 Showers of blessings, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this time, Lord, to look how you shower our lives with blessings. And Father, I just thank you so much for each gal that's here tonight. And Lord, we just ask you that you would touch our hearts, Father, in your precious name, amen. I wanna thank Marie for inviting me out tonight. Your church is just lovely and it's such a blessing to be talking about the showers of blessing that God has in each and of our lives, but what do showers do? So here's some facts. All right, the first one is they're incredibly soothing and relaxing and the sound itself distresses you. People buy shower heads to feel like the rain's falling on them. Rainwater has the same pH as a distilled water. It helps neutralize our blood pH levels and promotes better stomach function. So any of you dealing with gluten-free indigestion, I suggest you put your bathing suit on and run out in the rain next time it rains. It says it's good for your stomach. Number three, it maintains beautiful skin naturally. It has moisture and electricity and your hair will be more moisture and cared for than any conditioner you can get. And also it cools your body down and it treats rashes. Did you know that? I'm sure they do in lots of places where it rains all the time. Also it releases happy hormones, okay? Just like whatever his name was, was up there singing. Happy hormones, it makes you feel happy inside, okay? And endorphins and serotonin and all those things that make you joyous, that's what the rain does. What does it do for the planet? Well, first of all, the rain, of course, increases growth. The rain does what irrigation cannot by reaching every little place in crevice. It has nutrients from the air and it deep waters everywhere it hits. It humidifies the air, it brings down the temperature in the heat and the showers redistribute fresh water in the clear cycle of the planet. That is showers. That's what they do. But you know what? The Lord has something else he wants to talk to us about tonight and I'm gonna be reading Ezekiel. This is your theme verse. Ezekiel 34, verse 26. It says, I will make them places all around my hill of blessing and I will cause showers to come down in their season and there will be a season showers of blessing. Blessing, that word means in itself, favor a gift bestowed by God. In James chapter 117, it says every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no veribleness nor is there ever a shadow of turning. The difference between not enough in your life and more than enough in your life is your attitude. And that's something to really think about tonight. Jesus, he's our shepherd king, but many times some of you girls sitting here, just as our friend was up here sharing about the Bible study that they're looking at, you know, he's our shepherd, but many times you're gonna look and say, you know, my life looks nothing like that stained glass window that's in the church. My life looks nothing like that. But you know what I wanna talk to you a little bit tonight is Jesus, you're Jesus, my Jesus, he steps right into your injustice. How many show, have ever felt like that something happened to you that was not fair? Can I see you raise your hand? And if you're not raising your hand, you need to be my friend and rub off on me, okay? So we pretty much can all agree that injustice has happened because we live in a falling world. Psalms 23 verses one through four, it says, Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lay down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. Cause sometimes ladies, we need our soul restored. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yay, though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Many times when we're talking about the showers of blessing, many times you don't feel very blessed. And I would venture to say that tonight, there's several of you that don't feel so blessed. In fact, you might substitute that word blessed for cursed. You'd feel like that it's just been one thing after another in your life and you've missed the showers of blessings, but boy, if there's some disheartening things that can happen that's happened in your life. But I wanna talk to you because maybe the reason that you don't feel so blessed is maybe you have gotten the main blessing, which is Jesus. Jesus is your main blessing for all eternity and enough for this world both, no matter what happens to you at any stage of your life. The joy of salvation, it says Psalms 51, verse 12, return to me the joy of my salvation. No matter what is happening around me, the joy that God promises me to live out each day, to wake up with a new attitude, the joy of my salvation alone is my blessing. And everything else is fluff and we like fluff. But if you really think about it, we had lots of fluff out there tonight, didn't we? Did you see me out there shopping? It's like, oh, this is wonderful, Jesus shopping. Oh, this is just good. Okay, but we all like the more, but ladies, I wanna remind you tonight if nothing else ever happens good in your life, you have the joy of salvation no one can take from you. And that is your shower of blessing and that will lead you and guide you all through life through the good and through the bad. I'm gonna tell you six ways to restore your joy tonight. If you're feeling a little sad, kind of in bad mood, kind of got bad attitude. Six ways, okay, just that simple. Six ways to restore your joy. First of