Joyful Witness - Pastor Sam Simoes - June 14, 2026

Pastor Sam Simoes message for Sunday June 14, 2026. 

Welcome to the Northwest Church of the Nazarene podcast, where we share the heart of our church’s mission: discovering and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ through inspired worship and intentional ministry. Each episode brings you sermons, insights, and messages that challenge and encourage spiritual growth. Whether you are part of our diverse, multicultural church family, or listening in for the first time, you’ll find a community that loves Jesus and welcomes everyone with open arms. Join us online at nwnaz.org or in person in Columbus Ohio, as we journey together toward a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Jesus and each other. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Every Sunday at Northwest Church of the Desert in Columbus, Ohio, our congregation is challenged to grow spiritually. This podcast shares the sermons, insights, and messages that encourage our congregation to mature spiritually.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

So today we're going to be talking about joyful witness. But there is a conversation that I've had a few times with people that's now a part of my book vocabulary, and it's a term called life hack. How many of you are familiar with a life hack? Well, we have a few. Well, a life hack is something that my kids use a lot, and the younger generations use a lot, and that is something you're able to do that makes your life easier. You like hack into a task to make it easier. And it's something that you usually see on social media. And how many of you have heard the sentence, I was today years old when I learned this? A few have seen that. And yes, I was that day years old when I learned whatever that was that they were telling us. And that life hack is something that we're like, oh, I have to do that. Oh, I have to make a mental note to remember to do that because that makes my life so easier. I'm able to hack that aspect or that particular task. Well, today I was very tempted to title our message for today, Bible's Life Hack. But I was like, I don't know, I don't know how well it would go. So we're just going to be talking about a life hack, and I'm going to give you today a life hack for joy. You know, joy is something we all want, something we all desire, something we want to live with. But it's so hard to have. There is a movie that my son Colin absolutely adored when he was young, and he still watches it if it's on, and it's called Um I just I just forgot. Uh did I write it down? I probably wrote it down. Yes, Inside Out. I wrote it down. I probably should keep an eye on my notes. And the movie Inside Out is about five different uh feelings or five different um uh personalities or or elements that are in this girl's brain, and we have joy because she has a lot of joy, we have sadness because she's sad sometimes, and she also has disgust because she's a young girl, and she also has fear, and my favorite anger, because anger is always angry and is always getting upset over anything, and all those emotions play with each other and run her life. Well, there is a situation in which sadness disappears and joy goes looking for her. So the little girl, Riley, is living without joy and sadness, so all her emotions, all the thoughts, all the decisions she's making is without joy or sadness. So when Colin was little, he used to tell me, Daddy, I want to watch joy. I want to watch joy because they're gonna look for joy. And he always was so happy when joy was able to get back into the central nervous system, I guess that's what they called. And it's a kids' show and it's a beautiful, a beautiful movie. However, we always look for joy as something we have to find, it's something we have to seek, something we have to work for, or something we have to work on. And today I'm gonna give you a live hack. And spoiler alert, you already saw it on that video. Gratitude, thankfulness. We're gonna be looking into a Bible verse, I'm sorry, a Bible chapter, a whole chapter in Psalms, Psalm 100, one of my favorite psalms. And if you'd stand with me as we read the word of the Lord and recognize that joy is not something we find, but is something we cultivate through gratitude. So let's look into uh our Bibles, or you can follow along with me in Psalm 100, and we are going to uh begin with verse one. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, worship the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful songs, know that the Lord is God, it is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his scourts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name, for the Lord his good, and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations. Father, what a joy it is to know that you are the source of joy, you are the source of gladness, and you are the object of our worship, you are the object of our admiration, of our adoration, and our lives. So we pray that you would come before us with your spirit, that you would anoint us with your presence, and that you speak through me, that the words that I speak may not be mine but yours, and may you bring transformation into our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. We find in this passage that joy begins when we know that the Lord is God, and we read that in verse three. In verse three, we read, know that the Lord is God. Why is that so important? It is important because we recognize God's work in our lives, God's work in the world, God's work in his kingdom, God's work among us. And what we find in this passage is that the Lord