I'm going to take it behind with a turn and do it around me 28, 28.45. Do it around me 28.45. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall sue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkest not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments, his statutes, with his commandment, which he commanded thee. And they shall be upon thee for a sign, and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever, because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart for abundance of all things, therefore shall Thou shalt serve thy 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 hath destroyed thee. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee again for Thy mercies and blessings in Christ Jesus. that you would give us a rejoicing heart, that we might rejoice in the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, and share the love of Christ that's in us, that God Almighty might be glorified and magnified, and through His dear Son, Jesus Christ, that in all things, Lord, we look to Thee, that You'd have mercy upon the lost, upon the saved, that You would use this message to the honor and glory. I just thank Thee and praise Thee, in Jesus Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. Serve the Lord with gladness is the title of the message and that is from 47. I do want to read just a little bit out of the first part of Deuteronomy 28. You find the first part is blessings if they serve God and the latter part is curses if they don't. And it shall come to pass that thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shall thou be in the city. Blessed shall thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of the ground, and the fruit of the cattle, and the increase of thy kind, and of the flocks, and thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shall thou be when thou cometh in. Blessed shall thou be when thou goest out. And so we see that the first part of it is blessings if they serve Him, and if He will, curses if He don't. But 47 says this, Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things. And when we think of that, if you will, let's just real quick look at 3215. It says, But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked that all waxed fat. Thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. And he forsook the God which made him, and highly esteemed the rock of his and lightly esteem, excuse me, the rock of his salvation. And we can be going through the motions and sometimes we think about the law as do not, touch not, taste not and so on and so forth. And we think it's something that's just hard or cold hearted or something like that. But what God was saying, that they should serve Him with gladness of heart, they should rejoice in the things of God. But we can be just as guilty. We can go through all the motions of worship, go through the motions of serving the Lord, but if we don't rejoice in the things of the Lord, then we're just like they are. If you will serve Him with gladness and in love, then we're not doing any more than what they were doing. And so God requires that not only that we serve Him, but we rejoice in our service unto Him, that we love Him even as He has loved us, and if you will, with joyness of heart. Now this doesn't mean that you have to jump down and jump a pew and dance around the pulpit or something, but it does mean that when we sing unto the Lord, we sing with joy and gladness of heart. I mean, what has anybody ever done for you what Christ has done for you? Nobody. I mean, there's nobody in the world or outside the world that's done for you, what Christ has done for us, that He, if you will, calls out darkness into His marvelous light, delivered us from hell, that we would be in glory with Him forevermore, and we know we don't deserve any of that. I mean, to be with Jesus and to be able to walk with Him and talk to Him and so on and so forth, and we see Him face-to-face, I mean, that would be more than any of us deserve. And yet, that's the way it's going to be. I mean, we don't know exactly, you know, the parables talk about putting you over five cities and so on and so forth. We don't know exactly what we're going to be doing in glory, but whatever we're going to be doing in glory, if you will, and we're not worthy of it, and just be a blessing by God unto us. In Philippians it says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. The word rejoice is to be in a state of happiness and well-being. Rejoice and be glad in the Lord. And Psalms 100, the first couple of verses, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with singing. Nonetheless, we're serving God with the gladness of heart, which emanates from the inner man. It is not something that comes from the outer man, because let me say to you, the outer man doesn't love God. Our flesh principle is to do sin and not do righteousness. And so we are to, if you will, lay down or put off the old man and put on the new man, and that we serve him in gladness of heart. Especially when we worship God, this worship should come from the inner man, and we shouldn't just be going through the motions, you know. And sometimes we can get callous like that. We come to the service and sit there, and you can be serving the Lord with gladness, and the person right next to you not be serving the Lord with gladness. And so we have a responsibility. And in verse 47, the reason I chose that one, it says, Again, because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. And for God, the blessings that God has given us, that we should serve Him with gladness. There in Psalms 4, book of Psalms 4, 6, And it says, There be many that say, Who shall show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, and thou shalt put gladness in my heart, more than in the time of their corn. and their wine increased, and so he had more joy, if you will, than getting a bunker crop, more joy, if you will, than those who get drunk and seem like they're carousing, singing, and all the things that sometimes drunks do. Some things produce gladness of heart. In Proverbs 10, 28, the hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. And so we know that Jesus is coming. He's going to take us up into glory. We don't know when He's going to take us out. We know what day that is or hour or minute or second, and most of us think, Well, tomorrow it's going to be like today and so on and so forth that we go through our lives in that way, but we should also have the expectation that THIS might be the day that the Lord comes. I see people say, well, you