As we come now to worship God through the preaching of His Word. Please turn with me in your copy of the Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Our text this morning will be 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 17. And one of God's good purposes on the Lord's Day week by week is to comfort and encourage his people in the truth. And ultimately, there's no greater comfort than God Himself and in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is especially so in our text this morning. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17. I will read verses 13-18 for context. Beginning in verse 13. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means perceive those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." And here's our verse this morning. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Let's pray once more. God our Father, it is so pleasant and good to be in Your house this morning, in this house of prayer. And we ask that You would build us up in the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life in Him. And we ask for grace now to hear with attentive ears, with hearts open to Your truth, that we would lay it up in love and that we'd live in light of it. Please bless us now by Your Holy Spirit. Amen. In life, we have many trials, sicknesses, pains, disturbances. But it is a comfort to know that in the midst of them, we have hope to come. I'm sure each one of you could think of a time in your life when you were in a dark circumstance or a trial in which as like a dark storm cloud that's come over, it seems as if the rays of the sun have gone out and been extinguished. And you're tempted even to despair, to lose hope. And it can be a miserable time. When I was moving from middle school to high school in the public school system where I grew up in Florida, I had a time like that. You see, instead of moving from the middle school to the high school, where my other friends were going and where some of my fellow kids from church were going, I went to a different school, one in which I did not know much of anybody there. And I had a difficult time with certain teachers that were teaching things contrary to God's word that really frustrated me. And I was discouraged, feeling alone. But the worst thing about it was the fact that I knew I was going to be there for four years. And for someone that's just grown up, four years is forever. I remember feeling very down about that. But suddenly that changed when after talking to my parents about halfway through the year, they agreed that it would be fitting for me to leave that school and to come to the school that was closer to home. Now, that next day I went to class, my circumstances hadn't changed. It was the same classroom, same students, same professors. But at the same time, everything had changed for me. My outlook had certainly shifted and I had much more joy in my step as I walked through those hallways because I knew that I was not going to be there forever. In fact, my father was going to come later that week and he was going to take me to somewhere better. Now, in the end, the other school had its difficulties, too. Didn't solve all my problems. But this is helpful to think about because hope of what lies ahead brings comfort as we go through trials now. Hope gives comfort. And it's certainly so in our text today in First Thessalonians. Now, if you remember in the book of Acts, the church of Thessalonica was planted, God using Paul and Silas and the preaching of his word, and many came to faith, both Jews and Gentiles. And it was a very young church. However, from the outset, they experienced fierce oppression, even riots that were stirred up in the city so severe that Paul and Silas had to flee away. And we know they were at least there three weeks, perhaps a couple of months, but it was not long before they were driven out. And this young church, newly brought into existence through the Holy Spirit, is now devoid of their apostle and Silas, And they've gone on and they're in the midst of these trials. And it seems that through this, some of the saints were dying. Now, this is probably just saints passing on in the normal course of life, but perhaps it could have even been from oppression from their local enemies. We can't be sure on that. But we do know that it seems that these Christians were grieving over much. and perhaps due to a lack of doctrinal understanding. And so now in this letter, Paul is reminding them of the hope they have in the promise that in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have eternal life with him. And he begins to instruct them again in the study of last things, which we call eschatology. Paul is reminding them of their hope to come. And we see in our text that it ends in the most glorious of ways, with Jesus returning from Heaven to raise up all of His saints, all who have ever lived. And those living within all go to be with Him forever. To be with Him. Now, this promise of ever being with the Lord is what we are going to consider today, because I contend that this is the chief blessing that Christians look forward to that gives such radiance to all other blessings. Think about this. What good would it be to be resurrected from the dead if it was not to go and be with the Lord Jesus? What good would it be? What good would it do us to see Him coming from heaven with His angels descending to save the church if we're not in the church, or if He's not coming to take us to be with Him. But with this promise that we will ever be with the Lord, all those things receive such radiance and glory, because we know that we have a most blessed end. You see, if you take away this diamond from the crown of Christian comfort, the luster of all these other things will vanish. But if we keep our eyes on that