 Alright, thanks y'all for being here. This is special I feel like this year particularly just with a rise sign, just really honing in on the focus and theme of praying in presence church and what that means and and what that looks like and so it's something that's been in my heart for a long time. If you don't know me my name is Caleb. I'm the worship and prayer pastor here at Radiant Church. Been here a little over five years and yeah first I want to say hi my mom and dad are in the room after Brent and Georgia Culver over here. The OG's still pastoring upstate New York. Christine the worship leaders here as well but you know this was something that pastor Lee was really adamant when he hired me that I wasn't just the worship pastor that I was the worship and prayer pastor which you know might not have made it a ton of sense at the time but you know this was a vision I remember pastor Lee showing me in his notebook he had this drawing at the time Radiant Church it was the network but within the city it was just one location the one you're here at in Richland and now it's three locations but he drew this building this three-story building just in the heart of the city and at the top he had this prayer center and then kind of this main level was like coffee shop and offices and whatever and then in the lowest level there was like a ministry training school and he's like I feel like the Lord just kind of showed me a vision of kind of where we're going and you know I know we could kind of plant a ton of churches and kind of go you know focus on that you know adding a bunch of campuses but you know I felt like the Lord saying hey pause till you really get prayer at the center and just to even invest you know I love here in Pastor Lee's heart this morning and it's not just something he's saying with his mouth I mean we as an organization you know investing literal literal millions into something that provides no monetary return you know like prayers that the stupidest strategy as far as like church growth and there's a reason why any like church growth methods and whatever tell you to avoid prayer and but but if you want if you want to if you want to sustain what you're doing if you want the heart beat to be there and that's kind of what we describe prayer and worship as the heartbeat of the church and you know you had the mouth is is you know that's the mouthpiece that's the messaging that's the preaching the feet represent the body going and reaching the loss the hands represent the healing the ministry to the poor and the hurting and then prayers the heart it's it's unseen you can't see it at the surface you can't look at somebody and know if their heart is healthy or not and if you look at the outside of a church you might not be able to tell but the only way that there's Holy Spirit life pumping to the rest of it is at the center you have a heart that's working properly and we are saying man we need at the heart of the city unless we have prayer operating in a healthy way and so that that's kind of our our journey of adding a prayer center in the heart of our down the heart downtown the city and then that's kind of been my job to oversee that that prayer room one of the jobs I do here and having musicians and singers and worship leaders and and this the topic I'm teaching on today you know I think is you know just a helpful personal topic but actually you know my my urgency on this topic has has really grown over the last few years in particular as we have seen from COVID and a mental health crisis sweep across the land and really entering into a time of of deep darkness as scripture says and Isaiah 60 and you know where Jesus describes that that the love of many will grow cold and and they'll be offended and and then he says this phase this phrase many's hearts will faint because of fear and man I honestly I think we're in the beginning of that hour you just see hearts fainting for fear and just despair discouragement depression and and within the body of Christ to really just this what we what we learn first from David in the Psalms of how to live a life where we rejoice in all things that Paul then echoes and honestly who better to to teach it than Paul I mean who is the apostle of sorrows and to suffer to the degree that he did but to live the life of joy peace victory that he did and this rejoicing in all things and rejoicing in all seasons I think we're turning the page to where this is this really is a life-and-death reality within the church that that either we know as a church how to rejoice in everything or we will be taken out by discouragement despair the spirit of Antichrist which seeks to just wear down the Saints I mean I you know I don't even I don't want to like do a hand raise but I think like if we were to be honest like at least for part of the last two years how many of us feel worn down I think yeah let's just do it how many of y'all feels good I'm putting my my hand right up as well you know and that's that's kind of the the spear of the age the the enemy hitting and so this message of rejoicing and rejoicing in all things and all and all seasons I think I think worshipers as worship leaders and I think we have a lot of worship leaders in here this is the critical piece that the days of just being able to sing anointed songs and just being able to kind of pick you know Holy Spirit karaoke and seeing what it's getting the most hits on YouTube and if we sing that song then God's presence comes and those days are really coming to an end it's like man we have to disciple people how to lead themselves into the presence of God like David to know how not in a fake in a phony way of putting on a smile that that is covering all these things up and pretending the pain isn't there but how to bring ourselves in sincerity to the Lord offer ourselves and eventually choose truth and rejoice with the with the Spirit of God and so that's what I want to talk about we're gonna break down a bit and go ahead and turn in first Thessalonians 5 16 through 18 this scripture one of my favorites I always remember coming on this passage I was in Kansas City and I was reading my Bible and you know when you're 18 years old like you're just like obsessed with like calling like God what are you called me to do what is my calling supposed to be and what I meant but by that was you know what type of ministry am I supposed to lead and I just remember reading and I just came up on that phrase for this is the will of God for your life and I was like whoa I like pause and I was like I've been looking for this this is this is the will of God for my life and and first Thessalonians 5 16 through 18 it says rejoice always pray without ceasing and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you and I remember the moment where I went from thinking the will of God for my life had to do with external role had to do with ministry and and the will of God