Thank you, John, Jeanette. Go with me back, or go to Colossians
1 now, Colossians chapter 1. I don't believe there's a book,
an epistle or a book, or at least from the epistles, the Gospels
are certainly full of our Lord, but I don't think there's an
epistle that's more full of His glory than Colossians. You've noticed that with me.
We just looked at, in him, all preeminence. You remember that?
We tried to... I felt so helpless trying to
do that. Talk about his... all his preeminence. In verse 19, it says, it pleased
the Father. Now in Him, Christ, should all
fullness dwell. All fullness. My, my, what a
subject. All fullness deserves a message
by itself. You remember Brother David Edmondson's
message on one? You remember that? One. You remember how he said that
one, he said, I don't know much about math, trigonometry, algebra,
all of that, but I do know what one means. Ephesians 4, the one
Lord, one thing, one hope, and so forth. Well, you know what
all means? I don't know much, but I know
this. All means all. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead body. All fullness in Him. All. That means all. Chapter
3, verse 11 says Christ is all. And in all, if Christ is all,
then if you don't have Christ, you have nothing at all. If he
is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, if you don't have
Christ, you don't have any real treasure. You don't have any
wisdom, you don't have any knowledge. If Christ is life, if you don't
have Christ, you don't have life. All, all means all to them. It
pleases the Father that in Him all fullness, all means all.
Look at chapter 1 verse 16, you remember this? By Him were all
things created. In heaven, earth, visible, invisible,
principality, throne, dominions, principality, what's that? Devils. All things created by Him or
for Him. Isaiah 45 says, all things, I create peace, I make
peace, I create evil, all things, whatever it is. He did it. Is that right? All. All. He's before all things. By Him,
all things consist. All means all. There is nothing
else. Chapter 2, verse 3. In Him are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Verse 9. In Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're
complete in Him which is the head all. Principality and power,
we could keep going on and on. Let's just look at this verse
19 in chapter 1, all fullness in Him. I know what this means,
but we can't grasp it fully, can we? You know what it means.
We're trying to declare it as humanly impossible. We haven't
seen Him as He is and experienced it. But verse 19 says, it pleased
the Father, that in Him all fullness dwelleth. It pleased the Father.
It gave the Father great pleasure to invest everything in His Son. Because His Son gave and gives
him great pleasure. Remember we read in Proverbs
8, before there was anything or anyone, Christ was with him,
he said, daily his delight. Daily his delight. It is said
of Christ more than anything else that the Father is pleased
with him. Isaiah 42, the Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness sake. And three times from heaven,
our Lord said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Well pleased. So it pleased the
Father. And whatever the Lord did, whatever
the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and earth and the seas
and all deep places. Whatever the Lord is pleased
to do, that's what He did. So He put everything in Christ.
Everything. So it pleased him that in Christ
all fullness dwelled. Now what does fullness mean?
What does all mean? All. What does fullness mean?
Full. What's full mean? It means you
can't put anything else in it. Can't add anything to it. All full, filled up. Nothing
more can be added. Fullness means complete. And
we're going to devote a whole message to that. Chapter 2, verse
9. I mean, verse 10. You're complete
in Him. Jeanette wanted to sing that
song tonight. Complete in Him. I said, no, we've got to wait
until that verse. We've got too many others to sing. We're going
to try to deal with fullness, then we'll deal with completeness.
Preeminent. He's glorious in it. Complete. Whole. Full means complete. Nothing
more added. Nothing can be added. Nothing
needs to be added. Full. And of His fullness have
all we received. Scripture said. Alright? All
fullness in Christ. Now look at the first thing.
Chapter 2, verse 9. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. All the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. That man who walked this earth is the God who created
this earth. They didn't believe that then and most don't believe
it now, but we do, don't we? Well, the disciples certainly
did. They saw that he had absolute
power over all the elements. Oh, how many things they saw
him do that just finally they knew, this is our Lord and this
is our God. That's what Thomas fell at his
feet. Peter saw him, you know, the fish answered his call, paid
his taxes. They stilled the ocean and the
wind, stopped the wind from blowing. Who is it? It's the God who causes
the wind to blow. It's the God who made the heavens
and the earth. All the fullness of the Godhead,
all power, all authority, all judgment. That's what Christ
said, the Father has committed all judgment to the Son, didn't
he? All ownership. All ownership. Psalm 2, God says,
I've set my king on the holy hill of Zion. I set him in authority
and he owns it all. The earth is the Lord's. Where
are you, John? Where are you, John? What are
you doing back there? You're sitting over here. Messing
me up. The earth is the Lord's. Who? The Lord Jesus Christ. And the
fullness therein. The world and the inhabitants
therein. He owns them all. All souls are mine, he said. They belong to him. Everybody.