know, this is the reason that the Lord could come down. They come with all these different things. Let me say, when Jesus said He could come at any time, I just took His word for it. I don't have to worry about where the nations line up, whether the United Nations, diet, foreman, that was fulfilling prophecy. And I do think it was, but that doesn't destroy or do away with what Jesus said, that we better be ready because He could come at any time. The joy of the Lord is the saint's strength. Nehemiah 8.10, this is the latter part of that verse, it says, Neither be sorry for the joy of the Lord, is your strength. And so sometimes we think about strength, we think about body building and so on and so forth, but the true strength that we have is our joy in the Lord. If you're happy in Jesus, then that'll make everything else be a lot better. And just like we've all, when I was a kid, I had to do things I didn't like. Usually it was anything my dad said I should do, that's what I didn't like. But if you're happy in your work, if you will, then you find it goes by a lot faster, and if you will, it's not a drudgery, it's a blessing, and usually I could work like that when I was a kid when somebody was paying me, but yet we as Christians should be like that without pay. That which God has promised us should be sufficient to give us the joy to deliver us from our sins and our wicked ways. I was glad when they said unto me, let me go into the house of the Lord. There in Psalms 22 and 1, and so we should be joyous to be in the house of God, joy and praise and rejoicing because we trust the Lord in Psalms 28, 7 and 8. And it says, the Lord is my strength and my shield and my heart. trust is in him, and I am helped before my heart greatly rejoices with my song. Will I praise him? The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed." And so we could, there's passages in Isaiah 12, 3, and, Behold God is my salvation. And he speaks of the draw water in verse 3, it says, Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." And we don't have, if you will, just a little well. We have an abundant, overflowing well of salvation wherein God has saved us. It is not just barely saved. We are fully saved. Not just barely going to make it into heaven. I like to use it sometime for people to just get in by the fire, as mentioned in I Corinthians 3. But in reality, we're all, if you will, going to be in glory, and whichever way we get there, it will be great and wonderful. We should desire that God will be able to say, Thy good and faithful servant, that we've been faithful in our service unto Him. And part of that faithfulness, if you will, is to continue in His love, as mentioned in John 5, 9. And He says, even as I kept my Father's commandments and abided in His love. So we should be those that follow the Lord Jesus Christ, that we do those things that He says. We don't do the things He tells us not to do. And no, we're not under law. We're under grace. and we serve the Lord because we love Him, not because we HAVE to. We do these ten things, then we'll make it to glory, and as the Jews found out, they was never able to do that. I mean they never was able to keep any part of the law. Sometimes they would, if you will, SERVE the Lord as they OUGHT to, and part of that is rejoicing in the Lord. but they never ever, if you will, served God wholly and completely. And God blessed them in the sacrifices and all this that they could be sanctified, but the only way they could be saved is like David and the rest, that they believe on Him that was to come. Rejoicing in our salvation and tribulation, which builds good and strong character, there in Romans 5.1, Romans 5.1. And it says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into the grace wherein We stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And we'll read verse 5. And hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Now, it's easy to rejoice in the Lord when everything's going perfect. It's easy to do that. And you've got a raise at work and bought a new house or whatever. You know, everything's going great. It's easy. When everything goes wrong, you need a new roof, and if you will, it seems like you might be laid off or you've got some kind of sickness, and these tribulations that we go through, we should be able to worship God and rejoice in the Lord as we do when we're having what we would call good times because the good times of the flesh, if you will, they don't bring eternal good things. They're only temporal. They last just for a little while, and the blessings of the day, I'm talking about in the world, will be the curse of tomorrow. And we rejoice not in iniquity, but we rejoice in the truth. We don't take pleasure in wicked things, evil things, and because we are the children of God and set a standard that God has given us to set, the standard is Jesus Christ. He didn't go around about doing evil and it should cause us to rejoice. And he said, well, I can't do that because I'm a Christian. I was talking to a person one day, well, we can't do that because we're Christians. Everything they couldn't do, they wanted to do, and they were just miserable because they couldn't do those things because they were Christians. And I said, I think you're looking at it the wrong way. And I said, we do these things or refrain from things because we love the Lord and it pleases Him. And if we really love the Lord, then we want to please Him. I mean, that's just natural. to want to please the one you love, and if we love God with all our heart, with all our might, with all our soul and strength, then we want to please Him. In Romans 12, 12, rejoicing in hope, patience, tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, and 1 Peter 1, 8, whom having not seen you love, and whom though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And we're reminded in the first part Peter's epistle where he's talking about that we're tested or tried by fire, and later on he speaks about the fiery trials. And so the Christian life is going to have trials and tribulations in it. It's going to have times when we're not under those trials and tribulations. It's going to have high times and low times, but we're to love the Lord as much as when it's high or when it's low, and rejoice in the Lord because He is the one that's watching over us. And let me say, when you get sick or you have problems or a family member gets sick, sometimes it's hard to rejoice in the Lord. And this is talking about from the heart because you're so concerned about these things that's going on. By the grace