ANDREW WOMMACK New Sermon 2017 | THE POWER OF JOY (MUST WATCH)

we're on the Christians survival kit and we're in the I think it's the eleventh lesson on this over in Luke chapter I'm in John chapter 15 and just to refresh your memory just a little bit I know it's been a few weeks since we've taught on this John 14 15 and 16 is the last teaching that Jesus gave his disciples before his crucifixion and he said in John 16 1 I'm saying these things unto you so that you would not be offended which mark chapter 4 verse 18 says when you get offended is when the

word ceases to produce in your life so Jesus was telling these things this is his last minute instruction to his disciples before the worst time in his life and the most trying time that they would ever experience in their life so you know he was giving them the cream of the teaching he was sharing with them the things that they needed to know to be able to survive this hard time so I call this a Christian survival kit it's like what are you doing in crisis situation and I've broken it into 16 teachings we're now

into the eleventh teaching the first one was don't panic that's very first thing he said John 14:1 believe is the second step put things into perspective and we talked about all of these things the power of the Holy Spirit walking in love we talked about watch your tongue he said you know that the prince of this world comes and he has nothing in me I'm not going to talk much with you we've talked about the importance of words we talked about self-centeredness we talked about a lot of different things and so we're now down to

John chapter 15 and I think we quit last time in John chapter 15 verse 7 we studied verses 1 through 7 and the point that I was making there was that you have to abide in Christ don't ever come out of him and of course you don't come out of him in the sense that you renounce your salvation but you don't ever come out of peace you don't ever come out of faith you don't ever come out of love you just abide in all of these things that Jesus is over in 1st Corinthians chapter 13

the scripture there says love suffereth long and is kind it gives you all these attributes of love well God is love and so if you're gonna buy it in god you're gonna be patient if you're impatient you aren't abiding in God if you're anxious you aren't abiding in God if you're worried you aren't abiding in God if you're operating an unforgiveness you are an abiding in God and so that's the point that I was making that you just have to make a decision that you know what I am gonna do what's right I'm gonna abide

in God regardless what the consequences are I was talking to a person just recently that they're in a real crisis situation and they're gonna have to make some decisions and it's it's tough and they're trying to decide what do I do in this crisis situation and I said you know what you have to do what is godly regardless of what the consequences are I don't care if it kills you you do the right thing you abide in truth and he says but if I do that this could be the result and I said you know

what you cannot make something right by doing something wrong it just doesn't work that way you do what's right and if it costs you your life you do what's right that's the way that I live my life and I believe that that's what these verses are saying when you're in a crisis situation and you're trying to figure out how am I going to get through this what am I going to do do what's right abide in the Lord walk in the truth that he's given you and don't ever compromise compromise is a language of the

devil whatever you have to compromise to keep you're gonna lose and so just abide in the vine and then in verse 8 it says herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit sociably be my disciples as the father hath loved me so if I loved you continue you in my love if you keep my Commandments you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my father's Commandments and abide in his love now I've already taught you back in chapter 14 so I'm not going to make this a major issue but it

needs to be reinstated because I know that you sometimes forget and you need things to be rehearsed and go over and over and over but some people interpret this in verse nine that you know abide in my love and then in verse 10 it says if you keep my Commandments you shall abide in my love and they think all right the way I abide in the love of God is by keeping all of these Commandments no this is giving you a test to see if you were abiding in the love of God keeping Commandments doesn't

make you receive the love of God but receiving the love of God will make you keep Commandments if you truly love God are and in fellowship with love well the love doesn't do any damage to anybody in love would never lie about a person it wouldn't be jealous of a person you would think more about them than yourself you'll never have unforgiveness towards a person love is the fulfilling of the law so if you were truly operating in love you will have the right actions and so anyway I've already taught on that but that's important

that you understand this this is just saying here's a way that you can tell if you are abiding in the love of God is what's the fruit that's coming out of you again go back to 1st Corinthians chapter 13 it says love is patient it's kind it suffers long it isn't boastful it doesn't bond itself and doesn't exalt itself and you go through the list of all the things that it says about love and then just look at it is that the way you are and if you aren't like that then you aren't abiding in