hope and that promise, we will receive great comfort even now, even as we go through trials, because we can have certainty that at the end of the day, no matter what happens to the Christian here, our end is going to be most blessed. That of always being with the Lord Jesus in glory. Both us and all our fellow Christians together. And as God commands us in verse 18 to comfort one another, My goal this morning is to take it upon myself to comfort you with this blessed truth that we shall always be with the Lord. We are going to consider this the short text, verse 17b and three points. Firstly, the certainty of our hope. Then we'll consider the eternality of our hope. And lastly, the person of our hope. And so certainty, eternality in the person of our hope. And we will consider now our first point. So we think of the certainty of our hope and we see that there in this word shall says and thus we shall always be with the Lord. There is certainty in that shall in this promise. It will come to pass. Now, one thing we know from experience is that there are many things in this life which we are uncertain of. We don't know what's going to happen often day to day. Sometimes the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong. And our unbelieving neighbors and friends often will endlessly fret about these uncertainties, not knowing what's going to happen with war in the Middle East, with economic crises, plagues like when COVID came through or or the uncertainty of elections and what could occur. Even the challenges of everyday life, though, like the fear of loneliness, or some people are so scared of not fulfilling their dreams, whatever that might be, presses down upon our friends and neighbors. But it can also press down upon us, even for the Christian. Our lives often have twists and turns. When we come to this church, we have to drive through some mountains. And it's always sort of staggering when you're going over these curvy roads And some of them, you come up to this point where it looks like you can't see what's coming. Is the road even there, you might think. But then you come over it and certainly there's another turn and you continue on. Or at least, hopefully that's the case. It was for us this morning. And our lives are often like that. There's another twist and then here's another turn. Our trials can bring us up and down like waves. But, through it all, we know we have a certain destination. that we will ever be with the Lord. We have a certain hope. And this hope is certain for many reasons. But firstly, this is a certain hope because God Almighty has declared it to be so. Who can turn back God's hand when He intends to bless? When God speaks, it's done. Who can turn back a word from the Lord His will is like a freight train that will never be derailed. That no one can stop. Like these hurricanes when they come. Man can do all that he wants, but at the end of the day, we just have to move out of the way the best we can. Because there's no turning back these storms when God sends them. Even more so, in God's Word of promise in the Scriptures, can no one thwart His plan. This is true of our text. It is God's Word to us, and therefore it is certain. We see this referenced in verse 15 when Paul says, For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord. That is, what he is saying is not only God's Word, but it's in line and in accordance with everything that God says in the whole Bible. That our redemption is going to end with us ever being with Him. And so this is a certain truth. It's more certain even than the created order. Now, how can I say that? Well, in the Bible we learn that there's a time where we won't need the Son the same way we need it today. The Son's only upheld by God's power. He could dismiss it. He could send it away if He wished to and do something else. But no, these promises He'll never turn back on. He has spoken. The Lord Jesus Christ will return for His church bodily to descend from heaven, the Son of God, to save us. He's going to come back for His people and we are ever going to be with Him. This is a certain hope. But it's also certain because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead already. You see, this promise is like the caboose on a train in a sense. God has already accomplished great salvation through Jesus. with a certain end, and he is going to bring that to pass to. Now, if you have ever pulled up at the train tracks and unfortunately the bars are down and there's a train passing, you have to wait and you don't know how long it might be. But think of it this way, if that train is moving and barring, there's no derailing and it keeps going. Eventually the end of the train is going to pass by you. But it's the same way with these promises we are yet awaiting from the Lord. You see, God in the beginning has decreed what He is going to bring to pass, namely, that He is going to save to Himself a people through His Son. And He has created the world, if you think of them almost like boxcars passing by, He's created the world. He's given the promise of the Son to come who's going to crush the head of the serpent. And He's made a covenant with Abraham, with Israel, with David. And then we see He sent His Son into the world. incarnate of the Virgin Mary, born, taking upon Himself human nature, that He might die on the cross. And He has risen again. We see this in verse 14. It says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. If God has done all this in redemption, surely His ultimate goal of saving us to be with Him is also too going to pass. Christ has risen from the dead, and we will be raised bodily just as He was. You see, for Jesus Christ, the head of the church, to be raised, and the church's spiritual body not also to be raised, that's an impossibility. It was His