I've got three things that I want to share this
morning. And the first one is a word for maybe
one or two people here. But the Lord put this
on my heart last night as I was praying for the
service. And I want to share this with you. Your
season of laughter is coming. Will you receive
that? Your season of laughter is coming. Now
I want to read some verses from Genesis chapter
21. Verse 1. Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah
as he had said. And the Lord did for Sarah what
he had promised. And I want to remind you, and
you can remind the person sitting next to you
right now, God will do what he said he would
do. God will do what he said he would do. Amen?
So just tell that to the person next to you right
now. God will do what he said he would do. Sarah
became pregnant. and bore a son to Abraham in
his old age. At the very time God had promised
him, there it is again, Abraham gave him the
name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. And when
his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised
him as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred
years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
And listen to what Sarah said. Sarah said, God
has brought me laughter. And everyone who hears
about this will laugh with me. Hallelujah. Now
you need to understand something, that this was
after a lifetime of grieving. She had been married
to Abraham for a long time. They had the promise
that God had given to Abraham for 25 years when
she was 65. And so she was living, believing
for a long time. And now she's 90. Her womb is
dead. But God woke up her womb. so that she could
receive and bear a miracle son. Hallelujah. Now,
the year before, when the men came sent from
God to bear that message, Sarah laughed. Do you
remember when Sarah laughed? You can read the
story, Genesis 17, 18, right in there. And Sarah
laughed because she was doubting. And she was
embarrassed that she laughed. In fact, Abraham
asked her, why did you laugh? And she lied. And
she said, I did not laugh. And you see, the first
laughter that was connected to this miracle was
the laughter of doubt. But God is faithful even
when we are not oftentimes, amen? And he was
faithful to Sarah. And Sarah, bore a child, and
God turned her laughter of doubt into the laughter
of abundance. Hallelujah. And she freely, before
she lied about it and she said, no, I didn't
laugh. No, I didn't doubt. No, I didn't do any
of those things. But now she has been given a
son. The promise has come to her. And she is
freely laughing in front of everybody. And she's
saying that the God that made me laugh is going
to make everybody else laugh when they hear my
story. Hallelujah. Now, some of you have been
standing, believing God for a long time. And
God says this morning, your season of laughter
is coming. Hallelujah. And so I want to pray
over you right now. I want to pray over you because
there's a couple of people in this room that
that went into. And you say, I'm latching on
to that word. If that's you, lift up your hand
right now. You're latching on to that word. Hands
up all over this room. Father, in the name of
Jesus, I thank you for the hands that are up
right now just representing the promise of God
being fulfilled in their lives. They're believing
you. They're standing. And for some of them,
it has been a long, long season. God, I'm asking
right now all over this room. that the season
of laughter will come forth in the name of Jesus.
You say, how Lord can it be done? How Lord can
it be done? But we join with Mary and say with
God, all things are possible. Lord, when Elizabeth
gave birth to John, the Bible says that everyone
rejoiced with her. Hallelujah. And God, I thank
you for the miracles that are coming to these
hands that are lifting up right now in Jesus'
name. I thank you for the breakthroughs that
are coming. I thank you for the answered prayer
that is coming in the name of Jesus. I thank
you for the healing that is coming in the name
of Jesus. And I ask, Father, that the season
of laughter will come in Jesus' name. Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Okay, you can
tell I haven't preached in a while. Sermon number
two. Sermon number two is in Joshua chapter 24.
And these are for some people to strengthen their
hand in their family. To strengthen their hand
in what God has called you in your family. And
you remember Joshua had just, he had won all
the battles. The land was being settled. And
he was giving a victory speech to the Israelites
before they split up and all went their way.
And he was warning them about serving other gods.
And he said in verse 14 of Joshua 24, 24 -14,
Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness.
Everybody say, all faithfulness. Throw away the
gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates
River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if
serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then
choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods of your ancestors, they
serve beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the
Amorites in whose land you are living. But as
for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Hallelujah. And that's a declaration I felt the
Lord put in my heart. This is all aside from
my ever -shortening sermon that's about to come
up. I believe that that word was to be released
this morning over somebody here to have... courage
to stand up for your household and say, as for
me and my house, we're not going to go the way
the world. We're not going to do the things that
the world does. We're not going to operate the
way the world operates. We're not going to be
in love with the things that the world is in
love with. We're not going to spend our money
the way the world spends its money because as
for me and my house, we're serving God. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. How many of you will with a fresh
declaration today? Whether you are single, living
by yourself, that is your household. Or whether
you are a grandparent and all of your kids are
gone and you're there by yourself now, that is
your household. Amen? Or whether you have kids
in your home, whether you're a full family in
your home right now, man of God, woman of God,
will you stand up in the Spirit? And will you
say, as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord. Hallelujah. The spirit of Joshua come upon
you in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. If that's you,
lift up your hand before the Lord right now.
