SPEAKER_02: Isn't it good to share communion together?
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that really good?
SPEAKER_02: You know, Jesus said those phased words, do this often in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, as we share communion, I just pray today that um there will be more or more people taking part with this meal with us in the future.
SPEAKER_02: You know, as a father, we have a meal table at home, and we really like to spec that time and that space, and I hate it when there's an empty seat.
SPEAKER_02: And as I was praying, I just thought, you know, God doesn't want there to be empty suits around the meal table.
SPEAKER_02: And so the father heart of God wants to fill those seeks, and so as a church, as we just think about that, as we think about our own joy, um excuse me.
SPEAKER_02: God wants four more people to come into this family and to know his joy.
SPEAKER_02: Katie's already um shared earlier on that um we are looking at Psalm 126 again this afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you um listened to David Caseon this morning, Shell at 126 at Dover.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and in the next week as well, we're still going to be looking at Psalm 126.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, some of you will remember that bright at the start of the year, Pastor Scott launched us in this passage when we were together in our Dover and location.
SPEAKER_02: Um, Scott launched us in that, and he wanted us to really have that as a tone for this year for us as a church, that we would be a people who are joyful.
SPEAKER_02: And so here we are, just over halfway through the year.
SPEAKER_02: And isn't it great to just recap and refresh on that topic?
SPEAKER_02: Of course it is.
SPEAKER_02: When I arrived this afternoon, I chatted with David and he said, Oh, I'm looking forward to hearing you this afternoon, sure.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yeah, we're talking about joy again.
SPEAKER_02: And he said to me, Well, do you know where you're kind enough joy, can you?
SPEAKER_02: So hopefully, all of us here this afternoon are somewhere in that space of wanting more joy.
SPEAKER_02: You know what those cards we gave out towards the end of last year in that church that we pray to be, it said that we pray to be a joyful church.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we pray that we can know joy.
SPEAKER_02: You can pray that you can know joy.
SPEAKER_02: So why don't we pray that together, as a church, as a body, we can know joy together.
SPEAKER_02: You know, just before I read the verses, um, I thought I would just share with you the Bible speaks hundreds of times on the word joy and about rejoicing.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it is a repeated command to rejoice in God Himself.
SPEAKER_02: It talks of joy in the presence of God, joy despite suffering, joy as a fruit of the spirit, joy in salvation, and joy in Lord Gemery.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to share with you this kind of overarching and verse that the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians.
SPEAKER_02: Whilst he was in prison, facing an uncertain future and despite his circumstances, rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_02: I say it again, rejoice.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got your Bibles with you this afternoon, or a tablet or a phone, if you want to turn to Psalm 126, you're gonna need to be looking at it quite a bit over the next week because Katie's already set challenged that you need to memorize it.
SPEAKER_02: So get yourselves in there now and start to just memorize that.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but let's read that together.
SPEAKER_02: He says, When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
SPEAKER_02: Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Then it was said among the nation, the Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
SPEAKER_02: Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in Nageth.
SPEAKER_02: Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to give you a little bit of context about this passage this afternoon before I get right into my French.
SPEAKER_02: But Psalm 126 is referring to the time when the Lord brought the Israelites out of the Babylonian captivity to go back to Jerusalem and refill their temple.
SPEAKER_02: In 538 BC, the king of Persia, Souris, issued a decree and out of nowhere decided to set the Jewish people free.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't God amazing that it'd speak to the heart of one man in power to set a higher nation free?
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that incredible?
SPEAKER_02: God speaks to one man who holds authority at the time to set a whole nation free.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that the Jews were held in captivity in Babylon for over 50 years?
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine spending almost all of your life without any freedom to choose where you go, who you see, or how you even live?
SPEAKER_02: Many of those Jews had even given up on any hope of ever returning back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says the people of God were so surprised it was literally like a dream had come true.
SPEAKER_02: No wonder this son is charged with emotion from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine the praying and the crying during that time of 50 years that would have been going out to God?
SPEAKER_02: He was absolutely unbelievable, and the impossible had happened.
SPEAKER_02: We learnt that over several decades many Jews returned in waves, and I'll come back to that word wave of it, but later on.
SPEAKER_02: The psalm or the song, as it were, is wrote by the pilgrims, God's people, to use in worship as they were ascending to Jerusalem to the temple to worship God.