is the object of our adoration. Alex Haley, the author of the book Roots, had a picture in his office of a turtle on top of a fence post. And it's an odd picture, but every time someone would go to his office and say, Alex, what's the story with that picture of a turtle on top of a fence post? He says, Well, every time I have an award, every time I have an accolade, every time I have someone speaking about my work or I am recognized, I look at that picture and realize that I am not where I am unless someone put me there. Like that turtle on top of a fence post. Didn't get there on its own. Someone put it there. And that is how God wants us to look at him. He's there, however we are, God has placed us there. We may not like to be on top of a fence post, we may not like to be where we are currently, but God has placed us there with a purpose. He has placed us there with a reason and with a plan. And that plan is not for us to decide or judge, but it's for us to follow. And God has placed us there. So when we look at where we are in our life and we come with an attitude of gratitude, we're able to recognize that God is Lord and that the Lord is God. So we find ourselves recognizing that He is. Now, the the psalmist on this passage doesn't tell us that we have to feel joy, doesn't tell us that we have to worship, and then we have to have our life together, and then we have to wait until the circumstances are all right before we worship. What he's saying is that once we know who God is, all this will make sense, all this will come naturally. So it's not about us having to do A, B, C, and D, it's us knowing him. And because we know him, we recognize what he is doing and what he has done in our lives. You see, we recognize that God is a part of our lives. So the life hack on joy is gratitude, is knowing who God is. Now I'm gonna give you a life hack on witnessing, a life hack on sharing about Jesus to others. And that life hack is that the world is starving for an authentic joy. The world wants joy. Now, the this psalm is not telling us how to worship, it's just describing what kind of people we become when we know God, when we worship, when we enter his gates with thanksgiving. So it's not how we worship, it's how we become, how we are transformed through worship. But worship is not just song, worship is not just prayer, worship is not just standing, worship is not just shouting and and and and and coming before God. Worship is a relationship that the world notices, it's a lifestyle that the world takes notice. So the world is starving for this authentic joy. Clarence Darrow, who was a famous atheist, uh, was invited to do a debate at a church in Chicago. And while he was sitting there, he noticed a lot of people who were African-American among the crowd that came to hear his thoughts on why God did not exist. Well, that was an easy, easy target for them to say, you know what? I see you. I recognize what you have gone through, I recognize your past, I recognize your struggles, I recognize how you have suffered, how many times the world wasn't fair. I recognize how many of you live in poverty, or your family members live in poverty. I recognize the difficulties that you have had in your life, and yet you sing, and yet you shout, and yet you dance, you have beautiful music. I just heard it, and you come to church to be with other people and worshiping this something. I do not understand how people like you who have suffered, who have endured so many trials, can be in the church. And the lady stood up and said, Do you know why we sing? Do we know why we pray? It's all because of Jesus. And once she said the word Jesus, the entire crowd started roaring and clapping and cheering. It's not because our life is better, it's not because we get out of poverty, it's not because we uh suffer any less, but because Jesus is worth it. So when we come to the realization that Jesus is Lord, that the Lord is God, then we are able to find ourselves an authentic joy that the world is looking for. Because the world does not have it. The world tried to find job in hobbies, they find to they try to find joy in drugs and alcohol and vices, they try to find joy in gambling, they try to find joy in so many different ways, and yet we have a joy that is true. And people don't need entertainment, they don't need to go to another place and be entertained, they need to go to a place and find Jesus. And how do you find Jesus? You don't find Jesus through the beautiful music that that we sing, you don't find Jesus through through the beautiful images that we see on a screen. We do not find Jesus through the beautiful guitar that we hear or or the or or the beautiful singing. We find Jesus in one another, with the love that we share with one another. We find Jesus by sharing his love with others. People will not find Jesus through the entertainment that they see up front. They will find Jesus through the welcoming, through the embracing, through the hugs, through the through the concern care. That's how they will find Jesus. They will find Jesus through us. It's not what the pastor says, it's not what the or how the pastor says it. They will find Jesus through the presence of his spirit in our hearts. So the world is starving for authentic joy. So what is the life hack? The life hack is if you struggle in sharing about Jesus, just tell people what you're thankful for. Oh, I am so thankful for the family that God has given me. The joys that He give me are beyond comparing. I cannot believe how blessed I am to have the family I have. I am so thankful that God has given me uh health that I'm able to come and go to places. I