I know you don't care, but it feels good to me to be back here in this pulpit again. And I'm told that I am to stay very close behind the pulpit as I preach. We'll see how that goes. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. That phrase is found in those exact words four times in the Bible. So it must be important. And what it's really saying to us is great is the Lord and greatly to be worshiped. And that's what I plan to do in these next minutes. I'm going to be worshiping God over the text of the Bible verses we're looking at today. Even as I preach this message, I'm gonna be worshiping God and I invite you, I encourage you to worship God also. As you hear His word proclaimed, as you see the words on the page, while I'm preaching, be worshiping in your soul. Listen, yes. Engage, yes. Take notes if you wish, yes. But while you're doing all that, worship God because I promise you, you're gonna see things in this Bible text that show God to be extraordinarily worship worthy. So let me pray for us real quick and then we'll turn to the scriptures. Lord, I bless you for the worship we've already given you in this room in the last few minutes. I trust that most of us have worshiped you earlier this morning in our own homes over the word. I thank you that we still have in our country the freedom to do what we're doing right now. But oh Holy Spirit, would you move among us, move in us, move upon us now and help us to see Christ and to truly be worshipful and honor you. And may what I do by your spirit glorify you. And may we, your people, take divine delight in being your people, amen. I want you to listen to these words from the apostle Peter. They're not in our primary text for this morning, but they are pertinent to what we're doing here today. Peter is already 11 verses into what we call the second letter. And he says some very powerful and important things. And then he says this, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them. And that's the way I feel about this message. I'm gonna speak this morning on some things that most of you here already know, but it's good for us to be reminded of them. especially the basics about God's character and nature. We should never get beyond the basics, amen? And when we hear things about God that are true, even though we've known them for decades, it should always thrill us and move us and gratify us. So that said, I wanna ask you to turn in your Bible or scroll in your Bible to Psalm number 42. And I'm gonna be preaching this morning from the ESV. I don't usually do that, but I remembered that y'all have the ESV and the Pew Bible here, and I was falsely assuming that Pastor Mike probably preached from that. I found out late yesterday. He normally preaches from the New King James. He and I are the only two people in this state, I think, who still use that version. But I'll be making some references to that translation. Several quick preliminaries before we dive into the verses. Some Bible interpreters believe that Psalms 42 and 43 originally went together. They were one psalm, and later they were broken in two, and others say no. I'm not gonna delve into all that today. I want you to notice the words right above verse one. They are actually part of the Bible text. It says in the ESV, to the choir master, a miscal of the sons of Korah. Mentioning the sons of Korah there makes some people think, oh, they, one of them or some of them wrote this psalm. And others say, no, no, they didn't write it. It was just for them because they were leaders in worship and they often use this psalm as they led the people in worship. But it was written by somebody else. In fact, Charles Spurgeon is emphatic. He believes it's a Davidic psalm. I'm not gonna explore that anymore today. I just wanted you to be aware of that. And in this section, these two Psalms, there is way more than we have time to talk about today. But what I'm gonna focus on is things about God, His character, His nature, His moving in the life of the Psalmist and the life of us, things that describe God. And I won't even get to all of that in the time that we have this morning, I wanna encourage you, these two Psalms are worth your taking more time and my taking more time to explore the days ahead. Maybe this afternoon you wanna reread them. Today's sermon title is, Seven Glorious Realities About God. There's no sermon outline today. I usually use a sermon outline. I'm not gonna do that. Before we get to the seven things, I probably could have put 10. I put seven because, you know, that's a good number. And after I picked seven, I thought, but I can't go without saying these other things. So I'm just gonna mention several other things that aren't on the list of seven, and I won't go into them deeply, but I just couldn't skip over them. I want you to note in Psalm 42, the first part of verse eight, it says, by day, the Lord commands his steadfast love. The word translated there is the Greek word hesed. It's often translated in other NAS, I think always uses loving kindness. Most of the time the King James used the word mercy. I like that better. But I want you to notice two things about that. He has steadfast love and he commands it. He directs it to whom he wills. An old guy named Henry March said that this commanding of God of His mercy is a royal donative. I love that phrase. It is a royal donative. He's donating to us His mercy. He commands it, this loving kindness. And then I want you to look at the first verse of Psalm 43. He says, Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. From the deceitful and unjust