Help for Troubled Hearts

[0:00] John chapter 14, I think some of the most beautiful words in the entire Bible.! Jesus speaking. Let not your hearts be troubled.

[0:12] ! Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

[0:26] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.

[0:42] That is the beautiful word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Before I forget, if you missed the kids program this morning, you missed something very precious.

[0:55] Thank you, Sister Dawson and your team for doing that. It was amazing. It was beautiful. And our kids sang so beautifully. Way to go, guys.

[1:06] Way to go. If you can hear me back there, wherever you are. Trouble is part of the human condition.

[1:18] I think we all agree on that. Matter of fact, the Bible even says it. In Job chapter 14, verse 1, man who is born of woman is of a few days and full of trouble.

[1:32] In other words, it doesn't take long for trouble to find us. And it isn't just a little trouble. The Bible says we are full of trouble.

[1:44] I mean, really? Yeah. Trouble comes because we are sinners, live among sinners, and we live in a fallen world.

[1:58] A world that is yet under the curse of God from Adam and Eve's sin. Paradise was lost. And humanity cannot regain it by our good ideas or good works.

[2:14] But we all want it. Everybody wants paradise in some form or another. Because we need hope.

[2:27] We need hope that there's something better coming. After all our pain and suffering in this life, we hope there's something better.

[2:41] But though we can't earn it, and we can't earn it, and we can't make it, paradise is accessible to us.

[2:52] It's accessible to us as a gift of God's grace in the King of glory. That's the only way to paradise.

[3:04] And it's knowing that destiny. It's being sure of that destiny. That is what we need for our troubled hearts and troubled lives.

[3:19] Do you know where you're going? Our Lord is beginning his final teaching moment in earnest here in chapter 14.

[3:30] He's about to be, in 13, he's about to be glorified. His disciples are to, he had told them to live in a way that manifests his work in their lives by living in his love.

[3:43] By all, by love, by this love, all men will know that you are my disciples. But trials are coming. Because Jesus is leaving.

[3:56] Listen to how he comforts his disciples. First, he identifies the problem. The troubles start in our hearts.

[4:11] Let your hearts be troubled. Literally, literally, in the original language, it goes like this. Not be continually troubled.

[4:23] Your hearts believe in me. Believe in God. Not be continually troubled. That's how he begins the sentence, literally.

[4:33] It emphasizes that what he is talking about is the trouble in our hearts. Now, why is that as important? Again, the word trouble has surprisingly first been applied to Jesus.

[4:48] In John 11, 33, at Lazarus' tomb, seeing the people weeping, the text says he was deeply moved. Troubled. When he realized the time of the cross had come in chapter 12, verse 27, he says, My soul is troubled.

[5:09] And finally, when Judas was going to betray him in chapter 13, verse 21, he says he was troubled in spirit.

[5:20] The word troubled means agitation. It's emotional. It's distress. It's being disturbed, stirred up, confused, even at times it can be translated terrified.

[5:35] Listen, saints. If it can happen to Jesus in his humanity, how much more will it happen to us? Our hearts are stirred up.

[5:52] Our peace is assaulted. And when that happens, you know we are liable to do things we shouldn't.

[6:04] When you get agitated and stirred up and confused and doing this kind of, and panicking, you are at a place where you might say and do something you might regret.

[6:20] It's the fight, flight, or freeze mechanism that kicks in. So if we don't deal with that in a biblical manner, we can cause damage to ourself and to others.

[6:34] You see, in the Bible, the heart is important. The heart throughout the scripture, it doesn't mean the pumping organ in our chest, you know this.

[6:45] But metaphorically, it means the seat of our personality. It means our minds, our will, our emotions, our imaginations, our dreams.

[6:59] They are all contained in the heart. So if your heart is being continually agitated and stirred up, that means your internal life is falling apart.

[7:15] Unless you get some help. A lot of times we go to the psychiatrist or to a counselor. But we can also go to Jesus. Because if we don't do something, our hearts, before we do anything right or wrong, our hearts are moved.

[7:41] Our actions follow what's happening in the heart. Jesus said, of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

[7:56] What you say, Jesus says, comes from that inner organ, that inner place, that spiritual place known as the heart. This is why God says to us in Proverbs 4.23, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.

