WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.700 --> 00:00:05.300 Grace mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord 2 00:00:05.300 --> 00:00:06.300 and Savior Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:07.200 Amen. 4 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:15.000 Why is forgiveness so hard? That's the question that came to mind as I 5 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.200 started studying this text in preparation for today's message. 6 00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:21.100 Why is forgiveness so hard? 7 00:00:22.700 --> 00:00:26.500 Why do we human beings even those who are others who are very 8 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:29.800 conscious of the great forgiveness that God has extended toward us. 9 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:32.900 Why do we still find it so hard to forgive others? 10 00:00:32.900 --> 00:00:37.500 So I decided to do what every good Bible student should do I decided 11 00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:39.100 to Google it and 12 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.600 right away it popped up. 13 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:46.500 There was an article in Psychology Today, Why is forgiveness so 14 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:48.800 difficult and it answered the question. 15 00:00:48.800 --> 00:00:53.100 Well, not really and it kind of begged the question actually. But I did say a few 16 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:56.400 things that were kind of interesting to think about. The opening 17 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.500 paragraph of this little article said forgiveness is difficult because 18 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:06.000 evolution has endowed us with the psychological motivation to avoid 19 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.400 being exploited by others. And one of the easiest ways to prevent 20 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:14.700 exploitation is hit back or simply avoid the exploiter. 21 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:19.100 Therefore any discussion of forgiveness must begin by thinking 22 00:01:19.100 --> 00:01:22.200 carefully about the desire for retaliation. 23 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:26.000 Then the article goes on to explain that there are two kinds of 24 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:26.700 retaliation. 25 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:28.600 There's revenge. 26 00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:32.500 That's when you retaliate by really like it'll giving double or triple 27 00:01:32.500 --> 00:01:36.400 or who knows unlimited more back to the person who's offended you. 28 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:41.800 Or there's another kind that is called he calls it negative 29 00:01:41.800 --> 00:01:47.500 reciprocity. Negative reciprocity is where you you pay somebody 30 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:51.200 back but in accordance with whatever the harm they've done to you, so 31 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:56.900 it's sort of like the all the punishment hits the fits the crime. But 32 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:01.800 with this kind of negative reciprocity, he says you can even have the 33 00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:03.800 goal of restoring a relationship. 34 00:02:03.800 --> 00:02:07.100 But of course, it's based on the fact that you've had made or made 35 00:02:07.100 --> 00:02:09.699 somebody pay back for the wrong that done for you. 36 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:14.300 Now I don't really have anything, you know in general against the 37 00:02:14.300 --> 00:02:16.300 field of psychology, Isee Dr. 38 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:17.200 Marrs is here somewhere 39 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:22.200 I thought I saw them there is. Nothing against psychology and in a way, I 40 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:25.800 think this article made some other interesting points, but it's also 41 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:29.700 interesting to me to look at the lengths that people will go to try to 42 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:34.800 explain things apart from God and apart from an understanding of human 43 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:35.300 sin. 44 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:38.600 So it's just incredible to me. And I think there was some other 45 00:02:38.600 --> 00:02:40.300 problems with the article too. For one 46 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:41.500 he said that 47 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:49.100 that reconciliation should come before forgiveness where I think the 48 00:02:49.100 --> 00:02:54.200 Bible put the other way around. Forgiveness sets the stage then for 49 00:02:54.200 --> 00:02:59.400 reconciliation, but be that as it may I think that the article just 50 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:00.900 really wasn't all that helpful. 