Good morning. I invite you this morning actually to take your Bible and to turn with me to the fourth chapter of Philippians. That's what we'll be this morning. Beginning in verse four through verse nine. I must say, I am delighted to be here this morning and to open up God's Word with you all. Misty and I will be moving back to Beaumont and this area this summer as I step into leadership at Veritas Classical Academy, as Mark had mentioned. You might be wondering how I do that and Army Chaplaincy at the same time. Well, the Army Chaplaincy is sort of a side thing. It's a reserve position, so I do not perform both of those at full-time functions. We're excited about rejoining the community of faith here at Reformed Presbyterian Church, and to sit in on the teaching of God's Word as Pastor Mark and Pastor Clifton faithfully preach it. As you probably know, Mark and Clifton have been at the Presbyterian Church of America's General Assembly this past week, and he graciously requested that I preach God's Word this morning. So, let's look at the text. Philippians 4, verses 4-9. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And finally, brothers, whatever is true, Whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Let's pray. Lord, we ask you this morning again, as we open your word, that you would open our hearts and our minds to receive it. Lead us to know and understand your will, design, and intention for our lives, and may our lives conform. We love you. We ask for this grace from your hand for our good and for your glory. Amen. Well, anytime we investigate any portion of God's word, we should always begin with context. This is one of Paul's prison letters, you may well know. He is writing while he's in chains at Rome, awaiting for his trial. And this would be an important point to remember as we progress with the text. Within the immediate context of chapter four, we see Paul in chapter three has just discounted those that would counter the gospel's progression at Philippi. He's identified righteousness as coming through faith alone. And he's inspiring the faithful to press on toward the goal that is the upward call of Christ Jesus. He ends this section by describing our heavenly citizenship, and that's in 320. If you take a look there, he says, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we come to chapter four, Paul writes, therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord. So Paul begins this concluding chapter, chapter four, as a logically based on the premise that our citizenship is in heaven and we can stand firm and we are waiting for the Savior, the Lord from heaven, Jesus Christ, to return. So in the section that we are examining this morning, in the context, we will see that peace and joy are found in all circumstances in the person and Lordship of Jesus Christ. So we begin with joy in verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Now, after you probably have seen this verse or read this verse many times in your life, and after reading it so many times, you have simply skipped over it, or at least read it fast and then moved on to the next verse. Most people would say, well, I should ask, you know, have you ever wondered why he repeats himself? Most people would say he does this for emphasis. And he has been repeating himself throughout Philippians. It's a strange letter in that sense, because we do know he is in chains, and yet he speaks so often of joy. He mentions joy several times, and I think it's actually 11 times that he mentions joy or rejoice in the letters to the Philippians. But let me say this verse again in this way. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. See, I think Paul knew that objections would come with that word. Always rejoice in the Lord. Always full stop. Wait for the objections because they will come. They will come. Anticipated questions, arguments, doubts to that call for always. And he says, wait again, I say rejoice. See, we are commanded to rejoice, and sometimes it's very easy for us to do this. However, we must be reminded to do this always, because sometimes it is not easy to rejoice always. And Paul himself has a certain authenticity that I spoke of briefly a second ago, and authority behind this command, as he, in the presence of the Philippians, actually demonstrated joy in the midst of great suffering. You might remember in Acts 16. Paul and Silas were in Philippi, and Paul having become greatly annoyed with this slave girl who had a spirit of divination. And the incident resulted in him casting out that spirit, and then, consequently, them being beat and thrown into jail. This is the great story of, we know, the Philippian jailer. But yet, even after All of that. Scripture tells us that at midnight, Paul and Silas were singing hymns and praying to God. This is before the earthquake, before the jailer was about to kill himself. They're singing hymns. And by the way, next time you find yourself in a trial, I would just encourage you to do this, to sing. To sing. Sing hymns and songs to the Lord. It resets our heart in trial. It douses the flames of misdirected passion. It it brings us back to the center. And when we sing to God and we recount those hymns, those great hymns of