man, deliver me. Now, that tells us a little about his condition, but notice he's asking God and believes God will vindicate him and defend his cause, or plead my cause, and deliver me. I want you to know that the sovereign God can still do and still does all three of those things today. He vindicates. and he defends and he delivers. Another God particular that's not on this morning's list of seven is in verse three of Psalm 43. Send out your light and your truth and let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Notice that God sends out his light and truth to lead us. God's word is his light and truth and it leads us. God's son is his light and truth, and he saves us. Blessed be God for sending us his son and his word. Now, one other preliminary perspective, and then we really are gonna get to these list of seven things. As I preach through these verses, it's quite likely that I will become animated in my preaching. Those of you, the one that just chuckled and some others may remember that, especially when I'm preaching about God and his character and his nature, my affections well within me and I start to move and I've been known to leap and who knows what. And there may be somebody here this morning who may be thinking as we go along, Well, Mr. Visiting Preacher, it's real good that all these things are true in your life. And I guess things are going just swimmingly for you nowadays. But as for me, I'm in a hard place. And I'm not sure I can be expected to be as positive about these things as you seem to be. Well, I just want you to know that the author here that wrote these Psalms is in a hard place. and yet he looked to God in faith and he clung to his God and these truths, even in the hard place, and that will be good for us to do. Remember these things about, it doesn't make your hard things go away, it doesn't mean you ignore them, but it helps keep things in a right balance to remember. These are important things. Go back to Psalm 42, look at the end of verse nine. He says, why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? In the beginning of verse 10, he says, with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taught me. This guy had real enemies, they were pressing in on his life. And then back to verse one of Psalm 43, vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against, listen to this, ungodly people, deceitful and unjust men. These are the kind of people that were all around him and they were oppressing him. So hard was his situation when he wrote these Psalms and expresses it this way in the first part of verse three. I'm back in Psalm 42 now. My tears have been my food day and night. Look at the first part of verse five. Why are you cast down on my soul and why are you in turmoil within me? That lament of verse five is repeated in verse 11 and in verse five of Psalm 43. So you just feel like I gotta express this. And then he says in the first part of verse nine of Psalm 42, he says, I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? And then in verse two of Psalm 43, about the second line, he says, why have you rejected me? Well, the reality was God had not forgotten him. God had not rejected him, but he felt that way. His circumstances, his situations made him feel like God was not near. For all I know, there may be somebody in this room right now, for you, you feel like God is far off. I know he's real and I trust him as my God, but just not close. I'm struggling with hurtful things and unsure things. And I want to encourage you, do what this psalmist did. Preach these truths of God to yourself. Remind yourself of these things. Proclaim positive God truths. And this psalmist, thank the Lord, wrote them down. And God preserved them for us so that we can benefit from them. And I just tell you that when we are discouraged or perplexed and remind ourselves of the goodness of God, it can refresh us and give us help and give us hope. It's very practical to do that. Okay, I don't know if you're ready. I am now at last with this list of seven glorious realities about God. All right, here's number one on our list. He is the only true God. He is the only true God. In the 16 verses of these two Psalms, the name God is stated 21 times. That's a pretty God-centric text. And I want you to notice with me in the first part of verse 8 of Psalm 42, The name LORD, all caps, L-O-R-D. That's the Hebrew name Yahweh. You guys know that, you've been taught well, you're familiar with that. The name first appears in Genesis 2, 4. This is the God, of course, who has always existed. He's the God who spoke the world into existence. And as we learn from Hebrews 1.3, this is the God who is upholding all things in the universe by his power. This is the God who is self-identified in chapter three of Exodus to Moses as I am who I am. Don't you love that? Moses said, hey, what if the people ask me who sent me? What do I tell them? Guys, you tell them, I am that I am. That says a lot. This is a God who said, God speaking, this is Isaiah 45, five and six. I am Yahweh, and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. There is none besides me, I am Yahweh and there is no other, which means at any point in history, anyone else, anything else called to God, worshiped as a God, claiming to be a God is a false God. Because there's only one living and true God, and it's God of the Bible, the thrice holy three-person God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He alone is God, amen? By the way, I don't know if y'all are used to that, but it's okay if you wanna say amen out loud, it helps me to