God that doesn't mean that you aren't saved it just means that you know what you aren't abiding in him you his love isn't perfected in you in verse 11 he says these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved do you greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you and anyway in the

second session we're going into some more things and we're going to go back and overlap some of this but let me just say here that one of the things I want to point out there's a lot of things here that we could talk about but I want to focus on this it says these things verse 11 have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full when you're talking about being in a crisis situation and you are having all of this pressure come at you and your

pressure to operate in fear doubt or whatever I tell you one of the greatest tools that the Lord ever gave us is just the power to have joy and to rejoice and it's amazing how we forget this you get into a crisis situation most of us get into this panic mode to where man-years serious is a heart attack and you're just digging there faster than praying and screaming and crying and calling out the God and there's a place for being that intense and stuff but you know what if you are in a crisis situation you

have to maintain your joy you have to focus on joy the Bible says there's so many scriptures I've got a three part series on joy and what it does and so I could minister on this for a long time and I'm just hitting some of the highlights but Nehemiah 8:10 I mean just turn over and read the context of this to you because you need to get this in its context to be able to fully appreciate this so Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 this is where Nehemiah was one of those that God sent back from

captivity to Jerusalem and he was helping the Jews rebuild the temple and when he came there the work had been totally quit because of these people that had brought up an evil report in anyway Nehemiah started trying to rally the people to get back to doing what God had told him to do and so he gathered all of the people together and one of the first things he did was have them stand he built this platform and he stood up on the platform and he began to read scripture he began to read the Old Testament

commands and these people had been raised in captivity they didn't have a Bible like what we had and they had heard some of the stories like of God delivering the Jews from captivity but they didn't know Scripture they didn't know the promises of God they hadn't been taught the commands and how you were supposed to keep the Feast and how you were supposed to offer sacrifices and they they were basically scripturally illiterate so he built this platform he stood up there and from morning until night he just read the first five books of the Bible

all of the commandments what happened to the Jews when they disobeyed that the promises that if you didn't obey that the wrath of God would come on them and they would be expelled from the land and they realized that man the word had come true and that they born the judgment of all of these things and it says that as he read these things and it sunk in on them what had happened that the people lifted up their voice and wailed and cried and began to repent and so anyway that is the background of this

in verse eight I see am I in the right chapter okay yeah I'm in the right chapter in verse eight it says so they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading in Nehemiah and Ezra the priest the scribe and the Levites that taught the people said unto all the people this day is holy unto the Lord your God mourn not nor weep for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law then he said unto them go your way

eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto the Lord neither be you sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength often we take that little phrase the joy of the Lord is your strength and we just pluck it out of this scripture and we say that and it's true the things that we're saying but if you understand here they were realizing men we're under the judgment of God this is why this had my parents the reason that they died

the reason all of these tragedies happen is because we didn't know these things and they were repenting and you know what that's a godly thing to do but yet in the mid midst of it they stood up and said go your way eat the fat drink the sweet see here's a scripture for fast food that you can stand on eat the fat and drink the sweet and and it says for the joy of the Lord is your strength and so you've got to remember that in a crisis situation there may be it may be appropriate

for you to cry if something has happened I mean it's not all tears aren't bad I'm not saying that you stifle them and that you never are touched by any negative situation but in the midst of whatever is going on the scripture says in Psalms chapter 34 verse 1 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul will make her boast in thee the humble soul their oven be glad old magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together you're supposed to be doing

that at all times Philippians chapter 4 verse 4 I believe it is says rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice and I believe the reason he said again I say rejoice is because when you say rejoice in the Lord always so rejoice in the Lord at every time regardless of what's going on in your life rejoice all of the time if you say something like that you know the average person is going to say it couldn't mean what he said you can't do that you can't rejoice regardless of what's going on and

so he says again I say rejoice just so that nobody would think that this was a mistake or that maybe he didn't mean it the way he said he repeated it again I say rejoice and I firmly believe based on all kinds of scriptures that you know what you have to maintain joy I don't care what is going on in your life here's another scripture that bears out the same principle over in Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 in Colossians chapter 2 verse 6 it says as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord

so walk ye in him in verse 7 says rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught abounding therein with Thanksgiving the way your faith abounds is through Thanksgiving or you could say that the way your faith becomes complete or the way your faith reaches its ultimate strength the way that your faith has the most powerful effect is through Thanksgiving or you could turn this verse around and say it this way that if you aren't thanking the Lord if there isn't praise and thanksgiving in your life then your