divine mission to come and to purchase a people to Himself with His own blood. Purchasing us not only our souls, but our bodies too. He's not going to leave behind anything that He has purchased for Himself. We don't leave behind our groceries even when we go to the store. We will go back if we forgot something. How much more is Jesus not going to forget a single saint? No, He's going to bring back all that He has purchased to be with Himself in the new heavens and the new earth. It's part of His mission. In John 6, verse 39, Jesus says, This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day." Now, it is certain that this is our glorious destination because Jesus has risen from the dead. This is a comfort that only Christianity can bring. Only true religion, that is Christianity, can bring this hope. Others don't have that certainty. In the end, all other roads will lead in the ultimate dead end. That of perishing in sin. But even just think of so many who think, I am just going to just seek to be the best person I can. And I hope it will just work out in the end. There's no like how can someone even walk through life like that? We have offended a holy God. How can someone think that just trying to be a little better is going to end up all right and then to sit comfortable in that? There's no there's no certainty in that. Well, there is certainty, but not in the way we want, which we will consider again later. But for the Christian, we have a certain hope. that no matter what is going to happen to us in this life, we are going to ever be with the Lord. And that's certain. Now, if you went to an airport, and hopefully you haven't been in this occasion, but I know I have and many have, and you go to get on your flight, and suddenly, to your dismay, you learn that it's been delayed. It's been pushed back six hours. And you're just stuck at the airport. What would you think if someone came to you and said, excuse me, do you know we actually have a new special plane service? And as part of your brochure for being delayed or whatever, you know you can get on this plane for free and we will take you to your destination even quicker than the first plane. And it will be smooth and it will take you there and you won't have to wait for this delay. And the best thing about it is that this plane has a 93% chance of landing safely at your destination. Who would get on that plane? 93% chance? No way! We'd all be walking, or certainly waiting for the second flight. You see, how much more, then, if we're not just dealing with this life now, but with the life to come, do we need certainty And we have it only in the Lord Jesus. We have a certain hope. And so we see that our hope is certain. Next, let's consider the eternality of our hope. And our second point, we have an eternal hope in the Lord Jesus. The text says, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. There is eternity and that always never ends. And that's important. Because each one of us has a soul that will never end. You have both a soul and a body, and you are always going to be somewhere. Speaking properly, there will never be a time when you will not be. In Ecclesiastes 12.7, it says that after death, then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit will return to God who gave it. Each one of us will have accounts with the Lord. And for the sinner who has trusted in Christ, we have forgiveness and fullness of joy awaiting us forevermore. But to sinners who die in sin, rebels against God, there is a fearful eternity awaiting. We don't just end where we just don't have to think about anything anymore. No, we will be held to account. And if we haven't had our sins forgiven in Jesus, there is a dreadful eternity awaiting. Revelation 14.11 says of the wicked, says, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night. There is no just fizzling out. We will go on. And this is true of the believer and the unbeliever. Each one of you, men, women, boys and girls, each one of us has a soul that will exist always. And after the resurrection, we'll also have a body that will exist always. But. If you were to think 100 years from now, should the Lord not return first, there will likely not be a single one of us in this room still alive. unless the Lord grants extraordinarily long life to the very youngest of us. But each one of us will be somewhere forever. And in the Bible, it makes clear it's either heaven or hell. At my job, we have a weekly team meeting and it's often given assigned to one of the workers to open up with a question, a icebreaker question. Which if you've ever been in a meeting like that with an icebreaker, usually it's some sort of hypothetical question to get to know the other people. And it's a little uncomfortable as a Christian, because oftentimes the questions we want to ask get to the truth of things. But you have to find that balance because you're supposed to get to know people, but not too well. And so. Well, here's an icebreaker question I came up with when I was preparing the sermon. It's not one I've asked at work. But I'm going to ask it here, and I want you to think about this hypothetical icebreaker. Here's the question. Would you rather have 100 million years of agony? But then bliss forevermore after that. Or would you rather have 100 million years of bliss? But with. Eternal agony after that. Which would you pick? Agony first and then bliss or bliss and then forever agony. Now, hopefully all of you are thinking, who would pick the second option? Who would pick to get the bliss now if you have forever after a pain? You know, even if someone had picked that. There would always be this fear, this dread that as the years and as the moment. Go that there has been a terrible mistake made. that it's going to end and there's going to be forever agony. So