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Speaker 1: Let us pray blessed be God, even the Father of

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Speaker 1: our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the

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Speaker 1: God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation,

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Speaker 1: that we may be able to comfort them which are

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Speaker 1: in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are

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Speaker 1: comforted of God. Second Corinthians one three to four. Heavenly Father,

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Speaker 1: I bless your holy name. You are the only one

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Speaker 1: worthy of praise and adoration. You are the father of

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Speaker 1: your only begotten son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Speaker 1: In your great mercy, you sent him into this world

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Speaker 1: to redeem me from my sins and grant me eternal

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Speaker 1: life through his shed blood on the cross. You are

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Speaker 1: the father of all mercies, filled with compassion and ready

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Speaker 1: to forgive the sincere believer who turns to you. Your

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Speaker 1: nature is to show mercy and give me comfort through

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Speaker 1: whatever trial or tribulation I face. As I receive your

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Speaker 1: comfort and experience your faithfulness and my affliction, I am

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Speaker 1: able to comfort others in the same affliction. Having received

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Speaker 1: the victory over my circumstances, I now have the anointing

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Speaker 1: to encourage others and bring them through to their victory

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Speaker 1: by your grace. No one can speak to an alcoholic

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Speaker 1: like a recovered alcoholic. No one can speak to a

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Speaker 1: broken heart like some one who knows the pain and

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Speaker 1: experience of that grief. Everything that I overcome becomes part

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Speaker 1: of my testimony of your goodness that I can share

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Speaker 1: with others to encourage and comfort them as you comforted me.

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Speaker 1: That which the enemy means for evil, you turn it

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Speaker 1: for my good and the good of others in Jesus name.

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Speaker 2: Amen.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to to day's daily prayer for

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Speaker 1: more inspiration and an incredible message from our feature Pastor

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Speaker 1: stay tuned to pray dot COM's Sunday service.

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Speaker 2: Welcome.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for joining Pastor Rick Warren to hear Pastor Rick's

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Speaker 3: free daily Bible teaching program, download free sermon notes, or

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Speaker 3: sign up for his free daily devotional visit pastorig dot com.

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Speaker 3: Now let's join Pastor Rick.

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Speaker 2: Since mental illness took Matthew's life, one of the passages

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Speaker 2: of the Bible that has encouraged me the most is

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Speaker 2: Second Corinthians, Chapter one. I want to begin with it today.

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Speaker 2: It's there on your outline, Verses three to eleven. Praise

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Speaker 2: be to the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

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Speaker 2: the father of all compassion and the God of all comfort,

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Speaker 2: who comforts us in our troubles, so that we can

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Speaker 2: comfort others with the same comfort that we've received from God.

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Speaker 2: In other words, we go through problems, God comforts us,

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Speaker 2: and then we pass it on. For just as the

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Speaker 2: sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also

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Speaker 2: through Christ, our comfort overflows. If we're distressed, it's for

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Speaker 2: your salvation, and if we're comforted, it's for your comfort.

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Speaker 2: Our hope now, I want you to notice a sentence.

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Speaker 2: Our hope for you is firm because we know we're

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Speaker 2: going to come back to that. Our hope is firm

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Speaker 2: because we know. Our hope for you is firm because

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Speaker 2: we know that just as you have shared in our sufferings,

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Speaker 2: so also you will share in our comfort. Now, we

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Speaker 2: don't want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters about

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Speaker 2: the hardships that we have suffered. We were under great pressure,

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Speaker 2: far beyond our ability to endure. This is Paul talking here,

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Speaker 2: far beyond our ability to dure, so that we despaired

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Speaker 2: even of life itself. In other words, I'm so depressed,

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Speaker 2: I'm ready to kick the bucket. I'm ready to throw

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Speaker 2: in the towel. I'm ready to give up and die.

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Speaker 2: That's depression. We despaired even of life itself. Indeed, in

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Speaker 2: our hearts we felt the sentence of death.

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Speaker 4: But but but this happened so that we might not

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Speaker 4: rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

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Speaker 2: And he has delivered us, and we've set our hope

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Speaker 2: on him, that he will continue to deliver us as

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Speaker 2: you help us, As you help us by your prayers.

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Speaker 2: Then Paul says, many will give thanks to God for

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Speaker 2: the gracious favor granted to us an answer to your

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Speaker 2: many prayers. I love that last sentence. Then many will

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Speaker 2: give thanks to God for the gracious favor granted to

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Speaker 2: us in answer to your many prayers. Now let's go

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Speaker 2: back to the text. Look at that on your outline,

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Speaker 2: and I want you to circle three phrases. I put

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Speaker 2: him in caps. Our hope is is firm because we know.

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Speaker 2: Would you circle those? Our hope is firm because we know.

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Speaker 2: And what I want to see is that what you

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Speaker 2: know is what you get what gets you through in life.

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Speaker 2: You might write that down, what you know is what

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Speaker 2: gets you through? If you don't know the right things.

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Speaker 2: When the rogue winds of life come and the tsunamis

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Speaker 2: of life come, you're gonna fall over. You're gonna cave,

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Speaker 2: you're gonna crumble, And when the great tragedies and the

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Speaker 2: losses of life, which are inevitable come into your life.

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Speaker 2: If you don't know the right truths, you're not gonna

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Speaker 2: stand spiritually strong. What you know is what gets you through.

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Speaker 2: Probably the question I've been asked more than the other

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Speaker 2: question is how is your family getting through this? And

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Speaker 2: the answer is because of what we know. Because our

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Speaker 2: lives are not built on the shift. I think sands

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Speaker 2: of popularity and popular culture which changes every month, But

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Speaker 2: our lives are built on rock solid bedrock truth of

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Speaker 2: the Bible, so that no matter what hits us, we

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Speaker 2: have a solid foundation. We know some unchanging truths. Today

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Speaker 2: I want to just mention three of those truths. If

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Speaker 2: ever you needed to take notes, it's this week now.

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Speaker 2: I don't like to say this as your pastor because

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Speaker 2: I love you, but you're going to go through tough

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Speaker 2: times and you too will experience major losses in life.

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Speaker 2: There is no growth without change, There is no change

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Speaker 2: without loss. There is no loss without pain, and there

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Speaker 2: is no pain without grief. You're going to go through

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Speaker 2: losses in life, and you need to know these things

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Speaker 2: that we're going to talk about this morning, and you

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Speaker 2: need to remember them to make it through. How do

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Speaker 2: you get through what you're going through? Let's get right

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Speaker 2: into it. Number one. The first thing we know is this.

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Speaker 2: We know that life doesn't make sense. We know that

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Speaker 2: life doesn't make sense, but we know we can have

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Speaker 2: peace because we know God is with us and he

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Speaker 2: loves us. Life doesn't make sense, but we can still

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Speaker 2: have peace because we know God is with us and

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Speaker 2: God loves us. Now you have noticed, I'm sure that

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Speaker 2: life is often confusing. There are a lot more questions

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Speaker 2: and answers, and there are a lot of unanswered questions.

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Speaker 2: And the truth is we simply don't know why things

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Speaker 2: happen the way they do, and we're not gonna know,

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Speaker 2: but we're always asking the question, why, why is this happening?

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Speaker 2: Why is this happening now? Why is this happening to me? Why? Why?

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Speaker 2: Why did my husband walk out on me? Why did

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Speaker 2: my wife die of cancer? Why did I lose my job?

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Speaker 2: Why didn't I get that promotion? Why was my baby

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Speaker 2: born with mental illness. And we're not gonna, you know,

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Speaker 2: on this side of eternity the answer to those white questions,

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Speaker 2: You're just not going to know. Life does not make

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Speaker 2: sense when you just look at it. Bad people prosper,

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Speaker 2: good people suffer, and all kinds of different things happen.

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Speaker 2: You know, in my grieving, I'm not just grieving, but

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Speaker 2: I'm observing my own grief because I'm a teacher. And

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Speaker 2: as I looked at what I was going through, I

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Speaker 2: could see six discernible stages of reaction to loss. You

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Speaker 2: might write these down because you're going to go through them,

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Speaker 2: and you can go through them all at once, and

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Speaker 2: you can go back and forth. But here are the stages,

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Speaker 2: what I call the six stages of loss. Now. The

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Speaker 2: first one is shock, shock, and that your world is

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Speaker 2: just thrown upside down. You lose your job, you're in shock.

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Speaker 2: A loved one dies, you're in shock. The shock over

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Speaker 2: Matthew's suicide lasted not days, It lasted at least a month.

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Speaker 2: My life at least a month, and I was in

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Speaker 2: shock for a month. But then you move to stage two,

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Speaker 2: which I call sorrow. You move from shock to sorrow.

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Speaker 2: And now you begin to grieve. Now, sorrow is a

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Speaker 2: godly emotion. Shock is a purely human emotion. God has

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Speaker 2: never shocked because God knows everything, so God never goes wow,

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Speaker 2: I didn't see that one coming, So God has never shocked.

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Speaker 2: That's a human emotion. But sorrow is a godly emotion.

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Speaker 2: The Bible says, God grieves. The only reason you're able

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Speaker 2: to grieve is because you're made in the image of God.

