John 16:16-22 (Jesus Brings Joy Out Of Sorrow)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

We live in a world that's filled with all kinds of sorrows and there's reasons for that Sometimes we're the ones who caused them

We did something dumb Be honest, we've done that. We've done something foolish.

We've done something that invited sorrows into our own life We suffer for things that we've done

There are times though that we suffer when others have caused damage and harm to our life when they've sinned

Against us or done something that wounded or hurt us or betrayed us Sometimes we suffer for other people's sins and then there are other times

Where it doesn't seem like anyone really Caused it other than just the general natural effects of living in a fallen world

When pains and tragedy strike our life, there doesn't seem to be any causal relationship to your sin or someone else's sin anything specifically connecting to the cause of your pain other than we live in a fallen world and We can experience sufferings of all different varieties because of it

For instance depression when it comes upon a person Because of different chemicals in the brain or because of different genetics or because of different circumstances

Sometimes it doesn't seem to have a causal relationship to anyone else Unexpected medical issues that can come upon you.

Maybe you're healthy. Maybe you exercise Maybe you run lots of miles.

I know a man who who bikes 15 miles a day and Almost took him out and yet I don't like 15 miles a day.

I've had kovat four times and I've dominated it Sometimes we suffer and we don't know why

There's innumerable examples of this But the thing I'd like to remind us of as we get started as God is with us in our sorrows

He's the one who sees this you remember in Genesis where Hagar who's in this awful situation.

She runs away She goes out into the middle of the desert and she's sorrowful she's on her knees ready to give up her life and give up the life of her son and God Appears to her and says

I am the God who sees you Which means in our suffering we are not alone.

He notices us He's with us. He's a man. You well God with us

Not only with us in our suffering but willing to take the suffering we deserve himself on his own head and With that God has a plan for sorrow.

He is not aloof to sorrows He is not an uninterested deity sitting in some corner of the universe looking down at us with a grin like stinks to be them

No, he's a God who enters into our pain and has a plan for our pain

We see that in the passage that we read earlier from Isaiah 61

It's perhaps the best example of of God having a plan for in dealing with the pain and the suffering of his people

I'd like to read a few verses from that one more time just to remind us and I'm gonna accentuate certain syllables

To make sure that you hear What's going on in this passage? The Spirit of the

Lord God is upon me Jesus claims that as for himself in the Gospels. He said this is this is about me

Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim

Liberty to the captives freedom to the prisoners to proclaim the favorable year of the

Lord in the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn to grant those who mourn in Zion giving them a

Garland instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning

The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting so that they will be called the oaks of righteousness

Now I grew up in the south and we have like hundred and twenty year old oaks and they are solid and they are strong And they are they're this royal regal trees that stand there, especially the red oaks.

They're beautiful God is promising that through your pain through your suffering. He will grow you strong To be able to stand the test of future

Suffering and he will do it in a way that brings you joy and gladness and mirth and delight the pleasure

Christ himself is promising these things for his people and he did not give

God did not give these promises in a vacuum He gave them inspired the author of Isaiah to write them down because these things are true in Christ Now you have to remember the context right of the

Israelites, especially the Judeans where Jesus visits them. They know sorrow

Out of all people on earth these people knew sorrow They were people who had a king from the

Davidic line and that King was deposed There were people who sinned greatly against God 700 years before Christ came and the

Assyrians almost wiped them out Because after that they started sacrificing their children to idols

God did wipe them out through the Babylonians and they never got a king again They never got national sovereignty again so that through Babylon through the

Greek Empire through the Persians through the Seleucids through the Romans through the

Itamians through all of that for suffering they had 600 years of being an orphan among the empires of the world

They had no place no land no King and If that's not bad enough if we learn from history in the book of Maccabees not an inspired book

But it is a history book that the priesthood was also perverted 200 years before Christ came so they had no king

No priest and there were no prophets The three anointed offices of Israel that were that were agents of their joy that were meant to help them

