It's a privilege to be here this afternoon to take part in this anniversary service and celebration and to be a part of the heritage of the church and then the present and hopefully into the future too. Thank you for staying for the afternoon service. Had a great meal today and good fellowship. Solomon said in Proverbs 15 verse 13 that a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. He said a couple of verses later that he that hath a merry heart enjoys a continual feast. And then again in a couple of chapters later, he said a merry heart maketh, is like good medicine. A merry heart is like good medicine. A while back we had a missionary, Steinbartz, and I told Pastor Joel after the service, I've never seen anybody speak with a continual smile on his face like he did. He just, almost continuous, and that's good. But whether you have a continual smile or not, we still can have a merry heart. I don't know, if you raised your hand this morning as being here 25 years or more, you might remember an old evangelist that we used to have. His name was Page. He had a daily radio program, five minutes, I think. It began with, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. How many of you remember his? Okay, many of you do. He came to the pulpit with a cane in either hand, Both legs were bent in. He could hardly get up there, but he always came with a smile on his face, cheerful countenance, an upbeat spirit. He was always positive to be around. My sister died a couple of years ago out on Iowa, and we'd been out there several times, but went out for her memorial service. And she had on her kitchen wall, just above the sink, a little plaque that, B.M. Page, that was his initials, B.M. Page. Kind of a bumper sticker, I like to think, but it was, cheer up, you'll soon be dead. That was kind of his motto, I think, and he always was cheerful, and so I've been thinking about that. In the Old Testament, In Deuteronomy chapter 24, I thought there was something very interesting there about men that got married, and there were three things they were supposed to do their first year of marriage. Number one, they were supposed to not be part of any war effort, not be involved in the military. Secondly, they were supposed to not be involved in any business venture, no business. The third thing was they were to stay home and cheer up their wife for a year. Probably after about six months, she was looking at the calendar to see when that year would be over, but that was interesting. And that's the word that was used in the King James Version, cheer up your wife. Well, I've been thinking about the theme lately. There's so much in this world that is so overwhelming and can be downright depressing if you dwell upon it, of course, which we shouldn't do or don't do. We have the word of God that counteracts those things, but boy, when you just listen to any news program, just the, and I'm not gonna recite you the things. I don't think you need to hear those this afternoon, but in the light of the current affairs and the overwhelming needs that just our friends and family members, some of them have health needs, maybe financial and family issues they're dealing with. I want you to take your Bible. I want to show you in the gospel, mainly in the gospels, three snapshots of Jesus Christ in his inaction, pretty much, and the advice he gave to some people that would be, I think, helpful to all of us. So take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter nine to start with, Matthew chapter nine. Any one of these passages would be something that you could expound fully, but I'm not gonna do that. This is a snapshot view. Matthew chapter nine is the first one. Jesus, in this passage, It says in verse one, he entered into a ship and passed over and came to his own city. That would be Capernaum, where he located his ministry headquarters, where he began to preach and teach. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed and seeing Jesus, and Jesus seeing their faith, rather, said unto the sick of the palsy, son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Be of good cheer. Why? Well, he was sick. In fact, in one of the other gospel accounts, he was so sick that four of his friends had to bring him on a stretcher, so to speak, one on each corner. And there was such a press of crowd in the room that they couldn't take him through the door, they couldn't take him into the room, so they, in their ingenuity, pulled some tile off the roof above where Jesus was standing and then lowered him down on the stretcher. He was paralyzed. It didn't say how he got that way or how long he'd been that way, but he was sick of palsy or being paralyzed, could not walk. And it says Jesus, seeing their faith, not only the faith of the four men because they had heard of Christ, his power to heal, and they believed that Jesus could help their friend, But also the sick man had faith. We don't know at what level. Maybe he had just recently put his faith in Jesus as Messiah. But Jesus, seeing their faith, all of their faith, said to the sick of the palsy, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. So in this snapshot, I see an admonition or an exhortation to be of good cheer. That word, that phrase means Be courageous or be cheerful, literally. Be cheerful. And sometimes it just means be courageous. Have courage. Be of good heart. Or sometimes maybe, don't be afraid. Might be just a good way to translate it. But in each of these cases, it's translated, be of good cheer. Why? Because your sins are forgiven. Now, if you read the rest of the passage, The Pharisees began to doubt in their mind, well, how could he say that? Who's able to forgive sins? Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said, which would be easier for me to say, rise up and walk, or rather, your sins forgiven, or rise up, get up and walk, you're healed? He said, to prove to you that I could forgive sins, or that I could heal, I said, your sins be forgiven, and then And then he said, take up your bed and walk. So he healed the man. Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven. But later on he said, arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house. What a rejoicing time. But at this point, at the first point at least, the being of good cheer was because my sins are forgiven. Remember the chorus? Gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Now my soul is free and in my heart's a song buried in the deepest sea. Yes, that's good enough for me. Gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Boy, that's something to be cheerful about. Even if the man were never healed, even if he never could walk, he could be cheerful because his sins were forgiven. No penance, no probation, no purgatory, just pardon, pardon, pardon. Thy sins are forgiven, the pardon of sins. What a glorious thought. Again, an old song, I was once a sinner, but I came, pardoned to receive for my soul. That was freely given, and I learned that Jesus, that he always kept his word. I found that he always kept his word. There's a new name written down in glory, and it's mine, and it's mine. There's a new name written down in glory, and it's mine. I'll tell you, when you think about God's forgiveness in the sea, But behind his back, as far as the east is from the west, he will remember our sin no more. It's enough to be cheerful in the midst of all of life's pressing circumstances. Cheerful because of the pardon of sins. Okay, let's go to another snapshot. Go to Mark's gospel, please, chapter six. Mark's gospel, chapter six. And the context of this, We're gonna come down to about verse 44. The context of this is Jesus feeding of the 5,000. What an unbelievable miracle that he had done. By the way, he had been teaching, preaching all day and it was even, it says it was It was doubt that the day was far spent in verse 35. It was, and another gospel says it was evening. And, but yet the crowd had not eaten and the disciples didn't want to send them away. So you know the story and that's not my focus now. He fed the 5,000 plus women and children. So 10,000, let's say people. He was exhausted. He told his disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side, probably Bethsaida or some little town like that. I'll meet you over there. It was getting dark. He found a little spot in the mountain place to pray alone by himself, probably praying for the disciples and for the crowd and for the teaching that he had imparted. And verse 45, By the way, so the disciples get into the boat, and a squall, that's a sudden storm, wind, fierce winds come up on that little sea of Galilee. And the disciples, the apostles, they were rowing this rowboat, and they had spent most of the night getting nowhere. Says about the fourth watch, that would be from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., Jesus knew what they were and what they were doing. And so it says, they saw him walking on the water. Amazing. And when they saw him, verse 49 says, walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit and he cried out. And cried out, they cried out. For they all saw him and were troubled and immediately He talked with them and said unto them, Be of good cheer in his eye, be not afraid. Wow. Walking on the sea. And then in another gospel account it says Peter said, if it's Jesus, I want to come to you. And he got out of the boat and began to walk on the water. You know that story too. But I just want to focus on this snapshot because Jesus said, be of good cheer. They were troubled. I don't know that their life was threatened, but they were exhausted. They had been rowing all night and getting nowhere. And the storm was still there. And so Jesus said, be of good cheer. Don't be afraid. Take heart. Take courage. Why? Because I'm here. You know, they had just seen hours before his power in feeding thousands of people. And a few hours later, When he wasn't there in presence, in physical presence, I'm sure they were troubled, they were afraid, and so Jesus had to come and insure them. From the miracle on the mountain to the storm on the sea, just hours. We've been there, by the way, probably you have, all of us have, where we had just a great day going. a great time in our life maybe, and suddenly the rug is pulled out from underneath us. And we have