CHOOSE JOY

Wow. Amazing. I think we got the best team on the planet here, guys. Phenomenal. Wouldn't that worship amazing? Wasn't that awesome?

Thank you, team. I wanna thank all the team for all that you did this week to get ready and, for this amazing time together. We just so appreciate all of you, all of you behind the scenes translating. I think we're translating in Spanish right now. Right? Yeah.

We're translating Spanish. So you could always invite someone. If they need Spanish translation. We're doing that here at the English service. Man and, I'm excited. You know, I heard this story about these two guys that were running through the forest, and, they saw a lion.

Right? And they started when they saw the lion, they just took off. They kept running, and they just, they got tired. They're like, oh, man. You know what? I'm a slow down.

I'm running out of gas. I'm gonna pray. Lord, please make this lion a Christian. Please. And so he stops running, and he says his prayer, and he turns around. And the lion is down on his hands and knees.

And he and he's he goes back to the lion, and he says and he can hear him talking. And the the lion's praying, Lord, thank you for this food that I'm about to eat. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hey.

Welcome to Laguna Miami Church. We are so glad you're here. This is the first night of our English service, our American service. Man, I'm so honored that you are here and so thankful for all that God's doing, and thank you for coming out. We are super excited. And, I'm just so honored to be in this house with you.

I wanna thank pastor Andre for your amazing vision and belief, in me. And, I'm so proud of you and your ministry and what God's doing. I was your age when I planted a church, and I'm so happy now to be here to support you and be behind you and hold up your hands, you and pastor Leandro and the entire team here. And I just wanna say I honor you. I thank God for this opportunity that you've given us to reach the world together. And this is the just the beginning.

The future is now. Right? The future is now. Come on. Man, I feel like I need a translator with me because every time I where's Natalia? I I feel like I need to go one line, one line.

But, man, for some of you, this is the first time you've ever walked into this church. And, also, what's Laguna mean? What does that mean? You know, that means little river. And Laguina started was is over 50 years old. Pastor Mauricio, he was a Baptist preacher, and he got filled with the Holy Spirit back in 50 back.

And he's in a a city called Bello Horizon, I believe. I said it right. And they have one of the largest churches in the world. 90,000 members. An entire city goes to this church in Bello. It's unbelievable.

It's unbelievable. And one day, he had a vision that over 10% of the city should be in his church, but he realized they weren't gonna fit. So he said, we gotta take the church to the nations. And so now there's over 600. That's right. 600 Laguanas all over the world.

There's 300 just in Brazil alone, and there's 300 more in the world. They're in London. We're in Spain. We're in Portugal. You know, we're in Orlando. We're in Miami, Dallas, Boston.

We're starting new campuses. We're gonna start more campuses here in the future. Right? Come on. But on an amazing vision that God has given. But let me tell you something.

Culture will trump vision all the time. And here at this church is a culture that is not manufactured, that cannot be made up, but flows from the top down. And that is the reason that a move of heaven's happening here. There's a culture here that our pastors brought that in just a year, God has is transforming the nations. We have people that fly in from Boston every week for services here. We have people in Oklahoma and Indiana that are serving and flew down for the conference a few weeks ago.

God's moving in this place. And it's unbelievable time to be alive and that we get to all be a part to do what God's called us to do. And, I'm so honored. You know, my name is Erik. I'm I'm 41 years old. I've been in the ministry for over twenty years.

And I started in a small little church in Kansas. I lived on the Basement Floor. At 21, became a senior pastor, which I would not recommend to anybody to do that. But I've I've had the honor of privilege of pastoring small churches at medium sized churches, megachurches. I've planted churches. I've worked at two churches with multiple sites, and, something special is happening here.

There's a move of God here. Something that I haven't felt in a long time out in the world. And God is calling us and using us to do something supernatural. And I'm just blessed to be a part of what's happening. I went to bible college with the founder's son twenty years ago at Rhema Bible College. And I didn't know that while he was playing in his dad at his dad's church on an old black and white TV in his apartment that one day, that friendship would lead to us being together today.

It's amazing what God will do in your life. The insignificant relationships you think at one time or the places that he leads you to or the places he's call you calls you to, you never know how the Holy Spirit's gonna take all that stuff in your life and bring it back together again. And that's what I see God is doing. Right? That's what he's done in my life. And I'm just honored to be here.