Love God and love him. Joyfully. We're gone. They were a bleak depressed and dejected

People it is to that people that God promises that he will bring them joy It is to that people that he promises

He will bring them delight and he will give them the garland instead of ashes which is a sign of repentance and sorrow

He will give them the garland of victory of delight in Christ and in Christ alone and the same

Is true for us today that in our sorrows what we will see from our text this morning is that we can find delight in Christ and I'll go even a step further can communicates possibility we must find joy in Christ if we be his

Now let us remind ourselves of where we've been We're in the travel narrative in the Gospel of John 15 and 16 is the travel narrative and Jesus and his disciples have left

Jerusalem They've left the Kidron Valley. They're heading to the garden, which is an ironic thing Because it was in the garden where pain and sorrow was unleashed upon the world and it is through the garden that Jesus will reclaim its pleasure

Because he's a good king who will redo the failures of his people So today we're gonna see how

Does Christ crush our sorrows and how does he bring never -ending joy? If there's ever been a practical message that will affect your life on a day -to -day basis, here's the passage

How can you have joy in Christ? Well, we're gonna look at five things today. We're gonna look at Jesus's promise

To overturn our sorrows. We're gonna look at the disciples confusion over this

We're gonna look at Jesus's sovereignty over this. We're gonna look at the reality of sorrows

Jesus is not denying that we will experience pain. He's not overlooking it But even in the midst of that he promises never -ending joy

Even in the midst of pain, so if you will turn with me to John 16 16 through 22

We will read our passage this morning We will pray and we will get about the business of having never -ending joy.

So let us read a Little while and You will no longer see me and Again a little while and you will see me some of his disciples and said to one another what is this thing that he is telling us a

Little while and you'll see me and again a little while you will not see me and because I go to the father So they were saying what is this that he says a little while we do not know what he is talking about Jesus knew that they wished to question him and he said to them

Are you deliberating together about this that I said a little while and you will not see me and again a little while you will

See me Truly truly I say to you that you will weep and lament

But the world will rejoice You will grieve but your grief will be turned into joy

Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come But when she gives birth to her child, she no longer remembers the anguish

Because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you to have grief now

But I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one will take your joy away from you

Let's pray Lord Jesus We are easily distracted

Lord we are easily Broken over consumed by the cares of this life

Lord it takes only an aggressive driver to ruin my morning and Lord it's true for all of us.

There are so many petty things That rob us of our joy and Lord help us to be a people who remember

That no one can take the joy of Christ away from us no one has that power

Help us to remember the joy that you have given us help us to remember how you crush our sorrows and Word even in pain even in trial even in brokenness

Lord help us To not give ourself excuses to sit down in melancholy sadness

Lord help us to be a people who fight for joy who beat our hearts into submission and who refuse to Accept the lump as an acceptable reality

Lord we ask these things on the basis of your word and the promise that you will give us never -ending joy

Lord we ask by your spirit that you would help us to fight for that to rest in that to rejoice in that In Christ's name.

Amen There's a phrase that Jesus begins in this passage and he says a little while Now it's not just a turn of a phrase as it were that word a little while actually shows up in the prophets

Exclusively in the Old Testament and it's used in two different contexts the first it's used in the context of judgment in a little while the pain and the punishment and the and the

Consequences for your sin will be poured out upon you an example. This is Hosea 1 for and the

Lord said to them name him Jezreel for yet a little while and I will punish the house of Jehu for the

Bloodshed of Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel Set word a little while is communicating near proximal judgment

Psalm 37 10 also communicates this yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more and You will look carefully for his place, but he will not be there

Now these passages are communicating an urgency in God's judgment

It's going to be poured out upon the wicked. Sometimes the wicked are are not Masquerading as the people of God and sometimes the wicked are within the people of God as in the house of Jehu But that's not the primary meaning for this passage judgment

Although it is a secondary meaning because as we've been understanding in the Gospels 40 years after Jesus rises from the dead

Judgment is going to be poured out on the house of Israel on the house of Judah Their temple is going to be burned to the ground.

