Working at your rejoicing
October 13, 2025
Bibles, if you would, to Philippians chapter number four. It is a familiar verse. My wife had put this verse and painted it on the wall in our dining room area for a while. I think we’ve taken it down; it’s painted over now. But Philippians chapter number four, and it is not verse number 13. It is verse number four. Philippians 4:4 tonight.
Philippians chapter number four, and just that one verse. We’re just going to get to that verse real quickly tonight, verse number four.
And the Bible says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” Would you read it or quote it out loud with me? Here we go: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”
Now, it’s found also very similar over in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. I’ll just read it for you: two words: “Rejoice evermore.” Interesting. Philippians 4:4. The only word that’s in there twice is “rejoice.”
Just a little bit tonight on this subject: How do you rejoice? Or working at your rejoicing, maybe a good way to put it. For just a bit tonight, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”
Would you pray with me that God would challenge you on this subject and me on this subject of rejoicing in the Lord? Father, I thank you for putting it in your word. Lord, you’re giving us what we need. Lord, now help me to really expound on it, if you would. Father, make it real to us. Lord, I do pray that it would help somebody. Let us be people of joy more, Father, because of tonight. And we’ll thank you, Lord, for what you do. Father, we’re asking for this in faith because we’re asking, Father, based on the merits of Jesus. So thank you for it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
A couple of just kind of statements as a way of introduction. Number one: Rejoicing does not mean that your joy is always full, and that you’re always like got this permanent grin on your face and you’re just always the same, full of joy and just flowing out of you. I wish it was like that, but that’s just not reality, and it’s not true of me or you or anyone else as far as besides Jesus, full of joy all the time.
Now, let me just kind of debunk a little bit. By the way, this is not a debunking of an independent Baptist thing; I think this is just a Christian thing. I’ve heard others say things along this line. In fact, I’ve said it before, probably from this pulpit years ago. But happiness has to do with the happenings in your life. And joy, something’s inside that doesn’t change; it doesn’t have to do with the circumstances around you. And honestly, I understand it’s a good thing. I’ve used before, heard people preach on that. But it doesn’t line up with the Bible.
And I just think I’ll go with the Bible instead of the Christian saying, you know, when everybody says what not, just go with the Bible. You say, “Well, do you have any proof of that?” Yes, yes, we do. Circumstances do affect your joy. Let me read through a couple of verses to point that out.
Third John, verse number four, it says, “I have no greater joy.” You know the verse—“than to hear my children walk in truth.” So your children walking in truth affects your joy. Is that right? Is that a circumstance? Here it is. Here it is. Plenty of places in the Bible, to be honest with you.
Proverbs 17:21: “He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy.” Wow. No joy. That’s the circumstantial thing. That’s a father of a fool. And so it’s a circumstance that does affect your joy.
So in him, I love someone, Ms. Brenda commented on it. It’s always a wonderful thing when you get back on the bus. We’ve all been out there, and it’s just been a good day, and people have been saved, and people, you know, got to give the gospel out. That bus is just full of joy. It’s a biblical thing. We used to call it years ago around here the joy ministry. Yeah, we did, because of Psalm 126, verses five and six: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Boy, you get back on that bus, God’s used you, and you’ve seen some fruit, and there’s just rejoicing, there’s joy going on. When you have the answer to prayer, man, that brings a lot of joy. The Bible talks about that, John 16:24: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Well, that’s something that happened in circumstance, if you will—God answers your prayer. Boy, it fills you with joy. So circumstances do affect our joy. You all with me out there? I know that’s not the typical thing, but we’ll just stick with the Bible, you know.
Then, I’ve said it years ago, I’ve said from this pulpit, you know, happiness has to do with your happenings and the surroundings and circumstances and all that, but joy is different to all that. And it’s kind of a cute, quaint little thing. But, you know, just talk about happiness.
Proverbs 16:20: I use this often at a funeral, the phrase out of here, but it says, “He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” Wow, doesn’t necessarily say anything about your circumstance, but just trusting of the Lord.
