Special Guest: Randal Ross

So, years ago, before Pastor David came to Beltway Park, and we were just down in the chapel, long before the north campus or Beltway Ministry Center or any of that. Pastor David is working at a church in Lubbock called Trinity, under the leadership of a man named Pastor Randall Ross. And, and he grew so much in that time. He would tell you stories about that time at Trinity. It was at that same church that my dad, who's now our executive Pastor, he first got called into ministry, into vocational ministry. He was at that time, he was a realtor, and he's not here, he's in Israel. He was not a very good one. And, uh, and God called him into ministry in that church. It was at that church, under Pastor Ross's leadership, that I said yes to Jesus. The influence of Pastor Ross is felt all over these halls, whether you knew it or not. So much of what happens here has his fingerprints on it. And this morning, we are truly blessed to have him get to come and preach the word. So, if you will help me welcome Pastor Randall Ross to Beltway Park Church.

[Applause]

Turned out good at all. He was such a troubled children's church. Oh my Lord, oh my Lord. And watching you guys grow and be, just being here today is an honor to be with you. I am delighted to be with you. We love this church. Uh, I've never been invited to preach before, and I don't know why, but, uh, I'm happy to be here. Now, no, I always said, "Hey, I'm busy. You keep going and, and call me later on." Now, I'm somewhat retired in Sarasota, but I, my family was raised in West Texas. Good, dirt-eating, mud-fallen people. Yeah, Lubbock, Texas, man. I was, I was doing some physical therapy after a surgery down in Florida where I live, Sarasota, Florida. Don't move there, we're full. You got your own problem. We're full. And I said, "Hey," to my guy who was working on my neck, said, "Hey, where'd you go to school? Who are you?" You know, he says, "Lubbock, Texas. Red Raiders." You know. And I said, "Yay, guns up!" And everybody in the therapy went down, "Guns up!" You know, they didn't get the whole thing. I know that's not you Red Raiders, but, but I want to thank Texas for, uh, at least helping defeat Michigan after they humbled us two years in a row. If you're a football player, you understand. If you don't, that that's okay. I want to say thank you to David and Jeanette. What a journey. What a couple. You are so blessed with that pastor. This is a man. This man worked with me and was the only one who could keep up. And, uh, he didn't smile a lot, but he worked real hard. He worked really hard. And he traveled with me, and we prayed together, and he was passionate. Always been a man of excellence, integrity, and love for God. And what God has done in this place is a miracle. Can I hear it? Amen. And you need to honor that man and that woman of God. Would you give them a big hand? I don't think, I think they're traveling, but get Pastor David and give them, uh, Jeanette. Randy, turned everybody a great big. I think so. Uh, my wife Andrea, she'll be here second service. And when Pastor David asked me to come and speak to you, uh, I didn't know, you know, you got to have a word. How many to believe if you're going to fly in this day and age through DFW, you better have a word, right? It's crazy flying right now. But I said, "Okay, Dave, let me see what the word is." And I have a word from you from John chapter two. If you have it, your by your phone and your Bible with you, where it's gonna come on up. Put it now. John chapter two. And it's the most unusual guest message. So I want you to promise me. Say, "I promise." Raise your right hand. Raise your right hand. I, I promise to pay attention to not judge him before the end of the sermon. All right, put your hand down. All right, John chapter two is the miracle, the first miracle Jesus performs. John chapter two is part of the "I Am" statements of Jesus, and it is an interesting scripture. Now, now, when I'm going to read it in a minute, but I want you to realize this is not a text churches usually talk about, but I think we miss it. But I believe Beltway church can handle the truth. That is not well, we should start a sermon. I believe Beltway could handle the truth. Say, "Good amen." All right, son, I want you to watch this. We're going to talk about Jesus turning the water to wine. Now, I know some of you are just having a heart attack right now, you know, but I want you to remember something. When I'm, when we're talking about this, I was raised Holiness. I get this. Whenever God talks about wine in the Bible, particularly with Jesus, it's always, always, always referring to the joy of the Lord, the goodness of God, the joy. It's always that way. You're going to see that in a little bit on us. So instead of worrying about the cultural thing, which is not it, I want