The Comfort for Hurting Hearts

Transcript

All right, next time you’re down, I’m making a crazy Bob joke when I introduce you. But it is true. I love this church so much. I do feel, it does feel like visiting family. This last weekend with the men’s retreat, I got to tell you all, the men who were there, that weekend, this weekend was so special. I won’t forget it. It meant a lot to me to be there and to be a part of what the Lord was doing. And wives, thank you so much for encouraging and supporting your husbands as they went and worshiped and thought about sin for a couple of days. Thank you very, very much for encouraging in that way. I have been asked a couple of times though, if I got this injury on my face from playing football with those crazies at the men’s retreat, no, it was a prior injury before

I came up here. I would never play football with those guys. It’s terrifying. I could not believe that nobody broke things. But I am honored to be here, honored to open the word of God with you guys. Would you join me for one more word of prayer? Our God in heaven, God, we gather around your word, believing and trusting that your word is alive. It is living. It is active. So father, as you, by your grace, open our ears to hear, we believe that we are hearing your voice speak to us. And so the very comfort that Christ offers to his friends and John 14 is the comfort that you offer all in this room who have trusted in Jesus. You would call to all who belong to Jesus. Let not your hearts be troubled. Help us today, God, to leave this place, trusting in Jesus father, and let it calm, let it bring

The Upper Room

peace to our hurting hearts. I pray that God in Jesus name for your glory. Amen. Amen. So I wanted to do a bit of a thought experiment. I’m going to ask you guys to use your imagination for a moment to kind of put us in the right heart space for this first initial speech from the Lord Jesus after he said what he said in chapter 13. So imagine that you’re in this room right now, right? And you know, in a room this size with this many people and this much stuff going on, you know that there are hearts sitting among us hurting for one reason or another, right? Anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, exhausted, wrestling with sin, perhaps a week that sort of dragged you through the mud and beat you up in one way, shape or fashion. We’re all here with stuff going on in our hearts.

It’s why church is so good to come to be together. But imagine that one of your pastors could come up to this place right here and he could look out onto this room and see all of your hearts and see all of your concerns and all of your trouble, all of your stress, all of your anxieties. He could see all of it. He could look right into your heart and your soul, and then he could make you a promise that was meant to comfort you at your deepest level. Could you imagine what that promise would be? Could you imagine the effectiveness of such a promise? As you begin to think of that and picture that in your mind, that takes us to the upper room of John chapter 14. Can you go there with me? You’ve been here, you’ve been in the room, you’ve watched what’s gone on in this room,

but can you begin to feel the emotion swell up in the room? Can you begin to feel and sense the tension that is going on in this room? Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples. I mean, they’re confused. He even tells them, you guys don’t get what I’m doing for you yet, but you will, right? So they don’t know what’s going on. Then he makes this statement that one of them is going to betray him. He lets them know, and then Judas leaves and they’re like, was it him? Is it him? Or did he go somewhere else to do something else? Then Jesus again and again makes clear that he is leaving. He is going to go away. And ever since chapter 12, at least, he has made it really clear that he’s going to die. When Mary anoints his feet, he says, she has done this for my burial.

He makes it clear he’s going to be killed, leading all to this crescendo of this question that Simon Peter asks at the end of chapter 13, Lord, where are you going? Where are you going? Why would you leave us? And Jesus answered him where I am going. You cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward. And Peter said with the utmost boldness and passion, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? The emotions were already running high. The tension in the room was already thick. They were already confused. They were already saddened. And then Jesus tells his right hand man, you are going to deny me.

You are going to betray me as well. And in the midst of all of that tension, all of that emotion, Jesus looks them all in the eyes and says, let not your hearts be troubled. How could he possibly say that? After all that is going on in this room, how could he possibly call and command for them to not let their hearts be troubled? What other emotion would be right in that time together? And so I think with that setup and us thinking about Jesus calling out for their hearts to not be troubled in the midst of all of that, I think everything that follows matters to us. How can he tell those hearts to not be troubled? Or let’s ask it this way. How does Jesus comfort our hurting hearts? Friends, could there be a more relevant question for us? Because surely if your heart is not hurting now, it has recently.

