Amen and amen. How we doing, church? You're good. You look great. If you got your Bibles and I, you better.

Grab them, go to Philippians. Philippians. If you didn't bring your own Bible, you can grab one in the seat back in front of you.

If you don't have one, that's our gift to you. If you've got one at home, it looks like King James wrote it himself.

Or Shakespeare,

the thee before thine, except after thou, then grab one of these. It's in a translation that you can

understand. We are studying the book of Philippians, and the reason that we're doing this is because

at the beginning of the year, we declare that this is the year of life and life abundantly. And I didn't

make those words up. Jesus did in John chapter 10. He says

that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus, the good shepherd, has

come that we may have life and have it abundantly. And we live in a world and the best thing

this world can offer is happiness. And happiness is okay, but happiness is rooted in your

happening. So when the happenings change, your happiness can go with it.

But joy is rooted in Jesus, and he never changes, or our joy never has to go away.

Joy is not a feeling.

Joy is a lifestyle.

And to understand this letter, it's really a letter, we call it a book, but it's only

this big, okay?

In my Bible, it's only this big, okay? In my Bible,

it's only this big. But I use the EOP, the extra large print version. So some of you, it's like,

the whole letter is like fits in your pocket. God bless you and your eyesight, all right?

In fact, I can't even get a study Bible in the font that I need it because it would say like in the beginning okay that's how it would go and you've got to

understand that the apostle paul writes this to his friends in philippi from prison and this is

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