What's up everybody? Merry Christmas early. Anybody excited about this season? This is literally my favorite season of the year. Let me ask you this. Has everybody done shopping? Anybody still needs some shopping to do? Well, join the rest of us. The thing is, we still have time. It ain't over until it's over. Amen. And sometimes I like to surprise them on December 26th. You didn't even know this was coming. 

It's so good to be here. I'm so glad that you're here. If this is your first time here with us at Embassy City, we would like to say thank you so much for being with us. Please feel at home here. We do not believe that anybody is here on accident, but if you are here, it's because the Lord has drawn you here, which means he has a word for you. And I believe that this is the day that God does something special in your life and somebody say amen. Amen. For those that are joining us online, thank you so much for being with us. Somebody makes some crazy noise for the faith offering that's happening today. Come on now.

I am so excited to see what the Lord's going to do. Let me tell you really quickly why we're doing this because some people may ask, why are we doing a faith offering? Well, it's because God has done a lot through Embassy City this year and in a couple of weeks we're going to do a little year recap. We're going to tell you about all the things that went down, some things that you know about, some things that you may not know about, but in anticipation for what God's getting ready to do in 2024, we are going to prepare ourselves by partnering with the Lord with our finances. And let me give you the biblical principle. Remember the story of Jesus and the 5,000 who were hungry. Jesus ministering the 5,000 or getting hungry men, not counting women and children. So probably 15 to 20,000 people are there. They're hungry. Jesus could have because he's the son of God. He could have said, I need 20,000 loaves of bread to drop right now and I need 20,000 fish to drop out of sky right now. He could have done it, but instead, what does Jesus do? He asked the disciples, what do we have?

And the disciples said, well, we ain't got much, but there is a young boy who has brought an offering of two fish and five loaves of bread. Jesus takes the offering, blesses it, breaks it, multiplies it. That's not even my sermon, but this is good. And he feeds through the disciples.

I box me 20,000 people. God can do a lot with what we give him in offerings. And so this is a free will offering. No one is forced to participate. But if you prayed about it and the Lord has laid it on your heart, then there's a QR code that's popping up. You can go to that QR code. And if you're going to do it online, just select the tab that says Faith offering. Now, our family is participating today, and I pray that you do as well. And here's the thing, God's going to take whatever comes in and he's going to use it for his work. And I'm so glad that God has allowed us to be stewards of his resources and somebody say, amen. Come on, give God some praise in advance for what he's getting ready to do. A couple more things that I got to announced next week is Christmas. Somebody say, whoop, whoop, woo. Again, if you haven't bought your gifts, you still got time, but we've got several options for services Saturday, December 23rd at 6:00 PM and then Sunday are regular service times nine and 11. Now I have to tell you, if you're planning to be here at six 15 on Saturday or 9 25 or 1130, you're going to miss an amazing element that starts actually before the service time and it's first come first see,

And I'm not even going to tell you what it is because you got to be here to experience it. So you want to get here early 30, 15 minutes early to experience it. And we've got a special couple of other elements that I'm very excited about that I'm also not going to tell you about. So be here for Christmas. Then the following week on the 31st, we will not have service. And then we kick off the year on January the seventh. It'll be my one year pastoral anniversary, which I cannot,

I made it. I can't wait to share with you. That's going to be a very special service. We're going to do a recap of this year. It's going to be very special. So be there and somebody say Amen. Grab your bibles. We're going to the book of Luke chapter one, the book of Luke chapter one. I have to tell you that if you follow the advent calendar, you know that this is the third week of advent. And the word advent simply means coming. And the focus for the third week of Advent, which would be the third candle, is joy. A few weeks back, maybe a couple months back, I felt like the Lord really wanted me to focus in on the topic of rejoice as we're approaching Christmas, and I think it's very important for us as believers to understand that joy is a key component in the life of a believer. And I don't know if you've noticed this, but since 2020 when we had the covid situation, I feel like one of the strategies of the enemy has been to rob the people of God, of joy, and we've been hyper-focused on the negative aspects of life. I'm not saying you should ignore real issues in your life. One thing that that's highlighted is obviously the mental health crisis that's been around. It's highlighted various situations that people have been going through, loneliness, self-harm, and that's all been brought to the surface. And I pray that if you're dealing with any of those things that you find help, and this is a church where we embrace everybody that's going through anything and we want to help you on your journey, but don't get so caught up.

