Triumph in Tribulation (John 16:33) - Pastor David Mataya (Redeemer Bible Church, Gilbert, AZ)

Welcome, Redeemer family. I'm kind of used to saying that, aren't I? And I love it.

It is truly wonderful to be here at the other

Redeemer, or maybe we're the other Redeemer to you. That's fair, that's fair.

Oh, I didn't put it there, that's all right. I'll put it up here where it belongs. Well, my name is

David Mattiah, and I'm one of the pastors at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona.

And it is really a pleasure to bring their love, the pastor's love, and the people of Redeemer down there, their love with me to you.

We track what's going on up here. We love it. We love God's work up here. And so it's a blessing to be here.

If we have any visitors, I'm not sure if we do, but if we have visitors, what am

I talking about? Well, Redeemer Bible Church in Arizona has a great friendship with Redeemer Bible Fellowship here in Medford, Central Point.

Get it? I do know better. You'll find out why. But yeah, a great kind of partnership in ministry.

So that's kind of the connection there. And to be here, it's a joy to fill in for Kofi as he's away and doing ministry.

And his wisdom is being useful to many. So we are excited for that as well.

You'll notice right away, and I apologize, I don't have a cool accent. So you'll just have to bear with me.

I thought about trying one, but I didn't think that would be good at all. I am married to a wonderful wife,

Colleen. She is not with me today. That's your loss.

You did not get the better half, I'm afraid. We've got two grown adult children, a wonderful daughter -in -law, and our first grandchild turns one in just a week and a half.

Yeah, yeah. So maybe that's why Colleen isn't here. I don't know. No, that's not it.

One last little piece of introduction. I am indeed an Oregonian. So your backyard is kind of my backyard.

I grew up in Douglas County. My dad was a pastor in a little community church in Looking Glass, which is about nine miles west of Roseburg.

So I was there, born up on the Columbia River, but I grew up there from birth to 16 until moving away.

But I've been down here many times. We can save that maybe for after, and we'll talk about memories down here.

Well, let me get out of the way. Definitely, today is not about my introduction, okay?

So today's message is entitled Tribulation and Triumph, The Peace -Giving

Promises of Christ. So turn with me to John 16, John chapter 16.

And if you have one of the Red Bibles today, that is page 960, page 960.

Now, I'm gonna tell you something right up front, and this is on me. I forgot you use the

CSB, Christian Standard. We use the ESV, both great, solid translations of God's word, but I will be using the

ESV today, but that's good, right? And give you a couple different words to look at, but it all works together.

So John 16, we're gonna be at the end of John 16 in verse 33, so John 16, 33.

And if you are able to stand, please stand with me as I read this amazing single verse.

This is Jesus speaking. I have said these things to you, that in me, you may have peace.

In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart,

I have overcome the world. Well, this is God's word. Please take a seat, and as you do, let me pray.

Well, Father, this truly is your time, not ours. And we just ask that by your grace and power, we would glorify you today, that we would glorify

Christ today, the Lord, that you would also just show your faithful justice and mercy to us, your faithful love and grace.

Be with us today to encourage, to strengthen, help us to see you all the more clearly because of your work in your word today.

I do pray for Kofi as he's away for safety and usefulness and everything you've called him to.

I pray for the people that are here, Lord, that you would open their ears to hear from you,

God, and that you would open my mouth to speak truth. Lord, do that down at Redeemer Bible Church in Arizona too, obviously close to our hearts.

And John is starting his fourth of five messages. So please be with him as well,

Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, speaking of John, John Benzinger, our lead pastor in Arizona, he once said that promises don't mean anything without the character of God behind them.

Today, we'll be looking at two clear and impactful promises of Christ wrapped up in one small verse.

The first, that we will have tribulation. And the second, that he,

Christ, has overcome the world. That's triumph. But these promises follow a divine purpose in the text, the purpose of peace.

So look at the initial text, and then we'll take a quick walk through the amazing placement this verse has here in John.

So John 16, 33. I have said these things to you, that in me, you may have peace.

Remember, as I said, this is Jesus, our Lord, the one with all authority who is speaking here.

And it's here in the upper room. Jesus is about to conclude his private ministry, his private discussion that he's been having with his disciples that really began back in chapter 13.

