FROM DRUDGERY TO DELIGHT

By DR. KEN GRAHAM, Pastor

VICTORY BAPTIST CHURCH

5386 HWY. 67 SOUTH

BENTON, ARKANSAS 72015

(Preached at the Cowboy Camp Meeting in

Eufaula, Oklahoma – May 2008)

E-Mail: drkengraham@experiencevictory.net

PHONE: 501.315.5005 – Cell: 501.860.3259

I stand amazed at the privilege and opportunity and honor that we have to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, fellows I want to tell you something, as a teenage boy I met some of the preachers that are in this room tonight and never dreamed that I would get to share the platform with many of them in many places.

You cannot imagine what a joy that is. I used to sit in conferences where Dr. Wallace (he wouldn't remember this because there were hundreds of people around) but I would be in that crowd just wanting to shake his hand and get around him for a minute just to say hi. I never dreamed I would be preaching with him. What an honor.

Bro. Jack Thompson used to even let me preach for him, even when I was a teenager. I have never forgotten that. Bro. Waghoff sitting in back, he heard me preach when I was 15 years of age and he has even let me come to his church now that I am an old man. I appreciate that. I don't take that lightly.

Bro. Amos, I preached for Bro. Amos when I was just a teenage boy. The very first meeting I ever drove myself to Bro. Amos was at your church. I had a wreck on the way home. A boy pulled out in front of me on the highway and I went to the hospital. I'll never forget it, because my dad called me the night before I left to come home as a parent would, and he said now you make sure you drive the speed limit, behave yourself, and wear your seatbelt.

I said, like any typical obedient son, hey dad, don't worry, if we get killed I will call you from glory. He said something like this, hey I will just reach through this phone and beat the devil out of you, and a few other things. Guess what, I wore a seatbelt. You know we laugh but I'll tell you what, he probably saved my life. Those days nobody talked about it and I don't know that I would have thought about it. Boy, I appreciate the memories that are here.

I just want to say it is a joy to serve the Lord. Young people, don't ever quit. You start serving God, I am telling you there are dividends you can't even imagine. I don't care where you have been or what you have done, you start right now serving God and you will never regret it, you will never be sorry.

I just believe that if you don't have a steady diet of the Word of God, it is going to show up in your life. You may fool the staff for a day or two, but you know they will start figuring you out. It sure won't hurt you. You say well I read the Bible and I didn't get anything out of it. That's all right, it may get something out of you.

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Would you stand and we will read just a couple verses. By the way, there is no way you can force people to read the Word of God, but I would suspect that if you are not consistently reading the Bible and you are still going over there and checking it off, you are probably not fooling anybody.

Jesus said, "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." It is good for you to be in the Word of God, and I appreciate the challenge. You don't have to be in the Boys' Home to need several chapters a day. There is no magic number – I am not saying you have to read three, five, ten – I mean you have to here at the Boys Home, but I am saying in your life. You better know you need it every day. I need it every day.

OBEDIENCE

In Deuteronomy I just want to read two verses and get right into the message. Deuteronomy 28 is a message on the blessings of obedience in verses 1 through 14, and the curses for disobedience in verses 15 through 68.

Tonight I am not going to be preaching prophecy or anything like that. I do know who God is addressing here. He is dealing with the Nation of Israel and what His expectations are. But I think you will allow me the liberty tonight to take this principal and apply it to our hearts and lives and under- stand that we can take the Word of God and find that it fits for us today.

I want you to look at verses 47 and 48.

"Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee."

"Now Father tonight would you please help us as we preach that which you have laid upon our heart. Would you give us liberty and Lord, give us just the anointing from on high and help us to say only that which you desire for us to say. Lord may we redeem the time wisely. We will thank You and praise You for it, in Jesus name. Amen." You may be seated.

It is an amazing verse of scripture here in verse 47, "Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;" I want to preach tonight for just a few minutes on FROM DRUDGERY TO DELIGHT. I want you to notice first of all, the

REQUIREMENT

The requirement is for every believer.

Now would you agree with me, this is Old Testament and God is speaking to Israel, but I believe we can find in the New Testament, and I will get to some verses in just a moment, that God has given a clear commandment. There is a requirement for every believer that we are to serve the Lord with gladness. We are to enter into His courts with praise.

