Good evening. I told Eric, I
said, you ain't gonna get out of here without working. We'll
make you do something. If you will, let's turn to Isaiah
40. We'll take a break from John this week. I wanted to look here
in Isaiah 40. And I'll give you the bottom
line up front. Make all my, I'll give you both
of my points. I was told from a young age,
I don't remember who started saying this, but every time I
go to leave the house or go to a ball game or anything, my parents
would look at me and they'd say, you remember who you are and
whose you are. And as a little kid, I thought,
well, I'm me and I'm my dad's. And if I act like me, I'm gonna
get in trouble. I was real little, but for you
that believe, you remember who you are. You're a purchased possession. You've been redeemed. He bought
you. You ain't yours, you're his.
And you remember whose you are. Who is that one that bought you?
That's the almighty, holy, sovereign God of heaven and earth. Remember
who you are, a purchased possession. Remember whose you are, who bought
you. Christ paid the price. He bought
you and he's on his throne. That's where he is right now. I want this to be comfortable.
You want full comfort? That's the title of my message.
Do you want full comfort, true comfort? I hope we can all be
comfortable this evening. This is the Lord's house. I know
that. This is a place where his gospel is preached. We reverence
that. But also, like Paul said, this
is my gospel. It's his, it's good news he gave
us, but now I've got it. I want to be comfortable with
it. Here in Isaiah 40 verse one, we'll just look at the first
two verses. The Lord speaks here in Isaiah
40 verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Speak to her heart and cry unto
her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. All sin's been put away. Four,
she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. I started to do a five W's on
comfort. Who does this speak to? The Lord
speaking, that's whose words they are, and it's to my people.
He's speaking to a people. What was he speaking about? Comfort.
Comfort. Not what we think nowadays. I
looked up the definition of comfort. What is comfort? It's a noun. That's a state of physical ease.
In the body, we have comfort whenever we have a sense of ease
from pain and any constraint on us. And it also means a relief
of a person's feelings. If you have grief or distress,
You have comfort if you don't have grief and distress, right?
And then a verb, that's to ease the grief, to ease the distress
of somebody else. I want comfort, do you? In the
body, in the spirit, and I want to be able to comfort others.
I wanna know how to do that. If somebody's distressed, I wanna
say the words that'll be used of God to give that ease, to
soothe that soul. When is the Lord speaking this?
Right now. Right now. Was this a long time
ago? Yes. Will this word stand if
this earth is here tomorrow? You better believe it. So it's
right now. This is to us. Where? Right here
where we are. And why? Why does the Lord say
this? Go cry comfort because he commanded
it. He commanded it. Cry comfort
to him. Everyone desires to have comfort
in the body and in the mind. But I think few people, very
few people have full comfort, that they have true comfort.
What's the believer's comfort in this life? What's a child
of God's comfort in death? What comfort do we console others
with? What comfort do we have? What
do I have in my arsenal, in my toolbox? to help you if you're
in grief, if you're in distress. Some do not have physical comfort.
And many people think if I could just, if my body, whatever it
is wrong in it, if I could get that right, if I could get physical
comfort, that I'd have full comfort and everything would be fine.
No, it won't. No, it won't. Some people say they have internal
comfort of the mind, of the heart, of the spirit, however they were.
And if I could just, if I could get that to be okay, I'd have
full comfort and everything would be fine. But it will not. That
won't do it. Peace of mind ain't going to
do it. Some people want financial comfort. That's about anybody,
right? Financial, if I could just get a couple more dollars
in the bank, I'd have full comfort. I'd be fine. No, you won't. I've
heard that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy comfort, carnally
speaking. But it'll just make you more
of what you already are. If somebody's sad, you're just gonna be sad
in a big house. If you're mean, you're just gonna be meaner in
a big house. It ain't gonna change you too much. If you're giving
and generous and kind, you're just gonna be able to give more
and be kinder and all that. But it ain't gonna give you full
comfort. Some say comfort's found in being able to handle hard
times. Whenever those hard times come,
when that physical pain comes, or that soul pain comes, or whatever
it is, that grief comes, I can handle it. That's called resilience.
