Okay, all right, so turn your Bible to 1st Peter, 1st Peter. Now I don’t want to be Captain Obvious here but Peter was kind of a big deal in The Bible. I mean he, along with Paul, James maybe John, outside of Jesus, obviously Jesus is the centerpiece, the cornerstone of all of scripture. But outside of Jesus, Peter, James, Paul were the patriarchs, the fathers of our faith.
A lot of their teachings, a lot of their writings have formed our doctrine; have formed the way we do church. They have formed the way we live out this life as Christ’s followers and Peter obviously was one of the 12 disciples. He was prominent among the 12 disciples. He was one of the chosen three that got to spend a lot of personal time with Jesus.
So, Jesus would spend time with the crowds like we’re doing here today, and then Jesus would spend a lot time with the 12. But then Jesus spent even more time with three men: Peter, James and John. And Peter was a part of those very intimate conversations. He was there when Jesus was transfigured. When literally the voice of God spoke to them, Peter was there. And Peter was the one that put his foot in his mouth during that time and wanted to build an altar, you know, and basically Jesus said, “Be quiet, stop talking, Peter.”
Peter was the one that denied Christ. Peter was the one that was boastful and said, “I will never abandon you!” And of course he was the first one to run off and leave. I think Peter of all the characters in The Bible, of all the people the people that The Bible described, Peter is the guy that I can most relate to. You know I want to share with you this passage of scripture before we get to 1st Peter: Matthew 16. I have never seen a shift of conversation the way I’m about repeat it involves Peter, okay?
So, this first part is epic. I mean Peter hits a homerun. Jesus replied in verse 17, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven and I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I’ll build my Church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” I mean think about Jesus saying that to you right to your face. And then he says, “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.”
I mean that’s a powerful thing that Jesus said to Peter and that’s why a lot of people believe that Peter was really kind of the first prominent leader. All right, four verses later, now I want to say this is why I can relate. I feel like sometimes I can hit a homerun with God, do exactly what God’s calling me to do, and a few minutes later just blow it all. Have you ever had days like that? Where you woke up and you could charge Hell with a water pistol and about five minutes later, you felt like you’re the slime of the earth. Have you ever had a day like that?
All right, this is Peter, okay? So Jesus said, “You are Peter. I’m going to build my Church on you. The gates of Hell will not overcome it.” Four verses later, verse 23, Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You did not have in mind the things of God but, the things of men.” Now, how in four verses did Peter go from being the rock to Satan? Have you ever had a day- now, this is why I can relate to this guy. This guy could not get it right for a long period of time. But, he tried so hard didn’t he. I mean he tried so hard. Peter was always putting his foot in his mouth. Now, 1st Peter was written probably AD 64. So, by the time he writes 1st Peter, he’s not the young, immature, hothead guy anymore. Peter, now, is an old man.
Peter is very close to being crucified, killed, martyred, for the sake of Christ. And now he’s probably in his 60s. He is more mature. He’s mellowed out quite a bit, and he writes these two letters and these letters are distributed throughout lots of churches. So a lot of the churches open these letters and read them out loud in front of all the people and then they discussed what they had just read. And so let’s open up here with 1st Peter, chapter one. We’re going to read verses three through nine. And this opening doxology is important because Peter, Peter’s giving praise to God. Peter does not give a lot of commands here. What I believe Peter is saying to us and to the people who read this letter was would you allow your imagination to come alive once again?
We just sang this song and that line – I’m going to tell John - I love the song when it said, “return us to Your wonder.” I think that’s what it said, but it said, “Give us back our wonder, our marvel.” One of the things that I want us to happen at New Life is for us to – is not get over the mysterious nature of God for us. When we come in to worship, I don’t want it to be about just rote, a routine. I want us to come when we worship and I want us to explore this mysterious, fascinating God that we serve and not come in to worship like we got all our theology figured out, like we understand all there is to know about God because we don’t.
And so in these opening doxologies, Peter’s saying that to us. He’s saying, “Listen. Don’t lose your wonder. Don’t lose your marvel. Can you become aware of this great God? He calls us sons and daughters.” And then he talks about Heaven. He talks about the eternity that we’re about to experience together in Heaven. Verse 3: “Praise be to God and the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in Heaven for you.”