[8:18] That's the ESV. I want to give you the New Living Translation version of that. Very helpful. NLT. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

[8:33] Just in case you didn't get it the first time, I thought that would be helpful. Above all else, don't guard your money. Above all else, don't even guard your life.

[8:53] Above all else, he says, guard your heart. Guard what you love. Guard what you imagine. Guard what you constantly think about.

[9:09] Guard what you are ambitious for. Guard your heart. Because anxiety, agitation, distress, and fear are all part of the human experience.

[9:27] When it happens, it means something has gone wrong or about to go wrong. And we feel it. How do you feel when you get stirred up?

[9:39] When you get troubled? Is your mind flooded with thoughts of doom? Does your heart rate rise? Does your mouth go dry?

[9:54] I sweat around my forehead. I can feel it. You may not be able to see it, but I can feel sweat beads on my forehead. Maybe sometimes we even start to tremble.

[10:08] Something has got to change. Quickly. The disciples are experiencing emotional trouble because Jesus says he will be absent from them.

[10:23] I'm leaving. And you can't come with me. Now. They think he will not be with them at all.

[10:35] But isn't that how? Isn't that our lives? So much of the trouble in our lives comes because we don't believe God is present with us. Or God help us.

[10:46] Sometimes we don't even think God cares. Let's be honest. Come on, people. It's okay. The Lord won't fall off his throne because you have a meltdown. Sometimes when stuff keeps coming at you, you got to wonder, is anybody up there driving the bus?

[11:07] You feel like you feel alone. The ancients spoke of a condition. They called it the dark night of the soul. It's that time in a Christian's life where God feels absent.

[11:20] Where you're praying and your prayers are hitting the ceiling. Boing, boing, boing. Where you come to worship and you're singing and you're trying to sing and you don't feel nothing.

[11:34] You may not even want to feel, you may even feel like singing because you feel so burdened. And you feel like God has abandoned you. You feel like a spiritual orphan underneath those troubles.

[11:49] But let me ask you a question. Is it true? Is it true?

[12:00] If you are a disciple of Jesus, will he ever abandon you? If you are a disciple of Jesus, you are a child of God, will you ever be an orphan again?

[12:13] You've been adopted. Family, it's okay to question your feelings. I know that's not popular today because we think that what you feel must be true.

[12:31] Yeah, it's true that you're feeling it. That's true. But is the situation really true?

[12:42] You feel abandoned, are you? You feel alone, are you? You feel orphaned and forgotten, are you? Christian, are you? Sometimes your feelings are just that, your feelings.

[12:58] Jesus says, don't let your hearts be troubled. Another translation could go like this. Stop letting your hearts be troubled.

[13:11] It's a command. It's an imperative. He's not asking us. He's telling us. Jesus, stop letting your hearts be troubled. How?

[13:22] Jesus, just stop? Just stop? No, our Lord would never leave us like that. So how? Heart troubled is conquered by two realities in our passage.

[13:35] The first reality is this. Troubles are conquered by faith. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

[13:45] The very next thing he says. So you have to understand that this is the remedy to what he's talking about. You're troubled. Disciples, you are going to be troubled. But listen. To deal with that, believe in God and believe also in me.

[13:59] First, notice our Lord has a high view of himself. If Bill said, believe in God, believe also in me, we take him to the place where, you know, he can get some help.

[14:17] You can't do that. He puts faith in him on the same level as the Father. You believe in God, right? Well, believe also in me.

[14:33] You can count on me like you count on him. It always shocks me when I read scholars who say Jesus never claimed to be God.

[14:44] I mean, really? That's not, that's foolishness. That's really crazy. Of course he did. Many places. And here is one of those places. No faithful Jew would ever put himself and God in the same light like this.

[14:59] This is blasphemy. If it's not true. He deserves to be stoned by his own people.

[15:09] If it's not true. And just note this. We are not called merely to have faith. We're not called merely to have faith. You will hear people say today, you just have to have faith.

[15:25] Problem with that is faith in what? You ever hear people say that? You're going through a tough time and they say, you just have to have faith. Well, ask them faith in what?

[15:36] Faith demands an object. I guess there's some people who believe in faith and faith. But faith is not an object.