In the negative things of life that you miss out on the joy that God has available for you even in the midst of trouble. This is a time of rejoicing because the Savior is born. But what do you do before the savior is born? That's what we're going to talk about. Luke chapter one, verse number 26. In the six months, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of G named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed, to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, oh, favorite one, the Lord is with you. I love how angels act like they ain't surprising people,

But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angels said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you'll conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great. And we be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answer her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God.

And behold, your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age has also conceived the son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren for nothing. Somebody say nothing. Nothing for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. This is the beginning of the story that leads to the birth of Christ. Jesus has not been born yet. Mary has not conceived yet. We don't have the story of the shepherds and the wise men. We don't have all the context of Christmas yet this is going to come but before the promise, there is a period of waiting. And the question is, what do you do while you wait for the fulfillment of God's promise? So today my topic for the day is rejoice while waiting.

Rejoice while waiting. God, we're so thankful for this season where we get to pause, reflect and think of your goodness. It is the end of the year and this presents us with a unique opportunity to think about all that has happened this year, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and recognize that you are still good. And so I pray, God, that we may not lose focus of the real reason for the season. Yes, we enjoy gifts. Yes, we enjoy the festivities, but all this is possible because of you. And so help us to learn how to rejoice while we wait. Do what only you can do. Give us ears to hear, hard to receive in a mind, to understand your word in Jesus' name and everybody say amen. Amen. Turn your neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, rejoice. Rejoice. While you're waiting. While you're waiting, look at your other neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, rejoice. Rejoice while you're waiting, while you rejoice. It's, it is interesting to me that if you look at your life in general, you know that you have a lot of choices. Now, this is an evolution in your life because as a child, you don't have very many choices.

You don't get to choose what you're going to wear. You don't get to choose. If you look at some of your baby pictures, this is the truth. Why are you dressed up like a sailor? You don't get to choose your parents and you for sure don't get to choose your siblings. It just kind of happens as a child. You don't have very many options. But as you grow in maturity and as you get older, you are presented with more opportunities to make decisions that benefit you directly. You get to decide what car to drive. You get to decide what house to buy. You get to decide who you want to marry, at least who you thought you married at the time that you married them. Surprise, I'm sorry, I saw some of y'all muting on your brothers. They sure enough changed. You get to decide what you eat spiritually. This is why I always think it's funny when someone talks about a church and they say, I don't get fed there, a pastor, his name is Sean, said it like this. The only people that complain about not getting fed are babies, right? Because as an adult you get to decide

What you eat. The Bible is available to everybody, right? And it is incumbent upon you as a believer to make sure that you're on a healthy diet of the word of God, independent of what you hear on Sundays. Now, hopefully you get a good word on Sunday, something that'll provoke some thoughts, something that the spirit is speaking to you that you get to go home and indulge in more and more throughout the week. But as an adult, as a mature believer, you get to decide and make decisions. Now, if you grew up in the nineties, two thousands or earlier than that, you didn't have a lot of options as a child. I didn't have a lot of options for entertainment. We grew up in a household where we didn't have tv. Our entertainment was you had two options, stay inside or go outside. We had a PlayStation, but the only games we had were the demo games. So we were real good at levels one, two, and three and then repeat. So you either go outside and play, you can play in here with whatever you got to play with, right? But nowadays you have so many options

That it's driving people crazy. In fact, there is a mental health crisis with too many decisions. Literally they call this decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is a decision. Fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.

It's a real problem. Have you been to the grocery store lately and looked at the cereal aisle? There is an entire aisle of different types of cereal. Have you ever gone to watch a movie or something? And first you got to get through all the options for where movies are. Is it Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus Prime. If you got tv, you got a million channels to choose from, and then you have so many movie and TV options that you watch trailers for two and a half hours until you just fall asleep looking at options. Anyone beside me? I get tired just watching the trailers. The problem is we got too many options, right? And here's the thing, when you have a lot of options, you end up making your decisions based on what gratifies you in the moment. So we tend to, it is our human nature to make decisions based on what satisfies us the most in the moment. Have you ever made up your mind that you're going to order a certain dish when you go to Cheesecake Factory, then you look at the menu and then you're so overwhelmed by the decisions that you just end up getting chicken tenders anyways

