Life is Hard — But That’s a Good Thing (09/11/2022)

Now, he's back there hiding. Don't call on me. Don't call on me. Anyway, I just want to tell you that Ben Mitchell is what

I want to be when I grow up. He's smarter than I am. He's prettier than I am.

I want to be like him. Here's Ben Mitchell. Now, this has been a lot of fun.

I appreciate you all putting up with me the past few Sundays. It just kind of took it over, so I hope that's okay.

But I have been enjoying it, and I appreciate you guys so much for just the encouragement and comments and things afterward.

I'm very excited to have Dad back as of next week, but I'm hoping to be able to kind of wrap this study up that we've been looking at the past three weeks and then the first part going back a few months, of course.

And so we're just going to jump right into it because I'll be pushing the clock for sure if I do want to like totally get it done.

So we'll see what happens there. We're going to be in section four of this study we've been looking at again.

Overarching theme has been peace and tribulation. How is that possible? How can we attain peace even when we're going through the toughest points in our life?

It's an interesting coincidence that we're trying to wrap up this theme on the 21st anniversary of 9 -11.

I mean, it's just one more great example of the severity of tribulation that we as humans can go through.

I mean, the families, the specific families involved with that, obviously it was a global thing, but the specific families involved with that to this day are going to be experiencing tough times just because of those memories.

And so how do we grapple with that? How do we get through that? So the first section of this study we looked at was all about the mourning phase of the tribulation that we go through.

We looked at that in detail. The second section, though, was really important because that was getting past that and understanding that we as believers in the

Lord have not only a higher standard set before us, the apostles laid before, well,

Jesus himself, but also the apostles. Not only do we have that higher standard, but it's a target that we can shoot for and can hit.

It just takes a relationship with the Lord in order to do that, but it is possible.

So that was great. And then the third section, which we wrapped up last week, was how do we go from point

A to point B, that being the mourning phase to living up to that higher standard and attaining the peace in tribulation.

And as we discussed a week before last and last week, one of the biggest ways that we can do that is by just shifting our focus to the greatness of God, being lifted by his greatness, and trying to achieve or attain that peace even in the toughest times we're going through.

Now, today, the following section is gonna be focused on the idea that the tough times that we go through, while they are certainly tough, we've illustrated that numerous times over the past few weeks, and he talked about the fact that it's okay to go through those times and to go through the mourning phase and all that kind of stuff.

All that is baked in there, but the tough times are actually a good thing. That's gonna be what today's section is all about, because that's where we grow in our wisdom and our trust in the

Lord. That was illustrated in those examples. We looked at Lamentations, Job, a couple of different Psalms.

We looked at with every trial that we face, it's going to bring more peace for the next trial that we'll be faced with, because they are going to keep coming as long as we're on this earth.

And that, again, is promised, especially for believers in the Lord, because we were told by several of the apostles,

Jesus himself, that we were going to face persecution simply because of the fact that we are followers of him.

So we know we're gonna be faced with it, but with every tribulation that we face, it allows us to experience even more peace for the next one.

So because of the fact that trials and tribulations, they permeate everything, every part of this life at practically every level, we refer to a lot of them as kind of everyday problems, so to speak, but they can also be some of the toughest moments that we'll ever face while we're living on this earth, you know, in this life.

Job obviously gives us an explicit picture of what that can look like.

But this particular study, as we've been going through it, has been intended to give us some encouragement to get through any form of trouble, whether it's the everyday battles that we face or the really, really particularly tough times that we may face or may have faced in the past and that we still recall to mind, just like I mentioned a minute ago, so many of those families over 20 years after the fact surely are still grappling with the tribulation that was gone through then.

We looked in our last section, as I mentioned a second ago, at the greatness of God, how that can lift our spirits during the tribulation, bring peace during those times in life.

In this section, as I already mentioned, we're gonna be incorporating that, that aspect of it, the greatness of God, the awesome objective truths that are

God's greatness, but we're going to be infusing this new component that brings it all even closer to home because it's directly related to our individual relationships with the

Lord. And that, of course, is the fact that as we go through the tribulation, we might ask why.

Well, one of the immediate reasons why we can see why we may go through the tough times is because we grow closer to Him.

We yearn to cling to Him more so than ever when we go through those times. So this section, this is the fourth section here, it's all about the fact that life is hard, but that that's a good thing.

And we'll illustrate why, because just like with the overall title, peace and tribulation just doesn't seem to mesh, but it can, and it does for those of us who walk closely with the

Lord. So we're gonna start in Romans chapter five. I really could have ended the whole study with this particular passage, but as much as it would have been perfect as a conclusion,

I think it's great for setting the tone as well, especially for this particular section here.

So Romans five, starting in verse one, it starts by saying, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. So right there is the target that we're striving for, that we're shooting for.

There's the peace that is attainable and that we can grab and take advantage of, benefit from, rejoice in, regardless of how tough life can be.

So it's interesting, or it's great, as you'll see in a second why it's interesting as well, that this passage starts with peace, because we'll see in a second that there's more to it than just that.

In this particular passage, verse one, again, we discover right off the bat, it's by the fact that we have been justified by faith, that we have peace with God through Jesus.

Again, it's just really setting the tone here. Verse two, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

So it starts with peace and now it is segueing into the rejoicing that can take place within this as well.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We'll look at that word hope in just a minute, but now we learn that in Jesus, we have access, by faith, of course, into the grace that makes it even possible for all of us to be standing here worshiping a holy

God in the first place. Because if it weren't for that, as we discussed in Dave's Sunday School lesson this morning,

God hates all of the workers of iniquity. Without this grace, we would be within the same batch of evildoers that can't even come close to worship, true worship, and it just doesn't work in terms of trying to worship a holy

God that, as Dave said this morning, is repulsed by sin to the point of hating the workers of it, not just the thing itself.

You'll have to listen to a recording of that to get into the deep stuff there, but it was awesome. And so we go into the rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.