If I could just have resilience, I'd have full comfort. No you
won't. No, they won't. Some look to
escapism, whether that's travel, or a hammock and a tiki drink,
or drugs, or a physical experience, skydiving, or adrenaline junkies,
whatever they are. If they could just get that,
if I get one more rush, I can escape, get relief, and I'll
have full comfort. No, you won't. All those things
cannot give true, lasting, full comfort. And none of those things
give you the verb to be able to comfort somebody else. Hold
out a little bit. Tomorrow's gonna be better. Maybe
it will, maybe it won't. The sun will come up tomorrow.
It might not. If someone was sick in the body, if they was
heart sick, or if they was about to die, if they was disturbed,
what comfort can I give in these things, in these earthly things?
If you notice in Song of Solomon, or not Song of Solomon, Solomon
wrote in Ecclesiastes, in chapter one, verse two, he said, vanity
of vanities. saith the preacher, vanity of vanity, all's vanity.
You know how he ends Ecclesiastes in chapter 12? Vanity of vanity,
saith the preacher, all's vanity. He just said it a little bit
quicker. Everything in this world just
going to burn. Living grace and dying grace
are intertwined. We're so worried. I want to have
dying grace when that time comes, but I may have a whole lot of
living between now and then. I need grace to live in this
world. I need some comfort between now and then. I'm gonna experience
some things I need comfort in. Halfway through Ecclesiastes
in chapter seven, it says, it's better to go to the house of
mourning than to go to the house of feasting. It's better to need
comfort. He said, for that's the end of
all men. This life's gonna burn up and the living will lay this
to heart. Those that have a new creation in them, they're gonna
say, there's something there. I need to know about this. The
only means to have comfort is to have spiritual life. We have
to have that new creation in us. And that's for the Lord Jesus
Christ to abide in us and us to abide in him, that unity,
that oneness. That's where we're gonna have
comfort. That's where it's gonna be given. The pain of life, the
pain found in the act of this body dying, it can only be made
comfortable, true comfort, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is it to be made one with Christ? That's him living in
me, Me living in Him. What does that mean right now
to you and me? If we know that, if I know that I'm His, He's
in me, and I abide in Him, He's my only hope. He's everything.
He's not the biggest part of my life. He's my life. That's
comfort. That's comfort. Look at verse
one again. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. All that fighting.
and grieving and sorrow, that's accomplished. And that her iniquities
pardoned, that's the cause all of it. Why is my body hurt? Sin. Why am I sad? Sin. Why do I grieve? Sin. If it's a pinky toe or just,
I mean, wrench your clothes and scream, sin's a reason. Your warfare is accomplished,
the iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Double, double. Fred Evans
got up to read, I thought he was preaching, I thought he was
reading scripture. And he read this and he started commenting
on it and I said, uh-oh. People are going to find out their time
difference. They thought I stole everything. But there's been people of old
who say, well, if somebody, if they didn't attain and they didn't
get sanctified themselves enough and they just got into heaven
by the skin of their teeth, they just barely made it. Not so.
I beg to differ, correction, the scriptures beg to differ.
That thief on the cross, you know what he received? The same
thing you did, the same thing I did. He got double, double
for all his sins, an abundance. He got Christ, our inheritance,
didn't he? Now, knowing him, is your work tough? Does your
neck hurt, does your leg hurt? Are you broken, you can't pay
your bills? That's comfort to know that. Now those things will
still happen. Work still might be tough, your
neck still may hurt, and you still may not be able to pay
your bills. But to know Him is comfort. Comfort doesn't mean
health and wealth and all this glad living and these earthly
comforts and benefits as we call them. Rebecca was pregnant with
twins, wasn't she? And she cried to the Lord. They
struggled within her, they was fighting inside her, and she
said, if I'm so, if I do have life in me, Why? Why am I thus? You know what
that child of God was saying? Why me? I know that's never happened
to any of you all, but I've had trials come on, and I said, why
me? I've been rowing in that boat in that big storm. I said,
I'm out here where you told me to go, Lord. I'm doing what you
told me to do. Why are these waves? If this is so, why am
I thus? And she inquired to the Lord,
and the Lord said, two nations are in your womb, and two men
are people, but shall be separated from thy bowels. That's every
one of us, isn't it? I got an old man and a new man.