Their city is going to be raised which doesn't mean elevated. It means leveled and Their station is going to be taken their house is going to be left to them desolate

Matthew 23 All of the covenantal woes that have been stored up since Adam is going to be poured out on that generation

That's what Jesus says in Matthew 23 Matthew 24 He says these things will happen in this generation's 40 -year window

We know the context of judgment is there but Jesus is not talking in this passage

About the Jews who will be judged. He is talking about his people who quickly soon in a little while Will come into the greatest joy that's ever been recorded in human history

This is a passage that's talking about the blessings that are going to be poured out in near proximal time on God's people

By taking the crushing weight that they feel in their hearts and Putting it on him

It says a little while and you will no longer see me and again a little while you will see me

He's promising here that he is going to overturn their sorrows and he's identifying for them a roadmap of what the next 72 hours in their life is gonna look like he says in a little while.

What does he mean by that? He's saying you're not gonna see me in a little while he's talking about his arrest when Judah or Judas and the and the temple guards come and arrest him and take him to Caiaphas where they have this kangaroo court where they beat him and bludgeon him and where they mock him and spit in his face and Jesus is saying you're not gonna see me when

I go into that moment Only Peter sees him and he denies him three times in the midst of it. Then They're gonna take him before Pilate where the

Jews yell crucify him crucify him. We have no king, but Caesar He's gonna be taken to the Jewish puppet

King Herod who's gonna mock him and ridicule him Then they're gonna pin Jesus to a Roman cross by carrying him up the hill of Calvary or helping him carry the cross up the hill

They're gonna pin him down to the cross They're gonna murder him on that hill and they're gonna bury him in a tomb where his disciples will not see him

In a little while you will not see me. Jesus says I will be gone and the disciples are broken

Over it and In a sense we get something of the character of God here

Because in order to give them the greatest joy that he's ever given them He first inflicts them with his absence

He removes himself from them to give himself more fully to them

He leaves them alone So that they'll never be alone He took the full weight

By giving them a extra weight for a season sometimes God does this When God is getting ready to give you freedom and joy and a particular thing

Sometimes he gives you more sometimes he gives you a weight Sometimes he pours out things upon you in a season of your life

Before he's going to bless you because he's teaching you about resting and trusting in him the disciples

Self -sufficiency could not help them when Jesus was in the tomb. They had to learn

To wait and trust on God and God does this in our life as well when

I became a Christian I Don't need to get into the whole story, but my life fell apart and I was upset.

I Was like Jonah cursing the little plant outside the city. I was like God I became a

Christian Why are you not blessing me now? why does my life feel like it's filled with cursing right now and what the

Lord was teaching me in that bitterness is That he is all I need That it's not me not my power not my working not my ingenuity not my mind

It's him He had to cut out of me the cancers that had accumulated in me over 20 years

And he had to put himself in me So forcefully through pain and trial that I would never question him

Sometimes God leads us to more pain as he's taking away our pain Sometimes he leads us to more agony as he's taking away our agony and he does this with the disciples

He allows them to walk through darkness Because he is going to give them light forever more

So we learned something of the character of God He says I'm going away and he admits that sorrow has filled your heart and he's letting it happen for their good

He says it's better that I go away and they're like, I don't agree with you and he let them feel that way

He was going away so that they would have him in full because had he stayed with them they would have him in part

But when he goes and he's already told us this When he goes when he dies when he resurrects from the dead when he stays with them for a few days and gives them that Temporal joy, it will be eclipsed by the coming of the

Spirit of God who will not just bless those 12 men They'll not just bless the larger discipleship community of 70 but you and I 2 ,000 years removed get to know

Jesus in the same way that Peter and Paul and James and John knew Jesus not physically but spiritually because of the

Spirit and Jesus said that that is better Because that's permanent joy not temporal joy

Again you and I Have many sorrows in this life and Jesus never once placate you and that says that that your life is gonna be awesome

That little song everything is awesome in the Lego movie is foolish He says you will have many troubles in this life.

