Sing Again

This is not a dead church is it? Amen. There might not be a lot of us but we sound like we're a lot of us, right? Praise God, praise God. I'm so excited to be with you today and just to report that our kids had an incredible time at camp this week.

I don't want to put, I didn't think about this till now. I should have had my daughter Savannah come up and share what happened to camp but I'm not going to do that to her this morning, right? Do you feel okay? Well, maybe we'll do that next week, right? Yeah, we'll give it next week.

But one of the first things she said when she got into the car was, Daddy, I had a personal encounter with God this week. And my son said, I got baptized with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. And I'm like, whoa, wow, that's just, it's just amazing, amazing, amazing what what camp could do for kids and God just did just pour pouring in their lives. I got a chance to be there for one of the nights and Christian Oliver who was the evangelist there did an amazing job with the kids and just amazing pouring of the Spirit. So just excited about that.

Yeah, and I've got some news to share with you guys today. I'm sure some of you are here for that. Some of you are watching online. Thank you for being online with us today. If you weren't able to make it, I know we've got several families that are out for some for the month, some for a few weeks.

Sounds awesome, man. Take a month vacation. I need to figure out what that job is, right? Ain't that right, Lee Rat? Huh?

Yeah, yeah. I just caught him off guard. He's like, wait, you're talking to me? Yeah, there he is. There he is.

We got Tuck in the house. We got Baby in the house. This is a dog church, it looks like, huh? Right? All right.

All right. Hopefully, y'all won't lay on the floor like she's laying on the floor right now, so praise God. I can if I want to. Okay, great, great, great. All right, we are in summer in the Psalms.

Just, we're pouring through some Psalms, and we're going to talk about Psalm 98 today, a beautiful psalm. If you want to turn there, you actually can go to the Bible app and pull up the electronic notes if you want to. Just find Salt Church there, or you have a little handout that was given to you on the way in, so a little homework was done there for you, and a beautiful, beautiful psalm today. And what I want to say as we get started is, are you ready to sing again? Some of you haven't sung a song in a long time, a song of joy in a long time.

It's time to sing again. It's time to sing a new song. The Psalm 98 says, we sing a new song. Oh, sing a new song, the psalmist said. Sing a new song.

Some of you haven't sung a song in a long time. You haven't done, you haven't had that just excitement in your heart. So today, my hope is that as we read this psalm, it will awaken your heart again. Psalm 98 is from a list of psalms that were written. They're called the, they're songs of celebration of God, the king, the royal hymns is what they call them in the Bible, where it talks about God's character and God's sovereignty and how good he is.

And this was actually the inspiration for the song, Joy to the World. Did you know that? Psalm 98 is, joy to the world, the Lord is coming. And what's interesting about that song is it's not a Christmas song. It's actually a song about the Lord's return.

It's about the Lord coming back, his sovereignty and his goodness and how he will, all creation will awaken at the announcement of the king coming in his second coming. And it echoes themes in Exodus and Isaiah used themes from this and it is often associated with God's victory and God's justice. And this is a good thing to sing. I think about Isaac Watts who wrote Joy to the World, a man who you wouldn't probably think would be writing a song like Joy to the World. He was of small stature.

He had chronic illness most of his life. He was bedridden for most of his life, actually. He just couldn't get out of bed and just never married. He was a great communicator. He was a great intelligent person, theologically intellectual and very spiritual, one of the spiritual giants of his day.

But man, in the last days of his life, he couldn't even have his own place. He had to have someone take care of him. A caretaker came in, funded by a nobleman of that period of time. And when you look at his life and how he died and how he lived, you would say, how could someone like that experience joy? How could they sing a song again?

But I'm sure he read this psalm over and over again as he communicated through Joy to the World, the joy that was in his heart despite his circumstances and despite of what he was going through. That he had a joy to the world. The Lord is come, right? Well, let's look at that psalm today. If you'll turn with me, Psalm 98, 1 through 9.

It says, the Lord, excuse me, let's go down a little bit. Oh, sing to the Lord a new psalm. Sing to the Lord a new psalm. Amen? For he has done marvelous things.

Some versions say he has done miracles. Miracles in your life. What miracles, what marvelous things has he done in your life? His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation.