I've done something in you. And I'm going to prove my gospel
through you, Rebecca." Wouldn't that be comfort? He spoke. She
inquired. He answered. He spoke to her. He said, it's
fine. Here's what I'm doing. Now guess
what? She was still pregnant. There's
still two babies inside her womb. And she just had to wait. Had
to wait on the Lord. A war is won, but the battles
still take place, don't they? Why? Why is there so much discomfort
in this body, in this mind, in this flesh, where this new creation
lives? Sin. That's why. We have iniquity,
we have sin, we have transgression, we have everything. Sin is what
takes away all the comfort in this world. all of what we call
joy, whenever you're happy. Sin's what takes it away. And
when you're brought to a place where that sin that so easily
beset us, it's been put away, that's been handled. The Lord's
took care of it for eternity. It's been blotted out. Then that's
when comfort comes. That's when comfort comes. When
the war of sin and death and grave and hell, all that's been
conquered. That comfort that you have, when you see that,
that's the same eternal comfort you're gonna have forever and
ever and ever. That ain't gonna change. We'll
be looking to the one that saved us, his person and his work. When we see him, now all of a
sudden, you can breathe in that trial a little bit. You feel
like the world's sitting on your shoulders, you can relax just
a little bit. That little foretaste, that little
down payment, that's gonna be the comfort of eternity being
with him. That's what it's gonna be. How will this take place? How will my iniquity be pardoned?
How will I be reconciled to the holy God I was born with? What's
gonna be the thing that just, that settles me, that takes that
grief away? Turn over a few pages, Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52. They're
in verse nine. The Lord says, break forth in
the joy, Isaiah 52, 9. Break forth in the joy, sing
together. Ye waste places of Jerusalem.
We're in a waste place. Do you feel like that? Do you
ever feel like this is a dump? Why would we break forth in the
joy? Why would we start singing? For, because the Lord hath comforted
his people. How? He hath redeemed Jerusalem. He's bought you. That means something. That's too simple, Kevin. No,
it ain't. If you understand what it is, I had to shrink this down
to seven pages. He's redeemed his people. You
go tell them the war's over their inequities. Pardon. I bought
them. They're mine. The comfort to the child of God
that the Lord's redeemed us. That's where our comfort is.
Redemption is comfort. If we know what that means. All
the comfort, all that true, that full comfort. we can have in
this life because the son of God came and laid down his life. And we have it now, we have it
for eternity because he laid down his life for me and I'm
his and he's mine. And the cost of that, the cost
of that redemption, the cost of that purchase of this old
broken, dirty vessel that you think wasn't worth nothing, the
payment, it was unmeasurable and immeasurable. That means
you can't find out what the size was, and there ain't no way to
even begin to account for it. It was his blood. Acts 20 says,
take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. That was
the cost that he bought us with. What's that mean? He has ownership. If I own something, I'm responsible
for. If I own that property up there
on Lawson Valley, I'm responsible for the taxes, I'm responsible
if somebody falls down, hurts themselves, I'm responsible if
a dog gets loose, it lands on my shoulders, I own the place.
