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Month of Audacious Joy
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We have entered the eighth month, and God has given us the grace to leap over every situation from the seventh month. What didn't prevail in the previous season will not prevail now. God has brought us into a season of audacious joy—joy that is not merely prayed for, but expressed and lived out.
Audacious joy is something you demonstrate. You show the world that your legs are working, your hands are still functioning, and your eyes are still seeing. Stand up this morning and express that joy. Dance your joy. Let the world know that you are alive and rejoicing.
Consider the man who sat by the Beautiful Gate for so long. That day—perhaps at the end of the seventh month—he had an encounter that changed everything. God gave him a new beginning. Many of you have already entered into your new beginning. As we gather on this first Sunday of the eighth month, dancing and rejoicing, I want you to believe that the joy and rejoicing will not end in your home.
God will give you the grace to rejoice all through this week. God will give you the grace to rejoice all through this month in the mighty name of Jesus.
I don't know what things you aspired to have in the seventh month that never came to pass. I don't know what you're still waiting for. But think about those things now and cry out to Jehovah God. By faith, call those things to life. Maybe those very things have kept your joy from being full. But in this month of audacious joy, God is changing your situation. Your story is changing in the name of Jesus.
If you are online and have been kept perpetually in that space, God is breaking that bondage. God is giving you a new mystery. God is bringing you down here to rejoice with your fellow members in the name of Jesus.
Before you sit down, declare faithfully and say, "This is the month the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." This is your word from Psalm 118:24. Nothing—nothing, nothing—will rob your joy in the name of Jesus.
Let me tell you a story about a husband and wife who encountered three strange visitors dressed in white at the entrance to their gate. These visitors stood in silence for a long time until the wife approached them.
"Are you hungry? Are you in need?" she asked.
The leader of the three finally spoke: "Yes, we are hungry. But you can only go with one of us."
The lady was confused. "One of you?"
Then the leader explained: "I am standing on the left—I am Wealth. The one on my right is Success. And I in the middle am Love."
When you pick one, one of them will follow you into your house.
The wife returned to her husband and told him what she had heard. They began to deliberate.
"If we choose success," the wife said, "everything we do will be successful."
"If we choose wealth," the husband replied, "we will have more money."
They discussed it back and forth, weighing their options. But when they returned to make their choice, something unexpected happened. The husband, who was doing the talking, simply said: "Love."
"Love?" asked the visitor. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. Love."
As they moved forward with Love, something remarkable happened. Love walked with them. And as Love walked with them, Success followed. And as Success followed, Wealth followed too.
But the visitor said, "No, no—it can't be three of you. That's not how this works!"
Then the visitor explained: "If you had chosen Success alone, Success would have followed you. If you had chosen Wealth alone, Wealth would have followed you. But because you chose Love—because you put Love first—Love carries Success, and Love carries Wealth with it."
Imagine if they had chosen wrongly. They would have ended up with just one thing.
I don't know what your desires are. I don't know what you would have chosen for yourself if God appeared to you right now. But there is an encounter in Scripture where someone needed to make a choice. And I believe God that in this month, you and I will choose that which will make our joy full.
The theme we have chosen for this month of audacious joy comes from Habakkuk 3:17–18, taken from the Passion Translation, which calls it "Triumphant Faith"—not just ordinary faith, but triumphant faith.
It says:
"Even if my fig trees do not blossom, and my vines grow no grapes, if my olive crop fails, and my fields produce no harvest, and even if all my sheep die, and I'm left with no cattle in my barn, I still have Yahweh and I will rejoice. I will rejoice in him. Yes, I will dance with joy no matter what. For I have a savior God. Yahweh is the Lord of my strength. He makes my feet sure-rooted as a deer bounding upon the high places."
Brethren, we have just arrived from a transformation with seven days of seeking the face of the Transformer. And I want to ask you: Where are you in the process of that transformation?
Now you are in another month. And if you are given options to choose from, what would you choose? What would you select?
If you look at your situation and see a problem—and someone spreads a solution before you—but that problem has fixated your heart, you might think that solution alone is what you need. But look at that family. They had the option to choose wealth. They had the option to choose success. Yet they chose love.
And look at what Scripture tells us: It doesn't really matter what the situation could be in your life. If only God is in the case, you are sorted. If only God is at the center, nothing can shake you.