He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness. I love how it says that. He has remembered his steadfast love. He didn't say you have remembered.

He said he has remembered because he's so good. His love is so good. He remembers it and he honors it, right? That's how good our God is. That's his very character, his steadfast love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of the Lord. All the earth has seen what God. We're experiencing his salvation even now. The salvation of the Lord, of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord.

Sing joy to the Lord. All the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre and the lyre and the sound of the melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn.

Make a joyful noise before the Lord, King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that feels it. The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord.

For he comes to judge the earth. There's joy in judgment. Amen? You see it right here. And he will judge the world with righteousness and the people with equity.

Man, when I read that, I don't understand why people don't like to praise and worship and get loud in church. I just don't understand it because it shows right here. Praise the Lord. All creation and everyone will praise his name. Marvelous things he has done.

The marvelous things he has done. It's going to be a little different today, guys, because I want to share some things. If you're new with us, we so welcome you. Thank you for being here today. I'm going to kind of give a vision message and kind of go to the past and rehash some stories about Salt Church, who we are.

Salt always makes a difference, and a little bit of salt goes a long way. That's our slogan, that you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. That's what Jesus said, and when he was looking across that people that he was teaching at that moment on the hillside, and he saw all these people from all walks of life, he says, you are a tin in God's kingdom, that you are salt of the earth. That meant so much to them. When they heard that phrase, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, how could little us be that?

But that's what Jesus sees in you, and that's what we saw when we started salt. We knew that God had a plan for Virginia Beach to reach people, to reach those even who may have not been reached, to reach those who have been forgotten about, to reach those who thought maybe went to church and never thought that God had a plan. And for their life. So, we had in our hearts, here in the oceanfront area, I would never advise a church planter, if he's strategically planting, to plant in the oceanfront area, okay? It's probably not the best place to plant a church.

And those of you who are the loudest laughers have probably been with me from the beginning and know that. A very interesting area that is controlled by the evil one in a lot of ways. I mean, we've got Edgar Cayce down the road. We've got all kinds of, you know, wealth and establishment here that really, it's a hard people to reach. It really is.

Of course, you know, growing up near the water and loving water sports and surfing and stuff, I felt like I had something that others may not have had to reach a people that may not be able to be reached. And God put it on my heart. As 20-something years ago, when I moved here to Regent University to do my master's in theology, I never thought for a minute that I would be here for the next, you know, few decades and even much less plant a church here. I was ready to get my degree, go out and change the world, whatever God had for me, but God saw it fit for me to be here to change the world, to be a part of changing the world here. I met my wife, Miranda, here in grad school.

And amen, she is the best. She is the best. And she has stuck this out for the last 10 years. We started in our home. We were undercover church, okay?

We didn't really have any marketing. We didn't have any money. We didn't have any people. But we set out with just our hearts bleeding to share the gospel with people, to share the hope that Jesus Christ had for those who were far from him. And we were in our little condo on the oceanfront.

And let me just go back. I'm telling you, the devil fought with everything he has, continues to fight, you know, with everything he has, man. But he will not win. He does not win. Satan, you have been defeated.

The victory is God's. From the very beginning, he was fighting me. In fact, right when we were stepping out to plant our church, I got really sick. I was in the hospital for a week or more. I had a new baby, Savannah.

We had a young boy who was diagnosed with autism. And we found out that the ministry support we were supposed to receive was not going to come through for us. So we had no jobs because we stepped out believing in faith, you know, that we were going to be supported. And I didn't know if it was God's plan for me to even do something called Salt Church. But God had another plan.

Amen. And we started in that condominium with just a few of our friends. And then we bounced over to what was a yoga studio. And we got some pictures of that up. I wanted to give you guys some visuals of how we started and where we've come from.

So look at this, you know. I had hair. I had color on my beard. And I had a youth group. I'm telling you, don't ever start a church with a youth group, okay?

My former youth group, a few guys came to help me and some friends. We had a band. I'm obviously, I lead worship. So we were, a couple of us were musically gifted. So we didn't have any money, guys.

So we're like, how are we going to do this? You know, let's find a little place right there on the oceanfront. And let's just start having church, right? Let's just start doing this. And we didn't, I mean, we didn't know what in the world we're doing.