Now, it's interesting here, the Greek word in verse two for glory, doxa, it means the magnificence or the excellence, the preeminence of God, a thing belonging to God, or a thing belonging to Christ, or the absolutely perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ.

So put a pin in that for just a second, because we're going to see this word again, the same English word again in a minute, but it's going to be a little bit different there.

So that's what that word means when it says that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

We rejoice in hope of his excellence, the excellence of God, the magnificence of God, the perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ, specifically, that's what that word glory is talking about there in verse two.

Now, it's about to tell us here in verse three, though, so we started with peace, now we're at a point of rejoicing in that hope, but now in verse three, it's going to tell us that though we are, as believers in Jesus, entitled to peace, it is something that we get to have at any point we want it, we are entitled to it from the moment that we receive the

Lord as our personal Lord and Savior, we are from that point forward entitled to peace every second of the rest of our lives, if we want it.

But while that's a fact, it's also a fact, and by the way, we have that we're entitled to it again because we're justified by faith, but while that's a fact, it's going to come with some tough times as well, that is also a fact.

Verse three says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, there's that word glory, we're gonna take a look at that in just a second, but listen to the phrase here, we glory in tribulations also, it started with peace, it segued into the rejoicing that can take place because of our position in Him, the ability to rejoice in the hope of His glory, but we glory in tribulations also, so they go hand in hand, again, there's this paradox that for the most of the world does not work, you cannot have a peaceful season in life when you are going through tough times as well, it's one or the other, but for us, they go hand in hand, now, that doesn't necessarily mean that we have tribulation or tough times at every moment of our lives, but it means that, yeah, we're gonna have peace in the good seasons in life, but we can also have it in the toughest seasons of life as well, we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, now, the word tribulation there,

I'm not gonna go into all the detail of breaking it down, but just a quick glance at my notes from when dad was doing

Romans five, not that long ago, he broke down all of the Greek words for this particular passage, in this word, tribulation is implying pressure, so when we go through these times, it's a time of immense pressure that is being placed on our lives for a specific purpose, we talked about this a lot last week, we may not know what that specific purpose is in the moment, but the fact that we are being tested, that we are, that that pressure is being applied to us is telling us something, it's telling us that something is coming, that there is something around the corner that we are being prepared for, there's a purpose behind the pressure being applied to our lives, that's what that word tribulation means, knowing that pressure, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, now, again, the

Greek word in verse three, because it starts by saying, we glory in tribulations also, that Greek word is different than the

Greek word that's used in verse two, when it talks about the glory of God, what this word means,

I'm not even gonna try to pronounce it, it's like four syllables, the Greek word, starts with a K, so there's that, it means just to glory in a thing or to joy in a thing, to rejoice in a thing, and let me see here,

Romans, it's interesting, because Romans 5 .11, so if you go down just a little bit further, the exact same

Greek word is used again, but it was translated differently in our English Bible, it says in verse 11, and not only so, but we also joy in God, that word joy is the same

Greek word that's used here for glory, so, you know, it's not, the glory that's talked about in verse two is specific to God, this word here, when it says that we glory in tribulations, it's simply telling us that we rejoice in tribulations, we have joy in tribulations, again, we rejoice in the hope of God's magnificence, as we learned in verse two, his majesty, his excellence, but we also rejoice or have joy in tribulations, knowing, and how is that possible?

So how can we rejoice in the tribulations we're going through? Well, we get things in perspective, and we remember the fact that that pressure is being applied on our lives for a specific purpose from the hand of God himself, we can have joy in those tribulations or rejoice knowing that that tribulation works the patience that we need to wait on what we joyfully expect, that being his glory.

So it tells us numerous times, we rejoice in the hope, that word, as we've heard dad talk about so many times, it's a little bit different than kind of the connotation it carries for us today, it means, it doesn't mean like a hope something happens, but it probably won't, it means that we can joyfully expect for it to happen.

So we go through the tribulations, we go through these times where this immense pressure is being applied on our lives, and yet we can rejoice in it, because of the hope of the glory of God that we know is coming, that we joyfully expect to come.

Verse four says, in patience, experience. So we have the tribulations that work patience.

Now we have the patience, which bring experience. The word patience means to, it means to have like a cheerful endurance through again, the times of tribulation, when that pressure is being applied, we can cheerfully endure that time, but that's something that we grow in.

In other words, every single time we go through a particular point where the pressure is being applied, it is bringing a new level of that endurance that we didn't have before.

And we can actually, it can be even more of a cheerful endurance every time we go through it. So tribulations to patience or cheerful endurance, from that we get to experience.

So that's what verse four says, in patience, experience. And this word experience implies kind of a battle testing that comes with it.

In other words, like, yeah, we, you know, even in the English, the English word experience, we gather that this implies that we are learning how to handle what we're going through more and more every time we do it.

And so that's great. That certainly ties in there, but the Greek word is even stronger because the Greek word for experience there means to be tested in battle.

So these tribulations we go through, I mean, it's no easy going thing.

I mean, this is literally a form of battle that we are experiencing, that that battle is testing us, that pressure is testing us so that, as we said last week and probably the week before that, and as dad has said numerous times as well, so that we can be the person that we're meant to be when we meet

Jesus for the first time. So that patience or that cheerful endurance brings us to a point where we are tested in battle.

We are being prepared for a thing that is yet to come. Greater battles that we'll face later.

And then it ends with experience, then leads to hope, experience, hope. And of course that hope is the same word, means joyful expectation.

It's not something we're hoping for that probably won't happen. It's something that's going to happen. We can joyfully expect for it to happen because of our position in the

Lord. So now we've come full circle and this is how we know that the tribulations just right off the bat serve a purpose as well.

Remember, the whole point of this section is life is tough for sure, but it is a good thing.

Those tough times in life, when they come, it's a good thing. And it's a good thing because these tribulations serve a specific purpose.