So for several chapters here, we have this time with the disciples in private ministry.

The beginning of the Gospel of John really sets a foundation of who Christ is, the hope and life that we have in him alone, that he alone offers us.

It's his sovereignty over all things that's on display. And yes, his divinity.

Us knowing, seeing that Jesus is God is all throughout the beginning of John, this

God who took on flesh to dwell among us. So we see him generally in a public ministry from chapters one through 12.

But now in chapters 13 through 16, his personal and private ministry is the focus with his disciples.

And remember, this is just a day before the cross. Some would call it the shadow of the cross was on him when he spoke this.

It was in the upper room. And this is sometimes called the upper room discourse or conversation.

You may have heard it called that before. Jesus had been gently but firmly exposing weaknesses in those who were there with him, his followers.

Immediately before our text today, Jesus was telling them of what was to come, that they would be scattered and isolated.

They would be continually confused, something they showed repeatedly they were confused.

So as we get to verse 33 today, these are the parting moments for Christ with his disciples.

Some would call it his parting legacy. But in compassion, Jesus here lays out his purpose in speaking to them.

Back to the text, that in me, you may have peace. This is purpose.

So that's our first point. And we'll build a little bit of an outline today. And I like to just note that outlines are a way that we shepherd our minds.

They're guardrails for our thinking. And so that's why we use outlines quite a bit. They just help us.

So number one, a peaceful purpose. We need to start with some clarity though.

Jesus doesn't have goals like we have goals. As our sovereign king who has all authority, who sits at the right hand of the father, his goals aren't hoped for or wished for.

They are simply accomplished, period. Christ is the same

God who declared to Isaiah, I will accomplish all my purpose. From Isaiah 46, a text we'll look at briefly later.

So what is Jesus' purpose here? It is for his followers to what?

Have peace, to have peace. And it's likely he's simply referring to and reminding them of an earlier part of the conversation.

You don't have to turn there, but if you want just a couple pages to the left, John 14, 27, same conversation.

Jesus said this, he said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

So again, he's the giver of peace. He's giving them that earlier in the conversation.

And it is a peace that it's Christ's alone to offer. He purchased it with his own blood.

And this is one of the sweetnesses of our savior, that he is the giver of life itself.

Back in John five, he said this, for as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will.

Same as the giver of life. But this peace of God, the peace that surpasses understanding, as Paul would call it in Philippians, has several ways it operates in the

New Testament. So even though it surpasses our understanding, let's press in a little bit and see how it operates and what

God might show us here. First, when we think about the peace of God, there is a declared character to the peace of God.

It can be measured, so to speak. In Colossians 1 20, we see ourselves reconciled to God by Christ making peace, there's our word of peace again, making peace by the blood of his cross.

This is the declaration of our freedom. It's a tangible truth.

In Christ, we are made right before God by his decree. This is the restorative work of the cross.

This is the peace of God that we can know, that we can know as believers.

It's a legal declaration, black and white, if you will, of his work. It is indeed finished at the cross.

It's declared, it's finished. Second, there's an experienced peace with God, subjective peace with God.

As J .C. Ryle would say, peace is Christ's distinctive gift to us. He doesn't offer prosperity here, not in money or even health.

The peace he calls my peace comes from an internal peace we can experience knowing we are reconciled to God.

This is a peace, and mark this, this is a peace from the Holy Spirit that testifies to what he has done and what he has given.

This is the peace we can, dare I say, feel.

We're careful with that word, aren't we? We never let our feelings trump the things we know, okay?

But this is the tranquility of soul, the tranquility of soul which flows from what we know.

That's why it's important to know what God has done. Our tranquility, our peace comes from the knowledge of what

Christ has accomplished and given to us. Doesn't that sound a lot like faith and belief itself?

See how that rotates around to our very faith, what we believe, what we know is true, can bring this tranquility of soul.

Well, third, there's a peace with the body of Christ. And we see this throughout scripture. Paul writes this in Ephesians 2, 14 through 16.

For he himself, speaking of Christ, is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility, killing the hostility.

What Paul is saying here is the cross is putting to death anti -peace.

Hostility is anti -peace. And by the cross, it's killing the hostility.