God, all over this room, people standing up saying,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
God, we declare that with our whole heart. God,
we just embrace the declaration Joshua made.
Joshua knew that others would go the other direction.
And there might be people at work or even our
friends that have gone the wrong direction. But
we declare with something fresh in our hearts
at the beginning of this summer, God, we declare
that as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord. We declare that in the name of Jesus. Ooh,
hallelujah. Hallelujah. God, just in the midst
of this, we declare our, we just recognize that
we're imperfect, that we are being made holy.
We are holy and we're being made holy. We are
sanctified, but we're also being made sanctified.
That you are working in our lives. We ask for
your help in this, your grace. God, it's not
just about following rules better because we
fall short. It is about leaning into Jesus and
the power of the Holy Spirit and trusting God
day by day to be our strength. We declare, as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Isn't that good? Praise
God. Praise God. And then finally, this morning,
in 1 Peter 1, if you would turn there with me.
1 Peter 1. And we're going to be celebrating
with baptisms right after this time. I want to
talk for a moment about the refiner's fire. And
I want to ask you, is the refiner's fire burning
in your heart? The refiner's fire. And we're
in 1 Peter chapter 1, and I want to read from
verses 6 through 9. In all this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while you may have had
to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. so that
the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even though refined
by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor
when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have
not seen Him, you love Him. And even though you
do not see him now, you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy
for you are receiving the end result of your
faith, the salvation of your soul. Hallelujah.
Give God praise for that. That's powerful. The
refiner's fire. And Peter alludes to the refining
of gold the same way that God tests your faith.
Refiner's fire. Let me read to you some verses
that you can write down if you're taking notes.
Proverbs 17, 3. The crucible for silver and the
furnace for gold. But the Lord tests the heart.
The Lord tests the heart. So you and I, and this
obviously is not your physical heart. This is
the heart of your faith. The internal spiritual
heart, God tests. He does not test it so that
you will fail. He tests it so that you will pass.
He's not a cruel teacher that wants most of his
students to fail, like my freshman English teacher.
I barely passed. Oh, God wants you to pass the
test. And so the fire that you have been in,
the trial, is to... increase your faith in Christ.
Amen? And so there are different ways that the
Lord tests us. Let me just walk through a couple
of them quickly. Here's another proverb, Proverbs
27, 21. The crucible for silver and the furnace
for gold, but people are tested by their praise.
Wow. Did you know that? When people tell you,
you did a great job, guess what's happening in
that moment? Your heart is being tested. What's
in your heart often comes out when people praise
you. Whether you have a woe is me attitude, Which
God wants to burn out of you because sometimes
when people praise you or give you a compliment,
you have so much woe is me -ism in you that you
can't even receive what they're trying to say.
And you just outright reject what people are
saying to you. Or whether you are inflated with
pride. And so you have... pride that grips your
heart when you are praised and when somebody
compliments you and pride just swells up and
you go, oh no, that's all God, but inside you're
saying, oh yeah, that's me. Praise tests your
heart. It's a fire. Here's what you ought to
do when somebody praises you. you ought to first
say, thank you. That's encouraging. Right? In
fact, let's all say that together. Thank you.
That's encouraging. That's a great thing to say.
And then do you know what you do? You give glory
to the Lord. You give that praise to God because
you know and I know that if I do something well
and somebody says thank you or that was a great
job, Darren, you know and I know that that only
happens because of the goodness of God in my
life. And the same is true for you. It happens
because of the goodness of God. operating in
your life. And so you and I cannot take the glory
for that praise. You and I cannot take the accolades
for that praise. We can't do it. We've got to
give glory to God. We've got to give glory where
glory is due. Because it is only Him working
in my life that I am what I am. Amen? And so
we say thank you, that's encouraging. And then
we give God the glory for that thing in our lives.
Amen? We give Him glory. We are tested when we
are praised. How do you respond when people praise
you? If you have a woe is me attitude, you need
to repent of that in Jesus' name. Because that
is the opposite side of pride. And it is the
constant putting down of yourself which God does
not do. And you need to stop it in the name of
Jesus. And you need to say, God, thank you. I
recognize the giftings and the good things that
you've done in my life. I recognize those things.