[15:47] Faith is a reaction to an object. You have faith in someone or something or you don't. And what you have faith in might not be reliable.

[16:04] Let's be honest. Some of you think I'm crazy. You question my faith in the Dallas Cowboys. But you are not enlightened.

[16:19] However, I have to admit, since they have not won a playoff game since 2016, I can understand your shameful lack of faith, which I find disturbing.

[16:35] To be honest, with their recent history, my faith in them is likely misplaced. But I stopped by on my way to heaven to tell you that faith in Jesus is rock solid.

[16:52] He has won and always will win. He has all authority. He said it at the Great Commission. At the very beginning of the Great Commission, he said it, all authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me.

[17:07] The risen Son of God is running the show and driving the bus. And this is the secret to the lives of the Old Testament saints and New Testament saints.

[17:21] Just read Hebrews 11 when you get a chance. That's called the Hall of Faith. Hebrews 11, where all the Old Testament saints are brought forward and their faith is being realized as you read through the passage.

[17:33] It's beautiful. It is trust faith in the Bible. Now, people say this. You hear people say, what is faith? Ask people on the street, what is faith? Faith is believing in what you cannot prove.

[17:46] Have you heard that before? Anybody ever hear that? I'm just one. Am I the only one who's heard this before? Oh, gosh, I'm the only one. Okay, y'all got to get out more. Talk to people.

[17:59] Yeah, they say, faith is believing what you cannot prove. Well, that's their version of faith. That ain't the Bible's version of faith, y'all. It is trusting in what you know about God and His ways as revealed in His Word.

[18:19] Faith has an object. It's God. It's who God is. What God has done. It's God's record. So we're not trusting in what we cannot prove. We are trusting in the living God who created heavens and earth and sustains all thing by His powerful Word.

[18:37] This is why the Word of God says this. I'm back to Hebrews 11 again. 11.6. Watch this. And without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Let's please God.

[18:47] You see, it's impossible.

[19:02] You can't have a relationship with God without faith. Jesus, by calling us to believe in Him, is calling for us to trust Him.

[19:15] To trust Him with everything. Everything. First of all, our destiny, our souls. But the disciples already trust Him.

[19:32] He's saying, trust me with your lives. Sometimes you have to trust Jesus when you don't know what the outcome will be. You don't know what's going to happen.

[19:45] You're not in control. You want to be in control, but guess what? You're not. If I was in control, I'd have more hair. But I'm not.

[19:58] If I was in control, my sister would not be in the hospital right now. If I was in control, Dana wouldn't be in the hospital. Jack wouldn't be in the hospital. If I was in control, we have to admit, folks, we're not in control.

[20:13] And faith is trusting God, trusting Jesus, even when we don't know what's going to happen, other than that He will be with us.

[20:27] Now watch this. Sometimes we trust Him when you know you will not like the immediate outcome. Sometimes Jesus leads us in paths where you're going to have to take it on the chin.

[20:45] He didn't call us to easy. Pick up your cross and follow me, He said. So sometimes you're going to have to trust the Lord even though you know you're going to the valley of the shadow of death by trusting Him.

[21:00] You know you're going into trouble. You know you're going into hardship. You know it's not going to be easy. But this is the way of the cross. This is the way of Jesus. And we have to trust Him.

[21:12] Oh gosh. We have to trust Him. Even though we know in the immediate forecast it's cloudy and thunderstorms are likely.

[21:31] That's okay too. John Piper in his book What Jesus Demands from the World says something pretty cool. He says, The reason Jesus demands we believe in Him is that all human beings are in a desperate situation.

[21:48] And only Jesus can rescue us. We cannot rescue ourselves. Are you desperate yet?

[21:58] Trying to save yourself? Trying to be in control? Are you desperate yet? I'm told that if you are drowning and a lifeguard comes to save you you have to stop trying to save yourself.

[22:17] You have to trust Him or her and submit yourself to their care. You have to stop struggling trying to save you.

[22:30] You've got to just go limp and let them grab you. If not, if you continue to try to save yourself you will drown both of you.

[22:40] Now listen, Jesus is in no danger from us. So understand that. But believing in Him means we cease trying to save ourselves.

[22:53] We cease trying to fix it by our own wisdom and goodness and gifts. gifts. We in joy and love and admiration submit to the one who has come for us.