faith is not complete it's in completely those are powerful statements and if that's true which it is then you know you can basically take your spiritual pulse by just finding out whether you're really thankful and praising God if you are so burdened down there's a lot of Christians that present it oh I'm interceding and I'm just so burdened over this situation and they present that as being a godly thing and there are some people that because cause of religious teaching actually believe that it's godly to be burdened and it's godly to bear about these sorrows

and griefs Jesus said just the opposite Matthew chapter 11 he says take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and he says my burden is easy my yoke is easy my burden is light it is not appropriate for a Christian to ever be so burdened that you lose your joy that is wrong you abound in faith with Thanksgiving the joy of the Lord is your strength and if you ever ever ever allow the devil to get your joy then he can steal your goods it's like your

joy is a I don't know how you'd say that if you were talking science fiction it's like a force field around you and you're operating in joy it's like it just stops things they can't penetrate it's a force field it's like a door or something that before a person can get into that room they have to get through your joy they have to you have to stop you have to open up and quit operate and enjoy and get into grief so you have it's an absolute must that regardless of what crisis situation you find yourself

in you've got to operate and joy and some people find this hard to do because they say but there's nothing joyful about my situation for instance let's look back in John chapter 15 where we're reading this from Jesus was speaking this to his disciples was not before his crucifixion and you got to remember the context of this you can't just take this out and try and dissect it separate from its context he was talking to his disciples it was only going to be a matter of hours until he was arrested and then he was going

to be crucified the next day it looked like that everything is like Jesus had lost and most people would say you shouldn't rejoice in a situation like that what is there to rejoice over see most people matter of fact the way that most people think today if you were in a situation that the disciples were in and if they were still rejoicing and praising God even after Jesus had been arrested and after they saw the mock trial and his beating and him being crucified most people would say man something is wrong with you if you

can rejoice during these kind of things and yet this is exactly what Jesus said these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full he was writing this or speaking this to them the night before his crucifixion the scripture says rejoice always I will bless the Lord at all times you know what you can rejoice regardless of what's going on if nothing else I touched on this when we were back in chapter 14 and in verse 28 he says you heard how I said I

going to my father if you loved me you would rejoice and I this is when I thought on self-centeredness that the reason that these people panicked and the reason they had so much grief and sorrow wasn't only about them seeing Jesus suffer but they were thinking how is this going to affect me I thought that this was the Messiah I gave up everything to follow him and the root of all grief in your life the root of all sorrow is actually self-centeredness it's not always obvious sometimes it's subtle and we say oh but I'm just

so burdened for this person well the truth is you're so burdened because of how it's affected you and they've disappointed you and all these other kind of things the truth is that if you are really thinking about other people if these disciples would have been thinking about Jesus he said if you loved me you would rejoice because I was saying I was going to my father even if they didn't understand the resurrection if they looked at the crucifixion as defeat they could have at least said at least he's going to be with his father that

he talked about constantly and that he spent so much time with and if they would have been thinking about him they could have rejoiced even in the midst of something that looked like defeat plus the Lord had given them 14 prophecies that he would be crucified and about seven of those he prophesied that he would be resurrected on the third day and so there was there was information that they had that if they would have thought on the word and on what Jesus said rather than let their circumstances in their eyes and their natural mind

take over they could have rejoiced they could have just by faith says I don't care what this looks like this man who spoke and calm the Seas and spoke and people were raised from the dead and blind eyes were opened they could have thought of all of this and they said the same one who said those things also said I will build this temple again I will rise the third day and they had a choice they could have operated in faith and have rejoiced in the midst of that I really believe that this is critical

and I've mentioned this before but let me illustrate this again when I saw my son raised from the dead I can guarantee you this I believe is one of the keys they saw that happen when we heard about it we had enough wisdom to understand our words were important so Jaime and I didn't say anything contrary to what we were believing for and instead we spoke and commanded Peter to come back to life we understood Authority we spoke and we did that but on the way into town I started having the same feelings and stuff

that any of you have if your son was dead and you know how I countered it I just started praising God I started rejoicing even though my son was dead and the reason he was dead because he overdosed on drugs and you know what I wouldn't been I started telling the Lord I said God I'm believing for him to come back but I want you to know that I don't blame you for what happened to my son you didn't kill my son my son killed himself and I started saying you're faithful yet you are a

good guy you didn't do this and I started praising God in order to counter the grief and the sorrow and stuff that was coming at me and when I started praising God it's just like these scripture says the joy of the Lord is your strength you abound in faith with Thanksgiving it's just like I turned a switch on the inside and all of a sudden I mean I started having faith rise on the inside of me and then prophecies came back to my remembrance and I mean within minutes of me starting praising God not because