The Bible said in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord alway" – not when you feel good, not when things are working out, not when you have the money you need, not when all your bills are paid, not when you are in good health, not when everything is going like you want it to go, not when things have favored you and you are on cloud nine, no, no, "Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say rejoice."

It is God's demand and command that every believer would rejoice in the Lord. I am not saying that you are always going to be running the aisle, shouting the praises, but I am going to tell you something, it is always right to respond to everything that hap- pens in our life with thanksgiving and rejoicing.

The Bible said, "In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." There is nothing that ever happens in your life when it is inappropriate to say thank you to the Lord. So we are to praise the Lord, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice.

SALVATION

May I say that the joy of God is never out of season. Somebody said, Bro. Graham, why are we required to rejoice? I think first of all if we didn't have anything else to rejoice about, we could rejoice because of our salvation. Hey listen, we are just going to live as long as God lives.

If you have been saved, your sins have been washed away, never to be remembered against you anymore. They have been removed as far as the east is from the west. Your family can bring it up, your friends can bring it up, your mother-in-law can bring it up, I guess technically she is family, but listen, God will never bring it up again. Gone, gone, gone, yes my sins are gone. I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, I can rejoice because of my salvation.

Hey, the worst day you will ever have is still a good day because your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You are going to live as long as God lives. We can rejoice and shout all night long just because we are saved. Rejoice because of our salvation. The song writer said, "Now I belong to Jesus. And Jesus belongs to me, Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity." We can rejoice because of our salvation. And if that is all God ever did for us, that is enough.

But it doesn't end there. We can rejoice not only because of our salvation but how about because of our

SUPPLY

He said in this verse right here concerning Israel, that they should have served the Lord with joy and gladness for the abundance of all things. Have you ever been in testimony service and the preacher said, anybody want to give a word of praise or give some thanks to the Lord, and you try to stand up and tell what God has done for you and the truth is you couldn't even get the story told.

I mean He daily loadeth me with benefits. The Psalmist said, "I love the Lord because he hath inclined his ear unto me." He said I love him because He listens to me, but not only that he said, "what shall I render unto the Lord for all of his benefits."

He said how could I ever repay Him, He has been so good. I am telling you He just keeps on meet- ing needs, He keeps on supplying, He keeps on taking care of everything in my life. Somebody said, "Oh, that preacher, He is always wanting us to give," but isn't it exciting to live on God's economy?

"Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give unto your bosom."

I am talking about getting in on God supplying your needs. I am talking about Philippians 4:19, for those who are giving.

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

I am telling you He is faithful to supply everything that we need. He meets our needs. "He daily loadeth me with benefits." What a joy it is to serve a supplying God. But oh listen, if we didn't have any other reason than because of Salvation, because of Supply, how about because of our

SCRIPTURES

Oh, we have a Book that we can hold in our hands. Peter said we have a "more sure word of prophecy". Wow, Every day I am invited to the pages of this book to read what He has to say to me, to feed from it, to fellowship with Him, to find the focus of what my life ought to be. I am telling you this is a Book that is there to fence your soul against all that comes against it, to fortify your life against the attacks of the enemy.

This is a Book that will absolutely do so many things that will fit your life for the service of the King. We heard today about what our goal ought to be, but how are we going to come to that goal if we neglect the Word of God? What a privilege it is to have a Bible. I love the old Bible, the precious old Bible.

Somebody says, well, you know, you are just saying it to get amens. No, I want everyone to know we have a Bible. We are not searching for it, we are not looking for it, this Book is God's directive to our life so that we know how we should walk. This Book friend, has been given to us to guide us and to guard us and to give us everything we need to know what He expects from us.

What a mighty God we serve that He gave us a perfect Book, that He preserved this Book that I am holding in my very hands – the Inspired, the Infallible, inerrant, preserved Word of God. This King James Bible is the Word of God. Hey guys, you have something that you can sink your very life into and you can set your affections on and you can stand firmly on.

You can leave here saying, I have a Bible. What a blessing it is. Oh, I love the scriptures, don't you? The Psalmist said "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." How do you quit the sinning business? Tuck the Word of God in there.