or what God I like to kind of step out of you know maybe some cliche language you know as a as a writer and an artist I like thinking this way too but I like to say you know the dream of God for my life like what is the what God dreams about when he thinks about my life that's the will of God for your life right it's the dream that your father had over you from the time you were born and and it doesn't say this is the will of God for your life to have this level of success or make this amount of money you have this amount of impact he's actually like no it's actually that you would be and look like Jesus in all circumstance to rejoice always to pray without ceasing give thanks and everything I think we could get rid of a lot of our anxiety about what our calling is if we realize the dream of God is not what we do externally but it is it is the internal response of our heart in all seasons and if we look Christ like or if we don't and the will of God or what God's heart gets excited for you you know is the authentic response of your heart in the midst of pain and pleasure and too easy our joy happiness delight pleasure satisfaction comes from circumstances but not what the Bible commands us to rejoice in and the way I like to think of this is that this passage kind of seems confusing at first because if you think about it says rejoice always pray without ceasing well wait a second you pray why because there's need you have lack so wait I'm rejoicing always which almost implies that I have everything I need but then I'm praying without ceasing implying that I don't have what I need and then I'm back to giving thanks for everything again implying that I have what I need and and you know I've thought of it as kind of being attention but the way I've really seen it as it's like each one of these phrases are like pedals on a bike and it's like we're meant to live this rhythm in our life and I've seen when we you just pick one of these and fix it on it and and it's same thing if you just took your left foot on a bike I'm like I'm just gonna pedal with my left foot you know and you go down halfway and then you have to like pick it all the way up what you eventually wouldn't be able to continue pedaling and it's the same with our Christian faith and if we pray without ceasing without learning to rejoice always what ends up happening is what we see in Matthew 18 when Jesus says men ought to pray always and not lose heart losing heart is the enemy of of continuing on in prayer but if we only pray always and we don't rejoice in what we have in the breakthrough what's happened we get so weighed down we get so discouraged by the lack of answered prayer that we burn out we get disillusioned and we accuse God of not being good and we can fall away and there's there's kind of an avoidance of that but on the other side we see this idea of rejoice always or you know it's kind of this idea like hey we don't ever need to like intercede everything belongs like whatever whatever happens in your life like you know there's no point in praying it's just God's will is happening and you just rejoice and thank him and we get off into the self-absorbed self-focused where our life becomes about us and the and the things that God's heart is breaking for that he's looking to share with his people we never give that entry point because we are just living this place of everything you know belongs and doesn't matter there's really no evil and and you see this if you stunt and you don't keep pedaling on both sides of this bike then you lose momentum and you you know you do that little like handlebar thing that you do and eventually fall down and and this this you know rejoice regardless of emotion pray regardless of concrete evidence and be thankful in every circumstance it's meant to just it really is this this simple gem that Paul gave us that we just kind of skip through like I think we miss like he just gave us a deep secret from the Lord's heart and saying if you want to understand the will of God or the thing that God dreams about your life give yourself to this reality rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in everything and what I love about this is all three of these things you have immediate access to you right now that's the kindness of the Lord like the Lord doesn't command something and then he doesn't give us grace to actually walk in it when the Lord speaks and he says hey this is the will of God for your life rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks and everything those are profoundly simple realities that even the smallest child can grasp and join in on and can give himself and that that's amazing it's what I think of when I think of Psalm 100 that says enters through the gate of Thanksgiving into the court of praise and you know because I don't like wake up in the morning and my heart's not in this place of like great faith and praise like I don't get out of bed being like where's a dead person I'm ready to raise him up like you know like when I walk into a you know my time with the Lord like I mean I'm just I'm human I'm groggy I'm waking up I'm cranky about something you know and and the Lord says all right he doesn't say that all right the first thing whenever you get in my presence I want you to groan and travail for 30 minutes you know like I want you to raise the dead you know like these great acts of faith and the way I like to think of it and I'm gonna betray the fact that I know absolutely nothing about cars but you have basically two forms of energy and a vehicle right you have the battery and then you have the combustion system which comes through gas the advantage of the battery is that it is instant access the second you turn that key the battery gives out energy the disadvantage of it is it's not typically powerful enough to propel your car forward in the way gases and gas same thing the advantage of gasoline is through combustion it's very powerful and you can go faster quicker further with it but the disadvantage of it is you don't you can't just turn the key of your car and you're going 80 miles an hour you have to have these two different energy sources and the the advantage of the battery is that it's instant you have access to it but if you just stop there you're not going to go very far but if you try to start with the combustion system you'll never get it activated and going you'll just do it in your own strength it's the same idea with thankfulness and faith the beauty of Thanksgiving is the simplicity of it and it's so simple it's very much like speaking in tongues the simplicity in our mind we're like this can't be that powerful because it's just so simple like I'm already thankful like I've already done that I'm thankful for those things I don't need to say it no but say it your mind is hardly activated but it doesn't matter how cranky groggy angry confused I could be in the worst mental state I could