The sands have been washed in the footprints
Of the stranger on Galilee’s shore,
And the voice that subdued the rough billows,
Will be heard in Judea no more.
But the path of that lone Galilean,
With joy I will follow today;
And the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

There are so many hills to climb upward,
I often am longing for rest,
But He who appoints me my pathway
Knows just what is needful and best.
I know in His word He hath promised
That my strength, “it shall be as my day”;
And the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

He loves me too well to forsake me,
Or give me a trial too much;
All His people have been dearly purchased,
And Satan can never claim such.
By and by I shall see Him and praise Him,
In the city of unending day;
And the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

When the last, feeble step has been taken,
And the gates of that city appear,
And the beautiful songs of the angels
Float out on my listening ear;
When all that now seems so mysterious
Will be bright and as clear as the day,
Then the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

In the message this morning I want to consider two specific portions of scripture that will help lay the foundation of God’s message.  The first is:

John 14: 1-3;

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Then we move a little bit further on to:

John 14: 25-31;

All this I have spoken while still with you.

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
"You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me,
but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.  "Come now; let us leave”

What a joy to know that there is coming a day when, all loneliness, despair, sadness, anxieties, heartache and heartbreak will cease to exist.

What a joy it is to know that there is coming a day where our tears of sorrow and hurt will be replaced with shouts of Praise and Glory to our Lord and Saviour.

What a joy to it is to know that there is a day coming when we will be free from the scars of our past and that the guilt will be silenced and the stain of sin will be gone forever.

What a wondrous and glorious day that will be!

No more frustrations, disappointments or failures! 

Sometimes life can seem so overwhelming.  Sometimes I find myself feeling like life is overwhelming, and I sometimes feel as though I fail in many areas of my life and that includes my walk of faith with my Saviour.

Truth is I sometimes fail in more areas of my walk of faith with God than I care to recall. Some of those areas of my life are:

I know I should not speak negative words, or have negative thoughts about others - but sometimes I do.

I know should not respond in anger when someone offends me or when someone does or says something I don’t like – or when something goes wrong - but sometimes I do.

I know I should address problem areas of my life, and work on making changes that would prevent those problems from becoming bigger – and sometimes I don’t.

I know I should be more attentive and receptive to the needs of others around me – and sadly sometimes I don’t do that either.

There are a lot of things that I should do and shouldn’t do, and a lot of areas of my life that I should be more responsible with - especially when it comes to my walk with God – and yet sometimes I fail. I shared these thoughts with you for a reason this morning. I want you to know that I share in some of the same frustration and some of the same concerns that many of you do too. There are times in our lives when we feel lost, drifting, like we are failing and we don't know which way to turn. And sometimes we know right from wrong and yet we choose to put aside what we know and we don’t take the necessary steps of correction. There are times we are not at all confident that we are able to handle what is in our present lives let alone what lies ahead.

Does this mean that we are not Bible believing, God fearing, God honoring children of God?  Does this mean that we are failures in general? 

No – not at all. 

What it does mean however is that we sometimes need to step out of our comfort zones, climb out of our shells and step back into our walk of faith – and reach out to God and tell Him about our short-comings and how we sometimes feel like we are failing and that we need His help.

Sometimes we simply need to raise our voices to God and ask Him to help us and to bring us back onto the right pathway again. Sometimes we face a mountain of confusion that we alone cannot handle and that we alone cannot face without God’s help. 

So, why am I talking about the feeling of failure and why am I beginning this message on what seems like discouragement rather than encouragement?  Because God put it on my heart that sometimes we need to see our shortcomings before we can see His Mercy, Love and Grace. We need to see where we ARE before we can see where we are going, and we have to find our place in the valley before we can find victory at the top of His mountain of love.

Sometimes I’ll watch preachers on TV who tell us all about the good things in life and how God makes those good times even better, and how peachy keen life is and can be, and so many times we aren’t reminded of our shortcomings and our “times of failing” and therefore sometimes we have a tendency to over-look those areas of our lives and we just keep on keepin’ on and doing the same old things day in and day out. 

And sometimes it can consume us. 

If we never take a look at our hearts and lives and see the negative areas – we will never realize the positives, and we will never reach our full potential like God has intended for us.

I sat and thought a lot this week about my own short-comings and failures and I realized as I prayed and as I studied God’s Word that I have much room for improvement.  I spent a lot of this past week in a state of frustration, anxiety, and at times even anger. Much of it was needless, and all of it was unwarranted and unnecessary, and it was beginning to consume me. I was in some rather low valleys when it came to my short-comings this week, and once God opened my eyes and gave me light to see through the darkness, I saw a mountain before me, and that mountain seemed impossible to climb and my heart cried out:

“I can’t climb this mountain alone God – I need Your help”.

I had no peace from within, and no hope finding peace until I realized I couldn’t do it without God’s help. There was a battle raging within me and I wanted peace, and I wanted contentment and I wanted calm and release from the pressures I was feeling.  The peace, contentment and calm that I was wanting, can only come from one source – Praise God I have Jesus for that. 