One of which, there are multiple reasons, and we'll cover a couple more of them in just a bit, but one of which is exercising our patience, that cheerful endurance, so that we can ultimately have the hope that keeps us going, for crying out loud.

I mean, it's that hope, that's one of the main ingredients that can get us through some of the toughest things we ever may experience in life, that joyful expectation.

And then it ends in verse five of this, or I'll be ending it in verse five here. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the

Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. So again, those five verses right there sum up the entire study, all of the sections that we've covered, all the passages in those just short five verses, we can start to see that life is hard for a reason, but a good reason at that.

Now we might not understand it in the short term, but those tough times, those tribulations bring patience.

Again, that's a virtue that every human being desperately needs, but certainly those that are saved, that are believers in Jesus, because that patience says a lot about our character.

It's an attribute or a virtue, if you will, that allows us to be prepared for the greater battles that are yet to come, that cheerful endurance.

We might not understand it in those times, but that's what's happening. That pressure is being applied.

One of the reasons it's being applied is so that we grow in our patience. And of course, as we saw in that verse, that patience brings experience.

And that experience in a roundabout way, that kind of being tested in battle is also what allows us the wisdom that we have to move through life.

So we're being tested in battle. It's like we're getting toughened up for future battles, but we're growing in wisdom for sure as well, in terms of how to handle life as we move through it.

And like we saw, it ultimately ends with that joyful expectation of the fullness of our salvation, the

Lord coming back, this phase of our eternal lives being over when tribulation is kind of all around us at any given time, and His return when we'll face it no more.

Now, in the first section of the study, so going way back, we started the study with talking specifically about the mourning phase being sad, literally just the phase of life or the phase of the tribulation that we may go through where we are literally just sad that it's happening around us, because it is hard.

It's super tough. We spent the whole first section of the study just talking about that and looking at a lot of examples in the

Old Testament of the Old Testament saints going through those times. And we looked at Lamentations 3 at that point.

Now, in that section, again, this is going back to January when we did this, but back in January, before that big gap occurred, we looked at Lamentations 3 and we read the first 18 verses of Lamentations 3.

And we stopped there at verse 18 for the purposes of that section, because that is the passage that focuses on Jeremiah's mourning or lamentation of the tribulations that were happening to him in his life.

And back then, back in January, I told you guys, eventually in this study, we're going to pick this passage back up because the tone totally shifts beginning at verse 19.

And so it took way too long to get here, but this was ultimately where I wanted to be, because it's a pretty bleak atmosphere in those first 18 verses.

And yet in that same context, it's about to get so wonderful. And so what we're going to do today is we're going to pick it back up in 19.

And we're going to see how Jeremiah, within that same context of his very, very explicit lamentation, reminds us that the tough times are there for a good reason, which of course is what we're focusing on today.

Let me see here. You know what, I'm going to do something real quick. This'll be, it'll take just slightly more time, but I think it'll make it even better.

Let's start at verse one. Let's do Lamentations chapter three, verse one. I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned.

He turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old.

He hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail.

He hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out.

He hath made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shut it out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone.

He hath made my paths crooked. He wasn't to me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in the secret places.

He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.

He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day.

He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones.

He hath covered me with ashes and now has removed my soul far off from peace.

The very thing that we're striving for here in the study. I forget prosperity and I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the

Lord. That's what we covered in detail a few months ago. And again, pretty bleak little passage there.

That is Jeremiah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit telling us exactly how he was feeling toward God.

That it was God that was there making Jeremiah his target practice for the wrath and the punishment that was raining down on the people of Israel at that time.

So with that context in mind, now let's go to verse 19. Verse 19 of Lamentations 3.

Remembering mine affliction and my misery. Everything that he just talked about. Remembering those things, the wormwood and the gall.

My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me.

Now that's an interesting little phrase right there because in the section we're talking about tribulations will come.

Life is tough, but it's a good thing. Well, there's another little one you can add to the list. One thing that tribulation does for any person that goes through it is it can be a very humbling experience.

For whatever reason that may be necessary at that time for us, that could be a good reason why we're going through it in and of itself.

And that's what happened to Jeremiah here. He was humbled. Verse 21, this

I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. So what he's about to go into is what he recalls to his mind.

And then this is what gives him hope. The crux of our entire story, our entire study rather is right here in this next verse we're about to read.

There's one thought, one thing that we, so bring it closer to home just for a second.

Again, this is for our benefit as well. Jeremiah is going through it, but put ourselves in his shoes for a second or simply just put ourselves in whatever battle we may be facing in this moment.

There's one thought, one thing that we can recall to mind, which is what Jeremiah is about to when we are sinking in the mire, as David expressed, to crowd out the hopelessness that may threaten to drown us in overwhelm that gives us hope in those darkest moments that we may go through.

In those moments, we can recall the mind that, verse 22, it is of the

Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness. Is that not crazy that that passage that a lot of us quote, or, you know, we hear that a lot.

There's like the little wood boards that are made that you can see it in the little stores that have that on there.

I'm not making fun of the one we have, Ash. It's a great thing. But you see that around, like this is a passage or this is a phrase rather.

His mercies are new every morning that we hear all the time. But what we don't often remember is that this, at least one of the places where this phrase is found is right in the middle of one of the most bleak, explicit lamentations that any saint of God ever expressed, wrote down under the inspiration of the

Lord that was there for us to learn from later. It's right in the middle of all that. In one of the darkest moments of Jeremiah's life, he says, it is of the

Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

It's like, wow, when you get to this point in this passage, it's like, talk about a tone shift. That's why

I wanted to go and reread those first 18 verses again, because it's easy to forget that that's right where we were a second ago.

Jeremiah is calling to mind the mercifulness of God, which he's contrasting with the wickedness that his very people have been indulging in.

Of course, the punishment was there for a reason, right? That Jeremiah was having to endure himself because the people collectively were being punished for the sins of the evils that they were indulging in.

