But I invite you to turn this
morning your Bibles to the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians. The fourth chapter of the book
of Philippians. I'd like to read this morning
verse 3 and 4. Verse 3 and 4. And I entreat
thee also, true yokefella, Help those women which labored with
me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with others, my fellow
laborers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in
the Lord always, and again I say rejoice." I wondered this morning
if we might not want to begin our heaven here below, those
that are planning, those that believe in their hearts that
they're bound for the promised land, those who believe that
they're on their way to eternal glory, those who believe that
they will fellowship with God Almighty for all eternity. I
wonder if we would not like to begin our heaven here below in
this world. Now the Apostle Paul mentioned
in the last part of verse 3 concerning the fellow labors, his fellow
labors, those who had labored with him, he mentioned the women
which had labored with him in the gospel, and he says Clement
also and with other of my fellow labors whose names are in the
book of life. Did you ever think much about
the book of life? The Book of Life is chained to
the throne of God and nobody knows for sure whose names are
in that book. I've never been privileged to
look at that book. No other mortal man has ever
looked at that book. Do you know that? The Book of
Life. Now there are some names in that
book. And I believe that all of the names of those chosen
of God in old time, those that are God's elect, are all penned
down in the Book of Life. I do not believe that God writes
anybody's name down in this Book of Life in our lifetime, during the lifetime
of men. I don't think God inscribes names
now. I think God did all of his writing
before the foundation of the world when he chose his people. I believe it was then that God
penned their names down. And so the names of all believers
are in that book. The names of all of those who
have trusted Christ, who have believed on Him, who have submitted
themselves unto His Lordship, their names are in that Book
of Life. Now how wonderful it is to be
destined to spend eternity in the fellowship with God, in fellowship
with the Holy God, after having pilgrimage in this world which
is a waste howling wilderness to a believer, to a child of
God, it's a place of test, it's a place of trial, it's a place
of difficulty and tribulation. And then to believe and to know
that your name is in the book of life, and to know that by
the witness of the Spirit in your heart, and to be destined
to soon join our loved ones and others who have gone before us
into faith over there in that holy land. What a joy that that
ought to bring to our souls. And so Paul says, after having
mentioned the book of life, He says rejoice in the Lord always,
and again he says, I say rejoice. Do it over again. Rejoice and
then redo it. Joy again, because your names
are in the book of life and we're going yonder to be with the Lord. And I believe that the way to
begin heaven on earth is to obey this command of Scripture. And the first thing I'd like
to say about this command of Scripture here today is that
it is an authoritative command. What I mean by that is, it comes
from God and it has authority, as much authority behind it as
any of the ten commandments that are found in the Decalogue. This commandment has as much
authority behind it, it having come from the mouth of God through
the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Now listen to what the
Word of God says. It says, for the prophecy Speaking
of all of the Bible speaking of the revelation of God from
Genesis to Revelation For the prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man It didn't come because some man said we
need some scripture. We need some scripture We need
something to tell people and we're going to originate the
scriptures No, the prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man But it says but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. That's found in 2nd Peter 1 and
21 that men, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. And then in 2nd Timothy chapter
4 we read that all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be
mature and thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And this
is that more sure word of prophecy that Peter spoke of in 2 Peter
1 and 19. He says, Whereunto that ye do
well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day star arises in your hearts. Now beloved, where the word of
the King is, there is authority, there is power. Now we think
of all the commandments and most people pick out one of the commandments
or maybe two of the commandments that is most easy for them to
keep. most legalistic religionists,
they pick out a commandment or two and they try to outwardly
follow that commandment. But beloved, I wonder, is there
anybody here today that has chosen, when they were picking commandments,
has there been anybody here pick this commandment? Have you picked
this commandment? Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say rejoice. Well, I dare say that probably
not anybody here has picked that commandment. Not anybody here
said, now I'm going to, my life's going to be characterized by
this commandment of the Apostle Paul here as he spake through
the mouth, or as the Spirit of God spake through his mouth.