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Speaker 2: The Bible says, Jesus wept. The Bible says Jesus was

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Speaker 2: a man acquainted with sorrows. He understood sorrow. It's grieving

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Speaker 2: is a good thing. Grieving is the way we get

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Speaker 2: through the transitions of life. Then you move from shock

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Speaker 2: to sorrow, and the third stage is struggle. Now, in

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Speaker 2: struggle is where you ask the why questions. Why? Why?

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Speaker 2: Why me? Why now? Why this? Why did this happen?

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Speaker 2: Now you're not going to get the answers to the wise,

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Speaker 2: but it's still okay to ask them. Even Jesus asked why.

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Speaker 2: On the cross, Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why.

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Speaker 2: Even Jesus asked the white question. Because we don't always

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Speaker 2: know what's going on in that moment. So it's okay

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Speaker 2: to ask why. But the test of your faith is

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Speaker 2: what do you do when you don't get the answer,

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Speaker 2: because you're not going to get it. The fourth phrase

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Speaker 2: is if you want to get out of the struggle

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Speaker 2: into peace, you've got to go to stage four, which

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Speaker 2: I call surrender. And in surrender, it's where you just

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Speaker 2: stop asking and start submitting and start surrendering and start accepting.

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Speaker 2: Surrender is the only path to peace. It is the

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Speaker 2: only path to peace. And you just say, you know what,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna give it up. I'm gonna give it up.

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Speaker 2: Then you come to stage five. This is a big

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Speaker 2: Bible word, but it's the word sanctification. Sanctification is when

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Speaker 2: God starts bringing good out of bad, when God starts

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Speaker 2: making changes and you when your personality, when your character

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Speaker 2: starts being transformed like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into

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Speaker 2: a butterfly. Sanctification is when God makes you more godly.

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Speaker 2: Now you're never gonna be God. You're never gonna be

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Speaker 2: a god, not even a little god. You'll say, you know,

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Speaker 2: a New Age movement says you're a god. Oh really,

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Speaker 2: if you're a God, why don't you solve all the

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Speaker 2: world's problems. You can't even solve your own. You're not

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Speaker 2: a God, you're not even a mini me God. But

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Speaker 2: you can become godly where you become more like God

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Speaker 2: in love, joy, peace, patience, gentlemen's good, as faithful. That's

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Speaker 2: all those qualities the fruit of the spirit. And then

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Speaker 2: once you get into the sanctification where God is working

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Speaker 2: on you, when you come to stage six, which is service,

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Speaker 2: and it's this. God wants to take your greatest pain

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Speaker 2: and turn it into your life message. He wants to

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Speaker 2: use your mess for a message. He wants to use

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Speaker 2: your test for a testimony. He wants to take the

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Speaker 2: thing that you're most embarrassed about, that you're most ashamed of,

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Speaker 2: that you most regret hadn't happened, and he wants to

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Speaker 2: use it for good in the lives of others. Who

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Speaker 2: can better help someone parents of a down syndrome child

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Speaker 2: than parents who had a down syndrome child. Who could

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Speaker 2: better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who

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Speaker 2: struggled with an addiction. The very thing you want to

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Speaker 2: least talk about is the very thing God wants to

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Speaker 2: use most in your life to help other people. Your

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Speaker 2: ministry comes out of your pain. Now we're in the

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Speaker 2: next six weeks, we're going to look at each of

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Speaker 2: these stages individually in detail. But what I want you

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Speaker 2: to get today is this one concept. No matter what

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Speaker 2: stage you're in, you're not in it by yourself. You're

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Speaker 2: not alone. God is with you, and God loves you.

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Speaker 2: And that's why we can have peace even when life

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Speaker 2: doesn't make sense because God is with me and God

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Speaker 2: loves me. You're not going to go through any of

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Speaker 2: these stages on your own. They are over six thousand

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Speaker 2: promises in the Bible. Let me just show you a

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Speaker 2: few of them. The first one is Isaiah chapter forty three,

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Speaker 2: verse two. God says this, when you go through deep waters,

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Speaker 2: I will be with you. When you pass through rivers

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Speaker 2: of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through

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Speaker 2: the fire, you will not be burned up. It will

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Speaker 2: not consume you. Somebody asked Kay about two weeks after

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Speaker 2: Matthew died, how are you doing? She said, We're devastated,

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Speaker 2: but not destroyed. It will not consume you. It will

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Speaker 2: not consume you. Know, for twenty seven years I prayed

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Speaker 2: every day that God would heal the mental illness of

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Speaker 2: my son, because he lived a very tortured, painful life.

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Speaker 2: His life was not a happy life. It was a

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Speaker 2: painful life. And yet that prayer was never answered, and

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Speaker 2: it didn't make sense. We went to the best doctors

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Speaker 2: in the nation, we had the best medications, we had

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Speaker 2: the best therapies, we had prayer, we had healing, we

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Speaker 2: had thousands, tens of thousands of people praying, and just

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Speaker 2: it didn't make sense. We had an incredibly strong family,

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Speaker 2: deeply loving, supportive, full of faith, strong family, it just

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Speaker 2: didn't make sense. And I remember after Matthew died, writing

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Speaker 2: in my journal, I would rather walk with God with

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Speaker 2: none of my questions answered than to walk through life

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Speaker 2: without him and know all the answers. Why, Because when

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Speaker 2: in pain, explanations don't help. They don't help.

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Speaker 5: You.

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Speaker 2: See, whenever you have a major loss, your tendency is

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Speaker 2: to immediately look for cause or reason or an explanation.

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Speaker 2: You go, why, I gotta figure this out? Why did

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Speaker 2: she leave me? Why did I leave my job? Why

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Speaker 2: did I get cancer? Why? Why? Why? And you're looking

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Speaker 2: for an explanation, Friends, explanations don't help. You don't need

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Speaker 2: an explanation. You need God. You need the comfort of God.

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Speaker 2: You need the presence of God. If K were to

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Speaker 2: drop dead tomorrow and I knew the reason, it wouldn't

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Speaker 2: lessen the pain any bit. So stop looking for an explanation,

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Speaker 2: Stop looking for the why. It's not gonna make you

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Speaker 2: feel any better. You don't need an explanation. You need God.

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Speaker 2: You need his presence now. One day you're going to

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Speaker 2: understand why everything happens. But right now your brain isn't

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Speaker 2: big enough, and neither is mine. God has not promised

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Speaker 2: to give you an explanation for why everything happens in

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Speaker 2: the world, but he has promised you're not going to

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Speaker 2: go through anything on your own. Look at this next

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Speaker 2: verse Hebrews thirteen to five. I this is God talking.

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Speaker 2: I will never leave you, and I will never abandon you.

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Speaker 2: He says this over and over and over again from

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Speaker 2: Genesis to the end of the Bible, all scriptures, God says,

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Speaker 2: I will never abandon you. Now, you may have been

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Speaker 2: abandoned in life by a spouse, our parent, You maybe

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Speaker 2: have been rejected, but God's never going to abandon you.

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Speaker 2: God is never going to reject you. You see, when

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Speaker 2: we're going through intense pain, like the pain I've been in.

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Speaker 2: We are tempted to think that God has forgotten us.

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Speaker 2: It is impossible for God to forget you. He created

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Speaker 2: you as an object of his love. You were made

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Speaker 2: to be loved by God. In fact, here's what the

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Speaker 2: Bible says Isaiah forty nine, verse fifteen. God says, this,

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Speaker 2: can a mother forget the baby at her breast or

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Speaker 2: with child that she has born? The answer is obviously no.

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Speaker 6: No.

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Speaker 2: Woman could not be nursing a baby and forget the

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Speaker 2: baby at the same time. Obviously not. He said, even

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Speaker 2: if that were possible, I will never forget you. Look,

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Speaker 2: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,

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Speaker 2: and look up here, God says, I have engraved you

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Speaker 2: on the palms of my hands, so I can't forget you.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people get tattoos to remember somebody they love.

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Speaker 2: God has a tattoo of you. I have engraved you

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Speaker 2: on the palms of my hands. Where did he get

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Speaker 2: that tattoo? On the cross? With nails pierced hands outstretched arms.

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Speaker 2: He said, this is how much I love you. I

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Speaker 2: love you this much. I love you so much it hurts.

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Speaker 2: I love you so much. I'd rather die than live

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Speaker 2: without you. I love you so much. This is how

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Speaker 2: much sacrifice in heaven. No one's going to have any

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Speaker 2: scars except Jesus, and he's going to have the hands,

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Speaker 2: the feet, the side, the head. Why because he wants

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Speaker 2: to always remember this is how much I love you.

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Speaker 2: It is impossible for God to forget how much he

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Speaker 2: loves you. And so we know that no matter how

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Speaker 2: we don't understand what's going on in our lives, we

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Speaker 2: do know this. I don't have the solutions, I don't

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Speaker 2: have the answers, I don't have the reasons. I don't

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Speaker 2: have the explanations, but I do have the presence of God,

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Speaker 2: and I do have his love in my life. And

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Speaker 2: when life doesn't make sense, you need to hold onto

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Speaker 2: the promises. You know what occurred to me the day

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Speaker 2: Matthew died. God knows what it's like to lose a sun.

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Speaker 2: I've had many people ask me his pastors, pastor Rick,

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Speaker 2: where was God when my son died the same place

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Speaker 2: he was when his son died, weeping grieving? You know

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Speaker 2: what the Bible says that God weeps? Do you know

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Speaker 2: that the Bible says God has stored up every tear

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Speaker 2: you've ever cried. You don't even know that, but God does.