The world will tell us that in order to find peace, contentment and calm that we have to go someplace – take a vacation and get away from it all. Or that we should buy some expensive luxury that we cannot afford, to shut out the harshness of the world and find peace in that. Or that we should retract into our shells and hide away in some forlorn corner of the world to escape and to try to find peace on our own. And sometimes the worlds idea of peace, calm and contentment is to ingest something – like pills – alcohol - tranquilizers, etc.  But those ways of trying to find peace are only temporary and external and sometimes can be dangerous.  And what’s worse is that it is not true peace.  The peace that Jesus offers is different from the world's peace. Only Jesus can offer us and give us true peace, contentment and calm.

Jesus tells us that it is HIS peace that He gives to us. He alone has the authority to extend this peace. It is unique to Him.  Christ's peace adds something to life rather than subtracts something from it.

We have a true and lasting peace with God.

In Romans 5:1 we read,

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."

Paul tells us that we have peace with God because we have been justified by faith. When we are "justified" we are pronounced "not guilty", we are declared to be "good" in God's eyes. Justification means we are declared to be unstained by sin. But how is this possible?

It's possible because Christ paid for our sin and credited His goodness to our account. He extends to us – His Grace through it all. How do we become justified and come to find peace with our Saviour? We must have faith.  Faith, is active belief . . . . it is a trust that reveals itself in action. True faith believes in Christ's promise of eternal life enough to rest in Him for our eternal hope, and follow Him in our daily living and faith in Christ can instill an immediate peace in our hearts. Our past is dealt with. The sins of the past are forgiven. We are free from the rebellion of the way we used to live.

Our failures are overcome. We are set free from the failures of the past – present and future. The scars of the past may remain but we are no longer held prisoner by the past and we have victory from our failures in the here and now. Our future is certain. We don't have to worry about eternal life.  Jesus says, "whoever believes in me WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE."

Paul reminds us in Philippians 1:6;

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"

God makes it possible for us to know peace in the depth of our being; peace in our hearts and peace in our soul, and contentment in our lives.

In Christ, we have peace, calm and contentment in even the most difficult and trying of circumstances.  Jesus tells us that He is superior to our circumstances and that through Him we can overcome any and all feelings of failures and shortcomings.

In John 16:33 Jesus says:

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Jesus tells us that even though life has its irritations, its up’s and downs, and even though we may find ourselves down in the valley’s of this world, facing mountains that we don’t think we can climb over that He is superior and victorious to our conflicts.

The world does not overcome Him . . . . He overcomes the world.

Our Lord is not caught by surprise by the conflicts of our lives, nor is He caught off guard by our feelings of inadequacies and our thoughts of failings. He has authority and power over all our circumstances. The Bible tells us that our trials and difficulties are purposeful and I believe this includes our times when we struggle with the sense of failing and when we fall short in our walk of faith.
 
In 1 Peter 1: 6-7 Paul wrote:

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

In both these passages one thing is clear . . . for the child of God there are no "accidents". The difficult things that come into our lives come for a reason . . . a good reason. We may not see that rhyme or reason but there is one.

The great evangelist, Billy Graham used to use an illustration about an evangelistic meeting in Ireland where the speaker was explaining what it means to abide in Christ and to trust Him completely in every trial and in every anxious moment.

Concluding his message, the speaker repeated several times,

"It means that in every circumstance you can keep on saying and believing, 'For this I have Jesus.'"

The meeting was then opened for testimonies. A young lady who had been at the piano stood up and said, "I have to leave shortly so I'd like to be the first to testify, Just a few minutes ago I was handed a telegram. And it reads...'Mother is very ill; take train home immediately'.”

When she saw the words on that telegram, she knew that the message was meant for her that night.

She said that as soon as she heard the words

"For this I have Jesus."

Instantly a peace and strength flooded her soul.  After pausing a moment, she continued with,

"I have never traveled very far alone, but for this I have Jesus. And for all the strain and suspense that goes with the thought of my Mother's severe illness, I praise God that for this too I have Jesus."
 
Several weeks later the evangelist received a letter from the same woman. It read , "Thank you again for the message you gave that day. Life has become an uninterrupted psalm of victory, for I have come to realize that no matter what life brings, for this I have Jesus."

My friends, this past week I had many mixed emotions flooding my world and satan was trying his best to take me down and destroy my soul BUT praise the Lord - - - “For this I have Jesus”.

If you are struggling right now, I know this sounds trite. I know when things are falling apart it doesn't help for someone to say, "Don't worry, it's going to be alright." But please realize that is what God is saying to you through every trial and temptation and difficult situation you face! Your life is not hurtling aimlessly out of control . . .there is purpose in what is happening. Hang on to your faith and find peace, calm, contentment in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour and He will give you victory because - - - “For this you have Jesus”.

God will bring you through times of testing, trials and difficulties if you will trust in Him and let Him. He will see you through anything. In the midst of fierce trials you can know peace – In the midst of your feelings of failures – you can know calm through Victory in Jesus. For all of our difficult times – I thank the Lord that we have Jesus.

