Happy new year. We've got a lot of good stuff to think about this year. It's been great just worshiping this morning knowing that our burdens have been lifted. The liberty is ours, the freedom that we've been given in Jesus Christ. That free from judgment, sin, and this year ought to be a happy year for all of us. You know, it's a subject that we can't speak about too much in this first principle for the new year. Choose joy. Don't wait for it. That's the whole point, not just the first part. Choose joy. Don't wait for it. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Say it together. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. You know, people wait all week for Friday. They wait all year for summer and some wait their whole lives for joy. Looking for joy. Folks, joy has arrived. We don't need to wait. You know, it's not like you're out there six o'clock in the morning waiting for a bus to come. You know, the bus has pulled up. The door is open. We need you need to step on. This year I pray that it'll be a ride of joy for you by faith. You know, I read somewhere about a pastor who saw a young boy in the church about seven years old. His name was Alex. He was out there staring up at the wall in the north exit for your area. And as he stood there, he was looking up there for the longest time, just gazing. Finally the pastor went up and said, Alex, what are you doing? I'm looking at this on the wall. What is this? Well, it's a list of names. There were names and there were little flags near red and white, blue, American flags next to the names. Pastor says it's a memorial. All the young men and women who died in the service of Alex was shocked. Pastor, which service? The 830 or 11 o'clock? Well, you know, life doesn't always bring us what we wish. Sometimes it brings us pain. Sometimes we're very troubled in our hearts because of what is coming our way. But under it all, there is a joy. Just like we easily access that laugh, there is a joy that's just as equally accessible to us who believe. If you will believe it, we are at peace with God. And God is at peace with us through Jesus Christ. This is a day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And in that context of that verse in Psalm 118, verse 24, it's speaking of Christ riding into Jerusalem to be bound and put on the festival altar to be sacrificed to bring us joy when He brought us our salvation. Say it again. This is a day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This year, every day, choose joy. Don't wait for it. Secondly, get better at giving. Get better at giving. This too can be a joyful experience for us. You know what Jesus said? You know the verse. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, press down, shaken together, and running over. It will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Get better at giving your time. Get better at giving your money. Get better at giving your resources, your energy, your idea, your anything, your everything. Get better at giving to advance the kingdom of God in your family, in your church, in your community, in the world. It's a joyful ride. You know, it will always be true that it is indeed more blessed to be giving that it is for us to be receiving. The question is, will we be entering deeper and 2016 deeper into that blessing ourselves to find out what does that verse mean? What does that scripture mean? Somehow I'm blessed, and I believe that God will show you a greater way in which his blessings will rest upon you as your heart is freed up more and more, and your hands are freed up more and more, to be a conduit, a vessel, to be better at giving what God brings your way. Giving teaches us so many things that indeed it is far better to be laying treasures up in heaven than it is on earth. It teaches us the art and practice of surrender. It teaches us about self-discipline. It teaches us about self-control and it teaches us about preferring other people. And some of you are pretty good at that, but I want you to be better. God wants you to be better. It teaches us to serve God's kingdom above our own kingdoms. Giving is a good practice because I think when we get to the other side we'll find that's just the way everybody is. They're just loving on everybody else and giving themselves to them. You know, our story was owned by the name of Linda Howard. She says there was a time in Ireland, a time of starvation, a time of disease during the what's been called the potato famine in 1847. And it said that these, I believe the remind workers, they go to work and it become lunchtime. And this one minor would disappear. He would just take his lunch pill, go box, and he'd go up and eat it on his own. No one ever saw him eating his lunch. And some of them were thinking, you know this guy, here we're basically, you know, just sprinting by and this guy has taken his lunch. He's probably, who knows what's in there? Fruits and vegetables and maybe a nice big sandwich stacked real high. He's over there probably gorging on at himself and won't share it. Finally one day it said that somebody got his pale and they opened it up and it looked inside. There it was. It was filled with potato peels that each day what was happening was potatoes, one of the few things that you could eat during the family. But he was peeling the potatoes, giving the potatoes to his children for their lunches. And he was eating peels. What a wonderful thing it is when parents know how to sacrifice for their children when spouses notice sacrifice for one another when all of us know how to give ourselves even when it hurts to be a blessing to someone else. Jesus said, if it will be given to you, good measure, press down, shaking together, running over. It'll be poured into your lap. With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Pray that God would help you discover more deeply the joy of giving and greater measure this year. Now my next bit of biblical advice is when in trouble, when in trouble, review God's history of helping. When in trouble, review God's history of helping His people when you're up against the wall with no way out. Remember that God has a long history of helping people who have been up against the wall with no way out. When God's people were at the Red Sea, when the enemy was charging down on them and it looked like they were going to be destroyed, there was no way to go at this army of soldiers and chariots and horses and men with spears and swords were about to massacre them. Nothing behind them but a wall of water. We know what happened, right? It just opened up and God led them safely through their trouble. When