Psalm 146:5: Y’all with me out there? “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”
John 13:17: “If ye know these things, happy are ye, if ye do them.” A very familiar passage for us.
Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Sometimes it’s almost like happy is a bad thing. It’s a good thing, and it’s not necessarily because of the circumstances; it’s because who you’re trusting in and all and on and on.
Let’s go back to joy. Just trying to get us our thinking rewired a little bit on this thing of joy in particular. There are levels biblically of joy. Okay, remember I already read one verse said, “no joy.” We talk about you get your prayers answered; it gives full of joy. That’s the one I was going to read, John 16:24: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” First John 1:4: “These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” Psalm 61:1: “That was shown me the path of life: in thy presence is the fullness of joy.”
We’ve preached on it before, but over there, I don’t know if it’s Luke 15 or John 15, I think it is, where it talks about you can have His joy. Sometimes I’ll pray for someone—I pray this for someone to make every day: “Would you fill their joy container with your joy?” And so joy, you can have no joy, maybe a little joy, or your joy can be full, your joy container full of joy.
But this thing of “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice” does not mean that if you’re not full of joy, that you’re sinful. It doesn’t mean that. It says always. By the way, it doesn’t say always; it says always. I learned that because we painted it on the wall with always, and we were like, “Hey, that’s not…” You know, it says always. And some of the English professors will find out why. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t necessarily know why; I just know what the Bible says there. You know, but it doesn’t necessarily mean if your joy isn’t full that you’re living sinful.
Here’s the key thing about it before we really get to the message: Notice it says rejoice.
You see, all of us are battling to have our joy container full. And life and circumstances and people and problems and bills and aches and pains and Uncle Arthur and phone calls and news and everything—all these things are just kind of depleting our joy. And rejoicing in the Lord is always working at it. Not always there, but you’re always working at rejoicing, pouring joy, filling your joy container with joy.
Now, here’s the thing: It’s not a sin to have your joy full all the day. It’s not full all the time; that’s all right. But it is a sin to not be rejoicing all the time. See? To not be working at getting my joy full is a sin, because the Bible tells me I’m always to rejoice evermore. I’m to always be working at rejoicing or feeling full joy. When I’m not working at that, when I’m over in the corner having my pity party, or I’m a grump and I want everybody to know about it, or I’m mad at the world and I want the world to know about it, or someone says hi to you, you’re going to bite their head off—then that’s the sin, because the Bible tells me I’m supposed to be working at feeling my joy. I’m supposed to rejoice in the Lord always. Always. And again, I say, I’m supposed to be always working at that. Now, nobody’s going to be perfect at it, but I’m to be continually working at that, getting my joy back full and filled with joy.
Now, just for a little bit tonight, I think we kind of got a biblical thinking on it, I hope we do. Now let me give you just some thoughts, just some thoughts about how to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Just a couple thoughts, and we’re going to go home. Amen.
Number one: Identify that you have lost your joy. Identify. Don’t get used to the mother grumps. You can say amen right there. Don’t go out in front of everybody, “Yeah, every that wonderful one of them.” Go home and bite your spouse and your kids and the dog and the cat, everybody’s head off. You’re working at this thing of having joy. You’re not there, but you’re working at it. And don’t let that become your norm.
It’s so very important. I think often we lack discernment about ourselves. We don’t see it. Now, if you ask your spouse sometimes when they’re not worried about their answer, they may have some discernment about do you have joy or not. But you’re always working at this thing, and you’ve got to learn to watch yourself and figure out where you are. And I want to discern: Am I mean and mad or negative or just down in the blues half the time and I don’t even notice it? Where am I at? And I have to identify when my joy is going.
You know what your spouse wants? I can tell you what your spouse wants: They want you to have joy. I’m talking to the husbands. That’s what your wife wants. You can wave your wife. Hey, you know that? Yeah. Well, I’m like a happy husband, you know, joyful. And that’s what—that’s what your spouse wants. They want you to be joyful. And so, am I working at it? Have I just gotten towards the norm in my life to not have joy?