Verse 9 of 119 said, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" Oh, I am so fed up with my sin, I am so fed up with my wrongdoing, how can I change? Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way – "By taking heed thereto, according to thy Word." Verse 105 says, "... is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Because of our Scriptures that we have, but I'll tell you, we ought to rejoice tonight because of our

SAVIOR

Don't you love Him tonight? "On a Hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, and it was on that old cross Jesus suffered and died" and He did that to pardon and sanctify me. I love it when Bro. Jerry stands up here and he says, "I love the Lord with all my heart." Do you love Him tonight? Doesn't that just do something to the stirring embers of your soul?

I am not sure if you have been to this part of it, Bro. Jerry, but my wife likes to go every once in a while, to the Precious Moments place up there. They built that place where they have the fountains now. Have you been in there since they have done that? I am not going to get into figurines and angels and all that stuff, but my wife and I took some of our seniors so they could have an outing, and we went there.

Another preacher and I were sitting there and some of our senior citizens were there, my mother was there. They had this gospel sing and then the fountain started They had music playing, just music, and then the fountains would bubble as the music played and the lights of different colors would be reflecting there.

Before they started it they made the statement that this gentleman wanted to make a testimony of how he loved the Lord and express his love for the Lord. So this fountain is a testimony of his love for the Lord and the fountains began to bubble.

I think one of the first songs was "I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame," Springs of living water. The water started bubbling up and I am telling you something started bubbling up in my soul. I was just sitting there and enjoying that and then other songs and then all of a sudden the song started playing, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins," and every bit of that water as it was flowing, turned blood red.

I am telling you the embers of my soul were stirred so deeply. I am telling you there was a shout wanting to come out in the middle of Precious Moments.

Not only that, as I was sitting there tears were flowing down my cheeks and I said, "Lord, I could never build a place like this, I could never put together fountains like this man has with all the money that went into this, but I want you to know he doesn't love you anymore than I love you for taking my sins away and washing me white as snow in that precious blood that flowed from Calvary." What a Savior we have. Jesus loves us tonight. Oh what a Savior is Jesus my Lord. Well, that is the requirement.

You may say well, "I just don't believe in getting emotional." You would never prove that at a football game, baseball game, basketball game. By the way, I am not against sports, I am not even against getting emotional about it, but I made a decision years ago that I would never get more emotional over a basketball game or a football game or a baseball game than I do over serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have some passions, I kind of like to hunt every now and then. I am not a great hunter, but I like to hunt. I rejoice if I get to harvest a deer, but I made up my mind years ago, that I am not going to be more excited about that than I am about serving Jesus. I am telling you this is the place and this is the time that the Bible tells us that it is always appropriate to rejoice in the Lord.

REBUKE

Let me point out secondly, not only the requirement for every believer, look at this rebuke for every believer in verse 47. He said,

"Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;"

Listen, this is not a rebuke for not serving God.

By the way, if you are saved and you are not serving the Lord, what can I say? Shame on you. If you are saved and you are not serving the Lord, you are backslidden. If you are at camp meeting on Thursday night, you are probably serving the Lord to some extent I would think unless somehow you just snuck in here backslidden and wayward tonight.

In all probability the folks that I pastor Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night that are faithful to the house of God, they are involved in the service of God. He is not rebuking them for not serving the Lord, He is rebuk- ing them for the spirit that they have while they are serving the Lord. I say to you tonight, God is not just interested in your serving Him, He wants you to have a right spirit while you serve Him.

Now the truth of the matter is I have work that needs to be done where I pastor and I will let some folks serve, even if they have a bad attitude and we will try to work on and get through it, but God is interested that you and I have a right spirit while we serve Him. He wants us not only to serve Him, but He wants us to do it because we love Him, because we can't help but serve Him, because we can't help but live for Him, because we can't help but rejoice.

Even when we have to do those things that somehow we don't really care to do, but somehow we would rejoice in the Lord. It is not a rebuke for not serving, it is a rebuke for serving with a wrong spirit. Oftentimes our delight turns into drudgery.

That word drudgery in Mr. Webster's dictionary (don't you love Mr. Webster's 1828 diction- ary), he said drudgery is hard labor, toilsome work, ignoble toil, in other words it is the kind of work that a slave would do.