And save room for a cheesecake at the end, right? Because we're inundated with so many decisions, and here's the thing, by nature, we tend to choose things that satisfies us in the moment. Ask Eve, have you noticed that the enemy never comes to you with a proposition of delayed gratification? He never says, Hey, listen, if you will participate in this sin, then six months from now, you're going to be so glad that you did. He didn't come to Eve and say, Hey Eve, if you eat this fruit, I promise you in 18 months you're going to be as God's known and good and evil. No, he said, if soon as you eat of this fruit, you will be as God's yourself knowing good and evil. When he came to Jesus, he said, I know that you're hungry right now, so why don't you turn these stones into bread? When Satan comes to tempt you, he tempts you with instant gratification. In fact, all sin is based on a problem that the church doesn't talk too much about, but we are going to, and it's called self-control. Now we like to blame the devil and we like to blame temptation and we like to say it's this or that, but the reality is you participate in sin because you lack self-control.

This ain't even in my message, but the fact of the matter is, if you can learn how to exercise self-control, you will live a more victorious life because Satan tempts us with instant gratification. And so we end up making decisions that are detrimental to our spiritual health based on what we want in the moment. Did you know that when you're hungry you make the worst decisions about food? You know have food to eat at the house, but you pass by the golden arches and something in your spirit says them hot fries

Cannot be compared to any other. Is there a witness in the house? McDonald's got the best fries? Come on, let's admit it. Let's confess our sins that we may be healed, but in the kingdom of God, it doesn't work that way because God will present you with a plan that has delayed gratification. God will ask for your yes before he gives you the promise. God will do you. He'll do you something good. He'll tell you what's going to happen. He'll tell you what's to come, but he wants a yes first. So he will tell you what's going to happen. He will tell you what he wants to do in your life. He will tell you what he's going to implement in your life. He's not going to tell you when. He may not tell you how, but what he does want is a yes. You might have to deal with some difficulties by saying yes to God.

You may have to go through some stuff because you said yes to God. Joy will come in the morning, but you're going to have to endure the night. You're going to have to make it through the night. We have the benefit when we read the Bible, we have the benefit of knowing the whole story of the characters within the Bible. We can see the end of their life. We can see the end of the decisions that they made. We know that because they said yes, their end was good, but imagine being in the moment when God comes with the proposition. Imagine being Noah at the moment when God says, Hey, build an ark because the rain is coming, and I'm sure that Noah said, all right, if God said it, I believe it. And so right now I'm about to go gather this word. Year three comes, he ain't heard another word and he ain't seen no rain. Year 10, still nothing. Year 15, you're 50 year 75. No more words, no rain. How do you keep building on a word that you heard 75 years ago? You are living off of social security right now.

Your body don't feel the same a hundred years.

It still ain't right.

Then finally, the rain comes. So the question is what do you do? How do you build an arc while you're waiting? We can talk about Abraham. God says, Hey, this is what's going to happen. How do you continue to journey for years and the promise hadn't happened yet. We can talk about David, how you continue to play the heart for a person that's trying to kill you. When ringing in your ears is the sound of the prophet telling you that you're supposed to be up there? How do you serve somebody that's trying to kill you when you know that you're going to take their place? I just talked about somebody's job right now. God's got you in a situation where you're serving the person that you're going to end up being and God is testing you right now to see how well do you serve? How well can you submit?

It's a word for somebody. This is what Mary is dealing with in Luke chapter one, because we love at this time of the year, I'm about to mess up the song for some of y'all. We love to sing the song, Mary, did You know Bitch, your Baby May Boy, right? And we go through all the scenarios that Jesus accomplished feeding the 5,000. Mary, did you now bitch your baby boy, we get all emotional during that song, right? We're crying and Mary did. You know, right? We get all into the song and if Mary could talk to us right now, she'd be like,

God gave me one opportunity to go down there and talk to these people and set the record straight. I did not know. She has no context for what's going to happen when the annunciation happened. It's easy to look at the annunciation and assume that Mary should be blessed and highly favored that she should be running out in the streets. And when we look at all of the depictions of Mary's and the cathedrals, we see her somber and calm as a 40 something year old mother draped with all types of stuff, and it looks so regal. But imagine being there at the moment when Gabriel comes to her and says, Hey, listen, you've been picked for a special assignment. Now Mary has to deal with a few problems.

