The last Sunday of the year lands on James 1 and its instruction to consider trials joy. Pastor Adam works it through endurance, notes how little in modern life teaches it, and sends the congregation into the new year on three words: exist, perceive, endure.

Dr. James Smith III preaches the angel’s announcement as the answer to why Jesus came. The shepherds are not told to feel better; they are told something has happened, in a named town, with a verifiable sign attached, and the joy follows the fact.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Pastor Adam preaches joy at the point in December when many can least manufacture it, describing hope as the long road joy travels before arriving, and refusing either to diminish pain or to let go of hope.

A Christmas series on joy opens in Hebrews 12, with a race run under a cloud of witnesses. Pastor Adam treats joy as something produced rather than waited for, in three moves, and puts losing heart forward as the actual risk being guarded against.