It is really sort of like this, it is beneath you. I don't mean this wrong, but I am amazed at some people who feel that work is beneath them. I have watched men that maybe have gone through a tough time. A fellow that is used to making over $15.00 an hour or more and maybe the only thing that is available now is $8.00 or $10.00 an hour, and I have had them say to me, I am worth more than that. Well you may be worth more than that, but if your family is going to eat won't you settle on that until something else comes along?

We had one of our good men years ago who had been working at a place for years and his direct supervisor above him got fired. So they removed the staff, and so, of course, he lost his job. He was in his fifties and he had to literally start over again. He went to find work and they would say, you don't want to work here, you are over-qualified. He would say, well I may be over-qualified but right now I am underpaid so I will take whatever I can get, because I want to feed my family and I don't want to lose my house.

Hey, it is no wonder that man had a lot of integrity and character and no wonder that all three of his children are now adults, serving the Lord Jesus Christ. They learned from Dad that there is nothing beneath you if it is hon- orable.

Sometimes we look at the Lord's work like it is too hard for us, we deserve a better place. I went home to preach last night and boy we had a wonderful service. I thank the Lord for safety traveling back. I didn't want to miss this morning. Boy, I have been blessed every service Bro. Jerry. God has spoken to my heart and I don't know the reason but I know this, every time we are here we say it, "I believe this is the greatest camp meeting we ever had. The preaching has just been so great."

Guess what, it was great the time before, but you know we came expecting God to do something and He hasn't let us down. I don't have time, I am too old and these preachers are too old to even get moved with false flattery, but you all have helped me this week. Brother Farley has helped me this week. I have already called a couple of guys, in fact I have called several guys and said you have to order the Cd's. You didn't get to be there, you have to order these, you will like this message, it will help you. You say it may not help them. but it helped me so I figured it will help them too.

But think about this, because Israel, and by the way God is warning them in this chapter. Can I tell you what he warned them would happen, did happen? Because even as they began to serve Him they grumbled, they griped, they complained, they murmured, they bellyached, they got upset, they did all kinds of things that irritated God and because Israel disobeyed, they eventually faced the curses of this chapter. I won't take time to tell you all of them, but let me just highlight.

God said to them in verse 49 and 50, if you serve me without gladness of heart you are going to get invaded. Verses 49 and 50. And by the way, sometimes we start letting our guard down with just the wrong spirit and guess what, we are going to get invaded. The Bible says, "Neither give place to the devil." That word place is like an easement, a right-of-way.

Just because you are saved doesn't mean the devil is not going to come after you and attack you and try to gain an inroad into your life. He can't have your soul but I want to tell you what, he can affect your spirit and he can gain some ground.

One of the reasons a lot of people never get victory is because they have failed to put a stop to the easement or the right-of-way they have given to him. They have allowed things in their life that have set up an easement or a right-of-way/ I am telling you if someone has an easement to our property in the real estate, the only way you can change that is go to a court of higher authority and have that removed.

You listen to me, you and I are no match for the devil. If we are going to get him to stop invading our life, we are going to have to take it to a higher court and let God close that gap and not allow him to run roughshod over our life. He said you will be invaded, you will be a wasteland, verse 51, The enemy will eat your crops and they will devour the blessings of the Lord. You will be besieged, verse 52. He said the walls are going to get torn down.

All across America the walls are going down. You let your walls down, you let your gates down, and by the way the walls speak of your separation. One old preacher years ago said it like this, he said the walls are the emblem of your salvation.

That is what people see outwardly is supposed to be a reflection of what is there inwardly. All across America we are letting the walls down. There are too many walls being let down. I understand we are living in a day and age when it is not maybe popular to preach holy, Godly living, but we need to guard the walls.

We need to keep the walls up. We have let too many walls down and as a result of that we are a reproach. That is what Nehemiah said about the people of God. You have become a reproach. Why? Because the world knows there should be something different about our life. The walls speak of the emblems of your salvation and the gates speak of the testimony of your praise. We have a lot of people that are supposed to be praising God, but they have let the walls down and I believe it is falling on deaf ears.

There is a church somewhere down south that is called "Without Walls Community Church." I don't know anything about that church, but I will tell you this, they are saying to the world you can come in our church. By the way they never finish this sentence. You know that church that says come as you are. Don't misunderstand me, that is how sinners come, "Just as I am without one plea and that thy blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come."