We played it every day. Like, let's just see what God does. Let's just see what God does day in. You know, if we could close it down tomorrow, just, just, but God kept pouring his favor on us. I mean, guys, these are camping chairs from Walmart.

We went out and bought like 50 camping chairs and set them out in the room. And, and, and this is how we started. This is how we started. And God just, just poured his favor on us. And we ended up, actually, this ended up closing down a few months after we were attending there.

So we moved across the street to what we call, uh, what, what, across the hall. Yeah, it was across the hall. It wasn't across the street. It was across the hall to a micro brewery called Back Bay Brewing. We had a friend that, that ran the place and he's like, Hey, we got, we just gutted out a room upstairs.

Does your church ever want to meet there with a vent? In fact, we do because we're losing this place and, and we're going to go over next door. And I think we got some pictures of what that looked like back in the day. God was just pouring favor on us there. And we started packing out that place.

Amen. God was doing amazing things in, in Salt Church. And I'm telling you guys, this place was, uh, this is a small, this looks like a small place. It was about half this size and we're packing people in. People are sitting on bars, bars and everything else just to fit in the place.

And it's rowdy in there, guys. I'm telling you, God is, we're, we're, we're playing music. We don't have the, uh, we didn't have tracks. We didn't have anything kind of keeping us on, dialed in. We were just playing and worshiping God.

In fact, one day I even broke out and Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. And the whole place was singing that song, right? We were just like, just, just improvising and going with it. And, and God was so good.

We watched people, uh, uh, find Christ for the first time, rededicate their life to Jesus completely, uh, transformed. Um, uh, we watched people, uh, broken from addictions during that time period. Just amazing things were happening in Salt Church. And, uh, um, I, I can, I, I don't have time to share all the stories. You can come to a guest lunch one day and I'll share a little bit more with you about that.

But, but God was just doing so many amazing things. However, we were in a micro brewery and had a lot of kids starting to pour into place and families. And we knew that it wasn't the safest place for us. So we had to, we had to act. So guys, we're still undercover, right?

We're still, we're, we're still undercover. So, so we're hardly no marking or anything. This is just God's favor and God's blessing and God just doing some amazing things in our ministry. And, but we'd had to find room. So we actually became a real church, you know, and, uh, moved over into a, uh, a high school and, uh, we bounced, uh, from, uh, SeaTac birdneck years and, uh, God was just so good to us there.

I think we got some, got some pictures of that. Oh yeah, yeah. There you go. Like when we started at, at, at birdneck, uh, elementary and SeaTac elementary and God was really, you know, doing some great things there, man. We were, we were growing, we were going through a season, you know, where we're steadily growing and, and, uh, and bam, the, the, the pandemic happened and, uh, we had to close everything.

The school was closed and all of you were probably a part of that in some way. If you're not a church person, you're definitely felt it in your business and your, or if you're, if you're a business owner or, or in your job or in your social occasions and stuff, we all were affected by that. So we went online for, for a while and, and, uh, just, just really, uh, spent our time. Yeah, we got, I put Lydia up there on purpose because Lydia has been with us from this very, almost very beginning of the church. So, and she was in a lot of pictures.

I was like, I'm gonna have Lydia all over the place in our, in our, our past pictures. So we went, we, we moved over to, uh, so we went online for a while and I don't even remember the order from there. We moved around so many times. It wasn't, it wasn't even funny. We, we, we, uh, oh man, we were at Museum of Contemporary Art for a little while.

We, we, we were, uh, um, at FFX Theater for a little while. We were, um, over at the Wyndham. We were over at the Holiday Inn and every time like things would shut down and we'd have to start. I mean, we went, we literally went back to a launch team again during that period of time. And, uh, and, uh, we finally settled down in the movie theater.

Some of you found us over at the movie theater and, and we were there for a couple of years. And I'm telling you guys, we, we were so tired. We were so tired. We were like, okay, let's just be stable for a couple of years. And, uh, so we stayed at the movie theater and, uh, eventually bounced over to, to the, the Wyndham Hotel.

And I'm just going to be honest with you, the Wyndham was probably the worst decision that I ever made. I mean, there was great people there, don't get me wrong, we worked with some incredible people there, but we found out at the beginning of this year while we were at the Wyndham Hotel, outside of bouncing rooms every other week because they didn't have room for us. There were weeks we had to go online. It was just so unstable during that period of time. And it was devastating.

