Make the Choice to Rejoice _ Pastor Christine Miller

Alright, you can be seated. Now that word rejoice, that word rejoice means to brighten up and to be cheerful. You know, you ever heard the saying, cheer up? Well, it's not just a saying, it's biblical. When you're exhorted to rejoice, that means you have to stop being sad. That means you have to stop being mad. That means you have to stop being depressed. It's something that you choose to do. You have to choose to brighten up and cheer up. You choose it. Amen. It's a Bible command. I just want to emphasize that tonight, it's not really an option if you're going to obey the Lord. And yet, how few believers really do this, obey this command, right? You know, we're living in an entertainment age, and all of us, including myself, even though I'm not that old, we were raised to sit in front of a television and be entertained. And how many know, when you sit in front of a television and you watch a movie or a sitcom, it does not require any response. So we have been fully... We have been fully exercised in sitting and just watching and not responding to anything. But then when we come to church, and a lot of the church world has become entertainment oriented, they are trying to reach people this way because they know that all of these people have been raised in front of televisions and movie screens. And so you can draw people and get them interested, but the problem with that is, it doesn't please God. Because God always requires us, let me put it this way, everything the Lord tells us to do requires a response. Everything the Lord tells us to do requires a response. If He tells us to do something, and we just take good notes and write it down and say, that was nice, but we don't ever do it, that means we didn't respond to what He said. Amen. So the church is not supposed to be a place where we come, sit, listen and go. It's a place where we come and we respond to what the Lord is saying. We either believe it or we don't believe it. We either do it or we don't do it. We have the choice. God won't make us do anything, as we all know, once we're saved. But if you don't do it, you know, think about this, year after year, meeting after meeting, tape series after tape series, notebook after notebook, filled with notes, with wonderful teachings, wonderful messages. And 30 years later, you still have the same problem, because coming to church, listening to a sermon, listening to a tape, writing it down, does not equal doing it. We still have to be moved to do what He says. And this is the thing I want to stress tonight, it's not a works issue. Now you may start out, and it may be feeling like a work. It may be hard because your flesh isn't accustomed to it. But what I'm finding is, for all the years that I've spent listening to the Word, reading the Word, speaking the Word, praying the Word, preaching the Word, I spent very little time praising and worshiping and rejoicing. And if you don't have this element of rejoicing in your life, you will be lacking. Because I was coming up short. You know, you'll wonder, what's wrong with me? Why are things not moving? Why don't I have the joy I'm supposed to have? Why don't I have the energy I should have? And you think, your mind will try to analyze and figure all these reasons out, and your mind is not the source of answers. But if you're not rejoicing, you know, you're just taking a bunch of cares and trying to figure everything out and multiplying your cares because you're trying to figure something out that you can't figure out. Because you can't solve a spiritual problem with natural means. So when the Lord says, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, what is our response supposed to be? Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to God! Hallelujah! Let's turn to Matthew chapter 18. In Matthew chapter 18, I just hope this blesses you as much as it's blessing me, because some things you preach and you have the revelation, but if someone is listening and not getting the revelation, it won't do them any good. In Matthew chapter 18 and verse 1, it says, At the same time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Then Jesus called a little child to him and set him in the midst of them and said, Now this is a big question here, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He said, Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now of course we know that to be born again, you know, when you first get born again, you are a spiritual child. So there's one meaning. But then he says in verse 4, Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now this is important, you know, what do you suppose Jesus meant by this? I don't think Jesus wants us to live our whole lives with the wisdom of a child. He wants us to have great wisdom. But what he's saying here is he wants us to respond to him like a little child. Respond to him. And how many know to do that it requires humility? It requires humility. You have to humble yourself. I feel a scripture coming out. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. When I thought about this, you know, there are children all over the world. Little children. And one thing that's common anywhere you go in the world is a little child, as soon as you turn on some music, what do they do? They start to dance. And they don't necessarily dance with the music. They don't have their timing right. They don't have their groove right. You know, the Samuel, you know, even before he turned a year, you know, he'd be on the floor and if he pressed the right button and the music would start, he'd start shaking his head. So what children, it's just built into them by our Lord and our creator to rejoice, to move, to dance, to make a move. And you know what's amazing about children? They never care who's watching. They don't care what anybody thinks. They're not worried about how they look. They don't care at all. And you know what happens, which is really sad in life, is children have to learn to care about what people think. And it comes through someone criticizing them at a certain point. You know, that's a harsh thing about life. Or somebody rejecting them because they do something that's so pure and so innocent, but somebody else who lost their innocence too soon makes them feel like a fool because they're still innocent. And you know, we grow up and we have so much baggage in our souls. You know, your soul is, part of that is your emotions. Because we're hurt by different situations, we're hurt by people. It could be people that you should be able to trust, but you were hurt by those that you should trust. And so then you have a hard time trusting your father, your heavenly father. And we, people that have wounded souls, they get born again. And the part of you that gets changed for eternity is your spirit. But we still have a soul. And I think sometimes what we don't realize is that miracles still need to happen in our souls. You know, a lot of times we come forward for healing in our bodies, but we neglect the soul. And we think, well, if I just renew my mind, that's all I need. Well, renewing the mind is a big start. It's a big start because you have to know what God says to change your thinking. And you know, we have a whole message about changing our thinking. But there are sometimes some deep-rooted things in our souls that kind of oppress us and they hinder us. And I'm convinced, because I've been at this now for over, let's see, 37, 38 years. If I was going to be completely free in my soul by now from all the steps that I was taking, I would be. But there's two things the Lord kept bringing to me in the last six months or so. One, that story about Brother Hagin where he talked about how he spent all that time in intercession. And at one point he said, this is going to be hard for some of you to receive. But he said it was as if I could see this old, dirty, beat-up boot coming up that had tentacles all over it. And I said, Lord, what on earth is that? And the Lord said, that is a stronghold that you had in you. Strongholds. You know, some things, they'll never disappear until you pray it out. And then other things won't heal and disappear until you praise it out. Rejoicing. And you can see, so much of the church world has no clue that they're supposed to rejoice. And so they live in bondage. Praise the Lord. The Lord expects us to rejoice in Him with the purity of a little child. And when we get to the place where we want to be free more than we want to care what somebody next to us thinks, we'll do just that. Glory to God. And then when others come on other days and they don't know what you know about rejoicing, they can be critical if they want, but you're free. You're free. And they can be free. The Bible says, whom the Son has made free is free indeed. But you know, there's another part to this. You know, the Bible tells us that God made Abram a father of many nations. He said, I made you, or I have made you a father of many nations. But Abraham still had to become what God had already made him. And it's the same way with us. God has made us to be healthy and whole. God has made us to be rich. He has made us to be strong. But we have to become what He's already made us to be. And that comes through really being in the presence of God. And sometimes being in the presence of God is just worshiping Him with a sweet spirit. And other times it's rejoicing and praising. And I'll tell you one thing. If your mind is racing with troubled thoughts, praising God is the quickest way to get the troubled thoughts to stop. Because you can't really praise God with all of your heart and have troubled thoughts at the same time. Hallelujah. So, in situations where you might need a miracle in your life, in your soul, in your emotions, in your mind, it's time to quit crying and start shouting. It is, now listen to this. It's an act of faith to rejoice when things are not going well. It's one of the strongest acts of faith there is. Period. Now come on, you all know as well as I do that when you really feel down or you really feel troubled, the last thing you want to do is rejoice. It's the last thing you want to do. But yet, it's one of the strongest acts of faith there is. Because what you're saying is, devil, I don't care what you say to me. I don't care what you do to me. I don't care what happens to me. God is still worthy of being praised and I'm just going to rejoice. And I'll tell you, it gives him a black eye real fast. I remember Brother Hagin teaching how when he was really young, you know, before he was married, he was a Baptist. No one ever taught Baptists how to rejoice like this, I'm telling you right now. Some of the things, the stories he shares are really profound because in his day, like today, Baptist churches have modern worship. They have more of a charismatic worship. But that wasn't so. Even when I first got saved, it wasn't that way. And in Brother Hagin's day, it was very solemn. And they could actually usher you out of the church just for lifting your hand up like this to worship God, if you were Baptist. It was considered emotionalism, yes. So, here he is, a Baptist boy, and he said there were times like when he was laying on his deathbed, he said, I don't know why I did it because he never saw anyone do it. But he said, I just felt prompted to lift my hands to the Lord and worship Him. He was being led by the Spirit. If this is something the Spirit is leading someone to do, then it's the order of the Spirit. It's not a man-made idea. And he said after