I'm going to obey this commandment. I'm going to do what God says. I'm going to begin my heaven
right here below. Now, what a gracious God that
we serve. What a wonderful God that we
serve in that He makes delight and joy and gladness to be a
duty, to be a duty to us. He commands us to rejoice. What
a wonderful God we have to serve. What a wonderful God we have
to worship and to follow in this world. Now, these believers here
in the Philippian church Were troubled and they had problems
I suppose maybe problems similar to some of the problems that
we might endure I'm sure they had some unique problems Also,
we read in the first chapter and in the 29th verse where it
says for unto you It is given on the behalf of Christ not only
to believe on him But also to suffer for his sake so it was
not only given to these Philippian believers To believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, it was also given to them to suffer. And so they
suffered, just like believers in our day and time. Now the
people of God have always gone through difficult times in this
world. I believe that the people of
the first century, they lived a very simple life, maybe compared
to our life. Indeed, it was very simple. I've
thought about and done considerable reading about the 1800s in early
America, and as far as I'm concerned, the people in those days and
times also, although they had many hardships that we don't
have to endure and put up with, I believe they lived very simple
lives. It was very simple to live in
those days. And these people live simple
lives compared to ours. Some of the temptations we have
today, I think, are much more complex, much more trying, and
this is in keeping, I think, with the teaching of the whole
Word of God, and that is that evil men shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived as time goes on. And so we're
living in a very difficult time, and these people lived in a trying
and difficult time. But they were affected just like
we are affected by these times and the trials that we endure.
And sometimes, in the midst of our afflictions and trials in
this world, we begin to droop. We begin to lose courage, we
begin to lose hope, and we somehow or other lose our Christian stamina
in the midst of our afflictions and trials, and we forget about
the commands of our Lord. We forget about this commandment
in particular, where Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord, And again,
I say rejoice. Now I know this is so. I know
it's so because I live in a body like you live in. I live in the
same world that you live in. I'm cut out of the same piece
of cloth that you're cut out of. And I know this is so. Have
you ever felt like you were drooping? Have you ever felt like you were
losing courage? Have you ever felt like that
you were just on the brink? And that you just could not be
happy? You could not be glad? You maybe
would never rejoice again as long as you lived in this world.
Well, I think we all have been there at one time or the other.
So the Apostle says to us, and we need desperately to hear it
this morning, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again,
I say rejoice. But you say, isn't this just
another preacher talking? Isn't that what this is? In this
chapter? Well, this is, you may think,
very easy for a preacher to talk about and for a preacher to get
up and say, this is what you ought to do. You ought to rejoice
in the Lord always. You ought to be glad. You ought
to be happy. But the Apostle Paul was not
one who was, what we might say, a privileged individual in that,
that when he made this statement, he was not somewhere on a beach,
laid back in a lawn chair, soaking up the sun. The Apostle Paul,
when he made this statement, he was in prison. That's where
he was. He was chained between two guards
in a prison when he made this statement. And I'm sure that
his circumstances was less than accommodating. But yet he said,
rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Paul has
a trial before him. He has a defense to make. He
has a gospel to preach. He has to remain faithful to
his God. He must remain faithful to the
Lord Jesus Christ, his Master to whom he was a bond slave here
in this world. And yet he says, in the midst
of his trials and being in prison as he was, he says, Rejoice in
the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Now
let us look a little bit at this morning in a very simple way,
this particular scripture, the doctrine of it and its application. Let's talk about it just a little
bit. And I believe that probably the people of God, especially
this generation, ought to hear this sermon every 30 days. Every
30 days you ought to hear somebody get up and expostulate on Philippians
chapter 4 and verse 4. Every 30 days. This is a spoiled