51 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:04.400 In conclusion then the article states, 52 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:08.100 the next time you feel now, this will really help you a lot. 53 00:03:08.100 --> 00:03:12.400 The next time you feel someone has wronged you it might be worthwhile 54 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.900 to reflect upon the evolutionary roots of our complex desires for 55 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:18.400 retaliation and forgiveness. 56 00:03:20.200 --> 00:03:21.900 Just doesn't help much does it? 57 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:24.700 I don't believe in evolution anyway. 58 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:30.400 Today's Gospel lesson the parable of the unforgiving servant. 59 00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:33.800 Has a different take on it, doesn't it? 60 00:03:34.900 --> 00:03:39.100 It talks about how or why forgiveness is possible. 61 00:03:41.100 --> 00:03:46.900 But I would add, it never says it's easy. Even among Brothers and 62 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:51.000 Sisters in Christ in this parable wasn't seemed directed to members of 63 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.500 the Kingdom members of the Christian Church Brothers and Sisters in 64 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:54.600 Christ. 65 00:03:54.600 --> 00:04:00.200 Even Among Us this this forgiveness that is spoken about here is not 66 00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:01.100 always easy. 67 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:05.300 There's a lot of reasons why forgiveness is not easy. 68 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:07.600 Sometimes it's just a defense mechanism. 69 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:11.000 You know, we just we just don't want to make ourselves vulnerable 70 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.500 to more hurt or more abuse. 71 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:18.800 Sometimes I think it's because the hurt is just too deep. 72 00:04:19.700 --> 00:04:25.000 And even if a person is fully cognizant of his or her dependence upon 73 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:30.300 God for forgiveness, even then sometimes the hurt is too deep and 74 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:34.600 the person just can't find it within himself to forgive the harm or 75 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:39.900 the injury that he has suffered. Our emotions are complicated and 76 00:04:39.900 --> 00:04:44.500 while we may even utter the words, like my my grandson's they seem to 77 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:49.000 have to say I'm sorry a lot, often times and you wonder how to do they 78 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:50.100 really mean it? Most the time 79 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:51.000 why are they doing it 80 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:52.500 because they're told they have to do it. 81 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:53.800 It's interesting though, 82 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:56.900 my granddaughter's don't ever have to seem to say they're sorry. 83 00:04:56.900 --> 00:04:58.600 I guess the boys get in more trouble. 84 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:04.100 But at any rate sometimes the hurt is just too much and our emotions 85 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:08.600 are complicated and we might utter the words or decide to forgive. But 86 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:12.400 in the heart because remember Jesus says forgive from the heart, but 87 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:14.000 in the heart, we just can't put it away. 88 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:18.100 The wounds or the pain are too much and we can't do it. 89 00:05:18.100 --> 00:05:20.300 We can't let it go. 90 00:05:22.100 --> 00:05:27.100 I remember one saw a married man with children, is an active church 91 00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:27.600 member. 92 00:05:28.900 --> 00:05:32.600 Had been running out and about committing adultery. 93 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:35.800 Well, that wasn't the worst of it. 94 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:39.800 He also in the course of all of this ended up bringing venereal 95 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:40.700 disease back to his wife. 96 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:45.700 Their marriage was ruined and ended in divorce. 97 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:48.500 But this young woman 98 00:05:49.700 --> 00:05:52.000 she really knew that she wanted to forgive him. 99 00:05:53.100 --> 00:05:57.000 She wanted to forgive him but it was so hard and she couldn't do it at 100 00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:59.800 first she really struggled at the thought of forgiving him. 101 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:04.000 Really forgiving him after his betrayal and his unfaithfulness. 102 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.900 She knew very well, 103 00:06:05.900 --> 00:06:09.200 she was just being all grew up in the church newer Bible backwards and 104 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:09.600 forwards. 