preach better. I don't know about the rest of you, but the clarity of knowing that there's really only one true God helps me a lot. If I thought there were some other real gods, maybe they weren't quite as good, I might be thinking, yeah, but for my personality and my situation, maybe one of the other gods is, no, you don't have to worry about any of that. There is only one true and living God. Now, just to heap on a little bit, about him being the true God. I want you to see what else is so about this one God. Flip over, if you will, for a moment to Psalm 47. And look in verse two there. It says, for the Lord, look at this, the most high is to be feared. He is a great king over all the earth. So now he's not only the God and the true God, but he's the great God, the great King over all the earth. He is the Most High God and he's to be feared. The New King James translates that the Lord Most High is awesome. And I know that word is prostituted a lot today and everybody, hey, awesome, man. But in the truest sense of the word, God is really awesome. Awesome God. And then still in Psalm 47, look at verse eight. It says, God reigns over the nations. God sits on His holy throne. God reigns over all the nations, even the ones that don't acknowledge Him. Whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, whether they want it or not, Yahweh reigns over all the earth. He is the great King. Listen guys, all of that is glorious reality about the one God, the one God worth knowing and remembering and resting in. Second thing on our list this morning, this one God is the living God. Now we're back in Psalm 42 now. I want you to see that in verse two. Psalmist says, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. the living God. I know this is obvious and you've all heard it before, but have you ever noticed that all the other gods, except maybe for the God of self, all the other gods are dead? They either never existed, or if there were some human that was called a God, like Muhammad, they're now dead. They had a shelf life here on earth. But the living God is forever living. When we speak of the eternality of God, it means there never was a time when He was not and there never will be a time when He is not. And He's always the same in all those times. The Bible says it this way in Psalm 90 verse two, before the mountains were brought forth and before you ever formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Thank you Lord for being everlasting. And the apostle Paul said it this way at first Thessalonians 1.9, he describes him as the living and true God. And something important about Him being the living God is this, that He can do currently active things on our behalf. He can hear and answer our prayers, and He does so every day. He can be for us our protector and our provider, and He is ongoingly and consistently. Because He's the living God, He can teach us truth, and He does. Because He's the living God, He can cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we confess our sins. And He can bless our socks off with wonderful, magnitudinous blessings and provisions. Aren't you glad God is the living God? He's not just way off and up there. Are you worshiping with me yet? I am, I'm having a good time. Now, these first two things that we mentioned about His being the only God and the living God, those are ways God is just because He is who He is. Even people who don't acknowledge Him, that doesn't change that He is the living and true God. But the next five things we're gonna look at is God in action exclusively for those who trust in his son, Jesus Christ. Persons who are not spiritually reborn will not experience these other realities about God. And so I just wanna say very quickly because I don't know all of you and I don't know where you are with the Lord. If you are not trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation, If you have not been given the spiritual rebirth by God's grace through faith, or if you're not sure, I want to encourage you, because it's so important for your now and for your eternity, call out to God. Confess your sins to Him. Ask Him to give you the faith to believe in His Son, Jesus. Ask Him to give you the ability to turn from your sinful, self-fulfilling ways, trying to run your own life, and turn to Christ to follow Him in loving obedience. If you don't, not only will your life here not be fulfilled, but there's a horrible eternity awaiting for you in a very real place called hell. But for all those who love Jesus, there's heaven with Him forever. And so I desire and the shepherds of this church desire that every one of us be people who love Jesus and have our faith in Him and are born again. So if you're not, call on Him, will you? We're still working on our list of seven glorious realities about God from these two Psalms. Here's the next one. It's at the end of verse eight in Psalm 42, the author uses the words, a prayer to the God of my life. The God of my life, that's number three on my list. He is the God of my life. The one before that, that he's the living God, that's true, believe it or not. But this one, with the divine possessive, my God, that can only be said by people who've been spiritually reborn. those whom God has bought with the price of Christ's blood. And I love the phrasing that the Apostle Paul uses in Colossians 3, 4, when Christ, who is our life, appears. The literal Greek there is Christ, the life of us. Now, we all, Talk about living, we know that human beings who are breathing are alive in the sense of physical life. But in the spiritual