Now, Paul here is speaking of the hostility of Jew and Gentile. But we remember that Jesus' real

Lord's prayer, John 17, was about to happen just after the conclusion of our text in John 16.

In John 17, Jesus turns in prayer with his Father. And we see him praying repeatedly for the oneness, the unity of believers.

He prays in John 17, 11, that the specific disciples that he's just been conversing with would be one, even as he and the

Father are one. What a high bar for unity, right?

That's infinitely high. But Jesus prayed for that. Jesus goes on in verses 22 and 23 to pray for that same oneness in us today, in us today.

Jesus is praying for our unity, for our peace with one another now. It's amazing.

And this goes on to be a repeated theme throughout the New Testament. Galatians 5, Ephesians 4, many other places.

So here we have the purpose of peace from our Lord. His peacemaking is profound in power.

It declares us redeemed, making peace by the cross between us and a holy

God. Think of the infinite, truly infinite distance between our unholiness and his holiness.

Jesus filled that, that infinite gap that only a divine Savior could do.

No man alone could fill an infinite void between our unholiness and God's holiness.

Amen? Such power there. That's the peace that's the divine accomplishment of the gospel.

That's what we're talking about, the divine accomplishment of the gospel. It's also subjective, as we talked about, inexperienced.

We are not robots here. We're not. Even sharing the very same Holy Spirit, I pray we all are in the

Holy Spirit, sharing in that. We'll experience tranquility differently, won't we?

I'll describe my peace differently than you might. How I am comforted in tests and trials may not look exactly like the comfort applied to you.

Throughout scripture, we can see the comfort of God being granted in unique ways, right?

And even in our own experience, how he comforts us through one thing can be different than he comforts us through another thing.

So there's that subjective nature to it. And we too can have an impact on that peace, that tranquility of soul.

Do we have unrepentant sin going on in our life, right? Or we've grown a distance in that relationship with him, with others.

And not simply sin, but suffering too can overwhelm the experience of tranquility, peace.

One moment of grief may not feel as peaceful as the next. I know everyone in this room can attest to that, right?

But through it all, do we see Christ as our hope for sin and suffering? Do we meditate on his truth and take hold, take hold of his peace?

Well, finally, in the purpose of peace, we remember the peace prayed for and given to the body of Christ, the church.

Is that peace perfected yet? Not even close, right?

Not even close. In Galatians 5 .15, Paul warns us, the church, not to bite and devour one another, lest we destroy one another.

And there's a painful truth here, sheep bite. Sheep bite, right?

Have you experienced this? Some of you might really have experienced that if you raised sheep.

But have you suffered the biting remarks of another believer? Have you bitten back?

We can all do that. This isn't simply true on Sunday, or maybe a church potluck gone bad.

This happens in our marriages, our families, our workplaces.

And it happens with Christian and non -Christian alike. Just as sheep bite, the world bites, doesn't it?

Absolutely, and it hurts. So in light of this, what a gift to be prayed for by our

Lord. He's praying for our peace, not just here in the upper room in John 16, but continually even now.

Thanks be to God, the Provider, capital P, Provider of this peace doesn't change.

He doesn't change based on our experience. He brings us an abundance of comfort through steadfast love in times of trouble.

And it's trouble or tribulation where he goes next in the text, and where we see our two promises start in the text.

So point number two, a promise of tribulation. You can think of tribulation as distress.

Jesus goes on, in this world, you will have, you will have tribulation.

All of us could fill in the blanks on suffering, giving examples of physical, relational, financial, emotional, spiritual hardship.

We can understandably as Christians, struggle with the fact that God's truth and even purposes include distress and suffering.

It's a hard truth to grab hold of. So now Jesus turns from the peace we have with the

Father, with him and with his body, and now turns to the context of this world, in this world.

It is in this world, both the one of Jesus' day and ours today, that there is tribulation.

This is the distress of soul, the distress of soul. We had tranquility and peace, now we have distress of soul, and not just of soul, but also of body and life itself.

Jesus knew the disciples that he was speaking to would see that. They would face both spiritual and physical distress.

This is the promise we easily know is true. All of us have experienced tribulation and we hate it.

Well, we do. This promise is an echo of Genesis 3 and the curse.

That's what this promise ties back to. In this world, you will have tribulation. The apostle

Paul encountered this promise many times over. So turn to 2 Corinthians 4, in the

Red Bible, that's page 1025, 1025.

