-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:40 Welcome to the cafe. So good to be here. Thank you for joining me today.
00:46 We’re in the third part of a three-part series on serving God with gladness, serving the Lord with gladness, coming into his presence with singing. This is so wonderful because it’s a command from God, one that I think if we’re honest, it can be difficult to meet. And for some reason, I don’t know why this way God made me.
01:05 I enjoy preaching on these type of messages because there’s something, you know, again, being honest like with people, you know, you hear preaching and sometimes, okay, love the Lord and then they move on or God is love and they move on.
01:16 It’s like, wait a minute, let’s get into the context of this. What does this mean? And that’s why I think God called me to this ministry was someone needed to kind of break this stuff down and get into it.
01:25 Maybe the Lord allows me to do that today. I thank you for joining me. And I promise you, you stick around here, you’ll be blessed.
01:32 Amen. Because all we do is study God’s word. That’s what we do here at the cafe.
01:36 Amen. Study God’s word. Our text verse here is Psalm 100 written by David.
01:42 Psalm 100:1-3. Make a joyful noise into 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.
01:57 We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.Amen. I got sheep in the pasture, two or three houses down the road, I suppose, so to speak from the main road.
02:10 And I always look at them and think about all the references to sheep in the Bible. They’re out there feeding on the grass and they just look very vulnerable, honestly, you know, like sheep are just doing their thing. And we are like sheep in this world.
02:22 Are we not headed for the slaughter? It’s like, you know, we’re just following God. But the sheep, they have a shepherd, don’t they? And that shepherd protects them, feeds them, guides them on and on. And we have a shepherd, we have a great shepherd, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
02:41 And He is the king, he is Lord, he deserves praise and singing. And yet, as I mentioned earlier, it’s hard. It’s hard, isn’t it? We’ve spoken about here in the last few episodes, what gets in the way of praising God.
02:57 Think in your mind today, when you don’t want to serve the Lord with gladness, what’s up? What’s going on? Could be fatigue, Amen. There’s a great quote by a football coach, I can’t think of it, but something like fatigue makes cowards of us all. Could be just being tired.
03:08 It’s hard to serve the Lord with gladness if you’re too tired. Could be something else health-wise. Could be a real illness or perceived illness.
03:24 You know, those are two different things, yet many people go to the doctor thinking they’re sick when they’re not. Wealth could be money, could be a financial issue, like you have a bill to pay, or it could be coveting, desiring more, or it could be debt, whatever else that’s breaking you down. It’s hard to serve God.
03:42 You’re always worried about these things. Jobs and relationships, coworkers, that’s got you upset, got you worried. Family, maybe you’re struggling with a family member striving, having an argument or fall out with family, that hurts real bad.
03:54 Or it could be just being burdened for a family member. You know, all these things deal with these stresses that the Bible tells us that we shouldn’t worry, that we shouldn’t have anxieties, that we shouldn’t do this. And yet oftentimes we find ourselves with a lap full of anxieties and burdens.
04:12 I remember when I was deacon, I wasn’t yet called to preach or plan a church. I suppose while I was deacon, I was preaching, you know, here and there, but I wasn’t called to plan a church or pastor a church. And yet it still sticks with me.
04:30 I would sit in on some of the meetings and hear the burdens. And this congregation wasn’t huge by any means, maybe 50 to 100 at the most. All the burdens of the congregation were almost too much to bear.
04:41 And that’s why I thank God he gave us a very small group here for our in-person congregation. And I look at the radio ministry as my congregation, and I thank God for that. But it’s hard to bear these burdens.
04:54 It’s hard to serve the Lord with gladness in this day and age, in this culture that we live in, which mocks God and ridicules God and perverts the things of God and woe unto them, that calls evil good and good evil, to paraphrase. We’re seeing so much of that here today. And it can be hard.
05:10 And so what we are here to do today, what I’m here to do today, is to express that God loves you, that he’s here to help and not hurt. That Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. God loves you, he’s got a plan for you.
Psalm 147:3, He healeth the broken in heart and bindethup their wounds. When we’re broken hearted, we have a faithful and just God that will be there for us. And I mentioned that to get close to God, we have to repent of our sins, we have to be saved, of course, get the Holy Spirit living within us, believe on Christ as our Savior, and then repent of our sins.
05:51 The Bible says draw nigh to him and he’ll draw nigh to you, does it not? As in you draw close to God, he draws close to you. But let me read the rest of that verse, James 4:8, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, yedouble-minded. So the Bible says to draw nigh to God and he’ll draw nigh to you.
06:16 But it also says in the same verse, cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts. We got to get right with God. The way we cleanse our hands, the way we purify our hearts is we go to God and we repent.
06:25 We say, Lord, what you think is a sin, okay, let’s say it’s lust, okay, committing adultery with your eyes, right? All right, if you think that’s a sin, that’s an abomination to you, that’s a sin to me.
06:35 Job himself said, I won’t look upon a maid, amen. Okay, you think it’s a sin, God, I now agree with you, and I am sorry that I did that, and I will never do that again.
06:43 I will try my best to never do that again. Of course, we’re not perfect, but God knows the heart and he knows if you’re sincere or not. And I believe if you are sincere, He’ll make sure you don’t do it anymore.
06:57 And you’ve now repented, and the Bible tells us that he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The process I’ve described is the idea of sanctification.
07:08 And again, we’re saved, once saved, always saved, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
07:14 But once we’re saved, we still need that washing of the feet, we still need that sanctification, we still need that cleansing from God.
07:27 And that’s how we draw close to him. We go to him in prayer, we ask him to forgive our sins, we repent of our sins, okay, that’s one.