of God, we can rejoice in the Lord. And it is not of us. If it's of us, we'd never do it. But it's of God and by His mercies that we, even in trials and tribulation, we can worship Him as we ought to. And verse 47, again, because thou servest not the Lord thy God, but joyfulness and gladness of heart and abundance of all things. How often did Israel suffer? You know, Terry's got that chart, you know, and they would go away from God, and oh, then God would punish them, and then they'd come around. They have a judge. They repent and serve the Lord for a while, and then the same cycle, because they love the things of the flesh more than they love God, was used as the problem. And we see that cycle they went through, because of their lack of rejoicing in the Lord and the things of the Lord. When they served the Lord, it was kind of just like going to school or something. And I had a teacher that if you didn't do right, take that yardstick. No, it was the 12-inch ruler. Another one used a yardstick on my head. The other one, just a 12-inch ruler, just slapped me on the back of my hand. She didn't think I was acting right in class talking to other people and things like that. The point I'm making is that this is the way they served, you know, as if I can hide from God. They put the idols down underneath the temple there in a room that didn't have any windows in it, and you know, God gave Ezekiel a vision of taking him down there as if they would dug through that wall, and he's seen all their images all over the wall, and he says this is what Israel was doing. They was getting by with it because upon the surface in the temple, then they were serving God as they ought to, but down in their little room, if you will, they was worshiping Baal and other such gods. And so we see that God knows everything that's going on. He knows our heart also, and sometimes it's really hard to rejoice in the Lord. We just need to look to God for grace that we might do so. There is an accompanying emotion of dread in Isaiah 8, verse 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. Now, when we think about the, this is speaking, of course, of the fear of the Lord, and if we're going to DREAD anybody, we dread, if you will, Him when we get into sin of our offense against God, but also the chastening hand of God. God chastens those whom He loves. If you're without chastisement, you're not His. So he's chasing. Some people seem to rejoice in the Lord, and they, if you will, they dread the devil, and they love the Lord. And they talk about this, you know, and some of you may have not been around this, but where they got what I call enchantments and good luck things and things like that to ward off the devil. instead of putting your hands in the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, I was brought up with some of that foolishness, so I know how it is. And then good Christians can be drawn into it. And they say, well, you don't walk under a ladder and all that. Well, if you walk under a ladder and somebody's standing up, he might drop a wrench on your head or something. But it's not going to bring you bad luck, seven years bad luck, breaking a window, I mean, a mirror and so on and so forth. And people DREAD the devil or dread that power. We're not to dread him, we're to dread God. Whether you break a hundred mirrors or whatever it is that we might get into, we're not to dread the devil or wickedness or evil or what some person over here who's supposed to be a spiritualist can put a curse on you. To me, I can't understand why any Christian would fall for any of that stuff. And she was from Alabama, but this was in Illinois, and she said, well, Jesus ruled in heaven, but the devil ruled on the earth. And I said, where did you get that? She said, well, she's talking about, and I don't remember the town now she's from, but that's what they taught. And Jesus rules in heaven and the devil rules on the earth. Let me say to you, that's not it at all. Jesus rules over all. Everything's under His control. In Isaiah 45, 6 and 7, that you may know that from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord. And there is none else. I form light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Amos 3, 6, shall the trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city? And the Lord hath not done it. Yes, God's in control of tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms, and you just name it. He's in control of it. And these things, sometimes they're warnings. Somebody says, well, it's just a way of life. Truly, we live in a wicked, sin-cursed Earth, and there is a penalty that comes with that, if you will, because we're all fallen creatures, and as our country waxes worse and worse, then I think we'll probably see more and more. But it is the Lord that's in control of it. The devil doesn't control it. The government doesn't control it. It's not because we didn't plant enough roses or daisies or something. And if we just planted some more daisies, we wouldn't have this trouble. Or Mother Nature wasn't so unhappy with us. We wouldn't have those things out in California and those floods and all this, that, and the other. Let me say, Mother Nature's not. There is Father Nature, if you will, and the One that created all things through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is in control of all things, and we should take it as at the hands of God. After an earthquake out there, they were interviewing different people, and one of the persons they interviewed, there was a lady, and she said, well, it was God, the hand of God. And they got more bad press, or letters, or people said, well, no, God didn't do that. And she was standing in front of an apartment building that had collapsed on the first floor. And so while later, she was back on there again, said, well, it's just nature. Let me say to you, what's an earthquake, thunderstorm, a light rain, no rain, a desert condition or flourishing condition, God is in control of all things. If we owe anything, we owe it unto the Lord. And it says in Amos again 3.6, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and a people not be afraid? Shall there be an evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? I was thinking about the trumpet that blew in the city, and of course that was warning enemies coming. And so they blow that trumpet to make a warning and here, I can't remember what day it was now, the alarm or the siren or whatever it was went off and I think they was having a tornado warning in Coolman. I don't know why that one was going off, but