Again I Say Rejoice
by Drew Galloway
March 15, 2026 · The Sanctuary, Hazelwood, Missouri
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Philippians 4:4, Psalm 51:10-13, 2 Samuel 11:1-2, Deuteronomy 6, Luke 10:20, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19, Matthew 5:12, Romans 12:15, Habakkuk 3:17-19

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/drew-galloway--again-i-say-rejoice
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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I'm going to turn with me, if you can, Philippians chapter four. I'm thankful for God's presence that has undeniably met us here. And I believe we see precedent in the book of Genesis chapter number one, the spirit of the Lord moves, and then God will speak. And I'm going to do my best to be obedient to what I feel today. Philippians chapter four and verse number four, if you have your Bibles, Philippians four, I want to give honor, special honor to these great students. Amen. To every parent that may have a child in the youth group or young adults or every grandparent, I just want to take a moment to commend you and I want to just take a moment and brag upon this youth group and these young adults. The sanctuary is blessed, the future is bright. Amen. And I believe God is going to do some incredible things in and through this group and I would be remiss if I didn't

say how thankful I am for each and every one of you. It's been such a high honor to spend time with you, play ball with you, have God moments with you, and this is a week that I will not soon forget. You guys have blessed me, you've challenged me, and I will continue to pray for you just to see what God is going to do through your life. Amen. I want to say how thankful I am to this great church. I give honor to your pastoral team, Pastor and Sister Bland, and then all of the ministers and pastors on their team. You guys are so blessed with great leaders. Amen. Do you believe that this morning? I, I have prayed earnestly this morning just that God would allow me to have the heart of a shepherd. I know what it means to a pastor to trust someone to stand in your place and I don't take it lightly. And I give honor to

you, Pastor Caleb, give honor to my friend. We go way back. We went to college together. Pastor Caleb actually knew me before I was serving the Lord. He was such a great friend of me and played a very integral role in my life as a new convert. And I will forever be thankful for you. Give honor to you and your family. I've got a lot of friends that are here to my youth ministry friends. I honor you. And so thankful for you, the DJ and brother Jeremy and your families. Philippians chapter four. And I want to say how incredibly thankful I am from brother and sister Charlotte. And from henceforth, that is what I will forever call you. Claire, you don't even know what you did. That was so awesome. Brother and sister Charlotte, I honor you and I thank you for your leadership. Pastor Clay, my friend, you're doing a fantastic job. And he has been such a kind and incredible host

and I am just so thankful for what God is doing. And I want to say really quickly to Claire and David, what an amazing job that these young people did. Amen. Claire, if any point you feel like I'm struggling, you just come and get the mic and take over and just do your thing. You did. You and David did such an amazing job. Philippians four and first, number four says, rejoice in the Lord all way. And again, I say rejoice. This is the seventh and final time that Paul mentions the word rejoice in his epistle to the Philippians. We see it in Philippians one, 18, two, 17, two, 18, three and one. And then here Philippians four and four. He actually says it twice. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. The Old Testament, there are four Hebrew words that were used primarily for rejoice, three Greek words in the New Testament. This word right here that Paul uses is

caro, which is rooted in the same word as the Greek word for grace, carus. And I believe it's indicative that we understand that our ability to rejoice is simply because of the grace of God. And I think what we've felt today is we begin to declare and recognize that we serve an amazing God. It began to be overwhelming. And there, there are just times that as the song says, when you don't know what else to say, you can only declare what a God that we serve. What a God that we serve. But I would like to draw my title from that verse in Philippians four and four. And I would just like to speak to you for just a moment from that. As Paul said, again, I say rejoice, look at your neighbor and get my high five and say rejoice. And you may be seated. Psalm chapter 51 is one of my favorite Psalms in the book of Psalms. And it is

a song that I would imagine that you, like me, I've gone too many times in moments of prayer, moments of repentance, moments where I feel like I needed to realign some things. I won't read all of it. I'll pick up just for the sake of time in verse number 10, flip Psalm chapter 51 of verse 10 says created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He says, cast me not away from my presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me restore unto me the joy of our salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. This is the cry of David when he was in a very low place in his life to fully understand the weightiness of these words that he penned. We would need to understand what led to this moment when we are first introduced to David in the scripture. He is a young shepherd boy in the field. He would be come the

last in line, the overlooked son, not even one to be considered worthy to be called from the pasture when the Prophet showed up to anoint the next King. But it would be David that God would instruct the Prophet to anoint in the midst of his brethren and David would go on to do some mighty and amazing things as in his tenure as King. But even before being King, we, we know him probably most notably from the moment that there was a giant, there was a giant who was making a mockery of God and God's people. And when everybody else was paralyzed by fear for 40 days and 40 nights, David was the one we learn about in Sunday school, David versus Goliath. And he would be the one who would march on to the field and the valley and said, if nobody else is going to fight this giant, then I will fight this giant. We see the boldness that he has when

