In Zechariah, Zechariah chapter number 8, the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi and just before you get to Malachi is the book Zechariah. So it's two books back from the end of the Old Testament. I'm going to be preaching about when the streets are full of laughter. preaching a few messages about the lighter side of life. Now the Bible has things to skin our hide about, sin. The Bible has doctrine to direct us and instruct us in the right ways, what to believe. The Bible has a lot to say about everything and sometimes we overlook because sometimes we think The compromisers in the liberal churches have maybe taken lightheartedness too far and yet sometimes we Bible-believing Christians who are conservative and know that we ought to be against sin, we sometimes take ourselves too seriously and we don't learn to laugh and we live on the dark side of life instead of the light side of life. Life gets complicated and our joy sometimes is overemphasized in our own heart and because we've become overly concerned about ourselves and maybe we put ourselves in too much of an important position. In fact, it says in Romans that we're not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. But sometimes we get to thinking we're pretty important and we're the most important person in our life and so we take ourselves and what we believe and what we do and the problems we're involved in, we take those things so seriously we forget to laugh. Life does get complicated but we ought not to let it. overcome our ability to live a joyful life. That's kind of what Thanksgiving is about. We're thankful to the Lord because of what he's done for us and what he does in us and through us and so we don't need to take ourselves too seriously. When this building was under construction we were in the old storefront building across the street and we had this building just I think the sheetrock was finished and we were beginning to paint And it was in the finishing stages. And I was preaching on Sunday night, preaching across the street. And man, I was waxing eloquently. Boy, I thought I really, I preached such a good sermon. I thought, man, this has got to be the best sermon ever. And we had some visiting preachers in the church that night. And I think they were from Texas. and there were two visiting preachers and we still had some of our building missionaries on site and they were here with us. So after I had stepped down from that platform after having preached sermons way above Charles Spurgeon and D.L. Moody and the likes of them and R.G. Lee, Brother Holloway, I had preached those rarely eloquent sermons that get heard. I stepped down walking ten feet tall to meet those preachers from Texas and I was telling them about our building project across the street. And they said, well, pastor, would you take us over and show us the building? I said, absolutely, man, I'll show you. And so I became a tour guide on the level of HGTV. I'm telling these guys, I'm taking them from room to room. This is going to be our auditorium in here. And these are the offices over here. And back here, this is a classroom. And over here is the fellowship hall. And I'm really doing such a great job being so dignified until I stepped right smack dab in the middle of a five-gallon bucket of paint. I'm not talking about just getting a little bit of splash water up on my leg. I baptized that leg clear up to the knee in Sherwin-Williams pale yellow. You talk about taking the wind out of somebody's sails, man, I deflated real quick. I think those preachers, I think they were trying not to laugh, but I think one of them pulled a muscle holding it back. That's not the worst part. That's not the worst part. The next week, Kevin O'Byrne, one of our building missionaries, he had to tell everybody in the church about it. I mean, he said, folks, you'll never believe what happened last week after church Sunday night. Pastor was doing such a good job on that message. Man, he did preach a good message. He was showing those preachers through that church house, and then he stepped in the paint bucket and ruined it all. Not an ounce of dignity left. And everybody laughed. Everybody laughed at me. And you know what I did? I decided to laugh, too. I mean, nothing you can do about it at that point. You might as well laugh. We take ourselves too seriously sometimes, and God sometimes lets us step in a paint bucket to kind of put us back in our place and say, hey, buddy, hey, Brooks, you need to laugh a little bit. You're not too important to laugh. Well, that happens in our life, and we have to get over it sometime. And so God lets us do something dumb sometimes just to let us laugh a little bit. And that brings me to our text in Zechariah chapter number 8. In Zechariah chapter number 8, we'll read a couple of verses there. This is talking about the millennial age, that thousand year reign. The church has been raptured, the tribulation has happened on earth, now Jesus is coming back the second coming and he sets up his kingdom in Israel and sets up his throne in Jerusalem. He's going to rule the whole earth and this is how he describes that wonderful, wonderful time of the kingdom in Zechariah 8. A