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Speaker 2: He knows more about you than you do. As I said,

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Speaker 2: Matthew lived a very tortured life and part of the

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Speaker 2: problem was he was incredibly bright. A lot of people

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Speaker 2: who are mentally ill don't know their mentally ill. Matthew did.

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Speaker 2: And growing up he said, why can't I be normal?

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Speaker 2: Because he was so smart, he knew what wasn't right.

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Speaker 2: He felt odd, and he felt on the outskirts, He

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Speaker 2: felt like he didn't fit in, He felt like nobody

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Speaker 2: understood him. He just why can't I be normal? And

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Speaker 2: he had a tender heart, but he had a tortured mind,

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Speaker 2: and he struggled all through life with the unanswered questions

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Speaker 2: about his illness because it didn't make sense. But I

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Speaker 2: want to tell you this. One second into heaven, all

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Speaker 2: of Matthew's questions were answered and all of a sudden

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Speaker 2: he understood it. All life doesn't make sense, but we

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Speaker 2: can still have peace because we know God loves us

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Speaker 2: and he's with us. There's the second thing you need

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Speaker 2: to know, and you need to remember everything on earth

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Speaker 2: is broken. Everything on earth is broken, but we can

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Speaker 2: still have joy because we know God is good and

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Speaker 2: he's got a greater plan. Everything on Earth is broken. Now.

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Speaker 2: The fact is, since sin and evil entered the world,

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Speaker 2: it messed up everything. That thing on this planet is perfect.

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Speaker 2: Everything on the planet is broken. Nothing works perfectly. The

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Speaker 2: weather does not work perfectly. We have tsunamis, and we

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Speaker 2: have earthquakes, and we have fires and floods and all

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Speaker 2: kinds of natural disasters. God didn't want that. He created

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Speaker 2: a garden of Paradise, a garden of Eden. Sin broke

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Speaker 2: the planet. It broke the weather, It broke the climate.

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Speaker 2: The economy doesn't work perfectly. None of your plans work perfectly.

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Speaker 2: Have you noticed that not one of your plans works perfectly?

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Speaker 2: Your body doesn't work perfectly. Anybody agree with that one? Yeah? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: No relationship works perfectly. Anybody want to give a testimony.

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Speaker 2: No matter how much you love, you still have this.

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Speaker 2: No brain works perfectly. We all have broken brain, and

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Speaker 2: we have thoughts that we can't control, and compulsions and

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Speaker 2: desires and attractions and fears and depressions and worries and rage,

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Speaker 2: and you know, you name it. Everything is broken in

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Speaker 2: this world. Isaiah twenty four says this, By the way,

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Speaker 2: if you ever want to read a perfect description of

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Speaker 2: modern culture, you need to go study in detail Isaiah

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Speaker 2: twenty four because Isaiah twenty four explains all of the

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Speaker 2: problems in our culture today, people locking their doors for

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Speaker 2: fear of crooks, and why the cities are in chaos.

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Speaker 2: It's an amazingly accurate passage. Let me just show you

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Speaker 2: a couple verses, verse five and verse nineteen. The earth suffers.

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Speaker 2: Everything's broken. The earth suffers for the sins of its people,

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Speaker 2: for they have twisted the instructions of God, violated his laws,

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Speaker 2: and broken his covenant. Therefore, the earth has broken down

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Speaker 2: and has utterly collapsed. Everything is lost. We're all lost spiritually.

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Speaker 2: Everything's abandoned and confused. We have confusion about everything, Confusion

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Speaker 2: about the economy, confusion. There's confusion in every area, about money,

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Speaker 2: about sex, about life, about time. There's confusion everywhere. Now,

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Speaker 2: why is there brokenness and suffering in the world because

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Speaker 2: of sin and evil? Why is there sin and evil

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Speaker 2: in the world? Because God allows you and me a

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Speaker 2: free choice. We can choose to not love him, we

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Speaker 2: can choose to go our own way. He said, Well,

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Speaker 2: why doesn't God eliminate all the sin on the earth. Well,

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Speaker 2: God could easily eliminate all the sin on the earth,

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Speaker 2: get rid of you and me, And we've been hurting

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Speaker 2: each other for thousands and thousands of years. You get

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Speaker 2: enough sin in a bit rual lives of people. It

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Speaker 2: affects the environment, It affects your DNA, your genetics, it

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Speaker 2: affects everything is broken. Well, if everything is broken, how

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Speaker 2: can we have joy? Because we know God is good,

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Speaker 2: and because we know He has a better purpose and

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Speaker 2: a greater plan. Roman's eight twenty eight, one of the

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Speaker 2: greatest promises in the Bible, says this, But we know

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Speaker 2: circle that we know, we know. This is the second

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Speaker 2: thing you need to know. We know that in all things,

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Speaker 2: not some things, not the good things. We know that

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Speaker 2: in all things God works for the good of those

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Speaker 2: who love Him and have been called according to his purpose. Now,

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Speaker 2: this is a great promise, but I want you to

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Speaker 2: notice it's not a promise for every about everybody. He

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Speaker 2: works for the good of those who love Him and

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Speaker 2: have been called according to his purpose. If you love God,

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Speaker 2: everything that happens in your life, God is using that

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Speaker 2: He's gonna work for good, even the bad. Anybody can

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Speaker 2: bring good out of good. God specializes in bringing good

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Speaker 2: out of bad. Now, if you don't love God, all

392
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Speaker 2: things are not working for good in your life. In fact,

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Speaker 2: all things are working for bad in your life because

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Speaker 2: you're going against your creator, and that's gonna Your arms

395
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Speaker 2: are too short to box with God. You're gonna lose

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Speaker 2: that one now, I mean, this is one of the

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Speaker 2: most misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused versus in the Bible. Notice

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Speaker 2: what it doesn't say. It doesn't say everything that happens

399
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Speaker 2: is good. No, it says all things God works for

400
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Speaker 2: the good. Doesn't say it's all good. Doesn't say everything

401
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Speaker 2: happened to me. There's a lot of bad stuff in

402
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Speaker 2: the world. There's a lot of evil in the world.

403
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Speaker 2: Racism is bad, rape is bad, bigotry is bad, terrorism

404
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Speaker 2: is bad, cancer and leukemia that's bad. God is not

405
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Speaker 2: the author of evil. Does he say that everything that

406
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Speaker 2: happened is good. There's a lot of bad stuff. It

407
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Speaker 2: doesn't even say everything that happens is God's will. Now,

408
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 2: that's nonsense. Friends. A lot of people confuse heaven and earth.

409
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Speaker 2: This this is not heaven. In heaven everything is perfect.

410
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Speaker 2: Why Because God's will is done perfectly. So everything is perfect.

411
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Speaker 2: In heaven, it's all perfect because God's done is all.

412
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Speaker 2: God's will is always done. On earth, everything is broken

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Speaker 2: because God's will is rarely done, rarely done. That's why

414
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Speaker 2: Jesus said, we are to pray Thy will be done

415
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Speaker 2: on earth as it is in heaven, because in heaven

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Speaker 2: it's done perfectly and instantly, and on earth it's done

417
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Speaker 2: rarely or never not. Everything that happens on this planet

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Speaker 2: is God's will. I mean when some people I've been

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Speaker 2: at funerals and people say, well, it must have been

420
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Speaker 2: God's will, or they'll say, you know, God must have

421
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 2: needed Matthew more than you. There's a word for that. Nonsense,

422
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Speaker 2: just nonsense. God needed that baby more than me, so

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Speaker 2: he took him home early. Are you kidding me? God

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Speaker 2: doesn't need anything, So don't blame God for that. Death

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Speaker 2: is the result of sin and evil. It entered the

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Speaker 2: world because of that. God is not the author of it.

427
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 2: Matthew's life was robbed by mental illness. It was robbed

428
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 2: by mental illness. And you need to understand that you

429
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 2: have an enemy on this planet. His name is Satan.

430
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:43,040
Speaker 2: Satan is not your friend. He's not your friend. In fact,

431
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 2: the Bible says he came to kill and destroy. He

432
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 2: wants to destroy your life. Why because he hates God.

433
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,959
Speaker 2: Satan cannot hurt God. God cannot be hurt like that.

434
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 2: So what happens He tries to hurt God's children, to

435
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 2: hurt God. If you can't get to me, the quickest

436
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 2: way to hurt me is hurt my kids. Satan wants

437
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 2: to destroy your life. He wants to mess up your life.

438
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 2: He wants to keep you away from God because that

439
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 2: makes God grieve. God grieves when you don't love him

440
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 2: the way he loves you, when you don't know him

441
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:23,960
Speaker 2: the way he knows you. So God is not the author,

442
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 2: you know. When Matthew died, Satan thought he'd won, but

443
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 2: he had lost big time. Why because he couldn't torture

444
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 2: Matthew anymore his entire life. He went through mental torture.

445
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 2: But now he's out of reach of that torture. Now,

446
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:44,960
Speaker 2: in heaven, there's no more pain, there's no more sorrow,

447
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 2: there's no more He's at peace. What's he doing today?

448
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 2: He's in heaven in the grandstands cheering me on right now.

