So in our first sermon in the series that I've entitled, Verses Behind the Carols, we saw the identity of the baby in the manger, we saw that This baby in the manger is Jesus Christ, the everlasting Lord, the prophesied Emmanuel, God in the flesh, the King of kings, Lord of lords, savior of the world, the mediator between man and God, God come in the flesh, or I love it, I love how the one him put it, that God hath veiled in flesh. We also saw the proper response to this truth. How do we respond to the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord of Lord, King of Kings, Savior of the world, God in the flesh? The only proper response to this truth is to give Jesus all of the glory, to glorify him through our worship, through our giving, through our preaching, through our lives. We're to give God the glory in everything that we do. The Bible says, do everything to the glory of God because he is worthy of all glory. This week, we're gonna look, as we just sang, the first hymn that we sang this morning was Joy to the World, the Lord has come. We will see that because of who this baby in the manger is and who he is, and because he's worthy of all glory, because of what he's done, we can root our joy in him. We can root our joy in Christ. Human, I know that sometimes our joy can be hard to maintain or even to find again as we go through the trials and tribulations of life. The holiday season is a rough season for a lot of people. Believers and non-believers alike, it's a rough time. Maybe it's full of reminders of who's not here. Maybe it's reminders of relationships that are broken. Maybe it's reminders of Maybe it's a time of remembrance of how hard the year has been. And I know many believers and non-believers alike, they can fall into hopelessness and despair this time of year. I think of our shut-ins who maybe don't have family visiting them this year, who can't leave their homes. And you think of the, the despair and possible hopelessness and loneliness that they are experiencing. So why has joy come to the world? What's this? There's hope, but there is a hope that we can root our joy in. And it's something that will never fail us. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth as a baby to bring hope and salvation to this fallen world and this broken world, a wonderful gift in which we can root our joy in. We can root our joy in the identity of Christ because of who he is, but also what he's done. There is so much joy in the truth that Jesus is the Savior who reigns over all as King of kings and Lord of lords. And the fact that he is a Savior who reigns as God, There is so much great joy in that. And let me just tell you this, this joy surpasses circumstances. When we understand that we are pilgrims in this fallen world, going to our true home in glory with God, and that one day this fallen world will be redeemed to be our true home when Christ returns. Listen, right now there are people in our church suffering tremendously. Right now there are people in our church that are going through the ringer. Right now, even you, you are probably right now going through some sort of hardship, some sort of trial in your life. And I want you, and I want to say this, just because I'm calling you to have joy doesn't mean that your suffering doesn't matter. Can I tell you this? Your suffering matters, and your suffering is doing something to you, as James says, maturing you in your faith, and it will give you a peculiar, as John Piper put it, a peculiar sort of glory that you're not gonna experience now, but when you get the glory, that you will. A particular sort of glory that we won't see on this side of heaven. But hear me now, your suffering is not meaningless, it's meaningful. And as we go through seasons of suffering, and we're faced with like this time of year, when we see this word joy all the time, I want to remind you of why the Christian can have joy, even in the seasons of suffering, even in seasons of loneliness, like the holiday season that we find ourselves in right now. I wanna encourage you guys to turn with me to the book of Psalms verse, and it's Psalms 98. Going through and researching about this particular hymn, many say that the inspiration for this hymn, Joy to the World, comes from actually Psalm 98. Turn to Psalm 98. We're just gonna read that whole Psalm there, and it's not much, it's nine verses. Psalm 98, if you would turn in your Bibles and read it with me. Sing a new song to the Lord, for He has performed wonders. His right hand and holy arm has won Him victory. The Lord has made His victory known. He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of all the nations. He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel, and all the ends of the earth have seen our God's victory. Let the whole earth shout to the Lord. Be jubilant, shout for joy, and sing to the Lord with a lyre and melodious song, with trumpets and the blast of a ram's horn. Shout triumphantly in the presence of the Lord, our King. Let the sea and all that fills the world and those who live in it resound. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains shout together for joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth and he will judge the world righteously and the peoples fairly. The coming of the Lord in the Psalm is a joyous occasion. He's calling his people, God has won the victory. God has taken the victory. Let the whole earth shout to the Lord, be jubilant, shout for joy and sing, sing to the Lord with a lyre. or the lyre with a melodious song. It's calling us to be joyful in the Lord, in the coming of the Lord and joy to the world. He's talking about the Savior's birth and the joy that has been brought by Jesus coming in the form of a baby in a manger. The writer of this hymn invites us. He invites us. One thing I love about these hymns, it reminds us, but then it gives us an exhortation. of what we're to do with the truths that the hymns have just, the hymn writers have strived to put in there. Like I said, these hymns that we sing, we're gonna sing it next year, we're gonna sing it the year after. The reason why they've seen the test of time is because it's based off of the word of God. based off of the truths of the Christmas season. Like I said, it's gonna last longer than Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas, right? And here's the reason why I know, because you can sing this every year and it's not gonna get tired, whereas, I don't know if someone's doing CPR on that thing, but it seems to get new life every year and then dies in January. Praise the Lord it dies in January. I used to work at HEB and they blast that thing so many times. But the writer of the hymn invites us to be joyful that Jesus is one, our King. As we have seen in our last sermons, there is an ever present theme in the Christmas hymns of the Lordship of Christ. Matthew 28, verse 18 says, Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. He also invites us to be joyful that Jesus is our Savior. As we've seen, again, in our last few sermons, there is an ever-present theme of the salvation found in Christ alone and the joy that it brings. Acts 4, verses 10 through 12 says this, let it be known that all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you've crucified and whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing here before you healthy. This is Jesus, the stone rejected by the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved. So he invites us to be joyful in the fact that Jesus is our savior. The writer of this hymn also calls us to praise and be joyful that Jesus reigns. That Jesus reigns, not just to be joyful that he saved our soul, that he does put kings and rulers and the powers that they're in right now, but he also calls us to be joyful in the fact that he does reign. How many of you guys have thought about that? Not just to be joyful that He is a Savior, not just joyful that He has saved you, that He saved your children, that He's worked miraculous things in your life, but how often do we just sit in the joy of having Jesus as the King of kings and Lord of lords? There's a great joy in the reign of Jesus. The hymn writer calls us to sing praises at his reign. We see in Psalm 98 verses four to six, it says, "'Let the whole earth shout to the Lord, "'be jubilant, shout for joy, "'and sing to the Lord with the lyre and a melodious song. "'With trumpets and the blast of a ram's horn, "'shout triumphantly in the presence of the Lord our King.'" Calls us to praise him, praise him. So the exhortation of the hymn writer is really the same exhortation I'm gonna give you guys today. And that is to be joyful that Jesus reigns as king and root your joy in the fact that he is savior. There are many things that we can root our joy in that. So let's look at the first thing. We want to have joy. We want to be joyful that Jesus is the everlasting Lord, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. We want to be, we want to have joy that Jesus reigns supreme. And so Jesus, why? Because Jesus is a righteous King who rules with truth. What does the hymn say? It says, he rules the earth with truth and grace. He rules the earth with truth and grace. He shows the nations his righteousness. One of the joys of being a subject of King Jesus is that we never have to worry that he will rule over us unjustly. Have you ever thought about how much the political landscape of the United States is very schizophrenic? Every four years, it's gonna change. A president could do so much in eight years only to have something undone by the next one. It's kind of like the Catholic Church when you think about it. There are so many popes that have overruled statements from other popes and everything like that. It's very schizophrenic. But here's the thing, one of the joys of being a subject to King Jesus, that he reigns over us, is the fact that we never have to worry that he's gonna rule unjustly. The hymn writer says that everyone's gonna know his righteousness. Every nation will know his righteousness. Kings and presidents, prime ministers and governors often will fail to uphold the truth and righteousness, won't they? The people that God has put in the place, and make no mistake, everybody who wins office in an election is because