You know, as a church, we have two targets. We wanna reach Brazilians that speak English, and then we wanna reach America. That's what this church will be all about. Both. Amen? And I ask for your help to do it.

We need your help. We need your energy. Man, I love you got all the young people that are here, the passion you have. Man, God has marked you guys, and he's called you guys, and he's using us to do something amazing in this place. And our my vision here for this service is simple, that we love God, that we hang out, and that we do good. That we're gonna love God and worship.

We're gonna hang out like we just did at my house last night. We had a Brazilian barbecue. Dean, you gotta I know we're from Texas, and we love barbecue. But let me tell you, some of that charasco, what is it called, picante or oh, Oh my goodness. I gained five pounds in one night. It was unbelievable how God has used us.

And you know what's funny? Because hey, gee. Can I have that box? We were there. We had an amazing time. And we we wanna love God, hang out, eat together, meet in groups, serve together, and do good together.

But when we were there, Mariana, you did not know that this would be I needed this illustration, and you did not do anything wrong. You helped me. I just wanted to tell you in advance. Okay? But I had this vase in the house, and it got blown over. Right?

It just blew over by itself, and, it broke. It shattered. You know, it shattered. I heard this big boom, and then I saw a bunch of ladies that were red and embarrassed. And this vase that once was together is now shattered. It's broken.

And today, I wanna talk to you about how God could take the brokenness in your life, the shattered glass in your life, and how he could restore it, redeem it, and put it all back together again. Amen? Today, this message comes from my good friend, Dean, who's one of my best friends in the world. In just a minute, you'll hear a little bit of my story, and he's probably single handedly saved my life this past year. And I actually got the title of this message from him, from sitting with him for the last couple years, and for you being a part of my life to help me now and see and be here today, to see how God can take shattered glass and bring it back together again. I wanna thank you, brother, for being my friend in the worst times of my life and how god has used you to do supernatural things in my life, and I really appreciate it.

I'm so thankful that you came tonight. You know, when this broke, it's done, man. You can't stand it up. You can't put a bush in it like it had. When something breaks, we throw it away. It can't be used ever again.

And I know this past year with COVID nineteen and with everything that's been happening, the pandemic, it feels like we've all been broken in some way. We've been shattered. We've lost jobs. We have friends that have passed away. You know, all kinds of things have happened in our life. Dreams that we had vanished.

Maybe you got divorced. Maybe you lost someone in a relationship that you thought would be long term. Maybe you had this great business idea that you were about to start, and then all of a sudden, the pandemic hit, shattered glass, where we think all is lost and all has been forgotten. But I wanna tell you tonight that God can restore anything and everything in your life that you might you thought you lost. He can bring it back together again. For me in 2020, it was the worst year of my life.

I lost my stepmom to cancer. She got cancer. Five days later, she died. I lost a job that I was making 6 figures at in the midst of a pandemic, and then I lost my marriage after seventeen years. All in one year. I don't know about you, but for me, I thought I was done.

I thought it's over. God will never use me again. The dreams I had are dead. But I'm here to tell you tonight, with those big tragedies in my life, God has healed my heart, and he's put me back together again. And if he could heal me of those things, he can heal you. He can touch you.

He could use you in a supernatural way, in a way that you've never thought is ever possible. And I know a lot of us, you might have felt that way. But let me tell you something. Your emotions lie. Your circumstances are not truth. God's word is truth.

What he says stands. What he says about you is the truth. If he says he can restore you, he could put you back together again, then he can and he will. But we have some decisions that we have to make, that we have to look ourselves in the mirror and say to ourselves, God, can you do this in my life? I love this this verse, Psalms sixteen eleven. It says, in his presence is the fullness of joy.

Amen. This morning, there was a lady here. She walked out of the service, and she's like, she doesn't come every week, but she was I thought she was high. I mean, she was so happy because the presence of God was here. In his presence is the fullness of joy. And God wants to take the brokenness of your life, and he wants to fill you back up again with his presence, with his spirit.