Time and time again we hear testimony of someone who is in a terrible time of trial and they ask for prayer. Prayer goes out, and as people began to pray they sense a peace and strength sweep over them. They are able to stop worrying and start resting.

That's the peace Jesus offers.

This week as I struggled within myself and felt like I was at my wits end – I prayed. 

As I felt the strain of feeling as though I had failed in my journey with God – I prayed.

As anger, frustration, disappointment and discouragement welled up inside of me and began to take a toll on me – I prayed.

And when my life felt like it was out of control – I prayed.

After I prayed, I checked my e-mail and there I found a message from Barbara, telling me that Stefan was not going to be here this morning and she wanted to know if I would give the opening message today.  Immediately I replied back to her that I would.  After I sent my reply though, I prayed again and I told God that I didn’t think I was going to be able to give a message today.  I told God that after the way I was feeling this week that there was no way I could stand in front of people that I love so dearly and offer a message of encouragement and hope when I myself wasn’t feeling very encouraged and felt like there was no hope left in me.

I even told God that maybe it would be best if I didn’t even go to church this Sunday, and I told God that He should seek someone else to step up here this morning and give a message because I certainly was not worthy of doing it myself. And God came into my heart and I began to cry and I prayed some more.  And as I was praying, I felt God’s Love surround me.  I felt a calm, a contentment and a peace come over me like I had not felt all week. At that moment I asked for forgiveness for the outbursts of anger and frustration, and for the feelings of failure I had been experiencing through the week, and I asked for strength and understanding.  And I asked God to help me climb over the mountain that stood in my way – and He didn’t just help me climb over it – He carried me over it.

We don’t have to stand alone in the deep dark valleys of our lives and face un-climbable mountains by ourselves – For this we have Jesus!

Praise Jesus we have Him today –

Praise Jesus that with Him - we can overcome anything that stands in our way –

Praise Jesus that our feelings of failures are only temporary and will not last –

Praise Jesus that He is the source of peace in our lives.

Praise Jesus that He came into this world and died on that old rugged cross, and rose again and went to prepare a place for us – so that we can have eternal resting and peace.

Praise Jesus that through Him we can know and have victory!

There may be times in our journey here on this earth that we may experience the sense of emptiness –

We may feel worthless and frustrated –
 
We may feel the shame and uneasiness of failure –

But

Praise the Lord – we have Jesus for this!

We are constantly being assaulted by the forces of evil. Satan will work hard to disrupt our peace and he will showcase our failures and if we let him, he will cause us to be consumed by it. Satan wants to keep us churning. He wants us to doubt God's promises. Satan can afflict us and he can attack us at our most venerable moments - but He cannot defeat us – because we have Victory – and PRAISE our Lord - we have Jesus for that!

When we find anxiety building and our peace leaving, it is important that we STOP, RECALL AND REST and Remind ourselves that God is Sovereign (He is in control) He loves us and He has our best interest at heart. He never, ever makes a mistake and we have the calm assurance that we can find rest in His arms. You see, we don't have to live our life constantly feeling like we are failing or being torn into little pieces. We don't have to try to escape to some hidden corner of the world. . .all we need to do is place our faith and trust in Him and reach out and take His Hand. We need to look to Him when the times are overwhelming, when the future is uncertain, or when we feel lost. . . .and if we look carefully we will see in His eyes: a love, understanding, confidence and strength that will set our anxious hearts at rest.

At the beginning of this message I read a poem that some of you will recognize as a beloved old song titled: "When I Get To The End of the Way", that was written by a man by the name of Charles D. Tillman. 

I love this song and whenever I hear it or am reminded of the message it conveys I am reminded of the peace and comfort and satisfaction that one day we will be ours to know all throughout eternity.

As I close I want to read it one more time, and as I do, I want to encourage you not to let life’s struggles hold you back or take you down – and always remember that Jesus is the source of your joy – the source of your comfort – the way to know true and lasting peace and always remember that one day we will leave this world behind and that we will never face struggles and trials again, and - For This We Have Jesus.

"When I Get To The End Of The Way"

The sands have been washed in the footprints
Of the stranger on Galilee’s shore,
And the voice that subdued the rough billows,
Will be heard in Judea no more.
But the path of that lone Galilean,
With joy I will follow today;
And the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

There are so many hills to climb upward,
I often am longing for rest,
But He who appoints me my pathway
Knows just what is needful and best.
I know in His word He hath promised
That my strength, “it shall be as my day”;
And the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

He loves me too well to forsake me,
Or give me a trial too much;
All His people have been dearly purchased,
And Satan can never claim such.
By and by I shall see Him and praise Him,
In the city of unending day;
And the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

When the last, feeble step has been taken,
And the gates of that city appear,
And the beautiful songs of the angels
Float out on my listening ear;
When all that now seems so mysterious
Will be bright and as clear as the day,
Then the toils of the road will seem nothing,
When I get to the end of the way.

PRAISE THE LORD – For This We Have Jesus!