Verse five, “Who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth in gold which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him.” I love this; let’s stop here for a second.
What Peter is saying is, “I saw Him. I saw Him. I saw the holes in His hands. I saw Him after he was resurrected. I walked with Him. I talked with Him. I heard the parables. I was there when He fed the 5,000. I was there when He fed the 4,000. I was there when He opened blinded eyes. I was there when He raised the son back from the dead from the widow. I was there, and so it should be easy for me.” He’s actually giving them a compliment. He’s saying, “Listen, you’ve not seen any of these. You weren’t there yet you believe.” It was a marvelous thing to Peter.
Listen, the angels in Heaven marvel at us today. We’ve never seen Jesus. We’ve never had a conversation with Him. We’ve never seen Jesus do the miracles like that, yet we believe. Yet we trust, yet our hope is in Him and the angels in Heaven marvel at us. How can they believe in these people of such faith when they never saw Him? It’s faith, our faith amazes the people in Heaven. And then keep reading, he says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in Him, are filled, you’re filled.” And this word “filled” - the Greek word means, “to overflowing abundance”.
It doesn’t mean just to splash, like a little splash of water. He’s talking about, you are filled, consumed, saturated, overflowing with this inexpressible joy that you cannot even express or explain to people. You’re filled with this inexpressible joy. He says, “For you are receiving the goal of your faith. The salvation of your souls.”
Here’s what I want to talk about this morning: genuine faith and glorious joy. And I want to tell you something really personal. I’ve just finished a book that I’m writing, and I just turned it in, and it’s based on our story. I’m telling our story. This book is for you. I wrote the book honestly as a dedication to what God’s done among us as a church in the last three years. And I think we have a story that’s worth telling. Because this is a miracle what we’re experiencing at New Life Church. I mean the fact that we’re gathered together, and having fun, and feel like God’s breathing on us and there‘s joy in this place. This is a miracle. It’s fascinating to me to watch what God’s doing here. And I, I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
But, about a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago, I remember April 2009. Pam and I were sitting at a lunch, and I remember the little restaurant we were sitting at eating Chinese food, and we’re at a little table. It was for two people. I was sitting across from her and I just kind of – I was going through the motions to be honest. It was our date, you know we’re on a date and we try to go on dates regularly as a couple, but on this – and normally they’re lots of fun.
We had a great time this week. We went to lunch, went to a movie together and I hope as married couples, you’re finding – marking those times down to make sure you’re purposefully spending time together at dating. And normally they’re the highlight. I love them, I love being with Pam. But on this day, my heart was done.
And I want to go into detail on this in the book, but I was really close to just shutting down. And I’ve never been at that place ever in my life, ever. I mean, I’m a guy that’s a glass half full guy, I think. I’m always pretty positive. I always see the best in people; always see the best in situations. But, on this day, Pam looked at me and said, “Brady, are you enjoying what you’re doing?”
Now, I could’ve lied. I could’ve been a poser and said things like, “Oh, yeah, yeah, it’s great.” But, I said, “No.” I said, “I think I’m this close - I’m very close to depression.” I don’t know what it feels like. I’ve never experienced it. I’ve been around people who struggle with it, but I’ve never been anywhere close to it in my personal walk, ever. Even in my darkest days. Even when my father passed away, even when things really happened bad in my life, I just never – I mourned and I was sad. But I never walked through depression, never even got close to it, never even sniffed it. But, I was really close.
And I just confessed to her, I said, “If I don’t get my joy back, I can’t do this long-term. But, I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t stand on the stage and say things that I don’t mean. I can’t stand on the stage and be somebody that I’m not. I just cannot do that.” And so I said, “Pam, if I don’t get my joy back,” and I’m being very honest with you guys today because I think there are a lot of you sitting out here today that if you were honest, not all of you, there are some of you that you’re really close to shutting down.
I think there’s some of you that may have already shut down on the inside. You’re just walking it out right now and you’re not really feeling anything. You put on a good face maybe, might be posing a bit. I’m not calling you a liar or a fake. I’m just saying I know what that feels like. You don’t want to confess this. You don’t want to tell people, “I’m done. Life is too hard.”