His people especially. Given to him by the Father. He
has absolute ownership, absolute authority. He said, all power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. all fullness of the Godhead,
all wisdom, the fullness of wisdom. Now here's some things that we'll
look at. I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Wisdom, knowledge, we're going to look at a few of these. Wisdom,
knowledge, the fullness of truth, the fullness of love, the fullness
of mercy, the fullness of grace, the fullness of peace, the fullness
of righteousness, the fullness of sanctification, the fullness
of redemption, the fullness of blessings, the fullness Can we
do this in one message? No. It's going to take an eternity
to see this. But before we look at this, we
need to see, and I got ahead of myself, I was too anxious. But we've got to see, first of
all, the vanity. In order to see how all fullness
is in Christ, we've got to see the vanity of everything else.
Okay? Go with me to Ecclesiastes 1.
Vanity. Vanity. All things. Vanity. Empty. Vanity means empty. Unsatisfactory. Cannot satisfy. Can't fill you
up. You cannot be filled. No matter
what it is, try as you may, it won't fill you full of what you're
looking for. Satisfaction, happiness, joy,
pain. It won't do it. Ecclesiastes 1, I started to
read this. for our scripture reading. And
I started reading today, Ecclesiastes, and I couldn't quit. I just started
reading the whole book. And you'd enjoy it too, if you
did. Verse 1, the words of the preacher,
the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Now, did you notice what is capitalized? Preacher. Before the son of David,
before the king. Look down at verse 12, I the
Preacher, capital P, was king. Do you see the emphasis God puts
on preaching? How shall they hear without a
preacher? It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. You're not going to learn these things in the
world. You're not going to learn this
wisdom. You're not going to learn the
vanity of things in schools, in this world. You're only going
to learn them from God's Word through somebody declaring them.
That's the only way. And by experience. Verse 2, vanity
of vanity, saying the preacher, Vanity of vanity. All is vanity. What profit hath the man of all
his labor he taketh under the sun? What profit? Any? Any profit? Look down at verse
7. All the rivers run into the sea.
The sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers
come, they go back there again. Verse 8. All things are full
of labor. In Psalm 90 it says we live 70
years, maybe 80 if we have strength, but it's all full of labor and
trouble and sorrow. It says, you know, all things
are full of labor. You remember Christ standing
up one day and saying, all you that labor and heavy
laden, what does he say? Come unto me, I'll give you rest. The only one that can give you
rest from laboring to try to be happy and satisfied. Verse 8, the eye is not satisfied
with seeing, the ear filled with hearing. Nothing fills, fulfills. Verse 10, is there anything where
it may be said, hey, this is new. And they try it, look, we found
something. Here's something new, this will
make you happy. It's not new anyway. You know, the Lord had Solomon,
in this book, had Solomon experience everything. He owned it all. He owned everything you could
own. All the material things of this world, all fleshly pleasures
he tried, all the joys, all the things to be desired to make
one happy. Or that is, man thinks will make
him happy. To fill us with joy, make us
happy, he tried them all. And what did he conclude? Look
at the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. If you're not going to read it,
I'll just read the last chapter to you. In chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes,
he said, in verse 7, the dust shall return, to the earth as
it was, the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity
of vanity, saith the preacher. All is vanity. All. All means all. No matter
what it is, no matter who it is. That's not to say that the
Lord, and this book talks about, has given us all things richly
to enjoy. the relationships, and marriage
is a wonderful thing, and it brings us joy, but it doesn't
last. You know, when you lose that
one you love, then there's an empty spot, an aching void that
will And the only one that can fill
it is Jesus Christ. That's a fact. It's a fact. The whole fullness in Him. So here's the moral of the whole
story is, is not to try to fill ourselves up on stuff that won't
fill us. Our Lord, in fact, He said, get
empty yourself, get rid of this stuff and be filled with the
Spirit. Paul said in Ephesians 5. All
right, vanity, vanity. Job said this, naked I came and
naked I'll return. And here, this was Job. Job,
the root of the matter was in him. And he was full of faith,
though full of sorrow, full of grief, full of trouble, yet he
