JOY - IT'S NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS

is joy. And unfortunately, this is a word that is actually predominantly used more around Christmas time.

We hear this word joy in several of our favorite Christmas hymns like we sang today.

This word adorns many of our Christmas decorations. It's on ornaments, the wrapping paper, of stockings and many others.

And as the big day approaches, our joy increases exponentially, especially the children's joy.

You know, I don't have to tell parents that you really have to be careful how much candy you give your children around Christmas time, or you'll have a bunch of little joy bombs running around, getting ready to go off.

And I learned this the hard way about six years ago. I had one of our, at the time, a four -year -old grandson over, and I thought

I'd earned some papa points. And I brought home some little Debbie Christmas trees. You know, aren't these awesome?

And they looked so small in my hand, but when I handed it to him, it looked huge in his hand.

And he packed that thing down, and about 30 minutes later, a joy bomb went off for like four hours.

Sucked all the joy out of our house, I can tell you. Well, I'll tell you, joy is one of these four main words that we speak of during this season, during the season of Advent, along with hope, peace, joy, and love.

And today, it is my goal that you will realize that the whole point of the joy that we're talking about is not just a season.

It's a way of our life. It should be our consistent attitude in our life.

And why? Because. The season is because.

A series of actions that began long before us.

God chose. And then in time, he sent and his son came.

Isn't that wonderful? All for us. This is why we celebrate the season.

This is the foundation of our joy, that coming. God incarnate came to earth and took on the person of a man.

The Messiah came that we would have real life, that we would know hope, peace, joy, and love.

And our joy is not because of who we are, what we've done, or what we might do.

It is because of him and him only, in his mercy, and his grace, and his love, he came to save us.

Let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful for this day. We can come together and just express our joy in your presence,

Lord. I pray that you would speak to us through your word, your truths, Father, that this attitude that we wanna have every day of our lives with all that we're around would become real to us.

I pray this in Christ's name. Well, as usual that most pastors do,

I have this sermon broke up into three sections. And the first section I have today is joy revealed.

And if you'd go ahead and turn to Luke chapter two, actually, we talked about it or spoke at just a few minutes ago,

Luke chapter two, I'm gonna be in verse eight through 11 when I get there.

Well, there are two types of joy in this world that we witness around us every day.

There's the great joy, which is the biblical view of joy. And then there is the world's view of joy.

And the gap between them is as vast as the difference between eternity past and eternity future.

The main difference is that the world's joy has a limit. There's a limit to the amount of joy that they can experience because there's only a finite amount of time that they have to experience it in.

Their joy, their happiness, their contentment. And this is why the world is so wrapped up in things and experiences that makes up their lives.

What things can I have? What things can I experience? I want you to listen to a few of the verses of a well -known secular song that was written back in the 1970s.

I think it explains what I'm talking about here. You'll see it up on the screen.

It says, taking away the moments that make up a dull day, you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown, waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

And you run and you run to catch up to the sun that's sinking. It's racing around to come up behind you again.

Sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older, shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.

This is what the world terms as the rat race. Being involved in the rat race.

We run around chasing the sun. And I think the guys who wrote this understood what the worldview problem was when they said, you're older, shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.

They just didn't know what it took to fix it. Solomon referred to this as vanity of vanities.

Chasing the wind. Paul spoke of it as creation being subject to futility. This is the world's ride on the merry -go -round.

Trying to cheat time. Where they try to reach out and grab that golden ring. And when they finally grab it, they found out that they've grasped nothing of value.

And they are just shorter of breath and one day closer to death. This describes the natural man's predicament in his life.

But God, on a day, 2000 plus years ago, sent an angel with a divine message.

The perfect time had come. The event that all time, past and future would be measured by.

A divine message was spoken. This is in Luke 2, eight through 11.

And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field. They were keeping watch over a flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is

Christ the Lord. What a scene this must have been to behold. God sends his heavenly messenger to earth to proclaim the greatest news.