It was hard for a lot of us because we were just trying to figure out how to keep church going, man. You know? We talk about church isn't the building, but I can tell you, if you don't have a place to meet, it makes it hard to do gatherings and do it together, right? Amen? So, we went to the Wyndham, the beginning of this year, we got a phone call, and they said that they only had maybe two times we could meet in March and no times in April.

So, we knew that we had to do something quick. And honestly, guys, I was wondering if we needed to close the church. I was there. I was there. I was like, God, is this the end?

I mean, I can't, you know, we can't keep bouncing around. We can't be doing this, you know? And obviously, a lot of prayer and a lot of time seeking the Lord, our team, me, people outside the church. I had praying, got a lot of prayer warriors outside of our church. And we called every place in Virginia Beach.

Every place, up and down, in and out. Schools would not take us in. I mean, churched out, man, you know? Hotels, we didn't really want to go back to a hotel, but we looked at hotels. They were either really, really expensive or not willing to work with us.

We looked all the way to Kempsville, almost all the way to Norfolk. We called every place, every spot, up and down, in and out. We didn't care. We just said, Lord, lead us. What do you have for us?

And this place opened up for us. We prayed and this is the only place that really reached out to us and said, Hey, we would love a church here. What do you need? How can we help you? You know?

And we were able to come in and we fixed up this place for them and put lights in, painted the ceilings, painted the whole building, did a lot of things to make this a place for us and a place for them. They use it as a venue during the week to rent out and things like that. So we've been able to bless them. They've been able to bless us. And here we are today.

Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. So we finally have a bit of stability after so many years, guys.

And I'm telling you, we've seen people come and we've seen people go and a lot of it was just being tired. Just coming in and I'm just tired. I can't do this anymore. I just need to know. I had one lady tell me at the door one day, man, I'll be honest with you, you haven't seen me in a while because before you were here I just didn't know where you were.

And I just got tired of trying to figure out where you were every week, you know. And that's where we were in the last couple of years, guys. But for some reason, God has preserved us. God has protected us. Because there's a plan for you, there's a plan for me, there's a plan for salt.

God wanted to use this church. The devil wanted to kill it. And the devil wants to kill anything that God wants to use. The devil wants to hurt anything that God loves. And God loves you and God loves this church.

And God wants to use this church in a phenomenal way. And he's getting ready to use this church for some great things. So here we are today, now the big news. We've been praying for help, haven't we? We've been praying for help.

That's probably been my number one prayer this year, help. And I've been, actually since the beginning of the year, I've been in some conversations with other people in ministry. And most of you guys know that I was elected assistant superintendent or assistant bishop. Bishop is kind of the ministry term for it. For all of eastern Virginia and North Carolina, the upper part of North Carolina, we have 60-something churches that we actually oversee.

It's an elected position. And I've been working beside our overseer, Bishop Hans Hess. Y'all have heard me talk about Bishop Hans Hess quite a bit. Wonderful man of God that I've served beside for the last couple of years. We've become really, really close in ministry.

In fact, our personalities are very much alike. We just get along so well. Praise God for that. Amen. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Because we're basically both crying on each other's shoulders a lot. And we don't know how to help each other. But a phenomenal ministry called Fountain of Life in Elizabeth City. They have been growing. God has been moving in their environment.

I've been down there a few times for worship services and revival services. And I called him up, you know, when we were having all the things happen. I said, man, I just need to meet. I need prayer. And over the course of the last few months, we came up with a plan for salt.

Because salt needs help. Because that's what I said. Salt needs help. And that plan is we are going to be merging with Fountain of Life in Elizabeth City. Amen.

We're going to become a part of Fountain of Life Church. And, you know, Paul says some plant others water. And we've needed some watering. We needed some watering. We need it really bad, you know.

And it's time for some Apollos to step in and help out Paul. Amen. Amen. Amen. We've done a great work here.

And I'll share more about the details of that here in a second. But I did want to play a video real quick from Pastor Hans Hess welcoming you guys. So I'll get a face with the name. Hey, Salt Church. My name is Hans Hess.

I'm so glad to be coming to you this morning. Okay. Go back, guys. Let's figure out that. I knew that.