That’s what I told Pam, I said, “Pam, if I don’t get my joy back - I can’t do what God’s called me to do without joy. I want to say this to you. You can’t do what God’s called you to do without joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. That is the truth, that’s an absolute of scripture. And we need strength to do what God’s called us to do, right? All right, so I’m going to tell you how I got my joy back today, okay? I got it back, I mean it came back and it didn’t take long. But, this passage that I just read to you was the beginning point of God saying, “Brady, I want to you to live with genuine faith and glorious inexpressible joy.”
And this is what he says in verse four, he says, “I’m going to call you into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” I’m calling you, Brady, into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Now here’s step number one to get your joy back. You got to start living for Heaven and not for the earth. The earth is going to pass away. Everything we see will pass away, and God’s going to send a new Heaven and a new earth, and that’s my future. That is my eternity. And the first step for you getting back your joy is to get your eyes off the ground, lift up your head and see what God has already kept in Heaven for us. It is an inheritance. Literally, literally, the word inheritance means it’s already been legally established.
Pam and I have a will. We have a will, and in that will, we have as a legal document, that specifies that when I die, when Pam and I are passed, these are the things that we own; this is where it should go. This is what he’s saying to us. He said it’s already been legally established. There’s an inheritance in Heaven for us. I wonder how often during the day, let me ask you this question, and I posed this question to a few people this week: How often in your normal day, you know a normal Tuesday, how often do you think about Heaven?
Now, if you’ve just had someone pass away, you probably think about it more than the rest of us. If you have a loved one that’s there, maybe you think about Heaven more. But, I’m talking about you in Heaven. How often do you think about yourself in Heaven?
Again, it’s awesome. It gives us hope. The Bible says to think about the people that are in Heaven because it would give us hope and I’m fine with that. I’m talking about how often do you think of yourself in heaven? How often do you imagine what it’s going to be like? Are you even fascinated by it? I’m fascinated by it, because The Bible talks about Heaven a lot, a lot. And Paul, I mean Peter just talked about it. And I think when you begin to just take some time every day and say, “Lord, I’m just looking forward to Heaven.” I don’t think it’s a consolation prize. I think it’s kind of the prize. I think it’s the reward is there for us to spend time for eternity with God himself.
It’s fascinating. And when you start just taking some moments during your day and saying, “Lord, thank you for my inheritance. Thank you Lord that this is not all there is. Thank you, Lord that I’m just a pilgrim on this place.” I’m just journeying through this. This is not my final destination. Earth is not my home. I have an assignment here. I have something to do here.
I want to be productive on the Earth. I want to do what God’s called me to do on the Earth. I don’t want to miss out on any opportunities that God may provide for me here on the Earth. But Lord, I am so very grateful. Heaven is my home. And I am walking toward home right now. Do you know that? Everyday is a step I’m taking toward home. It feels to go home, doesn’t it? You know that?
On Thanksgiving, we’re going to go home, see my parents, or my mom and my step dad. She’s remarried to a wonderful man now, and I’m going to go home. It’s my hometown, it’s where I was born and raised. And it feels good. When we get on the plane and fly out there, it feels good to get off the plane and pull up in that driveway, doesn’t it? It should. I hope all of you had those kinds of places that you can go home. This is what Heaven feels – this is what I feel like everyday - today, Sunday, October or the 17th. I’m taking a step toward my home. I don’t know how many more steps I got, hopefully several thousand more steps. But everyday is a step toward the house, toward home. And you’ll start getting your joy back.
Feels good, I’m looking forward to going home, and it’s an anticipation, something to look forward to. I think if you have in your life right now - it’s always fun to have something to look forward to, doesn’t it? Listen, as Christ’s followers, we have something to look forward to: Heaven. Never going to perish, never going to spoil, never going to fade.