generation. We've had too much and we just
simply have gotten so used to being coddled and so used to
having and having and having in this generation that we somehow
or other are not able to endure the very afflictions and problems
that come our way without fretting, without murmuring and disputing,
and without having all kinds of turmoil and trauma in our
souls. This is a spoiled generation. And we need to listen and hear
what the Word of God says, and we need to understand what this
verse means. Now, first of all, the Greek
word here simply means, just be glad. You want to know what
it means to rejoice? Just be glad. Be glad. Now, my friends, Christians are
meant to be a glad and joyful people. They're meant to be,
I say, a glad and joyful people. Now there are times, I know,
and you cannot help because the Scripture makes it clear that
when we do grieve, and when we weep, and when we suffer, and
when we hurt, and like I say, we cannot help it. The Scripture
says there is a time for weeping, and we're exhorted to weep with
those who weep. and also to rejoice with those
that rejoice. But the basic characteristic
of a child of God in general is to be that of gladness, to
be that of happiness and joy in the Lord. Now this is a miracle
indeed that anybody can live in this world and be truly glad
and to be truly happy. I say this because the common
things that make us glad in this world do not outweigh, outnumber,
we might say, the things that hurt and wound and depress and
discourage. In other words, it's not because
we have more things in the plus what we might say column than
what we have in the minus column that we are able to rejoice. A Christian is a miracle because,
listen to me, listen to me, we are a miracle because we are
in a position placed there by God where we can rejoice and
where we can be glad in the midst of a troubled world because the
Lord has brought us to a place where we're capable of being
joyful and full of hilarity and mirth, and this is in the Lord. This is in the Lord. We are in
a position. We've been taken out of one position
and placed in another. Now a man who's lost, a man who
is in sin, a man who is cut off and alienated from the life of
God in Jesus Christ for the want of faith and love toward Christ,
He cannot be glad and joyful in the scriptural sense of the
word. But a man or a woman, a boy or
a girl who is in Christ, in the Lord, while a great miracle has
taken place, he's been translated out of the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of God's dear Son, where he can be happy or
joyful or rejoice in the Lord. Now this rejoicing in the text
is not considered here as an option. Now this is to be understood. We're not to suppose that there
is the Christian life and then there is the happy Christian
life. No, that's not to be supposed. There are some people that think,
well, it surely must be optional for me to be happy and glad and
joyful. No, it is no option. The Christian
life, the Bible says in the book of Romans, is not meat and drink,
but it is righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. It's not what you eat and it's
not what you drink. It's got nothing to do with it.
That doesn't have a thing in the world to do with the Christian
life, what you eat and what you drink. It's righteousness and
joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. That's what the Christian life
consists of. Now Paul is exhorting all believers
here to rejoice in the Lord, and this is not an option. This
is of the essence and being of the life of the believer. I said
earlier that this is a command of Scripture, but you say, preacher,
you just don't understand. You just don't understand my
situation. You say, I just don't happen
to have a glad temperament. Now I'm sure that there's some
truth to this that many of us naturally are just not happy
people. We're just not. We're melancholic.
It may be that we get depressed very easily. It may be that we
have some disorders of our bodies that somehow or other aggravate
our temperament and we somehow or other are not a very happy
people. Some people are just born that way. But what Paul
is saying here has nothing, listen to me now, nothing whatever to
do with our temperament, our birth, our personality type. It has nothing to do with that.
Paul says you rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Rejoice and be glad not because
you're made this way and it comes natural, but because you are
in the position that you're in, you are in the Lord. That's why
you're to rejoice. But another person might say,
you don't know my circumstances. Do you mean that I'm to rejoice
in spite of what my circumstances are? That's precisely what the
word always means. That's what it means. Always.