Hey, Salt Church. He's going to hate that we froze him right there on that. Hey, Salt Church. My name is Hans Hess. I'm so glad to be coming to you this morning by video.

Hey, Salt Church. My name is... This is why we need help, guys. Hey, Salt Church. My name is Hans Hess.

Oh, well. We'll play that. Let's just... Do y'all know... Are y'all able to tackle that?

Oh, he told me one second. He says he thinks he's figured it out. Okay. Thank you for your patience. This better be a big announcement, right?

This better be rocking and rolling, right? We're developing a Salt Church from the church I pastor called Fountain of Life Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I am the bishop or director of a network of churches in Eastern Virginia. We have over 60 churches and over 150 ministers. And my assistant in that position is your pastor, Pastor Liam.

Leon said he took a phenomenal job. We've been talking recently about how we can come along and assist Salt Church and how he can come along and assist me in the work I do. And I think we're working in a beautiful partnership for the future. So, me and my team here in Elizabeth City are so excited and looking forward to coming and working with you guys at Virginia Beach. And I just honor Pastor...

They've done kudos to that couple. So, we're excited about the partnership we're working together. More details will be coming in the future, but I do ask you to pray for us. Pray for Salt in the future, which I believe is going to be phenomenal, and also for Founder Black Church that we can come along and partner to see the kingdom of growth and the kingdom of God come in power in Virginia Beach Church. God bless you, John.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It worked. Praise God. I hope the tech team didn't take that personal when I said that's why we need help, okay?

It was just a joke. It was just a joke, guys. All right. They understand. So, are y'all feeling good?

Let's talk a little bit about what this looks like, and then I'll share a few things from Scripture with you. So, what does this really mean for Salt? Do we stop being Salt? No, we don't stop being Salt. In fact, we're going to keep the name Salt Church.

We will be folding in. Some structural changes will be taking place. We will come under their board of trustees, our board of trustees. I've already communicated to them about this, so the structure will fall under them. You'll probably see some staff, some staff changes, not necessarily staff changes, but maybe some full-time staff come in, different things like that.

Praise God. We need that. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is really a big deal because part of the help has really just been financial and leadership, and this is going to give us a big boost there as well, human resources and eldership and all the things that we need to be a healthy, growing church.

Amen? Amen. We've been missing. We've been missing that. And so, some of you are like, well, what about you, Pastor Leon?

Well, I've become a part of Fountain of Life. Look what love you guys. Amen? So, I will be, as he said, I'm going to be supporting him in the bishop work and also be pastoring. So, I'm becoming a part of the team, the bigger team here at Fountain of Life and Salt Church.

And Salt Church is going to, this is going to be an incredible, incredible opportunity for us to really advance the gospel here in Virginia Beach. Amen? That's why we're here. That's why we're here. And I do want to address one more thing, just to kind of clear the air a little bit.

This here, this partnership has nothing to do with what had happened the last few months, okay? This was happening before this, which is why I am heartbroken a bit about certain people who have left our church. Right before Easter, you probably have noticed one of the, I would call her a mother of this church because everybody knew her and everybody loved her. My assistant, Christina, was here. Her and Grant, one of my elders, was here.

And all of a sudden, they're gone. And I'm sure there was a lot of rumors going around about why they were gone. But I was asked to stay confidential, so I couldn't really talk about it. But I've gotten permission from Christina to talk. And last time we had talked, she's doing really, really well.

But right before, right when we moved in here, we didn't, honestly, we probably didn't even realize the seriousness of it. But she was dealing with some mental issues at the time, and it was burnout. Burnout's a real big deal. And she was a part of the process of us moving into this building. And she called me, and she just says, Leon, I'm just not in a good place.

And I said, well, why don't you just take the month off and figure out what's next for you? I would have loved to have her here for one last service to celebrate her out. But we weren't able to do that because it was best for her to just move on, in her opinion, and Grant with her. So her and the kids are actually living in California now, in case you don't know. They moved to California closer to her family.

Everything is great between us. There was no fights. There was no evil doings. It was simply a time where she needed to get healthy. She needed to get healthy.

That's why she isn't here. And I know there was some rumors flying around, but that's it, nothing more. We talked on the phone quite a bit through that process, and we transitioned them out, and I respected their confidentiality. But they're doing great, okay? And praise to God.