You will You will have trials you have pain you'll have moments that bring you to your knees that cause you to weep

You'll have moments where you feel like you're all alone and you're by yourself You'll have moments where the person across from you looks like your enemy

You'll have moments where everything seems to be falling apart around you. He does not say that you won't have those things you will

But what he does promise is that medicine is not the cure Therapy is not the cure exercise is not the exercise is good

He is saying that the cure for our sorrows is not in temporal physical means it is in him and him alone

He is the cure to all of our sorrows all of our sins when Christ died upon the cross He took all of our shame all of our failure all of our brokenness

So that as we rest in him and rest in the deliverance that he has given us it cures us of our sorrows

The reason we don't live in joy often is because we choose not to Because our sadness is giving us something that we enjoy

We have to wrestle with that. He promises that when he was raised

That he would give us a never -ending joy. Look at the disciples. They can face anything They're hungry, but they have hope

They're overjoyed in periods and when they were being beaten and when they're being jailed and whenever they're being in prison

They're conquering as they're being conquered Because they understand who

Christ is and they understand who the Spirit of God is and it calls them To have so much joy that they turn the

Roman Empire upside down You and I have never been treated like Paul. We've never been beaten within an inch of our life three four times

We've never been a maybe we haven't Maybe there's someone here has been arrested. I Worked in a jail.

I tell people that I was arrested for seven and a half years and got time served But Paul was in jail.

What is he doing? He's singing James and John are beaten with an inch of their life. What are they doing? Are they pouting?

No, they're singing. They're praising. They said we've been counted worthy to suffer for Christ You see over and over and over again in the

New Testament as they suffer their joy increases Because they know who Christ is in Fact when they were being fed to the lions

The crowds are saying look at how they love one another look at the joy on them as they're being murdered for their faith

There was a scene in in Fox's Book of Martyrs that was so compelling to me because it seems so foreign to our modern understanding a

Mother and her child were standing in front of in front of the lions and they choose the child to be fed to the lions to motivate the mother to abandon

Christ and the child for a moment whimpered and The mother said to her child don't you whimper

Christ is better Where did we lose this where did we lose this kind of joy that invades

Every aspect of our life so that even if we're not comfortable Even if we're broken we can see the magnitude of the shining light of Christ and his gospel is better than our pain

Where did we lose this? in our comfort ridden Society with all of our toys and gadgets and distractions.

I get that our Life brings us many things that confuse us.

We're not alone in that the disciples were confused Look at what it says in verse 17 and 18 some of his disciples then said to one another

What is this thing that he's telling us a little while? You will you will not see me and then and again in a little while you will see me and because I go to the father

So they were saying what is this that he says a little while? We do not know what he's talking about.

How many of us can identify with the disciples? We have the account of what is going on and how many times do we say

I don't know what he's talking about We have the end of the story that they were confused about and we are confused when we suffer

Every time when we suffer and we say God why me? We are confused Because at the end of it

Someone today before service said I'm better than I deserve and it reminded me. What do we deserve?

Really we deserve hell for our sin. We deserve torture for our sin and If all we go through in this life is a few trials and tribulations and pain

They're not even worth comparing to the glory that would be revealed on the day of Christ. Where have we lost our joy?

Where have we made the cares and the concerns of this life so much more palpable and powerful than the power of Jesus Christ?

The disciples are confused over their sorrow and it pervades the gospel of John John does one or does two things

John does everything well because the Spirit inspired it but there's two things. I'm gonna highlight today that John does well He highlights the confusion

When it comes to Jesus and he highlights Jesus's absolute clarity the confusion Nicodemus confused.