who would even consider that choice? Who would consider it? Well, the sad thing is most people take that choice every day because the Scriptures make clear that our years are just 70 or 80 or perhaps longer through God's great mercy. But we do not live here forever. And many seek their own sin and joys in this life. their own way and they do not follow the Lord and they think that that's going to be worth it in the end. But it certainly won't be. They don't have bliss in this life or in the next. On the brink of eternity every day, and yet how few consider it. In Florida, on the beaches there, they often build houses right up next to the ocean. In fact, on top of many of the sand dunes that block the waves. And I can remember growing up even seeing some of these And I would ask, you know, why? What happened to this building that it's half fallen into the beach? And, you know, they answer, well, the storm came. But then you look right next to it and there's a new building being erected and going up. Is no one thinking? Well, the storm certainly will come again, and it's the same thing with each one of us. The storm of death will one day come and we must give attention to that now because it's and of eternal significance. But for the Christian, it's of eternal joy and comfort now because our future hope is never ending. It says we shall always be with the Lord. Like those children's stories where we love the simple ending that it'll end happily ever after. Just so simple and just the perfect ending. And we often chuckle because we know in real life, it's not quite like that. After the princess and the prince get married, they're going to have their trials. But for the Christian, we get that perfect ending, happily ever after with the Lord, with no fears. No pain ever again. Sometimes we wonder, or perhaps you've thought this or been around someone either new to the faith or or a family member that asked you. Will things ever restart in the end? God has sent Jesus. He saved us. Will there ever be another fall? Will there ever be a great restarting of this whole problem of sin? The answer is no. Not according to our text. Not according to the Bible. It says we shall always be with the Lord. There's no storm that's going to remove us from Him. Our eternal paradise will never cease. We have a certain hope, and we have an eternal hope. But as we've even touched upon a little bit so far, certainty and eternity are nothing if it's not for the person of our hope. And that person is the Lord Jesus Christ, which takes us to our third point. The person of our hope. Our text says, and thus we shall always be with The Lord. Jesus is that pearl of great price that gives luster to all these other blessings. It is in Him we have our hope. He is hope personified. He's the Christian's comfort in this life incarnate. The God of all comfort with us as His name imports, Emmanuel. Without Him, what do you get with certainty and eternity if you are in your sin? What does certainty and eternity lead to? It leads to torment. It leads to destruction. But with Jesus, forgiveness in Him, what does His certainty and eternity mean to us as Christians? It means a world of joy. It means we're going to be with Him forever. We think of the most glorious, beautiful, wonderful things. We think of heavenly wedding bells, eternal spring, All the glories of the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises with everything beautiful in this world. And it doesn't even amount to what's going to be like. We don't know how glorious it's going to be. And at the center of it, though, is the fact that Jesus, our Lord, is with us. Now, how excellent is Jesus if everlasting bliss can be summed up in being with him? That's not the case with us. What would it be like if you got to heaven in silly thought? What if I was your eternal reward? Even in glory? I mean, that's a sore disappointment. I'll let you down even in glory, I'm sure. But with Jesus, being with Him, and that's eternal joy. What excellency does our Savior have considering that this is true? And it makes sense. Just think about Him. Think about the dignity of our Lord. He's the eternal Son of God. Think of His power in our text that says He raises us all up. I don't even understand how that's all going to work. What about the super old saints? Who knows where their bones are? Well, God knows every single one of them. And these things we come up with that we think are problems are not problems to God. He sends forth His voice, the dead rise. Just like Lazarus. Come forth, the tombs will empty. How wonderful will it be being with our Lord and all of his power. And yet also gentleness toward us. When we meet powerful people here, it leaves an impression. Perhaps some of you saw what Donald Trump did when he went to the McDonald's recently. I imagine if one of us is going through a drive-thru, and here's former President Trump, I'm pretty sure we'd mention it at the dinner table, you know. Guess who I was able to meet? All the rulers on earth are nothing compared to Jesus. He is the one that rises up leaders and He deposes them as He wills. He is the one in whom is all authority in heaven and earth, and we're going to get to be with Him Consider his humility, though. He's the eternal Son of God, co-equal with the Father, descending to be born of a woman into this sinful world. How glorious is that? You see, no one can be more humble than Jesus, because no one can come from higher to go lower, even to the death of the cross. It's weighty being around people that have suffered greatly. Sometimes we see interviews with folks that have survived atrocities. But wow, imagine being in the presence of your Savior who has borne your very sins and all the sins of His people. A world of sins upon Himself. Dying and yet living