couple of verses we'll read. I want to see how he describes his kingdom and he doesn't draw a picture of stress and heaviness and anxiousness and misery. You know what he does? He shows us old saints sitting peacefully in the sunshine and children laughing and playing in the streets. God says, in other words, let me show you a picture of the lighter side of life. Zechariah chapter 8 verse number 4, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, There shall yet be old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing, in the streets thereof. Can you hear those children giggling and laughing and running and playing? Can you see those old people sitting in their lawn chairs in the shade and the sun coming through those trees and they're just feeling good. They're laughing. Old people probably laughing and watching those kids play. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the little time we have just to take a peek of the shadows of that lighter side of life that is to come. And Lord, help us to get a glimpse into the heart of our Lord that wants us to have a joyful side of life. I pray you'd bless in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, most prophecy passages that we read, and this is a prophecy, most prophecy passages seem to be full of battles and judgment and warning. but not this particular little passage we read just now. It's a snapshot, it's just a snapshot so simple and yet so wholesome that immediately it just warms the heart. You remember those Norman Rockwell paintings that always just kind of, you know, you just feel homes, it's just kind of homespun paintings that makes you feel warm sitting by a fireplace or maybe out in the springtime under some blooming trees or something like that well this is a snapshot that God gives us of that age of the kingdom when Jesus is ruling and all the other kingdoms have been shot down and so this is part that we read this is part of the future kingdom and I think God is trying to tell us life is lighter than you think Every now and then, the Lord gives us a verse. It's kind of like a warm fireplace on a cold winter day. Something that just makes our heart breathe a little easier. It's simple, it's sweet, it's wholesome, it's joyful. And God says, this is my plan for the future. And if this is God's plan for the future, ladies and gentlemen, if God plans on having people sitting on the street unafraid, unconcerned, just enjoying breathing God's air and little boys and girls playing up and down the street, no fear of getting run over or pedophiles or criminals, they're just having a good time. If God means for those folks in the future to enjoy their life and have a lighter side of life, not the dark heavy, burdensome things that trouble us sometimes, then if He intends for us to have that someday, don't you think that God would kind of give us a glimpse of what we ought to be doing now? I mean, we have some things to be concerned about, and I'm not talking about living a frivolous, irresponsible life where nobody will work and nobody will discipline their children and nobody will do that which is right. I'm talking about just living on the lighter side of life. And when the streets are full of laughter, that shows us that we can have some laughter today and not have to wait for the millennial kingdom. So I want you to see in your mind I want you to picture with me, if you will, the picture of these smiling saints. Let's read that verse number four again. Hey, they're sitting there. Maybe you can picture it in your mind. They're just sitting there in their chairs at the table. at the edge of the yard and watching those kids play out in the street and those old people, the old people are just sitting there and they're not tense, they're not anxious, they're not burdened, they're peaceful and they're just having a good time. Have you ever had some times like that where you're just able to sit on the porch and maybe just relax and nothing's bothering you and you just enjoy life and your body is at rest, your mind is at rest, there's no horrible noises, no horrible things happening around you, you just enjoy that time and it makes you just want to smile and this is the picture God is painting for us there. I was thinking, as I was preparing for this, I was thinking about when I was a little kid. I was, I don't know, maybe five years old. I remember going to the little community of Lunenburg up in Izzard County. It's not even a wide place in the road anymore, but then it was a little bit more of a community. And that's where my grandparents on my mother's side lived. And I don't know, it was a special occasion. I didn't remember much about holidays back in those days. It could have been Thanksgiving, I don't know. Maybe Christmas. Christmas is about the only one I used to remember. And so we were there for some special occasion and family had come in from all over the state and out of state. We had some relatives, my aunt and uncle from California was there and their kids were there. And we were out in the backyard sitting there, us little kids. Now here's what we're interested in. We're not thinking about what's going on in the house. We're not thinking about a