105 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:13.200 She knew very well Jesus teaching on the matter, but it still didn't 106 00:06:13.200 --> 00:06:15.800 make it all that easy. Overtime 107 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:21.400 she was able to let go and let it going to start to forgive but it 108 00:06:21.400 --> 00:06:21.900 took time. 109 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:27.200 And these things don't always just go away once and for all either she 110 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:30.700 had her ups and downs. When you've been hurt deeply you can't usually 111 00:06:30.700 --> 00:06:33.700 just shoo off the pain as if it were a fly. 112 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:41.100 I would hope that when you carry out your ministry and you are working 113 00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:43.300 with someone who is struggling with forgiveness. 114 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:47.000 You don't just lay it down like some kind of law to be obeyed. 115 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:51.700 It's not going to work that way forgiveness from the heart cannot be 116 00:06:51.700 --> 00:06:52.700 motivated by the law. 117 00:06:52.700 --> 00:06:55.200 But I've seen way too much of that. 118 00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:59.900 I seen way too much of of these kinds of issues especially anything to 119 00:06:59.900 --> 00:07:03.700 do with Matthew chapter 18 being dealt with in a legalistic and 120 00:07:03.700 --> 00:07:05.000 simplistic manner. 121 00:07:06.200 --> 00:07:09.100 We have to remember that when the Bible talks to us is talking about 122 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:14.600 real human people. Human people with human emotions and human psychology 123 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:22.400 and human situations and human relationships. It's just it's just the 124 00:07:22.400 --> 00:07:25.700 way it is. So we have to sometimes what I would say humanize the 125 00:07:25.700 --> 00:07:30.200 text. Think of it in terms of these are real people think about it as 126 00:07:30.200 --> 00:07:34.200 the way things really work in the world among us this side of heaven. 127 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:37.900 Forgiveness is not always easy. 128 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.100 That sometimes it's very hard to do. 129 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:46.600 Yet, it is possible. 130 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.600 This parable shows us that forgiveness is possible and it shows us how 131 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:52.400 and why. 132 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:57.000 I would imagine that some of you have been around enough to have your 133 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:01.600 hermeneutics class. You know that Jesus told the parables 134 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:06.500 to describe how things are in the Kingdom of Heaven. 135 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.700 Most parables including this one are more descriptive than they are 136 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:14.200 prescriptive or to put it another way. 137 00:08:14.200 --> 00:08:18.400 I would say that this Parable is more Gospel than it is Law. 138 00:08:19.500 --> 00:08:23.800 We see first, of course, the unlimited nature of God's love and his 139 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:24.900 forgiveness toward us. 140 00:08:24.900 --> 00:08:29.600 Remember how it starts out Peter thought he was being pretty generous 141 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:34.799 pretty big-hearted, you know to say should we forgive our brother up 142 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:35.400 to seven times? 143 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:39.000 Jesus said really in rebuke. 144 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:46.000 I'm say to you I say to you not seven times but 7 times 70 or 77 or 145 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:46.600 whatever it is. 146 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:47.300 It doesn't matter. 147 00:08:47.300 --> 00:08:48.200 The point is the same. 148 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:54.500 It's as if Jesus is saying to Peter. Peter don't you even understand 149 00:08:54.500 --> 00:08:58.700 don't you even comprehend the level of forgiveness that has been 150 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:03.300 extended to you by God and the impact that that should have on your 151 00:09:03.300 --> 00:09:05.400 question about 7 times? 152 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:11.100 And so Jesus recounts the parable which we all know 153 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:12.800 well, no need to retell it. 154 00:09:13.800 --> 00:09:15.900 But a couple of points should be emphasized. 155 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:21.100 First the amount that was owed to the King by the original debtor. 