In verse six it says, “You may have to suffer grief and all kinds of trials.” Well, that’s encouraging. You may have to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. In other words, I didn’t want to be a crybaby at that lunch with Pam. You know, “Waaah, waaah, waaah, life is hard.” And I didn’t want to be that. I don’t want to be that guy, the whiny guy. It’s a whine-free zone at our house. No whining allowed. But that wasn’t whining, it was saying, “Brady, what you’re going through is happening with people all over the world right now, and I’m with them the way I’m with you.”
Don’t be surprised by trials. It’s not a matter of if you’re going to have to suffer grief, it’s when. Let me remind you of the words of Jesus. This is some of His final words, by the way, to his disciples. This was not spoken to the crowd. When Jesus said John 16, He was talking to a small group, to his buds, to his friends. “I’ve told you these things so that in Me, you may have peace.”
In this world, in this temporary world, you will have trouble but take heart. I have overcome the world. This is not hard for God, guys. God, the Father, God, the Son, God the Holy Spirit are not up in Heaven right now going, “Wow! We never saw that coming! Never saw the economy taking a downturn like that. Who predicted this?” You think they’re scrambling for some kind of plan B up there in Heaven right now?
You think they’re calling emergency meetings, you know working over the weekend trying to figure out a plan because we got a lot of people asking us, all of a sudden, Lord, we got a lot of people praying and we ran out of answers. Quick, and then, it’s an emergency meeting! Now God’s going, “Listen, hey, take a deep breath, I’ve already overcome the world.” And this is all temporary. Guys, this is temporary. Take a deep breath, lift up your head. Lift up your head. I’ve overcome the world. And that’s the beginning, I’m telling you, if you lift it like that, “Lord, I’m not the only one going through hard times.”
And then he says in verse seven, Let me tell you why you’re going to suffer grief and all kinds of trouble. He said, “So that your faith” and he says, “which is far more precious than gold maybe proved genuine.” Can I tell you what I know to be true about you? Now, I’ve been with you a little over three years. People ask me when I go around, or when I’m with some of my friends, and say, “Hey, Brady, what do you know about New Lifers?” I say, “I’ll tell you what I know about New Lifers.”
And by the way, I prayed something this morning, I said, “Lord, thank you for faithful people that I get to hang out with. Thank you for the faithful people that walk alongside us, we walk alongside together. I was just watching some of you walking in, and I’m not trying to spy on you but I do watch you when you walk in because I pray for you as you’re walking in. And I saw a bunch of you, and there was one couple that pulled up in their car about 8:15 this morning because every Sunday, they’re here, serving. I see them every Sunday. And I just said when they got out of the car this morning, “Lord, thank you for those faithful people. They’re always so sincere. They just seem so faithful and I’m just - thank you for them.”
Here’s what I know about New Life: we may be messy, and we’re certainly not perfect, but we’ve been tested and our faith has been proven to be genuine. I can tell you that. That’s a fact. We’re messy, we don’t always get it right and there are many times we make more mistakes, but our faith has been proved genuine. And listen, suffering and grief, they don’t earn you salvation. That was paid for at the cross. Suffering and grief, though, does prove whether or not your faith is genuine. It proves whether or not what you say - do you really believe what you say? Will you walk it out when things are not Disney?
It proves something. It reveals something. And this is why right now as the economy is ebbing and flowing, it doesn’t cause marriages to go bad. It just reveals the cracks that were already there. Or it reveals the strength of your marriage that was already there. This is what suffering and grief does. It reveals something. It exposes something. It proves something, if whether or not we were genuine or not.
Then he says in verse eight, “It’s filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” I want to tell you what I believe are joy robbers in our lives. Before I tell you that, I read an old letter. It’s very old, in fact it was written in like 200 AD by a guy named Dionysius. And you can look him up, Google it, Dionysius. Dionysius, some people believe that this guy who wrote the letter was the guy that was mentioned in Acts Chapter 17, that “Paul led to the Lord a guy named Dionysius.” This guy went on to historically prove in fact this guy Dionysius actually kind of the leader of all North Africa.
All the churches that were being formed in North Africa, Egypt, that area; this guy was kind of the prominent leader in the second century for those churches. He wrote a letter one time to one of his friends. He was a very young man and he wrote this letter. He wrote to a very close friend and he says, “I have decided today to become a Christ follower. I found those people to be very peculiar. I watched them as they are persecuted. I watched them as they suffered but they are filled with this…” and he quotes this passage, “… they are filled with this inexpressible joy and I’ve decided I want to be a part of them.”