Now, How can I, you might ask? I'm hurting, I have trouble,
I have these problems and I don't know any other way to deal with
them but that they create a great deal of anxiety and worry and
depression in my very soul. Well, I think you must hurt to
some degree because of this and then you must rejoice because
of the other thing. You know, you can't help but
hurt on one side, but then you must rejoice because of the other
thing. He said, rejoice in the Lord. We must avoid steadfastly and
resist resolutely the tendency of our old hearts that would
try to figure out some way to exempt us from this command of
Holy Scripture. Our old flesh nature would just
try to find a loophole so that we wouldn't have to obey this
injunction of scripture. So that we could just more or
less say, well, I'm justified in just going ahead on just like
I am. We're constantly saying, I know
I ought to be different. But I just can't be. My circumstances
will not allow it and I'm justified in being just like I am. I'm just in this brine and I
can't help it. I just have to go ahead on with
my attitude. I'm sorry preacher, but I just
can't be any different. My circumstances will not allow
it. Well, the scripture says that in spite of the circumstances
that you're in, because you are in the Lord, You are to rejoice
in the Lord, and you're to do so always. It's not only joy,
but as we said earlier, it's to re-joy. It signifies the reduplication
of the thing. You're to rejoice and then re-joy
in the Lord again. So it's not according to temperament
or circumstances. Things in this world as we live,
things do change from day to day. We may be like old Job in
the morning, and then at night we may be like Job again. Old
Job in the morning, he had his family, he had all of his wealth
and all of his animals, and at night All he had left was his
God. That's all he had left. And so
the same may happen with us. It may happen. Things do change.
Circumstances change. But there's no escape hatch here,
no path in which to retreat. Now, the reason is not so because
of the sphere in which we, as far as our daily circumstances
and all, it's because we're in the Lord. We're glad because
We are in Christ because we know where we stand. And this statement
that Paul uses in the Lord here, he uses it four times in this
chapter. And I think it's important that
we note this because this is a statement of tremendous significance. We find it in verse 1. He said,
so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. And then in verse
2, he said, speaking of these two ladies, he said that they
be of the same mind in the Lord. And then in our text in verse
4. And then also over here in verse
20. Now unto God and our Father be
glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute every saint in verse
21. in Christ Jesus. Salute every saint in Christ
Jesus. So we're to rejoice by virtue
of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Union with Him in all
of His saving mercies. We're to rejoice because of that.
First Corinthians 1 and verse 30 says of God's doing Are you
in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption? Beloved, the very whole of our
salvation, from beginning to end, from election to glorification,
has to do, it's due to our union with Jesus Christ. If we're not
in Christ, there is no salvation for us. If we're not in Him,
we cannot rejoice, we cannot be glad because of the provisions
that were made for sinners, were made for sinners who are reconciled
to God, who are in union with Jesus Christ. And all true believers
are in Christ. That's a phrase that is a key
to unlocking the scriptures. In Christ. That's where we are
positionally as believers. We're in Him. In Christ. God looks upon Him and He sees
Him in our place. And He deals with us as he would
deal with Christ. We're in Christ. We're joined
to Him, in union with Him. We read in the Scripture that
children are to obey their parents. in the Lord. We read of men and
women being married only in the Lord. Now we must, and no child
of God must ever get outside of this circle in the Lord. In the Lord. In your thinking
and in your actions of life, your deeds of life, only in the
Lord. There is where you are, there
is where you ought to be, and where you must be in the Lord
in this circle. You cannot truly rejoice if you
get outside of that circle. In the Lord is the fear of your
joy. Now, I think often that people, you know, they get involved
with worldly, have worldly associations, they get involved. I know that
that young people, they often marry outside the Lord, and somebody
who is a true believer should never marry outside the Lord.
Somebody who knows Christ, loves Christ, is joined to Christ.
The Bible teaches that the righteous can have no fellowship with the
unrighteous, The Bible teaches clearly that there must be a
separation between the saved and the lost, and we must maintain
that separation in this world in our associations. A little
communication with the world corrupts the life of the believer. Very seldom do we ever bring
anybody up. They generally drag the believer
down. And when you get outside that
circle in the Lord, you're in trouble. And you're going to
have, bring on to your life, a great deal of misery. But in
that circle, can you just remember that? Here we are in Christ. We're inside this circle. And
we live and move and have our being in Christ. And we function
in Him. And we joy in the Lord because
of what He's done on our behalf. Christ, we're poor, but He's
made us rich. Christ is our treasure house. Christ is our banqueting hall.