156 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:26.700 It was an astronomical amount a thousand years of work couldn't have 157 00:09:26.700 --> 00:09:29.700 earned enough money to pay that debt off. In fact the back the Bible 158 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:30.400 commentaries 159 00:09:30.400 --> 00:09:34.000 I read they would take ten thousand years of work to perhaps even pay 160 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.000 off that that amount of money that was owed. And even though he begged, 161 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:41.800 you know, the first debtor he begged the king, please, 162 00:09:41.800 --> 00:09:45.500 please have mercy on me have patience with me and I will pay you back. 163 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:50.600 He knew full well and so did the king that that was impossible that 164 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:51.600 was not going to happen 165 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.500 no matter what. But yet, he had mercy on him, 166 00:09:54.500 --> 00:09:58.600 he had compassion on him and he forgave the debt and he let the 167 00:09:58.600 --> 00:09:59.300 servant go. 168 00:10:00.400 --> 00:10:03.700 But then of course this servant goes out and he finds another guy who 169 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:09.200 owes him a relatively small amount of money. Money that would you could 170 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.100 repay back without too much trouble. 171 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:15.800 The second servant did the same thing he fell and he begged and he 172 00:10:15.800 --> 00:10:18.100 said have mercy on me and I will repay you. 173 00:10:19.800 --> 00:10:20.400 But that 174 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:23.900 that first guy would been forgiven so much 175 00:10:23.900 --> 00:10:28.400 he he sent him off to the debtors prison until he would repay his 176 00:10:28.400 --> 00:10:28.600 amount. 177 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:30.300 He had no mercy on him whatsoever. 178 00:10:30.300 --> 00:10:36.900 It did not occur to him that he could reflect that Mercy that he had 179 00:10:36.900 --> 00:10:40.100 experienced at the hands of the king of did not occur to him that now 180 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:43.900 this is something that he can reflect in his relationships with 181 00:10:43.900 --> 00:10:44.400 others. 182 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:46.900 Or maybe on the other hand. 183 00:10:46.900 --> 00:10:49.900 Maybe you just greedy just a greedy mean old man, and you just didn't 184 00:10:49.900 --> 00:10:53.900 want to forgive. But at any rate the implications 185 00:10:53.900 --> 00:10:58.600 would have been forgiven him didn't have an impact on how you dealt 186 00:10:58.600 --> 00:10:59.200 with others. 187 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:04.500 The petition from The Lord's Prayer forgive us our trespasses as we 188 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:06.300 forgive those who trespass against us. 189 00:11:07.400 --> 00:11:10.000 Probably would have found it very strange to his ears. 190 00:11:11.900 --> 00:11:13.700 And so while forgiveness is hard. 191 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:15.700 Sometimes very hard. 192 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:16.700 It is possible. 193 00:11:16.700 --> 00:11:18.900 It is possible. 194 00:11:18.900 --> 00:11:19.700 It is doable. 195 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:25.400 We know that we need God's forgiveness daily as we've just confessed. 196 00:11:25.400 --> 00:11:29.100 We sin against him in thought word and deed by what we have done and 197 00:11:29.100 --> 00:11:34.200 by what we have left undone. And reflecting on some evolutionary theory 198 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:37.100 about retribution it going to help us much. 199 00:11:38.400 --> 00:11:39.600 We're too far gone. 200 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.800 That's the reality too far gone. 201 00:11:44.400 --> 00:11:45.000 Where St. 202 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.900 Paul said I don't understand my own actions. 203 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:55.600 The things that I want to do, I don't do, the things that I hate I find 204 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:56.200 myself doing. 205 00:11:56.200 --> 00:12:00.700 Oh wretched man that I am who will liberate me from this body of 206 00:12:00.700 --> 00:12:00.900 death. 207 00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:08.100 And then he provides the answer. The same answer that Jesus is pointing 208 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:09.100 out in our parable. 209 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:12.400 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord. 210 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:17.800 The death of a loved and the Forgiveness of our God through Jesus 211 00:12:17.800 --> 00:12:24.400 Christ Our Lord is immeasurable its vast its endless and all we can do 212 00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:25.100 is marvel. 213 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:30.900 All we can do is worship. Worship God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 214 00:12:30.900 --> 00:12:37.500 And that forgiveness that God continues to lavish on us daily is what 215 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:40.700 makes it possible for us to forgive. First to forgive ourselves. 216 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:43.900 You know, that sometimes the hardest part forgiving yourself. We're 217 00:12:43.900 --> 00:12:48.100 sometimes our own worst enemy, but also to forgive those who have 218 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:53.100 injured us those who caused us to live with scars and pain. 219 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.500 We've all heard some of the great inspirational stories of forgiveness. 