He's bought us, that means I'm his property. He has full ownership. And I have full and complete,
eternal and right now, comfort knowing I'm his. He has responsibility
for me and he's mine. The church of the living God
is who that's talking about. He said, my people, my people,
those ones I bought, that's his bride. And let me tell you, we
have a good husband. We have a lovely kinsman redeemer
that's just and fair and good and tender. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
6. First Corinthians chapter six. And verse 19. Paul speaks. He says, what? First
Corinthians six 19. What? No, you not that your body
is the temple of the Holy ghost, which is in you. You know this,
don't you? What you have of God, and you're
not your own, you're bought with a price. Therefore, you know
this, right? You know what that cost is. You
know what a sinner I am. I know he had to put away that
sin. He did that. Now, knowing that, therefore,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
He owns it. It's his. Now, thank him. That's
hard, isn't it? When that grief and that sin
and that weight and that struggle and just day-to-day life, traffic, that's the hardest part for me.
Or when the Lord deals with me, I'm driving in a car and somebody
pulls out in front of me. Thank you, Lord. It's hard to be thankful,
isn't it? We know who we are. We know whose
we are. Thank you. Thank you. And you know that.
Glorify God in your body. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
1, just a few pages. The quality of this eternal comfort
found in the blood of Christ, it's found in his redemption.
Paul said in, this is my comfort and affliction for thy word hath
quickened me. In all these trials, I'm comforted
because your words gave me life. Look here in 2 Corinthians 1
verse 3. It says, blessed be God, even the father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. That
means if it's true comfort, if it's lasting comfort, it's His. He's the God of it. It's found
in Him. It's directed by Him. It's dispensed by Him, and it
concerns His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His. He owns it.
Comfort's His possession. I'm His possession, so is comfort,
too. His person and His work is not a great comfort. The Lord
Jesus Christ, who he is and what he accomplished on that tree
and why I walked to this earth and coming out of that grave.
That's not the chief, the best comfort. It's the only comfort. Everything else is going to perish.
You get the fanciest car on earth and it's going to rust. Poor
Kimberly, she married me and I'm so handsome. Someday I'm
going to get ugly. This body goes down, everything
does. Him. Him. That husband will only get
better looking. Our love will grow stronger for
him every day. It will. Look here in verse 4.
This God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. He sent the tribulation. He's
going to comfort us in that tribulation. Why? That we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble. by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. He said, comfort ye my people.
That means his people need the same comfort that the other people
of his need. We're the same family, we're
the same body, we have the same need, don't we? He said, comfort
them, that way we can comfort one another. That's one of the
purposes the Lord uses these trials he sends us, and the body
and the mind and the pocketbook, whatever. He comforts us during
that and we see who we are and whose we are. That way we can
turn to our brethren whenever they're having a bad day and
we can say, who bought you? Is he able? Is the Lord on his
throne? Of course he is. Comfortable with it. Where'd
that pattern come from? My Lord, does he just work out
in us? We're all by ourselves as the body of Christ. We have
a high priest that can't be touched with the feeling of our firmness.
We don't have one of those, but this high priest that we have,
he was touched at all points and tempted in all points, just
like us. How is that possible? I have
no idea. I believe it. I believe it. Everything, he knows what it's
like to give birth to a child. How's that possible? I have no
idea. So he says so. In every way, at all points,
he was tempted like we are, yet without sin. He knows how to comfort. How
can I comfort another brother and sister in this body, in the
mind, on a deathbed? Or how can I comfort those who've
just lost ones they loved? Paul's talking there in 1 Thessalonians
4, he's saying, our Lord's coming. This one who has saved us, who
is saving us and shall save us, he's coming again. He's risen
for us. He bought us, he's risen. And he's on his way back. He's
coming. Either we're going to be pulled
to him or he's coming to us. We're going to be united again.
And he said, wherefore comfort one another with these words.
He's on his throne. We're going to be with him. This
life's a vapor. And my heart too. It seems like
the pain ain't ever going to stop and the woes ain't ever
going to stop. Yesterday, I was 24 years old.
Now, I'm 42. That fast, isn't it? It is. He
wasn't lying. We remember those things. Turn over to Romans 8.