449
00:29:56,200 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 2: On the day that Matthew died, we were affecting because

450
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 2: we hadn't heard from him all day, he hadn't texted

451
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 2: all day, that our greatest fear had probably happened, the

452
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 2: day I prayed would never happen, the day I feared

453
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 2: might that he would take his life. We went over

454
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 2: to his house and we couldn't get into his house

455
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 2: because we didn't have a key to his house. His

456
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 2: car was there, and he wasn't answering the door, and

457
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 2: we were worried that our deepest, greatest fear had happened.

458
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 2: And as we stood there in the driveway waiting for

459
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 2: police to come to break in and to see what

460
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,479
Speaker 2: inevitably was true. Kay and I stood there in the

461
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 2: in the driveway, hugging each other, sobbing. Our hearts were

462
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 2: breaking into a million pieces. And as we stood there,

463
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 2: trembling and sobbing loud, Kay reached up and grabbed her

464
00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 2: necklace which had two words on it, and she showed

465
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 2: it to me. It was the words of a book

466
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 2: that she wrote. The title of a book she wrote,

467
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 2: Choose Joy? And I thought, are you kidding me? How

468
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 2: in the world do you choose joy in the deepest grief?

469
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 2: How do you choose joy in the worst pain. How

470
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 2: do you choose joy when your greatest fear is being realized? Well,

471
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 2: I'll let Kay tell you that. Would you welcome her?

472
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Saddleback, I've missed you.

473
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 6: As Rick said, I was wearing a necklace that says

474
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 6: choose joy after I wrote that several years ago. And

475
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 6: I wrote the book because I've strung with low levels

476
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 6: of depression my whole life. And yet here's a verse

477
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 6: like Romans five three to five on your outline that says,

478
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 6: we can have joy even in our troubles because we

479
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 6: know that these troubles produce endurance, and endurance produces character,

480
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 6: and character produces hope, and this hope will not disappoint

481
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 6: us because God has poured his love to fill our hearts.

482
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 6: I began to look for some jewelry that I could

483
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 6: wear on a daily basis to remind me that I

484
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 6: could choose joy, that there could be joy even in troubles.

485
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 6: The day that Matthew passed away, as Rick said, I

486
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 6: in particular had a terrible sense of foreboding, and I

487
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 6: had very good reasons to believe that that might be

488
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 6: that he had taken his life. But we had to

489
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 6: wait hours before it could be confirmed. And so when

490
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 6: I got up that morning, I deliberately went to my jeybox,

491
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 6: and with my hands shaking and my heart pounding and

492
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 6: my stomach heathing, I picked this necklace out of the jeweybox.

493
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 6: I wasn't really thinking very clearly, but I knew that

494
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 6: by putting it on, in some way, I was fighting

495
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 6: back against the nightmare that I was pretty sure that

496
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,400
Speaker 6: was going to unfold that day. And as Rick said,

497
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 6: as we stood at Matthew's house together waiting for the

498
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 6: police to confirm this terrible news, I don't know why,

499
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 6: but in a moment I looked down and saw it,

500
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 6: and then I raised it to him in a very tiny,

501
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 6: feeble attempt to affirm what I knew to be the truth,

502
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 6: even as he said, our hearts were shattering. How could

503
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 6: I do that? How could I even wear the necklace

504
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 6: that day? How could I lift it to him in

505
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 6: a gesture of belief in God, a belief that joy

506
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 6: could be chosen even in our darkest moments. How could

507
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 6: I do that? And how could he, through his tears,

508
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 6: receive it and not push me away and not tell

509
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 6: me I was crazy and to stop it? And to

510
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 6: just stop doing that. It's because of what we know,

511
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 6: because we know that joy is still present. We know

512
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 6: it because God is good, and because we have spent

513
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 6: the last fifty years of our lives putting our spiritual

514
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,840
Speaker 6: roots down deep into the rich soil of God's grace,

515
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:21,839
Speaker 6: his mercy, his faithfulness, and his goodness. And because of that,

516
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 6: because of those roots that have gone deep into the

517
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 6: soil of who God is, getting to know him, when

518
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 6: troubles have come our way, we have been able to

519
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 6: produce endurance. It has been produced and hopefully character, and

520
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 6: from that character hope and joy verse five of Romans

521
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:44,000
Speaker 6: three again, look at that excuse me. Romans five, verse

522
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 6: five says, and this hope will not disappoint us because

523
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 6: God has poured his love to fill our hearts. I

524
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,920
Speaker 6: was learning a lot about joy in the last few years,

525
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,359
Speaker 6: and so I could say somehow, yes, God, I trust you,

526
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,120
Speaker 6: and I'm going to have joy even this very dark day.

527
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 6: But Hope, I want to talk to you a little

528
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:05,799
Speaker 6: bit about hope, because I would be lying to you,

529
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 6: completely lying to you if I said that hope didn't

530
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:13,680
Speaker 6: disappoint me. In fact, I was crushed by hope. That

531
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,959
Speaker 6: didn't come true. But that takes us two point three,

532
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 6: which is the next thing that you and I need

533
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,359
Speaker 6: to know. Life is a battle, but we can have

534
00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:27,520
Speaker 6: hope because we know that there's more to the story.

535
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 6: There's more to the story. When Matthew's mental illness, his

536
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:37,879
Speaker 6: borderline personality disorder and excuse me, major depression disorder, when

537
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:39,799
Speaker 6: it began to get worse about five years ago, I

538
00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 6: found myself frantic trying to find a treatment, to find medication,

539
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:46,879
Speaker 6: to find a physician, to find a psychiatrist, to find

540
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 6: a hospital, to find anything that would make a difference

541
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 6: in his worsening condition. A lot of sleepless nights, a

542
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 6: lot of agonizing moments of darkness as we watched helplessly

543
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:04,320
Speaker 6: as our son just spiraled slowly, slowly down. Each member

544
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 6: of our family tried to bend ourselves into pretzels in

545
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 6: some way to care for him, to make a difference,

546
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 6: and eventually I realized that I needed a stronger spiritual

547
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,440
Speaker 6: approach to the situation because it was a long haul.

548
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,920
Speaker 6: Matthew wasn't getting any better, and my own emotional and

549
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 6: physical and spiritual resources were being taxed to the limit,

550
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 6: And so I enlisted a group of confidential friends and

551
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 6: family who would commit to pray for Matthew and for us,

552
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 6: and I began to send them very specific prayer requests

553
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:38,239
Speaker 6: week after week, and these incredible people would pray for

554
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 6: him and for us, and they would send back encouraging notes.

555
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:43,839
Speaker 6: They would send back verses of scripture that would give

556
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 6: us hope to hold on to the belief that God

557
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:49,839
Speaker 6: was going to heal Matthew's mind. And then a year ago,

558
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,000
Speaker 6: this drum beat of mental illness just began to beat

559
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 6: harder and faster, and harder and faster, and every day

560
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 6: was a guessing game whether this would be his last

561
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,480
Speaker 6: day on earth. And I found myself really losing hope

562
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 6: that God was going to heal Matthew's mind. And our

563
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 6: dear friend gave me this box. It looks like alabaster

564
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 6: or marble, I don't know, maybe it's plastic, but it

565
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 6: looks good. And in the middle of this box is

566
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,759
Speaker 6: the word hope. And I began to take those scriptures

567
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 6: that others had sent to me, those verses that had

568
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 6: been so enormously comforting that held my faith strong, and

569
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,280
Speaker 6: I wrote them on cards, and I put him inside

570
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 6: this box and It became part of a daily ritual

571
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:36,239
Speaker 6: of my time with God. Is I would spend time.

572
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 6: Every morning, I would pick up this box and I

573
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 6: would open it. I would read verse after verse that

574
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 6: inspired and built my faith and my hope. Verses like

575
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 6: the verses in Psalm one hundred and sixteen and Psalm

576
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,280
Speaker 6: eighteen where it says that the cords of the grave

577
00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 6: have encompassed me and I'm held out tightly. And then

578
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 6: it would go a few weather verses and would say,

579
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 6: but God, you have removed the tears my eyes and

580
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 6: kept my feet from stumbling so that I can live

581
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,960
Speaker 6: in the land of the living again. And verses out

582
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,320
Speaker 6: of Isaiah that no weapon formed against me shall prosper.

583
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:12,960
Speaker 6: And verses where Jesus would say, greater is greater is

584
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 6: he that is in you, that heathen is the world.

585
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 6: All these verses that talked about faith and hope in

586
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:21,839
Speaker 6: God's healing, and one in particular verse that I loved

587
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:24,840
Speaker 6: talked about my belief that I would see Matthew again

588
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 6: with his arms raised and praised as he stood in

589
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 6: the congregation. Those verses became lifelines to me of what

590
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:34,839
Speaker 6: God was going to do. I went out on the

591
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 6: audacious faith limb, believing that God was going to heal Matthew.