you to ask yourself this question. Listen carefully. If you had to choose a miracle to show your glory, and the Bible says in John 2, this miracle when Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding, I'm going to explain it to you, was his first sign, and he says how he chose to show his glory. Now, if you're going to choose to show your glory, you were Jesus, or I was going to represent Jesus, what miracle would you choose? I choose Lazarus. I love to get to a dead church and have someone come back to life, right? I'd like, I mean, what else can you do? Three days dead, Lazarus back to life, come on out. It's got to improve his glory. Or maybe to feed into 5,000, or whatever that may be. The lepers healed. Jesus chose, in spite of everything that I would want him to do, this miracle for a reason, in our life, for this generation, and for you and I today. Let's read it together. John chapter two. It's up there. Let me read here. Now, on the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus, what's her name? Mary. I know it's early. Mary was there. Now, both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that concern have to do with me?" Most misunderstood scripture on it. It's like offensive, but Mary knows what he's really saying. He said, "My time has not come." And after he says that, his mother Mary says to the servants, "Sing it out loud with me, please. Whatever he says to you, do it." That's it. Next one. Now, there were a set, there are six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons a piece. If you add it up, that's a possible 180 gallons. And Jesus said to them, "Fill the water pots up with water." And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it. And when the master of the feast, the mayor, whoever was, had tasted the water that was made wine by Jesus, he did not know where it had come from. But he, the servants who had drawn a water knew. And the master of the feasts called the bridegroom. I love this. And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out good wine." I was raised Pentecostal Holiness. I don't understand this. Some of you do. I'm going to let you go with that. All right. And when the guests have well drunk, they said, "In the inferior, you have kept a good wine until now." Big scripture. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and his disciples believed in him. Let me pray one more time. Father, thank you for this time together. May you open our hearts together. May you join us. May, Lord, you speak. If you don't speak and you don't work, it just doesn't work at all. So we ask you to breathe on our minds and our heart. Give us ears to hear what you're saying, eyes to see what you're doing, that a sleeve here changed and in your joy. And all God's people said.

First thing I want to tell you is, joy is serious. Say with me out loud, "Joy is serious." And always raise pretty strict. Well, again, Pentecostal Holiness, everything was wrong. Everything was wrong. We don't watch TV, uh, unless your parents weren't home. Uh, you know, you didn't even walk through a bar, you know? I mean, my grandmother was so holy, she didn't shave her legs. Now, ladies, I think this could solve a lot of less problems right now if you just, just think about the whole thing like that. So I was raised, I was raised really, really pretty strict on this. So in my, in my beginning, and my, when I came to, I was a drug, I was an asset head in college. And this crazy guy, and when I came to Jesus, I went full out to with Jesus, just like I said, like you just pull out, bore all the way for Jesus Christ. Did miracles, did awesome things in my life, didn't deserve any of it. But I was serious. I mean, I'm telling you, I was Mr. Serious in Bible school because, you know what? If you love Jesus, I thought joy was for the beginners, you know, those charismatics, you know, and those of us who wrote the word, "Yay, Lord, we greet thee blessings." You know, I just thought, I mean, honestly, I'm not being critical. I just thought that joy and happiness and something after I had visited the cross and after Jesus saved me, man, that that was something I didn't need. But if you take the time, when you go home, when you do your research out, if you'll study just how important joy is in the scripture, all of joy is about this, this power of God to renew you and keep you. For example, in Acts chapter 2, when Pentecost fell, remember it was early in the morning, 9 o'clock in the morning, and when Pentecost fell, what happened? The spirit of God came upon them, and they were praising God, and what did everybody think? They were drunk because in that culture, that ability to celebrate and to be dancing to whatever was part of that whole thing of joy. And Jen Peterson says, "No, these are not drunk. This isn't the earthly wine. This is the wine of God, the