he got healed, there were times when he would face trouble, you know, maybe his heart would start acting up, and he would go out behind his grandpa's barn, and he said, I would just jump up and down and start rejoicing and laughing and rejoicing and laughing. He said, I'd make myself do it. He said, I didn't feel like doing it, but every time he did that, the thing would disappear. These are stories we need to hold fast to, guys, because these are where our answers are at. Now let's go to James chapter 1. James, James, James, where are you? It's been a lovely day. Some of you don't know what that is. That's James and the giant peach. You've raised children, you know these things. James chapter 1, verse 2. Uh-oh. Here comes a New Testament command. My brethren, count in all joy when you fall into various trials. The King James says, when you fall into diverse temptations. Now here's what the Amplified says. Consider it holy, joyful, my brethren. Holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, completely joyful. Whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Here is where we depart from the world. Because guess what, guys? The world never does this. Never. This ought to tell you right there, this is our secret ammunition against the devil. Look what's going on in our world today. People are mad and upset and angry and hateful. And because they don't know how to rejoice, it keeps growing darker and getting worse. Because they just keep getting more of what they are producing. They don't have a way out. But we have a way out. This is our formula. It's absolutely ridiculous to someone who doesn't know God. That if you're facing a trial, you what? You rejoice? Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Yes, I've got the mind of Christ. Like I said tonight, we don't even have time to go through all the scriptures on this subject. But if you ever did a study and you saw how many scriptures admonish us to rejoice or to joy or be full of joy. How can we neglect this instruction? There's a reason why it's here. We're going to look at some more tonight, but there's a reason. Because this is our way out, guys. No matter what trial you face, you can praise your way out of it. Glory to God. And you can see that not only is the world not doing this, but most of the church world is not doing this. Glory to God. I remember the story of a preacher who was diagnosed with tuberculosis. And he finally, everywhere he would preach, because he was a traveling minister, he would ask people to pray for him. And finally, he kept growing worse and worse and worse, and he got to the place where he couldn't preach anymore. And so he went to stay at his in-laws, basically went there to die. And one day, there was no one in the house. And he just was looking through the windows and he saw, for whatever reason, he got this idea. He saw a tree or some shrubs out in the short distance from the house. And he said, Lord, I'm just asking you, please give me enough strength to make it to those shrubs. And really, he was bedridden. But somehow or another, he made it. And he realized once he got there, nobody would know he was there. They wouldn't even probably know where to look for him. And so he said, Lord, I realize that if prayer was going to heal this tuberculosis, it wouldn't work by now. Because everywhere I've gone, I've asked thousands of people to pray for me. And think about it, if prayer is good and it's okay, you can call every prayer line there is. But that doesn't necessarily give you a way out. Because, you know, there's another place where James 5 was. It says, as any among you afflicted, let him pray. And until you're ready to do your own praying, there may not be a way out. And so he went out there and he said, Lord, I'm just going to stay here and praise you until I either die or I'm raised up healed. And he said, surely, after all the people that have laid hands on me and all the people that have prayed for me, I'm just going to praise you because I received my healing. And so he started praising God. At first, just with a very weak voice and barely any strength. And after 30 minutes of doing that, he finally got stronger and began to be loud and normal in praising God. And after two hours of doing that, he said, two hours? Well, is it worth it? He was raised up completely healed of tuberculosis. Just praising God for two hours. What's two hours in the scope of eternity? There's rejoicing going on day and night in heaven. Hallelujah. So we see things are getting worse in the world, but a brave, humble Christian who will not care what anybody thinks can make the choice to rejoice. And that's my title tonight. Make the choice to rejoice. The Woos translation of James chapter 1 verse 2 says this. Be constantly rejoicing. Constantly rejoicing. Woo-hoo! All right, now let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 1. Hallelujah. 1 Samuel chapter 1. Samuel was one of the greatest prophets, of course, under the Old Covenant. And we have the story in 1 Samuel chapter 1 of Hannah. Remember who Hannah is? Okay. Let me just quickly say this, because starting in verse 1 it tells you that Alcana had two wives, right? He had Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah had children. Hannah had no children. This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And whenever it was time for Alcana to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. Now notice, Peninnah had sons and daughters, plural. Many children. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival also, meaning Peninnah, provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb. Let me tell you something. The Lord didn't close her womb. So it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. Now everybody in life could have some area that's a sore spot. You know, we're looking at the story of Hannah here, but all of us might have an area that's a sore spot that if it gets picked at enough, you're going to be tempted to weep and maybe be so sad and depressed that you can't even eat in some cases. And that was the case for her. And it's interesting here that Hannah was loved by her husband more so than Peninnah. It's going to be generally the people that upset you the most are the ones that are closest to you. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? And look at this. Am I not better to you than ten sons? There was no grieving. I'm far better than if you had ten sons. And so what was her response? She just kept weeping and crying. She could not be comforted. So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish, and she prayed for a son. And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth and he thought she was drunk. It's okay, Katie, he's not bothering anyone. And so Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you. That's verse 14. But Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of him. Now look at the second part of verse 18. So the woman went her way and ate. Now she can eat. And her face was no longer sad. So we could say this. Hannah was sad because things were bad. But once she stopped being sad, things were no longer bad. Now this is very elementary. It's like see Jane run. Because it's like which comes first, the chicken or the egg, right? Was she in a bad state because she stayed sad and sorrowful? Or was she sorrowful because she was in a bad state? Do you know, here's the problem with getting grieved about something that you don't like about your life and your situation. Is if you continue to dwell on what you don't have or what you think you don't have, you will stay sad. And if you stay sad, you're not in faith. And you will stay in your situation. And it's interesting here that after she prayed and she told Eli what she had asked. As soon as she received the word from the Lord saying go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition. All of a sudden she's not sad anymore. But she didn't have, she hadn't conceived yet. There was no sign that her prayer was answered yet. There was no outward manifestation that anything had changed. But she changed her countenance. Because she decided to believe the word of the Lord. And you see, when you're sad or down about something in life or something stubbornly not changing, you'll be tempted to get weary. And you may not think you're sad, but you might be discouraged. You might put a different definition on whatever you are. Because we're faith people. We just sometimes are in denial about what we are. And yet if you could just get to the place where you could believe the word of the Lord, then faith is in operation and you're no longer sad. You're glad. There's a song by David Ingalls that we listen to him on our Alexa at home quite a bit. The only thing about the song is it's so slow. When you're going to rejoice in the Lord, it should be so slow. Rejoice in the Lord, be glad. You know, it's very slow. But we're to rejoice in the Lord and be glad before anything changes. Because that's the strongest act of faith that we can have. Is rejoicing while things are still not good. In the natural. All right, now let's look at Isaiah 61. Here are some reasons to rejoice. Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 10. It says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. Notice it says, I will. I will. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. So here he's listing why he's going to greatly rejoice in the Lord and be joyful because he's clothed me with the garments of salvation. This is prophetic about our day. He's covered me with the robe of righteousness. No matter how bad things are in life, if you'll rejoice in the fact that you're going to heaven and not hell. Rejoice in the fact that you are saved and you've been delivered out of every affliction and evil situation. Then you won't stay in that situation. That's right. In Joel chapter 2. Go there. Joel chapter 2 and verse 23. Now let me take a little longer to find. It's so little. Joel chapter 2 and verse 23. Everybody awake? Yes. It says, be glad then you children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord your God. For he has given you the former rain faithfully and he will cause the rain to come down for you. The former rain and the latter rain in the first month. Woo, this is prophetic for us guys. Be glad and rejoice guys. Hallelujah. The flushing floor shall be full of wheat. That means there's going to be a lot of people coming in. Harvest time. The vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. We're going to be filled with the spirit to overflowing. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust and the chewing locust. My great army which I send. Listen, everything the devil's stolen, everything that looked like it wasn't moving, everything that looked like there was no momentum, it is going to be restored and so on. So that's why he said be glad and rejoice. Now, Habakkuk chapter 3. The babies know how to rejoice. Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 18. It says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet and he will make me walk on my high hills. You know what deer's feet do when they run? They prance, they leap. Glory. Hallelujah. All right, now let's go over to the New Testament to Luke chapter 10. This one has been branded. Luke chapter 10. And let's start with verse 17. Luke chapter 10 and verse 17. It says, then the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. Amen. I'll tell you what, when you realize the demons have to go in the name of Jesus, you would have joy too. Because that means the devil no longer can trouble you, harass you, steal from you. You're going to have joy too when you get that revelation. But he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. He wasn't trying to put out the fire or anything. But oh yeah, you think that's a big deal? Look what I saw. And then he said, behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. See, I started out saying, here are some of the things we're supposed to rejoice about, and this is not one of them. We're not to rejoice because the spirits are subject to us, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Now look at verse 21. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Remember, we talked about becoming childlike in humility. When you have humility before the Lord, that's when revelation comes. Amen? That's when the wisdom comes. Now that verse in verse 21 at the beginning, it says, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirit. How many know Jesus rejoiced? Then we need to rejoice. Okay, I looked up that word in the Greek, rejoiced. Maybe Miss Betsy would like to hear this, if I say it right. It's the Greek word, agaliao. Agaliao. You never know on Park Creek. And guess what it means, guys? To jump for joy! Jump for joy! Now let me ask you something. Doesn't it give you a little more courage to do that when you realize that Jesus did it? I mean, if Jesus, he's with his disciples, and if he had this kind of childlike humility, he's a 30-plus-year-old man. Think about it. When he started his ministry, he was 30. When he died, he was 33. So he's not a small child. So he's 30-plus. I don't know how long he's been ministering at this point. If the Son of God, Jesus, who is perfect in every way, could jump for joy in front of people, some translation says he spun like a top. It said he did it in the Spirit. If he did it, why are we so proud that we can't do it? Glory to God! Jesus Christ! Glory to God! This should change your perspective from now on. When people start rejoicing in church instead of getting all nervous, or feeling uncomfortable about it, just remember, if it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for us. You know, joy, I didn't write this down, but joy is the thing that got Jesus through his situation of going to the cross. Because I think it's in Hebrews, it says, for the joy that was set before him and endured the cross. But I can't figure out which chapter at the moment. I'm in 10. Yes, that's it. Okay, Hebrews chapter 12. Oh, glory to God. Verse 1, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, listen, I just know because Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit, this is something that happens in the Spirit in heaven. And I know this cloud of witnesses, they rejoice. They're rejoicing continually in heaven. Because guess what? In heaven, there are no hindrances. It's pure humility, pure childlike trust. The reason why we have a hard time burying our soul before the Lord, sometimes in private, but especially in public, is because of the very thing that I was talking about earlier that you don't trust people. You don't trust how they're going to judge you. And you worry about what they think. But you know, it's so wonderful in God's sight when you stop worrying about what people think. Right. And you start being more concerned about what God thinks. And you bring this pure praise and worship from your spirit to His throne. And that's where the answers are. That's where the answers are. So seeing as we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, not to people, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. The joy that was set before Him helped Him to endure the cross, helped Him to despise the shame. And He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So we see this, that the thing that allowed Him to do the greatest thing that's ever been done by any man in the history of the world was what Jesus did. The greatest thing ever done was Jesus laid aside His heavenly, His Son of God privileges, His union with the Father, allowed Himself to be separated from the Father that He was always eternally joined to. He became sin for us and went to hell and suffered in our place. This was, I mean, folks, I wouldn't want to be in hell for one hour, let alone three days or three nights. And so He did all of that. He already knew what He was called to do. He knew what was going to happen. He knew where He was going. And the only way that He could do it, remember He agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane until He was sweating drops of blood because who would want to do it? Nobody who's normal. And so He agonized, but it was for the joy that was set before Him that got Him through the greatest trial of His life. And so if this is something Jesus needed, it's something we need. Amen? You know, sometimes the devil just tries to sit on your head and the pressure will just keep increasing, increasing day after day, week after week, if you don't rejoice. And so we're going to put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Hallelujah. We're going to have the band come back up. The third verse. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Well, we really have, it says you have not yet resisted and are fighting against sin. So we just have to be having a joyful attitude in life. Amen? Rejoice in the Lord. So come on up, man. Now, I'm just going to close with this one scripture. 1 John 5 verse 4 says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world. Now listen, this is a big statement, guys. Overcomes the whole world, even our faith. Amen. And when you're in faith, you're in joy. Glory to God. Let's go ahead and sing those first two songs again and rejoice. Hallelujah. We give you praise.