And Christina even said this. Christina even said this. She said, if I would do it all over again, I would be a part of this all over again. She found Jesus in this church, in case you don't know. She found Jesus.

So it has nothing to do with that. So the future looks really bright, guys. So what you'll see over the next month or so, next month will be a bit of a transition month. We'll still be flowing and doing what we're doing. You might see some different speakers come in and different things happening.

This is great, guys. Things are looking good. So all of you who have put in the work and put in the time and stuck it out, even when it was hard, and even when it felt like you couldn't go on, you know, it's, oh, man. And God is getting ready to use Salt Church even greater, at a greater, a greater expand. So, so the future looks really bright.

So let's get our hearts singing again for just a second. Amen. Can y'all get your hearts singing? What? Come on now.

Get your hearts singing. Come on. Let's just get the band back up here and sing some more, right? Let's, let's do that. So, so how do you get your hearts singing again?

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord is what the scripture says. All the earth. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. How do we do that? First of all, I want you, if you've lost that song in your heart, I want you to remember his faithfulness.

Remember God's faithfulness. It says he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. I want you to replace Israel with the church just for a second. He has been faithful to you, church. Jesus has been faithful to you.

God has been faithful to you. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of the Lord. Why do we sing a new song? We're pointing back to that previous word because of the more marvelous things that he has done. If you could recall all the great things he has done.

Israel was reminded of what God had done. He had parted the Red Seas. Fire came down from heaven. Water came out of rocks. Mammon came from heaven.

I mean, it was incredible. And even he stopped the sun so that Israel could have a victory. They remembered those marvelous things, knew how powerful and marvelous he was. What has God done in your life? If you've lost a song in your heart, I want you just to stop.

Maybe meditate on that. Get up in the morning and just write a list down. Just think of the things that God has done in your life. They may be big things. Maybe you have been miraculously healed.

Or God's brought you through a devastating situation that there was no way that it could have been anything but God. But it might even be the small things in life, the everyday things in life. You know, when we look at God and we look at the universe, just looking at nature, that the sun rises and the sun falls. And the rain comes down and supplies everything that we have and everything that we need. Little things like that are examples of God's salvation, of God's faithfulness that God is over us.

There's everyday little things that we miss out on all the time. I could go, I don't have time today, but I could go through stories and stories about when we started Salt Church that God provided. Miranda actually pulled out our budget not too long ago from back in 2014 or 15, I think. And she's like, how in the world did we even survive on this amount of money? But God is just like that.

He's so faithful. Cash in mailbox, checks come in the mail. I don't know. It's just little miraculous things. And even then, we didn't know how we even paid the bills.

But somehow we did because God is so faithful when we honor Him and we walk with Him and we do what He's called us to do. He is faithful to us. Supply all of our needs according to His riches, because He owns it all anyway. That's who He is. God's faithfulness gives you confidence to live today.

If you understand His faithfulness in the past, it gives you the confidence to walk and believe and live and work and move in today because of who He is. That's why 1 Thessalonians 5.24 says, God will make this happen for He who calls you is faithful. Makes what happen? Make you blameless.

Make you perfect. He makes you like Him. He grows you spiritually. He helps you walk in Him and become like Him. Because in your strength, we fail every time, right?

In your own strength, you fail. But God never fails. God can't fail. Just stop your moping, okay? And get up and live.

Some of you need to get up and begin to live. Because you're not a failure. Because God's not a failure. God always wins. His victories are always abundant.

Stop living in condemnation. Christ is making you like Him. We have been more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. Amen? That's what God has for us, which points me to the second point I want to make real quick here.

Reflect on His character. You've got to reflect on His character. Look, it says, His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation, His righteousness. He has revealed in the sight of the nations.

I want you to underline His right hand, His holy arm, and righteousness. His right hand is emblematic of His power and authority. Anytime you say the right hand of something in that day, in that language, it was power and authority. And Jesus, in fact, was called the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. Now, maybe He literally sits at the right hand of the Father when we get to heaven or when He comes back.

We'll see that and see how it all works out. But it's emblematic that Jesus has all authority and Jesus has all power. And His right hand gains victory. And His holy arm, His holy arm, He is perfect. He is set apart.