592
00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 6: In fact, even the morning that Matthew passed away, very

593
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,360
Speaker 6: early in the morning, I opened this box even with

594
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:50,000
Speaker 6: a sense of dread, and read through those verses. I

595
00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 6: even created a playlist of songs on my iPhone, probably

596
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 6: fifty or sixty songs of hope and faith and courage

597
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 6: versus songs that that affirmed my faith in God and

598
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 6: my hope and what He was going to do. They

599
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 6: were songs about healing and songs about restoration and songs

600
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 6: about God, you have the victory. And I would play

601
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 6: them over and over in my car and in the

602
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 6: sleepless nights, and when I would go to bed at night,

603
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:19,360
Speaker 6: and as I was doing housework at work, I was

604
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,919
Speaker 6: listening to those songs over and over and over again,

605
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:26,080
Speaker 6: and they built my faith and they built my hope.

606
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 6: I called it Kay's Picks. And then I even did

607
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 6: something that was kind of crazy, but in this journey

608
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 6: of believing and having hope of what God was going

609
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:37,839
Speaker 6: to do in Matthew's life, I even put out what

610
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 6: we call a fleece. And if you're not familiar with that,

611
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 6: let me just tell you quickly. It comes write out

612
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 6: of scripture. In Judges chapter six, Gideon is told by

613
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 6: God that God is going to use him to defeat

614
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 6: the Midianites. And Gideon is basically like, you got to

615
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 6: be kidding me. I am not a mighty man of faith.

616
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 6: You can't possibly mean that you're going to use me.

617
00:39:57,160 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 6: And God says, yes, I am, And Gideon says, well,

618
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 6: you got to prove it to me me. And so

619
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,720
Speaker 6: Gideon takes a piece of wool fleece and he lays

620
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,920
Speaker 6: it out before God and he says, in the morning, God,

621
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 6: if this is really you talking to me, and you're

622
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,120
Speaker 6: really telling me this is what you want me to do,

623
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 6: then God, I pray that in the morning, everything around

624
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,439
Speaker 6: this fleece will be completely dry, but the fleece will

625
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,399
Speaker 6: be wet. So in the next morning, when Gideon got up,

626
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 6: sure enough, the ground all around that piece of wool

627
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 6: was dry, but the fleece was wet, so much so

628
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:28,239
Speaker 6: that he could twist it and bring water out of it.

629
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,880
Speaker 6: But Gideon wasn't convinced. I might be a little convinced,

630
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:33,480
Speaker 6: but he wasn't. And He's like, now, God, don't get

631
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 6: mad at me. This is really what he says. Now, God,

632
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:37,319
Speaker 6: don't get mad at me, But could we do it again?

633
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:39,239
Speaker 6: Only this time reverse it, just so that I make

634
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,840
Speaker 6: sure it's really you talking to me. So this time,

635
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 6: instead of it being the fleece that's wet, I want

636
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 6: everything around the fleece to be wet and the fleece

637
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,200
Speaker 6: to be dry. And if that's happens, then God, I'll

638
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,440
Speaker 6: know it's you talking to me. So God very graciously

639
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 6: did that. And the next morning, when Gideon got up,

640
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 6: everything around the fleece was wet, but the fleece itself

641
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:00,640
Speaker 6: was dry. And Gideon then believe that God wanted to

642
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 6: use him, and God did. He used him to defeat

643
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:07,880
Speaker 6: the Midianites. So you know, I decided I was just

644
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,200
Speaker 6: going to keep going on this faith journey, and so

645
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,080
Speaker 6: I asked God for that. I had a very specific request,

646
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 6: and I said, God, I don't need this for my

647
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,759
Speaker 6: faith because I'm going to trust you no matter what,

648
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 6: whether you answer this specific prayer, this funny little fleece

649
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 6: thing that I'm doing, whether you answer that the way

650
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,319
Speaker 6: I want to or not, God, I am yours, but

651
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 6: it would do so much for this mother's heart of mine.

652
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,520
Speaker 6: If you would just prove to me that you're going

653
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:37,879
Speaker 6: to heal Matthew's mind here, and without telling you all

654
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,799
Speaker 6: of what I did, within a very short space of time,

655
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:44,279
Speaker 6: exactly what I had prayed for happened. But then, being

656
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 6: a little Baptist girl who doesn't do fleeces, okay, that's

657
00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:50,840
Speaker 6: so far outside my comfort zone. But I didn't know

658
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:52,919
Speaker 6: whether it was really true. And so I came back

659
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 6: and I told my son Josh, Okay, so this is

660
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 6: what happened, but I don't know if it's true. And

661
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 6: I don't know if I should believe it wasn't really

662
00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 6: a fleece was. I don't know. Maybe we should do

663
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:02,080
Speaker 6: it again. And he just goes, this is the way

664
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 6: faith works. You either believe it or you don't. So

665
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 6: are you gonna believe it or not? Mom? Don't you

666
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:12,960
Speaker 6: love it when your kids school you in faith? And

667
00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:17,120
Speaker 6: so I believed, and I believed that God had even

668
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 6: given me an answer in such a supernatural way that

669
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 6: he was gonna heal Matthew's mind. And then April fifth

670
00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 6: came and Matthew died. With his death, my hopes for

671
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 6: a healed mind here on earth died too. My playlist

672
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:47,200
Speaker 6: of songs seemed pointless. My fleece was just a piece

673
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 6: of wool after all. My hope box seemed to mock me.

674
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 6: It sat next to my chair where I have my

675
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 6: morning time with God, and for a month I didn't

676
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 6: even open it. I tried not to even look at

677
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:08,360
Speaker 6: it because my hope had been severely disappointed. I felt

678
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 6: bruised by hope. So what do you do? What do

679
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:18,839
Speaker 6: we do when hope doesn't turn out the way we're

680
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 6: expecting it to. What do we do when we've gone

681
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 6: out on those audacious limbs of faith and things in

682
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 6: life and situations don't turn out the way we were

683
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 6: so convinced they were going to. Well, you've got a

684
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 6: couple options. One of them, you can curse God. You

685
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:41,799
Speaker 6: can give up on God. You can say God is

686
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 6: a fake and a phony and he's a tease. Or

687
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 6: you can give God an out and you can take

688
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,080
Speaker 6: the blame on yourself. Well, it was my faith that

689
00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 6: wasn't strong enough. If I'd been a better Christian, if

690
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 6: I'd been a better mother, if I'd been a better whatever,

691
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:01,360
Speaker 6: if I'd had more faith, then Matthew would still be alive.

692
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 6: And you take the blame on yourself and give God

693
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 6: and out over these nearly four months, I have decided

694
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:14,239
Speaker 6: that neither of those responses is adequate or helpful. What

695
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:20,239
Speaker 6: I know about God prevents me from concluding that He

696
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:24,359
Speaker 6: is a fake and a phony and a tease. And

697
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:28,880
Speaker 6: what I know about myself prevents me from concluding that

698
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,319
Speaker 6: it was my fault that I wasn't good enough, that

699
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:33,840
Speaker 6: I wasn't strong enough, that I didn't have enough faith,

700
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,840
Speaker 6: that somehow my love failed him, that somehow it was

701
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:41,000
Speaker 6: my fault that Matthew died, that I could somehow maybe

702
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 6: have kept him from hinting that mental illness brick wall.

703
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 6: So what am I left with? If I'm not going

704
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,440
Speaker 6: to blame God and I'm not going to blame myself,

705
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,880
Speaker 6: where do we go with these dashed hopes? Well, what

706
00:44:54,960 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 6: I'm left with is mystery, big mystery. And what I

707
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 6: have done is I have put all that I know

708
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 6: of God, all that I don't know of God, and

709
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:11,240
Speaker 6: I've put it, if you will, in a little pan

710
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:16,200
Speaker 6: on the saucer, on the burner of my mind, not

711
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:19,280
Speaker 6: on the back burner, because I think of this every day,

712
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:23,680
Speaker 6: but I don't know his Rick said, I don't know

713
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:28,480
Speaker 6: the answer to the contents of that little pan sitting

714
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:33,319
Speaker 6: on the stove of my mind, but I'm content to

715
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:36,719
Speaker 6: leave it there because I know that the day that

716
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,920
Speaker 6: I meet God face to face, every single one of

717
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:50,400
Speaker 6: those mysteries will be solved. Two Corinthians four, eight, nine,

718
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 6: and fourteen says we often suffer, but we're never crushed.

719
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:59,359
Speaker 6: Even when we don't know what to do. We never

720
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:04,040
Speaker 6: give up in times of trouble. God is with us,

721
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:06,960
Speaker 6: and when we are knocked down, we get up again

722
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:13,000
Speaker 6: because we know God raised the Lord back to life,

723
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 6: and just as he raised Jesus, he will also raise

724
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:21,960
Speaker 6: us back to life and bring us into His presence together.

725
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:27,000
Speaker 6: So I'm rebuilding hope. You can't live without hope. I'm

726
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 6: in the process of rebuilding hope. I'm rebuilding my playlist.

727
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:34,279
Speaker 6: It's now called K's Picks two and it has a

728
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:37,280
Speaker 6: whole bunch of different songs. There's songs about the future.

729
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,600
Speaker 6: Because I know this isn't the end of the story.

730
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:43,000
Speaker 6: I know that Matthew's story isn't at the end. My

731
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 6: story isn't at the end. God is still writing it.

732
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,720
Speaker 6: And because of that, I'm willing to try hope again,

733
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 6: and so I have a new set of songs. There

734
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:53,000
Speaker 6: aren't quite as many, but there's one that I love.