07:31 And then we build our faith, faith cometh by hearing and hearing the Word of God. So we spend time in His Word, studying His Word, and those things work together, that prayer, that study, that repentance, that closeness with Him, they work together to draw close to Him.
07:45 And he knows what we can take, and he knows that we can serve him with gladness, I believe this, even through struggles.
07:54 And we see that that, I believe, is beautiful in his sight. We looked at examples previously of Jesus, and how Jesus struggled along in this world. Many not believing on Him, right? Many just wanting the miracles.
08:10 John 6:66, there were many that followed him no more. 666, the number, the mark of the beast, the number of the devil. Hey, get into that scripture, I that recently, that they were enjoying the food that was coming out of the ministry, that Jesus was feeding the thousands and all, the miracles, they’re enjoying that.
08:20 And then Jesus said, oh, by the way, you have to drink of my blood and eat of my flesh. And they said, whoa, whoa, this is too much for us, we’re out of here. And many didn’t follow Him anymore.
08:40 He struggled, but as he struggled, he brought praise and glory to God through being obedient, even unto death. And by going to God in prayer, even in the Garden of Yosemite, before being crucified, saying, Lord, let this cup pass for me. Nobody would have to want to deal with what he dealt with, including Jesus.
08:53 And he said, nevertheless, let your will be done. He praised God, as did Job, as did David, as did Abraham, as did Jacob, who became Israel. They praised God in the midst of struggles.
09:04 Are we any better than them? The Bible says that the servant isn’t better than the master, I’m paraphrasing, and so we shouldn’t be better than them. We should expect struggles to come our way and to praise him in the midst of it, Isaiah 64:8. But now, O Lord, thou art our father. We are the clay, thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand.
09:28 Ephesians 2:10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk inthem. And so look, God’s got a plan, God’s putting us through difficulties and trials, and we should serve Him with gladness, understanding these things.
09:42 Does that make sense? I think a lot of people struggle to serve God with gladness because they simply don’t understand these theological principles that are in his word, that we have to be close to him to have the Holy Spirit not grieved within us.
09:53 So number one, we have to be saved, and that doesn’t come through baptism or through the sprinkling of water or through good works, through church membership or anything else. It only comes by believing on Jesus Christ as our Savior.
10:06 I recently preached a message on Romans Road, I think it was Romans 3:23, dealing with this. But we have to understand our sin nature, we have to understand that we have a sin debt we can’t pay, that Christ took that sin debt to the cross, being perfect and sinless, died on the cross for us, was buried three days, was miraculously resurrected from the grave by God himself, and through that great resurrection, through the death, burial, and resurrection, when we believe on Christ as our Savior, as 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 points out, then we are saved and born again. And we believe on Christ as Savior, we have the Holy Spirit living within us.
10:40 Then when we understand that we go to God and repent each day, identifying our sins with God and agreeing with God that they are an abomination and departing from them and not doing them anymore, when we do that daily or multiple times a day, whatever it takes, we are now saved and sanctified, Amen.
10:57 Walking with God, Amen. And now we can draw close to him, and then we realize His plan, that we’re His workmanship, that he knows the clay, the potter knows the clay, that we’re made more like Jesus through refining, right?
11:13 Through that fire, Amen. And then we realize that he promises he’ll never leave us. This goes to the idea that we are his possession. Deuteronomy 31:6, be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
11:36 Hebrews 13:5, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hathsaid, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. You know, God will not forsake us, Amen. You are God’s responsibility, and you’re tenderly cared for. Remember that.
11:52 If you’ve been saved, you are God’s responsibility, and you are tenderly cared for. You are a child of God. Everyone is God’s creation, but only the born again are His children.
12:05 We are a child of God, and he’s not a bastard father. He is a father that stayeth, sticketh closer than a brother, to use another family example. He is a father that is near the brokenhearted.
12:15 He is a father that will never leave us, nor forsake us. He is a father that will deliver us out of all of our afflictions. He’s a father that will hear our prayers.
12:24 He is a good father. He is a great father. He’s a loving father.
12:28 He is a tender, caring father. He’s a father that desires to be praised. He’s a father that is worthy to be praised, and despite all of the struggles in life, when we serve him with gladness, we recognize who he is, and we are showing to him and to others that we recognize how good God is.
12:47 It would be easy to serve someone if everything is going great, right? Okay, well, we love the master because the master has made our life so easy, so we’ll just serve Him and praise Him.
12:59 But what does that do? That doesn’t do much. And that’s what the devil was pointing out to God, saying, well, let me tempt Job because he just loves you because He’s blessed.
13:07 And so the devil destroys Job’s life, and Job still goes to God and praises him, and still has fidelity with God and closeness with God. And that brings praise and honor to God because it shows the heart. It shows the true heart.
13:18 We know this, that man or woman, they’re not really shown who they are, their character, until they’re under duress, until they’re under stress, until they’re under pressure.
13:28 And then you really see what man or woman is made of, Amen. And we all, I’m sure, have a breaking point. God knows what we can take, but he won’t bring us past the breaking point.
13:38 He may bring us close to it, but he won’t bring us past it. And what we need to do is, in this time, is give glory and honor to praise in this season of life when we’re not yet in heaven with Him, and we struggle along here on earth.
13:53 We need to serve Him with gladness, understanding his promises, understanding that he’ll never leave us nor forsake us, and that we’re his purchased possession, that we’re bought with a precious price, and so we can relax.
14:02 We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to worry. We don’t have to have anxiety.
14:08 We can just live our life serving him with gladness, knowing that he’ll be there with us, and that he’ll deliver us, and that when He does, He’s the one that deserves the praise.
14:12 I thank you so much for listening. Take care, God bless, and Amen.