sense, there's life, real life, only for those who trust Jesus as Savior and Lord. And Jesus himself said, I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly, John 10, 10. Is that kind of life for everybody? Abundant life? No, it's for those who trust him. That's why John wrote, John 20, 31, these things I have written that you might believe in Jesus as the Christ, the son of God. And by believing, you may have life in his name. So we get this spiritual abundant life by believing in Christ. And John in 1 John 5, 12 makes it, Really, emphatically clear in contrast, he says, whoever has the Son has life, but who does not have the Son does not have life. It's one or the other. But on the positive side, I want you to hear this and glory in it. He who has the Son has life, abundant life here and eternal life there forever. This is glorious truth. And those who are trusting Christ can rightly say, and humbly say, and confidently say, and delightedly say, He is the God of my life. Oh, bless Him that He gives us that privilege. And if that's the reality for you, you ought to be rejoicing in Him every day. You ought to be thanking Him every day. Never get tired of saying, God, thank you for saving my soul. He never gets tired of hearing it. All right, here's our fourth glorious reality. In Psalm 42, the first part of verse nine, the psalmist says, I say to God, my rock. That's number four. God is our rock. God is our rock. The idea of rock brings to our minds the idea of strength and stability. I grew up hearing the old folks say about somebody, he's as steady as a rock of Gibraltar. Yeah, well, guess what? The one who made the rock of Gibraltar is infinitely more steady and unwaveringly steady. Now, just a little bit of biblical elaboration on this rock concept. Just listen to these two verses, Psalm 18, two. The Lord is my rock. Fortress of my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge. Twice in one verse, God, my rock. Psalm 92, 15. The Lord is upright. He is my rock. And there's no unrighteousness in him. And then in the New Testament, a passage from 1 Corinthians. making reference, Paul is, to Old Testament Israel as God brought them out of Egypt. And Paul wrote this, I love this. They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Christ is our rock. And so we believers can sing with joy that familiar old hymn by Edward Mote, The Solid Rock, the refrain of which is, On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Christ is a solid rock. Aren't you glad you know Christ? Is He your rock? Are you worshiping God yet? I am. These truths, not because of the way I'm preaching them, but these truths ought to make you be swelling in your soul. God, you're really good. You're wonderful. You're so glorious. All right, here's another one. This is number five on our list, back in Psalm 43 now. I'm taking this from first part of verse two, and it's gonna depend on your translation, and I'll explain that in a minute. ESV says, for you are the God in whom I take refuge. The CSB also has it there, God, my refuge. The NIV uses the word stronghold. The old dead German Delitzsch has it, God, my fortress. But the King James Version is old and new and the NAS and the LSB render that phrase, you are the God of my strength, the God of my strength. And there's something about the Hebrew word there that indicates strength, whether it be the idea of ability or in the sense of a strong place, a place of protection and safety. So I'm calling number five on our list. God is our strength, our refuge. And I don't have the capability or the time to explain to you which is the better rendering. Others can help you with that at another time if you're interested. But what we do know is in multiple places, the Bible points to God as being the refuge, the place of fortress for those who love Him. and as God being our strength for all who call on Him in righteousness. In fact, just this morning, let me read this to you. I found this, I was reading Psalm 68 as my psalm for the day. And the last verse of that psalm says, awesome is God from His sanctuary, the God of Israel. He is the one who gives power and strength to His people. And then the psalmist writes, blessed be God. I agree with him, amen. Blessed be God who gives us strength. When it comes to living the Christian life, God expects us to put in some effort, right? You know that. We're not to be passive and just say, okay, God, if you wanna do something in me, go ahead. No, not that way. We have texts like Hebrews 12, 14 that tell us to Pursue holiness or strive for holiness. And 1 Timothy 4, 7, exercise yourself. Gunatze, discipline yourself to godliness. So yeah, we have work to do, but we should be instructed and reminded. by this ministry perspective that the Apostle Paul gives us at Colossians 129, listen to it. Paul says, to this end I also labor, striving according to his working which works in me mightily. Did you hear it? I strive, I labor, I put forth exertion, but with God's strength which he works in me mightily. And that's the way we must live. in God's strength, not trying to hack it out on our own, and praise God, he always gives us strength for everything in life, amen? Now, many of the Bible interpreters from way back, because they mostly used King James, they took this phrase to refer mainly to the strength. I like this insight from Matthew Henry. He says, thou art my God, my strength. My God from whom all of my strength is derived. God in whom I strengthen myself and without whom I am weak as water and utterly unable to do anything for Thee. Oh, that we would all remember