Now, despite their gross misbehavior, which of course, as we well know, has been a running theme for a long time, up until this point for the

Israelites, by the time we get to Jeremiah, God's mercies, despite that, God's mercies and compassions fail not, as Jeremiah just told us.

Now, this mercy manifested itself in at least two ways in this passage. Number one, his mercy, his compassions that are new every morning, they manifest themselves with the individual, within the individual relationships that God had with those closest to him.

Thank Jeremiah for a second. You know, this is the man of God. So those mercies, those compassions were new every morning for Jeremiah on an individual level, but they were there.

They were new every morning collectively for the nation of Israel as well, because what happens when they are being punished for the, again, gross misbehavior that they were indulging in,

God would be there to save a remnant of them. His mercies were new for them by way of saving a remnant of his people during those times of destruction, when a lot of them were just totally getting wiped out, whether by the foreign nation that was coming in or by plagues or whatever it may be, times of destruction.

And that remnant is what kept the nation alive and why the

Israelites are still with us to this very day. The nation of Israel is still with us to this very day. He is faithful to his people, even when they are deliberately disobeying him.

He may wipe out a lot of the ones that just do not care about him in any sense of the word or in any sense of the laws and the rules that were put before him.

They had no desire to follow him. And a lot of them would be punished to the utmost when these foreign nations would come in, such as the

Babylonian exile, which was what the context of this book of Lamentations is in, but he would save a remnant.

He would be faithful to his people. So his mercies and his compassions are new every morning in both of those senses on an individual level for those closest to him, but also for his people as well.

Verse 24 says, "'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, "'therefore will I hope in him.'" So again, here's that phrase, that great phrase again, and it's not so different for us now who rejoice in the hope of his glory, just like we looked at in Romans a minute ago.

It's certainly not a coincidence that this was a theme throughout the Old Testament as well, the saints going back to that hope in the

Lord to get them through these times. And then Paul not only reaffirms it in the passage we started with in Romans, but he puts a stamp on it like it is something that, well,

I mean, it kind of goes back to the thing I said last week of some of these things are almost like a superpower that we have that the rest of the world, that the heathen world will never get to experience because the peace that passeth all understanding is supernatural.

The hope of his glory, that magnificence, that excellence, his preeminence, these are things that are meant to be called to mind as Jeremiah told us, but also as Paul told us in the

New Testament as well. Our hope in him is a great way to put things back in perspective for us when times are tough and experience that peace that again, passes all understanding.

So that's how we can tap in to that superpower, if you will. Verse 25, the

Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. There's another familiar phrase there that we've already seen in Isaiah in our last section last week.

There's those that wait for him, that word wait, that Hebrew word for wait is used in several other passages as well.

And it's not like we're just sitting around waiting for something to happen. There's an eagerness to it. It's almost like an active form of waiting.

It's the same Hebrew word here. There's an eagerness behind our waiting for him. And it says the

Lord is good to those who do that. Verse 26, it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the

Lord. Okay, so it is good that we go through tribulations as Jeremiah is now telling us because those tribulations work patience, which work experience, which work hope, but that tribulation according to Paul comes first.

So in that domino effect that Paul laid out for us and that Jeremiah is, obviously

Jeremiah was way before Paul, but as he's kind of alluding to here, that hope is kind of a big part of it, but we get a very specific kind of linear order of events from Paul, the patience, the experience, the hope, but it starts with the tribulation.

The tribulation comes first in order for us to experience those other wonderful things. And Jeremiah is reminding us here that patience, that quietly waiting on him, as he put it, and our hope are a good result of the tough times.

Another good reason why life is tough for us here on earth. Verse 27 says, it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust.

If so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach for the

Lord will not cast off forever. Remember, these are the things that Jeremiah is recalling to mind as he's going through this tough time in his life.

The Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, and I mean, we got a good taste of the grief that he can cause in those first 18 verses where Jeremiah was not holding back his feelings about what he was going through, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercy.

So it's another call back to that wonderful verse we looked at a minute ago. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most high to subvert a man in his cause, the

Lord approveth not. Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the

Lord commandeth it not? Who is any person to go and say that something is coming to pass and question why that thing is coming to pass when it is coming from the very hand of the

Lord? When we were looking at the first 18 verses several months ago, and then we kind of did a review a couple of weeks ago of that, we talked about the fact, we kind of teased this passage that we're now in that Jeremiah, despite the fact that he's going through such a horrible time, even he understands that it all ties into the sovereignty of God later in the same passage.

And then here we are. Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not? Verse 38, out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good.

The Hebrew word for evil there is rah, which literally means evil. Evil, bad, unpleasant.

The sovereignty of God may not be understood by the feeble -minded human race as we have well -established in this church over the last couple of decades, which is wonderful.

By the way, I'm converting a lot of tapes right now. And I just recently converted a testimony that Brother, or I should say,

Dr. Raj, we all refer to him as Brother Raj, of course, Raj Kripalani gave in this church in 2004.

And it was just a couple of weeks after he met dad. And he gets up here and kind of introduces himself to everybody for the first time ever.

And I never even knew this until I was listening to the tape but he was like, he said,

I was looking at my calendar. He was kind of explaining to everyone where he was coming from because everyone was like, who is this guy?

And dad invited him to come to a testimony just within weeks of meeting him. He said, I was looking at my calendar and I was open on a

Wednesday night. And so I thought I would go check out this church during the Wednesday night services.

And back then dad, at that time, dad was still doing the Wednesday night services here. So Brother Raj came, guess what the topic was?

It was the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And Raj mentioned that, and he said, when

I heard that, I was like, wow, this is somewhere where I wanna be because this is such a wonderful topic that's just not talked about as much as it needs to be.

So anyway, I thought that was super cool. I'll get that to everybody at some point because you guys will love it.

I was six years old at the time, but I still remember that testimony. I still remember him giving it in person, but we have the tape of it.