job. We're not thinking about taxes. We're not thinking about health conditions. We're just a bunch of little bitty kids playing in a sand bed out there. Now there was a load of sand that had been dumped there for some construction reason I think but it was just a big old pile of white sand and us kids got our little trucks and cars and we didn't have many of those by the way. You don't need nine gazillion cars and trucks and toys of technology for kids to be happy. Don't go broke and load up your credit card buying all that junk for your kids. Get them a sand pile. And so we're sitting there playing in that sandpile and we're just having a great time and I can hear the ladies inside there. The kitchen was right there at the edge of the porch and we're playing in the sandpile just giggling and laughing and getting to know our cousins and stuff. And I can hear the ladies inside there. they're in there talking and chattering and laughing and they're preparing a meal and the men are sitting on the porch there just under the window of the kitchen and they're sitting there telling stories about fishing and hunting and stuff like that and they're just having a good time and the kids are so carefree and the adults are just kind of watching us make sure we didn't kill each other or something like that. And it's just a scene of no fear, no unrest, no noise of war, no politics, just old saints sitting on the porch. That's what we see in Zechariah. We see those old saints of God just sitting there enjoying life. Boy, we could get rid of a lot of heart problems and blood pressure medication if we could live that way. Learning to laugh again. Who are these old saints that we read about in this passage right here? Well, particularly what Zechariah is talking about are the old saints that got born again during the tribulation time. There are going to be people get saved in tribulation. I know it's going to be a horrible time and lots of people are going to face judgment and a lot of people are going to go to hell because they didn't accept Christ. It's a time of renewal. The tribulation will be a time when a lot of folks in Israel are going to come to Christ. That blinder is going to be lifted from Israel's eyes nationally and they will understand who Jesus really is. And then they will know He is, was and is their Messiah. And many of them are going to get saved. They went into the tribulation lost. Everybody went into the millennial kingdom saved. But everybody went into the Tribulation time went in lost because the rapture happened before the tribulation and all the saved people were taken out. But people got saved during that tribulation time and the picture we get now is that of the kingdom when everybody going into the kingdom was saved. But some of those who got saved in the tribulation were still in their natural bodies because they didn't go up in the rapture and get a new body, a resurrection body. These old saints, old Jewish saints that got saved in tribulation go into the millennial reign. Boy, they've seen a lot of bad stuff. Jews have seen a lot of bad stuff over the centuries. I mean we think more recently maybe about the Holocaust and maybe recent wars around there and the ongoing war that they have with the Islamists. But they've gone through horrible tribulations and trials ever since they rejected Christ and even back into the Old Testament when they wouldn't obey God. Now these old saints, Jews are sitting there having a good time. They got saved, these that we're reading about here. And so they're living long and full lives. You know how long they'll live? In the millennial reign of Christ? It's going to be more like it was back from Eden up to Abraham. Remember those people? They lived like 600, 700, 800, 900 years old. Well, the Bible says in Isaiah 65, 20, That means long life is restored again. And in that millennial reign of those who got saved in the tribulation now living in the millennial reign of Christ, they're going to live a long time. They'll still be in a natural body But they're going to live a long time. In fact, the scripture says that a child shall die a hundred years old. You know what that means? That means a baby that's born in the millennium, now they'll be born lost, they'll have to get saved during the millennial. but a baby that's born during the millennial reign of Christ, if that baby dies at 100 years old, he'll be considered still like a baby. They'll live so long that somebody who has a funeral at 100 will be like a baby. That's how long they're gonna live. Live old, old, old. And so Israel's known all these tragedies and so this is the saints that we read about here. And God says now to them, sit down and rest. Sit down and rest. You've been through a lot of stuff. Sit down and just rest and be joyful. God loves to bless His people with peaceful years. He loves that. Psalm 92, 14 says, They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, and they shall be fat and flourishing. That's what it says about the millennial reign, that people are going to live a long time and they're going to be fat and flourishing. Now some of you hated to hear that part about the fat. especially right now as we're getting