[23:16] The one who has come for us. And by the way we weren't drowning when Jesus found us. We were dead. And He resurrected us.

[23:30] And family, if He can resurrect you so that you're able to believe in Him and trust in Him and see His glory, if He can do that, believe me, He can handle everything else in your life too.

[23:43] That's the hard part. Resurrecting dead folk. We believe in Him as we believe in God.

[23:55] Because we know now. Now we have eyes to see. Now we know. That Jesus is God in human flesh. Come to rescue sinners like us. The second thing that we need here is that troubles are conquered by hope.

[24:12] See, I believe our Lord is teaching us about hope in this passage. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. Hope is oriented towards something in the future.

[24:28] It is something that you expect with certainty. But you don't yet have it. That's what hope is in the Bible.

[24:38] It's not, I hope it's not going to, I hope it doesn't rain today. That's our view of hope. That's us. That's humanity's view of hope. But biblical view of hope is not like that.

[24:49] It's not uncertain. It is certain of a good future. It is certain that something good is coming.

[24:59] But you don't yet have it just yet. Again, my favorite Baptist, my second favorite Baptist, John Piper says it again, he calls it faith in future grace.

[25:14] I like that. Faith in future grace. Grace is coming. You know God will be with you. You know God's going to come through. But you just don't see it right now.

[25:26] But you're certain. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8, 23 and 25. And not only creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit.

[25:37] That means the Spirit of God has been given to us. He says we've grown inwardly because of what's happening all around us. We've grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

[25:51] We're waiting. This world is a groaning world. It's a world of trouble. And we're groaning. All creation, he says, is groaning as it were. Because we're waiting for that moment when the full adoption, our full adoption will come.

[26:07] When our full redemption, our full being set free will come when Jesus comes. The Bible says, for in this hope, we were saved.

[26:20] Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? It's right there. But if we hope for what we do not see, here it is, we wait for it with patience.

[26:36] Oh, what a dirty word. Patience. We are Americans. We're not patient. But with the Spirit of God in us, yes, we can be.

[26:51] With Christ in us, yes, we can wait. Yes, we can. We can wait. Because I know it's coming. Listen, I love Christmas. I'm a Christmas guy.

[27:02] Okay? I got to tell you, I'm a Christmas guy. I love, listen, I like warm weather, spring and summer, but I'm thinking about Christmas right now. I love Christmas.

[27:15] When, when, when, I can tolerate fall because I know Christmas is coming. Short days, cold weather. But Christmas is coming.

[27:27] And I can tolerate even, even those moments. When I lived up north, I got seasonal depression. And I would start feeling depressed in August because the days were getting shorter.

[27:38] But what gave me hope? Christmas was coming. That season when we focus on the incarnation, that season of the, of, with the light of the world and we put out lights to represent the light of the world and we just, and the, and the, and the eternal life in that tree.

[27:57] And we, and we, I love that season and the services and worship and the music. Oh my goodness. I love it. I can tolerate fall because I know Christmas is coming.

[28:12] Come on y'all. Somebody out there just knows what I'm talking about. Is it just me? We wait for it with patience. Your eternal hope is tied to the coming of Jesus.

[28:25] When you will receive your full adoption. When you will be, when your bodies will be resurrected from the dust to live in the new heavens and the new earth forever. Listen, we don't see it now, but we know it's coming because we know he's coming.

[28:41] We know he's coming. So we think about it. We dream about it. We read about it. And we wait with gleeful patience for that moment.

[28:56] Here in our passage, the Lord is returning to the glory, that place where the Father's glory is manifest in all his splendor. It's that place where he, the eternal son of God, has always dwelt in divine splendor and majesty.

[29:11] Jesus is going home. Home is heaven. The Father's house is heaven. heaven. And wonder of wonders, he is saying he has prepared a place there for all who trust in him.

[29:27] I don't think our Lord is speaking of our final destination and the second coming yet. That's ultimate. I think he's talking about that moment when you close your eyes in this world and you open them again into other world.

[29:44] world. He's talking about that world. That world where, yes, your body will be decaying in the ground, but your soul will be ushered into the presence of your Savior.