He proclaimed the greatest news, heralding this news that the earth had been groaning to hear the birth of a king of kings and the

Lord of lords, a savior Jesus Christ had come. Now this angel didn't go with one of the great capitals of the world, say like Jerusalem, nor did he go to the religious elite who could be found at the temple in Jerusalem.

But he appeared to some of the lowliest laborers in Israel, shepherds who were watching over their sheep by night, trying to keep them safe from predators.

Think about it. It must have been a routine night for them. And suddenly their routine was shattered.

The glory of the Lord shone around them. They were told the news that their nation had been waiting for had happened.

The Messiah had come to earth. The message just wasn't one of just joy.

The angel said, it is great joy. This is a joy Peter called in his first epistle, inexpressible joy, a joy that cannot be fully articulated with speech.

John in his first epistle told us that this joy is a complete joy, a joy that transcends all the way into eternity.

And the reason for the declaration of this joy, but we've already spoke of it, the greatest gift ever given for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is

Christ the Lord. Isaiah prophesied this in several verses, but this one is in Isaiah 60.

He says, arise, shine for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you for behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness, the peoples, but the

Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. And the nations shall come to your light and the

Kings to the brightness of your rising. Thick darkness had covered the earth, but now

Christ was born. True joy was revealed.

Well, after true joy was revealed, we need to realize this true joy.

So the next section is joy realized. If you would turn to first Peter chapter one, we're gonna be in verses three through nine.

That's first Peter chapter one, three through nine. You know, before we can understand what this true joy truly entails, we must first realize what is the deepest of all human problems.

And that's man's lack of a relationship with his creator. And of course, the reason why there's a lack, well, that's because of sin.

This sin is the cause of all the fear, the moral ineptitude, the illness of the body, illness of the mind, loneliness, insecurity, hopelessness, despair, cruelty, depression, and the list is close to endless of what sin does in this world and what it's caused.

I love what J .I. Packer has to say. He said, by sin, the New Testament means not social error or failure in the first instance, but rebellion against, defiance of, retreat from, and consequent guilt before God.

It is the basic evil from which we need deliverance and from which Christ came and died to save us.

So the solution to this problem, this problem of us being separated from our creator was in the message that the angel declared.

A savior is born. And it was because of the work of Jesus Christ that we have the hope of salvation.

This is the basis and the foundation of our joy. And this was now a reality.

His righteousness would become our righteousness. And through his death and resurrection, reconciliation with God was now possible.

Just as Adam before the fall, we could now come into God's presence and know him.

Our joy would be full. The psalmist declares in Psalm 16, you make known to me the path of life.

In your presence, there is fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures evermore.

And there's the key right there, the presence of God. That is where we find the fullness of joy.

And that is why the world doesn't have it because they're separated from God. You see, in this verse,

David makes a distinct claim that the place where life can be found and truly experienced to its fullness is in the presence of God.

It is in this fellowship with our Lord and creator that we have this fullness of life.

Our joy is complete, he says, and we have pleasures evermore. And that's exactly what the apostle

Peter refers to at the beginning of his first epistle where I've already had you turn. 1

Peter 1 3 -9, he says, blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead in inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.

In this, you rejoice. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been given, you have grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I mean, in this section, Peter's main goal is to get us to realize that joy should be the consistent, the constant expression of our life in light of our eternal salvation.

That's what he's trying to get across here. And this is exactly what the psalmist expressed in Psalm 43.

Send out your light, your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your dwelling.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy.

And I will praise you with a liar, God, my God.

Peter's driving home this principle of inexpressible joy at the first writing of his epistle because he wants to remind us and encourage us because of the trials, the persecutions and the attacks, hardships that we will face during our journey on this earth.

This is one of his first things he wants to get across. We have this inexpressible joy.

And why do we have it? It's the outcome of our faith. It's the salvation of our souls.

It's not just a mere happiness that comes from external events. It's a salvation joy that we have.