SPEAKER_02: But what we need to understand this afternoon is that things weren't perfect.
SPEAKER_02: When they were singing this song, there was a lot of devastation still around that time.
SPEAKER_02: You know, they had been set free and the place that they were hoping to see one day restored, but they found themselves in this tension, they were caught between knowing freedom and yet looking forward to the complete restoration of God.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that the Jews were amazed and full of gratitude that God had brought them home, but the prayers continued for complete restoration because much work remained.
SPEAKER_02: And so to paint a quick picture, they found themselves where they found themselves was by no means in a complete place.
SPEAKER_02: Church, I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's a great reminder to know what God has done in the past, but it's not for just some kind of nostalgia.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we remember the past, it helps to build our faith for the present, but it's not for us to look back at the good old days, it's for us to look forward at the great days ahead.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know about you, but I thank God that he gave us a memory.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God that we have memories and that he grows us spiritually in this kind of spiritual memory, if you like, that we can draw on.
SPEAKER_02: And we know that we are a people who live by faith.
SPEAKER_02: But that coupled with our spiritual memory is like the mighty forks, and we can rest in a depth of knowledge of what God has done before.
SPEAKER_02: God, I know you can do it, you've done it before, and I know you do it again.
SPEAKER_02: Taking the aid when he stepped up to face Goliath, he remembered the past.
SPEAKER_02: He remembered that he had defeated the bear, and he remembered that he had defeated the lion.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2: we were like those who dreamed, our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Our mouths were filled with laughter.
SPEAKER_02: We were like those who dreamed.
SPEAKER_02: We hear that often in our society, don't you?
SPEAKER_02: We hear that phrase where people say, like, I'm living a dream.
SPEAKER_02: I'm living the dream, and they kind of tag it on to situations in their life or maybe even circumstances, like our things are going well.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm really living the dream at the moment.
SPEAKER_02: You're all looking at me like you haven't heard that.
SPEAKER_02: Speak to some people under 21.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of language.
SPEAKER_02: I'm living the dream, I'm living the dream.
SPEAKER_02: Um the joy of the Lord is not a temporal thing, you know.
SPEAKER_02: We know as Christians that it's not circumstantial, it's not life when we get a new car, like when we get a new house or that job promotion.
SPEAKER_02: You know, these things don't even come close to what it's actually like to know real, pure joy from God.
SPEAKER_02: God promises his joy to us when we come into relationship with him, and that is his unique gift to us that has no in it.
SPEAKER_02: You can't purchase, church, the gifts of God, they are free given.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote.
SPEAKER_02: What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
SPEAKER_02: For whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I want to be honest with you this afternoon, church, and some of you may be shocked when I shared this, but as a leader of this church, I actually cannot believe what God is doing right now.
SPEAKER_02: You know, everywhere I live, I just seem to be reminded that actually God is on the move.
SPEAKER_02: And I probably in this passage would put myself in that place where I feel like I'm someone who's dreaming.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I feel like I'm someone who's dreaming.
SPEAKER_02: But we've got to be patient and we've got to wait.
SPEAKER_02: Because I tell you, God's great harvest is coming.
SPEAKER_02: And let me say this: if you're taking notes this afternoon, if you are, please document this and remember it.
SPEAKER_02: We can pray for the now and we can dream.
SPEAKER_02: That God's supernatural ability to restore a broken life is beyond mine and your comprehension or understanding.
SPEAKER_02: Can I just say that again?
SPEAKER_02: God's supernatural ability to restore a broken life is beyond mine and your comprehension or understanding.
SPEAKER_02: It feels like a dream.
SPEAKER_02: So, what was I sharing with you?
SPEAKER_02: I'm shocked, week in, week out, at men and women that God is drawing to himself right now.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to share this with you as any kind of brag at all or boast about it, but you know, a few weeks ago at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_02: in Dove, we gave out 15 new welcome packs to people on a Sunday morning that came through our doors.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is not a comparison to what's going on in your deal at all, and please don't misunderstand me because we are one church, right?
SPEAKER_02: And many of you here today, you are at 10am and 4 p.m.
SPEAKER_02: But I just want to encourage you that God is on the move.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, God is absolutely on the move, and there's a wave that is happening.
