REJOICE! (Captioned)

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Duration: 12 minutes and 18 seconds

Year: 2009

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC - Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

Genre: Instructional

Producer: R & M

Director: Jesus

Views: 46 (1 embedded)

Posted by: hischild on Dec 19, 2009

The Apostle Paul in Philippians, Chapter 4, reminds us that we can ALWAYS rejoice, even in the midst of turmoil, when we claim that peace the Lord alone gives us. To contact Pastor Dave: www.ziontorrance.info

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Text from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION from
Paul in his letter to the Philippians
where we read from Chapter 4, beginning with
Verse 4: REJOICE IN THE LORD
ALWAYS. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN: REJOICE!
LET YOUR GENTLENESS BE EVIDENT TO ALL.
THE LORD IS NEAR.
DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING, BUT IN
EVERYTHING, BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING,
PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD.
AND THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING,
WILL GUARD YOUR HEARTS
AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS.
This is the Word of our Lord; let us pray:
This is the day that the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
Pastor Dave
motions to the congregation
to be seated
before delivering the sermon
for this third Sunday of Advent: December 13, 2009
Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
This week I read an interesting article. An
interesting article about letters to Santa.
And our letters to Santa
in the last couple of years,
have changed drastically.
Probably doesn't surprise us,
that people making lists,
of things that they want,
have become much more demanding ...
much more specific. Some of them even said
at the end: There will be at least one more list to follow
of things that I really have to have,
before the list of things
that you can just give me if you have them.
(A moment passes ...
giving time to consider.)
Kind of interesting, isn't it,
where we've come as a society?
And how easy it is to let that society rub off on us
as Christians. How easy it can be for us to
get caught up in the things of this world
and become so fixated and obsessed and
anxious about what we're going to give
to people this year and what we're going to get from people
and will it they be happy and will it be enough and does it
look cheap and I can't afford to do this. We get caught up
in such turmoil!
The Apostle Paul comes to us
this morning and he says: Rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:
Rejoice!
Be happy! Realize the
blessings that you have and the wonderful opportunity
to be able to give, the wonderful opportunity
to be gracious in receiving.
To be able to share as one of those hearts
as John the Baptist said, of a heart that is truly devoted
to God.
If you have two coats, give to one who doesn't have any.
If you have food ...
share it. Simple acts of faith.
And the Apostle Paul says it's going to help us in this time
of rejoicing in our life.
It's realizing that our Lord is near.
He is ALWAYS with us. The time of His Day of Judgment
is closer today than it was yesterday, but
we're happy about that!
We're one day closer to our own death from this world and
being with God forever!
And we can rejoice in that because we know what God
has done. This morning we celebrated
baptism once again. And the same fact that applied
to me and to you, apply to Brendon as well.
He is one day closer
to his death today than he was yesterday.
But by the power of God and His Word
today he has been given faith,
the forgiveness of sins,
eternal life with God.
What a reason we have to rejoice.
What a reason we have to take our prayer requests
to God with hearts that are filled with joy.
With a reminder that we can
come rejoicing ... not with
a list of demands. Not that we come to God
only when we need Him,
and only when we're sad and only when we're sick
or when there's something horrible going on.
But we go to Him with every single thing that
excites us about our life.
That has thrilled us about our faith, that we have seen Him
working, not only in our life, but in the lives of others
because He is here. He is with us.
Today we have a person to pray for in Brendon.
We also can ask God that He would
inspire us to carry on our ministry.
To fulfill those words that we all spoke
this morning ... about how, with the help of God,
you and I are going to carry out a ministry
that shares the blessing of God with children.
And we carry that prayer request with
rejoicing to God. That we have
Sunday School teachers who can teach that Word.
That we have parents who are dedicated to
sharing God's Word with their children.
Who bring them to our school so that each and every day
they have a Christ-centered education.
That we have parents who will take as much time with their
children about writing a letter to Santa
yet every day they sit down with them and teach them how
to pray. Teach them
about their heavenly Father
and the comfort that we have received. If we're
focused on the joy that we have, the Apostle Paul
reminds us that we're not going to be
anxious about anything. And what good does it do us?
What good does it do us to
worry about what's going to happen this afternoon?
Or tomorrow? Or what we're going to wear? Or what
we're going to be like in five years?
Being anxious about those things does NOTHING to help
the situation. But we go with God with thanksgiving,
with thanksgiving because we know that
He is near us. That He's going to be the One
who is WITH us. Even through
the valley of the shadow of death ...
I ... will ... not ... fear ...
because God is with me.
He is there with ...
protecting us with His angels
each and every day.
But there is something today that I can be thankful for.
There is something each and every day that I can look at
in my heart and say: Dear God,
Thank You! That this day I realize, once again,
Your love. Your grace.
Your compassion. That I have seen You
working in this world. Spreading
that Gospel out to the ends of the earth.
And what joy that brings to me.
And my prayers are filled with that thanksgiving.
Not just with the anxieties of life and the worries
that are there. Just get rid of them!
The problem is we go to God with them and then we
pick them up and take them back to our house.
And we sit there surrounded by them all the time and
they're there, every minute of every day. And
we worry about them and we worry about them.
I don't think we honestly feel that we'd be comfortable if we
didn't have them with us.
But we like to talk about how we'd like to get rid of them.
Maybe some day.
Today's the day.
Today's the day we rejoice in what God has done for us.
And how thankful we are that He is going to
take care of us. And He is going to bless us.
He has given to us a peace
that goes beyond our understanding.
That peace of God
that comes into our life
with the knowledge that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
That He has washed our lives free from our own sins.
and the filth of that sin and the punishment of
eternal death.
We have a peace, and a calm in knowing
that we live as the forgiven children of God ...
safe in His care.
Protected by His love.
That that peace gives us a calm
in the midst of all of the stresses and the anxieties
and the troubles of this world.
And anyone who is not a Christian
will never understand that.
They CAN'T understand it ... because they don't believe
that there is a God who loves them so much
that He would send His Son to die for them.
That He would call them to be His own.
That by the power of His Holy Spirit, He would work in them,
each and every day to keep them faithful.
To keep them on the path to eternal life.
To be with them ALL the time.
And there is our calm!
There is our peace!
There is the joy that we have in our salvation.
And we know that some day we are going to be rid
of all of this chaos and there will only be
the blessings of heaven. We pray that the Lord
come quickly and take us out of this world.
This world with all of its sin and its corruption and its decay.
to the place where He will wipe the tears
from our eyes.
Where we will be there and live in holiness and
blessedness forever.
Where there is just the joy of being with God and
praising Him for all that He has done.
We are so blessed
by our heavenly Father.
The danger is ... for us to become accustomed to it.
To take it for granted.
We become spoiled little children who only want
more and more and more.
And that's why we remind ourselves today with Paul's
words, that we have a blessed privilege in taking our
requests to God.
Why in our prayer life, we should be active.
That we should be rejoicing!
And thankful. And that we should be at peace.
And then we will hear those words of Paul, not only
in our mind, but they will be coming out of our lips
as well. We WILL REJOICE!
We will REJOICE in our salvation.
We will REJOICE in the gift of God's son.
We will REJOICE in eternal life.
I say it again:
REJOICE!
Amen.
Let us rise. Now may the
peace of God which goes beyond all of our understanding,
keep your hearts and your minds and especially your
lives in the one true faith unto life everlasting.
Amen.

REJOICE! (Captioned)

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