This guy gives his heart to the Lord because he was hanging around persecuted Christ-followers who had this wellspring of joy that would not go away. Can I tell you something, how great an opportunity we have right now in this world? Can I tell you that we don’t have to have the fake plastic happy smile on our face? I’m not talking about that, because people see through that really quick. If you got the cheesy church smile, drop it. Lose it because nobody’s buying it.
But what people are fascinated by is this joy that cannot be taken away.
It doesn’t matter what we walk to. Yes we may mourn, we may grieve, we maybe sad. But at the core of who we are as Christ followers, we should be a people that radiate this inexpressible joy at every time. Can I tell you how intoxicated it is to be around someone like that? I mean when I find somebody like that I don’t want to leave, I want to hang out with him, I want to be around him. On the contrary, I don’t like being around critical negative people. I mean how often do you say, “I just need to find somebody really critical and negative today. I just haven’t had my fill of that yet.” And you wonder why you don’t have any friends. Well, stop being negative. Stop being critical. Stop fussing.
I mean if you got substantial joy that’s real and it’s authentic, man people just want to around you, they just want to be with you. And this is what Dionysius found. He said, “I found this peculiar group of people. No matter how much they’re persecuted, the still had this joy. No matter how tough their life becomes, they’ve got this joy that won’t go away. I think I’m going to be a part of them.” He gives his heart to Jesus and becomes the leader of all of North Africa because of one little group of people he found, that they had not lost their joy.
Let me tell you two things that I believe are joy robbers, all right – that can steal the joy. Number one is discouraging words, discouraging words; they can take your joy from you. And that’s why - listen, can I challenge you this morning to be supersensitive about what you’re say to people? Don’t bring up the negative all the time. Be an encourager. You have no idea like, you know last year I didn’t get up here on that and that I spoke during April last year. I did. I didn’t get up here on the Sunday and say, “Hey, by the way I had a conversation with Pam this week and I’m kind of tanked.”
Because number one, I’m working through. I knew God was with me and I knew I’d work through it. I knew God would do something in my heart. I was not without hope, but I don’t get up here and tell you what – but listen, during that time, I was supersensitive to the comments of people. And you didn’t know that. But, I was really sensitive about it. I actually needed somebody to tell me, “Hey, that was really good.” Even if it wasn’t I just need you to kind of lie about it every once in a while. You know just make it up if you can.
But, I remember that time I got some super encouraging words from some close friends. And they didn’t know what I was going through either. But those encouraging words literally were like the breath of Heaven in my cells [blowing]. I mean it was like, “Thank you Lord for some water.” Encouraging words are powerful. We have the power of life and death in our tongues, our words – the discouraging words.
Number two, and now this is something I want to really help you with today. The second joy robber is what I call diminishment. Now this is common among Christ’s followers. The idea of diminishment is this. Diminishment means I am fixated on everything that’s bad while ignoring the miracle that God’s doing all around me. And it doesn’t take very many bad things to draw our attention away from the miraculous. Have you noticed that? How quickly we focus on the bad? Well it may just be a small thing but, in the reality, God is doing miracles all around us.
I found myself a few weeks ago fixated on a couple of problems that I was having to work through. And then God just reminded me. You know, He said, “Brady, over 400 have been baptized at New Life Church in 2010. Over 900 documented decisions for Christ in 2010. Brady, New Life planted a church in Austin, Texas where nobody plants successful churches, and there’s 300 people showed up and already the church is formed.” And Pastor Ross [ph] is blessed. He said, “Brady, you planted a church in downtown Denver. Nobody plants successful churches in downtown Denver.” And Rob Brendell’s [ph] got about 600 people now just doing great and tearing it up.
Putting a hole in the universe up there and I was like, “Thank you, Lord.” Then, “Brady, just this week you had building given to you for your first Dream Center. They gave it to you rent free.” [audience reaction] Listen I don’t get up here and say those things. I’m not bragging about it. I’m not boastful. I just want you to know, there’s miracles happening all around us. Kids giving their life to Jesus, people being called in to ministry, people taking the next step, marriages being saved, people’s bodies being healed of intense sickness. All the time I get reports, all the time.