I felt like it not because circumstances dictated it was something I chose to do based on I will bless the Lord at all times I'm going to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice when I started doing that it's just like I turned on a turbocharger May I mean the power of God kicked in and I really credit that force in Peter raised from the dead I really think that was one of the key elements so anytime you get into a crisis situation there may be a place for you pouring out your

heart and maybe crying or something but the scripture says with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God that's Philippians chapter 4 I'm not sure what verse but it's right around that verse that says rejoice in the Lord always 6 and 7 and so anyway you if you are making a supplication you have to let your requests be made known with Thanksgiving it's a command from God and so if you just this is something

that you need to make a commitment that you know it doesn't matter what happens it doesn't matter how bad your situation gets when you get up every morning you're going to start praising God whether you feel like it or not whether you had a good night's sleep or not whether you feel good or not you're just going to praise and bless the Lord at all times if somebody criticizes you instead of sitting there thinking about what they said you know what with Thanksgiving I'm gonna make my request knowing I'm gonna praise God if Satan can't

steal your joy he can't steal your goods Satan has to get your joy before he can get you your joy is one of the greatest defenses that you have against the devil and there's a lot of reasons for it for one thing when you start praising God when you are operating in Thanksgiving you know it does a number of things one of them is it forces you to think on the positive instead of the negative and yet our tendency is to think on the negative if the doctor tells you you're gonna die your tendency is

to start thinking about old man what's it going to be like when I die what's going to happen to my kids you know I don't have my insurance paid up you know I don't want even sure and you start worrying about all this kind of stuff and you'll start thinking about the agony and you'll remember dear Oh aunt Susie died of the exact same thing and you'll have a flashback of all those suffering and how everybody cry and you start thinking negative you know how to counter that one of them is to start saying praise

God and you start thinking God and if you continue and maintain an attitude of gratitude and praise you will have to get your mind off of those negative things or you'll quit praising God as a man thinks in his heart so is e and if you start saying out of your mouth praising God and thanking God you will have to start saying but father I praise you and you'll have to start thinking about your word says I don't care what the doctor says here's what your word says by your stripes I am healed no weapon

formed against me is gonna prosper you will have to change your thinking from the negative to the positive or I guarantee you if you keep your mind on the negative you'll wind up griping you can't sit there and say father thank you that I'm gonna die just like Darrell and Susie did I can see myself writhing in plain pain I thank you Father you know what you don't do things like that you'll wind up griping if you're thinking on negative things so if you make yourself out of your mouth start praising God it forces you

to focus on the answer instead of the problem man that is awesome right there if that's all the benefit that there was to praise and thanksgiving that would be tremendous but then also the scripture says that praise is a weapon against the devil look at this passage over in Matthew chapter 21 this is as Jesus was going into Jerusalem in what we call the triumphant procession I mean the triumphal entry into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday and in Matthew chapter 21 [Music] it says in verse 15 and when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful

things that he did and the children crying in the temple insane Hosanna to the son of David they were sore displeased and they said unto Him hearest thou the what these say and jesus said unto them yea out have you never read out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise this is a quotation from Psalms chapter eight verse two keep your finger there in Matthew 21 and look at Psalms chapter 8 verse 2 Jesus was quoting from the Septuagint which was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and so it was

worded a little differently but by reading this you can comparing it you can see exactly what these words mean here's here's why it says in Psalms chapter 8 out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou might is still the enemy and the Avenger so by comparing these two scriptures together since the scriptures don't contradict itself you can see that when he says out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected praise the Old Testament says out of the mouths of babes and sucklings has

thou ordained strength so by comparing these two together you can see that praise is strength or it would be the same thing Nehemiah 8:10 says the joy of the Lord is your strength praise is spiritual strength if you are short of praise you're weak you're anemic spiritually I don't know if you guys are just thinking about what I'm saying I don't know why but you know what this would be a really good place to say praise God or something and this is awesome and if you really believe this then you know here's probably a good

way to look at it instead of you evaluating yourself just think that if I was to follow you around all day every day how would I evaluate you but I evaluate you as a crapper and complainer are you a person that operates in praise and thanksgiving are you a person that blesses the Lord at all times if I was to ask you you might say something but if I was to follow you around how do you think that I would evaluate you and if you say well you know I'm not a very happy person or