faith. Sometimes things come into focus a lot easier. But even in Paul's current situation, as he's in prison in Rome writing this letter, he uses the words joy again, like I said, 11 times, and he mentions always, always rejoice. How is this even possible for Paul or for us to always do this? We don't rejoice without a firm reason. This is how it is possible. Our joy is grounded in our Savior. As Christians, we may have sorrow and yet rejoice. How is that possible? Sorrow is, of course, related to circumstance. Joy is a state beyond circumstance. Many today, even Christians, confuse happiness and joy. Happiness is sustained only by the circumstances you find yourself in, whereas joy is not subject to circumstance. This past week, I was in a conference in Orlando, Florida, near what is commonly known as the happiest place on earth. Families from all over the world, really, are drawn to spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars seeking happiness on what promises to be pure bliss. And they more than likely find it, at least for a few moments on a roller coaster or something like that. And they experience happiness. But then the sunburned family goes home. They might still have the memories and the sunburn, but the happiness is gone. They shift back into neutral. The emotional happiness has vanished. Their high is gone. There's nothing wrong with them going to a theme park. There's nothing wrong with being happy. But Christians, we need to know the difference. Happiness and joy, also, they look different. You will always be able to tell when somebody is happy. They have a smile on their face, grinning ear to ear. Pleasant disposition. Joy is a bit more tricky. Joy may even appear as sorrow. Joy comes at the birth of a child, and oftentimes you cry at the birth of a child. Joy comes when you see your bride walking down the aisle. You take her hand in marriage. Joy appears sometimes as quiet confidence. Joy from amazement is oftentimes silent. Joy has no neutral. It is not like happiness. Joy is not simple emotion. It is a grace, a fruit of the spirit that is initiated, sustained and completed in the Lord. And this is why joy is different from happiness. We choose it. It does not happen to us. Always. Always rejoice. Is that even possible? What about the things that are horrible in my life? Death, disease, divorce, drunkenness, division. In other words, they don't start with a D. There are many things that creep into our lives in this sin-filled, saturated world. And when these horrible things come into my life, rejoice always, Paul. And you can hear the argument coming back against him. See, the world, it will tax and demand and pull us toward it in such a way that our heaven-bound spiritual eyesight can be lowered simply to circumstance. So instead of looking up to the Lord, we look to our earthly position. The command to rejoice is a command to focus on the eternal, one true sovereign king of the universe. And through our process of sanctification, where we are training to remain in joy always, we are being prepared to where we'll enter into the fullness of joy that God will bring us in the culmination of his divine plan. And there we will rejoice always in the fullness of the presence as a citizen of heaven. Though sorrow may last for the night, his joy comes in the morning. And I would propose to you this morning that the opposite of joy is anxiety over perceived coming sorrow. You might anticipate that bad things will happen soon, Joy finds rest in the sovereignty of God, whereas anxiety initiates doubt of God's sovereignty. Always. I say this to you today, Christian, as God is always sovereign. He is never dethroned. We have cause to rejoice. What sorrow you might have experienced or are experiencing or anticipating to experience, though real, is not without cause. God is sovereign. And we are to count it all joy when we face these various trials. We know that all things will work together for the good of those who love them are called according to his purpose. And we ask for the good from his hand. But if it does not come, we are ready to rest in his sovereignty, knowing that he works all things for the good of those who love him. This is an eternal perspective, this is not centered on our circumstance, it's the perspective of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. And if anything, we have cause to rejoice. If anything, we have cause to rejoice. We know the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel. We once were sinners, alienated from God, enemies with our Creator. But we are now, by God's initiative, drawn to Him, saved by grace through faith. We have a cause to exclaim, Hallelujah! Praise God! We are saved! Or even weep tears of joy. Even we tears of joy, though mixed with sorrow from the regret of our past sins, we can joyfully weep at the spiritual birth of another ourselves recreated in Christ Jesus. We have cause for joy always, always. The objection is there overruled. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone in verse five, the Lord is at hand. The key word, of course, here is reasonableness. Now looking into the Greek, reasonableness is hard to convey in English. There's many words that you can use. Sometimes reasonableness is translated as moderation or gentleness. One commenter suggested self-effacing as letting your humility be known to everyone. That is to demonstrate your humility. It's not something, a frame of mind, but actually a demonstration of it. Remember that joy can be exhibited as quiet confidence, and I believe that is what Paul is asking of the Philippians here. Humility before all, as he had already pleaded with the Philippians to have this humility in Christ exhibited. He is asking them for joy and humility. Two elements, joy and humility, not often connected. But we remember the author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 2 that it is for the joy set before him that Christ endured the cross. And Paul, in Philippians chapter 2, just spoke about how it is the humility that led him to not account equality with God, something to be grasped, but made himself nothing and humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. And so joy and humility are even connected with Christ in his journey to the cross, and therefore they must be connected with our journey after the cross. When we are content in Christ because of the joy he brings us, As we rest in a sovereignty in all circumstances, we are unable to live humbly before others. And then we can let our reasonableness be known to all. Humility is derived from joy. And I think this is perhaps if you look at the context again of Philippians chapter four, Uriah and Syneche are encouraged by Paul to agree in the Lord. This is in verse two, four two. And Paul tells them to, the first thing he tells them after he tells them to agree in the Lord is to rejoice, knowing that humility is derived from joy. The Lord is at hand. What does it mean that the Lord is at hand? The latter part of verse five will convene two things. One, it can mean that God is temporarily at hand, that he is near his second coming is drawing close. The Lord is at hand could also mean he is close to us in relationship, spatially close to us. That is to say, he is nearest in his presence right now. And many commentators choose between the two. I'd say, why not choose both that he is coming? Indeed, he is coming, but he is also close to us now. D.A. Carson makes the case for the latter. And then he asked this, and this is, I think, quite poignant. He says, suppose for a moment that the resurrected and exalted Lord walked into the room where you and your friends were seated. Suppose that there is no doubt in anyone's mind as to his identity. How would you respond? Would you immediately rush up to him and strut your excellence as he showed you a glimpse of his glory and turned over his nail-scarred hands? Would you be quick to parade your virtues? Would self-promotion play any part in your thinking at that point? Not a chance. But that is the point. The Lord Jesus has promised to be present by his spirit. Or even two or three of his disciples gather in his name. Does it change the fundamental reality simply because we can't see him at the moment? No, when the Lord is near, there is utter humility on the part of his creation. His nearness demands humility from us, but it is also the very thing that empowers us to be humble. His nearness demands humility, but it is the very thing that empowers us to be humble. We see this as we move, it frees us from anxiety as we move to verse six. Verse six, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So the positive command to rejoice and the negative command to not be anxious are directly related to the presence of God in our lives. He is at hand. Therefore, rejoice. I let your reasonableness be known to everyone. He is at hand. Also, he is at hand. Do not be anxious. This is the center of the wheel, so to speak, where these commands are turning. The positive command, of course, is to rejoice. The negative command, do not be anxious. At first, it seems like another impossible command. Do not worry. Rejoice always. Impossible. Do not worry. Impossible. We worry all the time. We worry. We all worry. We have anxiety in some way. Paul teaches us that the cure for worry is not just to stop. It's not just don't. He commands us to don't, but he gives us a place to turn. It's redirection. He's not telling them, do not be anxious, period. Rather, we offer our concerns to the Lord. This passage, of course, does not deny anxiety, fear or worry. It tells us what to do with them. And you will find after coming to Christ that these things simply do not go away. If you become a Christian, your life is not just worry free automatically. This is not a promise we make. You still live in this world and there will be things that will come to us that will cause us to worry and have anxiety. But now we have a place to turn. Even Paul struggled with anxiety and It is testified in this book, if you look back actually in Philippians 2.28, he's speaking of Epaphroditus and he talks about in 2.28, I am more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. Elsewhere in 1 Peter 5, 6, and 7, Scripture teaches us, God teaches us, to humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Here humility and casting our anxieties are connected. I think fear is an incredibly powerful emotion. Fear motivates