It results from a deep confidence, a deep faith that we possess eternal life through the crucified and risen savior.

This is a joy that will be revealed in full in the glory in heaven. We call it the already, but not yet.

We get to experience it now, but boy, when we get to heaven, not yet.

But I wanna focus on two verses where I just read. I think it's gonna come up on the screen. Verses eight and nine in Peter.

I'll read it again. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.

So what Peter is talking about here, especially in verse eight, are critical aspects of a meaningful relationship, love and trust.

He's stating that these two aspects are essential. That's essential to a believer's relationship with Christ and the resulting joy that is realized.

Though you have not seen him, you love him, he says. And this word love is the one that we're used to.

In the Greek, it's the agape love. It's the love of the will. It's the highest form of love.

And this verb is in the present tense. And what this means is it is an ongoing love.

It is a love that just keeps on going and it never fades. Then we have the second phrase.

Though you do not now see him, you believe. I'm gonna throw another Greek word at you, but you've heard it before because I've said it several times, pastreio,

P -I -S -T -E -U -O. And the reason why I tell you this believe, this pastreio is the verb, the corresponding noun to this verb is pistis, it is faith.

And what believe is, is faith in action. It's complete trust and reliance upon.

And this verb is also in the present tense. It is ongoing, it never fades, it grows and it grows.

This is something that he's telling us that when our faith grows, we have more knowledge of him.

The more knowledge we have, the stronger our love is for him. Stronger our love is for him, the more joy that we have in our lives.

And it's not just joy. He calls it an inexpressible joy. It's a joy that is beyond our speech or beyond our expression.

And there's another thing he ties onto this inexpressible joy. Rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory is what he says.

Have you ever been in a middle of praising the Lord? Maybe at church, maybe in your car, maybe at home, and this presence comes over you.

You just feel this joy that you can't hardly even deal with. Maybe even it brings tears to your eyes.

That's what this is talking about. A joy that is filled with glory.

You can't hardly contain it. So what is the result of this joy and belief?

Well, Peter tells us it's the outcome of our faith. The salvation of our souls.

The cornerstone of our joy. So what Peter is saying here is flowing out of our love and belief, our relationship with Jesus Christ is the result do us.

We're obtaining it. That is the result do us. And it's the outcome of our faith.

The salvation of our souls, he says, and this produces inexpressible joy.

Why is it inexpressible? Because there's no penalty. There's no power over guilt.

There's no condemnation. There's no wrath, no confusion, no distress, no hopelessness.

There's only inexpressible joy. We know all these other things have been put away.

We should have joy. Jesus spoke of this in John 15. These things

I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

Filled to the top, filled to overflowing. Joy realized. We've had joy revealed, joy realized, and next joy retained.

And if you'll turn to Romans 8. Now I'm gonna warn you,

I'm gonna do a fly by through Romans 8. It's gonna be kind of quick, but I have a place I wanna park and a reason.

So just hang with me. Romans chapter 8, joy retained.

Church, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the world is an evil seducer.

It is out there trying to seduce us. Seduce us, it wants to attract, it wants to hold on to our attention and our devotion.

And if we let it, it'll suck the joy right out of our lives. And that's what it wants to do.

It wants to take all of its attractions, all of its desires and ruin us.

And it's more than happy to do it just a little bit at a time. It has all the patience.

And this is why Paul's imperative in Romans 12 too, where he explicitly warns us, do not be conformed to the world.

That's what he's saying. And that's exactly what the world wants. It wants us to conform to it.

It wants us to partner with it. It wants us to enjoy its pleasures and it will use all means in its power to accomplish that goal.

Do you know it? This is our daily struggle in our Christian life. It's not a struggle against flesh and blood.

As the Bible tells us, it's a struggle with the spirit of the age.

The world wants us to experience its joy and its happiness in the here and now.

And when we try to grab a hold of the things of the world, even a small amount, it begins to grab hold of us.