SPEAKER_02: I can't describe it, there's a generational wave of people that are coming to church and to meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Can we imagine?
SPEAKER_02: Can we have the faith church here in Deal when we perhaps hear the voices of those out there in Deal with Eagle Walmer begin to say that the Lord has done great figures?
SPEAKER_02: You know, in the scripture it says that people from other nations were saying, the Lord has done great things.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what would we be like?
SPEAKER_02: Would we be like we're like living the dream?
SPEAKER_02: People out there are starting to say, God is doing something in this place, God is doing something in the lives of men and women who know Him.
SPEAKER_02: It was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_02: You know that word nations in the Hebrew translated gui.
SPEAKER_02: You know that gui, which is often meant and referred to as non-dual gentile or even an outsider of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: It's incredible the possibility that other people would even begin to say God has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_02: And be encouraged, cherries.
SPEAKER_02: Those around us who maybe don't even believe, who haven't even entered into a relationship with Jesus yet, may find themselves confessing that God is good.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when Scott launched this in January, he shared this.
SPEAKER_02: He said that when he was going into Dover Town and chatting to people, he was starting to hear something where people were talking about what God was doing.
SPEAKER_02: He was encouraged and he said, Look, when he goes and chats with people and introduces himself and says, My name's Scott, I'm the pastor of One Church and Dover.
SPEAKER_02: People were saying to him, We've heard about this.
SPEAKER_02: We've heard about OneTrap, we've heard that God is starting to move.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I don't have to kind of go very far to almost add to that because I can go to work and have conversations with people where they say, Do you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I looked on Instagram the other day, and actually I saw so-and-so now goes to your church.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I met someone in the town, I had a conversation with them, and guess what?
SPEAKER_02: They said that they've become a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: God is moving.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 55 and verse 11 says, My word will not return empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose which I sent it.
SPEAKER_02: I want to move on to the present, verses 3, 4, and 5.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 3, it says, The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
SPEAKER_02: Church, and I say this afternoon that if you are feeling full of joy, then why not spread that joy to somebody else?
SPEAKER_02: Go and give someone a hug and tell them how good God is.
SPEAKER_02: Go and pray with them, go and tell them how good God is.
SPEAKER_02: Let's take that on.
SPEAKER_02: As Christians, as men admit their God, let's take that on.
SPEAKER_02: Let's share that with other people.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 4 was store our fortunes like the streams in the Negev.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 5, those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what's interesting about the Negev streams?
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to act this afternoon like I knew everything about it, but part of the discipline when you preach the word of God is to actually unearth and actually research and get into the details of what the word of God says.
SPEAKER_02: But this is what our research.
SPEAKER_02: It said that although they lie dry and dormant there, the negative for long periods, when the rain comes miles away, it says that these tiny little strees in the Negev that they call wadis, they begin to flow again.
SPEAKER_02: They begin to spring up new life, they begin to just transform the landscape.
SPEAKER_02: What's dry and barrel, and what felt like a tough nut to crack, God in a moment just pours out his spirit and enables it to flow.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, in church, this afternoon, I feel like there's a link here, and maybe this is the bit that I'm trying to push into.
SPEAKER_02: That there are men and women here this afternoon who have remained really, really faithful.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, as a member of the SOT, we just want to thank you for that.
SPEAKER_02: You have continued to sow even when you feel it's not been much.
SPEAKER_02: When you've only had tears left in the tank, that's what you've sown for God.
SPEAKER_02: Expecting that the harvest will come because you know you haven't labored in vain.
SPEAKER_02: God is laying on your hearts what's to come, and for some of you, all that you've had left in the tank, you've continued to sow.
SPEAKER_02: You've cried those tears and you've sown then for God.
SPEAKER_02: And praise the Lord for those who are willing to sow regardless of your situations.
SPEAKER_02: You've sown in hard ramp, you've gone from one stream, and when God has spoken to you in faithful obedience, you've moved on to the next difficult, hard area of terrain.
SPEAKER_02: Even when it's fell lifeless, with the hope of just maybe a few new shoots here and there, just a trickle of water, even when the ground has been so hard and so difficult to cultivate, when all you had left you should be taking for yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You've sown that and you've spent it for God.