he shows up to that valley that day and he hears the roar of this giant and he poses the question, is there not a cause? Is anybody going to do something about this? And David would be the one to defeat him. It was David that the Bible would tell us that when Saul was tormented by evil spirits, that he would play skillfully. And when King Saul was tormented, David would play and drive the evil spirits away. He was a very polarizing man in scripture. But at the height of his power, David makes a very tragic decision. He took another man's wife and tried to cover it up. And it just kind of continued to spiral more and more out of control. And we see this catastrophic fall. This man who once had the courage to fight a giant that no one else would fight is now done the unthinkable and lack the character to do the right thing. We find this in 2

Samuel 11 and 1, and it came to pass that after the year was expired at the time when the kings would go forth to battle that David sent Joab the servants with him and all of Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and they besieged Rabbi, but David Terry at Jerusalem, he stayed back. Now this is the same David that had the boldness to fight when no one else would fight. It was him that posed the question is there not a cause, but now David decides to sit this particular battle out scholars estimate that he had been king for approximately 20 years at this point. And I don't know if he had got comfortable. I'm not really sure what made him decide to sit this out, but we know that because he's not at battle, he makes his way to the rooftop and the Bible says in verse two, and it came to pass at evening tide that David arose from off

of his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman washing herself and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. He calls for that she, but we know that this is the lady he saw because he is king and he has the power to do so. They have an affair and she is now with child. Her husband, Uriah, is a righteous man and he is a way at battle, the battle that David doesn't want to be a part of. And so David, he begins to scramble. How am I going to cover this up? And so he sends word that Uriah should come home from the battlefield and be with his wife in an attempt that maybe people would not be able to put the pieces together, the timeline, and they would not be able to figure out what David had done in secret. Uriah comes from the battlefield and all seems to be

well. But Uriah, he tells David that I can't do this. I can't I can't be at home in comfort while my brothers are in a battle. And that Uriah was kind of the opposite of David. David did his best to avoid the battlefield. But Uriah said, I cannot avoid the battlefield while my people are fighting. And so David has to come up with another plan. And so David tells his servant, since Uriah refuses not to be involved in the battle, I want you to put him on the front lines and I want you. I want you to send him out. He understands that this is a death sentence. Uriah would surely be killed and he was. And so now it seems like this story that just keeps getting worse and worse. It seems like all is going to be OK. And David is going to get away with it. And he is going to be able to use his power and his ability

to hide and cover up his mistakes. Until one day, the Bible says that there's a prophet that shows up. The prophet Nathan shows up and he begins to talk to David and he begins to tell him a story. He said, David, I would like to tell you a story about two men. There was one man that had all that he could ever imagine. He had a great flock. He had many lambs. He was very well off. He said, but there's another man that only had one Ulam. And he said, there was a day, David, that the man that had it all went to the man that only had one and took it away. And David, who was so callous that he could have an affair. He was so callous that he could commit murder. All of a sudden, David, there's this indignation that begins to rise up. And he declares to the prophet Nathan, he says, this man has to repay it and

this man shall pay with his life. And Nathan looks at David and others, the famous words David, thou art the man. It is amazing to me that David was willing to do all that he'd done. But when Nathan shows up and begins to talk about the lamb, that there was something about this story of the lamb that began to tenderize David's heart. There was something about the lamb that moved David. And so Nathan confronts David with the story of the lamb. And David realizes, oh, my word, I am the rich man in this parable. And it's from this juncture of Nathan confronted David that David would write Psalm 51, where he would begin to pen this psalm of repentance. And we read it a moment ago, Psalm 51 and 10. He would declare, create in me a clean heart. Oh, God, and renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not away from thy presence. David, though he had went down a road,

he probably never thought he would go down. Thank God there was someone who had the boldness to confront him. And thank God, David had the humility to say, you know what? I was wrong. David to me is proof that no matter how great you are or anybody can make a mistake. David's life is proof to me that anybody can get it wrong. But I am still thankful that David's life is also proof that anybody can make it right. I want you to know I still believe that one prayer of repentance has the power to change your life forever. It doesn't matter what you have done. We serve a merciful God and it is the trick of the enemy to try to convince you that you've gone too far and you've done too much. But I'm telling you one prayer, one prayer has the power to change it all. But some time ago, I was reading this song. As I read this song where