I am not talking about people having to have standards before they can walk inside the door of our church. We have folks saved week after week. We have little children ride the bus who have never been taught anything. I don't have a hateful spirit.

Women walk in our church and they don't have our standards. I don't spit on them. I don't run them out the door, I try to love them to Christ. I am not talking about that. I want to tell you when we say to the world come as you are and the rest of that sentence is live as you please, we are not making an impact on this world.

Our churches don't need the philosophy of just come and live as you please, do as you want. We don't need the wine drinking, adult fellowships, "wine is still a mocker, strong drink is still raging," God is still completely and totally against liquor, it is still wrong.

It is not only still wrong to drink it, it is still wrong to look at it. I still believe Billy Sunday had it right, when he cried out to get rid of that in America. We were lied to by the politicians who said if we bring it back, they will never allow liquor by the drink. It will just be packaged. I think they lied to us. It has hurt our country, no doubt about it. It is costing us more than we are making. The revenue they are making off the liquor, we are spending a lot more paying for the damage.

I am not going to get on a bunch of side issues, but that is one. Besieged. And not only that he said there will be famine and sickness. By the way, the reason there is a lot of famine in our land is there are too many churches who don't have a Bible anymore.

They will be few in number he said in verse 62. He said you are going to find the day that your effectiveness will be gone. I just want to say we are not going to win America to God by going out wallowing in the same mud and dirt. I know we have to go where the sinners are, but don't mis- understand me, if we don't make a distinction. I am for going into the prisons, I am for going into the places where people are, I like that kind of outreach, but we don't go in there to become what they are so they can become what we are. We go in there to reach lost people so they can see Christ can make a difference in their lives.

If we are going to do what they are doing, you don't drink to win a drunkard, you don't smoke to win a smoker, you don't do drugs to win a dope-head, there needs to be a line of distinction.

They were scattered among the nations. We know this propheti- cally happened to Israel, but you know what happened along with their scattering was idolatry. Here is what sickens me, that God's people who had been delivered from Egypt could ever begin to worship at the altar of another god. I think in a lot of our churches and yea in even some of our Baptist churches, they have left God out.

God is gone from the music program. Everybody has you know their opinion, everybody has desire for balance and I am not here to pick or tear anybody apart. I am not talking about dead music. I am not interested in going to a service where the music is so dead, dry and dull, there is no life. I am not talking about that. If you read your Bible they had some happy music in the Bible, but it wasn't rock 'n roll. It wasn't heavy metal.

It wasn't going around and surveying the crowd like Rick Warren said and find out what kind of music you listen to and what kind of radio station you listen to. We will just survey the crowd and whatever the most of the people like, that is the kind of music we will have. That is not what I am talking about. Listen to me tonight, the devil is getting an inroad in our churches in the music.

I love music, love testimony. I am glad Bro. Jerry has said it again and again, preaching is the paramount part of the service. It is sad there are a lot of churches today that are leaving preaching out. I have had people say, well people are turned off by preaching. Well no kidding. The Book says the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But I am not going to quit preaching just because the world doesn't under- stand why we preach.

I like it when new people come to our church and they have never been where preachers yell. You don't have to be a loud mouth like me, you don't have to run the aisles like some other preachers do, I am not saying that, but it is just kind of fun. It is kind of exciting. What is more exciting is when they come and they are looking at you like woe, this guy is yelling. Then they hear people out there saying "Amen, brother, That's right." They think, these people not only listen to this guy, they seem to like it. Maybe I will listen.

Years ago one of our men got saved and it shook his family up so bad. He got saved and he quit everything. Yeah, I know some people have to grow, but God did such a work in his heart his life changed. He had sat in church for two and a half months saying he was all right until he got saved one day. Then he quit drinking, he quit smoking, he quit his worldly music, I mean, boom, his life just radically changed.

It shook his family up so bad. They said here is what we are going to do. We are going to go check it out. So they sent his brother and sister-in-law to check it out. They came to Sunday School. They sat through Sunday School and then came for preaching. They sat through preaching and they walked the aisle and trusted Christ as their savior. Some of the other family said, well he will get over it. He testified the other night that it has been nineteen years or more and he hasn't gotten over it yet. I think that is all right.

