Welcome to White Throne Baptist Church. I am Eric Newcomer, and today we're going to talk about how we can go from sorrow to joy. So we're going to join Jesus with the disciples on the night that Jesus was betrayed, taken to be crucified. We're looking at a passage of scripture that really runs from John chapter 13 through John chapter 17. And these are the words of Jesus, the last minute preparation for his disciples He was preparing them for the next few days. He was going to be tried and crucified and would be dead, gone for three days, but then would be resurrected. So he's preparing them for that short time in between his death and his resurrection. But many of the things he said also were preparing them for life after his ascension into heaven some 40 or 50 days later. and he was preparing them for that also. But in doing so, we find that he is also preparing us for the life in the here and now because we still live in that time after the ascension of Jesus Christ, continuing his ministry to spread the gospel through the world and awaiting his return. So we join the disciples in that situation and in that we can learn from these scriptures exactly the things that they learned. that helped them to carry the gospel to the world. Central to this passage that we're looking at, these chapters in John, is the idea of abiding in Jesus Christ. And when he speaks of abiding here, predominantly in chapter 15, he's talking about abiding in his love, abiding in his word, and most importantly, abiding in generally in him. And we see that this includes obedience to the Father, And this includes then asking the Father whatever we would need in Jesus' name, and the Father providing those things that we ask for. And so this abiding is a powerfully important and central concept to these chapters. And this is all done in the context of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. So God himself indwelling us, us abiding in Jesus Christ. And according to Jesus, in chapter 16, verse seven, he says this, he says, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Of course, he's speaking of the Holy Spirit, and so he's telling the disciples, it's to your advantage, which means that what Jesus was preparing them for and what our lives are today is actually advantageous as opposed to walking with him some three and a half years in personal ministry with Jesus, that this situation is somehow better. And indeed, the disciples went on to accomplish much more than they did while they were with Jesus after he had ascended. So last time we learned this, last time we learned that the Holy Spirit and his word will testify to the world through the church about the world's sin, righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the judgment to come upon the world. And this is key to doing ministry. But what we're going to see today is that by abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ, at any time, a believer can move from sorrow to joy in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has overcome the world. So let's take a look at our scriptures. We'll go there first, and we'll see what we can learn from our scriptures here. We're going to begin in chapter 16, verse 16, and we're going to read through verse 33. Jesus says to them, a little while and you will see me no longer, and again a little while and you will see me. So some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says to us, a little while and you will not see me, Again a little while and you will see me and because I'm going to the father So they were saying what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he's talking about Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him so he said to them is this what you're asking yourselves What I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me Truly truly I say to you you will weep and lament and the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day, you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father." His disciples said, ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God. Jesus said to them, do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace, and the world You will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So we see that very clearly in verse 16, Jesus right away begins to set expectations for his disciples by telling them what will happen. He says, you'll see me no longer, but then a little while and you will see me. And this seems obvious and straightforward to us because we know about the resurrection. We know what happens next. We have the rest of the story, so to speak. But it wasn't obvious to them because nowhere in their conception of the Messiah would they have him suffering and dying. And we cannot, from our perspective, unsee the resurrection. We can't deny that knowledge so that we can empathize with them and their difficulty and their distress. They're very distressed over these things and do not understand. And so they're speaking among themselves in verses 17 and 18 because they didn't understand what he meant by a little while and you won't see me and a little while you'll see me again. But at that point, maybe they were afraid to ask. Let me review for you. Back in chapter 13, verse 24, Simon Peter motions to John to ask Jesus who's going to betray him. And John asks Jesus who's going to betray you, and the questions start there. And in 1336, Peter says, Lord, where are you going when Jesus is talking about leaving? 