But point being in this church, what made me think of that story is we have established that as, you know, being little people -minded humans, sometimes it's not totally understood how the sovereignty of God is playing into these really, really tough times, like Jeremiah just explained to us, or that Job went through, or that all of us go through, or have gone through, will go through in the future.

But despite the fact that we might not be able to understand it in this moment, it's an unavoidable attribute of God, who, as we determined in our last section, has all the information and all the purpose behind His ways, unlike us.

We don't have that information yet. So who are we, just as God asked Job, who are we to question

His ways when we don't have all the information? Who sit under a council that's darkened.

I can't remember how it's, let's paraphrase big time, but it's the first verse of Job 38. We sit under a darkened council.

We don't have all the information. So who are we to question His ways? God's affliction on His people in this context, the context of like what

Israel was going through at this time. The Babylonian exile, for example, that kind of affliction that is coming directly from the hand of God.

It was designed for a purpose as a corrective measure to restore His people.

And it was designed as a way to force His people to return to Him when they were doing everything opposite of what

He wanted them to do, what He commanded them to do, what He asked for them to do. And that's in Deuteronomy 30, the first 10 verses there talk about how this kind of affliction is a tool that the

Lord uses to turn His people back to Him. Now, this is of course, very specific to the

Israelites, but that's just an interesting thing worth noting. There's purpose behind everything.

In Deuteronomy, way before this is happening in Jeremiah's life, tells us that this will happen when

His people start turning away from Him and that He will turn them back using these methods.

Verse 39, wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

It's a great question that Jeremiah is asking. And it's great that he's asking it. You gotta know he's asking himself this question in this moment as well.

How can we complain really about the tough times that happen in our life? How can any human that is hosting an innate sin nature, something that is within us, we were born with a sin nature, complain about the results of that sin?

The sin, the evil, the knowledge of that evil, that is exactly what we asked for.

I mean, God laid out a very easy, clear plan in the Garden of Eden that the human race could have followed through with and lived a life of only peace in paradise with zero tribulation ever.

He gave them one rule. Instead, they broke that rule. And it doesn't matter that it was

Adam and Eve that started it, because there's not a single human being, not anyone in this room, not anyone on the entire planet in all of human history, aside from Jesus himself, of course, that wouldn't have asked for the exact same thing that they asked for.

Any given, any other person, it wasn't just special to Adam and Eve, any of us would have eaten the fruit as well.

We would have broken the rule as well. And the reason we can say that with confidence is because Jesus was crucified before the foundation of the world.

He was setting the stage to pay for our sins before Adam and Eve were even created.

We know that thanks to Revelation 13, eight. He was crucified before the foundation of the world. So any of us would have made that mistake.

Any of us would have sinned and asked for the knowledge of evil, which we now get by virtue of what we asked for.

So how can we complain when it's our very nature, when we experience these tough times?

That's what Jeremiah is asking. I think he's asking himself that, but it was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that we could then look at this question contemplated ourselves.

Verse 40, let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. There's another reason why these tribulations that we go through are good.

It lets us get introspective. It allows us to look at our ways, to try our ways, and to turn again to the

Lord, to strengthen that relationship, which was lacking otherwise. So again, how could that tribulation be a good thing?

Well, to turn again to the Lord, to rekindle our relationship with him is a magnificent thing. And our trials will certainly accomplish this each and every time we go through it, just as we talked about earlier.

With every new battle, we're being tested on a new level to get us ready for the next one. It's a great thing because it strengthens our relationship with him, which is the whole purpose of our existence in the first place.

That goes back to a totally different topic that we did last year, relationship with the Lord. We were created to have relationship with him.

So if we start lacking and pulling away or not as strong, not taking part in that relationship as strongly as we could be, if we go through this and that turns us closer to him, that's a wonderful thing.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. So again,

Jeremiah reminds us of some very important truths in this section of Lamentations 3. That's not the end of the chapter, but that's where we'll end it today.

He goes on to kind of affirm that, you know, that the people,

God's people are going through what they're going through because of their sin, because of things that they were taking part in, that they were indulging in.

He reminds us of that later on in the chapter. But in the verses that we read today, 19 through 41, he reminds us of a few things.

Number one, and this was, I believe, in the very first, I think, verse 19 or verse 20, he reminds us that tribulation is a humbling thing.

It keeps things in perspective for us. It reminds us that we live in a fallen world. It's worth remembering that, especially because of the blessings that we have, mainly because of this country that we get to live in and have for so many years.

By that, I mean, for pretty much the entire existence of this country, but certainly in my dad's lifetime, there's some wonderful benefits that have come with it, that have come getting to be an

American. And sometimes if life is going really good, we can forget that this is just a fallen world that is just setting the stage for our ultimate destination, our ultimate home.

Of course, someday being in heaven with the Lord, and then maybe even him returning in our lifetimes, in our lifetime, and us getting to be ushered into the millennial kingdom with him, which will be here on earth, but he'll be here with us.

So that's what we need to be reminded of. Sometimes when we're not going through the seasons of tribulation and times are going great, we can forget that we need to keep in perspective that we are in a fallen world and that we cannot survive this falling world, this fallen world without a relationship with the

Lord. So we gotta keep, we gotta, tribulation is humbling and that humbling season is what can put that back in perspective for us.

That's a great thing. And Jeremiah reminded us of that. He reminded us that because of the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed.

Because of his compassions, failing not. And this is very important because this truth alone can lift us from our tribulations.

His compassions are new every morning. How great is his faithfulness? That can lift us from our tribulations, being reminded of that, calling that to mind, just as Jeremiah had to.

He reminded us that the Lord is good to them that eagerly wait for him and seek him. And remember that that eagerness is talked about in a number of ways.

We looked at Isaiah 25, nine last week and that same Hebrew word is in that passage as well, that eagerly waiting for him.

We're reminded that the Lord will not cast us off forever, though it may feel like he is casting us off as Jeremiah felt in this passage.

He does not cast us off forever because he will fulfill his promises. And that pressure that is being applied to our lives is there for a good reason that we might not understand yet, but we will be reminded of at some point.