SPEAKER_02: Can we say thank you for that?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you here today, faithful men and women of God, you've hung on to that prophetic, you believe in the vision that we've tried to keep communicating with you.
SPEAKER_02: You've been given promises by God, and you've continued to be faithful in your obedience in the way that you've served Him.
SPEAKER_02: A few of you are nodding at me.
SPEAKER_02: But you know you still have the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are tired, some of you are really, really tired, but somewhere in the depth of that tired is you're hanging on to that joy that you have in God.
SPEAKER_02: You continue to pray when you don't see the answers, you have an unwavering trust in God when your circumstances don't seem to have shifted.
SPEAKER_02: You love serving others when your own heart is heavy and suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God for you guys.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you one more thing that's specific about the area of Yugev.
SPEAKER_02: Apparently, when the rainfall came, quite often it could be quite a fair few miles away up the road.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a connection in the hearts of some of you today that you're hearing of a rainfall up the road.
SPEAKER_02: You're hearing that somewhere up the road, people are harvesting crops.
SPEAKER_02: And church of the day, I say the bodies are inconnected, no more or less than we are the church, the people of God.
SPEAKER_02: You are hearing that God is doing something up the road and you're holding on.
SPEAKER_02: You know, God says that when the rain comes, it's going to come and fill the streams and the networks where you have sung, where you have continued to sow, where you spent all out for God, where you're hanging on to just a thread of joy because you know somewhere in the depth of your faith that it is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God for you guys.
SPEAKER_02: Coming on to the final point this afternoon, and it's that there's a promise for the future.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6 says, Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaths with them.
SPEAKER_02: You know, this morning I believe that there's just a prophetic edge to this.
SPEAKER_02: At 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_02: I went forward and I asked Pat and Guts who are used in the prophetic in our church to just pray with me because I just felt that God wanted to just push in this area in particular.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to share a little story with you.
SPEAKER_02: I want to share a little weeping story with you, and um I just confirm I've had permission by the way as well, because it's not my story, it's someone else's story.
SPEAKER_02: But um some of you will know Karen Jones.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you know Karen Jones in this room?
SPEAKER_02: Or if I Irish Karen, she's better known as sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: You'll hear her before you see her.
SPEAKER_02: I have permission to say until I'm no idea who you were.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but many years ago, Cameron was part of my life group, and um just hold that fall of sorrow for a minute in tears to reap the songs of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Cameron was part of my life group, and often she would come to me and she'd say, Sean, can we pray?
SPEAKER_02: Can we pray tonight for my family?
SPEAKER_02: Haram's got two daughters and a son.
SPEAKER_02: We would pray and pray and pray, and quite often they were just like not seen like there was a way three.
SPEAKER_02: She would come and chat to me privately, and you know, sometimes when she felt like there was nothing left in the tank, when she just spent all she had forgot, she just continued to pray because it was all she knew.
SPEAKER_02: And what am I sharing with you this afternoon?
SPEAKER_02: Um I just want to encourage you because you know, God hears those cries, God hears those prayers.
SPEAKER_02: And Karen shared with me a few weeks ago in church that this is 15 years on, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: She said to me, Can I just say actually that many of you will know, but I've got five children.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes our row in church is quite big, even if we've got another friend with us, it's almost a whole row just with Abhamady.
SPEAKER_02: And she said to me, Sean, she said, This can be all good.
SPEAKER_02: She said, Our row, it's big through yours.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the complete restoration hasn't happened, it's not there yet, but she's got members of her family in church, and not only has she got members of her family in church, she's got extended family, and then some of their family are in church with her and their friends, and oh bro is huge, I'm jealous.
SPEAKER_02: But it's incredible, but when she just sowed in tears, there is a day where we can just celebrate with songs of joy, and you know, church, I'm coming to a finish now, and I'm not sure this afternoon where you feel you are as I've unpacked this Psalms and perhaps looked at the past, the present, and the future.
SPEAKER_02: But I feel like God has laid on my heart two challenges really, and maybe some of you you're feeling like you're living the dream full of joy, looking back, thanking God and praising him for all that he's done.
SPEAKER_02: And that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Continue to spread that joy.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe others here today have put themselves in the present.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps you're crying out to God for the rains to come and nourish all that's been planted and all that's been sown.