David, he repents Pastor Blannon, he makes it right. I felt like the Lord just kind of nudged me and say, what did he ask for once he made it right? Yes, he got a clean heart. Yes, his spirit got renewed. But what did David ask God for once he made it right? Bible tells us he makes this petition, this petition to God. He says, God, now that I've got a renewed heart, now I've got a clean heart and renewed spirit. Here's what I need you to give me. I want you to restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. I don't know when he lost it. I don't know where he lost it. I don't know at what point in his assent and his elevation that he lost it. But evidently, somewhere, David lost the fundamental joy of salvation. And so he says, God, after I make it right, this is what I need you to get back to me. I need my

joy back. And I begin to as I begin to study and I begin to pray. And I said, God, did he lose his joy for salvation because he sinned or did he sin because he lost his joy for salvation? And I felt like it just in a time of prayer. God prompted me both because here's what I've learned. If you ever get over the fact that you're saved, that's when you start looking for other things to fill the void. But if you always possess the mindset that it is of the grace of God that I'm even here. It's only according to his mercy that I'm even here. If you can just always be aware of the fact that I don't deserve this and God has been good to me. You won't go looking for other things to fill the void. There's something about someone who's not over the fact that he loved me before I ever loved him. That while I was yet

a sinner, Christ died for the ungodly. Anybody still thankful for what Jesus has done in your life? Somewhere along the line, this shepherd turned king for God. What it was all about, he lost the joy of the salvation. Perhaps he got apathetic, but here's what I've learned. If we're not careful, it's the human tendency that the longer we serve the Lord, the more blessed we get. It can become easier to forget just how far God has brought us. It is a battle that we all fight. It's a natural process that we all must push against. You we've all seen it when a person is first born again. They get the Holy Ghost in their baptize. Man, there is a joy. It's like the old song says, this this joy that I have the the world did not give it to me and the world cannot take it away. Listen, when someone first finds out who Jesus is, they don't know when it's the

right time to stand up or sit down. They don't know when it's the right time to clap, to jump, to spin, to run, to dance. And you know what? They don't care. All they can think about is just how good God has been. It doesn't matter what song they're singing. It doesn't matter who's leading the song. They're just glad to be in the building. Anybody remember the day that Jesus filled you with his spirit? Anybody remember the day where you were baptized in the name of Jesus and his blood washed you clean? I noticed now I've only been in the church for just over 15 years. So at times I still feel like a new convert. But man, I remember when I first got in the church, I had I didn't know any kind of order and I didn't know what the right time to cry was or the right time to jump was. You know, I was crying on fast songs and

dancing on slow songs. I didn't know I was just so overwhelmed by the reality. That I was a new creature and my sins had been washed away. You know what I noticed? I wasn't critical. I wasn't judgmental. It didn't matter if it was an old song or a new song. It didn't matter if I didn't like the person singing or not. I was just glad to be in the building. Hey, I was I was thankful when people shook my hand, but I wasn't bitter when they didn't because I wasn't there for them. I was just thankful to be in the building. Can I just tell you 15 years later? I still feel that way. It's why I was just a Natalie begin to sing. I was overwhelmed and tears begin to flow. What a God. I don't know how I got here, Pastor Bland, but I'm just so thankful that God has been good to me. God's been good to my family. God's

been good to my marriage. God's been good to my children. And I'm just thankful. Here's how I know God knows our tendency. Do it around me, six heroes of the Lord, our God is one Lord. You keep reading. He says, when you get into a place with a DJ, where you have houses, you didn't build and there's vendors you didn't plant and there's well you didn't dig. He said, then beware, lest you forget the Lord. Here's what I'm telling you. The longer you're out of bondage, the easier it is to forget how precious freedom really is. Here's the danger in blessing. Beware. Lest you forget it was God that brought me out. I don't deserve it. I didn't earn it. I wasn't entitled. I'm just a recipient of the grace and love of Jesus Christ. And it's still something that I'm not over. It still moves me. It still affects me. I am so thankful for the goodness of God. And so as