a lapse of faith. There's a time when we begin to wring our hands and we're, what are we going to do about this? And you can't believe that from a miracle on the mountain in your life, Just recently, now you're out on the stormy sea of life. The winds are howling, the waves are raging in your life personally. And it is a troubling time. And that's the time when that still small voice of the Holy Spirit will probably speak to you at some time, some point or other, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. In his eye, in his eye. I'm still here. By the way, notice the last verse in that section, verse 52. Well, verse 51. He went up unto them into the ship, and the wind ceased. And they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves. Just a few hours before, it escaped their mind. Their focus now was not on what Jesus had done or what he could do, but their own troubles, their own problems inward, not upward. Notice the last phrase of verse 52, for their heart was hardened. Unbelievable. But yet, not when I know my own heart, my own self, my own flesh, I can believe that. Yes, we're so fickle, and sometimes in our faith. When I was a student in school, a friend of mine went up into the mountains of North Carolina who had a missionary. 80-year-old missionary. Her name was Miss Walker, single gal, single lady. She said, there's young people up here that need to be saved. And could you come up and help me? So we went up. Our first night up there, we went up many times. But the first night, we found her place, a little cabin on the side of a mountain. Underneath the cabin, or very near the cabin, there was a mountain stream that flowed through there. And so she had a little room for us to spend the night in. And about the middle of the night, we were sure we heard the door open. I mean, it was dark. We were in a strange place. We were in the mountains. There was a stream making noise. And here's an old creaky door that comes open. And it's dark, dark, dark. That buddy of mine and myself, we were both grown men, we started looking around for a ball bat. And there wasn't any ball bat in an 80-year-old missionary's house. So we had something that we thought we could hit someone over the head with because we heard footsteps. And we were ready to go. Just a few hours before, we'd been praising God for all they'd done for the invitation we had, for the opportunity for the young people that we could minister to. And a missionary that had a burden for youth, an 80-year-old woman that wanted, come up and help me. Help these teens. And then it got dark. And then there were strange noises. And then where's the missionary? We didn't know where she was. Maybe in another cabin or something. We didn't know, but it's amazing how soon you forget the power of God, the presence of God. And by the way, he said, it is I, it is I. I have a friend in South Carolina who shared a recent prayer request with some pastors as we were having a prayer meeting. He said, there's a lady in our church, she went up to Charlotte to visit her family over the, I think, Christmas holidays. Somehow she got a bacterial infection. She was a lady, she and her husband had younger children. They are the most active people in our church. They are willing to do anything and everything. Always, serving the Lord, just serving God. Great spirit, great people. And while she was there, she got this infection. Before she left the hospital, she had lost both arms up to the elbow, amputation. She had lost both legs up to the knees, had to be amputated to save her life. This was just in the last couple, three months. Their whole life was turned upside down. They had to have, the pastors of the church there attended, and his wife kept the kids, we're keeping the kids still, I think. And it's just, the whole church, once they were just going along smooth and good, and everything was great, and all of a sudden, overnight almost, things turned upside down, the winds began to howl, the waves began to beat against the ship of life. That would be a test of faith. Anywhere with Jesus, I can safely go. Anywhere he leads me, in this world below, we sing and we mean it. But oh, think about it. I read last night a missionary letter from, who is a missionary to Ukraine. He's here now in the States because, I think it because of the war. And he says, I've got family, he's Ukrainian, I've got family there and I've got friends there. And I don't know whether they're living, you see pictures on TV of the Russian devastation of villages in Ukraine, just totally wiped out, totally bombed out. But we don't question God. Many people are coming to Christ through this. But it's a test of whether or not we really believe Hebrews 13. Verses five and six, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. No matter where you're at, no matter what circumstance, no matter what sea you're up on, no matter what storm you're in, God will, he said, be of good cheer, be courageous, be courageous. I'm with you, I'm here, I'm with thee. Third snapshot, John chapter 16, please. John chapter 16. I think this is the only, Jesus is the only person in the New Testament that uses