be in the most spiritual place at any point I have instant access to walk through the gate that will lead me to the presence of God through thankfulness I can just start with thank you and if I can't even think of anything I just say thank you for the cross Jesus thank you for your blood thank you for salvation thank you for my family thank you for my leaders and what happens is you turn that battery and all of a sudden you're propelled into this place of great faith and through that faith we like it's with it's impossible to please God or to be heard by God without faith and so we're it's got you know I like to like to say God doesn't answer prayer God answers prayers of faith and we walk through this rejoicing always giving thanks and we pedal the bike and it takes us to this place where all of a sudden we're in this place of faith declaration we're we're able to proclaim the things now let's talk about the things that aren't right and we begin to pray and this cycle and you know it's you know it preaches real good but it when we realize like in our life like the Lord will continually put us in circumstances to teach us like okay is this is this something that you really believe and you know what we see what we see in the command and I'm not gonna read through all of them but that the command to rejoice always isn't isn't it's one that we see within when we see persecution in these moments it says they rejoice greatly because they could suffer for the kingdom and we see this this odd reality of people rejoicing in the midst of suffering and it can be very easy to see that and just kind of feel that it's it's it's fake like we we all have kind of seen that plastic Christian who's just like has the smile on his face but he's kind of dead in his eyes or he's like everything's good brother praise the Lord like lost my house you know my kids don't talk to me but praise the Lord everything's good you're like wow dude that's that's really tough tell me about it no it's okay praise the Lord and you're just like you look dead inside but you know there's maybe that was too much but there you know we we can almost assume like man how in the world could you go through suffering like this and have such deep and and and profound joy from the inside and and you know this this process of rejoicing always is is something that I feel like is probably for me personally the greatest gift that the Psalms have been able to to offer me and I have learned to find myself in the book of Psalms and I encourage you like immerse yourself daily in the book of Psalms Martin Luther says the Psalms is the anatomy of the soul meaning it does not matter where you are there is not a human emotion that cannot be found in the book of Psalms I don't care if it's been betrayal if it's heartache it's despair it's depression if it's joy if it's breakthrough it's victory if it's visitation if it's lack it it does not if it's failure if it's success it does not matter your current emotional state you can find a Psalm that not only will reach you where you're at but it'll actually be able to lift you and bring you to the will of God for your life to get back on the bicycle and to be able to rejoice always to pray without ceasing and so you know how do we do this and the process of rejoicing and suffering and and you know I have you know for those taking notes I have three points kind of how this looks like when we even talk about spirit and truth worship you know what Jesus says in John 4 the father is looking for those who worship and spirit and in truth I love it because we see spirit and truth worship kind of throughout the Psalms and this is the beauty of prayer in general is that prayer prayer leaves no room for pretense every every other form of what we do if we do it you know in front of people we can fall so easily into being formulaic but prayer at its core is just its conversation with the Lord and the Psalms teaches how to leave all pretense David if we you said the religious spirit to David he'd be like like what what's that it's like well it's when people kind of pretend they have a relationship with the Lord they don't he's like what does that mean like David lived a lot like he would be so confused by that thought and idea because to David there was his life was an open book to the Lord it was complete sincerity he he did not have a reaction and response that was not genuine and you know how did he do this number one the process of rejoicing and suffering is we offer our honesty to God and this is what we we learn in the Psalms through the lament and you know this is where in the Western church like we have not really taught people are given room for what it means to really lament with the Lord and you know that's that's because of our culture like we haven't been that uncomfortable like you go to cultures that that suffer you know that there's no they don't have a grid for someone who like wouldn't have lament and suffering in the midst of the worship but what we see is David continually when he comes to the Lord he comes and he brings himself in his sincerity in who he is with no pretense and he he David just never he just refuses to put on a show for the Lord I mean he just says I mean like the things like it sometimes it would bug me because I would read it and he'd say things about God that aren't true like God you've abandoned me you've left me he'd say these these statements I'm like dude you can't say that like it's the Bible and it's truth and and God is so competent and who he is that God's like I love that let's canonize that let's print billions of copies so people can read what you when you've poured out your complaint and you said all the things the ways that I wasn't coming through and all those things yeah let's canonize that and let's give it to people so they can they can pray God is God is not insecure and I've found that that we we have a genuine fear and a terror of opening up our heart to the Lord and and there's something in us that tells us we can't say that or we can't go there we can't do that and I'll be brief kind of sharing this story but even as we're talking rejoice in in in suffering a number of about seven years ago seven years ago I was in Colorado long story went to the Houser's farm had a great time but got bit by a mosquito got meningitis and and the the moment I had a couple kind of scary moments with it but the first one when it happened like my body just kind of just completely shut down and I couldn't couldn't move I couldn't talk and I couldn't really breathe Rachel was taking me to the hospital it's kind of a funny story with that where I'm like in the car and I can't move or and I'm like I really think I'm gonna die in that moment and we're like Rachel's like praying in tongues it's like this horrible moment we have like this little neighborhood like like traffic light and this is for all you rule followers out there it's