Oh happy day
Oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sin away,
you know the movie "sister act" probably gets a lot of credit for making that song popular and it did,
When God was all but removed from public buildings,.
High schools all across America, sang about the Love of God!
It was a great inspiring movie, about overcoming circumstances and becoming victorious in the end.
it rings so true, because we can all relate to its redemption message of truth in our Christian life, walk and relationship with Jesus!
I think we have all seen things and people who have inspired us, that overcame great obsticles and have done amazing things.
Ill. Years ago, I remember seeing a man on TV, who played the guitar, who had no arms and held the pick and chorded with his toes, and he played amazingly!
It’s those times we realize how little we all do, with what we have and how much more, we would all capable of, if we would try harder!
It’s a sad fact of life today, but there are a lot of discouraged people out there in this world.
But I’m telling you today, if you know and I mean truly know the Son of God, you have a reason to be singing continuously, Oh Happy Day!
There is truly nothing to be discouraged about in this life that we live, if He is part of it!
But that’s the key, Jesus has to have the lead role, the starring part and be your main focus!
Oh sure, things happen, problems come and go, as they always do, but there is nothing, not one thing in any of our lives that can’t be overcome with the Lord’s help.
*He is an overcoming,
*death defying,
*problem solving,
*grace giving,
*all forgiving,
*Amazingly Awesome Good God!
As Christians, we of all people should be happy about our lot in life.
We should be ecstatic!, we have been forgiven of all the sins, we have ever done or will do,
Only by the precious grace of Jesus, that God sent to us, oh so long ago.
It makes you wonder, Why in the world aren’t more people able to get their hands around this,
Life giving, Life changing message, Jesus has given to whosoever will believe!
A message, that was so important for God to get to us, that He was willing to sacrifice and give up, His one and only Son, so we could have it!
And by doing so, His death on the cross, would forever pay the price for the forgiveness of all sin,
(Sing if you choose) Jesus Paid It All, All To Him I Owe, Sin Had Left A Crimson Stain, He Washed It White As Snow!
Only the blood of Jesus was able to overcome and conquer the sin of the world!
Everything that we have, every benefit we enjoy, everything good that’s ever happened in our lives, we owe to the selfless act of Jesus.
THANK YOU JESUS!! Can you give Him an Amen this morning?
We don’t fight for victory today, and thats not to say that there still isn’t going to be a battle, but we fight from His Victory and Praise the Lord, He was Victorious!
Jesus has already been there, and been victorious for us, in and over every situation we will ever encounter.
With all of the technological advancements that keep coming about in the world,
we often think , about how much better we have it today, then our parents had it, so long ago.
Yet we find, we still face many of the same things they encountered back then, like discouragement, loneliness and fear.
The same old bag of tricks, the accuser was using back then, he is still using today, thing is, he has a lot more streams of media available to him now.
Discouragement Defined; to make somebody less optimistic: to make somebody feel less motivated, confident, or optimistic.
Discouragement in the world today, is probably almost at an all time high.
So many out of work, so many have lost their homes, so many people numb from what the world and the accuser has done to them.
The answer to all the worlds problems, of course, seems obvious to me, how about you?
It’s simple, the whole world needs to experience, an "Oh Happy Day" moment,
and let Jesus wash their sin and all their problems away!
God is the creator and maker of everything and everyone, He is the only one who can fix this messed up world in which we live,
one moment of his grace and favor, can turn any situation around!
God has made promise after promise to His Children and to all who will listen, and there is not one promise that He has not kept.
TBS. To him who has ears, let him hear! We need to speak out the truths in the bible, and declare that we have what it says that we have and that we can do what it says we can do! Amen?
the promises God has made to us, the promises Jesus died for, so we could receive and have them!
Promises like the one found in Jerm.29:11 NKJ
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The answer is right there for the whole world to see, its always been there and always will be.
The answer is to start and keep seeking God instead of ourselves, and realize how much He loves us
and how much He wants to do in our lives! Thank you God!!
You would think after what has happened in the last few years, that there would be lines,
Mile Long lines at every church in America, every time the doors were open, But are there? No, there’s not.
You would think, that with the economy supposedly in the worst shape that its been in since the great depression,
That people would be flocking to God, but their not,
You would think with all the violence happening in the world, the world would be crying out for the peace that only God can offer and give, but their not!
the scary thing is, the world got into this mess without God and they still think they can get out of it without Him too.
It didn’t work for the children of Israel, when they were wondering around in the desert looking for the promised land for 40 yrs.
On a journey that could have been completed in 2 wks.
It didn’t work then, and it still doesn’t work today!!
Christians all over this land are saying, “we need a revival”, and their right, we do need a revival, we need to get back to God!
Thing is, they don’t want to get involved in it, until after it’s a full fledged movement.
You know, nothing draws a crowd, like a crowd draws a crowd.