He comes at night He's the teacher of Israel and he has no idea what Jesus is talking about. He's confused

The woman at the well has no idea what Jesus is talking about. She's confused the paralytic in John chapter 5

Jesus comes up and he is confused about Even who he is when he's talking to Jesus when

Jesus walked on water His disciples were confused when he said you must eat my flesh and drink my blood The crowds were confused when the disciples saw him in his transfiguration.

They want to build a tent to Moses and Elijah They were confused when Jesus healed Lazarus or when he was going back to heal

Lazarus They were like, why are we going back there? You're a public enemy number one Every time

Jesus speaks it seems like that he's perplexing his people for a purpose

Because he's leading them to great joy sometimes The simple answer that straightforward doesn't accomplish

What a perplexing Confounding answer will do Jesus is constantly perplexing and confounding his disciples to teach them to stop resting in their human ability to understand and to rest in him

And we get confused as well when our mind is reeling when our ideas are running together You ever been in a moment where you've got a million ideas happening and depression and anxiety and confusion

Are the partners that are sparring against your brain? and You have no idea

What God is doing or what he's talking about This is how the disciples felt in this moment.

They we don't know how long this conversation lasted It couldn't have been more than 30 minutes, but they are walking in deep confusion

They have no idea what God is doing. They can't see the forest for the trees All they know is

Jesus saying he's gonna remove himself from them They have no idea that he's going to ascend to heaven and give them the

Spirit of God To give them the greatest joy that they've ever seen. They have no idea And this teaches us something from our perspective

We can't see more than the moment that we are living in The disciples on Thursday could not possibly imagine what was going to happen on Sunday They thought it was over and that is the same for you and I The suffering you're going through today looks sovereign to you, but it is not sovereign

God is the one who is sovereign you cannot see all of the things that God is going to do when

I look back at the time when I became a Believer in Christ and all of the pain and all of the suffering

I looked at that in that moment Is it it was the realest thing in my life and now looking back on it?

I see God's plan God's purpose his intention and I would not trade it

I would go through it a hundred times over again because I know what God did with it That teaches us

That our perspective is too small That God is the one who is sovereign and he's the one who's leading his people

He is the one who brings light on Sunday morning after the darkness of Friday evening

He is the one who brings Clarity to the confused. He's the one who brings knowledge to the ones who are dull

For us today as we are people who struggle

With pain and struggle with depressions and anxieties and brokenness and rejections in all manner of things

We have to remember What God has said and who God is God is sovereign.

God is good and God is great and there is joy in his resurrection If you know that God is all -powerful and that God is all good

Everything you're going through right now is a part of his plan to sanctify you and bring his blessings into your life all joy all

Grace multiplied peace all the promises that we read every single week are yours even in your suffering

Because you serve a God who is sovereign over all things and you serve a God who can be praised in all things

Find your comfort in his work and his resurrection and his ascension and the spirits indwelling get your eyes off of your

Circumstances because they're not God God is

God and he will work for the joy of his people But Jesus proves this in The way that he speaks to his disciples

Jesus knew that they wished to question him and he said to them Are you deliberating together about this that I said a little while and you will not see me and again a little while you will

See me again. Like I said earlier. He is proving that while the disciples are confused. He's not he's not confused about anything

He has absolute clarity. Look at all of the different examples of this in the Gospel of John He knew Nathanael before he even met him.

He knew the heart of man without even having to meet them John chapter 2 He knew how many husbands the

Samaritan woman had before she told him He knew how long that the invalid had suffered 38 years before he even spoke

He knew that he was going to be betrayed by Judas before he left the disciples he knew that Peter was gonna deny him three times before Peter peaked a word of Rebellion and he knew what the disciples were thinking over and over and over again

We see that Jesus is the one who knows and if Jesus is the one who knows why don't we trust him? You and I don't know anything

You don't even know the next word. I'm gonna say and Then the next one and then you don't know

Why would we trust our opinion on anything? Why would we trust our perspective on pain?