God has put them there for a reason. Oftentimes, just go through the Old Testament, we have wicked rulers because the people are being judged. Just go through Israel, when they had the kingdom split. There was more unrighteous rulers than there were righteous, wasn't there? And it was just because of that. But hear me now, this is the reason why we can't put our faith and our trust and our complete, just, faith in these kings and presidents, prime ministers or governors, because they will often fail us. They're human. They'll fail to uphold the truth. They'll fail to be righteous. Hit me now, whoever you voted for, whoever is in office right now is going to fail us because they're human, because they have the same temptations that we do, because they have the same wicked heart that Jeremiah says, who could know it? So one of the, One of the greatest things, one of the biggest joys that we can have as Jesus as ruler, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is that he's never gonna fail us in that way or any way, really. Jesus is ever faithful. He's the everlasting Lord who is faithful to his people and he doesn't forget them. Where humans fail us, where governments fail us and government is going to fail you, Jesus will never. That's one thing that we can root our joy in. is the ever faithfulness of Christ. You know, John 1.14 says, Do you realize that Jesus, the way that he rules, he rules with grace and truth. It means he doesn't rule with lies and unlovingness. He rules with grace and truth. And grace, if you're not familiar with the word, is more than just love. It is unmerited love that you and me never deserve. Do you realize when we're saved by the grace of God, it means that you and me were saved by a love we didn't deserve, that God in his right had every right to reserve from us. So he rules the nations with grace and truth. He says this, the Lord has made known his victory. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of every nations. Going back to Psalm 98, he has remembered his love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. Again, he shows his righteousness to the nations. Where nations are wicked, God is good. He has remembered the love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen our God's victory. He has not forgotten about his people. Hear me now. There are people in office that gets the vote of Christians because they make promises that they never keep. And we know this. It's been done all throughout the years, hasn't it? But what does verse three in Psalm 98 say? He has remembered love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. He will not forget us. He will not forget us. Let the rivers clap their hands and mountains shout together. This is verse eight for joy. Before the Lord, he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world righteously and the people fairly. There is no unrighteousness. There is no unfairness. There is nothing that God does as unjust. There's nothing that Jesus will do as King of Kings and Lord of Lords that will be unjust to you and me. Even when it doesn't seem fair. The Bible says, lean not on your own understanding. but to lean upon the Lord. He also says his ways are not our ways. So Jesus Christ is a King that will rule justly. Jesus Christ is a King that will rule fairly. Jesus Christ is a King that rules with truth and grace. And that's something we can root our faith in, our joy in. When we think about what the way the world is going, when we think about the suffering people have caused us, that people in authority have caused us. But here's another thing. Jesus is a king who serves his people. Jesus is a king unlike any other, as he didn't come here to be served by anyone. But he came here, he came to serve everyone and to save people through him. Mark 10 45 says this, for even the son of man did not come to be served and to serve, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And the context of this passage is the fact that when the, the disciples were being dumb and they're fighting over which one was going to be the greater one in heaven. And the Lord reveals to him, the truth is like the one who has the one who basically his message is the one who serves. If you want to be great in heaven, you got to serve. And he said, don't be like the Gentiles who lorded over them. And he says at the, the, the, the kind of the rap was like for even the son of man, which is him, right? Daniel talks about the son of man and in reference to the coming Messiah did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus came here not to get served by people, but to serve them. Jesus is the King who rules with sacrificial love and tremendous grace. Do you realize that Jesus rules, again, truth, but also with grace. He rules with sacrificial love and tremendous grace. The Bible tells us that Jesus loved the church so much that he gave himself for it. In Titus 2.14, he says, he gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, to cleanse himself of people for his own possession, eager to do good works. So Jesus says he gave himself to redeem us, to purchase us from the wages of sin. He paid the price. That's the reason why he said on the cross, it is done, it is finished, it's paid in full. He did this, why? To cleanse himself of people for his own possession. Make no mistake, you and me are bought with a price. You and me are bought with a price. Ephesians chapter five, verses 25 to 27, we often use these verses here to represent how husbands are to love their wives. And that's very applicable. But what Paul is doing here also, he's reflecting how marriage is a reflection of how Jesus loved the church. And so what does it say? Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. We can root our joy in the fact that Jesus is king. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Why? Because he's come as king of kings and Lord of lords. And he is such a king that we can always root our joy and always have joy in the fact that he reigns. because he gave himself for you and me to cleanse us and make us his people. Hear me now, Jesus isn't waiting for you to clean up your life. Jesus isn't waiting for you to have it all together, go through every Bible study. He isn't waiting for you to go through a seven week course to be saved. Jesus already gave himself for the church so that he can purchase his church. All he's waiting on, But really, all we need to do is believe, repent, and believe. He's not waiting for us to redeem ourselves, to make ourselves holy, to make ourselves perfect. He says, come as you are and let me change you. I've met so many people who have told me, I'm gonna get saved as soon as I figure out X, Y, and Z. Straighten out X, Y, and Z. Can I just tell you this, that the day of salvation is now. See, there's great joy in knowing that Jesus is reigning as king, even now. Knowing that we serve a king who will never morally fall, even leaders in churches. I think there are several High profile preachers and pastors had have fallen into sin, disqualified themselves from ministry. But hear me now, Jesus, our King, our high priest, he'll never fall morally. He'll never take the side of unrighteousness. Jesus is a King who rules with righteousness, who rules with truth. who loves his people dearly and gives tremendous grace to his people and to the sinner. Can I just say this? Is that the reason why that you and me can look at this hymn, joy to the world for the Lord has come, let earth receive her King. The reason why we can is because he's the best King to ever walk the earth. And so we should root our joy and be joyful, the fact that Jesus is reigning over us. There are so many people who want Jesus as Savior, but don't want Jesus as Lord. There are so many people who said, I love the Jesus that is just so loving and he allows me to do what I want, but they don't want the Lordship of Christ. Hear me now, Jesus is Savior and Lord. He is Savior of all of us, but hear me now, He is the Lord over us. Jesus is in fact the boss of us. But hear me now, we can take joy in that because we know the kind of King and Lord that He is. So let's root our joy. Let's be joyful that Jesus is King. Let us be as the hymn writer tells us to do, receive our King. Jesus is a Savior. You know, there's so much joy we can root in Jesus as Savior. We can root our joy so deeply in the fact that Jesus is a Savior. Because He's a King that rules with tremendous joy, rules with tremendous love, and tremendous grace. Jesus saves whomever will come to Him for forgiveness. Why can we root our joy in Jesus? Because he will save whoever will come to him for forgiveness. I used to do some prison ministry. I know Jesse does stuff with Kairos. The fact that you can see people in there for crimes, sometimes heinous crimes, come to the Lord Jesus and be forgiven of their sin. is a tremendous thing, it's a wonderful thing. Why? Because the grace of God is so radical and the blood of Christ covers the multitude of those sins that even the vilest of sinners can come to saving grace in Christ. Just look at Paul, saw Tarsus, persecuted the church, murdered Christians, imprisoned them, drugged them out of their homes. And what happened? Had an encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, became the greatest missionary that ever walked the face of the earth. He was saved. So the wonderful thing, and why we can have joy as Jesus as Savior, beyond any other false deity, is the fact that he has this radical grace. that will save anybody who will come to him for forgiveness. John 3, 16 in verse 17 says, for God so loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Do you realize when he says that whosoever, right? So everyone that believes, or if you have the King James, it says that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life or eternal life. Do you realize that means every people group? That means every person from every nation, no matter the background, no matter the sin, has the available grace from Christ to be saved. Jesus didn't say the Jews. Jesus didn't say just the Gentiles. Jesus said everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus saves radically. Jesus is a radical savior and he changes lives. How radical are we to give the grace of God and