He wants to give you a new life. He wants to trade that sorrow and trade the shame and trade those mistakes and those things that that you thought you could never get past, and he wants to bring it all back together again. I remember growing up, we'd have these trading cards. I'd go buy baseball cards with all my money and all my allowance, and we would trade that money for trading cards. God wants to trade whatever pain you have, whatever mistake you have made, whatever tragedy that has happened in your life, he wants to give you joy. And joy is a choice that you're gonna have to make.

You're gonna have to look at your life. You're gonna have to look at the shattered glass, and you're gonna have to say, that's not who I am. I'm gonna choose joy today. That the joy of the Lord is my strength. Amen? That he's gonna trade, as the scripture says, your sorrow for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Amen? In his presence is the fullness of joy. God is joy. He's peace. And you have to choose who you believe. You're gonna have to choose who you're gonna serve.

You're gonna have to choose who you're gonna listen to. You're gonna listen to your circumstance. You're gonna you listen to the shatteredness of your life, or you're gonna trade it. I believe this room is full of people that are tired of being depressed and tired of being down and tired of being stepped on and tired of life. And God says tonight, it's time to choose this day whom you will serve. Who do you believe in?

Who is your final authority? Who's got the final say? The devil? Your circumstances? COVID? A lost job?

A lost relationship? No. God has the final say. He's got a plan, a plan of victory, a plan of peace, the prince of peace. Amen? Amen.

Good plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Psalms 23 says, goodness and mercy is following you. In the Hebrew, that means it's hunting you down. Goodness and mercy are like a bad stalker. You ever seen those guy? You see those people that follow you on Instagram or on Facebook?

Like, who is this? I'm a block them. I'm a get away from them. But Psalms 23 says, goodness and mercy are chasing after you. Actually, that Hebrew word hunting, it's like when they would go hunt the Philistines that were running. When God would say, go into this land and take out the enemy.

That same word is the word that God uses to say his goodness and his mercy that endures forever. Great is his faithfulness. He's chasing after you. Amen? He loves you. He's got a good plan for you, and I wanna encourage you tonight.

You know, choose joy. People ask me, Erik, why are you so happy? Because I gotta choose. Am I gonna live according to this, to 2020, to the travesties of life? Am I gonna let that define me? Is that gonna be my identity?

No. My identity is in the Lord, that I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above and not beneath. I'm more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. No weapon formed against me.

No travesty. No shattered glass. No broken relationship. No lost job is gonna define you, is gonna stop you. God's plans are good plans, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Amen?

Amen. And goodness and mercy are chasing you. Tonight, we're gonna choose joy. Amen. Joy. You know, sometimes the worst moments of your life, as bad as they seem, become the best events of your life.

As bad as 2020 was for me, a lot of it now, I look back, and I thank God, which is unbelievable. There was times I was depressed, times I wouldn't wanna get out of bed. I didn't know how I was gonna make it, but God supernaturally came through. You know, it's so easy when everything's good to praise the Lord and follow God. But, man, COVID and the worst times of your life have become the best times of my life. And God has a way to take all this brokenness of your life and bring it back together again to make a beautiful masterpiece.

Amen. That's who you are. Of all your imperfections and all the bad mistakes and everything you thought, maybe the the words you said you shouldn't have said or actions you did, he still can take all that and put it all back together. Goodness and mercy chasing you. Tonight, we choose joy because the struggle is real. Life is tough, but God is tougher.

Sure, is tough, but God is stronger. Amen? He's for you. He's not against you. He loves you. Nothing has separated you from his love.

Jesus said trouble would come. He said it would come in this world. You have trouble. There's things going in your life you don't like, issues, visas that aren't getting passed, embassies that are closed. It doesn't matter. In all this, God's got the final word.

And we're gonna choose to be happy. We're gonna choose joy because the joy of the Lord is my strength. Goodness and mercy chase me. It's time for us to change the way we think, the way we look at life. There's a famous guy that neurologist. He does he did 83,000 brain scans.

83,000 over twenty three years. The number one discovery. You know what he discovered? You know what he you know what he figured out? Your brain can change. Your thoughts can change.

And what we have to do, we have to focus on the good. We have to this is why we confess the word. This is why we read the word. This is why we come to church to hear the word. And it's what we think on day and night as the Old Testament said, to think on these things, meditate on these things. Amen?