You know that individual. Praise the Lord, I don’t have anybody in mind here, and I’m glad for that. I don’t want to think about them too long, or else I will. How you doing? Oh, you better have 30 minutes. I’ll tell you about every ache and pain problem there is. I don’t want to be that. You know, and so watch yourself, identify, discern yourself, watch how your conversation and all those—identify that you’ve lost your joy. We’re just working at this thing, how to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.
Number two. Number two: Seek out when and why you lost your joy. You can’t control circumstances, and circumstances do affect your joy; they showed that biblically. But sometimes I lost my joy because of a circumstance. I don’t even identify it. And so I go there for about months or days or hours or years—I don’t know where it is for you. You know, you just go there. And so here, you can’t control circumstances, but you can’t control how you respond. And it’s going to deplete your joy.
I mean, you get a phone call and they say, “You got cancer,” friend, it’s going to affect your joy. I don’t care who you are. You get a bill, and that bill you thought was paid off, and you still owe $500—that’s going to work on some joy there. Come on, I don’t care who you are. But, okay, that’s when I lost my joy. That’s when I lost it. So-and-so said something to me over there, and well, that just hurt my family. I said, my, that’s not bad. “And great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” If “offend” doesn’t mean it doesn’t—you don’t get your feelings hurt and affected—it’s going to affect you. It’s all right; you’re human; you got emotions. It means offend biblically means it stops you; it stumbles you; you’re not living for the Lord. That’s what it means to offend. But you say, “Well, that did affect me.” But now, okay, you identified: That’s when I lost my joy.
The boss said, “We’re thinking about laying off, and you’re going to be the first one on the…” You know, when it comes, you know, okay, that’s affected you. But I identified it. Now I can work at this rejoicing and how to respond to that circumstance. See? And I can work at rejoicing in the Lord always. All right, God’s going to provide. I can file for unemployment for a little bit and get a vacation. Somebody said, “Yeah.” But you can work at that thing, however it may be.
Look, you cannot control your circumstances, but you can control how you handle the circumstances, and that determines if you are rejoicing or not. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” Look, if your child goes astray, that’s going to affect it. It’s biblical. “He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy.” All right. So that’s why I got no joy, and I’ve got to work at this: rejoice, try to fill it back up. That’s part of it. Always working at this thing. Always.
By the way, okay, someone said something, someone did something that hurt you. It affected your joy. I understand that. But if you’re blaming them for that for the next 20 years, something ain’t right. All right, I identify it. That’s all right. It’s going to happen, but now I need to start working at rejoicing in the Lord, getting my joy container filled up about me.
If your spouse is mad at you, first of all, you probably deserve it. Amen? I don’t know about that. But all right, that’s why you got no joy. All right, let’s work at rejoicing. Do I need to go back and say, “I’m sorry”? No, you don’t want to do that. Too hard to do. You might be humbling yourself. My goodness, what about that? Some of you are saying, “You know, I don’t want to do that.” But maybe you need to do that, and that’s the path to rejoicing: Go back and say you’re sorry.
Maybe you need to get along with the Lord or say, “Lord, what’s the truth? Are they right? Am I right? What’s going on?” Usually both are, you know, both got problems and issues there. “What do I need to do to have your joy in this situation?” But you’re just always working at rejoicing in the Lord, no matter what’s going on. And you’re seeking out when you lost your joy and why you lost your joy. Is there a sin in your life?
I remember John Rice used to tell us—I may not get it just 100% correct, but I didn’t dream it, and I did hear it. All right, so for the most part, it would be accurate. But he was preaching, and I think he preached on joy, and a lady, she went and got along with the Lord, and the Lord told her what happened, and she came back, and she said, “You know, I prayed about this. I’ve lost my joy, and I spent some time alone with the Lord, and the Lord told me when and why I lost my joy.” And he was like, “Why I lost?” She said, “When we lived way out in the country”—a lot of country people back in the day—“and she said, I’m just a country girl. She said, I witnessed everywhere I went. I was bold to witness, and she said, and I had so much joy. And she said, we moved to the city here, and I got intimidated by those city folks. I’m just a country girl. He said, I had a witness. I just—I quit my witnessing, and I lost my joy.” And, but she said, “You know what? I told the Lord, I’m going to witness.” I’ve been witnessing. I got my joy back.