this formula. By the way, it occurs once in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It's called the Septuagint. It occurs one time. It's Genesis chapter 35. Don't look it up now, but poor Rachel. Leah had had six sons by Jacob. Leah's handmaid had had, I don't know how many, four maybe. Rachel's hand made a couple. So Jacob had 10 sons, but none by the love of his life. His first love, Rachel. It says there in chapter 35 that God remembered Rachel. Well, he never had forgotten her, but that's language that we can understand. She wasn't forgotten. So she had Joseph. And then she said, God's going to give me another one. And sure enough, she had Benjamin. It says in chapter 35, they were almost to Ephrata. That's another name for Bethlehem. That'd be a great place to die or to live in. That's the city of David. That's where David was born. They were almost there, but they couldn't quite make it there. She went into labor, and her midwife said, don't worry. Use the same Greek word in the Septuagint Greek translation. Don't be afraid. I think it's translated, no, it's translated, fear not, fear not, you're gonna have this child. Well, she died in childbirth and I'm sure the midwife knew that she was gonna die, but fear not, you will have this child, and she did. She said, name him Benoni, which means child of sorrow. And Jacob said, no, probably waited, she closed her eyes in death, no, he's gonna be called Benjamin. son of my right arm. But anyway, same word, John 16, verse 33. Jesus is in the upper room, just winding down a great series of lessons with the disciples, a very intimate setting, the last supper, the Passover with the disciples. Judas had made his exit to go get his conspirators, to betray Jesus. Judas had made his exit, so just the 11 there at this point. And he tells them, folks, he says, man, I came forth from the Father, verse 28 of John 16, and come unto this world, and I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb? Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, we are sure that thou knowest, and needest not that any man should ask thee? By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered every man into his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone because the Father is with me. These things have I spoken to you, that in me you shall have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He says, be of good cheer. to the disciples. By the way, in his great prayer, recorded in chapter 17, he talks about the tribulation that they're going to go through. He said, Lord and Father, he said, I know more in the world, but these are in the world. He said, I kept them in thy name, verse 12. He said, verse 14, I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I'm not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil," translated, evil one, or from the wicked one. But I want you to notice, in spite of all the tribulation they're going to have, Jesus said, I'm going to leave my peace, that you might have peace. And in that context, and in the next breath, he says, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world, and you will too. John later wrote, this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. What a great lesson. He said, I'm going to give you peace that passeth all understanding, Paul wrote in Philippians chapter four. Be anxious or careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Yes, you will have trouble. You will be misunderstood. You will be lied about. You will be slandered. And more so, as we see the day approaching, if you take a stand for Christ, but be of good cheer. Don't be overcome with fear. Just be courageous. Be bold for the Lord. No, never alone. No, never alone. He's promised never leave me, never to leave me alone. He's gonna be with us. He is with us. I read just recently, in fact, I looked it up on the internet, how many Christian martyrs were there in the 20th century? because I'd heard somebody give a number out that was astounding, and I wanted to see what Wikipedia said, and they said the same thing. 45 million people, not counting political people that died for a cause, but Christians who had died for the cause of Christ in the name of Jesus. In the 20th century, 1900s, 45 million people And whoever said that originally said, that's more people than were killed, than were martyred from the beginning of the church until the beginning of the 20th century, that century alone. Well, this is 21st and they're still being martyred. We don't hear about them often on the news, but they're out there, they're being martyred. So it's a great thing to cling to this promise, be of good cheer, I'll give you peace, no matter what you go through, no matter what tribulation, no matter how much the world hates you and throws its darts at you through Satan. Be of good cheer in his eye, be not afraid. There's one more time that this formula occurs in the New Testament, not from the lips of Jesus, but I want you to turn to Acts chapter 23. Very briefly, the apostle Paul, against the best advice, conventional wisdom, is bound to go to Jerusalem after his great missionary journeys had concluded. He