goodness of God poured out into our life." We used to sing songs, right, about joy all the time. It's, this is a tool for you guys. But, but it's the new wine that I've been drinking of. It's the new wine from some heaven above. It was always in the old days. He used to connect joy. Now, stay with me. When singing in the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit, or you got Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, right? When you have "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," God of heaven and all the thing. Now, I want to say with that, in the business, if you have that perspective in your life in the background, I want you to think how important joy is to this generation. I'm pastored a long time. I pastored all over the world. I passed it and preached to businesses and colleges and and train. I'm going to maybe tell a little bit about that. I've been everywhere, man, everywhere. And I got to tell you, after as I sit and I visit churches now, and I'm not always preaching, I just get to worship. By the way, what a great worship team, right? And I was going to say one thing. I watched this generation, almost every age group, struggle is joy. There's a spirit of heaviness and anger in the world. If you don't believe that, just now. I don't have to work as much as I used to, so I get to go on YouTube. It's, it's terrible. Don't do it. Have you heard about Mary? I mean, uh, Megan and Harry, they're crazy people. And people like me are watching on YouTube and searching about these two royalties in California who have nothing to do with my life, and it makes me angry. And my wife will say to me, "Why are you angry, Megan and Harry and Mary?" Well, turn the stupid thing off. No, I got to see more. Crazy world. Crazy world. I mean, you hear all this stuff about politics and what's happening and things along the way. And when I watch people now, so I'm pretty alert, and I'm watching people. What I see is a thing of heaviness and almost anger, even in the body of Jesus Christ. Oh, we love Jesus. Can I hear it? Amen. But this idea of lack of joy, I see it in the relationships at restaurants. I watch it on the faces, the loneliness. I see, you don't, you don't, you just see it there, right there. I want you to understand something. Listen carefully. Joy is spiritual warfare. The joy of the Lord is your. Come on, say it out loud. Nehemiah, the joy of the Lord is your strength. He said to him, "Do not be sad today. It's a holy day. It's a day of God's glory, of the whole thing. But do not let the enemy take your joy." Because if you don't have joy, you don't have strength. And what happens when a believer doesn't have strength? They get depressed, and they get discouraged, and they give up. That's what the enemy is trying to do. He comes to rob and to steal and to destroy. And we're so not familiar with the basicness of Godly joy and how important it is. We let him take it from us and not fight for it. Jesus said, "The words, the kingdom of God does not mean Paul did. Kingdom of God does not meet or drink. It's not what you eat and what you wear. It's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." I have come to give you life, and that more abundantly. We praise the Lord with kindness. And now, all I'm trying to say is, is that Jesus came, and the first thing he said that he wanted you to know, we're going to get to the points now. I'm going to kind of move along as he gets to this whole thing. He wants you to know that God is good. Do you believe that? Say amen. I want you to say it because when I preach to ethnic churches, they really get into this one. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. Say it again. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. Doesn't mean everything feels good. Doesn't mean you have to laugh and tell jokes. It just means that you won't have to know. Some of you may not be serving Jesus Christ, or you may not be fully devoted to Jesus Christ. I get it completely because I was scared to death of serving Jesus Christ because I didn't want to go to India. I said, "I thought you go to Africa, die on a cross, never be happy again." I didn't want all that. I get it. So Jesus comes and he says, "What does the Father want my children to know before they start the journey?" Yes, there's other things. There's righteousness and holiness and discipleship and spirit-filled and all these other things. But what does he want you to know as a convert in Jesus Christ to put in the basics on it? That he is good, and where he leads you is good. The Lord leads his sheep. Say amen. If we follow into green pastures and still waters, and the banquet table. And I had this vision when I'm praying at home because that's how I believe now. I was raised by intercessors, so my, my whole joy now is praying for like you guys and others and my