It's easy to skip through the story and just assume that she said yes, boom. She got pregnant, she gave birth to Jesus. Everything was fine. But think about the condition that Mary was in when Gabriel came out of nowhere and interrupted her life with a plan from God. Number one, she was young. Now we always, we a lot of times read scripture from a 21st century view, but in the first century it was very common for young women to be betrothed at a very early age. So most historians and most commentators will agree that Mary was between the age of 12 and 14 when this message came to her. Now we're not talking about a 21st century, 20 something independent, strong self-sufficient woman who's got her own career making her own decisions. This is a 21st century young teenage girl whose entire life is dictated by a patriarchal society, which is her dad.

So number one, she is very young. Number two, she was betrothed. Now we read betroth, and really it can be in today's world, it's the same as being engaged, but the potency of betrothal was very different in that time than the engagement is. Now all of us know somebody that broke off an engagement or two, right? Because it's like, no, I'll just learn some stuff about you. I don't like it's over. When you were betrothed or engaged in the Bible, which was usually like a 12 month period, it was contractual. It was as binding as being married, meaning that if you were betrothed, the only way to get un betroth is to actually have a legal divorce. This is why Joseph, the Bible says Joseph, when he found out she was married, he would have divorced her privately because he was a righteous man. In other words, he wanted her to have another chance. And here's another thing, she was a virgin, which means that she had never been with another man. Could you imagine the conversation when Mary first told Joseph that she was pregnant? It wasn't like, Hey, Joseph, news for you. I'm pregnant.

Most likely when she told Joseph, Hey, I'm pregnant, what's the first thing Joseph's going to ask? Who's that baby's daddy? Tell me. Right? Ner. Now this gets a little weird because Mary tells Joseph, there is no man. Now you're Joseph. You find out your fiance is pregnant. You want to find out who the guy is, and she says, there is no guy. Now you're questioning your decision to be betrothed to a crazy person. So you say, what do you mean there's no guy. She says, an angel came to me at this point. You know it's over, but you're curious. Well, what did the angels say? Well, specifically it was Gabriel. Okay, what'd he say? Well, he said, the baby is going to be the Messiah. Tell me more. How'd you end up pregnant? Holy Spirit, okay, I can't prove this through scripture, but I've wondered if the reason why Joseph was actually going to divorce Mary privately wasn't because she was pregnant. I've wondered if the reason why he was going to divorce her is because he thought, I am engaged to a literal crazy person. I'm being serious, and this is why the angel comes to Joseph and says, Hey, yo,

Now you're a crazy person because what Mary is telling you is actually true now. Now when Gabriel comes to Mary, he presents her with this proposition out of all the women that existed in the world at the time, you have found favor with God and because you found favor with God, you are going to be with child and you will deliver the Messiah that has been prophesied about for hundreds of years. You have done nothing at all to deserve this, but you have been handpicked, hand selected to deliver the deliverer, to give birth to the one who was there at creation. You are going to carry the Savior of the world. You are going to be the one who is going to carry within your womb the promised Messiah, the Christ. And this sounds like great news, and this sounds amazing and this sounds tremendous except for if you're married because you love the idea of the promise, but you know that the promise is going to cost you everything. Have you ever thought about the fact that if Mary said yes, then it would cost her family? Do you realize that we have no mention at all of her family.

We don't know who her mom or dad is. We don't know if she had siblings. Literally, there is no account in scripture or history of Mary's family. It's going to cost you your family. It's going to cost you your reputation because nobody is going to believe that you are pregnant by the Holy Spirit. It is going to cost you your reputation. It's going to cost you. It could cost you your husband to be, in fact, it was going to cost your husband to be. If the angel didn't intervene, it's going to cost you your body. You are going to have to be pregnant. Some of y'all moms ought to be making some noise right now,

Right?

Have you ever been there where God presents you with a proposition for a promise?

And if you say yes, it's going to cost you everything.