was full of faith. And he could say this in the
midst of those great trials. He said, I know my Redeemer lives. I know He does. I know. You have
to smile when you're saying that, don't you? I know my Redeemer
lives. He'll stand on His throne and
I'll see Him. I'm going to see Him with my own eyes. I'm going
to see God. And though He slay me, I'll trust Him. That's to
be filled with Him, the knowledge of Him, the fullness of Him. Vanity of vanity. You know, turn
to Isaiah 55. This is a wonderful passage. Isaiah 55. It sounds just like
our Lord standing up that day after the feast, if any man thirst. Remember everybody had come to
Jerusalem looking for something and nobody found anything and
all that, the husks of religion and Christ stood up and said,
if any man thirst. Thirst came with sin. You know that man lived in a
garden. He enjoyed God. He was full, okay? And when he
sinned, then came all this lust, which is hunger, an insatiable
desire for pleasure, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh,
lust and pride of life, hunger and thirst, right? These things
are insatiable. I mean, we can't get filled with
thirst, thirst. And Christ said, feed a man thirst,
let him come unto me. He said, blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after Righteousness. What's that? It's a person. It's not a what. Oh, monks in
monasteries are trying to be righteous. No, the problem, you
can't shut yourself off from sin because it's in here. Christ
said, I'll give you righteousness. He's made unto us righteous.
Isaiah 55 verse 1, Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. He that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come,
buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why? Wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread, your labor for
that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me. Eat
ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here your soul shall live. I'll make an everlasting covenant
with you, the sure mercies of David. But behold, I've given
him, who the son of David, cry, as a witness to the people, leader
and a commander. That's what Christ said, come
unto me. All you that thirst. Didn't Christ cry on the cross
when he was made in sin? I thirst. That's what sin does. and it'll never be satisfied.
And Christ was made sin, and he cried out that great cry,
I thirst. He emptied himself, and God laid
on him the iniquity of us all, and he emptied himself of his
righteousness, his fullness, and gave it to us. And God laid
on him the iniquity, and he cried, I thirst. God forsook him. of His fullness have we received. Grace for grace. All right, let's
look at a few of these things. I already said the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, all power, all authority, all rule, all
ownership, all government, all judgment, all things that ought
to give us all joy and all peace, all faith. We ought to have perfect
faith. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace who does what? His mind has stayed on Him, because
everything is His hand. We keep saying that, we've been
saying it ever since we've been preaching, meeting together,
haven't we? And then these troubles come
along, and back in March, something really strange has never happened
to have started. Well, look at it. Are we okay? Why don't we believe the Lord?
Let's believe Him, shall we? He did this. The Lord gave and
the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He is our God. All things. All things. All things. That means all, doesn't it? Every
germ in the universe. Spurgeon said this, and it's,
you know, the natural man doesn't believe this, he thinks this
is impossible. But Spurgeon said that every, when the sun that
comes through the window, the sun shines through the window
on a sunny day and you'll see particles of dust, he said the
path of that every particle of dust was predetermined by God
before the world began, where it would land. You believe that? I do. All judgment, all authority,
all rule, all ownership, all providence. The Lord is the one
that doles out everything. He is the one who has decided
long before, predestined all things. Genesis, I was going
to have you turn to Genesis 41, but Pharaoh, Joseph was the interpreter of
all things. Remember? Nobody could understand
the dream of Pharaoh but Joseph. The mind of the ruler. The most high ruler. And that's
Christ. The faithful, true witness. The
one who knows God and came from God. Okay? And so Pharaoh said,
I'm going to put somebody in charge. And who is so wise? And
who can understand things but You, Joseph." So he put Joseph
in charge of everything and everyone. And the people came and everything
happened exactly like Joseph said it would. There were seven
years of plenty, then seven years of famine, just like Joseph said.