1337, he kind of backs up that question again. Peter says, Lord, why can I not follow you? Then in chapter 14, Thomas says, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And then Philip says, Lord, show us the Father. It's enough for us. Later in chapter 14, Judas asked, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? And so they had many questions, and Jesus was answering the questions by telling them what was more important for them to know. all along the way, and we come to chapter 16, verse 5, Jesus says, none of you ask me where you are going. And some people point at that and say, ha, look, a contradiction, because Peter just asked him in chapter 13 where he was going. But if you understand the verb tenses and you look at the action as it takes place, after chapter 13, they left the place, actually after 14, and left, presumably left Jerusalem, going over to the Mount of Olives where they are now. And so some time has passed, maybe even hours has passed, and the way he says it in chapter 16, verse five, is much more like, you know, none of you are asking me. In other words, you're all done asking me where I'm going. And this is important. Jesus perceives that they want to know these things, whether they're ready to ask him or not. He understands they want to ask him. He knows what they're talking about. And he not only answers them, he gives them more. He tells them not only what's going to happen, but how they're going to feel about it. He says, you'll have sorrow and weeping and lamentation, but that sorrow would turn into joy. And this is a beautiful contrast with the world at the time, because when they have sorrow, the world is rejoicing. They're rejoicing that Jesus has been crucified. We talked about that some last time. But his great promise here is that the sorrow would turn into joy. And then he illustrates sorrow turning into joy in verses 21 and 22 with a beautiful illustration from real life, the illustration of a woman giving birth to a child. And it's when something joyful is coming, but there's this incredible pain leading up to it. And this is a powerfully important illustration because many of us can relate to it, not having gone through childbirth, but knowing what this experience is like. I've always theorized that there's an incredible amnesia that comes upon a woman after having a child that she would ever want to have another one because of the ordeal that they face, this tremendous pain and difficulty. But once that child is born, then those memories of the difficulty begin to fade. And this is what he's talking about. He's talking about that this is a necessary thing on the way to salvation, on the way to life, on the way to peace with God, on the way to joy. That path leads straight through the cross. And that's where Jesus was heading. He was heading for the cross. There was no detour. There was only one path. There was only one cup for Jesus to drink from the Father And it was this cup of suffering at the cross. And indeed, that's the only way for us to be saved, is for Jesus' great difficulty, but later, the joy. And as we're gonna see a little later on, that's exactly how we're saved. We're saved through difficulty and brought into joy. But for now, let's go back and look at a couple of these verses I want you to take a look at. Let's look at chapter 16, verse 28 here. A verse, he says, I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. This is a verse where he explains very plainly what's about to take place. And this is why he's talking about asking the Father and receiving what was asked. He's telling them, look, came from the Father, and to the Father I'm going back. And now everything in these chapters begins to make sense. This is why He's talking about asking the Father for things instead of Him. And this is why He's talking about sending another Comforter like Him. And this is why He's explaining that we must abide in Him and in His words because we'll no longer be with Him. And all of a sudden it starts to make sense. The emphasis moves in their ministry from literally following Him around to now abiding in His words, abiding in His love, in obedience to His commands, taking every advantage offered by the Holy Spirit, including and especially the Word of God that the Holy Spirit brings, asking the Father now directly for all that they need, since they do not have Jesus at their side to provide what they need. And indeed, that applies quite directly to us, that this is how we live in Christ, is abiding in Him and taking advantage of the Spirit and of the Word of God that the Spirit gives us. And so this is the Christian life in a nutshell, in these chapters. In verses 29 and 30, it's interesting that the fact that he asked them and answered, this actually increases their faith. They say, hey, we know you don't need us to ask you questions, because you actually know what we're thinking and what we want to ask. And so this is an encouragement to them that he answers this, and now they're understanding things much more plainly. But notice, in the last verses here, verses 31 and 32, it's not enough that the disciples