The joy and happiness that it offers, it's nothing more than an illusion, a smokescreen.

It's entirely temporary. And like the lyrics to the song I quoted, it is chasing the sun.

It's only gonna come up behind you again. With the world's offerings comes emptiness, hopelessness, sorrow, misery, and grief.

All that the world offers, it decays, it depletes, and it wears out. Because like I said, it's bound by time.

The world will press in, it will take hold. In the end, it will try and destroy all that you hold dear.

Let me repeat that. It wants to destroy all that you hold dear.

It almost destroyed my wedding, sorry, my marriage, my relationship with my children.

Everything God had given me, it wanted to destroy. This is why

David, when he grabbed hold of the world's pleasures, he ended up crying out to his

God. He said, hide your face from my sins. Blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

This is Psalm 51. The context of this, the Psalm is directly related to the world and its evil, sinful, lustful desires of the flesh.

See, it was David's guilt over his lustful sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband,

Uriah the Hittite, that caused him to cry out to God in this manner. What did he want?

He wants his joy back, he says. This joy that was wrecked because of his sin, he wants it restored to him.

And what does he call this joy? The joy of your salvation. The joy of God's salvation is what he wants back.

This is a salvation, as we've talked about, that Jesus Christ came to earth to bring, that ensures our presence with the

Lord. He wants his presence. He wants to come back into God's presence.

This is our relationship of love with him, our joy. So this asks the question, how do we retain our joy that we've been given?

How do we feel it all the time? How do we not get wrapped up in all these other things?

Well, the first is we must realize that the world's joy is not the joy that we're talking about here.

This is a complete joy. It's more than just an emotional experience or expression.

It's being in a state of contentment while resting in God's presence and love.

It is being in a state of contentment while resting in God's presence and love.

We must be able to recognize and rest in the adequacy of God's grace to deal with all of our predicaments and problems that seek to rob our joy from us.

What is this contentment? Well, what the world wants you to do is to concentrate on all the things that you don't have or that you've lost or isn't the same as it used to be.

Or it wants you to concentrate on all the things that you want that you can't seem to get a hold of.

But true joy is being content where God has you right now. And there's a reason for that.

It's according to his grace is where we're at. We're to be content.

And I think in Romans 8, Paul does a really good job of describing this.

In the first 30 verses, he talks about things that are typically responsible for drawing our attention and our focus away from the joy of our salvation.

And I'm gonna kind of give you broad sections here in verse one through nine, he talks about the guilt and power of sin.

And we saw this with David, what guilt and power of sin can do. And probably most of us have experienced that in our lives.

I know I have when you're just so miserable because of what you've done and you feel like you've let

God down. You feel like you've let the people around you down. That'll take the joy from you.

Number two in verses six through 13 is the realization and the fact of death. We get to focusing on the here and now and that we have only so much time, we think because we lose focus of what all the promises

God has given us, that takes the joy away from us. In verse 15, the fear of confronting

God's holiness. And this four letter word is one of the most responsible for stealing joy, fear.

We're scared something is gonna happen or something has already happened.

We fear that we don't measure up, that we're not good enough compared to God's holiness.

The fourth is weakness and despair in times of suffering and persecution. In verse 17 through 25.

Gosh, this is a big one. Who wants to suffer? Who wants to have bad things happen to them?

To be in the throes of despair over it? Or what about being persecuted? People speak evil against you or come against you or your family or your church.

And the final one in verse 28 through 30 is the feeling that life is meaningless and hopeless.

Have you ever felt that way? Things just aren't going right and you can't seem to turn it around.

You can't seem to make it happen. You can't seem to make things go right for a change. Just think things keep breaking, keep tearing up, cost and money on and on and on.

And we just feel hopeless when these things happen. I mean, that is fear. Well, in this first 30 verses, not only is he talking about the things that will steal our joy, but he also talks about four gifts, our possessions that we have.

