SPEAKER_00: We are in Ezra chapter 4 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is a unique passage of scripture because it's it kind of chops up the narrative a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to read through it kind of in chunks as we go, but it is about opposition.
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 4, we'll find three different times or three different scenarios where there are people opposing God's people.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you face a lot of opposition, we would know that we're not living in this day and age.
SPEAKER_00: We're not exiles from Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, most of us have not faced the kind of opposition that we're going to read about this morning from governments, from rulers, from kings.
SPEAKER_00: But yet we do face opposition as followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it's good to know because the world is following the way of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: First John says that all the world is under the sway of the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: And so they are under the sway of the one who is against God and against his people.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see about this opposition facing those who come out of exile.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that there's obedience to God and why we as believers are to be obedient to God in the midst of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: We learn that there's opposition coming from different areas.
SPEAKER_00: Some of it's near, some of it's far, some of it's kind of a long-term opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Next week in chapter 5, we'll learn about opposition that comes from within, but in chapter 4, it's from without.
SPEAKER_00: Adversaries in this life.
SPEAKER_00: We're promised that.
SPEAKER_00: Difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: Now the difficulties facing Zerubbabel and Jeshua in chapter 4, chapter 3 and 4, again, they're not the same ones we're facing.
SPEAKER_00: But we must learn from God's word.
SPEAKER_00: As we open God's word, what is it that it's going to teach us?
SPEAKER_00: What is it trying to show us about God and how we are to follow Him?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing we learn about the sources of opposition, the sources of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me in verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: Now when the adver when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that they returned, that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers' houses, and said to them, Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do.
SPEAKER_00: And we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Ezarodon, King of Assyria, who brought us here.
SPEAKER_00: But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses in Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God, but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, the king of Syria.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.
SPEAKER_00: Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build, and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purposes all the days of King Cyrus, King of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, King of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the first, this is the first glimpse of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Coming right off the heels of chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they built the altar.
SPEAKER_00: This is two years after they returned, they built the altar and they set the cornerstone for the temple.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's people coming back to their land to worship the God, their God.
SPEAKER_00: They're coming back to worship him as he has commanded them.
SPEAKER_00: He's provided for them, he's sustained them, he's brought them out of exile, which remember, this was the Lord disciplining them when he took them into exile.
SPEAKER_00: He's brought them back.
SPEAKER_00: He's working to, he's faithful to renew their faith and to restore their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then this opposition comes.
SPEAKER_00: People of the land.
SPEAKER_00: Now these were people who were from the area who were Hebrew descendants, some of them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them would have come from the 12 tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But they did not get carried off.
SPEAKER_00: They were had lived there, and then at the same time the Persian kingdom's bringing in all these other captives, and they're kind of intermingling, and they're starting to lay the foundation, and they come to them and say, hey, you know, we we can we can help with this.
SPEAKER_00: Let us help.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we worship your God as well.
SPEAKER_00: To which the leaders say, no, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: No, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: They claim to worship God, but quickly it was proven that they did not worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now we see this a lot in our lives when we're interacting with people, and they're like, Yeah, that's a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do that together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a yeah, I've Jesus, I'm there with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, who is Jesus to you?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, Jesus, he's a great teacher.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he he lived a great life, he did a lot of good things, and we're so grateful for his teachings.
SPEAKER_00: And man, what a guy, what a guy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not the Jesus of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You talk to some people, and they're like, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm I'm I grew up in a Christian home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I've lived a good life, and and I want to help kind of you guys seem like you're doing a good thing here.
SPEAKER_00: Let us let's do this together.
SPEAKER_00: But does their heart desire to worship the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: The God of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's quickly revealed because the response is, hey, no, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do this because God has commanded us to do this, and the king of Persia has told us to do this as well, so we appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00: And what they do, they begin to turn on them.
SPEAKER_00: They claim to worship God, but they showed by their actions that they did not worship him.
SPEAKER_00: Because they they start frustrating their efforts.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now, how quickly these people go from kind of friend to enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as Ezra is writing this, he you know, he's writing this from a gap of many decades, so he kind of knows how the story goes.
SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes in our life, opposition comes from places that we did not expect it.
SPEAKER_00: Now we want to be careful here.
SPEAKER_00: What scripture is talking about is the opposition of believers and unbelievers.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you go through your life, there's often times when you interact with family or friends, people around you, and they're just kind of opposed to what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Slight comments.
SPEAKER_00: Little little comments about your faith, or do you really believe that?