hungry crowd of people, over 5,000 were listening to the teachings of Christ as we're doing this morning on one important person absent here. They were there all day, many of them and they were tired and they were hungry and they were far out of town. They had nothing to eat, listening to Jesus and somehow as they looked to Him, these hungry people found that He would find a way on that day to feed them. We took a few lows and a few faces that every one of them in the crowd, every single one of them who was hungry, he found a way to feed them. Then that little piece at the end, it says, by the way, there were 12 baskets left over. Everyone was satisfied and there were still 12 baskets left over when you're in trouble where you view God's history of helping. There were stories after story in the Bible to tell us about that, about the disciples when they were caught in a sudden storm. Their boat was being swamped, right? It was about to sink in any moment. If you're like that, you're in a boat, you're being swamped. It's filling up with water and, oh man, this boat's not going to go too far forward anymore. I'm going to sink to the bottom. We were told in March, chapter 4, the furious squall that came upon them and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped with water. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. That's how it feels sometimes, right? Lord, we're drowning in here. You're taking a nap. What are you doing? Did you even notice anything happening here? We're not just wet, like we're saturated and the water's up to our neck. The disciples wake him up and said, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, we still. Then the wind died down and it was completely cold. I tell you, the Lord's done it a thousand times, a million times, caring for His people. He has a long history of doing that and so he puts these accounts in the Bible for a reason. Romans 15-4, some of you know it. For whatever was written in the former days or written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. You got it? When you're in trouble, recall the stories that God has put in the box. Read about them. He has a great history of helping His people when they're in trouble. It's a good way to deal with the problems in the New Year, recall the history of God's helping hand. Fourthly, love the questions. Love the questions. How many of you would like to get in a few nice Christmas gifts this year? You've got some things. You're probably happy about those things. You've got some gadgets you've got in your hand. Maybe you've got something out there in the car you're fiddling around with or you've got something you've probably already eaten. Maybe a big box of chocolates that you've enjoyed, especially if they're homemade. We still have some on our counter from the neighbors, several neighbors brought them over. I tell you, I guess they're great cooks when homeers are having them. Some of you love babies. Most of us love babies. But don't worry about it. Some of you love a nice trip to sunny beach by now. I'm trying to work one out this month. It's all my schedule. I got a couple of conflicts. I'm working at it. A promotion, a raise. You'd like that, wouldn't you? We love those things. But it's not easy sitting back. It's not easy to, should say, sit on top of a question mark. It's a hard thing to sit on a question mark. Especially when it's difficult. It doesn't seem to be any answer. We don't want to sit there, do we? We'd rather get this thing resolved. There it is. Now we can get on with our lives. But question marks come. Hard questions. Sometimes we're bouncing around on our heads and thinking about them in the middle of the night when we should be sleeping. Sometimes you should be in a conversation talking to somebody. But you've got just a question mark. It's like kicking around in your head. You can't get it out and just punch you. Sometimes you just have one question that won't go away. Maybe you've had it for years. It's hard to live a joyful Christian life, isn't it? If you've just got this question that haunts you, and it's disturbing your peace. Well, the truth is, the 1 Corinthians 13 and 12 says, now we see in a mirror dimly. We see in a mirror dimly. We try to play a game the other night. It's not a daughter-in-law. Some kind of a combination of a board card game or something. You couldn't see the cards very well. You could see what the images were. So we had to turn on a bunch of the other lights to XTC to be any good at the game. That's how it is at life sometimes. We want to play the game of life. We're trying to really do it well, play it well. And yet there's not enough light. You want to like squinty here. And then we walk it around and we're in pain because why can't we just stop squinting? Well, you know, that's the nature of life. We see as in a mirror dimly. We don't really see what we like to see sometimes. A lot of times it gets in our way. Then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part. Then we shall know fully even as we're known. We'll have some clarity on these things that we don't have now. So I say, let's learn to love the questions. Learn to love the questions. We don't have to panic. Understand? You know, when I was in the process of seeking Christ, seeking actually to get my life together. And I was literally in my mind keeping the score of whether I should put my confidence in Christ. There was one question that bother me and it had to do with third world countries. And, you know, I was thinking about what about people in these third world countries? People have never heard of Christ. What about them? What will happen to them? You know, I got to think God must have a sense of humor. Now, about four decades later, God sends to our church in one way or another three mature Christians. All connected, these three mature Christians all connected to third world countries. One grows up in our church and now is how translating the Bible, actually putting together a language in the Bible so that people in third world countries can read about Christ. Another from Liberia helped to start an orphanage in a Christian school in a third world country. And here, from a place called Kenya, on staff preaching, teaching, Scripture. I don't know if you guys are a third world country but it's kind of neat that you're here. You know, don't let the questions scare you. Learn to love the questions. Doesn't mean we don't seek answers and try to resolve them but don't let them get in the way because the neat thing is you know the question. Guess who else knows the question? He knows the question. God. Guess what else