Nothing is like Him. And when we reflect on His right hand and His holiness, that He is perfect, I can be confident that He will not change, that He is never changing. In fact, Malachi 3.6 says, I am the Lord. I do not change.

You can be confident that He never changes. He is righteous. He is holy. He is all powerful. It's the opposite of His nature to change.

Does He allow changes to happen in our lives? Yes, of course. But God had a plan from the very beginning all along. And His nature and who He is, He knew exactly what you were going to go through. He knew what you faced.

He knew what you were going through, right? But He's got a plan because it all works together. But God never changes. And you can be confident that a good God never changes. I want a good God that never changes.

Amen. Because when you were wrong, He was right. When you're wrong, He's right. And when you're right, He's right. Right?

Because He's always right. And you're aligned with His rightness. That's why we call it righteousness. He's right. His ways are right.

His ways are just. His ways are perfect. And when you are right, He is right. And the more deeply we dig into Scripture, we understand more about His character. We uncover these things about His character.

So, you know, walking around listening to Maverick City all day isn't going to help you understand who God is. It's getting into His Word and getting into prayer. Understanding who He is. Uncovering you. We can spend a lifetime and only scratch the surface of who God is.

His character. So, what are you worried about? What are you afraid of? What are you fearing? I know there's uncertainty in the world.

I know there's uncertainty in your life. But what are you scared of? Because we have a God who is perfect in character. We've got to understand His character. And thirdly, and this is an interesting one, rejoice in His judgment.

Well, I don't know. Judgment doesn't sound like something I want to rejoice in. That sounds pretty scary, right? Well, as believers, we rejoice in His judgment. Look at this.

Let the sea roar in all its fullness. The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Wow, the rivers are clapping your hands, guys. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord.

For He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world. and the peoples with equity. Creation itself testifies of God. It rejoices in God.

The psalmist in 19 verse 1 says, The heavens declare the glory of God. Jesus said, I tell you, if these remain silent, the rocks will cry out. What does He mean by that? Does He mean that rocks are literally going to cry out? Maybe, I don't know.

I'm sure that could happen. But what He's saying is, if you're silent, nature will scream out. For the power and authority, the right hand of God, which is Jesus Christ. That when we're silent, the truth will always come forth and be emphasized, even if it's through creation itself. So why is God's judgment something to rejoice about?

Romans 8 says, For all of creation is waiting eagerly for the future day when God will reveal who His children really are. creation has been groaning. Creation has been hurting and aching and groaning and desiring. Because why? Why?

Why? Because their condition was never meant to be what it is now. The condition of sin was never meant to be us and be creation. And it's groaning with us as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time. We were never intended to be in this condition of sin.

So that's why our hearts long for something more. That's why creation is groaning. And our spirits are groaning and breathing for that eternal sigh of relief we will one day receive before our Lord in His coming. No more pain, tears, hurt, anxious hearts, depression, tortured souls. No more will we have to endure those things again because we were never, ever, ever meant to be there and God is bringing it all back.

Now that's something to rejoice about. Sing a new song today. Amen? Let's sing a new song. Because God's justice brings hope to the world and one day everything will be redeemed geopolitically, biologically, in every aspect of our existence.

Every tribe, every tongue, every nation, it says, will bow down before Jesus. We will all be in one accord. There won't be no world leader, no president, no peace treaty, no stock market, can do that. Can bring perfect peace to this world. That's why we rejoice.

So we celebrate the past as a church. We celebrate the past as a church and we look to the present, we're here in the present, and God is doing things. But more than anything, we know that God's got great things in store for us in the future. Just know, just hold on. Grab with everything you can that steering wheel of life because God is going to carry you to the end, to your destination, and it's going to be so good.

So how do we align ourselves with the justice of God as the scripture? Just real quick here in closing. It says, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So first, you have to be justified. You have to be justified.

How are we justified? Through faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, I thought I had to be good enough. You do have to be good enough, but you can't be good enough. By Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. When you surrender your life to Jesus, you align with God's justice. That's why we can celebrate, celebrate God's justice and God's judgment. And secondly, you not only need to be justified, you need to be holy. You need to be, not do.