I easily get discouraged or something like that you can use any excuse you want to for being that way but I can guarantee you you're a weak person spiritually that's not said to condemn you it's said to enlighten you and show you where one of the areas of problem is in your life if you aren't praising God then you don't have strength and it says in Psalms 82 that this strength is to still the enemy and the Avenger talking about the devil when you praise God here's the logic of why this works Satan is an

absolute jealous envy / envious person we associate that you know with people we see people who are totally so self-centered that they can't stand for anybody else to get credit they want to be recognized they want to be that was my idea they they are super jealous they're eaten up with jealousy well where do you think that comes from that's literally a trait of the devil and in Isaiah chapter 40 14 it says Satan sin was that he wanted to be like the Most High he says I will exalt my throne above the stars of

heaven I will sit on the sides of the north I will be like the most time Satan has always always always been envious and jealous of God and specifically the praise that went to God and he rebelled trying to gain that and this is behind I think so much of what the devil does like I'm gonna say some things here that some of you probably disagree with but I believe it anyway you're entitled to your opinion but I'm not going to agree with your we'd both be wrong so but I believe that this is what's

behind Santa Claus the Easter Bunny Halloween and all kinds of things originally those were festivals to honor God but then they come out with well let's do Santa Claus anything to keep people from just worshiping God straight out let's Satan hates God to be praised he can't stand it and just like you know if you were around the person that was very insecure and wanted all of the praise and credit for himself and let's say that Pete was that person who was just totally insecure and if I started praising Collin you know what Pete just

couldn't stand it because he wasn't getting the credit and stuff you get around people that are like that and I guarantee you they will either jump in and try and divert your affection towards them or they'll get up and leave they cannot stand to see somebody else get the credit that's exactly the way the devil is Satan hates God to be praised that's what he's always wanted and he can never get it and so he would rather have Santa Claus praise than to have Jesus praise let's have an Easter Bunny get the credit and let

them get excited about Easter eggs rather than talking about the resurrection of Jesus let's have him dress up in these costumes and do everything but let's not you know it started as All Saints Day and things like this let's not get into the real purpose of it he hates to see God pray so when you start praising God Satan is going to try and get you to stop or get you occupied with something else or if you continue I guarantee it stops Satan in his tracks Satan will leave there's Old Testament examples like Saul who

had the spirit that tormented him and he called for David and when David played on a harp the evil spirit left and there's instances of where Elijah called for a minstrel and when the minstrel came boy the anointing of God came and things like this praise literally stops Satan in his tracks Satan hates praise it's the same way that if you see people who are you know druggies and they're into this culture where they just hate everything to do with God like a Satanist or something like that you put them into a service where there's

praise going on and people are giving testimonies about the goodness of God and the greatness of God and stuff and I guarantee those people are uncomfortable they don't like that they will either get converted or they will leave but you cannot get a person who's demon-possessed to enjoy praise and worship they just don't do it Satan hates it so not only does praise and worship focus your mind on the answer and do tremendous things for you but it just drives the devil mad that's enough reason right there to do it amen I guarantee it's strength

in its power and it will break things if you find yourself in a crisis situation say for instance the doctor tells you you're gonna die and you got cancer or something like that you know one of the things you can do is just begin to start praising God and that demonic force that is behind the cancer will not be able to stay in your life because it can't abide praise Plus then you bring other things into bear like I'd have to look up the reference on this I think it's proverbs 17 27 or something like

that but he says a merry heart does good like a medicine when you start praising God did you know that it literally will produce health in your flesh there's a guy named Norman Cousins and he just recently died I think last year but back in the 50s he was a medical doctor and he had seen lots of people die through cancer and stuff and he was diagnosed with an advanced cancer that his prognosis was only six months or something like that and he the medical doctor refused to take the treatment that he gave people because