all, worship. Turn on worship music. Be alone with your maker. Worship him. Forgive. Nothing will make and zap your joy more than when you don't forgive somebody because it's not that you have to forgive just for yourself and for their benefit, but if you don't forgive, that's gonna affect all of your life in bitterness and cynical. We live in a bitter and cynical world. And if you traced back a lot of that, it would go back to an incident that happened to them where they can't or won't forgive. The next one is thankfulness. You're all looking at me tonight. Thank God for your eyesight. Thank the Lord that you could walk in here, that each one of you, thank the Lord right now for all of your blessings, the joy of your salvation, that you don't have to worry about where you're gonna go, how you're gonna die, God is gonna take care of it. You will never die before your time. And walk that out daily going, I am safe in your arms. We have a world today speaking fear, fear, fear. Your days are in God's hands and no one else's. Yes, and when my husband passed away, he had cancer and when he passed away and I watched him pass away, there was not one thing I could do to give him another breath. The Lord took him. Nobody will take your life before you're meant to go. So many times I looked with the Lord and I said, you took him too young. We were married 31 years and you took him too young. He never got to really be with his grandchildren or see any of that. You took him too young and the Lord whispered in my heart, in my mind and he said, that's all he had. You're the one that thought you were gonna sit on a rocking chair with him. And you know, go to Disneyland with the grandchildren as they're older, you're the one but that was never my plan because I know the days that I have for everyone and God knows the days that he has for you. Ways to restore your joy, let's start being kind again and compassionate. Another way is to relinquish your picture of your perfect life. No one leads a perfect life. We've made up those images in our mind. We are the ones that have said, this is how my life is gonna go. This is what it should look like. But you know what, ladies? We need to relinquish that and let God do what he wants to with our lives. And another way to restore your joy is to surrender to his will. Not my will, but what do you want from me, Lord? What can I do for you, Lord? Remembering all he's done for you, that he died for you, he rose again for you, he promises you everlasting life. And if there's ever a time that you need security, it is now when we're watching the world blow up. How can you still walk around with a smile on your face and be at peace? It's because you know the Lord Jesus Christ and that gives you freedom to be who you are and be that bright and shining light for the Lord. I love this. It says, grace is when God gives us good things we don't deserve. Mercy is when he spares us from bad things we deserve and blessings are when he's generous with both. Yes, please, generous with both. Thank you, Lord, for doing that for me. And so now we're gonna read just a little bit. If you wanna turn with me, I don't know if you brought your Bibles or not, but if you don't have your Bibles, that's okay. But I'm gonna be in Ezekiel, chapter 34, verse 23. And it says here in verse 23, it says, I will establish one shepherd over them and he shall feed them. My servant David, he shall feed them and he will be their shepherd. Now we know that King David, and lots of you are here at the church and you've studied about King David, that Jesus came through that line and lineage through that. And God's gonna establish also, bring him, bring Jesus through that, a king that will never fail. And it says here, verse 24, I am the Lord, I will be their God. My servant David, a prince amongst them and I have spoken this. You know, other leaders fail and we're watching the failure of many leaders and if you studied the life of King David, he failed. He had a lot of things going on in his life that were really to be concerning, but he was always sorry and came back to the Lord. You've not sinned enough girls that God does not still love you tonight. He still loves you tonight, no matter what you've done. And the Lord declares here, I will be their shepherd is what God's saying in verse 24. I will be their shepherd. David was a prince with a small P. We have the King of kings and the Lord of lords and the Lord Jesus Christ and he deliberately lays down his life for his sheep. And that says that in John chapter 10, verse 11, he deliberately laid down his life for you to have eternal life. It wasn't just the Jewish culture that came and killed him and the Romans and all that. It was because he deliberately knew that was the only way you and I could go to heaven because we can't work our way there. Now, if that doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what it's going to. You can't earn your way to heaven. Can I get it, amen? Some churches say so be it, try so be it. Okay, you don't have to work your way to heaven. It was a gift that the Lord has given you and that should make you joyous in your heart. I could never knock on enough doors or hand out enough pamphlets or do enough good deeds to ever suppress the joy that God has given me freely. And he said that all I had to do was believe. And then it says here, you know, Israel was going through a hard time back then because, you know, it was bleak. They are in a trial. Has anybody ever been in