Okay? What do I mean by that? You need to walk and exist in God's holiness. Stop trying to be holy. Walk in holiness.

Walk in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Walk in His justice. Walk in His nature. This is a call to Christians to live a life that reflects the character of God. Be holy as I am holy is what He says.

It doesn't mean you've got to work harder to be just right and perfect. It means you need to walk in the Spirit of God. You've got to walk and exist. It's more than just doing. It's being.

I am a child of God. I walk with God. And He's transforming us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We're striving to live moral. We're striving to conduct the standards of God.

And yes, we should. That should be everything in us. But as we walk in the Spirit, He meets us in the middle and we watch the Spirit transform us from the inside out. So let your being be in the Holy Spirit. Walk in the Holy Spirit.

Move in the Holy Spirit. Live in the Holy Spirit. And thirdly, you that are justified, do you love the people that God loves? Justified people desire other people to be justified. But in a God-justification way.

That our hearts go out. That's the gospel. That's the good news. That you don't have to be condemned. Yes, we all are accountable for the sins that we have committed.

But that's the beauty of Jesus Christ. He died on a cross so that we don't have to receive the condemnation that is afforded us. The condemnation that we deserve. See, Jesus Christ, He demonstrated His righteousness through God. God's righteousness was demonstrated through Jesus Christ so that we could wear that crown.

That we could wear that crown of righteousness. Jesus' ministry demonstrates the gospel as it encompasses more than just individual salvation, but the salvation of those all around us. So my question is, do we have a heart? The song that we sing, are we willing to take it to the world? Have we been justified?

Are we walking in justification? Are we willing to share salvation with others so that they can too be justified in Jesus Christ? Let's pray. Father, thank You, Jesus, for Your Word. Thank You, Jesus, for the future of Salt Church.

Thank You for the people here today. I pray blessings over everyone here, families that are represented here today. God, I pray that You would just bless the socks off of them. They've been so faithful to You, God, and You say You're faithful to them, Lord. But I pray blessings on them so that they can pursue that which You've called them to do, Lord.

To take the gospel to the utter ends of the earth, Lord, before You return. So we ask, God, that You would give us everything that we need, everybody in this place. Give us everything that they need in order to fulfill the mission that You have laid out in their lives. Father, if there is one here today, and with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, let me just ask this. Is there one of you today that if you left this room, something happened, and you were taken from this world, would you know that you were in heaven, that you would be with the Lord?

Do you know that with complete confidence that you'd be justified before God where justice is required? You can know that today. Because Jesus Christ so loved the world that He died for you and me so that it's you, life in Jesus. It doesn't take doing, it takes being. And the way you be a child of God, you become a child of God, is simply by faith.

Ask God to come and save you and reconcile you to the Father. Would you pray that with me? Father, I'm a sinner and I deserve hell. But I believe that you sent your Son so that I could be forgiven of my sin. I receive you today, Lord.

You died on the cross. Your blood covers a multitude of sin. And you're covering my sin today, Lord Jesus, by me receiving you, accepting you as my Lord and Savior, King and Savior of my life. Come into my life, Lord. Come into my heart.

Make me like you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise today? I'm going to let my bride end us in service real quick.

And I would love to meet you, if you're new, at the door. God bless you guys. Thank you, Pastor Leon. And you know, he really forgot to mention the most critical thing about Fountain of Life. And I think it's that, I guess it's run by giants, man.

Because Leon's already tall. And Hans is super tall. I got a lot of reverb going. Woo! And his wife Dana's tall.

So anytime I'm around this group, I just feel like this toddler. Like I'm looking up at all these people. So they ate their Wheaties over there in Elizabeth City. They're doing something growing up tall. But anyway, as you said, if you are a guest here today, you'll see we don't pass around buckets or anything.

But there is an opportunity to give and to support Salt Church. And if you're a guest, we just thank you so much for your presence. Don't feel compelled for the rest of us. You guys know the drill. There's lots of ways to give.

You can put something in the box on your way out. You can mail something in. You can give securely via the Church Center app. That's what I like to do. Then I don't have to remind myself to do it.

And you can also text the amount you want to give to 84321. Thanks, guys, for putting that up on the screen. We hope you had a wonderful time today. And we're blessed. You're definitely a blessing to us.

And we will see you all here next week.