735
00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,719
Speaker 6: It's called not for a Moment by Meredith Andrews, and

736
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,279
Speaker 6: some of the lyrics go, not for a moment have

737
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:04,839
Speaker 6: you forsaken us? Not for a moment, have you abandoned us?

738
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:09,600
Speaker 6: And my hope is that not for a second did

739
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:14,319
Speaker 6: God abandoned my beautiful boy. Not for a second. And

740
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:18,879
Speaker 6: not for a second has God abandoned or forsaken us.

741
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:23,360
Speaker 6: I'm rebuilding my hope box. I took out the verses

742
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,960
Speaker 6: that I had prayed for several years, not because those

743
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 6: verses are not true. They are God's word and they

744
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:33,839
Speaker 6: are true, but they don't apply to my life right now.

745
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:36,840
Speaker 6: And I've begun to put other verses in here that

746
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 6: give me hope for the future, for this unfinished story

747
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:44,400
Speaker 6: that God is writing on Corinthians fifteen forty three is

748
00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:48,280
Speaker 6: one of the incredible verses that comforts me and bills

749
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:53,520
Speaker 6: my hope. Says, our bodies are buried in brokenness, but

750
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 6: they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness,

751
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:04,160
Speaker 6: they will be raised in strength. And when I leave

752
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 6: the cemetery, where I visit often it helps me mourn

753
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 6: to be there in grieve and excess God's comfort. And

754
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:14,920
Speaker 6: when I leave, I say, I whisper it. Matthew, your

755
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 6: body was buried in brokenness, that is true, but you,

756
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:22,800
Speaker 6: your body will be raised in glory. You were buried

757
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 6: in weakness, but you will be raised in strength. Hope

758
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 6: may not look the way I thought it would, but

759
00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:36,120
Speaker 6: hope is alive in me because of what I know.

760
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:39,839
Speaker 6: And maybe to day you're in that place where we

761
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:43,120
Speaker 6: were for so long. You have your own figurative hope box,

762
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 6: and if you don't, please build one. Put the scriptures

763
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 6: that God uses to encourage you to believe him with

764
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:53,520
Speaker 6: the situations where you're believing for healed minds. Here where

765
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:56,440
Speaker 6: you're believing him for healed bodies. Here where you are

766
00:48:56,480 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 6: believing Him for healed situations and marriages and things beyond

767
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 6: your contual but you are believing. You are going. I

768
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,839
Speaker 6: encourage you. I urge you to go out on that

769
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:09,719
Speaker 6: audacious faith limb and believe God. God is still the

770
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:13,200
Speaker 6: Red Sea God. He hasn't changed. He still parts the

771
00:49:13,239 --> 00:49:16,360
Speaker 6: waters and allows us to walk across on dry land.

772
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 6: He still heals, He still redeems and restores and revitalizes

773
00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:25,840
Speaker 6: the ruins of our lives. That is God, and I

774
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 6: beg you to have hope. So there's hope box number

775
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:40,440
Speaker 6: one for those of you you are still dealing with

776
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 6: the situation that needs God's incredible touch. And then you

777
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 6: may be like us and your hopes didn't turn out

778
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:50,840
Speaker 6: the way that you thought that they would, and some

779
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 6: of the things or someone something in your life has died,

780
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,320
Speaker 6: and you're tempted to walk away from hope. No, rebuild

781
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 6: your hope. Don't be afraid to have hope again. Don't

782
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 6: be afraid to trust again. God is good. God is

783
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 6: not finished writing the story. Please believe with all that

784
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 6: you have that what has been broken can be restored.

785
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 6: It is not the end of our story.

786
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:36,799
Speaker 2: Good job, BB. You know. One of the most suspenseful

787
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:40,320
Speaker 2: TV shows that was ever on was twenty four. Everybody

788
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 2: remember that. I mean Jack Bower could solve three world

789
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:48,400
Speaker 2: problems in every single episode. I wanted to be Jack Bauer,

790
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:52,360
Speaker 2: but I have to admit that I never even watched

791
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,239
Speaker 2: the show until it went off the air and went

792
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:58,319
Speaker 2: into DVD because I hate watching commercials. But then I

793
00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:02,000
Speaker 2: bought the entire I think it is like six or

794
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 2: seven more seven years series or five years, whatever it was.

795
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 2: And I remember Kay and I were watching the first

796
00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:15,600
Speaker 2: Year of twenty four and We're sitting on the couch

797
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,279
Speaker 2: and Jack is getting into one of his predictable, really

798
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:21,759
Speaker 2: bad messes, like five seconds to save the whole world,

799
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:24,960
Speaker 2: and I'm and I started to get a little tense,

800
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,359
Speaker 2: and I started to think, is Jack gonna make it?

801
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, is this it? I mean, is

802
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:34,320
Speaker 2: this it's the end for our hero? Is Jack gonna

803
00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:38,200
Speaker 2: make it? And a little voice said in my ear, Relax, Rick,

804
00:51:38,520 --> 00:51:47,279
Speaker 2: there's five more seasons. Your tension goes down when you

805
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:51,360
Speaker 2: know the end of the story. You're reading the mystery

806
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 2: novel and you're scared to death, But if you know

807
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:57,920
Speaker 2: the end, you know it's gonna work out. This is

808
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:02,399
Speaker 2: why believers grieve so very, very differently than the rest

809
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:06,319
Speaker 2: of the world. We grieve with hope because we know

810
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:12,560
Speaker 2: the end of the story. Now we grieve. Christians, believers,

811
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:16,799
Speaker 2: people who know Jesus grieve just like everybody else. And

812
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 2: that we sorrow when we loved loved ones. I told

813
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:23,000
Speaker 2: you I've cried every single day since my son died.

814
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 2: But I'm not grieving for him. I'm grieving for me.

815
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:31,400
Speaker 2: I miss him, I'm not grieving for him. He's in

816
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:34,719
Speaker 2: a far better place. No more sorrow, no more torture,

817
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:38,680
Speaker 2: no more problems in his life. He's where we're meant

818
00:52:38,719 --> 00:52:40,880
Speaker 2: to be forever. We're not made to stay on this

819
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 2: earth forever. We're made to be in Heaven forever. You

820
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:47,760
Speaker 2: were made to last forever. God has long range plans

821
00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:52,480
Speaker 2: for you. And so when we grieve, we grieve for ourselves,

822
00:52:52,719 --> 00:52:56,480
Speaker 2: but we grieve with hope because we know the end

823
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:58,600
Speaker 2: of the story. Now, let me tell you, I know

824
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:02,120
Speaker 2: the difference that makes because as a pastor, I've done

825
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:05,560
Speaker 2: the funeral of people who didn't have any hope, And

826
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:08,000
Speaker 2: I have looked into the faces and into the eyes

827
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:11,200
Speaker 2: of people who don't have a relationship with Christ, who

828
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:14,560
Speaker 2: don't have the hope of heaven, who don't know what

829
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:18,879
Speaker 2: we know, what we've learned, and the fear and the

830
00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:23,240
Speaker 2: panic and the hopelessness and the eyes of people who

831
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:30,840
Speaker 2: don't have that hope is crushing. It's just crushing. I

832
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:33,360
Speaker 2: have seen it in their faces, and it is not

833
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:41,239
Speaker 2: something you want. But we grieve with hope. Now to

834
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:43,839
Speaker 2: live with hope in a life of pain. And by

835
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:45,680
Speaker 2: the way, I'm sorry to say this to you, You're

836
00:53:45,719 --> 00:53:50,600
Speaker 2: gonna have pain the rest of your life. But in

837
00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:53,480
Speaker 2: that pain you can have hope. How you're gonna have

838
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:56,799
Speaker 2: to get a bigger perspective. You're gonna have to have

839
00:53:56,920 --> 00:54:00,840
Speaker 2: a longer view. You're gonna have to refocus your attention.

840
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:03,760
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to stop thinking about just here and now,

841
00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:06,759
Speaker 2: and you're gonna have to start living in light of eternity.

842
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:10,440
Speaker 2: This is not all there is. And if you just

843
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:13,479
Speaker 2: look at today and what's happening right now, you're gonna

844
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:16,680
Speaker 2: be hopeless that if you can see in light of eternity,

845
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:19,840
Speaker 2: you realize that this life is preparation for the next.

846
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:22,600
Speaker 2: You get it the most one hundred years on this planet,

847
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:26,160
Speaker 2: but you get trillions and trillions of years in eternity.

848
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 2: This is simply the get ready stage for the real show.

849
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 2: Here's what the Bible says there on your outline two

850
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:39,440
Speaker 2: Corinthians four eighteen. So so we don't focus on the

851
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:44,719
Speaker 2: troubles we see right now. Instead we look forward to

852
00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:49,959
Speaker 2: what we don't see yet. For the troubles we see

853
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:53,719
Speaker 2: now are temporary, Thank god, they're only temporary. I mean,

854
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 2: even if I had a problem my entire life, it's

855
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:01,200
Speaker 2: only temporary because it's not gonna last an eternity for

856
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:03,880
Speaker 2: the problems. The troubles we see now are only temporary,

857
00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:09,440
Speaker 2: but the joys to come will last forever. You know

858
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:11,560
Speaker 2: a lot of people when they have a loved one die,

859
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:15,000
Speaker 2: they have a celebration of their life at a funeral

860
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:18,759
Speaker 2: and they remember all the happy times. That's a good thing.