am so thankful that God has given me an opportunity to to be here. I am so thankful for you. I'm so thankful. And this thankfulness brings the joy to people. You love people who are grateful, you love people who are who are not complaining, because I think that's the opposite. I think the opposite of gratefulness is complaining. Oh, I don't like this, so I'm gonna complain about it. Well, that's not gratefulness. Gratefulness is when we're saying we're able to say, okay, what about this circumstance I am thankful for? What about this situation that I'm not happy with? Am I thankful for? And that's gonna change our minds, that's gonna change our hearts, that's gonna change our souls to not seek, to not seek the things of this world, but to seek gratefulness, and you know what gratefulness will bring? Joy. Because we all have reasons to be thankful. There's so much we have to be thankful, and yet the world is looking for that. So, how do we witness? We don't have to tell them about Jesus Christ, we just have to tell them what Jesus Christ has done and be thankful for it. I am so thankful that God has taken away my sin because that was so heavy. I'm so thankful that God has taken away my pain because that was so painful. I'm so glad that God has taken away my sadness because I see joy in so many things, and that becomes our testimony. That becomes the joyful witness. So, what are we to do? Well, we choose gratitude. Paul and Silas in Acts 16, 22, um tell us the uh a wonderful story, and I'm just gonna go ahead and and go there just because I love that story and I want to read it directly from from that passage. But it begins with Paul and and Silas, you know, they're just preaching. Well, people don't get h they're they're not happy that they're going into different synagogues and preaching about this messiah that they call Jesus, and they're not happy, so so they arrest him, and the first thing they do is that they punish them, so they flog them, and they do all different kinds of things. And and uh uh chapter 16, we read that um here we go. The crowd joined the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrate ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received those orders, they put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet to the stocks. When we hear this passage, in our minds we just think, oh man, to be flogged, to be whipped, to be arrested, to be humiliated, and then going to a dark prison cell attached with chains. I don't know if I could handle this, but Paul and Silas did, and they were in the worst of the worst, in the probably most difficult moment of their lives, and all that because they were preaching about Jesus. But this is verse 25, and this is what I wanted to share with you about. This is why verse 25 says, About midnight, about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them at midnight, at the most difficult hour, at the depth of their sorrow, at the depth of their physical suffering, what do they do? They start praising, they start being thankful to God. And I I would love to hear what they were thankful for at that moment. Say, Lord, I'm thank you that I didn't get many more, you know, whips. I'm I'm glad that you know I only bled a little. I don't know what they were thankful for, but they were, and in their thankfulness, they began to praise God, and in their praising the other inmates start listening to them, and then something amazing happened, the doors opened. They start realizing that the doors were open, and the jailer who was in charge of taking care of them becomes very afraid. He comes over, asks what's going on, and they're saying, We haven't left. And he was so taken by it. Paul tells about Jesus and leads his entire family to Jesus. Beautiful story. But at midnight, in the worst of the circumstances, what do they did? They praised and they were filled with joy. What are we doing in the midnights of our lives? What attitude are we having in the midnight when we feel that everything is despair? When we feel that we lost so much, when we feel that we are alone, when we feel that the darkness will never end. What do we do in the midnight of our life? Because what Paul and Silas did is the same thing that the psalmist on Psalm 100 did. You begin with gratefulness, you begin with gratitude, because gratitude will bring joy, because gratitude will transform, and we will enter his gates. You see, gratitude and joy, if gratitude and joy are spontaneous, why is it commanded? Because it's commanded for us. Oh wait. I went I went a little bit too too far. So if it's if it's commanded, if it's spontaneous, if we want to find it, why is it telling us to have joy? Why is it telling us why it's commanding us to have thankfulness? Now when we go back into this passage. We find that there are seven imperatives that we read in this passage. We start with verse one. We start out by saying, shout. So that's the first imperative. So let me ask you show of hands, how many of you have shouted recently for the Lord? Oh, we got one. Praise God. That's in the Bible. So we're gonna shout. Let's just shout Amen. Oh no, that wasn't a shout. That was a very, very Ohio. Let's pretend that we are in the World Cup. And we just want to praise God and sing Amen. So we're gonna go, Amen. Oh, there we go. We shout. And we sing and we shout and we sing. Well, we didn't sing, we shout. Because shout is not just something that we control, it's something we are just so happy. And when we see a goal of our favorite team, we do that, we shout. But when we are before the Lord, then the first one, we shout, second one we worship. And worship is