a trial that looks pretty bleak? It was a bleak situation, get it? Bleak, it was bleak for the sheep, bleak for the sheep. Yeah, yeah, it was bleak for the sheep. Okay, it was bad. And they were in there and they were having all these, these things, issue was happening, harvest was poor, the land was dry, gas was over $6 a gallon. How am I ever going to feed my Rolls Royce? I don't know. How is this ever gonna happen? What about my fluff? I need my fluff. I like my fluff, it likes me, okay? And so here we see that we're going to have to divide between our joy and our fluff because the fluff comes and goes and goes out of style and then we get tired of it and then we do something else. The joy, the unspeakable, unmeasurable joy that you ladies have tonight if you are a believer in Jesus Christ is for eternity. For you, I want to remind you that this is the worst it gets ever in your life. This earth is the worst it gets for you because from where on out we will be with Jesus face to face in heaven forever. So be it. Okay, so let's read on here and it says I verse 25, I'll make a covenant of peace with them and I will cause wild beasts to cease from the land and they will do all safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. He is our God and he claims us for his own and he's all sufficient but now it's saying I'm gonna give her peace no matter what. When she's around ravenous animals, I'm gonna give her peace. Well, let me tell you about my trip to Africa with a ravenous animal. We are gonna go on a safari. I have a work over there that my friend and I do and it's in Malawi, Africa. We have an orphanage and a school. We have about 180 children. And so when we go over there, lots of times we'll go on a safari afterwards as we're getting ready to leave. Well, my friend got car sickness and she looks over at my husband and she's there all the time. I'm just the one that kind of goes with her and raises all the money but she's the one that kind of is the boots on the ground. So I go with her. She goes, I'm really sick. She goes to my husband, Gerald. Could you drive? What? I'm sick. So he gets up there, of course, the steering wheel's on the wrong side of the road, you know. Excuse me. So as we're driving, she passes out. She was the one where she was going. We have no GPS. We arrive on the, we go ahead and we arrive at the place. Excuse me, I'm gonna take a cough drop right now. As we're there, we don't know whether we turn left or right. So, my husband, we woke her up. Do we turn left or right? She goes, right. Excuse me, we've never been there. So we turn right. Okay. We got lost. Oh yeah, in Africa. And, excuse me. Pray for me. Oh no, I'm coughing. But as we're there, we are lost. Lion, tigers and giraffes. Oh my, that's what I was living. My husband doesn't know where we are. She wakes up. She said, please stop driving the car. We're lost. We're seeing animals. We're seeing zebras. Everything you can think of, like hypox, monkeys. And she looks over and she goes, I can't ride in this car any longer. Just let me out. And I wanna die. You ever had car sickness that bad? It's like just make it stop moving. Well, long story short, we had the best safari we've ever had because we had seen things that people had never seen for hours and hours. And then I start to panic a little bit. Like, what if we run out of gas? We're gonna be eaten, it says here in Psalms chapter 104, verse 19. He appointed the moon in the seasons. The sun going down. He makes the darkness night in which the beets and the forest creep about. Young lions roar for their prey. And in their food, their food comes from God. And then when the sun rises, they gather together. And I was thinking, am I the lion's food? Is this, I mean, come on. Is this what's happened to us? Will God ever leave you into danger? Can you raise your hand if you think he would lead you to danger? Okay, there's how many two? Yes, he will. But he will never leave you, nor forsake you. He can protect you. He keeps you from your spiritual enemies. Oh yeah, how do you think missionaries go to the forward field? My husband's looking at going right now over to the Ukraine near the border where Poland. Danger, but no matter what happens, the Lord will be with him and the Lord will be with you. He will lead you many times into danger. I have been left into danger and that's why I can say to you girls clearly that you will not be taken before your time. You will live. Though 1,000 fall on your side and 10,000 on your left hand, you will live. No one takes your life but God. Isn't that just reassuring tonight when bombs are going off and COVID's raging and all this stuff? Your life is in God's hands. Well, Isaiah 26.3, it says, you will keep her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. Keep your mind, your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ and he'll keep you in perfect peace in the midst of a very turbulent storm in life. He'll keep you in perfect peace when people are look at you and going, how can you be so joyful because the joy of the Lord is your salvation? The rest is just, have it all tonight. If you love the Lord Jesus, girls, you have it all tonight. And it says here, I will make them places all around in verse 26. My hill of blessing and I will cause showers to come down in their season and there will be showers of blessing. Israel depended on the early and latter rain. It was in Israel many times and every time we get a bus driver and it starts