Would somebody give their life to Him in this month? This is a month that speaks of your new beginning.
In Scripture, there was a man who was blind. He could not see as others could. Yet even in that situation, he had space for God in his life. When he appeared before Jesus, he had two options: grumble or complain. But he chose neither. He knew that if he could be fixed, he would move into his new beginning.
He made the right choice.
In 1 Kings 3:5, God asked Solomon a powerful question: "Ask for whatever you want me to give to you."
Now, Solomon could have asked for many things. He could have asked for wealth, for power, for a long life. But Solomon asked for wisdom.
Would somebody ask for that wisdom this morning?
Because Solomon asked for wisdom, every other thing he never even requested—Jehovah gave to him as extras. Riches came. Honor came. Everything came alongside the wisdom he sought.
You might be going through difficult things right now, but you never can tell how far the wisdom of God can lead you. When you have God's wisdom, you are able to do the work of the Almighty among many other options that may be open to you. You have received the principal thing.
According to Proverbs 4:7, "Wisdom is the principal thing." Someone who has that wisdom and is walking in it—if they want their joy to be full—must do this: Put God in the midst of your challenges.
A person of wisdom makes space for God.
In Mark 10:46–52, we find a wise man. In Luke 17:11–19, we read of one man out of ten who walked in wisdom. The Bible also speaks of five wise virgins and five foolish virgins.
Not everyone is wise. But if you ask for the wisdom of God this month, He will give you direction. He will show you the right way to go.
And that right direction begins with thanksgiving. Here is the truth: A person filled with bitterness, a person filled with complaints, has no space in their life to give thanks. But when you are in a state of rejoicing and God's wisdom is working in you, thanksgiving and rejoicing go together.
They go together.
So look away from that situation. Regardless of what you are going through, if God is in the equation, you are sorted. Nothing will take away your joy in the mighty name of Jesus.
That wise man recorded in Luke 17:11–19 was the only one of ten who dared to do what the others did not do. He turned back. He gave thanks.
Brethren, we have been on a journey. Only last week we laid one of our faithful members to rest. But think deeply: because you are still alive, your lots are still there. Even now, there can be a turnaround. And that turnaround in this month will bring joy to your life, happiness to your life.
When you give thanks to God this morning, you show that you have not been grumbling. You show that you are acknowledging Him. You are recognizing that you are the product of His mercy. You are here not on your own strength, not at your own terms.
Would you rise up this afternoon and majestically give thanks to the author of your life? Would you give thanks to the One who brought you into August? Would you give thanks to the One without whom you could never be here?
In 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, Paul writes:
"Be happy in your faith and rejoice and be glad continually, including this month of August. Regardless of those situations, regardless of the fact that you don't even have food on your table, regardless of the fact that you don't have good clothes to wear—but God is not allowing your nakedness to show. Be unseasoned in prayer. Pray perseveringly. Then give thanks to God in everything, no matter what the circumstances may be. Be thankful. This is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus."
Go ahead this morning and just bless the name of the Lord. Through this thanksgiving, have the assurance that you are moving into your new beginning.
Often, the number eight is associated with new beginning. That man in Luke 17—through thanksgiving—entered into his own new beginning. That man in Acts—when he entered his new beginning—praised the Lord. Everybody saw him praising the Lord.
I want you to praise Him this afternoon as if everything you ever hoped for depends on Him. And of course, it does. Open your mouth and bless Him. Bless Him.
Commit this month—the eighth month, the month that stands for new beginning—to Jehovah God. Believe that He will bring a completion to every old cycle you have been through. Your new beginning means you are not going back to the old.
Jehovah God, the author of new beginning, as you are thanking Him now, appreciating Him, He will step into the affairs of your life. He will make all things new according to His word.
He will make all things new for you in this month. And as He makes all things new for you, joy will be your portion. The joy of the Lord will be your strength. You will never know any defeat in the name of Jesus.
Bless Him for this wonderful one year that we have had without moving. We have gathered without having to carry equipment from one place to another. We have not burdened our young men and women with loading and unloading vehicles. We have not had to replace worn-out equipment because of constant relocation.
Bless Him.
As the Scripture says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me." Bless Him. Keep blessing Him until the next minister comes. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop.