SPEAKER_00: They're opposing you.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're not coming trying to cease your existence and take your life and take your livelihood.
SPEAKER_00: But there's opposition we face that is that is near us.
SPEAKER_00: People in the same community, people like us.
SPEAKER_00: We just assume you're like me, you know, you're from this area.
SPEAKER_00: Surely we have a lot in common.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a pastor say one time that as Christians, we should have more in common with people who live 4,000 years, 4,000 miles away or 10,000 miles away, have never spoken our language, have never eaten our food, but they're followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: More in common with them than with our neighbor who does not know Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a bit of a big statement because we're all shaped by the culture around us.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's getting at is the thing that makes us believers is the most important thing about us.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're gonna follow the Lord faithfully, there are gonna be people in our lives who are opposed to that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes their opposition is just indifference.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, that's what you're doing, fine.
SPEAKER_00: Just don't drag me along and kind of just let me be.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of sever relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who are near who oppose us actively.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to convince us out of what we're saying or shaming us to believe other things.
SPEAKER_00: The opposition is often near.
SPEAKER_00: It's difficult.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to navigate that with our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to keep those relationships going with people who are opposed.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's opposition over long periods of time.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: In the reign of Hazarus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so this is the second accusation, the second kind of situation of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: So the first one, they antagonized them.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of begin to defeat them and discourage them.
SPEAKER_00: And here we have another picture, years later.
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to kind of put a little bit of timeline here.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of verse five, the people stopped rebuilding the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And it takes them years to finish the temple.
SPEAKER_00: It takes them almost 16 years.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to talk about that in chapter 5, about why it took them so long, why they stopped the work.
SPEAKER_00: But here in verse 6, the temple is done.
SPEAKER_00: That's been several years ago, at least 30.
SPEAKER_00: And there's opposition again.
SPEAKER_00: They write to the to the new king.
SPEAKER_00: This is Xerxes as well.
SPEAKER_00: This is the king who was king during Esther.
SPEAKER_00: And the adversaries are writing to oppose the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see this long period of opposition for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they've been in captivity for 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: All this time they've been working and preparing to come back to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And they come back and they're excited and they want to worship the Lord and they made it and they start and then there's opposition.
SPEAKER_00: It's like they can't catch a break.
SPEAKER_00: Like, when does God gonna kind of let up and just let it be successful for once?
SPEAKER_00: How discouraged do you think they felt?
SPEAKER_00: Years and years of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Opposition can take a very long time.
SPEAKER_00: As believers and followers of Christ, we, again, in our culture here in America, we're not facing a lot of opposition from the government or outside authorities.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting more and more opposition from just pop culture, the the world around us, what people are wanting is becoming more and more polarized from us as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: The void is widening.
SPEAKER_00: But we are to be a patient people, knowing that as opposition comes, it can be around for a long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: A long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: The next chunk of scripture is in another 20 to 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: And they write to a different king, Artaxerxes, who was the son of Xerxes.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what they say.
SPEAKER_00: This is a long chunk.
SPEAKER_00: In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and Methridath and Tabil and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.
SPEAKER_00: Rehum the commander and Shem Shai the scribe wrote against the Jerusalem wrote against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows.
SPEAKER_00: Rehum the commander and Shemshai the scribe and the rest of their associates, the judges, the governors, the officials, the Persians, the men of Erik, and the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Imalites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnaper deported and settled in the cities of Samaria, and in the rest of the province beyond the river.
SPEAKER_00: This is a copy of the letter they sent.
SPEAKER_00: They're just now getting to the letter.
SPEAKER_00: To Arta Xerxes the king, your servants, the men of the province beyond the river, send greeting.
SPEAKER_00: And now be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you, from you to us have gone to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.
SPEAKER_00: They are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.
SPEAKER_00: Now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to witness the king's dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king, in order that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers.
SPEAKER_00: And you will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful, and to kings and provinces and sanctions, and it was stirred, and sedition was stirred up in it from of old.
SPEAKER_00: That was why this city was laid waste.
SPEAKER_00: We made known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls finished, you will have no possession in the province beyond the river.
SPEAKER_00: So here there's another letter, an extensive letter, written to the king.
SPEAKER_00: And it's ironic.
SPEAKER_00: They're just telling the king, they're not like, hey, king, we have some thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: They're just like, listen, this is manipulation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you don't take care of this, you're gonna suffer.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't take care of this, sedition is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And you're never gonna see a dime from these people.