I begin to pray and I said, God, why? Why did he lose his joy? And here's what I believe. The Bible exposes a problem. It also has a solution. So I said, God, how? How do we in 2026 not lose our joy for salvation? How do we not get over it? And I believe the Lord showing me there's this word in scripture. That just has the power to activate the joy that is on the inside of you. We read it in Philippians 4. Paul writes this from the inside of a prison cell. And he says, rejoice in the Lord all the way. And again, I say, rejoice. How could Paul write this in bonds? Because Paul knew I'm not rejoicing based on my situation. I'm rejoicing based on the fact that I've experienced salvation so they can put me in prison, put chains on my hand. The one thing that cannot take away from me is what Jesus has already done. Can I

just tell you there will be times you come into this building and you're not rejoicing because life is good. You're just rejoicing because God is good. If you have experienced salvation, you have repented of your sins, been baptized in Jesus' name and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. You always have a reason to rejoice. Here's what the Bible says. The Bible says, in His presence is fullness of joy. So I just begin to think, if in His presence is fullness of joy, what happens when His presence gets inside of me to the power of His Spirit? I'll tell you what happens. There is a joy. There is a joy. Life can be so bad. You got the worst diagnosis. Your kids are enacted right. The money is tight, but how do you have joy? I have joy because of what Jesus has already done for me. I have joy because of what I've already received from Him. That's what Jesus tells us

aside, but you're going to go out and the scorpions and the serpents, they're going to be subject to you and they're going to be under your feet, but He's just not withstanding. Don't rejoice because the spirits are subject to you. You're not rejoicing because you're so powerful. Here's why you need to rejoice because your name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Come on, if we're going to dance over anything, it should be the gospel. If we're going to shout over anything, it should be the new birth. If we're going to get excited about anything, it should be that I once was lost and now I'm found. I once was blind. Is anybody thankful that you know that you know that I'm going to have a home in heaven? Here's what I know. I don't get joy from what I do for Him. I get joy because of what He's done for me. My original source of joy is not my

ministry. It's not my calling. It's the fact that I was a sinner and He saved me and He redeemed me. And here's what rejoicing does. Come on, He reactivates that initial joy that you felt the first time you felt the presence of God. Rejoicing has the way to, it's hard. I've learned it's hard to rejoice and be bitter at the same time. It's hard to rejoice and be unthinkful at the same time. There is power in simply rejoicing. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5, pray without ceasing, verse 17. And everything, give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Quince not the spirit, the spouse not prophesied. But before all that, he writes in verse 16, rejoice, evermore. In the Greek, the adverb is first. So how it reads originally is evermore rejoice, or always rejoice. But Pastor Drew, how to always have a reason if you have Jesus? You always have a reason. Because my rejoicing is

not situational. My rejoicing is not circumstantial. My rejoicing is based on the revelation that I was lost and He found me. He picked me up. Come on, He cleaned me up. I've got a reason to rejoice today. I said, you have a reason to rejoice today. We have a reason to rejoice. I wonder if somebody would just take a moment right now and exercise your right to rejoice. Want you to stand with me? The musicians have come rejoicing. Jesus said in Matthew 5 and 12, rejoice and be exceeding glad. Why? For great is your reward in heaven. Rejoice. Why? Because you're saved. I understand there's things coming against us and there's a lot of problems, and it's easy to focus on that. But sometimes what rejoicing does, just kind of realigns your perspective that no matter what I go through, the reality is it's all temporary. It's just temporary. But I'm going to have an eternity with a God who found me and

brought me out and delivered me and the Bible would say He remembered me at my lowest state. I believe rejoicing is the antidote from becoming apathetic to be an indifferent, to have an apathy toward the things of God. So David when he repents, he makes it right, he says, God I want you to restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Here's what we're going to do in just a moment. We're going to do this Romans 12 and 5. We're going to rejoice with them that do rejoice. There's an Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. He said when there's nothing happening, when there's no fruit being born and the figs are drying up, he said it seems like nothing's being answered. He responds by saying this, but it's God, yet will I rejoice in the God of my salvation and he will make my feet like hind's feet. The enemy tries to tell you every reason why you cannot rejoice, but Jesus has given you

the singular reason why you can rejoice. So David prays, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Why is this important? If you could put Psalm 51 and 12 up, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. When you get your joy back for salvation, what's verse 13? Then, will I teach transgressors thy ways? There is a reason I believe sometimes the greatest soul winners in a local church is someone that has just newly discovered the gospel, because I'm going to tell you, I remember, I didn't care who wanted to hear it. I was telling everybody. I was the first one in my family to be spirit-filled, but I knew I would not be the last one, because I was going to talk about it until they finally succumbed to the reality that what I've got, they need. He says, then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted. Here's what's amazing, when you read it in English, you really

don't see it, but the Hebrew word for restore and the Hebrew word for converted, restoring verse 12, when David says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, that Hebrew word is the same word for converted, same word. So when David says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, then he says, then sinners will be converted. Here's what I believe. I believe as saints when we can pray, God won't want you to restore that joy of salvation back to me. I believe that sinners will be converted, because here's what I know. If I'm not excited about it, why would anybody want to be a part of it? I don't want to tell people, hey, Jesus can change your life, and then act like it doesn't matter to me. I don't want to upset up and preach, hey, there's nothing like this, and then it doesn't excite me anymore. When you have your joy for salvation, sinners will be converted. I'm closing. As