to 25 mile an hour zones and we had this traffic light that was there you know because they didn't trust anybody to just look and Rachel's like she drives and she stops because it's a red light and there's nobody coming and she's like she's just praying in tongues and I I'm stuck and I'm thinking clearly but I can't speak or move and I'm like my wife's trying to kill me my wife's trying to kill me I'm like go run through the red light and it's just like in her mind it's like no I like you like hey if you're gonna die here then you know that was God's will because he would he would never have me run this red light and for me I like had to I like needed a reason to like actually stop at that red light but you know I I remember in that moment I heard just such a loud voice like you're gonna die and and felt that the fear and and you know it was that my very first reaction in that moment was God what like what have I done to deserve your wrath like what sin did I commit and the next 40 days you know we're really difficult I wasn't like fully in my right mind because meningitis I'm gonna was in my brain so I was like hallucinating and and it was very very confusing difficult time but you know I remember in that place like I so many times preaching on who God is and the love God and and you know I found myself in that moment in those moments like really having these deep questions of doubt of like are you good like do you love me do you have delight in me are you are you even a good God and and you know I remember this moment and it was on day 37 and I remember it specifically because it was July 4th it was the day that Kevin Durant left the Thunder and signed with the Warriors and I was so shocked it like set off this meningitis episode like I'm not even kidding I like heard a pop in my head and whatever and it was just like it was horrible I was in like excruciating pain I was like heart broken over Kevin Durant leaving and still haven't fully forgiven him I'm not doing a forgiveness clinics because I need to go to that one but and I just remember I was just broken and I just Lord's like okay go down to the piano and it'd been like 37 days and I've been bedridden and just everything that I had you know had been stripped like I'm not I'm on like medicine and steroids so I'm not like a good person at this time like I'm mean to everybody like I'm not doing ministry all of these things and when I all those things stripped away I was like man I don't know God how you feel about me and I've preached on your love so many times but in this place I feel like you hate me and I hate myself and I remember going down and the Lord's like I just want you to play piano and I just started playing this old Jason Upton so Psalm 23 and he's just singing surely goodness and mercy will cover me all the days of my life and I sung that phrase and it was like it was like the heavens ripped open and there was just like a waterfall of God's love and affection that he poured out on me and it was at the place of just being at my absolute lowest that I experienced his smile and his delight the most and I remember even thinking like man this is the season that I've I've accused you more than I've ever accused you and yet you're pouring out your delight and and the Lord was just teaching me like Caleb no I've been looking I've been wanting I've been I've been looking for that honesty and and it actually took this intense circumstance for me to actually be able to open up your heart so you could see what was already inside and and I learned something very important that that if if if those accusations if they don't come out before the Lord in prayer then they will come out in my behavior elsewhere because there is nothing different between what I believe and how I live and so I can say I believe that God is is good but if I don't treat anybody with kindness and I show that I don't actually believe that God is good I've never received his kindness for myself and so I can't show it to anybody else but we have this idea when we go before the Lord we can only bring truth of who he is and I have learned the the practice and discipline the most in this this for me it it revolutionized the last three four years my time with the Lord because I always started in the word I started with you know my my daily reading of passages and go into my prayer and intercession and whatever and and I I I began I noticed that a lot of times I would be distracted or I just I still was whatever wherever my heart was at you know I was angry frustrated hurt you know or happy good things busy all of those things I I'd find myself distracted in the word and I made a change and I'm not saying that everybody needs to do this but for me I started my time with the Lord I would sit for a minute and I would just begin to journal where I was at to the Lord and before I got to the the scriptures I would just begin and this is what I believe when David tells us to pour out our heart before the Lord and began to do that and I found that it was like oh my gosh I really these things about who you are and your goodness like I really have these these doubts and insecurities and fears that I haven't let out and I'm gonna use a movie reference hopefully doesn't ruin it if you want to see it but it's been out for like 15 years so you had your shot but movies inception and it's by Nolan one of my my favorite directors and he just is brilliant and just the human psyche heart whatever and in the movie if you haven't seen it it's it's all about basically inception is this idea that you can you in the movie you could if you plant an idea in someone's head and ideas the most powerful thing that somebody can have and if you plant an idea in their head you can change history and so they tried to enter these people's psyche through dreams to plant ideas to kind of shifting so in this in the movie this you know rich guy from Asia has a he has a competitor and the competitor is dying and so the Sun is poised to take care of the business and so he wants he wants to hire this crew to basically plant this idea in his head to break up the company and so you know it's kind of like you know it's kind of spyish whatever but in the movie it just starts to get really profound because they're like well what that's such a big ask there's only one thought that you could think that would be that big enough to change someone's mind like that and it's the thought of what his father thinks about him and in the movie it's depicted so beautifully because you have basically the layers of his soul are depicted in like these levels and he has a subconscious which is fighting against this idea but you have layer layer after layer after layer and this this guy thinks his dad is disappointed in him and it's the single that thought defines who he is his actions his behaviors and in the movie it's this thought is depicted it's it you goes through all of the