that at all times. I know we would never say this, we're too sophisticated, but sometimes we act like I got this, I got this from the Lord. I can handle this by myself. Don't do that. Don't do that. Why be foolish when God gives us strength? And also, remember that God is our stronghold, our fortress. As David reminds us in Psalm 61 3, you have been my refuge, my strong tower against the enemy. And speaking of God being a tower, Proverbs 18.10 tells us the name of Yahweh is a strong tower and the righteous runs into it and is safe. So thank God He is a strong tower. Run into Him and be safe. So I just want us to rejoice and take advantage of this glorious reality that God is our strength, God is our refuge. Take refuge in Him and live by the strength that He supplies. Our sixth glorious reality, I wanna take note of this morning. It's found three times in these two Psalms. This is another one that has a little different wording and I'll try to explain that, but it's repeated almost word for word. It's Psalm 42.5 and 42.11 and 43.5. I'm gonna read it right now because I'm on this page. Verse five of Psalm 43, this is how the ESV reads it. Why are you cast down, my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. My salvation and my God. And I wanna focus at the end there where the ESV identifies Him as my salvation. But the King James and the old German Delitzsch and the NAS have a quite different rendering there. They say, God, who is the help of my countenance and my God. Now, why does some say the help of my countenance and another one says my salvation? What's up with that? What does that, what in the world does that mean, the help of my countenance? The linguistic sources that I checked say that the literal rendering of the Hebrew there does have in it the word face or countenance. In fact, the ESV margin note says, the salvation of my face. So the old-timey commentators focus a lot about the idea of the psalmist's face as countenance, maybe saying that he could even I have a smile on his face in the hard times. He has a cheerful countenance because God is for him. And I believe that we who have a relationship with God through Christ, we have every reason to have a bright and hopeful countenance, don't we? I got some bad news, I know, but God is still your God. But I think at the end of this verse, the emphasis perhaps better focused on the divine action of God's help, his salvation. And I know contemporary folk, when we hear the word salvation, we immediately run to the idea of, oh, you mean saving my soul from hell. And that's of course very important. But oftentimes in the Old Testament, the concept of salvation had to do with rescue. or deliverance from some hard thing. It has a sense of God helping and supporting and comforting those who trusted in Him. So I want us to remember again that the author of these two Psalms we're looking at, he was in some difficult circumstances. He speaks of these ungodly people, these deceitful and unjust men from whom he needed to be delivered End of verse one, chapter, Psalm 43, from the deceitful and unjust man, deliver me, save me from them, help me, deliver me from them. And these pressures, remember, it so stressed him that he says at the beginning of this verse and the other two quotes, why are you cast down, my soul? You're in turmoil within me. So these outside pressures that are causing him this internal turmoil is from what he needs God's help, God's deliverance, and God's salvation. As I was meditating on this verse, Psalm 43, five, and this portion of the sermon, another familiar verse came to my mind. It's from Psalm 46, one. God is our refuge. and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble. The New American Standard translation gives a little different rendering of that in the margin. It says, God is abundantly available for help in the time of trouble. Do you like that? That's our God. ever present help and abundantly available for help. I love that is. It's true that he's abundantly available to help us. He has unlimited resources for the help of us. And he is very present to be our help and our comfort and our deliver when we need him. What a God, what a God. Have you ever been despondent? If you've ever been unsettled about something, if you've ever been to the point of turmoil in your soul, well then heed this psalmist's counsel. Hope in God, He is our help. I don't know what your situation is, but hope in God, He is your help. And this is the same God who says in Psalm 50 verse 15, Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. And you shall glorify me. Don't forget that part. When he's your help, when he's delivered, don't forget to glorify him. Are you worshiping yet? I don't know what's going on inside of y'all, not much coming out, but I hope you're worshiping God in your soul. These are glorious God truths for all believers. Let yourself be worshipful. In fact, these truths about God and all the other biblically revealed realities about God should cause we believers to recognize Him as our joy. God, our joy. In fact, God, our exceeding joy. That's the seventh glorious reality about God for our focus this morning. And I lift it straight from the Psalm. Psalm 43 verse four, he says, then I will go to the altar of God to God, my exceeding joy. That's number seven on our list. God, my exceeding joy. I just love thinking about the joy that God has for those who are in Christ. I love preaching sermons on the joy text. I've preached entire sermons before about the joy that God gives. You'd be surprised how many are the biblical injunctions