We're starving, but we go to Him and are fed from the table
laden with all gospel blessings. Now this is the spirit in which
we are to do this rejoicing that Paul talks about here. It's in
Christ. The devil says, you come and
you follow me and I'll give you the key to all things. The believer
says, I don't need anything. I have everything in Christ. I have all in Him. We have all
in everything because He is all in everything. Christ is all. And again the devil says, if
you don't do thus and so, I'll take it all away from you. and
the believer says you can't take anything from me I don't really
have anything everything I have belongs to him and I'm in him
and you can't touch it you can't touch it because Christ is all
in him now I think if we could realize this more then I think
we could rejoice more but we must be honest with ourselves
and quit making these making our retreat Quit making our,
you know, finding us an escape hatch and saying, I don't have
to do that. I just can't rejoice because
of this and because of that. Well, we all make these and these
excuses. And therefore, we find ourselves
many times in self-pity, in times of hypersensitivity when we just
simply will not be happy regardless of what our situation is. We
begin to say to ourselves, in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows but Jesus. But I want you to remember 1
Corinthians 10 and 13 says that there is no testing taken you
but such as is common to man that God is faithful who will
not allow you to be tested above what you're able but will with
the testing make a way of escape. that you might be able to bear
it. Thank God He can make a way of escape so we can bear our
situations. And so don't think that your
situation is so uncommon. Your situation is common regardless
of what it is. And the same affliction that
we undergo are suffered by our brethren who are in the world.
Peter said that. So we must not attempt to make
our situation or our case unique, regardless of the temptation
to do so. And there was a hymn writer by
the name of Kalper. And this hymn writer, he wrote
that song, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, drawn from
Emmanuel's veins. and he was a man who from his
very earliest age was a very hyper and a very nervous person
and he had a great deal of trouble with his central nervous system
and he suffered several bouts of insanity and he tried on several
occasions to commit suicide and by the grace of God there came
a day when through reading Romans chapter 3 verses 21 through 31
that he was converted he was saved he come to hope in the
Lord he come to believe that Jesus Christ had died for him
and he wrote those great hymns of the faith there's a fountain
filled with blood and then this hymn God moves in mysterious
ways his wonders to perform he sets his footsteps in the sea
and he rides upon the storm and this last hymn I think it's very
interesting that he wrote this on the very eve of his last period
of insanity. He wrote that hymn and then he
went into a period of insanity that lasted for months. And he
had an affiliation with John Newton. John Newton was a pastor
of a church in the area where Mr. Cowper lived. And over a
12-year period, he talked with Mr. Cowper about his situation,
but he was never able to persuade him. Every time Mr. Cowper wrote a letter, he insisted
on telling people that his situation was unique and that his situation
was different than everybody else's and that he had a right
to be morbid and gloomy and sad and distressed and downhearted. He had a right to do it because
of his various afflictions that he had in the flesh. Well, Mr. Newton, he tried every way he
could to shake him out of that, and he was not able to do it.
Now, I'm not saying that our circumstances are not real. I
know they are. I know they are this morning,
but I'm saying something else. that is even more real is true,
and that is that we're in the Lord. And that's what we've got
to focus upon. That's what we've got to give
ourselves over to, because we're in a blessed position. We're
in Jesus Christ, and we have all spiritual blessings in Christ. And the scripture says that we
can give thanks in everything because we're in Christ Jesus. Because in that sphere, you see,
the Lord's going to make everything right for the believer. It's
going to be alright. Believers are more than conquerors. through Him that loved us. Now
it's very difficult sometimes to persuade ourselves of that,
but it's a truth nevertheless. And whatever problem you have
with it, you'll have it between you and God. The Scripture says
that we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us, and
that believers are overcomers. They will not be finally overcome. They will overcome. Believers
are indeed overcomers. Now you've heard of Matthew Henry.