not just singing, it is just lifting our hands, lifting ourselves and say, Lord, we want you to see us so we can see you. Because in our worship, we feel your presence. It's beautiful. Verse 2 also tells us, then you come, you come. You you don't stay away, you come, you arrive. It's so interesting that I speak to so many people and says, I don't need church, I already have Jesus. No, because worship with others allows you to come, allows you to be in the presence of God, be in the presence of his family, of his kingdom. You come, then you know, you don't know about, you just don't imagine. You know, you know who God is, you recognize him, you see him as Wesley used to see, you see him in everything that he is doing, and then we see on verse 4 we enter. Enter the gates, don't stand at the gates, don't look at the gates, don't draw the gates, don't paint the picture of the gates, you enter the gates. Now you do not enter gates that are locked, you do not enter gates that say, do not enter. Or I forget about the dog, beware of the owner. You don't enter those kind of gates. You enter the gates that are open, you enter the gates that are welcoming, you enter the gates that are inviting you. So there is an invitation to enter, to enter the gates. Then verse 4, we give thanks. You know, I like to pray by starting with giving thanks, but if I use this list, by the time I give thanks, I already shouted. Amen. So next time you pray, shout and say, Lord, I'm here. Amen. What a great day! I'm here to be with you, and then we worship, we come and we enter, and then we give thanks. And by giving thanks means that we already are in his presence. We already came, we already know, we already entered. Now we give thanks because we're closer, and the closer we are, the more thankful we are, and then we give praise. Why? Because he is God, because he has invited us, because we have been received, we have been saved, we have been redeemed. So these um verbs that we read in chapter in um chapter uh a hundred of Psalms, we find ourselves in a place that we have a life hack, a real life hack for joy. And none of them is joy, but all of these will produce joy, all of these will bring joy into our lives. Why? Because we have been in the presence of God. I want to go back to verse 4. We'll enter his gates with thanksgiving, we enter his gates, his courts with praise, and when we enter the gates, we are entering in a way that God is already welcoming us. He already invited us. Eugene Peterson on his um uh translation, the message, uh, on this passage, it says, You enter, you enter the gates, and when you enter, the password is thank you. I love it. I love it. When you go in, and we all have a little password that we put on our on our computer, well, until they tell us that it needs more letters or needs a number, so we put a one afterwards, and then he needs more numbers, so we put two, three, and then eventually needs uh an object, we put an exclamation mark. You know what I'm talking about. We all have to have a password for for the things that we do, and every time we put that password, we are granted entry to the website or or to the app. And the entry, that's why I love when he says the entry, the password is thank you. And when we go in and thank you, gates open, and we walk in. The invitation is there, but it we have to enter with thankfulness in our heart. We have to enter the courts with praise. Now, it doesn't say the court, it's not one court. There's many courts during that time. Kings had courts, and courts were areas in their dwelling in which people were welcome to come in, and when they came, they just dwell there in the presence of the king, and the king would go and would hear their their concerns, would hear their stories, we'll would share some insight, would advise them or receive advice over situations, and he was a relationship. So when we enter the court of our Lord and King and God, we enter with praise, for he is good, for he is Lord, for he is God. Joy is not is not the result of perfect circumstances, but the result of thankfulness. Because the more we are thankful, the more we praise, the more we shout, the more we recognize what God is doing, and the more joy we have. It's not something we work on, it's something that we receive, that we see, that's a result of the relationship, and it's something that the world's looking for. So when they see us being thankful, when they see us being appreciative, when they see us being welcoming, then we're able to say that we are different. A boy built a small sailboat, and he spent hours and hours on building that small sailboat, so he took it to the creek to make sure that it was seaworthy, I guess, or creek worthy. And the wind came and just took the boat away. He tried to run, but it was too fast, and he lost that boat. He was just so upset, and one day he was walking in in town and he saw at a window his boat. It was for sale. He went in and said, Hey, I made that boat. Um can I have it back? And I said, Well, no, we paid someone for this boat, so it's for sale. We don't know. We just someone offered us for sale and we bought it, and now we're selling it for a profit. He went home. And God, his piggy bank took all the money, went back to the store to buy the boat that he built. On our way home, he said, I love you as a boat because I have created you, and because I have bought you. So I've owned you twice. That is the same thing that God has done with us. He created us, and when we went away with our sin, with our life, with with ourselves, with our egos, he sent his son and bought us again. So we can be his twice. One because he