the gospel to those that we disagree with? How many of you have seen people who advocate for abortion and said that person needs the gospel? Let me tell you this. Before I was a Christian, I was pro-abortion. Why? Because I didn't have a dog in the fight. I was feeling, hey, she can do whatever she wants. Before I was a Christian, I was pro-LGBTQ. Why? Because, you know, I'm not gonna tell somebody how to live their life. After I got saved, sorry, going through the word of God, Jesus changing me. That's when things change. Jesus changes people. Even the ones that advocate for evil. Again, I go back to the apostle Paul. So are you living out these words of everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life? Or do you pick and choose who gets the gospel? Can I say, if you're picking and choosing who gets the gospel, you are not a faithful messenger. But that's why Jesus is a great Savior. That's why we can have joy in Him because He saves people. He does. He saves people. He saves everyone who will come to Him. We take joy in the fact that Jesus is our Savior because it's a free gift. Again, I go back to what I was saying. You don't have to clean your life up. No one has to clean their life up before they can come to Christ for salvation. Ephesians says this, chapter two, verses eight through nine, for you are saved by the grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God, not from works, so that no one can boast. Titus 3, verse 5 says, He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Spirit. Romans 6, verse 23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hear me now, this time of year, we can give the best gift that we can ever give anybody, which is salvation in Jesus Christ. We can have joy in the fact that Jesus is Savior because his salvation is from grace. It's free. It's a free gift from God, bought by Christ on the cross. the Savior reigns. Why is that wonderful news? Because His grace is free. Salvation through Christ is secure. Why else can we have joy in the fact that Jesus is Savior? Not only is His grace radical, whoever shall come to Him shall be saved, but also it's free. What's another thing? It's secure. Here's another thing that's wonderful, it's secure. Hear me now, you and me will not live this perfect Christian life on our own. You and me are gonna fail. You and me sin daily. You and me every day have something to repent to the Lord for. But thank goodness our salvation in Christ is secured. Why? Because it's by faith, by grace, not by our works, lest any man should boast. Salvation through Jesus is secured. Ephesians chapter four, verse 30 says, don't grieve the God spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. We're sealed by Christ, right? We're sealed by the Holy Spirit. We, you and me have no, you and me cannot lose our salvation. The Word of God says that we are secured in the Father's hands and we're secured in Jesus' hands. And he says this in Romans 8, verses 38-39, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know, I heard Pastor John MacArthur say this, you can't lose something you could never earn in the first place. You and me are secured. That's another thing, the joy, another thing that we can root our joy in. We can root our joy in Jesus the Savior because his salvation is secured, it's ironclad, it's done. Isn't that wonderful that you and me don't have, hear me now, you and me don't have to keep a tally of what we've done wrong. You and me don't have to do that. What's another thing we can have joy in, in the fact that Jesus is Savior? We can have joy in the fact that the Savior reigns because of this. Salvation through Christ provides us with eternal hope. That's another thing, isn't it? It provides us eternal hope. He saves us freely. Anybody who comes to him will be saved. His salvation is free. Mercy is abounding. His salvation is secure. We're not working for it. And then this, it provides us with hope. In Jude verse 24, I didn't put chapter there because Jude only has one chapter. Now, to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory without blemish with great joy. Now, catch this, to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory. This is not only pointing to the fact that, hey, he secures our salvation, but he's also making us stand, being able to make us stand in the presence of his glory without blemish and with great joy. John 14, verse two to three says, in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am, you may be also. Revelation chapter one, verse four, sorry, chapter 21, verse four. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Grief and crying and pain will be no more because the precious things have passed away. Hear me now, as Savior, Jesus provides us an eternal hope at the end of our race and no matter the suffering that we go through on this earth, we will one day be with Christ in glory, where we will experience joy more incredible than the pains that we have here on earth. Paul said he doesn't even compare the sufferings of this life to the coming joy of being in glory with Christ. There is also a promise of his glorious return, isn't it? Why can we have joy in Christ the Savior? It's because of the hope that he gives us. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. This is the joy that Jesus is bringing to the world, an eternal joy. A never-lasting joy. There is also the promise of his glorious return in his reign. Jesus is gonna take this fallen world. As I said earlier on, Jesus is gonna take this fallen world, he's gonna make it new, and he's gonna make it to what it was always supposed to be. And then he will rule over it, as the Psalm says, and as the hymn says, with grace and truth. I also wanna encourage you this. I wanna encourage you with this. Jesus sees your pain and your suffering. I want to encourage you that your suffering isn't meaningless, but it's meaningful. And that there is a day when all your tears and pain will be gone. The enduring joy that we can have in Jesus, we can have this enduring joy in Jesus because of the eternal hope that he gives his people. Salvation isn't just, hey, you're not going to be separated from God in a real place called hell. It is not just that. It's the fact that we have an eternal hope laid up for us in heaven, that we will one day be with him, and we will one day rule with Christ, and we will one day be in the new heavens and the new earth. We will one day just be with him as he rules the earth. That is awesome. So the hymn writer proclaims joy to the world the Lord has come, that's precisely what Jesus has brought to this world, isn't it? As we celebrate this Christmas season, as we celebrate Christmas with our friends, our families, when we look at that nativity scene, when we sing the songs, just know this, joy to the world, the Lord has come and Jesus has brought that joy. And this joy that we're talking about right now goes way past December 25th. It goes through year in and year out. It is the joy that you and me should always hold on to, no matter the trials and tribulations of life. Why? Because the sufferings of this world cannot even be compared to the joys that we will have in glory. Let me just say this. You, there are some people right now who are suffering. You might be suffering right now. And although your suffering is temporary, and although we know that there is a coming joy in being with Christ in glory, again, I want to encourage you that your suffering isn't meaningless. But I also want to encourage you this, don't root your joy in the circumstances that you're in. Hear me now, there is great joy in having Jesus as sovereign king who orchestrates our life in a way that is gonna be for our good and his glory and his purposes. And right now you might not be able to see what God is doing. But we just saw why we should have joy in the fact that he is ruling, that he is orchestrating our lives. It's because he's a good, good God. He's a good, good Savior. He's a good, good King. Rules of grace and truth. But also, root your joy in the coming of the Lord and the fact that you will be with the Lord one day. If he doesn't come in your lifetime, at the end of your race, You are gonna go to a place where there'll be no more pain, no more tears. There's gonna be joy abounding. You're gonna be in glory with Christ. And I wanna encourage you with this. Some of us may be thinking of people that we've lost. I say this, if they've repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are in glory. They're in a better place than where they were before. Our God is a loving God. and He works things out for our good, His purposes, and His glory. Hear me now, this joy that I'm talking about, this joy that the hymn writer's talking about, again, it goes past November 25th, it goes past 2024, this is a joy that does last for a lifetime. And it's a joy that isn't fleeting. This isn't a joy that is good for a little bit, and then goes away, but as a joy that will endure and it will last for eternity. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. He has saved us from our sins. He is ruling over us. And you and me have a hope that we could ever hold on to. How do we apply this to our lives today? Well, one, root your joy in Jesus. not your circumstances, not our circumstances. Let's root our joy in the comforting truth that He is the sovereign King of all and the Savior of the world, knowing that He has, He has it right now. Jesus is not wringing his hands. God is not wringing his hands, wondering what he's gonna do next. He has everything planned out. He knows what's gonna happen. He knows how everything's gonna work out. He is sovereign overall. Have confidence and joy in the fact that we have a king that's never gonna fail us, that everything's going according to his plan. But also, root your joy in the Savior of the world and the fact that even though you might, there are people here, They could look back in their lives and say, I've never had an easy time. I followed Christ faithfully. I've loved him. I've believed, I've repented. I've been faithful in my walk with Christ. And yet, maybe you've never had an easy time at life. Can I say this? That your faithfulness, your obedience has not gone unnoticed by God. And the reason why we can have joy that He's