of you out there that say, brother Clark, I have no problem serving God with gladness.
06:29 Well, good. This should reinforce all that you’re already doing. But for those that struggle with this idea of serving God, of fighting God. Finding the time to serve God and then to do it with gladness, this should be a refreshing and helpful message for you praise while going through struggles is beautiful in God’s sight.
06:47 Think of who went through struggles and praised God in the Bible. I mean, the, the Bible is God’s holy word. He gave it to us.
06:55 We re we’re told in the Bible that it lasts for eternity. It never passes away. Everything else is going to be gone over here, but that Bible is going to live forever. Amen.
07:03 His word is so precious. His word is like treasure. His word is like gold and in it, we see real people that actually lived that is backed up by not just Bible scholars, but historians, secular historians, like Joseph Josephus is an example of there was historians at the time that we’re writing about these individuals.
07:24 These are real people. Amen here at KJV cafe. We believe from the very first page to the end, the Bible’s completely real and everything in it is true. That’s our stance. Amen.
07:32 We’re not going to back off. It will only bring it more and more to the forefront because it is true. And I believe that science backs it up. I believe, uh, the Lord has it to be true is the Bible written by fallible man.
07:41 Yes, but it’s Holy spirit inspired and it’s true. And what do we see? We see people struggling. We see Jesus himself. Did Jesus go through struggles? Absolutely. He was God in the flesh. He was accused.
07:57 He was plotted against. He was ridiculed. Uh, he dealt with great unbelief. Uh, people plotted to kill him. He was betrayed. Amen. He was let down by even his closest friends.
08:08 They fell asleep when they were supposed to be watching and praying before his passion passion, Peter forsake him three times in the cock crew on and on and on praise God while going through struggles like Jesus did.
08:20 He constantly gave God the glory. He constantly said that he was here not to do his will, but God’s will, even when the devil tempted him, he quoted scripture three times, talked about, uh, God being king and the glory.
08:34 Going to God and living by God’s word. Amen. God himself gives Jesus affirmation when John the Baptist there, and God comes down and descends like a dove and says, this is my son with whom I’m well pleased. Amen.
08:48 Um, again, at the amount of transfiguration. So we see Jesus go through struggle and praise God. We see Job praising God and not being saying, I’m not going to be a hypocrite and I’m not going to turn from God.
08:58 And we see Job as he went through all of the great trials in his life. As we understand it. The oldest. The oldest book in the Bible, as Job went through all the great trials in his life, that, that God allowed the devil to bring to him, that he still stayed true to God. No, not perfect.
09:15 And yes, God shows up and has to rebuke job a little bit. Uh, but at the same time, Job didn’t forsake God and Job wouldn’t forsake God. Even after his wife told him to do so, he wouldn’t do it.
09:24 He praised God in the midst of a struggle, David, the writer of many of these Psalms, David himself is praising God and telling us the praise God. Amen. Through Psalm. 100.
09:30 He’s giving us our text verse saying, praise God. Think about what David went through all the trials that David went through from facing a giant and Goliath and people not believing in him to, uh, Saul wanting to kill him to his own son, Absalom wanting to kill him and all of the rest.
09:51 And he went through a lot of trials. I know he was not perfect and he fell into sin and made mistakes like all of us do. Amen. But he was a man after God’s own heart and he praised God in the midst of his struggle. Abraham, again, another one that pleased God through his faith. Abraham.
10:05 Wasn’t perfect. Abraham went through many struggles on and on. When you are down and out, God is up to something. And when you praise God in the midst of your struggle,
10:16 then what you’re doing is you’re showing God through your praise that, you know, this truth that when you were down and out, that he’s up to something that you understand Romans 8:28,
10:28 that all things work together for good to those that are called up court according to his purpose to those that love the Lord. You understand these things. You understand that God has a plan.
10:36 And when you praise him. He loves it. He, the Bible tells us he inhabits our praise that we are his, and that we are giving him the glory, even in hard times. And if we have that attitude about us, then we truly can serve the Lord with gladness.
10:50 We can come before his presence with singing. We can be joyful in the midst of very trying circumstances. As I mentioned, the beginning of the message, whether it be something simple and silly, like something on social media, whether it be family, whether it be health or finances.
11:06 Or anything else, we can serve the Lord with gladness. We understand who he is. You know, the Potter knows the clay. God knows what we can take Isaiah 64:8, but now, Oh Lord, thou art our father.
11:16 We are the clay and thou are Potter. And we all are the work of thy hand. So God made us, he crafted us and he knows what we can take. I love the song by the Perry’s. Uh, the Potter knows the clay.
11:32 Some of the lyrics, I know you’re going through the fire. It’s getting hard to stay in the heat, but even harder is the wondering. Is God’s hand still on me?
11:38 It’s lonely in the flames when you’re counting days of pain, but the Potter knows the clay, how much pressure it can take, how many times around the wheel till there’s submission to his will.
11:49 He’s planned a beautiful design, but it’ll take some fire and time. It’s going to be okay. Cause the Potter knows the clay and we, I love that. I love the lyrics there. I wish I could go on, but we are his workmanship.
11:57 He knows us Ephesians 2:10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in peace. In them, we are made more like Jesus through this refining. Amen.
12:09 When we show him praise in the midst of our struggle, it is beautiful. I mean, think of this, imagine a child and you’re the parent and the child’s going through a hard time and a struggle and a child is praising you for being there alongside them and loving them. Imagine that that would just soften your heart.
12:26 You know, that would just break your heart. You’d want to help and love that child even more, but now imagine that child’s going through a struggle that you didn’t bring upon that child, but that is just part of the world they’re living in.
12:35 And they come to you and they’re angry and they blame you and they’re bitter and they don’t want anything to do with you. Well, that’s not good. And I know that that’s kind of a simple example, but look,
12:44 we live in a sin sick world and we live in a world in which God is refining us and teaching us to be more like Christ oftentimes through our adversities.
12:52 And so we should go to him and praise and serve him with gladness, understanding that he knows what we can take and that he knows what’s best for us and that he has priorities that are contrary to our flesh, our flesh.
13:05 One. He wants to be lifted up and wants to live a life of ease and all these things. And he wants to design us to be humble and obedient as Christ was. Amen. So we can be more like Christ each and every day until he calls us home.
13:16 And so for this season that we’re in, amen. And this season in these last days when the culture is telling us to live like the flesh and live like the world, we need to crucify the flesh.
13:22 We need to live as God called us to live and understand that when we live in praise and gladness and singing and we realize that we are his purchased possessions.
13:35 That we are bought with a heavy price and that we are his and he will never leave us nor forsake us and all the rest that we can serve him with gladness. We can praise God. We don’t have to be afraid of what tomorrow holds.
13:43 We don’t have to live for ourselves. We don’t have to put ourselves on a peg against someone else. We can just serve him with gladness, serve him with joy, be happy in his presence.
13:56 That’s biblical. Amen. Give him praise no matter the situation. And in that we will have peace that surpasses all understanding because the Bible tells me so. I thank you so much for listening today and please apply this to your life.
14:09 You’ll be blessed for it. Tune in next time as we wrap up this three-part series. Take care. God bless and amen.