We read the story of Christmas in sequential order very quickly, Matthew, Luke, we read the story. Gabriel comes, Hey, you're the chosen one. Mary gets pregnant, she delivers, and then we see the ministry of Jesus begin. And you can think that because you read it within two chapters that it was a quick story. But do you have to realize that from the moment that Mary said yes until Jesus was born, there was nine months of waiting. So the question is what do you do while you wait? When you're pregnant with a promise, when you're carrying the word of God, when God has put something in your life that you got to take care of that nobody sees yet, but you said yes by faith and because you said yes, it's costing you everything. Some of you dunno what I'm talking about. Some of you, your relationship with God has cost you, your family. Your decision to say yes to God has cost you your reputation with so-called friends, your yes to God has cost you so much, and the question is, what do you do while you wait?

And I love Mary's response. Mary's response. We can see this in Luke chapter 46. Luke chapter one, verse number 46, and this is called the Magnificent. This is called the Song of Mary. This is Mary's response. She went to her relative, Elizabeth. She told Elizabeth about what was happening and Elizabeth, she was pregnant with John and John lept in the womb because he was induced with the Holy Spirit when he found out that he was in proximity with Jesus. And so Elizabeth says, blessed are you among women and blessed the fruit of your womb, and why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leap for joy

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Verse number 46, this is Mary's response and Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humblest state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me. The holy and holy is his name and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation, he has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate and has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has set away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers and to Abraham to his offspring forever. Can I tell you Mary's response while she waited was to rejoice. She agreed to usher in Jesus and her agreement to partner with God was going to cost her a period of waiting that was very uncomfortable, but through the nervousness, through the anxiety, through the pressure, through the difficulties, through the embarrassment, through the waiting, she said, I will rejoice in the fact that even if I don't see it, I will rejoice in the fact that God handpicked me

To be a promise bearer. How many of us are so caught up in the difficulties of carrying the promise that it's been a while since we rejoice at the fact that we're carrying a promise?

Your feelings do not dictate the plan of God. The plan of God should dictate your feelings. I got to say it again. Your feelings do not dictate the plan of God. The plan of God should dictate your feelings. The reality is that Mary decided that while I wait for the promise to come and while I wait for the fulfillment to take place and while I wait to give birth to the promise and while I wait for what Gabriel told me to come to pass, I will make a decision, a conscious effort to rejoice in the fact that God has given me a period of waiting with a promise. Joy is recognizing the goodness of God in the past, the present in the future.

Why is it that some people don't have joy? It is because they refuse to recognize the goodness of God in the past, the present and the future. They are so caught up in the negative aspects of life that it's going to ruin your Christmas because you're fussing about how long it takes to get the gifts and you've been bumping into people at Walmart and you can't stand target because they ran out of the toy and you can't find a parking spot at Costco and you're going to be around your crazy family that you've been avoiding for the last 12 months, and if you're not careful, you'll walk into this season burden down instead of realizing that it ain't about the gifts under the tree, and it's not about how nice your house is decorated. It's about the fact that Jesus Christ is the real reason for the season and because he's the real reason for the season, I will make a conscious effort to rejoice in the fact that I'm a promised bearer and I will wait and I will rejoice at the same time or it's going to deliver somebody no matter your current circumstance, no matter how you feel, you can still decide to have joy in your life. That's the difference between happiness and joy. A lot of people use those simultaneously or interchangeably. Here's the fact. Happiness is not the same as joy. Happiness is based on what is happening, and so you see 'em up one day and then down to next based on what is happening in their life. Happiness is based on what is going on. Joy is based on who's going on.

Joy is not predicated on what is happening in your life. Joy is based on who's in your life. This is the reason why Israel didn't make it to the promised land because they forgot who had their back the whole time. When Israel gets to the promised land, they had no joy. Remember, joy is recognizing the goodness of God, past, present, and future. When they get to the promised land, all joy goes out the window. Why do they say they can't go to the promised land? We feel our grasshoppers. There are giants in the land. They moved to what was going on instead of who was going on the God who brought plagues into Egypt, the God who split the Red Sea, the God who brought you quail and manna in the desert, the God who made water come from a rock, the God who healed your body, the God who brought you to the promised land, the God who said, I'm taking you to a ladd flowing with milk and honey, and now your eyes are literally seeing the promised land and while you wait, you made the decision to focus on what instead of who, and it ruined the fulfillment of your promise.