So 2 Corinthians 4, and we're gonna stay in 2 Corinthians for a few minutes.

So if you can hold on to both spots, do that. Paul here is recounting personal experience, but he shows a principle that Jesus says is true for all those who would follow him, starting in verse 7.

But we, speaking of followers of Christ, have this treasure. Well, what's the treasure?

He's really talking about the gospel, the work of Christ, in jars of clay.

Jars of clay, that's this world, that's our temporal bodies, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

So in him, we have it. And now a couple of verses of tribulation.

We are afflicted in every way, that's tribulation, but not crushed. Perplexed, again, tribulation, but not driven to despair.

Persecuted, what's that? Tribulation, but not forsaken. Struck down, again, tribulation, but not destroyed.

Paul goes on, if you keep reading, verses 16 through 18. So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self is wasting away, that could be seen, again, as tribulation, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Now catch this in verse 17. For this light momentary affliction, it's the same word used in John 16 for tribulation.

Okay, so this light momentary tribulation is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, that's in this world, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, again, speaking of this world, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

So can you see Paul pointing there to our text in John? Can you see the correlation between the two, the overlap?

So stay there in 2 Corinthians, or hold your finger there, as we look at point number three.

Point number three, a promise of triumph. This is overcoming or victory.

I wrote once that true hope is not that God will do our will during these days.

This was in 2020. This was during that year of 2020.

I said, true hope is not that God will do our will during these days, but that he is doing his will.

We could easily change hope to peace here. Our true peace is that he's doing his will, even in these days.

Consider this in light of where you are today personally, in your closest relationships.

What about our nation? It doesn't take much to imagine our need of peace going into November, does it?

So what a text for that. So holding your place in Corinthians, look at the last of our texts from John 16.

John 16, 33 again, last line. But take heart,

I have overcome the world. So let's quickly run through Paul again in 2

Corinthians. I told you we'd flip back and forth. So look again, 2 Corinthians 4, back to verse seven.

Now we're gonna walk through this and we're going to look for triumph. We know there's tribulation, we saw that.

Now we're gonna see Paul look at the triumph of Christ. Verse seven, but we have this treasure, remembering the gospel, in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power he has overcome.

His is the triumph. The surpassing powers belong to God and not to us.

So it's in him we have it. Now again, verses eight and nine, we are afflicted, remembering tribulation in every way, but not crushed.

There's triumph, perplexed, but not driven to despair. Triumph again, persecuted, but not forsaken.

Triumph, struck down, but not destroyed. What is it? Triumph, triumph.

Paul goes on, look at verses 16 and 17 again. So we do not lose heart.

Doesn't that sound like, but take heart, or be courageous, I think the

CSB, but it's an actual action on our part to grab hold of courage.

Grab hold of courage is the meaning there. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, sounds like triumph.

For this light momentary affliction, or remember even tribulation, is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Triumph, he has overcome. Notice, Paul is setting a model for us here, a model that Christ calls us to in John 16.

He points to and keeps in mind the gospel, this treasure, which is remembering the purpose of peace

Jesus spoke of. He's remembering the gospel. He then recognizes that tribulation is real.

Okay, Bible isn't afraid to recognize our tribulation is real. Jesus himself was a man of sorrows, well -acquainted with grief.

What a comfort that your Savior is that.

He was a man of sorrows, well -acquainted with grief. Again to Paul, I guess as he modeled this, he modeled it because he was afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.

But note what he does, he remembers the second promise of our text. He takes heart literally to grab hold of courage, as I said.

This is a command from Jesus in John 16, a command, an imperative.

This isn't optional. When we treat it as optional, we get the result of it being optional, don't we?

We forget what he's done. And Paul here models it to the church at Corinth.

So as we see the work of Christ in overcoming the world, we also see our human responsibility to take hold of this belief, to set our eyes on his triumph more than we set it on our tribulation.

We're not asked to forget our tribulation. Jesus doesn't do that.

He's actually telling us, he's promising, you will have tribulation. He sees it.

But do we have the right balance? We will have tribulation, but take courage,

I have overcome the world. He alone is the victory. And this is very much a call to trust

God. Even in a state of weakened belief, oppressed and persecuted belief, we are called to trust in him alone because of his victory.