All right? Then all the people came to Pharaoh
and said, we're hungry. He said, don't come to me. Go
to Joseph. I told you, he has it all. It's all in His hands. Go to
Him. He'll give it to you. All things are placed in His
hand. All the fullness of the Godhead.
All the fullness of truth. Christ said, I am the way and
the truth. The truth of God. What's God
like? Jesus Christ. That's how. You want to know what God is
like? Jesus Christ. Study Jesus Christ. Because the child was born, but
it was the Son of God that was given. But He's equal with the
Father. In fact, God said, call Him God. Because He is. All the fullness
of God, all the fullness of man. Adam was a glorious creature,
wasn't he? A glorious creature. But he fell. But Christ is called
the second Adam. Man. The word Adam means man.
Okay? In Adam, all die. But in Christ, all. What's all mean? Made alive. Everybody in Christ. I mean,
made alive. I was going to have you turn
to Romans 5. I had so many verses to read from Romans 5. One man. About one man. He's all the fullness
of manhood. All the fullness of God. All
the fullness of manhood. Man the way man is supposed to
be. Meant to be. By one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Even so, by one man's obedience,
many were made righteous. This man. Covenant head. I love that, don't you? Covenant
head. All the fullness of truth. Any subject. Name a subject,
and it has all its fullness in Jesus Christ. Wisdom. Wisdom. Will you read with me Proverbs
8. 1 Corinthians 1 says that Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. It says He's made unto us. Can
you quote it? 1 Corinthians 1.30. Of God are
you in Him, Christ, who of God is made unto us, what? What's
the first thing? Wisdom. And I'll remind you that the
fear of the Lord We don't know Him unless we first fear Him,
the Lord, and call Him Lord and Jesus. It's the beginning of
wisdom. Those disciples, when they finally
found out who He was, they feared Him. Simon Peter, you remember
when the Lord said, cast your net on the right side? And it's
full of fish. And Simon, he hit his knees. He fell at the feet of that man. He said, depart from me, Lord.
I'm a sinful man. You know my every thought. There's
not a thought in my head you don't know. I'm a sinful man. Depart from me. But he didn't
know him well enough yet, did he? Because that's the reason
he came. This is the Lord, our righteousness.
This is the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came into the
world to save sinners like Simon Peter. No, he's not going to
depart. He's never going to depart. That's
why he came. Wisdom. Oh, the wisdom of God
in making Christ salvation. How wise God was enabling God
to be just and justifier. How wise is the gospel? I loved
John Newton when I was a young wannabe preacher. I read John
Newton a lot. Loved him. And he had a message
that just turned me inside out. It is called the character and
genius of the gospel. He said the greatest stroke of
genius. He said there's only one genius
in the universe, it's God. That means a mind, an intellect,
a wisdom that far exceeds others. Wisdom. Christ. Oh, the wisdom
of God and putting all fullness in Christ. Everything in Christ. Enabling God to be holy and yet
pardon. Great mercy and truth meet together.
Righteousness and peace kiss each other. God can be just. He can both punish our sins and
yet pardon them. Try to come up with a way to
do that. By no means clear the guilty and yet let a guilty fellow
go scot-free. Justify. How can you do that? Well, God devised the way. That's what you want. The way. Christ said, I'm the way. Now,
all wisdom, the wisdom of salvation and knowledge. You know, someone
coined this phrase years ago and is a better proverb, but
knowledge is a horse and wisdom is a rider. Meaning, you can
know many things, you can know the doctrine, the truth of things,
at least the concept of it, but unless you put it into practice,
unless you act upon it, unless you do it, you're unwise. That's wisdom. Wisdom is to know
and then to do it. Wasn't that Christ? He knew the
Father's will. He did it. This do and live. He's our wisdom, John. We know
that. We know the law says do. We can't
do it. And sometimes we just flat won't. But He's holy. He's righteous. He's just. He delighted to do
the Father. He knew the way. He knew this
is not only the right way, the only way, the good way, the best
way, the way the transgressors are, but this is good. This is good. And He loved this
way. And He did it. It was wise. Wise to do. And He did it for
us. All the fullness of righteousness.
He made unto us wisdom and righteousness. All the fullness of righteousness.