safety measures and there's a room and in the room there's a safe and he opens up the safe and in that is this idea and they replace it in the movie this this idea that his father is disappointed with his father's approval and love and delight and and and it shifts the movie again I totally ruined it for you if you haven't seen it but it unbelievably powerful movie underneath because I have found that the the moments of pain and suffering and difficulty it's a guided tour into the deepest places in our heart that only pain could open up and expose what was on the inside if you had asked me a month before meningitis if I thought that God would punish me because you know and strike me with an illness because he was mad at me I would have laughed in your face he would have said you know five or six of the things that I was accusing God of I would have laughed at like I would never believe that or think that that's not me you know and that's kind of how I thought of David when he was writing these things in the Psalms I was like I would never think that Lord you know I just I trust you and and it took the pain and the difficulty to this the Holy Spirit's going on this guided tour that say no no no don't just don't just come to me and be like no I trust you I love you no but you don't I know you want to but there's there's there's lies about who God is that are so deep down and only pain and suffering can reach them and in that safe the Lord like in this meningitis season for me had this lie that the father wasn't good or that he only loved me or took care of me based on how I performed for him and he opened up that safe and he took out that lie and he exchanged it with the truth you know I love what Paul prays casting down strongholds every lofty thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of God you have lofty thoughts on the inside and to bring your honesty and sincerity before the Lord he can he can handle it it's okay to to begin with where you're at it's okay to tell him I don't I don't feel your goodness right now I know you're a good father but I don't feel it right now I don't feel fathered I don't feel loved I it and and if you don't bring that out before him in prayer like I said it will come out in your behavior and how you live and the Lord he delights in it it's considered worship and praise to him so much so that David prays this insanely risky prayer and he says my God my God why have you forsaken me was David forsaken by God no was there ever a moment that David was forsaken by God no for David that was actually not a true statement but it so came from the heart of God that Jesus when he was on the cross Jesus who is the word chose to borrow David's words and he takes David's raw prayer before the Lord when he was simply pouring out his heart in sincerity and Jesus says I'm gonna borrow that prayer and when Jesus was on the cross it was actually true the father had actually turned his back on him and we as Christians you know we haven't had a we haven't really known how to do this we we've we've been afraid of the this idea that if we bring anything other than truth and sincerity to the truth to the Lord that that he is gonna be he's gonna strike us down he's gonna be angry with us but the reality is our the truth is the only thing that God is looking for us to worship and spirit and truth and sincerity and you know that there's there's three languages that that we learn as as humans and you know the first language is just the language of an infant where you're born and all you have is sounds and noises and little cause and crying and these little whimpers to communicate what you feel on the inside and then you know eventually we learn the language of education where now we can we can use words and point out things and now when we ask for cookie like we get a cookie and so we learn the power of kind of learning education and that's we're maturing past that baby phase and then we kind of come to the language the third language we learn which is the language of marketing which is suddenly we we did we learn that it's not always the best idea to just say whatever you're thinking we're talking about it yesterday my little sister one time went up to the lady and said are you pregnant are you just fat and we we learn like as kids like oh my gosh just saying things as they are is probably not a great idea I should probably couch it differently and suddenly we start to figure out when someone asks me how I'm doing I can say fine and I don't actually have to tell them how I'm doing and we can present a life that is not entirely true to who we are and we see this the love the marketing projection as the highest form of communication but which form of communication is the most honest is it not the language of a baby is there any pretense in a baby they putting on a show are they crying but inside they're not really feeling that thing no they don't even know anything other than honesty and sincerity and it's funny because there's a there's a time in our life that we speak this language again we learn projection but then we go back does anyone know what what what that time frame is oh people there's a time before that that we start to talk like babies again and it's when we fall in love right like I'll never forget my brother you know before his marriage he dated a girl named Jamie Schumacher and I just remember there being in his family's van and my my brother is like you know six three he's like in the military he's like overseas right now and just broad shoulders you know super manly and you know and we're on the basketball team and so I'm sitting in the row in front and you know he's big tough whatever and I just like I'm just mind my own business and I just hear like and I'm like what in the heck like I'm turning around expecting to see like an infant baby and it's no it's my brother when it's it's funny because when we fall in love we relearn the language of oh and we we make noises and we coo and we ah why and we make fun of that right because when you're not in love there's nothing grosser ever like you don't want to hear that but but when you're in love is it best to say you know you know I find you desirable and attractive and you are you can use the best language possible like no the return back to the language of a baby is because love is and is bringing us back to that place of sincerity prayer is the great returning back to the first language you know what Romans 8 says the spirit who makes utterance with groanings too deep to be uttered the deepest prayers we can't even cheapen them with English language because a liquid prayer of a tear often speaks so much more honestly than the English language of what we have or a cry or a groan and prayer teaches us to go back to this first language where God's like I don't care about your marketing like I don't care if you get up I mean Jesus made a point to say don't be like