I recently taught on the subject of trusting God, and truly we won't get far today if we don't rightly have an ongoing faith and confidence that both of these promises here are true of tribulation and triumph.

We can't forget either one. It may be easy to see and say the first is true because we can be overwhelmed by our suffering, our tribulation, but do we also believe, do we take heart and grab hold of courage, believing the second promise is true, that Christ has overcome?

I like to share this often, God is infinitely sovereign and his affections are for his kids, not against them.

His affections are for us as believers, his adopted children. He is lovingly sovereign, lovingly sovereign.

The two things are attached perfectly. But here's a question for us.

Is that still true for us today? Is that still our faith, our belief?

Was our faith or our trust once present, but now forgotten?

Can it be forgotten in a moment? Weakness, right? Absolutely.

We can catch ourselves and we've been talking to ourselves or to each other, growing embittered, growing frustrated, growing in despair.

Why? Because we've been talking to ourselves more than we've been talking to God. We've been talking to ourselves, we're gonna get an input from the world or even dear brothers and Christians, can do this with each other.

But remembering Christ, what he has done. So be encouraged to repent of any areas of distrust in your life, to run back to the loving sovereignty, the loving sovereignty of Christ in all things.

Ask him to strengthen your belief that he really has overcome.

So we've looked at Jesus' purpose of peace in our text and his promises of both tribulation and triumph.

Let's now look at four ways the peace of God triumphs in tribulations. It triumphs in tribulation.

And we've hinted at several of these already. As we do, I know that each of us walks in today with burdens, burdens of tribulation, distress, heartache.

Isn't that true? I didn't come up here today to bring sadness, but those things are true for all of us.

Why? Because we just saw the promise of Christ telling us that's going to be true. But how awful it is if we just ignore it.

We don't want to ignore it. Jesus didn't do that. So let's look at just four ways.

And there's many others that his peace is victorious. Number one, his peace triumphs in his sovereignty.

The gift of peace that Christ is giving here in our text, it would be an empty promise without the power of God.

It couldn't be promised or protected if God wasn't sovereign. The reality of God's sovereignty is radical.

He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Just to understand omnipotence, to see

God's power and authority, covering all areas of knowledge, nature, life, and death, it should humble us.

Remembering, and back to Isaiah 46 that I hinted at earlier, verse 10, God's very words, which state that he alone is

God and there is no other. And that he declares things that haven't even been done, saying, my counsel will stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

Great text, Isaiah 46, nine and 10. And here in our text, his purpose, which he will accomplish, is to bring peace.

That's just through his sovereignty. What about his omnipresence and omniscience? Well, these speak of the expanse of his being.

There's no place hidden from him. The immeasurable vastness of his knowledge, he's all -knowing.

The fullness of God includes nothing hidden from his sight and a knowledge that surpasses understanding.

God is the creator God who spoke existence into existence.

He is the one who causes all things to work together for our good, which we have to remember when we use

Romans 8 .28 there, always use Romans 8 .29

because it gives the purpose. Much harm can be done if we just leave it there.

Paul wasn't writing verse numbers, was he? He was writing a letter. And then he stated the purpose was to conform us into the image of Christ.

Well, knowing God is sovereign even over a sinful world that he indeed can even use evil for good, think of Joseph and his brothers,

Genesis 50 .20, that the rain falls on the unrighteous just as the righteous. These things also point to a peace that triumphs.

So we have peace because of God's sovereignty. Number two, peace triumphs in his love.

This sovereign God is love. 1 John 4 .16, love itself is defined by God for he is love.

This is the work of him who loved us and laid down his life for us. It's Jesus' submissive and sacrificial actions that give us hope and peace.

But it's not simply a love that God holds on to. He gives us his love.

He gives us his love as well, that it actively works in the heart of those who believe.

So peace is not something achieved through human effort or morality, or even fleeing from conflict, which that can sometimes be wise.

But that's not our true hope, just to flee conflict. True peace, note this, is having

Christ's love actively working in us. True peace is having

Christ's love actively working in us, transforming us, giving us those means of peace we saw earlier, that we are declared right with God, that we can enjoy an experienced peace, a tranquility of soul, that internal peace of heart, and that we can enjoy oneness, unity with each other, with his people, the very body of Christ that he sacrificed himself for.