And if it is not hurting now, it will likely be soon. How does Jesus comfort people like us? How does Jesus comfort hearts like ours? What Jesus is about to say is incredibly relevant to people like us. So let’s ask the question, how does Jesus comfort our hurting hearts? Look with me if you would at John chapter 14, starting in verse one, I’ll read through verse 14. Hear the word of God. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am, you may also be. And you know the way to where I am going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the

father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. This is God’s word. Now this passage is a rather dense one, isn’t it? Many famous lines hop off the pages at us. And yet, if you would take a moment to swim around in this passage, you find the promise of it, the promise of comfort to actually be rather simple and straightforward. Everything builds off of verse one when he says, let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God. Believe also in me. And then as you read through the passage, verse one says, believe also in me. Verse three says, I’ll come again and I’ll take you to myself that where I am, you may also be. Verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Verse seven, if you had known me, you would have known the father. You just keep going. Verse nine, know me, whoever has seen me, believe me. Verse 10, verse 11, believe me. Verse 11, believe on account of the works themselves. Verse 12, whoever believes in me. Verse 13, whatever you ask in my name, do you see? How does Jesus comfort our hurting hearts? When our hearts are hurting, Jesus calls for us to trust him. That’s what he offers in every one of these promises. Jesus offers himself. This is the comfort that he is offering to these hurting, saddened, heartbroken, confused

disciples. He says, trust in me. Now you understand that if Jesus is not who he claimed to be, Jesus is the most arrogant man who ever walked this earth. None of you would say that to a hurting friend. Hey, don’t let your heart be troubled. Just trust me. Come on. Right? Just believe in me and it’ll be enough. It’ll be enough. But this is what Jesus offers them himself. Every one of these promises that we’ll lay out for the rest of our time together, all of them center around Jesus. And so the second question that we’ll ask, we’ll answer in the rest of our time today is worth asking. Is Jesus enough to comfort our hurting hearts? It’s a legitimate question. If that’s all he offers, if that’s what he promises, you get me. Don’t let your heart be troubled. Have me. Believe me. Trust me.

Knowing Our Future

It’s worth asking. Is that enough? And so let’s go through these promises one by one. The first thing that we see here in the beginning is if we know Jesus, we know our future. We know our future. He makes us promises about what happens next. Look what he says. In my, verse two, in my father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, what’s he going to do? I will, all contingent on Jesus’s actions, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way that where I am going. And so what Jesus is promising here is heaven, is it to be in his father’s house and the

many rooms there is this promise of afterlife with the father in heaven. But listen to that way that he makes this promise. He says, I will take you to myself that where I am, you may also be. That’s the promise. So this teaches us at least two things. One, and the much more personal is Jesus wants to be with us. Do you see that? The only purpose statement there that you find in verse three, when it says, I will come again and we’ll take you to myself that purpose statement where I am, you may be also, I want you to be with me. That’s not an afterthought to Jesus. That is at the front of his mind here hours before he goes to the cross, he says, I want you to be with me. I’m going to come back and I’m going to get you because I want you to be where I am.

And I hope that comforts your heart this morning, friends, Jesus came to rescue you. He wants to be with you. He is preparing a place for you and he wants to be with you forever. But then he says this, I will take you to myself, myself. The second thing this does is this shifts our perspective from a place to a person. And Jesus is going to do this multiple times in this passage, he’s going to shift their perspective from one thing back to him, from that to him. And so here, clearly where Jesus is, when he says, I’m going to take them to myself where Jesus is, that is heaven where Jesus is. That is heaven to those who belong to Jesus. So whatever we long for, when we think of heaven, if Jesus is not at the center of it, it is not heaven.

In fact, Pastor John Piper asks this in a very cutting and convicting way. When he asks, if you could have heaven with no sickness and with all the friends you’ve ever had on earth and all the food you’ve ever liked and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ were not there? Let that challenge your heart, friends, let it challenge your heart because what all Jesus promises here, he, he paints no elaborate picture of the afterlife here. He says, I’m going to go prepare a place that I’m going to come get you and you’re going to be with me. I’m going to come get you and you’re going to be with me. Let that be enough.

But the question is, and I think it’s fair to ask, is that enough? Is this comforting enough? Is this promise of Jesus enough? Is this promise of being with Jesus enough in the midst of real suffering, in the midst of real pain, real broken hearts? Is this promise enough? Are real people, real people actually comforted by this in real life? That’s a fair question. You know, two years ago, one of, one of the first experiences I had of a pastor that I looked up to and admired and learned a lot from passed away, made it through the finish line. Pastor Tim Keller passed away after a long bout with pancreatic cancer. And some of his last words are recorded, one of, one of his last statements to his son. And he said this, I’m thankful for all the people who’ve prayed for me over the years.