raining, it goes, the blessing's coming. The blessing's coming. They look at, at any time a drop of rain comes down, they say a blessing's coming. God will take care of you. He will take care of everything that you need as long as you don't take it into your own hands. When we go to Africa, like I said, we have a, we have about a hundred acres that we have close to 40 employees. And we like to do special things for them. So for Christmas, when here, we decided, Tracy said the best thing we can give our employees is a goat. They love goat meat, okay? And we'll allow Africa, it's like our cow to them. All right? There's no waste with it, they love it. If you ask them if they wanna go out and they have dinner, what they could have, they'll goat, we wanna goat. And so we decided that we would give all of our employees a goat. Sam was one of our employees. He was a great guy and he loved the Lord, he loved us, we thought. And so one day the goats arrive and they come into our village, and they've had that long trip coming into our village which is just like Mr. Toad's wild ride where it's like Indiana Jones, you know? They take that ride off of places like Malawi, Africa where there's no concrete, there's no road, you just go back and forth. Well, these goats had had that ride coming probably 12 miles just on Bumpy Road to get to where our village is. And so out come all the goats and out come our employees. And they're just going, oh my gosh, we got our own goat and they're so excited. Sam's over here and he's getting kinda weird. And he's gonna kinda take things into his own hands. And so we were gonna hand out the goats in the morning. Well, Sam wasn't sure that he wasn't gonna get a good goat. So Sam crept in in the middle of the night, I kid you not, and Sam painted his goat red. He did, he painted his goat red. Imagine my friend when she came out in the morning and she sees all these goats and there's bright red paint all over this one goat. Sam didn't want no skinny goat. Sam was concerned that he was gonna get jipped on his fluff. Sam was going, you know what? If I leave it up to them, they're gonna get, you know, I'll probably be the last one. I wanna make sure I get the kind of goat I want. And you know what really hurt our feelings? Was that Sam didn't trust Tracy, my friend or me to send the funds that we pick him out a good goat. See what Sam didn't know is he was one of our very best employees. And so the next day, the very next day, we had a special goat coming for Sam and it was a big goat, a mature goat, lots and lots of meat. But Sam was so worried he wouldn't get his fluff. Fair haunts us when we thank God for goddess. He thought deep down they're gonna forget me. They're gonna forget that I work harder than anyone else. They're gonna forget that, you know, all I do. And so desperate in Malawi, Africa, painted his goat red. Are you painting your goat red tonight? You will have it, it will be yours. Because when fear haunts us because you forgot, you think God forgot you. So you have to make it work for yourself. And what he didn't realize is just one more day, his goat was better than all the other goats. But he took matters into his own hands. And do you know what that caused me and Tracy to feel sad? Because he didn't trust us to be a good employer. He had to work out for himself. And some of you girls tonight, you're dealing with that. You can't really trust God to let you get hurt so bad. But I'm telling you, if you will hang on one more day, it's gonna be all right. God is gonna work it out for you. So many times, people when they're hurting so very bad, they give up. Because they have that haunting feeling, God forgot them. And I wanna tell you tonight, I don't know who I'm speaking to, but I think there's quite a few of you. I'm here to remind you he has not forgotten you. Do not take matters into your own hands. Do not worry so much about your fluff because you have joy unspeakable and full of glory. I will bring out seasons of showers and blessings upon them. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit and the earth shall have her increase. They shall be safe in their land and they shall know that I am the Lord their God. I have broken the bands of yoke off them and delivered them from the hands of those that have slayed them. In Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, this is what Jesus says to you. Come to me, all of you that are laboring and you're tired and you're heavy laden and you got burdens and you're so bummed and you're so tired of it all and wanna quit and I'll give you rest, Jesus said. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and I am meek. I am humble is what it says in the Hebrew. I will give you rest for your souls. Have a picture here. It says here in verse 27, you got the picture up yet. It says they will be safe in their land and they will know that I am their Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke to be delivered. Ladies over here, do you see the one right there? That yoke upon those oxen is poking them. It's uncomfortable to them. It's chafing them and they're miserable. And Jesus says this, I have broken the bands off that burden, off that yoke, off that that is containing them and I am delivering in them from the hand that's enslaved them and many times, you know who's enslaved you? You, because we're worried about so many things and your God doesn't want you to be worried. Like it said here in Matthew, his burden is easy. Do you