Sometimes it’s sin in life. But I’m trying to find out when and identify why I’ve lost my joy. You may look at your schedule, and there are key times. Every preacher in the world, if he quits or he’s just discouraged or defeated, it’s either Monday or Thursday. That’s just… Church was down, so-and-so said this, my sermon didn’t go good, you know, all the rest of that. Monday. If you want to encourage a preacher, I’ll take it, but I’m not necessarily talking about me, just whoever. I love it if you encourage them, but Monday or Thursday, that’s just… And preachers joke about it, and it’s good for a preacher to know that. And you can work at it on those days. All right, that’s going to be… But you look at your schedule, whatever it looks like for you. Monday morning, I get them to go to work—that’s what I got out of, you know, whatever it is for you.
But look at your schedule. Maybe you’re too busy. Maybe you’re not busy enough. In Sunday school, we’re studying about Elijah. We didn’t get to hit this in my class, but maybe in your class it did. But Elijah was discouraged and defeated, and God was so good to him and fed him and took your nap and all. God was just very, very gracious to him. But it came a point, God said, “All right, let’s get back after it.” Get working. And it helped him get out of the mother grumps. Sometimes you’ve got to get back working for the Lord. But you’re always, you’re looking and you’re working at this thing.
And Lord, you know a good thing that can help you with rejoicing in the Lord? A good thing is music. Man, get you some songs. You know how it is. This is so true for me. I’ve got about three songs right now that are my songs right now, maybe four right now. Those are my songs, you know. Now, where are those songs at? I mean, two of them, I think, are on YouTube, two of them are on Spotify. I’ll play them about 15 million times in the next month, and then after that, you know, they’ve lost their power, you know, and I have to get another good song. But man, I know those songs, they do something for me. And I, man, I listen to those songs while I’m working at rejoicing in the Lord.
Don’t play those sad songs. Where did you should go? Just me and the dog, and I lost my truck, you know, tear my beer because I’m crying for you, dear. All those country songs, folks, you know. What’s the book they got? Chicken Soup for My Soul or whatever it is? They’re doing the sad books way. Some of y’all know what it is. I don’t know what it is. Anybody know what I’m talking about on that? Well, say it. What is it? What’s it called?
“Chicken soup for the soul.” Okay, I did have it. Okay. I don’t know that they’re going to help you to rejoice. I, you know, I don’t know if you’re about it. Hey, you know something that sometimes can help us rejoice in the Lord around our house? It’s true: Christmas music. If you hear us playing Christmas music around our house in July, we’re probably working at rejoicing in the Lord. And that’s all right. Doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible you can only play Christmas music at Christmas time. Music creates the spirit, and hey, use it. God gave us good music to use.
But you’re working, always working at rejoicing, get your joy back again. Music can be a great help. Number one: Identify yourself. Just watch. Have I lost my joy? It’s a sad thing when the norm is we have no joy. And the guy at work, you’re going to try to witness to him, and he’s going to play, “I don’t want the world they got.” You come in here, you’ve got some joy, you’re always working at this thing. They’re going to say, “All right, they got something. Let me talk to this.” Identify it.
And number two: Seek out when and why you lost your joy. And then number three. Number three, it goes more in line with “rejoice in the Lord.” There can be a lot; we’re not going to cover it all tonight. I haven’t written down in Landsberg life on and on. But look over in Galatians, if you will. Many of you will know this, Galatians chapter number five. Galatians chapter 5 and verse number 22. Galatians 5:22.
If you would please, once you find that, would you say amen? Notice what it says: “But the fruit.” Now, I want you to kind of see it for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want you to notice it doesn’t say fruits. It’s one fruit; it’s got nine flavors. Okay? It’s kind of like all or nothing, if you will. We’ll talk about that just a minute. But “the fruit of the Spirit is love, what’s the next thing? Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Even the communists like it when you’re happy, if you will. Against such, there’s no law.