[29:56] As Paul says, to be absent from the body, thank you. It's that moment when you walk into glory and you behold the face. Listen, I want to see grandma.

[30:09] I want to see grandpa. I want to see friends. I want to see, but listen, listen, I'm going to push them all out the way so I can see Jesus. Come on, elder.

[30:20] I'm going, I'm going, listen, I love y'all. Listen, I want to see all y'all there too. I'm going to look, I'm going to say, there's my boy, but give me a minute. In fact, give me a century.

[30:32] I got to go hug Jesus. I want, that's, that's heaven, isn't heaven if Jesus is not there. You know, people have these near death experiences.

[30:44] You hear me, okay, I'm repeating myself some time ago, but I got to say it. People have these near death experiences, right, and they all, and they say to go to heaven. How come no one ever sees Jesus? So where do they really go?

[30:57] Okay, let's keep moving. I'm one, I'm just wondering. I don't know. I can't be, I'm not going to go to my grave on it, but it makes me wonder. If Jesus, re-Revelation, if Jesus is the center of heaven, where all the seraphim and angels adore and worship him, how can anybody go to heaven and not see Jesus?

[31:23] The mind is a very tricky thing. And notice here, there are many rooms, there are many dwellings in heaven. In the Father's house, in other words, there is room for all of God's children.

[31:36] The world will treat the disciples of Jesus as if there is no room for us at times. There was no room for him too at his birth, remember?

[31:47] We will find there is no room for our faith. We will find there is no room for Jesus. Even now, there is no room for our moral viewpoints. There is no room in our family sometimes for us because of where we stand with Christ.

[32:01] There is no room on our jobs sometimes if we get too Christian. And in some places, there is no room for your very life. Why do you expect to always be welcomed?

[32:20] You get all upset because you are not welcome. You are not welcome because of who you belong to. That is, if you are not acting like a jerk.

[32:31] If you are being a jerk, that is why you are not welcome. Just put that somewhere. I do not know. But I want you to take heart, saints. Jesus says, there is plenty of room in the Father's house for you.

[32:43] You are a place to prepare. He said, I will go to prepare a place. In other words, He has reserved space for you. You ever travel by a car and get tired of driving and it is late and you want to pull over, find a place to sleep, not in your car.

[32:57] So you pull up to the nearest hotel parking lot and you don't have a reservation. You go in there and they ask you, of course, do you have a reservation? No, I am just tired. I want to pull in.

[33:07] My family, just have, and when they say to you, I am sorry, no vacancies. And then they will tell you sometimes, listen, nobody got vacancies. A conference came to town and we're all booked up.

[33:24] Not so in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus made your reservation. Before you were even born, He made your reservation. All that is necessary for your arrival has been taken care of.

[33:38] Look at Peter says, 1 Peter 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has called us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[33:49] That means Jesus is our hope. To an inheritance, listen, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

[34:00] That means guarded, kept, who by God's power, now watch this, you are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

[34:14] God is guarding your inheritance and He's guarding you. Jesus is saying, your reservation is very secure, it won't disappear, no computer glitch is possible.

[34:28] Through faith in God and His great power, our inheritance in heaven, our reservation is protected and guarded by divine power in the Father's house, there's plenty of space for all, you are expected, He will not leave, listen, you are expected and He will leave the light on for you because Jesus is the light of the world and that light will never go out.

[34:53] He's making room for us in heaven. He says, and watch this, it's not room so you can just hang out with other people like I just said a minute ago, I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also.

[35:16] Jesus wants you in heaven that you may be with Him. Will you remind yourself of that?

[35:27] Will you remind each other that Jesus wants you for Himself? Isn't that deep, y'all? He wants you. You, messed up you and messed up me.

[35:39] He wants us for Himself. He don't want to share. He wants you. He cries out over you, mine.

[35:55] So you got to remind yourself, talk to yourself. In the midst of your troubles, do a David. Go back and get you read Psalm 34. Let me give you one verse in Psalm 34.

[36:07] He says it twice. Verse 6. David's going through a hard time. And he says these words. Why are you cast down, O my soul?

[36:18] And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. For I shall again praise Him, my salvation, and my God.

[36:31] my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you. Remember.