believe that he came from the Father, that they believe he's Messiah. All the things that they believe at this point is not enough to prevent them from scattering. Jesus challenges them on this point. Oh, you think you believe? Well, the truth is the time is here when you'll be scattered and each one will go to his own home. And indeed, they do scatter and we find them after the crucifixion behind locked doors, hiding for fear that they might be next. And so, this promise from Jesus is that their sorrow, that is, the crucifixion of Jesus, all their dashed hopes that they might have had for themselves and for the world that could be found in the promises of the Christ, and Jesus telling them ahead of time, they're still not fully understanding, All this sorrow would be comforted after the resurrection, after remembering all that he had told them and said, and these things would begin to come together and they would see that this was, all this difficulty, part of God's glorious, victorious plan of salvation. Their sorrow, compounded by their abandonment, and that's a sorrow that we can't relate to, is that they were physically with him all this time. They were loyal to him, and they intended to even defend him to death, but they failed. They abandoned him, and that's an intense sorrow, probably chief among them. And think about Peter. Peter kind of stands up as the chief among the apostles there, the original 12. He's the one that's pointed out that denies him three times before even servants. And so his is probably the greatest pain of all. And there is a lesson there in that the leaders are often subject to even a greater discipline, a greater amount of suffering from the Lord in order to shape them into what they need to be. So I want to focus then on this pattern that we see in scripture. It's a pattern of sorrow to joy. Jesus mentions it here, and it's very real in the lives of the disciples, but I say it's very real in the lives of all believers in Jesus Christ. Let's go back to the scripture, and let's take a look at Matthew chapter five, some of Jesus' early teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, looking at chapter five, verse three. Look what he says here in pronouncing blessings among the people of God. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Well, that's a sorrowful thing. That's being poor in spirit. woe is me, I'm a sinful person, I have nothing to bring before God of value spiritually, but theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And in verse four, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And mourning what? Just mourning because they're sad, they lost a relative, something? No, in the context, this is clearly the mourning over sin and their unrighteousness and falling short of who God is. So they are poor in spirit and they mourn and therefore they are meek. They're meek, but they're going to inherit the earth. And this is the opposite of what we see on the earth. We're accustomed to the meek getting passed over and those who are bold and those who are prideful and confident, they're the ones who stroll to the front of the line and conquer from a worldly perspective. But Jesus here is talking about sorrow to joy. Look at verse six, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. I don't know about you, but when I am hungering and thirsting, I'm not a happy person. I can get a little grumpy or snippy. And this is a sorrow, this is a difficulty, this is a challenge to go from hungering and thirsting, but those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they're going to be satisfied. Those, in verse 10, who are persecuted for righteousness sake, theirs is the kingdom of heaven, which is where he started in verse three. And verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Many people would say that what follows the blessed in verse 11 is the exact opposite of a blessed life. But he says you're blessed when they do that on my account, and this is in Christ, this is not a promise for non-believers or other religions or anyone else. This is for the followers of Christ. He says in verse 12, rejoice, and that's related to the same word we've been looking at for joy. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So the prophets before him were persecuted. Where are they now? They're in the presence of God, realizing all the promises of God. This is a pattern in scripture from sorrow to joy, a movement of things continually in the people of God from sorrow to joy. Kingdom people are moved by God from sorrow into joy. And you think about this in terms of your salvation. How is it that someone is saved? Well, someone is saved by faith in Jesus Christ and it always finds its very first expression in repentance. We're told by the Bible to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And this repentance is a sorrowful thing. It's a conviction of sins. It is an agreement with God. God, you're right, I'm a sinner, and I deserve all the wrath that you're going to pour out on me. I deserve every bit of it. I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to sin against you. Not because of the result, but because it is wrong. That's repentance, and that is a sorrow. But what comes from that forgiveness of sins, the greatest joy and freedom that a human