family and whatever. London thing that there is like a desert and that needs the body of Christ, a renewing of that presence of happiness and joy, not in the world or in our health or in our finances, but in the Lord. Can I hear a good amen? And that's what Jesus says. The, the guy comes out, the mayor, I mean, these guys bring the water, who, 180 gallons. And the, the mayor of the, of the whole thing, he's stupefied because he says, "Normally, what you do is you bait and switch." You ever buy a used car? Bait and switch. "This car is great, you can have for two thousand dollars." You get to the parking lot, it falls apart. And he said, "Most people, they take, they give the good stuff first, and when others are a little bit dull along the way, they put the problem into it later on. They bring the inferior out." That's religion to you. Everybody will promise you everything. Buy this product, buy these shoes. I was told by the people who sold me shoes, if I bought these shoes, I would be cool. It's not true. It never happened. Not everything they tell you is true, but they want you to buy their product. But Jesus does the opposite. He tells you what he needs from you, and he gives you better than you ever dreamed before. I want to hear this. I said, "How important this is." Not only is God good, he is the only good in the world. When someone calls Jesus good, what did he say one time? "Only God." "Why do you call me good?" "Because only God is good." I mean, he does, um, we're going somewhere with this, okay? Stay with me. It may look like it's wrong. It may look like it hurts. It may make you mad. But if you follow him, you're going to end up someplace really, really good. That's God. He can't do, he cannot do anything else. Every good and perfect gift comes where? Costco's? No. Down from the Father, whom there is no variable or turniness. Every good and perfect gift. And that's what Jesus was saying. Not only is everything that, not as God is good, but he is more than you will ever need in life. Once you have him, he takes first place because he is the best. Are you listening to me? No, you're not. Let me tell you again. Religion robs your joy. It's only one rule after another. Jesus does something else. Better than you ever need, more than you ever need, always, always good. I was raised in a church. I am third-generation Pentecostal preacher, pastor, 28 ministers in my family, Baptist, Methodist, Assembly of God, independent, and who knows what else. Heathen, I don't know. And so I was always whining to see the world because I never always saw it in church. I kept hearing stuff like, "Y'all pray. Hold on till the end." You know, and I just never thought I wanted that. I just never, then I never thought I could do it. So I end up in college, university, and in university, I got involved in the '70s drug culture, and I became an asset head. I was dropping acid five times a week. You can't do that when you're pre-med in biochemistry. Lost. I was so angry, so angry. I mean, I, I just, I became an atheist. That didn't work. I became an atheist, and I was those kids on the street like you see now, fighting and burning. That was me. Angry. My, no, I told my mom one time, she tried to love me and touch me, I say, "Touch me, I'll kill you." I mean, I was stupid because the enemy had me. I was blinded. So Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, I had to drop out of college. I'm upstairs in my parents' house. Total loss. My life. I mean, went from first in my class to things are moving, demons are crawling on me. It's terrible. The acid was, it was a, is a terrible thing. So I come down Christmas Eve. I wouldn't come down with them. And I'm put on her Jimi Hendrix. Said I was going to take my life because I couldn't. I knew I had disappointed everybody. I was a failure. And what you think about this generation, spirit of suicide, how the enemy keeps working. I note down. All of a sudden, I heard a voice from God in my heart, "Give me another chance." Why would God want to give? I'm the one that needed a chance, right? "Come to me." Really? And I said these words on my knees because I'm a preacher's kid, I knew, but I didn't believe. I said, "If there's a God in heaven, and you are who you say or Jesus, come into my heart now, and can't change me, otherwise I'm out of here. I'm going to kill myself. I'm done." And this, I know it sounds hokey, it sounds like beta Swift, but this is a true. It's, I'm telling this is the truth. That moment, my mind came back to normal. The Holy Spirit came in. Jesus came into my heart, and I was a new creation. Now, I was raised, we went to church every day, whether you wanted to or not. We went to church every day. I was raised in church. I heard everything. But I had never, ever finally put together that God, who wanted to be Lord of my life, was good. And