Now Matthew Henry, he wrote a set of commentaries, six books, and
I think probably, or at least I think so, among the most famous
commentaries that were ever written. And he wrote them over many years. And he writes in his diary, he
says it was at the time of the death of his daughter. He said,
I've been doing a strange work today. He said, I've been burying
my child. And then his wife, she dies,
and he takes for his text and for the message for the funeral,
a verse of scripture out of the book of Habakkuk. And I'd like
to read to you these words out of Habakkuk chapter 3, verse
17 through 19. It says, although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor
of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat. The
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no hurt
in the stalls. It tells about a time of famine,
and a time of want, a time of great need, and time of failure. He said in verse 18, Yet I will
rejoice in the Lord. Regardless of what the situation
be, I'll rejoice in the Lord. He said, I will joy in the God
of my salvation because the Lord God is my strength and He'll
make my feet like Heinz feet and He'll make me to walk upon
mine high places to the chief singer on my stringed instruments. And so this is the text that
Matthew Henry took for his sermon when his wife died. He said,
we'll just rejoice in the Lord. Though everything is taken away
that makes life worth living from the human standpoint, yet
I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. And I think that's a marvelous
testimony to the stability of a child of God in difficult and
trying times, is that they can turn to a passage like that and
use that and it be a great source of strength and encouragement
to them. So it's a matter of resolving
as a believer that we're going to rejoice in the Lord. It's
a matter of spiritual discipline. Whenever you get up and you just,
I've heard people say this, fact is I already heard it once today,
once or twice. I'm just miserable today. I just
feel miserable today. And we all uh... sooner or later
we're going to have a day like that we probably had many of
them but i will tell you this it's a matter of spiritual discipline
that regardless of the way we feel we set out we work on this
matter of rejoicing in the lord now many of the commandments
you'd say to me oh yes we must do that or we must not do that
but this commandment Just take it or leave it. Do with it what
you please. But I don't believe we ought
to. I think it's going to affect our lives, it's going to affect
the people around us, and so therefore we must discipline
ourselves. Now, I want to show you just
a couple of verses of scripture before we leave this this morning. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Peter And 1 Peter chapter 1, and I want you to
look at verse 8. This is a matter of believing,
beloved. We need to see ourselves standing
alone with God in this world, and we need to see ourselves
on one day to come standing naked. with a naked God in the universe,
with God only, just God and us. And we need now to begin to reflect
upon what our state of mind and heart is, and whether or not
we're going to really believe what the scripture says about
God's covenant and His provisions that He's made in the covenant
for us. Here in verse 8 of 1 Peter chapter
1, it says, Whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now
ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls." That's where heaven on earth begins,
beloved. It's when we're able to believe
and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. There's another
verse found in the book of Romans I'd like for you to turn to Romans
chapter 15 and read verse 13. Listen to
this verse. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. Paul's prayer here for the Roman
believers is the God who is the author of all well-grounded hope,
the God of hope. that He filled them with all
joy. Fill them with gladness and joy and hilarity. Fill them
with peace as they believe, as they believe God. You see, this
can't be, the only way you're going to have this joy, this
gladness, the only way you can rejoice is to believe God. You must believe Him. You must
believe. Do you believe God? You know,
I told you last Sunday that I thought we probably all wanted to believe
But not very many of us do. We need to believe what the scripture
says. We need to believe where we are
in Christ, in the Lord. And we need to deal with our
situation from that standpoint. But it all is in connection with
faith. May the Lord add His blessing
to the word this morning. to the truth that's been discussed
in your hearing, and may we be able to go out of here saying,
well, that's one commandment that I just think I'm just going
to adopt, and I'm going to obey that commandment. I'm going to
begin my heaven here below. I'm going to just be glad in
the Lord. I know that my husband's this,
and I know that my business is like this, and I know my neighbors
are like that, and I know my relatives are this way and that
way, But I'm just going to rejoice in the Lord. That's what I'm
going to do. I'm going to be glad in the Lord. And every day
I'm going to think about the fact that I'm in that circle.
I'm in the Lord. And I'm going to look at everything
from the standpoint of a believer, a true believer. I'm going to
believe what God says. And I'm going to deal with everything
from that standpoint. And I'm not even going to consider
how it is outside the circle. It's inside the circle I'm concerned
about, because thank God, by sovereign grace, that's where
I am, in the Lord. Father, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, bless the hearing of your Word today, and encourage
your people through the Word. We ask in Jesus' name, for His
sake, Amen.