Joy is a choice.

Joy is a choice. You get to choose whether you have joy in your life or not. So how do you choose joy? Somebody asked me. I'm glad you asked. Number one, if you're taking notes, write this down. It's mind over matter.

Romans chapter eight, verse number five. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You however are not in the flesh but in the spirit if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. What you think about is what you become.

Regardless of the facts in your life, what you tend to spend most of your time thinking about is what you end up becoming. If you think you're a loser, you will start becoming and acting that out even though you're not. It's mind over

Matter.

Where is your mind right now? Mary, where is your mind right now? Is it on the fact that you're a teenage girl pregnant out of wedlock, or is it on the fact that you are a promise bearer? Because where your mind is is where your body will follow. The word mind here is the Greek word nel, which has both a visceral, which means internal and cognitive connotation, meaning it's internal and it's mental, so to mind the things the spirit means to actively feel and think from the perspective of heaven, which means that you lead your thoughts how God wants you to think and you lead your feelings.

I'm just teaching y'all, Mary, this is what Mary said. My response to this situation, I know I'm going to be pregnant for a while. I know this is going to be difficult, but she makes the conscious decision. She says, my soul magnifies the Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord. The word soul is the immaterial part of a person, which is the actuating cause of an individual's life. It's the sight of the psychological faculties. We're talking about the heart, the mind, and the conscience. In other words, when you decide to actually rejoice in the Lord, what you are telling yourself and everybody else is that from the inner post part of my body, from my soul, from my mind, my emotions and my conscience, I choose joy over everything. In spite of my circumstance, in spite of what's going wrong, I choose to rejoice into my soul. Death, magnify the Lord, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I can promise you, you will make it through this difficult holiday season if you choose to magnify the Lord in your soul, and I promise you, if you start magnifying God in your soul, it won't be long until it'll get in your hands. It'll get in your feet.

You know why? Because when you make the conscious decision to magnify the Lord in your soul and she says, I will rejoice my spirit, we'll rejoice in the Lord. It has to come from the inside. Oh my Lord. Don't be dictated by external circumstances. Can I promise you, you are going to have a waiting period if you got a promise in your life. Joy is a state of mind, not a state of being. You get decide what you think about it. The devil, if you look at the story of Job, he asked permission from God, Hey, can I inflict some serious hurt on this dude? God says, go ahead. He'll take a licking and keep on ticking, so he affects everything external. The only thing he could not touch, he says you can't get to his insides. Number two, count it all Joy. James chapter one, first. Number two, count it all joy my brothers. When you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. I love how James says this.

He says, count it all. Join my brothers and sisters. When you meet trials, have you ever met somebody? What happens when you meet somebody? You generally introduce yourself and you say, hi, my name is Tim. Nice to meet you. James says, go ahead and introduce yourself to trials because you're about to meet them. Some of y'all think that this just happened out of nowhere. No, you about to meet some trials. Brothers and sisters, lemme tell you, your life as a Christian is not going to be easy, and anybody who told you that, find them. Hunt them down. You will go through trials. He didn't say if. He said, when trials are meant to test your faith because faith that isn't tested can't be trusted.

Faith that isn't tested can't be trusted. Your faith, your ability to believe that God tells the truth will be tested through trials and what do you do during the testing phase? You count it all joy. That means that when you're in the hospital bed and your faced and God is being tested, James says, counter all joy. What is joy? Recognizing the goodness of God. Past, present, future. That means that while I'm going through chemo, I can choose to recognize the goodness of God, past, present, future, that while my body is sick, my soul magnifies the Lord. Oh God, that what I'm going through a situation while I'm waiting for the fulfillment of the promise and my body's racked with pain and my mind is under attack and my family's acting crazy, I can still choose to magnify the Lord. I choose joy in the middle of my circumstance who counted all joy. He says, you know what the word count means all the time? Hey, when you go through your trial, when you go through your, Hey, lemme tell you, I'm about to help somebody right now. This is a million dollar presentation. When you go to Christmas and you introduce yourself to that family member again, that's been getting on your last nerves and when they start doing their little thing, I dare you to just under your breath,