What they don’t realize is that it starts with one person who is willing to give a three lettered word, called ALL!
All their soul, mind, body and spirit, every fiber of their being.
That’s how revival will get started, that’s the only way it will!
TBS. in 2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJ
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The problem is, nobody wants to give their all, to see it happen.
There to busy, they don’t want to, they have other plans, they say there are others who are more qualified for the task.
The Bible tells us of an example of someone like that, someone who thought their agenda was more important than God’s.
Jonah 1:1-3 NKJ
1. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
WWJD. What would Jesus do? Not what Jonah did, that’s for sure!
There are a lot of Jonah’s in this world, each will give you a endless lists of reasons, as to why they shouldn’t be the one to give there all for Jesus.
And just like Jonah, they’ve been slapped around plenty of times by circumstances and wrong decisions,
who hasn’t? thing is, Jonah learned from his ordeal!
They fail to ever see what a difference, they could have made in countless numbers of lives, if they would have.
Oh, God will get someone else, who me? What could I possibly do?, I’m just one person, I can’t do everything you know.
If I did, I wouldn’t have time for me, to do the things that I want to do!
There’s an old song that went like this,
“It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing;
That’s how it is with God’s Love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
Your spread the love to everyone
You want to pass it on”
That’s the problem, you see, no one wants to pass it on anymore, its just not cool.
I’ll tell you what’s not cool, someone going hell is not cool!
Lord forbid, one day someone is being condemned to hell and they ask you why you didn’t tell them about Jesus and you tell them, because it wasn’t the cool thing to do!
Jonah, finally came to his senses, and what amazing results God was able to accomplish through him, once he became a willing vessel!
The bible is full of stories about what God, is able to do with a willing vessel, each of them ending with victory in the last chapter! Praise God!
Jonah found out exactly, with God in the mix, what one person was capable of!
Jonah 3:1-5 NKJ
1. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”
3. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.
4. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
What did the people do because of one persons faithfulness?, “they believed”,
What did they do?, “they believed”
What will your neighborhood do, because of your faithfulness, Believe!
Jonah gave his all, and the rest, the results, was up to God.
All of Nineveh experienced a great move of God!
Jonah 3:10 NKJ 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
God did it then, and God is still willing to do it today.
TBS. if the name of Jesus, will be lifted up, He will draw all men unto Him.
Jesus already did the hardest part, He willingly laid down His life and conquered sin and death, once and for all! He gave His All!
All we have to do, is to lift up the name of Jesus, we have the easy part to do.
Its not like we have to run a marathon in one day, TBS. to run the race our whole entire lives
The results of one mans obedience, teamed up with God ability, was and is amazing,
can you imagine what God could do, if we were all to get involved, what the results would be!
1 Corinthians 3:5-6 NKJ
5. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
We have been given the greatest opportunity in the history of the world,
The question is, not to "ask what you can do for your country" it’s "ask God, what He can help you do for His Kingdom, praise God!
Not only for those of us who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, have we been set free from our sinful lives and promised Heaven and eternal life.
But we have the opportunity to tell others, to show our families, friends and loved ones,
To throw them the same life line, to offer them the same life changing experience! And If we don’t, who will?
We already have in our possession, the answer to the whole worlds dilemma,
Its Jesus, Its Jesus and a personal life giving, life changing relationship with Him!
Somewhere along the lines, i think we have forgotten, what its like to share, the "oh happy day experience" but let me tell you,
Knowing God, Serving God and having a relationship with Him, through His Son Jesus, Is something to get excited about!!
I ask you, how could anyone that has that amazing knowledge, down deep in their heart,
Not want to share it with anyone and everyone at every opportunity they could!
No one wants to keep a good secret, everyone wants to be the first to tell, so it seems except when it comes to the gospel.
Its no wonder why the world doesn’t want what the church has to offer, as far as they know, they already have it.
There should be an excitement in the air when a Christian is around, a joy!
The old song says, I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, Where?
That’s exactly what the world is saying too! If your a Christian, where’s the Joy?
The way we live and lead our lives is very important, it’s a very big part of our testimony
There should be something about us that should be inspiring, that says to a person,
I don’t know what it is about them, but whatever it is, I want what they have.
And what we have to offer is Jesus!
TBS. the joy of the Lord is our strength, start to rely on Him and what He can do, instead of what you can do,
And I promise you, just like Jonah, you will be amazed at the results!
Time is so short, bible prophecy is happening every day, right in front of our eyes on the news.
The only thing that matters in this world, is what we do for Jesus,
Help start a revival in our community, that will heal hurting souls and bring countless numbers of people to know the Lord,
If Jonah were still alive, you could ask him and he would tell you, "Nothing is impossible with God"
Do you believe it this morning, then receive it and apply it in your life today!
Amen?
Let’s pray