wanted to go to Jerusalem, the city of God, and witness for Christ there. He'd had people along the way beg him not to go. For instance, chapter 21. Somebody took Paul's girdle, his waistband, and bound his own hands and feet, it says in verse 11, and said, thus saith the Holy Ghost. I don't think that was blasphemy. I believe this person was sincere. So shall the Jews of Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of Gentiles. Well, as we read the next couple of chapters, that's exactly what happened. Paul was, at one point, One of the captains who was supervising Paul's presence there, he stood before people and witnessed to them, gave them the gospel, they hated it, they wanted to kill him. In fact, in chapter 23 it says, In verse 10, when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain fearing less, Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them. That's how critical it was. They thought, this captain thought, he's gonna be torn to pieces. I gotta do something. And so he ordered his men to go down, take Paul by force from among them and bring him to the castle. And so Paul was probably by himself that night. And you might guess Paul was not superhuman. You might think, he might have been thinking, boy, those people, those people that tried to tell me I shouldn't do this, maybe they were right. Just about got killed out there. I'm not gonna make it to Jerusalem. He was in Caesarea. But notice what it says in verse 11 of chapter 23 of Acts. And the night following, the Lord stood by Paul and said, be of good cheer. Paul, as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. He's going to Rome now. And so be of good cheer. In maybe the darkest moment of Paul's ministry of his life, he'd gone through so much, but now all alone, just about killed for his faith, And Jesus, the Lord, appeared to him and said, be of good cheer. There's always something to be cheerful. He that hath a merry heart hath a continual feast. A merry heart doeth good like medicine. By the way, there's one more passage, take about two minutes. Go back to the Old Testament, about the fourth book from the last in the Old Testament, Zephaniah. Zephaniah, talk about cheer. You might get there for what I do, but anyway, the last chapter of the book of Zephaniah, it's a book of judgment because of Israel's sin, God raised up prophets one after another to say, hey, judgment's coming. By the way, Zephaniah ministered about 600 years before Christ at the time of a young king whose name was Josiah. There was revival in the land of Judah, but it didn't last. And by 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar's forces were gonna come in and destroy Jerusalem and take a lot of Jews captive. But so it would be a disheartening time for Jews that were looking for Jesus to come. And now what are they gonna do? They're gonna be dragged into captivity. They couldn't see all of them ahead 70 years later when they would come back out of captivity. But right now they could see after the revival there was pending judgment. I want you to follow along as I begin reading in verse 14. The prophet goes way beyond the captivity, way beyond the 400 silent years, way beyond the ministry of Jesus upon this earth and his death, burial and resurrection, way beyond the church age. when he sees by the Holy Spirit's enlightenment the future of Jerusalem. And by the way, in the light of current events, this is significant. verse 14, "'Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, and be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil any more in that day.'" That's the day of the Lord, climaxing in the judgment, And then the second coming, in that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not. By the way, when they translated this into the Greek language, the Septuagint, that's the exact same word that occurs in those three gospel passages that Jesus used. Be of good cheer, it's translated there. Or the midwife said, Fear not, and here it's translated, fear thou not or be of good cheer. And to Zion, let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save, he will pardon, his presence will be there. He will give you his peace, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. will joy over thee with singing." Oh my goodness. I don't know what your position or predicament is today, but I can say you can be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Father, thank you for the encouragement you give us. Old Testament, at the time of death, the worst hour of Rachel's life, yet something to be positive about. And then the time of Israel's future judgments, oh, they were and still are and will be awful. But you will climax all of that and conclude all of that with joy and with singing and triumph. Be of good cheer. May we dismiss our hearts today, be dismissed with hearts that are singing and hearts that are merry, and countenances that are cheerful, enjoying a continual feast, because we have the promises of God. Not one of them has ever failed. Thank you for this day of victory and celebration. May we go home in peace. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. You're dismissed.