he saw how damaging it was and he says I'd rather die normally than to go through the torment that the doctors put you through and you know what this guy did he was a Christian and he took that scripture a merry heart does good like medicine and what he did was check into a hotel and he took all of the Three Stooges Laurel and Hardy and all of those things and for a month and a half or two months he stayed in a hotel and played comedy all day long every day and he laughed himself

well and lived for another forty something years and just died I think it was last year and he wrote books on the power of this and he started an entire medical field that was beginning to explain that you know what some of your sicknesses and stuff can be related to think he's one that proved that depression suppresses your immune system and makes you vulnerable thing did you know that arthritis they're saying that there's a relation between stress and things like this in arthritis because stress affects your immune system and arthritis is basically where your own

body is attacking your about your itself and it causes inflammation in the joints and things like this I'm not saying that it's all mental or emotional cause but it's a factor one of the major factors and so when you start praising God not only does it make you focus on the right thing not only does it drive the devil mad but man it's good it's healthy for you if you're in a crisis situation I tell you praise is one of the greatest things you can do in any situation and we have been totally conditioned opposite

this that you know you only praise God when you feel like it well you need to praise God at all times you need to bless the Lord at all times if you have to do it through gritted teeth it's better to do it the regretted teeth than it is to not do it some of you think well I'd be a hypocrite the truth is I don't feel like it well it depends on who you think surreal you if you think that carnal part of you that's got pain in your body or the emotional part of

you that's been hurt and insulted is as real you then yeah you're a hypocrite but if you see yourself a new creature in Christ and know that according to Galatians 5:22 you have love joy peace longsuffering this is what's going on in your spirit then you're a hypocrite if you operate in depression just because things are bad the truth is the spirit part of you is turned on excited rejoicing and praising God at all times so it really depends on whether you know your true identity or not it depends on whether you're looking at what

who you are in the spirit or whether you're looking in the physical realm and here's a third benefit of praise and a lot of people don't understand this but you know what when you praise God it blesses God it ministers to God most people don't think that really they have much to offer God there's a lot of people to think all I've got to offer God is my service I got to go do a work for God I got to lead somebody to the Lord cast out a devil or pray and intercede and bind this

or that and I'm not saying that God doesn't accept those things those things are pleasing to him but he created us for relationship and fellowship and in heaven and you know I could spend an hour just trying to make this one point I'm just having to say these things quickly but in heaven there is nothing but constant praise it's going on 24 hours a day it says that the elders every time that four living creatures praise God they take their crowns and throw them on the ground and fall Prostate before the Lord and begin to

worship Him and then the next verse says that the four beasts cease not to worship God 24-hours a day so they're constantly worshiping God and the elders are constantly falling down throwing their crowns down putting their crowns back on sitting down and falling down I mean it's just one constant deal of praise and worship that's what's going on in heaven that is if you could really see God for who he is and if you really saw how much he loves us man there is Zippos zero reason to be upset because your worst day as a

Christian is better than your best day as an unbeliever and if worse came to worse and if you died from your sickness you're gonna go right into a mansion that he's been working on for 2,000 years it only took seven days to create the heavens and the earth and he's been working on your mansion for 2,000 years you know what it's going to be awesome if you really were thinking straight you would just have constant praise in your heart even though all kinds of problems are having them happening around you you know I don't know

how to express that I don't know how to make you understand this and I'm not perfect in this but this really is where I live I have reached a place that you know I have gone through terrible things and some of you say well you haven't seen my situation well you hadn't seen my situation and I have been in things that with my mind I'm sitting here saying I shouldn't be rejoicing God but I rejoicing in the Lord but I just can't help it I guess I could help it but I'm not gonna help it