And Jeremiah reminds us, we shouldn't complain because the Lord is sovereign. And he says in verse 31 and 32, but though he caused grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercy.

So we're reminded of all those things going through the rest of that passage and lamentations. Isn't that awesome? That passage is incredible, especially in the context of those first 18 verses that we started with like seven, eight months ago at this point.

So I was really excited to get back to that and finish it off. Now, at this point, go over to Psalm 107 and we're gonna go through this whole

Psalm and there's a number of verses here, but this will be our kind of concluding or concluding passage here.

So we're gonna finish this thing off, have that closure that is so good to have at the end of the study.

So we're gonna go to Psalm 107, starting in verse one. And this specific

Psalm is all about just tough times that the saint or the redeemed as we'll find out, go through.

And there's a really interesting aspect to it because essentially what we'll see, we're gonna see several specific examples of the redeemed going through a tough time.

And the result of that tough time is them calling on the Lord, crying to him, which then ends with him hearing them and being there for them.

So again, what is this section all about? Life is tough, no doubt, but it is a good thing.

There's good reason behind that in this Psalm right here expounds on that idea quite a bit.

Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. What a wonderful way to start it.

Again, it sets the tone for that underlying truth that we need to be reminded of when we go through these times, that he is good and that his mercy does endure forever.

His mercies, his compassions are new every morning. That underlined, it's the foundation for this whole passage and for good reason, because we need to be, we need to call that to mind, as Jeremiah said, when we go through these times and we're about to see some examples of these times.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. So this

Psalm is specifically written for the redeemed. And it's interesting because what that means is that these stories we're about to look at that David is about to give us are redeemed people, believers in the

Lord, God's children that are going through these tough times, not just any given person, specifically the redeemed.

Verse three, and gather them out of the lands from east, from the west, from the north, from the south. So as the redeemed of the

Lord, we're called to give thanks. That's kind of how this whole passage starts. We're called to give thanks, to praise him, as we benefit from his enduring and loyal love toward us, regardless of what we may go through in life.

So we are called to give thanks, to praise, even in the toughest times. It's that higher standard that we talked about.

It's interesting because in my mind, that standard is kind of set in the New Testament because we have the

Holy Spirit living within us. The apostles reaffirmed that over and over again, that higher standard of rejoice in all ways.

And again, I say rejoice, regardless of what we're going through. And Paul said that while chained to a prison wall, but even in the

Psalms, David is telling us that we need to be giving thanks.

He's calling us to give thanks and praise him. Verse four, and we're gonna start some of these stories, some of these times of tribulation that the redeemed go through.

They wandered in the wilderness. And these are some stories of what some of the redeemed have gone through in the past.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. And he delivered them out of their distresses. That phrase we're gonna see multiple times in this

Psalm. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. That is the key in terms of us understanding why the tough times are a good thing.

Well, one of the best reasons is it causes us to cry unto the Lord. And what's the result of that?

And he delivered them out of their distresses. Verse seven, and he led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Okay, so that's wonderful. So here we are, a people unable to find their way. They are hungry, they're thirsty. Their souls are fainting within them.

And they cried unto the Lord in their distresses and he delivered them. Now, again, the tough times, it's all about bringing us closer to him.

And that is a good thing, a good reason behind the reality that life is hard. Verse 10, such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

That is such a strong phrase. And every time I read that, it's in multiple

Psalms and multiple Old Testament passages. For me, it just puts such a vivid picture in my mind of what those tough times really can look like.

Such as that sit in the darkness and in the shadow of death on the brink of death, being bound in affliction in iron.

So here we're talking about people literally in chains, in prison, because they rebelled against the words of the

Lord and condemned the counsel of the Most High. That's an interesting verse.

We'll kind of touch on that in just a second. Therefore, he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down and there was none to help.

So in those two verses, we're given a very specific look at one type of tribulation that human beings may face.

And that is these specific people, which are the redeemed, they rebelled against the words of the

Lord themselves. They contemned the counsel of the Most High. And because of that, a result of them rebelling against him, they were brought down with labor.

They fell down and there was none to help them. So the tribulation that this specific group of people went through in these couple of verses, that tribulation was because they weren't living right.

They were not trusting the Lord and they were not putting their faith and trust in him. So they were brought down, they were humbled, but it was a good thing because look in verse 13, then they cried unto the

Lord and they're in trouble. And he saved them out of their distresses. The exact same phrase that we looked at just a second ago in verse six, he brought them out of the darkness and out of the shadow of death where they were just sitting and he break their bands in sunder.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron and sunder.

And again, so in the Psalm, he's talking to a specific group of people literally imprisoned in this case in bondage and most likely for good reason because we're told in verse 11 there that they were rebelling against the word of the

Lord. So they were probably in prison for a good reason, experiencing that specific tribulation for good reason.

But because they were redeemed, they called to mind that his mercies and his compassions were new every morning.

They cried unto the Lord for help in their tribulation and he was there for them. Now, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, brother

Bill's lesson. So, you know, he laid out these four specific bullet points when he was studying 1

Peter chapter four. When you're going through tribulation, you got to accept it, you got to rejoice in the tribulation, you got to evaluate the tribulation, then you got to entrust it to God.

We covered that a couple of weeks ago. So after accepting and rejoicing the tribulation that we go through, we have to understand in accepting it and rejoicing in it, we are understanding that there's a higher purpose in it.

We should also evaluate the reason behind it. And the reason I wanted to bring that specific point up again is just for the sake of this passage.

There are times when a redeemed person of the Lord may just not be living up to par.

They may not be, for whatever given reason, you could think of so many hypotheticals, for any given reason, any one of us, certainly myself included, could just start pulling away a little bit from the

Lord. There's a divide in that relationship all of a sudden, and perhaps that divide grows larger and larger for a while to the point where maybe, at least for the people in this passage, they were rebelling against the word of the

Lord. Now, I have pretty good confidence that none of us here would go that far, but they were here, and perhaps that could happen to our brothers and sisters around us, given whatever the circumstances may be.