And the peace of God will fill your heart. But you can push through life to the light, and you could change your thoughts. Romans 12 says he says, transform your mind with the word. You can change your brain. It could be re rewired. Nothing is set in stone.

We choose joy. We choose gladness. We choose peace. We choose God. Amen. And we're gonna drive our thoughts into the light.

Jesus said, I am the light of men. Amen. And we are gonna stay in the light. We are gonna walk through the valley of the shadow of death in darkness, but we're not gonna stay there. We're gonna keep walking, keep talking, keep believing, keep having faith, walking by faith and not by sight, not what has happened, not what has shattered, not the dreams that ended. No.

We're gonna keep going. God's not through with you. God's not done with you. He can heal you. He could change you. He could transform you.

He is still gonna use you. There's nothing you've done that disqualifies you. Amen? Amen. No sin. No mistake.

We've all made them. There's not one perfect. Only Jesus is perfect. Amen. The by you know, the we have 35,000 choices we make every day. 35,000.

It's time to choose joy. Choose peace. Amen? Because if you don't, your feelings are gonna tell you something else. Your feelings will lie to you. Your feelings will tell you, Erik, you're done.

Can't be used anymore. Can't use that vase. God can't use you. But you can choose what does God's word says. What does his thoughts say about you? Amen?

Choose this day whom you serve. Emotions are like a stalker on Facebook. Sometimes you gotta block them. Right? You guys just block them and say, I'm not listening to you anymore. You're not gonna be a part of my life.

Amen. I'm gonna think of the good things. I remember joy is a choice. Joy is a choice. What are you gonna choose today to believe in? Who do you serve?

Who do you believe? We choose joy. We choose joy. I don't know about you in school. In my school, you'd have a math book. And at the back, they would have all the answers.

The odds were they they had the answers to the questions in the book. I don't know if you went to school that had that remember those books? And I got all the odds right. And the oh, Eric, you always get the odds right. Yeah? Because the answers are in the bag.

You know, sometimes you're gonna face problems in life, and you're not gonna be able to solve it. That's okay. Because we serve a God that when we get into his book, if we get to the back of it, we win. Revelations 22, like, 45 times says, God is still on the throne. He is not lost. He is not gone.

I don't know about you, but I read at the end of the book, we have the answers. Amen? We have the answers to every problem. We have the answers to every situation. We have the answers to your shatteredness of your life, the brokenness of your life. We have the answers.

Tonight, we're gonna choose joy. We're gonna choose what God says. Amen. Philippians one six, Paul was in jail writing a letter to the church. And he had this information about joy. It wasn't just information, but it was an impartation.

A lot of times we can know things, but we don't live things. And Paul's in jail writing this verse. And imagine in sixty two AD, two thousands years later, what he wrote is still relevant for us today. Today, he's sending us a DM. He's sending us a message in your inbox. He's sending you an email or a text about joy.

Amen? Because gospel, the good news that we have, that God didn't leave you, that God doesn't keep you in this state, that God has not forgotten about you, goodness and joy, the gospel, the good news and joy go hand in hand. And throughout the scripture, there's all these moments. Like when Jesus was born, an angel said, behold, I got good news of great, what, joy. Was it little joy? No.

It was great joy of what God is doing. Amen? I don't know about you. I remember playing with mega trucks. Those big trucks are going to the monster truck shows. You ever seen those shows?

They got these huge trucks. You remember Megatron with the transformers? You know? He would transform. God wants us to have big joy, not just a little joy. When Jesus came, it was great joy.

Why? Good news. Your sins aren't counted against you. Good news. Eternity is your home. Good news, your sins are forgiven.

Good news, you have a new identity. It don't matter where you were born or where you're from. Doesn't matter what you've done. Good news of great joy. Big joy. And that's what we have to choose tonight, what we believe.

I love Jesus. You know, God loves you. God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. The scripture says, God is love. God is not hate. He's not mad at you.

He's madly in love with you. And at the worst moment of your life, the bible says when we were still yet sinners, Christ made a decision. He chose to give his life for us, for Armando, for Danny, for Natalia, for David, for Dean, Hector. He chose to give you his life at your worst moments. He still decided, I'm gonna love them. I'm a believe in them.