that's a similar thing. When the siren, if you will, sounds, it is not the devil's done it or some other man's done it, if you will, is the cause of what Christ has done. And it says, shall there be evil in the city? And he has not done it. And the judgment of God comes in mysterious and untoward ways that we can't figure out. but nonetheless he is in control of all things. The world will believe the lies and lying wonders because they receive not, if you will, the power of God or the grace of God. There in II Thessalonians 2.9, 2 Thessalonians 2.9 Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, power in lying wonders, and with all deceitfulness of unrighteousness in them that because they received not the love of truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, and that they might be damned who believed not in the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness." And then in Revelation 13.8, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And the lech will escape because they will believe the truth in Matthew 24, 24. And there shall rise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect. And the only thing, if you will, in that day when it talks, in Sumner, if you will, we have those things going on, but it anticipates as toward the end comes that the lying wonders and signs, that if it were possible, the very elect would be led astray. And the only reason that they'll not be led astray is because Christ will keep them and will not follow antichrist. But the WORLD will go after Antichrist, and they'll think he's the greatest person, being that ever existed! And they'll follow him, and those that follow Christ, of course, they will try to annihilate or to wipe out. And this marks the difference between God's truth and His people and the wicked and, if you will, what they call THEIR truth and THEIR people is we're protected by God. We're delivered by God. He watches over us. We're to serve God with joy and gladness. And if you're serving the Lord with joy and gladness, then you're safe. If it's a privilege that you feel like it's a privilege to serve the Lord, in Philippians 3, verse 1, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same thing to you, To you, to me, indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe." Now how many times did Paul in the book of Philippians tell them to rejoice? And if you've ever, I should have put the number in there, but I didn't, but oh, seven times. Rejoicing in the Lord and the things that he's telling them, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. Philippians 4, 4, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. The whole word of God is for our safety. It is that we might know the mind of God in things, that we might know which direction to take, that we might know where to stand, and if you will, where not to stand. We're not to be led astray by the workers of Antichrist, the workers of the world, if you will, false religions, and some religions that we say, Well, they're not really false. They believe what we do, but they've gone astray. And this is the way Israel did. They would first go astray. Then they go into final wickedness. And so we are to serve the Lord with gladness, and if it offends other people who say they're Christian, then so let them be offended. We cannot compromise, if you will, the Word of Truth, God's Word. And so, well, we can compromise here. We can have joint services. We can do all these things. No. If we love the Lord, then we'll love His Word and we'll follow Him. There in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians there in 7 and 9. And it says, Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. And so there will be times of sorrow. And as it mentions here, the godly sorrow work is repentant. And you know that what they had done there at Corinthians, this man they should have disciplined, didn't discipline, and then after they disciplined, they wouldn't have let him back in the church. I think he was the same person. So this is what he's speaking up there, that they should have let him back in the church because he had been sorry after a godly sword. He repented of his sin before God and they were to, if you will, bring him back in the church. Beholding and rejoicing in hope is truly safe and right. They're in Hebrews 3, 6. Hebrews 3, 6. But Christ has sent over his own house, whose house we are if you hold fast that confidence and rejoicing of the hope that is firm unto the end. There's nobody on the earth who's got any more reason to be happy than we. Whether they will win a World Series or whether they will win some other competition or receive a windfall in the mail or whatever it might be, those things are just temporal and they pass away. They might cause you to rejoice today, but they will not cause you to rejoice tomorrow. But the things of the Lord we can rejoice in every day. God has been merciful unto us, and when you think about Revelation 19, 7, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him for the marriage Now the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready. That's what awaits His people. That's what awaits the church, the bride of Christ, to be joined with Christ forevermore. The joy of the Lord is our strength, being zealous of good works. Joy in tribulation shows a rejoicing heart. Now it is time to consider our heart's dread and rejoice in those things. There's a lot of things that hurts us in this world. We get our feelings hurt easy sometimes, but those things are only temporal. When this body is gone, they will not make a bit of difference. And when we're in glory, you might be ashamed of them. I don't know about that. When this life is over, those things are just petty. They're just done away with and never to be brought up again. We enter the freeway and if you go to drive high speeds, then you should do that on a warm engine. and we come to the house of the Lord, we should, if you will, enter into His courts with praising, thanksgiving, and rejoicing of heart. It's like the utmost spiritual importance that we start our worship rejoicing, not from a cold, a cooled heart, but if you will, be zealous for the Lord our God. And let me say, you say, well, you mean sing fast songs? It doesn't have anything to do with the song. I mean, if it's ungodly, it would. But it had nothing to do with the song. It has to do with the heart. It has nothing to do with where you've got a player that can play 100 miles an hour or one can play one mile an hour. That doesn't matter. It's the heart and our service and worship of God that matters.