I told you a moment ago, I was the first one in my family to be saved. And for 13 and a half years, I prayed for my mother. I did the math one day, and I was in approximately 1,800 church services. From the time I received the Holy Ghost, until May the 17th, 2024, they came to me, I'm going to tell you, there was nothing that compared to that Sunday morning when I got finished preaching. Hey, my mother walked down to the front, lifted up her hands, and God filled her with the same spirit that he filled me with. I spent two years ago, I spent two years ago this week, actually. She's still living for God. She's vibrant. She's bringing people to church. She won my step that to the Lord. Her sister, my aunt, got the Holy Ghost. Last fall, my younger sister resouted to me. She was in a low place. I told her about this joy that I found

in Jesus. She came to church in October, her and her husband and their children. She received the Holy Ghost. Her husband received the Holy Ghost. She got baptized in Jesus' name. My niece got baptized at 10 years old in Jesus' name. I'm telling you, there's something happens when you maintain that joy for salvation. And this is how you keep, this is how you keep it afresh. You learn how to rejoice. If you had that first picture of Devon, aka Elvis, could you put this up? I met this guy four weeks ago. That's your plan? I was privileged to teach a Bible study to Elvis. I didn't know he was Elvis until he told me the Bible study. I met him through basketball. Played basketball a couple of nights on Sunday night in our small group. He came on a midweek, just showed up. Hey man, he was so excited. But I could also tell he was a little terrified. And I'm going to

just be honest. I didn't grow up in a Pentecostal church. My first time there, I was super excited, but partially terrified. But I knew what I felt was real. So I just walked over to him, I put my arm around him. I said, Devon, is this your first time in a Pentecostal church? He was like, yes, sir. I said, what do you think? He says, this is awesome. But I'm a little terrified. I said, I get it. I said, here's what I love to do. I said, I don't have coffee with you. Let's have a Bible study. I said, when would you like to do it? He said, tomorrow. And I thought, oh man, I've got to fly out tomorrow. My flight's not till four. I said, okay, listen to me in the morning. Like you got to strike when the iron's hot. So we met in the morning. We began to talk and talk to each other about our stories. He said,

Pastor Joe, I'm not really sure what I am. I'm not really sure what we believe. I just, I don't have a church background. I said, man, me either. And we began to talk about it. And I began to just share the gospel with him. When I started talking about baptism in Jesus name, his eyes lit up. He said, man, I've never experienced that. I said, Devin, it's the most incredible thing. I said, I can't explain it. I'm not even really sure how it happens. You sit down in a pool of HDO. But when somebody says in the name of Jesus Christ, I said, it activates something and the blood of Jesus washes you clean. I said, Devin, I remember what had happened to me. And it's amazing. He came to church that Sunday. He said, Pastor Drew, I wanna be baptized. Show the picture if you can. I baptized him in Jesus name, go to the next picture. This is two weeks ago.

That right there. This is one week ago. On a Wednesday night, he came to me. We had Bible study on Thursday. He got baptized on Sunday. We had another Bible study on Monday. He said, Pastor Drew, I've never felt anything like this. I said, I know, man, it's incredible. He said, listen, I'm going tomorrow. I'm getting the haircut. I'm telling Elvis goodbye. I said, you're just trying to be like another king now. He came to church that midweek. It was a Wednesday night. Man, Devin walked in with a smile. You know what it is? It's the joy. It's the joy. I said, there's nothing like it. It's the joy of salvation. Okay, then come here, come here. This is so amazing. This is midweek. He got baptized behind, got the Holy Ghost. Man, it's midweek. He's jumping. He ain't super coordinated, but it doesn't matter because he don't care. He came up to the altar Wednesday night. I said, Devin, have you ever

received a spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues? He says, no, but I want to. He lifted up his hands and listen, this was so awesome. I told the church, I said, you guys might not know this, but this is a part-time Elvis. But it told me in Bible study two days ago, he's done being like Elvis. And we were facing away from the crowd. And I said, I told him, he's just ready to be like another king. And without fail, he turned and faced the crowd and said, I want to be like the king of kings. There's nothing like that new convert joy. About five minutes later, Devin lifted up his hands and God filled him with the gift of the Holy Ghost. What am I preaching to you this morning? Thanks to the word church. It's time to rejoice. We live in a city full of people that want what we have. They tried drugs, no joy. They tried alcohol,

no joy. But we know the real sorts of joy. And that is Jesus Christ. So I say this morning, it's time to rejoice. It's time to rejoice.