forevermore. And we get to be with Him. Consider His righteousness. Not one sin. Even his present patience with us, even now as Christians, we still sin. And yet our Savior has not abandoned us and he's just committed to saving us today as he was when he was dying for us on the cross. And I could go on and on about his love. And about, I'm sure, an eternity of excellencies, which we will get to learn and enjoy. This is our Savior and this is our hope. We get to go to be with Him forever and to get to experience and delight in the fullness of all of His blessings, all of His mercies. Even now, His mercies, when He says that all the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I'll by no means cast out. You see, Christ is the hope of the Christian. He's also the hope of the unbeliever. Now, how do I say that? How is Jesus the hope of the unbeliever? Well, here's how. If you were to have hope, it's only in Jesus. There's hope nowhere else for you to turn to be forgiven. To have all the stains of your sins expunged, wiped clean, made white like snow. Jesus Christ is the joy and hope of the Christian, but all these wonderful blessings are also held forth to the sinner. And Jesus says, repent, and believe. Jesus Christ is that fountain of life in whom we find all blessing. And he will be yours if you turn from your sin and go to him. What are your plans in life? I ask. Is your life's endeavor to be with the Lord and to get to enjoy him? If he is our eternal joy. Certainly, He is going to be where we find joy now in the present. Why look anywhere else? It's only in Him we find true happiness. And now, Christian, how good will it be to finally be with your soul's true delight and glory? Here, we often have to walk by faith. There are seasons when we can be cast down, like Psalm 42, And 43, when our soul is burdened and cast down within us. And sometimes we have to march upstream against our own feelings when it can feel like God's distant and our prayers feel ineffectual. And we have to march by faith through those times, but aren't the best times when you have that felt sense of the presence of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it's in our darkest days. In the hospital. Sometimes it's just in secret prayer in the mornings. Or in the Lord's Day when we're together. And now, we don't chase after emotions, but it's a good thing for the bride to delight to be in the presence of the bridegroom. And how wonderful will it be when we get to experience that to the fullest, more than we've ever known forever? And there will never be a dry day of your soul again. There will never be sin to pull your desires away from Jesus. There will never be worldly mindedness to dull us to eternal realities. One day our faith will be sight and we will have this joy forevermore. And to think He's going to come back for us. He's going to come back for you, saints. You personally, you see, we'll all be at the Lord together, but also personally, that's a promise to you individually. You will get to be with your Lord forever. This is a glorious promise that gives us hope and comfort now. And so having considered this promise that one day we will always be with the Lord and the certainty of that hope, the eternality of it, and then the blessed person behind it, Jesus Christ. Now, let's consider two applications. The first application is this. Live with the Lord now in holiness. Live for Him now in holiness. You see, if we're lifted up thinking about this joyous hope, it gets even better that we don't have to wait till the end to experience the blessing that comes with living life with Jesus. Look across the page with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. We have a parallel concept here in verse 9-11. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9-11 says, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another. Now it's wonderful that whether we go to be with the Lord in death, or whether even still here awake, we get to live with the Lord Jesus. Eternal life begins now for the Christian. Sometimes we can forget that and we can start to look to other things to bring us joy. And it can get our spiritual life all out of sorts. In our solar system, God has made everything perfectly. gravitationally, that all the planets are pulling around all the others. And the individual planets even have their moons or like our planet, we have one moon. But like our solar system within ourselves, just think what happens if something else comes into the picture and starts exerting great gravitational force? What happens within our own minds and hearts if we let something else in that we start to look to for joy above the Lord? It puts all of our thoughts and desires out of sorts, and it can cause pandemonium in our own hearts. We need to give the gravity back to Christ in our heart by only looking to him for true joy. You see, all these good things we enjoy here. We only receive true blessing if Jesus is above all, and we receive those gifts from him. The minute we take that, we go to make him an idol. We're going to run ourselves ashore and be in sore pain. To follow Christ is to forsake the world to go after Him. And so don't forget that. It's folly to choose the world over Christ. Just think, take everything in this planet, all the pleasures, all the entertainment. Think of everything that's on the Internet that people turn to for joy. If you were to condense all that, And you were to set it on a scale. You were to put Christ on the other side. Everything else just goes up as dust, lighter than dust. It's like a drop in the bucket, not even compared to our infinite and eternal and delightful Lord. And so how much less hobbies, sports, games, music? We should certainly enjoy the good things as they come from God's hand, but we should not live for them. We