You remember David saying that we feel like Job every time we
try to preach. Job said, I've spoken things
too wonderful for me, things I didn't understand. Fullness
of righteousness. Righteousness is not just a doctrine.
Righteousness means all is holy and just and pure and lovely.
It's everything right. It's everything that's right.
There's very little right in this world. Everything's wrong
about this world. Mankind, everything's wrong.
He's all wrong, isn't he? Man's wrong. His head's wrong. His heart's wrong. Everything
about him's wrong. When Christ came, everything
about him was right. And when God reveals him to us,
Brother Kelly, we say, he's right. That's the right way to think,
to act, to do. That's the way I want to be.
Well, I can't. He says, well, I am doing this
for you. And one of these days you'll
be, you are righteous. But one of these days you have
no more sin. Righteousness, righteousness.
He's the fullness of righteousness. Everything that's loving, everything
that's like God. Does that appeal to you? You want to go to a land wherein
dwelleth righteousness. No sin, no evil. Are you tired
of this sin, not only all around you, but all that's in you? Get
me out of here! I'm wrong, everybody's wrong,
get me out of this, this, this, the Lord called it this present
evil world. I want to go to a land wherein
dwelleth righteousness, where God is holy, and God's Son is,
and God's people, all of us are just holy. That appeal to you? In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of righteousness. Oh, we could go on and on with
that, couldn't we? Sanctification. Be set apart, consecrated, dedicated,
given to God, live for God. That's what Christ did. Totally
dedicated, given to God, but He did it for His people. He's
made unto them sanctification. He said, I sanctify myself that
they also might be sanctified. And by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, set apart. He came to consecrate
us to the Father. So explain that. I can't. But
He did. They're mine. They're yours,
He said to the Father. Someday, well, the fullness of
redemption, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, in
Him dwelleth all the fullness of redemption. Now, we use the
term redeeming qualities. We say of somebody, he has many
redeeming qualities. Well, that's a lie. God looked
down to see if there's no redeeming qualities in man. It's nothing
about anyone by nature that caused God to redeem them. All right,
here's what happened. The Son of God was so lovely,
so glorious, so holy, so righteous, and came down here to be a substitute,
a covenant head. And His life was so glorious,
so beautiful, so holy, so pleasing to God. He had so many redeeming
qualities that His death paid for every single sin that every
sinner ever did for time and eternity. God was so pleased
with this man's life that He said, you lay down your life
and I'll forgive and forget everything that anybody's ever done on the
basis of your life. It's a life worth living. The
only life worth living was Jesus Christ. And He laid it down.
He said, Father, accept them on my behalf. And he laid down
his life, said, I accept it. Well done. The redeeming qualities. He obtained eternal redemption
for us, didn't he John? By the sacrifice of himself.
God was so pleased. The fullness of redemption. And
that needs two more hours. The fullness of love. Greater love hath no man than
this. I do want you to turn to Romans 5 to see this. If you
don't know where this is, you need to remember it. Because
this is glorious. Romans 5. Romans 5, like every
other chapter, it speaks of Christ, God's love for sinners in Christ.
Romans 5, verse 6. Now, when we were yet without
strength. Romans 5, 6. Verse 5 speaks of love. Hope
maketh not ashamed. John preached that, didn't he?
Not ashamed of the gospel. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die, yet for a good man some would even dare to die,
but God. commendeth his love toward us,
and that while we were yet sinners, rebels, God-haters, Christ died
for them. Oh my. And because of that, because
of what Christ did, it said in Romans 8, who shall separate
it? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who
is he that condemneth? Christ died. Who shall separate
it from the love of Christ? Nothing and no one, because it's
in Christ. The love of God. Greater love hath no man than
this. All the love of God can be seen in the Lord Jesus Christ
crucified. Oh, what love! The fullness of
love. Love without condition. He didn't
love us because there's something in us, some condition in us to
love. He loved us freely. Like Gomer. God told Hosea the prophet, go
down and love a harlot. Because this is the love of God
for Israel. Didn't He say that? Go down and
love a harlot. She's not going to thank you.
She's not going to know you're doing all this. She's not going
to love you. But you go love her. And you
go purchase her. You go pay the price for her.