This comforter, the God of all comfort that bought us, he tells
his bride that the warfare's accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. She's received the Lord's hand
double for all of her sins. Brother Top Lady wrote that at
the ripe old age of 38 before he died. And he said, let the
water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be
of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure.
He's bought us. We're his and he's cleaned us.
He's washed us. We're holy. We'll be given his righteousness.
We can't enter into that now. I look forward to learning in
eternity. I know that. To see him without sin. Look
here in Romans 8, verse 26. Romans 8, 26. I'm getting to
Romans 8, 28, but that begins with an and, doesn't it? I mean,
there's something to it. Romans 8, 26. Likewise, the spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. Which ones? The body, the mind,
the spirit, all of them. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searches the heart
knoweth what the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that
all things work together for good. to them that love God,
to them who are thee called according to his purpose." That's his people.
That give you comfort? Whenever those infirmities come
on, and I pray, it's wrong. It'll take us away. Oh, it'll
make us stop hurting. Well, it needs to hurt, or he
wouldn't make it. And I don't know what to pray
for, but that spirit makes intercession and says, you accomplish this
trial, you finish this course that you've willed, Lord. This
is your will. You accomplish it in that person,
in that child of God. Accomplish it in them. And then we're taught all things
work together for good to his people, because that warfare
has been accomplished. That sin's been put away. Verse 29, for
whom he did foreknow, this happened a long time ago. He purposed
it. If we go on in Isaiah 40, it
says, the voice crieth in the wilderness. And then the voice
said to him, cried. He said, what am I going to cry?
That was just the voice speaking through John the Baptist is all
it was. That's his purpose. He did this for it. It says the
voice said. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren, just like Him. Moreover, whom He predestinated,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
that's the cost of purchase, isn't it? But delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? Well, somebody accuses us of
something. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. This purchase is done, it's eternal. Who's he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Now, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? That's
what this all stems from, isn't it? That foreknowledge, that
love beforehand. Because he would, out of his
perfect will, it pleased him. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation So those trials
that's on the outside, is that gonna separate us? No, I'm his,
he's mine, he's on his throne. What about distress of the mind,
oh, of the heart, of the soul? Is that gonna do it? No, he's
comforting us, isn't he? What about persecution, those
against us, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? What about
wars? What about those mean people that's plotting on me? It don't
matter. As it is written, verse 36, for
thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things, we
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. That's comfort,
isn't it? For I'm persuaded that neither
death, and this is precious, nor life. He ain't gonna hurt me to the
point I perish, and he ain't gonna bless me to the point I
walk away from him. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're His, He bought us. And
He's on His throne, He's sovereign, He's all-powerful, and He's omnipresent
and omniscient. Nobody's gonna trick Him, nobody's
gonna dethrone Him, are they? I'm His and He's mine. the Lord
that chose us in Christ, the Lord that loved us in Christ,
that we lived in Him as He walked this earth, we died in Him as
the Lord slew His only Son, and we were in Him when He rose.
And right now as He's seated on His throne, we're with Him.
We don't see that now, but whenever we close these eyes in death
and we awake made like Him, we'll realize we've been there the
whole time. We'll understand what unity means. He's on his
throne right now making intercession for us here, and he's ruling
and he's reigning. All things were our good and
his glory. A double L. All. Now, doesn't
that make you comfortable? They tripled our property taxes,
honey. That's all right, Lord did it.
My flight got canceled. I'd be really happy about that.
I put Eric to work again. That's all right, Lord did it.
He comforts his people by making us see we're not our own, we're
bought with a price. That we have eternal life right
now, that's what he gave us. A holy life that cannot sin in
us, a new creation. His workmanship. And knowing
we will be made like him and we will be without sin. And we're
going to be in a perfect body that ain't never going to cry.
It ain't never going to have arthritis. It ain't never going to get hiccups.