should live for our Lord and enjoy Him as we live here in this Christian life. We need to live a life of holy love with Jesus now. And so if your life is dry right now, or perhaps you're wondering what it is you are supposed to be doing, what is it that the Lord wants you to do in your life? Well, it starts here. Communion, communing with Him. Think about your earlier days when you were first saved. We go through seasons of greater zeal and more determination and focus. And sometimes we need to regain some of that when it comes to waking up early to pray to pray with God and not just to have some sort of a routine where we forget what we're even doing or saying, but to think when I go into my prayer closet, I'm going to meet with the Lord of Glory and my prayers are ascending up to the throne of heaven through him and he's going to meet with me. And as we go to face our trials, He's with me. And He'll help me. And even in these things, these times where I need to show patience at work, when I need to show love to my family member who sinned against me, in these things, I can commune with my Lord even through them as I have to rely upon His strength. And so even our trials turn into blessed portals through which we get to enjoy our Lord. So live with the Lord now in holiness. But lastly and secondly, our last application is think and speak often on these things. For you will encourage one another, and that comes naturally from verse 18, where it says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. So often this world blinds us. Our eyes come down from this blessed hope and it gets stuck in the next hill of trial that's coming, and we can't see the horizon beyond it. But we need to be reminding one another, and you need to be reminding each other, fellow church members, of this blessed hope. That way you don't get lost in the muck and the mire of this world. That way you can have comfort and a certain hope in the midst of your trial that you can keep moving forward to conquer in Christ. To know. How sweet it will be to finally be with Jesus. All together. But not to forget that. When's the last time you've encouraged a brother with these words? When's the last time when you've spoken to someone who's going through a hardship at work? Perhaps there's worldly employees that it's almost like going to work. It's like working in a cloud of smoke and they have to come out and get fresh air at the end of the day. Or just in the grind. And just to tell a brother, there will be a day when you will be relieved from your duty at that job. You will not always be working there. There's going to be a day where you will ever be with the Lord in glory. And so press on. Or through physical pain and sickness, to remember, there will be a day when I will ever be with the Lord. I will always be with Him. And all of these things will be a memory. All of these trials, physical trials, will go through here. They'll be like, you know, war stories. Or like men who have all these, you know, different scars. Men, you know what I'm talking about. You know, it's like this scar I got this way. Well, we'll remember all of our pains and trials like that. It'll just even add to our glory. And just thinking about, yeah, I went through all this and the Lord saw me through. And we need to remind one another with that. If there is a list of all the Christians Well, there will be at the book of life. But just think if all the things were put in order of how easy their life was. Imagine who was at the bottom of that list. Think if all the Christians were compared, we know some have an easier time here than others. But imagine if you were the Christian at the bottom of the list that had the bumpiest, roughest ride in this life. It'll just serve to even be a greater weight of glory to say, you know, The Lord saw me through. And all the angels and all the saints will be saying, wow, look at what this saint went through. But we have to have that mentality to remember we have a blessed hope. Our pains, our trials. Will not go on forever. Even our grief. As we're saddened with the loss of fellow Christians. We will ever be with the Lord together. And so we need to be reminding each other of this. And so hopefully we're speaking to each other, even at lunch about these things, that we can be encouraged, that we can be comforted through our trials now. Similar to that high school story I said, where I remember there's something coming that gives us hope. Well, even infinitely more so do we have hope through our comforts when we realize that we have a certain destination, that the Lord Jesus is going to come back for us. For you, Christian. And He's going to take you to ever be with Him in the new heavens and the new earth with no more sin. No more pain. We're going to forever be with Him. For eternity. And nothing's ever going to stop that. Nothing's ever going to come between us and our Christian brethren. Even if you're in the valley of the shadow of death now, your blessed end will be to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And even here, our Shepherd is with us. And so let's encourage one another with these things. Remind one another with these words. Believing this will get us through anything. This hope is certain. This hope is eternal. And this hope is only to be found in our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the promise that we shall always be with the Lord. Let's pray. O Father, This salvation that has been accomplished in our Lord Jesus is greater than our minds can ever fathom. And we are overwhelmed with the loveliness of it. The simplicity of it. We thank You for forgiveness. Please comfort us and help us to remember these things. Please be our light through our trials now. We pray all this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.