And the enemy wants you to focus on a few little problems and ignore the vast ocean of miracles that are happening all around us. I remember when I turned my eyes away, it’s not that you’re supposed to put your head in the sand and ignore the problems. Just don’t give so much bandwidth to it. Here’s the only way I found, for me, that I can get my focus back and that’s worship. By the way, everything is worship not just music and songs. Everything in our life is worship. Everything points to God. All of our lives are worship.
But, I found myself, “Lord, I just want to get into Your presence, the presence of God as much as I can throughout the day, all the time.” And I turned off talk radio for a long time because of the negative, and it was contentious and I just found myself listening to “How He Loves” by Jared Anderson and “You Hold It All” by Jon Egan, other stuff that I like. And I just filled my iPod and my radio and my CD player with just stuff that’s going to fill me with God. And I found April, May, June – by June, I was a different guy. It might not happen that quick for you, but it may happen quicker.
And I can tell you that what you focus upon is who you’ll become. What we focus our attention upon will eventually form who we are on the inside. I’m a guy that’s got my joy back now. I’m a happy guy. Happiness is not what I’m – I don’t want to confuse you. My circumstances haven’t changed that much. But what’s happening on the inside of me has. I’m not talking about everything being perfect in Brady’s world. They’re not.
I’m talking having an inexpressible joy. I just think I could stare down Satan himself if I had to. This time I’m not intimated by it, because I got joy and he can’t take it from me. He can’t take it anymore. I’ve taken the weapon away from him. He can’t take my joy. He can’t take my joy. He can’t stop Brady. The joy of the Lord is my strength, and I don’t ever want to lose it again. I want you to get it back.
I may only be speaking to one person in this crowd, I don’t know if it’s even resonating with any of you. But I think there’s at least one person here. I’m telling you, you’re going to get your joy back and you’re not going to lose it again. You’re not going to lose it again. You’re going to get it back. And you’re not going to lose it again. Are you hearing what I’m saying? You’re going to get your joy back and you’re not going to lose it again. [audience reaction] I want you to stand. I want to have our band come back.
I love Pastor John, you know Pastor John. I call him Pastor because he pastored us on the stage this morning by the way. And I love that about him. I have had no conversations with John about my sermon this week. He may have heard but, I didn’t tell him. He gets up here and starts talking about dry bones. He was preaching my message, I was like I’m just going to let the guy keep going because he’s doing a lot better job than what I was going to do anyway. He was doing it.
Listen to me, I want us this morning, I want our altar ministry to step out and come forward first. And we’re going to end this time this morning in the presence of God.
And here’s what I want. We’re not running late, so I want you to stay with me if you can. If you need to leave, I understand, you’re not offending me. But here’s what I want. I want us to turn our hearts towards God this morning and I want us to worship together. And I want you to ask the Lord, “Lord, help me to fix my eyes on the things that are eternal.” I want you to imagine yourself today, if you’re a Christ follower, you’ve been adopted into a big old messy family and you’re going to spend the rest of your eternity in Heaven. And today is one giant step toward Heaven for you. You’re headed home. That’s good news by the way. It’s not a morbid thought. I am headed home.
I want you to imagine yourself in Heaven. Can you just imagine yourself, what it’s going to be like? You’re not going to get it right by the way. It’s much better than you can think. None of us have enough imagination to describe how great Heaven’s going to be. But I think it’s healthy to picture yourself there. It’s a good thing. Heaven’s a good thing. Heaven’s good. That’s maybe the best understatement I’ve ever given.
Can we just focus on the Lord? You can close your eyes if you want, whatever you need to do to focus on God. Can we just, if you’re comfortable, just lift your hands this morning and we’re going to sing this song here in your presence. And this song comes out of Psalm 16:11. “You will show me the path of life. In Your presence, in Your presence is the fullness of joy.” That’s the scripture. “In Your presence, oh God, is the fullness of joy.” Let’s worship together.