the long-winded Pharisees who get up and they think they're heard because of their smart words and I look over at the tax collector who's like beating his breast and saying Lord I'm a sinner and my heart is drawn to that and to begin to be in a place where we can rejoice we have to know and understand like God actually wants us to bring our questions our pain our difficulties our accusations to him and that he actually receives it as worship he's actually glorified in it and unless we do unless we do that when that pain comes it'll reveal those accusations of what we have and what what is built on the rock and what isn't unless we learn to rejoice in all things then we'll be taken away by the storm because when the storm comes we'll find accusations we didn't know about but but accusations we didn't know about are not a big deal if we've learned the transaction of I know what to do I just bring this before the Lord and I exchange this and I don't bring it before the Lord as a way of just saying I you know I want this and I believe this is true no it's to exchange it it's to expose it to shine the light on it and through prayer I'm able to do that in honesty and number two we show our weakness to men how do we rejoice in suffering number one we offer honesty to God number two we show our weakness to men another to man not like the gender of men we're just people in general it's funny because this is because of our we value marketing it's like when you're doing well like you want to or when you're not doing well you want to put a front on you know what they did in Bible times it's something that we make fun of because we think that it's juvenile but sackcloth and ashes when you were morning you literally changed your appearance you put on clothes you you cover yourself in ash and you wailed why was that it was your way of just telling your brother's sisters family friends hey I'm not okay I'm grieving I'm in a lot of pain right now it's funny we look at that like haha that's so stupid we don't do that now well I think that was a lot more healthy of an approach to grieving in community and family because why it let those who needed to come around those people come around those people and when we're in pain this idea of toughen it up and just acting like nothing's wrong is it we have to break that idea and not only we bring our honesty and sincerity to the Lord but you know we have to text our pastors and people were running with and our leaders and saying how I'm really I'm really struggling I'm not having self control over my thoughts right now I have accusations about God and and the process of being able to rejoice involves us living lives of openness and sincerity within community and if we if we don't do that we will be dragged down in isolation and then and then number three we hear and command truth back to our souls and David does this so insanely well when David pours out his complaint but you know most of the time he ends his Psalm with but blessed are those who trust in the Lord why so downcast oh my soul put your hope in God see David gives us the gift in the Psalms that the world can never do the world's great at finding us in our pain right if you're depressed man I got a playlist for you like I got songs that oh I just love me and that I that song gets me I feel it and the world can can can find you in that but it can't lead you out of that place but the Psalms the life of rejoicing and prayer it teaches us we can find ourselves wherever we're at in the Psalms but then we are led to offer our sincerity to the Lord open up before our brothers and sisters and then being led to truth to the point where it's like okay it's it's time to get up and that's what we see Jesus found the woman in adultery in the dirt he was gentle and kind enough and to find her where she was at but he didn't leave her there he picked her up and he said okay don't sin anymore I've given you a gift now walk and and this freedom and we we learn in this place like okay like there's a season to grief and then there's a season to simply get up and and and to lead and to be the person that God's called us to be by declaring truth my favorite story that does this in the Bible I won't read it to go into it but it's Joab and and David and it's the story of Absalom and which is such a heartbreaking story right because it's ultimately David's poor leadership and fathering that causes this crisis because Amnam you know rapes his half-sister and David doesn't do anything about it and so Absalom takes justice in his own hands kills Amnam and and David banishes him and and then eventually he brings him back but he doesn't let him in his his gates he doesn't deal with the problem and so so Absalom's chilling at the gates and he's like you know hey how'd it go in there like you get what you want from the king and they're like no you know this well if I were king then this is what I would do and it says that Absalom swayed the hearts of the people and eventually you know this uprising happened they kick him out you know we know the story Absalom gets caught up in his hair dies and they're coming back to the city and there's a huge victory but David is just mourning he said Absalom Absalom oh my son oh my son and he's mourning because he lost his son but he's he's also really mourning because he knows it's his fault if he had confronted Absalom if he had taken care of this and done his job and rolled this wouldn't have happened but he comes back in and the soldiers are ashamed and the people are ashamed and and David is sulking and grieving and Joab comes in it's one of my favorite scriptures because he literally says this phrase in it too where he said you you have shamed the men who have given their lives for you and he's he literally says and I swear to God that if you don't go out there this night will be worse for you than any suffering you have ever encountered in your life you get your butt up and you go take your place in the gate and David and it says David got up he finished his grieving and he went he sat at the gate he took his place and I love that that scripture because there are the seasons and the moments to be in the grief to be in the despair to be in the pain to really process with the Lord to offer your heart and sincerity and then there's time for the Psalms and and the Lord and other people to be the Joab in your life it says look I know you're in pain but it's time to get up this isn't who you are you're the king you're the leader this is God's appointed position for you get up and take your seat and that's what the world can never do they don't have they can't find you in that and that right there if I could just pick a story of what that means to rejoice always and to give thanks in everything pick yourself up I know that it's difficult I know that you're in pain but this is the truth and it's time to agree and walk through that and you know our