ready to eat pie and turkey. Fat, well that meant, I grew up on a farm and when dad would raise cattle and pigs, the whole idea was to fatten them out. And so if they were fat and round, that meant they were getting fed good and life is good for those animals. And dad would, we'd have company sometimes for supper And dad, he kind of associated fat with being healthy and attractive too. I think everybody did back then. And we'd have company for supper and maybe one of the ladies that's eating supper didn't eat enough and dad would look over and say, I'll get you another plate of that food. You never will get to weigh in 300 pounds if you don't eat better than that. I don't know if they were looking forward to eating that much. But in the kingdom, Growing old, listen, in the kingdom age, growing old is a sign of God's blessing. And growing old and having joy was a sign that God is restoring some things in their life. You know, those old people that we read about, they're having a good time here in the passage of scripture. But not all older people are having a good time right now. And sometimes they can be dragged down by the things that happen in their lives. And I'm not saying that those things don't exist. They do. Older people sometimes develop feelings of uselessness. And because they've got most of their life behind them and now they're looking that death could come any time. And a lot of times people around them in our culture make them feel like It's over for them, pay them no attention. They're old, they don't matter. And so they're made to feel useless and have a loss of value, no purpose in life. And that's sad, but those things happen. Do you hear me? Those things are happening right now. Old people are often made to feel like they're of no good, no use. And sometimes they become socially invisible. I'm telling you things, not to put a parenthesis in our message now that takes us on the sad side, but we won't know what the glad side is if we don't see what the sad side is. And the sad side is that older people sometimes become socially invisible. Do you know what that is? Socially invisible. In other words, we're standing in a crowd and people are talking and there's a little group over here talking and a little group over here talking And there's a lot of youthfulness going on there. And thank God for youthfulness. But sometimes older people just kind of get left out. And they're just standing there alone. They're looking around at everybody else, talking, laughing, having a good time. But nobody notices them. And that's sad. And it ought not to happen in our churches. I wish it wouldn't happen anywhere, but it certainly ought not. You know what? Young people ought to be taught to respect and love and cherish the older people in the congregation. And that's why the Bible says they're not useless. The Bible says that the younger women ought to let the older women teach them some things. They've been through some things. They know some things. You don't just suddenly become stupid because you got old. The older men are to be looked up to according to the scriptures, and they ought to be admired, and their wisdom ought to be sought. That's true, isn't it? It ought to be that way in church. And we can't control what goes on out in the world. It seems like sometimes we think that's just beyond hope. But old people sometimes have a loss of identity. I mean, older people, when they retire, they've been associated with their work. for decades and that's how men often and I think biblically so, men identify with their work. I mean back when I was working in construction I took a great deal of comfort and pride and interest in the fact that I could drive nails and cut boards and build a house. And when somebody gets too old, a man gets too old to do those things, he's kind of lost part of his identity, not feeling like he has much of an identity. His job's gone, maybe their spouse is gone. As we get older, people start losing friends and spouses, and they just kind of lose their identity. I mean, if you've been married for 50 or 60 years, or longer, and you lose your spouse, man, there goes half of your identity. I'm saying this because we need to recognize what happens to older people. Sometimes we push them off, maybe not visibly, not on purpose, but it happens. They get isolated. And I'm preaching this a lot because I'm going to get old one of these days. I don't want to become unnoticed, unimportant. Sometimes older people get treated as a burden. Younger people sometimes think, man, life would be a lot better if I didn't have to take care of mom or dad or grandpa or grandma. And so that older person in their heart knows that and there's nothing they can do about it. and they begin to feel like, well, I'm just a burden. Physical and mental health begin to decline. I'm glad I was able to remember Felicia and Juan's name. You know what's worse? I'm proud of myself today for remembering y'all's names. You know what really makes it tough? If I can't remember Paul's name back there. I've known him for nearly 30 years. And if I forget his name, then it's really bad. But you know, old people begin to lose some of those. There's something about