They're actually gifts from God and possessions that we should have that cause us to rejoice, to have great joy.

And they'll be coming up on the screen. The first is in verse one. It says, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

First gift is our righteousness. This was the righteousness that was imputed to us upon salvation.

It came from Christ Jesus. It's his righteousness. It's what makes us to be able to come into the presence of God.

That's all he sees now is Christ's righteousness in us. Our sins have been forgiven.

This should give us great joy. Number two is in verse nine.

And that's the Holy Spirit. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the

Spirit. In fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. What a possession.

He's there. God is in us to guide us, to lead us, to train us, to comfort us, to be our great part of life, to lead us through life.

What a possession. The third gift, our possession, is our adoption into God's family.

If you were here about four weeks ago on Wednesday night, I taught on this. What a great blessing.

Verse 14 and 15. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption.

As sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. We have been adopted by God.

We are now sons and daughters of God. We have an inheritance that is guaranteed.

Nothing can happen to that. That is forever in light of a few things now.

The fourth gift, our possession, is our security now and into eternity.

And this is in verse 28 through 30. And I wanted to cut this down to one verse, but Nathan just kept on going.

I said, no, I can't leave that out. But look at the promise it starts off with right at the very first.

And we know, we know this, that for those who love

God, all things work together for good. You know, if you remember when

I was preaching about the seven great I Ams, I was talking about Lazarus.

And the two sisters were wondering why Jesus didn't come and why did this happen and everything.

And Jesus told them, explanations don't require faith. God doesn't give us explanations, rarely does he.

It's this promises that require faith. We are to live on his promises, not expect explanations.

And so when he says all things work together for good, even though things might seem to be falling apart at our feet, all things are still working for good.

That's his promise, that that is for our best. He goes on to say, for those who are called according to his purpose, we have a purpose.

It is his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that we might be first born among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. I didn't even count the number of promises

I just talked about. I mean, it's incredible. But the main thing here, eternity past to eternity future, okay?

It's all of his promises in there for us, that he gave us. So I'm finally gonna arrive where I wanna get at.

The airport is in sight. Verse 31, Paul shifts gears here and he moves from our possessions, these gifts that God has given us to the adequacy of God's grace.

The adequacy of God's grace. He is trying to get us to see this through a series of rhetorical questions.

And actually the first question is just a lead in to the other four, and that's in verse 31a.

He says, what then shall we say to these things? I mean,

Paul realizes that many believers, us at times in our walk will have doubts about the adequacy of God's grace.

He knows that due to emotional thinking under pressures of life, our attention will be drawn away from our

Christian birthrights. Our Christian birthrights, hope, peace, joy, and love.

So what's he doing? What shall we say then? What he's saying is think. Use that space between your two ears and think about this.

Think about what he has already stated and how it bears on our walk. We don't need to be relying on emotional thinking, but on the power of the

Holy Spirit to provide us with God's promises. That's what he's saying.

So then we get to the four questions I call starting question number two. In 31b, if God is for us, who can be against us?

What an awesome question. This is covenant language. God is for us, is covenant language.

It's a commitment. This is the goal of grace, creating a loving relationship between God and those who believe, those who have faith in Jesus Christ.

What God promised to do is to uphold us, to direct us, to protect us when people and circumstances are arrayed against us.

He will lead us into eternity and we will experience the fullness, the full enjoyment of him.

Question number three. He who did not spare his son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

How will he graciously not give us all things? Have you ever been in the middle of hard times?

A series of events has arrayed against you. Like I said before, it just doesn't seem to be going right. And you cry out to God for a blessing.

Oh Lord, I need something here. And I'm sinking. I'm in despair. I know

I have. I have numerous times in my life.

The last time I was there, I don't know why it didn't come to me before, but God said,

I've already given you the greatest thing that I have, your salvation. Not that he can't give you something else, but he's already gone to the limit.

For us, he gave his son. What more could he give? See, the point that Paul is trying to make here with this question is

God gave his son while we were still sinners. It wasn't after anything.