goal should really be like if God's dream is the response of our heart you know that then then we should just constantly be evaluating okay how did I respond and and let me just say there's a difference between your reaction and your response like your reaction is just typically a result of just where you're at like if you're hungry at the time if you're in a bad mood but like your reaction is just the knee jerk thing that comes out of you but what is your response after that and Paul was he resolved in his heart that my response will be to put my foot on one of these pedals I'm gonna rejoice always I'm gonna pray without ceasing I'm gonna give thanks and everything and you know it's why it's so valuable as Jesus is we see this reaction and I think this is so important this idea of being able to rejoice and do it and and sincerity why because of the heaviness of the times what does it mean to be holy you can answer it's not just rhetorical to be set apart right to be different how does the world look and feel right now heavy sad if your religion looks heavy and sad right now like if your idea of holiness is heaviness sadness guess what you're not holy you look exactly like the world right now you want to you want to look holy right now it looks like this doesn't make sense this is confusing joy wait what you're you and your family are thriving right now you just you lost your your job like you're in economic difficulty but then what when I came to your house everyone's laughing there there's a joy there's a happiness there's a lot I don't get it this is confusing oh that's confusing this is this is what the kingdom of God is it's righteousness peace and joy and the Holy Spirit like our joy isn't determined in our circumstances COVID happens if government does this we lose this economic thing no as a family or as an individual we know how to not be moved and we have a joy that is inexpressible that the world cannot take away and that that doesn't make sense and we are the church we need a witness of a church that rejoices in all things it is what will catch the world's attention I mean it's what caught Paul's attention they're stoning this guy Steven and he's he's thinking he's gonna get this fear and this whatever that in Paul's gonna get the satisfaction out of Steven Steven's he's got a smile on his face he's getting pelted with stones I see Jesus I'm gonna go be with him he's got a smile he's got joy inexpressible on his face you better believe that haunted Paul when he left that circumstance I mean we you hear accounts of martyrs singing and it what is it about is it is it the fireiness of their preaching in the moment that haunts their oppressors or is it the smile that rests on their face is it the song that they're singing with joy in the midst we saw recently I can't remember how many of the the Christians that were executed on that video a couple years back but we heard that the the singing from their hearts in the midst of the most difficult pain and it is the part it's it's the most intimate demonstration of the power of the cross that I believe exists the ability to genuinely authentically rejoice in the midst of suffering shows the beauty of what Jesus did on the cross more than preaching even even the even the power of the cross or what what the cross did to deliver us and save us there needs to be a demonstration of that power and you know if if we're going through rocky and difficult seasons but people look inside the church and and the church is more emotionally unhealthy than the world and unless we get delivered of our religion unless we start to understand like man we have to learn this lifestyle this cycle of rejoicing always praying without ceasing giving thanks and everything you know then then then then we're going to lose our witness and so you know how do we how do we do this and you know I want to bring us back to some simplicity in this even as we close and and and we we end but rejoicing turns the wall of resistance into gates of entrance I love the Isaiah 60 violent shall no more be heard in your land devastation or destruction within your borders you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise I love this because salvation is God's job and praise is mine and you know what the gates are made of in the city the New Jerusalem pearls and how are pearls formed irritation suffering difficulty the walls are salvation that's the gold that in lays the city but the gates are pearls the gates are that the entry points and that the the ability to in the midst of irritation and pain to offer the sincerity of praise is quite literally the gates that we will enter through in eternity in the eternal city the walls of resistance that become gates of praise we are running into some walls and man unless that shout rises up from the people unless that authentic response of praise then we are going to keep marching around the same walls praying for God to make them fall and he's like I kind of want you to shout at it a single Baron woman shift this season with your singing I love that phrase single Baron woman it's so it's so intense and vivid it's it's the idea of a woman who is not able to give birth but she's like in her rocking chair with a crib next to her singing a lullaby even though there's no baby there because it says I know I'm gonna sing my way out of this fairness into the truth and knowing in the rhythm of of rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks and everything as we pedal that bike we know the moments to pray without ceasing to pour out our complaint to offer our sincerity but then we know that moment to rejoice always and say okay I'm hitting this wall but it's time to turn this wall of resistance into a gate of praise the wall is salvation that's that's God's job but the gate is praise that's my job that's my job and as worship leaders y'all we need to be discipling our people if they need the worship set to lead them through this every time then we failed because what happens when we can't gather you know what what we found out was there's a lot of people that didn't know how to lead themselves into the presence of God and gosh we've gotten so good at it right like the the songs are so insane the lights look amazing like the atmospheres and we have these Mary of Bethany's are so anointed leading worship that are breaking there that you can just come to a weekend worship service and you can enjoy the fragrance just like the disciples did and think that you you broke open your alabaster jar but you just enjoyed the fragrance and the sacrifice of somebody else and then when the shaking happens and you don't get that environment anymore and you don't know how to lead yourself you don't know how to simply walk through the gate of Thanksgiving into the court of praise you will crumble and it's it's sad but we saw that all of us in our churches we saw people that just removed sometimes even