I’m thankful for my family that loves me. I’m thankful for the time God has given me, but I’m ready to see Jesus. I can’t wait to see Jesus send me home. And he looked at his son and said, there is no downside for me leaving. Not in the slightest, not in the slightest. Does this promise comfort real people in real life, suffering from real pain and real death? It absolutely does. In fact, even the one closest to Tim who felt the loss, the sting, the most close to home, Kathy, his wife speaking at his funeral said at Tim’s burial, I said to my family, please don’t come out here and stand over the grave and pour out your feelings. You’ll be talking to the grass. She’s so awesome. There isn’t even a headstone yet. Tim is with Jesus healed, loved more alive and happier than he has ever been.

He’s not here. Does this promise comfort real people experiencing real loss, real suffering? You bet it does. And it has for 2000 years, we’ll get to be with Jesus. We’ll get to be with Jesus. But Jesus says something must take place before he will take his people to himself. Look what he says. He says in verse three, if I go now, he says to go and prepare a place. But you know what comes first, a mere hours after he makes these promises to his disciples, he is going to go to the cross. He is going to go suffer and bear the penalty and weight of our sin. So he’s got to go first. Jesus must go die first. Because listen to me, it does sinners like us. No good that there are a lot of rooms in his father’s house. It does us no good.

Please understand this. It does us no good to promise us heaven if he does not give us access to it. Do you know that it does no good to promise someone their family member will be in a better place if they have not trusted in Jesus, the one that opens up access to that place. We can’t get there on our own. We can’t earn being there. We can’t make ourselves worthy of grabbing one of those rooms in the father’s house. Jesus must go. Jesus must die. Jesus must grant access to people like us. But Jesus comforts his friends by assuring them that they know the way. Verse four, he says, you know the way to where I’m going. But then Thomas raises his hand. I like this, right? Thomas throws his hands up and says, how could we possibly know the way? We don’t even know where you’re going.

The Only Way

That doesn’t even make sense, Jesus. You can’t know the way if you don’t know the destination. Do you see what Thomas does? Watch closely. He shifts the perspective from a person to a place, right? He says, we don’t know the destination. We don’t know the place. But Jesus with patience, with gentleness and kindness, I think, you know, you can’t really read tone in the text. It’s just there. I’m giving Jesus the benefit of the doubt that it was gentle and kind—you know, he has a good track record, but I’d be frustrated. But I’m going to say with gentleness and kindness, what Jesus does is he shifts back to himself. He pulls them away from a place back to the person of Jesus immediately with one of the most profound sweeping statements in all of scripture. Look at verse six, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father, no access to the father’s house. No one comes to the father except through me. The second promise we see here is if we know Jesus, we know the way. When we know Jesus, we know the way. And what Jesus declares is that there is no access to the place apart from the, apart from faith in the person of Jesus. He is the way. And here Jesus is teaching much like the sages of the old Testament, specifically Proverbs. When you speak of a way of getting to a desired destination, there’s all sorts of warnings in Proverbs, like Proverbs 14, 12, that says there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. I tell my congregation, I quote this passage a lot. This is one of the most terrifying verses in all of the Bible.

It ought to be, right? Because what it says is I’m on this way and to me, it seems right. Like this is the right way. This is the way I want to go. And the promise is not just that it’s going to be a rough way, but its destination is death. Jesus taught this way too. In Matthew 7, he said, enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. Jesus taught this, that there is one way that leads to life. There is only one way that leads to eternal life and it’s Jesus. That’s what he’s teaching. He is the only exclusive way to God. There are not multiple ways to God.

It’s only Jesus. Truth is not something to be defined by how we feel. It is defined by Jesus. All other ways lead to death. Only Jesus leads to life. That is what he is claiming here. He is the only way. He is the only truth. He is the only life. The apostles would go on to proclaim this when they invited people to know Jesus, to trust in Jesus, to repent from their sins. We get a snapshot of this in Acts chapter four, verse 12, when they preach, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That’s what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying I’m the only way, but he invites them, he invites them to trust in him, believe in him. Do not let your hearts be troubled, but trust me, believe me, I am the way, the truth, and

the life. And I want to say, if you’re here this morning and you haven’t trusted in Jesus, you are here and you don’t necessarily consider yourself a Christian. You’re here for one reason or another. Maybe you’re checking it out. Maybe someone dragged you here. Thank you so much for being here. I’m serious. Thank you very, very much for being here. I hope you’re having fun. I hope you meet some really cool people, but I really want to invite you this morning and maybe you didn’t plan on this. That’s okay. I don’t care. I want to invite you this morning to trust in Jesus. I want you to understand that there is no way to save yourself because God, the God of the universe, the God who made you is holy and you’re not. You’ve sinned against him and you need forgiveness from him, but you can’t earn it.