people to do very strange things and Also by very strange things. Fear can lead us to bad decisions, mistakes in relationships. And I would ask you this morning, what are you afraid of? What gives you anxiety? Relationships, your children's future, Democrats, hurricanes? What are you afraid of? Preaching in front of gifted expositors? We all fear something. We have anxiety that creeps up within us. This is part of who we are. Misplaced fear is sin. Fear should be directed to God. I don't necessarily mean the commonly meant fear of reverence. Although that is a biblical form of fear and it's right and good for us to fear God in the reverent form, we should revere God. But I mean fear Him. We should reverence God and fear him in the sense that God is angry with us as enemies, and without the blood of Christ as propitiation to satisfy his wrath, we would be consumed. That is fear. We will be consumed without Christ's blood, without that propitiation. So the solution from anxiety that grows from fear of uncertainty is faith placed in the person of God and his presence in our lives. It is prayer. Remember, the Lord is at hand. We can talk to him if he is at hand, if he is sovereign over all things. Talk to him. Jeremiah 23, 23, am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and I'm a God far away. We see in this verse that he is, yes, transcendent, but he is also imminent. He is close to us, and yet he is far away. He is the God and sovereign over all the universe. But yet we may talk to him as a friend. Because of our mediator. Ask of him, request your heart's desire according to the will of God, with a grateful and expecting heart of an adopted child. And do not worry for the father will not forsake his children. And indeed, he already knows your request. He already is what you're going to ask already. He is at hand. He has the power to do and bring good according to his will. All he asks is we exercise our faith and request of him the good things from his hands. If God were not sovereign, think of the place we would be in. Anxiety would be a natural, well suited state of emotion for everyone. If the universe was random, if evil was without purpose, if a meta-narrative or overarching story of creation, fall, redemption, and glorification was non-existent, and God was limited in power, presence, and knowledge, we would and we should be anxious. We have many things to fear, but there would be no hope. Why pray if God cannot answer? If he is dethroned, if he is not sovereign? But praise God, he rules, he rules, he rules. He is the sovereign king of all the universe. And we can cast all our cares upon him. And that drives out fear. And we pray with thanksgiving, scripture says here, we pray with thanksgiving. So even in our greatest distress, in our greatest fear, our greatest cause for anxiety, we are not without the greatest blessing. If our souls have been redeemed, all else, so to speak, is gravy, right? The sufferings and worries of this life are nothing compared to the glories of the next. And my soul has been redeemed. What more could I ask for? So anytime I come to God, I come through Christ with the reminder that God has purchased me and I can rest in that truth. I can have peace. I can have peace. And this is the result. Look in verse seven. When we cast our anxieties upon him, we pray with thanksgiving. and the peace of God, verse 7, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The result of our faith in God is the peace of God. Rest. Rest. Cease striving. Cease striving. I see so many people struggling through this life as if God is not sovereign. No. Cease striving. Enjoy. Enjoy His presence. bask in his sovereignty. Many around us strive for peace in so many bankrupt ways. Peace, lasting peace, is only found in Christ. And this peace that surpasses understanding, surpasses the understanding of people outside the faith and surpasses the understanding of people inside the faith. In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, all face certain death. And they were told by Nebuchadnezzar that they would They told Nebuchadnezzar that they would not bow down to his idol. And we trust, they said, that God will deliver us. But even if he doesn't, even if he doesn't, we will never bow down before your idol. The peace that they had in that moment surely surpassed the understanding of the Babylonians. You're going to die just because you won't bow down. For the person, the benefit from the peace that comes from God is hard to explain also. There's sometimes some things we just cannot explain to those who do not know the peace of God. It's rich. It's free. It's. You lose words after a while. The peace of God is different because it comes from without it is not up to us to meditate, to find some Eastern inner peace, it is something that God brings to us, it is graciously given to us with the benefit of it guarding our hearts and our minds. And that guarding that takes place here is like the guarding of a fortress. We read earlier in Psalm 59 about a fortress. Our God is our fortress. He sets up a holy perimeter, so to speak, around our hearts and our minds. And he gives us strong confidence, strong confidence as we rest inside the fortress of his peace. R. Rainey sums up this passage well. I think he says, the way to be anxious about nothing is to be prayerful about everything. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. In our culture today, it seems as though feelings are king. The mind is de-emphasized, and sadly, many Christians rest their decisions about the church on simply feelings, emotions that are then translated into loyalty, and therefore the knowledge aspect is promoted actually as unquestioned dogma, that is, without thinking they accept it. There are many Christians that cannot even articulate their own faith in a thoughtful way. I don't mean issues of minor importance, peripheral issues, or really great depth, but just simply major points of the gospel. In fact, there is a book that has now been written, What is the Gospel?, to educate people on what the gospel is and its richness. It is rich, it is simple, but many cannot articulate it. Yet we are called to use all of our mind. This is the standard by which we are commanded, as Jesus stated in the greatest commandment, that we are to love God with all of our mind. Thinking in itself is not a sin. Thinking is simply a medium, so to speak, by which we interact with things. What things should we think on, though? And here is a list. Paul gives not exhaustive things that we should think on. I think he must be redeemed and sanctified. Christ made this clear as he preached the Sermon on the Mount, speaking about murder, adultery and hateful actions. These all begin in the heart and mind of the person. Our thoughts are not beyond the eyes of God. He knows all we think, all we do and all we say. He knows our motivations. And he sees the depths of our hearts. But we are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It does not seem beneficial for us to examine with our own criteria what we think is actually true or excellent or pure, worthy of praise, because if we do, we do by our own standard. So when Paul says that we should think on whatever is true or lovely, he is not suggesting unmitigated license. for the subjective mind to think on whatever they consider to be pure, true, lovely. It is not licensed. In other words, you think something is pure, therefore it's pure. No. Things that you might consider pure might, in fact, be sinful. Nor is it legalism. The last thing Paul wants to do is give the Philippians a new law. He was not trying to tell them to think of only certain things, and these, therefore, are the sanctified things. He says, whatever. He was trying to get them to think of a person first and foremost, and that person is Christ. When we are enthralled with God, we make no room in our minds for sin. And I would put it to you this morning that when we think on these things that Paul has listed, we are indeed thinking on the majesty of God, truth, honor, justice, purity, loveliness, excellence. That is which that which is worthy of praise by God. who himself is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, excellent, and worthy of praise. All good things come from him. And therefore, wherever we find these excellent things, it is not wrong for us to think on them because they belong to God. We need to be thinking God's thoughts after him. Our inclination and attraction is heavenward. We are citizens of heaven. It is where we are headed and we are now being molded and shaped for that realm, for that purpose. And so when we think of things that are excellent, we are simply tasting a glimpse of the excellence that is to come when we have that relationship in heaven with God. An interesting thing about these virtues that Paul lists here, this is very interesting, well, at least for Bible scholars and stuff, is that these words are seldom ever used in the New Testament. They really are not used and they are seldom used or ever used in the New Testament. They are, however, used by pagan philosophers and their texts as virtues. They are worthy of attaining. The pagan philosophers see these as worthy of attaining. And for the Christian, we can claim them as our own. Because God claims them as His. Anywhere in this universe that good virtue exists, it belongs to God. So the Boy Scouts don't own helping a person across the street. That belongs to God too. Anything virtuous, and this is a silly illustration, but anything virtuous like that, that belongs to God. All things are created for Him, by Him, and through Him for His glory. So I just want to consider two things off this list this morning, that which is lovely or beautiful, and that which is true. First, let's turn to beauty. True beauty, lovingliness is found in God as a standard of beauty. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It is not a subjective standard. Beauty is found in God and measured by his conformity to God's design or celebration of him. For instance, I might be able to read a great poem, not explicitly Christian, it does not mention God or Jesus, neither is it sinful, there's no crass language or coarse jest contained in it or any other sinful content. But after reading it, I can think on it as beautiful and lovely. Why? The poem's beauty ultimately reflects the beauty of God. Even if the writer was an atheist, I can still worship God through that poem because Even if the author does not believe it, he is created by a creative God, and he bears his image. And because he bears the image of God, God's beauty will still shine through a beautiful point, even when written by an atheist. So by the very form that he is writing, he is actually acknowledging a creator that he denies. I can honor that which is beautiful because it belongs to God. God is in the business of redeeming. We allow the world to take the beautiful and to pervert it. It should be redeemed. We need to take it back. I think this, for me, I mean, one of the things that, you know, I was trying to think of an illustration of this is really the rainbow. I think the rainbow is beautiful. It belongs to God. It is His symbol. I suppose it's been hijacked recently. And so when anybody says rainbow, the first thing that comes to your mind is usually not God's covenant with Noah. Take it back. That's God's. That needs to be redeemed. That is His. True. Whatever is true, think on these things. What is true is grounded in reality. When we say something like that is not true, we mean that what you have stated is not the matter of reality. You have misunderstood or mistaken about what reality is. If God is the creator, he is the establisher of all things real, that is to say, what is reality that is true. If we are to think on whatever is true, our thoughts, therefore, must conform to God's thoughts, as his thoughts will always be the reality of the situation. I know I'm going really deep here, but this is important for us to understand as we love God with all our mind. If he establishes reality, he establishes truth. And if we want to know truth and understand truth, our thoughts must conform to what God has established as true. And if we are going to think on things that are true, because that truth belongs to God, we must conform our minds to what He has created, the actual case, the actual reality of the situation. So, how can we know God's thoughts? Well, we know God's thoughts because he has revealed them to us in this word right here and in his world that we experience. So, his word is truth and by God's grace we can investigate the created world also and discover truths such as the reality of gravity or mathematical principles or things like this. Now, both the world and the word can be misinterpreted. There are some people who believe they have found truth as they interpreted the world around us, God's created world, and they understand that to be true. There's some people who look at scripture and they interpret scripture and they understand that to be truth. And when they don't mess together, one or the other or both have been misinterpreted. However, when these two revelations are interpreted rightly, they join forces to harmonize and testify to the fact that whatever is true, wherever it exists, is established by God, created for God, and is meant to bring glory to Him. In other words, all truth, wherever it is found, belongs to God. So as much as we can rejoice when we bring our sorrows and requests to God in times of anxiety, we can rejoice when we experience and enjoy and think of the things in the creative world that reflect the glory of our Creator. If we rejoice in the Lord, are in prayer to him, knowing he is near to us, and we are thinking things that are virtuous, sinful thoughts will be pushed away from our hearts and our minds. And so my question, as you said, think on these things, is my question to you this morning is how is your thought life? One thing is clear about our thinking, trash in, trash out. What are we reading for entertainment? What movies do you watch? We may think on these things that are lovely and pure, that are not forbidden in scripture, that are not divisive to the church. There you have liberty, Christian. Enjoy. God has created them for our enjoyment and for his glory. Enjoy them and honor God. This is what makes life exciting. We can experience the richness of this life and give praise to our Lord. We can use these as tools to magnify his name. What you have learned and received, verse nine. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Moving from right thinking, Paul then turns to right living. We do not practice good things that we have learned in scripture to gain favor with God. We preach a gospel of grace. And I love how Mark puts this. He says it's not the gospel of try harder. Our gospel is that you can't be good. You can't be righteous aside from the grace of God through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. The promise, again, is that we would have peace if we practice these things. It seems to me that God is in the peace giving business. We read this verse here, it actually says something different. It is not the peace of God is the God of peace that we will receive. Peace is rest in God. Then the world that is violent, corrupt, evil and godless. I'm held by God eternal as I trust in him, think after him and walk in his ways. Our citizenship is in heaven, brothers and sisters, our citizenship is in heaven and the joy and peace that I experience now in all circumstances is simply foretaste of what is to come. In all things, let's give him praise. I invite you to stand and sing our closing hymn.