see the other one? It fits perfectly and he just walks with you through life. Tonight, don't forget how precious he is to you. And Deuteronomy it says here, I'll just read it to you real fast because it's such a beautiful verse. It says here, all these blessings will come upon you and they will overtake you because you have obeyed the voice of your God. Let his blessings overtake you. We were gonna give something to Sam so much better than what Sam had planned for himself. No skinny goat for Sam. But see ladies, when you don't trust your employer, when you don't trust your maker, it just turns out to be a big mess. Says here in Psalms 103 verse two to five, forget not all his benefits. Let your soul tonight pant after the Lord. Do not be distraught. Your private time with the Lord is the most important thing you can do in your whole entire life and bring that before the Lord. He wants to hear from you. Last two weeks ago, a guy came into our church and we didn't recognize him but a lot of people came up to greet him. And so we're kind of watching him, it was a Sunday night service and there was worship going on and afterwards he came up and talked with the pastor and he looked at pastor BJ and he said, the minute I walked into this room and the minute I heard the keyboard start, accord whatever darkness there was in me, flee. And do you know what he said then? I'm so glad I didn't heal myself today. Ladies, this is your time to shine. This is the time to tell everybody about the showers of blessings that the Lord is pouring onto his people, giving people time to come to him because he truly is a God worthy to be praised. He is the one that cares for you no matter what the seasons are in your life. But maybe right now, you're looking at me and you're just going, I don't really know for sure what you're talking about but it sure feels good to my heart. And if that's you, I'd ask us all just to bow our heads right now, no one's looking around. But tonight, if you're burdened, you're like the oxen over there where the yoke does not fit. Things are poking you that you don't want in your life anymore. You're just dealing with a lot of heartache and drama. And you want to accept Jesus as your savior. I just ask you right now to very quietly just slip up your hand and nobody's watching. That you've been painting your goat red and you're tired of it. All over this room, hands are up. No one's looking around. Keep your hands up. It's not from my benefit, you're raising your hands. It's for your benefit because why you're raising your hands, you're reaching back out to your creator. Ladies, we're all gonna say our prayer and we're gonna all say it together and help our saints. There's so many of them in this room accepting Jesus tonight. Let's just go ahead and repeat this and welcome them into the family. Repeat after me. Dear Lord, everybody say it. Thank you so much for your saving grace for my life. I do believe what you did on the cross. I do believe that you rose from the dead. And I ask you to come into my heart. Take up residency in my heart. I'm tired of seeking my own. Return to me the joy of my salvation. Thank you for my home in heaven. And from this moment on, my life is yours. You know, it's the wisest thing you'll ever do in your life. Surpasses marriage, kids, careers. The wisest thing you have ever done in your whole entire life is tonight. You've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Do you know what else? You live close to a nice church like this, Calvary Chapel. I know the pastor's wife, Marie, and she loves Jesus. And I know Connie and she loves Jesus. This is where you need to grow. Come back, get to know your maker. And girls, tomorrow when you go to work or you go about your day and with you with your children, smile. Your days are in your God's hands and nothing will take it from you. Years ago, there was a song. It was a hymn. There shall be showers of blessings. This is the promise of love. There shall be seasons of refreshing sent from the Savior above. Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing I need. Mercy drops round us or falling. And just think about that. Mercy drops all over you tonight. God's mercy and His love. It's just dropping all over you and immersing you. Mercy drops are falling. We're gonna have a time of prayer. There's gonna be ladies up here in the front to lead you in a prayer. And if you accepted Jesus tonight, I would encourage you to come up and get prayer for whatever you're going through. But I just wanna tell you right now, welcome to the family of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this time, Lord. Lord, so many times in our lives, we are frightened by the beasts that come against us, Lord Jesus. They might not be ravenous lions, but Lord, we feel them in our heart, that threat. And you said in the midst of it, you'll give us peace. And not only peace, we can sleep. And Lord, there's so many tonight that can't sleep. For the lack of their trust in you, Lord, and the hurt that they've been through, would you just, Father, give them your total peace tonight, whoever they are. And Father, we trust you for the very best for our lives. You have more in store for us than we ever dream possible. And we thank you so much for your word of encouragement tonight, and love tonight, and salvation tonight. And Lord, I pray that each woman here, Father, fills that embrace from you right now in your precious and holy name. Amen. God bless you, ladies. Amen.