Start counting all the ways that the Lord has been good to you. God, I got to deal with this person, but I remember back in 2011 when you made sure that I didn't die in that car wreck. I thank you, God that you saved me. November 17th, 1996, I thank you that you called me into the, you just go down the list of all the times that God has been good to you and I promise you what they are doing will not phase you because you choose to count at all joy in the midst of your circumstance. That's exactly what Mary did. She goes down the list and starts counting of all the ways that God's been good. She says, so behold, now all generations shall call me. Blessed the mighty for all the mighty and great things that you've done. Holy is his name. Mercy generations to generations, his strength shall endure. She goes through and she counts it all joy. Here's the third and final one. Rejoice, rejoice, Philippians, chapter four, verse four, rejoice in the Lord. Sometimes again, I say, lemme say it again. Rejoice in the Lord when things are good, rejoice in the Lord. When you get what you ask for Christmas,

Rejoice in the Lord because it's all working out for you. Good. Rejoice in the Lord. Always,

Always.

Y'all know what always means,

Always

In all the ways, always means always. Rejoice in the Lord, not in your circumstance, not in your situations, not in what's going right and what's going. Rejoice. Don't rejoice in material things.

Rejoice in the Lord.

You know can always rejoice in the Lord. Why? Because he does not change. He is consistent. He's the ever present help in the time of trouble. He's the lily of the valley. He's the bright morning star. He's the alpha endo Omega. He's the beginning. In the end, he's the farest of 10,000. He was. He is and he shall come. He is El Shadi. He is my provider. When I'm hungry, he's my water. When I'm thirsty, he's my food. When I'm hungry, he's my friend. When I'm lonely, he's my direction. When I'm lost, he's everything to me so I can always rejoice. You know what the word rejoice means? The word rejoice means literally to rejo. Rejoice literally means to rejo. Paul is writing this while he's imprisoned. awai the execution. How can you be in this condition and write to the church and tell them, yo, it's all good and I'm encouraging you to rejo yourself in the Lord. When was the last time you simply just rejoined yourself and the Lord?

I'm not talking about circumstances. I'm not talking about what's right. I'm not talking about anything external. I'm talking about when was the last time you just said,

God,

I really enjoy my relationship with you. The fact that you saved me, the fact that you picked me at 8 billion people in the world. You looked down and you saw me and you said, Tim Rivers, you found favor with the Lord and out of all the people, I pick you to be a promise bearer and I'm going to put something in you

That’s Going to affect other people. When was the last time you just thought about the simple fact that you are chosen by God, Mary? Well, the promise hasn't happened yet. It don't matter. I'm handpicked. I choose to rejoice in my waiting. How long is the wait? Every morning that I wake up, I choose to rejo myself in the Lord. We're going to talk about Christmas next week, but the Savior ain't born yet. Some of y'all, y'all are in the period of waiting. You're in the nine months of pregnancy as it were, where the Lord has given you some promises and you're trying to figure out, what do I do while I wait? The Lord sent me here to tell you, rejoice rejo yourself in the Lord. My circumstance hadn't changed. It don't matter because I promise you, if God said it's going to happen, it will happen. Rejo yourself, a joyful person is a lethal somebody. Write that down. A joyful person is lethal. Why? Have you ever met this person? Oh, got a smile on their face and they get on your last nerves like, I'm kind of happy for you, but I need you to get in this well with me.

Somehow that person has figured out to rejoice. That should be all of us. I'm not saying you got to be fake. That's why it says rejoice in the Lord, right? It's okay to cry if your house is on fire, right? I understand that this is a difficult time for many people. I'm not trying to diminish that at all. I'm simply bringing to the surface the fact that even though this may be a difficult time for you, you can still rejoice in the Lord knowing that he's still a good God. He's still faithful. He's still good. He's still holy. He's still righteous, and guess what? He's still coming. I rejoice in the fact that he's coming again. Dear Jesus, we are so thankful for this season, this time that we get to just pause and reflect, and I pray that as we do so, we would learn the secret of rejoicing while we wait, regardless of circumstances, regardless of situations in our life. I pray for all those who have to deal with difficulties during this holiday season. I pray for their strength, but I also pray for their fortitude to choose joy, and so we give you name, the praise and the glory because of what you've done and what you're getting ready to do. It's in your name that we pray, in Jesus' name and everybody say amen.