to joy in God's word. I'm also aware that maybe somebody in the room right now I was thinking, Mr. Visiting Preacher, if you knew what was going on in my life right now, if you knew the situation that was facing me tomorrow or next week or next month, you'd know it's kind of hard for me to get excited about these joy texts and all this rejoicing talk. I get that. I've been there more than once, but we need to remember that our truest joy comes not from our circumstances being pleasant, but from our God being God and being God for us. That's where the joy is, brothers and sisters, who God is and who he is on our behalf. And so in light of that, I want you to think again on these realities. God is, he is the living and true God. The only God, He is the eternally living God. And for those of us who are trusting Him as Savior, we can say He is the God of our life. He is God, our rock, our strength, our stability, our refuge, our stronghold, our protection. He is our help, He is our deliverer. All that is plenty enough reason for us to be rejoicing, amen? because of who God is. He should be our exceeding joy. Situations change. God never changes. He is always and eternally all of these ways. Now let me ask you a question. Do all those things about God seem real to you? Are these glorious God realities? I've plucked them right out of the scripture. You look down, you saw them. Are they functional, practical realities in your daily life? Especially maybe this thing about joy. I didn't look at my watch when I started preaching. Does it matter? I'm almost done. Is that okay? Okay. I have no greater joy than the Lord God. But on earth, nobody gives me more joy than my wife, Janice. And whoever after her is not even close. I think there's all kinds of reasons why God gives me joy in her. partly because he has made us one in marriage, partly because she's wonderful, she's intelligent, she's beautiful, she helps me, she guides me, sometimes even keeps me out of trouble, but she's just a joy to be around. And since we, in the last several years, both of us no longer have full-time vocational employment outside the home, I get to spend a lot more time with her than I used to. And all the time I spend with her is a joy, just a joy to be with her and to be around her and listen to her say spiritual things and intelligent things and funny things. She gives me more joy than any person on earth. And it makes me wonder, I wonder if maybe, just maybe some believers don't personally experience day by day God being there exceedingly great joy. It's because they just don't spend enough time with him. Not as much as they could, not as much as they should. I believe that God not only has made it possible, I believe God wants us as believers to experience constant joy, constant joy. And if for some folk, God seems far off, if God seems more theological than joyful, maybe, just maybe, if they spent more time with Him and got to know Him better, and fellowship with him more and talk with him more and listen to him more than God, while still being the glorious sovereign who's worthy of all reverence would also be to them more felt exceeding joy. And so I wanna encourage us all. In fact, I wanna challenge us all to purpose this year, this new year, 2024, to spend more time fellowshipping with God, communing with Him. And even if you're saying, brother, I must humbly tell you, I've got a handle on this joy thing. Well, you can never get enough of it. You can never get too much of it. And I know, listen, most of you are very busy. You're gonna have to carve out more time to be with God. But if you think about it from the other direction, What could be more important? What could be more practically helpful? What could be more soul satisfying than spending more time with your God who is your exceeding joy? He wants us to do that, you know. He welcomes us to come and spend time with Him and He always makes it worthwhile. Amen goes there. Since the start of this year, I heard Dr. Sinclair Ferguson say, and I quote, if we are Christ's, we can be happy, happy in Jesus, knowing that our true happiness lies not in the things of this world, but in our fellowship with Jesus. I wanna repeat that, Dr. Ferguson is really smart. Our true happiness lies not in the things of this world, but our true happiness lies in our fellowship with Jesus. And just this morning, I heard Jesus say from John 15, abide in my love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and thereby your joy will be full. Might you choose to spend more time fellowshipping with Jesus this year? Oh, brothers and sisters, for the honor of God and for our own great gain, Let's spend more time with God who is our exceeding joy and live every day with the experience of this exceeding joy that our God is. Amen. Lord, I wanna thank you for putting these words into your Bible. I wanna thank you that beyond being words to be exegeted, they are real. This is reality made real by you for those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Thank you for saving those of us who are saved. Please save those in the room who are not. Do what you know you have foreordained to do, and it'll be the right thing. God, it is our pleasure. It is our pleasure to be in Christ. It was my pleasure to proclaim these things. And Lord, it is our pleasure as believers now to participate in this ordinance of the Lord's table. whereby we remind ourselves of Christ, who He is and what He did, but not only our Savior Jesus, but you, the thrice holy God. And we should find in all of that, even in this moment, great joy. Amen.