the neurons in your nervous system that those signals that jump across make the spark from one nerve to another. Somehow some of the nutrients in our bodies don't do what it used to be or absorbed as well as it used to be. and memory does become an issue and we get in mental decline, physical decline and sometimes older people get depressed about that because they know it ain't coming back. Another thing that happens to older people is sometimes they feel like nobody needs my input anymore. Decisions are made without consulting me. I guess I don't amount to much anymore. This happens. I'm relating all that to this passage in Zechariah where people are not made to feel that way. People feel loneliness and isolation in older age. Their friends are dying off, spouses have died off. Maybe they're not able to do in church or on the job anymore. Maybe they're not able to do much. And they begin to feel lonely. Loneliness is one of the most prevalent things that happens in an older person's life. Now, there's something we could do about that. Maybe go visit some of them. Maybe invite them to something. If they're unable to come to pie and praise, maybe we could take a pie to them. Maybe we could just go and sit sometime and let them talk. They don't get to talk. Nobody talks to them much anymore. Go and sit down and just let them talk. And they'll talk your ear off. Because they don't get a chance to very often. And your job is to listen. Don't scold them and don't straighten them out. Just let them talk. And I've got to say that in our culture, old people get treated a lot of time, the culture around us, especially those who are unchurched, sometimes there's a great deal of disrespect for older people. They'll say something to those who are a little older, you try to have an input You try to say something, maybe, and this is terrible online and social media. You try to give your opinion and somebody will say, oh, what do you know, boomer? Baby boomer. What do you know? Well, like I said earlier, just because you were born in that era doesn't mean you suddenly went crazy or stupid when you got older. You still got a brain. And one of the other I'll mention is sometimes older people are in financial distress because now they don't have that income they made before they're retired and maybe they're just at the mercy of what little government handout they can get. And when I say handout, I'm not saying they didn't earn it. If you earned Social Security, draw it, you deserve it. It's not an entitlement. You paid in and you deserve to get it back out. Well, Zechariah's chapter number 8. Here's where I was trying to go with this. Zechariah chapter 8 makes those same people, those old saints sitting in the streets of Jerusalem, it makes them somebody. It lifts the elderly up with dignity and joy and peace and prominence. Read it again. There shall yet be old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem. Hey, that means that they're not hidden. They're not sidelined. They're not burdened and they're not just done away with and forgotten and isolated. They're celebrated. They're lifted back up where they ought to be. That's the old folks we see in this passage of Scripture. I remember not long after I got saved, our pastor was teaching us to be good witnesses for the Lord, tell people how to get saved and go out on, so we'd go on Thursday night soul winning and visit people in the community and we didn't visit up there door to door, we visited hill to hill. in Izzard County. And I remember we went to one old fellow's house. It was hard to find people to go visit because we'd visited everybody in the county. And I happened to think one night and another fellow was with me. I said, I know somebody. I had an old bus driver, Shorty Troxler. He was my bus driver when I was a little kid in school. And I don't know if he's saved or not. Let's go see him. And so we went and knocked on Shorty's door and he let us in. He just sat down and began to visit. He just smiles from face to face. Now he's elderly at this point. He's not driving the bus anymore. Thank God for that. And he's just sitting there smiling. He's so glad somebody came to see him. And we began to talk to him and we chatted for a little while and then I asked him about the Lord, if he had a relationship with the Lord, if he was saved. And boy, his smile got even bigger. I mean, it went from ear to ear. He said, yeah, boys, I got saved a long time ago. And he said, I'm sure I'm happy about it. He said, in fact, I'm glad you asked me about it. He said, I want to just tell you what the Lord's done for me. And man, he's just getting excited about it. He's smiling and laughing and telling us all the things that God had done for him over the years. And he was happy to share that testimony with us. And here we went trying to be a blessing to him, trying to get him saved. He was lost and now he's being a blessing to us because he's telling us all the good things that God had done for him. The beauty of old saints smiling just in the sunshine of the Lord's goodness. There was an old preacher by the name of Uncle Buddy Robinson they called him. He was a Nazarene preacher and he was an old timer. I mean