It's just going to be perfect. And so that way, nothing distracts
us from worshiping him. I don't know what that's going
to be like. That's the best words we have for it. And everything
that happens now. What we thanks for is what we
thanks just the burden of sin and all that. It's for our good
and his glory. And I'm going to tell you a story
real quick. It's been told a whole lot. My brother Jack Shanks told
it and I don't know, he probably got from somebody else. There
was a king and he had a servant and they were really good friends.
They grew up together. And everywhere that king went,
that servant went. And they were just best of friends,
and they talked about everything. They loved hunting and fishing
and riding horses, and it's a long time ago. And so they'd like
to go hunting together. And so they'd always go out,
and anything that ever happened, that servant would look at the
king and said, that's good. Oh, they forgot to shoe the horses.
Oh, that's good. Well, now I want my horses shod.
Well, it was going to go duck hunting, and it started raining.
Oh, that's good. That's good. He'd always say that's good.
Well, they went out hunting one day, and the servant always loaded
the musket for the king. And he went to shoot, and when
he shot, it was a bad load. Blew out the side of the musket,
blew his thumb off. King's thumbless. And he said, that's good. And
that king said, no, that's not good. I don't ever play guitar
again. I'm missing a thumb. What do
you mean that's good? That hurt. Put him in prison.
So he took his best friend, his whole lifelong friend, and threw
him in prison because he's mad at him. Well, he healed up, a
year or so went by, and King's out hunting again. He's out there
where they have cannibals. Sure enough, them cannibals caught
him. They tied him up, and they had a big old pot of water, like
them old cartoons, getting ready to dunk him in there, going to
cook him up and eat him. And they had a superstition in that
culture that if a body that they was going to eat wasn't whole,
they couldn't eat it. He'd kill them, kill the whole
tribe. And they looked him over and they saw he was missing a
thumb. They said, we can't eat you. And they cut him loose and sent
him off. And he got to thinking about his friend and said, this
was good. It was right. It was good. And he went to that
prison. He said, brother, come out of there. He said, I've been
mad at you. I'm sorry. He said, you should
have never been put in this prison. He said, uh-uh, me being in this
prison was good. He said, no, it wasn't. This was terrible.
He said, no, it was good. He said, because if I wasn't
in this prison, I'd have been with you. And I got both of my
thumbs. They'd hate me. I hope I can remember. I thought
of that all week, Bob. I was out there planting. There's a
whole bunch of crabgrass growing through my raised bed. I thought, that's
good. And if I'd have cut my thumb off, I hope, I'd have said,
that's good. My tooth started hurting and I called me an appointment
to get it fixed. I ain't looking forward to it,
but it's going to be good because I'm his, he's mine. O taste and see that the Lord's
good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. And I had to look up blessed. Comforted is the man
that trusteth in him. You know when all my, the sin
is not believing God. When my comfort's just gone,
it's when I'm looking at me. But when I see him, everything's
right as rain, isn't it? This comfort. comes to, I know
who I am, whose I am, but that comfort that comes, it's sufficient.
It's always sufficient in any situation. I'll never go wrong. I'll never give bad advice saying,
look to your Lord. Where's he at? What'd he do?
Is it finished? Or you got something left to
do? No, it's finished. It says so. Never go wrong. That comfort's
always sufficient. I hope that comforts you. Amen.
Let's pray together. Father, we're so prone to wonder
to ourselves. We're so prone to seek ourselves
and our situation and our body and mind and the things around
us. Set our affections on things
above, on our Lord who sits on his throne, who's bought us with
an unimaginable price of his blood. who owns us, who keeps
us. We're His responsibility, Lord.
Let us see His power and trust Him and believe Him and be comforted. And when you do that, Lord, give
us the ability to comfort those that need comfort. Give us the
word to proclaim Christ to those on
a deathbed or those on a mountaintop. Make us faithful and keep us
that way. Forgive us for our weakness and our sin. Be
with our brethren that aren't with us here tonight. Give them
comfort as only you can. It's because of Christ and his
intercession and his work and his person that we ask these
things. Amen.