the love of God, and the peace of God, flooded to my heart. And I start weeping. I still cry about it 50 years, whatever the years later, because I thought, "This is what I've been looking for." All this stuff with the world and anger and getting even and, and violence wasn't satisfying. But Jesus comes in, and I just got this, all of a sudden, this smile on my heart. It's okay. God's going to be, going to do something. And I went upstairs, Christmas Eve, prayed all night long, read my Bible all night long. I had hair down here. He didn't go to church. And a Pentecostal pastor at home, when you had a son, you know, you know, like gone to here, come down with all the stuff, all the hippie stuff out of it, '70s, of course, man. I mean, dinosaurs are still in the world. And I come down and said, "Hey, Mom and Dad, Rick, look, have you read this book, The Bible? It's awesome. Look what's in here." Because God was now in me, and God's a joy just carrying me. And I have to tell you, I have again traveled everywhere. I have spoken to atheist groups and colleges, universities, fortunate public companies, and they want to argue and they want to fight. But all you should do is tell them who Jesus really is, and you shine. You know, it's good. God's good. How do you know? You won't know till you, till you do it. I, I was a, well, I'll get there in a minute. I want to get ready to close on the whole thing on him. So Jesus is more than just enough. Here's the big point. Are you still with me? Say a good amen. God's best. And you give that one. Yes. God's best. Always follows obedience. See, in this world, we want God to prove himself to us, and then we're going to do what he tells us to do, right? That's, I mean, that's pretty much who we all are. Before I give you my life, I want to know what you're going to do with me. What's it like? What you're going to do? But that's not the way it works. What did Jesus, here's the whole thing. What did Mary tell the servants to do? Because she knew Jesus, she knew who he was. "Whatever he tells you to do." What do you have to do? Do it. Did it make any sense to fill water pots, 180 gallons, for maybe 60 to 80 people? Way too much. You make it a point of overflowing goodness. Do we think anything? What are we doing this for? I don't know. We're going to get fired. I don't know. But they told us to do this. That guy Jesus told us to do this. I'm going with Jesus. Okay, fill it up. Now, Jesus says, "Now take one to the mayor." Think about that. "I'm not doing it." "John, you do it." "No, no, John says, I'm not doing it. You do it to me." Because I'm not doing it because who wants to be the guy who says, "What were you thinking? You're fired." No, Jesus said to do it. I'm going to figure this out. I'm just going to do what he says. Let's see what happens. Takes the water, turned to wine, hands it to the master of the feast, and the master of feast says, "Oh man, this is the best stuff ever." And the scripture, the servants knew what had been done, but no one else. And by this, Jesus showed his glory. Obedience. Obedience. I'm in Ohio State University, clinical psychology, and making $50,000 a year in my graduate work. I don't want to be a preacher. All my family is a preachers. I hated church, right? I would, I would never go to a church like this. I wouldn't. If I knew who you really were, but my first thing was a judge. Every Christian, because I knew Christians, quote unquote. And Jesus says, "You're going to Bible school." I said, "I'm not going to Bible school." How many ever told Jesus no? Have anybody raise your hand if you ever told Jesus no? Oh, that's in second service people, okay, I got you. Second service people. So my dad, long story short, bad things happen. I, I had to resign my, my commission, my graduate work, my money at Ohio State. I went from Ohio State University to Central Public College. But when I, when I resigned all this because I was going to go work for my dad, Dad's board said, "No, we don't want you to come." So I'm literally homeless. Now, I went from graduate PhD program into homelessness in the rainstorm in Columbus, Ohio, because I had already resigned everything. Walk out of the, the fraternity house and et cetera. Everything's in my car, and I'm homeless. And I said, "God, you see, you see, I'm soaking wet, angry, walking. You see, I knew it. I knew it that you would do this. That it's not fair. That's not fair." And God spoke as clear to me that day as he ever in my life. He says, "If you don't trust and obey me now, you're going to miss what I have for you. Do what I tell you to do." The only place open was a little baba college, 300 people, $60,000 in Ohio State to 300 people. They didn't want me there. I didn't want to be there. I just went. And God worked our churches became 1,000, 5,000, 8,000, whatever, all over the world. I