SPEAKER_00: I've worked with these people before.
SPEAKER_00: You take my word, this is what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00: You need to go get the records, you need to read up, do your homework, and then you can do the right thing, because the right thing is to stop all this.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the opposition, again, years, years, years later, that God's people are facing.
SPEAKER_00: They're struggling.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, did you bring us here?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, did you did you bring us here to obey you or to suffer under more opposition?
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the end of chapter 3 when half the congregation is excited and they've laid the cornerstone and then half of them are weeping?
SPEAKER_00: This is Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: This is the city of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: This is a glorious place for God's people, laid waste, and they're coming back just to rebuild their city.
SPEAKER_00: They're not conquering nations, they're not attacking the Philistines, they're not extending their province, they're like not even flexing their muscles at all.
SPEAKER_00: And there's oppression.
SPEAKER_00: The humility, the humbling that is continuing on for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So, likewise, as we talked, we began this story of Ezra, how God restores and he renews.
SPEAKER_00: And we have one little view of our life.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this.
SPEAKER_00: And God, He sees it all.
SPEAKER_00: He sees the things He's using for our good, the blessings, everything in our life.
SPEAKER_00: He sees.
SPEAKER_00: And we just get this little perspective.
SPEAKER_00: God, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: How is this your plan?
SPEAKER_00: When will this suffering end?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord sustains his people.
SPEAKER_00: There's opposition from those who are near, there's opposition for a long time, and there's opposition from those who are far away.
SPEAKER_00: This is the king's response.
SPEAKER_00: Arnold Xerxes responds to the to the letter in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: The king sent an answer to Rehum the commander and Shemshe the scribe and the rest of their associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of the province beyond the river, greeting.
SPEAKER_00: And now the letter that you sent has been plainly read before me.
SPEAKER_00: And I made a decree, and search has been made, and it has been found that this city from of old has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it, and mighty kings have been over Jerusalem, who ruled over the whole province beyond the river, to whom tribute and custom and toll were paid.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that the city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me.
SPEAKER_00: And take care not to be slack in this matter.
SPEAKER_00: Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?
SPEAKER_00: Then when the cup when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letters was read before Rehum and Shemsai the scribe and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem, and by force and power made them cease.
SPEAKER_00: Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped.
SPEAKER_00: And it caused, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
SPEAKER_00: So you have this opposition from this king far, far away.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't know the place.
SPEAKER_00: He's never been there.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't even care about these people.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's interesting, though, he shows a bit of wisdom in that he does not order the temple destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: He does not order the city destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: He says to cease working, have it stopped.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know, as we'll get to in a few chapters later, when Ezra comes, that Artaxerxes pretty much gives him full reign.
SPEAKER_00: He says, take what you need, have whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: If you face opposition, let me know, it'll be taken care of.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, the work has ceased.
SPEAKER_00: Again, opposition against God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Those who do not fear the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Those who do not call upon the Lord's name have no regard for his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so us in this day and age, we shouldn't be surprised when people who do not know God, do not love God, do not obey God, are against God's people and his ways and what he does.
SPEAKER_00: So these are the sources of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to look for a moment at the source of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, we're not living in Jerusalem, we're not exiles back from Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: We're not under the old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: We're living here in Ohio.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us are Americans.
SPEAKER_00: We're God's people as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And we are in a new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this covenant thing, this is not God's, this new covenant is not God's plan B.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't like, well, I tried the first one, didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Let's try another one.
SPEAKER_00: That's not true at all.
SPEAKER_00: God has been saving his people from the start.
SPEAKER_00: His plan for saving his people is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We needed a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is that savior.
SPEAKER_00: We wanted to be in charge.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't want a king, but what we needed was a king to rule over us, for us to submit to.
SPEAKER_00: In the old covenant, God revealed the law.
SPEAKER_00: Sin.
SPEAKER_00: He revealed our inability to obey the law and thus our need for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: In the new covenant, Jesus, who is God, became that Savior, obeying the law for us, so that we can live and enjoy God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: So we can walk in grace.
SPEAKER_00: So that we're not dead to sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're not slaves to unrighteousness anymore because God has set us free from those things.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we have a source of hope in the midst of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Because obedience brings hope.
SPEAKER_00: So what's our response in the midst of opposition when things aren't going away?
SPEAKER_00: It's obedience.
SPEAKER_00: What does God call the people of Israel to?
SPEAKER_00: Obedience.
SPEAKER_00: See this in next week or a couple weeks in chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: He calls us to obedience.