Buy her. And so he did. But you know what? He made her love him. When she
finally found out what He did for her, oh, she loved Him. Not
like He loved her, but she did love Him. She loved Him because
He first loved her. Oh, my, greater love hath no
man that did. Fullness of love without condition.
Love unrequited. Love for the unlovely. Love that
never ends. Now, that's love. Like He said
to Ephraim, how shall I give you that? I'm not. That's love. The fullness of
mercy. I got to quit. The fullness of grace. The fullness
of mercy. Mercy means sparing the guilty. Mercy means forgiving. Mercy
means pardon. Mercy means forgetting what's
done. Passing it over. Mercy means
kindness. No one's ever There's never been
anyone close to the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Full
of kindness. Full of mercy. Full of grace. He said it's more blessed to
give than to receive, didn't he? What did he give? Everything. Everything. Peace. Fullness of peace. Oh, what peace
he had. And he said he left that peace
with us. Peace with the Father. God who should have been angry
with it, should have been angry with us. Poured out his wrath
on Christ. So Christ said, peace I leave
with you. Peace by the blood of my cross.
God's not angry with you. You have peace with God through
Christ. Fullness of peace. Fullness of
happiness. Oh my, our Lord slept in the ship in the midst of the
greatest danger, their lives were threatened, but no, he wasn't
threatened, he didn't feel threatened. The ship was tossing and turning,
the waves were crashing, he was getting the best night's sleep
he had in a long time. Why? What did he know that we
don't know? He's in the Father's hand. He's not going to die until His
time, okay? Until His purpose is accomplished.
Same with us. And as I said, what they should
have done instead of fearing and bailing water, is just gone
back there and cuddled up with Himself. Just all sleek. And now we're in His arms. Now
we're in His hands. And He's the one sending these
trials and tribulations. He's the one sending it to bolster
our faith. The fullness of joy. Joyful. Our Lord John Chapman said it,
didn't he? Remember him dealing with it? That Christ was not
sad. He bore our griefs and our sorrows. The only time He said He was
troubled was when He went into the garden. Well, at Lazarus'
tomb, it says he groaned and was troubled. Before that, it
was always said, be of good cheer, be of good cheer. He was faced
with the cross from his cradle. All his life he knew what he
was going to have to do. Don't you know that weighed heavily
on his heart and his mind? But he wasn't sad. He knew it
was the purpose of God, the will of God, and he knew what would
be accomplished. It says, for the joy set before
him endured the cross, thought nothing to shame. And he endured
it, and he was joyful. And the only time he became exceedingly
sorrowful was when God was about to forsake him. See, he was carrying
our griefs and our sorrows. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, that's ours. Ours. He had to be made sin and
it was repulsive to his holy nature, wasn't it? And that's the time. But other
than that, our Lord was joyful, happy, happy, smiling. Everything he did for everyone
gave him great pleasure. It pleased the Lord. gave him
great pleasure to show mercy and grace. He came like the great
physician that he was to this world full of lepers and impotent
people and he came to make them whole. Wouldn't that, wouldn't
you, what if you could do that? Wouldn't you? You know, they're
full of sorrow and they're blind and deaf and come, that leper
come fall on his feet. He knew what he was going to
do. He's probably smiling. I can't wait to do this. Be clean. He gave him great joy. Everything
he did gave great joy. Joyful. Everything he is and
did should give us great joy, because he's Lord. All right,
stand with me. Father in heaven, in the name
of thy blessed Son, we thank you for sending Christ thy Son
to this earth. Oh my, we rejoice in Him, and
we believe Him, and we hope in Him, and we trust in Him, and
we admire Him, and we love Him. Lord, this is why we need to
hear Him, and read of Him. Empty us, O Lord, of this world,
and these things of this world. Set our affection on things above
where Christ is. And that would fill us, if we
did, if our minds were set on Him and thinking of Him, not
only as our Lord and Master and Redeemer and Substitute and our
brother and our husband and our father, but our example. If we
could just follow in His footsteps, we'd have such joy, such peace.
So Lord, let the emptiness of this world and the things in
it fill us full of Christ. Let us have of His fullness,
peace and joy and all these things. Thank you for making him to be
all these things for us. And it's in Christ's name we
give thanks. Amen.