861
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,320
Speaker 2: In fact, I would encourage you to do that, remember

862
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 2: all the happy times of your loved ones. But that's

863
00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:29,200
Speaker 2: not my comfort. It is not my comfort because Matthew's

864
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:33,080
Speaker 2: life was not a happy life. In many ways, it

865
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:36,160
Speaker 2: was a tragic life. He was tortured. He had a

866
00:55:36,200 --> 00:55:40,000
Speaker 2: tender heart, but he had a tortured mind. He was

867
00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:43,160
Speaker 2: he had Matthew had an ability to walk into a

868
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:46,400
Speaker 2: room at a party and instantly know who was in

869
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,680
Speaker 2: the most pain, and he would make a beeline for

870
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:52,680
Speaker 2: that person and spend the entire evening with them, comforting, consoling,

871
00:55:52,719 --> 00:55:54,800
Speaker 2: and in courage him. He would have made an incredible counselor.

872
00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 2: He had a very very tender heart, but he had

873
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:02,600
Speaker 2: a tortured mind. And so as a father, My comfort

874
00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:06,760
Speaker 2: doesn't come from thinking about the happy moments of Matthew's life.

875
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:10,520
Speaker 2: There were some, but not that many. My comfort comes

876
00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:13,920
Speaker 2: not from thinking about happy moments on earth, but holy

877
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:18,440
Speaker 2: moments in heaven he's having now, and that is a

878
00:56:18,480 --> 00:56:23,520
Speaker 2: comfort to me. You see, friends, the biggest epidemic in

879
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:26,839
Speaker 2: our society, in our world today is hopelessness. It's an

880
00:56:26,880 --> 00:56:31,840
Speaker 2: epidemic proportion for persons it is. It's the biggest problem

881
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 2: on the planet. The biggest problem on the planet is

882
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 2: not poverty. We're trying to do something about that with

883
00:56:37,120 --> 00:56:39,880
Speaker 2: the peace plant. The biggest problem on the planet is

884
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 2: not disease. We're trying to do something about that with

885
00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:44,840
Speaker 2: the peace plant. The biggest problem on the planet is

886
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 2: not illiteracy or ignorance and lack of education. We're trying

887
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:51,799
Speaker 2: to do something about that. The biggest problem on our

888
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:59,720
Speaker 2: planet is hopelessness. People are living and dying without any hope,

889
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 2: and we are in a battle for hopelessness against hopelessness. Now,

890
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:08,200
Speaker 2: when something happens and you have a major loss in

891
00:57:08,239 --> 00:57:11,839
Speaker 2: your life, you tend to think this is the end

892
00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:15,600
Speaker 2: of the world. No, it's not the end of the world.

893
00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 2: It's an end of the moment, and in your life

894
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 2: you're going to have many ends of the moment. It's

895
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 2: not the end of the world. I don't know what

896
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:27,439
Speaker 2: you're going through, and I don't care. How I do care,

897
00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 2: but I don't know how important I don't. I don't,

898
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:34,280
Speaker 2: I don't. It doesn't matter how deep you think your

899
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:36,440
Speaker 2: problem is right now, the one you're going through right now,

900
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:40,240
Speaker 2: it isn't the end of the world. Why because when

901
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:43,000
Speaker 2: the real end of the world comes, Jesus shows up,

902
00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:53,920
Speaker 2: then you know it's the end of the world. The

903
00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:57,560
Speaker 2: one day Jesus is going to settle the score, even

904
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:01,400
Speaker 2: the odds, pay off the debts, and heal the hurts.

905
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 2: And the Bible says what it's going to be like

906
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:08,040
Speaker 2: in heaven when it's all over here on earth. The

907
00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:12,080
Speaker 2: last chapter in the Last Book of the Bible, Revelation

908
00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 2: twenty one, verse four says this, then God, this is

909
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 2: in the future. Then God will wipe away every tear

910
00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:25,280
Speaker 2: from their eyes. This is in heaven, wipe away every

911
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:29,120
Speaker 2: tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death,

912
00:58:31,600 --> 00:58:35,200
Speaker 2: no more death, and there will be no more mourning,

913
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:40,760
Speaker 2: and there will be no more crying, and there will

914
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:46,280
Speaker 2: be no more pain. For the old order of things

915
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:53,960
Speaker 2: will pass away. I'm looking forward to that day, but

916
00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:58,360
Speaker 2: we're not there yet. And what do we do now

917
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:02,560
Speaker 2: in this little parenthus between the sweet bye and bye

918
00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:08,320
Speaker 2: and the nasty now and now where everything is broken

919
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 2: and then life doesn't make sense and it's an incredible battle.

920
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:18,280
Speaker 2: What do we do during this middle time? We live

921
00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:24,480
Speaker 2: in peace even when life doesn't make sense, because we

922
00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:29,360
Speaker 2: know that God is with us, and God loves us,

923
00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:32,520
Speaker 2: and he'll never stop loving us, and he'll never forget us.

924
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:39,480
Speaker 2: And we live with joy even when everything on this

925
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:44,920
Speaker 2: planet is broken, because we know that God is good

926
00:59:45,680 --> 00:59:49,840
Speaker 2: and God has a good plan, and God has a

927
00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:53,040
Speaker 2: plan that is greater than the problem you're going through.

928
00:59:53,080 --> 00:59:56,360
Speaker 2: His purpose is greater than your problem. And we live

929
00:59:56,400 --> 01:00:00,600
Speaker 2: with hope. Why we live with hope even when we

930
01:00:00,640 --> 01:00:03,200
Speaker 2: know life's a battle and everything's hard and there's a

931
01:00:03,200 --> 01:00:06,280
Speaker 2: lot of conflict, But we live with hope because we

932
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:11,200
Speaker 2: know there is more to the story than just here

933
01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:17,160
Speaker 2: and now. In closing to those of you who haven't

934
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:22,040
Speaker 2: yet stepped across the line spiritually, you know about God,

935
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 2: but you don't know him personally. You've heard about Jesus,

936
01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:26,760
Speaker 2: but you don't know him personally, you don't have a

937
01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:30,600
Speaker 2: friendship with him. You can begin tonight by just praying

938
01:00:30,640 --> 01:00:33,240
Speaker 2: to prayer. We're going to pray together in a minute,

939
01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:37,000
Speaker 2: he said, well, you know Jesus wouldn't want me. Oh really,

940
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:42,560
Speaker 2: I recently wrote down who Jesus came for. Jesus came

941
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:46,400
Speaker 2: for the chewed up and the pushed around, the cracked up,

942
01:00:46,440 --> 01:00:49,360
Speaker 2: and the put down, the crossed off and the ripped off,

943
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:52,800
Speaker 2: the crying out and the rundown. Jesus came for the

944
01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:54,840
Speaker 2: dropped out and the run over, the edged out, and

945
01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:58,040
Speaker 2: the shrugged off, the shut in, the flamed out, the

946
01:00:58,080 --> 01:01:01,760
Speaker 2: shut out, the smashed up. Jesus came for the have

947
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:05,240
Speaker 2: nots and the squeezed outs and the held back and

948
01:01:05,280 --> 01:01:09,480
Speaker 2: the stacked against. Jesus came for the hungover and the

949
01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:12,680
Speaker 2: strung out, and the knockdown and the kicked around, and

950
01:01:12,680 --> 01:01:15,919
Speaker 2: the torn up and thrown away, the left out, loaded down,

951
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:20,000
Speaker 2: turned off, and used up. Jesus came for the looked over,

952
01:01:20,040 --> 01:01:22,520
Speaker 2: the lorded over, the walked over, and the washed out,

953
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:25,680
Speaker 2: for the let astray, the laid off, the leaned on,

954
01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:29,600
Speaker 2: the let down. He came for the messed up, the

955
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:33,080
Speaker 2: mixed up, the passed over, the picked on, the piled on,

956
01:01:33,240 --> 01:01:36,600
Speaker 2: the pinned down. Jesus came for the wiped out and

957
01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:44,920
Speaker 2: the written off. Jesus came for Matthew. Jesus came for me.

958
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,840
Speaker 2: Jesus came for you. God has never made a person

959
01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:53,360
Speaker 2: he doesn't love. God has never made a person he

960
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:55,640
Speaker 2: doesn't have a purpose for. God has never made a

961
01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:59,720
Speaker 2: purpose that person that he doesn't want to know him.

962
01:02:00,480 --> 01:02:02,480
Speaker 2: And Satan's going to do everything he can to keep

963
01:02:02,520 --> 01:02:08,600
Speaker 2: you from establishing that relationship because he hates you. Many

964
01:02:08,640 --> 01:02:12,360
Speaker 2: of you, and I mean many of you, are struggling

965
01:02:12,880 --> 01:02:17,600
Speaker 2: with your thoughts, and actually your thoughts torture you, and

966
01:02:17,640 --> 01:02:20,120
Speaker 2: you don't tell anybody about it, but it bothers you.