This is good news of great joy. You know, I don't know what's happened in your life, but in Psalms one forty seven, it says he heals the brokenhearted. Amen. I know there's people in this room. You've been broken. You've been shattered.

You your life's in pieces, but goodness and mercy is chasing you down tonight. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Tonight, we're gonna choose joy. We're gonna choose his peace. We're gonna choose to believe the good news of the gospel, that great things are ahead. Amen?

That the things of our life are not what we're gonna be, but that God's gonna take this shattered glass. He's gonna bring it all together again and make a beautiful masterpiece for you and I. Amen? Amen. Let's bow our heads. Let's close our eyes. Father, I thank you.

I thank you right now that no matter where we've been and what we've done, no matter what life has brought us, tonight, we choose joy. We choose Jesus. We choose to believe in your word again. If you're here tonight and you realize, man, Eric, there's been some things I just feel like I didn't think God would ever use me. I've had dreams die. Relationships ended.

But tonight is a new beginning for you. Tonight is where God's gonna take all this stuff and bring it back together again. With every head bowed and eyes closed, you say, pastor, would you pray for me? I need prayer for this moment. Right now, I know that my life has been in pieces, and I don't know how to get past it. I don't know how to move forward.

I don't know how to take the next step. I I want to, but I feel stuck. I feel depressed. I feel down. I feel defeated. If that's you tonight, do you say, you know what?

That's me. Just lift your hand with every held bowed and eyes closed. You say, I need to choose joy tonight. I need to choose to live again. I need to choose to believe in God again, that he has a call for me, that he wants to bless me, that he wants to use me, that he wants to take the brokenness of my life and bring it back together again for something exceedingly, abundantly above all that I could dare ask or think. If that's you with every head bowed and you just I wanna say just a prayer for you.

Just lift your hand. You say, that's me. I need to choose joy tonight. Just lift your hand real quick. You say, thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else that say, I need joy. I need to choose joy tonight. Father, I thank you. I thank you, father, that tonight in this place, you forgive us of our sins. Lord, I thank you that goodness and mercy are chasing us. And, God, right now, I ask that you do a supernatural work that only you can do.

Restore, redeem, bring breathe life in every person in this place. I ask you, holy spirit, for miracles, and I ask for visions, and I ask for dreams, and I ask for your presence to fill us again. Lord, I ask that you, Holy Spirit, moves in our life again. Lord, I ask that you give us new dreams and new visions. Lord, I ask that you give us new relationships. Lord, I ask that you help us start the new business.

Lord, I ask that you help us believe tonight. Lord, help us with our belief. Help our belief increase tonight. Lord, I ask that the joy of the Lord be our strength. Lord, even in the midst of the storms, we choose joy tonight, Lord. Holy Spirit, come.

Holy Spirit, bless us. Holy Spirit, touch us. I ask you, Holy Spirit, come and make us into a masterpiece that only you could form. Do what only you can do. Lift us. Bless us.

Touch us. Every person in this place tonight. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Holy Spirit, move.

Move mountains, Lord. Holy Spirit, have your way in our life tonight. And as we stay in this worship, as we stay in this prayer, if you're here and you know, man, I've walked away from God, I've walked away from Jesus. Tonight, he wants you to come back. Tonight, you can make a decision. Who on this night will you choose to serve?

Who will you choose to believe? Who will you choose to follow? If you've walked away from Christ, he's calling you back. This is what the Bible says, that anybody can call on the name of the Lord and be saved, be forgiven, be redeemed, be restored, be made new. And Isaiah 43 says, behold, I wanna do a new thing. Tonight, with every head bowed and eyes closed, you say, I need to start afresh anew.

I need to make a new commitment to Christ. I need to make Jesus Lord and savior, master, CEO of my life. If that's you with every head down, eyes closed, you say, that's me, Jesus. I'm gonna I call on you. Save me. Jesus, save me.

That's you. Just lift your hand right now to heaven. You say, I wanna be saved. I wanna be made new. I wanna make a new decision for you.

I want a new start with you. I want a new beginning with you. On the count of three, just lift your hands. One, two, three. Lift your hand to Christ.

You said that's me. Thank you, sir. God bless you. Anyone else in the back? God bless you.

Thank you. Anyone else? You say that's me. Man, let's give him a round of applause. Hallelujah.