being can experience, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. This is true in not only the salvation of a believer, but in the service of a believer, because we serve in this life, we sacrifice and give in this life, we die to our own desires, we embrace the desires of Christ, and then we spend an eternity in joy with Christ. And you see the suffering to joy pattern in Scripture in the saints of old. You see it in people like David who suffered being persecuted as the king to be by King Saul and then ultimately enters into that king and has a great time as king. We see it in the life of Joseph whose brothers betrayed him and And even though he'd had these dreams and knew that things would be great one day, he was sold into slavery and he was treated poorly in Egypt. But then he rose to power in Egypt and he was able to save not only many in the world, but his own family. And you think about the people of Israel, that they were in bondage in the place of Egypt and they were in slavery and they cried out to God and they experienced the great exodus of the people and the conquest of the promised land. And so suffering to glory is in this sorrow to joy is a pattern in scripture. And this is expressed also in terms of suffering to glory. If you look in Luke chapter 24, Jesus comes alongside some disciples. After his resurrection, he hid his identity from them at the first. He finds him sorrowful because he had been crucified. They had heard about the resurrection, didn't believe it yet. And he comes alongside him and he says to them, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then he went through all of scripture and he gave him a great Bible study that day, walk into the town of Emmaus, gave him a Bible study showing them that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer before being glorified. We see this pattern in the New Testament expressed by Paul in Romans 8, my favorite chapter. I know I shouldn't have a favorite, but that's a pretty incredible chapter. In applying the gospel, after he's explained the gospel in the first chapters of that book, he is applying the gospel and he says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us or to us. He understood the suffering to glory personally as well. In Ephesians chapter three, which he wrote from prison, he says to the Ephesian church, he says, I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory, that his suffering somehow meant glory to them. And he summarizes the Christian life in terms of suffering to glory. He talks about dying with Christ and suffering with Christ so that we can reign with him enjoy His resurrection and have this victorious glory in this life and in the next with Him. Peter recognized this too. In 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 13, he speaks about this much in chapters 4 and 5 of 1 Peter. He says, Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. And we see this in Peter in the book of Acts because They get persecuted for sharing the gospel, persecuted by the very same people that crucified Jesus, and their response is to rejoice for being counted worthy of suffering for Jesus Christ. And then we go back to the scriptures that we've been taking a look at here, and we see a striking parallel between the sorrow and the joy the suffering to the glory, the tribulation to the overcoming. Look in 1620 here where he says, your sorrow will be turned into joy. And I'm gonna highlight that word because it's so important. And then we see down here in verse 28 now, he says, I came from the father and have come into the world and now I'm leaving the world and going to the father. He was in the world and he went to the father and that's very important but look at this again now we go to verse 33 he says I have said these things to you that in me in me you may have peace in the world you will have tribulation but take heart I have overcome so in the world is tribulation but in him he has overcome and in him is peace and in him is joy This is the pattern of scripture, this sorrow to joy, suffering to glory, being in the world, being with Jesus Christ. Back there in chapter 14, he began by saying, let not your hearts be troubled. I go to prepare a place. I'm going to take you to be there with me. And I wouldn't have told you if it weren't true. And so this is how we live our lives in this pattern. And I want to point to some evidence for you, too. This is the pattern that God has worked into the very fabric of our universe, into the fabric of our reality, that this is a true principle in life. If you look at the need to exercise in order to become physically fit and enjoy the benefits of it, the need to work out, to exercise, to exert yourself in order to become a great athlete or in order to become stronger or faster, or more effective at your vocation. These things are all true. We also see it in the world of finance. In finance, they call it the principle of delayed gratification. In other words, I'm going to forego some good things now, and I'm going to suffer saving and toiling and working to have greater benefit later. And indeed, in the financial world, the temporary loss, the temporary difficulty, always yields a longer-term, larger benefit. This is a powerful pattern to understand. Self-discipline, the struggle