Savior of the world is because one day, even though we might not get the due rewards here on earth, there's heavenly rewards waiting up for you. So don't root your joy in your circumstances. Root your joy in Jesus. But also I want to give you this. Be like Jesus. and be a giver of joy to the ones that are broken, to the ones that are hopeless, to the ones hurting this Christmas season, even past this Christmas season. Love them as Jesus loves them. Serve them as Christ served others. Give to others as Christ gave to others. And if they are lost, give them the greatest gift of all, the gospel. Hear me now. Some of you might be saying, but I'm going through so much. Can I say this? Jesus was going through so much and yet he gave us the greatest joy of all. Didn't he? He brought joy to the world. There is never a time where it's going to be convenient for you to give joy to others. We are always going to be going through stuff. I'm going through stuff right now. We are all going through seasons. but that's no excuse for us not to be joy givers. Sometimes serving yourself is the predominant thought in our head, isn't it? I can't serve because I'm going through X, Y, and Z. We went through Philippians and Philippians, it showed us what Christian humility is. It is counting others as more important than yourself. Hear me now, I'm a pastor. And I get that it's my job, but there are times where I'm going through things and yet I know it's like, that doesn't exempt me from serving others. Hear me now, you might be going through some stuff, but others are more important than you. Others are more important than us. And what's the other thing? Be concerned about the wellbeing of others more than your own wellbeing. If we wallow in our self-pity in what we're going through, I'm not saying what you're going through is not tough, it's not rough, and I hope you have somebody to walk through that with you. But when we do that, we lose sight of what we should be doing, even as a church among ourselves. Why are we doing the baskets? Because those people need to be shown that they are loved and they're not forgotten. They need to be shown, hey, we see you, we love you. You're not forgotten. Jesus loves you. Let us show you love. That's why we're doing the baskets for the shut-ins. Because I love them, because you love them, because Jesus loves them. Be givers of joy this season, even if you're not going through a joyful time yourself. But also, I pray that there are people giving you joy in your life, despite what they're going through. Don't forget those who are suffering in the church. Love them, talk to them, comfort them, pray with them. Most of all, be with them. We need to be with each other. Remember the coming of the Lord. and the heavenly hope that we have waiting for us in glory. Let our source of enduring joy, let that be the source of our enduring joy as we go through the trials and tribulations of life, as we seek to do good to others, as we seek to love one another, knowing the fact that one day I'm gonna stand before God in glory with all joy. And lastly, if you're here today and you have not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I wanna ask you to come to Jesus and experience His everlasting joy that He gives. It's not a joy that's gonna deliver you from every pain in life, but it is a joy that will bring you through the pains of life. Hear me now, Jesus came to earth as a baby. As we see in that nativity scene, He came to earth as a baby. He lived a perfect life. He served, he loved, he took care of people. He chose to heal the outcasts and the downtrodden. But then his greatest work was this, when he went to the cross at Calvary. When he went on the cross of Calvary for you and for me. And when he was flogged, he was beaten, he was mocked, they ripped his beard, they casted lots for his clothes, they wrote, they put on a plaque there that said, King of the Jews, as a mockery toward him. But the greatest thing that he endured, the worst thing he endured was the wrath of God due for you and me. And when the father had to turn away, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? Jesus did all that for you. Jesus did all that for your salvation. Jesus did all that so you can be reconciled to the Father, so you can have a restored relationship with God. And I wanna encourage you here and now to experience the joy of that. And I want you to think about this. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. Come, repent of your sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. I'm gonna close this in a word of prayer, and Brother Jesse's gonna come and lead us in worship. We're gonna sing that song all the way through, but at any time during that song, if you want to come and give your life to Christ, you come on up. And if you want someone to pray with you, I'm gonna be right here, and we can pray together. But I don't want you to leave this place burdened with your troubles. Give it to Jesus, for he cares for you. And I don't want you to leave this place without Christ. I don't want you to leave this place without Jesus. Let us bow our heads and we'll pray.