And so in those specific times, you on an individual basis, and only you would know this, it's between you and the

Lord, you evaluate why the tribulation may be happening, and perhaps it could be for just simply needing to strengthen that relationship with him again.

And so I wanted to kind of throw that out there again, that evaluation point of the tribulation we may go through can sometimes be really important because it may be a matter of, again, just needing to get things in perspective, strengthen that relationship.

And then, of course, the final point in Brother Bill's lesson was to entrust it to God. And so that certainly comes into play there.

Verse 17, "'Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near into the gates of death.

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

David, by no coincidence, is continually bringing us back to the goodness of the Lord as well. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing."

So again, here's another physical story that David is using. And he's using a person that's sick that is going through physical health problems.

Consider the physical ailments that any given person at any given time could experience.

They can literally rip through the human body to the point where your very appetite is gone in the best meal imaginable is abhorring.

I mean, that's what it said in verse 18. "'Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near into the gates of death.'"

Physical ailments can cause some of the most immense tribulations that we could ever experience.

Think of the tribulation specifically related to our health and the reality that it brings us to such despair, again, that we draw near into the gates of death.

In those times, you put this specific kind of example of tribulation in place for us because we need to be reminded that in those times, even then, we draw closer to him, we cry to him once again, and he's there to deliver us.

Again, it's a good reason for why life is hard and why we go through these times in this life because it strengthens that relationship all the more.

Verse 23, "'They that go down to the sea in ships.'" I gotta say this really fast before we go through these verses.

Dad has used this passage before in some of the conferences and meetings that he's taught around the country, usually in the context of business.

And he uses this passage to give these entrepreneurs that he's talking to an example of, when you go into these specific endeavors, there's gonna be some choppy waters ahead of you.

In fact, more than that, flat out storms ahead of you that you will have to go through. And then he tells them, but remember that the

Lord is there in that as well, in those tribulations, and he will bring you through it. This is one of my favorite passages

I've heard Dad go through this so many times at a lot of these conferences and stuff. And here it is in this Psalm. "'They go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters.'"

You can imagine why he's using this in that context when he's used this in the past.

"'They that do business in great waters, these,' meaning those people, "'see the works of the

Lord and his wonders in the deep.'" It kind of starts by letting us know that these merchant men, these sailors have a particular kind of a recognition of God's greatness in the deep, in his wonders, in his creation.

Remember, all of the people in these stories are redeemed people. So they have an understanding as they go down to do business in their ships, to cross the great sea, they see the works of the

Lord and his great wonders. That last section we looked at last week, being lifted by God's greatness, oftentimes recognition of that greatness even prior to the tribulation beginning, because the tribulation hasn't begun just yet for these guys, sometimes recognition of that before it even starts can help us get through it peacefully.

Kind of setting the tone once again. Verse 25, "'For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.'"

So what's going on here? You got these guys, these are redeemed men that are going down to the docks, getting on their ship to do business.

And they are now in the midst of the great sea. And what happens? "'God himself commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind.'"

He's flat out scaring these guys on purpose. We're reminded again of the

Lord's sovereignty here in all of this. He's the one that commands and rises the stormy wind, causes the tribulation in our lives.

He is the very catalyst that brings the tribulation. But for what cause we ask, just like Job asked.

Well, one of them is that we might not forget that even when life is going great, we have to have them right there with us the whole time.

We might not understand the full scope of his work, but what we will find out is that it is ultimately to bring us closer to him, which again is a good, wonderful thing.

Verse 26, "'They mount up to the heavens.'" Talking about the waves. "'They mount up to the heaven. "'They go up and down into the depths.

"'Their soul.'" Actually, he's talking about the guys literally on their ship. "'Their ship is mounting up to heaven. "'They go down again into the depths.'"

The waves are just tossing their boat around like crazy. "'And their soul is melted because of the trouble.'"

So we're talking life or death kind of tribulation here. Pop -Pop has a unique perspective on this because he's actually experienced this, sailing himself out in the open waters.

You've told me the story before, but I know I will never even come close to grasping what that must've felt like.

And I mean, this perspective here kind of touches on it. Yes, I mean, here we are. I guess this is the perspective.

These are the details that we can know what Pop -Pop was going through on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean once with his family.

"'Their soul is melted because of the trouble. "'They reel to and fro and stagger like drunken men "'and are at their wits' end.'"

So imagine putting yourself in the tribulation that you may be experiencing. You may very well get to a point where you are at your wits' end and you are just done.

And I mean, you can imagine that's where Jeremiah was in those first 18 verses, where he was just laying it all out there.

And it's like, who is this guy? Like, it doesn't even sound like Jeremiah anymore. He was so depressed. They were staggering around, their souls melted within them to the point where they were at their wits' end.

Any of us can be at that point in our lives at any time as well. We may have experienced that in the past and we may very well be there again at some point in the future.

But what happens when we are at our wits' end, we're staggering around like drunk men because of the tribulation going on around us, verse 28, "'Then they cry unto the

Lord in their trouble "'and he bringeth them out of their darkness.'" God was the one that caused the great waves to come.

And now he's answering their request to remove them because they are once again reminded, okay, we can't live any part of this life without you,

Lord. Please come be with us. And he did that. So what does he do?

He goes to them in their distresses. Verse 29, "'He maketh the storm a calm "'so that the waves thereof are still.

"'Then are they glad because they be quiet, "'so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.'"

It starts with him being the one that commanded the waves in the first place and it ends, this story, with him bringing them to their desired haven with a great reminder of who, in whose hand they are in all the time and who they need to be growing closer and closer to all the time.

Verse 31, "'Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness "'and for his wonderful works to the children of men. "'Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people "'and praise him in the assemblies of the elders.