I don't have to deny them to be humble. I can
recognize what God has done in my life, and I
can give Him praise for that. Amen? That's good
stuff. Praise the Lord. The second thing that
God refines us with, which we've already touched
on, is affliction. affliction. It's difficulty
in life. And Jesus said, in this world you will
have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome
the world. And the psalmist said in Psalm 66
10, for you God tested us, you refined us like
silver. You refined us like silver. You brought
us into prison. Now this was because of Their
lack of repenting. They would not repent. You
brought us into prison and you laid burdens on
our back. You let people ride over our heads.
We went through fire and water. But you brought
us to a place of abundance. I want to read that
again because that was exciting to me. If it
was exciting to nobody else. Verse 12. This is
Psalm 66, 12. You let people ride over our heads.
We went through the fire and water, but you brought
us to a place of abundance. You see, the refining
and the testing is not to get you to fail and
fall and be destroyed. It is ultimately to bless
you and bring you into the place of abundance.
But they had to say yes to the time. of trial.
That's Psalm 66 10. Isaiah 48 10. God says through
Isaiah, see I have refined you, though not as
silver, I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Wow. Zechariah 13, 8 and 9. In the whole land,
declares the Lord, two -thirds will be struck
down and perish. This is a prophecy. Yet one
-third will be left in it. Verse 9. This third
I will put into the fire. I will refine them
like silver and test them like gold. They will
carry on my name and I will answer them. I will
say they are my people and they will say the
Lord is. our God. You see, when silver and gold
is refined, if you've ever watched the process,
you can watch it on YouTube. As it heats up,
what happens is all the impurities in it come
to the surface. And the gold is so hot that when
the impurities hit the surface, and they come
in contact with oxygen, then they burst into
flame and they are burned up. And this is what
God wants to do with the dross in our lives.
It's called dross. The dross comes up to the
surface and it burns up so that what is left
in your life... In that bowl is pure silver and
pure gold and is not mixed with anything else.
Now that's a simplified version of the purification
process. But what does it take? Heat. It takes
heat. And so you go through things in life. And
you know what it does? It puts heat underneath
you so that the impurities draw out. Amen? The
impurities are drawn out. You hit your thumb
with a hammer. And guess what? The impurities
can come out. I'm just telling you. And you might
discover there's more I need to repent of. You're
laughing because you know it's true. Frustrating
things happen. no matter how saved you are, frustrating
things will still happen. And why do they happen?
Because God is purifying our hearts. So do you
know what the solution is? To surrender to the
refiner's fire. The Holy Spirit has not just
been given you to empower you so that you always
live on cloud nine. He has come so that you can
be a strong witness for the kingdom of God. But
one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to
burn like a fire so that you and I walk refined
before Him. Refiner's fire. And so as I close
here, the psalmist learned to pray. And so if
you can, turn to Psalm 139 with me, and we're
going to close with this prayer in Psalm 139.
There's actually multiple places in the Bible
where people pray something similar, but... I'm
just going to read this one as I close this morning.
In verse 23, the psalmist says, Search me, God,
and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious
thoughts. See if there is any offensive way.
in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Isn't
this a great prayer? Do you know what this is?
This is a surrendering to the refiner's fire.
God, I recognize that there's places in my life
that I can't even see. I have blind spots that
others can see often, but even some, God, that
only you see. And the psalmist says, God, here's
what I want you to do. I want you to burn the
dross off of my life. I want to be pleasing to
you in your sight. Search me, O God, and know
my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
What he's praying here is not just that they
would be exposed, but that they would be transformed
and changed. And what the psalmist did not have
revelation of that you and I have revelation
of is the cross of Calvary. That you and I can
pray this, and as we pray this, we... can come
to the cross. Hallelujah. We can come to the
cross where Jesus shed His blood. And we can
say, God, search me. Know me. Try my anxious
thoughts. I bring them to the cross for You to
deliver me and set me free. Hallelujah. And God
will do that. What is that vice that has you?
That perhaps you were once freed from, but you
went back to it. What is that internal thought
that you constantly have that you know is not
from God? What is that thing that you struggle
with that you know that God needs to burn out
of your life? Holy Spirit, search my heart. Know
me. God, my desire is that if there is any offensive
way in me, That God, it be out of my life. And
that I walk in the way everlasting. I want to
bring you pleasure, God. I want to bring you
pleasure. And so before we move to the baptisms
this morning. I just want to respond. And you
might want to come down to the altar. You might
build an altar right there where you are. You
might just close your eyes. But I want to respond
with a song that just says, Refiners fire, have
your way in me. Have your way in my life. Refiners
fire. Move in me. Thank you, Jesus.