SPEAKER_02: You're crying, Lord, I've sown it all in the harvest, hardest of areas.
SPEAKER_02: Show me, Lord, even the very beginning of some tiny shoots.
SPEAKER_02: Give me hope again.
SPEAKER_02: Church, can I encourage you all and remind you all, hope in Jesus as a glorious end.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe today you're in a moment and you can look and say, look at this harvest, the blessing, the growth, the provision, look at this.
SPEAKER_02: Church, wherever we feel we are, we are in the narrative.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever stage of the psalm we feel like we're at, know this.
SPEAKER_02: We serve a God who is always faithful and keeps his promises.
SPEAKER_02: The joy of the Lord is not conditional and never will be.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because it's rooted in his character and not in our circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: And so as we continue as people of God to walk closely with him, let's allow our experience of that joy to deepen.
SPEAKER_02: Let's allow joy to spread.
SPEAKER_02: Let's encourage one another to spread joy.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just going to ask Jane and the team to come back up, and I'm just coming to my final bit now in what I've compared.
SPEAKER_02: I think that there's something in it when you ask the worship team to come up and sort of like sets a tone.
SPEAKER_02: You think Christians are like something's really going to happen now?
SPEAKER_02: The worship team are back up.
SPEAKER_02: Don't move.
SPEAKER_02: I trust that God's been moving in our hearts as I've shared it this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of the Lord is our strength.
SPEAKER_01: And we just say that in our hearts, the joy of the Lord is our strength.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I can't help but feel in my spirit, and this actually came in my preparations.
SPEAKER_02: And there are some here this afternoon, maybe there's two categories that I just need to mention.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are holding on to prophetic words of God has spoken long ago the deal.
SPEAKER_02: It's been years, maybe even decades for some.
SPEAKER_02: You're continuing to sow, but you're struggling and you're hanging on by a thread.
SPEAKER_02: You're longing for renewed joy.
SPEAKER_02: And you feel like you're just in that waiting room for God to come and answer, and you're on the brink of giving up waiting.
SPEAKER_02: Church, and I encourage you this afternoon, don't give up.
SPEAKER_02: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to move when we feel like it's time to move.
SPEAKER_02: We want to wait for God to move.
SPEAKER_02: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_02: You know, for me, quite often, sometimes when I'm not well, and you just start to play something feels that like makes it feel good better, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Quite often when I'm not well, I um I know that I need to go to doctors.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that I need to be seen.
SPEAKER_02: And I go to that place, but because of my impatience, I can't wait that long.
SPEAKER_02: In the hospital waiting room in the doctors, I can't wait there long.
SPEAKER_02: And I give up.
SPEAKER_02: I give up and I walk out.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, actually, it's the place where I need to be.
SPEAKER_02: I need to be hearing from the doctor to speak into my love about what's wrong with me.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, church, don't move on.
SPEAKER_02: I want to say to you, be patient.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the joy of the Lord is the fruit of the spirit, and patience is as well.
SPEAKER_02: Patience is a fruit of that spirit, but in that patient waiting, we sow, we wait and we hope.
SPEAKER_02: And the second point that I feel God has laid in my heart for some here this afternoon is as I've been preaching, only actually some of you are asking yourselves the question: when was the last time my mouth was filled with laughter for God?
SPEAKER_02: When was the last time my tongue was filled with songs of joy?
SPEAKER_02: And so, as the worship team just play, I'm gonna ask us to respond.
SPEAKER_02: I want us to do business with God this afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you have been holding on to prophetic words that God has spoken long ago over deal.
SPEAKER_02: I said it's been years or maybe even decades, you're continuing to soak, you're hanging on by a thread, you're longing for a renewed joy.
SPEAKER_02: You're in that waiting room.
SPEAKER_02: For some of you, you're crying out this afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: You're saying, actually, when I read the scripture, when I hear what's being said, when was the last time my mouth was gilled to blackter?
SPEAKER_02: When was the last time my tongue sang with souls of joy?
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna hand over to Katie in a minute, but I want to encourage us to respond this afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: I want to encourage us to respond as maybe the spirit has just been prompting and speaking to us.
SPEAKER_02: As we've just been agreeing with what it says in the Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Can we do business with God this afternoon?
SPEAKER_00: Let's be a people who respond to his politics.