You can’t make yourself worthy of it, but God in his grace and because God loves you, he sent his son to die in your place for your sake and all of your sins are buried in the scars of Jesus. And so now you can come and trust in him right now. Even here, you can just trust in Jesus and you’ll be saved and it won’t be super eventful. I’m sorry about that. I always wish there was a bells that go off or alarms that ding or something. It’ll be plain. It’ll feel very ordinary, but you can right now tell Jesus, I want you to save me. Please save me. Please rescue me right now. And then you can tell any number of these awesome people that you’re sitting around right now. I see so many cool people that you could go and talk to. So please do so tell somebody today, but remember this, this is not primarily why our Lord is

making this incredible statement in John 14, six, he is making this promise to comfort his hurting friends. He promises that whatever their life holds, whatever is coming next, he is enough. He makes the promise. Sometimes you’re going to feel lost, but I am the way sometimes you’re going to feel really confused, but I am the truth. Sometimes you’re going to feel really afraid, but trust me, I am the life. Do you see he’s comforting them? He says, I’m enough. I love what author David Mathis said. He said, the way is not centrally belief in certain principles and execution of particular actions, but trusting and treasuring a living person at the heart of Christianity is not pillars to follow, but a person to know and enjoy. This is what Jesus is doing when he makes this incredible statement in John 14, six. He’s just saying, I am enough friends.

Trust me. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust me. I’m enough. I’m the way I’m the truth. I’m the life. I’m everything you need. But Jesus needs them to understand that he is not simply the path. He is in himself the destination. And that’s what he’s saying in verses seven through eleven. And he could not say what he says any plainer. What he says is if we know Jesus, we know God, the God, the one true God is revealed in and is one with Jesus. And that’s what he makes plain here over and over again. I mean, we could read through all of them. Verse seven. If you had known me, you would have known my father also from now on. You do know him and have seen him. Verse nine. Have I been with you so long? You still do not know me, Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the father.

How can you say, show us the father? Verse 10. Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father was in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me. Verse 11. That I am in the father and the father is in me. These words of Jesus are some of the most majestic mind bending verses in all of scripture. And they are among the most straightforward and clear, right? He is stating plainly, I am in the father and the father is in me. If you have seen me, you have seen the father. And with the plainness of Jesus’s words, he offers us a choice. He draws a line in the sand. And I think this is most famously captured and I think most perfectly illustrated by

C.S. Lewis. When he says, I’m trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus. I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said, like in John 14, would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord

and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God. You cannot read these words in John 14 and say to yourself, he was just a great teacher but not God. It’s like either he was lying or crazy or he is what he claimed to be. And we must make our choice. But again, don’t lose sight of why Jesus is declaring this. It is not a theology lesson on the deity of Jesus. That is not why he’s teaching this. This is not an explanation of the Trinity or the second person of the Trinity as he

relates to the first person. That’s not what Jesus is doing here. We can gain from that. But don’t lose sight of what our Lord is doing with his friends. He is comforting the hurting heart of his confused friend. Look at verse 8, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father and then listen to his words. It is enough for us. He’s reaching. Philip wants to know what’s true. He’s saying, listen, if I could just see the father, that would be enough. My heart would no longer be troubled. I would not be scared, terrified, confused if you would just show us the father. And that’s why Jesus says in verse 11, believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me. Is this enough, Philip? If you trust me, Philip, you know, God, is it enough? And he’s promising him that he is.

He’s saying, I am enough, Philip. Trust me, Philip. Put all of your faith in me, Philip. Put all of your hope in me. Bank your whole life on me. You can. I am enough. That gives those who trust in Jesus and in eternal and unbreakable and indestructible hope because what we are offered in Jesus is God. Mark Jones writes, our hope is unlike the world’s. The world’s hope is often vague and uncertain. A wish thrust the path up at the stars. But Christian hope is solid. It’s certain. It lasts as long as the eternal God lives and stands as tall as he stands. God is our hope for apart from him. No such thing exists. That’s why Jesus is making the promise to Philip right in this in this passage to say, if you know me, you know, God, because God is enough. Bank your whole life on Jesus.

Our Purpose in Christ

And then the last thing we see here, the last promise in verse 12 to 14 is if we know Jesus, we know our purpose. See, it’d be so easy for Jesus to leave them, you know, maybe like vaguely comforted, but sitting still instead. What he tells them is I have stuff for you guys to do. You’re not just going to sit here. You’re not just going to be sad. You’re not just going to dwell on these promises. I’m going to give you something to do. Listen to what he says in verse 12. I say to you, whoever believes in me, which Christian in this room, this includes you. OK, follower of Jesus, if you have believed in Jesus, because he says whoever has believed in me will also do the works that I do. And then he says and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the father.