created, and twice because he has purchased us. So today, as we look at reasons to be thankful, that is the greatest reason is that we do not belong to ourselves, we belong to Jesus Christ, and we do not belong to our efforts, we belong to what God has prepared us to be his children. What a wonderful opportunity to be thankful. So I have a challenge for you this week, and the challenge is to practice thankful witness. Thankful witness. I'm gonna challenge you this week to tell someone that you're thankful for them. There's gonna be people that you can call, like if you still have parents uh living, or if you have children, you call them and say, Yeah, I'm just gonna tell you how thankful I am from you. That's gonna be easy. But I'm gonna challenge you to witness by calling someone that you're struggling with, someone that's giving you trouble, or someone that's giving you angst, or someone that has disappointed. And I'm gonna challenge you to call that one person or two person, or in my case, probably a hundred, that to call someone in your life and just tell them how thankful you are for them. Find one thing, not just something, find one specific thing, because everyone has something that we are thankful for. You know, I could call and say, Yeah, I'm so thankful you live so far away from me, but no, no, that that's not that's not I'm talking about, but just something that's genuine, because that will bring joy to their life and will bring joy to yours. Because if you are struggling with someone and you start praying how thankful you are that they are in your life, how thankful you are that because of them you have taken the steps. There's so many reasons that we will find joy in people if we begin to be thankful for them, because there's a lot people have that we could be thankful for, and if we identified those things, we begin having the thankful witness. And when they ask, why did you call me and say, Because Jesus, I'm thankful for Jesus, so I'm thankful for you, I'm thankful that Jesus saved me, so I have no place to look at myself. I want to look and tell you how thankful I am for you because Jesus created you. That will change our approach from complaining to thankfulness to gratitude. And when we start doing that, people will notice that we do not belong to ourselves, we belong to him. Amen. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus sat down with his disciples, and after spending three years with them, he told them that they were going to have a special meal. And this meal was special because it was the Passover, but he said this Passover was being fulfilled on that night. So he took the cup and he took the bread and said that they had significance. And then following the meal, he told them to do this every time they came together. The apostle Paul later writes to the church in Corinth and writes these words, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body. That's the significance which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So as we partake of this meal that Jesus had with his disciples, we are proclaiming his death until he comes. But we proclaim his death by living. We proclaim his death by being grateful, by witnessing, by living each day with him. Because his death brought us salvation, his resurrection brought us eternal life. But when he returns, we will join him. So as we partake of this meal, let's take the bread. And on a night he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread. And in our church, we don't believe that you need to be a member or someone special. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're welcome to partake this meal with us. He took the bread, and after he broke it, he said, This bread is my body broken for you. Take and eat in remembrance of me. And as the disciples did 2,000 years ago, we do it together. The body of Christ is broken for you. After he broke the bread and passed the bread, he took the cup. And as he passed the cup, he said, This cup is a new is a new covenant in my blood. This is my blood being shed for you. And when we look at the colour of the cup of the liquid, we are reminded of the blood. The blood of Jesus that has cleansed us from all sin. So as we partake of this cup, we are reminded of Jesus' blood shed for us to cleanse our sin. The blood of Jesus shed for you. Father in heaven, we are thankful, grateful, appreciative of what you have done. But those words are not enough for how we feel about the salvation that you have given us. So we pray, Father, today, that you will lead us, that you speak to us, that you transform our hearts. And we pray that in everything we do, that you will be our God, that we will know you. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like to ask the worship team to come forward and and uh lead us in a song. I don't know where you are in your journey with Jesus, but today we have an opportunity to recognize that his sacrifice in his body and his blood are the greatest thankfulness that we have. The greatest gratitude is for his sacrifice. So as you go this week, be thankful and thank other people for being a part of your life, because that will bring you and them joy.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

As it is known in our community, Northwest Church is committed to discovering and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, with inspired worship and intentional ministry. People from all walks of life are welcome and received as family members. Our family is diverse, multicultural, and although not perfect in love with Jesus. Join us online at nwnat.org or by visiting us in Columbus, Ohio. God bless you.