967
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:26,080
Speaker 2: And your thoughts torture you with depression, or your thoughts

968
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:31,080
Speaker 2: torture you with anxiety, or your thoughts torture you with

969
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 2: self loathing or shame. Some of you are tortured with

970
01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:42,240
Speaker 2: blame and resentment, and some of you are tortured with

971
01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:46,240
Speaker 2: fear and worry, and some of you are tortured with

972
01:02:46,280 --> 01:02:51,840
Speaker 2: compulsions and attractions and addictions, and some of you are

973
01:02:51,880 --> 01:02:56,080
Speaker 2: tortured with anger, and some of you just feel out

974
01:02:56,120 --> 01:02:58,800
Speaker 2: of place. I'm the odd person out. I don't fit.

975
01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:01,360
Speaker 2: I'm not in the crowd. I'm just on the edge.

976
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:07,840
Speaker 2: I just feel like the square in a round world.

977
01:03:08,520 --> 01:03:10,400
Speaker 2: And you have these thoughts and you can't get them

978
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:14,680
Speaker 2: out of your mind, and you can't make your mind mind.

979
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:20,000
Speaker 2: Let me just say this to you, somebody who loves you.

980
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 2: You're not going crazy, but you do need help with

981
01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:26,360
Speaker 2: your thought life. Second thing I want to say to

982
01:03:26,400 --> 01:03:29,960
Speaker 2: you is this. You're not alone. With three thousand people

983
01:03:29,960 --> 01:03:33,560
Speaker 2: in this room here tonight. If this is average on

984
01:03:33,640 --> 01:03:36,720
Speaker 2: average in America, six hundred of you are struggling with

985
01:03:36,760 --> 01:03:43,400
Speaker 2: some kind of mental illness. Six hundred sixty million Americans

986
01:03:43,560 --> 01:03:47,400
Speaker 2: struggle with some kind of mental illness four hundred million worldwide.

987
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:49,880
Speaker 2: That would be larger than the United States if it

988
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:53,320
Speaker 2: were a nation. And I want to just say this.

989
01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:58,320
Speaker 2: You may have a chemical imbalance in your body that

990
01:03:58,440 --> 01:04:02,080
Speaker 2: messes with your mind, but your chemistry is not your character,

991
01:04:02,960 --> 01:04:08,360
Speaker 2: and your illness is not your identity. And God's grace

992
01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:14,120
Speaker 2: doesn't just cover our genetics. Our genes and genetics, it

993
01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:18,040
Speaker 2: covers our guilt and everything else. And God's mercy doesn't

994
01:04:18,080 --> 01:04:20,400
Speaker 2: just cover the things we do wrong. It covers our

995
01:04:20,520 --> 01:04:24,640
Speaker 2: DNA and it is not a sin to be sick.

996
01:04:25,920 --> 01:04:29,920
Speaker 2: And there's no shame in taking meds. There's no shame

997
01:04:30,160 --> 01:04:33,760
Speaker 2: in seeing a psychiatrist. If my back is broken, I

998
01:04:33,840 --> 01:04:38,240
Speaker 2: go to a back doctor. If my heart doesn't work right,

999
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:42,040
Speaker 2: I go to a heart doctor. If my kidney stops working,

1000
01:04:42,160 --> 01:04:45,680
Speaker 2: I go to a kidney doctor. If my brain isn't

1001
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:48,320
Speaker 2: functioning right, I go to a brain doctor. There's no

1002
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:52,360
Speaker 2: shame in that. Why is it that any other organ

1003
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:56,240
Speaker 2: in your body cannot work and there's no stigma attached

1004
01:04:56,280 --> 01:04:59,480
Speaker 2: to it. If my spleen stops working, there's no shame

1005
01:04:59,600 --> 01:05:03,640
Speaker 2: if I if my pancreas stops working, if I have diabetes,

1006
01:05:03,680 --> 01:05:06,360
Speaker 2: there's no shame. There's no stigma on that. But if

1007
01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:08,720
Speaker 2: my brain stops working, why am I supposed to keep

1008
01:05:08,800 --> 01:05:10,760
Speaker 2: quiet and not talk about it and be ashamed of it?

1009
01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:16,800
Speaker 2: That's just wrong. Ten years ago God called Kay and

1010
01:05:16,840 --> 01:05:19,440
Speaker 2: then called me, and then called many of you at

1011
01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:24,680
Speaker 2: Saddleback to remove the stigma of HIV and AIDS. It's

1012
01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:27,720
Speaker 2: not a sin to be sick. And now ten years

1013
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:30,880
Speaker 2: later God is calling us as a church to remove

1014
01:05:31,120 --> 01:05:35,919
Speaker 2: the stigma of mental illness. Now, everything we have done

1015
01:05:35,960 --> 01:05:38,959
Speaker 2: and will do in this church is motivated by love,

1016
01:05:39,360 --> 01:05:42,200
Speaker 2: by love for God and by love for the people

1017
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:46,240
Speaker 2: that He created. Everything we do is to say this

1018
01:05:46,400 --> 01:05:51,200
Speaker 2: to the world. You matter to God, and there is hope,

1019
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:55,880
Speaker 2: and we are in this battle against hopelessness. And I

1020
01:05:56,000 --> 01:05:59,560
Speaker 2: just need to know one thing. Are you with me?

1021
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:15,640
Speaker 2: As if I had to ask, Let's vow for prayer.

1022
01:06:18,760 --> 01:06:20,520
Speaker 2: Dear God. I look out on these people that I

1023
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:23,120
Speaker 2: love so much, and I thank you for their love

1024
01:06:23,160 --> 01:06:25,920
Speaker 2: for You, their love for each other, their love for

1025
01:06:26,000 --> 01:06:29,080
Speaker 2: people who are hurting. And I pray that this series

1026
01:06:29,120 --> 01:06:32,120
Speaker 2: will help us be prepared to stand on the solid

1027
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:35,919
Speaker 2: rock of truth so that we're not blown away when

1028
01:06:35,960 --> 01:06:39,480
Speaker 2: the tough times come into our lives. I pray will

1029
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:43,240
Speaker 2: prepare them to not just stand firm, but to help others.

1030
01:06:44,440 --> 01:06:48,200
Speaker 2: Now you pray in your mind, sat Dear God, I

1031
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:50,400
Speaker 2: want to know you better. Just say that, Dear God.

1032
01:06:50,440 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 2: I want to know you better. I want to become

1033
01:06:54,400 --> 01:06:59,800
Speaker 2: a man or woman a faith. I want to fulfill

1034
01:06:59,840 --> 01:07:04,919
Speaker 2: the purpose that you made me for. Dear God, help

1035
01:07:04,960 --> 01:07:08,240
Speaker 2: me to remember that I'm never really alone, that you

1036
01:07:08,320 --> 01:07:12,760
Speaker 2: are always with me. You're always thinking about me. And

1037
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:16,280
Speaker 2: that you will always love me and you will never

1038
01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:20,320
Speaker 2: abandon me. Help me to build my life on those truths.

1039
01:07:21,240 --> 01:07:23,720
Speaker 2: Help me to remember that you are a good God,

1040
01:07:24,080 --> 01:07:27,040
Speaker 2: that you have a good plan for my life, and

1041
01:07:27,080 --> 01:07:29,320
Speaker 2: that plan is to give me a future and a

1042
01:07:29,400 --> 01:07:34,960
Speaker 2: hope and God, even when life is a battle and

1043
01:07:35,000 --> 01:07:38,400
Speaker 2: when everything is broken, help me to remember that this

1044
01:07:38,520 --> 01:07:41,480
Speaker 2: is not the end of the story. That we win

1045
01:07:42,080 --> 01:07:45,560
Speaker 2: in the end, that ultimately there will be no more tears,

1046
01:07:45,640 --> 01:07:48,520
Speaker 2: no more sorrow, no more mourning, no more crying, no

1047
01:07:48,600 --> 01:07:53,520
Speaker 2: more death. Say this in your heart, Jesus Christ, as

1048
01:07:53,640 --> 01:07:56,040
Speaker 2: much as I know how, I give you every area

1049
01:07:56,040 --> 01:08:00,320
Speaker 2: of my life. I open up myself to you. Make

1050
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:03,560
Speaker 2: yourself real to me. I want to learn to love

1051
01:08:03,600 --> 01:08:07,400
Speaker 2: you more. I want to learn to trust you. And

1052
01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:10,280
Speaker 2: I pray this in your name. Amen.

1053
01:08:14,080 --> 01:08:17,360
Speaker 3: We hope you've been encouraged by this message. To hear

1054
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:21,719
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick's free daily Bible teaching program, download free sermon notes,

1055
01:08:21,920 --> 01:08:25,280
Speaker 3: or sign up for his free daily devotional just visit

1056
01:08:25,520 --> 01:08:40,400
Speaker 3: Pastorick dot com.

1057
01:08:40,479 --> 01:08:43,360
Speaker 5: The podcast The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham

1058
01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:46,920
Speaker 5: is a moving and inspiring Biblical audio experience that will

1059
01:08:46,920 --> 01:08:50,000
Speaker 5: help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In

1060
01:08:50,040 --> 01:08:54,120
Speaker 5: each episode, you'll learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life.

1061
01:08:54,680 --> 01:08:57,719
Speaker 1: Each cinematic episode is a journey through the Bible's most

1062
01:08:57,760 --> 01:09:01,240
Speaker 1: profound stories that will strengthen you appreciation of the Word

1063
01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:04,160
Speaker 1: and inspire you to keep learning.

1064
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Speaker 5: Listen to the Bible in a Year with Jack Graham

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Speaker 5: on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.