Why would we trust our? position being so limited in our knowledge of anything when it is

God who knows Everything and he is all good and he can take your life and make your life whatever he wants for your good and for his glory

Why do we give credence to our perspective so frequently and fail to notice his

When he's the God who sees us knows us Understands us. He knows our struggles and he's been there and he even went to the cross

For you and by giving you his

Holy Spirit He has brought you into the same relationship with the same intimacy as Peter and James and John and all of the

Apostles You know Christ because of his spirit Don't trust your perspective.

Don't trust your knowledge. Don't trust your pain. Don't trust your suffering don't trust the thing that was done to you or the word that was said about you or the or the

Gossip or the this or that I don't trust those fleeting things that are lying to you Trust in the perspective of Almighty God who says that he will complete the work

That he will bring all good things to those who love him and are called according to his purpose stop trusting you

You're not trustworthy. Your perspective isn't God's is He doesn't placate them he says truly

I say to you that you will weep and you will lament but the world will rejoice He is not saying that that like that Maybe some of the prosperity preachers say that if you just have enough faith and you're gonna have your yacht

You're gonna be your Maserati. You're gonna have your watch. You're gonna have your this you never hear that. That's foolishness Jesus never does that He never looks at them and says you were gonna be pain -free

He says in your pain, you will have the pleasures of Christ. He does not say that you will not have pain

The sorrow is going to come for these men these disciples But he's gonna overturn it

If you remember what happened in the Gospels Peter was afraid of a little girl and he denied Christ in front of her

He had great sorrow and confusion the disciples they all scattered and they abandoned him because they had great pain and great confusion and great sorrow and What was it?

Who was it that? Overturned the world after the resurrection you have men who were weak and who were frail and who were broken and then after the resurrection

You have lion -hearted men who turned the entire city of Jerusalem Samaria Judea and the

Roman Empire upside down. What happened? It wasn't them. They were weak.

They were scared of little girls It was Christ and his resurrection power and the

Holy Spirit's indwelling that changed these weak men into lion -hearted

Apostles who turned the world upside down. Why do we doubt that? The same power that rose

Jesus Christ from the dead now lives in us That he wouldn't take us in our weakness and turn us and make us and have me give us courage and give us joy

Why do we sit in our depression so long and in our sadness so long when his work?

changes us Their lives are a living testimony That Jesus's work changes you.

Why do we live so glum and filled with so many cares and so many worries? Why do we become so aggravated?

I'm speaking to myself. Why do I get so aggravated so easily? Why do we labor so little in Jesus's kingdom

When we have the same Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead When I look at the earliest apostles and disciples

They were joyfully ready to give everything for him. They sold all their property They were working every day of their life.

They were in each other's lives. They were building They did not treat Sunday morning as an event that they needed to attend and Jesus was never part of their life

He was all of it How did we come as a society? To treat

Sunday morning as the apex of our spiritual endeavors That if we can just come to a

Sunday morning service, then we've accomplished it. He didn't die for your hour. He died for your life

He didn't die for your for the crumbs that we offered him he died to have everything and When you give him everything what you will realize is is that he will give you great joy

See when I teach my children this when we pray when we pray with our hands open God can put things in them

But when we when we pray like this and our lives look like this We're clinging to our idols and our things and our brokenness and what can

God put in your hands then? What made the disciples joyful is that they gave everything for Christ We're so afraid to give anything to Christ that we love our lives like this

Is it any wonder that we have little joy? Because we're so busy holding on to things that really aren't ours in the first place

Now I'm gonna be honest With some of these things

This is not just a Shepherd's Church thing this is a an American church thing where churches all across the country are struggling with their budgets because Because we don't have a vision for the kingdom

We have churches that are closing down because pastors don't have a vision for the glory of Christ We have a

Sunday school class that has three people in it right now, and I'm in my wife or two Why are we?

why are we not involved and consumed with Building Jesus's kingdom.