a few months from being in the corporate gathering and their faith went because they didn't learn how to do this and then disciple other people how to do that and for me as a worship leader man I don't I don't want to build it on my gifting anointing I want to get to the place where I'm not even needed it's like we all know how to go through that gate we all know how to go through that gate of Thanksgiving into the court of praise we know how to lead ourselves into the presence of God but then we disciple people to do that in a way that's counter-cultural to the world it doesn't make sense and and it the simplicity of it like we we cannot be afraid of the power of the simplicity of it and that the world needs to see joy and if we don't have joy then we're not gonna have strength to make it but if we want to be holy if we want to look different in the world then we have to have a joy that does not make sense it does not matter where on that cycle and that's what Paul is saying doesn't matter if I've been shipwrecked or beaten with rods or whatever I'm just I'm learning to rejoice in all things and I'm saying like Lord I need to learn this discipline and and when I I I fail out of the time when I overreact my reaction sucks I go back to the Lord and say Lord I I failed I miss the reaction again but can we can we run through that again I want to give a different response and I had this powerful moment close with this and pray for us maybe a year or two ago and the Lord in this just moment of worship and prayer he brought me back to this moment in my life where I had just I had not responded the right way to something and it wasn't like I was just seeing it and whatever there I actually was brought to the place of grief and conviction I actually felt heaviness and grief over how I responded and then the Lord's like okay now I want you to respond I was like what do you mean like that already happened and the Lord brought me to it and he pulled this response out of my heart that was the correct response years later and I got a do-over I got a do-over this time I got to rejoice this time I got to just release what was in in my heart and and I'm trying to do this just as a as a discipline you know when I blow it when my reaction when I'm not rejoicing and suffering when I'm complaining when I'm you know not forgiving and I'm doing all those things but I'm going before the Lord and a lot of times just in that little journal time and I'm saying okay this was my reaction show me what lies I'm believing about you and teach me I want to learn to respond another way because I have to look like you and unless I learn to to rejoice and have a heart of praise and turn walls of resistance into gates of praise like I'm not gonna make it myself nevertheless be able to lead the people of God but I want to be able to lead a congregation where it's like man you we're gonna be here we're gonna need to gather on Sunday but it doesn't matter if you go through something on Thursday you're like oh I know what to do rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks and and everything I know how to walk through the gate of Thanksgiving into the court of praise no matter what and that that activation of thankfulness turns to faith in the courts of praise I'm able to see here understand what God is saying and doing and declare that and the atmosphere shifts when I begin declaring that truth for other people and they learn whoa that guy got somewhere that I don't know how to get there teach me how to go there as Paul says it's simple it's actually the dream of God for your life I don't care about the other stuff that you obsess about but I do care are you able to rejoice always can you give thanks for for anything and everything and I remember the time I struggled with insomnia but I remember one time the Lord was like I want you to write out what you're thankful for in the midst of this is like this doesn't make sense I'm not thankful I'm annoyed about this we you know that I'm annoyed about this I tell you all the time and I ended up writing down 37 things and it was like songs I've written prophetic words I've gotten revelation in the scripture intimacy with the Lord being becoming more reliant on him being humbled more like I couldn't believe it but it was it was this shift of even in something that I'm not stoked on and I don't necessarily love I can find gratitude and thanksgiving that will lead me to the court of praise where I'm actually able to declare who who God is so I'm gonna pray for us so glad y'all are here I'm just excited for these times in prayer and in worship and just have a lot of faith for what God is gonna do and I just want to I just want to bless you guys and just pray in the midst of this season like man we we are just in need of the joy of the Lord so Father thank you for this amazing group that you've gathered Lord you're praying church and just grateful that we get to gather like this and and Lord we we are in need of the joy of the Lord or the joy of the Lord is our strength and we're sorry where we've placed our joy in our hope and things that are not you and Lord you are realigning our joy in our hope you're using our disappointment Lord to help us see where we've placed our hope and our faith and things that are incorrect and we put our joy back in their salvation and Lord we asked that you would you would teach us this rhythm that we would pedal on this bike of rejoicing always praying without ceasing giving thanks and everything Lord that that is if it's the dream of your heart is our authentic response of love in all seasons God would you make it the dream of our heart to God that maybe our dreams need to realign a little bit more toward your heart Lord that being Christ like being the fragrance of Jesus maybe we're too concerned with trying to sound like Jesus instead of wanting to smell like Jesus becoming the fragrance of Christ the undeniability that somebody has been with Jesus is they carry the same scent the fragrance of intimacy and love Lord we asked that we would become that the fragrance of Christ not as men lacking sincerity as some but of those who are of sincerity not those peddling the gospel as some as Paul says but those of sincerity men of sincerity Lord just I just ask even that you would give us those songs of joy Lord that we would release songs that would actually declare joy and shift the season Lord Lord even as we have felt the pressures of despair and depression and heaviness Lord men's hearts feigning for fear Lord we are in need just give us prophetic choruses and songs God even childlike joyful phrases Lord teach us to do this with our kids Lord that we would even be able to disciple our own children and what is what does it mean to be able to rejoice always and give thanks and everything what does this rhythm look like Lord we want to be those who carry your fragrance in the name of Jesus amen amen