SPEAKER_00: This might not be the most encouraging thing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you're facing opposition, things are hard, difficult, work situations, maybe marital situations, this isn't encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you need to be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what God calls people to do.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 10 28, Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are rather those who hear the word of God and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said again in John 14, 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
SPEAKER_00: My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
SPEAKER_00: This is new covenant language.
SPEAKER_00: Christ honoring us honoring Christ, him redeeming us.
SPEAKER_00: But even back in Exodus, verses that these exiles would have known in Exodus 23.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are, if you carefully obey his voice, God, and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: An adversary to your adversaries.
SPEAKER_00: God commands his people to obey his voice.
SPEAKER_00: So obedience, you're going to feel like the thing we want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience to God's word, obedience to what he's called us to do, brings hope.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why.
SPEAKER_00: Obeying your own desires will not get you anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Just following what you want to do isn't gonna bring you hope, it's not gonna bring you encouragement, it's not gonna bring you fortitude, it's not gonna help you persevere, because you know, apart from Christ, our hope is empty.
SPEAKER_00: Without Christ, what's your hope?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna make more money?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be, kids are gonna be well, and no one's gonna die, and there's gonna not be heartache.
SPEAKER_00: What is your hope without Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Just kind of things are okay and enough uh resources are there for you, and you you love your spouse enough, or you find some other spouse?
SPEAKER_00: Like there isn't any hope without Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so if Christ is our hope, then obedience to Him is how we follow Him, how we embrace and enjoy that hope.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience brings hope.
SPEAKER_00: And hope brings patience.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we are to endure.
SPEAKER_00: Hope makes us patient.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that the future belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there might still be weeks and decades of opposition and suffering for us.
SPEAKER_00: We might suffer for the rest of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Suffer from the powers outside of us, governmental things, we might have physical suffering, we might have suffering from a marriage or difficulties, all these different things.
SPEAKER_00: But God holds the future.
SPEAKER_00: How different is your response to your suffering when you know that your suffering, it's not just gonna end.
SPEAKER_00: It will end when Jesus Christ comes back, or when you die and you're with Jesus Christ forever.
SPEAKER_00: When every desire in your heart is fully satisfied, when every wrong that you've ever experienced or witnessed or thought of is erased, and there's no more death, there's no more pain, there's joy, absolute satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: That is our hope.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're obedient, and that's why we're hopeful as God's people.
SPEAKER_00: We still live in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: We know that this world will come to an end.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12 2 says, rejoice in hope.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: This is the command from Paul to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know whatever opposition you're going through, it's opposition from outside, from inside, you're you're sick.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with these things?
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and be constant in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Those are not easy things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to tell you just do these three things, and life is good.
SPEAKER_00: It's really easy.
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta be patient, be hopeful, and pray a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But that is the call.
SPEAKER_00: That is the life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not uh confusing, it's very simple, but it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we need the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul's writing this to the church, as the church together do these things.
SPEAKER_00: And be still before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is Psalm 37.
SPEAKER_00: Wait patiently for him.
SPEAKER_00: Fret not over yourselves, over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil uh evil plans.
SPEAKER_00: Refrain from anger and forsake wrath.
SPEAKER_00: Fret not yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It tends only to evil.
SPEAKER_00: For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we are facing great opposition in the flesh and our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're not facing great opposition from the government around us at this point.
SPEAKER_00: But if the last 2,000 years has taught the church anything, it's that it will face difficulty and hardship.
SPEAKER_00: We are not exempt from those things.
SPEAKER_00: But rather we should be praying and asking the Lord to prepare our hearts for when adversity comes.
SPEAKER_00: We would contend against those things in a way that glorifies him.
SPEAKER_00: That we wouldn't be content to just kind of keep to ourselves and make our problems as small as possible, because we're not we're not gonna say anything about Jesus, but that we be faithful to his word.
SPEAKER_00: We'd be faithful to worship him.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: There's sickness, there's death, there's brokenness, there's broken relationships, unexplained tragedies.
SPEAKER_00: But God has called us to endure, to be obedient, to suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: To suffer well.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I have this suffering and they have that suffering?
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather have their suffering.
SPEAKER_00: That's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But to remember what Jesus said in John 16.
SPEAKER_00: I said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.
SPEAKER_00: Not in other things, not in your spouse, although you're grateful for a spouse, your kids, or your home, or your job, or anything.
SPEAKER_00: Peace is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In the world, tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: But take heart, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: God says, For I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.