The Christian life that is joyless is a discredit to God and a dis- grace to itself. Let me close with the

REMEDY

For The Believer

REJOICE

I am not only supposed to serve God, I am supposed to serve Him with gladness. I am supposed to serve Him with joy. Remember what all He has done for us. I don't care if you are having a bad hair day, you are still supposed to rejoice in the Lord. I don't care if you are broke, you still ought to rejoice in the Lord. I don't care if you are sick, you still ought to rejoice in the Lord. You say, well wait until you are there. I have been there -- broke and sick. You can still rejoice in the Lord because He is still on the throne. You say preacher, what is the remedy? Well let me just say, maybe you are serving Him, but you have lost your joy.

REFUSE TO STAY IN A SLUMP

Did you ever notice an old boy that gets up to bat and he can't get a hit, and people will say something like this, well he is in a slump. That means he hasn't been hitting in a while. Guess what, he doesn't quit swinging. He picks up the bat and goes after it again. Down inside there is hope that he is going to connect one more time with the ball.

If I can just hit it one more time. If I can just swing one more time. I don't care how big a slump you have been in, you hit the ball and get on base and all of a sudden they are not talking about your slump anymore, they are talking about your success.

Hey child of God, just make up your mind, I am not going to let the devil beat me down. I am not going to stay in the slump. You may get discouraged. Let me just say this, I am always nervous about the preacher that says he has never been discouraged. I heard a preacher say that one time. He said I have been preaching x-number of years and I have never been discouraged. He is out of the ministry, but he had never been discouraged.

I am all for shooting for perfection, I really am. Bro. Danny, that was a great message. But I still have enough imperfection that every once in a while I get dis- couraged. I will tell you how bad I am. I hate it if somebody gets mad and they say, "we are not coming back to church."

Now I may be right and they may be wrong, but it still breaks my heart. You say, why? Because I love them. You don't pastor over twenty years in the same place without making somebody mad. I have even made my wife mad once or twice.

I have been discouraged. You can be discouraged and you don't have to be defeated. You can be discouraged and you don't have to throw in the towel. You can be discouraged and get over it. Just refuse to stay in a slump.

REFRESH WITH SCRIPTURES

Refresh yourself with the Scriptures. Just get back to the Book. Well I am discouraged, what am I going to do? Well how about Nehemiah 8:10, "the joy of the Lord is our strength."

How about Psalms 5, verse 11, "But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee."

REJOICE WITH SINGING

I am sick, what can I do? Well I am trusting the Lord so I guess I will just rejoice. If you love the Lord you can go ahead and rejoice, you can go ahead and be happy. You can go ahead and be excited. Let me say, renew yourself with singing. You may not be a singer but if you are saved you have a song. You may have to get in the shower, you may have to get in your car, you may have to go on the back forty, but if you are saved, you start singing. He will bring the joy back.

Psalms 27:6 says:

"And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord."

Just sing. Well you know sometimes I get discouraged and just a song – that is why Bro. Jerry wants you to learn these choruses and these good songs guys, because the devil is going to try to discourage you, but just sing. Sing, Make a joyful noise and be glad, rejoice, shout for joy.

You know there are a lot of times I shout for joy. Whooo! Glory to God, I am so happy, and there are some days when I shout FOR joy. You know, Here joy, here joy, I need you. Where are you? Come on joy. But listen, you start singing a song and all of a sudden joy will show up. Let me say last, remember who it is you are serving. Psalms 35:27 says:

"Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant."

SERVE HIM WITH GLADNESS

You are not serving men. We may serve each other but we are really not serving each other. We are serving Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. I am the pastor of our church and we have men on staff, but you know it really doesn't matter. God placed me there as the leader, but the bottom line is I am there to serve the Lord.

My staff may serve me as I pastor that church, but the truth of the matter is they are there to serve the Lord. And the people of that church may labor together with the preacher, but the truth of the matter is we are there to serve the Lord.

As long as I remember that, guess what, I won't get a rotten spirit, I won't say, well, I can't believe the preacher has asked me to do such a thing. I can't believe they want me to, I can't believe they – oh yeah, I get the new guy job.

"I will serve thee, because I love thee," not because I have to. He has been so good, the least I can do is serve Him. I don't just want to serve Him, I want to serve Him with joy and gladness. Why? Because each step I take I am just a little bit closer to getting to see Him face to face. Amen. V