[36:45] In that moment of trouble. Yeah, you're hurting. Yeah, you're cast out. Yeah, you feel the trouble. Yeah, you're torn up inside. That's human. Amen.

[36:56] That's the reality of life. hope, bow in God. Turn, talk to yourself. Talk to yourself. Self, who do we belong to?

[37:10] Self, is this the end? Self, where am I going? You just got to do it, saints.

[37:24] And God will meet you there. He'll meet you there with His loving arms. Well, Jesus comforts us. Let me just, let me end right now. Yeah.

[37:37] It's important that we get this because He wants us to know that whatever troubles we face in this life, He has prepared a home for you. You see, that's the ultimate, the ultimate play.

[37:49] The one that Satan can't take from you. He can, he can trip, you don't know what's going to happen, so he can play with you. He can mess, you don't know what's going to happen. He can mess with you with that. But here's one thing you can say, but I know where I'm going.

[38:01] I know whose I am. And I know He'll be with me in this trouble. Whether it be familial, whether it be interrelational, whether it be health, whether, wherever you messed up and sinned.

[38:15] Repent. And say, and when the devil comes to torment you about it, remind him you have a Savior. And you're hoping in Him.

[38:28] Whatever you're going through, you can know your reservation is secure. He means for that to mean something to you right now.

[38:41] Live in light of your reservation. You know, I just got back from Philly, like I said, and I fly, I like flying.

[38:53] Especially when they give you enough time to get from plane to plane. I like that. So I try to fly straight through as much as possible. But you know something about flying, you know, this guy was running through the airport because his flight was late.

[39:09] I mean, he was late to his flight, so he's running through the airport trying to get there. I mean, he's doing the, well, I can't say the OJ, but he's doing, he's making his moves through the, cutting around people, dragging this.

[39:20] He's got, he's got, he's got the carry-on, he's got the backpack, and he's got a CPAP machine. And he's, he's flying through the airport, and he's tired because you know, you know, you know how they do, you land at terminal A and your flight's in terminal E.

[39:35] And you got 15 minutes to get there before the doors close. He's flying, he's running, he's breathing hard, he's like me, out of shape. And he's, and so, so he gets on, you know, that moving, that moving thing, you get on that moving strip, you get on, you get this, I love that thing.

[39:52] He gets on there, and he's trying to catch his breath a little bit, and he's, as he's moving, he's trying to walk, and a pilot's sitting right there, a pilot's sitting right there. And the pilot says, dude, you all right, man?

[40:03] Hold on, hold on, you okay? You okay? Where you going? He said, man, I'm trying to get to gate E-17. Man, my flight. He said, E-17, what's your flight number? He says, it's flight number 273.

[40:14] He says, hey, that's my plane. That's my plane. Don't worry about it.

[40:25] Don't worry about it. You'll get there with me. Listen, it may seem like, Jesus, where are you? You're hurting. Troubles have come. Where are you, Lord?

[40:37] You're frantic. You're out of control. You're just losing it. But wait a minute. It may seem like he's taking his time, but listen, you're going to get there with him. It's okay.

[40:49] Okay. He's flying the plane. Father, thank you that you sent Jesus.

[41:02] And he's the Lord of our lives. We believe it. And we give ourselves to him. But he said, in this world, we will have trouble.

[41:14] But he also said he overcame the world. So, Father, help us to hear that. And in the midst of our troubles, help us to draw near to you.

[41:25] Thank you that you don't yell at us because we're agitated and upset and scared. Thank you for your mercy and grace. You love us so much. Thank you.

[41:36] And thank you that our Savior knows exactly how we feel because he sympathizes with us. But thank you that he did not sin. And so he can coach us through.

[41:48] He can be our strength in the midst of the trouble. He can be our life in the midst of the trouble. He can be the light in the midst of the darkness. So, Lord, be that for us. Be that for my brothers and sisters right now, some of whom we're going through great trouble.

[42:02] But, Lord, you're with them. Help them to see the light. Help them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. That nothing can ever take away that reservation.

[42:14] And that because you reserve that life for them, you're going to be with them in this life. That they may have life and have it abundantly. Have it to the full. So give us that faith to trust you, that hope to believe in the good future that is coming.

[42:31] Help us to know that you want us and you will never let us go. for Jesus' sake we pray. Amen.