talking about last century. And he was known as one who was just happy, jolly, almost said gay, but you can't use that word that way anymore, can you? And so he was just happy as all get out, and Uncle Bud would just, he would just be talking and praising the Lord wherever he went. Sometimes he'd be walking along, and his wife was beside of him, and he's just, he's talking, and she said, what did you say? He said, I wasn't talking to you, honey. She said, well, who are you talking to? He said, I was talking to the Lord. And he was just happy in the Lord all the time. He was in a car accident once and the police officer came out to investigate it and he's sitting there in the midst of the demolished vehicles and he's sitting there just looking up at the police officer when he walked up and they said, are you alright? And he got up and dusted himself off and he said, yeah, I'm just glad I'm still here to praise the Lord. And so he praised the Lord some more. He wrote this. He said, Lord, keep me so sweet that I won't be sour. Keep me so heavenly that I won't be earthly. And keep me so joyful that the devil can't stand me. And that's the way we ought to be. We ought to be so happy, so joyful, so thankful to God for what He's done for us that the devil just hates to be around us. I mean, he's going to go pester somebody else because he thinks, man, I can't put up with this guy. He's too happy. He's too full of joy. I'm going to go pester somebody else. Think about the old saints. We're still talking about the old saints. Think about the old saints in our church. The ones who radiate with contentment. You know, sometimes there are a few people who get a little crabby in their old age. None of them here, of course. You know, sometimes I catch myself being a little bit crabby. Probably not age-related, I'm too young for that, but I catch myself being a little bit crabby. You know what I'll do? I'll play with my grandson or sometimes I'll stick my head out the back door. We got that little playground out there now. Thank God we got that for the little kids. Stick my head out the door and watch them play and I just kind of get over my crabbiness a little bit. No, I'm not completely over it, but I'm trying. But now we've seen the old saints. Let's go back and read again in verse number 5, Zechariah 8, 5. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. I can kind of see that. I can see the street with little kids running up and down and they're playing chase and they're having a good time playing tag and playing some of those games that maybe had been forgotten about. This is one of the most delightful verses in the whole Bible. The boys and girls are just playing. There's not a lot of places in the Bible where you find God just talking about little boys and girls playing, but this is one. And he describes the children playing. Do you know what this means? That those kids are playing? That God delights in the sound of children? I mean, you just can't stay mad or sad very long if you're around a bunch of little kids that are just giggling and laughing and having a good time. I mean, I think God uses them to spice up this millennial kingdom picture. He could have pictured some other things to make it seem like a joyful time in the millennial reign of Christ, but He decided to use boys and girls playing. Playing in the streets. The place is safe again. They're playing in the streets. I mean, this day and time, you've got to watch out letting boys and girls play unattended, especially in the streets. Now, Erica hadn't learned that yet, Megan. She had Harrison out playing in the mud puddle in our neighbor's driveway a couple days ago. And he drives like a crazy man. I was wondering if he hadn't run over him. No, I'm just teasing about that. Their laughter, these kids' laughter, it's a sign of peace. It's not tense. It's not morbid. Kids are laughing. Kids don't laugh and play if everything's... That's why, let me just step aside for a minute and say, parents, we ought to make sure our homes are a place of happiness and joy and peace. Because those little boys and girls are learning from us. And if they see mom and dad fighting and bickering, calling names, yelling at each other, railing on each other. Guess what? They're going to pick that up. But if you want your kids to be happy kids and joyful kids, you better make it such a place at your home. A joyful place. Home ought to be a little bit of heaven on earth. Jesus himself loved children. He said in Matthew 19, 14, Suffer the little children, or permit the little children, or forbid them not to come unto me. For such is the kingdom of heaven. That's a good sign that the Lord loves children. In the future, Zechariah says those kids are going to fill the streets. Man, they're just going to be playing and happy and joyful, unafraid. They laugh, they imagine, they play, they're having a good time. I was so carefree when the other little kids are there we'd meet maybe and go spend once in a while we'd go spend the night with grandparents or some of our aunts and uncles and we'd stay overnight and boy I remember we'd just play and play and play and play till we were worn out because we weren't concerned about