Think of Ephesians 5, presenting us holy and blameless. Remember that text?

Yes, good text for husbands, a great text for the church. Great text for the church.

And all of that's something Jesus would soon pray for in the very next chapter of John. So we have peace because of God's love.

Number three, peace triumphs in his grace. The unmerited favor of God, this sovereign

God looks at us with a love that's undeserved. So when we say unmerited, we mean it's undeserved.

Amen? We don't deserve it. We haven't done anything to deserve peace, let alone any love from a holy

God. But God, but God, Ephesians 2, amen.

Because of his great love with which he loved us, he made us alive together with Christ, sovereignly saving us by grace.

Amen? And doesn't his grace continue? Yeah, because he's the one who upholds it.

When you think about it, what doesn't fall under the umbrella of undeserved grace for the

Christian? That I made it up here is a grace of God.

That we're all sitting here is a grace of God. And we just, we could go with that all day long, right?

Even outside of our salvation, even outside the body, there's a darkened world that's still being treated with a common grace, a common grace of God, right?

Is the world around us getting what is truly deserved? No, neither are we.

Neither are we. Remember that. In his sovereignty, love, and grace,

God spares the world every single moment. But this won't always be true, will it?

There is a day of judgment for those who don't turn in repentance and faith. So how much more should we enjoy our saving grace?

We have peace because of that grace. Number four, peace triumphs.

There's that word again. Peace triumphs in his kingdom. Earlier during his time with the disciples,

Jesus comforted them with words of heaven. John 14, right?

Don't let your heart be troubled. He starts that he was going to prepare a place that he would come again, that where he was there, they would be also.

There's a kingdom ahead. And he took ownership of that kingdom. He made clear that he was the only way, the only truth, and the only life.

No single soul can approach the father, but through Christ alone.

His is a kingdom of peace. Even now, Jesus is king. There is a kingdom right now, but there is a day, there is a day when every knee will bow and proclaim who he is.

Amen? Everything will be made new. Every tongue will confess.

As David exclaims in Psalm 23, we as followers of Christ, as sheep with a great shepherd, we'll live in the house of the

Lord forever. Oh, that's good news, isn't it? But this is one of those already, but not yet truths of scripture.

May have heard that phrase before. We have the already. We have the work of him today already.

It's accomplished. It is finished. And yet we're still looking forward to the not yet, that kingdom.

One of my favorite verses is Luke 12, 32, and turn there if you'd like.

We're gonna leave John. This'll be our last verse, and it's worth a bookmark. It's worth a bookmark.

Luke 12, 32, and I don't have the number for that in your red Bible here.

Luke 12, 32, and this is Jesus speaking still. He says this, "'Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you his kingdom.'"

Fear not, little flock. It's your father's kindness. That's another way we can translate good intention there.

Good pleasure. His kindness to give you a kingdom. This promise reminds us of his gift of peace to us, that there is tribulation even there, right?

Fear not. Jesus knew he was gonna promise tribulation. He knew. But that he has overcome the world.

That we have a kingdom ahead with him. So let me conclude.

J .C. Ryle, who I mentioned earlier, reminds us that Christ is the true source of peace.

We need to truly take hold of him. He's the centerpiece of all that we've looked at today.

So let me close with this. And I love the figurative language here in the first sentence.

Ryle says, "'Let us lean back our souls onto these comfortable words and take courage.

The storms of trial and persecution may sometimes be heavily on us, but let them only drive us closer to Christ.

The sorrows and losses and crosses and disappointments of our life may often make us feel sorely cast down, but let them only make us tighten our grip on Christ.'"

Then he concludes, "'Armed with this very promise, let us under every cross come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.'"

Pray with me. Well, Father, you are the giver of life.

And as we see today, you are truly the giver of peace. And you do know our state here.

You know we're in a state of tribulation always in this life. Help us to see how you have overcome all the more.

Help us to turn to you all the more, more faithfully in every way. And Lord, help us even as we turn now to your table to remember what you've done.

Father, let us remember peace. Let us remember your promises to triumph.

God, glorify, magnify yourself all the more because of this time today, in Jesus' name, amen.