he knows? He knows the answer. Now we see in a mirror dimly, 1 Corinthians 13 and 12. Then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part. Then we shall know even as we're fully known. May God grant you grace enough to get better this year at loving the questions instead of freaking out and losing a lot of sleep. May you grow in your confidence in the God who holds both the questions and the answers. Fifthly, 5 out of 6, or there, or getting there. This is a more of a proactive point for you. Choose a precious to God verse for 2016. Choose a precious to God verse for 2016. What do you mean there? Well, I mean, we've been talking about trouble, right? Talking about questions, unanswered questions. Talking about reviewing history sometimes when we're in trouble. How God has a history of helping people in trouble. But how about being proactive? Take one verse that teaches you that you're precious to God and make that a year of verse. Now we do when we take in new members. We give you a verse, right? For your time here in Grace Church. How about taking a verse for you for this year? Memorize it and meditate on it. How about, I have about eat and I, these are available by the way, at the end of the service. But you can do your own. I just picked up some at first Peter 2.9. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. It's longer, but I'm going to give you that part. Your God's special possession. How helpful is that when you're living your day? Hey, he considers me special. How about Romans 9.25? As indeed, he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people and her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. Your God's beloved. When I address you from the pulpit, sometimes I should call you, hey beloved, use us, hey folks or fellow believers or just I said church, we are, we are all those things, right? How about beloved? You love my God. I want to put five to hold you through the next 366 days, by the way, for the whole year. We've already used up a few. How about Matthew 29 or 1029 from the New Living Testament? What is the price of two sparrows, two sparrows, one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your fathers knowing it. So don't be afraid. You're more viable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. That's pretty cool. Maybe that'll be your verse of memory and meditation for this year. Precious to God, verse. For first John 3, I think I'm going to make this with mine. See what great love the Father has lavished on us. That we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God. And what we will be has not yet been made known. And we know when Christ appears, we shall be like Him. And we shall see Him as He is. Then there's this little exhortation about you who are God's dear children, all who have this hope in Him, purify themselves. In other words, put the pure light just as He is pure. God's chits away, God's children act just like their Father and the Savior. John 10, 10, maybe you want this one. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Some days you feel like you're being killed, right? Destroyed, stolen from. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. That is a great one. You don't even have to memorize that one. It's right there on the surface. And there are more. Titus 3, Zephaniah. I'll leave you for this one. Zephaniah 3, 17. I think someone got this receipt in the membership class. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. Can you imagine that? He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by His love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. You need some attention some day. You feel forgotten, a lonely? That's a great verse. God's rejoicing over you, singing all about you. Verse Peter 5, 7, and on and on and on. So that's the fifth one. So be proactive this year and memorize a precious to God verse for 2016. Meditate. Maybe I put it above your sun visor on your refrigerator or somewhere on your desk at work, somewhere where you can access it during the year. I can say I've cut up quite a few of them in the back if you want any of the ones I referenced under war. And finally, end your day with a thank you. Can you say that? End your day with it. Just try it again. End your day with a thank you. Okay, well you know a few years ago when I the point I gave you, right? Start. Go ahead and say it. Yeah, you got to start your day with a thank you. You're a very smart crowd. Start your day with a thank you. You're welcome. So you know, tell God when you get out of bed. Lord, thanks for this day. And if you're still alive at the end of the day, something else you can do. Lord, thanks for another day. Thanks for this day. It's interesting. I discovered it when I was reading First Chronicles 23. It talks about the Levites who are the assistants to the priests. They help them in the worship. Guess what they're one of the responsibility was to do to stand there in the morning. Guess what they were doing to give thanks to God. And guess what they did at night? Stand there in the temple giving thanks to God. You can read about it. First Chronicles 23.30 and they were to stand every morning thanking and praising the Lord Yahweh and likewise in the evening. Finish today with gratitude. Somebody gives you a Christmas gift. I hope you said thank you. Somebody takes you out to dinner. I hope you say thank you. Somebody gives you a birthday gift. We say thank you, right? It's rude not to say that. Someone gives you a whole day. For the whole lot of things in the day, I think it would be appropriate. If we got good at saying thank you, I read and think it was Denzel Washington. He was giving us speeches last May, I believe it wasn't, to some young actors. And guess what he told them? He said, let me give you some advice. He said, I suggest that when you go to bed, you take off your shoes and you put them far underneath your bed. Because in order to do that, you got to get down on your knees. And while you're down there, you can thank God. Thank God for his grace and mercy and then you understand that he's giving you. Maybe we can do that. I just put my glasses on the floor. I'm going to get down there. You know, that means they're going to get down there at night and get down there in the morning. And I can start the day and the day the same way. He gives us 86,400 sections each day. Surely we can take a few of those seconds to thank him at the end of each day. May God give you a grateful, joyful heart this year as we look to his grace coming our way again through Jesus Christ our Lord. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.