I don't want to help and I have just chosen to praise God praised God when my son was dead and there was no guarantee that he was coming back to life and I praised God so much that when we got in and saw that he was raised from the dead I didn't praise God then I'd already done it I didn't go home it really worked and start praising God I really believed it worked before I mean I rejoiced an hour before I knew that he was raised from the dead and so I've experienced this I

when everything has gone bad in my life when it looked like that man our ministry was over I remember my board telling me you're broke we're shutting the ministry down we're kicking you out of the ministry you know I started praising God I started thinking this is awesome man I had my relationship with God would go through the roof if I didn't have to deal with all these problems I just started praising God you know what if you praise God regardless of what's going on it really does it's just like giving you an immunization it

just keeps you from getting bothered by stuff if Satan can't get your joy he can't get your goods it's that important and that's the reason that in the midst of this crisis situation the night before his crucifixion he says man I'm saying these things so that my joy will remain in you and he could have said even through the crucifixion even for the next three days this is what he was talking to him about if those people could have rejoiced and praised God even after sin their Savior crucified not understanding that he'd be raised from

the dead if he told them that they were supposed to do that then I guarantee you your little problem that seems so big in your eyes is nothing in comparison and you can praise God it's a choice in Philippians when you know Paul was writing that from prison when he was in jail in Rome and he wrote it back to the Philippians and in Philippians there is more mention of joy rejoicing there are 17 times in four chapters of Philippians that he talked about joy rejoice rejoicing he mentioned joy more than any other book that

had written and he had been in prison for over two years he'd been shipwrecked and left for dead he had been enslaved on the way to Rome and he'd been through these terrible things and yet here he was talking about the joy of the Lord and rejoicing in the Lord joy is not something that is a result it's a choice and here's another thing that will help you did you know that the word joy is a noun but rejoice is a verb the significance of that is a noun is a person place or a thing

it's something that just exists but a verb is something that you do so when he says rejoice in the Lord always he didn't say have joy always because you know what joy can fluctuate depending on things sometimes you feel less joy but you can rejoice I don't care if you're crying on the inside it's an action you know what you may not feel like getting out of bed you may hurt but you can still get out of bed whether you feel like it or not you don't have to feel joy to rejoice rejoice is something

that you do and if you start rejoicing you will feel joy joy is a byproduct of acting on the word and doing what's right most people wait until they feel joy and then they're gonna rejoice anybody can praise God on the other side of the Red Sea after you've already gone through and seen your enemies destroyed you know what faith is it's praising God on this side of the Red Sea because you're trusting in God and you've got to develop that mindset that you are going to praise God you are going to be a person

who operates in praise you ought to get to a place that man it doesn't matter what happens you're going to glorify god you're gonna operate in joy and it the worse it gets the more you praise God if you hit your thumb instead of letting out something else the first thing you ought to do is you Jesus I love you Jesus talk about its truce exactly what I do and I hurt myself that's the first thing I do is start praising Jesus and I've done it so much that I it's just the way it is

you hit me I guarantee you first thing to come out of my mouth is thank you Jesus or I love you just one it's exactly what I'd say you may not believe that but it's absolutely true anytime anything hurts me comes against me whether it's physical or emotional I can guarantee you I'm gonna praise God it's just like you pushed me and praise is gonna come out it's how I live my life and some obvious I hide you can't live that way well don't wake me up that's how I'm living and so praise is powerful

in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts I wish they had time to turn over and read all of that but here's Paul and Silas they had this vision a man said come over into Macedonia and help us and so they got up in the next morning headed for Macedonia knowing that God had sent them so they had a word from God they were obeying God and within just a couple of days of them being in Philippi they got arrested beaten and then put in the dungeon in the lowest part of the dungeon their

feet and their hands were in the stocks that meant that they couldn't even get in a comfortable position they couldn't do anything to alleviate the pain you know that there was rats you know that it was it was infested with stuff and there was no light there because the jailer when he came in had to call for a lot so they were in total darkness it was a terrible situation and yet what did they do at midnight the worst darkest part of the night when everything was the worst they started praising God and you know

what there's some people based on what I was talking about how that praise is an weapon against the devil to stop the enemy in the Avenger there are some people who will operate in praise thinking if I'll praise God through gritted teeth then I can kill this cancer and I can do these things and they will praise God not really in true praise but they're doing it as a weapon they're fighting the devil and that's not a hundred percent wrong but did you know Paul and Silas they they went even beyond that they weren't praising