220 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:03.500 Perhaps the most famous among us that you probably have heard 221 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:08.300 is that of Corrie Ten Boom. When she found herself face-to-face with a 222 00:13:08.300 --> 00:13:12.800 cruel prison guard when she'd been at the concentration camp and 223 00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:14.900 Ravensbrook with her sister who died there. 224 00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:20.800 It was a cruel cruel guard. After she was liberated, 225 00:13:20.800 --> 00:13:25.900 she was speaking at a church and this guard shows up and he goes up to 226 00:13:25.900 --> 00:13:28.100 her afterwards and he said forgive me. 227 00:13:28.900 --> 00:13:29.700 And she did it. 228 00:13:31.400 --> 00:13:32.300 Yet, it wasn't easy. 229 00:13:32.300 --> 00:13:33.700 It wasn't easy. 230 00:13:33.700 --> 00:13:34.800 Not at all. 231 00:13:34.800 --> 00:13:39.200 She didn't want to do it in her heart. In fact the way she says 232 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:39.800 that she just did it 233 00:13:39.800 --> 00:13:43.900 mechanically. Just like my grandson's it just did it because she 234 00:13:43.900 --> 00:13:48.300 thought she had to. But eventually God's spirit melted her heart to 235 00:13:49.300 --> 00:13:51.600 but it was an easy yet. 236 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:52.300 Yet it was possible. 237 00:13:53.800 --> 00:13:55.500 Now it's true at the end of the text 238 00:13:55.500 --> 00:13:58.700 Jesus says that we will be treated like the king treated the 239 00:13:58.700 --> 00:14:02.700 unmerciful servant unless we forgive our brother from our heart. 240 00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:08.900 The king turned the unmerciful servant over to the jailers to be 241 00:14:08.900 --> 00:14:13.300 tortured until he would pay it all back which as we have noted was 242 00:14:13.300 --> 00:14:14.400 impossible anyway. 243 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:17.200 So 244 00:14:19.900 --> 00:14:21.600 it was impossible for him to pay it back. 245 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:25.500 And this is the way God is going to treat us if we don't forgive. 246 00:14:27.800 --> 00:14:30.800 Well, the reality is yes in the Kingdom of Heaven 247 00:14:30.800 --> 00:14:32.900 we will forgive others. 248 00:14:32.900 --> 00:14:36.900 We will have to forgive others and we will also need to ask others to 249 00:14:36.900 --> 00:14:37.400 forgive us. 250 00:14:37.400 --> 00:14:40.300 It's a way of life in the Kingdom. 251 00:14:40.300 --> 00:14:42.900 Sometimes we'll have to ask over and over for forgiveness. 252 00:14:42.900 --> 00:14:47.200 Sometimes you'll have to speak words of forgiveness over and over and 253 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:49.100 over again this side of heaven 254 00:14:49.100 --> 00:14:50.300 that's the way it will be. 255 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:52.900 As Dr. 256 00:14:52.900 --> 00:14:53.600 Gibbs would say, 257 00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:59.300 we stand in the framework of and the flow of God's forgiveness. 258 00:14:59.300 --> 00:15:05.000 We stand in the framework of and the flow of God's forgiveness. 259 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:10.900 He goes on to steadfastly refuse to forgive is unjust and wicked. A 260 00:15:10.900 --> 00:15:15.800 life filled with such refusal. It doesn't say without 261 00:15:15.800 --> 00:15:16.400 struggle. 262 00:15:16.400 --> 00:15:22.000 He says with such refusal is a life where faith in Jesus if it 263 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:23.400 exists will die. 264 00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:30.300 In the end the ability to forgive does not come from within. 265 00:15:31.300 --> 00:15:36.800 It comes from God and the refusal to forgive in the end may be an 266 00:15:36.800 --> 00:15:42.000 indication that you have not gotten to a full appreciation of all that 267 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.200 God has done for you in Christ Jesus. 268 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:49.400 Forgiveness, it's not easy, but it is possible. 269 00:15:50.800 --> 00:15:55.200 A my prayer is that all of us when dealing with the question of 270 00:15:55.200 --> 00:16:00.100 forgiveness first in our own lives, but also in the lies of those to 271 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:01.200 whom we minister. 272 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:02.700 Will do 273 00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:09.800 so with patience with understanding with empathy. We can forgive we are 274 00:16:09.800 --> 00:16:14.400 empowered to forgive and we'll be better off if we forgive but it 275 00:16:14.400 --> 00:16:15.900 doesn't mean it will be easy. 276 00:16:15.900 --> 00:16:21.400 It wasn't easy for Jesus and it will not always be easy for us. 277 00:16:22.700 --> 00:16:24.500 But possible yes. 278 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:30.200 In Jesus name. Amen. And now may the peace of God that surpasses all 279 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:34.800 human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith through 280 00:16:34.800 --> 00:16:35.800 faith in Christ Jesus. 281 00:16:35.800 --> 00:16:36.900 Amen. 282 00:16:36.900 --> 00:16:39.600 Please rise as you're able for the hymn.