"'He turneth rivers into a wilderness "'and the water springs into dry ground, "'a fruitful land into barrenness "'for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

"'He turneth the wilderness into a standing water "'and dry ground into water springs.'" So you have these contrasts here.

He can either turn a desert into an oasis or the opposite. And it's interesting that it points out that he will often turn a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

So again, there are results, there are repercussions to the way we live our lives. Now there,

I believe he's talking specifically about those that are not his, that are not following in his ways in any form or fashion.

But for any person, if we're not living up to the standards that he sets before us, not obeying his voice and not following the imperatives that he has set before us, then he could very well turn our fruitful land into barrenness.

Verse 36, "'And there he maketh the hungry to dwell "'that they may prepare a city for habitation. "'And sow the fields and plant vineyards "'which may yield fruits of increase.

"'He blesseth them also "'so that they are multiplied greatly "'and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.'"

So in all of those verses from like 29 through 38, he's telling us even those that go through the most arduous tribulation that you can imagine that could come their way, even those people can go through that peacefully.

Their wastelands can be turned into standing water, their dry ground into water springs.

And even they are blessed even physically in this life. So it's not always just a matter of life is tough, we're getting through this, but we are going to, we're racking up rewards in heaven and that's our final home someday.

That's absolutely true. That's wonderful for those that believe in the Lord. But what this is saying is that the blessings can come even in this life as well.

Our dry ground can be turned into water springs. But what starts that? It starts with us turning back to Him and calling upon Him in our distresses.

Verse 39, again, "'They are minished and brought low "'through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. "'He poureth contempt upon princes "'and causeth them to wander in the wilderness "'where there is no way.'"

Those two verses, it's just reminding us that He will humble the proud. Like, again, if you are any person, and I'm not talking,

I mean, I'm talking generally here, like just the human race, any person within the human race, He will bring them low and He will pour contempt upon the princes that are living their life in disregard of their very creators, essentially what that's hitting on there.

Verse 41, "'Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction "'and maketh Him families like a flock.

"'The righteous shall see it and rejoice, "'and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.'"

And the whole Psalm ends with verse 43, "'Whoso is wise and will observe these things, "'even they shall understand "'the love and kindness of the

Lord.'" So that is a great way to end this entire section. If we might not understand it in the moment, especially if we are just looking through it, looking at the tribulation through the lens of, you know, this is bad, this is tough, this is scary,

I hate it, but rather if we broaden the perspective a little bit and then look at these very stories that we just looked at, like when the waves are crazy and our soul is melting within us, if we call upon Him, He will be there for us.

If we observe these things, if we are wise and observe these things, we will understand through those times of tribulation, the loving kindness of the

Lord, which again, on the surface level, seems like it'd be really hard to understand that if we're going through the toughest times that we may ever face.

But if we look at it, right perspective as David is wanting us to do here, then we'll actually have a deeper understanding of His loving kindness.

So that is pretty awesome stuff. I'll conclude it with just a couple of things to summarize everything we talked about, and then we'll be done here.

But from these passages, we can start to see again, that life is hard for a reason and a good reason at that. We might not understand it in the short term, but those tough times bring patience and that brings experience.

And that experience is also what allows us the wisdom as we move through life, ultimately the joyful expectation that we all so look forward to.

There's one thought and one thing that we can recall to mind when going through really severe tribulations.

And that tribulation that might bring a sense of hopelessness, there's one thought that we can do to remove that hopelessness that we may feel.

And that is to recall the mind, quote, it is of the

Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness. Again, that was Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. In Lamentations 3, 26, we're told, it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the

Lord. It is good that we go through the tribulations which work patience. And again, the experience and again, the hope, but those things start with tribulation.

And Jeremiah reminded us there that patience, that quietly waiting on Him and our hope are good results of the tribulation we go through.

And finally, we're reminded numerous times of the Lord's sovereignty in everything that we go through as well, even the tough times.

He is the one that commands and rises the stormy wind, the very catalyst that brings the tribulation.

And for what cause we might ask, though we might not know the full scope of His work, we can see shortly that it's because it's in order to bring us closer to Him.

It doesn't take too long into the tribulation for us to realize that and be reminded of that because we go wanting to cling to Him more than ever before.

And for that reason alone, as brother Bill said while he was studying 1 Peter 4, the first two things that we should do when we find ourselves in the midst of tribulation, which might even feel unbearable in the moment is to accept it and to rejoice in it.

Something that not a lot of people can do, but those that believe in the Lord and are clinging to Him can accept it and can rejoice in it because the purpose of all of it may very well be to bring us into an even more intimate relationship with the

Lord than we could have ever known otherwise. And so that is why, despite the fact that life is tough, that life is hard, that can actually be a good thing.

So we did it. We finished it. There is some closure there. And again, I appreciate you guys very much.

This has been a lot of fun, but I am more than ready for dad to be back, of course. And so, yeah, that's that.

I'll pray and we'll be dismissed. Dear only Father Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful day that you blessed us with. Thank you for bringing us all together.

As always, in allowing us an opportunity to get to fellowship together, to learn more about you and to just delve into your word together in a way that hopefully can help us all grow, to edify us and to ultimately bring glory to you as well.

We thank you so much for giving us the peace that passes all understanding and allowing us to have peace in tribulation, something that otherwise is unorthodox that most of the world will never be able to experience, certainly never understand.

But those that follow you and simply call on you to be their Lord and Savior can have that supernatural ability to go through life in a way that is peaceful, that puts us in a place where we can rejoice and actually have joy, even when everything around us seems as awful as we could even imagine, whether it's from just the more minute, everyday problems we may experience or to the greatest, most severe level that we may experience in this life,

Lord, we are so thankful to you that we can still experience that peace, even in those times.

We ask you, Lord, to bring all of our church family back to us that may be out today, that may be out traveling, mom and dad, of course, but everyone else that couldn't be with us today, keep us safe throughout the week.

And if it'd be your will, Lord, we ask that you bring us back together this time next week. We ask all these things in your name, amen.