traveled. And people say, "Oh, you just got lucky." No, didn't want to even do it. If God does what he says he's going to do, can I hear it? Amen. I'm a little young pastor, and, uh, we're in New Jersey. We make $100 a week, folks. Even before dinosaurs, that wasn't much money. We'd have any furniture, freezing cold. We lived in a house with nothing. And my wife drove 30 miles each day to go get a job so we could have groceries on it. And, and I'm in a meeting, a pastor's meeting. I'm an associate pastor then. And God spoke to my heart and said, "I want you to give $300 to this outreach. They're going to have an outreach." This is not a fundraising. It's not about money. It's about obedience. So this is, there's nothing in what you think. And again, I'm thinking, "God, we don't have it. We make $100 a week. I don't, I can't hardly get gas for my wife to go to work. She didn't have a winter coat in New Jersey. She did not own a winter coat. We didn't have anything." But I gave. We had a little saved about maybe $250 saved up. Took my money. I gave it. Every $100 a week because I was so, God was going to change his mind, right? Last week, we put it in. Just do what he did. I didn't find any joy. I got to tell you, it wasn't like, "Oh boy, this feels good." It felt terror. I know these preachers just say, "Oh, the moment you put it in the plate, you feel good." I have never, I have rarely felt that. Rarely have I felt that because I'm German. Germans don't do that. That's not German. And so it's Christmas Eve again. God proven a point. And a lady knocks on our door on the hillside where we live. And she had been attending the church, and she always shows up, and she's drunk. Which means two things: she's not Pentecostal, and she's not Baptist. All right? She was a close buyer from New York City. New Jersey was a suburb. She stopped by, you know, uh, Randall Ross, I just was thinking about you as I'm coming back from New York. We had a show, and I thought maybe your wife would want some of these coats. Fur-lined, beautiful, whatever they were, expensive coats. More than a month's salary that I would have at a time. I said, "I don't know." My wife pushed me inside, said, "Let me look." Puts on these coats like a queen, you know. I'm thinking, "God is so good." All right. I forgot. He turns a sorrow into gladness. She looks around, says, "Where's your furniture?" Well, we're young. We had folding chairs, you know, from the church, and tables and stuff. Question. Okay. So she come back the next day with a load of her furniture, pecan, whatever. And she says, "Here, would you like to have a dining set and a couch and a bedroom set?" I'm saying, "I don't care what you're drinking, come on in. You're right." You know, God is good. And my whole point is, it wasn't, God could have just done that without my obedience, but he was teaching me. When you learn to do what God has told you to do, good things come out of it. I can tell you a story after story of lives and times when when I thought God wasn't into anything. And I'm, yes, I know, I know that there's pain in the world. Can I hear any man? I have pain all the time. I have had neck stuff and whatever. I live with it. I get it. I've seen my family hurt. I notice I like to pray for your kids. I know what it's just like to be alone. I know it's like to bury a child for parents and deal with the anger and the grief as part. I don't understand it. I know God didn't do it. I know we have an enemy, Satan, who robs and steals and destroys. Saying, "Good amen." I know that. But it still stinks. Can I get a good amen? But down deep, there's always this thing. I have Jesus, and Jesus has me, and it's good. You got a future. One day when he comes, we shall behold him. We'll have new bodies. We'll be like him. We'll fellowship. We'll sit down with each other. And the Bible says we'll be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. You see the marriage again? The groom, Jesus, comes for the bride, you and I. And he believes the trumpet, and everything in this world will fade away, but our life will begin because Jesus is exactly who he says he is. Can I hear a good amen? Amen. He is. Last point, we're going to close. We're going to be done. Joy has to be renewed. That's who I'm talking to. Early service. I know who you are. Early service people were saved in 1959. You haven't missed church since, or else you got something fun to do this afternoon, and you just came because you want to go on the boat, I guess. That's all right, you know. But I got to tell you something. You have to fight the good fight of faith, not to let the enemy bring bitterness into your soul. Because if you don't rejoice, meaning bring it up, the Bible says, "With joy we shall draw water from the well of salvation." There's times you have to get down on your knees and go deep into Jesus again. Remember who he is. There's times you have to lift your hands and praise God when you feel like doing anything else but saying, "Lord, you are good to me. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for saving me." I can't tell you how many times when I pastor, someone will come up after service instead of me, "Pastor Ross, I wasn't coming today. Wasn't going to come, but something drew me, and today Jesus changed my life." One time, had a guy keep coming to the house in a parsonage, and he, he was always drunk. This is drunk theme. I don't know why he is. I don't hang around with drunks. I'm not a drunk. I don't understand it. But for some reason, somebody here needs to hear about this. I don't know. And he would always come on Saturday night. His wife would kick him out, and he'd be, you know, how they, how they kind of. I got so tired of it. I was only 26, my first church. I figured it out by the ninth month. He wasn't serious. So I said to him, "Hey, if you're serious, I need you to show up first service tomorrow morning, and I need you to come to the altar during the offering, and I need you to repent to the church, and to your wife, and to Jesus." "I'll do it." I said, "Honey, we got rid of him." Guess who at 9 o'clock in the morning shows up? Comes down the altar. I said, "Oh boy." His wife must have really been ticked with him to go this far. Sure enough, showed up Sunday night. Next week, when we had all that kind of stuff, became a deacon, became a leader in the community, became a pastor of a church. His name was David McQueen. No, I'm just kidding. Had your height. No, David never sinned in his life. He's the only one besides Jesus said never, never sinned. But you see, you see how joy feels like that, right now, just a little bit after the whole hard week. I want you to tell you that you have to do what God tells you to do. If you're here today and you have not given your heart to G, I mean, fully to Jesus. I didn't ask you if you know, even if you're saved, that's about you. Baptists worked that thing out, right? I mean, if you haven't said, "Lord, King of my life, I crown you now. I'm with you all the way." If you haven't done that, you don't know what it is. You don't know the destiny that you're missing. I, I promise you from my own life and being faithful to God, it's better than you ever dreamed. It won't always be easy. Can I hear an amen? But it ends up so, so good. When we see him face to face, do what maybe he's telling you to forgive somebody, maybe even holding a grudge, and you felt every justified reason for holding a grudge, and God's telling you, "It's time to forgive because I've forgiven you." And if you do this, you'll see what I do for you. Then forgive, or bless someone, or do in, in service, or lead a small group, or just whatever he tells you to do. And watch what God does. And always, always take time to learn to love Jesus Christ back. There's nobody in this world that I know who worked harder for Jesus. And maybe as much, but David McQueen, those guys will tell you, I was terrible to work for. We worked day and night. We worked day and night. And I was passionate Jesus Christ. And if I could tell you one thing, one thing I learned, I had my value to God isn't what I give and what I do. My value to him, it's just me. And I have to love him and let him love me. And there's times you just got to say, "Lord, I just open up. I'm going to sit in your lap for a few minutes. I'm going to let you renew my joy of the Lord. I'm going to draw water of the well of salvation so that I can meet the challenges of this day." I'm going to ask you to bow your heads, and we're going to pray. Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for the privilege of this congregation. Love how they worship. Love how they love you, Lord. I, I pray if I'm speaking to someone today, if you have called me for this moment, that you will give them the courage to say yes to you. They have a destiny. They are chosen. They are precious. You want them to be joyful in you. You, you created them to enjoy you forever. I pray, Lord, this is the day they step across the line and discover the power of a relationship. I pray for those, Lord, whom you're asking them to do something for you. It's a tough world, and we always say, "No one else is doing it, why should we do this?" But it's not what you ask someone else to do, it's what you tell us to do. That's what you're calling us to follow you. So, Lord, I pray peace of God and the faith arise in the heart. And Lord, I pray most of all, the fresh baptism of the joy of the Lord, that gladness of God that tells us that we have all things good, and that you are going to have a destiny for us that is far beyond our imaginations if we just keep our eyes on you and follow forward. I pray it in Jesus' mighty name. And all God's people said.