It's not that we don't have opportunity. We live in, Massachusetts We can bond together people and we can see his kingdom built in ways that will they will have to write history books about There's opportunity here if we have the joy and the desire to see his kingdom built when we understand and recognize who

Christ is in his Resurrection and in his ascension We will be like the Apostles and we will be all in What I'm pleading for the church in America and what

I'm pleading for our church to recognize is if we're not all in it's because We have not yet seen how beautiful Christ is

There is opportunity for us and I want to read to you before we close

This never -ending joy that he brings He compares it to a woman who's in labor

Who forgets all of her agony because she has this child he compares it To a joy that can never be taken away even in the greatest trials and in tribulations and in pains and in sufferings

It cannot be taken away. And here's an example from history of that Patrick of Ireland Have you ever heard of Patrick of Ireland?

He's not the guy on the Lucky Charms box Patrick of Ireland Patrick of Ireland was was captured in his home and taken into slavery

He was arrested. He was tortured and beaten He escaped he got back home and then the

Lord put it on his heart to go back to the people who beat him and the people who Enslaved him so that he could tell them the gospel of Christ All the pain and suffering that he went through and God sends him back into it

And you would think that he would be bitter about it and you would think that he would say, you know what God? That's not a part of my life plan

That's not a part of my making sure that I stay safe tomorrow Look at what Patrick says about his own faith.

I want to read this to you. It's astounding as he faces Punishment and torture and all these things.

He says I arise today Through God's strength to pilot me God might to uphold me

God's wisdom to guide me God's eyes to look before me

God's ears to hear me God's word to speak to me God's hand to guard me.

You see how God's How who God is is working itself into every aspect of his life?

God's way to lie before me God's shield to protect me God's host to save me from the snares of the devil from Temptations of vices from everyone who desires my ill afar and near alone or in a multitude

I summon today all these powers before me and against the evil against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul against the incantations and false prophets against the black laws of Pagan dumb against false laws of the heretics against craftiness and idolatry

Against spells of women and Smith's and wizards. He was facing some spiritual warfare Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul

Christ shield me today against poison against burning against drowning against Wounding so that reward may come to me in abundance

Christ with me Christ before me Christ behind me

Christ on my left and Christ on my right Christ when I laid down and Christ when

I sit down Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me

Christ in the eye that sees me and Christ in the ear that hears me. I arise today through a mighty strength

The invocation of the Holy Trinity through a belief in the threeness through a confession of the oneness

Amen in the greatest suffering that Patrick had ever known.

He had the greatest joy because he knew something That was greater than his suffering and that is the beauty and the lordship of Jesus Christ dear brothers and sisters

This is not a secret formula and this is not just for happy people who have a disposition towards towards friendliness

No, Jesus Christ Know the power of his resurrection know the beauty of your

Savior When your pain accost you throw it down and turn your face to Jesus He will lift your head.

He will give you joy and I don't care what you're going through I do care what you're going through But it will not stop you from having joy because Christ is better and bigger and he triumphs over it

There is joy for anyone who turns to Christ. Amen Let's pray

Lord God We live in a world that seeks to constantly take our joy or one of the great

Skills of the enemy is to try to attack us where we're weak Our flesh cries out for us to Love the things that are poison

The world craves the things that hate God and yet in the midst of it Lord through all the pain and sadness through all the persecution through all the diseases through all the back aches and through all the

Things that in anyone in this room could list down on a piece of paper that has accosted them There is joy to be had in Christ You are greater than our pain

You are more beautiful than our than the ugliness that we feel Lord, I pray that everyone in this room

Would be so fixated upon their Lord Christ and who he is in his resurrection that Lord the people of this world would look at us and be confused by us because they would see us as the most joyful People that have ever lived

Lord, we are not angry. We are not bitter Lord fill us with your spirit so that we will be a people who magnify you through our joy and Lord make us stubborn that when our

Depressions and anxieties attack us Lord. Let us never be okay with that and let us fight it and Let us kill it