It was before that he did it. And if he did that, what good will he withhold now? The truth of the matter is that Christ and all good things go hand in hand.

They go together. Christ is the foundation of all good things, eternal life and glory.

And I like the way one scholar put it. One day we will see nothing, literally nothing which could have increased our internal happiness has been denied us.

We will also see that nothing, literally nothing that could have reduced that happiness has been left with us.

What a guarantee. If we one day we'll see why all of this happened and the purpose, the grand purpose of God in allowing it to be so.

The fourth question, verse 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies who is to condemn. What he's saying here is

God's chosen. As God elect, no accusation at all can ever disinherit us.

Now there's two Christian, two questions, I'm sorry. There's two questions that Christians often struggle with the most.

The first is they wonder, they don't understand the depravity and the seriousness and the consequences of sin.

And the second is they don't have a proper understanding of pardon. And the second one is what

Peter is addressing here. I'm Paul, I'm sorry, he's addressing here. He knows that it's difficult for us to rejoice when we face struggles and doubts of our security as a justified believer.

He knows that the memories of the sins that we have committed since we've been saved far outweigh the sins we committed before we were saved.

And this is why Paul is quick to remind us of God's grace and election.

Who can bring any charge against God's elect? God, the judge of all has declared us right with his law and himself.

And now since Christ came to earth, lived the perfect life, became the perfect sacrifice, was resurrected from the dead, he is now our perfect mediator in heaven.

Because verse 34 goes on to say, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus, the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

He's pointing out the effectiveness of Christ's mediation for us. Jesus is mediating on our behalf to ensure that we receive all that he went to the cross to procure for us, all of it.

So who now can condemn us? I like one phrase

Paul said before, may it never be because it won't ever be. It can't be.

Question number five, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation or distress or persecution, persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Well, without stealing much of Nathan's thunder about love next week, I'm gonna just touch a minute on this.

Plain and simple, God is more than adequate as our keeper. He in Christ eternal divine love is a function of their omnipotence and has at its heart, their will to bless.

Because of their power, because of their will, there is no way that will can be altered.

And this is a love that he is talking about. It's a love that saves. It's a

Christian's joy to know for certain that God loves us immutably.

That means he never changes. His love never changes. There is no power on earth or in heavens that can change that fact.

So we've had Paul's questions and now we have Paul's answer. In verse 37 through 39, he gives us his answer.

He starts off emphatically, no, nada, nothing, no way can this happen.

In all these things, we're not just conquerors. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth.

And if you haven't got it by now, nor anything else in all creation. I mean, he could have just started off with that.

We'll be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are secure.

Our salvation, our place in the presence of God, our joy was secured by God's eternal decree in eternity past.

And it is being held secure by Christ Jesus, eternal sovereign love for us through all future time, throughout all eternity.

I wanna close with a portion of a Psalm 16. We read the whole thing at the first, but I think this should be our attitude.

This should be what we think about and even pray about. I think each morning it says, "'Preserve me,

O God, for in you I take refuge. "'I say to the Lord, you are my Lord.

"'I have no good apart from you. "'The Lord is my chosen portion, "'and in my cup you hold my lot.

"'I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. "'I have set the Lord always before me, "'and because he is at my right hand, "'I shall not be moved.

"'I shall not be moved. "'Therefore, my heart is glad, "'and my whole being rejoices.

"'You make known to me the path of life, "'and in your presence there is fullness of joy, "'and at your right hand are pleasures evermore.'"

Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for the promises that you've given us.

We're so thankful that we can see and we know that throughout history, you've never failed.

You've never failed to uphold your promises, your word, and your dictates.

We're thankful for your love for us, that you made a way for us to come into your presence and experience eternal fellowship with our

God and our creator. We're just so thankful for this time of the year.

I pray that you'd be with these families and that they would experience a joy forevermore, and that it's inexpressible.