of self-discipline, the struggle of training yourself, has its result in a greater freedom. If you are practicing any kind of art, you will have the result of that practice to be great freedom, in expressing yourself through that art. To master the skills takes time and endurance and difficulty, but the mastery of skills brings forth the fruit of a joyful time, enjoying that art, and indeed sharing that joy with many others. Sorrow to joy, tribulation in this world, but Jesus has overcome it. So the question becomes then, how do we experience that joy? How do we taste it right now, even in the midst of our great difficulties that we face in life? The key is the central focus of abiding in Jesus Christ. Here is our big idea for the day. At any time, a believer can move from sorrow to joy by abiding in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has overcome the world. And so in this world we have sorrow, but in Christ we have joy. We are still in this world in tribulation, but we are not of this world. Our home is in Christ. We shall abide in Christ. We are still immersed in the world of difficulty and challenges, but it's only temporary. We still get sick. We still grow old. We still die, but we will be resurrected. We still sin, but it's not our destiny. The promise of the Bible is that if we confess those sins, He is faithful and just not only to forgive us, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, the sorrow of confessing sins to the joy of being cleansed in Jesus Christ. And we know all these things to be true, but we have trouble focusing on them in the moment of tribulation, in the moment of difficulty, going through our daily routines and the grind of daily life. So the question has to become, how do we keep our focus on the joy? How do we overcome the world as Christ overcome the world? By abiding in Him. Much of our current distress that we face as human beings is by having our focus on the world. When we shift our focus to Jesus Christ by abiding in Him, and in His Word, and in His love, and in the fellowship of His people, when we obey His commands, when we take advantage of the Holy Spirit's ministry of the Word to us, to learn and study and meditate upon the Word of God, when we go to the Lord in prayer, when we abide in Him, we shift our focus to Jesus Christ, the Overcomer, I want to follow the joy in Christ, and I want to follow it through the passage that we've taken a look at. Let's go back here, and let's look at a few of these. John 15-11, I've highlighted the word joy here, and he says, and this is right after he speaks of abiding in him like a branch in a vine, he says, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Well, what kind of joy did Jesus have? He had a joy that was so great that He endured the cross for us. Because it was for the joy set before Him that He endured the pain of the cross and the wrath of God being put on Him. His joy, that joy, can be in us and that joy can be full if we abide in Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to show us in 1620, you know, truly I say to you, you'll weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. And then when we follow joy on down the line in chapter 16, verse 28, we see this, I came from the father. Now I'm leaving the world and going to the father. This great joy is coming. I want to back up to verse 24, actually. He says, until now you've asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. Let me put this together for you in a moment here. Let me show you what this means. We look over here, I've talked about abiding. Abiding, according to the passage that we're studying here in chapters 15 and 16, Particularly, abiding in Jesus Christ includes being obedient to Jesus Christ. It includes God's words, because he said, my word shall abide in you. It includes love, both being loved by God, but also loving one another in the context of his church. That's why he commands right in the middle of all this, at the end of chapter 15, I'm telling you to love one another and then wrapped up in this is the idea of asking the father and receiving from the father back to the scripture look at this he says ask and you will receive that your joy may be full you are not abiding in Jesus Christ if you're not asking the father for things in his name and when you ask the father things in the name of Jesus Christ, you will receive it. Because remember, asking in his name means asking according to his will. Well, how do I know his will? Abide in him, you'll figure out his will. And you'll receive it, and your joy will be full. And so take a look at this. Abiding includes obedience, and God's word, and love, and asking, and receiving, and this abiding brings joy. What an incredible promise we have from Jesus Christ, this promise of joy. And I'll remind you that joy is not like happiness. Happiness tends to be based upon circumstances and emotion. Joy is based upon the person of Jesus Christ. He says, my joy is gonna be in you. That's gonna be the fullness of joy I put in you. None other than the joy of facing the worst and looking forward to the best. This is abiding. in Jesus Christ. So become an abiding believer. That's my appeal to you today. Become one that abides in Jesus Christ. That word means to dwell there. Make Him your living