I’ve already mentioned it, but it’s fruit. So here’s the thing that’s significant: It’s not fruits; it’s fruit. So it’s like one fruit that’s got nine flavors. How can that be? God—God gives it. It’s the Holy Ghost; that’s how it can be. It is amazing. When I have quenched or grieved the Spirit, you know, I’ve lost my peace, I’ve lost my joy, I’m not longsuffering with people. I may act it a little bit inside; I’m not gentle; I don’t have meekness, strength under control. A lot can be said about that. One thing is if I lose one of these things, something’s not right.
So I say this: All right, I’ve identified. I’m not—my joy’s not full. And I’ve tried to figure out why and when. I’ve tried to correct anything that needs to be corrected there. And then go to the Holy Spirit. So, for some reason, I must not be walking in the Spirit. I’ve quenched you; I’ve grieved you. Would you—would you—would you? I want to be right. Do I need to confess some sins? Something I need to get right? The Holy Spirit brings such a sweetness nothing else can bring. Now when the Holy Spirit’s working, it’s just sweet. That’s the best word I can describe it. It’s joyful. And go back to the Holy Spirit. So, Holy Spirit, I need you. I want you. I yield to your Holy Spirit, and I want to be right, and I need you.
By the way, why do you say, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” And you ask, Holy Spirit, I want you working again. And I need your Father, would you give me your Spirit? Give me the fullness of the Spirit again. You’re asking for that. You want that.
Something else about this saying, the fruit, the fruit of the Spirit: It’s one fruit. And by when I’ve grieved and quenched the Spirit, I’ve lost them. Then another thing is it’s interesting. It talks about the works of the flesh—that’s something we do, the works. But this is a fruit. You know, fruit doesn’t just boom up here; it takes a little while for fruit to grow.
And sometimes when I have quenched or grieved the Spirit and I’ve lost my love and my joy and my peace and my gentleness and longsuffering and all, I’ve lost my faith. And I say, “Lord, I’m so sorry.” And I need to say I’m sorry about confessing some things I want to—to you and to others. By confession is a good thing. You don’t want a good thing about when you’ve got to go back and say you’re sorry to somebody; you’re more apt not to do it again if you just keep it to yourself. Good chance you will repeat. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy.” And I’m not talking about, you know, spilling everything you’ve ever done to everybody in the world, but to the right people, it’s awfully good when you’ve got to go back and say you’re sorry. Confession is good for the soul. And you’re more apt to say, “I ain’t going to do that again,” you know. But, but, but, uh…
Then you get things right between you and the Lord, and that Lord, would you give me your Spirit again? You didn’t lose—He says indwelling. He has indwelling, but it’s empowering, and it begins to fill you. You yield to Him. It may take a minute for that fruit to grow, and you get your joy container full again by the Holy Spirit. You may take a little bit. Now I might want an instant boom. Well, fruit takes a little bit to grow. And you keep asking, you keep yielding, and before long, you’re rejoicing. They work at it. Just work at it.
Isn’t it interesting? “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” Rejoice evermore. Look over in Second Corinthians chapter number six real quickly here. Second Corinthians chapter—I want to just kind of see something real quickly. Three things, and we’re going to be done. And I was teasing with Jim and Angela that we’re going to have a short service called football tonight. And Brother Jim said, “You can’t land a plane.” I mean, I circled the airport about 20 times, so my joy went down. It was depleted. I’m working at filling the joy container back up now, you know.
Look at Second Corinthians chapter number six. I’m offended. This is Paul and his missionary team, and they’re talking to the Corinthian church. And it’s interesting. We’re trying to get down to something, so we’ll read a little bit quick part of this thing. Look at verse number three. Second Corinthians 6 in verse number three: “Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.” They said, “Well, we want to be good ministers to you.”