So the first thing he says is that we are going to do the works of Jesus. Now, listen, Jesus isn’t talking about the quality of the works being done or the quantity of the works being done. But he is talking about the completion of the works that he started. OK, he is not saying that we will walk on water or we will miraculously feed a bunch of people or that we will heal paraplegics. That’s not what Jesus is promising here. In fact, if to take that stance would make this passage so strange to say you’re going to do greater than dying on the cross and paying for the sins of humanity and then resurrecting from the dead. What’s greater? What’s the next thing to do? That’s not what we’re being told here is that he’s going to sort of up the ante of the works

that we’re going to do. What Jesus is promising here is that if he goes away after his death, his resurrection and ascension, a new age will begin. The spirit will come and the spirit will empower the disciples and the work of spreading the kingdom of God will continue until it’s finished, until we stand before Jesus. And that’s what Jesus is talking about here. Jesus is talking about the mission of the church. He’s looking his sulking, scared, confused friends in the eyes and says, I got something for you guys to do. You have no idea the continuation of his church, which he’s starting with this room full of disciples will spread to the very ends of the earth and will be proclaimed for ages all the way down to all the way down to you, to people like you and me to hear and believe. That’s what Jesus is saying.

Pastor J.D. Greer said, the first is what is that while Jesus’s earthly miracles illustrated his power to save from sin, the greatest miracle of all is conversion from death to life. When we preach the gospel and sinners believe we are doing the greater work. Jesus’s miracles were only signs. We get to participate in what those signs point to. Amen. And as we do these works, Jesus promises that we can pray. Look what he says in verse 13, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that. The father may be glorified in the son purpose statement that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And so as we do these works, Jesus promises that we can ask anything in his name, meaning for his fame, for his purposes and for the completion of his work.

We can cry out to him in his name. And he says that the purpose of these works and the purpose of these prayers is there in that purpose statement in verse 13, that the father may be glorified in the son. Jesus gives us our purpose back. He says, you’re going to participate in the work that I begun and you are going to do so for the glory of God. And so now let’s go back to that upper room. If you can let all of these promises sink in. Jesus promises that if we trust him, he’ll give us heaven. Jesus promises that if we trust him, he is the way to God. Jesus promises that if we trust him, we will know God. Jesus promises that if we trust him, he will give us work to do for his glory. Now take all of those promises and read them back into verse one.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Take those promises. And when Jesus says, trust me, nod your head and say, okay, I can, I will. When our hearts are hurting, Christ offers us himself. And his greatest promise to us is he is enough. He is enough. When our hearts are truly hurting, friends, nothing less than the real Jesus will ever, ever be enough. And so I want to close with someone who was comforted by this in the utmost grief. Come back to C.S. Lewis. If you didn’t know, C.S. Lewis had a number of particularly painful events that happened in his life. His mother died of cancer when he was a young boy. He was sent away to a boarding school with an abusive headmaster who was later declared insane. He was wounded in World War I and his father never came to visit him despite him pleading

with him. However, the most painful event of C.S. Lewis’s life was the loss of his wife, Joy, which he tried to put into words in his book, A Grief Observed. It was just him trying to sort through his hurting heart at the loss of Joy. And he comes to this part in the book where he talks about finding pictures of Joy. And he says these pictures would just never cut it. They just don’t do the trick. They don’t actually add up to what they are promising when you first see them. He said, it doesn’t matter that all the photographs of Joy are bad, which is a funny thing to say. He says, it doesn’t matter, not much, if my memory of her is imperfect. Images, whether on paper or in the mind, are not important for themselves. I want Joy, not something like her. And then he says, take that parallel from an infinitely higher sphere.

And C.S. Lewis writes, I need Christ, not something that resembles him. I need the real Jesus. I need the promises that the real Jesus made me. When my heart is hurting, I don’t want fake, superficial copies of Jesus. I don’t want pretend Jesuses. I want the real Jesus of the upper room of John 14. Go to him, friends. Go to the real Jesus. Trust the real Jesus for his true promises. And let not your hearts be troubled. Let’s pray. God in heaven, thank you for the privilege of gathering around your word, and thank you so much for the words of Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you for the real, tangible, real life comfort that comes from trusting in Jesus. I praise you for it, Father. I thank you, God. And I pray, Father, for Trinity Church, that they would believe and trust and follow after

and run to the real Jesus, God, and that they would trust him for these promises and all the promises that you have made to your people. I pray this, God, in Christ’s name and for your glory. Amen.