place and the workplace and the home and the marketplace and the world becomes places you visit. Your abiding place and a place to which you return and you rest your head and you get your energy and you take your meals is in Jesus Christ. Abide in Jesus Christ. And together, become an abiding church. Become an abiding church. In other words, we are to abide together. Everything he commands in this entire passage is in the plural. Y'all. Y'all must abide in me. And I in you and you will bear much fruit. This is done Corporately yes, also individually, but most importantly together as believers in Jesus Christ Abide together in him and I invite you to become an abiding Church, and I know everybody's got some kind of plan out there for church growth or some kind of way mission statement to focus the church and everything else and they'll say well, we're an inviting church, or we're a discipling church, or we're a you know, we're a relevant church, you know, and people use all these different terms. And I know they're well-intentioned and they're trying to bring the congregation into focus around a central mission, which is the gospel. But first, before all those other things, become an abiding church. And what that looks like is this. When someone is abiding in Christ, a group is abiding in Christ, it means our response to every stressor, to every challenge, to every societal earthquake, to the riots that we're having, to the stressed race relations we have, to the disrupted economy that we have, and the health concerns we have with the coronavirus and just everyday concerns, all these things, our response should be to abide in Jesus Christ, to go first to him, and to abide in him, and take things to the Father in prayer, And the reason is because he has overcome these things. And we go to him not just for therapy, not just to feel better. He's not that place we retreat to, to numb our minds, to distract us from the concerns of the world. No, he's the place we go to also for real solutions, for equipping to be prepared to turn around to that stress, and turbulent world with the real solution of the gospel in Jesus Christ and to have the boldness then to share that solution. We must study the word of God and we must abide in Christ in order to confront the difficulties of the world. Right now, the lack of answers of the church to all the turmoil that's going on in the world is grievous to me and I believe grievous to God as well. It's insulting to the church that we do not have an answer for the difficulties that are facing us and so we need to abide in Jesus Christ to be the answer to all the difficulties that the world faces. Well, another way to do that is prayer. We'll have prayer now. My invitation to you this day is to abide in Jesus Christ Let's pray. Father God, we praise you this day. We thank you so much of all that you've provided in the person of Christ and help us sort it out and get it straight in our mind today. You've promised, Lord, that we can abide in you, that we can make your dwelling place, that we can abide in Jesus Christ and in his love and his word abide in us and the Holy Spirit dwell in us. so that we can be comforted and that we can be equipped and that we can be powerful to do your will and to do your work in this world. I pray this day, Lord, for myself, for all who are listening, for our churches, Lord, I pray that you will help us to abide in you and help us, Lord, to come together to exercise abiding in you. Help us to be intentional about this Help us to make you our default, that no matter what situation we face, our reaction, our instinct, our reflex is to turn to you. Make us those people whose reflex is abiding. And you'll be greatly glorified, I believe, in your people and in this world. Make yourself known to many through this. Make yourself known by your people abiding in you, and by experiencing the joy that you have promised here. Indeed, in the world we have tribulation, but in you we have peace, and we have joy, and we have beauty in the person of Jesus Christ. Take us to that place this day, and make yourself known to us even more. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I hope you've enjoyed our time together. I certainly have, and I invite you to find out more. If you're not already connected to a church, please get with somebody. You can contact us here, and our goal is not to simply bring you into the fold here. Indeed, if you're at a distance from us, that's just not practical. You need to be engaged with people in your locality and in being people of Christ. And so my invitation to you is to contact us. We can help you evaluate and find a Bible-believing church near you. And we can also help answer your questions in the short term. If you have any questions whatsoever about this or other topics, please email us at whitesrunbaptist at gmail.com. That's whitesrunbaptist at gmail.com. We will answer that personally. You will not be put on a mailing list for things you don't want. and you will receive personal attention and real answers from the Word of God. You can also find out more and you can find notes that accompany this sermon at whitesrun.org. Simply look for the blog page there and the title of this sermon, From Sorrow to Joy. God bless you and may you abide in Jesus Christ.