But in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
Did we have some sorrow? Did it affect us? Oh, yeah. But myself and our missionary team, we were always working at getting our joy back up. Always. And just try and challenge us all, myself too. Let’s work it. Always rejoicing. Always. You wake up with the mother grumps, the monkey on your back, and you will sometimes. All right, that’s not sin, but you’re responsible: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”
One more passage: Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. I believe when Jesus was on the cross, He was working at rejoicing. When He was going through all that suffering, that pain, that beating, I think, and I think it’s biblical. Look over in Hebrews chapter number 12, and verse number two. Hebrews 12:2. You there tonight? Amen? Good, good.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Who for the joy that was set before… Man, He’s on the cross. He said, “I’m going to go through this. I’m rejoicing because up there…” Who for the joy that was set before. Even in the midst of the cross.
Help me out. What’s our verse? Philippians 4:4. Let’s say it out loud, would you please? Here we go: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” One more time: “Rejoice in the Lord.”
See, I, Schofel, we mentioned him just a bit this morning. He was in Florida, and someone wanted him to visit a 101-year-old lady. Wow, she’s bedridden. And he was supposed to go and cheer her up and pray with her. And Schofel said, “I went there, and she began to talk. She was just full of joy.”
She said, “Yeah, I lost my husband years ago, about 50 years ago, lost my husband. And she said, then I’ve lost all my kids one by one. They passed away.” She is alone, if you will, a little bit. But she had been working at rejoicing. She had joy.
He asked her, Phil said, “Man, I went there to cheer her up, and it wasn’t 10 minutes into it, she’d cheered me up.” And he thought instead of me praying for her, he said, “I asked her, would you pray for me?”
“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” Would you bow your heads, close your eyes? Just a couple questions, and we’re going to have our invitation. Maybe you hear you say, “You know, I need to work at identifying where I’m at. Do I have joy or not? And when and why I lost it.” God spoke from my heart. I just—I need to get some discernment about this thing. God spoke to my heart about that.
That you not slip in a preacher. I need to work. I need to just work at that right there. Good, good. God bless you. Good, good, good, good. Me too. Me too. Good, good, good, good. Good, good. Good, good.
You say, “Preacher, I need to work at rejoicing always in the Lord, the tools He gives me.” God’s spoken. I’m going to work at this thing. I’m going to work at this thing. I’m going to work on Matthew and he’s lifting. I’m going to work. I’m going to work. God’s going to work. I’m going to work at it. I’m going to work at it. I’m going to work at this thing. I’m going to have word of prayer. You’ll be obedient to the Lord. God, Your Father, help us. You’ve given us so much. Have joy about. Forgive me, Lord. I get here there and yonder and I’m not rejoicing in You. Lord, help us tonight. Help us to take the challenge that You’re giving us in our heart to rejoice in You always. Thank you for it, Lord Jesus, and we pray, amen.
Would you be obedient to the Lord? Come spend some time with them. Let’s just work at this thing all the time: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” No, my joy container is not going to be full all the time, but I’m all the time to be working at filling it and getting it full again. Yes, circumstances will affect it, but I can control—not my circumstance, but I can control how I react to the circumstances.
Remember back in the day when there were answering machines? Remember that? You’d come inside your house, you’d go over there and you’d push your play and find out who called and all that. We had a guy call one time, and he thought we had been calling him, and he said, “This is not… this isn’t my…” You know, “You’re calling the wrong number. You’re asking for so-and-so. This is not so-and-so’s number.” He was mad. It was a country guy, and he kept saying, “Wish you could call him. Wish you’d quit calling me.” And it was just hilarious. I don’t know why; I just got my funny moment. It just cracked me up. And when I needed to rejoice, go over there, hit that button, man. We lost that thing. I told him about it. I wish we’d recorded it somewhere on a computer. Man, it helped me rejoice, I tell you what. Now, you know, but just—just work at it, however the Lord, how the Lord gives you. Rejoice in the Lord. Always. And again I say rejoice. Good to have you tonight. Appreciate you being faithful in the house of the Lord. Good to see everybody, and what’ll bless us. Good to have Mark Hardy here tonight.
The guy gets up like 3:30 every morning. Wow, man, he puts me to shame. Goodness gracious. Wow. You know, and he’s still here tonight. I appreciate that, Brother Mark. Would you dismiss with a word of prayer, please, brother.
Original File: 2025-10-13 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂And again I say, rejoice＂ - Sunday PM 10⧸12⧸2025