anything we just felt peaceful and the adults were taking care of everything they were paying the bills and protecting us and all that stuff so we didn't have anything to worry about Jesus is going to be taking care of those things in the millennial reign of Christ and we, like those children, won't have to worry about those things. God uses children sometimes to preach a sermon without even speaking. My little grandson, Harrison, I get to see him every day. They live next door to us. Most of the time I'm glad to see them. Sometimes I'm glad to see his parents. He'll come over and we'll play. He's got this thing, before he comes over Erica will bring him over to say goodnight to us because we're just a couple hundred feet away. She'll bring him over to give us a hug goodnight and a smack on the cheek and before he goes he wants to play Poggett. I told him one night, I was playing with him, this is how it all got started. He was acting up a little bit and I said, son you get home, I'm tired of you, now get, get home. And ever since then he's thought that was so funny. He wants to play it every night now. He wants to play paw get. And so he'll go over and stand by the door and I'm over there in my recliner and he'll say, let's play paw get. And so he'll run and get against the door and he'll just kind of like he's bowing up against me and I'll say, Now it's time for you to get home. You've been here long enough, now get. And he'll come running across the floor and he'll run right up to me and I'll reach out like I'm gonna grab him but I won't quite reach him. I'll let him run away again and he'll go back over there and then he'll come at me again like a bomber, like a fighter after a bomber airplane or something. He'll come over there and he'll run again and finally I'll reach out and grab him by the arm and I said, now son, I said you get, now you get right now. And he just has the biggest time with it. And if I'm feeling kind of crabby and sad and just unhappy with life, I can play with that little boy for like 30 seconds and it changes everything. These little kids that we're reading about right here, they're just having such a good time in this millennial reign of Christ. Zechariah 8.5 is a miniature of when we're playing with grandkids and listening to the children out there on the playground. This is a miniature of that. And so all of that means that those children feel safe in the streets. No molesters, no criminals, no fast drivers. This is the millennial reign of Christ where the Lord Jesus has everything under control so you feel safe and those little kids can just play out there and they can have such a good time running and laughing and playing. And the old people sit there and watch them and they have a good time too. And this brings us to the last point. This is a picture of kingdom joy and peace for us today. Today we don't have to live in a state of unhappiness, of unrequited love. Jesus loves us. and we can know that he loves us because he shows us what he's going to be like in that kingdom. This prophecy points to the millennial kingdom but the principle, listen to me, the principles apply today. People should laugh in the present. I don't think preachers ought to make the pulpit a comedy show But I think a little levity helps get some truths across and maybe it serves a purpose of getting people to breathe a little easier and see that God intends for us to live on the lighter side of life. Now there's serious times that's going to come and there's things that we have to take care of but even then we can have joy and learn to live the lighter side of life. John 15, 11 says, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Jesus said that your joy may be full. He didn't say just a little bit. He didn't say, I want your joy to be half full. He said, I want your joy to be full. And if He said that, I believe He meant it with all of His heart. Do you believe Jesus ever said anything He didn't mean? He meant for us to have a joy that's full, not just once in a while, but all the while, a joy that remains. God is not honored by miserable Christians. Let me say that again. God is not honored by miserable Christians. Before I got saved, I thought Christians must really be miserable people because some of the Christians I'd seen looked like they'd been baptized in pickle juice. But friend, God wants us to be joyful. We ought, as Christians, we ought to have a smile on our face and laughter in our heart because we're the best advertisement outside of this holy book that God has for Christianity. 1 Thessalonians 5.18, In everything give what? Thanks, for this is the will of God. This is the will of God that we be thankful. Look for things to be thankful about. That's why we're having pie and praise on Tuesday night. It's so we can look for things to be thankful about because we have short memories. Some of us have short memories because we're old and others have short memories because they don't try to remember. But God's blessings are abundant and we need to remember them. A thankful heart is a joyful heart. A joyful heart is a light heart. And a light heart is a healthy heart. Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, there it is, the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That's what we need. We need thankfulness so we can have a lighter heart that's a healthy heart and it's a joyful heart. Thankfulness brings peace and peace brings joy and joy brings laughter and laughter brings lightness. You know, a heart that's thankful and joyful doesn't need drugs and alcohol to make us feel better because the joy of the Lord is our strength. There's always that one old grumpy uncle maybe at Thanksgiving that, I mean, this food's not good and I don't like that and I wish we had something else. But you know, even he Even he gets a little more light-hearted when the grandkids or nieces and nephews crawl up in his lap. And that's what we need to do the same way. God sneaks joy into stubborn hearts. Kingdom joy. That's what we see here. Kingdom joy in miniature. And God means for us to live it today. Not foolish jesting. Not irresponsibleness. Not trying to be a comedian. but just living on the brighter side of life means that we're living by faith that Jesus is going to make everything alright so I might as well just consider it's alright now whatever happens you know there's some things that we can't control quit worrying so much about politics quit worrying so much about your favorite entertainment entertainer entertainer that's hard to say when you're tongue tied quit worrying so much about the circumstances you can't control they do happen and God never called us to be keepers of other people's joy we can be an example but I don't need to go around and force other people to think like I think and do like I do and if they don't have what I have and believe what I believe that they can't be right with God you know you can if you want to eat pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving it's okay A few of us know that mincemeat pie is the perfect pie for Thanksgiving. If you can't have mincemeat pie, at least have raisin pie. If I don't like what you like, it's okay. Or if you don't like what I like, it's okay. This is a millennial snapshot that we're seeing here. Old saints smiling peacefully, children laughing joyfully. Streets are safe and quiet and peaceful. Blessings are just enjoyed freely. This is what we see. That's God's lighter side. And didn't He make us in His image? We ought to be able to enjoy the lighter side of life as well. Maybe life has felt heavy to you lately. God doesn't want you to stay there for long. God wants you to see the blessings. See what you can be thankful for. See what you can be glad about. I'm not Pollyanna, but I can be glad because of the Lord. Restore your smile, renew your laughter, learn to laugh. If you can't learn to laugh, watch a series of Three Stooges videos or something. Lighten your spirit, don't take yourself too seriously. Fill your heart with peace, knowing that He is the keeper of our peace. Think about the children laughing and the old saints smiling in this passage of scripture. Let it become part of your life. Determine not to be a curmudgeon. Be someone who people like to be around. Instead of being a complainer, be an encourager. Now let me give one other explanation of something before we close. I believe every sermon that I've given or at least tried to include in those sermons is the fact of people's lostness and their need of salvation. And the hope of salvation lies in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one way to be saved. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Jesus said there's not a way to come to him. There's not a back door. There's not another method. There's not another way. The way is narrow, meaning that Jesus is that only way. There's not a hundred different religious ways. There's not different philosophies that will get you there. Everybody doesn't go to heaven, but everybody can go to heaven to trust Christ as Savior. And I think those who are watching online now, there may be some who are saying, boy, I feel left out of this joy business and out of the laughing stages because I don't even know where I'm going. Well, people are born lost, separated from God, and they need a Savior. And Jesus came to die on the cross of Calvary to forgive your sins. And if you'll trust what He did on that cross, the payment of your sins by His blood, you can be saved. Now look, I think there's a lot of people that are alive today who think they're going to heaven because they came to an altar once. I'm not against the altar call. I'm against using it frivolously. But if somebody's serious about coming to Christ, you can get saved by coming to an altar, you can get saved in a side room, you can get saved on your back porch, you can get saved anywhere. The moment you trust Christ as your Savior. But you don't get saved by joining a church, you don't get saved by being baptized. Those are all good things. Going to church is a good thing, but it won't save anybody. Reading your Bible and praying is a good thing, but it won't save you. Only one thing saves, and that's believing that Jesus sacrificed His precious sinless blood for you. If you'll believe on Him, you can be saved. Don't trust anything else. Trust Jesus and His sacrifice in your place. Let's pray.