God just overcome their fears and their hurts and things like this and to drive the devil out and to prove it when they got the praising God God got the patent his foot earthquake came and it opened up all the prison doors took off all of the chains and instead of them running out would see people who would have only been praising God to get deliverance from the situation there and they would have run at the moment that their bonds were released they'd have been gone but you know what Paul and Silas and not only

them but even the unbelievers everyone else in the prison not a one of them left because you know I thought you'd gotten caught up in the praise they were so content praising God that they didn't have to get out of the dungeon to be happy there's some people that will praise God to get out of the situation they're in but the moment they get relief they quit praising God because that wasn't really what was in their heart in the first place but then you can go beyond that to the point that you know what you

praise God not just to get something but here's a radical thought praise God and thank him because you really loved him not because you're trying to manipulate him get something from it using it as a tool a lever on God but get to where you praise God because you really love God you know what if you would live that way it just really does drive the devil man he can't penetrate praise that's powerful you know Paul he was so excited to preach and tell people about the Lord that he loved it and he praised God

for the opportunity of sharing the word so then they'd arrest him and beat him and he had praised God because he was kind of worried that his suffer shame for the name of the Lord so then they throw him in the prison at midnight he had praise God and he'd get the whole jail saved and then they'd come and say you're released and free to go and he'd say great it praise God for that they say I'm gonna put you in prison if you don't quit the hits they praise God I've been there and said

we're gonna kill you and he says for me to die is Christ and you know what how do you get to a guy that nothing bothers him threaten him with prison he says old man I've been there lots of times I praise God and he says even when I was released I didn't have to leave I enjoyed it we're gonna kill you for me to live as Christ to die as game how do you intimidate somebody like that you can't you know and you get to where you live in joy and peace and you're praising

God I tell you what it's just like you're Teflon the devil can't make anything stick to you he can throw whatever he's got edge and it's just like water off a duck's back it just doesn't bother you if you determine that I'm gonna bless the Lord in all things it doesn't mean that you're praising God for doing those things because God is not the author of everything that happens but you are gonna praise God regardless what the devil throws at you it is one of the most powerful things that you can do it's strength to

steal the enemy in the Avenger and if you aren't operating in praise if I would follow you around and you would be afraid of how I'd characterize you and you know what you need to improve in this area and it's something that you train yourself in you did not become negative overnight you've been taught to be negative I don't know if you've known that or not but you really do you are taught to be negative you are taught to take the cares of this life on yourself it's a process when you start it out when

you were a little kid you were a happy kid till somebody messed with you till bad things started happening till somebody started browbeating you or something I guarantee you've been trained in system discipline to be negative and even if it wasn't an individual life will make you negative just the hard knocks but you can also retrain yourself it's process but you can train yourself to praise God so you just make a decision to start doing it and if you catch yourself not praising God but instead being burdened down and depressed and discouraged instead of getting

mad at yourself and beating yourself up just say whoops you can get back to doing what God told you to do and so you do it again and you know what the second time it's a little easier to do it because you've already done it once you do it the third time the fourth time after a while it gets to where you just do it so often that you know what it becomes second-nature so that you punch you and outcomes praise but it's a it's an acquired trait it is not human nature get your born-again

nature amen man that's a powerful truth had changed your life he operating what we talked about tonight he might have got a question or comment everybody's got this you're going to become one that people are going to say you are the happiest person you just praise God all the time that ought to be everybody's testimony yes as a difference God is not the one who causes problems like I used on my radio program today I happen to listen to my radio program as I was driving in and I was using all his the Denver Broncos

coach Shanahan I used him as an example that when Derrick Williams was killed on New Year's Eve Shanahan said well we don't know why God took him but he got a good one and I use that as an example I said God didn't take Deron Williams that's saying that God had somebody shoot him in the jugular vein and kill him that's not right God didn't do that but do you still praise God despite the fact that Deron Williams got a kill yeah I praise him in spite of it not because I'm gonna praise God in

every situation but I'm not gonna credit God with that situation if you diagnosed with cancer God didn't give you cancer but you still should be able to praise God man it's a powerful weapon so you praise God in every situation and there's even one verse I think it's in Colossians assist thank him for all things but if you look the word for up it's it's not used the way that people are talking about I don't think that Paul ever thought that anybody would credit God with murder with Hitler killing six million Jews Stalin killing twelve

million Russians and on and on and on nobody in their right mind would think that you have to be religious you have to be totally brainwashed by religion to blame God for homosexuality and bestiality and stuff like that i-isn't the one that does that but you can praise God in spite of those things going on let's take a break and we'll come back you